The Masters: RE: The New Cast (The Crisis in Time Series Book 1)

by Matthew Weldon

  “Thank you for absorbing my orb. My name is Master Lightning,” The man said.

  I was startled and shrieked. I fell to the ground and stared at Master Lightning.

  “Master Lightning? How are you here? I thought you were dead?” I asked, still in shock.

  Master Lighting explained, “I’m a part of you now. When you touched Radikus, you inherently used the ability to absorb my orb. I thank you for that.”

  I studied him more. He was wearing ancient metal armor and had long hair that was tied back.

  I was stunned but managed to speak, “Your welcome, my name is Tana.”

  “You must be the New Cast. I can tell from the power I’m sensing from you. It’s similar to what I sensed from the last Casts.” Lightning responded.

  “Yeah” I replied.

  I looked back at Radikus then back at Lightning, “Did I kill him?”

  Lightning explained, “Well, the absorption process takes a lot out of the person that is losing the orb. In this case, yes you did. Since he was battle damaged and worn out, the absorption process took the rest of what was keeping him going.”

  I stared back at Radikus and got lost in thought. Killing someone really hit me. I never thought of killing someone while on this journey. Or ever for that matter.

  “I need to meet up with Vlayru,” I told Lightning.

  He disappeared and I found Vlayru. We went back to the cave without saying a word and fell asleep. The next day, we got up and headed toward Thunder City. We got a room at a hotel in the city. Just then, Vlaykre appeared out of nowhere.

  “Hey, guys. How goes the pilgrimage?” Vlaykre asked.

  “Good, I feel that my powers have gotten better, And Tana has bagged her first power Master Orb last night, Master Lightning,” Vlayru replied.

  “Very good. I do have some news to share. We have learned that there is confirmation that a rebellion that has formed. There were reports of a group of people there meeting up and causing some issues in a small town north of Waterfall City. Their goal is to most likely start a war,” Vlaykre explained.

  I started to wonder more about this rebellion and questioned, “Do we know who these people are?”

  “Not yet, but we’ll get to bottom of it. In the meantime, who was the guy who had Lightning’s orb?” Vlaykre asked us.

  “I’m not sure. He was with these other guys in black robes, and he said his name was Radikus. I had to kill him,” I explained.

  Vlaykre had a look on his face. I could tell he knew I was feeling indifferent about it.

  “Don’t worry about killing people. If he wasn’t ready to die, he wouldn’t have fought you in the first place,” He told me.

  “I thought you fought for defense, not to kill or be killed,” I responded harshly.

  Vlaykre sigh, “Yes we do fight for defense. Sometimes there are people that need to be stopped, and the only to do so is to end their life. I’m not saying to go on a killing spree because that’s wrong. You just have to realize that this kind of fighting is going to lead to death.”

  I didn’t say anything. I just looked down with my arms crossed.

  Vlaykre changed the subject and asked, “You said there were guys in black robes, right?”

  I replied in a low tone, “Yes.”

  “Interesting. That matches the description of the rebellion members. You also said one of them was named Radikus, right?” Vlaykre asked in response.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Vlayru responded.

  “That sounds like…never mind. Continue with your pilgrimage, I’ll see you two later,” He said, followed by disappearing in the purple aura, as he usually does.

  “Well, I’m off to look around the city and enjoy myself,” Vlayru said and left.

  The next day, we left the Inn and started heading towards the Scorchis Kingdom.

  Chapter 5 – The Merc

  Two days have passed since we left the Inn. We were attacked by the shadow dwellers a few times while making our way the Scorchis Kingdom. It was good practice on how to use lightning powers. I started questioning how they knew where we were. Something didn’t sit well with me. It was getting late and we came up on another Inn. Even though Vlayru wanted to keep going, I couldn’t tell he was tired. We entered the Inn, got a room for the night, and got situated. After that, we went back downstairs and sat at a table in the eatery area. Vlayru ordered coffee for both of us. I looked around, only to see regular average people. He came back with our hot coffees in hand. I took a sip, and then went back to studying the people.

  “What are you sensing for, Tana? Their non-existing powers?” Vlayru asked after studying me for a second.

  “How did you know?” I asked.

  He took a sip of his coffee, then explained, “It’s not that hard to notice. Your power is radiating like a beacon when you do it. I can probably sense your power from three miles away. You need to be conspicuous right now. With all these attacks, the rebellion might be watching our moves.”

  “You’re right,” I said softly, drifting my attention behind me.

  I slightly felt an elemental presence coming from a man sitting in the corner.

  “Something is bothering me about that guy sitting by himself in the corner behind me,” I whispered to Vlayru, after looking back at him.

  Vlayru tilted his head slightly to see him. The guy was sitting there at a table in the corner, head looking down and eyes closed, drink in hand, taking slow sips. Up against the wall next to him was a sword in its sheath. He had wavy dark hair, what looked like red flex armor without the sleeves, black pants, and red boots. I glance over to another direction as two people in black suits. Something about them was familiar. They got up from where they were sitting and made their way over to him.

  “Are you, Mabel?” one of them asked the man in the corner.

  He looked up at the man, as he opened his dark gray eyes, and gave him a stern look.

  “First of all, it's Kaido. Don’t call me Mabel, I hate that name. Second, what do you want?”

  “We have a proposition for you if you’re interested. You’re a mercenary, right?” the other guy asked.

  “Yes, am I, what of it?” Kaido replied.

  “Absolutely nothing, we just wanted to make sure of who you were. So, will you take a step outside and listen to our proposition?” the first guy asked him.

  There was a pause. Kaido looking back down at his drink and took another sip.

  “No, I won’t. You guys are probably some powerful money dealing punk thugs who are looking to kill people who are against you. You probably think that someone of my expertise is skilled enough to kill all your enemies, which I probably am. After I do the deed, you will probably have me killed, so you guys get all the credit. Am I wrong?” He explained as he sat back, closed his eyes and took a sip of his drink.

  Stunned, they left without saying a thing and I was a little surprised. I decided to just stay out of it and it looked like Vlayru did the same. Later that night, we were off to bed. A couple of hours into sleeping, I was woken up by an assassin wearing full black clothing that made them blend in with the darkness of the room. They were both about to strike us with short swords. A few seconds later, a figure jumped in from the window and slashed the assassins. Both assassins fell to the floor.

  “You’re welcome,” the figure said.

  Vlayru jumped out of his bed and turned on the lights. It turned out to be Kaido. I looked around the room and saw that the assassins were dead and their blood got splattered over the blankets and on the floor.

  “Oh, man,” Vlayru said in disgust.

  Kaido then responded, “Sorry.”

  He then picked up the bodies and threw them out the window. He then picked up the blankets and did the same.

  “I’ll dispose of the bodies and the blankets. There are spare ones in the closet,” Kaido continued.

  “That was amazing! Thank you,” I said, in shock and happiness.

  “It was nothing. I saw them climb
into the window from outside,” He responded without looking at us.

  He began to make his way to the door to exit the room. I ran over to him and stopped him by grabbing his arm.

  “Wait, you’re the guy from earlier, who was offered a job by those guys in black suits. Kaido, right?” I asked

  Kaido turned around and replied, “Yeah, what’s it to you?”

  I thought of a question, “You’re a pretty good swordsman. Why, did you turn down that offer from earlier?”

  He looked at me for a moment, “Because I could tell they part of the rebellion that is stirring up. I Didn’t want any part of them. Plus, killing is against my policy. At the most, I hurt people to scare them.”

  I caught myself staring into his eyes and immediately looked away.

  Vlayru then asked, “You’re a mercenary, right?”

  “Yes,” he replied, “Do you have a job for me or something?”

  Kaido leaned in with a serious face, waiting for a response. I shook my head. He yanked his arm away and I looked at Vlayru who looked back at me, with an unhappy face and shook his head. He had paper towels in his hand, got down on his knees, started cleaning up the blood off the floor.

  “We are done here then. Goodnight,” Kaido told us and exited the room through the door, closing it.

  I went to go after him, for reasons I did not know of but was stopped by Vlayru’s voice.

  “No Tana, let him go. He’s a lone wolf. He probably has his own agenda, and we have our own. We don’t need him,” Vlayru explained, while focused on cleaning.

  “Yeah…maybe,” I replied as I went to help him finish the cleaning.

  Then, Vlayru crawled back into bed. I crawled into my bed after him.

  The next morning, I awoke to Vlayru getting ready, “Wake up, Tana. We should head out.”

  I sat up and said to him, “Why are you always up before me?”

  “Why are you always such a sleepy head?” Vlayru threw back at me.

  I got a little mad, crossed my arms, and yelled, “Am not!”

  “Then, how come most days when I come over to your house before noon, I’m the one that wakes you up?” He questioned back with a smirk.

  “Merry, I’m not like that,” I murmured under my breath while looking away.

  I felt my face get a little hot and I could tell I was blushing. I got out of bed, we got our stuff together, and checked out at the front desk of the Inn. After about ten minutes of walking down the road, we were stopped by the guys in the black robes from yesterday. they were walking in the opposite directing of us. I began to get cautious.

  “We know who you two are. It's time to pay for killing Radikus,” One of them said as they took out weapons and took off their hoods.

  One was bald and had a goatee. His weapons were brass knuckles.

  “My name is Uvar,” he said, introducing himself.

  The other one did the same with a grin, “…and you can call me Freed.”

  He had long, slick dark brown hair, and was wearing black gloves. His weapon that he was wielding was a sledgehammer. They both were wearing business suits. We both took out our weapons and got into a readied stance.

  “What do you want?” Vlayru asks them in a serious tone.

  They both smirked.

  “We are the Dark Rebellion, and our goal is to stop progression. We don’t need the nations to work to together. Things were just fine before the casts showed up and ruined everything,” Freed explained.

  Uvar continued, “Which is why when we heard there was another new cast and was about to start her journey to ruin our progress. We had to act as quickly as possible.”

  “So, we are a threat to you,” Vlayru questioned.

  I added, “Your motives are flawed. Progression will make the nations a better place to live in.”

  Uvar answered, “We aren’t here to argue, we are here to take you out. Something the assassins weren’t able to.”

  “This will be a fun fight,” I said sarcastically to Vlayru, while still keeping attention on them.

  “This should be nothing, now that you have lightning.” Vlayru pointed out.

  “Pshh, I know that,” I said right back.

  They jumped right at us. Vlayru blocked Freed’s attack, while I used Lightning Blast on the Uvar’s back. I then jumped in the air. Vlayru pushed Freed back, then shot a light beam at him, only for Freed to block it. I fell straight back down, charged up my sword with lightning, as I slashed Uvar with Lightning Blade. He tried to block it, but I cut his arms bad, causing an opening for me to slash at his chest. After cutting his chest, Uvar fell over dead. I looked at over at Freed, who was studying Uvar’s body and he had a look of rage about him.

  Vlayru got knock to the ground. Freed pounced into the air and was preparing to attack, but Vlayru struck the air with his Light Slash Attack, knocking Freed back. Vlayru got up.

  In the same direction as Freed, came a massive ice spike hurdling towards Vlaykre. I quickly blasted it with lightning and broke the spike just in time in order to save Vlayru. to our surprise, it came from the freed. We regrouped some ways back from Freed.

  “He has Master Ice’s Orb!” I pointed out to Vlayru.

  Vlayru took a heavy breath and replied, “Yeah, I retract what I said earlier about this being easy.”

  “Why couldn’t I have sensed it earlier?” I asked.

  Vlayru pondered for a moment “He must have found a way to conceal it. I would stick with lightning for this one. He can freeze any water attacks you throw at him.”

  “Durr, Captain Obvious. I’m not dumb,” I replied back.

  He looked at me with a mad face, then back to the enemy with a serious face.

  I lunged towards Freed. With a swing of our weapons, we blocked against each other’s attacks. He pushed me back, then ran fast towards me, attempted to swing his hammer. I jumped back and Vlayru lunged towards him. Freed put his hand up and did an Ice attack, Freezing Vlayru. Something told me he would block it by creating an ice wall, which he did, so I jump out at him and charged up my sword with lightning. He didn’t see me do it. I hit him with a lightning blade. He spun around and caught himself. I saw blood spill on the ground.

  Freed then appeared behind me suddenly, and slashed me in the back with a sharp icicle that he created in his hand. I closed my eyes in pain fell to the ground face down. A few moment later, I opened my eyes and turned my head as much as I could and saw Freed getting ready to smash my body with his sledgehammer. I Look past him and saw that Vlayru was running to save me. I couldn’t move. I closed my eyes and heard a loud clang noise.

  I opened my eyes in shock. It was Kaido, blocking the attack with his sword that was unsheathed. The blade was black with a white edge. Kaido pushed the blonde guy away and Vlayru shot Light beam at him. I started to feel movement in my body again. I sat up, took out a red pill, and swallowed it. I started to feel a little better and I stood back up. I charged my sword with lightning again and jumped up at him. With all my might, I used a Lightning Slash to end him. After that, I reached out to him with my hand to get the orb. Just then, Vlayru jumped in between me and Freed. He put his hand on Freed's arm and absorbed the orb. We landed nearby each other.

  I landed and curiously asked in an elevated tone, “Why did you do that?”

  He looked at me and answered, “I want to have a master orb. Tana, with your permission, I would like to hold on to this master orb. When you need It, I will gladly give it up. I Promise.”

  I thought to myself, ‘Why does he want it? He already has light powers.’

  After a few seconds, I finally decided, “That’s fine, you can hold on to it. I’ll hold you to your promise though.”

  Vlayru smiled and replied, “Thank you, Tana, you won’t regret it. I just want to know what it’s like to have a Master Orb.”

  “Well, I guess the best way to know is to have one yourself,” I said, smirking.

  Vlayru turned his attention to Freed and answered, “Agreed. I gu
ess the rebellion is watching our movements. It explains why we have been getting attacked by shadow dwellers.”

  “Seems like it. It also confirmed that it was rebellion or someone in the rebellion who opened the portals to the Shadow Realm.” I replied.

  We walked back to where Kaido was waiting. He was leaning up against a tree. This time he had armor on one of the shoulders and flex bands on his lower arms.

  “So, who are you guys?” he asked, looking a little puzzled.

  “That is kind of a secret,” Vlayru told him, with caution look on his face.

  Kaido studied us for a moment, then said, “I don’t know why, but I want to join you. I’m guessing you guys are on a journey or quest, right?”

  I looked at him curiously, and asked, “…there has to be a reason why you want to join us, right?”

  Kaido looked away and stood up off the tree.

  He looked back at us and responded, “I can’t really say, honestly. You guys just stood toe to toe against a guy using powers with powers of your own. I’ve never seen anything like it. I want to see what else you got.”

  Vlayru stepped closer to him, “Look, we aren’t some side show for your entertainment. We are on an important quest. Plus, we don’t need the likes of a mercenary in our group.”

  I grabbed Vlayru by the shoulder and told him, “It’s fine, Vlayru. I think we can trust him. Plus, we need more help on our side and a mercenary has fighting skills can be helpful in a fight.”

  Vlayru turned and looked at me.

  he asked, “Are you sure?”

  I looked at Kaido, while I pondered for a moment, then replied, “Yes, I’m sure.”

  I took my hand off Vlayru. He sighed and he calmed down.

  “Alright, then,” He said in a quiet voice.