The densely forested area whistled as four shadowy figures
ran at extreme speed between its trees. Leaves ripped from low bearing branches
as air sheared around the figures’ bodies, cutting what they passed. Dusk-light
pierced through the balconies of treetop, casting beams down to what was mostly
shadowed ground. Like spectres the figures disappeared into the darkness, only
to flash through the light beams as the continued their sprint. Little amounts
of light left them running blind, only the sounds of crunching foliage and
rushing air punctuated their movement, keeping them together.
Their
movement was relentless, unyielding and constant. In the distance ahead of where the four were
running a colossal weight slammed to the earth, rattling the ground. The
figures disappeared into shadow and silence. After a short silence a flame
began to burn from the origin of the crash, revealing a felled tree across the
ground. Fire spread across the bark and began to smoke.
No sign of the figures remained. However, from the scolding
flames slowly engulfing the surroundings, another figure came into focus,
seemingly untouched by the blaze around it. Despite the light of the fire, this
figure remained black with its arms folded, unmoving against the animate
flames. Suddenly the folded arms were thrown out, away from the body and in
tandem the flame erupted outwards, spreading over a wider area but thinning
around the figure. But the figure transformed, what once seemed to be a normal
human was now an anthropomorphic wolf creature. Even stranger though was the
wolf-man’s body, it was almost transparent and glowing gold with burning white
eyes. The wolf flexed its muscles, as it moved each limb a spiked collar formed
around its neck, wrists and ankles. A
bestial roar erupted from it and the glow of its body intensified, illuminating
a large area around where it stood.
The
four hidden figures had remained still and silent but they began to talk
amongst themselves.
“Target
acquired, ARC squad maintain positions. This is ARC-1 maintaining visual.
Target is preparing volatile projectiles.” The First of the four said. As she
finished, the great wolf reached back, as if to grab the fire, as he did so a
large ball of flame isolated itself from the blaze. As the beast swung its arm forward the
fireball followed the motion. The
projectile rocketed and hit into one of the seemingly infinite number of trees.
Excess flames sprayed from the impact and singed the ground’s plant life.
“This
is ARC-2, preparing to engage a deflection procedure, leave the flame
projectiles to me.”
“Good
plan ARC-2, I’m recommending we flank and sting the target, I will spear head
with physical combat while 3 and 4 focus on co-ordinating ranged strikes.” Two
more voices spoke, saying “agreed”.
ARC-2’s
voice appeared again, “Okay I will alternate between support and debilitation
tactics”
“Perfect,
let’s power up and go.” In a similar way to the wolf ARC-1 appeared, crouched
behind a tree. She became visible when a faint blue, slightly transparent form
transformed her skin. The glow was weak because her body was clad in strong,
metal-lined, leather clothes, revealing only her face. Even her head looked
ghostly as the night-vision goggles stopped her eyes from being visible in the dark,
showing what appeared to be only an eye-less head floating in the shadow. Some
parts of the clothing were slightly brighter as the porous gaps in their design
released the light from her skin. She rolled out from behind her cover and
produced a Shamshir blade made of the same substance that her skin now radiated
and that formed the body of the wolf target, different tones of light defined
the weapon in its silvery blue colour. The blade was not drawn from a sheath
nor was it picked from the ground, this weapon materialised from handle to tip
from her hand. The white eyes of the beast tracked onto her position, it took
only a moment for her glow to be noticed. She picked herself up from the
ground, blade hand in front of her waist, blade pointed up and across to her
opposite shoulder. She ran towards the wolf at impressive speed, a testament to
her fitness. The target did not move from its position, instead it began to
scoop and launch more fireballs, this time aimed at ARC-1. The first missile came at her, almost half
her body size; she immediately ignored it and looked off to her right. ARC-2
was just visible in the shadow running slightly ahead of her. Suddenly her
ally’s skin started to glow yellow and he sharply shifted his direction 90
degrees anti-clockwise. ARC-2 then ran directly towards ARC-1’s path and leapt
over where they would have crossed. He did so in such a way that he could
nearly collide with the fireball, but instead of impacting it he swept an arm
across himself in mid-air. This motion caused a flash of yellow light to form a
short lasting barrier in front of his body, of which absorbed the hit of the
fireball. ARC-1 ran underneath, completely protected from the attack. A second arm sweep eradicated the flame
completely and he dropped back to the ground. Once planted, he stopped glowing
and ran back through the shadows. The wolf launched three more fireballs, the
first two were removed in the same process by ARC-2 but he was too strained by
the energy-use to dispatch the third. Instead ARC-1 threw her sword directly
into the ball which caused a small explosion.
She
jumped through the flames as they died down and used the energy- manipulated
blaze as a catalyst to make reproducing her sword easier. She was now close enough to engage the wolf
in combat. She jumped and flipped once through the air. Her effortless leap
gained her a height of three metres. The soldier began to drop down upon her
target. Her bestial enemy, however, was around 50% larger than her in all ways
so it pulled its arms up as if to catch her with its savage claws. As the beast
prepared to clamp her in its hands a whip-like beam of light restrained its
arms from either side, with both bounds being a bright green hue. This
surprised the beast and let ARC-1 swoop a downwards blade sweep straight down
its chest, completely undefended. ARC-3 and 4 had remained hidden and deployed
their powers in perfect timing. ARC-1 put her blade to the neck of the beast
and pulled herself up to its face. “Not so tough like this, are you Amon” she
laughed at him. He tried to bite at her head, causing her to lean back. Amon
roared and contracted every muscle he could, causing the bounds on his arms to
rip and fade away. He lashed at her rapidly with both arms; ARC-1 timed a swift
backflip manoeuvre to evade this attack. She held her ground as he lashed
further, using her blade to block the hits. Occasionally ARC-2’s yellow
barriers appeared to protect his ally and some temporarily blocked Amon so she
could get in close for a few strikes. This process repeated. Amon was easily
distracted by 3 and 4 shooting green projectiles at him from all angles.
ARC-2
dropped from a branch above Amon and landed on the wolf’s shoulders. He used as
much power as he could muster to hold Amon completely still. “Now! Like we
planned!” he shouted to the team.
ARC-1
turned her Shamshir around in her grip so it was pointed behind her. She
vaulted at Amon and jumped onto his chest, kicked off, and knocked him
stumbling backwards. Number 4 in the group seemed to teleport behind Amon and
landed a few punches into the base of his spine, the continuous strikes kept
him from falling back. He regained balance but bent forwards, reeling from the
hits. ARC-2 returned, once again from above, with a yellow energy knife. He dropped on Amon’s back and lashed at him
frantically while he screamed and twisted, trying to break free. In the process
the last of the group, ARC-3 quickly zapped from location to location with
energy-made pistols and shot rapid fire pellets of energy at the beast. ARC-4
stood beside 1 with his fists glowing blue with power, they both waited for an
opening. It came as Amon lifted both arms over his shoulders to try and grab 2
from his back. They both ran in at extreme speed and began to violently unleash
hit after hit.
In a
sudden shift, Amon stopped reacting to the hits he was taking and smiled. He
then laughed at his attackers. His body exploded, blowing the four away and
into the air. A few seconds after the initial explosion all four were stopped
in the air and held in place by an unknown force. They could all then see a pulsing golden
light where Amon once stood.
“Damn!
Break free!” cried ARC-1
“I’m
trying but I’m drained of strength” replied ARC-4
They were not in pain but they were unable to do anything
but speak. They all felt a great level
of power building around them, the trees swept in a clockwise direction, as if
a powerful tornado was building. They could not feel anything on their bodies,
but the trees began to rip from the earth. Soon enough the entire forested area
was a mass of loose nature swirling around them, the golden light being the
centre point. The ARC team were hopeless to do anything
As the
motion of the forest accelerated the golden eye of the storm contracted and
took form. The figure was human and had
the same golden and transparent features as Amon had had. He was dressed in a
smart shirt, unbuttoned at the top, with a waistcoat. His trousers were very
smart and the whole look was topped off with an armoured gauntlet on one hand
and a glistening metal shoulder-guard. The colour of his clothes was unclear as
every part of him was gold and glowing. The man clapped to his detained guests
then clicked his fingers close to his face. Upon the click the forest vanished
and became an enormous open hall, all white, all blank and empty. He released the ARC’s and walked through them
as they stared. The looks on their faces depicted disappointment. The man was
quietly chuckling as he left the room. ARC-1 removed her goggles and ruffled
her wavy short hair. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”
ARC-2
copied this motion and leant against her. “Don’t let it get to you Skye. We are
never going to be able to beat him. But we’re getting better”. He sounded proud
and determined. He lightly punched her arm.
“Whatever”. She, in return,
elbowed him in the chest and walked away, towards the same door the other man
had just left through. “We need to be stronger Hertz, this isn’t a game.”
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