Chapter 10

  (Revised Edition)

  Michael quickly conjured a wall of fire encircling the oncomers. The fire would end up spreading, and Michael hoped that it wouldn’t spread to anyone's house. They needed to come up with an escape plan, and quick.

  Looking to the side of the house that Caleb wasn’t on, Michael saw a menagerie of armed soldiers. All paths of their escape were likely being blocked, which meant that they would need to make an exit.

  “Maya, do you have any plan ready?” Michael asked, concentrating on maintaining the wall of fire that he had just created.

  “Break through the left,” Maya said quickly, “some of them are inside the house, and Caleb is likely going to try and flank around.”

  Michael nodded, but Harmony was the first one to take action. She unsheathed her scythe, currently in sword form, and jumped up onto the roof using her aura.

  Steven soon joined her, utilizing his control over magnetism to pull him up. The both of them moved swiftly over the roof and jumped down on the other side. This left Michael and Maya to fend for themselves.

  “Hope you're ready,” Michael said to Maya before charging towards the left side of the building.

  Before Michael could even make it to the building, hoarfrost started creeping across the lawn. The growth increased rapidly as Michael neared the left side of the house, and before he knew it, a wall of ice formed, blocking the exit.

  That same frost encompassed Michael’s fire wall, and completely extinguished it. Michael tried to reignite the wall, but he found that he couldn’t start it again. Someone’s influence was stopping him from outwardly utilizing his aura.

  “You should have known better than to go against me, Michael,” Caleb walked out from where the flames had been, “you are a promising student, yes, but you have nowhere near enough experience to go against me.”

  Very true. Stories of Caleb told that he had served in the Unity military for nearly twenty years before joining the Eclipse. He was one of the more accomplished among the ranks of the Oathsworn.

  He was one of the first to defect and join the Eclipse. The moment that he had arrived, he had volunteered to set up the Eclipse’s army. Since then he had been serving, training, and fighting for the Eclipse. If Michael were to guess Caleb had close to forty-seven years worth of military experience.

  “I’ve been looking forward to having a rematch,” Michael brandished his weapon, clicking his sword's trigger and engaging the shield.

  Michael used his aura to charge his sword and shield with electricity. The charge wasn’t visible, and Michael could control where it could leap to. A dirty trick that he had learned from dueling classes when someone pulled it on him.

  “Maya, I need you to coordinate with Harmony and your brother,” Michael instructed, “I’ll catch up to you later.”

  Turning, Maya nodded and ran towards the front of the house through the building. Michael didn’t know if he could hold his own against Caleb, even if he used his dirty trick. Unfortunately, fighting against Caleb seemed to be the only option.

  Moving forward, Michael kept his shield out in front of him. Hopefully he didn’t need to fight with Caleb for long. Fighting against Caleb for an extended period of time would likely end in defeat.

  Though Michael didn’t like the thought of it, he needed the others to come and clear out the house, as that seemed like it was his only way to escape. Relying on other people wasn’t Michael’s strong suit, but right now it was the only option for escape.

  Slowly rotating around Caleb, Michael kept his shield up, just in case Caleb decided to attack Michael. A good choice, as Caleb moved forward with his greatsword and struck at Michael.

  The blow was heavy, and it nearly knocked Michael off his feet. Using his previously set up trap, Michael retaliated by sending the electrical charge built in his shield at Caleb.

  With a flash of light, the charge created plasma in the air. As soon as the charge hit Caleb, Michael lost all control over where the charge was going. Hopefully it was coursing through Caleb right into the ground.

  Moving swiftly, Michael moved for the front door, only briefly looking back at Caleb. Though the bewilderment from the static discharge didn’t last long, it gave Michael ample time to scurry into the house and close the sliding glass door behind him.

  The glass door wouldn’t do much, but anything that could slow down his pursuers would be useful. Rushing through the house, Michael started to throw down many different household objects. A notable object were the chairs that lined the front of the island. They would serve as perfect obstacles for people to stumble over.

  Moving through the house, Michael had to dodge other objects that had fallen over. Near the front of the house, Michael encountered the body of a fallen Eclipse soldier. They didn’t appear to be dead, but they were certainly knocked out.

  As a last obstacle, Michael threw the front door closed. At the front, Michael saw the others fighting back against some of the other guards. As a group, they were losing ground. These soldiers had far more experience than they did, and if they were working with Caleb, then they were better than most.

  Michael was just about halfway to the group when the front door of the house flew open. Caleb and his two guards flowed through the door out onto the lawn.

  With Caleb in pursuit, they wouldn’t get very far. Michael had to find some way to preoccupy him, as well as the guards that were with him.

  “It’s hopeless Michael,” Caleb said, “just surrender, and I can still make the situation more comfortable. If not, I’m afraid that you might be sitting in cells for the rest of the war.”

  Rolling the idea through his mind, Michael considered it for a second. If they were to surrender now, they would likely have comfortable accommodations, like what Caleb was saying.

  Then again, they wouldn’t have their freedom. Regardless if they surrendered or not, they would still be held captive. No matter the options, they would not maintain their freedom.

  Michael didn’t like the thought of Harmony being stuck inside a house, and he certainly didn’t like the idea of her being in a cell. He also placed his friends in those scenarios, and none of them seemed favorable.

  “Sorry Caleb, but I don’t think we can accept,” Michael shrugged, clicking the trigger to retract his shield.

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  Michael started to take control of the earth beneath Caleb and his guards. He hated moving the ground, it was stiff and felt like running into a brick wall. However, now was not the time to hesitate.

  “We’re leaving, and I know you will chase us, but this is goodbye,” Michel stalled, finally taking full control of the ground beneath Caleb’s feet.

  Without warning, Michael created a sinkhole that engulfed Caleb and his guards. In a second motion, Michael used the moved earth to close the hole, to prevent anyone from crawling back out.

  This effort left him nearly spent in terms of energy for his aura. Likely he could pull one last move, likely to save his friends from the events that were going down.

  When Michael looked back at the other group, he saw that the soldiers were pinned to the ground, most of them passed out. The few that were still conscious were struggling to get to their feet against an invisible force.

  Harmony stood over them, scythe in hand. Maya and Steven were doing some clean up work and knocking out the rest of the still conscious soldiers.

  From what could be interpreted, Harmony had created a large gravity well and dragged the soldiers to the ground. That would have given Maya and Steven the edge they needed to defeat the rest of the soldiers that they encountered. Well… more like it became completely one sided.

  Michael sheathed his blade in one motion, freeing up both of his arms. Now Michael could move freely, and rejoin his friends.

  “What took you so long?” Maya asked.

  “I had to fully deal with Caleb, and even then I don’t know if he will be stuck for much longer,” Michael responded, “we need to get moving.”

  Michael started running down the street as fast as he could. The others followed closely behind him. Their footfalls were loud, and they were out of breath as they reached the end of the street.

  “Where are we going?” Harmony asked, keeping pace alongside Michael.

  “We are going to the teleport gate,” Michael said, “once there we are going to go anywhere beside the Eclipse.”

  “I already have some places in mind, so let me take care of the destination,” Maya said, coming up from behind the pair.

  They ran for quite some time as their destination was a few miles away. At some point along their run, Harmony had started to use her aura to propel herself forward. Seeing what Harmony was doing, Steven started to follow suit.

  When they got to the teleport gate, the guard was sitting in the station. Michael was thankful for the fact that the guards at the teleport gates were only there to make sure enemies weren’t invading, and not to prevent anyone from leaving.

  Of course, the guards are also there to prevent criminals from using the teleport gates. If they had already been labeled as criminals then leaving was going to be very difficult.

  On top of that, they need to use their ID cards to activate the teleport gate, as that’s what allows the Eclipse to track them. Yet another problem if they were labeled as criminals already.

  Maya was the first to arrive at their destination, with Michael following closely behind. Seemingly they had managed to pass by the guard, as they didn’t give the group a second glance.

  “Maya I hope you have a location in mind,” Michael said, spinning on his heel to face where they had just come from.

  Wordlessly, Maya ran toward the terminal. The terminal stood in the middle of a giant stone platform. Four pillars stood at the corners of this platform.

  This teleport gate was old technology, but it still functioned perfectly fine, which is why it was still there. Hopefully it being so old would also come in handy. The older models of teleport gates weren’t doorways. Instead, they encompassed the travelers inside a dome of energy, then transported them.

  This should theoretically throw Caleb and his squad off from finding them for at least a couple more minutes. That was ample time to scurry off in nearly any area, especially a heavily forested one.

  Punching a variety of characters into the terminal, Maya scrambled to hone in on where they wanted to go. She was working quickly, but not quickly enough.

  From the other end of the street, Michael could see a group of soldiers rushing towards their location. Caleb wasn’t among their rank, but their forces had grown much larger in size. Perhaps the local forces had joined the group.

  “Hurry up Maya, we’re running out of time,” Steven said, starting to get panicked.

  “This thing is being finicky, just bear with me for a moment longer,” Maya kept punching things into the terminal.

  They didn’t have a moment to spare, and those approaching would be on top of them at any moment. Looks like a moment would have to be bought.

  Michael stepped forward. He didn’t have much energy to power his aura, but it should be enough to give them some spare time. At least, that’s what Michael hoped.

  Debating on what he should do, Michael finally settled on making another fire wall. Making one out of earth would require too much energy, and Michael knew that he would likely run out of energy before he fully managed making the wall.

  Exerting his aura, Michael focused on creating the biggest wall of fire that he could. He also made it as hot as possible. They didn’t need to have the wall being put out again.

  In just a few seconds, clamoring could be heard on the other side of the flaming wall. Forces were starting to pile up, and Maya still wasn’t done with the terminal.

  “Hurry up, I’m running out of energy,” Michael warned.

  Michael’s aura was waning. The fire in the wall started to shrink lower and lower, eventually getting low enough to see the faces of those on the other side. Michael tried to give more, but he didn’t have anything left to give.

  “Don’t worry, I have it,” Maya said, finally getting the machine to do what she wanted.

  Right when Michael’s fire wall fell, a dome of light encircled the group. The dome made it difficult to see, and it all but cut off Michael’s influence outside of it. That meant that the wall of fire that he had conjured fell, as he could no longer supply it with power.

  Not that the wall would have lasted much longer. Michael had nearly ran out of energy, so the wall of fire wouldn’t have lasted much longer. At least now they didn’t need it to protect them.

  The dome surrounding them would keep out all those pursuing them, and it would also keep them from getting out. Michael knew this because he remembered reading an article about the testing of these older teleport gates.

  Before they had the light dome they had just used railing. The problem was that people leaned against the railings, and they ended up getting body parts cut off. In worst case scenarios they would end up decapitated.

  Those tests and cases led to the creation of the dome they currently resided in. The dome reduced the amount of cases to roughly zero. Older technology was interesting to learn about. Hearing about the older stuff made the world seem dystopian back then.

  “We made it,” Steven collapsed onto the ground.

  The scenery outside started to fade, but unlike normal, another scene didn’t take over. Instead, a darkness permeated outside the barrier.

  Something was going wrong. This wasn’t normal.

  “Are you sure you typed it in correctly?” Michael asked, sheathing his sword.

  “I’m sure I…”Maya started to say with slurred speech.

  She swayed for a few moments, then staggered. There was a haze to her eyes. Seconds later, she fell to the ground.

  Alarmed, Michael looked back to Steven. Steven was laying on his back, passed out. Looking at his sister, she was sitting on the ground.

  “I feel dizzy,” Harmony said, slumping over

  Michael had a sharp sense of alarm. Strange things were occurring, and Michael had no clue why. As far as he knew this had never happened before.

  Before long, a strange sense of vertigo rushed over him. Michael stumbled around before falling to the ground. Darkness encroached from the edges of his vision.

  The feeling of consciousness started to fade as the darkness neared the center of Michael’s vision. He tried holding on for as long as he could, but it wasn’t long before Michael fell unconscious.