Kyle For Hire

Agreeing to the ritual meant they were the villagers' last line of defence. As Krenk prepared everything for the ritual, Brandon couldn't help but ask what the strange symbols meant.

"They are a secret we of Sunhill Village will forever guard from strangers," Krenk replied. "But I guess you deserve thr basic understanding of what I am doing.

"You see, what I am drawing is called a magic circle; it syphons energy from our source and the environmental energy. By combining the two, a mixture of energy is formed. This energy is transferred into whoever is standing in the middle of the circle, creating a portal into the Phoenix World, big enough for one to pass through."

Everyone in the background laughed as Krenk explained the mechanics of the ritual.

Once the magic circle had been completed, everything proceeded as explained. Receiving an incantation in an unrecognizable language, Kyle environment suddenly changed. What once was a room filled with injured patients, turned into an open plane engulfed in flames.

Reflexively, he curl up trying to avoid the flames, but they didn't seem to affect him.

"Alright, time to find a Phoenix that will bind itself to me," Kyle said.

__________

Half the village had been destroyed. Houses reduced to ash. Villagers killed. Rock scorched by the harsh flames of Red Raven. So far, one out the three super powered Red Raven agents had been killed, but it seemed like the remaining two were far stronger than their fallen comrade.

"It seems you two have things under control here," Hilton said as his body disappeared in a bright burst of flames.

With the titans' leader receiving medical attention at the shelter, and the warriors' leader killed, three defenders remained on the battle field once thought of as half the Sunhill Village.

"Garacia, I'm scared!" a man yelled, his grip on his sword loose and his hand shaking.

"Get it together, warrior!" the man named Garacia yelled, punching his comrade. "We will get through this, just have faith in the Great One."

"But what good is our faith if we end up engulfed in flames as our fallen?" the warrior replied.

"Remember our way of life, would you rather die a hero, or live the rest of your life treated as a coward?" Garacia asked.

The warrior's expression changed. Garacia's words seemed to have reawakened his courage as a fighter. Gripping his sword tightly, he got back up to his feet, pointing the blade at a figure floating in the air.

By channeling his fire power into his feet, the Red Raven invader was able to achieve levitation. Hurling attacks at the two warriors, the latter tried their best to dodge the blasts.

"I will defeat you, evil one, and avenge the lives of those you have taken away!" The warrior roared, charging in at the masked man.

"Fool, do you really think I will figure fair?" Moving higher up, the masked man began channeling out more fire, enough to engulf a circular piece of land with a diameter of three meters. The attack had rendered everything within that region ash.

"Fools," the masked man said.

"It seems you've finished up here," a voice said from behind. Turning around, the third Red Raven invader had appeared.

"I already dealt with the last of the pests. The job is done. We should go report back to our leader," he said.

"I agree," the other said.

About to teleport away, a sudden burst of yellow energy appeared in the sky, and a yellow glowing figure blitzed and crashed into the ground, taking one of the two invaders with it.

"What was that?!" the last Red Raven invader yelled, his vision engulfed by smoke and falling debris.

_________

"The more I think about this, the crazier it sounds. Man, if mum or Grandpa Chris knew about what I'm about to do, they'd think whoever is telling it to them is lying. For goodness sake, what I'm doing right now should only be possible in fairy tales!"

Kyle walked upon the desert-line plane of another world. Like the one he and Brandon were on wasn't already bizarre enough. So far, he had come across zero life. Walking alone for so long was starting to.make him paranoid, but remembering why he was there, gave him the will to push forward.

"I mean, what if I across come across a... Phoenix? What am I supposed to do? How am I gonna approach it? But most importantly, will there be consequences for what I'm doing?"

Kyle was no fool. Although Krenk had given him the green card to attain more power than anyone else in the village, the very thought of it made him believe it was a trap.

"It's not like I had a choice, anyway."

"A choice to do what?"

"Aaaahhhh!!!!" Kyle screamed. Turning around, he found no one.

"What that all in my head?" he wondered as he continued walking.

'I must be loosing it out here,' he thought internally.

________

"Hey, I thought you guys said 'we' were your last hope, then how come you only sent Kyle there?" Brandon asked.

"Although we said you two were our last hope, no one said you two were going to follow the same path," Krenk stated.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Brandon raised an eyebrow.

"Follow me," Krenk said as he re-entered the door that led them to the shelter. Seeing no other leads to follow, Brandon decided to follow Krenk to wherever he was taking him.

"This dwarf better not have any ideas of double-crossing Kyle and me again,' Brandon thought to himself.

________

"You will pay for that!" the Red Raven invader yelled as his body engulfed in the flames of his power. His eyes glowed bright yellow, and the air around him began to form ripples.

Once the dust and debris had cleared, a single man with long flowing white hair and robes could be seen. He was an old man whose body emitted insane amount of power.

"You shall face my wrath for destroying my village!" the old man yelled as he charged at the masked man.

The battle between the two raged on for minutes. An assortment of techniques were used in the battle. The old man seemed to have the upper hand, but a sudden Hurst of energy from the opponent had sent him crashing to the ground.

"You must be delusional if you think you can defeat me, Jaliel," the masked man said.

"You dare address me by my first name!" a new surge of energy seemed to have surfaced from the old man as he flew up and pushed the invader back.

_______

"Why are we here?" Brandon asked.

"You will find out soon enough?" Krenk replied.

The two had arrived at the high spot Krenk usually stayed to observes the activities of the villagers below. Fortunately, it wasn't destroyed during the battles, allowing them to watch the last fight from a safe location.

"Cut the crap and tell me what's really going on before I tear you a new one!" Brandon gripped Krenk by the scruff of his shirt, ready to drop him midair, allowing his body to go splat against the scorched ground below.

"You're lucky Spade isn't here to teach you a lesson!"

"Who's Spade?!"

_________

"You seem to pack a lot of punch for an old man," the masked man said, wiping some blood from his lips. A severe punch from the Village Chief had torn off the bottom part of his mask, injuring him as well. "I'm beginning to feel fear in this petty scuffle."

Gritting his teeth, the old man channelled more power in the next attack, however, before he could launch it, a stinging pain could be felt on his back.

"Too slow," the man said as he drew the blade out of the Village Chief's back.

"I thought you were dead?" the man who was figuring the village chief said in shock. "I couldn't sense your energy after..."

"And that's why I'm your older brother. Working closely with our leader, I managed to learn a thing or two. Now, let's get out of here," he said, grinning within his mask.