Our weapons clashed with an electrifying flash and I felt my skin tingle as the loose electrons jumped off the Rayblades. The sweat rolled down my temples as I struggled against Ferralzo's muscular build, added by his heavy armor. As our Rayblades crashed again, he thrust forward.

My weakened body was easily flung backward and I felt the impact vibrate my bones. I was in so much pain that I literally couldn't feel anything else. It was like when you go visit Central America in the rainy season and you hear so much rain that you don't hear it anymore.

I struggled to get up as Ferralzo ran at me, shouting and swinging the Rayblade over his head to strike down. My arm now on fire, grabbed my weapon and I blocked his blow. The impact of both electric weapons striking forced him back.

I groaned as I struggled to stand up. My legs were now so exhausted that they were trembling and I gripped my hand onto a fallen piece of steel reinforcement to not fall again. I was feeling light-headed and ready to faint.

But I wasn't about to give in.

He came running at me again not dripping a drop of sweat and absolutely no injuries of any sort. I was obviously a mess. My clothes were soaking in blood, sweat, and…well…I was scared, okay!

We both swung our Rayblades at the same time and I felt the hair stand up again as my tired arm strained to hold on and push. It felt like trying to push a weightlifting champion with a 50-pound weight.

He was well aware of my weakened physical condition and was using it as his advantage. He had a bone-chilling sneer and I could feel his hot, foul breath in my face making my stomach feel green.

We went back and forth for several intense seconds, as we both dueled endlessly, without nobody gaining an inch forward or back.

I gasped for more oxygen to enter my lungs and give my body more energy. My right forearm now was burning and I felt the muscles straining to keep up with pace with Ferralzo. His movements were quick, intricate, and well-coordinated. It was like he'd been practicing with my hologram or something.

I mean, this guy was not showing any signs of exhaustion or fear. Not even concern that any normal villain would have. Then again, Red Eyes are no normal group of villains. This was all unprecedented. I had no training, no energy, was on the verge of losing my mind, had just lost my best friend, and had absolutely no idea how the battle was going around me.

Ferralzo leered again and said, "Why don't you just give up already, huh? Don't worry. When I slice your head off with claws, I'll make it quick and painless. Maybe."

I blocked his blow towards my right cheek just in time. Our Rayblades came together and they were so close to my face that I felt my eyebrows tingle. My hands were now drenched in sweat and I felt the handle of the Rayblade slipping.

"I'm not giving up!" I squeaked out, routing all my energy into pushing him.

I only managed to push him about two feet away and he was still close enough that I had to continually switch the Rayblade from hand to hand so it wouldn't slip and bring me the death sentence.

I'm not sure what it was. Maybe it was the tension or fear. But all of the sudden, my fingers began to tremble and the Rayblade slipped from my fingers. The sound of its clank on the ground made me freeze.

Ferralzo wasted no time. He knocked me down with his metallic fist, knocking all air out of me. I felt the back of my neck scrape against something and I felt stabs of pain resonate all over my head. I felt sure that my head was going to explode.

I turned my head back up and felt a searing hot pain on my left shoulder as Ferralzo's Rayblade make contact with it. I felt my muscles contracting rapidly and it felt like they had become torn rubber. My skin felt scalding hot and I caught the scent of burnt flesh, like burnt meat. I heard a loud hiss as the sweat, tears, and blood turned into steam. My vision became foggy as the steam obscured my view of Ferralzo's face.

I screamed in pain until my throat lost all its vocal functions. When he finally pulled away, I clenched my teeth and the tears that came out added to the pain as they became steam, leaving small burns on my cheeks.

I glanced down at my shoulder.

All layers of clothing had been torn away and my skin was an ugly black-red charred tone with jagged edges, crevasses of blood and even fried nerves and burnt tendons. I was able to distinguish charred splinters of bone.

"Any last words?" he asked, raising it above his head, ready for the killer blow. I was too weak to speak and the agonizing pain from my shoulder drained out all my energy. I relaxed my body and laid my head back, ready to die. I closed my eyes and released the breath I'd been holding.

I braced myself for my death.

The ground was rocked by a tremendous explosion and I felt everything shake violently from side to side. I felt the heat on my right cheek as if a fire were burning nearby. Then I heard a loud scream of pain and the sound of metal clanking.

When I finally dared to open my eyelids I saw Ferralzo had been thrown several yards away and about half of his armor was disintegrated. I suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline and the stabbing pain in my shoulder vanished. I still struggled to stand up, as I had suffered a considerable amount of blood.

I grabbed my Rayblade which was still lying in the same place. I pounced on it and blocked Ferralzo's strike just in time. "You aren't going to get out of here! Not with blood still in your vessels!"

I struggled as I swung the weapon in my hand, the sparks now flying everywhere. My sore and exhausted muscles suddenly felt alive and full of energy. I swung wildly at him, and now he was struggling to keep up.

I could tell he was surprised at my sudden burst of energy. But I knew that once it was over, the pain would return, worse than before. I forced my mind on not getting myself killed. My heart raced with excitement and the neurons in my brain fired at top speed as I was starting to take the offensive now.

We swung and struck at each other endlessly as I slowly forced him to back up into the corner of a building that was still standing, the sounds of war still echoed around us. As I backed him, I felt the adrenaline starting to slowly wear off as my heart palpitated and the sweat started coming down again.

"Why don't you just take the easy way?" Ferralzo growled taking a swing at my neck. I blocked it just in time and exclaimed as I forced his Rayblade in the opposite direction. "Just give me the Terra-Track and we'll fix our little conflict!"

I took a sideways blow at him and the point grazed his right arm. I felt the electricity drain and I saw the metal hissing. "Not in a million years!" I shouted back, as our Rayblades crashed together again.

The scene suddenly became fast and blurry. As he swung the shining light-blue ray of energy at my ribs, I swung my arms back and lunged forward with all the renewed energy I had left in me. I heard the sound of air whooshing and his Rayblade went flying out of his hands and disappeared out of sight.

I thrust my body against him, almost flying into him and pushed him onto the concrete, his metal armor clanking. I pointed my Rayblade at him. "This is the last time your Empire ever gives us trouble. Nothing lasts forever."

"Yes, nothing does? Does it?" he answered, not the least bit scared.

I didn't know what it was; whether he thought he was dying hero or he wasn't afraid of death. To heck with that! I was sick and tired of this whole thing. In a dream-like stance, I sunk my Rayblade into his skull.

My nostrils caught the scent of burnt flesh, metal, and smoke. A brilliant flash of sparks emanated from where the Rayblade touched his face and I shielded my face with my other hand. I felt his body quavering and his metal boots bouncing up and down on the floor.

After ten agonizing seconds I pulled my arm back and the flash of sparks died out and the sounds of electricity faded. I opened my eyes and glanced at Ferralzo's dead body before me. I felt a feeling of…relief. Of rest. Relaxation.

The Rayblade dropped from my hand and I dropped to my knees. Sure enough, the pain started coming back, but it wasn't worse than before as I had predicted. I heard the sound of something landing nearby and saw a Space Fighter from our side land about 100 feet away from me.

The pilot jumped out and ran towards me. "Spiny! Thank goodness you're all right!"

"Larry?! Larry!" We ran to each other and crashed into each other's brotherly embrace. I panted for breath as I tried to regain my energy. "How did you…"

"I managed to escape. I ordered one of our surviving men to shoot Ferralzo. He missed but the blast of the impact was enough to send him flying away enough so that you would have time."

I was about to open my mouth, but another nearby explosion sent both of us running towards the spacecraft. I sat next to him and strapped on my belt as Larry took off and pointed the nose of the spacecraft towards the sky. "Hey, where are we going?"

"We're leaving! We managed to destroy their main military bases and important documents in their government buildings. I don't want to provoke anything deadly."

Strangely, I felt a sense of relief that we were leaving. But a sense of dread as I came to the realization that things weren't over yet.

Once we left the Red Eye planet's atmosphere, Larry veered us back to the motherships. Several hundreds of other Space Fighters were now joining us also. Hundreds. Just hundreds. And we started out with billions. Well, Larry did send more to other planets.

I tried to keep those grim thoughts out of my mind as we entered the dock of the mothership. Once we landed, a rush of space cadets and a few high-ranking officials raced towards us in a frenzy.

Larry and I jumped out of our vehicle and were greeted by the ship's soldiers. It was a great commotion and everyone was shouting and speaking at once, saying how glad they were to see me, if I was all right and all. When I assured them I was okay, one of the captains ordered them to leave to their stations and pulled me aside.

"Sir, I know we are in the midst of an important operation. But…we must return to Earth at once."

"Why? Has something happened?"

"A few hours ago, we received transmission that the IEO had attacked Amarkia and there are heavy losses and quite possibly, deaths and injuries."

I felt like someone had thrown a bucket full of ice water at me. My whole body became ice-cold. My heart literally stopped beating and I felt the gasps of my breath escaping. "What…that…that can't be!"

"I'm afraid it is. I'd go into hyperdrive, but even that would take several minutes, given the great distance we are from the Milky Way. So we'll just Teleport the ship. Others will stay behind to continue and others have been sent to conquer other Red Eye planets. May I advise that you go to the bridge and take your seat."

Larry pushed me forward and we slowly made our trek upwards to the bridge of the ship. Once I was seated, some medical staff came and they placed a large, warm gauze on my left shoulder, which had begun to erupt into flames of pain again. But those doctors really helped and they gave me some pills to counteract the pain.

Remember, we are Amarkians.

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back as I felt the ship groan as it entered into Teleport Mode. I didn't bother to open my eyes; I'd seen this hundreds of times. I felt the brilliant flash of white light, the sound of the transportation, and then darkness again.

I was so tired out and weak, so Larry strapped my harness on as we entered the atmosphere. The sweat returned as flames erupted on the ship's exterior as we penetrated our life-giving, oxygen-rich shield.

The rest of the trip down was dream-like. A lot of things came to my mind. My father, Lilia's adorable smile and her remarkable beauty, my wonderful family, Roger and Darla on their first date, and the sight of my beautiful capitol city, Sauropolis.

Larry broke me out of my trance when we landed. We stepped down and I just dropped to my knees and started kissing the moist, fresh grass on the ground. Ahhh! It felt great to be back home.

I then looked up and saw plumes of thick smoke in the distance. Larry and some Royal Guards helped me to TIV, which was waiting for me. I was even relieved to see him! Even though it's not a living thing, I see TIV as a friend.

I quickly fell asleep on the trip back. I was so deep in my sleep that I didn't dream. That ever happen to you?

It must have been about an hour or so later when Larry shook me awake. He had a look of great melancholy and somberness that I had never seen before. I stared at him puzzled. He pointed out the window, where we had stopped at the side of the road. We were at a road cliff, overlooking the skyline of Sauropolis.

When I followed the direction of his finger, I felt my breath escaping and the sense of a great burden came upon me. I then felt my throat close up and my eyes became blurry with water.

My great city, Sauropolis, was dying.