The truth was that I didn’t have any real combat experience. I had gotten by with my cockiness and a bit of luck in my last few fights. I should have realized that fighting against beasts and animals is different than fighting against humans. I was just too naïve to understand.

How could I? I’m only 15. I have no real-world experience, especially in fighting or military tactics.

Back in Riyadh, when I fought in the park, I only won because I caught an unprepared and overconfident Kamil by surprise. He had the upper hand for a little bit. Damian’s distraction bought me enough time to prepare a counter, but if it hadn’t been for that, who knows what would have been the outcome.

I should be learning all this in school, but for some reason, here I am, in the middle of a death match, probably about to die. Paying for my insolence and stupidity with my life, as I thought earlier, I had gotten too big for my own good.

Seeing Renault approaching was the last thing I needed at the moment. I was trying to heal from the combined attacks of Alexie, Finn, and Kona.

“Shit, what do I do now,” I kept thinking.

“Prime, we are going to have so much fun,” Renault kept saying wickedly as he strutted slowly towards me.

I got back on one knee as I eyed my surroundings to see if I could shelter behind something or at least move enough to get some distance between me and the Night Slayers.

Alexei quickly realized what I was trying to do.

“Finn, quickly aim for his other leg,” he said into the comm.

“He is trying to retreat, we can let him, or it's going to turn into a shit show later,” he said coldly over the comm.

Finn quickly aimed from the top of the old building.

“Got it, Boss, one leg crippling shot coming up,” he said in a haughty voice.

“Kona, go check on Oksana to see if she is still alive; I’ll check on Theo,” said Alexei.

“We already spent too much time here; the rest of the security forces will arrive in no time,” he quickly said, alerting the rest of the team.

“We have to move,” he hollered to his team.

BAM!

There was another shot from Finn’s elemental rifle; the plasma projectile traveled quickly, its procession tight, with minimal nutation visible. It had traveled most of the distance in seconds and was only a few feet from my left leg.

Mere inches from my leg, it exploded, BOOM!

"Shit," I said, surprised by the explosion. I thought I was going to lose my left leg, too, completely immobilizing me and pretty much calling it quits on my short and pointless life.

But to my surprise, I didn’t fall. I didn’t even feel pain.

Looking down, I could see an air shield covering my lower half.

“What the hell?” I thought as I looked at this air shield. I didn’t remember deploying one just now. Could I be doing it subconsciously?

“What?” exclaimed Finn as he watched his shot explode mere inches from me.

By then, Renault was already on me as I finally made it back on my own two feet.

“Where do you think you’re going,” he said as he reached out to grab me before I could pull back.

A large metal hand grasped me by the shoulder, picking me up like a cardboard cutout. The hand flicked me across the street, crashing through the front of one of the old buildings lining the street.

“Fuck, I can't catch a fucking break!!!!” I screamed inside my head as I saw myself flying across the street.

“Finn put a high-yield thermite round in that building ASAP. Don’t let him recover,” commanded Alexei before he finished saying, “Make sure you don’t miss like last time.”

Finn felt embarrassed after hearing Alexei call him out, but he quickly recovered and got back on task.

“Yes, sir, bunker buster coming up,” said Finn, gripping his rifle so tightly that his knuckles began to turn white.

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“You’re not getting away from me again,” he mumbled as he stared viciously at the building Prime had just been thrown into.

Suddenly, two conical-like vortices of air appeared over Finn. They were about 3 feet long and about a foot at their thickest part. These cone-like vortices were spinning so fast they looked like miniature tornados.

Finn was lying flat on his belly, aiming at the building I was in, so he hadn’t noticed the spinning vortices on top of him, but that wasn’t the case for Alexei.

His gut feeling told him something was off, so he turned around and looked at where Kona was. She was kneeling beside Oksana, but nothing looked out of the norm.

Next, he looked at Renault, who was walking towards the old building Prime was in, and again, everything seemed normal.

As he turned to look at Finn, everything looked okay at first. He couldn’t see his whole body as he lay down, but he saw him aiming toward the old building, and up to here, everything was normal. For some reason, he drifted his gaze up to the sky, only to have his eyes grow wide in surprise.

“What are those?” he asked, looking at the vortices.

“Do you think Prime is alone in this fight!” came a calm and collected voice.

Alexei quickly turned around to see where this voice was coming from, only to spot Damian walking in from up the street side where the first transport vehicle was.

He had his right hand raised in the air, but at that second, he dropped it, and the two spinning vortices moved so quickly that Alexei couldn’t even get a word out to Finn before a loud explosion was heard from the roof of the building.

BOOM!!!

The whole building shook, and chunks of rocks and debris flew everywhere from the explosion.

Alexei’s mouth just dropped as he saw this. The building roof collapsed inward unto itself from the blast, bringing down the walls with it, completely burying anyone in or on top of the building.

“NOOOO,” screamed Kona as she saw the blast from where she was kneeling. She knew that Finn was atop the now collapsed building.

“Agghh!” screamed Renault as he stopped moving towards prime and stared at the demolished building with viciousness in his eyes.

I hadn’t realized what had happened outside as I was still trying to get to my feet inside the building. As I got up and tried to walk, I realized I was more injured than previously thought.

“You’re Damian, Prime’s partner?” asked Alexei in a creepy voice and bloodshot eyes.

“That would be correct,” said Damian, surveying the area while trying to formulate a plan of attack.

“You’re a dead man,” screamed Renault as he rushed towards Damian. Anger and hatred visible on his face.

He quickly punched out with his right hand from about a meter away. The punch carried so much force that the air rippled around his fist as it cut through the air. It was headed straight for Damians' head.

At the same time, Kona had also recovered from her shock, and she quickly dashed out to attack Damian from his blind side. She had a pair of six-inch curved daggers with a dragon's head adorning the hilt on each hand. They were completely black, and only the dragon's head was gold with red ruby eyes.

“Die!” she screamed just as she approached Damian from his blind side.

In an instant, Damian was attacked from in front by Renault and the back by Kona.

Alexei watched from afar, and an evil grin blossomed on his face as he started to analyze the situation.

He quickly picked up his right hand, which emanated a red glow.

“Let's see how well you can handle my ionized plasma beam,” said Alexei as he aimed towards Damian. He was very confident as he had great success against prime with it.

He had Damian squared in his sight as he fired his ion beam; in an instant, the beam traversed the dozens of meters between them, and just as it was about to hit Damian square in the head, a body appeared in front of it.

BOOM! The sounds of another explosion.

Prime appeared at the right moment and the right place, taking the shot straight on.

As I walked out of the old building, I spotted Damian battling it with Renault and Kona. As I looked back toward the middle transport, I spotted Alexei aiming his plasma beam at him. I knew I had to act at that moment.

I quickly used air walk and moved in front of Damian in that split second, taking the plasma shot in the chest.

“Fuck, that hurt so much,” I screamed in my head as the beam hit me on the right side of my chest, close to my shoulder knocking me back on my ass.

“Son of a Bitch, how can you still stand up,” said Alexei in surprise as he watched me block the shot.

“Hahaha..” I laughed as I stood back up.

“That beam packs quite the punch, but you still need a lot more than that to kill me,” I said coldly as I stared at Alexei.

“Don’t worry, Prime. I have something here that can take care of you once and for all,” said Alexei as he prepared for his next attack.

He started condensing the plasma energy in his hand. After a brief moment, a small sphere about 6 to 8 inches in diameter appeared. It was bright red and cracked like it was made of electricity. Inside the sphere, flames and plasma flares engulfed each other, creating a miniature sun that looked highly menacing.

“Ha, you see, prime, you’re the first person to make me use this ultimate skill, my Red Dwarf,” said Alexie as he chucked senselessly to himself.

By looking at it, I knew that the sphere was trouble. It seemed both powerful and destructive.

“What are you planning to do with that,” I said questioningly.

I hadn’t regained 50 percent of my power yet, but I knew I had to act.

I quickly condensed an air blade in my hand and then another and another. By the time I was done, I had 5 percent blades in my hand.

“You ask what I’m going to do with this,” said Alexei as he looked at the Red Dwarf.

“Easy, I’m going to kill you with it,” he said, smirking as he shot the sphere my way with his hand.

It wasn’t traveling very fast, but its destructive power warped the atmosphere around it as it moved through the air.

I quickly reacted by releasing all five crescent blades towards the Red Dwarf. Blade Storm, I thought, and the five crescent blades encircled the sphere, forming a spherical enclosure around the sphere.

Alexei’s eyes grew wide in surprise for a minute before he settled back down.

“Do you think a small skill like air blades can stop my Red Dwarf,” said Alexei condescendingly.

“I’m confident, so let's see,” I said as I closed my hand into a fist, and the five blades began spinning faster and faster around the sphere until they collapsed into the middle, clashing with the Red Dwarf.

A flash of bright light appeared before a space fissure opened up and swallowed the Red Dwarf and the Blade Storm.