by Brian Nyaude
31
From up here, I could see everything clearly. The castle was far much larger than it looked outside. The thought of just heading straight in without my allies did occur to me; however, I brushed it away. It was then, I noticed one of the large lions drop down completely defeated by an unknown enemy. But who could have done it?
Dashe and Ogana were far off on opposite sides to have done this.
“You are wasting time Riyo,” a shallow voice commented from behind me calmly.
I shrugged off completely caught by surprise. Showe was right behind me, floating effortlessly with a large long sword in his hands. I was surprised by the fact that he even spoke to me. I was deeply even more astounded by the fact that I had not sensed him approach me at all. If he was my enemy, I would have been defeated.
“Where have you been?” I asked demanding an answer right away. “The good question is how did you get here?”
He smiled with a weird grin as he hovered closer to me. Yes, somehow Showe could fly and I am guessing it was white water mist related. I had so many questions, but I doubted he was willing to answer all of them right away. Without ushering a word, Showe adjusted the hilt on his sword and tightened his grip greatly. He gaze turned to the other large manned lions, soaring quickly down towards them. Silent man, just exactly how I imagined him to be. The lions howled ferociously and began to move quickly through the ground. I think seeing one of their own fall made them angrier and wilder.
“We’ll talk later,” he yelled back to me before turning his head back towards the creatures.
Amazing, I had never seen someone fly so elegantly and yet so fierce fully into battle before. It was almost worthy of praise. Showe calmly moved amongst the beasts cutting and slicing any of the smaller lions that got in his way with unrelenting mercy. The remaining wild manned lions became more aggressive as they began to move around him at the same time. These creatures were tough and resilient; the legends about them all seemed true now. They were a rare breed in my world and were only found in the most dangerous places. In terms of being deadly, they were ranked amongst the top three, between wigra snakes and the fire bears. Their fierce power and strength in combat were truly worthy of their legend. I had once heard that it took more than a hundred warriors to bring down one of the infamous and greatest of these beasts. To think that Katarina Fox had so many of these animals at her disposal was truly a frightful thought.
“Watch out Riyo,” Showe screamed to me as one of the huge lions had sneaked out on me from behind in a powerful jump.
Quickly I ducked, but it was too late. With its mouth open and so close to me, it roared out to me loudly and as powerfully as it could. A gust of massive winds sprouted out and consumed me up into the air. The force of the winds pulled me further up, not giving me any chance to escape. I could still see everything happening down below, but I could not do much for myself. The lion that did this to me landed on the ground and began to watch me curiously. Stupid beast, I was going to make it pay for this before this night was over. In the horizon, I caught a glimpse of light from the sun. It was just a matter of time now before the light from it touched the ground. How would I get myself out of this situation?
I needed to dispel this wind by using something even more powerful. Without wasting any more time, I tensed my body and closed my eyes. Doing so, I was able to summon my second blast technique by channeling all my thoughts into pure anger. To my surprise, it did not happen as I expected it to. My right arm was glowing in red and almost orange in color. This had never happened before, it was sort of new and yet not that much surprising. My two flintlocks appeared in both of my hands, clocked on the hilt each by a long large white sash. Looking left and right, I turned my body around and found my opening out. Time was critical, every second wasted only brought me further into the clutches of oblivion. I rotated my body side to side, putting a huge strain on my back, trying everything possible to keep myself balance. Incredible as it seemed, the winds did not lose their strength even after hurling me up for what seemed like a while. I got desperate and shot quickly with both flintlocks in the opposite direction. It worked, the force of my second blast bullets collided with the powerful winds, stopping me halfway far up in the sky. I felt dizzy and disoriented for a second as I rested a little. I was finally free, now I could go back and rejoin the others. We had wasted enough time as it is; Katarina was probably enjoying herself by watching us suffer at the hands of her beasts. Descending down slowly, I took a glimpse of my surroundings beneath me, coming up with a perfect plan. Unless we could take out those lions, we were not going to make it into the castle before the sun came out. What was I going to do? Had I been by myself, I would have been inside the castle by now. My friends were still down there waiting for me. Even though there was barely enough time left, I went back to help them fight off the large lions. With my head down in the air, I made a hasty free fall and approached the castle walls hastily.
I wasn’t going to use the power of the coat to get down. All my energy was going completely to my guns. The sashes got longer and swerved rapidly following the wind. It seemed the more my anger increased, the longer and wilder they got. I took advantage of the air and used it to increase my speed further as I got closer to the ground. Just as I was about to pass over the first castle wall, I caught a glimpse of people inside the castle. They were not soldiers, more like normal hopeless citizens of this city. It was so terrible, their vital life force was weakening. Were they the prisoners? They had to be or what else were they?
Finally, I managed to get close enough to slow down and hover a few feet from the ground. I caught a glimpse of Dashe near the tunnel. He had collapsed and barely looked conscious. One of the large lions saw him and was approaching his position in a dangerous way. I had to help him, although at this range I didn’t know if I could make it in time.
“Dashe wake up,” I screamed as loud as I could while remaining stationary.
He wasn’t moving at all, something was disrupting his energy. It was that purple sword, it just had to be. He had been holding it in his hands while he fought off the lions. His life force was being consumed by it somehow little by little. The large beast stopped on top of him, gazing down at him silently. It opened its large mouth widely, ready to roar at him. Fairly odd, all these creatures did was roar winds at people. I mean I expected them to use their teeth and claws too, but I wasn’t one to complain. Raising my left gun up, I fired a bullet of rage at the creature, hitting it in the back. The large lion fell backwards, crashing hard against the wall. As I feared, I had only bought Dashe a few minutes of life. He was still danger. That sinister sword in his hands was stealing even more of his life force than before. Within seconds, the lion was back to its feet, charging again at Dashe. Truly irritating, their toughness was getting us nowhere fast. In most cases it was best just to avoid these ruthless beasts; however, this wasn’t a normal case. I fired another bullet of rage directly into its spine, knocking it into the ground forcefully. To my surprise, it got up again for more.
“What a persistent and annoying creature.”
What did it take to get rid of these beasts? I took a large breath of air and shifted my weight to the left, letting my feet touch the ground. I jolted hard through the terrain surrounding the castle, trying to make my way towards Dashe. Like the lion, the sword was also trying to kill him.
“Dashe wake up you idiot,” I screamed groaning in pain, I still hadn’t fully recovered yet. My feet felt heavy and as if I had stepped on tiny needles.
The wild manned lion leaped above him, ready to roar again at Dashe again. This creature was too persistent. By a fraction of a second, I somehow got to him and grabbed him before the lion could stomp on him. The lion smashed into the ground and charged at us relentlessly. Dashe kept losing even more of his life force. Even now, he was still holding onto that sinister sword. I shrugged at him to throw at it away; however, he didn’t. I flew into the air, firing three bullets of rage at the lion’s
head. The large lion let out a large howl releasing massive winds from its mouth uncontrollably. Ogana, Showe, and Kaya were at the other end to my east, fending off a combined force of smaller and larger lions. At this rate, we were not going to survive, much less make it inside. Just to be safe, I fired again at the large lion, hitting it on the head. It fell greatly to the ground and did not get up finally. Sort of strange, it felt like my second blast power had got stronger. With this power, our chances of survival grew greater. That being said, it was still frustrating that I was having this much trouble getting rid of her pet guards. On the bright side, I had managed to take down one lion, leaving only fifteen more of them. This was certainly proving how weak I still was.
“This is going to take a while isn’t it?” Showe asked landing beside me like a shadow in the wind. “We all can’t stay here or this might go on forever. There is about seven of these huge lions left and at least fifteen small ones among them. You know what I’m about to say next right?”
Unfortunately I did know exactly what he was about to say next. I didn’t want to admit it, but it looked like our only option left. Slowly I shifted my weight, holding Dashe tightly in my right hand. The purple sword on his hand was glowing lightly. Only I knew what was going on and possibly the only one who could get it away from him. I yanked away the blade and gripped into my left hand.
Whoa! The energy I felt from it was immense. It was glowing even more strongly than before, consuming portions of my energy. The sword felt like a storm, vibrating softly in arm. If this truly was Anrio’s sword then it explained how he was able to take down so many warriors by himself. Such a weapon could have only come from one man and him only, the legendary sword smith Fen. Only he could create such a powerful sword like this. But why would he create such a thing?
“Give me my sword,” Dashe rattled stretching his hand to get back the sword that was in my possession. “It’s my sword Rid, I found it first.”
No way, this weapon was far too dangerous. I couldn’t let him have it at all cost, such a terrifying sword only spelled trouble later. Releasing him from my grasp, I backed away from him and held the sword even more firmly.
“Riyo there’s too many of them,” Showe yelled dodging two huge lions by soaring out of the way. “We have to retreat for now and try again another day.”
No! Yes! What should I do? We were so close and yet so far away. The thought of retreating back was too maddening to think of.
His words were truly causing turmoil inside me. I battled with myself to find the right decision take. Nevertheless, Showe was right. There was no way we were going to make it inside before the sun came out. It would be foolish indeed to continue going. In that instant, I had a vision of Paul and Tye. Faintly real, they smiled at me and nodded to my unknown decision. Yes, I was done hiding like a coward. It was then, I vowed I would never wanted to run away again. My choice was clear now.
“You are right Show,” I replied starting to levitate a few inches off the ground.
“Take Ogana, Dashe, and Kaya with you. I will hold them off for as long as my body can, and join you later. No arguments Showe and do it now!”
I lied to him, I wasn’t going to leave at all. Alone, I had a better chance of infiltrating the castle. Paul and Tye were on the other side of this wall and I wasn’t willing to just leave. For some reason, I felt stronger and more determined. I grabbed Dashe and marched quickly towards the tunnel. The smaller lions attacked us, leaping from every direction. I ducked down out of the way and kept on running. I felt a tremendous amount of energy in the castle, reinforcements obviously.
“Ogana take Kaya and Dashe and use the tunnel to escape,” I yelled at him once I was close to his position. “Destroy your way out of the tunnel once you are far from here.”
Ogana looked confused; however, he didn’t question my motive. He followed my order and took Dashe and Kaya. A legion of lions encircled us. It looked like they weren’t going to allow anyone to leave at all. Bending on one knee slightly, I dropped my left shoulder a little and raised my right arm up. I can’t believe I was about to try again, my third blast attack. It was the only thing that could wipe them all out in a single instant. As always, time was the problem. The amount of time and concentration it took to fuse the energy together was something I didn’t have. Well at least one thing was going according to plan, the others were safe and sound in the tunnel.
Suddenly, one of the small lions galloped towards the tunnel, moving swiftly with its jaw open. I moved in front of it and cut it down using the purple sword. Amazing, it cut apart the creature effortlessly into two while taking away its life force. The sword glowed even brighter after that, whirling strongly in the air. This power, it was incredible, I wanted to see more of its power. Growling menacingly, I saw the other larger lions rampage their way towards me in great leaps. Everything became complete chaos once the lions began to go out of control. I rolled out of the way, shooting one bullet to seal off the tunnel.
“Great job Rid,” I shook my head in disbelief. “Hope you know what you doing.”
