Tempest Reborn Read Online Free PDF Page B

Graeme!’
    Ryu gave me a startled look, since he’d not seen the evolution of Jane True into someone who took people on, rather than just taking things from buffets.
    He looked even more shocked when I pulled the labrys from wherever it hid, waiting to be called.
    I swept it through the air a few times, calling to its power even as I remembered my lessons with Anyan with a pang. It responded eagerly, lighting up with a savage gleam. I grinned, admittedly rather maniacally, at Graeme, and started to walk forward.
    Graeme shouted gibberish again, lobbing a few mage balls at me, and out stepped … something.
    I’d never seen anything like it. It was squat, about three feet tall and as wide across. It appeared to be made of … mud? Brown and lumpy, it sort of resembled a toad. Or the nasty brother that gets turned into an actual pile of shit in
Weird Science
.
    Its grotesquely wide body shuffled forward on stupidly tiny, SpongeBob legs. It might have been humorous, except that with every step it took, earth power boomed forward. The ground shook like we were having a quake, and I stumbled.
    ‘It’s a golem!’ Ryu shouted.
    I cast him a Look, letting him know I had no idea what he was talking about, even as I pulled more water out of the air, pushing against the golem thing.
    Ryu lobbed a few mage balls into the air, and we heard a satisfying squawk, before explaining.
    ‘They’re basically walking charms, charged with the element of the person who made them. But that person has to be enormously strong.’
    The blood drained from my face as I realized the implications of Ryu’s words.
    The thing was using earth power. Anyan’s main element was earth. Anyan may have charged this thing.
    And sent it to kill me.
    Forcing down a lump in my throat, I told myself that this was inevitable. Anyan wasn’t Anyan anymore. And although I had to believe he was somewhere inside of that damned dragon, that didn’t mean he was in control.
    Which meant the White did this. Not Anyan.
    And I was the champion, not just Jane anymore.
    So this time, when the earth golem took another waddling step forward, looking a bit like a New Zealand rugby player performing the haka, I was ready.
    I pushed forward with the labrys’s power, meeting the golem’s own expenditure of energy halfway. I then arced it up, so it dissipated in the air rather than causing another tremor.
    I moved forward, too, until I was close enough to see that it had a creepy version of a face. Mud eyes stared blindly forward, above a crude mud nose and mouth. Its small arms flailed as it called forth more power.
    ‘How do I kill this thing?’ I shouted at Ryu, who was now peppering the sky with a barrage of mage balls. We heard another noise from the heavens, this time a cry, and something fell onto the roof of the post office.
    One harpy down, one to go
, I thought.
    Ryu dashed over to where I stood, trying to keep the golem from taking another of those earthquake-inducing steps. He started to pour his own power into mine, but I felt him withdraw it as he gave me a shocked look.
    ‘Most of it’s the creature’s,’ I said, knowing he’d realized just how much force I now wielded. ‘Power’s not the issue; how do we stop it?’
    A mage ball hit our shield from above, and Ryu started peppering the sky above us to keep the remaining harpy away.
    ‘Golems haven’t been created for centuries, so I don’t know how it can be killed. But if it’s earth, I’d assume use a contradictory element?’
    I nodded, narrowing my eyes at the golem. Graeme was behind it, his lips still moving.
    He must be controlling it
, I realized.
    ‘If we don’t know how to destroy it, we should just try to stop it,’ I told Ryu, a plan forming in my head. ‘Then we have to take out Graeme.’
    ‘Getting it to stop would be a good thing, yes,’ Ryu said as he scanned the skies, sending up a few more missiles.
    ‘I meant stop-stop, like freezing it…’ I stopped talking. Freezing it.