Book II Chapter 17

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TREE OF LIFE BOOK II

CHAPTER 17

The pilot had just managed to remove himself from the cabin with the gunner's help. "What?!"

Brian raced over to the chopper himself. Vaulting into the cockpit, he pressed the button on the console.

Two missiles launched from their cradles and shot out straight for Julian and the men and women behind him.

Julian raised his arms. His eyes flared red.

Wind whipped up from all sides.

It swirled about and then formed itself into a twister. The twister, now a hundred feet tall by twenty, picked up the missiles in the middle of their flight and swept them up into the air and way up, until they were three hundred feet above them and out of range.

They blew up.

A ball of smoke and fire, fifty feet across, roiled in the air above.

Julian waved his arms about.

The twister from before was now a churning ball of wind. It wrapped itself around the fire and hot gases and enveloped them, trapping them, not letting them go. It continued to feed oxygen into the ball of flames but at the same time, constricted it, cramming it together to build more pressure.

Julian grit his teeth and squeezed his hands together.

The ball in the air above shrank. Now it was only ten feet across. Now five.

It began to descend.

Julian lifted his right hand.

The ball of fire drifted downward, ever downward, toward his upheld and open palm.

Brian had stepped out of the helicopter. He stood facing Julian, jaw again on the floor, pointing his finger at him and it shook. "How...?"

As the fireball descended, it changed in character. It was now no longer fire, but a ball of light. Two giant missiles of fuel and incendiary, designed with enough power to level a military bunker, now distilled into a ball of light no bigger than a softball, now hovering, wavering up and down as it floated an inch above Julian's upraised and open hand. And it hummed. Like it was singing but softly.

Julian lowered his hand. He moved to cradle the ball of light, to hold it close against his chest like a football. He turned his gaze on Brian. He glared at him.

"Now, Julian...I...I..." Brian backtracked a few steps.

Julian's eyes narrowed. They became as slits of red, as he began stamping his way over toward Brian.

"Now, wait a minute..."

Julian shook his head at him. "Brian..."

Brian turned and ran. He raced off for the guns and other weapons still sitting in a pile in the distance.

"Brian!" Julian leaped the distance between them. He caught up to Brian in one bound and landed in front of him, cutting him off from his goal.

Brian stopped. He stumbled and nearly fell. "I...I..."

Julian shook his head at the giant before him. A Goliath defeated.

Brian slumped to his knees. He hung his head. "I'm...I...I never meant for things to come to this...I only..."

Julian edged in closer, still cradling the humming ball of light in his hand.

Brian had his face to the ground. "I never meant any harm. I had only wanted..."

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