Cael vehemently wacked at this wall, with Vannessa doing the exact same. He could feel his heart growing heavier and heavier upon seeing their attempt doing nothing.
Their full power strikes could do nothing to cave in this wall that felt like a ten-inch-thick wall of tough metal.
No matter how hard they kicked and slammed into it, it just didn’t budge. They didn’t have much time either; with the boarmen behind them angered and alerted, they had less than a second.
“COME BACK HERE!” The nearest boarman roared, throwing out his arm to try and grab Vannessa.
In this moment, though, Cael managed to break straight through the lock holding this double door shut. Vannessa promptly leaped out, just as the boarman’s hands were inches from grabbing her.
Both warriors were sent rolling across the street so fast they couldn’t even make out their surroundings. Upon slowing down, Cael could see the entire area was gloomily dim. Looking up to the sky, he noticed a massive spaceship hovering over them both.
As they slowed to a stop, they could see the truck they were just in lifting off the ground. Seconds later, it was sucked straight into the ship as if it was pulled by a massive vacuum.
Lucky they weren’t still in that thing.
“What is going on?!” Vanessa blurted out, taking a big glance at this sight.
She strugglingly lifted to her feet with her hands still restrained, and looked simultaneously awestruck and frightened by the sight.
“Decades of peace, they said. Peace when this was brewing in silence all along.” Cael replied, also shocked by what was going on.
It just didn’t make sense at all. He could tell there was some tension between Soburg and their sister state, but he just didn’t know it was this bad.
Were the boarmen this evil?
The first battle between species in generations was bound to do something so bad he didn’t even want to imagine it.
His thoughts continued to race, and the intimidating spaceship looming over their heads wasn’t making him any calmer.
“At least we’re closer to the institution.” Cael laughingly said, pointing to the main five towers he could see in the distance.
The two of them trekked across the open fields in between the city and the institution. Several plumes of dark, black smoke of flames could be seen around them.
The once clear sky now had a thin layer of greyness to it, from the collecting smoke and ash. Both of them kept their eyes open for any unexpected individuals in the distance.
As they advanced, they continued to survey the surroundings like hawks, looking for anything suspicious.
After a few minutes of their rapid walking, they arrived at one of this institution’s owned fields. Arriving on this land gave them a greater sense of comfort and relief.
However, Cael couldn’t help but continue to feel on edge because he had no clue where Blaine was. For all they knew, he was up in that spaceship with those boarmen and if so, he only dreaded what was going to happen to him.
Even if the two of them weren’t the greatest of friends, he couldn’t wish such torment and fear on anybody. Who knew what the boarmen were up to with any of the captured up there.
He turned to look at the slowly receding spaceship that occupied a large portion of the sky. It took Vannessa tapping on his shoulder to pull him from his thoughts.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
“Come on. Let’s go. We’re still not safe out in these open fields.” Vannessa stated, practically pulling him along.
They soon traversed the gravel pathways of the institution, until they walked up to the main five towers. Upon reaching this close to these structures, they could already hear chaotic chatter and din from within.
Everybody knew what was happening now.
At the centre of this five-tower centre, almost all the students present at the institution were stood outside.
The two of them slowly joined into the crowd, pleased to see Blaine here stood next to Keagan.
“Oh, you two survived.” Keagan called out, upon noticing them edging toward them.
“Yeah, just barely. Blaine, how did you get here?” Cael asked, now standing next to Keagan in this group.
He had to louden his voice quite significantly to let them hear him through the constant racket of chatter around them.
“I ran. Escaped before any of them could get to me.” Blaine replied, with relief but also pride.
“Students!!” Sir Agramonte called out at the front of them.
After all of these events, it didn’t seem that the cadets were all quietening down.
“Students!” He called out again, this time with a much bolder, louder tone.
“We are aware of your fears and trepidations. However, within the confines of this institute, we affirm to you that you are safe. All of you are capable warriors and fighters, your abilities will allow you to survive.” He claimed, taking a step forward.
“I hoped for you all to see events like these later when you’d be ready, but this is reality. Chance isn’t always on your side, and you can never expect for it to be. This is war, children. You must take it in and adapt.” He ordered, looking at several trembling eyes in the crowd.
Fear exuded from almost every student stood before him, whilst he remained solemn and calm. Cael could see the utter experience that he wielded for situations like these. There wasn’t a hint of fear in his voice or posture.
He didn’t stutter once, and remained as firm as any soldier would aspire to be.
“The Colonial Guard are battling the boarmen in Zarcona, and some of our own soldiers have joined the fight. As for me and some other teachers, we will stay to protect you all.” He announced.
Protect them?
Even if these soldiers far eclipsed their power, so did the boarmen. As much as Cael wanted to remain confident, he saw them first hand. The power that Krag-Bok possessed was out of this world.
There was no way he could’ve beaten him; he was sure that many of these instructors would meet similar fates against a boarman of that calibre.
Silence befell the group, until the chatter broke out again. Everyone surveyed their surroundings, totally frightened of what would happen.
Cael acted in a similar way and felt his mind clouded by the fear he experienced. Death was frightening to him at this time, and not when he had so many things to do. So many people to disprove.
This was the worst time to go out.
Rumble! Rumble!
The noise cut out almost instantly upon feeling this quaking underneath their feet. Cael and Vannessa activated their broken helmets as they did this, with numerous more students around them doing the same thing.
RUMBLE!
FWOOSH!
Looking to the sky, what looked like a fireball was hurtling straight toward the central tower situated behind them.
“AAAAHH!!!”
“WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”
Many of the students screamed at the top of their lungs upon watching this glowing ball of mass approach them.
Cael retreated, along with the other fighters from Carlo City. Standing beside a building that was about to receive such an impact would not be a good idea.
“MOVE BACK STUDENTS! MOVE BACK!!” Sir Agramonte called out at the top of his lungs, only to see the ball of flames a split-second away from impacting the building.
BOOM! KRASH! KRASH!
There was the simultaneous, deafening sound of an explosion in tandem with the crashing of glass. A massive hole was created in the building on one side, with glass and other glowing material flying out its other end.
With one entire floor to the tower destroyed, the floors above it suddenly dropped.
DUM!
The students, terrified, all jumped and jolted back, and the broken tower began to slowly edge forward.
Creak!
The top of this tower slowly but surely bent forward until coming to a stop.
Silence. There was silence once again, and the students froze.
“RETREAT, STUDENTS!” Sir Agramonte ordered, with some taking heed of his advice.
Many flocked back to the wide staircase just behind them, and the tower slowly started to move again. It steadily sped up until it came crashing down toward the select few students that were too frozen to move.
As this happened, the soldiers sped toward the group, grabbing these panicked people and leapt out the way of the descending building before it could hit them.
They moved with immense speed, and still continued to move quickly even as they carried them.
BAM!
The tower crashed right into the ground and several shards of glass went flying out at the group. There was an additional explosion, setting the fallen top half of this building ablaze.
Looking back up to the sky, they could see more and more of these balls of fire descending toward them.
BOOM! BOOM!