Chapter 4

Rick Daffodil

It was all Marduk’s idea.

Jason took a few necessary things and Marduk took a laptop with all his research files inside. They took out the big van in Jason’s garage and used the car to pull it. Marduk took the knocked-out man into the van.

They were now on the way to Dover, where they could take a ship to Paris. Marduk knew a professor who was also interested in supernatural powers in Paris. Marduk wanted to meet that professor and to ask him some questions about Yuri Crueza.

A blue light spot appeared on Marduk’s hand. Marduk guided the spot to fly into the man’s body. The man woke up and saw Marduk.

“You are Marduk River!” He gasped.

“Do I know you?” Marduk didn’t know the man in front of him.

“I’m Bax Blue,” said the man, his voice shaking. “I’m the brother of Thomas Blue.”

“You are the brother of Tom?” Marduk was surprised. Thomas Blue was Marduk’s guide in Turkey when Marduk wanted to visit the ancient Greek ruins three years ago. This guide died in a bomb attack in Iraq just a year ago.

“Yes,” Bax nodded. “But I left my home twelve years ago. I met Thomas before he died. He talked about you.”

“How do you know he is talking about me?” Marduk felt curious.

“Magic,” Bax said shortly. “I am taking orders from Rick Daffodil. He taught me magic.”

“Who is Rick Daffodil?” asked Marduk.

“He is the leader of the magicians who use the power of Bi-an,” answered Bax.

“Oh,” said Marduk. “So he is from China?”

“I don’t know.” Bax shook his head.

“Where is he now?” Marduk asked curiously.

“In Paris,” Bax smiled. “I think you are going there. Oh, how did you get magic powers?”

“I read the Scroll of Potential,” Marduk grinned.

“I beg your pardon?!” Bax looked terrified.

“I found it,” Marduk shrugged. “I took it with us, look.” He pulled the scroll out of the air by magic and showed it to Bax.

“Yuri Crueza is looking for this,” Bax whispered nervously.

“You know Yuri Crueza,” Marduk was surprised.

“Yes,” Bax nodded again. “This scroll has the mighty power to wake up many ancient monsters and it also keeps an ancient secret. Crueza wants it.”

“He is always greedy,” Marduk sighed. “Hold on, why did you come to my house?”

“I felt someone using the power of the scroll,” Bax answered.

“Oh,” Marduk nodded. That made sense.

“I need to warn you,” Bax whispered. “The power the scroll gave you might not be very strong, but dangerous. Your researches are correct. There are truly two great powers in the universe. We used them to gain great power among the humans, and we release these powers by the words and languages of some ancient civilizations.”

“I see,” Marduk smiled. “But can you use modern Chinese to do that?”

“Yes,” Bax said, cheerfully. “Technically, the modern Chinese can’t have the same effect. But because of a weird reason, the modern Chinese is also useful. The power you now have is borrowed from one of the nine sons of the Chinese lung – Pu-lao. You can keep this power forever.”

“I’m glad that I can speak Zhong-Wen (Chinese),” Marduk laughed. “Dan-shi zhe kong-pa hai-bu-gou (But I’m afraid this is still not enough).”

“Your Chinese is good,” said Bax. “But it’s not clear enough. You must speak every word clearly. Maybe you can use the force of your mind to write the Chinese words down to control your powers. Look, it’s just like this.” As he spoke, two white Chinese characters  appeared in the air.

打开 (Open)

A small luggage behind Marduk unzipped.

“It’s time for you to try,” said Bax with a grin on his face.

“I’ll just choose an easy one,” Marduk shrugged. “Chinese words are had to write.”

Two green Chinese characters appeared in the air.

火苗

A flash of flame flew out from Marduk’s finger and vanished.

“Good,” Bax clapped his hands. “This is actually really tough for beginners.”

Suddenly, the car stopped. Marduk looked out and saw the white cliff outside. “Oh, we are in Dover. I think Jason is coming.”

Marduk was right. Jason walked to the door of the van and opened it. “We both have a passport to France. But that man hasn’t… Hey, you are awake!”

“Jason, this guy can be trusted,” said Marduk. “He is also trying to stop Yuri Crueza. Crueza is looking for the scroll.”

“Sorry for attacking you,” Bax smiled palely. “I’m just doing the things I need to do.”

“Do you have a passport?” Jason asked Bax.

“I don’t need one,” Bax grinned.

Soon Jason figured out why Bax didn’t need a passport. Bax pointed his stick at the guard who was checking the passports and the man agreed to let him pass.

“I don’t think he should do that,” Jason whispered to Marduk.

“I don’t like that, either,” Marduk said. “But does he have any other way to pass it?”

Jason shook his head.

The van drove slowly into the ferry with a car pulling it.

“I’ve never been on a ferry before,” Bax told the others when they walked out of their van and climbed the steps to the board. “I travelled by the Chuan-son-dong.”

“What’s that?” Jason was naturally curious.

“It is a tube of energy that can transport people from one place to another,” Bax explained patiently. “Magicians can feel it when someone opens a Chuan-song-dong near him.”

“But sometimes if a magician is powerful enough, he can open a Chuan-song-dong without being noticed,” said a voice near them.

Marduk turned back and saw a man with a pure white cloak and a black hat walking to them. This man was holding a golden stick with thousands of Chinese words on it.

“Who are you?” Jason was frightened.

“He is Rick Daffodil,” said Bax.

“Who is Rick Daffodil?” Jason asked.

“Wait,” Marduk raised his hand. He saw another man walking to them. He had seen this man in Dover. “There is a man following us.”

The man following them raised his hand. But before he could do anything, Rick Daffodil raised his stick and Chinese words flew to the man.

“You are always faster, Rick Daffodil,” the man cried. “But I’m still better than you.” A serpent appeared in the man’s hand and swallowed the words. The other people on the board screamed and started running away.

“I don’t think so, Miles. Zha-kai (explode),” Rick waves his stick and the serpent exploded.

“Fu-yuan (reform),” the man called Miles shouted. The exploded serpent reformed into an arrow and flew to Rick.

“Dun-pai (shield),” a shield appeared in front of Rick and stopped the arrow. Miles bellowed something and the whole room burst into flames.

“Kai-qi (open), Chuan-song-dong,” Rick bellowed. A flash of white light almost blinded Jason.

To be continued ...