Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

and everyone turned to look as Kit SummerIsle came striding through the crowd. Valentine nodded thoughtfully, and lifted his sword, but made no move to pick up his gun. He
    could have anytime, and everyone knew it, but he was having far too much fun. He did so love to tease his enemies. He bowed lightly as Kid Death came to a halt before him, sword in hand.
    "Typical," said the SummerIsle. "I take my eye off the ball for a few moments, and everything goes to hell. Come on, Wolfe. Let's do it. You know you want to."
    "Why not?" said Valentine easily. "Always time for a little pleasure before business."
    They came together in a flurry of flashing blades and stamping feet, both showing their teeth in smiles that had no true humor in them. Again the fight was fast and furious, but Kit had had time to see Finlay's mistake, and kept his distance. Since running the Wolfe through clearly didn't work. Kid Death concentrated on whittling away at his opponent, cutting and slicing at the Wolfe's pale flesh, but the wounds sealed themselves as fast as they were inflicted, and if Valentine felt any pain it didn't bother him in the least. Kit parried Valentine's blows with almost arrogant skill and ease, but he couldn't help noticing that the attacks were coming faster and stronger all the time.
    Almost inhumanly fast. Kit held his ground anyway. He knew there was nowhere to go. His calm killer's mind assessed the situation logically. He couldn't hurt or harm the Wolfe, so that just left… He grinned suddenly, chose the time and angle of blow carefully, and cut off Valentine's sword arm, right at the elbow, with a tremendous double-handed swing that drew admiring cries from the crowd. The severed arm fell to the floor, still clutching the sword.
    For a moment, no one moved. Valentine looked down at his severed arm, as the relaxing fingers let go of the swordhilt. A few drops of blood fell from the stump of his arm, and then stopped. And then Valentine laughed softly, a
    terribly sane and confident laugh, and four fingers and a thumb thrust out of the great wound at his elbow. A hand followed, and then the forearm, and in a moment Valentine was whole again. He stooped down and picked up his sword, kicked aside the severed arm, and gestured for Kit to come at him again. Kid Death raised his sword, thinking hard.
    But even as their swords reached out to touch again, the Elves hit Valentine with everything they had. As long as Robert and Constance were in danger from Valentine, they hadn't dared start anything, but now that his concentration seemed wholly on Kid Death, Crow Jane gave a telepathic signal, and a psistorm of violent energies hit Valentine from a dozen different directions at once. One polter grabbed the gun and whisked it away, while six others did their best to tear Valentine apart. Psychokinetic flames sprang up around him, burning so fiercely everyone else had to back away. Telepaths probed and picked at the locked doors of his mind. Valentine stood his ground, nanotech rebuilding his body faster than it could be destroyed, and laughed.
    Robert and Constance stood their ground too, though voices and clutching hands tried to persuade them to flee. The whole Empire was watching, and the new King and Queen couldn't be seen to be weak.
    And when the psistorm finally collapsed, the Elves shattered and exhausted, and the last flames died away, Valentine Wolfe was still standing there, apparently untouched. He stopped laughing, and looked unhurriedly around him. "Everybody finished? Everybody had their turn? Good. Now that you all know I'm unstoppable, unkillable, and quite possibly immortal, who could be a more sensible choice as Emperor? You know in your hearts that I'm what you really need. What you deserve." He turned slowly to face Robert and Constance. "Now," he said, almost greedily. "Time to play…"
    Kit SummerIsle started forward again, and Valentine slapped him aside with one sweep of his arm, then advanced on the grim-faced but unmoving Robert. And then Daniel Wolfe appeared out of nowhere, teleporting in to stand beside his brother. Valentine glared at him. "What the hell are you doing here? I don't need any help, from you or Shub. This is my business. Don't you dare interfere."
    Daniel ignored him, looking out at the speechless crowd. "I speak for Shub," he said, in a voice that was not entirely his own. "The war between the AIs and Humanity is now over. The AIs have called off all their forces and recalled