"So, you basically want me to help you save, like, the world, huh?" he asked as Godar finished his explanation.
"Effectively." said the blue-robed man.
"And I get to use my magic?"
"Indeed."
"Right." stated the kid. "I'm in."
Kenris smirked and glanced at Godar, expecting to see a pleased look. But instead he found one of great distress. "What's wrong?" he queried.
"I sense more magic users nearby. Heading this way." said Godar gravely.
"Magic users?" said Reya. "What kind?"
"Weapons." stated Godar.
"Weapons?" asked Kenris. "What do you mean, weapons?"
Orca glanced at him. "You haven't seen many of Andar's troops, have you?" he said, smirking slightly.
"Not yet, no." said Kenris.
"Well... they have some interesting uses of magic. They made a machine that uses magic to shoot stuff real fast. So fast it can kill stuff."
Godar interrupted. "It shoots a solid piece of metal which takes almost no time to reach its target and causes serious injuries when it does. There's some kind of creation magic in there too - they don't run out of ammunition like an archer runs out of arrows."
"Great." said Kenris. "Hunks of metal flying through the air fast, right?"
"Yeah." said Orca.
"Where are they? I'll handle this."
Godar seemed to concentrate. "There's a few outside, but a pair have reached this floor and are heading along the corridor towards us now."
"Got it." said Kenris. "You lot get out of here. I'll take care of them." With that, he opened the door and stepped into the corridor.
Reya looked around the room carefully. There seemed to be no exit. "Time to be moving." she said. And with that, she once again initiated the blinding light that accompanied her changing forms. In her monster form, she blasted a hole in the wall and leapt the three storeys to the ground. Godar quickly followed, using a rope he'd pulled from somewhere to rappel his way down the side of the building, and Orca momentarily levitated down.
However, the armed soldiers weren't only on the inside. A pair of them rounded the side of the building and came face-to-face with the trio. They immediately reached for their weapons, small black objects featuring what seemed to be a barrel of some kind and a handle with a small arrangement they could pull, presumably to fire.
Godar reacted quickly, too quickly for them to fire on him. His staff came up and around, slamming one of them in the face. It quickly came down again, this time hard on the man's hand, causing him a lot of pain and forcing him to drop the weapon. The man reacted by sending a one-two punch into Godar's face.
Meanwhile, the other man fired two shells into Reya. They had little effect on her beyond slowing her down a little, however, and in almost no time she was on top of him, tearing at him with her huge claws. But the man had a hidden weapon, and he came up and stabbed at her with the knife he had concealed. Somehow he pierced a weaker portion of her skin and then quickly knocked her away. That was all the opening Orca needed, however, and even as Reya was flung from the battered soldier, he fried his target with a flaming stream of pure energy, wiping him out almost completely.
Godar was locked in combat with the other man His staff gave him a slight advantage, despite the man's evident martial training, but the best he was able to do was hold him off and prevent much injury to himself. The soldier was fast and brutal in his attacks and nearly perfect in his defence. But somewhere behind Godar there was the flash-explosion effect of Reya changing forms, which surprised the man enough to grant Godar a brief opening. He slammed the staff hard against the side of the soldier's head, connecting with a pleasing knocking sound and rendering the man quite effectively unconscious.
Reya looked herself over. Her real body was only slightly affected, it seemed, by the severe and painful injuries her other form had suffered. But that was not their immediate concern. Even Reya's less trained ears could detect the sound of soldiers headed their way.
"I'll hold them off!" yelled Godar. "You two get out of the city and meet me back at the WorldRunner!" And with that, he ran around the corner to face the oncoming soldiers.
"Right." said Reya. "Let's move."
--==[-Nexus-]==--
The moment the soldiers saw Kenris, they opened fire. The shards of metal blazed towards him. But Kenris had been ready. Gusts of wind shot out simultaneously with each firing, knocking the bullets far off their intended course. Kenris' sword was a blur of motion, and the bullets continued to surge away from him in seemingly random directions. After firing continuously for around thirty seconds, the two soldiers stopped, looking rather confused.
That was all the opening that Kenris needed. Gusts of wind slammed into them, pressing them both against the far wall. The wind then propelled him ahead to reach them. "I'll take those." he said, taking the weapons they'd been carrying. And with a blow from the flat of his sword quickly delivered to each of them, he settled to the ground from his position a couple of centimetres above it and proceeded to make his way out of the building.
Outside, he immediately took in the scene unfolding between eight soldiers and Godar. Bullets streaked through the air, but Godar kept the soldier he was fighting between the others and himself. But Kenris knew it couldn't last. Bringing his wind powers into play, he sent streams of air firstly at the two soldiers he decided were most likely to hit the other man. Another soldier turned to face him and opened fire; not being prepared to deflect the attack, Kenris resorted to simply diving to one side. As the man's attacks tracked towards him, he again manipulated the wind to send himself straight upwards. While the soldier tried to see where his target had suddenly vanished to, Kenris quickly sent another burst of wind at him, knocking him to the ground.
Godar decided that the fighter he had been keeping close to himself had exhausted his usefulness, knocking him out with a blow to the head. Two sword-bearing soldiers immediately charged him, and he simultaneously intercepted one of their attacks with his staff and planted a kick into the stomach of that same attacker, quickly bringing the staff around to block the sword swipe from the other man. The two soldiers glanced at each other, nodded, and came at him with a simultaneous drive from both of their blades. Godar managed to catch it all on his staff, but to his dismay the two edges embedded themselves in the wood. He let go of the staff and even as the two men tried to remove their blades from the weapon he delivered hard punches to their heads, leaving them unconscious.
Meanwhile, Kenris brought himself to a steady hover around three metres above the ground, then swapped his sword to his left hand. In his right, he took hold of one of the weapons the soldiers had used on him earlier. The shots, with nudges from wind bursts to correct his aim, didn't miss. The battle was soon over.
"Where are they?" Kenris asked Godar.
"Heading out. I told them to meet us back at the WorldRunner." said the other man. "We'd better find a way out ourselves."
"No problem." said Kenris. He grabbed the other man by the hand, and rapidly sent the pair of them straight upwards. Moments later, they were outside.
--==[-Nexus-]==--
"Okay, I give up." said Reya at last. "Where are we?"
"No idea." said Orca glumly. "I've never really been out of the slums. And this city is pretty damn big."
"You got that part right." Reya sighed and continued to look around, wandering rather aimlessly along the mass of streets, back alleys and tall buildings.
Until she felt a pressure against one of her pockets. "Hey!" she said, spinning around. "Come back!" Running as fast as she could away was the form of a slight young woman.
Orca decided to force the issue. "See how psyched you really are... heh heh. Sleep!" A white beam lanced from his hand to the young woman, and she promptly collapsed to the ground, clearly sleeping very soundly.
The two of them made their way to her unconscious form. "How... did you do that?" queried Reya.
"Magic, of course." said Orca. "That particular spell's not so hard. I'm really more into black stuff though, myself. I like fire and lightning and stuff. But I can do some basic white stuff like that. Oh, and blinding people a bit and stuff."
"Maybe... you could show me some time?" said Reya. "I want to... make some kind of contribution to this. I have to be useful for something other than this stupid morph business."
"I guess so..." said the boy. "So, do we wake her up?"
"Yeah, I guess. We need someone to guide us out of here."
"Right." said Orca. "Grab her arm." He watched as Reya complied. "Time for some darker stuff. Dispel!" The energy forming at his hand hit the girl, causing her to awaken instantly. Reya's grip was firm, and despite her immediate attempt to escape she found herself unable.
"What do you want?" asked the girl, desperately. "I didn't take anything! Honest!"
"Who are you, anyway?" queried Reya.
"My name's Narix. Narix Hawkus." she said, more quietly.
"We need your help. We've lost our friends, and we need to find our way out of the city. Can you guide us?" said Reya, almost condescendingly.
"Err..." Narix thought for a moment. This place was a dump anyway - maybe she could convince these people to take her with them! "I guess so. We're not actually all that far from the exit."
With Narix to guide them, it wasn't all that long before they found their way to the town gates. With a small amount of persuasion, Narix convinced Reya to take her with them until they found her friends. They made their way overland to the WorldRunner, and stepped inside. Reya led the way to the control room. Narix looked around, took in the officers, Kenris, Godar. Wait - Godar?
"Uncle?" she asked aloud.