5
Hi, this is my first story ever, so please don't judge too harshly. Hope you enjoy it!
I don't own nothing… except my OC's. Lawyers will be dealt with accordingly.
Prologue
I was surrounded on all sides. All around me was a swirling vortex of energy, twisting and pulling me in a myriad of psychedelic colors making it harder and harder to breath. I had traveled between worlds countless times in my life as a guardian, but never before had one of my portals behaved so erratic or violent. Usually it was just step through the magic hole in the air and boom you're at wherever you were supposed to go. This anomaly might have been explained by my severely depleted energy reserves due to the various cuts and bullet holes bleeding me dry.
Prior to stepping through the portal I had been in a battle with one of the Empire's thrice damned death squads. Each squad was generally comprised of around ten soldiers who had undergone at least a tier one Conditioning cycle, making them stronger, faster and tougher then any normal human. The ones that had attacked me were wearing the dark yellow armor of a tier three squad. Normally I would have mopped the floor with these fools, killing them and looting anything of value from their corpses. Unfortunately, I hadn't fed in almost a month so my power reserves were almost nonexistent. What should have been a quick and bloody death on their parts ended up turning into a battle for my life. Two of them had firearms and were the first to draw blood. Two silver slugs tore into my side and shoulder before I realized they were even there. Ignoring the burning pain, I charged my attackers pulling my weapon free of its holster on my back.
The two trooper's who shot me were standing behind eight others while they reloaded. The other troopers had begun moving in after the first two rounds were fired. They had ambushed me from a dark alley on the other side of the street, their armor having been treated with special tinctures so I wouldn't smell them. The first swordsman met me halfway and made an over head chop at my head, which I easily side stepped.
"Dagger." I muttered.
The large scythe I had been wielding collapsed in on itself, before reforming into small blade that I rammed into the trooper's helmet killing him instantly. While I was still weak from hunger, I was still stronger and faster than my attackers could ever hope to be.
"Scythe."
The next three to reach me attacked simultaneously, but were all parried with twirl of my weapon. While they were still off-balance cut them down with quick horizontal swipe that tore open their bellies before they could recover. Looking to my next opponent, I narrowly missed a spear thrust to the heart that turned into a deep gash along my ribs. Wincing in pain I moved in, impaling him on the curved blade of my scythe. The pain in my shoulder, coupled with the steadily increasing amount of blood loss had begun to take their toll on my reaction time. I needed to hurry up and finish this.
"Hammer."
I was already bringing my weapon down in an overhead strike when it fully reformed, smashing through the sixth trooper's block, smashing his corpse into the cobblestones. Looking behind the remaining two troopers, I saw the two gunners had finished reloading and were lining up their shots.
"Shield."
Bringing my arm around, I smashed the shield into the seventh trooper's head, knocking him unconscious. One of the gunners fired, but was able to block it with my shield. Moving to the last trooper, I brought the shield up to swat away his weapon and grabbed him by the throat, bringing him between me and the gunners just as the second one fired. His round blew into the troopers back, coming out the front to graze my arm. The gunners didn't bother trying to reload, instead they charged, bayonets at the ready.
"Sword."
Tossing the unfortunate trooper to the side, I quickly dispatched the gunners. After the adrenaline rush subsided I felt ready to pass out. The bullet that hit me in the side had, thankfully, passed all the way through, but was bleeding profusely. The one in my shoulder wasn't bleeding as much but the bullet had gotten lodged in the bone, the silver quickly draining my meager reserves. I needed to find something to restore my power and quickly. Glancing at the remains of my attackers I was almost tempted to use them, but I knew that the empire poisoned any squad sent after me with silver, for just this situation. Looking around I noticed that the one with the spear had been wearing a cape.
'Must've been the captain,'I thought absently, 'Well he won't be needing it anymore.'
Taking the cape off his body I transformed my sword into a dagger, and began cutting it into strips. Most of them went to covering up the wound in my side and the cut on my chest. Before I covered up the one in my shoulder I had to dislodge the bullet. Taking a deep breath I attempted to pry the bullet out with the tip of my dagger. It came out quickly, allowing me to try and staunch the flow of blood with the last couple strips of yellow cape.
Sensing motion on a nearby rooftop I looked up to see a second squad had shown up. There appeared to only be five of them, but they were all wearing pitch black armor. The ones I had just killed had been wearing the dark yellow armor of a tier three squad. The newcomers' armor was tier 5 black. It was the Executioners. Taking on five of them would be a workout on a good day, but in my current state they'd rip me apart.
Knowing I didn't stand a chance , I quickly summoned up the last of my energy and formed a portal, not really caring to where, and ran through before they could reach me. Now, standing inside some crazy maelstrom of chaotic energy, I waited and hoped for it to end before I passed out. When the energy around me started to calm down, I was almost too out of it to notice. As soon as the energy had completely dissipated I took a few gulps of air before falling to my knees. I stayed like that for a few minutes, just kneeling down and breathing heavily, before taking in my new surroundings. I had appeared in a dark and dirty alleyway between two large buildings, which opened up into a street lit by tall metal lamps. The light they gave off didn't seem to flicker or waver like they would if made by fire, which meant they must have been either magic, highly unlikely since I didn't sense anything, or they were electrical.
Not many worlds had technology like that. I knew the Empire homeworld did, having had the misfortune of visiting that godforsaken place once before, but looking up and seeing the clear night sky uncovered by the dense black smog that covers most of their cities, I put that theory to rest. The only other place I could think of that was able to harness electricity like this was the home of my friend David; Earth, the birthplace of humankind.
Getting up off my knees, I look around and spotted my weapon, laying down next to a trash bin. Picking it up off the floor, I look it over to make sure it wasn't damaged in the portal. It had reverted to its default form. The six foot long ebony handle didn't seem to be cracked or warped and the long curved blade jutting out of the side of it seemed only mildly scorched. Wiping the scorch marks off with the sleeve of my coat revealed the gleaming silver metal underneath. Satisfied my scythe was undamaged, I strapped it into its holster on my back and headed out of the alleyway. If I didn't find something to replenish my reserves soon I was going to die from blood loss. Pushing up the sleeve of my leather coat over my right arm I started rubbing furiously at the seal on my forearm. There wasn't much of a point in suppressing my mana considering the imperials had already caught my scent. It was only a matter of time before they tracked me to Earth and I was in no shape for a stand up fight, so magic was my best bet. Thankfully my portal had landed me in a city. There was never a shortage of undesirables in cities. I grinned, showing a mouth full of razor sharp fangs.
"Let's see if we can find us a blood donor." I mutter softly, stepping out into the light of one of the street lamps.
AU: Man I had no idea fight scenes were so hard to write! I felt that my first attempt at this chapter was a little lazy, so I felt a rewrite was in order. I'll reread my other chapters and see if they need reworked as well. Please review and tell me what you think, criticism is always welcome.