Running as fast as his legs would carry him while his suit of silver armor and sword weighed him down, the golden-haired teenager was making his way through the sewers away from the Colosseum. His red eyes were darting in all directions as he desperately tried to ensure he wouldn't be taken off guard.

  Soon enough, though, the young man remembered that he wasn’t trying to escape alone and slowed his pace enough to let his compatriots catch up with him.

  As the fastest one of his group by far, this young man had a tendency to leave others in his dust, even his friends and allies. But he just couldn’t help it. He was simply born to move as swift as the wind.

  The first to catch up with him was Roach, a black-haired woman with yellow eyes who was about the same height and age as him. She wore armor similar to his, except her’s was ash-gray, and instead of a longsword, she had a pair of hand axes. Overall, her appearance was rather unremarkable, aside from her unusually healthy skin. The reason for her lack of blemishes despite her life as a gladiator was due to the same factor that earned her the name Roach in the first place. Simply put, Roach was almost supernaturally durable.

  Next to reach Gold Hair was Skull, a tall and burly man who was a year older than his other Human companions. Skull’s hair was ghostly white, while his irises were deep purple, almost black. He was significantly larger than either of his friends, had slightly less bulky armor, and carried a warhammer on his back. Although, his most noteworthy characteristic was the scars on his face that he’d recently obtained from his fight with a Roguar. With where they were positioned around his cheeks and eyes, the scars’ aesthetic only added more credence to the name Skull.

  The final two to catch up were Lek and Nel, a pair of Kryk siblings.

  Kryks are a bipedal reptilian race that stands anywhere from four and a half to five and a half feet tall. Their males have black scales while the females have dark purple. This serves as the only real way to tell the two sexes apart in the eyes of a Human, as none of their other traits are exclusive to one gender. The members of this species all have pure yellow eyes, small but sharp teeth and claws, and crystalline spikes growing out of their backs and necks that could be any color. However, the amount and arrangement of these spikes are completely random, changing between individuals. This detail helps Humans to differentiate the members of this race just a bit further. Additionally, Kryks lacked conventional mouths, instead having vents on their necks that blow out air. The Kryks could then manipulate the air coming from their vents to perfectly imitate speech.

  Only slightly above Humans, the Kryks species is the sentient race of the second lowest social status on the planet of Oblivion. Part of the reason for their position was that, despite their size, Kryks were still physiologically superior to Humans.

  Lek was on the larger end of his race’s height, while his sister, Nel, was more around the average. Additionally, while his sister had a pair of silver spikes growing out of either side of her neck, his body was completely bare of any of the crystal protrusions, a rarity for his race.

  “Sorry about that, guys. I wasn’t trying to ditch you, promise,” Gold Hair said with a clearly desperate tone begging for forgiveness.

  Catching her breath, Roach exclaimed, “Bwa! How do you keep forgetting how fast you are?! Your name’s Swiftfoot, for Roak’s sake!”

  Folding his arms, Swiftfoot resorted to hostility as he averted his crimson eyes and groaned, “I said sorry, blockhead.”

  As his lungs captured the putrid air of the sewers, Skull coughed out, “Gah-augh! Sorry won’t cut it if we lose track of you. What’d you do if you ran into a Letkorn? Your sword’s not gonna help much with a mud monster.”

  Raising his arms in exasperation, Swiftfoot exclaimed, “Well, I’d just run away from the thing!”

  However, the arguing was abruptly ended when Lek interjected, “Humans! There’s no time to chat! Or did you forget that we already lost half your group to the chasing Sentinels?!”

  “Yeah… But that was part of the plan to escape. They knew what’d happen to them,” Roach argued somewhat callously.

  Scratching her scalp, Nel cut in, “Whatever, we shouldn’t be yelling at each other. We all need to focus on escaping. Lek, are we far enough away yet to use the bomb?”

  Pulling out a chip-sized metal disk from a pouch in his pants, Lek produced a holographic projection of the sewer system and explained, “Let’s see… It looks like we… Actually, we ran past our targeted spot a bit ago when we were trying to catch up with this gold-headed fool.”

  Gnashing his teeth, Swiftfoot snapped, “Who’re you calling a fool?!”

  Bluntly yet playfully, Skull stated, “He’s talking about you, my dumb little bro. You lost your hearing or something?”

  “See how dumb you look when you run ahead without thinking?!” Roach added with a smirk.

  His frustration simmering down somewhat, Swiftfoot said, “Fine, I get it. Let’s just double back, then. We can still do that, right?”

  “If we hurry, yes,” Nel answered patiently.

  Putting his meaty mitt on Swiftfoot’s shoulder, Skull told him, “Remember. Hurrying for us is a jog for you. Take it slow.”

  “Grr… Right, right. I won’t go off on my own again.”

  Putting his map chip back in his pocket, Lek instructed, “Okay, Humans. Let’s turn around and get going before the Sentinels catch up with us.”

  Following Lek’s directions, Swiftfoot and the others turned around and headed back the way they came. And although he found it agonizing, Swiftfoot listened to Skull and made sure not to leave the group behind.

  The group then retraced their steps about a hundred feet, with Nel knocking her hand against the yellow-stained metal walls as she walked.

  When the echoing from Nel’s knocking became deeper and rang out longer, she asked, “Is this the right spot, Lek?”

  Shaking his head, Lek explained, “We’re close but not yet. The echo-scanner showed the hollow spot is a few dozen feet past this point. At that corner ahead of us. The one we rushed by while chasing Swiftfoot.”

  Since the group’s pace was nothing to him, Swiftfoot asked without any shortage of breath, “And you guys have no idea what’s actually gonna be there when you blow the wall down?”

  While his sister kept knocking on the walls, Lek hissed, “It’s not my fault that that information isn’t available to the waste system management. We at least know that there is an opening behind that wall that could lead us out of here. Just be grateful we have any hope of getting you Humans to freedom whatsoever.”

  “Oh yeah… So grateful. It only took three of my friends to get past the Sentinels,” Swiftfoot grumbled under his breath.

  “Come on, Lek. We’re supposed to be doing this to help the Humans. You don’t have to be so impatient with them,” Nel told her brother.

  With a brief growl, Lek retorted, “I’m only helping because you were so insistent on joining the Transport. I would’ve rather just kept my job with the waste systems.”

  Huh… I know he’s Nel’s brother, but can we trust this guy? Swiftfoot pondered as he listened to Lek’s opinions.

  The sword-wielding gladiator would have actually voiced this concern to Skull if it weren’t for the Kryks’ advanced hearing, rendering whispering meaningless around them.

  Before the sibling’s debate could escalate or the group could run any farther, they heard a cavalcade of footsteps coming from around the corner. As tension filled the air and the Humans felt their hearts about to leap from their chests, a squad of five Roguar Sentinels strutted out from behind the turn in the sewer path.

  The Roguars are a race of sentient bipedal canid mamalians. They stand half a foot taller than Humans on average and are significantly stronger and faster. The only universal trait of their race is that all of their faces have muzzles. Aside from their muzzles, the physical aspects of Roguars range far and wide with any characteristics that could be recognized as canid in form. The fur that Roguars have can vary between any known colors, and like the Kryks, part of the Roguars’ physiology is made from a chromatic crystalline substance. Unlike the Kryks, it is the Roguars’ claws and teeth that are made from this gem-like material.

  This canine race is second in Oblivion's social standing only to the Saytalz, owing largely to their superior physiologies and sharper minds. Thanks to these traits, the Roguars are allowed to hold the majority of law-enforcement positions. In fact, some of the highest-ranking members of their race are even on par with the Saytalz themselves, the dominant race of Oblivion.

  The Sentinels were outfitted in white Duro-Plas armor and carried stun-sticks and bone-burners for weapons. The lead Sentinel’s suit was also decorated with a sizeable ruby badge on its chest.

  Stun-Sticks were simple weapons, metal staves with electrified heads designed to paralyze and incapacitate targets with only a low risk of killing them.

  The bone-burners were projectile blasters with several intensity levels that could be manually adjusted based on the level of force needed. On its lowest setting, a bone-burner hurt about as much as a swift punch to the face while leaving behind a faint scorch mark. But the weapon’s higher setting was where it got its name from, as a single shot could reduce most living creatures to a chard skeleton.

  As for the Duro-Plas armor, it was specially designed armor reserved for those in the Sentinels and the Gem Guard military. The armor was strong enough to withstand at least one full-power shot from a bone-burner, perhaps two if the target got lucky, but would likely still leave them unconscious.

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  When the lead Roguar pointed his bone-burner at Swiftfoot and his friends, he exclaimed, “Set to intensity five. Let’s see if we can bring a couple back alive for the arena artisan.”

  As the Sentinels lined up their shots, Swiftfoot began trying to think up a solution to this problem. Fortunately for him, it wasn’t just his feet that were fast, but his thoughts as well.

  Okay, okay, what do we do? I could probably rush over there before they can hit anyone. But unless I manage to slip between their plates, my sword won’t do anything against Duro-Plas armor… No, even if I can’t kill them, I can distract them long enough for the others to set the bomb off and make a run for it if they hurry too.

  As he reached to draw his sword and was about to take a step, Swiftfoot realized his last-second planning must have slowed him down more than he’d expected.

  Rushing past Lek while snatching the bomb from his hand, Roach exclaimed, “Everybody, get ready to run!” Simultaneously, as Roach dashed ahead, she began frantically pressing buttons on the bomb in an attempt to activate it.

  Although Roach’s mad-dash initially took the Sentinels off-guard, they all recomposed themselves just as fast, followed their leader’s orders, and opened fire.

  The first couple blasts were poorly aimed and whizzed past Roach and the others, hitting the sewer ceiling hard enough to make five-foot-deep holes. The third shot fired was more on target, with Roach just reacting quick enough to avoid the blast as it brushed her cheek and took half the head off of Skull’s warhammer.

  Before the fourth shot could be fired, Swiftfoot had picked up and chucked a rock that fell from the ceiling at the fourth Sentinel’s head. The Sentinel’s Duro-Plas armor was more than capable of protecting him from being injured. However, the shock and disorientation was still enough to safely redirect his shot into the filthy water. Unfortunately, this also resulted in raw sewage raining onto everyone in the hall.

  Finally, the lead Sentinel pointed his bone burner at Roach’s face. At the last instant, though, his aim shifted ever so slightly left, and his shot only partially hit her.

  It turned out that the bile that exploded from the sewer had caked his visor and dampened the lead Sentinel’s accuracy.

  Regardless, the head Sentinel was confident that even a glancing hit from half power bone-burner would be enough to drop anything short of a Bramos or Saytalz. As such, it was understandable why he doubted his vision again when he saw Roach still rushing forward with a large burn on her face.

  Once Roach reached the corner that the Sentinels were standing around, her random, desperate button pressing resulted in rapid beeping emanating from the bomb.

  Recognizing what Roach was holding, two of the Sentinels swung at her with their stun-sticks.

  Roach attempted to use her axes to block the attacks but could not counter the Roguars’ faster movements. She was then forced to endure the combined pain of being struck with metal staves as electricity coursed through her body. While her armor helped to lessen the initial pain from the blows, it only worsened the severity of the electrical currents.

  Once more, the Sentinels had expected this Human woman to drop, but Roach still refused to fall. Instead, she shoulder-checked the Roguars that had hit her, the added weight of her armor making her heavy enough to push him into the sewer slime.

  As the bomb was seconds from detonating, the lead Sentinel lunged forward and started grappling with Roach to take the bomb away. And with his superior strength, the Roguar would have eventually been able to pry it from Roach, that is, if he’d had a few more seconds to work with.

  Unfortunately for the Sentinels, Roach’s frantic button pressing resulted in only a five-second countdown.

  Just as the lead Sentinel got the bomb into his paws, the last beep sounded as the explosion went off.

  For Swiftfoot and the others standing a fair distance away, the explosion deafened and knocked them off their feet. Even just the kinetic waves were enough to make them all feel as if they’d been brutally thrashed all over.

  Regarding those unfortunate enough to stand right in the blast zone, to say they weren’t doing as well would be an understatement. Although the Sentinels’ armor protected them from the heat, the force of the blast was as great as the max power from a bone-burner and left them all unconscious or dying.

  As for Roach, while her armor was suitable for deflecting weapons in the arena, it was nothing compared to Duro-Plas. She was covered from head to toe in burns and gashes as her armor had been mostly blown off, only leaving scraps of underclothing. In fact, if it hadn’t been for her body’s unnatural durability, she’d likely be just bones.

  At the same time, the bomb did the job that Lek said it would and had blown a sizeable hole in the sewer wall, revealing a secret path that the Kryks and Humans could flee down. The only remaining obstacle in sight was that there must have been some power lines running through that wall. This caused a barrier of red lightning that flickered on and off to act as a sort of gate to the path.

  Skull was the first to get back to his feet, his bulk giving him the second-best pain tolerance in the party.

  The moment he saw Roach laying dead on the sewer floor, his purple eyes dilated as he shouted, “No!”

  Skull then ran as fast as he could to reach his friend’s side, leaving the remains of his hammer behind. At the same time, though, he failed to notice the Sentinel which Roach had pushed into the water, slowly climbing back out.

  Although the water had protected the Sentinel from the majority of the blast, he was still shaken enough that he was noticeably slow on the draw for his bone-burner. The excess of sewer filth over his cracked visor also wasn’t doing his aim any favors.

  But just as the Sentinel was getting close to lining up his shot, Skull felt a familiar breeze whoosh past him.  

  Swiftfoot had also managed to stand up and saw the Sentinel aiming for his companion. In response, he briefly dashed along the side of the wall to get around Skull and intercept the shooter.

  If Swiftfoot had been able to use himself as a sacrifice as he’d originally planned, he would have had a decent chance of reaching the Sentinels before any of them could get a shot off. Now, with the only remaining Sentinel half-blinded and his head spinning, Swiftfoot had no challenge sprinting the distance between them with seconds to spare.

  Leaping off the wall once he reached where the bomb had torn it open, Swiftfoot pointed his longsword at the Sentinel, aiming for the thin split between his helmet and his kneck.

  Having used this technique countless times in his arena fights, Swiftfoot shot through the air like a ballista bolt as his blade slit through the seam and spilled the Roguar’s white blood.

  Despite this move’s effectiveness as a finishing attack, Swiftfoot had yet to master finding a way to stop himself. He regretted not spending more time practicing that aspect of his technique now as he went crashing into the sewer water alongside the Sentinel’s corpse.

  Once he climbed out of the filth as he attempted to spit his mouth clean, Swiftfoot remarked with a hint of relief, “Puhtew! Gah! That was too close…”

  Swiftfoot found his repose vanish, though, once he cleaned his eyes out. For it was at that moment Swiftfoot saw Skull holding Roach’s body, his ear pressed to her chest as tears started forming in his eyes.

  “Come on, sis. Come on,” Skull pleaded through sobs.

  As the high of the moment wore off, Swiftfoot started to breathe heavily as his lifelong friend’s fate became clear to him.

  Dropping his blade to the remains of the fractured floor, Swiftfoot weakly said, “We never should have tried this. It’s only the two of us now, Skull…”

  Rushing up to the grieving Humans, Nel exclaimed, “Come on! Get up, both of you! I know you’re upset, but we have our way out, and we gotta get going now if we want to use it!”

  Clenching his gauntleted fists, Swiftfoot venomously spat out, “Our sister is dead! Give us a few seconds, damn it!”

  Walking up to the group, Lek coldly stated, “And that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t run off like a moron, so don’t go yelling at my sister, Human.”

  Moving as swiftly as his name would imply, the golden-haired man grabbed his sword from the ground and yelled vehemently, “Say that again! See what happens!”

  As Swiftfoot challenged Lek, the glow of red electricity from the wall accentuated his face and crimson eyes, making it almost look like his eyes were illuminated on their own.

  Before things could escalate further, Skull snapped at Swiftfoot, “Shut up! We’re moving like Lek said.”

  Turning around while pointing his blade at Lek, Swiftfoot shouted, “What?! But he-!”

  “No, seriously, shut up! Roach ain’t dead yet, so don’t go making those kinda calls, kid,” Skull explained sternly.

  “Wha… What?!” Swiftfoot, Lek, and Nel exclaimed in unison.

  Throwing Roach over his shoulders, Skull explained, “She still has a heartbeat. So we’re still gonna get her out of here.”

  As everyone processed what Skul said, Lek was the first to reply, “Are you kidding? In that condition? Even if she is still alive, she won’t be for long. Just leave her behind, or you’ll get killed carrying her like that.”

  “Not happening,” Skull responded instantly.

  Nel was next, stating, “But what if-?”

  “The answer is no. Let’s just move already,” Swiftfoot cut in.

  For a moment, there was serious tension between the Humans and their rescuers.

  Letting out a sigh, Lek, fortunately, relented, “Alright, alright. We’re not stupid enough to start fighting when we all want the same thing. But remember that we’ve already done everything we can for you Humans. If you don’t make it, that’s your own fault.”

  Nodding, Skull turned to the electricity as it sparked off and on, asking, “Good… Now, whatta we do about that?”

  Watching the jolts of electricity, Swiftfoot spoke up and proposed, “If we… If I watch it, I can tell you guys when to go through it. Then I’ll go through last.”

  “Really?! I know you’re fast, Swiftfoot, but this is electricity we’re talking about. You can’t outrun that,” Nel told him.

  Nodding, Swiftfoot replied, “Yeah, I know. But the moments in between the shocks lasts long enough to get through if you move at just the right time.”

  Looking up at him, Lek asked, “Seriously? I don’t see that.”

  Tapping on his face for emphasis, Swiftfoot remarked, “Yeah, well, you don’t have my eyes. I gotta have good reflexes to match my speed, and I say it can work.”

  “Honestly, if Swiftfoot says he can see an opening, I believe him. His reflexes are the only thing that’s kept him alive this far,” Skull said enthusiastically.

  “Well, if you say so. So, who should go first?” Nel asked reluctantly.

  Pointing at his surrogate brother, Swiftfoot stated, “Skull. With Roach on his shoulders, it’ll slow him down, so I wanna get the hard one done first.”

  “Eh, fair enough…,” Lek replied reluctantly, clearly annoyed at already confronting a hurdle by bringing an unmoving body along.

  Positioning himself in front of the hole in the wall as the red electricity illuminated his face, Skull told Swiftfoot, “Alright, bro. Let me know when I’m jumping.”

  Squinting his eyes, Swiftfoot said, “Okay… When I say go, you go right away.”

  “Got it,” Skull answered faithfully.

  Watching the electricity’s patterns with deadly intensity, Swiftfoot exclaimed after five electrical pulses, “Go!”

  Even though the electricity had yet to complete its current arc, Skull listened and jumped at the hole in the wall.

  Believing that Swiftfoot had messed up in his judgment, Nel gasped in horror while Lek hissed with rage and disbelief.

  However, at the moment he would have collided with it, the electricity died down, allowing Skull to pass by unharmed.

  While Skull stood patiently and relived on the other side of the wall of lightning, Swiftfoot looked at the surprised Kryk siblings and asked smugly, “Alright, who’s next?”

  Exchanging surprised glances, Lek and Nel eventually nodded to each other and got into position for Swiftfoot’s guidance.

  After repeating the process he’d gone through with Skull two more times, Swiftfoot was proud to see nearly everyone had made it through the electricity. All that was left was to get himself through.

  Watching the lightning barring the hole, Swiftfoot felt just the slightest twinge of uncertainty. It was easy enough telling others what to do, but now that it was his own life on the line, his stomach dropped.

  Can I really do this…? What am I thinking?! If the others could get through, then I’ll make it no problem!

  As he allowed his confidence to quell his fears, Swiftfoot leaped at the electricity. However, his lapse of faith in himself also resulted in a lapse in his perception.

  Just as Swiftfoot was about to clear the jump, the lightning erupted out and fried his systems.

  In an instant, although Swiftfoot had made it to the other side, he was spasming on the floor, only half-conscious. And as his consciousness began to fully faded, the last thing he heard was Skull shouting his name and begging him to get back up.

  I… I’m trying… My body’s just… tingling… so much. Just… Just give me… a second to… rrrr…

  And just like that, Swiftfoot’s life began flashing before his eyes.