Cael fell silent and still along with his friends as they watched the group of boarmen walk past their alley. None of them were even daring enough to take a breath as they looked on from their concealed spots.
Once all of the boarmen had advanced past the alley’s opening, Cael waited a few more seconds just to make sure they were safe before continuing.
“To be honest, we don’t have much use staying here!” He said, before they all jumped from the sudden explosion near them.
“We can’t fight those boarmen; all of us could barely take down one Gor-fighter! We need to head to the institute; it should be safe there!”
“Fine.” Blaine replied, before lifting.
Just as he lifted, he stumbled into a nearby wall, and Cael darted forward to try and catch him.
“Back up, Cael. I’m fine.” Blaine bluntly stated, shoving him back.
Cael could see the weakness in his legs; he still hadn’t fully recovered from the previous fighting. He respected his wishes but stayed close by his side just in case he’d fall again.
Just as they started to approach the opening to the alley, they could hear approaching footsteps. All of them fell back in reaction.
They stayed close by each other, with Cael standing closest to the entrance.
Even if he felt fear, he knew there’d be no need to fear a fight; they were in a war. If battle was inevitable, he’d give it his all.
“Here! I found some!” A boarman shouted, entering the alley.
The boarman stood at 6’6, which seemed more manageable for the group. After seeing much larger of this species, they weren’t completely terrified. Maybe, in this compact environment, they could take the win.
“Get them, Gor-Zom!” A deep, boarish voice ordered from behind.
Gor-Zom cracked his knuckles, walking forward before entering a more intense run.
Cael wanted to make sure that this fight remained in this alley and fell back upon watching the fighter advance. In this same motion, he empowered Blaine with his mana stream. They’d need all the power they could get to take this beast-like warrior down.
Gor-Zom whipped his hand straight for Cael, putting all of his weight behind it. The attack was sudden and fast, but Cael was able to fall back just fast enough to watch his mammoth hand soar straight past his face.
PEW! PEW!
Blaine followed up with several energy blasts, heating up his energy rifles yet again. However, he seemed to be doing some good work here, as Gor-Zom fell back in annoyance.
Holding up his palm at the hot energy blasts, he grunted and growled under his breath from taking these incessant, forceful impacts.
Cael, while the boarman was occupied with these shots, took the chance to approach it sneakily from the side. Once he was close enough, he pounced and could see that Gor-Zom only acknowledged his presence when he fastened his movements.
It was already too late for Gor-Zom; Cael landed a punch straight to the tall warrior’s jaw, before swiftly following up with a kick aimed at its solar plexus.
The impactful strike launched the boarman across the lateral length of the alley, slamming Gor-Zom into the wall behind.
“DIE!!” Vanessa roared, before advancing and throwing all her strength and weight into a punch aimed at their adversary’s solar plexus as well.
Receiving two straight attacks of this sort, cracks on the wall scurried out from the point of impact.
Gor-Zom didn’t even lift himself off the wall and rubbed his snout whilst snorting in annoyance.
This was their chance!
Before Vanessa or Cael could do a thing, Blaine roared at the top of his lungs and lifted a large plank of wood from the ground.
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Slamming it against the edge of a bin, the flat end of the plank was removed, revealing the sharper and pricklier inner wooden contents.
Blaine then shoved the plank forward and the plank’s end impaled Gor-Zom’s chest. The weight behind the shove managed to pierce his durable boarish skin, pushing through the tough, durable flesh and into the wall behind it.
Roaring in agony, black blood oozed out from the open wound and the boarman flailed around, falling into the opposite alley wall.
The three students backed up, watching Gor-Zom slowly die from the incurred injury. His intense movements became slower and weaker, until he came to an abrupt and complete stop.
“We have to get to the institute.” Cael stated, arriving at the entrance of the alleyway.
“Why don’t we stay here and fight these disgusting boarmen?! We already dropped that guy back there!” Vanessa replied, as she followed along.
“That’s stupid. I know you hate those things but they’re just too strong. We barely managed to get that guy down!” Cael insisted, before signalling for his friends to follow.
Rage could be seen bundling up in her face, but she remained silent. As much as she wanted to destroy those ugly beasts, as much as she wanted to take out her pent-up rage, the gap was too large.
There was no reply from her, but she followed along silently.
Using their mobile projection, he managed to get a direct route toward their institution from where they were.
With the distressing din and ablaze streets, they immediately saw this journey would be quite the struggle. They could already feel the discomforting warmth from the explosions and flames around them.
The blood on the streets near these flames bubbled from being heated so extremely.
Edging forward in these burning streets, all of them were forced to come to a stop upon watching a car door come flying in from an adjacent street into a building to their right. The aflame door crashed straight through a glass pane, reducing it to shattered fragments.
“Krag-Bok, they’re there!” A boarman roared from behind them.
In a split-second, as they turned around, it was too late. Cael could already see the elderly boarman arrive at their side, with a scar down his face.
Krag-Bok initially attacked Blaine, kicking him and launching him tens of metres forward. With each of his arms, he grabbed Vannessa and Cael to throw them to the floor.
Slamming the two fighters into the ground, the force holding them down was too much. Just as they thought they had a chance to escape, it felt like two cars were on their backs.
Vannessa flailed around with much more force and willpower, but it was still inadequate.
“Sedate them! Bring them with us!” The old boarman commanded, with these two fighters still held down.
A younger boarman arrived in front of them, crouching down. Cael and Vannessa had their helmets ready to go and stared them down through their tinted visors.
With a single forceful strike from both fists, their visors were shattered and broken down. As their eyes were open to the elements, they could see flowing white gas in front of them.
Upon his first inhalation, his vision started to blur. Every movement became slowed, as if everything was moving through resin until everything blacked out.
******
Rumble! Rumble!
Cael continued to see black, but could feel the rumbling of tarmac under a vehicle. This vehicle was not one that hovered over the ground, but he could feel that it was moving at very high speeds.
Attempting to talk, he suddenly felt the strong feeling of tape keeping his mouth shut. Throwing open his eyes, he noticed the glaring eyes of a boarman facing him.
Upon locking eyes with them for a few seconds, they leaned forward in their seat, glaring at him more intensely.
To his right, he could see Vannessa with her eyes wide open as well. It seemed like she had been awake for much longer than himself. In this dim area that resembled a boot, he surmised that they were in some form of van.
The ground was of a wooden colour, with the dark green lacquered wooden benches they sat on gleaming.
A few minutes passed, and Cael slowly started to feel himself gaining control of his mind again. He felt a lot sharper, and could see two boarmen across from them, along with no sight of Blaine anywhere.
It was just the four of them in the back of this van, rumbling toward some unknown location. He was not liking the look of this.
What was stopping them from being taken to get butchered? Cael didn’t know how these boarmen conducted themselves with other species, but they were notoriously brutal.
He could tell this was the case from the sheer bloodshed in the city they were just in.
He had to get out of this van as soon as possible. Turning to Vannessa, they locked eyes for some time. After a few seconds, Vannessa nodded to him and he could get the message.
They had to fight back. He could feel his arms were tied back with some form of metal handcuff but he was sat freely on this bench. A split-second after seeing this nod, they both sprung up and pounced.
Vannessa went for the boarman on the right, and Cael did the same. If they could concentrate their powers on a single person, that would be the only chance of getting out of this place.
Vannessa slammed into the boarman with a muffled grunt from her taped mouth, and Cael activated his power surge before charging forward and head-butting the warrior straight in their chest.
His impactful strike did just as he intended. It threw the boarman back and totally took them off guard.
“Hey!” The other boarman shouted, before throwing a punch straight at Cael.
With his power surge and nimbler frame, he managed to throw his torso back so that the fist soared just inches above his nose.
He then whipped a kick to the boarman’s body, with Vannessa doing something similar in quick succession. Their attacks didn’t seem to cause much damage, but threw this fighter back into the wall of this vehicle.
Cael looked around vigilantly, feeling where the van was headed to see, to their left, was the exit.
This was their chance.
BAM! BAM!