The Rising Sun: Episode 2

The Rising Sun

Clocks

BOOK ONE

J HAWK

Copyright
© 2014 J Hawk

EPISODE 2

“Force one congratulates you.” said Vonayz.
“You’ve really earned yourself a reputation if the Naxim’s high
council decided to send
us
to bring you down. We, force one,
were meant for fighting
fire with fire.
”

The semi circle stirred with laughter, all of
their eyes focused on Ion.

“A force of mystics to bring down mystics.”
continued Vonayz. “You can imagine the impact it had on the Naxim’s
high council. They were against it, but you’ve really done
something here, to get them to change their minds and send us in.
Force one. Mystic hunters.” He spread his hands, gesturing to the
others standing around. “We’re just a very, very minor portion of
the entire team. Altogether, force one encompasses almost a
thousand or so mystics that the Naxim’s high council secretly uses
to hunt down other, more deadly mystics. And all of them come under
my
command. I lead them. I handpick them, and take them to
bring down fiends like you. And today, force one would have made
its finest catch.”

Ion glared at the long hated face of his foe.
The two of them stood feet apart, both their faces mirrors of the
the same contempt and scorn. Ion tried maintaining his calm,
keeping focus now when he most needed it. But before he knew it,
his mind was steaming with rage and hatred. A rage and hatred which
had been harnessed over too long…

The others standing about the circle listened
quietly while their leader confronted his arch nemesis.

Vonayz held a piece of paper, with a blurry
image on it, and waved it in front of Ion. “Imagine my delight,
when this situation found me.” He looked into the picture, a smile
splitting his face. “The leader of the high council of the Naxim
approaches me, telling me that this was a mystic who needed to be
brought in immediately.” He uttered a soft laugh. “I saw who the
picture showed, and realised that this was an opportunity of a
lifetime.”

Ion saw that this was the picture that the
Naxim officer had earlier taken of him, in the middle of the mid
air chase. His hair had been coated with the oil from his bike, but
Vonayz had clearly made out who it actually was in the picture.

Vonayz rolled the picture and slid it back
into his pocket, his hungry eyes fixed on Ion all through. His
voice fell soft, but there was a fury in every word. “And imagine
my response to him … when I got the chance to play my hand in my
most hated enemy’s demise.” He spread his hands in a joyful
gesture. “So what say you, Ion? Shall we finish what we failed to
three years ago?” His voice lowered to an even more deadly whisper.
“By the time we do … you’ll wish the two of us had never crossed
paths.”

At once, the seven mystics drew their blades
from behind them. They were all long and thin, sleek with menace.
The very same way all mystic swords were built.

Ion drew his own blade, and he felt time slow
down … his mind race forth.

Seven against one.

It wasn’t going to be easy.

Flashes of orange lit the air as the eight
mystics ignited their swords as one.

Ion sidestepped Vonayz’s jab, twisted around
and sent a slash with his own sword. Vonayz jumped a few feet back
to miss his blade.

As the rest of them leapt towards him, Ion
raised both hands. He channeled his energy and mind through his
fingers. And a fluidic, wave like splash released itself from the
air in front of him, sailing over towards the circle of seven. The
smash
collided with three of the six mystics, lifting them
off their feet and sending them airborne. One of them hit the
compound wall on the side of the street with a splitting
crash
, before going limp. Two others of the seven were
knocked off their feet at the sudden force of his smash. They
stumbled and fell over, tripping on their blue capes. The remaining
one joined Vonayz, slashing and jabbing with a heavy fury alongside
his leader. Ion jumped back, his sword flying faster than it had
ever his whole life.

The five fallen ones slowly gathered
themselves and lunged at him again. Ion experienced a split second
flare of panic that made him half want to throw his sword and run
off. But, gathering his spirits, he fought on. One of the six of
them raised his hands, and crimson flames licked the air in front
of him.

A
blaze
…

Raw panic shot through Ion. As the man
unleashed a torrent of fire through both his hands, Ion had already
flung himself off, and soared over the air just by to miss the
flames. The fire singed the bottom of his cloak. He landed on the
ground with a
thud
, rolled over, and burst back to his feet.
As he turned, he saw that the man’s
blaze
, intended for him,
had instead found two of his own. Their robes flaming from the
back, the two members of the team hit the ground and rolled over it
furiously, trying to douse the flames. The confusion gave Ion the
mini second edge he needed. In a lightspeed flash, he turned and
rammed his elbow to the side of one of them standing beside him.
Then, he sent the hilt of his sword smashing into the face of
another who stood before him. The two of them took to the air at
the force of the respective blows, and landed in two limp,
unconscious heaps.

Vonayz’s gaze flickered to the two of them
and then back to Ion, fury now brimming upon his face. The two
others remaining joined him in assailing Ion, pushing him further
and further back. Ion had to keep the flow of his body steeled, as
he fended off the assault of three ignited swords. But with every
jab, every slash, he felt his hopes falter, his spirits sink … he
knew he couldn’t hold off the odds for long. The three of them
would finish him soon enough … Finally, Vonayz jumped forth, his
sword gleaming wildly…

And red hot pain scorched Ion’s shoulder as
Vonayz’s sword brushed it from the side. It failed to go any deeper
because Ion had jumped back quick enough. Ion staggered and hit the
ground with a roar of pain, his sword slipping from his hand.
Vonayz and the two others stood over him, basking in the helpless
state of their target.

Vonayz bent down over him, a fiendish glow
upon his face.

“It’s too bad we were told to bring you back
alive.” he whispered. “But wait a second … You don’t need all your
bones to be in one piece for interrogation, do you?”

The two others laughed nastily.

Ion was keeping himself steady. While he was
lying on the cold ground, his eyes casually roamed around. His
sword lay feet from him, by the base of the compound wall on his
right.
Think … think.

“Now,” said Vonayz, straightening. “Where
shall we sta -”

A loud
crash
drowned the end of his
sentence, and he jumped to the right, missing a strip from compound
wall that had cracked and fallen down beside. But the wall, which
Ion had used his mystical powers to break and cause to fall, had
collapsed over one of the three, who now lay unconscious below it.
Before the suddenness of it could pass, Ion’s leg had swiped across
the air. With a quiet sound of bone colliding with bone, he tripped
the last of Vonayz’s men, who sailed over and landed by him. Before
he could right himself, Ion’s fist had shot into his face, and he
rolled over, unconscious.

With a wild roar, Vonayz jumped down upon
Ion. The two of them rolled over the ground, grunting and snarling.
Ion threw his weight off and reached for the sword lying by the
wall. The two of them jumped to their feet, swords ignited
again.

“Just the way I’d like it,” sneered Vonayz,
his eyes blazing with fury. “One on one. The way it was meant to
be.”

“You sure about that?” Ion jumped forth,
summoning all the anger and pain. And he struck with a relentless,
merciless rage, slashing, jabbing and stabbing. The two of their
blades danced about in maniacal swirl of orange, and sparks
exploded all over with every clash that they met in. Vonayz moved
with the same vital prowess Ion had always known.

As their swords locked in a sharp, steely
cling
that left a shower of crimson sparks, Ion snarled from
over their locked blades, “A lot’s changed … old pal.”

Vonayz’s teeth exposed as he chuckled. “Has
it?”

“I’m not the guy you knew two years back. I’m
now strong enough to take you down head on … not through luck as I
did two years back.”

“Through snivelling cowardice, you mean?”
said Vonayz. “But I’m not complaining, Ion. What happened between
us gave me a lot to improve upon. And I’ve changed, too. Let me
show you why.”

Without warning, he sent Ion stumbling back
with a mighty push. Before Ion could steady himself, Vonayz had
thrown himself forward with a battle cry. His glowing orange sword
sailed towards Ion, a second away from gutting him. Gathering his
mind, Ion threw himself into motion as well … His sword clipped
Vonayz’s in a swift upper cut, sending him off balance for the
meekest second. The meekest second that Ion needed. As Vonayz tried
to steady himself, Ion had lunged forward, both feet leaving
ground. A dull groan sounded over the air, and Vonayz was sent
flying back at the force of Ion’s doubled legged kick. He sailed
five metres across the air, and crashed into the wall of the
building behind…

Ion landed firmly on both feet, his blood
still racing with thrill and fear. He looked back down the
alleyway, and at the two unconscious bodies by the side of the
street. They were stirring feebly. Soon to come around. Ion turned
and peered through the veil of mist in front of him. He knew that
the four other mystics of the team Vonayz had brought had probably
awoken and would come rushing to him anytime now.

Without a flicker of hesitation, he doused
his sword and bolted off down the lane before they arrived here. He
knew that they would be calling for re-inforcements when they saw
what had become of Vonayz and the two other members of their team.
And re-inforcements were the last thing he needed. He sprinted down
the lane, aiming to take a de tour across the abandoned town and
get back to the hover bike he had parked at the edge of the
city.

Scratching his chin idly, Carcasar gazed down
at the hilly terrain spreading below him. He had one eye, with the
other one slit across and punctured. But even with his remaining
eye, he happened to be just as deadly. Just as primally feared as
he always had been. Beneath him on the mountain slope he was now
on, five more cloaked figures lay stretched over the ground,
asleep. Their grunting snores combined to fill the air with an
unpleasant rasping noise. Which would have made the skin of any
person who heard it prickle … any normal person who heard it. They,
the cloaked creatures below and Carcasar himself, were anything but
normal. They were not men. They
hated
men. Man beings were
their finest, most loved cuisine. And it was common knowledge that
men knew this, and feared them above all else.

Zelgron…

The very word boded a ring of terror in the
heart of any man who heard it. And Carcasar was proud to belong to
this brutal, savage segment of creation. A segment that knew no
bounds. No boundaries in their vicious, bloody ways.

Carcasar drew back his hood and slowly raised
his fingers, examining the old skin stretching over his bone like
hands. Gray and lifeless, their skin seemed to rot harder every
year, with thick patches of black smeared over them. Any stray
person would have identified him as one of the deadliest creatures
to tread this spectrum.

And yet, his race were left next to powerless
… Despite the terror the Zelgron commanded, they were stripped of
control in this world. A mere blotch in a world controlled by man
beings.

But Carcasar intended to change that…

In recent years, he had set foot on a new
path along with other powerful friends he had…