Now that he was out of combat, all of his injuries made themselves known with a vengeance, sending sparks of pain throughout his body. Sam rode out the agony, drifting in and out of consciousness as his body rebelled against him. All the while, Hugo Mar hammered on the outside of the ship.
A few minutes later, Sam had mostly recovered from the pain, and he could fully appreciate the power of the strikes being leveled at them. As the rhythmic beat continued without pause, Sam realized that the ship was going to break soon if he did not do something about it. He unstrapped himself, balancing as well as he could on the rocking floor.
“Open the hatch,” he commanded the ship controller.
Beneath him, the metal hatch slid open, revealing skies filled with crackling lightning and dark energy. Flitting in and out of the clouds was Hugo Mar, borne on wings the color of pitch. Balls of power formed in his hands, and streaked off towards the ship every few seconds. Sam started to collect his power, condensing as much of it as he could into his hands. This was not a time for half measures. His hands soon glowed with power, and he expelled it all in the form of a gargantuan spear of light. He felt dizzy as the energy left him, but the effect was worth it. The attack flew like an arrow towards Hugo Mar, and just as he was about to send another attack, it caught him full in the face. The man tumbled backwards into the dark clouds, the attack going off on a wild tangent.
“I will be coming for you and your people!” Hugo Mar shouted as he fell down, just loudly enough for Sam to hear.
Sam ignored the man, instead making his way back to his seat. They were out of danger, for now.
A few hours later, over the Atlantic, the others awoke from their slumber. Lao and Eduardo grimaced as they rose, while Jane shuddered in terror. Her eyes were still closed, and it looked as if she was in the grips of some terrible fear. Sam made his way over to her and laid his hand on her arm softly.
“It’s all right, Jane. You’re safe now. We got you out of the hands of the Legion.”
“Sam? Is that really you?” Jane signed weakly.
“It is. You can open your eyes now,” he replied.
The woman slowly did so, and as soon as he laid eyes on Sam, a tear rolled down her cheek. Sam let her get it out, and stood there, supporting her silently. A few minutes later, she wiped away the tears and looked up.
"The things that they did to me. To create that creature in my image,” she jerkily signed. “It was a nightmare.” The woman shook her head. “It’s over now though. I should not dwell on such dark things.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“As long as you’re all right, this mission was a success. However, we need to watch out. Hugo Mar said that he was going to come after us,” Sam answered.
Upon hearing the name, Jane shuddered violently. Sam winced and withdrew, leaving the woman to recover on her own. She had been severely shaken by whatever she had experienced at the hands of the Legion and he would not be useful to her at the moment. Instead, he made his way over to Eduardo and Lao, who were both gazing off into the distance.
“How are you two feeling?” Sam asked the man.
“To be quite frank, pretty useless,” Eduardo answered. “We barely achieved anything during that mission. You carried us for most of the time. Are we even fit to be your subordinates?”
“Where the hell is this all coming from?” Sam declared passionately. “You two are some of the most useful members of my faction that there are. You are by far the strongest behind me as of this moment.”
“But that is like comparing a pair of chihuahuas to a wolf,” Lao responded. “It isn't exactly that much of a boast. You were pretty far ahead of us during the tournament, but it’s like night at day now. Do you want to know what it felt like standing in front of you when you used that new skill of yours?” Lao said, his voice growing louder. “It was like standing in front of some force of nature! How can two men such as us even compare?”
Sam was stunned at the sudden outburst from the normally taciturn man.
“Where is all this coming from?” Sam asked. “Never mind that. I understand the why. What I want to know is why you didn’t tell me about your feelings?”
“I don’t think you fully understand, Sam. You are one of my closest friends. It is natural for friends to feel jealousy for each other. It was like this in the old world. It’s just that the scales are far greater now. You are like a demigod, and we your shadows,” Eduardo said.
“Well, what exactly am I supposed to do about that?” Sam responded, a little bit perturbed. “I cannot just reduce my strength. I have an entire faction to look after.”
“We understand that, obviously. We just needed to let out a bit of our angst,” Lao responded. “It’s better this than us bottling it up and then releasing it at an inopportune time. We may be like gods now, but we are still utterly human, whether with our mortality, our foibles or even our emotions. If we are to not succumb to our own egos, we need each other.”
Sam did not reply for some time, mulling over the words. He realized that he had been suppressing his emotions somewhat over the last few weeks, trying to take on the mantle of the implacable faction leader everyone thought him to be. Perhaps he needed to relax a little bit.
“That’s…. Definitely eye opening for me. I am glad that you all decided to talk to me. Thank you for that.”
Sam walked away to his seat and collapsed into it, the fatigue of the past few hours catching up to him. Instead of succumbing to sleep, he instead went deep into his core, peering at his Dao. As the ship flew over the ocean, Sam made as much of the time as he could, conscious of the looming threat of the Legion. Previously, Sam had been unaware of the sheer size of the Legion, but now that he knew of its true power, he was starting to doubt his faction’s strength in the face of its might. Hugo Mar alone was probably enough to wipe out the faction by himself, let alone the millions of soldiers that would be accompanying him. In addition, Sam was the only one in his faction who could reliably deal with the Swords, and there were dozens of those. Sam gritted his teeth as his control over his Dao cultivation began to wane, and he snapped back to reality. His lip was bleeding from where he had unconsciously bitten it.