Kin of Exile

by Tyler Bunyard

  The soldiers scrambled back into the armored truck, Kailey entering in last. She gave a worried look to the four boys, now standing in plain sight of the oncoming onslaught. “You sure you guys don’t need any help?” she asked.

  “Please.” Puck scoffed. “This is gonna be a cakewalk.”

  Kailey nodded and smacked a button inside of the armored vehicle. The rear hatch closed, and the tires screeched forward. The Survivor’s Guild squad disappeared behind a few buildings, and Johnny, Puck, Angel, and Karrel readied themselves for the fast-approaching battle.

  Johnny lifted his shirt slightly, revealing a brown belt that he was wearing. Across the entire surface of the belt were small metallic shapes, all in the form of one platonic solid or another. The silver glinted off of the minimal sunlight as Johnny grasped one, pulling it free from the brown leather, before reaching into his pocket and plucking another, similar-shaped object out.

  It was interesting to Karrel, who was just now reminded of the fact that he had yet to see how Johnny handled himself in a fight. He wondered if this feeling of curiosity was what Angel and Puck had endured the first time they saw him pull out his green book.

  Karrel’s silent inquiry would have to wait, though. The wave of monsters had approached. Puck struggled, lifting his hands into the sky. The earth around his feet cracked and shattered as two large boulder-sized chunks of earth popped from the ground, levitating a few feet away from where they were once were. With a flick of his wrist the two blocks of rubble soared through the air toward an oncoming group of zweichars.

  Two of the zweichars slashed through one of the hunks of earth with their enormous black blades. It exploded into a thousand petty pieces of debris, the green-runes of the zweichar’s swords shining brightly through the mess. The other zweichar was not as quick, however. It ate a face full of earth and was sent flying through the air, the boulder promptly rolling over its victim as the yellow-eyed creature twirled across the dirt floor. A pool of orange blood was forming underneath it, as it struggled back onto its feet.

  Puck continued to toss boulder after boulder of earth at the two approaching demons. He was slowing their approach, which gave Angel time to charge his attack. His arms had begun to darken. Thick, pitch-black smoke coursed through the air around his hands. The two zweichars had had enough of the flying rocks, and leaped several meters into the air, aiming their descent at Puck. Angel took his opportunity. He unleashed the darkness from his hands and two streaks of thin black mist shot toward the sky. The attack was too fast for the airborne demons to defend. Each of the streaks connected, and two black clouds erupted from the mist, consuming the zweichars. The dark puffs of smoke lingered in the air for a moment before evaporating, revealing a vacant area where the winged beasts used to be.

  Karrel gawked for a second at the sheer power behind Angel’s attack but did not have any more time to spare. Angel and Puck were dealing with their side, now it was his turn. Three pyretiffs, with their piercing yellow eyes and fluorescent orange-red bands wrapped across their bodies, were approaching him and Johnny. He flipped through his green book, lamenting his lack of memorization and taking a mental note that he should do so later. He found the variable that represented “Discharge” and wrapped the runic symbols around both of his hands.

  Two pyretiffs split from the group, flanking to the left and right while one continued its charge through the middle. Karrel instinctually moved closer to Johnny, to lessen the effect of the maneuver. The center-most pyretiff opened its mouth wide, and the inside began to glow with bright orange light. Karrel quickly took aim at the opened jaw and unleashed his attack.

  The runes dispersed from his hand and a thundering crackle of blue and purple energy streaked towards its target. The attack landed square in the mouth of the pyretiff, as though it had eaten a large piece of lightning. The surge of energy erupted inside of the demon. Blue light punctured through the inside of its skin, and for a moment, every opening of the demon’s spiked leathery skin illuminated like a lantern. It dropped to the floor, crisp and smoking.

  Karrel immediately brought his attention to the closest flanking opponent. He brought his other hand up and discharged another burst of energy. The attack missed slightly, but the explosion that followed afterward was enough to knock the demon off its balance and send it rolling across the ground.

  The book-wielding combatant started to charge forward, but Johnny put his hand up to block him. He opened his palm, revealing one of the silver, metallic objects that he was carrying. It looked like a small cube of condensed steel. “You probably don’t want to be down range of this thing,” he calmly stated. He dropped the cube to the floor and began taking a few steps back. Karrel followed suit.

  After a short moment, the solid metal cube began to shake. The edges and faces of the cube began to protrude into thin spikes, then immediately depress. Quickly repeating this process over and over, the top of the cube began to extend upwards. The silver exterior of the object seemed almost liquid at this point, and the blob of squishy metal began building upon itself. The object grew and grew, and shapes could be seen being built from the bottom of the new structure. Screws, nuts, and bolts appeared on key pieces that the liquid-metal would leave behind. As it took to its new, much larger form, Johnny placed himself next to his marvel of engineering. He held his arm out to hover over the ever-growing liquid-metal. It expanded to touch Johnny’s arm, just before stopping and finishing its own construction.

  Johnny now stood, arm resting on the top of a large metallic autocannon. Its appearance mimicked that of a compact version of an old howitzer artillery piece, though its entire exterior was a reflective silver color. There did not seem to be anywhere to load ammo into the device, however Johnny smiled as the turret began to swivel on its self-built mount. The third nearby pyretiff, as fast as it was, could only cover a few meter’s distance in the time that the autocannon was built. It leapt into the air, its eyes ignoring the new object in play, focusing its attention on the meal-ticket it was about to land on. The mounted cannon immediately pointed its barrel toward the sky. Three deafening blasts shot forth, the silver bullets puncturing fist-sized holes through the creature.

  The demon did not have any time to react or even make a noise. It landed hard on the ground, bouncing once, before slumping over like a sack of potatoes.

  The pyretiff that Karrel had knocked over had regained its balance. It began to stand up and charge forward to the group. The autocannon once again made short work of its target, this time blowing the head clean off the creature. It skidded to a halt leaving a trail of orange blood behind it.

  Astonishment had consumed Karrel. “What the hell!?” he shouted. “I thought you said your power was to consume knowledge!”

  Johnny just smiled back at him. “It is!” he replied, patting the autocannon on its head. “But knowledge is power, and this little guy is just one of my many inventions.”

  Karrel walked up to the metal cannon, viewing himself in the reflection of the device. The ongoing battle was lost to him for the moment. “Well,” Karrel began, “I guess I know what you’ve been working on in your lab… Is this nano-tech?”

  Johnny shook his head. “No, the robots that build themselves into my constructs aren’t small enough to be considered nanotechnology. But, you’ve got the right idea at least.”

  The autocannon’s turret jerked upward toward the purple sky, focusing Johnny’s and Karrel’s attention back to the fight at hand. Both of them brought their gazes to match the construct’s. A few small black shapes were moving across the sky, circling rapidly around the city. Their figures tore across the purple void, Johnny’s autocannon securely locked onto one them.

  “Umbrabats!” Johnny called out to Puck and Angel, who were currently engaged with a small group of pyretiffs lead by a single zweichar and another creature that Karrel did not recognize. He flipped through the pages of his book, searching for the variable that was best suited to dealing with the new airborne threat
.

  Meanwhile, Johnny’s weapon was confident with its target’s trajectory and fired off five shots into the heavens. A few seconds passed before one of the figures in the sky stopped its circulation and rapidly descended to the ground. “Got one!” Johnny cheered, patting the gigantic gun on the head once more.

  A piercing screech shrieked down from the flying figures. The sound alone was enough to make a lesser man’s ears bleed. “Looks like they didn’t enjoy us taking down one of their friends,” Karrel moaned. He hated umbrabats. The ability to fly was a difficult thing to counter, and it was the least of his worries. They had razor sharp wings, capable of cleaving straight through the ballistic vests the Survivor’s Guild soldiers wore. They had the same pointed teeth and fluorescent orange-red streaks across their figures that the pyretiffs had, but everywhere else on their body and wings were as black as night. The sharp, glowing, yellow eyes they possessed were always hungry for blood.

  One of the umbrabats soared downward upon the group; the pressure from the air around the beast was almost visible as it dived. It opened its mouth and a familiar orange glow appeared from the inside. A small orange-red globe, no bigger than a ping-pong ball, was spat out toward the group. It landed at Karrel’s feet, simmering loudly.

  “Oh, shit!” Karrel cried. He immediately jumped as far away from the small crackling ball as his legs could possibly manage. Diving behind a large piece of debris, Karrel ducked and covered himself the best he could.

  The bright orange-red globe simmered for another moment and then erupted into a small explosion. Its searing hot contents sprayed across a small area, igniting whatever it touched. Karrel peaked out to look at where he recently had stood and saw that the area was now charred black.

  The umbrabat responsible for the attack finished its dive, and crashed into the ground, landing on its two thin, powerful legs. It opened its wings and let out another terrifying scream. The demon stood at five feet tall and its enormous appendages carried a wingspan of over nine feet.

  Johnny’s turret turned to fire at the creature, but the winged-beast took to the sky once more. Karrel wasn’t about to let it get away however. He had found the variable he was looking for. “Lock” was shining in bright red runes in his book. He wrapped the symbols around his hand and aimed his palm at the umbrabat flying away.

  Karrel’s eyesight shifted for a moment. This attack was always strange to use, and he knew he would never become accustomed to the effect it had on his eyes. As he looked at the creature flying away, multiple red circles appeared in his vision. Each of the two-dimensional rings surrounded a different figure that was flying in the sky, including the umbrabat that had just made a small crater near him. Johnny stepped into Karrel’s focus for moment, and this time, a green circle appeared around him. It identifies friendlies… that’s new, Karrel thought to himself.

  Karrel focused hard on the umbrabat that was now flying away from him. He felt as though he was trying to pierce the creature with his vision. The red circle around the winged demon lit up, and Karrel flicked all five of his fingers against his palm. As he did, blue lights appeared on each of his five fingertips, and as the symbols around his hand quickly dispersed, so did the five blue lights. They rocketed themselves toward the umbrabat that Karrel had been targeting, and homed in on the creature.

  The five blue lights collided against the beast, and it detonated into a wave of blue exhaust. The red circle surrounding the umbrabat disappeared, and Karrel’s visions returned to normal.

  “Okay…” Johnny remarked, as he showed his amazement to Karrel. “That was sufficient.”

  Karrel took a moment to bask in the compliment, but a pitch-black trail of smoke shot through the air and landed in between Johnny and Karrel. Angel exited from the darkness, and the dense cloud quickly wrapped itself back around him before disappearing. He was talking as fast as he could when he landed, “The hotspot’s going to hit any second!” he exclaimed. “We need to cover more ground if we’re going to buy Dane as much time as we can offer.”

  Johnny nodded his head. “Sounds good. You take Karrel further into the city, while Puck and I hold the ground here.”

  Angel took off running, pulling Karrel along with him. He was softly laughing to himself as he sprinted. “This is nice, having you around,” Angel grinned. “Usually, when we used to split into two groups, I was the one that didn’t get a partner. With you here, I don’t need to worry about that anymore. Now, come on! We don’t have much time.”

  Angel was wrong, however. There was no time. A flock of umbrabats soared in from the clouds, spewing their fiery globs of imminent detonation across the face of the town. Windows shattered and support beams snapped as the bombing run carpeted the northern entrance to the city. Pyretiffs, zweichars, and many other horned creatures poured into the streets.

  After a few corners and short distance more, Puck and Johnny could no longer be seen. “What the hell do we do now?” Karrel yelled.

  Angel and Karrel hopped over a small wall and continued trekking through the inner city. “Now,” Angel said, “We get their attention.” Angel tossed two of his black smoke bombs to either side of him and Karrel. The explosion that resulted was loud enough to get the attention of the oncoming raid. He jumped into the air, hovering slightly as the dark smoke partially encased his body. “Hey!” he screamed. “We’re right here!” He waved his arms around and then began laughing as he pointed downward to Karrel. “Be gentle with the new guy!”

  There were scores of demons descending into the city, but a noticeable amount shifted their paths toward the two boys.

  “He’s gonna be the death of me…” Karrel sighed. He dropped his book, letting it float in the air beside him, as he prepared for the worst.

  Chapter 12

  Hesitation

  Things weren’t going well. The roof of the building that Karrel had taken cover in crumpled into pieces, scarcely missing his airborne body as he dove out of the way from the flaming breath that was now engulfing most of the room. The shattered remnants of the ceiling crashed through the ground, creating an unstable hole that lead to the ground floor. The abandoned corner-store that Karrel had hopped into was falling apart, thanks to the zweichar that had followed him in. It was time to move.

  The winged demon snarled in disappointment when it realized that the flame it had spewed failed to roast its target. It leapt over the caved-in floor and slashed its rune-encrusted blade downwards. Karrel ducked underneath the large sword, feeling the air whiff through a few strands of his hair. He kicked off a nearby wall and dove for the opening in the ground. He tumbled down, smacking himself against the countertop below, and rolling back onto his feet as fast as he could.

  Two other zweichars were at opposite ends of the room, but they were not facing him. Their attention was on the corners of the walls, with their swords swung behind them as if they were waiting to strike. Karrel swore loudly and bolted for the exit. The two zweichars simultaneously cleaved their swords straight through the edges of the walls, breaching an enormous space in both sides. The entire building shook, and the rest of the ceiling started to come down.

  Karrel dove outside of the corner-store, covering his head as he landed on his elbows and stomach. The building he had just been using for cover, collapsed in upon itself, sending brick and steel flying through the air. The space filled with an opaque cloud of dust. The dirt-filled winds blew over his prone body, covering him in ash and gravel.

  Coughing while he tried to find a spot of fresh air, Karrel flipped himself over to see the recent carnage. The corner-store was now just a pile of bricks, wood, and metal, with only a single wall that remained standing. Out of the dust and debris, three zweichar were pulling the wreckage off themselves and regaining their balance.

  Karrel rolled back onto his feet and took off running as fast as he could. He could see that Angel was only a short distance away and was engaged with a few friends of his own. Two pyretiffs were pouncing continuously at Angel whi
le he dodged out of the way from the sword-swings of two zweichar.

  Karrel readied his attack and pointed his two palms at the blade-wielding demons. The red symbols wrapped around his hands quickly dispersed. Two streaks of blue and purple energy, one for each of the zweichar engaged with Angel, shot forth, striking their targets. Both zweichar were blown off balance, falling to the floor, and were now missing chunks of their abdomens.

  Angel took his opportunity. He leapt into the air spinning, his hands glowing with dark energy. As he outstretched his arms, they covered themselves in an incredibly thin layer of black smoke, which extended itself out like a long sword. The thin blade of mist slashed through the ground as Angel twirled through the air. Both pyretiffs were sliced clean in half, their blood pooling into the newly created crevices in the dirt. Angel landed back on the ground, his balance perfectly positioned to make a final leap towards the two zweichars struggling back onto their feet. His hands once again darkened, and he lurched toward the two winged monsters. Before they could block, Angel threw two powerful blows to each of the creatures’ craniums. They slopped back to the floor, a stream of blood pooling from their heads.

  Karrel stopped his sprint, skidding to a halt a few feet away from Angel. The three zweichar from the corner-store did not seem to have followed him. He was panting loudly and could see that the battle was beginning to take its toll on his friend as well. The usual steadfast demeanor that Angel always emanated during a fight had dimmed slightly.

  “I don’t know how much more of this we can take.” Karrel wheezed.

  “Yeah,” Angel sighed heavily. “I hope the others are doing all right.”

  The full power of the hotspot had overrun the city. A plethora of umbrabats were circling above, diving in on the town whenever they spotted a target. Buildings were being brought down regularly, and the temperature of the area had risen at least ten degrees. The fact that Angel and Karrel even had a moment to talk and catch their breath was a godsend.