Happy Mother's Day-Author's Note

I would like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there. I hope your day is special.

On a side note, regular posts will be returning beginning this week. They will be different than you have seen before, but I think that they will be enjoyable nonetheless.

Doug

Blog Hiatus

Gentle Readers,

This blog is on hiatus as the final touches are being made to Omega Rising, the first book of the series.

Once the book is complete and submitted to the publisher, the blog will return. I expect an estimated return date of June 1, 2008.

During this hiatus, I will be doing some updating that will involve making corrections to some posts, eliminating extraneous posts, and perhaps updating the glossary links on the Resource Site.

Thanks for your readership and your patience. I am very eager to make this furst book available and hope to get the series off to a strong start.

Doug Pierce

Just Call Me Ruxxxty Bones...Part 2

Kenny was waiting for me just beyond the range of the obelisk. His Spirit was bright and strong, with the vibrancy of youth.

I crashed through the forest to stand in front of him. “Why didn’t you let me help you, Kenny? You didn’t have to die!”

Kenny shook his head. “You are the one in need of help, Father. Such help always comes with a price.”

“Why do you have to pay the price for helping me?”

His eyes bore into me. “Because you are no longer capable of helping yourself.” He turned his back to me. “We will be going to a place you were once quite familiar with. Meet me at Yggsdrasil.”

I hadn’t been back to that place since I had parted ways with Drake and John Red Bear. It was in the forest near that clearing where John had shown me about the obelisks and their strange powers.

“You know how to get there?”

Kenny glanced back at me before shimmering and slipping into the Shadowland. “I do now.”

I had little choice but to summon the Shadow myself and head towards the clearing where I usually found more questions than answers.

I emerged from the Shadow on the edge of the clearing expecting to see the towering mass of Yggsdrasil that dominated the middle of the place ever since I had planted the baton that hade grown into a full blown tree. Instead, I found a place that changed drastically. The once thriving tree that had introduced itself to me as Yggsdrasil was now a withered remnant of its former self.

The once black trunk was now graying in many places. Nearly all of Yggsdrasil’s marvelous black and white leaves lay scattered about the clearing, lazily blowing and rustling in the mild breeze.

I stood there in shock, unwilling to believe that this once massive tree was now a shriveled relic of itself.

Kenny stood near the base of the tree. He had adopted the physical image he had before the battle in Alaska. His face was grim, his eyes sad.

I stumbled towards him, tripping over the tangled mass of dry roots between us. I was still at least eight feet tall, my body now resembled the Demon’s than my own natural form.

“What happened here?”

He looked up into my eyes with his own expressive brown eyes. “This tree reflects the strength and vitality of your Spirit. When you planted this tree, you planted it in strength and defiance.” He looked form me back to the tree. “You see, Father, the Tree is you, you are the Tree.”

“But how can that be? I am stronger than I have eve r been? I almost single-handedly slew and consumed three Banes! I’m finally strong enough to take on the damn An’girasii on their terms!”

He shook is head. “Dad, you can’t beat these creatures by becoming like them. Look inside the memories of those Banes that you destroyed. When you do that, you will find that each of them was once a powerful person who thought that they too could challenge the power of the An’girasii. In the end, each of them fell under the sway of the very powers they thought they could replace.”

“I’m different. I’m stronger. I’ve got the benefit of Drake’s thousands of years hunting the An’girasii and all of John’s teaching.”

“You’ve taken all of that knowledge and experience and have become stronger than any Bane, this is true. But in the process, you’ve also lost what it is to be human. If you can’t find a way to regain what you have lost, you will become more a danger to all you hold dear than any number of Banes. That is why I am here, to help you find your way back to us. If I fail, then I would not have had much a future in any event.

“But know this, Father. I may be your last chance to save yourself, the ORC’s, Alexa, and the future of humanity.”

Looking inward as he spoke, I combed through the roiling images of the memories of the Banes that I had destroyed. Of the three, though, only Arixtocles’ were immediately decipherable. I began sorting through all of the earliest memories that I could looking for what he may once have been. Just as Kenny was finishing, I found a small kernel of memory that had been suppressed for almost as long as Arixtocles had existed. I was not prepared for what I found…

Just Call Me Ruxxxty Banes...Part 1

Inside, I was roiling with emotions. I had just defeated and consumed three Banes, some of the most powerful servants of the An’girasii almost single-handedly, but my friends were now looking up at me with a mixture of fear and awe that I found to be strangely pleasing. I felt a rush of power coursing through my body and my Spirit that made me feel almost invincible. I just knew that I could not be beaten, that there was no one who could destroy me. This was what it felt like to be a god!

People were speaking and moving about, but I was too wrapped up in my own experiences to pay any attention to what these lesser creatures were talking about or doing. I was imagining how easy it was going to be to hunt down and destroy all of the remaining Banes so that I could become even stronger. As random memories from the conquered Banes came flooding up to my consciousness, I realized how easy it would be to take on the An’girasii themselves. Surely, I thought, no single An’girasii could be any stronger than I was already!

I sensed Jim approach me from behind before he had a chance to reach out and touch me to get my attention. I swung around to face him, perhaps with more force than I had intended. He staggered back, a look of concern on his face. I could feel the waves of fear coming from him even as he seemed to be concealing the outward appearance of fear. It was now that I also noticed how I towered over him in height. Normally, he was nearly half a foot taller than me, but now I towered over him by a good three feet.

He started to speak as he pointed towards a set of bushes nearby where other ORC’s had gathered around something. I had to struggle to hear his words even though he seemed to be shouting. “Rusty, come over here, we’ve found Kenny.”

A sudden concern for Kenny quieted the internal torrent of voices, memories, and ambitions that had kept me occupied momentarily. I brushed Jim aside with one hand and stalked over to where my son lay, surrounded by obviously concerned companions.

As I approached, they parted to allow me into the circle. I looked down to see Kenny’s broken body, his limbs splayed out in ways only possible due to many broken bones. His chest was still moving, if barely, but his eyes were closed until I looked down upon his face.

His eyes sprung open as I kneeled down to reach out and touch his face. He spoke only one word. “No.”

I stopped. “I want to help you, son. I can heal you with the powers possess.” I began to reach towards his face again.

“NO!” His face jerked away from my approaching fingers causing him to catch is breath and retch to side. “Don’t touch me you monster!”

I was taken aback. “Son, it’s me, your father. Let me heal you of these wounds! You’ll die if I don’t!” I could see that he couldn’t move away any further, so I knelt down lower and began to brush the hair from his face as I prepared to summon Shadow to heal him.

I staggered to side as Jim grabbed my arm and pulled it away from his face. It took all of his strength, but with two arms wrapped around my upper arm he had managed to pull me away from helping my own dying son!

Rage kicked in as I stood up and grabbed Jim and hoisted him up off the ground with my other hand, breaking his grip on my right arm. His feet dangled several feet of the ground, but he stared back at me with defiance and he spoke through clenched teeth.

“Jason, you have no idea whether these new powers of yours are tainted by the very Banes that are now inside you. What if you make your own son into a mortal enemy? He doesn’t want your help.”

The other ORC’s had taken up positions around me.

Ravyn had called Fire and seemed poised to attack me if necessary.

Herne had drawn that handgun of his and was aiming at my head.

Cerrydwen had a darker look on her face than normal, as she held a ball of black energy of her own in her good hand, ready to leap to Jim’s defense.

Others had taken up positions around me as if they were all prepared to fight me.

I snarled and pulled back my right hand to prepare for a devastating punch, but hesitated when I saw Kenny—actually Kenny’s Spirit form—standing behind Jim looking at me.

“There is nothing you can do to help me now, father, but there is something I must do for you. Put Jim down and come with me.”

I stood there stunned for a moment, not wanting to believe that Kenny, my only son, was dead. Waves of grief rolled through me. I lowered my fist and released Jim to fall to the ground.

Kenny nodded and turned to head deeper into the woods, away from the obelisk that was preventing access to the Shadowland.

I stepped over Jim and pushed through the ORC’s that stood between me and where Kenny was going. “I’m coming, son!” Even as I followed him, the roiling chaos of voices, memories, and delusions of grandeur began to fill my thoughts. I had to fight to stay focused on Kenny.

A War of Shadows...Part 5

Jim stumbled backwards from the explosion of energy and ichor caused by his fatal thrust of Excalibur into the Bane’s back.

I waited, watching for that special moment of vulnerability, knowing that it would come soon.

Arixtocles struggled to stem the flow of blood and power. His hands clutched towards the edges of the blade as if he could push it back the way it had come, but Excalibur was simply too powerful, its magick prevented him from touching the edges.

The Bane staggered, his feet now touching the ground for the first time I had seen, then fell to his knees. The link between his magickally enhanced body and his Spirit form was weakening.

Still laid out on my back, I concentrated on being prepared as the moment inched closer. Two strong tentacles of Shadow extended from my core, poised to strike.

Arixtocles’ convulsed, spitting out a geyser of blood before he collapsed in a boneless heat. Just as his body slumped to the ground, his Spirit form coalesced at a point slightly in front of the now useless pile of flesh.

Before he could gain his bearings and begin the search for a new body, I lashed out with both appendages. I felt an immediate surge of power as I snared his helpless form and brought him struggling into the dark void of my own soul. I consumed his Spirit just as I had the Dragon.

I rose from the ground with a mere thought. Reaching out my right hand, I summoned Excalibur from the lifeless husk of the Bane and turned towards where I had last seen the Demon facing off against Cerrydwen and Herne.

As I turned, I had only the briefest glance towards Jim and Alana to see that they were both OK. Jim was sitting on the ground, looking towards with a look of mixed fear and awe. Alana had rushed up to him, but she stopped dead in tracks as she saw me rise and glance in their direction. The heavy weapon in her hands slipped through her fingers as she almost cringed back from me.

Everyone and everything seemed to slow down to a crawl except me. I felt like I was only walking, but I crossed almost the entire width of the clearing in moments. With Excalibur glowing in my fist and the power of two Banes roiling around inside, I was invincible.

The Demon was smaller than I remembered, even as he loomed over the crouching form of Cerrydwen. She was looking up into the Demon’s eyes with her own fierce look of determination.

Both Cerrydwen and the Demon showed the results of a brutal, bloody battle. Cerrydwen’s left arm hung limply from her shoulder while her face was badly bruised. Blood ran freely from several small cuts on her cheeks and forehead.

The Demon was missing one entire wing. The other wing was shredded and hung limply from his back. He stood up to his full height, but seemed to have to support his weight by holding on to the broken trunk of battered tree with the talons of his massive right hand.

As I approached from behind the Demon, Herne popped up from behind a fallen tree and aimed a massive handgun at the Demon. His face was such a mass of bruises and blood that I wondered briefly how he was able to see in order to point his weapon. But his eyes widened when he saw me approach.

The Demon must have sensed my approach because he released his grip on the tree and swung around to face me, pivoting on his one good leg. The other leg was a tangled mass of twisted and blasted flesh, but it was apparently intact enough for him to stand in place, but not much else.

I couldn’t help gloating. “Kosferaxtu! What a sad sight you’ve become!”

He was looking up to me, for some reason that I couldn’t comprehend at the moment. “This is not possible! What have you done with my brothers?”

I smiled, or at least it I thought I did. “Worry not, Bane. You’ll join them soon enough.”

He appeared to tremble at the sound of my voice. It did seem louder than I had remembered it being before.

“We’ll see about that, Drashe’en.” That name caught me off guard. “Yes, Drashe’en, I know what you are. Now it is time to tell my masters about you.”

His eyes rolled up into his skull and his body stiffened.

I didn’t wait to see what he was trying to do. Instead I closed the distance between us faster than I thought was possible and struck with Excalibur. As his head tumbled from his shoulders, I plunged my empty left hand through his chest plate and drew forth his Spirit without waiting for it come free as I had done with the other two Banes.

The empty husk of the Demon’s body slid off my clenched left fist as I sucked down the last bit of his Spirit. As the body fell away, I was surprised to note that I snatched the dark muscled mass of his heart from his chest. I stood there staring at the grisly thing. It was puny compared to my left palm.

I heard a strange rushing sound in my ears. I was near to bursting with Power.

Cerrydwen stood up from her crouch, her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “Rusty, is that you?”

I barely heard her words over the pulsing, pounding rush coming from inside my own body, my own Spirit. “Of course it’s me, Cerrydwen. Who else would it be?”

Herne stood up from his position, barely able to stand. Other figures began to emerge from the woods behind him as well. Each person was someone I had known for sometime, but they all shared the same look of fear and awe that Jim had on his face when I last saw him.

Herne was the only who found his voice. “Rusty, you’ve changed.”

“Yeah, that other Bane, Arixtocles, damaged me a bit, I’m sure I’ll heal up in few moments.”

Cerrydwen shook her head, craning her head to look up at me even though she was standing straight. “It’s more than that, Rusty. Something you’ve done with the Spirits of those Banes has affected you more than you might realize.”

Something else was nagging at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t place it.

Ravyn’s voice called from behind me. “Herne, is everyone accounted for over there?”

Herne glanced around at the gathering crowd of survivors. “Did anyone see Kenny Smith?”

A War of Shadows...Part 4

The Bane Arixtocles, still hovering about a foot off the ground, had turned his attention from the fallen Ravyn towards Jim and Alana Danae as they tried to come up behind him, each carrying strange looking firearms.

I was running towards the Bane as fast as I could, but I knew I wouldn’t get there in time.

I waved for Jim and Alana to get down and hurled Excalibur towards the Bane. The blade hurtled through air, twirling end over hilt in a blaze of magickal energies, scything towards the creature.

I saw Jim’s eyes grow wide with confusion and shock even as he hit the dirt. Alana had beaten him to the ground.

The Bane saw the hurtling sword in time to throw up one arm to deflect it with a blast of red energy, just as I had anticipated. The blade skittered off towards Jim, landing less than three feet to his left with the hilt vibrating as the blade stuck into the earth.

As the Bane turned to face me, I sent a whispered message towards Jim. “Don’t worry about me. Watch for your opportunity and strike with Excalibur.”

The Bane’s face lit up as he recognized me. “I’ve been waiting for you, human. I won’t be as gentle with you as I was with your fire-throwing friend over there. She might actually prove to be a useful diversion after I eliminate you.”

I slowed to a walk, but continued to shorten the distance between us. My hands were empty, so I opened and closed them reflexively.

“I think you are overestimating your strength, Bane. Even now, I am digesting on the Spirit of your brother, the Dragon.”

Arixtocles’ eyes narrowed. “Malaxifer was a fool. Besides, without that sword, you are no threat to me.”

I smiled. “We’ll see about that.”

He threw out his right hand towards me. As he did so, a huge blast of red energy erupted from his palm and blasted me in the chest.

I staggered under the searing onslaught but continued pressing forward, there was only a hundred feet between us now.

The energy tore at my body, shredding my skin.

The Bane laughed as he watched my reaction to his attack. “There will be nothing left of you, Human, when I am done. It will be as if you had never existed.”

Through my peripheral vision, I could see that Jim had pulled Excalibur from the ground and was making his way behind the Bane. I had to keep the thing distracted.

“Arixtocles, you think you have the power to stop me? Look, I am still coming for you. When I get there, I will feast on your Spirit.”

The Bane glared as he brought up his left hand and redoubled the size of the bolt of blazing red energy that he pouring into me. The bolt was tearing at the very fabric of my physical being. He was trying to vaporize my body.

I leaned forward into the blasting force of the massive beam. As quickly as my skin was dissolving, it was being replenished by the small wisps of Shadow that were constantly crawling around inside of me ever since Ma Grendel and I had been merged.

The Bane’s face contorted in a snarl as I continued to plod towards him, one step at a time. “How can your frail, man-made body resist my powers?” He threw his second had towards me, blasting out with a second bolt of energy. “I will incinerate you, Human!”

The power of this second effort forced me back and down to one knee. I stood back up through sheer force of Will and staggered forward. There was less than twenty feet between the Bane and I, Jim was almost equidistant. He needed more time. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to give it to him. My body was beginning to dissolve faster than the Shadow could repair it.

I lunged forward, but tripped on the carcass of a dead wolf. I landed in front of the Bane, face down and spread-eagle. The move surprised Arixtocles as well, providing my pet Shadows the briefest of badly needed moments to restore a fraction of what had been destroyed by his attacks.

I rolled over just in time to see Arixtocles smile in glee as he slipped forward to administer what he anticipated to be a death blow. As he brought his arms up to finish me, the business end of Excalibur erupted from his chest in a shower of black ichor and chaotic, destructive energies…

(To be continued next week)

A War of Shadows...Part 3

The last thing I did before making the jump myself was to re-activate the obelisk with a quick touch and a simple command. That sealed the trap, preventing any of my unwitting victims from escaping back through the Shadowland.

There was a serene moment of silence as we all landed in the middle of the snow filled shallow clearing. That silence was shattered as a very surprised looking Dragon plummeted into the place where I had been standing. Without the weaker gravity and abundant magick of the Shadowland, the Dragon found that his bulk was too great to fly. He crashed snout first into the snow-covered ice of the small lake in the center of the depression with a thunderous roar.

The Demon, who had been charging towards me in the Shadowland, gave out a snarling yelp and dove to the side to avoid being crushed by the Dragon’s bulk. Several wolves and three Reavers were not so lucky.

Before the snow and ice thrown up by the Dragon’s impact could settle back to the ground, chaos erupted as volley after volley of bullets slammed into the scene. Herne’s troops had entered the fray. Each of the hundreds of rounds being firing into the clearing had been charged with magickal energy by my daughter Jasmine.

The bullets were working as advertised, the shadow wolves, Doppelgangers and Reavers were dropping like flies from the concentrated fire from the edge of the forest.

The Banes however, each seemed to be shaking off their momentary surprise and all had their own defenses against the barrage of bullets.

The Demon’s armor plating absorbed even the larger caliber bullets that had been directed him by Herne, but it didn’t stop him from showing his rage at having been caught in our trap. He leaped up after having dodged the fallen Dragon and took off a dead run towards the far edge of the clearing where Herne and Kenny had shown themselves as they pumped round after round towards him.

Arixtocles stood stock still, seemingly in serene meditation, but that was belied by the fact that he was surrounded by a glowing dome of energy that erupted in sparks each time a bullet meant for him exploded short of its target. Meanwhile, he scanned the edges of the forest and would direct a blast of sizzling red energy at the form of any target that presented itself to him.

The Dragon, however, was where my attention was focused. Most of the bullets pelting his hide were deflected by his thick metallic scales. Some rounds were getting through, but their impact seemed miniscule. The Dragon was more concerned with pulling its face and front legs from the debris of thick ice that it had shattered with its fall. It was arching its back and unfurling its wings in an attempt to pull free.

I couldn’t take the chance that a creature that massive got free, so I bolted towards the thing, Excalibur in hand.

A stray wolf lunged at me from the side, latching onto my right calf with its jaws, but I barely broke my stride. Instead, I lashed out with Excalibur, lopping off its head in one heavy stroke.

Just as the Dragon freed its head from the ice, I leapt up towards the base of its massive throat and plunged Excalibur in with both hands as far as I could. The blade practically sang with energy and excitement as it passed through the Dragon’s scales like a hot knife through butter.

The creature reared up in instant pain, pulling me up high into the air with it. I continued to push the blade deeper even as I redoubled my grip on the hilt. Black ichor gushed from the wound, coating my face and hands as the thing continued to thrash.

Bullets continued to thud into the beast, both above and below me. It was hard to tell if they were having any direct impact though as the Dragon already seemed to be in its death throes.

Gathering my Will even as I held on from being thrown to the side by the thrashing beast, I waited for the moment that I knew from Ma Grendel would come. She had hunted all manner of creatures in her eons of existence, including more than a few Banes. I had played back one of those memory fragments in my own head during these past few weeks. I had watched as she had inflicted a mortal wound on the living body of a Bane and had lain in wait to snatch the Spirit of the creature. There would be the briefest of windows where the normally indomitable Spirit of the victimized Bane would be vulnerable. It was that moment when I had to strike at the Spirit if I had any hopes of preventing any of these Banes from snatching the bodies from my allies and beginning the transition to new physical forms.

Like a great tree struck down by age or axe, the Dragon’s body began to sway as the life force within began to slip away. Excalibur had found its mark. As the body began to fall forward, I maintained my grip long enough to glimpse that moment when the Spirit of the Bane let loose from the physical form that it had invested so much energy in developing. That time came just moments before gravity was to impose its final will upon the body of this beast.

Reaching out with a tentacle of Shadow, I snared the stunned Spirit of Malaxifer before he could gain his bearings and pulled him in. As our bodies impacted yet again with the snow and ice of the clearing, I struggled to digest Malaxifer.

I don’t know how long my body lay prone in the snow because there was a titanic struggle taking place inside. Ma Grendel had the distinct advantages of having both the full command of her power and the experience of having consumed the spirits of thousands of victims. She also rather enjoyed the endeavor. I, however, had none of those traits. But I was desperate and determined to get back into the fight before any of my friends paid a mortal price for my inexperience.

Fueled by a burning desperation, I shoved Malaxifer past that internal wall I had made between myself and that innumerable horde of small, hungry predators that spoke to me in whispers, crying out their hunger. That horde descended upon the struggling Spirit of Malaxifer and tore his essence to pieces like a pack of piranha swarming a joint of beef.

Physically, I sat up and looked around just in time to come face to face with a pair of wounded, raving Reavers. Excalibur was still lodged deep in the throat of the Dragon’s carcass so I triggered my wrist sheaths and took them on with my batons. It wasn’t long before I left them as quivering piles of bone and flesh.

I dropped my right baton and reached up to pull Excalibur from the Dragon’s throat. As I did so, I glanced back towards where I had last seen Arixtocles.

An explosion of fire and thunder announced Ravyn’s engagement with him, his own red energy adding to the intense mix. Several bodies lay sprawled between the two of them, but I was unable to see whether they were those of friends or foes. I did manage to see Jim and Alana coming down from the edge of the woods behind the Bane, apparently trying to sneak up on him.

A great roar of triumph from the Demon caused me to snap my head around to the other side of the battle. I saw Kenny’s limp form being lifted in the air by the Demon and tossed to the side like a limp rag doll as the creature lashed out with his other massive claw towards Herne. Cerrydwen darted out from behind a nearby tree to place a battered and bloodied hand on the Demon’s left wing. The Demon howled in pain as that wing exploded in a blast of bone, black flesh and smoking ichor. Cerrydwen and the Demon were tossed in opposite directions by the blast.

I wanted nothing more than to rush to Kenny’s side to see if he was alright, but a second explosive blast from the direction of Arixtocles drew my attention back to that side of the battle. As the smoke cleared, I saw Ravyn’s form crumple to the ground.

Excalibur finally slid free from the Dragon’s corpse, just as I leaped up onto the beast and began running towards Arixtocles…