Chapter Five: To War!
Taylor spun about as he heard the familiar whoosh. The twins appeared with Jamie over Michal's shoulder and Farn supporting Markus to a stand. Michal put Jamie down and Taylor noticed he was unconscious but thankfully unharmed. Taylor looked back and noticed only Mylar and Noran remained and that the other man, Caius, was gone. That was when he heard it the whoosh of fire as the Cyturion number two landed among them darting right for Michal in an attempt to catch him off guard.
Caius swung with his fist still wreathed in fire but he wasn't fast enough and Michal ducked as Caius struck the tree behind going right through it as easily as air. Wood splintered off in all directions and Taylor covered his face to avoid any debris hitting his eyes as bits of bark ricochet off of his arms.
Looking up, Taylor could see Michal retreating backwards as Caius bore down upon him the two battled it out with their fists alone coated in deadly flames. Jamie was still out cold on the ground so Taylor ran over to him and hauled him up to his feet. He gave him a hard slap around the face several times before he eventually stirred, jumping at the realisation of being conscious.
"Jamie can you walk?" asked Taylor as Jamie looked about taking in his surroundings.
"Uh, yeah I think so," replied Jamie, moving away from Taylor and taking a step forward on a pair of unsteady legs.
"Good now get back to the mansion and get help quickly!" shouted Taylor, now running off towards the twins and Caius who was still on the offensive.
"Where are you going?" shouted Jamie, standing there dumbfounded.
Taylor sped off in the distance pumping his legs for all they were worth. He didn't bother to shout back and trusted his friend to do as he'd been told. What he was about to do next was either going to be incredibly brave or very stupid.
The blue flames had faded and he didn't know what else to do, so with all his strength he flung himself right into the back of Caius and rugby tackled him to the ground. Caius swore in shock at the new threat but then merely smiled when he turned as he fell seeing what was happening. Taylor let go and rolled out of his reach just in time as Caius recovered and slammed his flaming fist to the ground where Taylor had just been.
Taylor got to his feet as Caius did the same. He flung a ball of fire straight for his face, a split second was all that separated Taylor's face being melted off before he ducked beneath the flaming projectile. He could smell burning and realised his hair had been caught ever so slightly.
His heart pounded in his chest faster than anything he’d experienced and his legs were close to giving way by how much they were shaking.
"Considering you haven’t been trained your resolve is impressive. Such a shame you have to die boy," said Caius smiling as he opened his palms.
More swirling black fire formed ready to unleash another onslaught.
"You forgot about me," said Michal from behind him as a ball of white fire the size of a boulder came hurtling towards Caius.
It hit him square in the chest as he turned to in time to see the attack he tried to bring his arms up in defence but he wasn't fast enough. Taylor heard the air leave his lungs as Caius was propelled back at least ten feet breaking several trees on the way with his body. He thought he heard sickening snap as he collided with a one last tree before he landed and remained still. Taylor didn't know if he was alive or not but hoped that he didn't get up again.
"Taylor, come on we have to go now before he gets back up!" roared Farn as he started to make his way back to the mansion. Markus was now on his feet and moving of his own accord.
Taylor ran as fast as he could, his feet pounding across the gravel, almost losing his footing. Within a couple of minutes they were back at the mansion and made their way through to the main entrance. As Farn was about to yank open the door it opened from the other side, almost making him fall over the threshold.
"Oh thank Arturios your still alive," said Tobias who stood in front of a group of ten Arturions.
"Well Mylar is still out there fighting Noran," said Michal.
"Right you and Farn get Taylor and Jamie inside then get them evacuated once you've got your things together. Be bloody quick about it though," ordered Tobias firmly, making his way out with the group of Arturions.
As he and the others hurried off to the woods Taylor was ushered inside by Michal. People were still rushing about and others were whooshing from one place another to save time. Taylor looked to his left; Jamie was sat against a pillar with his head in his hands. Taylor walked over and sat down with him, putting his arm around his shoulders.
"Hey man, it’s going to be alright, we'll be out of here soon," said Taylor.
"I just want to go home Taylor and go back to a normal life. Why did we have to get caught up in all this?" asked Jamie looking up, his eyes puffy and red from crying.
"It’s just one of those things that's out of our control and as much as it pains me to say this, we can’t go back to how it used to be," said Taylor now feeling it really hit him that this was his life now and there was no escaping it.
"Fuck, I'm gonna miss my Xbox," said Jamie laughing off the last of his nervousness and getting to his feet. Taylor laughed with him and thought about his own Xbox as well as he rose to his feet with Jamie.
“Nice to see you have your priorities straight” smirked Taylor.
Taylor turned about to see the twins staring at them with a look of bemusement on their faces. "You two are beyond strange," said Farn, shaking his head and walking off towards the meeting room.
Taylor looked at his now ruined college hoodie where the sleeves had been burned away from his outburst; a sudden surge of shame ran through him giving him a chill. From the distance there was an almighty boom as Taylor could see white fire light up the sky outside.
"Shit, it's started we need to evacuate you two now. Farn get the fuck out of here, we’re leaving!" shouted Michal, walking over to them.
A minute later Farn appeared out of a flash of white fire with a sports bag slung over his shoulder and a strange looking device in his hand. "Alright let’s get going. The charges are set around the mansion as Tobias instructed," said Farn.
"What about everyone on the roof?" asked Michal.
"They’re on the ground now they'll be gone once the explosives go off," said Farn looking to the window as screams began to fill the air from outside.
The blood curdling screams turned Taylor's stomach and he had to resist the urge to vomit as people outside undoubtedly met their ends.
"Alright, do it," said Michal then he grabbed hold of Jamie and Taylor by their shoulders and just like that they were gone. Within they seconds landed in a field with a few trees to their right with low old stone walls running between the other fields, separating them.
Sheep grazing nearby scattered at the sudden appearance of the three people, running all the way down the hill as far away as possible making that odd noise when their scared.
"Welcome to Wales, Ah, the air always feels cleaner here " said Michal as he breathed in deeply and exhaled.
"Smells like shit to me," said Taylor crinkling his nose up at the pungent odour.
"What are you looking for?" asked Jamie looking over the rolling hills as Michal did.
"Just being cautious. You never know when a Cyturion might turn up," replied Michal.
There were a series of whooshes from behind and Taylor turned to see at first Farn then more and more Arturions arriving out of the whirlwinds of white. Eventually there must have been well over fifty people gathered in the field. Most had sustained a variety of injuries mainly burns on their faces, arms and legs. There were several who had to have someone support them as they couldn’t stand themselves.
Taylor almost couldn’t believe his eyes, the burns were gruesome and gut wrenching to the eye, and a part of him new that there was still worse to come in the war.
Farn walked over to them and began to look amongst them. "Where are Tobias and Mylar," shouted Farn to the crowd of Arturions. A man walked over to Farn. "Your guess is as good as mine, sir," said the man, standing to attention.
"Well that's helpful, Jedidiah," said Farn rubbing his temples with his thumb and forefinger. The man simply ignored the comment and went to check over the injured.
There were several more flashes of white right by Taylor and the others. As if they had been summoned Tobias and Mylar materialized in the field along with five other Arturions. Mylar had a scorch mark running from the bridge of his nose to his cheek, the flesh was red raw looking painful to even look at, and Tobias had a nasty burn across his chest which just as painful as Mylar’s, which had torn his shirt open.
Tobias looked up straight at Taylor and actually smiled despite being out of breath. "Welcome to the war, Taylor," he said, losing his smile upon seeing the horrified look on Taylor's face.
"Jesus you guys look rough, what happened?" asked Michal walking over to look at the burn on Tobias.
"I and my squad got to Mylar and he was fighting off Noran and Krell at the same time, crazy bastard that he is." He winked at the Irishman.
Incredibly he forced out a laugh given the circumstances. "I didn't have much choice really. Oh, but then Caius decided to join the party and he was pissed, came at me like an enraged bull," said Mylar.
"That might have been my fault, I kind of sent him through a tree with a huge fireball." Farn soundedgenuinely apologetic.
"Don't worry about it I knocked some of his teeth out with my fist anyway. He's gonna have a pretty smile," said Mylar with a shrug.
"So how many did we lose?" asked Tobias attempting to feel the extent of the damage to his chest with his hand only to wince at the pain.
"Well I have fifty-six with me," said Jedidiah walking forward.
"Twenty-nine dead, we haven't had a loss like that in over twenty years, or seen the Cyturions arrive in such a force," said Michal.
"We'll discuss this more once were with Ryne and the others," stated Tobias.
"How far are you from the base?" asked Farn who was talking to someone on a phone he'd taken out of his pocket. The voice from the other end was quick and it sounded stressed.
"Okay, just relax. We aren't far from you, we'll be there in no time. God that man needs to learn to chill out “said Farn, then hanging up the phone, not waiting for a reply.
"He's a bloody good man to have in a fight though," said Mylar walking over to Taylor and Jamie. "You guys alright?"
"You’re asking us if we’re alright? Have you seen your face?" Jamie blurted out all of a sudden.
“Ha don't you worry this is a scratch compared to anything. I got very lucky," said Mylar with a wink, ruffling Jamie's hair. Jamie gave him a sour look at the action, and then quickly smoothed his hair out.
“So where's the base then?" asked Taylor, now more than anything just wanting to get somewhere safe then make sure his family were okay.
"Not far and we can get there faster than regular people, we only jumped here as a last minute meeting point," said Mylar.
"Why didn't we go straight there?" Jamie looked quizzically toward Mylar
"It’s to keep the base’s location secret. Only the people based there know the location so Hiracious and his group met someone at a meeting point to get an escort."
"Hiracious just gave me the location via a photo" said Farn.
"Okay let’s just get going then," said Taylor, growing more impatient by the minute.
Farn went from group to group showing them where they had to go then did the same, Farn came up to them and showed the picture to Michal. Then once again Taylor felt a firm hand grip his shoulder as Michal stood behind him, and like that they were gone amongst the fire that never burned. It licked its way up and down Taylor’s exposed flesh, it still fascinated him how it could do that. "Maybe they can make it harmless," he thought.
Arturion Mansion
Noran walked about the flaming ruins of the mansion, stepping on remnants of paintings weakened to mere ash by the flames which had torn though the mansion. A series of explosions had been the cause of the destruction moments before the departure of the Arturion force. It was certainly much quicker and effective than setting it aflame.
"What hole have you run to now Tobias I wonder," muttered Noran to himself as he stopped to look out to the rest of what was left of the mansion.
"Sir we have a survivor from the initial assault," said a woman's voice in an American accent from behind Noran. He turned to see a beautiful woman, with dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail going all the way down to the middle of her back. She adjusted a black leather jacket which encased her torso, as she trudged along in a pair of black military boots.
"Ah Martha, wonderful news, at least something may be salvaged from this mess," said Noran walking with her out into the field behind the mansion where a man was on his knees with two burly Cyturions stood behind him, one at each shoulder holding him down.
He'd been stripped down to nothing but his underwear to thoroughly check him for anything of use which could have been hidden. Noran came closer to the man, feeling very amused by the sight and even more by the bruise which was forming on his face along with the nasty looking burn which had marred most of his muscular chest. He looked straight into Noran's eyes with a scowl so foul you would think he had smelt something in the air as he was approached by the Cyturion leader.
"So what do I call you?" asked Noran as he came within a few feet of the man.
"You do not deserve the privilege of knowing it, murderer," said the man in an English accent, spitting at Noran's feet while looking into his eyes the entire time.
"You are not making things any easier for yourself with such hostility, and I believe you've probably killed as well so I'm not the only murderer," said Noran edging forward a step.
"Any easier, I'm captured, wounded and you're going to kill me anyway, it's not the same, it is because of you we do what we do," said the man. "I'm pretty sure that it’s not going to get any easier than this." He began laughing hysterically
"Continue telling yourself that it amuses me, but very well you leave me no choice," said Noran.
Walking away in a split second Noran's arms erupted in a display of black fire and he turned, lashing out with a whip in his right hand, catching the man in the face and knocking him out of the grasp of the men behind him to the ground.
"What is your name?" roared Noran, his voice carrying its way across the fields scaring away a group of birds atop a nearby tree.
The man didn't react; didn't even flinch. He merely got back up onto his knees and looked into Noran's eyes again and just stared, not a trace of fear in his eyes.
"I will break you if I must, even until your very resolve is burned to ash, I will have the answers I seek," growled Noran now seething with anger at the pure audacity of the man. Noran struck him again but this time at the burn inflicted upon his chest, the Arturtion's face winced at the pain but he remained on his knees, clenching his teeth against the pain inflicted continuing to remain silent.
After ten minutes of Noran repeatedly lashing out at the man he still refused to speak despite having burns covering his entire body, his breathing had become ragged and the anger in his eyes had now been replaced with exhaustion as he struggled to remain conscious.
"He’s still not talking I see," said Caius who had joined to watch a few minutes before. He'd just been seen to by their healer for the burn on his chest which he was lucky not to have died from.
"No it appears he won't. Kill him, Caius, and make sure it is slow, and that he feels pain that he never thought possible. These worms all deserve the same fate," said Noran. His anger gathered like thunder amongst a storm.
"Very well sir." Caius let his power rollforth and the familiar black flame consume his arms. In his right hand out of the darkness formed a sickle, its point sharp and sinister. Then he set to work on the Arturion and Caius did as he was commanded, makinghim feel pain beyond his wildest imagination.
His screams filled the air as Noran walked away with a smile, his feeling of anger replaced by sick and twisted joy as blood spilt upon the earth.
Somewhere in Wales
Taylor felt earth beneath his feet as the world reformed itself around him as the fire ebbed out of sight to reveal a small field by comparison to the one they'd just left. It was completely bare, unlike the section across from it which had a large building in its centre. All around it were countless static caravans all painted a variety of colours from browns, light greens and vibrant blues with people walking about from place to place.
"Uh, this is the base?!" asked Taylor looking at Tobias with a look beyond confusion.
"Ha, yes, so it would seem. Ryne has always had an interesting taste in all things," said Tobias smiling.
There was an eruption of white firein front of them out of it appeared a man accompanied by a man and a woman. The man in the middle was so short he couldn't have been far from being a dwarf. His hair was a deep, blond cut very short and his eyes white like all Arturions were but he lacked any visiblescars from burns. He struck Taylor as quite handsome, you could tell by the way he stood that he was not to be messedwith just by the way he carried himself.
The two behind wore matching blue jeans and bright white tops, the woman looked to be in her mid-twenties. She had beautiful brown hair, let down so it partially covered one side of her face making her all the more beautiful. The man on the other hand was as rough looking as you could get, his biceps looked like they were close to breaking through the leather encasing them. His hair was jet black, and a burn ran across his neck as if it had been cut by a blade from his collarbone to his chin.
"Sir it's been too long," said the man in an accent Taylor couldn't quite place. He bowed his head, his eyes down to the ground and the two behind him mimicked him as he rose to his full height.
"Too long indeed Ryne and thank you for taking us in on such short notice," said Tobias bowing back with yet another smile upon his face.
"You needn't thank me Tobias, this changes everything. We must gather everyone together to decide our next move. "I have already sent messengers to Argus and Cecilia, I cannot believe Noran has someone in his ranks with such an ability," said Ryne his eyes alight with an intensity that no words could accurately describe.
"Very good but we will discuss matters further once the others arrive, we have casualties which require medical attention," said Tobias gesturing to the numerous Arturions still being held up by others. Most had resigned to merely sitting down.
"Of course," replied Ryne then turning to the woman behind him.
"Get the medical teams here Kara, and quickly." said Ryne, Kara only nodded and was gone in a flash of white.
Ryne turned back and immediately locked eyes with Taylor. The way he looked at him it was as if he could see right through him, his eyes almost piercing. He walked to up to Taylor, his feet brushing through the soft green grass, his stride filled with purposed. He stopped but a mere foot from Taylor and went down on one knee and looked to Taylor again a smile on his face.
"My lord we have waited so long, consider me at your disposal," exclaimed Ryne lowering his head in respect and placing a clenched fist to his chest.
Taylor's eyes widened in shock at the sight and he was completely caught off guard by the gesture a second time in one day. He physically couldn't make his tongue and mouth move to form words in response.
"Stop kissing his arse Ryne, he might just start to like it," laughed Mylar heartily
"Ah the comedian of the Arturions, how could I forget you my old friend?" said Ryne looking up and smirking at Mylar who sat down like the many others who had sustained injuries.
"Aww I'm hurt, forgetting little old me ha," the Irish man chuckled with a wink.
"Enough of the bromance you two, let’s get everyone inside who isn’t injured while the med teams deal with everyone else," said Michal.
Ryne led them towards the large building amongst the static caravans. Leaving the field they came to a gravelled road and from the entrance to the static caravan section, came running at least twenty men and women, all carrying stretchers and bags slung across their shoulders. They continued on in between two caravans either side of the entrance and around the corner to the where the wounded still waited.
The doors to the main building were modern with iron bars over the glass penal reinforcing the door further. "How's that meant to stop a fireball, Ryne?" asked Mylar almost sounding amused by the attempt at security.
"It's not, it was put there after we had a break in a couple of months back," said Ryne grasping the handling and swinging it open to reveal a reception area. It was completely empty aside from a brown leather sofa against the wall to their right not far from the entrance.
"Did you catch them?" asked Mylar.
"Ha yeah we did, it turned out to be some kid, his powers had manifested and he almost burned his house down. He came here looking to get some money and whatever else he could before running away. ” said Ryne smirking
"Bet he got a nasty surprise," said Farn sitting down on the sofa with Michal and dumping the sports bag he carried on the floor next to him.
"Ha, yeah, seeing as I was patrolling the building at the time, I saw the white had started to form in his eyes and knew immediately what he was," said Ryne as he led them all to a door to the left of the reception desk which wasn't in use. "I had to calm him down as he had a knife the size of my arm.” Ryne pushed open the door to reveal a large room.
A circular metal table sat in the middle with old metal chairs dotted about it. It was very similar to the war room in the mansion with the documents on the table and a few computers against the far wall. A board on the wall had countless more documents pinned to it, spanning a good four feet in width.
"He's very talented, especially considering he hasn't long come into our fold, a prodigy just like you, Mylar. And he has an interesting talent which we need now more than ever," continued Ryne taking a seat at the centre of the table on the left hand side.
"What's that then?" asked Mylar as he took a seat on the other side across from Ryne.
"I'll show you later. For now everyone get comfortable and I'll get everyone something to eat and drink before the others arrive." said Ryne, gesturing to a nearby man who left the room and a few minutes later came back with piping hot cups of coffee and a plate of biscuits.
The only people in the war room were Tobias, Mylar, Taylor, Jamie and the twins.
"So where's Hiracious and his group?" asked Farn as he took a sip from his mug and leaned back in an attempt to get comfortable.
"We've got some caravans put by for them so they’re resting and we've got some for the rest of you when you’re ready after the meeting.” said Ryne then shifting through some documents in front of him.
There was the sound of several familiar whooshes from outside and two people a man and a woman appeared at the doorway to the room. The man was dressed in the strangest way; Taylor couldn’t stop himself from frowning at the odd garment. He wore a brown set of robes similar to the kind that Middle Eastern people wore, from what he'd seen on TV anyway. The sleeves had golden thread stitched intricately into the form of a dragon, each one wrapping around themselves with their jaws opened wide at the end of the sleeves.
His hair was a light brown, matching his beard which stretched right down to his chest. He looked to be at least around six foot in height in his early thirties, but knowing Arturions he was probably a lot older.
The woman next to him had tanned skin with full lips and by the looks of her Taylor guessed that she was Italian maybe Spanish, but he couldn't be certain. Her hair was a dark chocolate brown and shoulder length with awhite flower tucked behind her ear. She wore a dress which had a forest green shade to it from the bottom until it reached the top and faded into a brighter green making it look all the more stunning.
"Ah, Cecilia, Argus, good to see you got my message in good time. Please take a seat" said Ryne gesturing toward the table and its seats.
"We came as soon as we secured our bases. said Argus who spoke in an accent Taylor couldn't place for the life of him. They took seats to the right of the twins with Taylor and Jamie on the other side of the twins as well.
"Well thank you for attending on such short notice my old friends," said Tobias, nodding his head in respect with a small smile but lacking any true warmth.
"With the severity of the situation we had to act quickly. So how many did you lose brother?" Argus looked pained to ask such a question.
"Twenty-nine. It would have been far worse if we hadn't been warned so quickly, so thank Arturios for that," sighed Tobias heavily then taking a huge gulp from his mug of coffee, burning his tongue in the process.
"Noran has grown impatient and has made his move then so we must make ours," said Cecilia speaking in a fast Italian tone with a hint of English which made for an interesting combination.
"Yes we can no longer sit back on the defensive. To war it is then," said Tobias, closing his eyes followed by a heavy sigh.