CHAPTER 20: REVENGE

  Against the purple twilight gleam of the setting sun, an enormous bird swoops into the scene at the horizon, its midnight plumage giving a clear indication to Drake its undoubted identity. It was the Mayhem that had killed his mother and started his thirstful journey for revenge. And now that Drake had studied animals so carefully, he could tell that his initial assumption was wrong. It was not a crow. It was a Raven.

  The Raven stretched its wings, covering what remained of the sun on the horizon and casting a long black shadow before it, and screeched in a deep, raspy voice that echoed in Drake’s ears. The massive, fifteen-yard-tall silhouette ran toward Drake, its wings flapping without providing any lift, intimidatingly.

  “You…!!!”

  Drake charged toward the monster, his indignation replaced by pure wrath. He tried to turn on his jetpack, but the engine wouldn’t ignite.

  Is it out of fuel? There was no time to refuel now. Darn it! How would his sword or axe reach the abomination now?

  He remembered his laser blaster. He drew it, glad he hadn’t thrown it away earlier. He aimed it at his mortal foe.

  “Die!”

  He shot it with quivering hands. The first bomb missed. He shot again. This time, it hit one of the Raven’s wings. The Raven did not falter; it continued straight for him. A damaged wing meant nothing; it couldn’t fly anyway. Drake cursed at his bad aim and tried to shoot again. He heard a click. He was out of ammunition.

  Just my luck!

  He threw the weapon aside; there was no time to reload. What could he do now?

  Drake’s body shook—from rage, fear, or cold from the rain, he could not tell. Although he was raging inside, he felt helpless. Here was the one enemy he wanted to kill no matter what, and he had no way to kill it.

  Behind him, Steve was frantically trying to get his leg out from under the steering wheel area. He knew that Drake couldn’t kill it, so wanted him and Drake to run away, though they didn’t stand much of a chance escaping with a giant man-eating monster chasing them.

  The storm intensified, and under the quick flashes of lightning, the two helpless victims could see glimpses of the Raven’s true form, a terrifying, evil figure. Drake, who could do nothing but stand frozen in place, looked into the eyes of his adversary. Hatred, as strong as the Gorilla’s, stared back.

  The Raven reached where he was and opened its beak. It bent down to eat Drake, who couldn’t move. To him, there was no point in trying to escape, for the enemy felt invincible within his mind and the feeling of powerlessness from his previous encounter with it grabbed hold of his muscles and numbed his brain. He resigned to his ironic doom.

  “Drake!” a struggling Steve called from behind. “What are you doing?!? Move! Run!”

  At that moment, Drake remembered his mother’s last words. When he’d given up at the sight of Mayhems, she told him to run while she sacrificed herself for him. She died so that he could live. And, although he couldn’t think of a way to survive, was he going to easily let the Raven kill him too?

  Drake swiftly evaded the beak closing in on him.

  “No. You want to kill me too? It’s not going to be that easy. I won’t go down easily. I’m going to fight! Until my last breath!”

  He picked up his laser blaster and threw it to Steve.

  “Refill that,” he ordered. “I’ll distract it in the meanwhile.”

  Steve nodded. “Got it.”

  The ammunition for the weapon was available in the buggy.

  Drake ran away from Steve, making noises to keep the Raven’s attention. The Raven followed him.

  I just need to evade its attacks, right? I’ve trained to have stamina and flexibility. I can do this!

  Drake periodically looked behind himself. Whenever he saw a beak or claw or wing coming toward him, he’d dodge it.

  “Done!” Steve yelled.

  Yes! Drake just needed to go back to Steve now.

  Dark shapes grew in the distance. Drake’s hopes sank. There were a bunch of Mayhems headed toward them. There was no way he could take them all on with a single weapon. Drake clenched his teeth.

  “Dang it!”

  The Raven’s beak came for him once more. This time, he wouldn’t be able to evade. Time slowed down. Drake looked at the open mouth that was about to kill him.

  Oh, no…

  “Need a hand?” he heard a voice above him.

  Drake then heard an explosion. He looked up to see that the source was none other than General Arthur. He shot at the Raven from in the sky, wearing a jetpack. The Raven looked up to find the source of its new wound and a new prey. Drake wanted to cry with joy, but he saved the tears for later.

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  “Did that idiot messenger not tell you to not turn off your jetpack?” Arthur complained. “Whatever, get Steve and get out of here.”

  “Ah, Arthur. I want to help fight. The ammo in my blaster is reloaded so I want to kill this Raven-”

  “Drake, the situation is bad. Look at those Mayhems closing in on us,” Arthur said while evading the Raven’s attacks from in the air. “We can’t fight, no matter what grudge you have on this thing. I’ll keep it distracted. You help Steve and the both of you run to where the others are. I’ll get Rein here to escort you two.”

  “But-”

  “That’s an order.”

  Drake knew there was little chance he’d get another chance to fight the Raven. He highly desired revenge, but now, his, Arthur’s, and Steve’s lives were on the line. If it were just him there, a few months ago, he’d have sacrificed his life to get back at the Raven, but now, not only did he consider his friends’ lives, he didn’t want to throw away his own life that his mother had given him through her sacrifice. He also knew now that he had many friends waiting for him back at Rencia.

  After a moment of hesitation, Drake ran toward Steve.

  Arthur smiled. “Great to see him grow up.”

  He talked into his radio transceiver.

  “Gunther, I need a hand back here. Everyone seems to have abandoned their post and fled with the others.”

  “Copy,” a static-filled voice came back. “I’ll leave the leadership of the group retreating to Commander Eric and head over there.”

  Arthur put away his transceiver and took out his laser blaster.

  “I really wish now that I had more experience on jetpacks. All that paperwork is really preventing me from doing my actual job fighting here well. This is going to be tough.”

  Meanwhile, Drake and Steve used Drake’s axe to lever the dashboard up. They put both their body weights on one end of the stick, while the other end was under the caved-in front of the buggy.

  What the heck is inside this thing?!

  With a herculean effort, they managed to bend it slightly. It wasn’t big enough of a gap.

  “Should we wait for Commander Rein to arrive?”

  His strength would be useful and necessary.

  A hundred yards away, General Arthur shouted. Drake looked where he was. The Raven had flapped its wings and jumped to gain enough height and suddenly enough that it was able to bite onto the General. He used his full effort to open up its jaws. He was now standing inside of its mouth. His laser blaster fell to the ground nearby.

  “Arthur!” Drake yelled.

  He grabbed his laser blaster and turned to run to the Raven, but Steve stopped him.

  “Don’t, Drake! If you get its attention, then all three of us will die!”

  “But-” Drake had to think about whether it was worth the risk.

  “Drake,” Arthur shouted from afar, over the patter of rain, thunder, and sound of Mayhems running toward them. “Forget about me.”

  When Arthur had received the news that the soldiers had started to die, he’d felt guilty that it was because he had been cautious about not losing horses and supplies that people were being lost. He’d always felt he was useless, especially recently, against Mayhems, but he’d continued his work because he was the best chance Rencia and humanity had. But now, he saw that he could be useful in a fight against Mayhems for once and he found that he was no longer necessary; he found people he knew could do better than him, and he needed to protect them.

  Arthur saw Commander Rein in the distance, flying toward them at top speed. He wouldn’t be able to make it in time to help him. Arthur’s old joints and muscles were barely able to counter the pressure from the Raven’s jaw.

  “Rein… will take you two… to safety with the rest.” He shouted with gritted teeth.

  Drake ran toward the Raven with the blaster.

  “Heck, no!”

  Dang, it! This kid’s not leaving me with much of a choice.

  Drake would put himself in danger as soon as he’d reach within the attacking range of the Raven. If Arthur was killed soon, he’d be forced to run away with no reason to be there. Drake was essentially forcing Arthur to get eaten as soon as possible.

  Arthur grunted. “You know, Drake… it was fun training with you… I always thought that when I’d die, I’d die with regrets on the battlefield or buried in paperwork. Regret that I hadn’t accomplished enough in my life… But when I see someone like you, in the new generation, eager to fight our enemies, and Steve, who’s determined to help humanity at any cost or effort, it leaves me satisfied with how I’m leaving things. I’d been watching you two since that first Smummr. I think you two are the future of Rencia, the hope of humanity.”

  “Shut up!”

  Drake shot at the Raven. The shot missed. He was too far away, in addition to his bad aim and the rain blocking his view. He was exhausted but kept running toward the Raven. Arthur fell to his knees. The Raven turned its head up, hoping its food would fall down its throat with the help of gravity.

  “Training you made me satisfied with my achievements… Urk! I can now die on the battlefield… with pride, without regrets, and for humanity. In return, for my sake, go to the SORS, find out whatever caused this Apocalypse, and keep fighting for humanity—for each and every citizen of Rencia!”

  Drake was very close now. “Wait!”

  Arthur closed his eyes and let his tired limbs give way. He fell down the Raven’s throat. Its mouth snapped shut.

  “NO!!!” Drake shouted.

  He emptied the rounds in his blaster, shooting aimlessly at the Raven. His hands were shaking heavily and his eyes were blurred with a mixture of rainwater and tears. The Raven took some damage and noticed Drake. He dropped his weapon.

  “Why…? Every time, you…”

  The Raven turned to look at an appetizing Drake. It croaked and bent down to eat him.

  “That wasn’t enough for you, huh? My mother wasn’t enough. Arthur wasn’t enough. All of those other people you ate to get this big weren’t enough… You still want more…”

  At that point in time, Drake’s mind couldn’t take the grief and it snapped.

  His grief turned to mindless rage.

  He screamed at the top of his lungs and ran toward the Raven. At its feet, he punched it, scratched it, bit it, and used his arms to try to break its legs in vain. Any amount of damage he could do to it was worth it.

  Mayhems had completely surrounded the Raven by now. There was no way for Drake to escape now, but he didn’t care. He just wanted as much revenge as he could repay with. Killing the monster—if it could be considered one, since there were few that were as evil as this to Drake—seemed impossible to him, and no other choices came to his mind.

  Suddenly, at that precise moment, lightning struck at that location. And, choosing the tallest object there, it struck the Raven, along with Drake, who was holding on to it. Within a split second, Drake was shocked with high-voltage electricity, and, without understanding what had happened, collapsed onto the ground, unconscious…