Chapter Sixteen: Necessary Aggression
The sea of white had gradually begun to shrink after an hour of those paying their respects to the names upon the grave stone before them. After a few minutes all who remained were Taylor, Jamie and the Arturion leaders who all stood before the stone silence heavy between them. The wind was the only thing to break that silence as it billowed through the robes of the men and woman stood upon the hillside, the sun had now fully set causing them to stand out amongst the darkness.
"So Tobias, what are we going to do about Noran and his army?" asked Argus from the confines of his wheel chair. It was the first time he had spoken the entire day; he had not been able to find words to voice before.
"We’re going to slow them down, make things harder for them" said Tobias who still stared out to the ocean his hood pulled down low, shrouding the features of his troubled face.
"How exactly?" asked Argus now beginning to sound impatient.
"We find their bases and hit each one until they have nowhere left to retreat to, nowhere to lick their wounds" said Tobias his voice stern and full of purpose.
"Now of all times we need to move, we must assume that they are aware of our presence in Wales, and that they have their people out looking for us" "They found the mansion, Inchkieth and the Ireland base it's only a matter of time even without their locator" said Mylar who had also remained quiet the entire ceremony.
"I want our people spread out amongst every populated area of Wales, their job will be to find any Cyturion's, capture them and have them interrogated by Joseph for information" said Tobias
"I'll leave now to organise my best scouts for the task" said Ryne then was gone, lighting up the night with a dazzling white inferno only to leave scorched grass and an empty space.
"Mylar I want you to take Taylor for more training tomorrow, he needs to be prepared for the coming days" said Tobias.
"Taylor and Jamie head off and get some rest, I'll see you here at our usual time in the morning Taylor" said Mylar. Without waiting for a response he disappeared behind a vortex of white flames lighting up the night again.
St Mary's Asylum, Stannington, Cyturion Base
"Have you lost all sense of fucking reason Kirill!" roared Noran. His blood had been coursing with pure violent rage when he'd been informed of the man's action's earlier in the day.
Noran, Caius, and Kirill stood in the war room after Noran had ordered all the previous occupants to leave lest they wish to be burnt to a crisp. Kirill merely stood silent as Noran bore down on him with his unrelenting rage, the shadows from flickering candles danced across the features of his face which remained absent of emotion. Kirill found himself bored by his leaders display and decided it best to put a stop to it before the poor man popped a blood vessel.
"Not at all, I gathered information" said Kirill his voice calm and like his expression lacking emotion, it held only cold and hollowness to its sound.
You took four men to their death's to gather information, I hardly call that worthwhile you stupid fool" spat Noran as he slammed his remaining hand in the form of a fist into the table.
"They agreed to the plan, and the information I hold is worthwhile that I can promise you" said Kirill now finding himself being amused again. Noran was always such a short tempered little man.
"Do share and I shall weigh its worth" said Noran holding little hope for anything even remotely useful.
"One of their men was a mind reader, he attempted to read mine but he was unsuccessful. I however heard something in return, their base is in southern Wales and our search has been narrowed down, unfortunately that was all I was able to get" said Kirill.
Noran seemed to calm a little as he stood straight and paced from one end of the table down to Kirill who stood at its end facing him, with Caius stood to his right in the middle. He stopped and looked directly into Kirill's eyes, he stared back not even flinching, and not even a shred of fear marred his obsidian black pupils.
"Well done Kirill, but in future when you plan to make such a move again I expect to be informed. Are we clear Kirill?" asked Noran still looking into his eyes almost daring him to argue, in fact he wished he would just so he would have a reason to strike the man down.
"Yes sir" said Kirill who tried his absolute best to hold in a smile.
"Good, Caius organise our scouts and have them out searching immediately. No rest until the scum are found" said Noran as he left the room via the door out of sight.
"You mad fuck" said Caius to Kirill who was stood there smirking widely at the thought of putting the mighty Noran in his place and lived to tell the tale. Caius vanished amongst a flash of black flames leaving the Russian still smiling.
Lavernock Point, Wales, Arturion Base
His arm's ached from the constant swings, blocks and parries as Mylar continued to bare down upon him like a spectre unstoppable, and faster than lightning. They had only been going for forty-five minutes and already Taylor struggled, Mylar was throwing everything at him possible. Mylar wielded a pair of short swords curved at the ends made from his white flames, and despite them not being his usual weapons of choice he wielded them with great skill and even greater intensity. Taylor still used his familiar short swords, which he'd shaped them into the kind of sword that the romans used to give them a more distinctive look. The sun had only begun to rise in the sky casting a warm glow over them as they stood on either side of their little make shift arena, which Mylar had drawn out by burning a circle in the grass around them about fifteen feet in circumference.
"Where is the man I saw who severed the hand of Noran, you carried yourself with such confidence before? Is this because you got knocked out during the ambush?" asked Mylar who stood his breathing steady unlike Taylor whose was erratic and rushed from exhaustion.
"To be honest I feel like I got lucky, and no it's not that at all" said Taylor snapping back feeling angry at the very thought of it.
"Then what is it then?" asked Mylar finding himself becoming slightly frustrated but trying to not let it show.
"Why the hell does it matter? Let's just get on with training" said Taylor not wanting to discuss it any further, he felt embarrassed enough as it was.
"Because if you go up against Noran, Caius or Kirill with your head in the wrong place. You are going to die" said Mylar now unable to control his frustration at the boy's question dodging.
He remained silent for what felt like a life time then without warning disappeared amongst a whirlwind of blue flames and appeared before Mylar then brought both of his blades down upon him. His eyes were filled with rage and pain as he bore down on his mentor with all the strength he could muster. Mylar brought his blades up crossing them into an x shape above his head accepting the blow and felt his shoulders jar visciously as the blades connected. It sent out a shockwave of sound followed by a boom as the wave shook the trees around them, snapping branches and causing the trees to groan.
"I’m scared that's what's wrong, are you happy now!" shouted Taylor. Right before he planted a foot into Mylar's chest and kicked off then was gone again amongst sky blue flames.
This time he appeared behind, lunging in for the small of Mylar's back. In retaliation he spun about knocking the lunge out wide then stepped into Taylor's exposed torso. Mylar rammed an elbow in his chest then swept his legs out from underneath him, sending him to the ground hitting his face into the grass. Taylor felt a sharp pain shoot through the right side of his jaw as it made contact with the ground. He felt something bouncing around in his mouth, he then spat only to have a bloody tooth fall out, onto the grass before him. He got to his feet and reformed his swords into his hands, the firmness of their fiery grips fuelling his rage as he charged for Mylar. Mylar simply shook his head and as Taylor brought his right blade down he stood aside and stuck out his foot knocking him down again. Before he could get to his feet a white curved blade was by his throat almost close enough to burn his flesh, he felt the heat surge across the skin of his throat causing his heart to beat faster and faster.
"I'm scared too, I've been at this for more than two life times and I'm still just as frightened as I was back then. I just learnt how to hide it and keep it buried, which you'll learn to do in years to come" said Mylar.
"There's no shame in it. It just makes it easier to keep going on in this war" said Mylar as he took the tip of the scorching blade away from Taylor's exposed flesh.
"Well I feel shame, no matter how much sense you might make" said Taylor then hauled himself to his feet to face Mylar.
"I was the same a long time ago so I know your mind will change, also don't ever fight angry only use necessary aggression not blind rage. You will definitely get killed doing that" said Mylar. He thought just how easy it would have been for Noran to strike him down in such a state.
"I'll keep that in mind, so shall we continue?" asked Taylor who took a deep breath trying to calm himself from his outburst.
"Have you chilled out?" asked Mylar in return with no intention of taking things further otherwise.
"Yea I'm good now; sorry I shouldn't have acted like that. Not in my nature usually" said Taylor now feeling ashamed of his actions and wanted nothing more than to make up for it by proving himself.
"Good man, now take position and let's try again" said Mylar with a smile as they took positions and prepared to continue their sparring match.
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Taylor led on his back panting, muscles aching but a smile on his face. The sparring was exactly what he'd needed, ever since the crash he'd been scared out of his mind and for the first time since all the fighting began; he had felt vulnerable. True he had only been knocked out but he was helpless at the time, he wanted people to depend on him not the other way around. He felt bad mostly because Jamie had been injured trying to make sure Kirill didn't get anywhere near him and even Joseph was pushed to the edge of his skill to do the same. He was going to be a king and a king protects his people. Thinking that Taylor couldn't help realize how ridiculous it sounded, he didn't even have a kingdom to rule over just the battered remnants of an ancient race of immortals, who skulked in the shadows. Mylar incredibly was still on his feet only panting slightly as he stretched out the muscles of his arms and legs one by one, trying to warm down.
"You can head off now, try and get some rest then we'll meet again tonight for some more training" said Mylar as he gestured with his thumb toward the caravan site.
"Aren't you coming?" asked Taylor right before hauling himself up onto his feet and stretching his own arms up into the air, hearing them click loudly.
"No, I'm going to chill out down here for a little longer. I'll see you at dinner tonight" said Mylar then proceeded to walk off down to the marble grave stone off to the right of their training area.
"Okay, I'll see you later then" said Taylor then trudged on through the long grass back toward the caravan site.
The entire base was far too quiet for his liking as he walked on between the coloured caravan’s; hardly anyone was in sight and he felt like a survivor after an Apocalypse. Ryne had sent out twenty of his best scouts in teams of two's to search for any Cyturion’s in the area, Taylor had asked to go but was told that he need to stay and train with Mylar. He finally came to a stop at his caravan and walked inside to find it empty apart from Kimiko who was just coming out of the shower with a towel wrapped her. She had her hair tied up amongst a smaller towel in that way that women always did it; it had always puzzled Taylor as to why they did it in the first place. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Taylor a smile instantly easing into her soft lips as her white eyes met with the blue of Taylor's.
"Oh hi, how was training with Mylar?" asked Kimiko as she walked into the living room area to greet Taylor as he closed the door shut behind him, not taking his eyes off of Kimiko even for a second.
"It was okay, he knocked one of my back teeth out though" said Taylor with a laugh as he thought back on the memory of his tooth falling into the grass.
"Seriously?" asked Kimiko she sounded shocked, almost angry judging by the frown on her face.
"Yeah, it's my own fault really. I let my guard down and he knocked me to the ground it's no big deal" said Taylor who wished he hadn't mentioned it if he'd known it would annoy her.
"Okay I'll take your word for it" said Kimiko obviously leaving it at that.
"Please don't be angry, Mylar needs to be tough with me so I can look after myself and everyone else" said Taylor then walked to the sofa and slumped down on it closing his eyes and taking a deep sigh, feeling relieved by the softness of the sofa's stuffing.
He heard footsteps across the carpet of the caravan; he didn't bother to open his eyes as he assumed Kimiko was getting a drink or something. But the steps got closer to him and something happened which he didn't expect, he felt soft caring lips peck his cheek. His eyes shot open and he felt himself blush as he looked up to see Kimiko stood before him bent down with a smile on her face. Taylor smiled back in return not wanting to be rude and hoped his face hadn't gone red from embarrassment.
"Just try to be careful, I'd hate for that handsome face to get ruined" said Kimiko with another smile then she walked out of the room and into her and Lara's bedroom.
"Wow" said Taylor to himself then leaned his head back and closed his eyes; he fell asleep there on the sofa with a small smile still playing on his lips. He could still feel the presence of her lips even as he slipped out of consciousness.
Several hours later Taylor and Jamie left the main building with everyone else after just having dinner, everyone was a little more upbeat and people were hanging around outside talking. The sun was slowly setting on the base casting its golden glow over the home of the immortals, but a cold breeze had begun to make its way in followed by rain. Not that Taylor and Jamie noticed much, they'd begun to feel the cold less and less as of late just another added bonus of being a fire wielding immortal. Jamie had insisted on joining Taylor for his training session even though he was unable to participate, his ribs wouldn't be healed for another couple of months. Which he was pissed off about to say the least, but wanted to come along as he had nothing better to do.
They came to the clearing to see Mylar and Joseph stood immersed in conversation, Joseph was nodding as if in understanding of something. Joseph looked up and saw the two boys stood at the edge of the clearing watching them intently and merely smiled.
"Ah Taylor you're here, Joseph is going to be joining in tonight" said Mylar then walked on over to him and Jamie then looked at Jamie and frowned a little.
"I certainly hope you're just observing remember what Aeon said" said Mylar who hoped he wasn't planning on being reckless.
"Don't worry I'm just here to watch I haven't got much else going on as it is anyway" said Jamie who then stalked off and sat on the edge of the artillery emplacement to watch from a safe distance.
"Okay then. Let's begin, you'll be sparring with Joseph to start with Taylor just to mix things up" said Mylar who stepped back and joined Jamie on his perch.
Taylor hadn't sparred with Joseph before and he hadn't been to any of his classes for a while as Mylar had taken him under his wing as of late, so the fight was going to be interesting to say the least. He took up his position with both feet shoulder width apart his right leg leading and his left at the back. In an instant he let the sky blue fire roared life over his skin burning away what little sleeves he had on his t-shirt, he'd considered not wearing t-shirts before practice but knew he'd feel weird being topless in front of people. His roman short swords burst to life in his hands shortly afterwards, he was beyond the point of needing to imagine them and according to Mylar that was incredible progress. The swords were called Gladius's, he'd searched it on one of the computers in the war room as he was curious to their actual name.
Joseph wasn't so shy about exposing his torso as he threw the white shirt he'd been wearing off of himself and to the ground out of the way. His body was huge and encased in thick rippling muscles, ranging from his pectoral's, his abdomen and arms which still amazing Taylor how thick they were. His right arm looked all the more distinct with the artistic tribal tattoos that snaking along his flesh, they reminded Taylor flames in the way they flowed along his arm and wondered if that was the intention.
His arms became wreathed in white fire right before charging directly for Taylor a Claymore forming in his hands as he ran, it's point sharp and it was almost as tall as Taylor. As he got within reach he swung in horizontally his muscles bulged from the effort only to have it blocked by Taylor's left Gladius, he countered with his other sword aimed for Joseph's kidney. He jumped back before the Gladius even made it halfway to it's intended target then it was knocked aside by Joseph's Claymore.
"Shit not even Mylar is that quick to counter" thought Taylor as he took a few steps back to gain some ground to assess what he was going to do next. Joseph was smiling obviously recognizing the expression of shock now obvious on Taylor's face.
"Oh by the way Taylor, Joseph is the best sword fighter in the Arturion's and it helps that he can read minds natural" shouted Mylar with a chuckle at the end of it for extra effect.
"You're cheating?" asked Taylor, he hadn't even considered the American's added talent when he really should have.
"No such thing as cheating in war, only using the tools given to you" said Joseph smirking still.
"Okay have it your way then" said Taylor and without a word he vanished amongst a vortex of blue flames.
He appeared again behind Joseph and swung in for his ribs using his right sword only to have it blocked by Joseph, who stuck his claymore behind his back not even needing to look. Taylor was gone amidst the flames the very second the blades connected and appeared again to Joseph's right going for his flank. He lunged in with both his Gladius's only to have them parried away almost causing him to stumble but was able to maintain his balance as he vanished yet again. Then appeared above Joseph's head with only one Gladius held in both hands as drove it down straight for the soft tissue of his shoulder, Joseph blocked again and pushed Taylor's blade back. Taylor was gone again and kept repeating this again and again getting faster and faster with each attack.
"He's trying to overwhelm me with pure speed, clever boy" thought Joseph as he prepared to block another incoming blow coming in from his front. This time Taylor lunged in just a singled Gladius in his hand, and then as Joseph parried it aside he formed another in his left hand and slashed for Joseph's abdomen. Joseph knew he was about to do it but he couldn't bring his Claymore around to block in time so he jumped back narrowly avoided a nasty burn. Instead of stopping to celebrate, Taylor disappeared again then ended up on Joseph's left, he was too fast and felt the bite of Taylor's Gladius tear through the first layer of skin. It was only a minor flesh wound but the fire made it sting like crazy as Joseph smelt the scent of singed flesh drift up to his nostril's.
"So how was that?" asked Taylor now clearly impressed with himself as he watched Joseph stepped back slightly.
"You adapted to the situation and used speed to your advantage, so yeah not bad at all" said Joseph smiling. It had been a long time since someone had cut him, this kid had real potential and the fact he was Arturios's heir showed more and more all the time.
"Right let's see how well you do against both of us" said Mylar who was approaching the two of them and joined them but a few feet away.
"Both! Are you insane?" asked Taylor not believing what Mylar was suggesting.
"Yes and yes so prepare yourself your Majesty" said Mylar as his arms roared to life with dazzling white flames as he stared Taylor down. The time for playing nice was over, he was going to test Taylor and truly see what he was capable of.
"Bollucks" thought Taylor as he stood before the two men ready for whatever they could throw at him.
AN: I was determined to get this posted before sunday and I did! I wasn't planning on posting it today but I felt I'd brought the chapter to a close at this point so it felt right to end it. I hope the few of you reading are enjoying it this far in and I'd like to know your thought's on the whole Kimiko and Taylor situation.
I'm not a romance writer so this isn't going to be done that in depth as I'm all about fighting etc hah.
So please as always vote/comment and tell your fans or even anyone about this book that you think might enjoy it.
Thanks guys! All The Best FN