The Time Shield Read online

  “You’re going to destroy the Lance?” I gasped.

  “What? No!” he said, scowling at me. “The Lance of Power can’t be destroyed from a little explosion. I’m using it to blow the glass up. I’m warning you to stay back, cause it’ll probably hurt you if you get to close.”

  “Oh… thanks, then,” I said.

  “Don’t mention it,” he shrugged.

  The pounding of footsteps echoed down the hall as guards came flooding in from each of the stairwells. Armed with pole arms and short swords, they fanned out, blocking any hope we had of sneaking past them. From what I could see, there were about twenty or so on each side of us.

  “Looks like your trapped, goblin,” smirked Cassandra. “You might as well give up now.”

  The goblin looked around at all the guards, no real concern on his face. “Trapped? Maha! I make sure I’m never trapped.”

  Before we could ask what he meant by that, Nicole stepped out from the row of guards behind the goblin.

  “Nicole!” I said. “Quick, this goblin is trying to steal the Lance!”

  “Is that… is that the Shattered Sword?” asked the orc, pointing at the weapon in Cassandra’s hands.

  The goblin turned to look at the Sword, eyes squinting to get a better look.

  “Maybe,” said the elf, trying to hide the Sword behind her back.

  “How did you manage to find it, Bertha?” asked Nicole in a hushed whisper.

  “Bertha?” asked the goblin, eyeing the elf up and down. “What kind of elven name is that? Maha!”

  “It was in the Ruins of Le’Mar,” I shrugged. “A bit difficult to find, but it wasn’t too bad. Only took us about a week, too.”

  The guards on either side began to murmur about legends of the Shattered Sword, staring at it with awe in their eyes.

  “These three must have stolen the Shattered Sword from someone,” said Nicole, raising her voice. “There’s no way they could get it in just a week!”

  “We didn’t steal it!” shouted Cassandra.

  “And what do you mean by ‘these three?’” I asked. “The goblin isn’t with us.”

  “He most certainly is!” she shouted back. “The two of you must have come upstairs to distract me, while you sent the goblin downstairs to rig explosives! You then met up here to take the Lance of Power and escape, just like you did with the Shattered Sword!”

  “Honestly, lady, these two aren’t with me,” said the goblin. “They’d cramp my style, though I’d like to add that Shattered Sword to my collection.”

  “Enough of your lies!” hissed Nicole, raising her hand again and pointing at us. “Seize them, guards! Do whatever you must in order to stop the thieves!”

  The guards started advancing on us, weapons raised high. The guards behind Cassandra and I moved a bit slower than the others, their eyes stuck on the Shattered Sword. They knew how strong the weapon could be, and no one wanted to be the first one to challenge Cassandra.

  “This isn’t going well,” I said, turning my head back and forth to see which group of guards would get the jump on us first. Should I count on the goblin to take care of the guards on his side? Or could he not even fight?

  “It’s no use, you fools!” shouted the goblin at the guards as he danced around. “The Lance is mine, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!”

  He held the trigger high in the air, jamming his thumb onto the button.

  Click.

  I stared at the glass box holding the Lance, waiting for it to shatter.

  Nothing happened.

  “Hmm,” hummed the goblin, looking down at the trigger and itching an ear. “That should’ve worked…”

  Click. Click. Click.

  Again, nothing happened.

  “What are you imbeciles waiting for?!” shouted Nicole at the guards. “Kill them!”

  The guards began to inch forward, growing in confidence that nothing was going to happen with each step they took.

  “Wanna power up a lightning shot?” whispered Cassandra.

  “I don’t really want to kill these guys if we can help it,” I whispered back. “They’re just doing their job. I mean, we are trying to steal the Lance, after all. Still… if it’s us or them, I’ll do it.”

  Cassandra nodded, her face grim. Not wanting to kill or seriously harm them made an already difficult task much harder.

  “Oh, I forgot to turn it on,” mumbled the goblin behind us. I glanced back as he flipped something on the side of his device. “Maha! Silly me.”

  Click.

  A huge explosion rocked the middle of the hall, knocking the goblin, Cassandra, and me onto our backs with a wave of heat and force. The guards around us retreated immediately, holding their hands and weapons in front of their faces.

  Cassandra and I struggled to our feet, helping each other up and looking at the pillar of smoke where the glass case used to be. When it cleared, we could try and dive for the Lance before the goblin got to it. Maybe we’d be able to use it to help get us out of here. With two legendary weapons, maybe the guards would be too afraid to try and fight us.

  “The… the Lance…” mumbled Nicole, falling down to her knees and staring at the spot of the explosion.

  The smoke finally cleared completely and I was able to see what happened.

  The Lance of Power was broken into multiple chunks, and was now spread out across the floor. Little bubbles of magic in the shape of tiny dragons escaped from the weapon, evaporating into the air.

  We had come all the way to Vorova for the Lance, and now it was gone.

  Everyone stared down at the destroyed Lance in a horrible silence. The only noise to break it were the grunts of the goblin getting back to his feet.

  “Huh,” said the goblin, brushing off dust and debris from his knees as he looked down at the scattered pieces of what used to be the Lance of Power. “Looks like I might’ve added a few too many explosives to it…”

  Chapter 6

  “It’s gone,” mumbled Cassandra, staring at the broken pieces.

  “I told you it would break the weapon!” I shouted at the goblin.

  “I made a mistake okay?” he shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do about it now. It’s not like we can just glue it back together… unless…”

  “No, the magic left it when it broke,” I said, shaking my head. “I saw it.”

  “You know, I wouldn’t have added the extra explosives if you hadn’t stumbled in here, distracting me!”

  “Oh, so now it’s our fault you blew up one of the most important weapons in the history of Yaerna?” I laughed. “Yeah right. You should’ve just let us have it, and none of this would’ve happened!”

  “They destroyed the Lance…” mumbled Nicole, shaking her head as she broke out of her shock. “They destroyed one of the mythical weapons! Kill them!”

  The guards charged full on at us this time, no longer worried about the goblin’s explosives.

  A guard with a polearm was the first to get to me, lunging out. I jumped out of the way while bringing my right arm back, trying to line up the man with a few of the other guards behind him. When I found the angle I wanted, I leapt forward and punch out, letting the glove’s rockets boost me forward.

  I connected into the man’s gut, sending the man flying backwards with a grunt. He connected with three other guards, who fell over with him.

  Another guard swung at me, this one with a sword. I blocked the first hit with my dagger, along with the second. I harnesses some power into my hand as the man searched for an opening. He jabbed again, and this time I hopped back and touched the floor.

  Sending the magic into it, the tile wrapped up around the unsuspecting guard’s foot. He tried to charge at me, but fell forward and lost his grip on his sword. I took a quick few steps up to the man, pulling his head up to take the final shot.

  “Sorry man, no hard feeling,” I said, clocking him in the jaw with my glove and knocking him out.

  None of the other guards on t
his side of the hallway bothered with me, instead focusing their attention on Cassandra and the Shattered Sword.

  The Sword began to glow blue as the guards approached Cassandra, who looked at it with a touch of annoyance. This was a bad time, since she didn’t want to actually kill them. Now it was going to be that much harder.

  Two men rushed her at the same time with short swords, striking out at her together. She crouched as she brought the Sword up in a defensive position above her shoulder. Both of the guards’ blades connected with the Sword’s, cutting them both in half.

  The men balked at their weapons as Cassandra jumped up, delivering her shin across the face of one man while dropping the other with a hard smack of her hilt.

  Seeing an opportunity that wasn’t there, and not seeing what happened to the weapons of the previous two, a guard with a polearm rushed at her. The elf jumped back as the man swatted down with his polearm, and then up at her midsection with a lunge.

  She spun out of the way, chopping at the shaft with quick swings of the Sword. Chunks of the polearm flew off as she cut away, this time easily seen by the guards behind the man. He held up what remained of the stick helplessly as she swept his leg, crouched over him, and delivered two quick punches to his chin.

  Seeing that the elf had the rest our section scared or already beaten, I turned back to see how the goblin was doing.

  To my surprise, nearly all of his guards were already down.

  The goblin leapt back and forth as the remaining two guards charged at him, swinging wildly with their blades. Goblins were very quick, if pretty physically weak. It looked like this one had been in a fight or two in his day, though, and was handling himself well.

  “Maha, that’ll never work!” taunted the goblin, diving between the open legs of one of the men and pushing him back. The other guard ran away from the one that was kicked, apparently knowing what was coming next.

  The goblin reached into his bag and pulled out a metal ball, twisting it in his hands. After a second, the ball began to spark with electricity, and he chucked it at the back of the man he just kicked. The man tensed as the ball exploded out with arcs of lightning, tasing him until he collapsed, unconscious.

  “Look out!” I shouted at the goblin, who was too busy admiring his handiwork to notice the other guard sneaking up behind him.

  The goblin ducked at my call, narrowly keeping his head intact as the guard’s blade swung just across the top of his head, taking a few wisps of hair with it.

  Spinning around as he reached in his bag, the goblin produced a large pink capsule. Giving it a twist, he threw it at the man’s feet jumping back out of the way.

  “Have fun up there!” shouted the goblin at the confused guard.

  The capsule exploded up, shooting a pink gelatin-like substance up at the ceiling and taking the guard with it. The gelatin crystallized as the man struggled, eventually hardening and looking hard as stone. The guard quit struggling after a moment, resigned to watching until someone could come cut him down later.

  “Thanks for the heads up… or rather heads down!” said the goblin, giving me a thumbs up. “Maha!”

  Three more people came around the corner, these ones holding large metal crossbows. Two were human and one was an elf. Each of them were taking deep breaths, holding their sides. The jog up or down the stairs in all this smoke must not have been a walk in the park.

  “It took you three long enough!” barked Nicole.

  “Are those part of the Gray Dividers?”

  “ADDERS!!” screeched the orc.

  The three Gray Adders shared a nervous look with each other. I had a feeling this wasn’t the first time they had seen their leader yell in a rage.

  Knowing what was about to happen when she got a grip, I had to act fast.

  “Goblin,” I shouted. “Throw three more of those taser grenades into the air directly above you!”

  The goblin gave me a funny look. “Do you really think I’m that dumb, to just stun myself?”

  “Trust me, I’ve got an idea!”

  “You’ve done nothing to make me want to trust you,” he pointed out. “All you’ve done is try to take my Lance, and then yelled at me when I accidentally blew it up.”

  “What are you idiots waiting for?!” screamed Nicole at the three Gray Adders. “Shoot them already!”

  I looked up as the Gray Adders took aim as us, taking a second to figure out who was aiming at which target. This wasn’t looking good.

  “It’s now or never, goblin!” I shouted, summoning magic to my hand.

  “Fine!” he grunt, taking three more explosives out of his bag and tossing them over his head.

  Holding my palm out and above where the goblin’s head was at, I shot out my energy, which turned into out a wall of wind. The gust took hold of the grenades as they began to fall back down, carrying them with it down the hallway towards the Gray Adders. The three men lowered their crossbows and watched as the sparking balls of metal flew at them, not knowing what was going on.

  “Move!” shouted Nicole, but it was too late.

  The wind gust died as it got to them, letting the taser grenades drop down on each of the Gray Adders. They exploded in sparks, electricity curving out and stunning each man. The three fell together, convulsing and crying out as they did.

  “Maha!” laughed the goblin, turning and giving me a nod. “Nice one!”

  “Are we good to run now?” asked Cassandra, eyeing all the down guards around us on each side. Most of them were incapacitated in some way, and the few that weren’t had their weapons destroyed by the Shattered Sword. Those still conscious watched us in fear, too afraid to get up and try anything else.

  “I think so,” I mumbled, looking around. The only person left standing was Nicole, and while she looked like she wanted to tear all of our necks out, she wouldn’t stand much of a chance against the three of us.

  Before any of us could take a step, the sound of footsteps bounced off the walls again as another couple of dozen guards rushed into the hallway from both sets of stairs.

  “How many of these guys are there?!” said Cassandra.

  “Like I said, Vorova employs a lot of Truskan men as guards,” I said.

  “Ugh,” grunted the goblin. “You know, my bag is pretty big, but it’s not like I have an infinite amount of explosives to use on all these people.”

  “I don’t think we’ve got much of a choice,” muttered Cassandra, raising the non-glowing Shattered Sword out defensively.

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” said the goblin, pulling out a large orange half circle. He placed it at his feet, and then jogged over to stand next to us. Flipping another switch on his detonator, he held his thumb over the red button again. “It was a pleasure meeting you two, but I must take my leave now.”

  Click.

  The orange contraption ignited, hissing as sparks flew around the circle. When the spark had made it all the way around, the whole thing exploded. The floor beneath it fell, crumbling down to the level below. The hole was about ten feet in each direction, with dust and smoke swirling all around it.

  The goblin casually walked up to it as the new guards look on in surprise. He spun around and gave us a small wave.

  “Toodles,” he smiled, falling backwards into the hole and leaving us with all the guards and the mess.

  The guards and Nicole looked down at the hole, up to us, and back down to the hole.

  “Now, let’s talk this out,” I said slowly, keeping my hands up. “We’ve purposefully not killed any of the guards, and we had nothing to do with that goblin…”

  “Yeah, this is all just a misunderstanding,” smiled Cassandra, trying to be diplomatic for the first time since I met her.

  “Stop them!” shouted Nicole, trying to snap the guards back to attention. It worked, and the guards began to close in from both sides.

  Well, it was worth a shot.

  “Let’s go,” I said, running past Cassandra and towards the hole.
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  “You’re joking,” she said, staring at it with concern.

  “Stay here if you want, but I’m out of here,” I said, taking a quick hop and falling down to the next floor.

  I landed on a piece of debris, tripping and falling down. A half second later and Cassandra landed flawlessly next to me, looking around.

  “Ten out of ten landing,” she said, helping me up.

  “Thanks, I’ve been practicing,” I said, dusting myself off and looking at the staircase nearest to us. I just saw the goblin’s backpack disappear around the corner and into the smoke. “Come on, let’s try to stick with this guy.”

  “Why?” asked Cassandra as the two of us jogged after him.

  “He probably has a better idea of how to get out of here than we do.”

  There was another explosion below as as we reached the fourth floor, but the smoke was so strong we couldn’t see what it was. We finally found the source as we made it to the second floor, where a giant hole stood where a window once did.

  “He does realize he can just break glass with a hammer or something, right?” asked Cassandra as we made it to the hole, seeing the backpack disappear around a corner up ahead.

  “Let’s ask him when we catch him,” I said, jumping out after the goblin.

  Chapter 7

  We ran down the alleyway, pushing past the merchants and regular people that crowded the streets, all looking at the tower. I risked a glance back, and saw smoke escaping from several windows around the bottom. These people had no idea what was going on, and were inching closer and closer to see if they could learn anything. Hopefully the goblin didn’t leave any nasty surprises behind.

  The crowd had slowed the goblin down as well, who was having issues fitting his large backpack between people. He broke free from the crowd as fast as he could, running down a side alley. Chasing after him, we followed him as he turned left, right, and another right, until he finally came to a dead end.

  “Really?” groaned the goblin, leaning over to catch his breath. “Why make a street that just ends suddenly? This town is stupid.”