Chapter 2: Carnage
Unknown time
Unknown place
Eragon Shadeslayer's POV:
"Eragon, we need covering fire on left flank!" yelled the woman, Ashely. She was shooting with some kind of bow and arrow, she called it an assault rifle, at the enemy that were trying to overwhelm us by sheer numbers inside the strange purple room. She stood next to the huge armoured behemoth, Sierra-Zero-Five-Two, Noble Five he called himself, who was reigning down fire on them with the strange staff-weapon he was wielding with one hand. I wondered what strange magic or mechanics caused it to work as I drew upon my reserves and with a simple spell, severed the nerve connecting the strange, tall, four jawed monster's brain to their body in front of me. I had caught a glimpse of it's mind and found nothing but hatred for anything human and the armoured members of our group, calling them 'Demons', especially. I saw entire worlds burn because of them at the orders of their 'Hierarchs'. I saw them mercilessly slaughter hordes of humans in the name of religious sancity. It was truly the worst thing I had ever experienced, leaving me with a strong desire to wash myself clean.
The blue-skinned-human like-woman, who called herself Benezia, unleashed a wave of blue-black energy on a group of those strange little creatures that ran away whenever the larger creatures would die, screaming "Leader dead, run away!". The blast blew them off their feet. Meanwhile Alpha-Two-Five-Nine and Bravo-Three-One-Two, Noble One and Six, were systematically engaging the attackers on our right. We had been fighting the horde for three days without much rest. It also seemed that two others, Noble Two and Four had landed a mere twenty meters away from us outside the ship we were on, but could not assist us as they too were similarly surrounded, but were fighting alongside something called Delta Dragon team. And they were faring no better than us.
After taking care of the marauders to our left, I unsheathe Brisingr and ignite it.
I hear the woman, Ashley, mutter "I got to get myself one of those"
I spare her a quick smile and then launch myself into the fray. I dueled with one of those seven-foot monsters, the ones that zero-five-two called 'Elites'. I initially sparred with it, getting a feel for it's style. I analysed it's attacks, consisting of slashes, stabs, feints and trying to trap my blade in between it's blade's prongs so that I could be disarmed and at its mercy.
I slip into a series of moves parrying all its attacks and then launch myself over and around it. As I land, I slash Brisingr and cut it in half across its waist. The hateful look I receive from it as it dies chills my blood. Even death did not hold any fear for it.
I hear a yell and see Noble Six goes down, holding her right arm and as One rushes up to help her, the Elite that had knocked her down quickly disarmed and tossed him over its shoulder.
I point my right hand at it and drawing on my reserves yell one word.
"Dejya!"
The Elite just crumples to the ground. The fighting stopped for a second to witness the event, then a horrible roar shook the room. I turned around as two monstrous, twelve foot tall,armoured, orange creatures with a shield on one arm and a strange rod on the other. The two of them simultaneously roar at me as they aim the rods. They glow an ominous green.
"Hunters!" I hear Noble One yell.
"Eragon, get to cover now!" I hear Noble Five yell as he starts attacking them. Suddenly a tremor runs through the ship and the wall to my left, with a groan, is ripped off and slammed into the two 'Hunters'. The sudden burst of light and hot air causes all of us to stumble. My hair stood on end and I smelt a change in the air, similar to a lightning strike and a massive pillar of electricity slammed into the debris under which the Hunters were trapped. The energy that was being used was massive as the debris began to glow from red to orange to yellow and finally a brilliant white. The horrible screams of the Hunters were abruptly cut off and the electricity stopped. A strange, rhythmic, throbbing sound came from the opening. Soon the words began to make sense.
"..It never goes away, It never goes away, And now you've become a part of me, you'll always be right here,You've become a part of me, you'll always be my fear, I can't separate myself from what I've done, Giving up a part of me I've let myself become you"
Then an armoured being floated in, with electricity arcing from its fingertips. It then floats in front of us. The music seemed to be coming from it.
"Hearing your name the memories come back again, I remember when it started happenin', I'd see you in every thought I had and then, The thoughts slowly found words attached to them"
The being stretched its hands out as it started to gather even more energy, creating a corona around it.
"And I knew as they escaped away, I was committed myself to them, And every day I regret sayin' those things 'cause now I see,That I took what I hated and made it a part of me"
It balled its hands into fists and curled up into itself. The monsters around us shuffled uneasily.
"It never goes away,It never goes away"
Suddenly, with a yell, it straightens itself up and unleashed a tidal wave of pure energy. The monsters were caught in the maelstrom. The Elites staggered. The bird-like creatures either got burnt or were sent flying across the room and slammed into the walls, mostly dying on impact. The small ones spontaneously exploded. The being lands in a kneeling position and two glowing blue blades appear in its hands.
"And now you've become a part of me, you'll always be right here, You've become a part of me, you'll always be my fear, I can't separate myself from what I've done, Giving up a part of me I've let myself become you"
The being suddenly rushed up to a disoriented Elite and slashed horizontally with its right hand blade. The momentum it generated caused it to spin on its right foot and getting behind the Elite, slashed upwards with the left hand blade. The Elite fell away in four burnt pieces. It then moved on to deal with the next one, which had gained some sort of orientation but did not save it from being cut in twain.
"It never goes away, It never goes away, It never goes away, It never goes away"
The armoured being rushed about from Elite to Elite, dispatching them quickly. It moved inhumanly fast, speeds which were purely the province of elves and Riders. Nothing stood in its way.
"Get away from me, gimme my space back, You gotta just go,Everything comes down to memories of you, I've kept it in but now I'm letting you know, I've let you go, so get away from me"
Other Elites tried to shoot at it but it adroitly dodged the shots and blocked those it couldn't dodge. One tried to rush up, but the being slammed it away with a flick of it's wrist as if it were nothing. It then rushed up, stabbed both blades through the Elite's chest, twisted both blades quickly and kicked the monster of its blades and as it fell, decapitated it.
"Get away from me, gimme my space back, You gotta just go, Everything comes down to memories of you, I've kept it in but now I'm letting you know, I've let you go, so get away from me"
The surviving monsters roared in anger and even fear. The being looked at them and in a blur of blue light was among them, hacking, slashing, dodging and moving.
"And now you've become a part of me, you'll always be right here, You've become a part of me, you'll always be my fear, I can't separate myself from what I've done, Giving up a part of me I've let myself become you"
The last surviving monster, one of the bird-like creatures, got into a strange, purple, winged contraption and the winged...thing began to fly. The armoured creature just dismissively gestured with his right hand and the contraption slammed against a wall, exploding.
"I've let myself become you, I've let myself become lost inside these thoughts of you, Giving up a part of me I've let myself become you"
The music stopped and the silence felt eerie to the rhythmic boom of the song. The armoured being somehow caused the glowing blades to disappear, casting it in shadow. It then turned and began to walk towards us. Only its glowing blue eyes could be seen in in the gloom. I looked back at my companions and they all seemed to be in a state of shock at the display of pure, unadulterated violence they had just witnessed. Ashley and Benezias' mouths hung open in a state of shock. Even Noble One, Five and Sixs' body language betrayed their unease as their helms masked any expression they might have had.
"Hooolyy shhhiiiitttt!" came a voice from the large hole that had been ripped in the room. A strange group greeted my eyes. Two more armoured beings, similar to Noble One, Five and Six stood inside the room, their weapons drawn, but lowered. Four, less heavily armoured soldiers stood in an outward circle, their weapons drawn, but similarly drawn with two women and a reptilian looking, doglegged creature in black and red armour. The orange armoured one had a grinning skull etched on it's helm, while the one in light blue armour had a metallic right-hand. The lightly armoured soldiers wore a strange assortment of headgear, one wearing a round cloth cap, two of them wore some kind of helm, and one wore a cap with a stiff end. All of them had a strange black thing around their eyes and a cloth with painted skulls covered their lower faces. The two women looked almost alike, both were perfect specimens of human womanhood. Only an elven maiden of a score of age could hope to compete with their beauty. While the one with shorter hair was dressed modestly in a short sleeved blue blouse and dark blue skirt, the one with longer hair wore a provocative, body fitting, white and black dress and boots with very high heels. Her dress left little to my imagination, causing my blood to boil and my face to flush. I immediately control my thoughts, my mind flashing back to my dying mate as I held her in my arms, as I watched her life slip away from those forest-green eyes of hers, before a red tidal wave of energy consumed my world, my friends and family.
"Is everyone alright?" a deep male voice asked from my right, startling me. I look at our saviour properly. His armour was pitch-black, with splashes of blue along his arms and legs and around his chest piece. His helm masked his entire face, with only the two blue eye slits showing where his eyes were. The armour seemed to be heavy but it snugly fitted his form. And he was tall.
I nodded my head mutely as the rest of them responded with muttered "sure" "no problems" "I am quite well" "Just burnt my arm on a plasma dagger". He nodded his head.
"Alright, introductions can wait, I am setting everyone on the same comm. freq so we can stay in touch. I want you to gather as much useful supplies as you can, then commander any one of the undamaged transports here. There are wounded friendlies 10 klicks away from our position. I am going ahead and will patch them up as best as I can, but I want the transport for casevac" he said.
"What is casevac?" I couldn't help asking. "Casualty Evacuation, getting the injured away from the battlefield" he replied, then continued with his orders.
"I want everyone on that transport or I will be very upset, then we head to the nearest major habitation which has a doctor. We can do further planning from thereon" he concluded.
"Uh" one of the helmeted, lightly armoured soldiers raised his hand.
"Yes Kozak?" the armoured man asked
"What would happen if you get upset?" 'Kozak' asked.
"You saw what I did when I rescued you? That" he replied.
"Oh" was the only response.
"One more thing" he said. He began rummaging around the bodies, but couldn't seem to find what he was looking for. He turned to the provocatively dressed woman.
"Sorry Miranda, I can't seem to find any armour that would fit you" he said.
"Oh it's alright it can wait" she replied. I don't know what came over me, but I walked up to her, and undoing my cloak, wrap it around her.
"Here, this will serve you better than any armour, as I have warded it to protect it's wearer from any and all harm. It draws the energy for the spell from this sapphire" I point at the sapphire that held the cloak around her. She looked at me doubtfully, but her sky-blue eyes send a familiar thrill through me.
"I would take him at his word if I were you Miranda" the armoured being said. She glanced at him then looked back at me.
"Thank you" her rich contralto sent another thrill through me. The armoured man clapped a hand on my shoulder and nods in approval.
"Ok, now that has been taken care of, I'll get going" the armoured being said.
"Wait" Noble Six called out. He turned towards her.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Call me Gideon" he replied, then jumped out of the whole in the wall.
Unknown POV:
I felt a burning hot sun on my face, sand under my body. I take a ragged breath.
I feel my vision cloud over, but before I lose consciousness, a cloaked form stands over me.
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