by Riker Kane
“Go! Now!”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Nina slowly stirring. I didn’t wait for her, running toward the vulnerable man in robes and thrusting my saber into his gut as he got up to his feet. I pierced his body completely. The end of my blade poked through his back.
“Gotcha.” I looked into his glowing red eyes as I twisted my saber inside of him.
But he didn’t budge. He didn’t grunt or scream or beg for mercy. His red eyes just stared blankly at me.
Nina yelled as she came from behind. Two flaming katanas sank into his neck, igniting his robes. As the fabric began to burn, I slowly saw the rest of his face. Pale blue skin. A smooth, bald head. Blue lines running along his cheeks. He didn’t look much different from the last Herald we beat. But his eyes… Glowing red, staring back at me.
His black lips twisted into a half-smirk as he stared back at me. “You have no idea the power you’re dealing with.”
He raised his hands up and a white flash sent Nina and I both flying back. I fell so hard on the stone path it knocked the wind out of me.
I raised my head up just in time to see Quentin dashing forward again but he got sent flying back, his armor uprooting the stone path as he rolled through it.
“Shit…”
Hit Points 40
Endurance 20
I was on the verge of unconsciousness. And frankly, it felt like it. I barely had the strength to crawl over to Nina. We helped each other to our knees while the Herald continued to stare at us.
“What do we do now?” she said.
The other squads had faded, half of them recalled to the Med Bay. The dragon was dripping with black blood all over its body but showed no signs of slowing down.
“Maybe they’ll finish in time,” Nina said. “We don’t have to beat them. We just have to hold them off until everybody else gets here.”
The dragon opened its mouth and spewed flames. It missed the Omegas it was aiming for but managed to burn down one of the shops next to it.
“Wait a second… That’s it.”
“What’s it?” Nina said.
“The dragon…”
“I don’t know if we’ll have any better luck with that thing.”
“Q! You still with me?”
He slowly walked over to us, hobbling in pain. “I think my leg might be broken…”
“You don’t need your leg for this. All you need to do is stand in place.”
“I’m not sure I can stand either.”
“Just for a few seconds. Not for long. C’mon, Q.”
Quentin took a deep breath. His face was covered in sweat and soot. There were bleeding cuts on his puffy cheeks, which were swollen and bruised. His hair was scattered in every direction. With how much he was slouching, the guy looked like he’d be better off laid up in a hospital bed.
“I got you,” he said.
Nina looked just as exhausted. But all I cared about was the determination I saw in her eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re planning,” she said. “But I’m ready.”
“Just wait for your opening. You’ll know it when Q gives it to you.”
I looked toward the dragon and slowly started walking toward it. The beast flailed in every direction, spewing flames and forcing everybody to duck behind cover.
“Hey! Over here!”
The dragon spun around and turned its attention toward me.
“That’s it… I’m right here…”
I stood my ground. Both hands around my hilt, I stared up at the black dragon as it towered over me. It stomped forward, so close just the warmth of its breath threatened to melt my armor.
“Liam!” I heard Brooke yell behind me. “What the hell are you doing?”
Her shouts went ignored as I kept my attention on the dragon. The massive beast kept moving closer and closer until it reared its head back. It opened its mouth and the flames began to swirl in its throat.
“C’mon… Do it…”
I stared into the growing inferno and waited until the last moment. The dragon lowered down and spit a blast of flames. I ran then rolled forward, ducking beneath the fire. As I moved underneath its neck, I did an Upper Thrust and caught it right in the throat. With all of my strength, I shoved the edge of my blade into its thick black scales. I felt it started to give.
“C’mon!”
I focused and activated my Energy Charge. A swirling green aura surrounded my blade like smoke. The blue energy from my Core swirled around my saber, too. Slowly, the resistance above me began to give. The dragon screeched loud enough to shake the ground as the rest of my blade shoved up into its flesh. I went flying up, taking the rest of the dragon’s head with me.
“Almost…”
The dragon continued to spit fire into the air as I kept its head impaled. I landed back on the ground. My saber controlling it, I used all my strength and turned it toward the Herald. Before he could react, the pale figure took a full blast of flames. He flailed helplessly, his body completely engulfed.
The fiery burst ended. The Herald moved around, struggling to put out the flames.
“Q! Shield up! Go!”
Quentin fell to a knee and raised his shield up. Broken limbs and exhaustion weren’t enough to stop him from doing what he needed to do.
And Nina knew exactly what was next. She raced toward the Vanguard and vaulted off his shield. She tumbled high into the air, a twisting blur of unstoppable fierceness. Frost formed around her katanas before she fell down onto the vulnerable Herald. Both blades sank into its chest. Even from a distance, the determination in her eyes was clear. She screamed as she focused her energy and amplified her ability. The chill from her blades began to spread until the Herald’s entire head itself began to freeze solid.
“Do it!” I shouted.
Nina pulled her blades out then with a hard slice, separated the Herald’s head from its body, making it explode into every color of Mana.
I didn’t have much time for celebration as the dragon quickly broke free from my blade. It scratched me on the face then wrapped its claws around me, crunching my armor and bones all the same without much effort. Long claws dug into the plates of metal and pierced my skin. I’d never been stabbed before. The beast was showing me just how painful it was.
“Shit…” I grunted in pain as the blood dripped out of my new wounds. I didn’t have to look at my communicator to know my HP was trickling away.
The dragon raised me up into the sky, holding me in its grip and looking me right in the eye. I tried to raise my saber up but my hit points were fading and my endurance was gone.
“So much for them being connected…” My last words managed to make me smile before the inevitable.
The warmth from the dragon’s breath warmed my entire body through my armor. A growing inferno swirled in its throat. All I could do was brace myself, waiting for the dragon to finish me.
I wasn’t as upset as I thought I would be. The Great Defenders beat another Herald. I would wake up in the Med Bay with some Mana to level up with. That was my hope anyway.
The dragon stared at me, its mouth wide open. A great bellow was building along with flames ready to engulf me.
SCREE!
A deafening screech from the beast rang in my ears and made me shut my eyes. The flames were coming next. The heat was growing. But its grip suddenly loosened around me. Its claws fell out of my skin. I crashed to the ground, too numb to feel it. In a daze, I blinked and watched as the dragon squealed and flailed.
“What the…”
A sudden blast of energy ripped a hole through its neck and sent black blood spraying in every direction. Another blast of energy against its body made it stumble back.
I straightened up and watched as Captain Valentine and Captain Magnus came running forward. The Strider and Zealot raised their weapons up as they leaped in unison. They both came crashing down on the dragon. A massive swing of Magnus’s maul rotated its head while Valentine’s blades severed its nec
k.
The Harbinger Captain Pearson sent another green blast of Mana at it while Captain Lawler fired two guns to ice it. Captain Hamilton and Captain Bell appeared but the dragon was already gone. Mana rained down like fireworks, spreading out and covering the entire Central Square.
The dragon defeated, I fell back on the pavement and looked up at the blue sky and the sun shining bright. The scent of singed scenery filled my nostrils. The bitter taste of copper was on my tongue. I felt like shit but still managed to sigh in relief.
Quentin somehow managed to hobble over and fall down next to me. “Damn, Soul… You did it.” His crooked smile made me laugh even though it was painful to do it.
“We did it,” I replied as the blood rose in my throat.
Nina walked over and fell down to a knee in exhaustion. Through all of the soot and sweat on her face, her eyes were as striking as they always her and her smile managed to stay a gleaming white. She didn’t say anything except let out a sigh. Her satisfaction of what we just accomplished was obvious.
I listened to more footsteps approaching then saw Adviser Campbell standing above me in his Cavalier gear.
“Sorry, we’re late,” he said.
“Late? You’re right on time.”
“I knew you could do it.” He knelt down and patted me on the chest. “Get some rest, Omega.”
I wasn’t exactly in the position to argue with him. Before my hit points drained completely and my consciousness with it, I used my last bit of strength to smile.
43: The Reset Button
I didn’t remember anything that happened after my Recall Box activated. I imagined having to be genetically reconstructed would be pretty painful but there was no feeling at all. One moment I was dying and the next, I was in the Med Bay. Just like that.
But the memory of what the dragon did was still in my memories. The claws ripping through my armor, digging into my body, and piercing my organs. The warmth of the flames against my skin. The sinister look in its eyes as it prepared to devour me. Or maybe it planned on doing something worse. It was enough of a reminder not to go looking to get myself killed again.
A brief stay in the Med Bay had me back to full health without any issues. The holes the dragon poked into me were gone. There was no taste of blood on my tongue. The only problem was my exhaustion. It seemed the doctors hadn’t yet created a replacement for sleep.
Not that I needed to move much at the moment.
Adviser Campbell didn’t care that I slumped in my seat. He sat on the other side of his desk, staring at his computer monitor. He’d called me into his office after Chancellor Layton just finished giving a speech to the entire District.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“…Tired.”
“You should be. It’s not every day you take on a World Boss with as small and low-level a squadron as you did. It was foolish of you to even try, you know that?”
“I guess when there isn’t much time to think, we all do stupid things. Dr. Bonet didn’t exactly give us a chance to consider the possibilities. But I figured all I had to do was fight it off until the raids were finished. Otherwise, that thing would’ve torn down the entire Nerve Center.”
Campbell still wasn’t looking at me, his eyes focused on the computer monitor.
“I’m going over the damage results. You would’ve had to poke that dragon a thousand times to beat it. It was smart of you to use it against the Herald.”
“It was burning everything. Might as well let it take the Herald down, too.”
Campbell got up from his seat. He slowly walked around his desk and moved toward the picture hanging on the wall. He stared at the old image of himself back when he was a younger Cavalier, his eyes lost in his thoughts.
“I remember what it was like when the LOD was first founded. Every capable man and woman signed-up because it was the right thing to do. The devastation of the First Event… Nobody ever wanted to see anything like that happen again.
“These days are a lot different. We get a bunch of young people. A youthful, excited generation. But they’re not here to do what’s right. They just want to get their hands on a weapon and level up. They see how much Red Mana can strengthen them and it becomes their new obsession.”
He paused though his unblinking stare remained on the photo.
“We give you free rein over your time in the District,” he continued. “We teach you the basics but it’s up to you to figure out how to use those basics when you’re out there. Do you know why we do that?”
I shook my head, especially curious to what he would say.
“Because you can’t learn what it’s like without doing it yourself. For you, it’s a test of your leadership capabilities. Knowing how to think on your feet. Knowing how to fight your way out of an impossible situation. Knowing where to find the light when you’re surrounded in nothing but darkness.
“It’s no surprise you’re able to improvise so well. Your compatibility results were indication enough of that. You’re an Adept. You have great potential to not only be a fighter but a leader, too. What you did in the Central Square proved that more than anything.”
He sighed another deep breath. His eyes were still so focused like something heavy was on his mind, so I bit my tongue.
“Today… Today changes everything. The Heralds know we’re aware of their presence. Every LOD District is on alert. Strikes inside of Pandora have to be more measured because retaliation like today is more likely. We have to change the way we do things.
“Seeing that Herald on our campus today… I hope you realize how important this is now. I hope you understand what’s at stake.”
He still wasn’t looking at me. But he didn’t have to. All I had to do was think about what happened to know what he was trying to get at.
“I’m old,” he said. “A beat-up, rundown Cavalier whose best days are behind him. When I got word of a dragon in the Central Square, I knew I wouldn’t be able to provide much more than another body for it to feed on. In case you were wondering why I showed up so late.”
“We took the oath. We’re Omegas. We can’t rely on you all the time.”
“And what now, cadet? You’ve seen the devastation the Shadows are capable of in our world. Now you know what’s truly expected of you. The burden ahead of you will be greater. Are you still willing to fight on?”
The incident in the Central Square was still fresh in my mind. Seeing all of my fellow cadets getting consumed alive by flames was enough to make someone’s stomach turn. At least, it should have been. But all I could think about was what I’d done and how much I still had left to accomplish.
“I joined the LOD to find myself,” I said. “I… I was just an ordinary guy who wasn’t sure about his future. I still don’t know what my future holds for me. But I can tell you this much. When I was out there, holding my saber and facing down that dragon… It just felt right. Like… I was meant to be there… Like I’m meant to be here.”
He slowly turned toward me. He smiled only slightly before his lips turned back into a frown.
“Unfortunately, you can’t stay here,” he said. “The attack left the entire Central Square devastated. All Cadets will be on break during reconstruction. In the meantime, our scientists and engineers will work together to formulate a new plan of attack. It won’t be a simple matter of heading into the nearest Junction and defeating the World Boss like always. We know who’s gunning for us. And they have a target on us just the same.”
“However long that takes, I’ll be ready.”
“You’re still an Omega. Your weekly stipend will be deposited into an account. In addition, I made sure to add a little bonus for your most recent performance. I suggest you take this time away from the District to refocus and reenergize. You’ve earned your respite.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“What did I tell you about calling me ‘sir’?”
I got up from my seat and nodded. “Adviser Campbell.”
> I walked to the exit then he called out to me. “One more thing, cadet. The Legion Omega Defense Council has allocated all of the necessary funds to rebuild what we’ve lost. In addition, they’re providing us with enough resources to expand the District. More recreation spots besides simple eateries were recommended. I figure you should have some say, since you’re a cadet using these facilities. Any suggestions?”
A suggestion box. I held back a laugh and smiled. “It’d be nice to have a pool around here.”
“A pool?”
“It’s good exercise. And… I guess it would be fun for a… respite.”
The way he smiled made the wrinkles on his tan, leathery face more apparent. The older man’s rough exterior was the same as always. But as intimidating as he could have been, he wasn’t the man I thought he was when I first met him.
“A pool… I’ll see what I can do, Omega.”
~ ~ ~
Every breath filled my head with the smell of char. It wasn’t hard to tell where it was coming from. The grass and trees in the park at the center of the Central Square had turned into blackened ash. The stone pavement had been ripped up in spots where weapons, claws, blood, and bodies landed. The buildings were just black, the steel melting into a shape that was surprisingly still standing. As strange as it was, the sun shining bright above us made the scene less depressing than it could have been.
Quentin was the least worried about everything, stuffing a slice of pizza into his mouth and making his cheeks bulge like always. I’d lost count of how many times I’d seen him eat but it never failed to make me laugh.
“I can’t believe you can eat so nonchalantly,” Nina said.
“What are you talking about?” he said with a mouthful. “We just fought a Herald and his pet black dragon. If that doesn’t work up your appetite, I don’t know what will.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little strange to be eating in a place that was nearly burned down entirely? I mean, your chair looks like it’s about to snap.”