Sol Boxset

by Samuel Small

  Sara turned and scoffed, paying special attention not to let her posture slump, although every muscle in her body seemed to want to. She hopped over the floating masses of land and to the other side. Once there, she stuck her tongue out at the orange-haired boy, who only looked on apathetically. When he’d seen that she wasn’t going to follow, he faded into the darkness of that structure and out of sight.

  ***

  “That may be true, but I still don’t understand how a culture can create a populous this, well, indolent,” Elizabeth said.

  “You’d be surprised what kind of effects environment can have on human psychology. Why, there are even some studies that…” Jake trailed off on some scientific rant about nature versus nurture, and Elizabeth nodded in tandem with everything he said, listening intently despite the subject matter being something that most would find boring. When he finished his long-winded speech, Jake leaned back on the bench as if physically exhausted. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Elizabeth smiling at him, although it may have just been his mind tricking him since it was far too dark to make out anything for sure.

  “I still think that there’s a limit. The average citizen here is just so apathetic. There have to be chemicals in the air or something,” Elizabeth said.

  “If there were, wouldn’t it have affected us by now?”

  “Perhaps we have an immunity.”

  “If anyone were to have an immunity, wouldn’t it be the people who live here?”

  They continued with the back and forth exchange, and Jake thoroughly enjoyed having someone to bounce ideas off of. Usually Sara was smart and knowledgeable about the same things as him, but she wasn’t passionate about it, nor did she research things on her own time. Elizabeth, on the other hand, seemed very well read. Not only did she know a lot, she was able to articulate and apply that knowledge to all kinds of situations. Why, they were having a passionate discussion about whether the apathetic nature of the people of the country was a result of the culture that surrounded them, some kind of biological agent, or an outside influence making them behave in that way. In this moment Jake was very happy, smiling as he brought about his next big point. Elizabeth too, was smiling and nodding, waiting for him to finish then coming right in with her next opinion or counter-argument. It was great, but short-lived.

  As Elizabeth trailed off about the possibility of something in the food or water that could have an effect on the people over time, her eyes shifted to something behind Jake, and she stopped talking all together. Jake casually turned to see what she was looking at, but her features contorted into one of sheer terror and she rose out of her seat, and he quickly jumped toward her, sensing danger.

  It was a good thing he did, as pieces of the wooden bench sprawled out to either side of Jake after a large crash. He pulled out his sword, Elizabeth following suit at his side, and took in an all too familiar figure, one that he hadn’t seen in a while but which left a permanent image ingrained in his memory.

  Slumped over the ruined bench was a dark figure, cast in a cloak with the hood up. It slowly rose to full height, revealing their garments to be well fitting and showing off a scrawny build.

  This was one of the members of that cloaked group, one who seemed particularly dangerous. They threatened to kill Jake back in Niflheim, and managed to block his sword with an open hand with seemingly no physical damage. Jake adjusted his feet to make sure he was ready to spring at moment’s notice, as the man pointed at him.

  “Not bad reflexes, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let you live. Your group is starting to become a problem.”

  “What’s with the change of plans?”

  “Don’t think I’ll go blabbing like the other one,” he bent down, ready to attack. “I’m using my discretion here,” he said, then launched at Jake, slashing his arms. Jake knew from experience that his hands weren’t normal, and stood his ground, preparing to block. He landed just before Jake without attacking, then shifted to the side and slashed at Elizabeth. She pivoted out of the way, leading the man to stop upright before her. He didn’t turn as Elizabeth countered with a quick swing of her rapier. It found its way into his midsection, but bounced off with a clang. Elizabeth’s face tightened with pain, and she gripped the sword harder, giving it another go.

  The result was the same. The sword bounced off the man, the only damage it dealt being a small tear across the fabric of his coat. Elizabeth winced and continued to attack with mad fury, digging her sword into his left, right, then left side as fast as she could. It had little effect, only sending the back of his coat flapping up from the momentum. Jake saw a slight shift in the man’s feet and called out to Elizabeth to be careful. She jumped back, just in time to avoid the man’s foot as he turned around with a fast kick. It cut through the air with a notable swish, then planted firmly on the ground. The man now faced Jake, his fists clenched at his sides.

  He jumped toward Jake and extended his fingers, shredding his gloves in an explosion of felt that drifted down. Jake blocked the man’s clawed hands just before they tore out his eyes. He gripped Jake’s sword, his hand seeming to shine as if made of silver, and clenched his fingers so tightly that the blade let out a cracking noise. He bore down further, showing an impressive amount of strength. Jake had difficulty keeping from slitting his own throat with the blade. As he stared into the dark hood that concealed the man’s face, Jake’s mind began working overtime.

  There was some kind of change of plans with his organization, there had to be. He may not have liked Jake, but it was clear that his objective was not to kill him, at least not before. But why target Jake, and why now? If he had learned too much, they wouldn’t have waited months to make a move, and there wasn’t much of a reason why they wouldn’t go after Sara too, since she knew as much as him.

  Jake’s eyes rested on the girl charging at the man from behind, frantically slashing at him to no avail.

  Back at the ruins, one member didn’t want Elizabeth to leave, even though it shouldn’t have mattered either way as far as they were concerned. This guy, he also said he was using his discretion, but that was in regards to his attack on Jake, which meant that his real target was…

  “Elizabeth, run!” Jake shouted, but it was too late. The man ignored Jake completely and turned around, bypassing Elizabeth’s blade and punching her dead in the chest. She stumbled, and surely he’d do some kind of finishing cut with his clawed hands. Jake had to think of way to disrupt his momentum, but even his sword had no effect so—

  There was a loud bang and the sky seemed to light up. The cloaked man stopped mid-swipe and turned to the left, where the area was lit up by rapidly pulsing blue lights followed by a howling wind. While he was distracted, Jake kicked him dead in the back, which forced the man to take a step forward. He turned his head from the shocked Elizabeth to Jake, and Jake could almost see the red anger rising from within his dark cloak. Still, the hood turned again to flashes and loud noises.

  “Ensure that no harm comes to that boy,” he said, and walked off into the night. Jake looked at Elizabeth, who was panting heavily with her hand over her chest. She just had a near-death experience and was only saved by what had to be one of Dante’s insane outbursts. Jake turned his head toward the flashing sky, locked eyes with Elizabeth, and nodded.

  ***

  Sara gave one last look back, as if she was a lost puppy who had just been abandoned. Dante couldn’t afford to have her sticking around for this shitshow, though, so he turned and entered the old stone building even though he would have preferred to just call out to those assholes. Whatever, as long as he was in here he might as well check out that hunch.

  He figured he had at least a few minutes until they showed up, as they had to wait for Sara to be out of sight, ensure no one else was around, then make it here, so he inspected the place. It was the same as the last tomb – same size, same carvings, same weird thing in the center, and not much in the way of a clue, but he was sure there was some fuckery going on and
this place had something to do with it: indeed, those asshole’s presence confirmed it.

  So what was it? Were these pictures hiding some sort of secret? He doubted it, they seemed like some basic origin story to him. So was it this big slab in the middle? Dante grabbed it and tried to shake it, but it held firm. It looked like it was built into the stonework, so the only thing Dante could think of it doing was opening up and revealing a secret passage. Fuck it, this island didn’t reach low enough for there to be much more than a single room down there anyway, and if there were secret tunnels they wouldn’t be getting very far.

  It hardly mattered anyway, those assholes were going to be making their way to him soon. They probably didn’t notice that he had spotted them, so he’d be happy to catch them with their pants down. He stepped out of the dark room and into the dead of night. Sure enough, there were a few people, women based on their curves, in tight-fitting outfits crossing the pathway to the island. When they saw him, they stopped, then quickly hopped to the mainland, where Dante was all too happy to greet them.

  “Y’know, if you don’t want me to think there’s fuckery afoot, maybe don’t put ninjas on my six when I start looking at ancient monuments. Pretty much confirms my suspicions.”

  The girl in the front, who seemed to be the leader, stood silent, her fists clenched. It didn’t seem she was going to say anything, but Dante doubted she’d let him leave either. He was going to have to fight either way, so he might as well try to piss them off first.

  “Still, I didn’t find jackshit in there. If you didn’t follow me, I would have thought it was nothing and given up. Real dumb move on your part.” He turned and took in the rest of the island. It was nearly barren, aside from a few trees that had fruit dangling from them. “So what’s the big secret, is it this fruit?”

  Dante got an immediate sense of danger as the last word left his mouth, and he blasted his energy into the ground so he rocketed way up into the air. Sure enough when he looked down he caught sight of a scythe of wind tearing through the air just below him, behind it the leader chick with her arm swept to the side. She looked up at him, her face obstructed by the mask but her eyes narrowed.

  Still in the air, Dante blasted to his left so that he’d avoid her next attack. “No way! It is the fruit!” The attack came up and rushed past him, sending his hair and clothes rippling from the shockwave. Looking down, he saw that four other members held their arms up toward him. Shit.

  Dante blasted to the left and right as he descended to make sure he was a moving target that was hard to hit. The volley of wind attacks punched through the airspace that he was in, but he continued moving from side to side, and by some miracle his feet managed to touch back down without him suffering serious injury. He’d been grazed a few times on the way down, there was a slash carved into the ankle of his favorite (and only) pair of jeans, a few drops of blood dripping down his cheek, but he’d had worse. Much worse.

  The leader kicked into the ground and lunged at Dante with frightening speed. He managed to duck under her fist as it came in and countered with an uppercut. He made contact, but it didn’t feel solid, and she went flying way farther into the air than he’d intended. She must’ve launched herself in the same direction as his attack in order to lessen the damage. He looked up at the girl, whose silhouette was high in the sky and clicked his tongue. The bitch was good.

  Several more volleys of wind launched themselves at him and Dante ran behind their precious building for cover. Correction: the bitches were good.

  Dante pressed himself against the cool stone wall, gasping for breath. Up until now, this place had been a total sausage fest, but now suddenly he was being hunted down by five chicks, and not in a good way. If he had to guess, he thought they probably used women as some kind of special battle unit here, which meant that he shouldn’t take them lightly.

  “They ain’t giving me any time to stop and figure things out though,” Dante mumbled as he ran around the building. The ground where he had been standing exploded with a loud howl of wind as the leader launched her attack. She was in the air, floating like some kind of god. It pissed Dante right off, and he extended his palms out and unleashed a flurry of energy attacks at the girl, which lit the sky up with flashes of light.

  The girl, still floating, waved her arms in different directions and destroyed the whole volley like it was nothing, leaving a cloud of drifting smoke. Dante thought it was a great distraction, and dropped his arm down and began gathering more energy, but the woman rushed out of the cloud and to the side, much to Dante’s amazement. He slumped his shoulders in disappointment and let the potent energy drop to the ground where it exploded and tore at the earth. That shit usually works, he told himself.

  The leader floated just over Dante and was clearly up to something, but he couldn’t worry about her as her posse was about to be on him any second. Since they were tactical, they’d probably try to surround him, coming from either side of the building. With that in mind, Dante gathered energy in both palms while walking forward. When he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye he shot his palms outward, launching a steady stream of energy out of each hand that would be sure to keep the lesser bitches away. As that energy rushed out he looked up, seeing the leader with her hand raised high into the air. Her clothes would have been flapping from the rushing energy her stored attack made had they not been so tight fitting.

  As far as Dante was concerned, there were enemies to his left, right, and above him. With that in mind, there was only one way around, but he’d have to be super quick to move before the attackers filled in. Dante quickly cut the energy streaming from his palms and made a quick blast toward the ground, which sent him high into the air. The leader didn’t attack him as soon as he launched like he thought she would, and they were no more than a few feet from each other in the air, staring at one another. Dante clicked his tongue then blasted energy at her, not to hurt her but to get him the hell away. It did little to deter the girl, and as Dante was approaching the top of the stone structure, she dispersed the smoke from his attack and let out her own, which barreled toward him. Dante summersaulted in midair, and his foot caught the roof of the building, where he quickly sprawled. The wind rushed over his head and into the darkness below.

  As he lay there he heard a light click as the girl’s feet gently touched the roof of the stone building, her arms outstretched like she was some sort of deity basking in her own divinity. He scoffed, then began to rise, taking a knee and getting to his feet. She allowed him to do all this, he didn’t know why and so he stared at her with an eyebrow raised. Her head was titled away and she stared at the stars. It creeped him out, but he had too many fucking enemies to worry about. While she was doing whatever spooky shit that she was doing, he looked around, noting that her allies had stopped advancing. They’d surrounded the building, but stood firm with their arms at their sides. They weren’t planning on attacking, probably because of collateral damage that may happen to this ancient monument.

  The girl finally dropped her head from the sky and focused on Dante, her eyes soft yet mischievous. It sent a shiver down his spine, but there was little he could do about it. The girl made loud, confident strides as she crossed the roof toward him. He took a single step back and considered running, but realized that his position on top of this thing was the only reason he was safe. If he jumped off without any cover, the bitches at the bottom would cut him down. He didn’t like it, but he needed to see what this woman’s next move was going to be before he acted. She continued forward and stopped just in front of him. Her eyes ran down his feet and back to his head in a quick flick.

  “You’re not bad.”

  “Yeah, you too,” he conceded. She was quick, he had to give her that, and he thought he knew why. That movement, there was no doubt she was enhancing her speed with Sol, just like that demon did. It pissed him off that they both figured it out but he couldn’t and he really wanted to knock her out, but he had to be careful. One wrong move
and the rest of them would jump in.

  The leader girl looked to the side and stared at something far away, but Dante was too concerned about any shift in her posture that might indicate an attack to figure out what she was looking at. After a few seconds, she turned back to him.

  “You’re outmatched. Please come willingly.”

  He clenched his fists in preparation to do the exact opposite, but he heard a few loud stomps from behind him. He turned his head and his eyes narrowed even further. Frantically hopping across the floating platforms and calling his name was Sara, and she definitely drew the attention of the four-squad members who turned from Dante to her. Taking in the ninjas, Sara looked shocked as she reached the mainland. She took a few hesitant steps forward, then stopped when she realized they were dead set on attacking her. She looked up at Dante, that same damn lost puppy look. He jerked his head away from it, facing the leader.

  “You and me. Keep them out of this.”

  “You aren’t in a position to make demands,” the leader said, then nodded toward her comrades, who had turned their heads to look at her. They braced their footing and locked their hands on Sara. A hostage.

  Dante punched forward and caught the leader straight in the stomach. Her eyes widened as his fist dug into her and then continued forward. The attack sent her flying into the air until she slowed her momentum and began floating. Air rushed up from behind Dante and sent his jacket lashing out, but he wasn’t concerned, clenching his fist and savoring the feeling of the bitch’s gut.

  “Next time you take a hostage, make sure they aren’t more than you can handle!”

  “Dammit Dante! What the hell did you do?” Sara yelled from underneath him. She was pissed off, but he’d allow it, since she gave him the opportunity he needed to fight this woman one on one. He punched out a few bursts of energy at her, and she deftly floated around to dodge them. Perfect flight as far as he could tell. But how much can she dodge? he wondered.