Chapter 9

Yuryi still has the Narrative

Headlights started appearing in the parking lot in front of the building at about 9:40 that evening. The lights in the parking lot and in and around the front of the building were all still on. Vehicle doors could soon be heard being closed, as men began to gather around several large individuals about two hundred feet (60 meters) from the building.

Even in the poor light of the parking lot, I could see that this main group consisted of Knut and four other large men. Those gathering behind them were smaller but most of them were still good sized men. Knut appeared to have brought a considerable number of the city’s less respectable population with him.

I detected one Magic user with them, but his Talent was small, and his Magic was weak. It was possibly strong enough to impress Knut with a few tricks, but not strong enough to do any real Magic. He was whispering to Knut who appeared to ignore what he told him. I turned out all of the lights on the parking lot and in the front of the building then, surprising them greatly and leaving them in the dark.

“They’re probably just on a timer,” one of the lieutenants told the others, loudly enough for my Dragon hearing to register it.

I allowed the leaders to move up to forty-five feet (14 meters) from the building before doing anything further. There had been muttering in the crowd about the empty parking lot, and the lack of anyone visible in the building. Knut and his lieutenants didn’t appear to be worried about that.

“So, we break in. What difference does one more door make? We’re going to bust up everything inside and set the building on fire. Who cares if they are closed,” Knut told the crowd in a loud voice.

I could see that some of them, especially the leaders, had lengths of heavy steel pipes. The others had a variety of weapons, everything from baseball bats to pick handles. Some of them were also carrying containers of liquid ... perhaps fuel for the fires Knut had mentioned.

When their leaders reached the forty-five foot mark, I passed through my wards and immediately transformed into my Dragon form as Kekarnyek at the twenty-five foot-tall level. After giving a Dragon roar in warning, I breathed Dragon Fire over their heads.

My appearance and the roar quickly got their attention. The Dragon Fire caused many to flinch in fear, and those with the containers to quickly abandon them. All of them were in shock at my appearance.

“Would You Challenge Me?” I demanded in a loud Dragon voice, and pointing my claws at some of the dropped cans, I fired a beam of Dragon Magic at each of them. They exploded very spectacularly with a huge blast of fire and burning fuel to burn brightly for some time, illuminating the area around them. The explosion splashed burning fuel on some of those in the surrounding area and set their clothing on fire as well as burning other areas of their bodies. They screamed in agony and fell to the ground. Some of the men tried to help them, but most of them ran for their lives and to get away from the spreading fires. They were no longer interested in attacking the stores in the building, only in staying alive and not burned. This included one of Knut’s lieutenants, leaving him with only three of them and himself to face me.

“Your followers seem to have lost interest in your plans,” I told them in a near Dragon whisper.

“What are you?” one of his lieutenants asked in a weak voice.

“I am a Dragon. I can be forty-feet-tall, like this,” I said and transformed into my full Dragon size.

“Or I can be smaller,” I told them transferring to my twelve-foot-tall size. “And this is certainly tall enough to handle you four,” I added.

“Get him,” Knut shouted and started forward. The other three hesitated just long enough that the separation between them allowed me to fire a blast of Magic that knocked the three of them not only down but out cold. Knut skidded to a stop on becoming aware of this.

“What the hell are you?” he demanded, apparently not remembering that his lieutenant had just asked the same question.

“Among other things, I am a Dragon,” I told him with a Dragon smile showing many of my long sharp teeth.

“However, this is no longer business, this is now personal. You were warned to stay away from Yvonne and her daughters, so you chose to attack me instead. That makes it personal,” I told him before transforming back to my Human self but not as I usually appear.

Knut still held a three foot (0.9 meter) length of thick-walled steel pipe. Instead of appearing as I am now, I appeared using a glamour of how one of the Varangian Guards that I knew looked carrying a broad-bladed Dane axe and wearing chain mail. The Dane axe was the favored weapon of the Guards. Knut blanched on seeing me this way.

“I have seen and been involved in a lot of combat situations over my long life. How much have you seen or been involved in? Were you in the military, perhaps?” I asked.

“I wasn’t about to join the army and be ordered around like some dumb-ass,” he replied.

“That’s unfortunate for you,” I said before changing the glamour that I was using to one of those whom I had served with on the various expeditions that I had accompanied the Portuguese on. This individual was dressed more like a pirate than a sailor of the time and was carrying a long Japanese Katana in his hand. The Japanese have always made good swords and knives. Knut blanched again on seeing this.

“This is personal,” I reminded him and dropped the previous glamour to appear as myself. “I was born in the North Caucasus Mountains to the Adyghe, a proud and powerful people. They always carried their daggers, as they had many disputes and quarrels even among themselves. Therefore, let us settle this with our knives. Have you a knife?” I asked, as I appeared as myself holding a Japanese Tanto with a narrow razor sharp blade a foot long (30 cm). Knut only smiled at this and produced a large thick Bowie type knife. He immediately charged toward me to try to stab me, screaming, “I’ll kill you, you son of a bitch.”

Easily moving aside, I slashed out using the edge of the Tanto to cut him along his left arm. He screamed in surprise that I was no longer where I had been before noting the cut along his arm and pulling back from me.

“Knut ... Knut, you’ll need to do better than that,” I admonished him. This seemed to infuriate him even more. He made several more attempts to stab me, but I always managed to evade his attacks. One would have thought that he was more used to using a foil than a knife the way he acted. Eventually, he started to slash rather than stab, seeming to have finally discovered the edge of the blade, but by then, he was bleeding from a number of places where I had cut him. He backed off after a number of slashes to catch his breath. He was sweating heavily by then as well as bleeding, so the various cuts probably stung quite a bit.

“You think you are so smart scaring away those who came with me to the front of the building. I sent men to the back as well, and they are probably already inside and destroying the entire back of the building,” he told me with a wicked smile.

“No, Knut, I have wards around the entire building. Those on the back are particularly nasty, so any of your people back there are in serious trouble,” I told him with a smile. I didn’t bother to mention that Paul was also back there in case they should find a way in. Knut didn’t take this news well at all and charged forward again slashing with the knife.

It did him little good, as I fended his slashes off and waited for the opening that I wanted. I soon spotted it, as he grew tired and even more frustrated. Slipping the Tanto inside his guard, I sliced him all of the way across his belly. He was totally surprised by this and dropped his guard, and on the return stroke, I sliced open his throat. He fell to the ground as the knife slipped from his fingers. I looked down at his dying form.

“I have spent decades in combat against some of the best nomads and killers of the time. How could you imagine that you could defeat me?” I asked, as he died.

This, however, presented a problem. I now had a dead body, and the three knocked out lieutenants plus the others who had been burned by the exploding fuel cans and the fires. There was at least a partial solution for this. After moving the lieutenants further back from their leader, I returned to Kekarnyek at the twenty-five-foot-tall level, and breathed Dragon Fire on Knut’s body long enough that even his bones were turned to ash. A wind had sprung up while we had fought, and it blew the ashes away in short order.

I would leave the parking lot strewn with the things the mob had carried along with a number of places where the fuel cans had exploded and burned, plus those who were burned and were still there in addition to the three knocked out lieutenants. There were still most of their vehicles parked there also. Let the police try to figure out what had happened. I was fairly sure they would be along shortly.

Returning to the building, I advise Paul of what had happened. Following advising him and the others to remain completely out of sight, I transferred back to the house and a very worried Yvonne.

“Are you alright?” she asked in a worried voice, as she moved toward me when I appeared in the small parlor at the house.

“Yes, I’m fine, sweetie. Knut seemed to know very little about knife fighting. He was more of a brawler and used to using his size, weight, and his fists to settle arguments, or to get his way,” I told her while she checked to see if I was cut or bleeding. Finding nothing wrong, she fell into my arms, and I hugged and kissed her for several minutes.

“I need to change clothes. The police are sure to call about what happened at the building tonight, and I’ll need to return there to talk to them,” I told her.

“What about supper?” she asked. “You haven’t eaten yet,” she added.

“Charlie made me a large meal earlier, but you are right, after changing into my Dragon form a couple of times tonight, I could definitely eat again,” I told her.

“There is food in the warming oven. Go change, and then you can eat,” she told me.

It wasn’t more than a half hour after arriving home that my cell phone rang. I had changed by then and was seated at the table in the breakfast room.

“Yuryi,” I answered after the second ring.

“Mr. Lawristan, this is Captain Struzik of the Duluth Police Department. There was an incident in front of your building this evening, and we would like you to come to the building and speak with us about what happened,” the voice on the phone told me after identifying himself.