Chapter 11 of Phantom Dawn is the order of the day here. I think we're slowly reaching the top of this part of the story, and I can already tell that editing this and straightening it all out is going to be a bugger, but that tends to be the case when doing a story like this. My hats off to those who regularly do this on sites like Wattpad, and have it be consistent.
I'm down to a couple of paragraphs now for Daemon Soul 2, and rather than being hard to write, it's finding the time this past week as the end of the school year is all but a few days away. If Daemon Soul 3 takes this long to write than I've definitely got problems.
Before we discuss more Phantom Dawn, let's check back into the third part of an unplanned trilogy with the Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz.
Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
Yeah, I continued the story thread on, and I ran headlong with the Looney Tunes references this time, along with a Worms Armageddon reference for good measure. I'm a little burned out now for references so it'll be back to original Riz hijinks next week...unless I get fixated on watching old Looney Tunes cartoons but I may save those ideas for a rainy day.
Short Diversions: Phantom Dawn- Memories of a Rose Chapter 11
Here's the end of the fight and it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to those familiar with the comic version. What is different is everything that happens afterwards (with one exception with the appearance of one character, though they haven't killed anyone yet...).
Let's read on...
Phantom Dawn Chapter Index
Chapter 11
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Chapter 11: Victory At What Cost
“Don’t look down on me!” Mason was becoming more increasingly erratic. Almost as if every option that had once been open to him, had been peeled away from him. The speed he bore down on Kurz was almost superhuman for the bulk that Mason carried with him, but his opponent stood steely eyed, to the point it seemed he was daring him to act.
Mason swung in with his right fist, putting it all into the one punch, lying to himself that’s all it would take.
Kurz had been waiting for this, he was familiar with Mason’s fighting style having been subject to it multiple times already. He quickly threw the loop of rope around the brute’s right hand before it could connect and then ducked under the punch, pulling the rope as he did. This caught Mason off balance, turning his weight against him, and caused him to crash into the ground.
“Guess the first round is mine. This isn’t going as you thought, is it?” Kurz said mockingly, as he put some more space between himself and Mason, almost goading him into charging again.
“Stop. Resisting!” Mason snarled, wiping the dirt from his mouth.
“Make me. You’ve been strutting around these parts for too long, thinking you and Finch own this place, along with everyone in it! How’s the dirt taste? That’s where you belong!”
Mason got back to his feet, and realised with a smile that Kurz’s rope was still attached to his arm.
“Not so bright are you! You’re making it easy to do this!” Mason pulled on the rope, intending to drag Kurz into his waiting clutches.
This is what Kurz wanted him to do, again, showing his familiarity with how Mason had fought before. Leaping into the air, once more, he let Mason’s strength work against him, as he added to Kurz’s forward momentum, and his foot connected with Mason’s face. The impact caused Mason to let go of the rope as he staggered backwards, a decisive hit.
“You’re going to pay for that!” Mason screamed out in rage.
“I’ve heard that one before, and I’m still waiting,” Kurz replied idly as he turned his attention to his next move. While he could have humiliated him all day, Kurz wanted to end this, and he knew just the trick to achieve that, and to prove why he should have never been underestimated. He flexed the rope a few more times, while getting it into the desired pattern he needed. To a foe who knew it was coming, it wouldn’t work, being easily countered. He was banking on Mason being too angry to notice an obvious trap, and to his credit, he was correct.
“I’m going to use that rope to hang you with!” Mason charged again, his hands reaching out for Kurz, wanting to break something, or perhaps even everything.
Breath, and slow down. You’re in no trouble here, Kurz told himself. While before, he had waited to the last moment and reacted coolly, this time, his movements had to be perfect, otherwise Mason would have got his hands on him, and that would be that. There was now only seconds to when Mason got a grip of him, a singular second, a microsecond even. Kurz moved his hands quickly, snaking the rope around Mason’s trunk-like arms and back out again.
“Got you!” Mason laughed, as he put his hands on Kurz’s shoulders. “I’m going to squeeze the fight right out of you.
“Oh? How can you do that when you can’t move your arms?” Kurz asked in response, acting unfazed by his predicament.
“What are you talking about? Just watch me move my arms now!” Mason’s smirk grew so it stretched ear to ear. Without realising the danger he faced, Mason went to follow through with his threat, and that was when Kurz let out a breath, and put his own plan into action.
Kurz’s movements were so quick that most of the onlookers only saw the end result, and not anything leading up to it. Rose saw everything, and she was in awe over it.
Kurz weaved the rope smoothly in between Mason’s arms, creating a series of loops. In the space of a second, he’d pulled it tight and the deed was done, Mason’s arms were bound together.
“Wha-What?” Mason stammered as he fell forward, his momentum causing him to fall over. He tried to get up, using only his legs, but Kurz had already taken the liberty of doing the same manoeuvre to them as well, completely immobilising him.
“This fight is over,” Kurz announced, causing a cheer to erupt from everyone watching. “Thank your lucky stars I didn’t do worse to you considering everything you and your boss have done to people across this region.”
“You don’t understand!” Mason pleaded, now completely panicking. Kurz had moved on, going into the crowd who were all congratulating him.
Rose was still listening though, she hadn’t moved from her spot, even as people pushed past her to join in the mini-celebration. She watched as Mason’s calls turned into tears. The way he was presenting himself before, it would have been safe to assume he’d be angry and raging at his defeat, but here, it was the opposite. From watching him, she felt his sorrow, that this wasn’t the turn of events he wanted, but was it really because he lost? That was what she wanted to know.
“Did losing mean that much to you?” She asked Mason as she approached him. She crouched down, so she could better look him in the face.
“Losing? You don’t understand what losing means! I was only trying to save everyone!” Mason said, he stared Rose in the face. “You believe me right? You have to get them out of here otherwise everyone is going to die!”
“What?” Rose stated in surprise. The frank admission and plea had taken her aback.
“They don’t know what he’s going to do now!” Mason’s eyes showed his abject fear.
“Who are you talking about?” Rose thought back to what she’d learned, and remembered the name of the man Kurz hated, Finch. The pieces were falling into place for her. “Is Finch going to do something? Is that what you’re trying to say?”
This question wasn’t answered as a group of people hauled Mason up while laughing to themselves, and carried him away. Rose heard muffled chatter about an old jail but not quite where it was.
“Wait!” She called out after the people, but either they didn’t hear her or they just ignored her. “I need to speak to him properly!” Rose started to try and follow them but lost sight of them as they entered the town.
“Now, we can finally start to turn this place around, make it someplace worth living in…” Kurz said as he stood next to Rose, oblivious to what had just happened between her and Mason.
“He said Finch is planning something,” Rose shared Mason’s admission, hoping that Kurz might decide to act on it.
“What? Is that what Mason told you? It’s probably a trick. You can’t trust anyone that would work for Finch,” Kurz replied. “Thank you though for staying out of the fight. It made up for the embarrassment I suffered earlier.”
“He seemed to be sincere to me…” Rose said, but Kurz waved her response off.
“I thought you were naive, guess I was right. You should be happy that we settled this without anyone dying, instead of worrying about someone who was in the wrong anyway. All he cares about is himself and his boss.” Kurz quickly left, with many more people wanting his attention, leaving Rose on her own, wondering about it all. The situation wasn’t sitting right with her.
What no one knew was that the fight had attracted attention from further away, as a gaudy looking man stood observing with a pair of binoculars, talking into a communication device that was clipped to his ear.
“Yeah, boss. You were right. He got his ass beat by that old guy’s grandkid. Want me to spring him?”
He tried to spot where they’d taken Mason, but the buildings were too dense to make anything useful out.
“Leave him there eh? Sure, no skin off my nose,” he continued, agreeing with the other side of the communication.
“I’ll sort things, don’t you worry about that. They can enjoy themselves tonight, as tomorrow…They’ll be swept away. Eros out.” The man lowered the binoculars and looked down his nose at the town who had no idea of the threat being amassed against them.
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Next Chapter (not finished yet!)
Right, that's your lot for this week.
Till next time...
Keep on writing.
Peter James Martin
Quick Links
Daemon Soul Awakening- Amazon, books2read
