by Marc Mulero
What was that going to do?
And his answer was granted when Joodah’s entire fist lit with bright green Crule.
Wham.
Both of Eres’ arms were knocked away with such force that it changed his entire momentum, gave him whiplash, and sent him flying back down. But only for an instant. Click. A gust of wind already had him zooming up again, rounding him from another angle.
“Eres, my old friend,” Joodah spoke snidely, watching Eres land beside him in ready stance. “It seems we aren’t the lowlings we once were, huh? Look at you,” he motioned to him, letting his cannon laxly fall to the side, “good to see you aren’t shying away from me this time either.
“Oh, what’s that? You look surprised. Think I didn’t see you back in the Ozgulo Annex? Ha! Sending your little girlfriend to have words with me? Hah hah. Oh… oh boy. I liked you so much more when I thought you had some parts down there. To think you stood up for yourself in Kor many times. And then you cower years later, at the Colliding Spheres no less. What did Elesion do to you?”
Eres gripped his blade harder. “You know nothing of me, murderer. Had I been the one to sit across from you in that annex, the guild would’ve slit my throat, but I would’ve cut yours first. Believe it. Such a satisfying image to think of your seared neck dripping crimson. You’d have died a gambler’s death at that card table. More than you deserve… but maybe I should have done it anyway.”
“Oh ho! Big talk for a little Dawn. Tell me Eres, what brings you here, way out of your league?”
What the… is he bluffing? I’m the reason you came, aren’t I? Mind games. That’s all this is.
“Don’t try to play coy with me.” Eres brandished his blade, begging for him to en garde.
“Truly, I don’t know why Spera would leave her life in your hands. Maybe you could show me?” Joodah raised his fists.
He’s not lying. So then… they aren’t here because of me? My theory is off.
“What do you want with her?”
“Oh, that’s easy Eres. Kovella’s Quittance wants her head.”
Eres wanted to respond, to ask more questions, but he never got the chance to. Joodah wouldn’t let him.
He burst forward with his fist reeled back. The Eplon was massive, and to see him move with such grace at that size, well, it was intimidating. It should’ve terrified Eres. But it didn’t. Of course not. The Aegod was a thousand times his size, and the Surs that chased him were infinitely quicker.
“Pfeh,” Eres spat, mockingly twirling his blade to egg him on. He used the tactics his holographic teacher Ringwal had shown him at the Edge of Eternity. Taunt them, get in their heads and hold position all the while. Make them think you’re overconfident, but never lose position.
Woosh. Eres felt the air of Joodah’s mighty hook as he leaned back – his arm five times the size of Eres’ – but also twice as slow. He didn’t like being this close to his old friend; he could smell the blood on his Glite, the musk of holding such burly weight. Eres couldn’t help but think - if Joodah just dove forward on top of him, the fight was over.
With a backward pirouette, Eres slipped out of fist range and carved three surface lines on Joodah’s Glite in one swooping fencing motion like an angry painter before dashing back to create some distance.
Stay just far enough away so his Crule fists will be useless and close enough to intercept that cannon if need be. Hold your ground.
Both had their Glite masks retracted so they could stare one another down. Good, Eres thought. Every moment he held Joodah there bought Ilfrid more time. He needed to get Spera far away from here… that was the goal. But Joodah could almost read Eres’ mind.
“You think you can trick a lieutenant in KQ so easily? You’re stalling.”
He burst forth again, this time with a speed Eres never could’ve anticipated.
Mustae, was all Eres could think as he saw a burst of wind at the Eplon’s back, propelling him, impelling him forward. How? Both of his hands were free.
That was two modified weapons now that Eres had never seen before. He ducked a two-punch combo, but just barely, spun once, came up for air, side-stepped another blow while locking eyes for a brief time and then spinning again.
There, he saw it for an instant, Joodah’s Glite had an impeller crafted into its back. But that meant…
Wham.
Joodah used the torque of a one-eighty to slam a Crule-tailed punch right into Eres’ side.
Everything spun, sky and ground rotating ten times within a second. He was flying, vision struck with black spots, and when he slammed down ten feet away, his body bounced twice before settling. “Ugh…” He shook his head free of the haze, could feel bile coming up. Wow, was all he could think. What a blow. He got to one knee, his left side feeling caved in.
It hurt even to peek up. Everything was rattled. And there Joodah stood: tall with his chin raised, fists ablaze with green, flaunting his Crule charges.
“I used you as a stepping stone to get into Wudon’s class. Remember? It was hard, Eres, to step on a breathing thing. So much squirming and protest. Let me use you again so I can become a general. This time though, let me make sure that you’re lifeless.”
If an impeller is strapped to his back, Eres tried to finish his thought from before, that means…
Joodah clamped his fists together to bolster his Crule flames, this time taunting him. And with that he burst forward once more - the tip of one foot dragging against the ground, kicking up mist like a waterfall. Again, it was all too graceful for his size.
Eres punched his own wound to make sure he could still feel. Agony. But that was okay: the tingling was subsiding… he wouldn’t fall that easily. He wouldn’t let it.
“That means you can only fly in one direction.” Eres smirked as he pressed his impeller to his good side. Click. Once to dodge, and another two times to burst around him, making three wind lines of what would’ve been a square had he completed the shape. Now he was behind Joodah, and the oaf didn’t have the chance to turn.
Slash.
His Kor blade of red and black cut right down the terrorist’s impeller, propeller blades flying everywhere, Glite seared molten. Fitting that Kor Vinsánce would get a slice of its betrayer. A surface wound, but he could tell it definitely touched skin by the way Joodah arched his spine in pain, teeth gritted.
Joodah spun and clawed like he was trying to catch the pesky insect that stung him.
“You got the better of me back then, sure,” Eres said, this time stepping closer to mad fists.
“Rah!” Joodah roared, sending another hook.
Eres jumped into it, using the flat of his blade plus the strength of his parallel arm to hold the weight. “You took Wudon.”
With a twist of his wrist, the sharp of Eres’ blade was now aligned with Joodah’s arm.
Shink.
Black hazy fire ripped right into his bicep.
“Ah!” This time, Joodah’s voice was a mix of cry and anger as he loosed another raging fist from the top down like a hammer.
Eres side-stepped it effortlessly, letting Joodah stumble over his own momentum.
“You took my time in Kor… I could’ve had a good life. You killed people, Joodah. It couldn’t have all been an act, either. Don’t give me that. There was goodness somewhere. We were friends, despite your motives. No one can deceive that absolutely.”
“You’re nothing but a seeg slithering to find its way. You were nothing but a key to let me in.”
Eres ignored his blabbering and, with a wide swing, cut his other arm, leaving both to fall limp.
“We were friends, Joodah. And because of you, my fata is gone!” Eres kicked him onto his back, tip of the blade now pointed at his throat. “You may have used me to become a lieutenant, but I used you to become a Skrol.”
Joodah’s chest was rising and falling violently. He was in shock that this was where he’d landed, eyes glaring at him in disbelief. Who was this Dawn before him? Surely not
the same one he knew.
“I am Eres Way, and on the honor of my fata, you will tell me why.” He thrusted the point an inch away from his neck, causing Joodah to suck in as far as possible.
Just then, Eres heard the jangling of a shider overhead – Ilfrid’s – zooming to the designated location. Its shadow loomed over them briefly like a cloud blotting the suns. And as the pilot hit the air-breaks, his shider tail whipped so hard that it looked like it would ram straight into the spire. But it halted at the last second, perfectly.
“Lieutenant!” A terrorist called.
Eres was forced to duck from an explosion mere feet away. KQ was overwhelming the area.
“You’ll never defeat us. Our leader is too powerful. You’re nothing, Eres.” Joodah spat. “Nothing!”
Eres cursed to himself, eyeing Joodah, then the endless KQ guards swarming up the mountain, then up again to Ilfrid. There was nothing else to do. It was time to withdraw.
Click.
The ground vibrated with the intensity of Eres’ impeller burst, and he was off. Eyes became instantly dry, his peripherals just a blur of land and sky. He sheathed his sword to better concentrate, wincing at the cranking spire panels ringing in his ear. He burst higher, higher, to ascend nearly parallel with the tower. Still, the balcony was so far away. How many stories would he have to climb? How much wind did he have left?
Then he heard a noise. A few seconds later a shell soared past him and exploded. Hot, hot, hot. He threw his arms over his face as he flew into the blast. They were trying to stop him.
It would be nice if I had Fata’s ability to conjure a storm right about now.
Then he remembered what Vasa said – they’re just trying to slow him down. Don’t let them distract you, Eres.
He clicked again and again, soaring like a torpedo, switching the angles of his burst to throw KQs’ aim off course.
Woosh.
Explosions like firecrackers beside him, below him, above. And while he didn’t possess Reach, he was reminded of his other talents: total and absolute control of his body, athletics, grace, experience – call it what you want, Eres was a step ahead there.
He was gaining on the shider too, but the balcony was already empty. Everyone had already been loaded on. Not good. He was going to miss the train after being so close.
Then his gaze was tugged to the left, to Seren Night’s ominous shider. It’s thrusters… they’d just powered on.
What?
His brain was moving a mile a minute.
Why didn’t he show himself? Why is he gearing to leave?
And before Eres could even finish the thought, it blasted away at blinding speed.
“No!” He screamed at it. “No!”
He curled into a ball, slammed his impeller to max, and rocketed higher, unfurling his body while fumbling to unclip the tube to contact his pilot.
“Ilfrid! Please hear me, c’mon!”
Nothing.
“C’mon Ilfrid, pick up. Now.”
Static.
“E- chsssss Eres, is that you? Please tell me you’re okay.” Ilfrid’s voice became clear.
“Ilfrid! Follow that shider. Now! Stay on Seren’s tail. Do not-”
Eres was closing in fast, seconds away from colliding with Ilfrid’s ship.
“Not until you tell me if you’re okay! If you don’t, I’m coming down there myself!”
“Ilfrid, damn it, I’m fine! I’ll catch up. Go! Don’t lose him.”
Why would Seren leave first? Don’t they want Spera’s head? What could be more important than that?
Clunk.
Eres’ armored boots clapped against Ilfrid’s shider. “Fffff,” he spat as he waved away an oversized feathered trinket from his face and clambered to find a hatch.
Okay, I’m near the back. Um, not good. He held tightly onto a make-shift handle that he felt could break off at any second. Definitely not good.
That’s when fires ignited and thrusters powered on at full force. Oh no…
His body stiffened as the situation became very real – the smell of engine grease polluting the air, the heat of fire singeing his nostrils. He needed to find a hatch to slip into, and fast.
Eres coded his Glite mask to form over his face as a shield, just in case.
Think, Eres, think.
From this angle the shider looked impossibly long, intimidating, much more so than when it was parked vertically. This thing was ready to blast off into another land and these heights didn’t help one bit. Way down below he could glimpse KQ still combatting whoever was left to fight. All of them were the size of insects. It made his stomach climb into his throat.
Damn it. He eyed his impeller; seeing an empty gauge proved just how reckless he was. There was no letting go now even if he wanted to. He would plummet and die for sure.
Two arms hugged the lever as he scanned all over to locate the nearest hatch. Nope. Not there. Hmm, maybe that? No.
Finally, far above him, he saw an indent with a lever. That’s it.
And just then, the clear vision of his key to safety melted into a mix of blurred lines. Motion. Acceleration, it distorted all of his senses at once and plastered him flat on the surface, the lever creaking as he grasped on for dear life.
The shider suddenly rotated, peeling Eres off of the surface so that he was waving around like a flag in the wind, a shimmering one wrapped in Glite.
His thoughts went blank, panic at an all-time high. All he could do was focus on his grip. No matter what happened, he couldn’t let go of that overhang. What were normally harmless trinkets turned into deadly whips lashing down beside him.
Every couple of seconds he was blinded by the suns as the shider spun into the light and then back into the darkness, revolving to keep a close tail on Seren.
Eres never imagined he’d have this view, ever. It would have been beautiful too, under less tense circumstances maybe, but the fear of imminent death was there once again. It was too much.
Wham.
The shider stopped short to make a sharp turn, slamming Eres down hard in the process as if someone palmed his face into a wall. He saw a flash of blackness in his vision and one of his hands let go. He was slipping. His hair was glued back like a helmet. The Mach speeds were too great. No one was meant to endure such pounding pressure, prevailing winds, speed. And there was no sign of letting up.
Then all of a sudden, the breaks were hit. He could feel it… his body relaxing into a state of weightlessness.
This was a different kind of panic – not the constant rushing kind, but the calm before the storm type. Momentum completely shifted, and when the shider finally slowed to a stop, Eres was again body slammed in the other direction, his wrist nearly cracking in half.
Ow.
If not for his armor he would’ve been a crushed bag of bones at this point, but somehow, miraculously, he was still conscious and lucid. Well, as lucid as he could be.
What’s happening now. Wait- why is… Oh sh-
His eyes grew wide as the black blip – Seren Night’s shider - was becoming less of a dot and more of a defined shape, larger and larger every split second. It was coming closer.
Ilfrid… what are you doing?
One blink rebooted his mind. Stop gawking and wake up. This was his chance to make a move. While everything slowed down he could get inside! He unclipped his impeller and, with shock, saw that his gauge had been completely refilled. Of course, the rushing air probably hyper charged it. Some silver lining at least.
Then he glanced up again, where prickles of dread sprinkled throughout his chest because there, up ahead, Seren’s shider was now a fully formed gothic spike headed straight for them. There was no time to figure out what the hell was going on.
Click.
Eres burst toward the hatch, nearly flying past it but catching himself with one hand around the lever. His forearms flexed to pull himself over the switch to anchor himself as the wind whistled in his ears, feet planted to either side an
d, yank. He heard the latch unhinge. He kicked it open.
Yes.
And just as he was about to slip down with his body half submerged, Seren’s shider burst past him in what Eres could only describe as slow motion. The heavily indented ridges, the strange curvy design, it gave him the chills. And what’s worse - all that Eres was complaining about internally, about how this situation seemed impossible with the speed and pressure, well, now he felt like a fool. A childish one. Because Seren Night was on the outside too, holding his wide-brimmed hat, cloak flapping all around, double-sided blade drawn. He made it look natural and effortless.
His heart stopped. Was he going to jump onto Ilfrid’s shider? Why in hell would he be riding like that unless he planned to jump? Was he trying to lure Spera into the middle of nowhere?
Either way, before the tailwind of Seren’s shider could send Eres flying, he ducked into safety and pushed the hatch shut.
“Wow.” He took some erratic breaths, happy that it wasn’t so hard to breathe now.
His knees buckled as the shider made a noticeable turn - probably to continue tailing Seren. Good. That meant he hadn’t yet jumped off and made a mess of things. Also this was further confirmation that he wasn’t after Eres.
Odd. So very odd. I have to get to Spera… maybe she can make some sense out of all this.
He leaned back and grabbed onto one of the wall gadgets for stability, then looked around to gather himself. Lights flickered overhead when the shider hit some turbulence – one even sparked – but even though things were dimly lit down there, he could make out the tunnel ahead of him. He’d been through it before.
“Okay, I’m on the bottom level. Yep, those are the junk closets. There’s the storage unit. And here come the gravitas beads.”
Ten or so black floating beads slithered through the air, moving so fluidly toward him, appearing as though they were tethered to one another by an invisible string. Then they swished through his legs before transforming into a halo cycling at his back to alter Eres’ gravity in conjunction with the shider’s movements.
“Now it’s safe to move around outside of the cockpit. No time to lose.” He began jogging into other compartments, trying to make sense of all that had just happened, replaying the events in his head along the way.