The New Resistance (The NEW Trilogy Book 1)

by Vee Bosse

  “Shit!” Derek screamed, as he realized that Revenant’s assistant was equally as cunning as he could be. The magical staff continued to expand like a growing pillar, slamming into the sand next to Revenant’s arm.

  “You’re all still operating on desperation at this point, although you have officially now pushed me farther than anyone has before, but ENOUGH!!” the commander’s words were fierce, as a look of uneasiness had made its way to Derek’s eyes.

  “Haynes, you have to,” the co-leader yelled as the remainder of the group witnessed his sentence interrupted by an immediate petrification. The newest addition to the statue collection had plowed into the sand below along with the carefully unpetrified plushie, which was clutched securely in Derek’s stone hand.

  “Hurry up and pick them all off as quickly as you can, so we can get to the capital punishment facility. That is, since you insist on sparing their lives instead of having me perform our finishing move. It’s worked nicely this last half-century, you know,” said the man with the black fedora, which was still shielding his eyes in mystery. Revenant’s self-proclaimed assistant was sitting relaxingly on a large tree branch as he retracted his Jigsaw Staff back into a magician’s wand appearance. “That voodoo kid almost got you in your weak spot it looks like.”

  “Dylan, shut up before I kill you myself,” announced Revenant whose wounds had mysteriously healed themselves again once more.

  “I’ve been 27-years-old for almost fifty years just like you have, thanks to both of our Emerald Radiance auras. So, you can try if you’d like, idiot.” Revenant’s look of youthful agitation contrasted greatly with Dylan’s expression of apathy as he spoke his arrogant words.

  The commander popped his neck a couple times, recomposing himself. “Killing them with our two-step combo would be too painless for them. To preserve the peace of our Western Latitude, we need to execute them harshly in front of a massive audience. The message needs to go out that if anyone dares to use Forbidden Radiance techniques before we capture and subdue them, they will then meet with an especially severe death for the entire world to witness.”

  Christian gritted his teeth in furious anger, the defiance in his heart reaching its true boiling point. “You murderous pieces of shit! If this is the kind of peace my home country is built on, then I will lead this team against it to deliver a coup to you BASTARDS!!”

  Revenant and Dylan had to fight the urge to explode in laughter upon hearing the remaining co-leader’s bold and brash claims. “I think I’ve made my decision finally...you’re getting petrified next,” said Commander Revenant as he pointed his finger directly at Christian, effectively taunting him.

  Just as Christian let his emotions get the better of him for a charge ahead alone, Haynes whipped out his sword that emitted a dark cosmic energy from its blade. No one could have imagined what the genius strategist would do next as he slashed his sword in a vertical line directly ahead of him, and to the team’s unbounding amazement, what could be described as a dark rip in the fabric of the time-space continuum expanded outwards from his slash. “Portfold, Dimensional Travel Technique!!” Haynes said, suddenly leaping forward into the dimensional portal.

  Just as Revenant threw his arms forward to petrify Christian, Haynes closed the portal that he had summoned with his sword out of nowhere, making it reappear in front of every remaining member of the team. With amazing speed, Haynes reached his arms out of the portal in rapid succession, ushering everyone into his dimensional openings for a surefire escape.

  Christian was perplexed at seeing his view of Revenant disappear to be replaced by the view of dilapidated and weathered buildings surrounding the relocated team. Melbourne’s remains had the look of long forgotten ruins, as the fire from decades before was able to send most of the city disintegrating away.

  “Christian, just what does you getting petrified do for the rest of the team that you are supposed to be leading?” asked Haynes with a look of passion, while all of the friends that he had teleported away stared at him in utter amazement at the thought of one of them being able to summon dimensional wormholes at will.

  “I just...I can’t contain myself while I watch my friends fade away one by one. What am I supposed to do?!” Just as the fear and rage reemerged on Christian’s face once again, it was Dee King who stepped forward with a look of grimace on his face.

  It was a heavy punch, strong enough to send Christian to the ground below. “You’re out of your head. Look man, I know your drive to keep us from dying is what sets you above, but you gotta have some confidence in us. I’m just being real here, don’t take these bastards on alone. Fight with us, as our leader.”

  Christian sat on the decayed street while the group surrounded them both. Westin stepped forward with no delay, extending his hand to help their leader back up. Christian instinctively held his hand against the huge red mark where Dee had hit him, realizing that the way he had been acting against Revenant was indeed foolish.

  “Dee, you took it too far,” declared Westin with a troubled look on his face.

  “No, Dee is right. I need to put my faith in you all so that we have a chance here,” Christian said, justifying Dee’s attempt to make their leader come to his senses. Dee smiled and nodded, happy to see that the team had been given a much-needed time out from their desperate fight.

  Milli interjected once their confidence had resurfaced, “Wait, just how did we get here? I saw Haynes appear out of some sort of, portal??”

  Haynes stepped forward, holding his sword out for everyone to see. “Its name is Portfold. When I was messing around with it on the ship coming here, it was almost like I could hear the sword calling out to me. I slashed it into the air when no one was looking, and sure enough. My sword seems to have the ability to open wormholes and dimensional rifts, circumventing the time-space continuum.”

  Dane stepped forward in complete amazement. “Holy smokes, don’t even reckon I know how to respond to that.”

  Laran spoke next with a sense of strong resolve, always staying by Milli’s side. “Thanks to you Haynes, we are able to try and clear our heads to come up with a strategy here. If things had gone on the way they were going, we would probably all be stone statues by now. So, anyone have any ideas?”

  Benedict gazed beyond the city line, noticing that the beach where their two opponents were waiting for them was about a mile away from their location. “Well then, I suppose we’ve taken too many hits to go on like that against those blokes.”

  Haynes smiled confidently as he stepped forward to devise a strategy against their all-powerful foes. “Listen you guys, Revenant has been reckless in the way he has petrified a few of us. Not only did we find out that we must aim for his heart, but do you remember when I yelled for Derek to jump in the air like that?”

  Christian nodded at Haynes, while the rest of the group eagerly awaited the key to overcoming the commander’s strength. “I told him to do that because I realized that when Sarge and Woolfing had launched themselves in the air to attack him, he did a moonsault to come into contact with them. Yet, what caught my eye was the fact that he couldn’t reach out and petrify them at will, like it seemed that he was able to do up until then.”

  The group ushered for Haynes to continue in eager anxiousness. “When Derek leapt in the air just as Revenant was about to turn him into stone, what confirmed my theory was that Derek was just fine after his feet rose above the sand. Did you guys notice that Revenant was helpless to stop him from using his voodoo plushie since he was in mid-air? So, then I saw that he was petrified once Dylan’s Jigsaw Staff served as a medium to come into contact with Derek’s barely-touching arm.

  What we currently know is that Revenant can petrify multiple people by touching them at will, or by sending his aura through inanimate objects, such as the sand we were all standing on. There seems to be a limit as to how much aura he can send through objects for the petrification though, seeing how if his power was unbounded in that regard, every one of us wou
ld have become stone statues at the very start of this battle.”

  As Haynes finished his explanation, they all began to contemplate ways that they could put their two fierce opponents away. Now that they knew what exactly Revenant’s limits were, they felt that The Resistance could truly make its first mark on the world right then and now.

  Christian smiled as he addressed the team with vigor, “With that said you guys, I think I have a plan. Jassa, since you’re the doctor of our group, do you know of any way we can reverse the petrification?”

  Jassa went into a state of deep thought, contemplating a way that she could save her friends. “Well, there is the conditional cure that I have with me in my supply kit. It has worked well for us New Age Doctors in curing averse physical predicaments by purifying the outer layer of a person’s skin. If you guys can give me an opening on the battlefield, I can start treatment immediately to see if it will work!”

  Their doctor’s wily and resourceful solution brought the remaining team to a state of confidence that many would have even considered dangerous, as Christian told the team the step by step details of his plan.

  “Laran, do you know what abilities your sword has yet?” asked Christian.

  “I’m pretty happy about it, yeah. My sword’s name is Shibiki...so, what can I do here?” Laran volunteered his unique power while Christian asked Dane to stand by where they were, readying a special gun he had picked up along with his two Desert Eagles.

  “We’re going back to that beach to kill Revenant, and his partner. We are going to get our friends back, and we are going to get revenge for the millions that they have slaughtered. I am putting my complete faith in all of you.” Christian said, standing ahead of his group as they gazed at the beach ahead, completely focused on what they would each need to do to succeed. Haynes suddenly leapt forward, passionately opening a portal back to the beach for the battle of their lives.

  Chapter Ten

  To Each Their Own Battle (Part 2)

  “I wonder if they would abandon their friends for slaughter. Although, I must say, their strength is alarming. To think one of them could possess such a teleporting power? It’s beyond disturbing,” Dylan said, as he remained relaxed on the same tree a small distance from Revenant.

  “It just means we need to end their lives quicker than we had previously thought,” said the haughty commander, standing in the same place he was before their opponents disappeared amongst the other petrified rebels.

  Dylan casually pulled out his Jigsaw Staff once again, while also holding on to his fedora hat that was threatening to blow away in the Australian wind. “So, are you rethinking whether or not you want to let me kill them while they are petrified her?”

  The commander turned his head to him with the look of someone in a deep state of contemplation. “Hmm...perhaps that would be all right at this point.” Dylan’s grim smile reappeared when suddenly, a barrage of arrows came flying at both of them from somewhere in the brush ahead. They were recognizable as being Milli’s acid arrows; Revenant batted them away like flies, turning them all into stone as he ignored their acidic dissolving properties.

  “Weak parlor tricks,” he said as he glanced around to pinpoint where in the thicket they were being shot from. “There you are!” Revenant began to run straight for Milli’s direction as Dylan opted to remain watching the resumed battle from a distance. However, just as the commander was able to get within arm’s length of the team’s archer, it was Laran who had appeared out of a dimensional opening that Haynes created in haste.

  “You won’t lay a finger on her!” declared Laran with a passion, as he swung Shibiki in lethal fashion to cut Revenant’s defenseless back as a thick, black energy was emitted from his sword’s hilt.

  “These attacks are fodder!” yelled the commander as he pulled forward to dodge his sword’s reach. But Revenant’s eyes grew wide when he realized that Laran continued to swing downward, slashing where the near-immortal one’s shadow was. Revenant collapsed to his knees when a huge slash appeared in his neck and shoulder, oddly in the same spot where Laran had contacted his shadow on the ground.

  “My ability when I fuse my aura with Shibiki is the power to cut people by slicing their shadow. Don’t ask me how that makes sense in physics, but I’m sure it doesn’t though,” he declared proudly as furious anger struck the face of Revenant who had once again been brought to his knees. “Just a quick question while you’re here skeleton-guy: why do you hate us for using the same aura abilities that you government types are all hung up on as well?”

  Upon hearing Laran’s question, the commander leapt up to attack head on. “Oh, no, no, none of us would ever dare dabble in your disgusting Forbidden Radiance techniques. Understand that these powers were given to us as a result of Mary Hubris’ manipulation of energy. Our powers come from a special radiance, and are simply attempts to counter cursed aura with acceptable aura, all in the name of justice of course. Yet, in my case and Dylan’s, we were simply upgraded to Emerald Radiance based on how excellently we carried out the government’s orders of delinquent execution. But, I suppose I always enjoyed it more than Dylan did.”

  “Cool story!” said Laran, taunting Revenant into becoming angry once more.

  “You will now turn to stone,” the commander suddenly declared, extending his hand for an instant transmission of his petrification aura Laran’s way.

  “No good, mate!” Laran was drastically relieved to hear that Benedict had been teleported next to them as their plan continued on. “Time for my Aura Shot...have a bite, ya wanker!!” yelled the Welshman as Revenant’s shoulder wounds had just begun to quickly heal. But Benedict suddenly extended his hand, making the classic ‘bang, bang’ gesture at the commander with his finger.

  “Stop fooling around!” Revenant screamed as a brilliant shot of white, laser-like energy was shot his way from Benedict’s finger. It gave off an ominous humming noise, as Dylan sat on the distant tree amazed at how his beam of energy seemed to extend off into the horizon forever.

  “Hmm, what a frighteningly powerful reach,” Dylan admitted. Benedict glanced in earnest to see if his aim was where it needed to be as he had been aiming straight for Revenant’s heart. He grew frustrated though as he noticed the wound inflicted was a bit to the left of the near-immortal’s only weak spot. “Damn! It takes a few minutes to charge my Aura Shot up again, so we have to move the plan forward!” With that, Laran, Milli, and Benedict were shocked to see the commander heal himself almost instantly once more, with his eyes gaining a furiously frightening look of anger.

  A sense of panic and fear hit the three attackers when they saw that Revenant was now preparing to shoot the petrification aura through the sand to each of them one by one, but a sight for sore eyes appeared in the form of Kasper teleporting directly behind them. The three others marveled at how his sunglasses reflected the image of the rising sun which was now about half way above the morning horizon.

  “So, you’ve finally decided to take action. Tell me, are you blind?” asked Revenant while the new attacker retained his stoic expression.

  “I don’t need sight to defeat you in combat, but I wonder. Can you petrify a spear made of Diamond Radiance?” Kasper’s response to the commander’s question was with another question, and it was a question that he never thought a Forbidden Radiance user would ask. The blind sensor suddenly took out a platinum coated long-staff that was infused all throughout with the element that would guarantee a radiance user’s submission. “This battle is ours to win,” declared Thomin Kasper, who lunged the lethal spear directly at Revenant’s heart for the coup d’ grace they desperately needed.

  “I’ll just have to dodge this then,” Dylan Rook heard from his teammate, as it indeed appeared as though Revenant would be able to dodge the spear with little effort. Yet, as he witnessed his long-time partner moving out of the spear’s way, he also noticed a black portal suddenly open behind him once more, as Haynes this time emerged out of seemingly thin air. The ne
rdy strategist who could bend and move between dimensional spaces smiled gallantly, as he managed to lock in a partial full nelson on their lethal adversary as Commander Revenant was helpless to dodge Kasper’s Diamond Radiance spear.

  “Shit! Enough, do it now, Dylan!” the trapped commander shouted as his teammate answered his call for assistance. He whipped out his Jigsaw Staff once again, determined to destroy the spear before it could pierce Revenant’s heart.

  “All right, I’ll destr,” Dylan wasn’t able to even finish his sentence when he gazed upon the sight of his staff getting shot nearly in two by a bullet that exploded upon impact with his weapon.

  “Hmmm,” Dylan pondered, as he looked to his left to notice Dane sitting on a makeshift perch on top of a distant dilapidated building where they had rallied just a few moments ago.

  “Explosive bullets can do the trick, I reckon,” said the southern sharpshooter, as he aimed the aura infused sniper rifle aloft to prevent Dylan from interfering with Revenant’s downfall. He then looked down to his right to see Dr. Jassa Nava preparing her apparent petrification cure down below.

  “Now’s my chance! I’ll bring back all of our friends with no delay,” she said, smiling at their apparent victory to come.

  Dylan realized that the remaining fighters had rallied to the point of complete symbiosis with their teamwork, and it had now completely taken the situation out of their usual control.

  “Unbelievable,” Dylan declared, as he broke his damaged Jigsaw Staff in half, finally jumping to the sand below in seriousness. Without any further words, the Emerald Radiance wielder prepared to leap ahead with amazing speed, in an effort to dodge Dane’s continuing sniper fire and to rescue Revenant. But, an attack that was very familiar with the team suddenly made contact with Dylan’s face, as Dee King joined the rest of the team in dealing out surprise assaults.