The Lotus Effect (Rise Of The Ardent) (38 page)

Chapter 41

The Final Battle ~ Sector 9

One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . . One . . . two . . . three . . . .

“Lily?” I heard Xander’s calm voice break through from beyond the panic.

“Just breathe,” he spoke softly by my side. “We can do this. We stay together. If we happen to separate, we fight our way back to each other. If something happens to me, never lose sight of the goal. Not the Key. Not finding the others. Only surviving. You understand?”

I nodded quickly, not allowing myself to think about
that
possible outcome. If something should happen to him.

“What’s our plan?” I asked with a wavering voice, hating myself for trying to prepare mentally only moments before the fight.

“We don’t have one, and that’s how I’d like to keep it. It’s too unpredictable out there to get tied up with prior logistics. I saw how you worked your way around the Shadow Kanes. Today is no different, trust your instincts.”

My
instincts
were telling me to run away while I still had the chance. I cleared my throat. It was dryer than the dirt beneath my feet. “What about the Key?”

Xander looked at me hard, his eyes tight. “
Forget
the Key. Focus on staying alive.” Xander shifted his weight in his armor. “You’ll make an easy target if you’re the first to go running up and grabbing at it. Let the others do the work for us.”

The thundering applause from the audience shook the roof above as we stood waiting behind the door. I blanched and gripped my shield tighter. I felt sick to my stomach, overwhelmed by the responsibility and pressure.

This was it. Nothing else mattered.

If I failed today, I failed
everyone.

Xander’s look of worry snapped me out of my terror. His brow was furrowed and he looked . . . angry.

“Lily, what’s wrong? Never have I seen you like this,” he scolded quietly. “Your energy is . . . unbalanced, erratic.” Xander closed his eyes and looked down, his voice steady and even. “I know you’re terrified of failing, but know this: You will go out there and you will
fight
. You will prove your worth and you
Will
.
Not
.
Die
.”

A furious passion lit up the gray to become now silver in his eyes.

I had never seen such disappointment and fear linger within his gaze. Fear for me. He gripped my shoulders and shook me slightly, urging me to find my sense. “Remember your people who suffer. Remember Mrs. Fawnsworth. Remember your
mother
. Do not give in to this fear—” He dropped his hands from me. “—I will not allow it.”

The plains of his face were tight with disapproval as he looked towards the closed door.

Never had I seen Xander like this before a battle either. He was always calm. Always focused. Now he had a fire within that rekindled the one inside my own chest.

I slid on my helm and gripped my axes with a new determination. A determination that was uniquely made within me, different from all the others which only seemed to last until a swift wind of doubt whisked it away.

This determination was red hot and potent. One that intended to stay. Xander was right, I was losing myself. Losing my nerve. Without it today, I would surely die.

I shook my head and bared my teeth behind the bronzed barrier of my helm.

“I.
Am
. Ready,” I said just as the last murmurs of the announcer echoed into silence, and the blare of the starting horn blew.

~

The ground crunched beneath our boots as we traversed over the broken bits of concrete and rubble. I carefully avoided the glass shards that littered the ground and the tattered chair that lay tilted in our path. With each step, Xander and I slowly and patiently entered into Sector 9, painfully aware of all the hazards this day could throw at us.

I winced when I saw a dirty doll trapped under a piece of roofing, a child’s shoe lying next to it.
Stay focused . . .
I urged myself, not willing to let my emotions consume me in their entangling web.

Xander glanced over, carefully stepping over the doll and shoe. He remained silent, but I could tell his demeanor turned darker as he sidestepped in front of me, assessing the empty street before us.

The sky was overcast and hazy. A rim of brightly back-lit clouds bloomed in the northern part of the sky like a glimmer of hope waiting to be liberated. I cautiously looked around, feeling the sweat gather at the nape of my neck, not seeing nor hearing the presence of our enemies.

Xander with blades held at the ready, nodded his chin towards the north-eastern side of the Sector. “The largest tower is the manufacturer’s building, Zone 3. I’d suspect the Key to be there. That’s if Briggin’s information can be trusted,” he said, his voice low.

I nodded. Our slow, hesitant creeping—waiting for either Percival and Fin or Scottie and Giles to show and surprise us—was beginning to wear on my nerves. I was becoming more and more paranoid with every boot crunch upon the gravel or whistling sound of the wind as it passed through the deserted buildings at our sides.

The longest ever recorded final Barrage battle had lasted for almost two days. The instigators ran around in circles and kept hidden only to finally attack once their opponents overtaxed themselves and became unfocused. There was no way I wanted to spend more than a few hours out here. The sooner we finished this, the better.

“Xander,” I whispered, impatient to get his attention.

He acknowledged that I wanted to speak to him and pulled me behind a flipped over bit of once elegant-looking staircasing. The delicate wrought iron designs of the hand railing, though rusted, still appeared to retain their original shape.
How many beautiful minds had ran their hands across this very railing?
It was imbued with the vibrancy of the past which humbled me, yet set my resolve into a new focus. Mrs. Fawnsworth had told me that Sector 9 was once the most sought after Sector to live in during the past. That the citizens were a highly intelligent group who craved knowledge. This fact, I’ve come to believe, was sadly the catalysis to their downfall.

“Xander, we cannot simply hide—peeking around corners all day, waiting for one of them to blindside us. You’re the fastest of anyone here. Can you fly overhead? See if you can draw them out and I’ll distract them while you go for the Key.”

Xander shook his head, unwilling to accept my tactic. “Stuff it, Lily. I’m not leaving your side.” His voice was still low, distorted beneath his helm.

My brows squinted in annoyance.

He looked at me. “If I do a flyby—it will help us spot them, yes, but it’ll also make your positioning known. I will not leave you vulnerable like that.”

“But you did
exactly
that in our last fight against Margie and Damaris. How is this any different?” I hissed.

Xander straightened and looked threateningly at me. “
This
is a completely different situation. I know how Percival thinks. He thrives off the desperation of others. Scottie and Giles, we already know are morons, morons with a lot of firepower. It’s not Scottie that I’m worried about.”

I blinked quickly a few times, noticing that Xander was worried again, not for his wellbeing, but for mine.

Xander stepped a few feet from me and readjusted the grip on his blades, holding them at his sides, his armored shoulders twitching from the muscles beneath. With his back turned and his posture severe, he angled his head towards me.

“Percival cares nothing for the Key. His sole purpose is to get to me through
you.
He wants nothing more than to take my greatest treasure away. My best friend.” He turned his head away, peering down the street before us. Peering as though he could stop this, stop this with just a look. “He wants me to feel the same sorrow—the sorrow he felt when I left his side.
That’s
why I refuse to leave yours.”

Xander returned his blades into a defensive position and continued down the alley. He wasn’t only my partner. He was my own personal bodyguard I realized now, a deadly shadow, waiting and watching for every threat to my safety and happiness.
 

A selfless act that may get him killed.

Idiot.
I picked up my pace so I could tell him to forget this prideful sense of chivalry that was now clouding his judgments. We had to be a team to survive this day, not a—

Xander stopped suddenly and crouched. He beckoned me to do the same. Xander held steady, his ominous spiked helm motionless in front of me, not even the muscles in his unarmored hands flinched.

Careful not to make a sound as I hovered, I stretched my hearing, but nothing out of the ordinary caught my attention. No sudden exhalation of steam, or a misplaced footfall onto gravel. Surely Scottie and Giles with their seventeen-foot Walker suits could be heard coming from at least a half-klick away . . . .

Becoming impatient again, I cringed at how my thighs began to burn from the awkward position I’d put them in. If only I could just shift my—

Out of nowhere Xander deployed his wings and rocket tackled me to the ground. I sucked in a labored breath as the world swam into gravel and bits of brick siding, all showering us in an angry hailstorm of fury.

Xander repositioned his arms around my waist and lifted us into the air, just high enough so my back wouldn’t scrape the ground that blurred beneath me. He grunted as the falling debris pelted him from above, his body blocking me from the impacts. Through my helm, I couldn’t get a good look at what was happening from above—but I soon felt him taking us higher, judging by his firm readjusting grip around my middle.

As if time slowed, I now saw the walls of the alleyway crumble like the improper use of a game of dominoes, cascading closer upon us—a large metallic hand swiping through the building at our side.

We neared another building’s rooftop and Xander practically threw me on top as he wasted no time to soar in the opposite direction. I hit the concrete hard, but was otherwise unharmed as I rolled to my feet and stumbled to the ledge.

Looking over—I saw no one, but as I ran to the opposite side of the building, my eyes went wide in horror. Xander, like a ravenous animal set upon its prey, was mounted upon the Walker’s back, stabbing and slicing his blades across the inner workings that connected the head from the body of the suit.

Judging by the smaller design of the mech-suit Walker, I’d say it was Giles who’d attacked us. Smaller in height: thirteen-feet compared to Scottie’s seventeen, according to Dex’s information.

Practically
tiny
.

Bones
.
How stupid!
I thought desperately, fear clinging to the edge of my skin.
Scottie is using Giles as bait.
Even if Xander was onto his plan, he was too busy dealing with Giles to do anything about it.

Just as I feared, from my higher vantage point I saw Scottie’s enormous frame sneaking his way from the building’s rear—the massive metallic net resting at the end of some sort of harpoon weapon. A design which I’d never seen the likes of before. White steam shot from the back of his suit, making me frown in confusion. No sound emitted from it.

But then I looked closer.

A slightly blue aura appeared and then suddenly disappeared again within the blink of an eye, much like the reflection of a silver coin rolled in one’s fingers—much like the force field surrounding our hut.
That’s why we didn’t hear their approach . . . .
Scottie and Giles both wore a protective sound barrier that if not seen directly, would be near impossible to detect.

Not caring what Xander would want me to do, my decision was made. I had to confront Scottie. Scottie after all was a cankerous sore that I solely wanted to eradicate—he was
mine
to deal with.

Backpedaling a few steps, and without thinking, I sprinted towards the edge of the roof with no plan of stopping. For what little airtime I would have, I wanted to make the biggest impact that I could.

Instinctively, I hit the middle of my chest, engaging the Defyer as I leapt off the side. My body became heavy, surging with the all too familiar gathering energy. Rushing quickly towards the ground, I released the Defyer in the palm of my hand, praying Scottie would be waiting directly below.