Runic Storm (ONC 2022)

Chapter 9 || The Great Escape

Since Ty was still a no show, I was forced to contemplate my next actions carefully. If he wasn't going to appear within the next five minutes, I needed an exit plan. Before I had a chance to come up with any plans however, an arrow passed right by my head. It got deflected by the surrounding wind, but it still exploded in the wall behind me, effectively knocking me to the side.

I quickly scrambled back to my feet to look at the entrance. More bounty hunters had rushed into the hall, and the guards were nowhere in sight anymore. Some were fighting between each other but most of their eyes were locked on me.

Well, shit.

I cursed Ty in my head as I turned on my heel and jumped out of the opening the explosive arrow had created. Midair, I activated one of my runes to make sure I landed safely. Then I was sprinting down the street. This was a bit too close for comfort. There was no need for me to turn my head to know the horde of hunters was already hot on my trail. When I risked a quick look behind me, the blonde woman was nowhere in sight anymore. But it was also hard to make out individuals in the mass of hunters scrambling for me.

After rounding the corner of the casino, I arrived back on the main street. The sun was high as people walked around, going about their business. Some of them glanced in my direction but nobody paid me much attention. That was, until they saw the army of armed men and women spilling onto the street. By then, I was already weaving my way through the mass off normal citizens, who finally jumped into action. Some screamed, others simply dropped whatever they were doing as they scattered into all directions. The confusion and panic worked in my favor for a short while, until I got spotted again.

There were too many people so I couldn't use my power to distinguish between friend and foe, and that was how I ran smack into a something hard that turned out to be a human chest. Strong hands gripped my arms, steadying me. I was about to blast him with electricity to get him off me when my eyes met a pair of dark ones. Tyler looked just as disheveled as I did as we stared at each other for a second before he quickly dragged me behind cover to dodge the barrage of spells flying our way.

"Where the hell have you been?" I yelled, trying to make myself heard above the screams and shouts next to us.

Instead of replying, his eyes scanned me briefly, and a relieved look made its way across his handsome face. "I will tell you later, first let's get out of here."

Not wasting any more time, he took my hand, and in the next second we were running down the street ahead of us. The bounty hunters were following right behind, shooting magic at us from time to time. Between Ty and I, none of the range spells ever hit us of course, but I was starting to feel the strain from overusing my mana. Plus, the general exhaustion of several stressful days in a row now didn't help.

"I suppose your informant sold us out." I huffed out annoyed.

"I know. Stop talking and run faster," Tyler growled. He sounded more annoyed with himself than me. With one hand on my back, he basically pushed me down the street. His forearms were bare with the plates orbiting around us, occasionally blocking off spells and projectiles.

Tyler glanced backwards and cursed loudly. I hadn't had a chance to check what he saw behind us, but it felt as if an army of people were chasing us at this point. There was a big government building ahead of us, and without further ado, we burst right through the doors. There were only a few people around, and they froze in shock at the sight of our spectacle.

After basically crashing through another set of doors, we found ourselves in an oval shaped auditorium with a podium positioned at the center. A barrage of spells whizzed our way, smacking right into the podium next to us. A loud explosion rang, and I was flung to the side. When I came to, Tyler was covering me, but his eyes weren't on the people chasing us. They were searching around looking for something.

"Ty, we won't hold out much longer," I yelled as I stepped around him conjuring up another whirlwind in front of us to block the next wave of incoming magic. My arms started to shake from the strain, and I had to blink away stars swimming in my vision.

"Just a second, it should be here somewhere."

"What is here?" I cursed and I conjured more wind flinging back four people that had been running at us.

"Can you hold them off for a bit?"

I gave him a quick nod before focusing back on the horde approaching us. His hands were running over the floor before he found a set of runes hidden behind the podium.

"Just a bit longer, its opening." Ty was bending over the runes that were coming alive with power. He pushed his hand through them as if the floor was water and procured an item that looked like a dice covered in runic symbols.

Another set of magic hit my storm and it crashed, making me stumble against the table behind me.

Shit.

I wasn't as good at large scale magic as my brother, and I could feel the toll the last weeks had taken on me. I wasn't exactly going into this rested.

Another barrage of spells flew towards us, and I barely managed to block it as Ty tinkered with the dice behind me. I couldn't hold off all of them any longer. A few spells finally got through and I stumbled into the destroyed podium behind me. I could hear Ty curse, as I tried to get back to my feet.

All of a sudden, the ceiling above the entrance seemed to shake, before it finally crumbled. A single person dropped through the opening right after.

I must have hit my head on that last fall because my vision was swimming, and I had a hard time staying conscious. Blinking away stars, I barely noticed that Ty had put his arm around me, and that I was leaning against him, trying my best not to faint. I could hear shouts and noticed little fights between the hunters as they tried to push their way towards us.

They didn't make it far. A powerful blast of wind tore through the crowd of people. One half was flung towards the sides while the other half was flattened to the ground. A single man stood at the entrance to the hall. Even though he was too far to actually make out his features, I knew his grey eyes were flashing furiously. The air seemed to compress around him, emanating such a big pressure to the people close by that their ears probably popped. It looked like the calm before the storm, like when the wind stands still just before crashing into everything around.

Oh shit.

My brother had arrived. He was the last thing I saw before everything went black.