The Custodes

Chapter 19 - Zuro Arc Part 3

While this had been happening, the two guards Hadi hit with his attack had recovered and had come running towards him - a green skin with a single sided axe and another yellow skin with two short blades. The green one was bleeding badly from three different spots on his body - the leg, shoulder, and waist - where Hadi's silver spikes had pierced straight through, yet somehow he was ignoring the pain enough to walk undeterred towards the man. The yellow had been agile enough to dodge most of the spikes, but it appeared one had caught them in the arm, where a large bleeding cut was prominent. Hadi watched them approach, hardly worried about dealing with them - that is until a red beam shot straight for his head, prompting him to instinctively dodge to the side before looking at where it had come from. The man who was clearly the twin's target stood up from where the dead woman lay, his form rapidly changing from a regular human to a red-skinned Dohlkai as his golden cloak burned away; the body heat from his new form disintegrating it but leaving the rest of his clothes. He splayed his palms wide by his sides, his eyes burning with hatred, and suddenly an avalanche of red beams came thundering towards Hadi. Instantly it became apparent that there was far to many to dodge, so he rapidly thought of another alternative. Two thin, reflexive circles of silver formed on either of Hadi's palms, and he rapidly pushed them together then threw them apart. The discs merged, then left his hands as they expanded to form what looked exactly like a rippling puddle of silver in mid-air, facing towards the array of beams while Hadi stood behind it. The beams all erupted into it in an explosion of red, yet the silver shield took all of it without so much as quivering. When the barrage stopped Hadi dropped the shield, only to watch as the man shot through the air towards him, grabbing him by the throat with both hands and carrying him back towards the jungle. Hadi dug his claws deep into the man's hands but his grip didn't loosen in the slightest, until he smashed the other man backwards into one of the dirt pillars and pulled back his fist. Hadi's head darted to the side, a split second before the man's fist slammed into the pillar and created a huge crater in the side of it. A small circle of silver appeared around Hadi's wrist, and with the opposite hand he rapidly grabbed it and tugged its malleable form over his hand, causing it to expand and form a silver glove which had a sharp triangular arrowhead that protruded past his knuckles. A red tendril suddenly wrapped tight around his neck however, raising him up into the air, but before the man could fire a beam into his head Hadi punched his gloved hand into his ribs, causing the arrowhead to embed deep in his flesh. The man yelled in pain, as Hadi slashed the tendril with his claw and retracted his fist. Another silver circle appeared on his palm as he slammed it into the man's opposite side, which in an enormous explosion of silver sent him flying sideways through the jungle, hopefully incapacitated for the time being. Hadi took off back towards the path, spotting the other two Dohlkai as he flew straight at them and immediately sent both feet into the green one's chest, causing him to shoot across the path with a boom as he took the hit full on. Immediately Hadi spun on the yellow one, who darted at him with both blades ready to attack, but unfortunately he didn't have the patience to play fair at that point. The man swung both blades at a downwards angle, which Hadi merely ducked under before shooting upwards and slamming the bottom of both palms under his chin. Two spikes of silver protruded from his hands and straight through the man's skull, poking out past the top of his head right next to his pair of horns. He yanked his hands away, letting the dead man's body drop to the ground, but as he did he heard the man from the forest emerge and send a red beam firing at him again. Hadi cursed and looked for cover, but in finding none formed two circles on both arms and dragged them back up to his hands once again to form silver plated armour, holding both up as he waited for the next beam. Another came, which he quickly deflected with his plate, sending the beam of red energy off in a different direction. "My name is Maeik Dragnura." The man said as he walked towards Hadi, his eyes locked - unblinking - on the other red skin's as he fired yet another beam, only for it to be blocked again "And I swear on the life of my Indira, you will not leave this place alive." Red energy formed in his hand again, which Hadi prepared to counter, but unexpectedly it began to crawl over Maeik's fist, then coat up his arm in a wave of transparent red. The world seemed to descend into silence as he slowly pulled back his fist, before he suddenly threw it forward and sent a huge, red, thundering mass of energy at Hadi with a crack. The man knew there was no escape, but did all he could to form another silver shield with very little hope of actually blocking it. It managed to take the brunt of the attack, however around its edges the rest of the encompassing mass barrelled through and smashed into Hadi thanks to his being larger than the shield itself. He flew back, pummelling straight through one of the dirt spirals and causing it to collapse entirely, then lay in amongst the foliage, unmoving.