As a reward to myself for staying on schedule, I am giving you guys a new chapter of The Circle of War. This is actually the second to last chapter. Nothing much to say here so lets get on with the chapter.
Delray, morning
The group crouched behind the ruined wall of an old house and observed the 2 soldiers who were standing guard near the meteorite. They were Black Army soldiers and they were smoking, the smoke trailing in the cold morning air. It hadn't really been a good night for the group. They had dodged patrols of soldiers all through the night and they barely made it to the edge of the city before everyone fell asleep, leaning on each other. There was not a single person in the group who had slept well but they stayed awake as they looked around the town.
It really was as desolate as everyone had said. A single grand house stood across from the meteorite, the house of the legendary mage Kiliman. Around the house, the massive tree trunks were blasted everywhere as if some giant child had decided to sit on the forest. Ruined houses where everywhere and tents were pitched around the meteorite. The good thing was, only 2 soldiers guarded the backside of the meteorite. The army seemed to be more interested in the very front of the city where the main gates were.
Hyde observed the soldiers carefully as they stood around the meteorite, unaware of the group watching them.
"Anyone have any ideas on how to take them out?" Hyde whispered to everyone.
Norman shifted and pointed to the autobow that lay on the ground behind them. Hyde nodded and picked it up. He had used an autobow before but he wasn't a very good shot.
"Anyone here know how to use this thing? As in shoot well?" Hyde asked as he showed the autobow to everyone.
In the clear morning light, the glossy brown wood shone and the metal loading port glinted softly. The autobow looked like a normal crossbow but there were several gears within the wooden frame that could shoot arrows at an unheard of rate, 200 arrows in a minute if the right clip was attached. This particular autobow didn't have a clip so the arrows had to be hand fed. Lidia took the autobow from Hyde's hands and she looked at it in several different angles.
"I think I can use this…" she said as she looked at it.
Hyde handed her the 2 arrows that came with the autobow. She loaded one of them in the mechanism and she aimed it at one of the soldiers.
"Hey, Tadaaki, give me a hand. I want you to take care of the soldier on the right. Im going to shoot the one on the left. Ready?" Tadaaki nodded and took careful aim.
The sun was shining brightly so the burst of light would not have any effect on the current situation.
"Go!" Lidia said as she pulled the trigger and the arrow flew towards the soldier on the left.
A burst of light blasted from Tadaaki's mouth at the same time and the soldier he was aiming for fell to the ground, the armor smoking. The arrow slammed into the chest of the soldier that Lidia had aimed for and he fell down dead, red blood flowing down his black armor. The group moved next to the meteorite and Hyde took the map from his pack and looked at it. Delray was still glowing and everyone scattered so they could look for the middle piece. Thankfully, the soldiers had retreated to the far side of the meteorite and the group could freely look inside the houses for the middle piece. Hyde passed by the 3 gravestones and tried to read them. This was the holy ground for Goliath, the Tenrou Island of Goliath, and Hyde had finally been able to visit. He didn't know the people who were buried here but one of the inscriptions read "T y Bo . A el a pan. Goliath Deputy chi f". The words were faded so Hyde couldn't even read the whole gravestone. Meanwhile, Lidia stood in front of the meteorite thinking with Norman and Tadaaki. Hitoshi, Lucia and Hyde were off looking inside the huge house.
"Where would be the best place to hide a golden artifact…" she thought, looking around the desolate town, filled with destroyed building, withering plants and knocked down trees.
"…Possibly underground?" Norman suggested.
Tadaaki shook his head. Burying something really wasn't the best thing to do.
"Im sure if someone buried the middle piece, there would be some sort of disturbance in the ground. I cant see any." Tadaaki sighed as he leaned against the meteorite.
Lidia saw him lean against the rocky surface of the huge meteor and smiled. Perfect.
"Tadaaki, you are a genius." Lidia said as she smiled and waved her hands to Hyde and the others who were coming out of the house.
They rejoined the group and Hitoshi saw the looks on their faces and asked what was going on. Lidia explained that they could have found the place where the middle piece was hidden.
"The meteorite! Think about it. It hides literally in plain sight! We see the meteorite but we don't see the middle piece!" Lidia said excitedly as everyone started nodding.
"How can we break the meteorite? I mean, we don't have any hammers." Hyde said as he looked around for something to hit the meteorite with.
Lucia pulled out the amulet for Paul. It shone brightly in the sunlight.
"Don't worry. I think Paul can help us." She said as Paul durst from the amulet and saluted.
His huge shield and his sword shone his armor was polished to sparkle. Lucia pointed to the meteorite.
"Paul, I want you to make a hole in the meteorite." She said as Paul nodded and smashed his sword into the meteorite, creating a crack to emerge in the meteorite.
Livia
There was a sudden scrapping noise and Livia looked up at the huge meteorite. The soldiers were standing guard near the meteorite and most of them where eating breakfast. The King's Guard stood next to her, looking at a huge map of Delray. They had created a map made of sectors that had every single detail of the city on it. Several of the sectors were crossed off. General Ortega stood among the King's Guard although he wasn't one of them himself. He pointed to the center of the meteorite.
"How about we break it open and see whats inside? It wouldn't hurt to look would it?" he asked as he stroked his dark moustache.
The King's Guard gave a chuckle. What was this man thinking? Break into the meteor? What was this madness?
"Break into the meteor? Something brought down by an instrument of evil? That can only bring misfortune on us!" they argued.
Livia could only agree with the King's Guard. Legend told of a man named Skorm who had destroyed the city of Delray in a single instant. Livia didn't believe the story but the meteorite was here wasn't it? Suddenly there was a disturbance at the gate and several soldiers went running to the gate and started saluting. Livia and everyone else looked to the main gates of the city to see the sleek sickly green colored body of the metal transport roll in to the camp. And riding in the front seats were her brothers, the very people who's idiocy had gotten her this hated position. Despite the fact that they had gotten into a horrible accident with the very vehicle they were driving in. They got out and marched straight through the crowd of King's Guard to Livia. They both gave devilish grins as they gave Livia great big hugs. They withdrew quickly and observed the map that they had just been looking.
'They must have rehearsed this.' Livia thought as they observed the map.
Otto turned around and looked at Livia. He seemed to be perfectly healthy.
"Seems like you haven't found anything. You have effectively searched this entire town and you haven't found the thing that our father is looking for. I, have a good place where you can look." Otto said as he put his finger on the middle of the meteorite.
Bartholomew took a step forward to speak. He didn't have scratch on him either.
"Get every soldier armed with a hammer. We are breaking the meteorite in half."
So that's the chapter. I hope you guys liked it! FF
