*With the Hargus post destroyed, Shadow Eye reached their destination and split into two teams to cover the west and north area of the city. Dust, Ryuuji, Jin, Amarti and Zia took the westside while Raika, Sanada, Morgan and Jade took the northside. Both teams wished each other luck and went their separate ways. The westside team encountered a number of Hargus soldiers on their end, but it was nothing they couldn’t handle. While on the deserted and ruined streets of the city, the group heard the sounds of bombs and gunfire not too far from their location. Not wanting to get caught in the ensuing chaos, the group leaves the streets where they find themselves in a strip mall. The place was deserted with many of the shops broken into and supplies nowhere to be seen. They saw a number of bullet holes in the walls, broken glass and hints of explosions going off*
(Dust): Man, this place has seen better days.
(Amarti): Stay close and keep your eyes open. There’s a good chance there could be soldiers here waiting to ambush.
(Zia): I don’t sense any other presence besides us, master Amarti. This place has long sense been abandoned.
(Ryuuji): Let’s not take a chance and get out of here quickly then. We’ll be at a huge disadvantage if we stay here.
*The group slowly moves through the strip mall keeping a lookout for any possible soldiers passing through. They see a couple of dead bodies on the ground as they continue to walk. Some of the bodies were soldiers, knights and civilians who got caught in the crossfire. Jin’s face got a little pale at the sight of dead bodies. He starts to take deep breaths to calm his nerves*
(Dust): You holding up alright there, rookie?
(Jin): Yeah, just need some water.
*Jin grabs a canister from his waist and begins to drink from it*
(Ryuuji): I can’t believe they got civilians caught in the crossfire.
(Zia): I imagine they must have hidden here for safety and panicked when the fighting started to happen.
(Jin): *Deep breath* You know, I’ve been wondering. Why was Orion classified as a neutral city? Shouldn’t it have fallen under the control of Brister or Hargus?
(Amarti): The city was composed of citizens from the surrounding area who had no homes as well as those from both Brister and Hargus. This city was an experiment to see if we could broker some kind of peace between us and Hargus. At first things were shaky, but soon both sides learned to live together and embrace the other.
(Jin): What do you think will happen to this city after the battle is over?
(Amarti): If we’re lucky the city will be restored, and it’ll fall under the rulership of the side who won. In the end however, the city will just be seen as a failed experiment for peace with Hargus.
*As the group reaches the end of the strip mall, a mysterious figure on the other side of the wall flashes its pink eyes while grinning menacingly. As if struck by a bolt of lightning, everyone except Jin could feel the murderous intent of the unknown assailant*
(Dust): Move!
*As Dust says this as a blade comes from the wall and starts making its way toward the group. Zia jumps in the air to dodge the blade. Amarti ducks to avoid the blade. Ryuuji grabs Jin and jumps out of the way. Dust does a backward cartwheel to avoid the blade. After Jin and Ryuuji safely escaped the blade, they hear a crack in the wall behind them and out comes Brutus swinging his jian down toward Ryuuji. Jin quickly got in front of Ryuuji and pulled out a handful of metal to manipulate it into a large shield. He used that shield to absorb the blast from Brutus’s jian. The center of the shield lights up red*
(Jin): Impact wave!
*The blast from Jin’s shield sends Brutus flying in the air, but he flips backwards to land on his feet. On the wall where the blade came out, the assailant bursts through. The assailant had the appearance of a short young female with light skin, pink eyes and short sky-blue hair. She had two fanged teeth and a mechanical scorpion-like tail that was silver with the blade at the end glowing sky-blue. She wore a long-sleeved silked gown where the sleeves were black and the rest was white. White long-sleeved silk gloves were on her hands. For her legs she wore long socks. One was pink and the other was sky-blue. Black spats could be seen peeking from underneath her gown. She was flying in the air as small blue flames could be seen coming from underneath her feet. She soon landed by Brutus as nine more similar looking creatures came out of hiding and landed by Brutus*
(Zia): Impossible. How could I not sense this many soldiers?
(Dust): I don’t think these are soldiers. I think we may have just found Viktor’s work.
(Brutus): Hmph. Well what do we have here? A couple of knights who got lost?
(Mechanical soldier): Negative. There are no records of these people in the Brister record books.
(Amarti): Easy. We’re just a couple of scavengers passing through. We didn’t mean you any harm.
(Brutus): I find that hard to believe given who you’re traveling with.
*Brutus points his jian at Ryuuji*
(Brutus): I don’t know why you’re not in the record books, but I recognize you anywhere. Ryuuji Kazuchika, The Blazing Knight himself. I’ve heard stories about you. How you once destroyed a nest of Eclipses in half a day all by yourself and how you blazed across the battlefields defeating anything in your path. A legendary knight if there ever was one.
(Ryuuji): *Chuckles* You flatter me. I’ve also heard about you. Brutus, the Unchained Gorilla. You made a name for yourself in the arena as a gladiator.
*Brutus gets an angry look in his eyes*
(Brutus): Those days are behind me. I now fight for the cause of my people. Killing you will only help to prove how superior we demihumans are to humans.
(Amarti): Well seeing as how your beef is with humans, we elves shall sit this one out. Best of luck, Ryuuji and Jin.
(Brutus): Not like I need to worry about some weak elves. Like an elf could ever stand up to the power of the demihumans let alone these mechanical soldiers.
*Brutus’s remark gets an angry look from Dust, Amarti, and Zia*
(Amarti): Huh?
(Zia): Is that right?
(Dust): This bastard seems to have forgotten the tale of the elf who killed a thousand Eclipses in one night.
***
*In a dark room Dust, Zia and Amarti are sitting in chairs with a light shining down on them*
(Dust): It’s well documented that when compared to the other races, elves don’t have muscular or bulky bodies. The bodies of elves are leaner and skinnier compared to the other races.
(Zia): Because of this, a lot of people see elves as being weak from a physical standpoint. However, that’s not the case.
(Amarti): We elves have a high metabolism compared to the other races. Because of this, it’s hard for us to really bulk up and put muscle on our bodies. Not that we would do that in the first place. The strength of elves isn’t in overpowering our opponents, but rather outmaneuvering them with speed, intelligence, athleticism and agility.
(Dust): That’s the way we elves have fought and survived for centuries and it’s the way we’ll continue to fight until we die.
***
*Back in reality*
(Amarti): Change of plans. We’re taking out these soldiers.
*Speaking in elfan, eight breaker discs materialize and float around Amarti*
(Zia): Yes, master. No mercy shall be shown.
*Zia ties up her hair and takes out her kukris*
(Dust): Rookie, you’re with us. Ryuuji, you better kick this gorilla’s ass or you’re going to have three very pissed off elves to answer to.
(Ryuuji): Looks like I have more motivation to win now.
*Brutus points his finger to Dust, Amarti, Zia and Jin giving the mechanical soldiers the signal to eliminate them while he took care of Ryuuji. The mechanical soldiers flew off towards Dust and the others to fight them. While Brutus was momentarily distracted by the soldiers flying off to fight, Ryuuji surprised him with a sneak attack*
(Ryuuji): Fire Grid Form 47: Blazing Hawk Arrow!
*Before Brutus could react, Ryuuji landed a flaming high jump kick on the side of Brutus’s face. Brutus went flying through the wall and out of the building as Ryuuji landed on his feet*
(Ryuuji): Taking your eyes off me was a big mistake.
*Ryuuji ran outside through the hole Brutus created to continue the fight. The others remained in the strip mall where they fought against the mechanical soldiers. Three of the soldiers went after Amarti, two went after Zia, and five went after Dust and Jin. As the three soldiers flew toward Amarti, he fired his breaker discs at them where they dodged the discs and prepared their tails to attack Amarti. Amarti saw this and held out his arms to guard himself from their attack. Before the soldiers could attack, Amarti did an elfan chant and breaker discs appeared on his arms spinning rapidly to absorb the attacks. Amarti managed to push the soldiers and jumped back to assess the situation he was in as did the soldiers. Before they could prepare for another attack, one of them was pierced in the back by two of Amarti’s discs. The two unharmed soldiers saw two discs heading in their direction and quickly flew away as the discs followed them. The remaining soldier who was pierced stood still floating in the air trying to repair the damages done to its systems. As it did, Amarti ran towards it and used his remaining discs as steps to reach the soldier and tackled it to the ground. Amarti landed on top of the soldier as the discs were driven deeper into its back causing its eyes to turn red and blue fluids began to leak out from its back. Amarti raised his right hand and called for a disc which came flying into his hands. Amarti plunged the disc into the skull of the soldier as blue fluids leaked out from its skull and its red eyes turned black. Amarti pulled the disc out of the soldier’s skull and got up to see that the soldier was lifeless and unresponsive*
(Amarti): That’s one down.
*While Amarti took a sigh of relief that he had defeated a solider, one of the soldiers that was still flying around managed to destroy the disc that was chasing it around with its tail. The soldier started to fly toward Amarti’s backside extending its tail to attack. Amarti sensed the attack coming and chanted elfan. The discs around his arms fly off and create a wall on his backside to protect him from the soldier’s tail. The second soldier also destroyed the disc that was chasing it with its tail and landed in front of Amarti. Amarti summoned two more discs and grabbed them as he ran toward the soldier in front of him. Amarti and the soldier clash weapons and tail with each other trying to land a hit on the other. The soldier behind Amarti lands and joins the fight. Amarti does a good job fending off the two soldiers and dodging their moves. He continues to stay out in the open and not get backed into a corner. One of the soldiers tries to sweep Amarti’s legs but he jumps and kicks the soldier still standing to stagger it and lands on his feet. The soldier that tried to sweep Amarti’s leg stands back up and tries to stab him, but Amarti dodges the attack and traps the tail within one of his discs*
(Amarti): Zarow (magnetize)!
*Runes started to form on the disc Amarti trapped the tail in. Amarti dropped the disc to the ground and the soldier tried to pull its tail out but couldn’t. Amarti placed his foot on the disc and used his other foot to step on the tail. The tail was ripped off the soldier and Amarti deactivated the magnetism on his disc allowing him to pick up the bladed end of the tail. Amarti used the bladed end of the tail as a lance and charged toward the soldier piercing through its chest and driving it towards the wall. The soldier spat out blue fluids before going limp. The final soldier recovered from the kick and charged at Amarti where he chanted in elfan for one of his discs. One of the discs came flying low from the soldier and caused it to slip. As the soldier began to fall backwards it managed to stay airborne with the rockets on its feet. Amarti predicted this and was in the air right above the soldier with a disc in his hand. Amarti threw the disc at the neck of the soldier and it latched onto the soldier’s neck just as Amarti landed on the ground. The soldier tried to remove the disc, but couldn’t get it off*
(Amarti): Exploudo (explode)!
*The disc around the soldier’s neck began to blink red as runes formed on it. After five seconds the disc exploded blowing up the head of the soldier and leaving the body still intact*
(Amarti): All according to plan.
*Zia and the two soldiers were fighting rapidly with each other as sparks were flying between their blades. Blood could be seen dripping from Zia’s leg as one of the soldiers was able to cut her, but she managed to block out the pain and continue to fight. The soldiers were also cut in a few spots as well such as their faces, arms and chests. Zia concentrated and gathered white magic particles on her kukris. Zia spun away from the soldiers and lifted her kukris above her head releasing a bright beam of light which blinded the two soldiers. When the light died down Zia was behind them and sheathed her kukris as the soldiers began to fall apart because Zia sliced them up while they were blinded by the light. After taking a deep breath and exhaling, Zia fell down to one knee. For Dust and Jin’s battle, Jin was taking on one of the soldiers while Dust was dodging the attacks of the remaining soldiers. Jin used his shield to guard against the attacks of the soldier while firing his wrist cannon at it*
(Jin): Okay. Just like we practiced.
*Jin reached into his utility belt and pulled out a summoning crystal and a ball of iron. Jin gathers magic particles into both the crystal and the ball before loading them into the wrist cannon. He fires them both off in quick succession where they fly over the head of the soldier. The soldier uses this opportunity to knock the shield out of Jin’s hand leaving him defenseless. The soldier punches Jin across the face and kicks him in the stomach causing him to fall to the ground as the soldier sits on his stomach and prepares to stab him with its tail*
(Mechanical soldier): Your tactics are pathetic.
(Jin): *Chuckles* You sound like Raika and Morgan.
*Just as the soldier was about to strike Jin with its tail, the soldier gets hit by a long Dorgen to the side of the head by the steel blacksmith spirit. The soldier goes flying through the shattered window of a nearby electronic store*
(Jin): Good job little buddy.
(Steel blacksmith): Soyo!
*The steel blacksmith smiles and gives Jin a thumbs up. While Jin soaked in his victory, Dust was busy jumping around and dodging the attacks of the soldiers. Little did the soldiers know they were falling into Dust’s trap and getting tangled in his wires. After enough dodging and jumping, Dust lands on the edge of the fountain. The soldiers try to go after him but can’t move as they’ve become entangled in his wires*
(Dust): All that advanced software and technology and they couldn’t even see my wires. This is why machines will never replace flesh on the battlefield.
*Dust takes out a lighter and lights the wire in his hand. The flames quickly begin to spread to the other wires and reach the soldiers where an explosion goes off by them. The soldiers catch fire and go flying in different directions as some of their body parts went flying off as well. Dust walked over to check on Jin when all of a sudden, a mechanical tail wraps itself around Dust’s neck and pulls him into the electronic store. Dust gets slammed into a wall back first and comes face to face with the soldier*
(Dust): Oh come on!
*Dust manages to catch the blade of the soldier with his hands and stops it from stabbing his face. However, the blade is slowly inching closer and closer to his face and he can’t hold it back for much longer. Jin sees Dust struggling and quickly acts. He goes into the store, takes out a glove from his pocket, and grabs the neck of soldier to release an electric pulse into its body. The tail of the soldier goes limp and stops glowing. The soldier’s eyes go black as it falls over face first into the ground*
(Dust): What’d you do to it?
(Jin): I released a large electric pulse into its body. It couldn’t handle it, so it shut itself down.
(Dust): Any chance it’ll get back up?
(Jin): No. Somebody will have to reboot it manually.
(Dust): Nice.
*Dust kicks the body of the soldier to see if it’ll move and it doesn’t.
(Dust): Where’d you get the electric glove?
(Jin): From Raika. I had her put her electric energy into the glove in case I needed to stun someone.
(Dust): Well good work. Looks like your training with Raika and Morgan is starting to pay off. Also, congratulations, you survived and won your first battle.
Author’s Note: And we get the first of many big fights to come in this war. While nothing really major happens in this chapter, I thought it be cool to see these characters fight and show off what they can do. As always I do my best to make sure every member of the team contributes whether it be small or big. I don’t want anybody to appear useless that’s one thing I hate to see in my story. However, I think everything worked out well here. Jin showed great intuition in his first battle, Dust and Zia were cool, and I got to play around with Amarti’s fighting style some more. Out of all the characters he’s the one I’m still trying to get a feel for. I know how I want him to fight it’s just a matter of putting pen to paper and writing it out so that readers can follow it. Well that’s it for now. Look forward to the next chapter as we see Ryuuji take on Brutus one-on-one. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.