Book 5
Chapter one
I remember standing in front of Shari and how he had somehow controlled the energy whip that came from Landon’s own fingers through the use of the armor. I saw the look of surprise on his face, as he died where he stood. It was not a pretty sight to see Landon being ripped apart one piece at a time, until there was nothing left but, his body parts strewn around me. I turned toward Shari and I saw the smug look on his face. There was nothing that I wanted more than to wipe it off in the most extreme way possible.
I wanted to run, go anywhere that wasn’t here and find some place to hide, until it blew over. The tendrils of energy and the gloves of the armor turned its attention towards me. The armor wasn’t allowing me to do anything to protect myself. I stood there defiantly, looking like I wasn’t afraid of anything, but inside I was shaking like a leaf.
I think I might have blacked out or it’s entirely impossible that the armor had taken control of me entirely body and mind. There was a flash, something that was distinctly familiar. I heard screams, but I could not perceive where they were coming from or what the source of their pain was. They were anguished screams and you could hear people yelling for help. There was none forthcoming.
I finally opened my eyes and what I saw stunned me beyond any words. I was standing in the exact same formation of charred black earth that I had seen when I came back from the Offus hunt. I was unscathed and not even the armor was showing any signs that it had been penetrated by whatever had made this fire. People were dead with those same surprised looks on their faces. It was like it had come out of nowhere. I thought for a moment that I was responsible, but I didn’t think even my armor was capable of something like this. It did protect me and I looked for Shari, but there was no sign of him.
I surveyed the area, turning my head from one side to the other with bile rising in my stomach the entire time. It was grotesque and this was not the aftermath of such an attack. This was mere moments after it had transpired. There was no way that I could wrap my mind around the fact that this entire town had been wiped out of existence. The bend was still there, but there was nobody to call it home. The houses were burned to the ground. There was nothing left and no reason to stay here.
“It came from over here.” I could hear voices coming ever closer. I was the only survivor and if I were to be found inside this massacre, I might’ve been mistaken for the perpetrator. I moved my feet and I was breathing a sigh of relief at the fact that I was even able to move at all. I ran to the only cover that I could find. The trees would give me a way to hide and watch what was going on. It was not one of my proudest moments and running away from my problems was not the way that I was accustomed to handling myself. “I came to get you, as soon as I saw the red armor.” It sounded to me like this person, whoever this was had now drawn their own conclusions.
“Do you have any idea of who was in the red armor, Akin?” I saw through the trees the black castle guardsman coming very close to seeing something that was going to shock them to their very core. “You know, there are many red armored warriors, not only in the competition, but in the red castle as well. We’re going to need something more concrete. Did you notice any kind of sign or maybe a marking on the armor that would indicate where it came from? Every armor is different and the creator of the armor always puts his mark on each individual one in a different way.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you want me to say. All I know is when they came here, I had to warn you. I heard through the Grapevine that there was another sighting of somebody in red armor that had been present at another attack. When I could feel the heat, I made it to a clearing, just in time to survive the onslaught.” From the looks of it, he was a peasant, a commoner that probably lived either at the bend or very near to it.
“I still need something…something…holy mother of… Markham.” They were now upon the devastation and I saw them standing stone cold still and not doing or saying anything. “This is exactly what happened at the end of the Offus hunt. This is not a coincidence. Somebody is purposely trying to destroy everything that we hold dear.” The one thing I didn’t understand was why this man had decided to pinpoint my armor and not of Landon’s white one. I felt like I was trapped and if I moved, they would have surely seen me. I needed to stay still and away from prying eyes.
The armor began to take on a different shape. It was more of a silky feel instead of the steel unyielding feel. I was able to peel it off and stand there in nothing, but my black pants and black shirt that I had borrowed from Braden. It was a little loose, but it had apparently hid the fact that I was a woman. Even the skintight feel of the armor had not been able to mold correctly over the baggy clothing. It allowed me to take on the guise of a man with nobody the wiser. I rolled the armor tightly into a ball and I tucked it underneath my arm and then I stepped backwards away from those that would probably consider me a threat if seen.
“I have to get this information back to Lord Vadam. He’ll be most interested to learn what has happened here today. There were those that were coming here to collect information from Shari.” Upon hearing that name, the young man stopped and folded his arms in a defensive posture. “It does you no good to hide him. Look at all of this, Akin. This is what comes from harboring a criminal such as Shari. We have no choice, but to bring him in dead or alive. This has been decreed by Lord Vadam and you really don’t want to go against his wishes.” The black armor that they were wearing felt menacing and I had no desire to go up against a contingent of Lord Vadam’s soldiers.
My best course of action was to get out of here and stay away from any kind of detection. I could feel the armor underneath my arm vibrating, like it was itching for a chance to go out there and cause more mayhem. It took all of my muscles in my body to hold it and prevent it from attaching to my skin. As it was, the piece that was sticking to me underneath my arm was now drilling like fingernails into the side of me. It was painful and had I been alone, I probably would have screamed in agony. I couldn’t do that and the best that it was going to get out of me was a soft whimper like a dog that was getting chastised for his behavior.
It certainly didn’t look good and I was going to have to feign some kind of surprise when I got back to the Black castle. Tomorrow was the hand to hand combat phase. There would be no armor and no weapons of any kind. It would be a barbaric display of men trying to measure their cocks. I didn’t have a cock, but I was gonna have to grow a pair and become a force to be reckoned with.
“What am I supposed to do? There’s nothing here for me anymore. I can’t possibly stay on the outskirts of the bend. I only live here because I wanted solitude and a peaceful and more tranquil way of living. I come to the bend to barter and get provisions for whatever I need. I don’t have that anymore.” He looked lost and I had to admit if I was in his shoes, I would want somebody to blame. He had obviously seen me in the red armor, but did not see Landon, although I had no idea how that was even possible.
“Lord Vadam appreciates your help in this matter. Unfortunately, there is nothing that we can do for you. I’ve already recorded your formal statement on a device that is built into my armor. This will be relayed back to Lord Vadam.” They tried to turn and walk back through the forest, but Akin grabbed the one in charge and turned him to face him. “This is not something that you really want to do, Akin. I understand that you’re feeling lost, but picking a fight with us is not the answer. Go home, regroup and then decide on what affiliation you are going to stand with. I think we both know that the bend and you are in direct violation of the castle act. You have decided to remain neutral and now that the bend has been destroyed, you have no choice, but to either live on your own and hope for the best, or come and be a part of something that is bigger than yourself.” I didn’t have the time to stick around and find out what his answer was going to be. I had to carefully traverse the forest. I did feel the armor vibrate considerably more when one of those holes into a black ab
yss was present.
I did not have to use the instincts of the Markham DNA, because I didn’t have it to begin with. I think that somebody was looking out for me, because I did not fall victim to one of those holes. Nor did I go crazy trying to avoid them at any cost. I didn’t even have to contend with any kind of wildlife. There was no sign of any two headed snake like thing. I was glad for that, but I was also slightly surprised, I would think it would at least try to mark its territory by hissing or doing something to announce its presence.
Chapter two
“Let me get this straight. You attacked both Landon and Gemini. You left Gemini for dead and then convinced Landon that somebody had attacked that was too quick for the naked eye to perceive. You took Gemini back to the black castle to recover from wounds that she probably won’t even wake up from in the morning. Then you go with Landon to the bend, after of course reaching out to the source and getting the necessary vision to find him. Landon attacks Shari, gets himself killed and turns his attention towards you. Wait…no… you said that the armor itself turned its attention towards you. You couldn’t move, do anything at all and yet you survived and woke up to find yourself in yet another decimation.” I did see that he was visibly distressed. Braden was pacing back and forth and wringing his hands and looking up at the heavens like he couldn’t believe that he had gotten himself into this.
“I didn’t do it or at least I don’t think I did. The armor has been acting a little bit strange from the moment that I put it on. It almost felt like it was trying to meld with my mind in some way. I tried to resist it, but it became painful and almost an exercise in futility. I wanted to tell you, but I wasn’t sure what your reaction was going to be.” I think I was right to keep this to myself and maybe I should have kept my mouth shut with Braden, but I just couldn’t do that.
“How I would react… How I would react. How the hell do you think I’m going to react? Landon is dead, Gemini may as well be and that town was destroyed by what is going to look like by your hand. This is very bad. Once they find enough clues, it’s going to bring them right back to my doorstep. Just tell me that you didn’t allow anybody to see you. The only saving grace in all of this is that nobody survived the attacks. There have been no eyewitness account.” This was the part of the story that I was dreading telling.
“That’s not exactly true.” He stopped pacing long enough to put his head down and start to shake it back and forth. “I know that you’re not gonna wanna hear this, but somebody saw the red armor coming into the village. Essentially everybody did, but they were all dead when I awoke from my blackout. There was one other one and he apparently saw me from a distance. Maybe he was blinded by the sun not to notice Landon in his bright white armor. The guardsmen are on their way back to Lord Vadam and I’m sure that he’s going to send a couple of men to the Red castle to interview those that own any of the red armor. I can even imagine that tomorrow when we arrive that there will be some interesting question for us to field.” He turned his head over his shoulder, looked at me with his eyes bright. He turned slowly, like all the wind had been blown out of him.
“This is really not good, Shana. I told you that it wasn’t a good idea for you to go with Gemini, but you wouldn’t listen. I know that you didn’t have a choice and once Lord Vadam makes up his mind, there’s virtually nothing that can sway him to a different thought. He’ll eliminate those that have an alibi that is airtight. We need to make sure that you have one as well. Landon is not going to talk and I doubt that they’ll be able to figure out that he was part of the charred remains.” I was going to mention something about criminal forensics, but I had a pretty good guess that they had nothing like that here.
“There’s no way for Lord Vadam to test individual samples?” He looked to me like I was completely around the bend. Actually, I had been to the bend and it was not for the luxury of vacation. I was there for a specific purpose to track down Shari. I still didn’t know if he was dead or alive. I guess, until he raised his ugly head from whatever hole he had crawled into, I was going to have to take it on face value that he was gone.
I pulled the armor from under my arm, feeling it pulling at me and sticking to me like wallpaper or maybe even flypaper. It peeled off and I thought for sure that it was going to take my skin with it. Braden seemed fascinated by this and he took it from my hands, but he did not feel any of the vibration that I had told him about.
“I’ve never seen armor act like the way you described.” He was staring at it and looking at it from all angles, but yet he still couldn’t see and feel what I had seen and felt. “This is all very interesting and all, Shana, but you can’t exactly tell anybody about this. If you did, they’ll eventually find out that you’re not from around here and I’m not just talking about from Markham. I know that you can handle yourself, but methods of torture in Markham are not exactly easy to withstand. You might be able to fight it for a little while, but the truth would come out eventually. Lord Vadam would have no choice and he would have to make an example out of you. Then again, he would be most happy to do that, considering that you backed him into a corner at the tournament.”
“Speaking of the tournament, we have one night and then we have to get back to it. I think I would like you to teach me some of the moves that you have learned in hand to hand combat. I can do the same thing for you. I get this feeling like we’re going to be sharing something very profound.”
“I’m going to try and not think about this for the time being. You know when I came home, Rankin was gone. The pen was empty, but it didn’t look like he had somebody open it for him. If I didn’t know any better, I think that he had unblocked it from the inside to get out.” This was not good news. Rankin was like a member of the family. I didn’t want to lose him, but if he was influenced by what the other Dragos had done, then he might’ve been already lost.
“I’m sorry for that, Braden. I really did like him and I hope that he comes back soon. In the meantime, we need to turn our attentions back to the tournament. I think it might be obvious that somebody is trying to play the angles and the odds. They are stacking the deck and trying to influence the decision of who’s going to win and lose. We can’t allow them to do that.” I think he was thinking the same thing I was. Somebody was leading the investigation right to me. A few more well chosen tactics and my name would be on everybody’s lips. “Before you ask me to pull out of the competition, I think it might be better than I don’t. Just listen to me for a moment.” He nodded his head, but he wasn’t at all happy about it. “If I were to pull out, it would look too suspicious. Right now, they only know that somebody in red armor was at both scenes.”
“That’s more than enough for Lord Vadam to dig deeper. It won’t take them that long to figure this out. It might be during the tournament, or it might be on the eve of the victor raising their hand. For now, we will get ready for the next phase.”
We went outside in the backyard standing toe in tow and watching each other’s reaction to the moves that we were going to bring to bear. I felt his hand strike the side of my head. It made me a little dizzy and discombobulated. I felt like my entire body was sinking ever deeper into the murky gaps of unconsciousness. I was able to shake my head before it happened, but that was the kind of moves that I was looking for. He went through it in slow motion and I was able to pick up subtle nuances that I could use in the field of battle.
“I’m offering you a gift, Shana. These moves have been passed down from generation to generation. This is what is called Garrock. Fortunately, this type of fighting has no uniform style. Everybody puts their own spin on it, so whatever you do that is different from everybody else is going to be your best shot to win this hands down. With the final six comes a possibility that one of us will be knocked out of the competition. After this round, there will be only three. The final three will be going to the unknown factor and those two that come out on the other end will be going to the final competition of the Quest for Vanguard.
It is possible, but very unlikely that you and I will be the only one left standing. I don’t believe that has ever happened before.”
He came at me quickly and I moved to avoid him, but got this swift kick in my stomach. It lifted me right off my feet and I landed on the ground with my body doubled over.” You need to be ready for just about anything, Shana.
“No…fucking…kidding.” I did not mean to swear, but it was necessary when I was feeling a pain that I’d never felt before in my life. It was like somebody had pressed their fists into my stomach with such force and determination that it was hard to resist. I did strengthen my abdominal region and that flexing alone had probably saved me from internal injuries.
He reached out his hand and that was the last thing he should’ve done. I grabbed it and I turned him in such a way that I was able to lift him off the ground and flip him, until he was lying on his back with my foot into the crook of his arm and his shoulder. I could’ve easily dislocated it. I went through that move with him several times and he was quite interested to see just how easy it was.
We stood once again toe to toe and this time I brought my boxing skills into the ring. I moved and parried, but found once again that he was unpredictable. His leg struck out and took out my left knee. I was now hobbling around like an old man chasing around nurses in uniform. They would squeal in a teasing fashion, but they knew that he was no threat.
I jumped up into the air and put my ankles around his neck, before pulling down and throwing him off balance and once again back onto his back. I’d learned that watching wrestling. It was not an easy move to perform, but done right, it could seriously hamper your competitors chance to regroup.
“That was quite something, Shana. You’re going to have to go through that with me over and over again, until I master it or at least have a way to counteract it.” We went through one move after another. I brought to the table not only my boxing expertise, but also a couple forms of martial arts. The one that was quite the rage was Karate. I’d also taken a kickboxing class that made my legs almost feel like they were made of iron.
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