Jess Lebow - The Darksteel Eye

The Kaldra Champion smiled then nodded.

“Hurry.” Glissa pointed to the hole in the ceiling.

The Kaldra Champion closed his fist around the goblin and the elf and looked up. Glissa could just see between the creature’s fingers as he launched toward the light. The ceiling came up in a blink, and Glissa covered her head.

* * * * *

The floor exploded.

Bits of blackened metal scattered across the room, ricocheting off the levelers and pinning several vedalken to the walls.

A pale blue-white giant shot up and hovered above the broken ground. With a wave of his hand the fog covering the floor completely disappeared, revealing the wounded and dying creatures who had been concealed.

“What in the nine hells is that?” shouted Pontifex.

Malil stood beside him, shaking his head.

The creature opened his palm, and two figures stood up.

Pontifex grabbed the metal man by the arm. “It has the elf girl.”

“I can see that.”

Pontifex turned to find Marek. The leader of his elite guard was squirming on the floor about twenty feet away. He appeared to be in no condition to give orders.

Pontifex shouted at the top of his lungs, “Get the elf girl!”

The vedalken warriors who hadn’t been knocked down by the flying debris immediately disengaged and charged the floating blue creature holding the elf.

“Do you think that’s wise?” asked Malil turning to Pontifex. “I’m not entirely certain we shouldn’t be very afraid of this creature.”

* * * * *

Levelers covered Bosh from head to toe. Vedalken poked at him with their halberds. One group of attackers he could handle, but two … He smashed at them, crushing them between his mighty palms, but there were too many of them.

He was going to die.

Something exploded, and Bosh felt the floor rumble under him. The fog lifted, and he heard someone yell, “Get the elf girl!”

The vedalken turned and ran. The odds had improved.

Rolling over to one side, the half-iron, half-flesh golem pushed himself up onto his elbow. Levelers cascaded from his chest, bouncing as they hit the hard metal floor. Unlatching the compartment on his chest, Bosh flung it open. The big door swung down, creaking on its hinges, and slammed into the ground. Reaching over, the big golem closed the hatch and admired the two smashed leveler carcasses on the floor before him.

Pushing himself onto his feet, Bosh looked down at the little metal constructs before him. With no fog, he could see them all clearly.

“Time to smash.” His deep voice rumbled, and he brought his fist down atop the nearest foe. Bits of broken metal spun off into all directions.

* * * * *

A leveler pinned Bruenna’s shoulder to the ground. The metal burned inside her skin, and she couldn’t move. Worse, she couldn’t even see where the thing was. Lying on the ground, the fog blocked her view of everything except the first few inches of the scythe blade that jutted from her shoulder.

The artifact creature pulled back, yanking the blade from her flesh and disappearing into the fog. A wave of relief rolled over her only to be replaced by a dull throb and panic. It’s preparing to hit me again, she thought. If only she could see it.

The fog swept away from the floor, revealing the entire room-and the leveler about to strike. The killing device’s blade came whistling through the air, but Bruenna kicked and rolled, throwing herself just barely out of harm’s way. The blade crashed into the ground, sticking into the metal floor, and the human wizard placed her hand on the leveler’s hide.

Bruenna flooded the device with a combination of blue and black mana. Gears ground to a stop, and the beast shook. Smoke seeped from its seams, and the light in its eye sockets grew blindingly bright.

“This is for my shoulder,” she said, and she placed her other hand on the creature as well.

Another spell flooded into the leveler. Metal plates collapsed, crushing the creature’s insides. The artifact shook more violently, shuttered once, then came to rest as the light inside it went out.

* * * * *

The great forest wolf looked out at more than two dozen levelers and vedalken combined. They closed in, fearless but cautious all the same.

Al-Hayat waited, growling at them, watching each inch closer. A vedalken was the first to step too close. In a flash, Al-Hayat bounded forward, closed his powerful jaws around the blue-skinned warrior’s head, then stepped back against the wall.

The vedalken’s body stood upright for a moment longer. Its hands still gripped tightly around its halberd. From the stump of its neck, blue blood rushed over its shoulders, flooding to the ground in pulsing bursts.

The wolf spat out his mouthful. His bite had been so big that he didn’t even break the seal on the vedalken’s helmet-taking the head clean off the neck in a single piece.

The warrior’s body toppled to the floor, and everyone else charged.

Al-Hayat slapped the first leveler away with the flat of his paw. His claws made a grinding sound as they scratched across the creature’s metallic hide, and the artifact creature went flying.

The rest piled on top of the wolf. Levelers and vedalken alike slashed and stabbed the forest beast. Flailing and growling, Al-Hayat tried to beat them back, but it was no use. They were on him, and they cut his flesh from his bones.

With each slash, he howled. With each stab he growled. Finally, covered in his own blood, Al-Hayat’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor. Lying on his side, he snapped at all he could reach with his sharp fangs. Many died, but many more were out of his reach.

Something exploded from the floor. A creature, the likes of which he’d never seen, rose toward the ceiling as if it were the blue moon coming over the plane. Al-Hayat had lived many long years on Mirrodin. He had seen the birth of the blue moon and the black and red ones after that. One day he had hoped to see the green moon shoot from the Tangle and make its place in the heavens, as the others had. The time for that was nearing.

He felt the tip of something sharp pierce his gut, and his whole body shuddered. His energy waned, and his vision narrowed. Looking up at the rising blue column, he saw Glissa standing on the creature’s palm. She looked down on him, caught his eye, and he tried to smile.

“You have done well, Glissa,” he whispered knowing she could not hear him.

He felt more blades enter his flesh, but oddly they did not hurt.

It is my time, he thought and closed his eyes.

* * * * *

Glissa turned, standing on the Kaldra Champion’s palm. There, behind where the throne had been, lay Al-Hayat. He was surrounded by vedalken and levelers. His lip curled, exposing his great fangs, covered in blue blood.

A leveler jabbed its scythe blade into the wolf’s gut.

“No,” shouted the elf.

Al-Hayat lurched once, looked up at her, then closed his eyes and laid his head on the ground.

Glissa pulled her new sword from its scabbard and leaped into the air. The ground was a long way down, but she tucked into a roll as she landed, breaking her fall.

The levelers and vedalken turned away from the fallen beast, converging on the elf.

“You want some?” she shouted at them as they came on. “Come and get it!”

Behind them Al-Hayat jerked once, and a puddle of blood began to form under his limp mouth. Rage bubbled up inside the elf, mixed with grief. From now on, the wolf would be only a memory.

She let the rage fill her. Every cell in her body tingled with hatred, and her eyes were half blind with tears. Finally, she could hold it in no more, and she screamed at the top of her lungs.

The sound echoed off the walls, filling the cavernous space and rocking the ground. Those levelers who were charging toward her exploded. Bits of silver housing and sinew flew in all directions. What had once been a dozen killing devices was reduced to a pile of spare parts in the blink of an eye.