Dragon Heart

Dragon Heart, episode 9

John's grip then tightens on Simons' hand, getting his attention back and causing him to wince in pain. John then stares Simon right in the eyes and says, "Now then, I suggest you start begging for mercy."

Simon ignores him and blasts John in the face point blank with a massive energy blast. After the energy he's released has jettisoned off into the distant night sky though, John is revealed and visible once again and is completely unscathed, his aura covering and protecting him. Fear now visible in Simons' eyes, his desperation grows and he says, "What could I possibly have to beg for mercy for from you? I didn't do anything to you!"

Calmly and with just a little bit of a grudge in his voice, John replies, "I didn't mean beg for mercy from me. I meant beg for it from her." John then immediately tosses Simon like a weightless softball but at over two hundred miles per hour. Needing only a fraction of a second to make the short distance to her, Aeris catches him by the throat, instantly halting all his momentum and forward energy and causing him to make a loud choking sound.

Aeris then holds him up with one hand and charges the other with a huge amount of radiating red energy. Pulling him closer, she stares right at him and says, "So ya got something you wanna say to me?"

As he hopelessly tries to pry away her grip, he then gives in and manages to choke out, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please put me down, I can't breathe!"

Holding him aloft for a short time more, she then releases her grip and lets him fall to the ground, coughing and holding his injured neck. Seeing he's beaten and defeated, Aeris then starts walking back to Leo and says aloud to everyone watching, "Someone get these two a healing crystal."

John then joins her and says, "For a second there I thought you were actually gonna really hurt him."

Aeris looks at John through the corner of her eye and says back, "Well I definitely thought about it but I decided we did enough to them. No sense in kicking someone while they're already down, ya know?"

John and Aeris then make the rest of their way to the leaders in silence and they both stand triumphantly in front of them. His chosen the clear victors, Leo turns back to the rest of the men and continues on as if no argument or fight had ever taken place to begin with and says, "So like I was saying, I think John and Aeris are the best ones to put at the front of the center spearhead."

None of the other leaders say anything to object. The man who was arguing with Leo previously now gritting his teeth in annoyance then grudgingly says, "Fine then. We'll put them at the front."

As the man then stomps off to go vent his frustration, John walks up to Leo's side and taps him on the shoulder to make sure he has his attention. "So what exactly is this center spearhead and why is it so important that we had to fight over it?"

Watching the man that argued with him get Simon and Derek onto their feet and start to sternly lecture them, Leo says, "That's an excellent question John and I'm glad you asked. Now that everything's planned out, I can explain your role in all of this. Follow me."

Leo leads them into the tent him and the others were discussing the plan in earlier and motions for them to join him and a center table. John and Aeris move to either side of him then look down and see a three-dimensional map of the S.D stronghold displayed in front of them.

Leo then uses the top of the table like a touchpad and enlarges the center part of the base. Spinning the image so that the long side is facing John and Aeris, Leo begins to explain and says, "The plan is simple. We split into four groups and hit them everywhere at once. This will cause mass confusion and make it all the easier for us to conquer the base.

"Group one which is consisting of us leaders will primarily be focused on eliminating all high-value dangerous threats throughout the base. Groups two and three will focus their attack on the west and east sides of the base. After that, they then will slowly circle around to the north and south sides. Group four which is you two along with a few others will go straight through the middle which is what you're seeing here. The reason this part of the attack is so important is that all along this center path are the sleeping quarters of the soldiers stationed here. As soon as the attack starts, there's going to be at least a hundred enemy S.D members waking up and rushing outside to find out what's going on."