I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The End of the Calm, Rise of the Storm

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Lake Blakeer seems to defy natural laws. The ground leading up to it suddenly cuts off, turning into a steep cliff with constantly churning water hundreds of feet down. Above the lake are chunks of earth hanging in the air, some tiny rocks that could fit in a child's hand, and other enormous boulders large enough to stand on.

Clouds spiral overhead slowly, like the world's slowest hurricane. The sun is obscured, only shining through enough to light up the clouds. The sky brightens occasionally with bursts of lightning that crackle through the cloud cover.

The energies are obvious. Black spirals of lightning twist along Lake Blakeer's shores, but instead of crackling, they give off a sound like hushed voices. Violet sparks fly from the energies occasionally, zipping through the air before extinguishing. They look solid, almost like writhing tentacles.

"You!" I shout, pointing at a group of soldiers to my left. "Get a lightning rod up! Make sure you don't touch the metal!" I shout louder to include the rest of the battalion, "Keep your heads down and drop anything metal you have until the rod's up!"

My orders are passed along to everyone, and everyone stays low until the large lightning rod, a spike of metal with wooden insulation, has been set up. When I'm satisfied that the tower will keep natural lightning off of us, I order, "Okay! Everyone, gear up! Armor on at all times! Weapons within arm's reach! Be ready to fight at a moment's notice!"

My soldiers start to do as I say, and I retrieve my helm and gear from the wagon. I put the helmet on and secure it, then shout, "Gear team, set up caltrops in a circle around the black lightning! Mess wagon, get water to everyone! Scouts, get your water and rendezvous with Austin's and Chaor's battalions, see how they're doing and hook me up to communications!"

The gear team starts unloading monster-sized, eight-spiked hunks of metal, currently in collapsed forms, from their wagon and sets them in a circle around the closest of the black lightnings. The scouts split into two group and head in opposite directions around the lake.

...Well, I put my helmet on a bit too hastily there. This mouth opening isn't large enough for me to drink through.

A few minutes pass, and then I hear a voice coming from my belt. "Testing. Osiris, you copy?"

I take the crystal from the pouch on my belt and hold it to my mouth. "I copy, Austin. How's everything on your end?"

"I hear you," Austin answers. "We're all set up here. You?"

I look around. "Caltrops are almost finished."

"You think any of the M'arrillians are in the lake?" Austin asks.

"It should be like liquid lightning in there," I answer, "if it's anything like in the show."

I hear shuffling and muffled voices. Then Austin says, "Exactly like liquid lightning."

"Did you throw a rock in?" I ask.

"Try it," Austin says.

I do so. The surface of the lake crackles and warps as the rock falls, then bursts with psychedelic color when it hits. "Fun," I say.

"Is your a** ready to fight, Osiris?" another voice growls.

"Ready and waiting, Chaor," I answer.

"Then stop messing with the water and pay attention to your surroundings," he snaps.

I hold the crystal away from my face and sarcastically mutter, "Good morning, sunshine." Then I put the crystal to my mouth again. "Have the black lightnings done anything unusual since you got there?"

"One just tried to grab a soldier that got too close," Austin says, sounding sheepish and a little out of breath.

"...Was that soldier you?" I sigh.

"Maybe," Austin says.

"Hold that thought," I say quickly before holding the crystal away. "Stand away from the lightning! It can grab!"

My soldiers quickly back away.

I turn my attention back to the crystal. "Anything else to report?"

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Odu-Bathax's battalion arrives. Then Maxxor's, then Theb-sarr and Iflar's. Tangath Toborn, Lore, Intress, Takinom, Iparu. Other creatures that I don't know the names of.

The black lightnings are bright and loud now. They still sound like voices, but loud and shouting rather than whispering.

I'm one of the soldiers on watch right now, looking for any change in the energies. A bolt of lightning strikes the rod that had been set up, and some of the wood encasing it cracks a little.

"That just about stopped my heart," the Overworlder next to me mutters.

"Take a deep breath," I order.

"I'll be fine," he mutters.

"Kitty scared of lightning?" the Underworlder on my other side taunts.

The Overworlder bares his teeth. "I'm not a kitty, and I'm not scared. Filthy little a**."

The Underworlder grins and leans forward. "Cry for your mommy, little-"

I raise my hand between them, and the Underworlder pauses. "Stop, both of you, or I'll have you kiss each other in front of everyone."

They stare at me. "You... can't be serious," the Overworlder says.

"I'm perfectly serious," I say.

They both shut up.

A few minutes pass in silence. Then the base of the one of the black lightnings begins to glow orange.

I lift the crystal to my mouth. "I have orange light coming from the bottom of one."

"I was about to say the same thing," a voice says.

"Here too," says another. Many other voices say the same.

I stand up and shout, "We may have contact here, people! Get your butts in gear and prepare to fight!"

Thirty seconds of confusion, and suddenly everyone is ready for battle. I wield my cyclance and point it towards the energies. The orange light is crawling up the twisting structure, not steadily, but erratically.

The tension mounts. I hear a voice behind me shakily say, "Off to b-battle..."

Another whispers, "On to war..."

I hold my cyclance steady and sing, "Bones will rattle-"

The black lighting flares orange suddenly, and several dark shapes fly out and suddenly stop with the sounds of large cracks. The light dims slightly, and I can see several kha'rall impaled on the caltrops.

There's silence for a while. Then the lightning glows again, and-

BOOM!

Metal twists and shatters, and dark shapes are everywhere. I blast one as it approaches, then another. The soldiers around me fire as well, cyclances and pyroblasters, as well as powers they naturally possess.

More and more M'arrillians come out. Some fly, and my flying soldiers fight with them in the air. Others stay on the ground, and we meet them in battle there.

I can see fighting across the lake as well. Flashes of light and waves of creatures.

They're too close to me. I sling the cyclance back and draw my greatsword. The kha'rall in front of me roars and brings down a fist. It freezes in the air above me, and I slice through its torso with one blow.

Fluidmorpher, I see a black object rise from its hand. Oh no you're not casting mugic. I dart for the creature and take a swing, forcing it to dodge and lose its focus on the mugic it had been intending to use.

Someone cries out, and then the voice is suddenly quieted. My chest aches. One of my soldiers has perished.

Another kha'rall, its hands are crackling with energy. I chop one of its arms off, but the other arm lets the energy fly. My helmet forces the energy away from my body, but it got way too close for comfort.

Kha'rall standing with a sword raised and pointing it at a fallen Mipedian's face. I swing at the coral warrior's exposed stomach, and he bellows with pain and tries to grab his guts as they spill out. The Mipedian raises a weapon and blasts the M'arrillian's head off.

I feel something come to a sudden stop behind me. I turn to see a Danian with wide empty eyes trying to stab me. I hit the side of his head with the flat of my blade and knock him down. "Chieftains!" I bellow. "Flush them out!"

The moment I finish that order, I'm knocked to the ground. A huge kha'rall with dagger-like teeth has me pinned under him, and he opens his mouth and lowers his head, pushing through the field my helmet creates. I inhale deep and blow, and flames pour from my helmet's face into the kha'rall's throat. It roars and backs away, and a bolt of lightning fired by one of my soldiers shoot straight through its head.

I've dropped my greatsword, dang it. I draw a longsword and my parrying dagger and leap back into the fray.

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Slice, block, stab, pummel. It's almost like a dance. A dance where your partner's trying to kill you and has either the weapons or the powers to try it with, and you're trying to kill your partner first. Scratch that, it's nowhere near a dance.

I slit a fluidmorpher's throat with the point of my sword while burying my dagger into the side of another. Both creatures disappear in flashes of light, and my dagger tags along for the ride. Ugh, lost that one too. A stray shot destroyed my cyclance as well, earlier.

I draw my other sword, and cross them to catch the blade of a kha'rall. I don't know how much power this helmet has left, so actually blocking is prudent.

The kha'rall leans forward and roars. I pull a sword back, stab it in the throat and through its neck, and twist. The kha'rall's head falls backwards, and it collapses.

A large spike of ice stops inches from my shoulder and drops, and I flinch backwards.

Clash of weapons and mugic songs fill the air. A light hits me, and I feel my muscles burn with energy. I grip my weapons tightly in my hands and resume fighting.

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I still have two swords. One's not the same on I started the battle with. It's a big heavier than I'm used to, slowing me down a little. I just might have to ditch it. Yes, I should. I run it through a fluidmorpher let the creature fall backwards with it still in its chest. It topples off the edge and noisily hits the water far below.

I switch my remaining sword to my right hand and activate my aqua shield, then swing the shield into the face of a chieftain before stabbing it in the eye. The creature spasms and drops to the ground, and I see many of my fellow soldier stumble as if dizzy before turning around and fighting the M'arrillians again.

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We're... we're winning. We're beating the M'arrillian forces. I see kha'rall and fluidmorphers and chieftains lying dead on the ground, with many wounded of my own soldiers, but few casualties.

What's going on here? I know Lake Blakeer has detrimental effects on normal M'arrillians, but this much? And where's the only M'arrillian who actually benefits from being here? Aa'une hasn't shown up at all.

"They're retreating!" I shout. "Don't follow them, it could be an act!"

My soldiers obey, and the M'arrillians flee. We don't cheer, though. Something's not right at all.

Then we hear a scream.

My soldiers clutch their heads and crumble to the ground, crying out in pain. Across the lake I can see similar things happening to the others. My helmet doesn't protect me from this very long, and I find myself crumbling to the ground as well.

Black lightning shoots up from the center of the lake, forming into a ball high above it. The lightning ball twists and screams as it slowly turns orange. It glows bright and-

"Hello, Perim."

It's Aa'une, floating high above Lake Blakeer and slowly drifting down. He's wearing a black helmet with horns and a red crystal embedded in the forehead. Wait, that's my helmet! That's the helmet I'd been wearing when I was captured! The crystal is new, though. Besides the helmet, he's completely naked, his glowing manhood bared for all to see.

"I am Aa'une, Lord of the M'arrillians, future lord of all Perim," he taunts as he slowly turns around. "I'd ask you to bow, but I can see that you're already prostrating yourselves before me."

Aa'une laughs. "Can none of you stand at all? That's right, that's how much power I have over you now." He looks at his hands and mutters loudly, "I can feel it... I'm growing stronger... Ha... Ha ha ha!"

I try to push myself up, but my arms won't respond. I try to lift my head, and I can barely-

The something underneath Aa'une, far below. A dead M'arrillian, with a large... thing speared through its chest.

"The sacrifice worked!" Aa'une roars triumphantly. "Now I rise from my prison below!"

Aa'une spreads his arms- his projection's arms. That's not his real body. Yet...

Glowing violet spots appear on Aa'une's body, starting on the lower muscles of his chest and going down his stomach and sides. The top of his chest dots with red lights, and the tentacles of his lower body stretch out and bulk up. The helmet he wears warps and grows as his body becomes larger. His muscles bulge, and his hands crackle with energy.

Aa'une shouts loudly and arches his back. Waves of gray energy erupt from his body, rushing closer and closer-

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Up next: The Last Free Mind on Perim

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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