Chapter 20 Raul vs Ohme

I'd escaped, Thorne had focused her attention elsewhere.

Crawling through the venture, I saw Thorne walking really fast.

Along with her security forces, I was able to escape the waves of security passing by.

Most likely they are heading towards Canix's wing.

Thorne wants the intruders and Canix dead.

After crawling in the vents for what seems like thirty minutes later, I begin to hear gunshots.

Men are grunting, exchanging hits with each other.

Their blades clash, continuously.

As I'm crawling over the vent I look down to see the shadows of the men. Before I could make out what I saw, one of the guards was thrown against the wall.

He looks at me from above.

His eyes widened in confusion as he stared at me with his last breath.

An arrow flies inside of his throat, blood splatters everywhere.

The man who shot the arrow has his bow over his shoulder.

He walks up to the guard's corpse.

He is very tall and wears a brown fur coat with long brown hair.

The man slowly takes the arrow out of the guard's throat.

He begins licking the arrow.

Moans enjoys his snack.

"That's nasty Noah." Someone walks up behind him, snatching the arrow and cleaning it off with his shirt.

"It looks like this room is cleared on to the next." Shepherd says out loud.

"Wait, I smell some fresh blood," Noah says.

He sniffs the air looking my way.

He begins reaching up towards the vent.

His hand clouds my sight as he rips the vent open. I fall out.

"Agh!" I grunted as my injured arm hit the floor.

I looked at my arm, as it began bleeding.

"Is that your kid, Aiden?" Noah asks. He crouches near me, inspecting me.

"No, it's not him. We saw Aiden before, remember?" A man says, smacking Noah. He is shorter with longer hair.

I inspected the area with men all around me wearing the same armor.

With fur covering their shoulders.

Noah growls.

"If you do that again I'll rip your fucking throat out, Adam," he says, growling.

"It's that kid from before." Shepherd says as he walks towards me holding out his hand.

"You mean the one you sent back because of Jericho?" Noah asks, as he stands up.

"That doesn't matter if they were distracted or not, we would still have killed them." Noah says

Shepherd extends his hand towards me.

"We need your help, kid, again." He says. I take his hand.

"Why would I help you?" I asked, standing up, stumbling as I stood.

"Because I can protect you from them, I know you weren't hiding for no reason. You of all people should know that. They kill their rogues, their own people they consider failures, are punished or killed, right?" Shepherd asks.

"Yes, they are punished and killed, they are deemed worthless after a certain point of time." I recognized that voice. It's Paxton.

We all turn our attention towards the voice.

"Look at all these pelts in one place." Paxton snickers, to himself.

He grabs his great sword holding it over his blue cloak, he wears armor plating with the Ohme uniform.

Black cargo tactical pants with armor plating and a black shirt.

His belt holds various gadgets for beasts he hunts in Ciphia.

Paxton is the fourth captain; he's the leader of the agents.

"What the hell did he just say?" Noah asks, growling.

"You heard me, what are there like ten of you? That's ten skins beneath my floor once I'm done with you all." Paxton says as he pushes his hair back.

Guards stand behind Paxton, and with guns they take aim.

"Now it's time for all of you to die. Fire!" Paxton orders them to shoot.

Shepherd throws me across the room.

Barely catching myself, I hear roars as they all transform, absorbing the imbued bullets into their bodies.

While their body snaps and breaks as their muscles bulge, simultaneously.

Some of them don't transform in time. Bullets fly through their bodies.

They roar in agony as the bullets bounce off of their bodies.

They transform into giant bears.

As they roar, signaling the remaining men, they have left to engage.

I only spotted three of those men on the ground with their bodies covered in bullet holes.

Spotting Shepherd, his entire upper body is slowly covered in silver.

His hair is hidden beneath what seems like even more metal.

As the metal crawls over his body, it looks alive.

Covering his face.

His eyes began to glow bright red, and his fangs became sharper.

He roars, like a beast.

He moves faster than I can see, tearing the men apart with his claws.

Shepherd begins tearing the guards apart, picking them off one by one.

Paxton slashes one of the giant bears' heads off.

"Come, you demon!" Paxton taunts Shepherd, grabbing his attention.

Shepherd dashes towards Paxton at high speed.

Paxton grips a vial from his belt.

He throws it towards Shepherd's face.

"Graa!!" The Shepherd screamed in pain.

Shepherd, covering his face in defense, saw steam rising out of his palms.

The chemical is burning him.

Paxton then slashes Shepherd's arm off, kicking him down.

"AghhH!!" Shepherd screeches.

"I bet you're wondering how I can cut through your skin. I studied you, Shepherd. I was hoping to meet you, but not here." Paxton raised his great sword.

He's thrown across the room, being hit by one of the giant beasts.

Paxton is smacked against the wall.

Paxton falls on his knees coughing up blood.

"You son of a bitch," Shepherd says, standing up.

Feeling another immense presence, everyone reacts to it.

"Oh you fucked up now Silver Beast," Paxton says as he stands up.

He is now the only one moving; he grabs his great sword.

I feel the enormous energy surging through the barrier as all the beasts fall down along with Shepherd.

Zenith stands amongst the dead guards in the center of the hall.

As he raises his hands ever higher.

They all groan and screech in agony.

"You are inside my barrier, I can do whatever I want to you." Zenith says.

Zenith is an old man with a raspy voice, he wears a red cloak.

As their bodies are forced to the ground, and begin to crush under pressure.

Shepherd's metal dissolves, all the men begin to revert back as the groaning stops.

"It's funny isn't it, how fast a battle can turn," Paxton says, walking past Shepherd.

"I know all about you, your true past, you're a mutated Vorkhan." Paxton says as he slams his great sword.

The sword slams against what sounds like a skull.

Crushing whoever's head was into pieces.

This whole process feels like an earthquake.

Shivering, I looked around for a weapon.

Spotting an arrow on the ground.

I fell down to my knees crawling towards the arrow.

"You know Shepherd, we always wanted to hunt you down." Paxton says, approaching Shepherd.

Grabbing the arrow, I begin imbuing it with the power.

Electricity flows through and I feel it through my hands and veins.

"But we never seem to be able to track you and your gang down." Paxton raised his great sword again.

I sat up on one knee, taking aim at Zenith's chest.

I throw the arrow, as it transforms into a bolt of lighting.

Piercing Zenith's chest before he had time to react.

Zenith gasps, unable to control his spell.

Zenith releases the bonded spell, causing an eruption of manifested energy with the barrier thin.

Shepherd shields me as the barrier repels everything with thin it.