As I took my first step, a dark shape fell from the ceiling. A leather-clad woman with an explosion of blonde hair landed on Adler’s back, sending him sprawling to the floor. The Farfalla had made her play. I assumed she had been prevented from acting the same as me. She backflipped away landing in a crouch. Adler struggled to his feet, his face a mask of rage. He turned toward the Italian cat burglar as his hands awoke with power.

“This doesn’t concern you bitch,” he spit. He reared back with his right hand as if to throw and there was a snap and crack in the air. The Farfalla used a whip to seize Adler by the right wrist. He bellowed in rage and pain. His bellow became a shout as his entire right arm became an inferno. The fire spread to the whip wrapped around his wrist and quickly spread toward the Farfalla. The leather, and presumably magic, whip quickly turned to ash and the cat burglar abandoned it, leaping behind some crates. The Sleeper let loose with a thundering lightning attack. Unlike the smaller chains of electricity that he had used to torture Teddy, these were full-on bolts of destruction. Large wooden boxes exploded into flaming splinters as Adler tracked the Farfalla across the warehouse floor with his magic attacks. The cat burglar displayed otherworldly agility as she sprung from cover to cover, keeping just ahead of the explosions. She made no move to attack, however, and I imagined that she was not suited to a standup fight. We had gotten as much help as she was able to give. Adler was distracted from his attacks as the second person made her move.

Tina walked purposely toward the Sleeper with her arm raised and her palm out. She screamed out the magic phase that he had only just taught her, and the air in front of her exploded in flames. The fire raced toward the lightning wielding sorcerer. Adler howled in pain as the flames licked against his skin, but the inferno was quickly blocked by a wall of force. Tina added a second hand and another blast of flame issued forth. The quickly changing temperatures created a strong breeze that whipped through her auburn locks exposing her face etched with a scowl. The superheated air swirled around her, rippling her blouse and exposing her bare legs. Her swirling fireball tattoo glowed brightly and swirled with power. She looked like a vengeful goddess as she poured fire into Adler, her terrible flames bathing her face in a soft red glow.

But the Sleeper caught and contained her second blast as easily as the first. Tina’s flames washed against an invisible wall of force. Adler bent the walls into a single round shape and turned the fire back on itself. He chuckled as Tina exhausted herself, unused to channeling magical force. Her flames faltered and then cut off abruptly as she fell to a knee gasping for breath. Adler waved a dismissive backhand at her and she was slapped aside into a row of lockers where she lay unmoving.

“Fools!” he yelled to no one in particular. “You cannot defeat me! You are just delaying the inevitable.”

It was now my turn to take a swing at the ol’ pinata. I had changed the angle of my approach so that I was coming up on Adler from his blindside as he faced Tina. Remembering how easily he had disarmed me, I sheathed my knife, opting for my fists. I might only get one shot at this. Moving slowly at first, I broke into a jog as I got closer. The Sleeper noticed me as I came into his peripheral vision. A look of shock came onto his face and he clapped his hands together. I felt the air move as a ball of force exploded outward from him, but as the magic came into contact with me, it winked out of existence. I savored the moment as his look of shock turned to fear as I continued to close the distance in spite of his defensive spell.

There had been several “feel good” moments in my life. The swell of pride I felt starting my first college football game. The sheer joy I experienced upon kissing Sarah at our wedding, our lives stretched out before us in unlimited possibility. The awe and wonder of tiny Emma reflexively squeezing my fingers with her perfect little hand, moments after being born. But, they all took a back seat to the beer-can crushing “FUCK YOU” I felt as I landed a flush four knuckles on Adler’s button. My running, Texas Barroom Haymaker was the type of punch that your relatives feel in their bones and I was sure that this pasty motherfucker was either knocked out or dead.

My feel-good moment was short-lived. I did get the satisfaction of seeing Adler take a few fumbling steps back from my blow. Then his entire body glowed a dull pink color with a surge of energy from the tree and he straightened. “Nice punch,” he muttered as he rubbed his jaw.

I shuffled forward in a boxing gate intending to continue pummeling him. As I got into clobbering range again, he raised both arms to shoulder height and floated off the ground. I jumped trying to catch his feet, but I was too slow. It was an almost laughably simple solution to his problem of not wanting to get punched. If one could fly, at least. I almost tipped my hat.

Adler giggled as he rose into the air and tutted at me as I missed his feet. He contemptuously flicked a small fireball at me. It was less to hurt me and more to see what would happen. The flames evaporated as they came into contact with me. The Sleeper smiled ruefully. “Total immunity. Not even your father was totally immune. Humanities natural mutation toward survival. A shame you have to die, we could have worked together.” He looked genuinely regretful. I looked around on the floor for Teddy’s discarded pistol.

Adler gracefully sailed slowly through the air away from me. It was less flying and more a type of levitation. He alighted several meters away and sighed. “I suppose we will have to do this the hard way”, he admitted. I couldn’t find Teddy’s Rhino with my frantic searching. It must have slid under a shelving unit or behind a crate. Adler raised his arms palms up and things around the room began to shudder before rising into the air. I dodged the first crate and it smashed into a wall behind me. Out of options and out of ideas, I charged. I made it three whole steps before a crowbar slammed into my back from behind sending me sprawling to the floor. I tried to roll, but I landed awkwardly and was immediately hit in the side with a box full of something heavy.

I struggled to my feet as Adler’s laughter echoed through the empty space. His regret seemed short-lived and he was back to enjoying himself. Three more crates rocketed toward me. I spun out of the path of the first and took a glancing blow from the second. The third however took me in the back of the legs and sent me back to the grimy warehouse floor. This set off a fresh bout of laughter that quickly died out.

“Enough of this,” he waved a hand and a box of saw blades fell off a shelf, spilling its contents. “Agent Ruthersford’s lesson was not misplaced,” Adler announced. “I have much work to do, and those poor volunteers won’t be sticking themselves.” He patted at his waistband and frowned. He touched the small of his back and then checked the pockets of his robe.

“Looking for this?” came a voice from the shadows. The Farfalla slinked forward from behind a shelf, holding the Dagger of Jilayia.

Adler howled with rage. “Bitch! That’s mine!” Three sawblades rose from the ground and sailed toward the leather-clad woman almost faster than I could follow. She gracefully pirouetted to her left and bent her head to the right, touching her ear to her shoulder. The three blades whistled by her, impacting against the wall. She pouted to herself as a tuft of her blond hair gently floated to the floor. Then she grinned at the madman. “I stole it, lealmente. It’s mine.”

Adler shrieked inhumanly and summoned a huge fireball into his hand, bigger than any I had seen. The Farfalla's panic-stricken eyes bulged at the sight.

“Cash, catch!” she yelled before tossing the dagger toward me and backflipping away from the incoming meteor of flame.

I had not been idle during their banter. I closed almost into striking distance. Time slowed down as the dagger spun through the air and several things all seemed to happen at nearly the same time. First, the entire side of the warehouse where the Farfalla had been standing exploded like a bomb went off. Sticky rivers of fire splashed away from the impact zone and quickly set anything they touched aflame. Second, Adler flailed a glowing hand at the dagger as it sailed through the air toward me. The dagger’s pommel flared with a white glow and it continued to slowly spin toward me uninterrupted. The last thing was Adler scowling at me and summoning another saw blade from the floor. He seemed to be unaffected by my time power, if that’s what it was, and was acting only slightly slower than me. The blade spun to life and began moving toward me. I was in a real bind. I couldn’t catch the dagger and avoid the razor-edged disk spinning toward me. It slowly dawned on me that I wasn’t going to avoid it at all. It was just too close and moving too fast. The Sleeper seemed to grasp this at the same time as his enraged countenance split into an evil grin. Just as quickly, the grin turned into a questioning glance over my left shoulder as I prepared to die.

Time snapped back into normal speed with a whip crack. The Dagger of Jilayia slapped into my waiting hand, pommel first. I had it in a perfect ice pick grip. Something struck me violently from behind sending me sprawling to the floor for the third time in as many minutes. More importantly, whatever had stuck me pushed me out of the path of the spinning saw blade and toward the now concerned looking mage. This time I was able to turn my fall into a roll, closing the last few feet between my adversary and myself. I struck out with a backhanded stab directly into Adler’s chest. The dagger found no resistance, burying itself to the hilt. Just like Northcutt, Adler immediately slumped to the ground. He went from flinging saw blades and fireballs to looking several hours dead in a single heartbeat. Such was the terrible power of the dagger, whose ruby adornment blazed angrily to life.

I looked back behind me to see my partner, barely able to stand, the saw blade embedded several inches into his right shoulder and collarbone. He had that dumb grin on his face as he slowly sank to his knees. Blood quickly seeped out over his tactical vest and waistcoat.

“Be a good lad,” my partner croaked through gritted, bloody teeth. “And set those nice folks free.” He swallowed painfully. “Before they all burn to death.” His eyes rolled back in his head and his mask of pain relaxed as he lost consciousness.

Agent Benjamin Theodore Ruthersford the Third slumped over on his side unmoving. Blood poured from him out onto the floor. Something expensive and important exploded behind me and I became aware this warehouse was quickly turning into an inferno.

How many fucks was I up to?