Infused (Book 2 of The Pioneers Saga)

by William Stadler

  Caleb’s heart sank. “Sarai!” he yelled again. A cold slither slid down his spine as a thread of ice covered him. The ice snaked down the bridge of his nose, covering his nostrils and sealing his lips. He struggled for oxygen, but the ice quietly refused.

  His body jolted from vibrations. More vibrations and more jolts. What was happening? Suddenly, the ice around him shattered. More explosions erupted on the battlefield. Caleb dropped to his knees, shivering from the cold and gasping for breath. Not looking towards the direction of the explosions, he jabbed his other dagger into the Materialist Anaerobia and chipped away at Sarai’s enclosure. An auburn crack shot up the side of the ice, and the encasing split into hundreds of pieces. Sarai’s body fell to the ground. She wasn’t breathing, and her skin was a clammy, cold blue.

  Caleb cut into her arm with the Spiritualist Anaerobia to invigorate the spirits within her. Her eyes shot open. Moans and wails of the spirits encircled the two of them, and she pushed herself backwards across the snowy ground as she regained her vitals.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, but we have to go.” Caleb picked her up and ran towards the sound of the explosions. Dozens of Pioneers were still trapped in the ice. He and Sarai freed as many as they could, but some of them had already passed. Their rigid bodies stood frozen with looks of horror on their faces.

  The sky was on fire. An enormous, fiery globe levitated above the field. The snow beneath the sphere melted, leaving thick pools of slushy mud. Caleb could feel the numbness leaving as the globe heated up the environment.

  More explosions pounded the landscape. Where were they coming from? Polarists dropped to their knees as they were consumed by the fire. Caleb looked towards the city, and he could see several orange stones lighting up the night sky. The man who led them was Jensen.

  Jensen methodically reached towards the fiery globe, brought down a few of the molecules, multiplied them, and exploded them on impact with the Polarists. With each motion, he clenched his fists, his body jerked, and a ball of fire enveloped droves of Polarists.

  Caleb and Sarai ran over to him. “Any longer and we would have both been killed,” Caleb said.

  “Can’t talk now,” Jensen strained, sweat pouring down his dark skin.

  “Keep it up,” Caleb said.

  After a few more explosions, the Polarists realized what was happening, and they connected with the life forms in the area to Balance the gang of Materialists. The fire globe fizzled out and the blasts ceased.

  Dust from the decimated city was still settling, and it was impossible to determine the difference between the ashes and the snowfall. The Polarists charged in after the Pioneers, but Caleb kept his forces moving northward towards Gardiv.

  “Gardiv and the other Pioneers could use some more help on the north side,” Jensen said. He ducked down low and followed Caleb back into the leveled city. “When are the Spiritualists coming?”

  “As soon as the Naturalists get here,” Sarai said.

  When they neared the crater, Jensen formed a solid layer of dirt so that they could run over it. Once the last Pioneer cleared the hole, the created dirt dispersed into tiny molecules. The Polarists kept pace with the Pioneers, and the Polarists iced over the hole so that they would not lose any ground while they chased them through the destroyed city, ashes and snow swirling all around.

  At the other side of the town, spirits spiraled around as the Infused Pioneers commanded them. There were fires and beasts in scattered locations. Gardiv ran out to meet Caleb. “We’re surrounded. Those cold-bloods led us into a trap!”

  “They’re chasing us now!” Caleb yelled as he pointed backwards to the army of Polarists who closed in on them.

  Caleb tore off his bow and faced the oncoming assault. He could hear the screams from the soldiers as they rushed upon him. The Pioneers were united, but the Polarists had beset them.

  Dark shadows covered the ground and disappeared. Shrieks tore through skies. Vicious growls and blood-curdling howls echoed across the landscape. Caleb looked up, and five Cryanoses hovered overhead. One of the wooly creatures soared down to the ground level, and Rian was its rider.

  “You just couldn’t wait could you?” Rian asked, green cloak flapping in the wind.

  “Get these guys off of us!” Caleb yelled.

  “I could leave you here, you know?” Rian smiled, and he touched the side of his head to command his army via psyche. The ice on the ground melted as the Naturalists Dominated. The temperature slowly started to rise as the Polarists’ hold on the life forms peeled away.

  “Charge!” Caleb ordered.

  Night Prowlers and bears mauled the Polarists as the Naturalist riders raided through the city. Caleb ran towards the Polarists, firing arrows and taking out soldiers as he sprinted towards them.

  Raylen stepped behind one of his guards to protect himself, and he raised his hand. The Polarists catapulted several canisters into the sky. Arrows made of ice tore through those canisters, and an eerie yellow powder drifted over the city.

  “Raylen’s using the toxin! What’s he doing?” Caleb asked. As the toxin took root, Cryanoses and all other creatures lost control. Naturalists plummeted from the sky to their deaths, falling in horrid positions, crushed underneath the four-winged beasts.

  Bears and Night Prowlers turned on their owners and mangled them. Raylen smiled, pulling his troops back to the south to retreat from the chaos. Rian’s bird jerked out from under him, throwing him to the ground. He tried to communicate with the other Naturalists, but his emblem was useless.

  “What have you gotten me into, Caleb?” Rian asked.

  “I don’t know, but we can’t let the Polarists get away.”

  Caleb beckoned to the Pioneers to follow him while the Naturalists were in a beastly disarray.

  “Caleb,” Sarai said as she sprinted beside him. “Raylen is pulling us away from the toxic zone.”

  “Well we can’t stay here.”

  When the Pioneers caught up to where the Polarists should have been, the soldiers stood still, lining field to the south of the city, lowering the temperature — except for Raylen.

  Raylen stood tall, and his emblem flashed violently. Ice swirled in his hand, and his skin coated with a heavy layer of snowy residue. The raindrops from above had become ice again. “Your stupidity will be the end of you,” Raylen said.

  Violent gusts of wind scraped across the ground’s surface, and particles of snow and ice combined forming what looked like over a hundred stumps of ice, each as thick as the base of oak trees. More ice combined, and two stumps became one, creating legs. Raylen was forming men of ice! Their joints were solid, and in each hand, they wielded a six-foot blade. There were at least fifty of these ice statues forming in the field.

  Raylen raised the temperature around the statues, forcing parts of them to melt, and then he lowered the temperature freezing them again. He swirled his hands around with each temperature fluctuation, and the highs and lows forced these ice soldiers to shift. As they melted, water droplets dripped down their sides, which refroze at Raylen’s command. These eleven-foot goliaths came alive with the freezing and the melting.

  Caleb stared at one whose mouth widened as if it were going to yell, but no sound came out – just the formidable crackling of ice as its jaw moved. “Spread out!” Caleb yelled. The Polarists and the ice giants closed in around the Pioneers.

  Gardiv ripped off his two daggers, doused them with the Materialist Anaerobia, and lunged at one of the incarnations. The iced man raised its foot and shoved it into Gardiv’s chest. Gardiv lost control of the blades, and his body smashed against the ground. Both daggers exploded behind him. The iced creature raised its sword above Gardiv and thrust it down. Gardiv rolled out of the way, and the sword sliced through the compacted terrain from the power of the ice giant. Only a few inches of the sword were left aboveground. Effortlessly, the giant tore its blade from the ground and chased after Gardiv.

  Caleb
shot a Materialist arrow at the giant. A pillar of ice sprouted from the ground, blocking the shot. The ice shattered. The Polarist who created the pillar rushed at Caleb, slamming him on the ground. Caleb wrestled free, stabbing the soldier in the side. Caleb sprang to his feet and snapped the man’s neck.

  The ice giant was gaining on Gardiv. His Spiritualist emblem pulsed, but he could not affect the ice. Solid thuds stomped behind Gardiv as he hurried to get away. The giant swiped his sword at Gardiv. Gardiv tumbled, ducking the attack. The giant smashed its fists into the ground, leaving a crater behind. Gardiv jumped back, charged a Materialist shot, and fired it into the creature. The arrow clinked against the solid ice and spun off. Orange seams cracked into the creature from the Anaerobia. The ice shattered in several places. Raylen sealed the gaps, and the giant was unfazed.

  Caleb closed in on the iced man from behind. He dunked his dagger into the Naturalist Anaerobia and backhanded the blade into the creature’s calf. The solid hit made Caleb’s wrist joint rattle, and green lines scurried up the sides of the creature. The icy blue look transformed into a sickly jade hue, and the giant melted. An enormous splash splattered against the ground, and the water trickled down the lumpy hills. Gardiv nodded to Caleb, and Caleb nodded back.

  Three giants surrounded Sarai. She stood her ground with two daggers in hand. “Try it if you dare,” she mumbled. The giant to her right raised its sword to swing. Water droplets sprayed in the air as it brought the blade down. Sarai jumped back and darted towards the creature. Another giant pounded the ground behind her, and she rolled forward. The third giant sliced down at her from the left. She flipped to the right to escape.

  She dipped her blade in the Polarist Anaerobia and jabbed it into the ice. A massive ice lump swelled on the creature. Then she jabbed the lump with a Spiritualist tip, then a Materialist tip, then a Naturalist tip creating a Domination zone. The warp swirled around her, nullifying Raylen’s power over the creatures. The giants melted, splashing onto the ground.

  As the water spilled, four Polarist soldiers beset her. Each one shackled one of her limbs with an ice chain and pulled it. She clenched her eyes and looked up to the sky. Her body was being torn apart.

  “Caleb!” she yelled. Before she could open her eyes, the shackles around her dropped. Caleb had lodged arrows into each of the soldier’s foreheads. He chipped the ice away with a Naturalist charged dagger.

  Looking across the field, the Pioneers were being overrun. Giants crushed his comrades beneath their massive heels, and the Polarists compelled the Pioneers to give into their deaths. Raylen stood far off, commanding the creatures behind a pillar of ice with holes that he could see through.

  “Caleb, this is bad. We can’t keep fighting these things!” Sarai yelled.

  “Caleb!” a voice called.

  He turned and a woman in a golden sari ran towards him. “We’re here. Where are the Naturalists?” Shauna asked.

  “Regrouping,” said Caleb, tossing a glance back to the leveled city.

  Shauna was speechless. This was her home, and the Polarists were tearing it apart. “We have to get them to move onto this location before the Spiritualists will come out of hiding.”

  “Run back and check their status,” said Caleb.

  Shauna sprinted towards the city. A giant grabbed her and raised her above his head. She winced from the ice creature’s strength. Without aiming, Caleb shot a Naturalist arrow at the giant. Shauna slipped through its watery hands and smashed into the ground. She lay still for a moment, pulled herself up to her knees, and headed back for the city.

  Rushing back into the battle, Caleb flicked his Naturalist charged dagger at another giant. The creature vanished. “Use Naturalist shots!” Caleb yelled. A cool breeze brushed across his thighs. The gusts were leading to the creation of more ice giants. “We have to stop Raylen!”

  Caleb raced towards the pillar of ice that Raylen sheltered himself behind. Several sets of heavy footsteps followed behind him. A column of ice from underneath launched Caleb into the sky. A giant caught him before he hit the ground. The giant turned to water, and Caleb rolled when he hit the snowy terrain. He looked back, and Sarai tossed him a salute.

  As Caleb neared Raylen’s pillar, two women materialized beside Caleb. It was the twins. Where did they come from? In stride with one another, they followed Caleb to Raylen. The twins seeped into the spiritual plane and reappeared with their hands around Raylen’s chubby neck. Caleb shot a Materialist shot and shattered the ice pillar. Raylen was exposed.

  “Please don’t hurt me. I’m sorry,” Raylen begged with his hands covering his face. Snowflakes from above rested on his fat fingertips.

  The twins tightened their grip around his throat.

  “It’s over, Raylen. We’re taking you to the council,” Caleb demanded. The giants across the field melted and splattered onto the landscape.

  “It’s far from over!” Raylen laughed and froze his body. The twins retreated back into the spiritual plane as the temperature dropped. Raylen unfroze himself and wobbled quickly back towards the tree line.

  “Don’t let him get away!” Caleb yelled. The Pioneers chased after him. The Polarists protected Raylen with ice spikes that burst from the ground to keep Raylen from getting shot down.

  A trail of ice followed behind him, forming two gigantic ice stumps, the size of small buildings. Ice solidified high above the canopy as Raylen formed a mammoth ice giant. The creature had no weapon – only its fists, and when its jaw opened for the silent roar, chunks of ice pounded against the ground.

  Caleb lifted his hand, commanding the Pioneers to hold. Gardiv did the same. The creature punched the earth, and the ground quaked. Pioneers tumbled over from the power of its massive fists. The Pioneers retreated back towards the city.

  “Kill them all!” Raylen hollered to the Polarists. His soldiers charged the battlefield, hacking down the fleeing Pioneers. The mammoth iceman stomped furiously behind them, crushing any Pioneers who had fallen.

  “Naturalist shots only! Naturalist shots only!” Caleb yelled. A green volley of arrows pierced through the sky and attacked the mammoth. Water rushed off the beast, and it stumbled to gain its balance. The Polarist soldiers focused their powers onto the giant, and its stability was restored. It roared silently again, and more ice chips crashed onto the ground.

  More Spiritualists raided the field from the west. Their emblems were nullified by the Domination of the Polarists. The giant turned and chased after them. The earth trembled beneath its feet. The crazed Spiritualists scattered in all directions as the giant chased.

  Shauna halted, standing near the crumbled wall of the city, waiting for Caleb. “The Spiritualists are too weak to stand up against the Polarists. The spirits have control of their minds. I have to do something.”

  “What are you going to do?” Caleb asked between breaths.

  “Can your people protect me?” she asked.

  “We can try,” said Sarai.

  Shauna entered the city and cradled herself behind the wreckage of a destroyed building. Caleb, Sarai, and a few other Pioneers stood near her picking off any oncoming Polarist soldiers.

  Shauna’s eyes turned Black. Then from red to yellow. Then to white. Spirits hissed and roared all around her as she slung herself into the Hellstate. “Caleb!” she growled. Her voice was not her own, but she reached for him.

  He grabbed her hand, and she concentrated on all the Spiritualist soldiers in the area. Spirits materialized and sank back into the spiritual plane as she connected with all of the Spiritualists. She felt their emotions, their fears, their ambitions, and their passion for victory, which lay dormant beneath the terror and the confusion that they felt.

  Her hand trembled in Caleb’s as the darkness flocked to her. She commanded all of the soldiers to come back and fight. Caleb turned to fight with them. “No! Don’t go!” Shauna’s dark voice bellowed.

  Caleb crouched beside her. “I’m right here. I won’t leave you. Sarai, roun
d up the Pioneers. Take down that giant!”

  “Take’em down!” Sarai ordered.

  Naturalist shots slit through the sky, chipping into the giant. The Polarist kept the creature maintained. The giant pounded through more Pioneers. The Spiritualists charged the Polarists who were focusing on keeping the giant stable.

  Slashes of swords cut down the blue-stoned soldiers as the Spiritualists were fighting for Broughtonhaven. An army of battered soldiers marched through the broken down town of Irez. The Naturalist had survived the chaos from the beasts. Governor Rian Pryle stood at their head.

  Pointing with his sword and touching the side of his head, he commanded the Naturalists to focus their power on the giant. As they took control of the life forms’ wills, the life forms warred against the Polarists' control. Waves of water rushed down the giant as it collapsed onto the field.

  Ice boulders rolled down the miniature sloped hills. Caleb’s chest pounded as the explosions returned. Jensen and the Materialists were taking out more of the Polarist soldiers.

  Caleb felt like the bones in his hand were cracking as Shauna squeezed him. He squeezed back to resist the pain, but her strength was supernatural.

  “I can’t hold it any longer, Caleb!” Shauna growled. Her muscles tensed, her white eyes glowed, and her violet emblem flickered rapidly.

  “You have to hold on for a little longer. You can do it, Shauna.”

  “I’m slipping into the darkness,” she whined, staring at the ground.

  Caleb grabbed her other hand and stared into her eyes. The brilliance of the light radiated his face, highlighting each tender snowflake that fell from the sky. “You listen to me. Do not let go.”

  “The voices of the spirits...I can hear them. They're calling to me.”

  “Don’t you dare give in!” Caleb demanded. “Yael!” He called out over his shoulder to the one person who could help Shauna. “Don’t you do it! Don’t you dare go away!” Shauna’s head wilted to the side, and Caleb held up her up.

  Cheers erupted on the battlefield as the last of the Polarists surrendered. But Caleb stayed with Shauna.