Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (31 page)

             
He looked back down the hallway, sword raised to his shoulder.  He could see a double door and above it was two arrows.  One pointed up and the other pointed down.  The down arrow was green.  Suddenly, both doors were blown from their resting place and rocketed down the hall, bouncing and skittering off the walls as billowing smoked raced down the hall.

             
A High-Born soldier in full battle armor soared through the air.  The knight noticed that something else had thrown him because he was limp as he hit the ground and bounced.  The smoke swirled and black blur zoomed out of it, and he barely recognized that it was a person running towards him with a speed greater than a High-Born.

             
He took it in so quickly that it was almost confusing.  Whoever he was, he was wearing a tinted helmet that resembled a High-Born visor, and he had some sort of makeshift armor covering his chest and legs, and a long sleeve shirt with metallic gloves.  The knight barely had time to sidestep him, and he felt a tremendous wind whip by as the newcomer ran by him.

             
The strange warrior spun and reached out with his right hand and made a motion toward the knight.  One of the vehicles leapt off the ground and smacked the The Blazing Knight with such force that he was driven backwards, but he air-burned through the vehicle back towards the mysterious fighter. 

             
The knight emerged from the air, swinging his flaming blade. 

             
Sparks flew and thunder boomed as the sword struck the blocking arm of the black-clad warrior, and he staggered backwards as fire flashed over him, but he was unharmed.  Then, he gathered himself and launched a furious series of punches and kicks at the fiery thing in front of him.  The knight stepped back, using his armor and sword to parry the assault.  As the blows struck his sword, he expected pieces of the warrior to be falling to the ground, but that did not happen.  Instead, he could see that his sword was stopping a little more than an inch above his sleeves, and his fire was just wrapping harmlessly around an unseen barrier that gave it a visible shape.

             
The knight air-burned far across the room to give himself some time to think, but the fighter in black spun his helmeted head, and found the knight almost immediately.  With a shout, he brought both hands together, and the knight saw two vehicles skipping and bouncing through the air towards him.  Just before the two massive pieces of machinery sandwiched him, he air-burned back towards the warrior, and appeared in front of him, furiously swinging his sword.  He slashed and battered with all of his might, adding his fire to his muscles and increased the heat around his blade.

             
The black-clad fighter grunted as he focused on stopping the flaming sword.  The knight spun and twisted, his sword tracing a flaming arc as it rapidly struck the warrior’s blocking arms. He attacked high and low, and he managed to push the fighter backwards.  His flames were beginning to have an effect on the strange shield that covered him, and the warrior seemed to falter, but a massive burst of wind came from nowhere and lifted him off the ground.  Both of his feet struck the knight’s chin, and the fiery knight went tumbling head over heels through the air as the fighter in black nimbly landed on his feet.

             
The knight caught his balance in mid-air and somehow managed to right himself, and landed sloppily on his feet, lurching to finally catch his balance.  The warrior in black was swatting at a fire that was burning his sleeves.  Before he could fully recover, the knight air-burned towards him and leveled a blow with all of his strength to the helmet of the warrior.  A bright light flashed and a loud pop bounced off the walls as the sword jarred the knight’s entire body, and he himself staggered backwards.  The warrior in black stumbled away from him and was forced to catch his balance with his hands.

             
As he quickly spun, pivoting on his right palm, he turned his head back towards the knight.  Part of his helmet fell, revealing the left side of his face, a strip of whitish-blonde hair, and a piercing blue eye.  The warrior grabbed the remnants of his helmet, and tore it off.  But the warrior was not a he.

             
He was a she. 

             
And she let out a feral shriek as she zipped towards the knight with her fist pulled back and her nearly-white hair trailing beautifully behind her.  In the split-second it took for her to cover the distance, the knight noticed that her feet were not even touching the ground, and that she was not running.                 

             
The wind itself was carrying her.

             
A thunderous crack cascaded and a blast of air shook the equipment around them as she leveled a ferocious punch to the knight’s chest that sent him flying.  He sailed through the air and crashed into part of a gunship, creating a deep hole in it.  Metal bent, ripped, and clanged as the knight shouted and furiously thrashed his way out of the wreckage, and he glared at the girl.  A white light momentarily flashed in her eyes and tears of rage streamed down her face.

             
“Where Are My Brothers And Sisters?” she screamed.

             
She reached out towards the knight and closed her hands.  The young woman raised her clenched fists and the knight struggled against an invisible power that lifted him off the ground.  He could feel incredible pressure, and it would soon crush him.  He thundered out of existence, and she stumbled forward.

             
“We’re on the same side!” the knight shouted from across the room.

             
She bristled and reached out with her hands again, but he disappeared before she could seize him.

             
“We’re on the same side!” he shouted again from the opposite side of the room and doused his flames.

             
She flicked her hand and a smaller vehicle jumped towards him, but he vanished again.

             
He reappeared about twenty feet in front of her with his hands up, and as the vehicle bounced across the floor behind him, he dropped his sword.

             
“They took my family too,” he calmly said and took off his helmet.

             
The girl raised her hand, but stopped before she closed it into a fist.  Then, she regarded Harold.  Then, she looked around, almost paying him no attention.

             
“You’re the one who crashed the gunship into the side of the building, aren’t you?” she finally asked.

             
“Yes,” Harold smiled.  “I am.”

             
“That was a good start,” she replied as she seemed to relax.

             
“I thought so,” Harold looked at her, and despite the seriousness of the situation, he was absolutely taken aback by her beauty.

             
“Do you know where they are?” she asked.

             
“Yes,” Harold said as he put on his helmet.  “They’re on the level below us, and I was heading there,” he said as he retrieved his sword.  “Would you like to join me?”

             
“Do you have any more tricks?” she smiled.

             
“Oh, yeah,” he smiled.  “I’ve just gotten warmed up.”

             
“What’s your name?” she asked.

             
“Harold,” he replied.  “The Blazing Knight.”

             
“You have
got
to be kidding me,” she raised her eyebrows.  “
The Blazing Knight
?”

             
“It’s a good name,” he said.

             
“Well,” she half-smiled.  “I was beginning to think that you were a hottie, but you’ve completely ruined it now.”

             
“I’m plenty hot, girl,” he replied with a wry grin.  “Now tell me your name so we can get on with this.”

             
“I’m Aireon,” she held her head back proudly.  “But my real name is Gabrielle Ella-Victoria Clark, but my friends just call me Gabby.”

             
Harold raised his eyebrows and half-laughed, “How many names do you have?”

             
She smirked at him, “Just call me Aireon.”

             
“Fair enough, Aireon,” Harold said.  “Where are you from?”

             
“I’m from the community of Marksville,” she replied.  “We’ll have time to talk later, hottie.  You go in first and distract them.  I’ll blow the doors after you begin your attack.”

             
“Sounds like a plan to me,” he smiled.  “Are you ready to get the kids back?”

             
“It’s why we’re here,” she smiled.

             
Then, she turned and walked towards the elevator, and Harold fell in behind her.

Chapter 27

             
A blonde little boy with a black and swollen left eye stood up in his dirty overalls.  He walked to the bars of his cell and grabbed them.  He pushed the injured side of his face against the bars so that he could get a better view of the commotion at the guard station.  He watched as High-Born soldiers ran back forth, taking up positions at various corners, and behind large objects. 

             
He looked across the hall of cells and saw a little girl in a pair of dirty overalls holding an even younger girl with a torn scarlet-colored dress.  The older of the two little girls was sitting with her back to the wall while trying to comfort the little girl in the scarlet dress.  The smallest little girl was resting her head on the other girl’s shoulder and was sucking her thumb.  Her crying had now become a slight whimper, but the older girl patted her back in a motherly fashion like she used to pat her own little ragdoll.

             
The little boy could see other little boys on his side of the hall doing as he was and many of them were looking out into the large area.  On the opposite side of the hall were the girls, and some of them were even beginning to look down into the hall.  For the past several minutes they had heard the noise of battle above them, but at the moment, everything was surprisingly quiet.

             
The blonde little boy turned to the other boys in his cell.  Some were white, some were black, and some were from a race of people he had never seen.  He looked at them, and could see that they all had marks and scrapes similar to his, but they were all sitting down.  A bright smile came over the little boy’s face.

             
“This is just like when the Golden Samurai and the Emerald Knight busted into the dragon’s lair.”

             
The other boys looked at him attentively.

             
“They couldn’t nothin’ stop ‘em.  That’s ‘cause they knew fire magic.  And they fought fire with fire, and that dirty dragon roared, and fought, but the evil dragon couldn’t do nothin’ to ‘em.  And all that racket that you been hearin’.”

             
The blonde boy motioned up and around them.                 

             
“That’s my friend, and he’s in my secret club.  We stick together.  And he’s comin’ for me, and his little cousins.  And if the Golden Samurai and the Emerald Knight and Tiger-Man and Wolf-Man all teamed up, they couldn’t stop him ‘cause he’s Sir Harold, The Fiery Fire-Man!”

             
An explosion sounded outside and gunfire opened up, and the little boy grabbed the bars of his cell and shouted.  Strangely, his voice seemed to be louder than the mayhem that had just broken loose in the large area down the hall from him.

             
“That’s ‘cause he’s a knight!  Y’all hear me, y’all bunch of dirty snakes!  Y’all can’t do nothin’ to stop him!”

             
The clanging of metal on metal and the roar of fire could be heard amidst the shouting of the High-Born soldiers.  A cacophony of gunfire echoed as one of the other little boys stood up and looked at the blonde boy.

             
“That’s ‘cause he swore to be loyal to the powers of good!  That’s ‘cause he don’t shy away from the forces of evil whenever and wherever they assail him!”

             
A strange wind began howling and the building rumbled around them.  More explosions mixed with the gunfire, and the shouting of the High-Born had become wails of terror. 

             
Another little boy stood up in the cell.

             
“That’s ‘cause he pleads the plight of orphans, widows, and the poor!  That’s ‘cause he feeds the hungry, and ‘cause he defends the helpless and innocent from the powers of tyranny!”