James Somers - The rise of Lucin

Emil had shared with them all, how Kale had been training him while going through his own exercises with Wynn. Tiet had half expected to be protecting Emil on this search, but he was quickly finding it wouldn't be necessary.

"Thanks!" Tiet said as the attacker fell to the ground.

But Emil had already turned his attention to the scene around them. They had entered the city during a battle. People ran frantically in every direction as dark figures swept through the streets of the city grabbing up people to feed upon.

Emil wasted no time in his response to the situation and quickly ran into the fray with his kemstaff spinning wildly around him. Tiet followed after and began to engage the humanoid creatures as well.

He employed complex mental attacks and took down several foes at a time-throwing them, crushing their organs and hurling nearby objects at them. More humanoid creatures came in to attack-like insects swarming over a busted hive.

Then Tiet noticed, among the chaos of screaming civilians and materializing marauders, another group of people fighting these beings and having success at it. At least, they seemed to be winning. The creatures just ran away from them as the group attacked with their advanced weaponry and special abilities.

Tiet saw ten of them in all-several who were flying and a few others using powerful psychokinetic attacks. Another appeared to have exceeding physical strength and stood twice the size of a normal human. Impressive to watch, but Tiet sensed something sinister in their interaction with the humanoids. They hadn't killed any of them. The special group and the humanoid wraiths seemed, to him, to be engaged in an elaborate dance of simulated combat-a ruse perhaps?

But the creatures fell left and right to Tiet and Emil's efforts and it drew the attention of the other group of warriors. Their dance had been interrupted. Then, unexpectedly, a mental attack sent a large wheeled vehicle at Tiet as he cut down one of the humanoids. He flipped up and back touching briefly on the surface of the vehicle as it spun through the air underneath him and then smashed into several others parked in front of him. Tiet landed in a crouched position with his weapon postured defensively. He quickly realized the mental attack had not come from the feeding creatures swarming about, but had come from among the other warriors pretending to defend the city.

Could it have been a mistake in the midst of the battle? The barrage of laser fire from two of the approaching warriors gave him a fast answer. Emil fought close by-bounding through the air with his staff whirling about him as he deflected the incoming blasts.

The technologically endowed pair of warriors flew at them under mechanical power and rained down an onslaught of laser fire on Tiet and Emil. Emil ducked behind a larger vehicle as the two potted its exterior with their weapons. Tiet didn't care anymore if it was a case of mistaken identity. He seized one of the flyers with a mental attack, sending him crashing into a nearby building's wall of windows. The resultant spectacle sent slivers of refracted light and glass everywhere. As he smashed through the panes the great shards of glass cut him to pieces.

The other mechanized fighter continued his attack on Emil. The young Horva burst up and over the smoldering vehicle he had taken cover behind and let fly a pair of spicor discs. One exploded in flight from laser fire, but the other found its intended target. The warrior's upper body disintegrated in the blue sphere of the spicor ignition. The rest of him fell to the pavement.

Tiet watched the other warriors. They landed just down the street from him. One of the black wraiths approached the leader.

It seemed as though the creature sought an explanation for the counterattacks against his wraiths by Emil and Tiet. Then it happened. A thought, no, a message passed telepathically between them. Tiet heard it loud and clear, though wasn't meant to.

Do not approach me in public! The people may become suspicious! Take your people and go now, I will contact Dirge when I have finished here.

There was an obvious connection between them. He decided to interrupt the conversation.

So, you have a league with these wraiths to destroy the people while you play the heroes for them?

The leader of the human warriors immediately shot a snarling glance in Tiet's direction from down the street-a look that acknowledged his secret discovered.

The large muscular one, looking as though he made up two people, ran in for the kill, wailing like a carmaden stalker. He picked up one of the vehicles near by and brought it right over Tiet and slammed it down at him.

Tiet leapt away just as the object came down on his position. Emil's staff cut through the air, flying toward the giant. The huge man brought his hand full of crushed metal back up from the ground where Tiet had stood and deflected the weapon with it. Then, he tossed the wad of metal at Emil, twenty feet away. The boy dodged away in time.

The huge warrior then picked up another vehicle and brought it to bear on Tiet again. Tiet put his mind on the behemoth and he stopped in his tracks. Tiet found the giant's heart and interrupted the electrical conduction system keeping its rhythm. The mammoth man seized and dropped the vehicle he was holding to grab his chest in pain. He bellowed as he dropped to his knees and then fell over completely with a thud that Tiet felt through the ground where he was standing.

The citizens watched the fight. Their attackers had retreated at the behest of the Guardian leader, Elam, and now he called out to the people.

"Citizens!! These invaders have come to fight for the Agonotti against us!" Elam said. The Guardian leader stood tall with chiseled features. He wore a mane of shoulder length blonde hair that gave him a wild appearance. The man exuded power that could be felt.

Tiet looked at the expressions of the people around them. They began to murmur and others picked up objects as though they would attack.

"Isn't it interesting!" Tiet shouted. "That I and the boy were the only ones actually killing any of your attackers?"

The people stopped murmuring and looked around to find that it was true. The only Agonotti dead, and their remains disintegrating, were around Tiet and Emil.

The Guardian leader became enraged as he realized the people might actually question his authority. "Is this the people I have given my life to protect?"

"But, Elam, we don't know anything about these men," said one of the citizens.

"I have told you all that you need to know! Destroy these invaders or you will be left to protect yourselves from the Agonotti. I will not be questioned by those whom I graciously give my best efforts to protect!"

Tiet realized it was no contest. These people were so terrified of the creatures that had been attacking them, that they would do whatever it took to keep these warriors protecting them-or at least the protection they thought they were receiving.

The men among them pointed their weapons. He and Emil only had a moment and Tiet realized the talking and reasoning portion of the meeting had clearly passed. He grabbed Emil by the waste and leaped over the crowd as they fired their projectile weapons at them. He released Emil as they touched down on the ground again and they ran behind a group of parked vehicles as the shots pounded the area around them.

Windows shattered and shrapnel flew all around them as the slugs of metal zipped wildly through the air. Tiet and Emil dodged about through lots of parked vehicles and building alleyways as the citizens followed after them.

He didn't want to hurt any of them. After all, they felt like they had no other choice. Retreat was the only option at the moment. It didn't appear that Kale was anywhere to be found in this area. But they still had to get out of this city alive to have a chance of finding him.