Harmonizer's Evolution (Balancer's Soul cycle) (46 page)

The ancient Original didn’t react in en
ough time to defend himself as Connor
brought
his
right arm around. As
Tool connected with the side of the Keeper
’
s skull, it didn’t stop. The sledge hammer side went through the skull like it wasn’t even there.
The skull seemed to explode as
Tool exited the other side of its opponent.
There was no coming back after that
kind of
hit.

After
Tool cleared its opponent, his
jump
had already reached its peak. Connor
landed over fifty feet away.
He
then spun around to see that there were only the two Keepers, but they were motionless. Almost as one,
Connor’s
opponent fell lifelessly in
his
direction and Mark’s Keeper fell flatly
on its gut
, but
not before
its deformed head
dropped from being
severed and it fell to the ground
and rolled
.

Connor
ran back to the kills a second later and Mark
stood
on the other side of his kill.
He
grabbed the long
left
arm of
his
kill
and threw it into the shadows. He
also threw Mark’s
K
eeper, but
Mark
picked up the head and threw it
away
himself.
They
had to remove the evidence
in case
someone shows up unannounced.

Neither of
them
were short of breath.
Mark
slowly
and silently trotted up to him
. S
ince
they
couldn’t speak
,
they were still linked
. He said
“That was perfect and efficient. Neither of them were ready for us.”
He looked at his blood dripping sword. It
remained
in pristine condition.
“I cannot believe that Kara’s bone was that sharp. It went straight through the entire neck
,
bone and all
,
like it was nothing. Remind me
later
to tell her thanks.”

“Will do, Bud, but get your head back to the matter on hand.”

He did and they
kept
their
weapons drawn. While
they
headed towards the door
Connor
checked
Tool for any signs of damage. There wasn’t any change except for the blood and a few tiny specks of brain matter that clung to its surface. The old Tool wouldn’t have been as useful and it would have been destroyed from the force exerted. Now
the
weapon
i
s truly perfect after finally being put to the ultimate test.
It
had been
baptized in blood.

He
made a quick swing and flung off much
of
the
gore
that clung to
Tool’
s
body
.
They
couldn’t afford to leave a blood trail that someone could pick up
and follow if they
made a mistake
.
He
heard a
short
whistle behind
him
and Mark w
as also using a centrifugal force to clean his blade too.

They
then made
their way to the door. Connor
pressed
his
ear to it and there
came
a faint humming from several feet away and even more further
from it
. The sound
seemed to
echo. He
met Mark’s eyes.
“I don’t hear or sense anyone, but there is a faint hum
close by
. I expect the
re
to be lights and they sound like they are in a tunnel. Sound’s
easily
echo in there, so we need to be even quieter.”

Connor
grabbed the side of the metal door and opened it outward, ever so slowly. It was needed because the hinges needed to be o
iled. If it opened quickly they
would be alerting the enemy. Once it
silently opened to a crack he
took a peek. Inside it was a hallway, but a lava
tube w
ould be a closer description. Stapled to
the roof were florescent lights
that
were separated
about every thirty feet or so.
The walls were
volcanic
b
l
ack and the tunnel
lay
over two hundred fee
t long and held no places for them
to
safely
hide
behind
.

Mark listened to the problem and stated
“We’ll move quickly down the stretch and stop at the corner. Go ahead and open the door wide enough for us to fit through.”

T
he door had opened wide enough
,
after two minutes of slow moving
, they
managed to squeeze through the crack.

Once inside
they
moved along the left side of the wall and silently managed to make it to the end. Once there
they
came upon an intersection. To
the
right
laid
a short hall that led to a dead end, but there a large metal door
stood
at the end. To
the
left was a stairwell that went down deeper into the volcano.

Mark made the decision to check the dead end first.
They
hurriedly made it to
the door. Connor
pulled on
the door and saw that it
shielded
a large sleeping chamber.
He
counted
, within seconds,
over three hundred Keeper sized cots. They were packed closely together and all of them were unused, except
for
one.
The female
K
eeper with the short arms
lay
fast asleep in a cot
,
that was close to the door. She
sl
ep
t
on her side with her back to the door. There were four lights on in the room, but
their ambiance gave off
only enough
light
to navi
gate safely, but for Mark and him
self it
i
s more than adequate lighting.

Mark looked in and said
“Connor, wait here. I’ll take care of this.”

This door wasn’t as loud as the others, but the tunnel’s light was brilliant. He quickly entered the room and walked
s
tealthily
up to the cot. Luckily all of the cots were close to the ground
so he didn’t need to climb
.
Mark
grabbed his sword with both hands and with one perfect stroke, beheaded the Keeper. Not a sound
escaped
, nor did she twitch. Connor then
watched Mark do something strange
and
quickly. He opened her jaws and brought his nose close to the opening. He sniffed the face
of his kill before returning to the hallway
.

“Mark, what did you smell her for?”
He asked
while closing the door behind him.

He didn’t meet
Connor’s
eyes as
they
walked towards the stairs.
“I had to make sure of something. I smelled her mouth to see if they were
actually
eating humans.
I wish I could say that they weren’t… What? You’re not going say it was cowardly that I killed someone in their sleep?”
His eyes were wide confusion.

“Not at all
, Buddy
.
It was the right call and our only solution. We wouldn’t want her waking up and catching us off guard just because we didn’t have the stomach to do what needed to be done.
We are in a battle situation right now
, of that there isn’t any doubt
. Sometimes you must take out your enemies
,
however you can. Plus for what they did to those poor people, they are getting off easy. We can discuss ethics some other time.”

Mark and Connor
went mentally silent as
they
reached the enormous s
tairs. They were dimly lit as they
made
their
way lower and lower.
They
stepped off on the first exit and searched every corridor to find nothing, but a large
kitchen and an empty room, but Connor
did spot a sharp steel tooth, but it was hollow. It was like a tooth could be inserted to make their teeth a more dangerous weapon.

On the next level
they
found what looked like a large assembly hall with a single podium
at the end. Everything
remained
empty and silent.

As
they
made it to the third level,
they
noticed that this was the end. The
descending
stairs stopped here. Mark allowed
Connor
to take the lead
down
another long corridor, but it was only over a hundred feet. Things were stil
l extremely quiet as
they
found
them
selves at the end of th
e maze
.
Connor
carefully peered around the left side and saw nothing, but a large fan that wasn’t on. Then as
he
peered around the right
he
froze. A second later Mark pulled
him
back. His eyes were asking a silent question.

“Mark, down that hall is the other Keeper we saw during the day. He’s sitting in a large metal chair
about three hundred feet to our right
. Plus he is alert and staring straight down
this tunnel. How can we get him to come to us?”

His
best friend
grew
quiet for a minute and then he looked up at
h
im
.
“We can throw a rock at that metal fan.”
Since they
were right up against the wall Mark used his clawed hand to quietly rip a small chunk from the wall itself.

H
is wolfish form
moved closer towards the fan, while remaining hidden. He swung his arm back and threw the rock. It hit one of the fan blades and a metallic twang sounded through the tunnels. Mark ran
back as the sounds echoed. They
both knew that the sound was a little too much
for a distraction
.

They
stopped breathing
as
they
heard the metallic twang
ing
finally
become
silent
. Then
they
heard the sound of metal gra
ting against the stone floor. They
knew the Keeper was standin
g, even without looking. But they
didn’t hear footsteps coming in
their
direction. A few seconds later all the hairs on the back of
Connor’s
neck went straight up.
He
felt the sensation of someone trying to enter
his
mind, but
he
didn’t let him in.
Unfortunately M
ark didn’t h
ave
a mental defense like
himself
.
Then he
felt the Keeper gathering energy.

Connor
didn’t have time to mentally speak. “Mark! After him!”

As
Connor
blasted around the corner
he witnessed
the disappearance of a black tail moving down another corridor.
His
instinct w
ere
warning
him
that
the guard
fled
to kill Sorono. He
fo
rced a torrent of energy down his
legs and began flying.
Then a slight pressure wrapped around his a
nkle, but
he
forced more energy through
his
feet.
He
rocketed down the tunnel in less than a second. Knowing t
hat a sharp turn
lay
up ahead he
reached out
his
left hand and doubled the energy
through it
to make him
self turn
, altering his
flight of
strong momentum
. There was just enough room and time for one last ditch effort.