Chapter XI: Survivors

The trek back down the tunnel would take a lot shorter time without the constant, deadly threat of booby traps. The Prince and Malachi broke into a slow jog back to the two female members of their party. The Prince had wanted to ask Malachi some questions and get to know his new comrade-in-arms without Kaileena's constant interruptions.

"So, how do you know Farah? She's an Indian princess and you're stationed here in Babylon."

"Well, when the Persian Empire made an alliance with India, the Maharajah asked that your father send the Immortals to help form and train an Indian light infantry force. My unit was selected to go, and we were stationed at the Maharajah's palace. That's where I met her," Malachi smiled, but shook his head sadly, "I liked her a lot, but I get the impression that she couldn't stand me. I tend to think that that hasn't changed much."

"Well, Malachi, no offense, but you should cut down on the wisecracks. I know all Immortals do it, but you do too it often. It gets annoying to non-Team members. They don't quite understand. You need to act professional at your post…especially among foreign royalty," the Prince replied honestly but sympathetically.

"What do I do that's so annoying?" Malachi asked innocently.

"Go easy on the sarcasm," the Prince replied. He liked the young Hebrew and thought he was a good, honorable man. He also found him pretty funny, but he knew that if this party was to hold together, Malachi would need to learn that there were other personalities outside the ranks of the Immortals.

"I'll make sure Kaileena isn't a problem for you though. I cannot afford any squabbles among our group. Just don't give her a hard time."

"Fine by me," Malachi replied, "She's a hard case, though."

"Give her a break," the Prince said, "She's had a rough life. This is her first full day in the real world for at least a thousand years. She'll ease up with time."

About five minutes later, they reached the entrance to the prison; they were greeted by Kaileena, Farah, and about a dozen Raiders.

"Impeccable timing," Kaileena commented to the Prince as he and Malachi joined the two women.

Farah loaded an arrow onto her composite bow, drew the string, and let the arrow fly into the skull of the lead Raider. Without thinking, she loaded another arrow and shot it at the Raider standing just behind the first. This one hit the dungeon Raider in the shoulder, causing him to yell in pain and stumble forward. Kaileena finished him off with a swipe of one of her hand talons. With that, the Prince and Malachi sprang forward and engaged the remaining ten Raiders in yet another battle. The Prince vaulted over a Raider, spinning around and killing him with a brutal downward slash. Then, cutting from his knee, the Prince killed the Raider standing directly to his right.

Malachi blocked two quick swings from his opponent's club before slicing the Raider off at the torso. He then turned to see that the Prince had vaulted over and thrown another enemy in his direction. Malachi thrust his sword into that one all the way to the hand-guard. He then spun around, cutting off a charging Raider from the right hip to the left shoulder. Meanwhile, the Prince had dispatched two more enemies; as he pursued one of the remaining three, the panicked Raider backed away without looking over his shoulder…right into Kaileena. The beautiful, lethal woman cut off his head without even a fight. Both the Prince and Malachi turned to face the remaining two Raiders, but they were spared a fight as these two were struck down by Farah's arrows.

"Well, I suppose that could have been harder," Malachi commented, "But then again, I am a professional."

"Don't blow your own trumpet, Malachi. Didn't they teach you that when you became an Immortal?" Farah said impatiently.

"I was making a joke," Malachi shot back.

"Well, make one that's funny," Farah answered rudely.

"Stop this nonsense. You're behaving like children…how many times do I have to say that?" the Prince was getting pretty angry, "Worry about yourselves, please."

Am I the only one who realizes we are at war here? He wondered to himself.

His thoughts were interrupted by a reptilian hiss. He looked up at the wall to see five dragon-like spike beasts crawling from the ceiling to the floor. Their green scales reminded the Prince of the crocodiles he had seen on the Nile during his childhood visit to Egypt, only these minions' scales were tipped with sharp, claw-like armaments. Their large teeth and strong jaw gave anyone with even the slightest sense that being bitten by one of these things would most likely result in the amputation of a limb if you were lucky. Their yellow eyes gave no hint of remorse or conscious thought beyond destroying anyone they found. The Prince had dealt with many of these creatures on the Island of Time, and he knew just how dangerous they were. Before he could say a word, Farah quickly loaded an arrow onto her bow and let it fly. The powerful arrow pierced one of the spike beast's tough hide causing it to roar in pain and lose its grip on the wall. However, it got up and began charging at the group. Farah unloaded another arrow at the creature. This time, when the arrow hit, the minion burst into flames, but it continued to charge. Suddenly, in a bright flash of light and heat, it exploded.

"AHH, exploding lizards! Are these yours as well, Kaileena?" Malachi exclaimed.

"I never thought I'd end up fighting against them," Kaileena gave Malachi a guilty look as she picked up an axe and tossed it to the Prince. The Prince in turn wound up and threw the axe at another minion, cutting off its upper jaw and skull, causing it to explode as well. By now, the three remaining were getting dangerously close; all four of the warriors knew that killing these things with non-ranged weapons would be costly to themselves and their companions.

"Let's move!" the Prince yelled, stepping on the pressure plate in the tunnel, "Malachi, I'll stand on this, get one of the boxes off of one out there!"

"I can't, the lizards would get there before me!" Malachi protested, "Then we'd all be dead!"

However, the escape plan was interrupted by a group of eight new enemies, which materialized out of thin air in the tunnel behind them. These fighters were dressed completely in royal purple robes with red hoods. Their bronze armor shown brilliantly from the light of the torches. They seemed to hover just above the ground like ghosts, floating back and forth in a zigzag pattern as they advanced menacingly toward the group.

"Oh, no! The Imperial Guard," Kaileena groaned, knowing that their chance of survival had just decreased dramatically.

"What are they?" Malachi asked as he squared up to them.

"Her former royal guards," The Prince stared at them without blinking, waiting for any sudden movement, "Two at a time would be nothing I've found, but not sixteen."

"And not with spike beasts behind us," Kaileena added, "How much sand do you have left?"

The Prince looked down at the talisman, a sinking feeling in his stomach, "One, and we wouldn't have enough time to destroy both the guards and the lizards."

Farah retrieved an arrow from her quiver and took aim at a guard, releasing an arrow right at its center mass. But just as the arrow reached the guard, it drew its sword and sliced it in half.

"Well, so much for that," Farah commented gravely.

The group stood together as the spike beasts closed in from the prison and the guards advanced from the tunnel. Suddenly, a rain of javelins began flying down onto the crocodilian monsters. Massive confusion followed in the ensuing explosions. When the explosions subsided, twenty-five Persian regular infantrymen burst through the smoke.

"You four, move out of the way!" shouted the lead infantryman, obviously the commanding sergeant. Malachi, Farah, and the Prince moved to the side, but Kaileena still stood in the doorway.

"No! Fall back!" she warned in horror.

Suddenly, both the Persians and the Imperial Guards charged full speed at one another. Kaileena rolled out of the way just in time.

"Damn it," the Prince swore as he watched the Persians charge down the tunnel, "They'll be slaughtered."

As he predicted, in less than a second after the two armies clashed, the Persian soldiers began dropping like flies, not even a match for the guards. Within about six seconds, only seven of the original twenty-five soldiers were still alive. Not one of the sixteen guards was even wounded. All the Prince could do was pray that one of the guards would die so he could collect the sand.

Then, he had an idea; it was a long shot, but it was a chance nonetheless.

"Kaileena take my hand! Farah, take Kaileena and Malachi's hand," the Prince ordered.

Without questioning, they did were they were told. The Prince then squeezed his talisman with his free hand. Suddenly, time slowed down.

"What just happened?" Farah asked.

"No time to explain. We have eight seconds; ATTACK!" the Prince commanded.

They charged forward to help the remaining Persians, which were now down to three. The Prince cut through an guard's arm before slashing back across and cutting off the guard's head. The head, body, and sword moved so slowly they seemed almost motionless in midair. The Prince then slashed at the chest of another enemy, but as the Water Sword impacted, it flexed like a piece of plywood and bounced off. Normally the enchanted weapon would slice right through standard armor. Nonetheless, the Prince slashed again, this time at a crack between the breastplate and the helmet. The sword cut though, but had an extremely tough time doing so. He kicked the sword of one of the fallen enemies up and grabbed it. In one fluid motion he continued forward with his inertia and ran between two guards, slicing off both their heads.

Meanwhile, Farah had unloaded four arrows in, had time been moving at a normal pace, less than a second, killing four more enemies. Malachi, as quick as the Prince and nearly, if not as skilled, cut off the head of two guards in as many slices. Kaileena made a scissor-like cut through the throat of an enemy with her hand talons and was about to attack a second remaining guard when the Eye of the Storm ended and time sped up to normal. As this happened, the three Persian soldiers charged forward, driving their spears into the surviving, disoriented guards.

With the fight over, the three army regulars turned to their four saviors in awe.

"How did you move so fast?" asked one of the soldiers in a heavy accent.

"This amulet," the Prince gestured toward the talisman in his breastplate, which was taking in the sands of the fallen Imperials, "controls time. It can slow down time for the wearer and whoever is touching him…or her. No one except those people would notice anything."

"Whatever you did, we owe you our lives for it," answered another soldier.

"Well, you saved us too," the Prince replied, "So, thank you for that."

The Prince bent down to one of the fallen Persians and closed the soldier's eyelids.

"God rest your soul, soldier," he whispered.

He then rose to his feet and addressed the soldiers who stood at attention before him.

"Can I have your names and ranks please?"

"Philon, Infantryman second-class," said the soldier with the heavy accent.

"Sounds Greek, is it?" the Prince inquired.

"Yes, sir, I'm from Ionia," Philon answered, "We all are. Well, I was actually from Athens and I…"

"Very good," The Prince cut him off as he then moved on to the second soldier, a large, muscular man who was obviously a veteran, judging by the scars on his arms.

"Simonides, Chief Infantryman," he announced. Without stopping, the Prince turned to the final man, who was quite young, probably not more than seventeen or eighteen years of age.

"Kleitos, Infantryman recruit," the young soldier said.

"Ok, that's good. Now I need to know the situation. How many survivors do we have in and around the palace and the prison?" the Prince asked.

"Our unit started with one-hundred three days ago. We're all that's left. There might be a few more units, and I'm sure reinforcements are on their way from Ecbatana. But I can only confirm the three of us," Simonides answered sadly, "they attacked so quickly, even most of the Immortals were killed. And they cut through us regulars like goat-cheese."

"Do you know if any other Immortals are still alive?" Malachi asked.

"I think you may be the last, Sergeant, although nobody actually saw General Ishaad get killed. He might be in the palace somewhere. I would think that he has some of his men with him too," Simonides added, "but I doubt it, he was right next to the king when the king was killed, so I imagine he's dead too."

"Well, that's too bad. But we don't have time to mourn. We'd better go see who's still alive in the palace. Before we go, this is Century Sergeant Malachi, the archer is Farah and," the Prince looked back at Kaileena, who seemed to be spacing out, and took her hand to bring her back to Earth, "this is Kaileena. Now, let's move."

"Alright, men, you heard the Prince, fall in," Simonides ordered.

With that, they all took off down the tunnel.