I got to the edge of town and closed my eyes. I focused as hard as I could on Adrasta. I opened my eyes and saw that I was surrounded by a group of men and they all had guns and knives pointed at me.
"Uh. . .sorry. . .I must have the wrong band of merry men. . ."
I tried to run, but 5 of them grabbed me and drug me backwards. I couldn't see where I was going and I didn't like that. I was tossed on the ground and the men walked away all except for one.
"She finally arrived."
"Oh good. I was getting tired of waiting."
I know that voice. I turned around and as usual my eyes fell upon the ridiculously bright green patch of hair on top of her head first. I stood up and walked towards her with malice in my mind and my hands balled up into fists. I shot my fist out, but she seemed to have been anticipating that and she grabbed my wrist, twirled me around, and hopped onto the ceiling out of range of my foot.
"There's no point in trying to fight me. Don't you know that by now?"
"I guess I forgot. You know, rage can do that."
"I guess I don't know."
"I suppose I could believe that you've never felt rage before, you being so emotionless."
"There is a good reason for that."
I waited a least 5 minutes for her to tell me why this was so, but she never did. She just crouched on the ceiling and stared at a spot on the floor to my left.
"Anyway. Get ready, we're going to have a nice battle tonight."
"What are you talking about?"
"The Unifaction has sent out 'Destroyers' and we're going to meet them head on to teach them a lesson."
"What exactly are Destroyers?"
Adrasta hopped down off the wall and took off her long coat that she had been wearing ever since I could remember. She didn't look all that muscular, but definitely had some tone. She dipped her fingers in a bowl of black paint and began to apply it to her arms, wrists, stomach and chest.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting ready like you should be doing."
"I kind of regret finding you know if that means going to battle with Destroyers."
"You don't even know what they are, so why do they worry you so much?"
"It must be the name."
"What happened to you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Not too long ago you were a bloodthirsty warrior. Now you're afraid of everything."
"I am not."
Adrasta nodded to one of the men that was standing by the doorway. He walked over and dipped his hands in the black paint and pressed his palms to Adrasta's shoulder blades. The paint began to run down her back and spread out in a weird pattern. I blinked a few times and frowned.
"I'm not afraid of everything. I'm still a good warrior. . .I just. . ."
In that moment of trying to justify my previous actions, I realized she was right. I had reverted completely back to my human attitude. It was almost as if everything with Ya'uta had never happened. Since I haven't met him yet, has it? Am I going to forget everything that happened to me in the past because it hasn't happened in the future? My brain twitched and I looked at Adrasta. She was finished with her war paint and was filling a quill with arrows.
"So what am I supposed to fight with?"
Adrasta pointed to a table. It was covered in a wide array of weapons. Everything from huge battle axes to fairly small daggers. I grabbed a sword that resembled a katana. I laughed for a moment and thought back to the night I had gone after Ya'uta without knowing what I was facing. What the hell happened to me to break my nerves?
"Well, I'm ready, I suppose."
"Good."
Adrasta put on a long cloak that drug on the ground and put the quill over her shoulder. She picked up a huge bow that looked like it had been made from the spine of something. She must have noticed me looking at it because she held it up.
"They sent a destroyer after me before, this is what happened to it."
"That's nice. What do those things look like anyway?"
"Well, it would be hard to describe them to you since you were sheltered."
"I was not sheltered."
"You lived on earth, that's an extremely sheltered upbringing. They don't have anything really dangerous there."
"How do you know?"
"Because I've been around real danger."
I thought about the huge gorilla monster that had brought out the first transformation in me back on Lau'thalus. Then the wraiths, that creepy snake centipede thing. . .
"So have I."
"You've never gone up against an army of destroyers."
"They can't be any worse than Lord."
"Lord was trying to seduce you, destroyers wont."
"Wraiths are dangerous."
"They're so-so."
"What about that monster that almost ate me after I got away from them?"
"It didn't have any sort of reasoning capabilities."
I was about to open my mouth when I realized how strange this situation was. I never told Adrasta about any of that, but she knows what I'm talking about. I frowned and stared hard at the side of her head. She sighed and looked at me.
"Yes, I can see your thoughts."
"How do you do that?"
"It's one of the simpler powers that we have. I'm amazed even you haven't gotten the hang of it."
"Even me? What's that supposed to mean?"
Adrasta walked out of the cavern we were in. I shook my head and stomped after her. I eventually caught up with her outside the cave. She was giving the troops a pep talk, or something similar. They seemed to have faith in her. With the powers that she has, they would be idiots not to. She's saved my life more than once. Her soldiers bowed to her and trotted off into the trees. Adrasta turned to me.
"Have you ever seen a kiande amedha?"
"Yeah."
"Destroyers are about that size, but they have four arms, three legs, and two long trunk like appendages used to bludgeon. It's like they have built in maces. They hurt, a lot."
I tried to envision what these things looked like, but it was hard to place a third leg.
"Their jaws open vertically as well as horizontally and they have about 5 rows of teeth. A bit superfluous, but they probably don't care. You really have to watch out for them when they rear up because that's when they swing their battering rams about. Our healing time isn't as fast as their reflexes, so if one of them crushes your skull, you're going to be in trouble."
"I can survive my skull being crushed?"
"Of course, hasn't it happened before?"
"No. . ."
"Oh. . .well. . .it hurts like hell."
Adrasta headed up a hill and I followed with the sword still in my hand. I pulled it out of the sheath and tucked that into my belt loop. We crested the hill and I looked out at the land. I really couldn't see much of it since almost every square inch for about 3 miles was covered with grey-white bodies.
"Oh fuck."
"There are a lot them, huh?"
"Yeah. And me and you are going to take them all on by ourselves?"
"Not entirely. My guys will give us some back up from the trees."
"Great."
"They do come in droves, but that enables you to get a good fighting mode going. If you had learned how to use your powers this would be a lot easier for you."
"I imagine it would."
Adrasta sat down in the grass and started running her fingers over her bow. I sat down next to her and frowned at her.
"Are we not going to attack?"
"There has to be negotiations first. A speaker from the Unifaction will start talking any moment now."
And low and behold I heard a voice being amplified.
"Adrasta, you are ordered to give yourself up or we will attack and kill everyone affiliated with you."
Adrasta actually let out a chuckle. It was the first hint of emotion she has ever shown.
"You have five minutes to decide. If we do not receive your answer by then we will attack anyway."
"He isn't going to be doing any fighting, what's all this 'we' shit?"
Adrasta shrugged and leaned back, reclining on her elbows.
"If you value your life, you will hand yourself over and we will be fair. You will get a proper trial with representation."
"All right. It's time."
Adrasta stood up and strung an arrow. She pulled back the string as far as it would go and aimed towards a funny shaped cloud.
"Where is that guy, I don't see him?"
"He's all the way at the back of this mess."
"Are you sure you can hit him?"
"This is a very good bow."
"I have a feeling it's not going to be doing all the work though."
"Nope."
Adrasta closed her eyes and turned the bow a little bit.
"Ahh, there you are."
She let the arrow fly and a minute later a strangled cry filled the air. Adrasta looked at me.
"Ready?"
