Spirit Blood: Genesis of War

Makaylen, Davien and Benthalas barged into the main chamber expecting an onslaught of soldiers ready to battle, but instead found only an eerily quiet room.

“What are we supposed to be doing again?” Davien whispered in wonderment.

“We were going to hunt,” Makaylen answered looking up to a small balcony to the right of them where Simon was standing in full battle armor, “but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.”

Following Makaylen’s gaze, Davien and Ben spotted Simon looking smugly down at them. His shining green armor bore the markings of encircling vines wrapping around while the helmet was decorated to resemble a dragon with the gold sculpting of a body, wings and tail. In his right hand he held a specially made vibro-lance of his own design. Made with Elvin craftsmanship, the lance had a three foot re-curved blade at the end of a seven foot shaft made of special alloys and colored to match his own green armor.

“I’m sorry gentlemen,” Simon announced calmly. “Did you expect to be able to sneak in on me? Well, I’m afraid you are not the only one who can sense a trap Makaylen. I don’t need those lifeless drones to fight my battles.”

The three men below tried to gather their thoughts knowing this was not to be an easy fight. Simon lowered his head smiling as if he’d been told a mildly amusing joke. He slowly began to walk towards the descending staircase ringing out the sound of clanking metal each time his armored feet hit the ground.

“You blew it Makaylen. You blew the one chance I had an inkling of a heart to give you,” Simon said again lowering his head and grinning.

“What have you done Simon?” Makaylen asked, highly disappointed with his old friend.

Simon halted in his steps. With fury he pounded his vibro-lance once on the ground beside him.

“Nothing!” Simon yelled losing his calm composure. “I’ve done nothing! It’s what you have done Makaylen!” Simon pointed an accusing finger down at Makaylen. “You’re the reason why so many people are going to die! You and you alone have sealed their fate!”

Simon stopped himself from losing any more control over his emotions as he lowered his head, only this time there was no grin. He shook his head back and forth while still looking down. With a sigh he raised his head to peer down at the three readied men again. The dead silence was interrupted only by the slight chuckle Simon gave as he shook his head back and forth. Slowly he continued his descent down the stairs.

“Everything was fine until you got tricky and found a way of escape,” Simon calmly said to his friend as he neared the bottom of the staircase. “Now nothing can be done to save yourself, your friends, the people of this kingdom or even the kingdom itself. You, my friend, have sealed their fate once and for all.”

With a loud clang Simon reached the bottom of the stairs standing only feet away from Makaylen and the two. He banged his lance on the ground once again as he stared fervently back at Makaylen’s dead stare.

“How did you do it anyway, Makaylen? How did you know I would set you up?” Simon asked only half curious and wanting more to stall the ensuing fight than hear the answer.

Makaylen could tell Simon was only stalling in order to plan his method of attack, but he obliged him with an answer anyway.

“Just a gift from someone greater than I, I guess,” Makaylen told him proudly.

“I thought you’d surely come up with something better than that drivel,” Simon coldly retorted.

“And I thought you were more of a man than you’ve proved yourself to be,” Makaylen answered back.

With an increasing rage flaring inside of him, Simon snapped, “Then I guess we were both fooled, weren’t we?”

Makaylen tired of this needless banter with Simon and turned to Davien and Ben.

“I have to find the wizard. You two must deal with him,” Makaylen whispered while motioning towards Simon.

Ben and Davien exchanged glances both confused with Makaylen’s request. Surely he wasn’t going to leave them alone to fight someone he himself knew would be tough to beat. The heated words between the two old friends sounded more like it was leading up to their fight, not just a way to annoy one another before Makaylen left to fight someone else. Regardless of the confused, yet compliant, faces he received from Ben and Davien, Makaylen started hurriedly towards a corridor to the left which lead to the rear wing of the castle. Simon immediately flipped down the face guard of his helmet and leapt in front of Makaylen while spinning his lance in his hand.

“I cannot let you pass Makaylen,” Simon warned menacingly.

As soon as Simon had leapt in the air to confront Makaylen, Davien drew both of his tech-pistols and Ben drew his bow back ready to strike.

“You have a choice Simon,” Makaylen said, eyeing his enemy. “You can either try and stop me and get shot down in the process or you can deal with them and have a fighting chance.” Makaylen gestured to his friends before asking, “What will it be Simon?”

Simon only moved his eyes as he evaluated his two choices. Both the elf and the human had the drop on him, not to mention that Makaylen wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Again Simon lowered his head with a slight chuckle.

“I was trying to spare you Mak,” Simon said looking back up into Makaylen’s face. “But since you insist on signing your death warrant day in and day out…go ahead and be my guest.” He moved out of Makaylen’s way and gestured with his hand towards the corridor, “Go. Go and find out just what lies beyond those doors while I dispatch your foolish friends.”

Makaylen wasted no time in making for the corridor and ultimately for the wizard. Davien and Ben never lowered their weapons and now stood even more ready for a fight.

“Well, I guess we’re going to have a party after all. Just the three of us,” Simon taunted from behind his face guard while he took a defensive and well trained fighting stance with his oversized lance. After moments of no one moving, Simon spoke up again in a tone of boredom, “We aren’t getting anywhere like this gentlemen.”

“Then why don’t you do something about it Lean, Mean and Green?” Davien taunted back keeping his eyes on Simon’s shoulders for any movement.

“Okay,” Simon said wildly.

Simon immediately leapt at them leaving them only enough time to release their shots which were easily deflected and dodged. Simon moved in, sweeping with his lance, and knocked Ben’s bow and Davien’s tech-pistols out of their hands. With the same speed and deadly precision, Simon spun his feet low taking both men off theirs and slamming hard to the ground. Simon attempted to stab both men with his lance, but Ben rolled one way and Davien the other both quickly getting back to their feet and drawing their swords. The three stood off with one another with the only sound being their excited breaths and the hum of both Simon’s and Davien’s vibro-weapons.

“You two do not stand a chance! I have fought both men and elves before and I’ve never lost a fight,” Simon bellowed.

As much as both Ben and Davien would have liked to debate Simon’s words, Simon had already moved trying again to disarm his opponents by a sweeping of his lance. His speed was incredible, but Ben and Davien reacted, thinking this may be Simon’s plan of action, and were able to deflect his strike. However, Simon came back and butted Davien in the temple with the butt of his shaft. Davien fell back to the ground holding his aching head. All he could see was darkness and stars as he tried to focus once again and feel around for his sword on the ground. Meanwhile, Simon aimed for Ben’s head and was met with a parried shot instead.

“Some great evil gives you strength!” Ben commented while standing locked, blade to shaft with Simon.

Both men tried with all their strength to knock the other man back with Simon finally being the victor. Ben fell to the floor, but rolled back quickly into a defensive crouch.

“Not anymore than usual,” Simon offered as he spun to parry an attack from the now risen Davien.

“Great! Now he’s a comedian,” Ben said as he leapt towards Simon only to be batted away.

Lockefren kicked the drone guard in the face with a strong roundhouse kick and then, in the same motion, dropped down on one knee and fired a pair of arrows dropping two more drones making their way towards her from the narrow corridor leading to the main power generator.

“Hurry Bildan!” She yelled as she loosed two more arrows. “There’s more coming and I’m running low on arrows!”

Bildan was high above her perched on a narrow part of the generator placing a charge explosive onto the main coupling.

“Just a little longer lass. This is much more delicate than you may like to think,” Bildan answered back

to her.

He looked down just long enough to see Lockefren press her back flat against the generator just as a hail of spike shots tore through the room. Bildan’s eyes bugged as he quickly turned his attention back to the explosive finding some needed speed this time.

Lockefren peeked her head around the corner of the generator and fired a complicated three arrow shot towards the drones that were rushing down the corridor to reach her and Bildan. With her Elvin expertise and keen eye she was able to drop twice as many drones than arrows loosed. Reaching back for another arrow she felt that she only had one left.

“Bildan, I’m on my last one! Get done!” She ordered with panic rising in her voice. “I’ve got to make this one count,” she whispered to herself taking aim with her last arrow.

Closing her eyes she summoned, deep down into her spirit, the natural power her people possessed by their ancient race. She shot her eyes open and released the arrow which had now grown in size and lit up ablaze as it tore down the corridor. Before reaching the drones the arrow split into several other fire tipped arrows lighting the hall with flecks of orange and red and finally landing into several targets and catching the clothes, of yet others, on fire. Again she took cover against the side of the generator withdrawing her sword. With a twist of the handle she brought the vibro function to life and her sword began to hum. She closed her eyes with one last prayer before turning to face her oncoming attackers. Her vibro-shield activated giving her extra protection and, with the sharp blade in the center of it, another weapon.

The drones filed into the room with retractable swords on their arms and large claws around their fists emptily slashing at her. Their imprecise and clumsy form was easily parried and maneuvered around, but the onslaught was beginning to wear her down. One drone came in on her too quickly for her to see until

he was right before her, and using another drone for his shield, was able to plant a straight right kick into her diaphragm. As she fell down to her back, gasping for breath, she was still able to defeat two other drones standing in her vicinity. As the one brave drone came down upon her for the kill shot, he was blown to one side by Bildan who was now standing on the ground in front of the generator holding a smoking dwarf made shotgun. He pointed his gun at the few fighting drones in front of him and fired spraying the floor with a chalky white substance.

“We dwarves may not use magic like you elves do,” Bildan said helping Lockefren to her feet, “but we do have our own means of improvising.”

“That’s great,” Lockefren commented as she stood up holding her stomach where she’d been kicked.

Looking up towards the corridor, they were met with the lifeless faces of twenty five more drones ready to fight each lined up to block the corridor and the only means of escaping the generator room.

“I hope you have more shots from where those last two came from,” she said raising her sword.

“Aye, lass I do,” he answered. With a cracked half grin he added smugly, “And when I run out I still have my axe strapped to me back. That should be plenty enough for them I should think.”

Lockefren held back her desire to roll her eyes once again at the pride of this little man as they slowly made their way towards the drones waiting for a battle.

Ken and Jason stood back to back fighting the swarm of soldiers around them.

“If we die here Kenneth, I want you to know I’m sorry for my behavior earlier. You truly are a friend,” Jason commented to his friend as he sliced down another drone.

“Thank you Jason, but don’t count us out just yet,” Ken answered back with a grin upon his face while parrying a shot.

“Are we getting anywhere at finding the end of these things?” Jason asked feeling weary once again.

The cyber-armor both men wore did well to increase their endurance, but after fighting so many foes for so long, both men were beginning to feel the strain in their muscles with each and every move. Even though both men fought with all their might, the drones were beginning to get the upper hand and were coming closer and closer to completely overrunning them. They both knew their time of death could be near, but they were not going to go out any other way than fighting. Knowing the people were safely out of the city gave them the hope in their hearts they needed to fight until their last breath.

Then, from the distance, a horn sounded and a flurry of arrows with white feathers rained over the gate dropping many of the drones and drawing their attention away from the two men trapped within them. Turning their attention towards the gates, Ken and Jason could only see, through the mass of soldiers surrounding them, that the gates were opened and another shower of arrows were coming their way. Quickly they both instinctively grabbed a nearby drone and dropped to the ground using the soldier as a human shield. Another large number of drones fell as a result and the sound of hooves could be heard entering the city as hundreds of cybernetic horses, carrying armor clad knights, began to mow down the remaining fighting drones. Jason and Ken peeked their heads out from underneath their human shields to see several arrows piercing their flesh.

“Good thing we thought of that,” Ken commented as the two men threw their shields from off of them.

Standing up they could see the remnant of the drones being brought down by the many knights which now surrounded them. One lone horse and rider, leading a pair of unmanned horses, made their way through the carnage headed towards Ken and Jason. The man had his mask activated so that his face was covered and unknown to the two men. Reaching them, he threw down the reigns of the two horses he was leading.

“You may be needing these,” the voice said kindly from behind the mask.

“Thank you friend,” Ken replied. “May we ask to whom we owe our thanks?”

The lone Knight deactivated his mask to reveal a known and most welcome comrade.

“Garrett!” Both Ken and Jason exclaimed.

Ken pulled the leg of his brother urging him to come down from off of his horse. Garrett jumped down and both men reunited with a hearty hug. Jason then took his turn shaking Garrett’s hand and then following up with another heart-felt hug as well.

“You cannot know how glad we are to see you my brother,” Ken said with excitement to see his younger brother again.

“Well, I thought you may be in need of some assistance, so I did my best to look presentable and came to say Hi,” Garrett offered shying away from Ken’s zealous attempts to hug him again.

“You’re most welcome here whenever you may please, but you may wish to take one last look at Karza. Today may very well be the last day you will see life in her,” Ken said turning to watch as his kingdom burned away into rubble.

“I know. That is why I’ve brought my men and these two horses,” Garrett added solemnly. “We’ve come to help evacuate the city, but I see we were a bit late for that task. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Jason replied. “The people are out and you are here. There is nothing to be sorry for.”

“Well,” Garrett started, shyly not wanting to openly accept Jason’s kindness, “we should be off then. Your people will need shelter and food.”

Garrett and Ken mounted up on their horses, but Jason only stood blankly staring at the burning city and the untouched castle far in the distance.

“We can’t leave yet…Lockefren and the others are still in there,” Jason said barely louder than a

whisper as he was transfixed on the castle knowing Simon was probably there.

With compassion, knowing the feeling of lost friends in battle, Garrett answered him, “I’m sorry Jason, but we must leave now. Your friends will have to find their own way out.” Garrett lead his horse over to where Jason stood and bent down to touch his shoulder. “We must now concern ourselves with the innocent and defenseless citizens stranded outside the city.”

“We can’t just leave them!” Jason finally yelled having been drawn out of his trance and turning towards Garrett. “Surely you can’t suggest we just leave our own behind!”

“Jason,” Ken spoke up trying to comfort his friend, “we are all soldiers first and friends last. Makaylen and the others know much too well the cost of war and that innocence must be fought for. Surely they would want for us to finish our part in this mess as they will surely work to finish theirs.”

Jason knew that Lockefren would offer him the same words of encouragement. She would surely tell him that the loss of a few was sometimes necessary for the salvation of so many. Lockefren would tell me to leave too, but I wonder if she could do it herself, he thought to himself. His heart urged him to shrug off Garrett’s grasp and run for the castle, but his flesh was a soldier through and through and he knew his first concern should be for the women and children shivering in shock from the recent events.

“I’m leaving some men behind, hidden of course, in order to insure all the citizens have indeed escaped. I can leave a few unmanned horses in case your friends are in need of them, but we must be going now,” Garrett said trying to reassure Jason’s tormented heart.

With a sigh, Jason lowered his head trying to pry his eyes away from the sight of the castle which called out for him to attack. Robotically Jason mounted his horse and left with great speed away from the burning kingdom and, possibly, away from the friends he knew he may never see again.

All concern for the battle outside the castle faded away from Makaylen’s mind as he entered the pitch black room. In the looming darkness Makaylen could feel the eerie presence of overwhelming evil. Focus, he told himself. He knew somewhere in this room was the wizard and he did not want to be caught off guard.

A small light illuminated to the far right of Makaylen ending his search. First it appeared as a firefly in the distance, but soon it slowly grew large enough that the room was partially shown by its ghostly glow. Makaylen could see that he was standing it what was once a grand ballroom decorated with ornate tapestries, paintings and such. Now the room hungered for gaiety and shown tell-tale signs of nonuse. The Wizard was positioned at one end of the ballroom on top of a velvet carpeted three step platform. On the platform rested three splendid thrones with the largest of the three perched in the center and now occupying the wickedly grinning wizard. His staff stood beside him on its own with no hands touching it and the light in the room was coming from a powerful crystal orb positioned on top in the mouth of a serpent.

The light, being so close to the wizard, gave him the appearance of having gray metallic like skin and his black eyes shimmered in the glow. Makaylen could tell, even from the distance between them, that the Wizard seemed nervous about their encounter. Surely, he thought to himself, if he was waiting here in the dark then he knew I was to arrive. Why would he not run if he is so nervous? However, the Wizard was not the only presence Makaylen could feel in the room, and this presence gave off an even stronger sense of menace. The Wizard stood to his feet grabbing his staff and raising it high into the air to better illuminate the room.

“So, you’ve decided to stand and fight, Wizard?” Makaylen asked while moving forward, yet keeping his distance.

The Wizard did not sway from his stance, but only glared at Makaylen with his stone cold black eyes.

“No. I’m no fool,” the Wizard answered back. “I know what you are and the power your kind harbors within themselves.” He began to step backwards trying to make his way for the back of the large throne as he continued, “However, I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine.”

He turned his staff sideways holding it over his head with both hands and the room was flooded with golden light which now shown the room in its entirety. It saddened Makaylen to see the beauty of this room which was once meant for fun and frolic, but now would become a battlefield stained with blood. With a sinister grin, the Wizard continued to make his way behind the thrones revealing what else lie in wait behind them. A large armored figure walked up and took his place standing before the middle chair. He was covered from head to toe in armor of pure ebony which flickered colors of amethyst and silver in the golden light of the orb. A demonic looking helmet concealed the face of what stood waiting for the command to fight Makaylen. Only the orange slit eyes of the man could be seen staring threateningly at his enemy.

Not from fear, but rather from what appeared to be unknown, Makaylen grit his teeth having a bad feeling about the situation as the man made his way down the platform and stood a mere twenty feet in front of him.

Behind an evil grin, the Wizard spoke up, “I think I’ll leave the two of you to become better acquainted.”

Loudly he spoke in a dark tongue of magic raising his staff high above his head. From within the crystal orb came a shimmering light of silver which spread as if a net over the two combatants and raised up to form a dome of great size. Quietly he excused himself and left through an almost concealed emergency exit door situated behind the three thrones. Now, alone stood the two men within the

illuminated dome waiting for what would be the last fight for at least one of them.

Simon stepped back from his two opponents, both of them panting and exhausted. Davien and Ben had, thus far, fought a glorious and heroic fight, but their lungs were aching from their lack of endurance. Blood, mixed with sweat and dirt, trickled down their faces from various wounds Simon had inflicted upon them. Davien limped as he again prepared himself for Simon’s inevitable attack. Simon only laughed watching the injured and drained men he was to fight.

“Sorry gentlemen, but I’m just getting warmed up. You seem to be on your last leg,” he taunted with arrogance ringing in his voice. “You do know you will not walk out of this room alive, don’t you?”

Davien winced as he spoke, nursing his bruised ribs, but his tone was still filled with bravery and vivacity, “Why do you keep talking? Are you trying to catch your breath or something?”

“Yeah,” Ben spoke up just as vigorous despite the pain he was in, “you do talk too much, you know? Why don’t you just fight?”

Simon chuckled. He knew neither of these men had the energy they were pretending to have, but he was impressed with their eagerness to do what they believed needed to be done regardless of what it may cost them.

“Fine, let’s play then, shall we?” Simon retorted.

Simultaneously Ben and Davien moved to strike Simon bringing their swords down in a chopping motion, but Simon swiftly and skillfully used his glaive to block both shots.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” Simon snickered.

“I thought you’d never ask,” Davien haughtily snapped.

Just as Davien finished his statement he leapt straight up into the air and thrust both legs forward and

landed a front dropkick into Simon’s chest. Simon fell back off balance quite taken by surprise by the kick. Ben took this opportunity to use his sword, and with a quick upward cut, knocked the glaive out of Simon’s hands. The blow from Ben knocked Simon completely off his balance, but as he was falling backward, he swung and connected a sharp right hook to Ben’s jaw causing him to twirl in the air and land solid on the ground. Hitting the ground himself, Simon quickly maneuvered a powerful kick sweeping Davien’s legs out from underneath him slamming Davien hard on the marble floor.

Davien and Ben staggered to hoist themselves back to their feet, but Simon was already standing and laughing wickedly at them. Now unarmed, Simon laughed even harder.

“Do you think I’m without other resources gentlemen?” He bellowed.

Ben and Davien did not answer, they merely stood their ground ready for whatever Simon may have next to offer them. Simon activated his collapsible shield, twisted the top end to face his right hand and a retractable handle emerged. Drawing out the handle, Simon revealed a long twin edged sword bearing the Wulf family crest. With only a couple of quick movements, both the shield and sword began to hum to life as his glaive had done.

“Now you will see I am better trained in sword play than I am in glaive,” Simon mocked trying once again to intimidate his opponents.

As if reading one another’s mind, Davien and Ben split up with one intending to take on Simon’s left side and the other Simon’s right. From behind his mask, Simon grinned watching these two men move into position, however, this time he stood ready for their attack; His arrogance had almost cost him already. Ben moved in first using a special Elvin sword technique of fencing mixed with a spinning of the shoulders and body; A technique normal human men could not mimic, nor defend themselves against. Simon moved and dodged, occasionally using his shield to parry the rapid shots. Davien took his chance

and came at Simon’s right side. The awesome skill Simon possessed enabled him to deflect both Davien’s and Ben’s repeated attempts at striking him while also maneuvering both men to where they were facing him once again rather than on his sides.

Using both his sword and shield as an offense, Ben and Davien could see that Simon’s talent in swordplay was not mere talk. Simon quickly used the edge of his shield and slashed Ben across the chest. Ben fell in pain to one knee only to be knocked onto his back when Simon rose a metallic knee into his chest sending Ben sliding a few feet. Simon walked over to finish him by driving his sword into Ben’s chest, but as his sword went up, Davien made a desperate lunge throwing himself into a full body tackle at Simon’s legs. Both men went clambering to the floor with Davien residing on top of Simon and ready to strike him down. Simon gripped Davien by the throat before he could lower his weapon for the death blow. With both hands, Simon tightened around Davien’s throat and hurled him over his head. Simon scrambled to his feet grabbing at his sword. Davien gasped for air slowly rising to one knee. Charging his opponent, Simon yelled while bringing his sword down to pierce him, but Davien reacted quickly bringing up his shield just in time to save his face. The strike shattered the shield and left a deep gash in Davien’s arm before knocking him back down on his back again.

“Now you die!” Simon yelled furiously bringing down his sword for the final blow.

Suddenly Simon stopped as he let out a deep scream of sheer pain. Unconsciously he dropped his sword and fell to his knees. Reaching around he felt the blade of a sword plunged deep inside his shoulder blade. He turned the top half of his body to see Ben on one knee and panting hard some distance from him. Ben had thrown his sword and found a weak link in Simon’s armor stopping him from killing Davien. Immediately Simon turned back to grab his own sword, but found it missing. Slowly looking up, Simon was faced with the now standing Davien bearing his own sword in his hands.

“Now it’s your turn,” Davien announced as he thrust Simon’s sword deep into his chest.

Gasping for breath, Simon marveled at being beaten by these two lowly men before falling to his face and driving the sword deeper. His cyber-armor collapsed into their own individual pieces and fell from Simon’s deceased body as if it had died along with him. Davien picked up one piece of the fallen armor and it came to life around his arm activating a shield as if it had never been turned off. Limping steadily over to his friend, Ben retrieved his sword.

“We need to go find Makaylen,” he breathed hard to say.

With only a nod of concurrence, Davien found his sword and both men staggered in the same direction Makaylen had ventured.

Running as fast as they could, Lockefren and Bildan were happy to still be alive after having to get passed the many foes that had blocked their escape. Now again in the underground corridors, and without their blueprint to guide them, they ran for their life being followed and fired upon by the many drones that lay chase behind them.

Listening and watching intently to the sounds and sights the drones’ weapons would make upon firing, they were able to detect when to take cover or dodge out of the way. One of the weapons was a power missile gun powered by shards of manna which would light up after being dispelled. Lockefren and Bildan were able to tell how close the shard was to hitting them by paying attention to how bright the corridor was becoming after hearing the weapon fired. Once the shard was close to hitting them, the corridor would be bright enough that they could see several more feet in front of them helping them to know it was time to move out of the way.

The other weapon was a spike gun which would make a heavy gravelly hum when fired. Again, they

were able to detect when to move out of the way by how loud the discharge sounded in the enclosed corridor. Both Lockefren and Bildan knew the only reason they were currently still breathing was because of their advantage at being in the tight corridor. Otherwise, with no way of detecting the shots being fired at their backs, they would have had no chance.

Rapidly Lockefren wrenched her brain trying to remember the way they had come. Without the map, which they had forgotten back at the generator, they had no way of telling if they were going in the correct direction or not. Bildan looked down trying to reload his custom shotgun with more rounds, but was suddenly pulled around the corner into another hallway and pressed flat against the wall. He let out of gasp of breath ready to yell at Lockefren for startling him, but before he could say anything, the spikes ripped through the air and hit against the wall.

“Thanks lass,” Bildan said with a gasp of relief. “I didn’t hear them charge!”

“They didn’t,” she answered quietly. “There was only a small clicking noise.”

“That’s impossible!” Bildan said finishing the loading of his weapon.

“Do you really want to argue about it right now?” Lockefren asked frustrated.

“Not really!” Bildan yelled as he jumped out into the middle of the corridor they had been running and fired a shot down the hall dropping a number of drones running towards them. “Alright, let’s move!”

Again the pair started running down the new corridor attempting to dodge the fires from behind as before. Finally a light could be seen coming from the end of the hall which appeared to be daylight peeking through an opened door.

“There!” Bildan yelled. “I believe that is our way out!”

“But it isn’t daytime outside,” Lockefren commented, not sure if they should continue down the corridor.

“It’s probably just the glow from my explosions! It should be lit up outside!” Bildan announced.

Lockefren glanced behind them , as they were taking their chances and running out the door, just in time to see the drones chasing them stop and turn down another corridor.

“Why did they stop chasing us?” Lockefren asked still looking behind her.

“I think he’s why lass,” Bildan said with his gun aimed in front of him.

Lockefren turned to see a man clothed in dark royal robes decorated in runes of black and red. In one hand he carried a staff which held a glowing orb in the mouth of a serpent which lit up the area surrounding them and making it appear to be daytime.

“What do you plan on doing with that gun little one?” The man asked almost hissing like a serpent.

“Well, I plan on killin’ you with it if you don’t move!” Bildan answered bravely.

“Hmm, that’s funny,” the man said as he lifted his empty hand into the air.

The shotgun flew out of Bildan’s hands, pulling him to the ground, and into the raised hand of the man. The man inspected the gun with a slightly amused look upon his face.

“This is an interesting design,” he commented in a flattering manner. “I’ve never seen its equal, and that is saying a lot.”

Readying herself for a possible standoff, Lockefren said, “You’re the wizard. Aren’t you?”

The man bowed slightly and glanced at them both, “Why, yes. I see my reputation proceeds me.” Throwing the shotgun to his side and away from them, he added, “Danick is my name. I would prefer you remember it as it is going to be the last name you hear before I destroy you both.”

With the end of his introduction, he thrust his staff forward where the crystal orb lit up a crimson red and fired off a stream of fire. Both Bildan and Lockefren moved swiftly away from the blast, but Lockefren also dropped to the ground, grabbed a dagger out of a holster around her calf and rolled up

aiming the dagger for the crystal orb and shattering it to pieces.

“Nooooo!” Danick roared.

Bildan scrambled to reach his shotgun, but Danick vanished in a flood of black smoke.

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about those drones anymore,” Bildan offered, trying to lighten the moment.

Lockefren struggled to smile as she secretly gripped her side feeling the small shard of crystal embedded there eating away at her armor and flesh.

Wincing quietly, so that Bildan would not hear, she stood back to her feet.

“Now Bildan, we must find Makaylen and the others before it is too late,” she labored to say making her way towards the large looming castle.