James Somers - The rise of Lucin

"I don't-" Emil paused mid-sentence as he noticed something approaching from the east. "What is that?" A massive black cloud that looked like death itself moved, not far above the tree tops, toward the city ahead of them. A great shadow covered the land and the cloud seemed to swallow up the sun itself from where they were standing. The wind increased by ten fold from the cool breeze that had been blowing.

Branches snapped as the trees waved together in the wind like great hands coming out of the ground to worship the Eternal One himself.

"I feel like it's alive." Emil muttered.

"It is!" shouted Tiet as the wind blew stronger. "It's those things we fought before, back in the city-only a whole lot more of them!"

The maelstrom moved over the town ahead.

"We've got to get to him! Hurry!" Tiet shouted.

The pair broke into a sprint up the road. Tiet mumbled a prayer under his breath as he ran, hoping that Elithias would give strength to them against their enemies today. Otherwise, they might be about to breathe their last.

The ominous fog descended on the town of Odem and dwarfed it in size. Agonotti warriors began to drop out of the vortex on top of their prey as they took form from the elements of the dark cloud. The civilians of the city ran frantically through the streets trying to find shelter from the onslaught, but there was no place to hide.

Elam couldn't believe the sheer number of warriors coalescing from the Agonotti matrix-and more than numbers the fact they were armed for battle. They hadn't come to feed, but to wage war.

Elam knew it would not take long for them to telepathically inform Dirge of his presence and he was right. Within moments he saw the Agonotti leader form in front of him along with several others who appeared to be acting as bodyguards. Elam determined not to be intimidated by the power play. He kept thinking to himself, you may be alone here, but this Agonotti is about to be dead.

Dirge arrogantly pointed his finger at Elam's face and began his rhetoric as he approached. "Why are you here?" he demanded.

"I have every right to be here," Elam said. "Why have you gone against our agreement and brought all of these warriors to destroy Odem?"

"We have to feed."

"This isn't a culling, it's a massacre!"

"It's our business Elam, not yours!" Dirge shouted. "We are through taking orders from you! For far too long, we have bowed to your terms like lap dogs. We Agonotti have been the element of fear that has kept your greedy extortion enterprise profitable all this time."

Elam became infuriated and would have probably taken action himself, had there not already been another plan in place. Instead, Elam calmed himself and let the Agonotti leader ramble on. He wasn't even listening anymore. Instead, he watched for the boy who he supposed should've already been here by now.

Dirge continued his ranting as the noise of the feeding frenzy continued around them. The screams of hundreds threatened to drown him out, but he stepped closer into the Guardian leader's face to punctuate what he had kept pent up for so long.

A yellow spire suddenly burst through the Agonotti leader's chest, silencing him in mid-rant. Kale withdrew the kemstick and struck down Dirge's guards before they could react. As he cut a great swathe between the bodyguards he finished the arc of his attack just above Dirge's shoulders, catching the Agonotti leader as he sank to his knees from the first strike. Dirge's last look at Elam ended as his head left his body.

Elam stood stunned by the speed and efficiency of the boy. It was time for the ruse to play out. Elam quickly pulled his own weapon and ignited the blade. "Let the show begin," he said to Kale.

Elam struck at the boy and found him more than able to keep up a convincing part of the charade. They dodged, parried and struck at each other over and over again. With Dirge's destruction, they had the full attention of many of the Agonotti warriors now.

While the attack on the town continued, many of the Agonotti moved toward the ensuing battle between the boy and the Guardian leader. Their own leader, decapitated along with his guards, disintegrated as his molecular life bond gave way.

Was Elam really the enemy as Dirge had declared or was he fighting to kill Dirge's assassin? The battle turned to Elam's favor as he made a subtle move that kicked the boy's weapon out of his hand and knocked him backwards to the ground. Elam rushed over the boy with his blade raised for the deathblow.

Tiet and Emil ran hard toward the town of Odem. The cloud had already touched down in the valley where the city was located. They heard distant screams growing in number as they approached. They ran into town on the main road.

The city didn't look very big at all-Tiet supposed maybe a few thousand residents at best and the housing all appeared to be rural with a main city square in the middle. He sensed Kale very strongly now near where most of the attack on the city had concentrated.

Hundreds of people ran in every direction, mirroring the situation they had encountered when they first arrived. But the sheer number of attackers had to be tenfold what they had faced before. Emil dogged Tiet's steps as they made their way through the horrific scene played out around them. The vampiric attackers were took in the precious life blood of their victims-draining them dry and heaving the bodies away to go after the next.

Emil drew his kemsticks and dispatched some of the Agonotti along the way. Emil struck the ghastly humanoids with their victims in their clutches and both predator and prey fell together.

Tiet remained on the mental scent of his son searching through the crowd like a living divining rod. Tiet saw his son up ahead. Kale stood locked in battle with the Guardian leader, Elam.

Tiet watched Kale's kemstick knocked from his grasp. He fell back to the ground with Elam coming in fast for the kill. Tiet reached back to the scabbard on his back. With one quick snap of his arm, he pulled his blade and flung it away toward his son's aggressor, willing the weapon to ignite as it left his hand. The weapon seemed to be suspended in time as he ran behind it on its way to the intended target, its revolutions seeming to last minutes apiece.

He had to be on time, had to be there to save him, to do what he had not been able to do for Dorian or for Orin. He couldn't watch his own son die like they had died, only moments before he could arrive to save them.

Elam brought his blade down and expected the boy to use a mental attack to knock it away in time-he held the weapon loosely to make it even easier when the lad's mental defense came. But as he looked into the Kale's face, he noticed him glancing away at something behind them and a look of horror coming over his face. At that moment, Elam sensed an attack and turned instinctively to face it.

The Barudii blade twirled through the air ever so elegantly with its blade shining like a shooting star racing through the sky. Elam tried to defend himself, but there was not time.

The blade struck Elam's weapon as he turned around. It flew out of his hand and he fell to the ground disarmed. Tiet's weapon ricocheted up and away and hit one of the Agonotti that had been observing the fight, severing one of his arms.

Tiet ran up right behind the blade-strike and went immediately to his son's aid. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Father," Lucin said with Kale's voice.

Tiet helped Kale to stand and the boy leaned on him. Elam started to recover from the hit and Tiet drew a kemstick from his thigh-clip with his other hand while helping to hold up Kale around his waist. Elam sat up slightly, looking at them and trying to figure out what had just happened.