The scent of charred flesh had stained the air, drowning the sweet aroma of spring flowers in the sorrow of the Valihan. Their world was burning at the hands of a remorseless and unrelenting invader that slaughtered all before it. There had been no negotiation, no reason given. There had been only terror, despair, and death.
Warriors defending their homes and families were reduced to piles of smoldering corpses; those same families soon joined them, regardless of their pleas for mercy.
It was the end for the once peaceful world of Saranji. Cities and villages across the planet had been left in ruins, their revered elders slain, tens of millions dead—all in just a few short hours. They didn't even have a name for their destroyers, whose appearance was as varied as it was alien.
Only their purpose was known: slaughter.
Mohan had led his people to the safety of the old catacombs, but he knew it wouldn't protect them forever. Already he could sense them scouring the many caverns and tombs that dotted the countryside, snuffing out any life they discovered within.
It would be their turn soon enough, and not even Bulbul would be able to stop them all. Nobody within any of the thirty-four tribes could.
No, there was only one individual that stood any chance of standing against those demons.
But would she still fight for them, despite their crimes against her?
"Puah!" Daarua burst through the previously gentle waters of the old river, the roar of the nearby waterfall reasserting itself as her ears drained. Tossing yet another cluster of fish onto the nearby shore with the rest of her catch, she was certain that this would hold her over for the next day or two.
The fish were really anxious today, so catching them had been a little more difficult than it normally was for the twelve year old. Not that she minded a prolonged swim, of course. The sky was free of clouds and the water was nice and warm; it was really the perfect day to be outdoors!
So then why weren't there any birds singing? Why weren't there any animals congregating by the river for a drink? Could it be that they, on some level, were feeling that same ominous 'ki' she had been sensing for most of the day?
She had felt their arrival on the cusp of dawn several hours ago; hundreds, most with a ki too strong to be one of the Valihan. She could tell there was something wrong with them from the very start, but the fact that she could feel the world growing dull to her senses painted a clear enough picture: people were dying. A lot of people.
Well, too bad for them.
Rua wasn't about to lift a finger to save those bastards, not after all they had done. Besides, they all hated her anyhow, so she doubted they would even accept her help.
Her father would probably be disappointed in her for thinking that way. "They're just scared," he'd say. "Don't hate them for their ignorance."
Easier said than done, all things considered.
With sigh of resignation at having to leave the soothingly warm waters of the river, Rua ascended into the sky. Drifting over to where she had piled her clothes, she found it increasingly difficult to ignore the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Was it just her, or were some of those powers she felt earlier getting kind of close? She really hoped not. She really didn't want to get wrapped up in all of this.
It was probably for the best if she hurried on home. Maybe if she kept her head down they would leave her alone.
"Hey, look! I found another brat!"
Or, you know, not.
"Hah, this one's all by herself," the bizarre creature, floating high above Rua, beckoned for his friends.
He was shaped sort of like a Valihan, a head and four limbs, but that was where their similarities ended. His face was wrinkled and his eyes bulged out like, well, a fish. That was it, wasn't it? He looked kind of like the fish she had just caught!
"Pffft," Rua stifled a laugh, not wanting to provoke a fight if possible.
Unfortunately, he would not be the only freak-face to greet her this day. His companions – nine in all – soon encircled her from above. All of them were wearing the same obsidian cuirass and tights, and had a weird metal thing attached to their right arms, but otherwise were just as distinct from one another as they were from her.
"Let's skin her like the other one, that squealin' was fuckin' hilarious!" One suggested, the group descending to the ground.
"Nah, we gotta keep our material fresh. We'll blast her limbs off one by one this time and watch her flop about," the other creature replied authoritatively. Rua could sense that out of the group of ten, he was the strongest.
"Um, I don't suppose you'd not do that if I shared my fish?" Rua offered, holding up her catch.
Leveling the hunk of metal on his arm at her, his thumb pressed down on a red switch to the side. A sphere of light scorched through the air and reduced her bundle of fish to ashes.
"So, probably not then," she noted.
"P-please, have mercy!" The dark haired woman begged the looming shadow. Clutching her son tightly to her waist, she knelt forward to shield him with the pathetically minute power she possessed. "We surrender! We'll do anything you want, just pl—"
A sphere of plasma silenced her simpering pleas, burning a clean hole through her backside while removing the brat's head on the opposite end.
"Two-for-one, huh?" Klay yawned, his canine snout parting wide. He'd been trying to make a game of it for the past hour to relieve his crushing boredom, seeing how many he could put down with a single concentrated blast. Best so far was five-for-one, two parents and their trio of brats with a well-timed curveball. He'd have to remember to gloat about it to Chaalk once this pain-in-the-ass operation was over with.
"This world is easily one of the most pathetic we've been to all year," Lomey noted, the violet humanoid cephalopod descending to the ground at Klay's side. "Do we really have to conquer every backwater planet in our path?"
"Seems so, yeah," Klay shrugged. "I guess I can see the appeal, though," he leveled his palm at a distant hut, another luminous sphere reducing the flimsy-looking wooden structure to splinters and fire. "These guys ain't even at the industrial level, so their world's all squeaky clean an' ripe for the taking, 'specially considering how weak they've been so far."
The Energy Potential of the average denizen of this rock was said to be negligible, and the majority of their "warriors" barely even exceeded three-tenths of a single integer. Some squads had reportedly been given trouble by fighters with an EP of about one, but it was nothing for them to be worried about. Their fire team consisted entirely of elite warriors, and even the weakest amongst them was well in excess of seven.
"Still, we'll be here all day at this rate," Klay complained, ear twitching in irritation at the prospect. They had already destroyed their major settlements, was it really necessary to waste time wiping out all of these pathetic little villages? They were everywhere!
Another cluster of huts was instantly reduced to woodchips by Lomey, his bulbous head inclining towards Klay. "Well, If Commander Nova wants the population culled to ten percent, then we've—"his sentence was cut short by a piercing whine, the otherwise invisible scleral lens of his sensor now flashing with the unmistakable red glow of an incoming transmission. "Hold on, it's Chaalk."
Klay narrowed his eyes with an accompanying grunt of irritation, his own sensor immediately flashing to life.
"All members of Soyle Team Six are to immediately abandon their current objectives and assemble at the uploaded coordinates," Chaalk's orders emanated from the sensor as if he were present, clear of the distortion common in more primitive technology. "We've just received orders to investigate the disappearance of squad seventy-two in Sector Theta."
"The entire squad? Seriously?!" Klay replied, snout flaring in elation. "Finally, a distraction from all this fuckin' grunt work!"
"What do you think could've happened?" Lomey questioned, his translucent aura flaring with his ascent skywards.
Offering a shrug, Klay fell in beside his teammate on their way to the rendezvous. "Hell if I know, but I'm hoping they found someone strong," his slid his tongue across the right side of his snout. "I've been hungry for a good fight."
It didn't take them but a few minutes to reach their rendezvous with the rest of the five-member Soyle Team. From there, they proceeded towards Sector Theta and the site of the missing squad's last known transmission while Chaalk briefed them on the situation.
"Hah, so they were attacked! I knew it!" Klay exclaimed. "To wipe out ten of our soldiers like that, they must've had an EP of at least four or five, right?"
Chaalk inclined his head towards the ecstatic warrior, his reptilian gaze narrowing in irritation. "That's what their last transmission strongly indicated, yes. But don't become too excited, Klay; if they were killed by a powerful enemy, then I'll be the one to face them. Is that understood?"
Klay felt his fur bristle at his saurian team leader's admonishment, but held his tongue. Chaalk was their CO, and for good reason. He held the highest EP amongst them, at a solid ten. Though he still attempted to put up a tough front against the larger alien, he knew that his ears were already pinned back against his head in submission.
Seeing the cold-blooded freak's satisfied grin lit a fire behind Klay's eyes that he only just managed to suppress. "Understood, sir."
"Good," Chaalk turned away from the seething canine and set his sights on the battle to come. "Don't worry, though, you'll have a front row seat to the show."
The rest of the squad remained sympathetically quiet, something Klay was quite grateful for. They all knew how it felt to be in his shoes, after all. Chaalk bullied them all.
Still, even if it involved watching this bastard steal all the glory, he relished any distraction from butchering those pathetically weak villagers.
Hopefully their next assignment would be a little more interesting.
"Here," Chaalk hissed, touching down amidst the remnants of their missing squad, the bodies numbering ten in all. They were spread unevenly over a radius of about ten meters, the grassy field that marked their resting place being otherwise undisturbed.
"Blegh," Klay landed with the rest of the squad, the distinct smell of burnt armor immediately assailing his sensitive nose. "Well, at least they're all accounted for."
"They were all pretty cleanly dispatched," Salene noted, kneeling beside one of the bodies, "with either a blast through the chest or a broken neck, or something of the sort. And note the lack of plasma scarring on the ground, too."
Shifting his gaze to the vulpine woman, Chaalk cracked his neck. "That means it was a really one sided fight, then."
She quickly nodded in response. "Generally speaking, you'll see a lot of environmental damage in contested battles. There's a few scorch marks from their blaster cannons, but that's-"
"Come on, Chaalk, let's get this show started," Silt croaked impatiently, the squat amphibian ignoring Salene's leering glare.
"Fine, fine," the Saurian elite turned away from the massacre, once more lifting into the sky. "There's got to be some sign of the one that—Ah!"
"What?" Klay inquired, rising until he was parallel with his team leader.
Now visible from the sky was an isolated hovel constructed of dried mud. Despite the simplistic building material, it had been expertly sculpted into a dome. The dim glow of a fire drew his eye to…a little girl, who was busying herself by tending to a large wooden spit that held a row of fish along its length.
"What? A kid?" Klay muttered in disappointment, his ears drooping slightly.
"Hnn," Chaalk hissed, his sensor flashing briefly. "EP is rated negligible, but if that's where she lives, then she must've seen something. Come on."
The remaining three members of Soyle Team quickly ascended skyward before the five of them drifted towards the lonesome dwelling. When they were within half a kilometer, the girl suddenly stood and stared straight at them, startling the group.
"How'd she…?!" Lomey balked in confusion.
"Some sort of sensory ability, probably. Some species can learn to do that," Salene replied.
Like all the people of this world, the girl was a standard humanoid phenotype with minimal body hair and a slightly dark shade of skin. The black hair growing from her head was long and straight, having been tied into a loose ponytail behind the neck.
Klay had encountered many species that resembled hers, though with varying shades of skin, hair and eyes. He had no idea why they were so common; perhaps it was convergent evolution at work?
"More, huh? Where do you guys even come from?" She spoke, her dark eyes settling on Chaalk. "You sure don't look Valihan. Are you demons?"
Quirking a brow, Chaalk's lips curled back to offer the girl a serrated grin. "'More', eh? Then you did see what happened to the soldiers over there? Tell us."
"They attacked me," she continued to stare at the reptilian warrior, "so I killed them."
"Pfft," several members of the team suppressed their laughter while Chaalk descended to the ground in front of the child. Being roughly three times her height, he was forced to lean forward to properly converse with her.
"Don't lie. We're ruthless killers, you know," Chaalk affixed his slitted gaze to her own, "We've slaughtered countless brats just like you, one more wouldn't mean a thing, so I would suggest you DON'T START EATING!"
"But my fish just got done! Though, they're kinda hot," the girl blew lightly on the modestly charred cod, having retrieved the spit from over the fire. "And I'm not sharing this time, so don't even ask!"
A vein quickly rose on the side of saurian squad leader's temple, his fists balling. "So, you think you can take me lightly, brat? I'll beat the answer out of you!"
Lashing out to seize the girl by the throat, Chaalk felt his claw grasp only the naked air. "W-wha—?!" He glanced up and noted that she was still just a short distance in front of him, and still blowing on the row of fish. "How the—"
"Hey, Chaalk," Klay called out to his squad leader, his right eye flashing with a new series of readings, "hold up, there's something weird about this kid!"
Scanning the girl again, Chaalk's sensor once more reported an EP rating of 'negligible'. Glancing towards Klay, the canine carried a look of realization on his face. "What did your sensor say just now, Klay?"
"F-for just a second," he started, his lips suddenly feeling parched, "it read her at nine."
"Nine? I see," Chaalk replied calmly, returning his eyes to the girl. "She clearly has the ability to rapidly raise and lower her EP, then. That must be why the orbital scan didn't detect her."
Chaalk inhaled, lowering his stance slightly. His aura quickly flared to life a moment later, the fire near the girl's house immediately dying on the wind as his power produced a minor gale storm.
"Haaaah…" The towering leader of Soyle Team Six released a measured breath and rose to his full height once more. "It seems you weren't lying after all. Allow me to reward your honesty by using my full strength to smear you across this filthy dirtball!"
Lunging towards his enemy with a searing knifehand chop aimed directly for her head, Chaalk hissed in irritation when she once again managed to narrowly evade him. When a follow up kick failed to produce better results, the reptilian elite unleashed a veritable storm of attacks against the elusive child.
"Can't you do anything but dodge, brat?!" Chaalk's snarled at the girl, but she continued to unashamedly slip away from his every attack, never straying more than a few feet away from her increasingly enraged opponent.
"Like I said, they were still a bit hot," the girl appraised her fish, suddenly holding them out between her and Chaalk, "so I was letting you cool them off with all those weak punches and kicks. I'm good to eat now, though, so get lost!"
Ducking under the last in his progression of strikes, the girl delivered a hard elbow to Chaalk's abdomen. The black armor he wore immediately cracked, and the elite fighter was sent hurtling into a nearby cliff, a deep fissure soon opening along his path as the ground trembled in protest.
"Chaalk!" Lomey's mouth hung agape, "She made him look like a raw recruit! There's no way someone with an EP of nine should be able to—"
"It's not nine," Klay interjected, a nod from Salene and Silt acknowledging their own blinking sensors, "The moment Chaalk started attacking, I got a new reading. It's—" He felt his jaw lock for a moment, the words refusing to be spoken so easily, "—fifteen. Her EP's at fifteen!"
"Fifteen?!" Chaalk hissed, staggering out between the great wound he had left in the mountainside. "She was able to hide that much power?!"
"I wasn't hiding anything," the girl stripped the last of her fish down to the bone and tossed the spit aside. "I was just relaxing. You ought to try it, demon."
Biting down until violet blood dripped from his gums, Chaalk placed a hand on his forearm and leveled his palm towards the girl. "Get the fuck out of the way!"
The team, instinctively responding to his order, cleared the path between him and the enemy. They knew the red hue devouring Chaalk's hand all too well. It was his…
"Gravel maser!" A sea of crimson instantly engulfed the girl and the entire surrounding area, a hellish baptism of plasma that would scour the land of all traces of life. It was Chaalk's greatest attack, one usually reserved for the quick annihilation of large concentrations of enemy soldiers.
Shielding his eyes from the violet radiance of the blast, Klay understood that Chaalk wouldn't have used that against a single opponent unless he had been frightened. On some level, it was quite satisfying to see the arrogant lizard cower a bit. On the other hand, he was essentially stuck in the same boat right now.
A tense moment passed before the light finally ebbed enough for the team to appraise the results of their leader's attack, with desolation fanning outwards for a mile where once there had been only lush and vibrant grasslands. Trees, hills—any sort of outcropping, they had all been sterilized by the Gravel Maser.
All of it, save for one remote stretch of land with a house and a girl whose hands were outstretched in opposition to the blast. The landscape told the story, with the destructive force having been split like a wave against the rocks.
"You," She narrowed her eyes on the increasingly pallor lizard, "you almost destroyed my parent's house. You're gonna pay for that!"
"T-this…how could a kid be this strong?!" Chaalk choked out, "Everyone else on this pathetic rock was an insect compared to us! So how?!"
"Twenty!" Salene murmured, catching Klay's attention. "Her EP has increased again, to twenty this time!"
Chaalk's claws bit into the palm of his hands with his ever tightening grip, his eyes bloodshot. Klay had never seen him like this before in all their time together. But then, they had never been forced to content with an opponent so far above them. They were elite warriors, and anyone with a potential this high should have been easily detected from orbit! How could she suppress it to such a minuscule level?!
"Soyle Team Six!" Their leader suddenly howled, snapping Klay from his horrified ruminations, "Attack formation delta!"
With instinct drilled into them and honed in the fire of battle, the five members of Soyle Team Six moved to execute their attack strategy without a moment's hesitation. While the others dashed to either side of the girl, now hovering midair, Silt charged her directly.
"Get ready to taste pain, brat!" Silt taunted her, a fist drawn back in a dramatically choreographed punch.
Turning her head slightly, she extended her fist to meet the oncoming amphibian, causing his body to briefly deform on impact almost akin to a blob of gelatin. Rebounding off her attack like a rubber ball, Silt impacted the ground…and was sent careening right back towards his foe!
Reacting immediately, she struck the bizarre frog creature again with her opposite arm, his body once more contouring to the attack before careening away.
"Strange demon," the girl muttered. She hadn't a clue yet, Klay knew.
Silt was the weakest of them in terms of raw power, but he was the weird one. His body was elastic like rubber, making him extremely resistant to physical blows. Furthermore—
"H-hey, what's going on? My arms?!" The girl stammered in confusion, her hands having fallen limp by her side.
—his entire body was able to secrete an acute toxin that caused paralysis on contact. For the next ten minutes she wouldn't be able to so much as wiggle her fingers, never mind raise her arms.
The rest of the squad now had their hands clasped firmly over their ears, for it was now Klay's turn. Filling his lungs with air, he opened his maw and released a rumbling howl, an intense vibration that caused the girl's eyes to glaze over when her stomach no doubt turned on itself.
That was when Lomey appeared in front of their momentarily disoriented opponent and released a glob of black ichor straight into her face, the girl shrieking when she was blinded by the ink.
Chaalk was next, using his great physical strength to restrain her from behind with a bearhug, which was likely much easier in her dazed and partially paralyzed state.
It was up to Salene to see them through to victory now.
Her special technique was the Plasma Scalpel, a blade fashioned from her own energy that could cut through any known material or enemy, regardless of their EP. Enveloping and extending past her hand like the flame of a welding torch, it was their only real means of killing someone so much stronger than themselves.
"This is it!" Salene roared, her blade slicing through the air on a direct course for the monstrous girl's neck.
The girl then screamed, and for the second time during this battle Klay found himself blinded by a sudden flash of light.
Forcing his eyes apart despite their stabbing protests, his jaw immediately went slack in horror. They were gone, both Salene and Chaalk. All that remained were pieces of ash that fell from where that demon of a brat still floated.
"N-no! You killed them!" Klay trembled, the words barely leaving his throat. She then looked straight at him, despite the fact that Lomey's ink still covered her face.
Damn it! Her sensory ability must have told her that Salene was coming! It was his job to take it out with his howl, and he'd failed…
There was now a faint, murky glow surrounding her body, the first hints of an aura he had seen from her. His sensor began flashing brightly, and at this Klay staggered backwards.
"Heh…hahahahah!" He laughed in disbelief at the readings he received. "So that's how it was. We never stood a—"
"And that was the final transmission we received from Soyle Team Six?!" Commander Nova bared his fangs with a rumbling growl.
The perpetually jittery muroidean communications officer nodded his head, his nose twitching anxiously. "Y-yes sir, I am afraid so."
"BAH!" Nova spat, stalking towards his command chair, his furred tail angrily lashing at the air. Easing himself into the finely crafted seat, the leather's usual snarl of acknowledgment brought him little comfort this day. "To think my best team could be slaughtered by some brat!"
They had undertaken nearly a hundred assignments for him prior to this, and even when facing steep odds had always emerged victorious. While they might have bickered, when things came down to the wire they made an exceptional team. He had only brought them to Saranji to expedite its conquest. To see them actually die on this backwater planet full of weaklings…it disgusted him to his very core!
He could already hear them laughing, his fellow commanders. They would never let him live this blunder down! Their snide jabs and endless attempts to get under his fur would be an unending source of humiliation. But how could he have possibly foreseen this?!
No, he needed to focus on the now, to be calm so that he could properly analyze the information his team had given their lives to provide him with in order to determine his next course of action.
"Myo," Nova exhaled sharply, the pantheran commander now seeming far more collected, "what was the last EP reading on that girl?"
"T-the last recording listed her at t-twenty-eight and quickly rising, s-sir," the timid rodent replied, presenting his Commander with Klay's readouts.
"Hmm," Nova stroked his chin with a sombre paw, carefully surveying the blue and green world that his vessel now orbited. "With that level of power, she could have certainly provided a strong opposition to my invasion force, and yet there were no reports of such a formidable warrior until her encounter with squad seventy-two. One would think that she would be eager to defend her world if it were attacked, yes?"
Finally glancing at Klay's last sensor readings, Nova rolled his shoulders. It had been some time since he had personally engaged an enemy on the battlefield, though he had taken pains to ensure he stayed in fighting condition. "By my estimate based on the rate her EP was growing, her true strength would be thirty-five at a bare minimum, and could perhaps be in excess of fifty. Those poor fools, they really didn't have a chance."
That kid was at the lower end to qualify for their Special Forces training. To even request the aid of the Empire's commandos required a meeting with King Tandoora himself, which would of course mean admitting that he'd lost control of the situation. As if he hadn't been humiliated enough already…
No, he was a former commando and a battalion commander! He had led more than a hundred successful invasions for his King, and this was but one small bump in the road. Even if her power was over fifty, she was still nowhere close to being his equal. Handling this himself seemed the wisest course of action.
And besides, the loss of his elite force would be but a minor blemish if he could bring this girl into the Empire. She didn't seem to have any particular desire to preserve this world, so it was certainly worth a try.
Like emerald orbs gleaming in the dark, Nova shifted his feline gaze towards Myo again. "Recall the troops. Once they're aboard, I'll be disembarking."
Myo's eyes grew wide at this, "Y-you wish to call off the invasion?"
"For now, yes," Nova permitted. "Monitor my situation closely. If things take a turn for the worse, then withdraw from this system and return to the fleet. Lord Tandoora will need to know of my fate."
"Ugh," Daarua fell back onto her bed, a towel wrapped about her head. "I thought it was going to be a nice day."
To think she would be attacked by not one, but two groups of those strange demons from the sky. It's not like she had forgotten to suppress her power or anything, so how did they keep finding her? She didn't even have a clue why they were attacking her, or anyone else. They were too busy being all "blah blah blah, I am the death!" to explain anything.
She had never encountered anything like them. They were far stronger than anyone she'd ever felt. The other Valihan wouldn't have a chance against those things. Her arms still felt kind of tingly, even after a few hours and a hot bath.
"I hope that was the last of them," she muttered, drawing the bedcovers to her chin. It felt quieter now. She didn't sense nearly so many strong ki, like they had retreated back into the sky.
Maybe they had enough violence and were going home again? That would be nice. That would mean they wouldn't come knocking down her door in the middle of the—
"Aw, seriously?!" Rua bolted up in her bed, her senses immediately picking up on a rapidly approaching power. "Just one this time—but, oh wow it's big!"
There wasn't even a comparison to be made with the last group; this ki was on an entirely different plane of existence! If you were to compare sensing someone's ki to a gentle mornings dew, this would be more akin to standing beneath a raging waterfall!
Was this how she felt to everyone else?
No, considering how weak they were, she must have felt ten times worse to them.
That still didn't excuse them for all that they did, but she could at least understand now why they were so terrified. It must have been like they were drowning in her power.
"Guess I've got no choice, it's definitely coming this way," she noted, unfurling the towel on her head.
If the last group was any indication, this demon would also come to her looking for its friends. The ones she had killed. In self-defense, of course, but it probably didn't care about that little detail.
But she couldn't just sit here waiting for it to arrive! Her parent's house would probably be smashed if they fought near it. They had some way of finding her even when she was hiding her power. She needed to go to it.
Departing from her home, she quickly placed several dozen kilometers between the modest hovel and herself.
"This should be fine, I hope," Rua muttered.
All she had to do now was wait for the demon to close the distance between them. It shouldn't take long at all, given the speed at which it was…
"Wait," her certainty faltered, "it's not heading towards me!"
Crap, crap, crap! It was still flying straight for her house! Why would it do that?! She had to catch up to it, and quickly!
"Hmm," Nova's sensor searched the region before him for any notable EP signature, without much in the way of success. "Just wild beasts, huh?"
Much the same as Soyle Team Six had done with squad seventy-two; he now followed the trail of his lost elite warrior's last transmission. They had apparently discovered the brat's house, so it was an ideal navigation point.
The majority of his army had successfully disengaged and returned to the ship in orbit, but they were missing squad forty-eight. Apparently they were operating not too far away from here, but they failed to respond to the general withdrawal. Yet another squad down.
He had hoped to gain some insight on the kid's precise location before he came within her visual range, but it didn't seem like that would be happening. He had no choice, then, but to go in blind just like the others had.
"Uh?" An inverted arrow abruptly flashed onto his sensor to indicate that a notable EP was approaching him from his left flank. Without a moment's thought, he spun to confront the only individual it could possibly be.
"So you really can sense us, it seems," Nova chuckled.
The girl immediately came to a stop in front of the pantherine commander, his twin sapphire eyes piercing through her with an almost supernatural glow against the backdrop of his dark fur.
She seemed quite startled by his appearance, judging by her expression. Well, Nova could hardly blame her. He really was quite imposing—
"Wow, you're actually really pretty!" She exclaimed with perhaps a smidgen too much enthusiasm. "The others were total freakos."
"I—" Nova coughed into his paw, thankful that his fur shielded his embarrassment from sight, "—Thank you. So, I take it you're the child behind the demise of my soldiers?"
"They attacked me," she quickly replied, her voice one of placation, "I had to kill them, okay? I'm not the one that keeps picking fights here!"
Nova inclined his head in acknowledgment. That was good; she was trying to explain her situation. Establish an understanding. Perhaps she would indeed be open to joining their forces, if he played his cards right.
"I understand. My soldiers can be overzealous at times, I apologize," he crossed his left arm over his cuirass and offered a light bow to compliment his expression of remorse. "Please know that I, Commander Nova of the Eighth Battalion, bear you no ill will."
"R-really?" She stammered, her expression betraying the girl's shock. "You don't wanna fight?"
"Of course not," his lids fell partially over his eyes to emphasize his passivity, "I simply wished to speak with the child that possesses such extraordinary power."
"Um, okay," The girl replied with no small degree of unease, "I guess talking couldn't hurt? I'm Daarua. Or just Rua."
If his mouth were capable of smiling more than it naturally did, Nova certainly would be doing so now. His plan was going well. He had successfully opened a discourse with the girl—Rua—and now he merely needed to present his offer.
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Rua," Nova replied cordially, making conversation first to avoid seeming too forceful. "I must confess that I am far from knowledgeable of your customs, but is it normal for a child your age to be on her own? Where are your parents?"
"Dead. Both of them," Rua answered, her eyes briefly closing. "And I dunno. It's probably not normal? I don't interact with other people much."
"I see, well—"
"My turn," Rua interrupted the feline alien, "Are you guys demons? My dad used to say demons come from the sky, and you guys sure aren't Valihan."
"No," Nova answered evenly, burying his mild irritation at her interjection. "I am a creature of flesh and blood, like you. I come from beyond the sky, from a different world not entirely dissimilar from your own, here."
"Wah?!" Her dark eyes seemed to light up like a newborn sun, her head rising to look at the clear night sky above them, "S-so, you come from—"
"The stars, yes!" He proclaimed, spreading his arms apart in a grandiose gesture towards the heavens, "Each of the tiny dots you see there shine with the same intensity as the burning sphere that gives your planet light, and some even have worlds much like this one!"
Nova observed her expression of wide-eyed astonishment with extreme satisfaction. She was curious, full of wonderment; this was perfect! His origins were a point of interest and enthusiasm for her. This would be the method through which he ensnared her!
"Would you like to see them for yourself? The many suns, the many worlds?" He words dripped with honey, enticing her to lower her guard so he could at last bring her into the fold.
"Huh? You mean you'd show me your world?" Rua blinked, seeming uncertain of how to react to this offer.
Nova inclined his head towards her, "And many more, if you will but lend your formidable strength to the forces of my Lord, King Tandoora!"
"My…wait; you wanna make me attack people? Like those other d—outsiders did?" She noticeably blanched at this, steadily drifting away from him. "No way! I'm not gonna hurt people I've never even met before!"
Nova immediately bared his fangs in startled frustration, his body tensing. Damn it, she certainly put two and two together far more quickly than he had anticipated. He thought she would've been too excited at the prospect leaving this primitive ball of mud to even consider that reality.
He needed to ease her into this, it was now clear. Gradually expose and desensitize her to the prospect.
"No, no, don't misunderstand!" He pleaded, outstretched paws turned on their backs, "The soldiers that attacked you were acting against my instructions. We merely seek to uplift and educate the worlds we conquer!"
"Is that why they've been killing everyone?" Rua's question pierced Nova's mask of confidence and left the alien agape. "I could sense everyone dying all over the planet. While I can't stand those guys, I'd never do what you do!" She pulled down her eyelid and stuck her tongue out.
"Shit!" Nova spat, his plan having unraveled just as victory was within his grasp. "It seems I underestimated just how vast your sensory ability was." His broad shoulders fell as his gaze hardened. "Very well, though; if you will not aid in spreading the glory of King Tandoora, then you are just another obstacle to be removed!"
"Hrrnnnnnn!" Nova fell into a horse stance in midair, sparks of power snapping across his form as he channeled his full electric potential. Where once there was a gentle breeze, a veritable hurricane now existed. Like the ember of a gaslight fire, the Commander's azure battle aura enveloped his form.
With a final grunt, Nova instantly dispelled the maelstrom he had created, once again allowing the peaceful night to reassert itself. He had more than doubled the power he possessed in his resting state, and seeing the girl's startled expression brought him no small amount of exultation.
"Now, witness the full might of Commander Nova!" He roared, closing the distance between them in the breadth of an instant, a booted heel colliding with the brat's face with the kinetic force of a thousand megatons.
Engulfed in a burning aura of pure friction, she tore through the night sky, toppling a great mountain in the distance as if it were a house of cards before reaching her final destination, where for a brief period the night was peeled back as if a second sun had just been born.
Protected by his aura, Nova observed the results of his attack; incandescent material harmlessly pelted him. He wouldn't be surprised if everyone on the planet felt the ground quake beneath their feet from that impact.
"Well, that's that, then," Nova sighed. "It's a shame, really; she could've definitely surpassed me with bit of time and training—" his sensor flashed, his voice falling silent.
Bursting from the impact crater was the unmistakable teardrop of a battle aura in motion, the girl rapidly closing the distance between them before abruptly coming to a halt but a few meters away. Her clothes – some sort of tribal gi judging by appearances – were in tatters, her hair, once tied behind her, was now undone, and her body was covered in many small cuts and bruises, including a rather prominent blemish on the right side of her face.
"One hundred twelve EP, more than twice my highest estimate for your power," Nova muttered, more to himself than Rua. "To survive my attack with only superficial damage, truly, you are something special. Please, won't you reconsider my offer? It would be such a terrible waste to kill you."
Rua continued to silently float before him, an arm rising to wipe away the narrow river of blood that leaked from the corner of her mouth where she had been kicked.
"Make no mistake, while it is true that I greatly underestimated your strength, you still stand no chance of defeating me," Nova explained to her. "My EP stands at one hundred seventy-five. That is almost a sixty percent difference between us."
Lowering her arm from her lips, Nova saw that she now wore a light smirk. "I have a good idea of where we stand now," she replied to him. "I'd never felt anyone else with a ki that huge, so I felt a bit overwhelmed at first."
"Dad always told me to only use as much power as was necessary, but now," she mimicked Nova's previous stance, the air once more churning between her and the alien commander, "I feel like I can really cut loose!"
Nova's eyes parted in shock, his sensor once more blinking frantically to calculate the threat he faced. "One forty-five…one eighty…N-no, two hundred?! Stop!" He practically begged, launching himself at her with a winding haymaker.
What little clouds remained were instantly parted, the impact splitting open the night sky and pushing Rua's head to the side—until she forcibly pushed back against his fist to meet the feline alien's gaze.
"N-no! NO, NO, NO!" He screamed, unevenly floating away from her. "This isn't real! I'm having a fucking nightmare!"
Leveling both of his opened paws at her, he formed a great golden sphere of plasma twice his own size. Set for a collision course with the girl, it instantly cast the entire region in a blinding flash of light, scorched atmosphere filling his nostrils. It was fortunate that they were in the air, Nova knew, for the planet may not have otherwise survived it.
Forcing his eyes to endure the light of his own attack, Nova was rewarded only with the sight of his unscathed opponent, her aura now burning with an unmatched luminance. His sensor had now finished with its calculation of her Energy Potential. "Over five hundred…?"
"Yeah, that sounds about right, I guess," Rua shrugged towards the decidedly less haughty-looking creature from another world. "I'm three times stronger than you, or something like that."
Before Nova could so much as twitch a finger, Rua appeared in front of the much larger being, delivering a sundering blow to his solar plexus. Like a comet traveling in reverse, he blazed his way back into the heavens from which he came, only for Rua to intercept him with a chopping kick to his back that sent him plummeting towards the planet again.
Reaching out to seize his powerful black tail long before he could impact the ground, she began to rapidly spin in place, swinging the invader in a tight circle at ever accelerating speeds until finally releasing him at the apex of their rotation.
Ripping through the night at velocities that were painfully beyond sound's grasp, his obsidian form gouged a deep wound into Saranji's crust as he tried and failed to stop his progression in forging the world's newest canyon.
Only after gravity finally brought him to a stop did Nova tear himself from Saranji's hold, shakily rising skyward. His armor had suffered damage enough to be effectively useless, and blood poured from many wounds beneath his dark fur. With every cough forced from him came a thick red mist, his entire form still trembling from the internal damage he had clearly suffered.
Descending to meet her broken foe, Rua observed his damage with a light frown. "You know, even though you talk more, you're no less evil than the others."
"No," she retracted, an outstretched palm forming a sphere of golden ki, "Actually, you might be worse, since you try to trick others into being like you."
Still unable to mount any sort of resistance, Nova clutched his broken ribs, bloodied teeth grinding against themselves. Crimson fluid poured down his chin and matted in his fur, the once imposing creature now utterly shattered.
Releasing a light sigh, Rua lowered her arm, the ki she had gathered quickly dissipating. "Still, after talking to you for so long, and learning your name…it feels too messed up to kill you."
She met his eyes, one of which was still winced shut. "Just go. Leave this planet, and don't you or any of your friends ever come back again."
Nova failed to respond to her mercy in any noticeable way. Hovering before Rua, he seemed to have exhausted his words along with his ability to meaningfully counterattack. That was when she sensed it: his ki was growing!
"Uh?!" Rua looked on agape. How was his ki increasing all the sudden? It'd dropped quite a lot after she'd knocked him about, and he definitely wasn't exaggerating his injuries. No, there was something weird going on, and the unnatural feel of the expanding power within him backed her assessment up.
It felt less like someone growing stronger, and more like someone being gorged with energy far beyond their ability to control.
And that was before he started glowing.
The once jet black creature now shined with a resplendent golden light, an intense heat radiating from him. Through narrowly parted eyes, Rua could see his mouth slowly opening, his words barely audible.
"Banzai…King Tandoora…!"
It seemed as if this nightmare would never end for Mohan and his people.
The army of demons had withdrawn, for the time being, but now the heavens bled light and Saranji trembled beneath it. It was the end of their world, everyone could feel it. So many were already dead, so much was lost. A population in the hundreds of millions reduced to a tenth of that in less than a day.
The only hope they now clung to was that the nightmare would soon end so that they might join Ravanahatha in paradise.
That end at last seemed to be upon them when the night was peeled back and Saranji felt as if it would crumble beneath the inexorable shockwaves that hammered her already wounded form.
—and then it had faded. The light, the tremors, all became silent and right again. From within their shelter in the catacombs of the Old Kingdom, people emerged to witness – to their awe – that their world yet endured.
That was when Mohan saw her.
Lying on her side amidst a pool of blood and tattered clothing, a girl no older than twelve stared back at him with fear in her eyes.
She struggled to move, but only succeeded in rolling onto her backside.
"Do not be afraid, child," He comforted her. Kneeling beside her, he lifted the girl off the ground and turned to face his people again.
And in their eyes he too saw fear.
"What are you doing, Elder Mohan?" Bulbul, one of their last remaining warriors, demanded while leveling his spear at the girl. "Do you not know what that is? Kill it, while we have the chance!"
"No," Mohan firmly rejected his order, "She will live. She must live."
"But that's—"Bulbul froze beneath the intense glare of Mohan and knew that he was beaten, for now. "I understand, 'Revered' Elder."
"Yes," Mohan stared down at her, "This girl must live, if any of us might still hope to."
A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of The Daarua Chronicles! I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts/advice/criticism. I realize some might be confused by my Energy Potential system, so allow me to explain the basic idea.
1 unit of Energy Potential is roughly equal to 1,000 units on a Scouter. Thus, the average soldier in Tandoora's army has a Power Level of 1,000, in comparison to the average Valihan with an EP of 0.3 (300).
Valihan physically resemble homo sapiens, in particular those of Indian descent. Their culture, however, is distinct from any on Earth, and will be revealed in upcoming chapters! I plan on this being a broad spanning story if it proves to be popular, hence the word 'Chronicles' in the title!