Can't think of anything to write, so I'm writing this. A little insight on David's reason for joining Beracross. I do realize he is becoming more of a main character than Kane, yes. You'll see why. …if I manage to finish Prologue, that is.
"David!" Amy shook her academy mate by he shoulders, trying to wake him up.
"He most probably exerted himself too much. Let him rest for awhile." Opal cut in, attempting to pull Amy away.
Suddenly, most unexpectedly, David groaned, sitting up.
Amy rushed over to him. "David! You okay?"
David flexed his arms, and then put a hand against his head. "A little dizzy…"
"It's normal." Opal replied. "Rest for now. We'll continue to the Necrons' headquarters later."
Thoughts came rushing into David's mind. Crimson Balrogs. The ship. Divinus Ira…
David looked at the two rings on his fingers, one holding an emerald while the other had a diamond.
The rings of Wind and Light…
Ten months previously.
David walked towards the flat, looking up.
At this distance, the building looked like a great skyscraper, reaching up to the skies. Of course, this area was still under construction, as most of Kerning City is. However, some apartments had already been rented out.
David remembered his mother's words, to forgive Father. Deep down inside his heart, he knew that Father was not responsible for Mother's death. He had run out of mana, therefore could not protect Mother from that strike. Even so, the necromancer would have been too powerful.
David went up the stairs, stopping at a particular door.
He knocked on the door, tensing himself for the answer.
"Yes? Please come in."
David's eyes widened. "Dad…"
A slim and tall person, in a Blue Varuna, opened the door a slight bit. He took a look through the gap, and gasped.
"David?"
A minute later, the two were seated around a coffee table, David's father trying to take in the fact that his son had visited him, without murder in his eyes, for once.
"David. Why did you come?"
"Dad, you're my dad after all. Who else am I to go to?"
David's father smiled. "So you've forgiven me."
David looked down.
"It wasn't fair of me to blame you. No one could have prevented Mum's death."
David's father shuffled uncomfortably.
"Ah, yes, Sheila. She had something to give you, I hear."
David showed his left fourth finger, revealing a silver ring. An emerald was encrusted in it.
"The Ring of Wind. Mum gave this to me. I didn't know she had such a ring."
David's father smiled fondly.
"That ring. I gave it to Sheila during our wedding." He then sighed, deeply. "David. There's something else your mother wanted to give to you." He handed his son a gold disc, eight holes drilled into the edges. Each one had a label, stating one element out of the eight which consists of Bera and its occupants.
"Your mother was one of those famed treasure hunters, the Antiquus." David's father started. "I was too. In fact, it was there that we met and fell in love. If it wasn't for our mutual interest in archaeology, I guess we wouldn't have met.'
'One day, as we were searching for the remains of some Sharenian artifacts, we found some discs, the exact same ones as the one you see now. There were four of them at the excavation site.'
'Suddenly, the leader of our expedition, Sir Vendo Geminus, grabbed his wand and turned upon us. You see, some of us had did some research. We found that the discs could make a person invulnerable to any form of damage, once a person manages to activate it.'
'The discs' method of activation, if the Sharenian legends were to be trusted, was to attach the gems on the eight elemental rings to the disc. Apparently, Sir Vendo had already found the Ring of Poison. Each ring granted certain abilities by itself, even without the disc.'
'Sir Vendo managed to kill off most of the expedition members. The only people left were Sheila, Vendo, I and two other Rogues. The Rogues were quickly hunted down, until Sheila managed to subdue Vendo. I managed to help, as, unknown to Vendo; I had the Ring of Wind and Light.'
'However, Vendo had managed to run away, and Sheila and I were the sole survivors. We kept this matter a secret to others, and pretended a landslide had taken the members of the Antiquus. No one ever suspected anything was wrong."
David's dad paused to let David absorb everything. Finally, David started talking.
"So, that's how you and Mum came across this ring and disc? And what happened to the Ring of Light?"
"The Ring was hidden." David's father replied. "I won't give you the exact location, but it's somewhere in the Ant Tunnel. By the way, the Ring of Light lets you regenerate faster, as well as damage the undead and the dark well. That should help you on the return trip."
"Ant Tunnel…okay…" David muttered.
"And, I received information that the Ring of Ice was hidden by a guild. Within their headquarters. A most renowned guild against necromancy."
"Which guild, dad?" David asked eagerly.
"Beracross."
Present.
"Sixtopia Station. You think they're at Ossyria now?" Gordon asked his teammate.
"Most probably. Hopefully not the last ship though." Jericho replied.
"Why not?"
"Well, first things first, look there."
"The clock?"
"No, the backup ship. Not using the usual flying ship only means that the ship is unavailable. I think I know why."
"So what do we do, Jerry?"
"We take the backup ship, and wait at Orbis. I won't believe Captain Socrates will kick off so soon."
"You never know. They might need help."
Jericho sighed. "In that case, Gordon, we try to look for the remains of the ship while flying. Good enough?"
Gordon nodded furiously.
"Good. Now, would you have any spare mesos? Eighty K is quite a lot."
In reality, the status board had been modified by Captain Aziz to make it seem like the previous ship hadn't made it, to make the necromancers think that the team had perished. They won't be deceived for long, though.
"You called for me, sir?" Captain Darwin of Divinelight bowed his head.
"Yes, Captain." Colonel Rain answered. "As I said previously, I have a mission waiting for you. In fact, for quite a lot of people. But you will lead. I trust you, and Harrison does too."
"Let me speak for myself." Colonel Forte stepped into the Council Hall, smiling. "I've been working with Paul for so many years, I should know. He's the best Priest I've ever seen."
Jason Rain smiled back. "Indeed. Captain, your task is to find Corporal Ronox Neo, Corporal Jericho Lawson and Recruit Gordon Michaels. If possible, you are to protect Captain Socrates' team, with the other three. Following you will be Captains Eliza Tzu and Conrad West. There will also be a squad of Initiates under your command. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir." Captain Darwin saluted, before asking, "I believe Captain West's a much better leader than me. Why not him?"
"You will know in due time. For now, just follow orders."
"Yes, sir." Captain Darwin left the hall.
Colonel Forte looked at Jason. "Although I do not doubt Paul's leadership, why not Conrad? Conrad's a good Assassin, simply put."
Colonel Rain smiled. "As I said, you will know in due time, fellow Colonel. For now, just watch."
Ronox ran out of the shadows, quickly hiding behind a convenient pillar by the road. The team was camped at the roof of Orbis Tower. It was a bodyguard's nightmare. A three-way road, in the open.
Suddenly, Ronox's communicator vibrated, a message flashing on its screen. Not a sound was heard. Seemed like Jericho knew he was hiding.
The message read:
Ronox,
Has the team arrived safely in Orbis? The status board in Sixtopia Station shows that the last ship crashed and burned. If safe, please reply. If not, wrong number.
Jericho.
Seems like the Intel Division of Beracross was doing their job well. Ronox had guessed quite a fair time ago they might have done this.
From what he could see, the extremely over-powered crossbowman had woken up. The Bandit was pacing about, seemingly planning something. Captain Socrates was, as usual, guarding the small area.
Just as Ronox turned back to his communicator, he noticed a red light flashing near the screen. Usually, this only happened just before the communicator started beeping…
The communicator started going bananas, and Captain Socrates whirled around to find Ronox stepping out behind a tree, arms up, international body language for "hey I'm not carrying a huge murderous weapon to use against you".
"I'm here. That was a smart move, Captain."
"What are you doing here, Corporal Neo?"
"I shouldn't be revealing this, but it's too late anyway."
"Shoot ahead, Corporal."
"Well…" Ronox started to give the condensed version of how Beracross sent him to make sure Captain Socrates' team was safe. He skipped the portions concerning Jericho, Gordon, and Jonas, just in case they managed to catch up.
"Colonel Rain sure is cunning. He must have thought we would have lowered our guard if we had known you were following. But why only you?"
Ronox thought through this question carefully.
"I guess the Colonel must have overlooked that."
"Hm." Ankou droned, unconvinced. "Perhaps."
Suddenly, a black arrow sped past Ankou's ear, burying itself deeply into the ground. As expected from all things glowing black, the stone pavement started cracking up, and the moss and grass beneath rotted.
Ankou looked up, to find three figures. Two were holding bows and the last was a familiar cloaked and hooded figure. All stood on the various broken pillars.
Ronox noticed them too.
"So much for resting. And I thought I could take a break from watching you blokes."
Of course, there were more than two Dark Archers and a necromancer. However, majority of the army had been held off by Captain Darwin and his team. Although they could not harm the Dark Mages, they could pick off the archers.
"Shining Ray!" Dark Archers fell, took down by the blasts of holy magic. It seemed like Paul could take the whole battalion by himself.
Eliza Tzu was picking off the Archers as they attempted to pick her off. No chance. The Dark Archers, that is.
Eliza Tzu was the younger sister of famous Colonel Zach Tzu from Frozenarrow, and indeed she had the same genes as her older bro that made the Colonel a famous figure. The genes were slightly diluted, though, and Eliza found herself barely a Captain.
One could hear the voice of Captain Darwin loud and clear, with shouts of, "Hold them off! Hold them off!" The Captain need not have shouted anyway. He was clearly doing most of the work, killing off all the Dark Archers.
As the Captain attempted genocide on the Archers, quite successfully, Eliza was catching up. Her skills with the crossbow could not be stated as unparalleled, but it was good enough against the Archers.
Captain Conrad West of Swiftstrike was also playing his part, shooting stars out at an unbelievable rate. No Dark element user in the vicinity could stand up against him. Whatever he could not strike down with a Steely, he struck down with a Light Transmutation. Sometimes a Light-infused Steely.
As for the Initiates, they were only there to bask in the glory, and perhaps gain a rank if they managed to help and the Captains noticed. Perhaps. However, a few of the less insane Dark Archers had noticed the slightly under-trained Initiates, and proceeded to place them a little higher on the 'endangered individuals' list.
As the two battalions waged war, no one noticed three figures quietly escaping. No one noticed as the figures drew two bows and a wand respectively, dashing into the shadows of Ossyria.
"Corporal! Run!" Ankou grabbed Ronox, throwing him with considerable force. Ronox flew just in time for an Iris' Wrath to strike Ankou. The Captain flew too, but with a considerably larger number of injuries. Possibly fatal, too.
With the current chaos, the Dark Archers started shooting, arrows filling up the cloudy sky.
"Opal!" Kane shouted. It was clear what his strategy was. The only one which worked against necromancers.
"Bless! Invincible! Magic Guard!" Multi-colored beams of light appeared around Opal, Kane, Ankou, Amy, Ronox and David. It was fortunate that there were not more than six of them. Support magic could only affect five others.
"Savage Blow!" Kane ran towards a Dark Archer, Cross out. He struck six times, in a circle. Ancient runes flashed in front of the Archer. With Opal's support techniques, the dagger ripped through the strongest of Darkness-infused armor. And practitioners of Darkness. The Archer never stood a chance.
As Kane fought, Amy reached for her quiver of arrows, pulling out a bronze-tipped one. She need not have worried about her aim; the Carbon Composite Bow almost did the aiming for her. There was a scope attached to the handle, for Lith's sake.
She loosed the arrow, which in turn flew at the necromancer. Ordinatio Hepta, or the Wind Necromancer, blasted the arrow, over-killing it with a Razor. The Wind and Darkness technique, not the weapon.
However, the arrow had the desired effect of drawing the Necromancer's attention, and Kane ran up to him, dagger in hand.
"Savage Blow!"
"Gaia's Wrath!"
Kane's Cross connected with granite, which nearly worked as an efficient sandpaper on the sharp edge of the dagger. There were Opal's techniques, of course, which protected his dagger. Focusing all the Light magic Kane currently had in his mana reserves into his dagger probably helped too.
The remaining Archer threw off his wig and other disguises, revealing a wand. Everyone there then understood why the Archer had never fired an arrow.
"Opal, Opal. I wonder if you still remember me."
Cliffie! XD
BTW, I most probably will be releasing another oneshot for Absol Master's challenge, but that will be quite awhile. There's my Runescape fic, for example. Still working on the first chapter. Yes, it has become multi-chaptered.
And dear Chng Kiat, if you are reading this, please note that I still have examinations, homework, and have to wait for inspiration to come. Therefore do NOT rush me. I'm quite fast as I am now, I think.
At this rate, I think my story will continue to 60k words. I think. Lol.