by T. E. Joshua
“Bodaway, you’re mine,” the nameless warrior said.
He ran over to me and suddenly stopped. He took no more than four steps and froze in midstride. He eyes popped outward and dropped to his feet. Then I saw Lyonell aiming his arm at the man and closing his fist. He had him in a telepathic grip. He used the element of light to manipulate what little energy the warrior had acquired from the Covenant.
“Are you a fool?” he asked the man. “You’re only a third-class warrior, a mere expendable spy. Bodaway would have finished you off in a matter of seconds.”
“M-m-my chief … I wanted to show this no-good …” he pleaded as he struggled to speak.
“Silence, you fool! You’ve served your purpose and are of no use to me anymore. Now die.”
Without warning, Lyonell pointed his left finger at him and blasted a small blue beam through his heart. The man flew forward and landed a few feet from me, a dumbfounded expression on his face.
“You would’ve killed your own clan members to get to the Awakened Reborn?” I asked.
He remained in position with his finger still pointing where the dead man had been standing.
“I never really liked him anyways. He wanted to become the fifth member of the Wolf clan, but as you already know, he wasn’t worthy to stand alongside me, the number eight.”
“You’re the monster here,” I said angrily.
Then a massive wave of water erupted from the ground. A fire hydrant flew across the west end as James floated above the spring of water. Bors Sampson, the bald-headed boy, charged after James. Before long, the two first-class tyrants collided in an all-out assault. James repeatedly yelled to me, “Tristan, I got this.”
“Bors will stop Eis. Even the element of water can’t handle a brute like Bors Sampson. You know this, little brother,” Lyonell said mockingly. “Windstorm Nodin is fighting our sister. She’s a dead shot with our mother’s black bow. Alope is nowhere to be found, and you can’t beat me!”
The words “Alope is nowhere to be found” immediately caught my attention. She was the weakest of us all, a lower-ranking of the elite class status, next to the Winddick boy. Number twenty-eight. I won’t allow her to die young. Not Alope. Not the girl I had known since childhood.
“Alope!” I yelled across the west end.
“I’m here,” a girlish voice said from nearby. I glanced to my right. There, underneath a pile of rubble, was Alope. She was hurt with little energy to spare.
“Alope.”
“Tristan, don’t worry about me. Kick his ass,” Alope said in anger.
Lyonell began to laugh, closing his eyes. “She’s not harmed. I only wanted to worry you. I swear your love for that girl is unbelievable. I’m surprised you haven’t tied the knot with her.”
“Just finish him,” Alope said as she struggled to move the rubble. Then I rushed over and pushed the concrete out of the way, allowing her to crawl through.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Look out!” she shrilled as I was hit from the side. Lyonell knocked me into a brush of wild thorns. A few small cuts on the face, but I rapidly healed them using my dema.
“Damn you, Lyonell,” I said, struggling to keep my balance.
“Your demonic powers won’t last much longer. You’re slowly getting weaker the more you use them.” He was right. The more I used my darker abilities, the more I became one of them, and the weaker I became—the less human I become.
“Let’s continue.”
He suddenly attacked, raising his dema back to the third pillar of awakening. He leapt high in the air and descended from the smoke like an eagle snatching up a field mouse. He charged at me at full speed as I reacted with an energy wave. No, I shouldn’t have. The wave of light reverted back to me and hit me in the chest. The impact from the blast knocked me into more rubble. As my head hit the concrete, a gush of blood oozed out. Stupid!
As the chaos of clans continued, Lyonell marched in my direction, taking small steps and smiling with a sense of satisfaction. I knew that face. It was the same smile he gave Reborns when he was about to behead them. They often cried and begged, thinking that their God would help them against such evil. Nothing ever happened.
Fire, it was my only real defense against a tyrant like him. I flicked the metal switch on my lighter. The flames covered my right hand. “That’s it. The fire is mine to command.”
“Your precious fire can’t save you.”
He leapt onto me, putting the fire out with the quickness of his hands. He kicked the lighter from my palm and pressed his foot into my throat. My dema lowered; I couldn’t summon up more while he had me pinned down.
“Bors is stronger than Eis the second. Falsha has Nodin covered in dust, he can’t see. Alope can’t defend herself against me. Liyah and the Awakened Reborn are hiding like cowards,” Lyonell said gruesomely. “You’ve been defeated, little brother.”
“Lyonell, stop!” I begged.
“It’s no use. Even if you raise your dema to match my own, you could awaken. It’s not worth it. No one has ever reached the fifth pillar and reverted back to normality. Father and the Tribal Council warned us not to ever enter the fourth or fifth pillar.”
He was right. He had already reached the third pillar. I would have to surpass the fourth pillar to match his power. I was finished. He could have killed me at any given moment. I was at the mercy of his boot.
Then, as unexpected as ever, the fragrance began to cover the grounds. Lyonell’s nostrils flared with disgust as his eyes found the Awakened Reborn walking out of one of the classroom buildings.
She seemed immoveable, almost like a statue.
“Stop it!” she yelled.
Lyonell stopped pressing his foot into me and snickered. I didn’t understand why—but then I saw him. Sean Winddick crawled on the ground near her. I sensed the rise in his dema, to the first pillar at least.
“Natalie! Get away!” I ordered.
Two single blades emerged from his gauntlets; he was about to behead her. Sean dove over a line of bushes and then jumped above her head. Natalie ducked her head just as he swung his blade, barely cutting a few strands of her blondish hair.
The he began to attack her in earnest, nearly cutting into her face.
“No!” I shouted and entered the fourth pillar. My body wouldn’t be able to handle all of the power before long; I would eventually awaken and become less human. I could feel my muscles mass increasing from within. The dark red aura surrounded me as I vowed to kill Sean Winddick before he beheaded Natalie.
“This can’t be it,” I spat demonically.
“You better stop using so much of your dark energy. The demon within might come out, and you won’t able to revert back. Don’t die for someone who means nothing to you, to us, to the Covenant,” he warned with spite. I could feel his hatred breathing down my neck as my vision became tinted with red. The thirst to awaken was at hand.
“She means a lot to me—more than you’ll ever know, brother.”
“I don’t want to know. Now watch as Sean cuts her head off,” he whispered into my bleeding ear, pushing me deeper into the ground. Then my powers began to decrease; the fourth pillar died as I slowly descended into the third. I couldn’t move.
Natalie barely dodged the quick swings from Sean. Before long, he cornered her between a statue and the wall of the Manchester Library. She had a horrified expression on her face. He grinned and licked his lips while Lyonell snickered a bit.
“Here it comes,” my brother said.
Then I felt it—the same light energy from the moment I had first encountered Natalie in her bedroom. I froze out of fear and prepared my mind for what was about to happen as the demon within stalled. I couldn’t surpass the fourth pillar, because the demon knew what I knew—Natalie was about to unleash her awakened powers upon Sean Winddick. I felt the entity’s fear—and my own.
Then I saw Sean raise his hand high above him and swing down at her neck. The blade collided with s
omething, something I hadn’t seen before now. Sean struggled to push the edge of the blade past an invisible shield of energy. He was pushed back a few feet as he stumbled, trying to keep his balance.
Lyonell eased his grip on my neck and stared wonderingly at the shield of light. “What’s this?” he questioned.
Now was my chance.
I pushed him off of me. He tripped over a block of concrete as I stood to witness something only spoken about in campfire stories back home.
Natalie, the Awakened Reborn, began to walk a few steps toward Sean. Her eyes glowed white, and her hair slowly moved as if she were within a bubble of water. Her powers were incredible, almost godlike. She held out her hands and yelled, “No more!”
Then a wave of power swept through the west end, like air pushing everything away from Natalie. Dust roared upward and debris flew from her. I saw Liyah emerge from the same classroom building. She rushed over and grabbed Alope as they ran for cover behind a tree, both wrapping their arms around the trunk.
“What’s that light energy I am sensing?” Lyonell asked himself as he covered his eyes.
Then I saw it. Natalie extended her right hand outward. Sean laughed. “Reborns don’t possess the powers we have. We are the Covenant! Warriors of darkness! You have no energy!”
“Watch me,” Natalie declared boldly, and then a ball of white light formed around her hand. She blasted the ball of energy into him, and it exploded on impact, knocking him back through a window. I watched the glass shatter and cut his face as he disappeared into the hole of blackness.
“There’s no way!” Lyonell exclaimed. Then he charged after her, attempting to finish her off himself.
Natalie quickly turned toward him and yelled like a lion, a mighty cry of power as everything—and I mean everything—became her play thing. Tree branches were ripped from trunks. Twigs, dust, and various metals were caught up in the storm of wind coming from the Awakened Reborn. It was like a hurricane of immense power.
I veered back and was tossed into a bicycle bench. Falsha flew into a police car down the west end and Bors hit one of the trees. I couldn’t tell if he had been knocked unconscious or not.
“Tristan!” James yelled from behind a car. He was holding onto the metal handle as the winds of Natalie’s power erupted even more.
If she didn’t stop unleashing her power, then she would kill us all. I had greatly underestimated Natalie. Her power was too great for us, for the Wolf clan.
“Natalie!” I shouter, seriously doubting she could hear me.
Alope and Liyah were still bunkered down behind one of the statues, desperately clenching onto a tree. The winds became too much for us to see through. I didn’t think Aaron or Falsha could manipulate violent winds and dust at the magnitude Natalie could “You’re going to kill us!” I yelled to her.
Then she finally lowered her arms. The winds of power came to a halt and the strange white aura vanished. Her eyes returned to normal. The debris ceased being tossed about as though in a tornado.
At once, the Awakened Reborn felt to her knees. She appeared to be exhausted. Tears streamed down her face. Her forearm shivered a bit from the overwhelming outburst of light energy. “I couldn’t control it. I just couldn’t control the power,” she mumbled over and over.
I bushed the dust off of me as I ran over to her.
“I’m sorry,” I heard Natalie say. “The power’s overwhelming. I wasn’t expecting to use the gift of power.”
“Natalie!” I called out when I reached her.
She shamefully looked up at me with a sobbing face. Her pale cheeks were pinkish.
“I could have killed you, my friend. I could have killed you.”
I bent down and rubbed her arms. As I touched her jacket, I was shocked. A very small bolt of lightning erupted from our connection. The Awakened powers were still present.
“I couldn’t handle the power, Tristan. It just came out without any warning.”
“No, the power came when it was necessary. Remember? You told me that. An Awakened Reborn’s power only comes when he or she needs it. Not at will.”
“Yes. Yes. But I couldn’t handle it.”
“It’s okay, Natalie. You stopped them.” For how long, I didn’t know.
As wounded as I was, I managed to stand again and limp over to retrieve my sword. I reached down and picked it up.
“James! Aaron! Liyah! Alope! Are you guys hurt?” I yelled, looking around for any sign.
James responded first. “Yeah, I’ve got a few cuts and bruises. I’ll be okay.” He began to walk from behind the rusty car.
“Aaron?” I yelled.
A moment of silence passed. I didn’t hear anything. Liyah and Alope walked out from behind the tree. Liyah’s face was cut pretty badly. A line of blood ran across her forehead.
“Oh no, I am so sorry,” Natalie uttered.
“I’ll heal quickly. Don’t worry about it,” Liyah said.
“Where’s Aaron?” James asked.
“Aaron!” I hollered again. “He has to be still alive.”
“I’m here, you idiots.” I could hear him scuff from behind the Manchester Library. He was limping. “You almost killed us, you freak,” he said, directing his insult to Natalie.
“Aaron, calm down,” I said. “She—”
“No, her powers are too radical for us, for the Wolf clan, for the Covenant.” I noticed he had a deep wound on his right shoulder. I imagined he’d probably cut himself against a piece of metal.
“It’s over with, Aaron. Besides, that was some impressive power,” James said, easing the vibe between us.
“Yeah, that wave of energy knocked all of us to the ground. Are they still alive?” Alope asked me.
“Probably, but—”
Then I felt it. Everyone felt it—the surge of demonic powers streaming from behind us, the incredible rise in dema energy.
A loud cry raged from Lyonell. “She’s much more powerful than I had realized. I must end this before she uses more of her Awakened abilities and kills us all.” He was partially damaged; his clothes, like ours, were torn from the rippling winds. Most of all, she had shoved his pride aside like he was nothing more than a feeble insect.
“Shit!” Aaron exclaimed in fear.
Then Lyonell drew his sword with his right hand and lifted his left hand in the air with his fingers extended outward.
“He can’t take on all of us,” Alope said. “With the others out, we can beat him.”
“Wait,” I shouted. In that moment, I was the only one who knew the technique that he was about to unleash upon us—the blinding flash technique, a skill only Lyonell and I had that we had learned from our father.
“Prepare yourself, Lakota clan!” Lyonell yelled balefully.
“Shield your eyes!” I warned. I pressed myself into the ground with my forearms covering my eyes. Natalie lay next to me. “Close your eyes, now!”
“Blinding flash!” Lyonell shouted.
Then a radical, blazing white light appeared with rays of energy radiating from its bright core. The intense light exploded. A dome of blinding light shone all around Lyonell and continued to grow, striking onlookers in the eyes as the rays burned with an intense heat. The technique was a cheap but sneaky tactic.
I peeked out of my left eye and saw Aaron fall to his knees, “It’s too bright!”
“I can’t see,” Alope muttered.
The dome of light only lasted a few seconds. The aftermath of the blindness streamed for a little bit, however, allowing the user to fight with a killer’s edge.
“You fools fell for it,” Lyonell said.
As I opened my eyes, I saw the darkly image of my brother. He walked toward me, raising his dema back to the third pillar. My vision slowly came back. He pointed his fingers at Natalie and a small ball of blue light formed.
“Die,” he said grimly.
A small beam of light rapidly sped toward her. Without thought, I pushed Natalie aside as the beam pierce
d my chest. I was forced back into the concrete of the Manchester Library as the beam penetrated my shirt and peeled the flesh from my chest.
Natalie ran over to me, “Tristan, no! No! Are you okay?”
“Just run!” I ordered as I rubbed the singed fabric. The beam hadn’t speared through me. It only left a brown burn mark on my chest and partially melted my skin.
Natalie stood and ran around the corner of the building. My devilish brother dashed after her in madness, gazing upon her flesh as if he wanted to devour the poor girl. He had one thought on his mind: killing Natalie as quickly as possible. The idea of her being more powerful than he was drove him insane. As always, he had to be the strongest. It was his greatest desire.
Then, at once, I focused my dark energy and dug even deeper into becoming a monster. My dema roared. First pillar, my eyes shifted. Second pillar, my skin burned with passion. Third pillar, my teeth sharpened as I sneered at the face of my brother. Just a bit further, I thought. Fourth pillar, my muscle mass increased and my mind slipped into a blur. At just a little over 80 percent of power my speed matched his own.
“No!”
There! I tackled Lyonell to the ground before he could pursue her further.
I squeezed his neck. I could feel the additional limbs forming underneath my arms, almost like a smaller set of arms. I tried to suppress the urge. My vision became blurred and my mind drifted deeper into blackness. The demon within pushed to the surface. Could I be losing control? Could I awaken if I didn’t lower my dema? I hoped not.
“You would sacrifice awakening into a monster to protect her?” he asked.
“If I do become a devious creature, then I’m killing you before I do.”
“Too bad I won’t allow you,” Lyonell said, and then his eyes shifted yellowish, his skin began to smoke, his teeth sharpened even more, and his muscles bulged. “I’m back to the third pillar! My powers overshadow your own, little Bodaway.”
He overpowered me and tossed me back across the west end. There I landed on a broken bench, feeling a sharp pain on my leg. Then he appeared before me, pressing his foot against my burnt chest. I cried out. No one was around. I was alone, alone to face him.
