Chapter 5

He woke up to the sound of feet going past and voices talking merrily as if they had just came back from a show. Some of the voices were chatting about the events of the night; others were talking about something completely off topic. It sounded like a whole battalion was marching past, and by the sounds of them, they were relatively young. Some of the voices had hardly broken, a clear sign that some were still children; children in a war. Some of the voices sounded more experienced, but over all the noises were the shouts and screams of sergeants keeping them in order, telling them to keep up the pace and screaming at the people they caught talking to shut up.

Voldan looked out. He was relatively safe form being seen as he was in a place that was completely dark, so he had no worries about being curious. The voices belonged to Necromongers; they were marching past, possibly going to fight more soldiers who were still resisting in the city. Then it hit him, it was quiet, too quiet. The fighting must have stopped, which meant only one thing, the Necros had won yet another battle. More converts for their army. He just hoped they hadn't conquered the whole world as he knew what would happen if they had, they would conduct the procedure they like to call the 'final' or 'ascension protocol', the same thing that had been done to his planet. He wouldn't let that happen even if it killed him; he would not let these bastards destroy another planet while he still had breath and while he was on that planet.

He saw a couple of Necros walk over to the body of the dark skinned man who was lying face down on the floor, some kicked his body, one of which did it testing if he was dead while the other kicked him maliciously. 'Damn these Necros,' Voldan thought, 'they think they're so bloody good, thinking they can travel to planets and kill who they can because they can.' Well he was someone who wasn't afraid of them, and who would, if he could, stop them from killing at will. He was watching the two soldiers start kicking the fallen body, kicking harder and harder, smiling as they did so, and every minute Voldan watched he got angrier and angrier, until he just couldn't bare it anymore.

He blasted out two massive bolts of lightning from his hands, burning immediate holes in their chests and striking some soldiers marching past behind them. Some of the Necros stood and gaped as the lifeless bodies fell limply to the floor, two great holes smouldering in their chests. There were a few others lying limp on the floor, massive burns showing on their skin which was showing through holes burnt through their armour. Others, the veterans, turned their guns in the general direction of where the blasts came from, the younger ones panicked, seeing forces at work which they had never seen before and sights that ones so young shouldn't have to see.

One soldier, a sergeant, shouted in the direction.

"Come out! There is nowhere to go! You are surrounded! If you don't come out, we will use force, force which may end in your death!" A voice replied which sounded like it came from the walls from all around them; such was the pitch and dynamics of it.

"If you use force, it will end in your death and your death only. I will kill you if you do not leave, and I will rip you apart if any of you venture near that body!" the voice rose menacingly, rebounding off every wall. The Sergeant obviously didn't heed this warning as he took another few steps toward the body. Suddenly the walls of the buildings and the floor started Vibrating violently, and the voice was louder and more commanding,

"This is your final warning! Leave now, or suffer the consequences!"

This was too much for the soldiers; the blasts of lightning, the shaking of the area and the threat from the God-like voice that boomed all about them. They broke and ran, running through all the back alleys, pushing each other to get a way from the God protected dead body. Voldan smiled; for once the ones who provoke fear were now afraid.

Once they had all left, Voldan walked out of his hiding place and looked around, making sure they had all left. He didn't want to be shot by hundreds of Necro guns. He knew they had the most advanced weaponry and technology in this particular galaxy. He couldn't take on that many enemies at once. He was still cautious in case there was any Necros hiding in the shadows, just like he had been. He listened to his senses, alert for any out of place noises, but mainly he was sensing for electricity, there wasn't that much around to interfere, since all the power had been cut by the Necros. He could sense the electricity in the ships over head, of people walking around, or marching, a couple of streets away but there was none where he was, unless they weren't moving, but there would still be a little bit there while thinking.

Once satisfied that there was no one around, he picked up his swordstaff and made his way across the city, jumping up a wall and running across the roofs again, trying to find Riddick. He jumped over streets easily, flying over the heads of marching Necros. A couple of them spotted him but he was gone before they could shout a warning. A couple of them did get to shout off a warning but were cut off in mid-sentence by a throwing knife thrown by Voldan while in the air.

He stopped in the middle of a roof and looked around. There was still no sign of Riddick anywhere, nor of that Elemental. There were Necromongers all over the place, swarming down streets like ants. The ships had landed in every free place with Necro soldiers standing guarding them. He also saw, from his vantage point on top of a roof, a large parade like thing not 15 minutes away, as the crow flies. There was squadron after squadron of fighter ships flying overhead in demonstration. He couldn't blame them, these soldiers were bound to be celebrating, and they had swept aside this army in one night, probably one of the easiest battles they had ever participated in.

He was just about to head over to the large parade, as he thought that if Riddick was anywhere he would be there or near there, and he was curious himself as to what was happening, when he heard a noise behind him. He turned round and saw a fighter ship which had broken off from its squadron heading towards him. He guessed the pilot had been told to see who it was that was on the roof. Voldan wasn't about to let him find out; he held out his hand, and in the centre, a bright, light blue light shone, quick and sharp. Straight after, the ship in front of him fell straight to earth, falling amidst a company of soldiers, crushing half of them. Voldan had sent out an electro magnetic pulse, cutting all electrics in the ship, leaving it defenceless and without any engines.

He watched the ship hit earth then turned and ran towards the parade, jumping across roofs and leaping over streets. He saw the parade getting closer, and as he approached he saw a procession in the centre with a heavily armoured figure at the head of the column. He was also aware of shapes appearing in the tops of the cruisers, though from that distance he couldn't make out what, not clearly anyway. They vaguely looked like faces, whether they were or not, he couldn't be certain. He stopped short of the parade, a couple of roofs away from the rear of the crowd, but was still close enough for his eyes to see clearly. The shapes in the ships were, in fact, faces; though whose it was he didn't know, but it wasn't hard to guess. He guessed it was the face of the man leading the procession, the Necro's precious Lord Marshal.

A low growl emanated from his throat, he was walking so calmly, so royally, he looked like he didn't care a single bit about the events of the night; he probably didn't, their Lord Marshal. His armour was glowing dully in the growing light, the soldiers and other arse-lickers behind him were also all clad in grey shiny armour. The barrels of their guns gleamed, the points of their pole-arms shone, they all looked like they were soldiers going to a celebratory party at a palace, never mind where they were actually going.

Voldan bit back the urge to charge forward and take out the Lord Marshal there and then with a throwing knife in his throat. Or even better, an arrow in his temple. He took his bow from the back of his belt and unfolded it, the lower and upper limbs unfolding from the grip. When they were unfolded, the string automatically fired from the top groove to the bottom, with the bung clipping into a hole in the bottom groove; all from the flick of the switch, which locked down to stop the process reversing itself. He held the bow in his right hand and drew an arrow from the thin quiver on the back of his belt, rested the titanium barbed arrowhead on the arrow rest and slid it along until the black feather fletchings, attached to the shaftment of the black carbon fibre shaft was at the front of the bow and notched it to the string on the nocking point on the serving.

He looked forward to see how far the procession was; they were well out of range. Besides it was too risky, there were, at estimation, about three thousand Necro soldiers down there, not to mention the number of squadrons of their fighters flying over head. He worked out the risk level of him trying his luck now: a 90% chance of him missing his target, and then getting pursued by every Necro soldier and fighter ship around to the end of the planet, which in the end would result in his death. It just wasn't worth the risk. He kept his arrow notched to the string and ran across the roof, following the procession. He was keeping his, now glowing, eyes on the side of the Lord Marshal, keeping in line with him.

The roofs were all joined so that a person could easily walk, or run, across. He didn't expect a gap, in fact he didn't see a gap, he was keeping his gaze fixed on his enemy, so it took him by surprise when he put his foot forward onto nothing and fell to the ground. What made it worse was that he fell right in the centre of a Necro battalion. He was aware of the gazes, he was also aware of himself blushing; he had never been so distracted before, not since he was younger anyway. He had embarrassed himself and, of course, blamed the Lord Marshal for it, just another reason to hate him. He stood up and brushed himself off. He almost laughed as he looked round at the faces of the Necromongers; the shocked and confused expressions were hilarious. The looks of shock soon vanished, and so did Voldans smirk, as the closest soldiers pointed their guns at him. 'Shit,' he thought, 'game over.' He couldn't fight his way out of this one.

He looked around the floor for his bow; if he was going to get arrested he didn't want to leave that here. Did they know how much it cost? Besides it was his favourite bow. It wasn't there! He must have dropped it on the rooftop when he fell.

"Oh, shit." he said aloud.

"Yes, and you are in deep mate." One of the Necros said, with a smirk. Voldan looked at the perpetrator and his eyes flashed, making said Necro move back. Voldan looked away from him and, as if by chance; his eyes fell on to his bow. But it was in the hands of a young Necro soldier who was playing around with it, fiddling about as if he had never seen anything like it before in all his young years. He probably hadn't, but that didn't mean he could man-handle his bow. Voldan surged forward and snatched his bow back.

"Thank you!" He said through gritted teeth.

It was an action the other soldiers obviously didn't like as they raised the butts of their guns to their shoulders and pointed them at Voldans head. It really wasn't working out for him. He didn't surrender; instead he took arrow from the string and replaced it in his quiver, then unlocked the button on the side of the grip by pressing it again and watched it refold then slipped that back in his belt next his quiver. A sharp pain stabbed at his back as a soldier smacked him with the butt of his gun. Then another used the butt of his gun and smacked him in the back of his knees, making him fall to the ground. Voldan growled, but somehow kept himself calm, a first, especially in one of these situations. It was as if they wanted to provoke his anger as another muzzle whipped him in the face, cutting him and drawing blood.

He was still trying to remain calm, he could feel the anger rising to dangerous levels, and his power was trying to show itself, but with the help of his pads and his own willpower, he managed to keep it down. But just then, the trickle of blood reached his lips, on instinct he tasted the liquid, which was a massive mistake on both his and Necros part, now there was no holding back his anger. His eyes shone brightly, lightning flashed all about him in a powerful electric field. The Necro's backed off, having never seen a sight like this before.

"WH-What are you?" asked the one who drew blood.

"I am the one you shouldn't have hit, you miserable fucking bastard." Voldan's voice had changed, it was now lower and sent chills down the spine of whoever he spoke to. All the Necros were scared, the only thought going through their head was: 'Oh shit, I think we nearly arrested the Lord Marshals brother."

It was easy to see why they had came to that conclusion, the Lord Marshal was the only other man in the universe they knew had 'special' powers. They had either forgotten or didn't know about the Battle for Brilbane, where over 7000 soldiers had powers, not including the commanders.

Voldan was gearing up for a massive surge of power that would fry most of the soldiers in this battalion, but also most likely leave him exhausted, when they were all distracted by someone shouting behind them. The Necros in front of Voldan looked behind them; there was someone on the roof, calling to them, what he was saying nobody apart from the people closest to him and Voldan could tell.

"What are you doing? Leave that poor man alone, there are soldiers down this street or had you forgot to do your duty?"

Most of the Necros looked outraged, some looked unconcerned and looked back to the lightning-enveloped man, who was now not a lightning-enveloped man, instead he was a happy man with a large, uncontrollable smile on his face. But that didn't stop him. Using his telekinesis, Voldan threw some Necromongers aside making a space for him to move through. He ran through this gap and jumped onto the top of a building and ran along, closely followed by the man who had made it possible for him to escape. He stopped half way across a roof and allowed the man, who was holding a swordstaff similar to his, to catch up. That's when it hit him, he looked around and realised he didn't have his swordstaff. Where had he put it? He had it when he drew his bow. 'Ah, that's where', he thought, 'I've left it back there.'

"You lose this?" The approaching man asked, Voldan didn't say anything, instead he smiled and embraced the other man who was a long time friend he thought was lost.