Chapter LX: Gobudo (Cont.)
Blackheart drew his blade as a large chunk of wood splintered and sailed into the ground at his feet. “We don’t have much longer!”
West glanced out at the horizon at a few small dots moving towards them, “Don’t worry! We don’t have to wait long!”
Blackheart sighed as creatures hand emerged through the hole. With a great swing, he lopped the creature’s fingers off, standing back as several small streams of fire tumbled into the room, igniting some papers. “Put those out!” He glanced down at the ashen pile of papers, “Where are you Adelia?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adelia stepped through the rubble, her feet kicking aside fallen pieces of junk and cable. Thyrus had not kept the Dome very tidy, and it was beginning to frustrate her as she ducked the low overhang and slid through the sand, casting up a large cloud of dust. The case slid from her hands and through the dirt for a few feet, stopped by the heavy foot of another thief. She glanced up with maliscious eyes, “Today is not the day to mess with me.” Her voice did not betray her–she was still afraid of fighting and killing even though she had before. It wasn’t something she liked to do, and now was another moment where she’d probably have to. Two other thieves marched up behind the original, leering down at her.
“Oh really? Watcha gonna do about it, oi?” The thief laughed for a moment before one of his buddies toppled over with a strangled scream and was dragged into the shadows, scraps of clothes and blood flopping out of the darkness and all over, the man’s screaming quickly cut short by the crunch of bone. The other two thieves stared for a moment into the darkness, then glanced back at Adelia.
“You asked.” She smiled devilishly as one thief shot for Adelia, only to be caught in mid-air by a large ball of blue fur which sent him through the nearest wall, Kiki following him through. Several whiny screams came up as the third thief, frightened, turned and bolted for the door, he almost made it before the wall in front of him burst and the feralite was there again. He slowly backed away.
“Nice doggy…” The thief choked on the last word, as Kiki’s eyes narrowed.
“Now you’ve done it,” Adelia sighed, watching as the feralite’s jagged tongue shot from its mouth and speared its way right through the man’s throat, dragging his lifeless body over to the feralite, who began to gnaw on it with content happiness. Adelia rose and picked up the case, trying not to look as Kiki continued to eat the man, “How did Blackheart used to feed you, Kiki? Wait, don’t answer that…I’ve changed my mind. Come on, we’ve got to get going.” She opened the case slowly, drawing out one of the orbs. It was a small bluish sphere that was as smooth as glass, a small rim of metal around it with a small crank on one end. She shrugged and began to wind the crank, watching as the orb filled up with pulsing purple static that seemed to hum strange sounds over and over. Kiki whined. Adelia glanced back, “I know, but Thyrus is dealing with business right now. We need to charge it up so if he doesn’t come out on top we can still bail him out.” The feralite licked her chops slowly, the grin visible on her face. Adelia sighed as she continued to crank the orb, “No, Kiki…..he can handle himself and you’ve had enough to eat.” Kiki snorted with disgust but heeded Adelia….the feralite could smell the change deep in the Seph girl, even though she didn’t notice it herself.
Meanwhile, nine men had drawn their respective instruments of death and were circling Thyrus slowly. Thyrus smirked with a jovial nature, “You really are not going to like messing with me. You see all these gadgets that you think are valuable scrap, I know what they do…..and they don’t do things like warm your feet…..well, one does….but first it envelops you in a ring of fire.” Thyrus nodded knowingly, but the thieves seemed not to be listening. “Oh well, as you like.” Thyrus beckoned for the first, a man with a club to lunge in. Like all morons, he charged by himself, the other eight waiting to see what would happen. The thief swung at the scientist, only Thyrus wasn’t there anymore. Instead, he was vaulting backwards out of the way, landing on the balls of his heels and propelling himself forward at the man. The man, in panic, swung, only to connect with the air and be bowled over, his body rolling away as Thyrus twirled around and delivered a leaping spin-kick to the head of a second awe-struck thief. The others snapped into action as Thyrus brought his forcepike down and, using it as a pole vault, propelled himself over the heads of the now jumbled thieves. With a swift twirl, he caught the rising head of the first thief, knocking him out cold. His hands were a blur, his fingers intertwining and slowly steering the forcepike around to aim at the other confused targets. The first pike fired and sailed, catching one of the thieves in the hood of his cloak and sending him stumbling back and over a table of junk.
The other five who were still on their feet lunged towards him as he leapt backwards and landed atop a table and then flipped backwards onto another table a bit further away, scrambling down and picking up a small rod-like device, twisting the end and watching as it began to whir. The five stopped slowly, unsure of what was about to happen. Thyrus stared down at the item, “One of my failed devices….it was meant to generate a parachute that would allow someone to sail down gracefully, relying on thaumaturgical principles….” The thieves, hearing the explanation of the device laughed and lunged. Thyrus pressed a small button that was glowing along the rod and watched as large, magically generated net was launched free and wrapped up the five. “Of course, the theory had some holes.” He laughed at his own joke and kicked another thief in the jaw as he got back up.
Thyrus leapt over the struggling five, one of them putting their knife through the cords of the net and cutting himself free. Soon, all five were once more free and rising in rather frustrated anger to deal with the man who had yet to kill any of them. “Get him,” the new leader growled.