Daniel was in his own world. He couldn’t believe what he had just done. His father, his mother, he could practically see them in front of him. They were disappointed in him. Disappointed at who he had become. Maybe he should have jumped into the fire that day? Maybe he should have joined his parents when he had the chance?
Then a hand was placed on his shoulder. Daniel looked up, thinking he would see his parents. For a second, he thought he saw his father’s face. But the face of his father melted away, turning into the man that Daniel saw the first day he came to Blue Creek.
Christopher was still wearing his dull green beanie. The man had traded in his hoe for a massive saber. The object was a meat cleaver on steroids. And he wore bright yellow robes.
“Get up,” he ordered. “This is no time to sit around.” He looked around, making sure that everyone was safe. Although there were people still running around, most everyone had cleared out, at least of the immediate area.
“Yeah,” Daniel got up. He looked around. He didn’t see any of the people he was looking for. All the Traditionalists or Scarlet Grove members left were all lying on the ground. But the screams in background meant that there was still one person he could get answers from. He walked over to the writhing, screaming form of the Shark Gang member.
The Fifty League Shark gang member’s skin had been burnt away, filled up with salt that bit at his flesh. The pain was agonizing as he howled like a wild animal.
Daniel placed his foot on the man to get him to stop moving.
“What is your name?”
“Ab-ab…”
Daniel turned his foot, making the sand dig deeper into the man’s flesh.
He screamed out in pain again. “Abandon. My name is Abandon.”
“That’s better. Where are the leaders of the Traditionalists and Scarlet Grove Sect?”
“Scarlet Grove?” Christopher was surprised to hear that name.
The Shark was having a hard time speaking. He grunted through his teeth as he tried to fight through the pain. “They- they’re meeting at the river. We wanted them as far away as possible from the tech and weapon cache.”
Daniel looked at the river. With all the buildings being destroyed, he could get a clear sight of it. There weren’t anyone there. He needed to head down stream.
“Please,” the man said. “Kill me.”
Without even hesitating, Daniel held his hand over his head. One blow, right to the throat, it would have ended him.
Before Daniel could bring his hand down, Christopher held it. Daniel turned to look at him, and the older man shook his head. “Killing is easy. This man and his sect need to pay what they did for this town.” He scowled when he turned to face the man. “He will face the Pure Land Sect for his sins.”
From his robs, Christopher brought out ropes. It wasn’t a whole lot, but it was enough to tie up the man. He didn’t resist at all, not when Christopher decided to lay the heavy saber right next to his head. A well placed kick and he wouldn’t be breathing any longer. The older man hoisted Abandon on his shoulders. After taking care of the gang member, he turned his attention back to Daniel. “I’ll be taking the children back to the Pure Land Sect Headquarters. You can join us if you wish.”
Daniel shook his head. “Both sects have been misled in this. I owe it to both of them to stop this madness before both sides wipe each other out.”
“You know both the Traditionalists and Scarlet Grove? At one your age.”
“I have been traveling with my sifu for a long time and have met many sects.” It wasn’t totally untrue. Daniel had met many sects over the years. But none of them compared to either the Traditionalists or Scarlet Grove.
“Tell me, what is your name?”
“Daniel. Daniel Shaw.” It was strange, Daniel hadn’t told his full name to anyone. Saying his family’s name was now strange, almost alien to his tongue.
“Shaw?” Christopher was surprised. “As in the famed Spencer Shaw?”
“He’s my father,” Daniel said. He didn’t think it would hurt to tell this man who he was.
“Daniel, your father was a hero of the realm many ages ago and a friend to the Pure Land Sect. Please, come with me. You can join the sect, just like your father wanted.”
“My father wanted to be part of the Pure Land Sect?”
“Yes, he met with Elder Ketu many years ago. Spencer was never seen again. Many in the Pure Land Sect territory thought he died.”
Elder Ketu. Daniel wanted to remember that name. But he didn’t have time to ask about the man for now. He needed to go. He cupped his hand and bowed towards the man. “Senior, I thank you for your offer. But these two factions, I really do owe them.”
The man took the hand that was holding his saber and placed his clutched hand towards his chest and bowed. “Then may you alleviate the suffering of others.”
Daniel heard this saying a few times. It was what other sects and organizations that were closely associated with the Pure Land Sect said as way to say goodbye. Daniel didn’t feel right saying it, thus he just nodded and head out.
He had his own battle ahead.
All around, the ground was littered with bodies of the dead. Blood and flies mingled together in some unholy dance of the dead. Daniel had seen grave sites. He had seen the skirmish, but this was different. It illicit from inside him a feeling of dread. Only the river, the ever flowing element of life seemed to be untouched by the flood of bodies.
Daniel wanted to hurry, but the feeling of dread made him hesitant to move forward. All this death- it was a war zone. Daniel couldn’t just go running around. Even if there weren’t people, traps could have been laid on the ground, waiting for someone to trip them. If he wasn’t cautious, he might be mistaken for an enemy and killed before he even knew what was going on.
Time passed on and the feeling of dread continued to weigh down on Daniel. It was as though the pressure was pushing him down, threatening to crush him under its immense weight. Daniel clenched his fist as tightly as the knot in his heart. How could anyone do this? All these people had families, friends. Everyone meant something to someone. And in a moment, they were just gone.
Everyone who meant anything to anyone would die. Daniel felt that, in those moments of wandering. He looked at the bodies on the ground. He wondered if he just walked by his uncle and just didn’t know it. Eventually, one day, he would join them as well.
There hadn’t been a living soul as far as Daniel could see. He continued on.
It wasn’t until it was already too late that Daniel found a knife pointed towards his neck.
“What? Did you think you would just walk up to my aunt and kill her?”
“Is that what you think I’d do-” Daniel already knew who he was speaking to. “Jace?”
Jace pushed the knife. It didn’t break skin, but just an ounce more of pressure and he would have been drawing blood. “Don’t forget, I know your kind. You’ll go to any lengths to hurt us.”
“And why would you think I would hurt you?”
“Oh I don’t know, maybe because you’re the enemy. Enemies hurt each other, or are you stupid? You want to hurt me and my family.”
“So then, why did I save your aunt?” Daniel asked.
Tsk. Jace clicked his tongue. “Maybe you are stupid.”
“Or maybe I don’t really want to see the Traditionalists die. Have you even thought about that?”
“No, because that’s stupid. Y-you’re trying to confuse me. Yeah, yeah. That’s it. You just want to get in my head. I know what that’s like, I won’t be fooled again. I won’t let you people hurt my family anymore. I won’t-”
A large ringing sound came from behind. The knife that was held at Daniel’s throat fell to the ground and the hand that held it so tightly faltered.
Daniel turned to find Sarah holding a rather large metal object, the top of which was still ringing after hitting her brother on the head. She flashed a smile at Daniel. “Sorry about my brother. You know how he can be.”
“With the scar to prove it,” Daniel laughed.
Sarah’s face then became serious. “So what does bring you out here? Even the traditionalists won’t allow anyone under the age of fifteen to fight.”
“I was in the next town over-” Danie scrunched his face. He didn’t have time for this. “Look, have you heard anything back from the tech cache or the weapons cache?”
“Why so you could steal stuff, from it?” Jace snorted.
His sister gave him another smack on the head. This time with her hand.
“Ow!” Jace yelled. “What was that for?”
Sarah glared at him for a moment more. She then turned her attention to Daniel. “No, that’s where we’ve been keeping the children.”
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Daniel gulped. “If no one else is there, you need to send someone right away.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Fine, but we need to keep moving.” He motioned for them to follow and they did. He then began to tell them what he happened to overhear in the next town over. The Lone Rider gang and the Fifty League Shark’s plot. He even mentioned what they had tried to do in town.
“Despicable,” Jace said once Daniel was finished. “Enemies like you are all alike.”
Sarah raised her hand this time causing Jace to place his hands on his head. She then shook her head and talked to Daniel. “So then the person leading Scarlet Grove is a fake. How did no one notice?”
“Scarlet Grove has a large territory, spanning half the wastelands. I doubt anyone knows every single general that they have, even their own subordinates.”
“Wait,” Sarah stopped. Her face showed recognition when Daniel mentioned Scarlet Grove. She guessed that she didn’t know who she was fighting until now. But she skipped past that. “Even if what you are saying is true, do you think anyone will believe you? Or even us for that matter?”
“My sifu is a well known person. The very reason they had him stay on was because they believed him to be invaluable for the war. He might listen to me. As for the Traditionalists, won’t they listen to you guys?”
Sarah and Jace exchanged glances. Sarah spoke for them both. “Aunt Diane is high up, but the rest of the Traditionalists treat us as kids. If it was our aunt, she may listen. But I don’t think anyone else will stop on our account.”
Daniel nodded. “I mean the plan hasn’t changed. We just need to get to my uncle and your aunt. If we can get to them and convince them that they are being manipulated, then maybe we can stop any more violence between the two organizations.”
“And what if your uncle doesn’t listen, or our aunt?” Sarah asked.
“We need to hope that they do,” Daniel said.
“No. Remember, this whole thing is about the tech and weapon cache. If worse comes to worse, they take priority. I don’t want to do this, but if this plan doesn’t work, we still need to protect what we’re sworn to guard. If you want to stay, that’s fine. But we have a duty to uphold.”
“You’re right. I’ve seen what the Lone Rider Gang and Fifty League Sharks Gang do. People like that shouldn’t have access to any more resources than they already do.”
Sarah’s eyes flashed as she noticed Daniel clenching his fists. “You mentioned your sifu faced off against the Lone Rider Gang. Did something happen?”
“Yes.” Daniel looked up, diverting his attention from the conversation. The sun was already farther along than he would have liked. “We’re wasting time. If either my sifu or your aunt dies, then there may be no stopping this thing.”
Jace snorted. “How could our aunt die? If anything, I bet your sifu will die before she does.”
Daniel didn’t say anything. He didn’t want either of them to die, not today, not ever.
Sarah noticed Daniel’s discomfort and broke the tension. “He’s right, the longer we wait, the more likely that this conflict won’t resolve unless one of our organizations is annihilated.”
They started moving again.
On the way Jace came up right next to Daniel. “Look, I’ll bet you ten gold that my aunt will live longer than your sifu.”
Daniel kept silent.
“Jace,” Sarah said in a sweet a voice as she could. “I know I don’t tell you this enough: shut up.”
“Hey, you tell me that everyday.”
“I still say it isn’t enough.”
“Meanie,” Jace pouted as they continued on their way.
The three of them kept running until they heard explosions off in the distance. Roaring explosions were heard before they were seen. It seemed that they weren’t using their tanks just yet. That gave Daniel some hope. But that hope began to sink as he saw how many people were on the battlefield. It was just as Daniel had imagined; there were an entire ocean of people. Bodies were being blow apart. Looking for a single person on the battlefield would have been worse than looking for a needle in a haystack.
“Let’s head over there,” Sarah pointed towards a mound off in the distance. It wasn’t a hill, but it had to have been at least thirty feet in the air. A good a vantage point as they could hope for.
They headed towards the mound. At the top, they could see the vast swath of soldiers the two factions brought. Nearly as far as Daniel could see, there were soldier. Looking from right to left, he could see that in terms of numbers, the Traditionalists were outnumbered.
“All our force is facing off against the Scarlet Grove Sect.” Sarah explained. “If this continues-“
“-the Traditionalists will die,” Daniel finished the sentence for her. “All the more reason to find your aunt and my uncle as soon as possible.”
Sarah and her brother both looked off in the distance for their aunt. Daniel looked for white wisps. At a time like this, Daniel didn’t think his uncle would hold back. But with the chaos all around, even finding white wisps was difficult to do.
“I see her,” Jace called out. He pointed his finger off in the distance. Diane was near the rear. Scarlet Grove managed to flank the Traditionalists and were hitting them from both sides. Diane was giving orders while slaughtering her way through the enemy forces. In her hands were a pair of short swords that she used to cut down those that came too close.
Both Sarah and Jace went to move, but Daniel caught them by the wrist before they could take a step. “Wait. We shouldn’t go yet.”
“Why not?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah, isn’t this your grand idea,” Jace made it clear that he really didn’t believe Daniel’s words.
“Just think, if we tell your aunt, what will she do? If she sends forces back, then your people here will die. If she does nothing, then the caches will be emptied. We need to find my sifu first.”’
“So why did we waste time looking for our aunt?” Jace crossed his arms.
“Sorry, I just thought of it,” Daniel apologized.
“Just help him look,” Sarah ordered.
Jace rolled his eyes, but turned to try and find the Western Fiend.
With three of them looking, Daniel hoped that they would have found his uncle faster. But time flowed on. Daniel tried to look, but his eyes were moving so fast that he couldn’t even lock onto a single person’s face. His heart was pounding. He needed to hurry. Every second was another person that died.
“Over there,” Sarah called out. She pointed towards Daniel’s sifu. The two of them followed her finger to a man off in the distance. In between each finger, he carried a dagger. His very hand had become a mace and he crushed the Traditionalists that dared to step towards him.
“Aw,” Jace said as he watched Gram crack open the head of a Traditionalist. “Cruiser always made the best noodle dishes.” They gave Jace a questioning look, but he just shrugged. “And he was a nice person too, I guess.”
Jace then pointed out the biggest problem. “That’s almost the middle of the battlefield, how are we going to get over there?”
Daniel took a step forward. “I’ll do it.”
“And what are you going to do?” Jace asked.
Daniel ignored him. He gathered his qi into his limbs. He felt the energy swelling inside. They wanted to burst out like the combustion of an engine.
“Oh, I see, you want to tell your uncle where our aunt is so they can send your forces to kill her. I’m right, aren’t I? I am. Just say so, so we can get this fight over with.” Jace began to reach for his dagger, but his sister held his arm.
Sarah didn’t say anything because she saw something going on around Daniel. White wisps began to form around him. It was small at first, but then it continued to billow and grow. At first Sarah was concerned, wondering if Daniel had some medical condition or mechanical implants. But the more that came out, she realized that this was something she once heard from her aunt.
Jace noticed it too. In his life, there were three times Jace felt absolutely speechless. This was number four.
Go! Daniel roared inside his mind. He began to sprint into the battlefield. Soldiers from both sides only saw a blur. But after getting over their initial reaction, they attacked Daniel. Both sides went about using their weapons to slash, hack, or bludgeon Daniel to death. But Daniel was ready. He took their attacks in strides as he deflected them, ensuring that he wouldn’t hurt them too bad. Weapons flew from their grips and off in the distance.
One man, a heavily armored member of Scarlet Grove had taken notice of Daniel. He had some kind of dark padding and a helmet similar to Vice. But the helmet this person had on had some kind of bird placed on it. But the armor wasn’t what Daniel was worried about. The man had a war mallet raised, ready to swat at the two factions’ new favorite target. When Daniel was close, the man brought the mallet down.
Daniel stopped just a few inches from where the man’s mallet smashed. With the man’s body arched, Daniel delivered a swift knee to the man’s chest. Saliva flew out of the man’s mouth as he let go his mallet and fell to the ground on his back.
Without another thought of him, Daniel continued on.
After the little incident, the number of people on Scarlet Grove who attacked Daniel began to increase. Someone off in the distance had even given the order to send a small legion after him.
The members who had no legion took the opportunity to pursue after Daniel as well. The number of people that got in Daniel’s way began to increase. He wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to make to his uncle.
Someone with a short sword swung it low, hoping to slash at Daniel’s heel.
Daniel leapt in the air to get away.
It was then that he saw another person had set his short sword to swing high. The blade was at level with Daniel’s eyes. If the sword hit, he would be done for.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Clang.
Daniel landed on the ground. He saw one of the Traditionalists had his own sword parry the blow. And he wasn’t the only one. There were other behind him. Traditionalists that Daniel had recognized. Although they didn’t know his name, they had seen him save their leader.
“Everyone, form into two squads,” Sarah called out. Her voice was so authoritative that the other did as they were told without question. They paired up with whoever was closest. She walked in front of them. On the way, she jabbed her staff into the a wandering Scarlet Grove soldier in the neck before stomping on his chest. “I want a one squads on Daniel at all times. The rest of you, trail behind and make sure we don’t get flanked.”
“Yes, mam.” The voices of the small war band called out.
Fifty or so soldiers. Daniel hoped they would be enough.
“Thank you,” Daniel mouthed.
Sarah nodded. “Now, follow our lead.”
Daniel resumed carving his way through the various forces. The Scarlet Grove Sect must have known something was wrong.
As they got started Daniel was worried about something. “Where’s Jace?”
“We sent him to tell our aunt of the situation. If things don’t go our way in the next few minutes, we’ll need to a call for a retreat. We’ll pick up the kids who were left at the cache and hopefully rebuild after this.”
Daniel nodded. That did seem to be the best course of action. But he still had hope that thigns would turn out for the better for them.
Time passed. More and more soldiers were being ordered to attack their little detail. The small squad who was trailing behind them lost more than half in the first few minutes. Daniel’s eyes trailed back, but Sarah nudged him forward.
“We can’t stop,” she said.
The terrain was unforgiving. It wasn’t just flat ground anymore. Littered bodies had begun to obstruct their movement. They were slowing down, and the detail that Sarah had saved to protect him was already starting to lose its members.
Daniel turned to look. More than half of the Traditionalists who were with them were either engaged against someone else or were dead. They need to hurry.
Boom. The explosion was close by. Bodies were scattered. Daniel now turned to see who it was giving the order. A hundred feet away from him was a man who wore a similar kind of helmet as the mallet man from earlier. He was pointing at Daniel’s squad and barking orders for the soldiers to pursue after them.
A barrage of shells hailed from the sky. These weren’t explosive rounds, but large boulders. They crashed to the ground to devastating effect.
“Can you see how far my sifu is?” Daniel called out.
Another boulder fell from the sky. One of their men leapt backwards, taking a knife to the abdomen from another Traditionalist.
“Just a few more feet.”
“Sifu!” Daniel called out.
There was no response.
“Sifu,” Daniel called out once more.
Again, nothing.
Daniel began to sprint. He shoved his way through the few bodies that got in his way. For the last few feet, no one wanted to mess with the child and just moved out of the way. It might have also because of the boulders that were aimed in his general direction.
The last few people moved out of the way and Daniel could see why his uncle wasn’t speaking.
Gram Rui was kneeling. His face bloody from his various enemies. He was a giant who fell low. A bullet hole was right below his chest. The Western Fiend’s hair, once tied into a knot, was undone. It was now held up by a man wearing a biker helmet. He wore a sleeveless black jacket with a flaming skull. The man’s face had been scarred from years of combat. But Daniel still recognized the man.
“Decadence,” Daniel hissed. The man hadn’t noticed him yet with Daniel being only in his peripheral vision.
The man turned. “You,” he spat.
“You should have stayed dead,” Daniel had seen his uncle stab the man.
Decadence let go of Gram’s hair, letting the Western Fiend’s body fall to the ground. Daniel saw Gram try to speak. But Daniel couldn’t tell what he was saying. And in fact, he didn’t really much care. He remembered the hate his mother had for this man. His father could forgive, but Daniel’s blood was boiling knowing his parents’ murderer was still alive.
Daniel reached for his dagger.
Decadence got into a readying stance.
Both were ready to move.
“Pay your respects to Elder Languor!”