21 ARTEMUS’s SURPRISE (1/2)
”We're here as agreed so I implore you now, for the last time, deactivate your Amplifyers immediately,” pleaded Reus to the amassing rebels some fifty feet from him. He is at a wide grassy plain somewhere a hundred miles northwest of the Northern Encampment trying to reason with the rebel group allegedly responsible for ambushing merchants harvesting rare herbs along the mountain range. ”No one wants to get hurt here. We have been more than patient in giving in on your demands! All we want is a peaceful resolution to this conflict.”
It is halfway till dawn at the negotiation site. They can smell the cool salty seas all around the thick fog they are in. The freezing breeze doesn't even help cool down the tension as demonstrated by Reus' cold sweat dribbling down his cheeks rolling down to his chin.
The Prince is wearing an impressive Battlegear worthy of a Nagozulian General: Golden plated vest with the Nagozulian Army insignia; black gloves with plated knuckles; a smooth silver helm showing his face still with his circular spectacles askew; black silk pants with steel knee protectors and a pair of silver plated steel boots. Still, with his formal attire in place, he carries his lumpy brown leather sling bag.
Behind him are nine strike teams consisting of five members each just standing in anticipation. The Nagozulian Strike Teams are known for their elemental masteries, sothey require no weapons at all. They are also famous for their ten-minute handling time in disabling and pacifying any requested target making them very efficient and deadly but today they are just standing, awaiting Reus's order to strike. They all wear dark color coordinated Salakot identifying their elemental innates with the edges of the silver-plated base extending to level their brows, all wearing masks revealing only their serious piercing eyes. Each strike teams consist of two Casters, a Windblower, a Firestarter and a Molder, all of whom has their activated Amplifyers attached on their silver vests, lighting the plains as if they are torches placed as a totem.
Beside Reus is an unusual strike team of excessively muscled Daomagarians which are all wearing masks depicting gruesome and frightful molds of faces that have horns and fangs. They came from the Maskara Clan and they specialize on guarding a target with their monstrous strength and their almost impenetrable skin using the Deep Root as their clan's mastery. They are all standing six feet tall, breathing the crisp cold air without moving, emitting thick continuous smoke from their terrifying deep breaths. They are all grasping the hilt of their humongous swords with blades as big as a man that are planted on the ground half-buried, sleeping in the stillness of the night, waiting to be called upon to lay waste if need be.
”We do not take orders from you pigs!” shouted the apparent leader of the rebel wearing a red leather vest with his ruby Amplifyer burning bright, floating on his right side. ”Especially from a kid like you! Do you expect me to turn all my men to you without any fight, you filthy swine!”
”Come on! Be reasonable!” Reus shouted, ”We outnumber you all two to one. We don't want to hurt you. We just want to talk.”
”Hurt us?” he snickered almost insulting him, ”We surround you two to one! Deactivate your Amplifyers and WE would not hurt YOU!”
Reus looked behind him and was surprised to see illuminating fireflies of Amplifyers activating one after another with silhouettes of rebels walking to surround them. The commander of the Nagozulian Strike Team went close to Reus and whispered, ”My Lord, they have deceived us. Should I signal to eliminate them all?”
”No,” he whispered, ”Goodness, no! No blood should be spilled in these lands.”
”But your safety is our utmost duty.”
”Don't worry about me, Major, or yourselves for that matter. I will protect us all.”
”Hey kid!” shouted the rebel leader, ”You are the son of that Artemus smug, right?”
Reus just looked at him straight in the eye activating his rare white diamond illuminating an area around his soldiers. He kneeled down on the moist ground closing his eyes.
”Oh, I see! You want to forfeit your lives, right? Well we can grant your prayers!”
”Sir,” the commander persisted as the rebels charged their Amplifyers illuminating the fields as bright as day, ”shall we maneuver a counterattack?”
”No, group your men closer to me,” he instructed confident, ”I'll be handling this myself. I have something special in mind. Please do tell your men to burn their Amplifyers to a maximum when I give the order.”
The commander's eyes were filled with doubt, anxious to attack, but nodded to accept the order and then scurried of to meet all the Strike Team captains.
He smiled as he directed his attention now to the leader of the Maskara Strike Team on his left side who's wearing a frightful demon mask with long canine teeth soaked in red ink. ”General Enro, I may need your help after all...”
Enro, known as the feared Bloodfang - who is recognized for his legendary mastery of the Deep Root skill that can stand the punch of even the strongest Daomagar, looked at his comrades that understood him right away as they lined up behind him. He then pulled his unusually blue-colored crystalline long sword the size of a man and feigned them for a couple of strikes in the air which the others did with theirs as if getting warmed up.
”Just remember,” Reus asserted with a friendly tone seeing his excitement with his impossibly huge crystal sword, ”Please do not dismember them. We need only to disable them without so much as injuring them permanently. Do not let them enter my territory until I finish my ritual. Use any skill necessary but please do be careful with your strength.”
The Maskara General just grunted in disappointment as he pushed his gigantic sword on the ground once more and stretched his arms giving the others the signal. They immediately obeyed the order and circled around to protect the huddling strike teams around Reus, standing on five major openings around them.
A white illuminating umbrella surrounded them forming like a dome housing the Nagozulian party. It stretched more than two hundred fifty feet in diameter and a hundred feet high with Reus at the center. This white energy field lighted the whole fields turning it as bright as a summer's day, robbing everyone inside it with elemental capabilities. This frightened the Nagozulian Strike Teams inside the dome creating a chatter of worry and fear as their Amplifyer's light began to dissipate one by one.
”Do not fret!” assured Reus now floating at the center with his whole body radiating with white light, ”You're all safe with me!”
”You ARE the son of Artemus!” shouted the leader laughing thinking he has the upper hand. ”Kill them all but capture the Son of Artemus alive!”
Within a matter of seconds, a bombardment of fire elemental energies hurled at the dome-like energy field in all angles. The Nagozulian Strike Team members flinched as they thought they are about to get scorched helplessly from all directions but was surprised to see the white energy eating the fire away, absorbing its power as if a sponge thirsty for water. The resulting heat from the fire explosions caused the fields to burn but not within Reus's magnificent territory that remained pristine - with its cool temperature and its green grass all safe inside. The Strike Teams watched standing, some smiling, as the rebels threw at them pitiful elemental techniques that some thought to be quite powerful and yet did not even penetrate even an inch of their protective barrier. Even the explosive forces of impact cannot be felt inside the White Dome. Wind, water and earth techniques are now being thrown at them endlessly creating a deafening noise on that early morning and yet they are still there, still watching with happy eyes as if inviting more fury to their enemies.
For about ten minutes, the continuing barrage did not stop until they saw Reus's white dome turn bigger and bigger moving inch by inch as if growing from all the energy it has been eating.
The Rebel Commander noticed this, sohe ordered all of his men to ready their weapons to a charge. The rebels did so, shouting as they unsheathe their weapons, but did not, at all, touch the white line that separates them. The Maskara Strike Team began dashing at the edges and as soon as one would get near Reus's magnificent territory, they would open their palms and start to throw the would-be attacker away at least ten feet either knocking them out or making them squirm in pain curling on the ground almost crying.
”Now!” Reus shouted giving the order to his commander which he obeyed almost instantaneously, passing the directive to his captains.
The Nagozulian Strike Teams began concentrating their Amplifyers burning it bright as Reus snatches it away, absorbing it making his Amplifyer glow brighter even more.
”That's why they call him the Sun Stealer...” mumbled the commander almost smiling in his aha-moment seeing Reus touch the ground finishing his ritual. The white radiating beams coming from his diamond Amplifyer pulsated ten blinding bursts and then he exploded robbing all lights from everyone leaving the whole expense of the fields pitch black.
”General Reus,” whispered the commander almost afraid, ”What shall we do?”
”Relax, commander,” said a deep voice echoing from everywhere, ”All of you, stay where you are. We'll be wrapping this up with a ribbon in no time.”
The Nagozulian Strike Team is known for their supreme tactical intelligence, unparalleled brazen persona and their near-suicidal attack styles that are unmatched but if there's one thing that the impressive Strike Teams fear, it is not ghosts neither powerful enemies nor death, it is to be placed in an unknown state robbing them with their capacity to act and do something about their situation. These situations gives them a state of helplessness which renders them to be mentally, emotionally and physically distressed - after all, they have been training to become immensely proficient in the field of combat and yet being incompetent in the battle grounds lingers in their minds giving them a frightful chill. That's what they are experiencing now as they try to kneel down readying to strike on the cold damp ground hearing the rebels screaming and shouting and crying.
They can see their own bodies as if being illuminated by the sun, even though it is night at that time, but they cannot see what's beyond their bodies. They can touch and hear their team members murmuring on their sides, but they cannot see them. This is true with the others as they confirm what they are experiencing. Though they see some light blinking as if appearing from one place to another everywhere, still this didn't give them comfort - it only adds to the stress they are feeling.
Being acquainted with the unknown really isn't their strong suit as members of the prestigious Nagozulian Strike Team. They should know all there is to know that's why they are so proficient and yet this surprise seems to give them an unwanted experience they don't want to remember, so they just waited in agitation for the duration of Reus's unusual skill to last in hopes that their safety and that of their comrades is not compromised in their ineffective state.
In about more or less seven minutes, the black void suddenly crept away, dissolving into a mist releasing everyone out of that depressive bondage. The Nagozulian Strike Team immediately organized and activated their Amplifyers once more as they search out for the enemy and found them lying face down all lined up and apparently asleep. They are neatly organized in tens as if they are tally sticks amounting to a hundred and twenty-seven. Their hands are bound with rope all connected to the shackle found on their heels.
”General Reus!?” shouted the commander searching for their missing bulwark prince. He then ordered the captains to create a scouting party while they ready to transport the fugitives.
-------ooO0Ooo-------
”I thought I felt your presence there,” grinned Reus behind a man all dressed in white with hands crossed, ”I don't want to show off, but I have to show it to you somehow. I mean, I was planning on doing something less stressful, something simple, but I have to make an impression.”
”Indeed,” Artemus whispered without looking back as he watched the commander down the hill almost eight hundred feet away, ”You sure know how to make a grand impression but I thought you're going to need a hand there.”
”I completely have it under control. I intentionally kept on giving in on their demands for them to lure their comrades out in the open. It's better to capture one hundred twenty-seven of them instead of just a handful twenty, right?”
”But still, that's a risky move. Just don't be too cocky in the near future. Sometimes a complicated solution can backfire and turn into a dreadful complication, especially if you have the lives of your command at stake.”
”Yes father. My success is a collaborative effort so I can't take all the credit.” He went near his father looking down too as the huddled soldiers secured the prisoners for transport with the commander still clueless and relentless in his search for him, ”I had help from the strike team and your favorite Maskara Strike Force.”
”I didn't know one can suck away the energy from the Amplifyers as a means of obtaining energy. I didn't even know you can rob away all the light and bend it to your will. That is a new trick you taught me here - though I think I wouldn't be able to replicate your wonderful technique with my miniscule Life Elemental essence.”
”Well, I didn't come up with that. A little bird told me the nature of Light Energies.”
Artemus smiled and tapped his son, ”A certain little bird dog?”
Reus was surprised and was about to ask when he interrupted him turning away.
”Well,” he said wearing his flat cap fixing his hair, ”It'll be morning soon. You better go and fix the situation there. I have an appointment at first light, and I don't want to be late. Good job son,” he congratulated looking back with happy eyes, ”Every day you make me proud.” And he blinked disappearing into the night like a star, leaving Reus alone smiling wide feeling confident as ever.
-------ooO0Ooo-------
The freezing wind rushes strong as if pushing back the traveling party of three, preventing them from going further on their path to the Shrine of Bakunawa. Prodea is leading the group striding with her famous red cloak together with Zeba and Karr on her sides.
A hundred flying needles came rushing through the woods beside the road jolting the Daomagarian bodyguard to quickly release his large claymore on his back, swinging it to deflect the reflecting pins. He then immediately pulled Prodea and Zeba to his back as a shadow appeared in front of him making his way on the foggy curtains of the horizon. The figure wears a black hood, with a mask covering his face only revealing the murderous look on his shining red eyes filled with malice. He's wearing his famous trench coat walking without a sound.
”Impressive,” the shadow greeted with a deep voice almost sounding like an adolescent kid, ”Now that I know you're not like the others, we might as well get on to the exciting portion of this engagement.”
The mysterious silhouette pulled a foot-long dagger on his back and feigned it in the air with his left hand. The surprisingly odd dagger did not have any reflection at all, but this does not frighten Karr. He does not fear how he could turn his weapon pitch black like the daggers of the famous Sibara Assassins. What bothered him was how this unique dagger did not produce any sound at all, not even the slightest vibration metals emit when pulled from its sheathe. This brought him to simulate different kinds of scenario on how he could anticipate the impossible attacks he might give as he tightly grasps the hilt of his extensive claymore still fixated on the glaring red eyes of the murderous shadow.
Prodea moved behind him and quickly attacked the figure with multiple assaults of fire, water and wind elemental attacks that are surprisingly powerful and lit the roads bright for about twenty seconds creating a deafening uproar of explosions. Zeba smiled for a while clapping her hands in excitement seeing the marvelous display of high-level elemental attacks but Karr did not feel any different. He just stood there in complete focus with his serious eyes growing even more concerned.
”That ought to do it,” she sneered with her smug attitude as she clasps her hands feeling satisfied. ”I thought that Yiv character presents an inkling of a challenge...”
As Prodea started to step ahead, she was blocked with Karr's humongous arms pushing her back again on his sides.
”I'm sorry Prodea,” the shadow murmured kneeling on the ground that has been etched with white circular symbols, ”You're not the only one who can borrow powers from Mother Earth.”
He then showed a cracked white pearl from his palms and flicked it with his middle finger aiming at Prodea's forehead which Karr instantaneously caught just in time. The force could've rendered a wide hole on her head but that didn't frighten Prodea. She puts her complete trust to Karr's impressive skills.
Karr gave the cracked pearl for Prodea to investigate which she did almost fastidiously taking it out of his palms without stopping.
”The Aegis of Ana'giel...” she murmured almost with fright moving close to Karr's back after inspecting the broken bead off from his bodyguard. ”Do you know what you did!? You incompetent peasant?! You just wasted a very valuable artifact!”
As the shadow stood up, etches of a faint white circular rune began circling him as if being protected by very strong Magicks. Prodea's elemental attacks are of no match for him now. The figure returned his threatening pose with his hands at his sides holding the frightful dagger ready to charge.
”Wait,” pleaded Karr, calm as he is always, ”What does the Shadow Walker want from us. We didn't do anything wrong?”
”I don't have time for you, brother, and I don't want to eliminate you two. I just want the head of your master whose soul reeks of corruption. Her actions would lead to the demise of the Holy Lands, so she must be executed.”
As soon as he was about to make his rebuttal, the Shadow Walker raced on dashing almost disappearing and in a quarter of a second, he reached them aiming the dagger right through Prodea's neck. Karr anticipated this, sohe twirled like a whirlwind displacing his charges, Prodea and Zeba, and the deceptive Yiv.
Yiv stepped back twenty feet away from them. He is now on the other side of the road towards the Palace while they are on the road to the Shrine. This just infuriated Yiv as he switched hands holding his long black dagger now to his right hand and pulling a wide knife from his left boot.
”GO!” shouted Karr without taking his eyes away from the Shadow Walker, ”I'll stop him from getting any further.”
Yiv's eyes smiled to that statement as he suddenly vanished from his spot. Karr suddenly twirled again with his impossibly long claymore this time creating a ravage from the roads destroying almost ten feet of it throwing the Shadow Stalked back almost cutting his face in half. He had managed to precisely cut through his cloak and his mask. By that time Prodea and Zeba have completely hidden themselves on the flowing dark mist of the night running.
”You have underestimated me, Shadow Walker,” he said pulling his claymore to his sides. ”You will not be able to kill my charge without getting through me.”
”I'm surprised,” he said kneeling down, ”You truly are one of Talim Clan's finest warriors. Your father would've been very proud.”
For a quarter of a second, Karr's eyes flinched as if he pulled a very sensitive matter. The Shadow Walker noticed this as he smirked to continue. ”Even Captain Gab would be happy to see you do that impressive technique your father developed just for me. I'm practically honored it has been passed to you.”
”Don't you dare drag my brother into this!” he shouted angry pulling his sword in his front at a ready.
”You know I am flattered your family has dedicated their lives in improvising techniques just to disrupt my Shadow Step. It's as if your mother and father devoted their remaining life span to counter my special move. Too bad for you I'm going to eliminate you too for knowing such an impressive and useful thing.”
”You'll pay for what you did you fiend!”
As Yiv stood up pulling her now useless disguise, her long shiny black hair began to move with the breeze as her lovely face illuminated touching the moonlight revealing her secret identity to the dumbfounded bodyguard with wide eyes. She threw it away on the side of the road and fixed her stance.
”Princess Liv?” Karr mumbled seeing her red eyes returning to her rare mesmerizing violet color as if relaxing herself. ”You are the Shadow Walker?”
”I'm still surprised you know how to use that skill though,” she continued ignoring his baffled expression, ”Your father is the only one who perfected that and can counter me when I am communing with Mother Earth. I didn't know he passed it on to you before I disposed of him.
”Don't be offended, but I just got to ask. Does anybody know how to do that? I need to assess if the elimination of your bloodline is viable.”
”How!?” he shouted almost breaking his stance in bewilderment ignoring her ravings, ”How can you stand deceiving Princess Anagea and Grand Prince Artemus after all they've done for you!? After they have taken you to their home and treated you like their own child!?”
”You're asking all the wrong questions here old timer,” she interrupted his reprimanding speech smiling devilishly tilting her head, ”You don't have to worry 'bout all those things. Those things are really not of import. What you should worry is your own life. There's a reason I wear my disguise. No one gets to see my face and lived to tell about it.”
”I know,” he said now determined scratching the earth to draw a line in front of him with his claymore, ”There's only one person coming out of this alive... and I intend to be that person.”
”That's the spirit!” she replied returning her calm violet hue to red, returning her murderous eyes still disturbingly smiling.
-------ooO0Ooo-------
”Prodea...” whispered Zeba tensed with the situation, ”It has been an hour! Karr is still isn't here. What should we do?”
”QUIET YOU!” she hushed shouting trying to meditate creating a large rune summoning circle in the fields just in front of Bakunawa's shrine with all thirty Watercasters praying at the center with their Amplifyers activated to their fullest potential. ”Stop pestering me. I have to complete this. If he does die before I finish this, then we all would die from Yiv's hand, soquit complaining.”
The summoning circle etched to the ground began illuminating a yellow radiance and that made Prodea smile.
”And now, Zeba,” she exclaimed with delight, ”watch as I become the ultimate elemental in Nagozul!”
She floated for about forty feet above the skies making all the Casters look at her with awe.
”Cite the spells I gave you!” she commanded to the crowded Casters below her, ”Pray deeply in your hearts that I may be granted permanent power...”
The summoning circle below her suddenly exploded with blinding white light. An energy surge began rising to Prodea. Rushing to her are enormous amounts of elemental energies making her bright as the sun illuminating the fields.
Zeba just crouched and squinted as she backed away far to avoid the suffocating release of energy coming out of the earth. The amount of elemental energies being transferred to Prodea made her body shake as if giving off a powerful vibrating pulse making it hard for her to breathe.
After a minute of transference, the light abruptly stopped and Prodea made her landing, touching the ground gently with her Amplifyers in her forehead - ruby, emerald and sapphire - illuminating brightly almost white. She then pulled of her cloak and started to shake off her long hair, cracking her neck stretching, getting ready for her greatest encounter.
”Prodea?” posed Zeba gradually turning greatly concerned, ”Where are the Casters?”
”What Casters? We're the only ones here. Plausible deniability, Zeba, plausible deniability.”
”Prodea!” she shouted almost angry, ”Where are the Casters!?”
”I assimilated them. What's the matter? Seriously Zeba, your lack of deductive reasoning is quite astounding. You need not ask where they are.”
”You destroyed them all!?”
”NO! Are you absurd!?” she shouted too now insulted, ”I trapped their souls to my newly fused Amplifyers to give me power worth thirty elementals! I'm not that mental to just destroy them, minding their lives no importance whatsoever.”
”Why did you do that!?” she shouted almost crying seeing the burnt-out grounds that once was the center of the summoning circle.
”How do you suppose I could defeat Bakunawa without this? Besides, they would gladly give their lives to me given any circumstance. I just utilized their full potentials in the process! Now I am twenty times the Prodea you know... minus some Casters who doesn't really have promising essence.”
”What kind of person are you?” she raged teary eyed almost breaking down shaking on the ground.
Prodea went close to her and looked down at her with serious eyes, ”The kind of person needed to make you Queen in this pathetic infernal hole we live in. Somebody's got to do what I did and I'm not rooting for you to do this, especially seeing how weak you are.” She turned around aiming at the wall and spouted some weird language. She then pulled her hands in front of her and as soon as she finishes her ritual a white energy coming from her palms radiated to impact Bakunawa's wall blasting it all to smithereens, breaking the seal of the wall that once was. ”Are you going to stay there sitting, looking pathetic? Or are you going to watch as I kick Bakunawa's sorry bum!?”