Ari watched as his team mingled at the building’s entrance. Behind the temple was full of Ash and clear of the enthralled. Outside a horde of zombies waited to swarm them. None of them moved or even twitched. They just stood there like statues. Ari felt a tingle from one of his pockets and reflexively reached for the spot.

As soon as his hand touched the object causing the discomfort he realised what he was palming. It was the communication stone. Or should he call it a crystal? It was a smooth stone but inside it now he knew that there was crystal. Or that was what the system told him.

Comm Crystal.

A basic communication device created out of a crystal and then encompassed into stone for added protection. This device when worn uses vibrations to conduct sound to the receiver.

Ari took out the crystal and put it just over his ear. As soon as it stuck, he heard a beeping noise and then a sigh.

“Commander, it took you long enough to answer.” Mbungwa’s voice sounded even more tired than before.

“Mbungwa, I was a little busy. Had a nishachar and a vetaal to deal with, and just when I thought that we had won a horde of zombies came running after them.”

“Well it would have been nice to know that you were still alive commander.”

Ari grimaced. Mbungwa was right. But in the heat of battle, and subsequent trouble in their party caused by Joshi their communication line had broken down. He could do nothing but agree with his ally.

As Ari thought about that, his eyes drifted to Joshi. He was instructing Abesh to use his embers in a different manner. Abesh had a thoughtful depression on his face. Those two were getting closer and he did not know what to do about that just yet.

“I am sorry Mbungwa. I will hand this stone to one of my men to keep an eye on it from now on. To answer your question, yes we are alive and we all are frankly speaking quite well.”

“I see. That’s good. This world does have a way to heal your nagging injuries. If it doesn’t kill you with new ones. Speaking of the dangers, commander, I don’t think you are out of the woods just yet.”

“I can see that. There is another horde just outside these doors. Are they waiting for us?”

“Yes sir, they are. They are being held in check by a group of nishachars and vetaals.”

Ari frowned “How many are they?”

Mbungwa was silent for a moment and then replied “Twenty nishachars, fifty vetaals and over a thousand enthralled.”

Ari gulped and then asked “Are you safely hidden from them Mbugwa?”

Mbungwa laughed “There is no place safe from them, commander. But yes, for the moment I am hidden away. But what is the point?”

Ari could hear a sense of defeat in Mbungwa’s voice. He tried to comfort the man “Mbungwa, you need to stay safe. We will get out of this.”

“No, commander.” Mbungwa chuckled mirthlessly “Before you say anything else let me tell you. I have been here for weeks already and I am out of rations. I just had the last gulp of water I had stored. My squad…”

Mbungwa's breath hitched and Ari could hear the pain in his voice “My squad, they were like my family. I had to put them down with my own hands when they turned into those mindless things. So, when you come out, I am going to give you sniper support with my bow. Hopefully some of you will stay alive to tell my people what happened here and to warn them from sending more people in here.”

Ari stood rooted for second and then sighed “Very well major. Tell me where you are.”

“The building to the left of the temple. I am on the roof behind the… What the… What was that?”

“Mbungwa? Mbungwa!?”

“Commander, I think I saw…”

Thud.

Boom!

A large explosion shook the temple walls and dust from the roof floated down obscuring Ari’s vision. Ari blinked rapidly and cleared his eyes.

Ari touched the stone. It was still stuck near his temple.

“Mbungwa what is happening out there? Are you okay, man?”

“Yes, commander I…”

Mbungwa’s voice got cut off again. Then Ari heard a beep then an unfamiliar female voice came onto the channel.

“You on the comm crystals. This mode of communication is insecure. The enemy has been monitoring your communications and knows exactly where you are. We are blocking this line of communication until our battle is resolved.”

With another beep the line was cut off and Aris stone fell down from his temple. Ari caught it in the air and looked at the door.

Boom!

Another large explosion shook the temple and Ari looked at the door with widening eyes. The enemy knew exactly where Mbungwa was. How could he have been so stupid? No line of communication was completely secure. They should have used keywords and passphrases to discuss their operations.

Ari shook himself. He could chastise himself later. Right now he needed to go and save Mbungwa from the horde.

Boom!

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Another explosion shook them all and before anyone could ask anything Ari used his command voice “Everyone. Take your places. We are going out there to rescue a stranded soldier. Singh, you will be in the front with me. Nameer you will be in support of the artillery. Abesh, Doctor Joshi, we will call out targets to you. When we don’t take out targets of opportunity.”

Ari began marching to the door. He watched as everyone scrambled to take their places. Everyone but Joshi. He just looked around and then casually walked to Abesh and joined him.

Ari frowned and then shook his head. Not now. He will have to do something about that later.

Ari kicked the door open and braced himself for the oncoming rush of the enemy. Instead of the enemy, he saw chaos.

Red beams from all across the city cut through the enthralled in front of Ari’s vision. The enthralled all over the place stumbled and fell to dust like chaff. Then vaulted grenades flew into the horde just outside the temple grounds. With a series of bangs they erupted vaulting the standing enthralled into the air. Just when he thought he had seen it all an artillery shell landed in the distance.

BOOM!

It erupted in fire and carnage that shook Ari’s bones. Out of the fire ran out a group of nishachar and vetaals. Following them were what at first glance looked like robots. As Ari watched, the first one raised its gun and shot a volley into a lagging vetaal’s back.

One of the nishachar stopped and motioned to the robots behind him. The enthralled that were stumbling to their feet turned their head simultaneously and charged at the robot. Another one of the robots, stopped next to the first, raised its large shotgun and with two simultaneous blasts turned the charging enthralled into a mess.

Ari looked back at his people and ordered “Abesh, do your thing. Cut the zombies down.”

Abesh nodded. Raised his arms and pushed them ahead. Embers flew out into the back of the enthralled. Wherever they made contact they erupted into fire.

Joshi snorted “Not like that boy. Like this.”

Joshi raised one of his arms. Embers flew up and when Joshi pushed, the embers flew parallel to the enthralled heads. His embers erupted catching the enthralled heads on fire. Lines of enthralled turned into sand creating more havoc into the enemies line.

The shotgun robot turned to look at them, she paused, and shot two barrel of fiery plasma into the enemy while keeping eye contact with Ari. The first robot who was mowing the enemy down with a continuous stream of fire looked at the shotgun one and then Ari and his people.

It, no she, looked at the shotgun wielder and ordered “Pretty, focus!”

The shotgun wielder jolted “Umm… Yes, general.”

Ari was taken aback by the girlish voice coming out of the robot. He looked at Singh and asked.

“Are those..?”

“Armours.” Singh responded in a wondrous tone.

Nameer stepped closer to Ari “Commander, sir, there is a man waving at us from the building to the left.”

Ari looked at the directions Nameer was pointing and saw a large man waving at them. The man suddenly turned cocked an arrow to his bow and fired at a target Ari couldn’t see.

“Men, with me.” Ari ran out of the temple. His men followed.

In the chaos caused by the sudden attack of the robot people the enemy couldn’t make a concentrated move. That allowed Ari and his men to pick out any enthralled that turned towards them and turn them into sand.

Ari punched out crushing a female enthralled skull and turned. Besides him Singh appeared in a blink of an eye. He shoved his knife into an eye socket of a bewildered looking enthralled man. Abesh behind him shot one ember after another at the enthralled stumbling towards them from the side. Nameer who had been silent up till now also joined in by creating a jet of water that punched through two enthralled at once.

Ari nodded in satisfaction and moved ahead. There were more in between him and the building and he lashed out. Punch, hooks, and jabs. He used them all to break through the enemy. Moving one step after another.

Even as he and his men used their powers there charge came to a halt. There were just too many zombies and then it happened. Their momentum halted. Then he had to take a step back. Then another. And soon even as they fought harder, they were pushed back again. Ari wanted to charge in and unleash his anger but he just couldn’t do that. His men depended on him and there were just too many enemies in front of. He looked for an opening and saw nothing. Annoyed he was about to take a step back when he heard the distinct sound of continuum riffles.

Crack. Crack. Crack, Crack….

A hail of fire of whining red bolts fired from more than twenty automatic rifles dropped the enthralled to ground. Then one of the robot people stopped next to him. He grabbed Ari, lifted him up and began dragging him back.

The man in the armour screamed “What in all the gods name are you people doing?”

Ari screamed back over the thunderous rapport of fire “Going to save one of our people!”

The man in the armour exhaled, shook his head and sighed “That building is being occupied by two nishachars. The night stalkers are trying to break through to him to grab a hostage. But, don’t worry, he has barricaded himself on the roofing and we will get him out soon.”

“Don’t worry? How can I not worry?”

“You need to go back to the temple” The man put Ari down and pointed back the way they had come

Ari shouted at the man “I am not going anywhere.”

“Yes, you are..” A female voice came from an armoured soldier manhandling Singh.

Ari watched Singh punch the armoured figure. His fist met the armoured head with metallic sound and then Singh sucked in a breath with a pained grimace. The armoured woman just looked at him and shook her head.

She pushed Singh back into the arms of Nameer and turned to Ari “Listen, one of you had the right idea. He stayed back. You can’t run into an active combat zone and expect to stay safe. We would have had a clear line of fire if you weren’t blocking our sights. We will rescue your man and bring him to you. You amateurs need to get out of here right now.”

Ari looked from the woman to his men and only then noticed that Joshi was not with them. Ari closed his eyes. Amateurs? Maybe that was the right word to use for this goof up. What was wrong with him? Why had he charged in like this? They had no weapons or armour, and he had lost one of his people.

The armoured woman continued “You should go back and clear out the temple. Create a safe zone for him to recuperate when he is freed.”

Ari looked around and saw tens of armoured figures looking at him and relented “The main complex is free of the enthralled.”

“Then clear out the east wing. That’s where the living area is, right?”

Ari nodded “Okay. But tell me who you people are first.”

The woman nodded “We are the continuum.”

“We continue and persevere.” The rest of the armoured figures chimed in.

His men looked around and then one by one the fight went out of their eyes. Ari knew that they were overmatched and motioned his men to stand down. He began moving back to the temple. After a few steps Singh came running to him and started walking beside him.

Ari kept his voice low “How’s the hand?”

Singh grunted “Broken.”

“That wasn’t very smart Singh.”

“Neither was running through a hail of bullets my friend.”

Ari nodded “I don’t know what came over me.”

Singh nodded “You are on a short fuse ever since we lost our men.”

“Yes, but I should have known better. Dang it, I do know better. I didn’t even realise that we had lost Joshi somewhere.”

“We didn’t. He never stepped out of the gate of the temple.”

Ari clenched his jaw and asked “Cowardice?”

Singh shook his head “No. There was something else. He moved with us and then just stopped. There is something seriously wrong with that man. You need to figure out what.”

Ari sighed “Yes. But there has just been so much happening here and he is a civilian, a political animal with government support and we need to get our men here to be healed. And I just don’t want to…”

“Everyone down!”

A loud voice made Ari and his people turn to look behind him. Ari saw the armoured soldiers running and taking cover behind buildings and walls.

Ari heard thudding footsteps behind and was about to turn when he felt and armoured hand gently rest on his shoulder. He looked at the hand, then at the faceplate and then saw the familiar large barrels of the shotgun from the girl earlier..

“Hey handsome.” The girl said from under the blank faceplate and continued “We should get down.”

Ari felt the girl gently push him lower and did not resist. On his way down he asked “Why are we ducking?”

“General Athena got annoyed and had decided to use E65’s explosives.”

Ari looked at the building Mbungwa was trapped in with concern. The girl followed his look and giggled.

“No, not there. Remember the creeps we chase away earlier. They ran into a large building. The general is going to destroy it.”

Singh who had lowered himself next to Ari looked at the girl “Destroy a building? Through what? A rocket, an artillery shell, or a missile.”

“Nope, a grenade.”

“A grenade?” Abesh asked “That wouldn’t destroy building.”

“E65’s grenades will do that. It would most probably…”

Ari saw a brilliant flash of white light and then he closed his eyes against the glare. It only lasted for two seconds. And. strangely, there was no sound. Ari opened his with a confused look and then it came.

Rrrrrumble.

The sound didn’t come from the explosion. It came from air rushing to the spot where the explosion had taken place.

“What the heck was that?” Nameer asked when the sound died down.

“Oh, damn that E65. He made them more powerful again.” Pretty turned from the sight of the flash to Ari “That grenade, kind of deleted two buildings not just one.”

“Deleted?” Singh asked.

“Yes. Taran E65 is the only one amongst us skilled enough to use antimatter to make compression grenades. They literally delete chunks out of reality.”

“Gods dang. Why would you use something like that?” Abesh muttered.

“We don’t but then they started shooting soul bolts at the General. Those things are vicious. They don’t attack your body. They attack your soul. The bolt went through her visor and nicked her. Thankfully General Athena is class two. But she got really keyed off after she realised that one of those could have hit me, or any one else with her. She is protective like that.”

“So she deleted two buildings?” Ari asked

“Full of the Raks.” The girl nodded.

Ari looked at the armoured girl “The raks?”

“The Rakshasa Empire people. The raks.”

“I see.”

Watched the girl lift herself to her feet/ It was a smooth motion. The armour didn’t hamper her at all. She held out a hand to help him up. Ari took the offered hand and got to his feet.

“I am Pretty by the way.”

Ari smiled “You sure sound pretty.”

Pretty giggled “Okay, handsome. I got to go now. See you around.”

Ari watched Pretty run off around the corner and watched Singh take her place.

“You sure sound pretty?” He asked.

Ari shrugged “It just sort of came out.”

Singh cleared his throat “Commander, I think she was looking for your name.”

“Oh. Hmm…”

Singh sighed “It okay my friend. Abesh will keep a look out for her, won’t you Abesh?”

Abesh looked at Singh and then at the armoured soldiers around them “How am I supposed to do that? They all look the same.”

Singh grinned “Oh you will find a way boy wonder. You will find a way.”