Portals to Maestosia

Chapter 6: The S.S. Spellbuckler

I looked mindlessly into the inky darkness for a final second before taking a deep breath summoning my blue orb again. I jumped out of my skin as a flaming bullet grazed my shoulder, prompting me to teleport away. The giant foxes shrieked, now having me in their sights. I knew I would have to take them out first before getting to their leader. Unfortunately, their black fur blended them into the darkness so well that I would mostly have to rely on my ears to determine their location. I heard the clicking of claws behind me.

The first one lunged at me, and I caught a glimpse of its hideous face just before I teleported behind it and almost blindly fired an electric shot in its direction. I was extremely lucky to hit the creature in its neck. The fox let out a sickening cry before picking itself up again. It was back for more.

"You'll never get away with this, human!" Finkleton screamed, and fired another round of shots into the darkness. I quickly wondered what the man was, if he wasn't human. Teleporting around the different spirals of stairs as much as I could, I managed to dodge and avoid the first round of everything trying to attack me. A deep growl echoed just behind me and I immediately fired a blue bolt in that direction, the orb landing itself right inside the 8-foot tall monster's mouth. I caught a glimpse of the blue glow in its jaws before teleporting and firing at least seven times more. I noticed that each time, the sphere appeared above my hand more slowly, even though it fired as fast as a bullet. My breath became short, and sweat formed on my back and forehead. 

I was getting tired out. 

Finally, the creature erupted into an electric explosion, lighting almost the entire staircase up with its unceremonious death. I wasn't done yet, though. Above me, the first fox whimpered and howled in pain as it tried to attack me one last time before it slowly bled to death. It leaped from the higher spiral onto mine and swiped its long, hideous claws in my direction, only missing my chest by about an inch. I had learned my lesson about letting myself get scratched, though. With almost no strength left in me, I fired straight at its heart, and the creature left this world just as the other monster had. I quickly concealed my orb, in an effort to stop Finkleton from seeing me.

"You'll pay for this!" Finkleton screamed before blindly letting out his final round of bullets in the completely wrong direction. 

"Stupid thing. You had one job," he cursed, apparently scolding his gun for being the reason that his aim was so terrible. He took a few seconds to reload his firearm as I counted down the seconds in my head before I executed the final step of my dangerous plan. I sneaked up the staircase as quietly as I could, the man only being about 10 feet away. My heart palpitated like crazy, as if it as going to explode. 

Just as I heard the click of the gun being loaded, I teleported up to him and snatched his gun right from his hands. Realizing he was surprisingly short (about a head shorter than I was,) I easily trapped him in a headlock with my left arm, so tight that he choked and begged for air. The gun was ridiculously small in comparison to the amount and speed of bullets that it seemed to be able to hold and fire. I held the weapon in my right hand as I kept him from escaping with my right. As my magic ball levitated around us, I was able to get a good look at him for the first time. He looked something between a dwarf and a satyr, as he looked mostly like a very short human but had goat horns and glowing, red eyes. 

"You work for Chronowind, correct?" I taunted, both of us heavily panting. I loosened my grip on his throat so that he would be able to croak out his answer. He stayed silent, until I threatened to kill him.

"Hmmm. I could choke you to death, electrocute you, or shoot you. Pick your poison, Finkleton."

"Okay, okay, okay," he wheezed. "Yes. Yes, I do."