Page 95 of Elemasters

Welcome to Hell

Chris was on Qin Shi Huang’s ass faster than The Flash, almost faster than Dustin could follow.

With an intense burst of flame, Chris went soaring across the room, crashing his knee into the emperor’s stone face with full jet boosted fury. The stone emperor slid backwards somewhat, but otherwise seemed unfazed, swinging his impossibly long ceremonial blade with the full intent to cleave Chris in two.

Of course, Chris just sidestepped it with ease like he was on the basketball court, bouncing on his toes and punching out blazing fireballs in retort, rattling Qin Shi Huang with blast after blast. Seeing this display finally shook Dustin and the others out of their impressed stupor, rushing forward to help him out before the emperor could rebound.

Qin Shi Huang surged forward through Chris’s fiery onslaught, stone armor smoking and glowing orange from the heat, but completely undeterred from his warpath. Rather than swinging the sword again, this time he thrust it forward, firing a devastating blast of lightning that arced out in every direction, targeting each Elemaster like a heat seeking missile.

“Shit!” Bailey squealed, raising a wall of rock in front of herself and covering her head with her arms as the lightning collided with it, exploding into a cloud of dust and rubble. When the dust cleared, she was lying there motionless; breathing, but otherwise completely still.

“BAILS!” Chloe screamed as her metal armor encased her, though she was too distracted to continue her attempt to conduct and redirect the blast. It hit her squarely in the chest, ripping through her metallic body with enough force to send her careening through the air. She collided with James with a sickening clank, just as he rolled out of the path of the bolt meant for him.

Dustin winced at the sound, but he knew he couldn’t afford to lose focus.

As the searing hot lightning approached him, he forced the rain outside to become a torrent powerful enough to shatter the high window in the corner. As the water poured through, he gathered it into a protective cylinder around himself and Chris, forcing them back-to-back as the lightning vaporized the water, but left them unscathed.

The room was thick with steam now, but Dustin and Chris could still see each other.

Still make eye contact.

Still wordlessly communicate exactly what they needed to do next; give this asshole hell, until the others could rally.

Lightning crackled and a twisting gust of wind cleared the steam as Qin Shi Huang charged through with a wide swing of his sword, ready to end his bloodline then and there… but the twins weren’t there.

He studied the empty space for a moment, his stone body tense and at the ready for a surprise attack from any direction.

Well, any direction but up, apparently.

Dustin was overhead, perched like a ninja on a surprisingly sturdy icicle he’d formed on the ceiling. With a steady exhale of breath, the steam still hanging in the air rapidly condensed around the emperor, cooling into ice that completely prevented him from moving.

"AS WE PROCEED…" Chris's voice called out theatrically from elsewhere in the shrouded room, the only hint to his whereabouts being a muted glow of firelight in the distance, "TO GIVE YOU WHAT YOU NEED!"

With that, he launched forward from his hidden spot behind the pentagram altar, wreathed in flame like a human cannonball.

He collided with Qin Shi Huang at full speed, shattering the ice and sending him reeling. But before the emperor could retaliate, Chris bolted, disappearing into the steam again… and then slammed into him from another direction. He did this time and again, volleying the so-called god-emperor around like a pinball.

“Enough of this foolishness!”

As Chris went for another blow, Qin Shi Huang’s massive stone hand caught him by the throat, lifting him high into the air. Dustin didn’t waste a second though, detaching his icicle from the ceiling and sending it crashing down on top of them, forcing the emperor to drop Chris as he was crushed beneath its weight.

After losing his perch, Dustin’s landing wasn’t exactly graceful; he found himself lying right next to Chris alongside the shards of shattered ice. But at least they were both safe.

“Bro,” Chris coughed, smirking as he wiped blood from his lip, “that fucking RIPPED,”

Dustin, exhausted, still in disbelief that they even pulled that shit off… laughed.

“Ow. Damn it that hurt my ribs! But yeah, it was pretty fucking sick,”

The ground shook as Qin Shi Huang stood back up, his stone armor and skin cracked, revealing coursing electricity beneath it all.

“Ignorant, vainglorious fools,” he seethed, sword still clenched tightly in his hands. Dustin and Chris tried to scramble to their feet, but an oppressive gust of wind pinned them down again immediately, “you think this pathetic effort will be enough to stop me? That one who commands power such as this, would be extinguished by a childish attempt at stratagem?”

“Honestly? Nah,” Chris gasped as the wind battered them. Qin Shi Huang marched over to them, raising his enormous foot and preparing to stomp Chris into oblivion… but he couldn’t bring his foot down.

Not with Bailey weakly but willfully raising her arm, manipulating the very body he’d crafted for himself. Her body trembled, as her eyes burned with intense yellow light; controlling the emperor’s body directly clearly was taking everything she had.

“Get the fuck away from my boys, dickhead!”