The interior of the Manse just didn't make much sense, not even for a magical house that was bigger on the inside. The Training Room was easily the size of his school's gym. The walls and floor of the room were padded, like the dojo where he took karate. Perhaps two dozen shades were huddled in the center of the room. They spun around and charged.
"I see two dark-hearts," Morgan said, pointing them out.
Arthur aimed his pistol. "You try for the stones, and I'll blast the shades."
The two numina bunched their muscles, preparing to leap when the shades got close.
Arthur aimed at the mass of shades hurtling toward him and pulled the trigger of the gun in his right hand. With a psychedelic WHUM-WHUM-WHUM sound, rings of silvery energy pulsed out of the raygun and streaked across the room. By the time the first blast struck a shade square in the chest, the rings of energy had grown to the size of a melon. The shadow man staggered back as it disintegrated into nothing.
That had to be the coolest thing Arthur had ever seen. He grinned and pulled the triggers on both guns several times. Whenever he managed to hit one directly in the head or chest, they evaporated. A hit anywhere else hurt them badly, and slowed them down. He managed to kill two more and injure three. Not bad for my first time!
Even though the rayguns didn't kick and were light, Morgan was a terrible shot. Her blasts went too high or too far to the side to hit the gems. Arthur kept blasting, and by the time the shades were close enough for the two numina to pounce at them, he had killed seven and severely wounded four.
Before Lexi and Vassalus could reach the enemy, he decided to try something different. He held the triggers down. A continuous stream of energy burst out of the guns, blasting the shades, as he swept the pistols back and forth. The continuous blast didn't destroy the shades; all it did was knock them backward. Using it like that apparently made the shots weaker.
The guns stopped firing. He let his fingers off the triggers, waited a moment, then pulled the triggers again ... nothing. That wasn't good.
The shades recovered just as Lexi and Vassalus plowed into them. The three that weren't tangled up with them charged toward Arthur and Morgan.
Finally, Morgan shot one of the gems. It shattered, and four shades disappeared. Lexi and Vassalus charged the remainder and made quick work of them.
They stood, catching their breath.
"These pistols are awesome," Arthur said. "Hope I didn't use up all the energy doing that."
"The rayguns are all right," Morgan replied.
"You just don't like them because you're a bad shot."
She holstered her gun and stalked into the room. "Shut up."
Arthur grinned; he was so right.
Valet rushed in, tapped him on the arm, and pointed at the other dark-heart hanging in the air.
"But we killed all the shades," Arthur said.
The gem flashed four times, and in the shadows across the room, four shades appeared. Crap!
As Morgan drew her gun, Arthur took a shot at the dark-heart. Both his guns worked again — that was a relief. He fired several shots before he hit the stone. It shattered, and the shades disappeared.
"So they come back," Arthur said.
"Hmm ... judging from what we've seen so far, I think each stone must hold about a dozen shades," Morgan said. "And then they come back in sets of four at a time. Not sure how long between sets, but the first set came out right after you destroyed them all."
YOU ARE READING
The Arthur Paladin Chronicles
Science FictionAbandoned by his family ... trapped in a house of shadows ... destined for more than 7th grade math. Arthur Paladin doesn't fit in. Not at home with the ultra-strict grandmother who raised him after his mother died and his dad disappeared. And not a...
