“People? As in humans?” Andrew asked as the trio continued to sprint around the forest, picking up samples here and there.
“Right. Homo Sapiens, same as us. I’m sure of it – there’s a village of them about thirty miles west of here,” Levin said, looking down at the town through his bird Cho’s eyes.
“That’s not possible,” Mei said.
“Are you certain it’s not just a hairless, bipedal species that happens to resemble us?” Andrew asked.
“Well, I suppose I can’t confirm without a proper DNA sample…” Levin said. “But I’m translating their language right now.”
He had piloted his bird close enough to listen in on the myriad conversations taking place below, which still left it high enough in the sky to remain inconspicuous. Cho’s metal body didn’t reflect the light like regular polished metal, letting it appear as a bird-like silhouette to the people below while eavesdropping. The recorded speech data flowed from Cho to his Y-Link, where Levin’s built-in universal translator worked on deciphering it, a task that would require a significant sample size. A couple hours of eavesdropping, at this rate.
“We’re lucky we have you, then,” Andrew said. “The rest of us won’t be able to talk to these people.”
Andrew and Mei, with their translator earbuds, could hear any spoken language in their native tongue. It meant they could understand anyone, but it wouldn’t help them at all if they wanted to actually speak words in a different language.
However, Levin had built his universal translator into his Y-Link, enabling him to translate his very thoughts themselves into other languages. He was the only one on the expedition who would be able to communicate with a foreign people – they had hardly expected to need someone like that, after all.
“We won’t have time to reach them, though,” Mei said.
“Quite astute. Although, if we…” Andrew said.
But he trailed off, coming to a stop while looking up in the direction of their landing crater. Mei and Levin stopped as well, following his gaze up the mountainside.
It wasn’t hard to tell what Andrew was looking at, not when it blotted out the sky above the core of the Expedition team. A deep black storm cloud hovered ominously above the mountain, sitting eerily still only a few hundred feet above the peak, isolated solely above the mountain containing their return vehicles.
“Levin… Please tell me that’s a natural cloud,” Andrew said.
Levin looked through the data available from his tools, checking barometric pressure, temperature, wind speeds and direction, atmospheric composition, anything that could affect the creation of weather events. His sensors were close range, only able to measure the immediate surroundings, but that shouldn’t matter – a cloud of this density, suddenly appearing at this relatively short distance, should be accompanied with drastic swings in the entire area’s weather conditions.
But there was nothing. Every piece of data indicated the sky should be as clear as it was when they had arrived.
“I don’t know what that is,” Levin answered, feeling a growing sense of dread.
“We should get back,” Andrew said, dashing off towards the mountain.
Levin and Mei raced after him. Levin willed his dogs Kent and Alphonso to race faster, pulling them ahead of Andrew in a mad bid to understand what was going on underneath the ominous storm cloud. The three of them had circled around when exploring, staying within a mile of the Expedition Team at all times, letting them get back quickly now that they needed to.
Levin recalled Cho as well, pulling the metal bird away from the small village it had found and back in their direction. He was disappointed to leave his translation job half-finished, but there was no choice – Levin’s toolset was by far the most appropriate to investigate the phenomenon, but only Cho would be able to get close enough to get a proper reading.
“This sort of thing was exactly the reason Andrew wanted me!” Levin thought in frustration. It felt like he was letting Andrew down.
But Cho was quite far away, so the three of them would be able to regroup with Anya and the others entire minutes before the bird would be able to fly near the cloud and gather data. Already they had gotten halfway up the mountain, the proximity to their return vehicles bringing some small measure of comfort to Levin.
However, they could get no closer. Andrew slid to a stop as bright orange flames poured from all directions out of the forest, forming a blazing ring around the three. On the other side of the obstructing flames, surrounding the trio on all sides, half a dozen individuals appeared from behind tree cover. These people wore clothes the likes of which Levin had never seen, identical white robes adorned with black lines that snaked like lightning all down the attire.
The ring of fire hovered in midair above the forest’s underbrush, with seemingly nothing fueling them as the flames steadily blocked their path. To Levin, it almost looked like these people were maintaining mental control of the fire, somehow – did they have neural implants like him?
From directly in front of them, a burly, bare-chested man approached, carrying himself as the leader of this squad. In just a short pair of trunks, he certainly stood out from his uniformed fellows, but what truly set him apart was the massive slab of metal only vaguely shaped like a sword sitting on his shoulder, the weight of which would surely be back-breaking to the average human. He opened his mouth, addressing them loudly, but the words were of an unintelligible language, one not stored in their universal translators.
Levin frowned. With the data from Cho, he had only partly finished cracking this language, barely enough to maintain a simple conversation. But it seemed there was little choice now. Within his Y-Link’s translation module, Levin enabled the partially-translated language, immediately understanding what this hulk of a man had just said: My name is Tulimak! Who are you lot?
“I’ll send you what I have,” Levin whispered to Andrew and Mei, supplying their translators, as well as those of the entire Expedition Team, with the language data he had gathered. This way, they would all be able to understand these strangers even if Levin was the only one able to speak back in their language.
“Well?” Tulimak roared.
“We are travelers,” Levin said, looking at the tall swordsman from atop Francis, a position that placed them roughly on eye level. He’d have to act as an interpreter for Andrew and Mei, both unable to speak in anything other than their native tongue – something that was never a problem back home where everyone had translators in their ears.
“Then I demand you surrender yourselves to our Lord Silla!” Tulimak said.
“Tell him we come in peace,” Andrew said to Levin.
Levin relayed the message, still feeling awkward with the language. Even if he could translate the words, actually forming the unfamiliar shapes with his mouth to speak them was a difficult task, one that certainly gave him a thick accent to native speakers. But he was understandable.
Tulimak’s response made him wish he hadn’t been. The large man simply laughed, chest heaving as he kept eyes fixed on the three. With a flourish, he pulled the supermassive blade off of his shoulder, pointing it directly at Mei, holding it perfectly steady with just a single hand.
“My fair lady, might I request a duel?” he said.
Mei grinned, but Andrew only grew more agitated next to Levin, looking nervously from the mysterious ring of fire to the blackened cloud hanging above.
“Levin, tell him that I accept,” Mei said.
“No! Levin, convince him that we aren’t here to fight,” Andrew said.
Levin’s chest tightened as his breathing grew quicker and shallower. His enhancements would do him no good here, not against this. Hard numbers, raw data, mathematical calculations and logical processes – these are what computers excel at, and thus what Levin excels at. How was he supposed to de-escalate against this beast of a man thirsting for battle?
“Please, we just want to get by. We don’t want to fight,” Levin said, hating how weak he sounded to his own ears.
“Bah!” Mei exclaimed. She stepped forward, cracking her knuckles, smiling at Tulimak.
“Mei, as your captain, I forbid you from fighting him!” Andrew said, a wild look on his face.
She laughed, and Levin’s heart sank. It seemed a battle was inevitable.
Mei and Tulimak, held apart by a barrier of words and flame, had now connected on a plane far more intimate. Eyes locked, posture forward, weapons drawn, each movement of the body spoke a thousand words, in a language known only to those raised in a lifetime of combat. To Levin, these two could not be of man; it was a pair of wild beasts that had just been unleashed here upon the unfortunate land of this dimension.
Mei made the first move, dashing forward, throwing herself into the surging ring of fire, heedless of the heat as it engulfed her head to toe. The ring parted as it unleashed explosive power directed right at her, but her reinforced skin barely reddened. In an instant she was out on the other side, unharmed, bearing down on Tulimak with the force of a raging hurricane. The muscled warrior hefted his gargantuan blade, unfazed, and brought it down in perfect time with Mei’s approach.
Tulimak seemed to transcend a natural human’s limit as he swung the gigantic weapon at lightning speed, but Mei was simply on another level. With nearly a full head of height over the burly giant, she looked down at Tulimak while intercepting his attack with a left arm, blocking the blade on bare skin. She planted her feet to absorb the attack, a thin trickle of blood down her arm the only mark Tulimak had to show for his attack.
With her free right hand, Mei then hooked up into Tulimak’s sternum, pushing against the ground as she threw her entire weight behind the fist, launching the man off his feet and sending him soaring into a steep cliff face of the mountain behind. Mei grinned as she licked the scratch Tulimak left her, now eyeing the closest of the robed individuals. This person, a middle-aged man with graying hair, backed off warily under Mei’s pressure as if moved by instinct. And to Levin’s shock, the ring of fire surrounding him and Andrew seemed to distort in time with his movements.
But he didn’t hold Mei’s attention long – Tulimak descended back down the forested slope he had been launched up, stumbling into view with a blood-stained chest, slightly caved-in where she had struck him. His breathing was pained, wheezing from broken ribs that had likely damaged, if not punctured, his lungs.
Yet, he still dragged his greatsword behind him. He looked Mei square in the eye, straightened his back, and held his free hand to his chest.
“Tulimak!” he shouted.
Mei laughed, then pointed to herself. “Mei!”
He smiled. Swinging his sword around him in a slow arc, he brought it forward, pointed straight at Mei.
Then Tulimak took a deep breath.
“Brilliant Crescendo!”
Levin could feel the words coming out of Tulimak, washing over him as though he had just stepped from shadow into light, with the bright sun bathing him in its energy. And Tulimak himself looked like the sun in turn, with a radiant golden glow shining behind, enshrining the warrior in its powerful forces.
Levin watched in amazement as Tulimak’s wounds closed, his bones returning to whole as the spilled blood on his body wisped away like sweat in the wind. As the swordsman returned to perfect health, the shining light behind him faded but did not extinguish, continuing to reinforce his body in its rays, ready to wash away any further injury.
“What is this?” Andrew said in shock.
“I don’t know, but it just got fun,” Mei said.
Before the two could launch into their fight again, a thunderous, rolling boom split the air. Levin’s attention snapped up above, where the single dark storm cloud overhead had begun churning and seething violently, before suddenly raining down ropey, black tendrils – black lightning. They stretched down one after the other in a relentless barrage, countless bolts of lightning that gave off no light as they shot down in a span of milliseconds, all targeting the Expedition Team atop the mountain.
But the Expedition Team had not come defenseless. A bright barrier sprang into existence, a dome encasing the entire crater and protecting those within from the destructive hail. The bolts of black lighting rolled off the shield, rebuffed, sent down into the surrounding forest cover where they ignited flames in the forest upon impact. However, the rain of black lightning did not stop – and after a long couple seconds, even Rohan’s supreme weaponry was showing signs of fracture.
To Levin’s utter dismay, the shield could not hold. It shattered with a noise like glass, a boom even louder than the thunderous rolling of the lightning. Without the safeguard from above, the engineers down below were completely exposed – and as the point of conflict near the summit descended from the sky to below the tree line, distant screams and explosions were all Levin could make out from the base.
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But Levin couldn’t afford to worry about them right now.
“Attack!” Tulimak shouted, reengaging Mei at the same time.
At his command, the ring of fire instantly began shrinking down around Levin and Andrew, and as the robed enemies began moving towards them, his suspicions were nearly confirmed – they had complete control over this fire through some invisible means. As their encirclement closed, the fire itself expanded, stretching from the forest floor to the branches, creating an enclosed dome on top of the duo, and dog.
“Levin, we need to break through. Stay close to me,” Andrew said, cocking his arm with a sleek metal sphere from his belt as the flames closed in.
Just as the fire was about to scorch them, he released the device in his hand, unleashing a shockwave directly outward. The wall of flame blasted apart, and Andrew and Levin ducked out immediately, narrowly avoiding the fire coming from the other directions. But for the enemies, it wasn’t just one Andrew and Levin that came out – several pairs bounded away.
The half dozen men and women surrounding them each focused on the holographic copy of Andrew and Levin that was closest, unleashing instant blasts of fire with flicks of their wrist. Andrew and the Francis-mounted Levin were nimble and the holograms equally so, but the fireballs still tracked them with exceptional agility, homing in on every single one, including the real pair.
With this much flame in the area, it was impossible for the decoys alone to get them out. Andrew absorbed the blast of fire sent their way, covering his face and letting his reinforced clothing take the blast, though it burned away in the process. Andrew was left with blisters, but he and Levin managed to continue their run uninterrupted.
But now they had been found out, picked out from the crowd of holograms. Every new blast of fire about to come from the half-dozen would now come straight for them, a dizzying amount even if they could outrun their robed opponents. The only bright side was that their robed opponents had rushed in close to shrink the ring, letting Andrew and Levin bound past them all as they burst through.
Before the next barrage of fire could be unleashed, Levin’s dogs arrived, scrambling to a stop as he and Andrew raced by. Both Alphonso and Kent’s robotic underbellies opened up as equipment deployed from their sides, revealing rockets filled with mining explosives in Alphonso, and a much shinier array of laser turrets in its twin. Levin activated both sets of weaponry at the same time, unleashing a hail of destructive, tree-melting laser fire amidst a few deafening explosions.
He heard cries of pain coming from the group, but they somehow endured the barrage, with bright lights springing up on their bodies anytime one was struck. But they scrambled away under the concentrated fire, trying to get into cover. Levin and Andrew continued up the mountain as Levin mentally controlled his dogs to hunt them down.
They were able to race on for nearly a full minute without interference, surrounded by the sounds of conflict above as Rohan’s team fought off the attackers, and below as Mei and Tulimak’s explosive duel continued, the two mighty giants leaving toppled trees and crushed stone in their wake. Levin burned to know what was happening above, but his aerial eyes in Cho were still too far away to be of use.
The dark clouds above had diminished greatly after the deluge of black lightning, leaving the sky now clear. To Andrew and Levin’s horror, however, that stretch of sky did not remain open for long – a warbling distortion like heat haze appeared in the air above, the signal that the return Gate had arrived. They had less than a minute to get back into the vehicles they had arrived in, or their only option to get back home would be to get the Gate Beacons turned on and hope for a rescue mission. Assuming the Beacons weren’t destroyed already in the attack.
“Mei’s going to get left behind!” Levin shouted.
“It’s all we can do to make sure we aren’t!” Andrew shouted back as they pushed up. “It’s her fault for being battle-crazy!”
They had eyes locked up above, watching as the warped light began to condense into the same solid black marble finish they had seen in the vacuum of space. Once their exit fully stabilized, the ships they had journeyed in would be automatically pulled back to Earth’s dimension. Levin and Andrew were nearly at the cusp of the crater, and Levin calculated they would be able to make it back into their seats in time at their current speed.
But the Gate was not the only mysterious airborne object. As if in a struggle for dominance with the Gate, the remaining black clouds in the sky condensed, consolidating at the very peak of the mountain. And then Levin saw him, a man standing there at the peak in flapping black robes streaked with lines of gold that traced the same jagged patterns he had seen on the others.
The man’s long golden hair whipped all around his face freely as wind surged from the dense cloud currently settling into his arms. Unlike the others Levin had seen below, this man appeared younger, far younger – and looking up above at him, he seemed to radiate a majestic power, holding condensed black lightning in the palm of his hand.
Then it all burst out at his command, arcing in one solid line from that immortal of a man at the peak all the way to the Gate, releasing a mind-blowing peal of thunder an instant later. The lightning disappeared into the Gate, clashing briefly with dimensional energies that surged between this place and Levin’s home, and for a moment, it all fell still.
Levin nearly breathed a sigh of relief, before the Gate suddenly shrank down to the size of a ball in the sky momentarily, then re-expanded to a size far larger than it had been. The rim of black raced outwards, engulfing the peak of the mountain and the lightning man with it, surging down to the crater below where it came to a stop shockingly close to the rim that Anya, Rohan, and Santiago had stood on earlier.
And then it burst. Cracking like a dropped piece of glass, the expanded Gate split wide into two halves before erupting into a catastrophic explosion, consuming the entire mountainside in a violent surge of energy. For just a moment, Levin was able to see all the way through the Gate, getting one final glimpse of Al-Abadi’s space station backdropped by the ever-beautiful Saturn.
Then it was gone. Levin barely saw Andrew throw something out as his friend pulled Levin from his mount, yanking them both low to the ground and into cover. Andrew laid over Levin as the blast raced down, penetrating the thief’s impromptu shield with a crushing wave of pressure.
Levin couldn’t breathe for a moment under the weight, but a moment later everything went quiet, and deathly still. Levin poked up, trying to listen for the sounds of conflict either above or below, but there was nothing.
To his side, Andrew sat up, slowly picking himself off the ground. Levin began to do the same, feeling out his body for injuries. Francis, fortunately, suffered no mechanical damage; the other two dogs, caught outside any sort of protective covering, weren’t doing as well.
“How are you?” Andrew asked.
“I’m okay,” Levin said, in a daze but physically unharmed.
Levin looked up above again, towards the Expedition Team’s location. The sky was completely clear – in fact, even clearer than ever now that the entire peak of the mountain had entirely vanished. The top chunk of the mountain above their impact crater had been chewed up by the Gate and spat out, the rubble scattered all down the mountainside, leaving long gashes through the forest. And standing on the new peak, bloodied but very much alive, was the man that had just ended any hope of returning home.
Levin began to stumble up towards the crater above, wanting desperately to see the Gate Beacons undamaged, when his radio communications came on. He froze, shocked as Anya’s voice came out in a pained whimper: “Run!”
As if on cue, the sounds of conflict above from the Expedition Team came roaring back, but this time it didn’t sound like a battle. It sounded like a massacre.
“That means you, Levin,” Andrew said. “Ride your dog out of here, to the village you found.”
“What about you?” Levin asked, frantic.
“I’m going to see if I can help,” Andrew said, looking back up.
“Then I’m going, too,” Levin said.
“Absolutely not. You can help us at long range with your other dogs, but you need to get yourself out of here now,” Andrew said firmly.
“I can be of use here, too!” Levin said.
Andrew looked into Levin’s eyes, and the young, inexperienced man met them with resolve. After a moment Andrew sighed, turning away from Levin towards the crater above. They had to move now.
“Fine. But don’t get yourself killed,” he said, taking off.
Levin scrambled back atop Francis, following alongside Andrew and immediately catching him. He frowned as he looked at Andrew running much slower up the mountain, his gait irregular.
“You hurt your leg!” Levin exclaimed.
“It’s fine,” Andrew said. “I can still move. More importantly, what about the six below, and that Tulimak?”
“Tulimak and Mei are still fighting, but I lost track of the others in the explosion. The dogs are coming back to us,” Levin said.
“Right.” Andrew fell silent as the two approached the lip of the crater.
But when they were mere yards from the edge, several blasts of fire streaked towards them from the surrounding woods. Andrew pulled a laser pistol from its holster, firing off blasts towards each of them. The crack shot’s accuracy didn’t fail him today, as he struck each attack from the air and detonated it early.
“Damn! These assholes are still on our tail!?” Andrew shouted.
Levin clenched his teeth in frustration, his two weaponized dogs still racing up. How had they already been caught up to? Had he been that disoriented by the blast? How long had he left Alphonso and Kent idle? And to make matters worse, damage from the explosion was slowing his two dogs even further.
Andrew and Levin continued to run, reaching the lip of the crater, where perhaps they could take refuge from the assault. But Levin’s heart fell as he saw the scene below. A raging whirlwind of countless silver shards whipped about the interior of the crater, revolving around a tall figure at the center of a storm that ripped and tore flesh all around. Corpses decorated the bottom of the crater.
And worst of all, the components for the Gate Beacons lay in shreds. There would be no going home.
On the far side of the crater from Levin and Andrew, a small line of Expedition members were managing to flee over the rim, still being harassed by more robed individuals who fired off a wide array of attacks using water, earth, wind and more to punch through the surviving members. What was left of Rohan’s elite security force attempted to mount a defense, but they were outnumbered, outgunned, and decimated by the Gate’s earlier detonation.
Rohan himself lay dead within the crater, life shredded by the storm of shrapnel. He was far from the only corpse left behind, but it seemed Anya and Santiago had at least managed to get out of the crater. But with the amount of robed enemies on the other side, Levin didn’t think they would be making it far.
Behind Andrew and Levin, the half-dozen firebenders were gathering slowly, knowing they had cornered their prey. The duo’s only options now were down into a pit of carnage, or back into the oven. And as Levin continued to look on in despair, the man at the center of the storm looked up at him, their eyes locking for a brief moment.
Levin immediately retreated from the edge and dismounted, turning back from the crater. There was no hope forward, but neither could Francis’s utility gear make any impact on the enemies behind like Alphonso and Kent could. But there was still something it could do in this battle.
The dog leaped forward, fission engine roaring into overdrive as more power than the robot’s systems were designed for surged through it. Francis lasted another second under the intense energy overload, diving towards the area their attackers were pushing in from, and releasing a violent explosion in all directions.
Francis’s self-destruction threw up trees and ripped out underbrush, carving out a path for Levin and Andrew who raced forward in tandem, hoping their enemies had been at least disoriented by the blast. Both had been slowed from their full speed now, but even with an injured leg, Andrew still outpaced Levin as he traced a path down the slope. The perennial trickster deployed a wide arc of smoke down their route, obscuring the entire area as they tried to get back down the mountain they had just ascended.
And finally, Alphonso and Kent arrived at the scene again, providing covering fire as the two ran. Levin stumbled as he intently focused on controlling the dogs through his Y-Link – it was difficult to work his own body and several other mechanical ones at the same time. Andrew noticed Levin’s struggle and grabbed him, dragging Levin along so he could better split his focus between the two locations.
But once again, Levin was unable to knock any of his opponents out of the battle, a repeat of the earlier skirmish. Each time an attack of his landed, a translucent barrier sprang up against his opponent’s skin, absorbing the damage even as the impact would send them tumbling. This time around, though, Levin noticed each of the six wore a piece of jewelry with glowing lines engraved upon the metal’s surface, flaring with light at the same time that Levin’s attacks struck. Was that how they’d endured the Gate’s detonation so much better than them?
Levin frowned. He had no idea how these people were accomplishing these feats. Even the thousands of years of human technological innovation tucked away inside his Y-Link could reveal nothing about these mysteries.
It was like magic.
And the mages chose this time to focus upon Alphonso and Kent instead of pulling back and going around them. Already damaged, slowed down too much to avoid the fiery explosions all around, there was little Levin could do as a half-dozen streams of fire barraged his final two dogs. With tears in Levin’s eyes, his robots fell immobile, and he triggered their self-destructs, a twin set of explosions that rocked the mountainside all over again. A waste of parts.
The only silver lining with the loss was that he had bought them time. Andrew and Levin took a steep route off the mountain, practically sliding down the most direct path towards the ground, going even faster than before despite both of their losses of mobility. They stumbled down to a rocky outcropping near the base of the mountain, a small clearing before their final descent into the valley below.
But before they could leap from the edge, a streak of silver light raced down and slammed into the ground just before them, kicking up a spray of dirt and dust. A split second later the dust cleared forcefully, as if pushed aside, revealing a tall, imposing man wearing the same white robe with black streaks. Levin stepped back, recognizing the man’s short brown hair atop a wide forehead and bushy eyebrows – he had been the one at the center of the cyclone of silver death, the man Levin had met eyes with. The murderer of Rohan, and countless others.
“Ah, I thought you were Tulimak’s mark when I spotted you on the crater’s edge,” he said in a deep voice. “He couldn’t finish you off, so today is my win.”
“Now,” Andrew said. “I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot here – “
The newcomer raised his hand, and an ephemeral bolt of silver appeared in midair. It raced forward from his fingertips in a blur through the air, straight towards Levin’s head. Levin sucked in air sharply, eyes wide, completely frozen in the milliseconds it took for the bolt to travel the mere feet to him. Faced with his imminent death, he had no time to think, no time to move.
Blood sprayed into the air.
Levin and Andrew collapsed to the ground, red and brown mixing together on the dirty stone below.
“No!” Levin shouted, pushing the golden-haired man off of him, hands stained with blood.
Andrew’s chest had a gaping hole through it, and he looked down numbly at the wound meant for Levin before turning his face back up to meet Levin’s frantic gaze.
And he smiled.
“Don’t be sad, kid. You’re about to see my last, and best, trick,” Andrew said quietly, gurgling as blood filled his lungs.
Levin put a shaking hand to the wound, trying to apply pressure despite knowing the futility, all while their assailant loomed ever-closer behind. Andrew reached up, grasping Levin’s hand at his chest, and Levin squeezed his eyes shut. If he were to attack now, Levin would die – and that seemed to be his intention.
“You have the honor of dying at the hands of the Silver Magus Azaadi, invaders. May the River of Death wash away your crimes,” Azaadi said.
But before the hand of death could descend once more, Levin vanished.
Levin looked down in shock at the hand holding tightly to his wrist, clasped around a thick metal band, warm on his forearm. He recognized it immediately – the device Andrew always wore on his upper left arm, beneath the sleeve of his fine cotton button downs. His Invisibility Cloak.
Andrew looked up at the man who had dealt him a fatal wound, straight through the transparent Levin. But to Levin himself, it was like Andrew was looking straight into his eyes, and he could see them quickly beginning to glaze over, even for a man of such exceptional strength and willpower as Andrew. But now, he spent every ounce of strength he had left to shove Levin, sending him tumbling down the remaining mountainous slope towards the thick vegetation below.
Before he fell, Levin had just enough time to hear Andrew’s last words.
“Don’t go home until you’ve left them with nothing, Levin.”