Harmonizer's Evolution (Balancer's Soul cycle) (47 page)

Sand and rock blew from the Pressure that came from
his
arm. It was all or nothing.
He
barely manage
d
the turn, but something crashed behind
him
as
he
redoubled
the flight
speed. Not one hundred feet away
ran
the Keeper
with gnarled claws
,
running on all fours.
Connor
closed the distance in a half second. As
t
he
guard
reared up to pull the door
open
Connor
crashed into him
like a cannonball
. A
lmost a
t the same time
,
the strange pressure on
his
ankle
vanished
.

The Keeper and Connor
tumbled into a room
together
.
They
both rolled
on the flat ground
and sprung up
to their
feet
simultaneously
, but they
were
now
facing one another.
His energy was still gathered as
they
managed to stand
concurrently
. The Keeper reached out his arm
and extended his jagged claws,
over
Connor’s smaller
body.
He
found himself
a half-step too far to be able to stop
the guard, even with his
speed
.
Connor
launched
him
self at
the creature
anyway.
This was a last d
itch effort on both of their
parts.

Green flame
st
arted igniting from his gnarled
claws. Just when Connor
thought the worst would happen, it didn’t.

M
ark
showed up in the nick of time. He opened up his enormous muzzle and
sunk his teeth
onto the Keeper’s large right shoulder
,
while
stabbing
with
his bone sword through the shoulder bone
. Mark was still moving fast as his
powerful
jaws
latched
on
to his prey
, with his tremendous bite force
. Because of Mark’s momentum and weight
,
he diverted the flames away from its target without a single moment to spare.

The second level of Fire diverted to
Connor’s
right and the Keeper’s left. The green flames shot forth from the claws and began lapping the corner of the room
with extreme heat
. Now Connor
was free and clear to deliver
a final
attack.

His
leap
at the
now
kneeling Keeper
brought
him
within striking range
and
Connor
sliced his throat with
Tool’s axe side. It wasn’t enough to take off his head, but
the
move wasn’t finished. With
his
left hand
,
he
grabbed the upper jaw
of the grotesque creature
and
his
momentum was too powerful
to be stopped
. As
Connor
moved
he wrenched his
arm forward and snapped the rep
tile’s neck all the way back. The
deep
axe
cut
,
plus the snap, killed the cr
eature
instantly.

As he
landed
o
n the ground, the Keeper fell lifelessly on his back.

“Mark!” A second later his
wolf-like
head popped up from the side of the corpse. His teeth were
stained
red
with
dripping
blood and his pupils were glowing
brightly
. Connor
ran over to him and saw h
im
clutching his left hind leg. His
femur and tibia
were resetting themselves
because
the sound
s
of
resetting and regenerating
bones were
clearly
evident. “Bud, what happened?”

Through gritted and bloodstained canines he stated “You did… give me
just
a few…more…seconds.” His eyes finally qui
t glowing and he looked up at Connor
after sighing. “There wasn’t any way for me to keep up with you so I grabbed your ankle
. It was my only option to keep up with you
r insane speed
. You broke my leg in three places when I crashed into the wall
,
when you made that sharp
right
turn. I had to let go when you crashed into this guy
because I’d have crashed into you
too
. Luckily I was still flying when my teeth sunk in to him.”

“I’m sorry.”

Mark
grinned. “Don’t be. The pain is all gone now and we didn’t have time to
spare
.” He then pushed himself up on his back legs and then tested his
enormous
wings. “Good, they didn’t break.” Then
Connor
looked over Mark’s shoulder and
his
eyes widened. “What are you looking at, B
uddy?” Mark turned to see what he
did and his bottom jaw dropped.

“Sorono!” they
shouted together.

Sorono really was here, but he
appeared
in bad shape. He was over
at the end of the room and looked to be
almost melted
in
to the wall.
They
sprinted
over to him and as
they
ran more details revealed themselves. Not only was he locked inside the volcanic rock, but he
i
s completely encased in Dark Steel. No metal gives off a luster like that without it being the densest of all metals. The only thing that wasn’t encased was his large reptilian head. Unfortunately
they
knew at a glance that he was weak
,
even
in
sl
e
ep. His face was slightly swollen and covered in dried blood.
They must beat him daily.
Only one who i
s severely weakened wouldn’t have been woken up by the disturbance that
was just
made.

“He looks horrible.” Mark commented while looking up. He then raked his powerful and sharp claws against the metal and came to the same conclusion by whispering “Dark Steel.” His s
lit silver eyes locked with Connor’s
. “This is your department. I’m useless against this stuff.”

Connor
looked from him to
the Head Elder. “Sorono!” He
shouted. “Wake up and let me know if your alright!” He remained still, but he was still breathing if his flaring nostrils gave any indication.

After takin
g a quick look around the room he
said “Mark, I’m going to get rid of his prison. Keep your eyes closed because things are going to get bright around here.” Mark took
the
warning
seriously
by turning his back, closing his eyes and taking a few steps away.

Connor
stepped forward and placed
his
palm on the metal which covered his
sibling’s
left leg. It
felt
very cool to the touch and that meant that Sorono went coldblooded to conserve what little energy he had left.

His
eyes closed and
his
mind focused.
I hope your right about this using the same amount of energy.
This is
a thousand times
more metal than
Tool.
Knowing how much energy it would use would drain thirty percent which means that
he
’
d
be
running at sixty percent
by the time this all ended
. As
his
mind focused on the personal
ized
prison
,
Connor
imagined it cracking in pieces and falling apart. As
his
instinct pushed
the
command forward,
his
eyes opened. The sensation of a torrent of energy coursed
through him
yet again.
His
body began glowing because of the amount of power being used
to perform and complete the task. Then the power went through his
palm and it
absorbed into
the metal.

As the Dark Steel absorbed the influx of energy it began glowing. Connor
remembered last time
he worked this skill
and turned
his
head away
just in time
while also forcing
his
eyes shut. Every second d
rained a half of a percent of his stored
energy. Then at the fifty five second
s
,
a change began to occur
.
They both
listened as
the metal
began
cracking all over the encasing. Once it reached sixty seconds
,
the Dark Steel began breaking apart
in large chunks
because of the metallic sounds they made
started
hitting the floor.

He stopped his
energy and opened
his
eyes. The light disappeared instantly, but the metal continued falling
away in
large pieces
He
needed to step back
because a large
portion
of
black
metal fe
l
l off his brother’s
chest. As
the metal clanged to the floor he
saw that Sorono’s robe had been ruined beyond repair. There were holes
,
cuts
, dirt and blood
all over it.

Then the metal gave way because of Sorono’s weight
falling forward
. “Mark!”
Connor
called and
he was by
his
side
quickly
and helped
to
catch Sorono when he
began falling
.
Sorono’s
muscles were still enormous, but they were severely weakened
from
the
inhospitable
stay
.
They
took his
full
weight and gently laid him down
on the floor
,
after removing the
sharp
metal
shards
from underneath. He
remained
unconscious from
the
captivity
and
even
from the fall
.

“Maybe he needs to be woken up?” Mark suggested
while checking the wounds on Sorono’s skull
. “Try going into his mind and wake him that way.”

Mark did have a point. Maybe Sorono was protecting his mind by shutti
ng himself off from the world. Connor
pushed with
his
mind and entered
his
brother’s to see nothing but a
weakened
mental barrier of Veronica and Shannon
asleep and
sleeping
by a small fire
.

A
n immediate
physical
reaction
came
from
Sorono waking up from
the
intrusion. His arms and legs began twitching
. A reptilian hiss escaped his throat and Mark backed away instinctively. Sorono’s head began moving and slowly his hazel eyes showed themselves. But something was wrong.