Chapter 127

May You Die A Thousand Deaths

Two hours. That was how long Alexa had to stand with the TSI agents, her parents, and most importantly the reporters. This was huge, not just for American supers, as the one British support super that had also been asked to join the team had died early on, their death recorded in graphic display for all to see. In one act of heroism, or severe stupidity, the British Super Titan charged forward to fight the dragon head on. There of course was only one problem, the fact that he was alone made him an easy target for the dragon.

The tragic death of Titan, the greatest of British Supers lasted only thirty seconds from start to miserable defeat. It begins with footage of him charging forward, head long to face the mighty dragon. Then as he got close, it was clear he was preparing to perform his Titan stomp and launch himself off the ground, unfortunately the dragon was just that much faster than him. With only one target to follow and track, the dragon easily zeroed in on him and hit him with a burst of burning acid spray. Titan did manage to emerge from the burst of spray, his previous momentum carrying him forward, but it was clear that he was already dying as he exited the stream of corrosive acid. At this point the camera frames could be slowed down enough to see Titan rising, while his outer layers of skin slowly burned away, as green wisps of corrosion burnt everything it touched.

Of course, there was one issue that Alexa noted with the video. One thing that seemed to indicate that the entire event had been a setup. At the very beginning of the charge, Titan could be seen talking and even glancing over his shoulders. Now one could say that these were him making sure that no other monsters were going to come up out of the woodwork and rubble of the crumbling city. But Alexa noticed the odd distortions of air, the way Titan seemed to nod in agreement after the air movements. While she couldn’t see the signs of magical energy being used in the recording, as no modern camera could pick up the faint traces of magic, Alexa was certain that the entire thing was a set up. Watching the video that was meant to be a cautionary video of what happens when powerful Supers believe their powers to be too much, Alexa saw a different story unfolding. One that spoke of sabotage of a perspective partner, manufacturing events where a hero would charge head long into battle, believing support was with them, only to then find out they had been set up.

The team of elves could be heard shouting for Titan, only once he was well outside of standard hearing distance. There they shouted for him, “wait, come back. You fool, it will kill you!”

But it was too late, there was no time for Titan to have truly heard the words. “Come now, we can’t let his death be in vain.” Ryelifa could be heard speaking in perfect English. Then with a mournful look she directed the tribe of elven hunters down a side tunnel and away from the dragon. The camera made one last pan towards the fallen Titan who was at that moment in the process of being eaten by the massive dragon. After that, the cameraman quickly turned away and began following the fleeing elves.

Had Alexa been in her emotional mind, she would have felt rage at the video, especially knowing that she would have been set up in a similar manner. At least, that was what she suspected would have happened. While there was nothing she could do to repay the elf’s treachery, as she had already killed them in a duel, there was still a faint bitter taste in her mouth that she had a hard time swallowing. Was this how the defenses of England were slowly dismantled? There had been hundreds of Supers, many of whom could have teamed together to strike down the dragons on their own, especially when they first appeared. Yet, if they were mowed down, constantly set up to be slaughtered by elves trying to weed out the fiercest competition, then it made sense. Even the Supers that were loyal to the elves were at risk, especially if they seemed to have more unique powers that could prove to be problematic to deal with in the future.

Thinking back on it, the headlines did seem to show the elves purposefully sitting back when the dragons first appeared. Their comments at the time were that “they wanted to give humanity the chance to succeed at protecting their own planet.”

Then once the dragons started to grow in power, the elves gave training sessions with the British Supers, showing them secret tactics to take down the beasts.

Looking back on it, the elves did a little too good of a job weeding out the competition. There was a delicate balance that had to be struck, one where they kept the dragon low enough of a level that they as a team could still strike down the beast, while destroying enough of the highest powered supers of England.

Thinking about the dragon that so happened to have appeared in the neighboring Madison county, Alexa couldn’t help but wonder if that dragon had been let through just to deal with Mackie and the TSI agents, maybe even her parents. Fortunately, she had been called in early enough to make a difference, but that could have been left out to decimate the forces, or at least the staff at Dawning Light Academy. With an entire generation of supers out of the way, conquering the tri-state area would be easier than ever.

Of course, that was the problem with these types of events. Alexa knew that if she let her mind wander she could start seeing plots within plots, and plans within plans. While Alexa didn’t think the elves allowed the dragons to go through the various dungeon exits, she couldn’t help but see them as being a huge boon to the elves and their dominance of Earth.

“Aru’ka,” Florence, the media woman, shouted Alexa’s super name, trying to get her attention. “Having seen the footage of those who came before you, those who sacrificed their lives for this operation. Do you have any words before we go through and show the footage of your heroics?”

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With that Florence got right next to Alexa, and shoved a giant microphone into her face.

Not flinching from the sudden intrusion, Alexa just answered truthfully. “No.”

A slight pause, as Florence still didn’t know how to react to Alexa and her short answers. “Well in that case, let’s get to the footage.” Florence said, then gave a wild gesture.

With that a giant screen that had been brought in for this occasion began presenting the most recent footage of Alexa. It began when she caught up with Ryelifa, and the silent cameraman. Then showed how the two left the safety of the ruins they had set up in, the one with the direct view of the dragon’s roost. Once the two left, there was a time lapse as the video seemed to speed up to a very quick pace. A faint glowing light happened in the bottom right of the screen. The burst of light happened only for a second, and in the fog of the morning looked to be just a quick light coming on. Of course, Alexa knew full well what that light was, as that was the exact location that she had her duel with Ryelifa. Looking at the slight burst of light that happened only for a second, Alexa knew that evidence of her duel existed, and now that evidence was being shared with the world. Still it had been for only a second, due to the speed at which the video was being replayed. Then a short time later, lights began to glow in the dragon’s tower. That is when the video began to slow down its speed of advancement, slowing down from roughly three to one, to two to one speed. The speeding up of the video showed more lights flashing all around the tower, before the tower finally collapsed. There was a moment of silence as the crumbling of the building was slowed down once more, this time restoring the events to regular speed. Now one could see glowing lights appearing from different spots. These lights were not as bright as the dueling bubble that the system had erected around Alexa and Ryelifa, but they were still golden in nature.

The lights flashed for just under a minute, before everything went dark. There was a hushed silence as everyone watching all paused with baited breath, waiting to know what would happen. Even Alexa found herself watching, though her reasons for watching were far different, she wanted to know what powers she had displayed, what of her arsenal would now be known by the enemies. She watched as the first rays of the sun began to appear. Golden yellow rays shown into the rubble, then as if the rays had been nothing more than a spotlight for her exit, Alexa appeared. Clambering her way up out of the rubble, then standing upright. Seeing the video, Alexa couldn’t help but feel the entire thing was a bit much, a bit theatric as the rays of the sun had clearly been added in. That or they had been digitally enhanced as she did not remember them being there when she first exited, but she couldn’t argue with the results, the video was stunning. Then zooming in, all that could be seen was that dark black of Alexa’s Super suit, and a giant sword that was now strapped across her back. The same sword that Alexa now wielded across her own back.

Silence.

There was a moment of silence as everyone watched the video on the far wall, the audience at home no doubt were watching the full video on their screens at the same time. Everyone stared at the screen until finally the video ended, and the screen that had been presenting it suddenly went dark. Then as one, everyone turned from the screen to Alexa.

Seeing that Florence appeared to be visibly shaking with excitement. “Wow, I don’t know what else to say after watching that, but just wow. Seeing that, how do you feel?” Florence asked, trying to elicit a response from the stoic Alexa. True to form, Alexa answered honestly.

“The same.”

Alexa for her part knew she was trapped. As she had been told by both Captain Johnston and her parents that she needed to stay and finish this interview, as apparently there was going to be some major surprise that would come from her being here.

At that Florence just shook her head, not wanting to even try to get a better quote from the foreign Super. “Well, it is my pleasure to announce that I get to be the representative for those watching here and abroad. I wanted you to know that we as a people are greatly excited by what you have done for us, not just with the Prime Minister’s Daughter, but now ridding the land of not one, but two dragons. For this, I am pleased to inform you that we have a few rewards to offer you. The first is a guarantee from the Prime Minister and the King, that you will be accepted into any college or university in England that you wish. Furthermore, while we do not have the bike here to offer you, when you do come for schooling, a number of companies have wished to offer you a free bike as means of transportation.”

Hearing that last part Alexa sat up straighter as she began to fully pay attention to what was going on. Alexa looked around, and caught the eyes of Bullford and Captain Johnston who both nodded in agreement. Seeing them, it was clear how the people of England knew of her comments made in passing to Bullford when she was asked what it would take for her to come out here to England. Apparently, they had done their part and explained her requests. While they had been half in jest at the time, she couldn’t help but feel somewhat honored by the rewards.

“Now, I have to ask, there are many bike manufacturers in England, is there any model or company that you would like to provide a bike for you?”

“A Triumph Rocket in black.” Alexa said, clearly knowing what she wanted. Hearing the words Florence could even see the faint way her eyes almost seemed to show signs of life at the statement.

“So you are a bike enthusiast?”

“Who isn’t?” Alexa said, her voice oddly melodic, despite her body not showing any signs of intrigue.

At that Florence could only pause, then remembering something, she gestured for an assistant to come. “Oh right, while the elven representatives apologized for not being able to be here in person, they did ask that I give you this.” Florence said, as she handed Alexa a large glowing box.

Well the box itself didn’t glow, but the items inside did glow with an odd form of energy. What was odder still was that the box itself had multiple linked runes. Holding the box, Alexa lifted it up and tried to understand what exactly the runes were. Then as if reaching out with a part of her mind that she was not fully aware of, she felt the runes. Only after touching the runes with her mind did she realize that this was part of her new Rune Channeling power that linked so flawlessly to her Runic Mastery Skill. Using all of them combined she realized that there were a series of linked runes that now that they were connected formed a simple seal, that when separated would send a spark down a line and awaken an Ignition rune that would cause a magical chain reaction. At first Alexa was confused by the contents of the box, before she took a moment to read the semi personalized note written in flowing elven script.

As a whole the note would likely appear to be nothing more than mere decoration. The only words in English being the note:

To: Aru’ka.

It was this note alone that let Florence know this package specifically was for Alexa. The flowing elven script was done so masterfully that it looked almost like flowing leaves on a tree and could be easily dismissed by those not familiar with the language, but the words written in elven spoke of the true intent of the package.

May you die a thousand deaths.

With that message, the rest of the box and its trappings made sense. It was a bomb of some sort, by opening the lid, it would send off a current of electricity to the ignition rune that would then detonate the glowing ball of odd life energy. Just being this close to it let Alexa’s innate class abilities start to drain energy from the tightly woven ball of death.

“I was also asked to hand these others out to the rest of the American team who also came here to help us out in our time of need.” Florence said, as she began handing out more and more boxes to Judge, Warder, Captain Johnston, and Bullford.

Seeing that, Alexa paused and in an unexpected turn of events, she shouted “WAIT!”