Alex tossed and turned in bed, muttering feverishly as he tightly gripped a sweat-drenched pillow. His complexion was pale white, and the rims of his eyes displayed an unhealthy, lime-green color. "I'm trying…hold…on…"
The stars of the moonless light shone brightly through his window, seeming to exhort him to wake up with incessant twinkling. Urgency was in the air and in his dream.
"They'll kill me," the voice in Alex's head pleaded once again. "Please, you must come. I can't last much longer…"
Alex shot up straight in bed, breathing heavily. His eyes glowed a deep red, and red metal gauntlets materialized out of thin air onto his hands. In similar fashion, a slim-visored helmet made of glistening black metal with the neon red color shining through cracks in it began forming itself upon his head. "Spirit of wrath," he growled in a voice that was not like his own. "Serve me this night."
Without warning, he violently punched his chest with the armored hand and quickly disappeared. In a mere second or two, he found himself somewhere completely different. Noises of raucous laughter, drinks clinking, and fists pounding on wooden tables His eyes were closed, but he concentrated for a moment to single out a noise. When he opened them, he found himself in the middle of a dimly-lit bar. Round tables dotted the bar everywhere he could see, most of them with each chair occupied. Mugs of beer and packs of cards were on the table in front of each person, most of them rugged-looking men with whiskered faces and a mean expression on their tough faces. At the bar itself, every barstool had a man sitting in it. Scantily-clad women, most of them likely prostitutes, walked from behind the bar and table-to-table serving drinks among rowdy catcalling from the men.
But now, with Alex at the center of the room, the noise was gradually dying down. After all, the sight of a fully armored figure with a long, slender glowing red sword on his back wasn't exactly something they saw every day at the bar. Especially after having just appeared there out of nowhere.
But all of the stares were lost on Alex as he heard the noise he was looking for: "Chief…help me."
With shoulders squared and a heavy gait, his armor clinked with every step as he made his way past the round tables. A drunken man stepped up from one of the tables and stood in Alex's way, his hand held up in front of him. With an obvious slur in his speech, the man start reprimanding him in Russian.
But Alex, in his current feverish state, had no time to banter with the man. In the blink of an eye, the slender, double-edged sword was whipped from his back and the blade found its way through the man's neck. With an audible "thud", the head hit the floor first, followed shortly after by the headless body.
Immediately, panic set in. Shouts and yells in Russian resounded in the room, screams from the women echoed in Alex's helmet. But still, none of it fully registered. Like a robot, he snapped his head to the right, where he knew the targeted sound was coming from.
Suddenly, from behind, he was shoved into the bar. With a loud crash, he collided into one of the shelves of drinks, spilling alcohol all over his armor. He got up immediately, and suddenly moved from behind the bar in a blur. In a mere half second, he was by the side of the one who had pushed him: a giant, muscular man also in red armor stood there menacingly, his face covered by a thick spiked helmet; a Nestburn Delve, no doubt.
But he seemed to be standing still to Alex as he moved at lightning quick speed. He leapt into the air and landed a kick directly on the center of the man's chest, sending him flying backward into the opposite barroom wall. He smashed easily through it like it was paper, revealing a red-colored room with more partying and another bar.
Alex ran forward and was upon the Delve again, but this time, the Nestburn was more prepared. He reached out with his thick hands and grabbed Alex by the shoulders, easily heaving hm into the crowd of screaming, startled partiers. Alex gripped the sword tightly in his armored hands.
A stare-down between Alex and the Delve commenced, with Alex being the first to make a move. He struck out with his sword, which the Delve nimbly dodged with surprising speed for one of his size. But Alex was feigning a thrust, and he suddenly let go. The sword streaked toward the Delve with a trail of blazing red light following in its wake. It struck home, right in the Delve's chest.
Wasting no time, Alex jumped forward and grabbed hold of the sword handle, thrusting upward to cut the Nestburn soldier's chest completely in half. But he had more trouble to come: behind the Delve he just killed were three more Nestburns, with the Burnmaster himself at the head. Burnmaster Davu was a well-dressed, very tall and slender African man with crisp black eyes. With one hand hanging out of a tuxedo pocket and the other resting casually at his hip, he looked more like a mobster boss than the deadly-dangerous general of a supernatural army.
His eyes stared piercingly at Alex as he threw behind his shoulder to his minions, "Get the girl away from here securely. She has served her purpose."
"What girl?" Alex demanded.
Davu smiled thinly. "Our poor boy is lovestruck. But not with the one the Legionaires have set aside for him. How unfortunate." He clapped his hands together, inhaling sharply. "But it is ok. Either way, we have you now. And there is no way of escape."
Alex's heart beat faster and faster. Gradually, the feverish delirium of rage was clearing and Alex's real state of mind was beginning to return. He had no idea where he was, no idea who this man was. Wait, yes, he did. The tall man fit the exact description of the Burnmaster which had been given to him by Farnon. But why was he here with him?
Then, he heard it again. This time, clearer than before. It was a weary feminine voice, with a clear Russian accent. "Alex, they are taking me. Help me…please."
Against his will, the red energy surged through his veins once again and the growling voice returned. Pointing his sword accusingly at Davu, he demanded, "What have you done with the girl?"
Davu laughed, but it was not a jocund laugh. He turned to briefly look at his soldiers. "Oh, the curse is working well, isn't it? He's madly in love with a girl he's never even met." Turning back to Alex, he asked, "And which girl would that be, my dear fellow?"
"I'm done playing games," replied Alex as he began walking toward the four of them. "I will kill you all and get the answer myself."
But he was stopped short at a mere raise of the hand from Davu. "Ah ah," Davu scolded mockingly. "Not any closer. See, I don't want to fight you. I need you alive just for a bit before I kill you, human."
Alex slashed his sword point on the wooden floor below him, causing a flare of red flames to erupt in a circle all around the Nestburns. Davu's eyes flashed for a split second with a hint of surprise, then he regained composure. He muttered something to the Delves behind him, then spoke up to Alex. "You have considerable power already. I am glad I have found you when you are not fully matured."
Without warning, Davu leapt through the flames and materialized before Alex's very eyes into a giant, flaming red skull. With a yell of exertion, Alex thrust upward with his sword, catching the bottom bone layer of the skull. But it didn't stop the skull from advancing, and only the supernatural speed of a Legionaire Runner saved Alex from being hit head-on as he dove of the way.
He skidded to a stop before hitting a wall of the now-empty barroom, red sparks flying from his metal shoes as he slid along. In an extreme burst of sudden energy, he ran at the three Delves standing in the center of the room. Before he ran directly into them, he shoved his shoulder forward and slammed into the middle Delve. As big as the Delves were, there was nothing they could do to stop the charging Legionaire Runner.
They flew in all directions away from Alex as he nimbly rolled to a stop on the floor. Jumping back up again, he turned to his right and saw the exit door. But the skull of Davu appeared in front of it, blocking his way.
Davu formed back into his normal state of looking like a tall African man. With fury in his eyes, he spat out, "Alex, don't make me kill you here and now. If you make me do that and steal my joy of seeing the Legionaires weep when I do it in front of them, I'll make sure to make your death even more painful than you could ever imagine."
Underneath the visor, Alex's lip tugged upward in a smirk. "Ok, kid. Sure."
There was a pop, and before Davu knew it, Alex was no longer in front of him. He roared furiously as he felt a searing pain start in his back and enter through the middle of his body, finally coming out of his stomach. He looked down and saw the red sword protruding from his body. It was pulled out swiftly, then he received a strong kick from behind to send him flying forward.
Alex whipped around and ran through the exit door, easily smashing it to bits. Once outside, he discovered they were in the middle of a metropolitan city. Moscow, most likely. It was early morning, with the sun just beginning to show itself in the dark blue sky. Immediately, Alex jumped mightily and landed on the nearest building, where he closed his eyes once again and concentrated.
It was only mere seconds before he heard the call again: "Alex, my soul is yours, not theirs."
On his breastplate, the shimmering red heart-and-blood design was beginning to form itself. Alex looked down and saw it. After the mark had completely formed, he tapped it lightly.
Again, he disappeared on the spot and reappeared in a new location. This time, however, it was quiet. Eerily quiet. He opened his eyes, but couldn't see anything. He turned around, and the sound of his armor moving sounded slightly. But aside from that, still no sound.
Suddenly, it was broken by a yell from behind. Alex was tackled to the ground as the room lit up and immediately came alive. They were in a small room with metal walls and numerous skull-and-fire symbols painted onto the room walls in all sorts of areas. There were no windows, there was no furniture, and the only light came from a single light bulb directly on the center of the ceiling.
But the details of the room were the least of his concerns right now. He rolled on the floor once or twice before leaping back onto his feet. Standing before him were all manners of Nestburn units: Delves, Runners, Chokers, and more filled the room to the brim. Each one had weapons drawn, some axes, some swords, others a dagger in each hand or just bare armored hands. He couldn't see the face of a single one; they were all armored to the teeth.
It was deadly silent as they stared at him and he stared at them. His chest heaved and his heart pumped. Then, he confidently drew back into a battle stance with his free hand pointed outward and his sword drawn to one side. "Shall we?"
A Runner jumped forward first with extreme speed. But he wasn't faster than Alex, who grabbed him by the throat and ran the sword through his stomach. Twisting his hand down, there was a sickly crack as the neck was dislocated and he threw the carcass aside. But the others were already upon him; he received a strong kick in the knee from a Delve, causing it to fold beneath him. A Choker flipped through the air and landed behind him, grabbing his head and forcing it back.
Only Alex's lightning quick reflexes saved his heart from being slit by a dagger as his hand shot upward and grabbed the wrist of the Choker, pulling her forward and throwing her into her comrades. His head free, he shoved it forward and caught a Delve in the stomach, splitting it open. But numbers were greatly in their favor, and he was soon lost to sight in a frenzy of blood, armor and weapons.
The lightbulb was knocked out, but the room repeatedly flashed red as if someone had put a red strobe light in the center of the room. With every flash, a spatter of blood decorated the walls.
At the bottom of the fray, Alex was struggling to counter attack. At every inch of his body he received a blow, slash, or stab. His armor was soon going to break, he could feel it. He couldn't take much more of this. With a great effort, he rolled onto his stomach and dug his armored fingers into the metal floor. They punched ten holes in it easily, and with a mighty yell, he launched himself forward.
Nestburns flew this way and that was the streak of red that was Alexander Lyra slammed through the wall in front of him and into the next room, where two more Delves stood with a blonde-haired, frazzled-looking young girl behind them. She had tear-stained eyes and her hands were bound tightly by red-glowing chains. As soon as Alex saw her, he recognized her as the origin of the voice in his head.
There were one, two, three slashes of the sword and the Delves dropped like logs. Wasting no time, Alex dove forward, grabbed the girl by the waist and rolled with her on the ground, just avoiding an axe that slammed into the ground right beside them. He jumped up, threw his sword on his back and held her tightly in one arm before jumping straight up with his free hand stretched out. His hand came in contact with the ceiling first, decimating the metal structure and creating a hole easily big enough for them to pass through.
Immediately, daylight covered them, blinding them in contrast to the pitch-black of whatever building they had just been in. But when Alex had jumped so high, he hadn't expected to be jumping off a thousand-foot ledge. Unbeknownst to him, the building was situated directly on the edge of a snow-capped mountain. The fell through the air, the girl clinging tightly to Alex with her eyes closed but not making a sound.
Wind whistled through Alex's helmet as he looked at the heart-stopping drop below them. They fell freely, still having a good distance to go before hitting the ground below. But Alex wasn't concerned, because they weren't ever going to even reach the ground.
He needed to touch the breastplate again, but the girl's body was covering it. "Touch the breastplate!" he ordered her over the rushing wind.
The girl raised her head and attempted to raise her hand, but the wind was strong and fought to keep it down. Falling faster than before, Alex flipped his body around so that his back was to the ground. They were getting closer and closer to it. Any moment now, he might feel enormous impact on his back.
"Do it!" he roared again.
With Alex's body covering the rushing wind now, she was able to raise her hand without resistance and slap it to the breastplate.
Just three or four feet above the ground, there was an explosion of red energy. In a second or two, it disappeared and so did Alex and the girl.
This time, Alex knew where they had gone, because he had desired to go to this specific location. They were in the Nest, down on the ground where he had only seen it from the balcony view before. Armored Legionaires appeared and disappeared all over the place, but it only took seconds for them all to suddenly become alarmed at the red-armored Runner who appeared to be a Nestburn standing in the middle of their headquarters.
Alex detached the girl's grip around him and shoved her toward a Delve and Choker standing closest to him. "Protect her. Keep her here. The Nestburns are after her. Fail to protect her and you answer to me. Got it?"
The two Legionaires didn't respond, but instead drew their weapons. "Who do you think you are?" demanded the Delve.
Alex leaned closer to him. Through the visor slits, red eyes burned like lasers, causing the Delve to have to look away from him. "Your leader. That's who."
Before they could do anything else, he punched a hand to his chest and disappeared.
About the Author
Elazar J. Fredenburg is an eighteen-year-old author from the Bay Area, California. If he's not shooting hoops with the guys, making a point-and-click puzzle video game, or writing new compositions on the piano, he's probably at his desk writing the next installment of his latest book series. Writing all sorts of novels in genres ranging from grand fantasy to sci-fi to romance, Elazar just enjoys writing, and enjoys giving other people the pleasure of reading his writings. If he can put a smile on your face from a character's joke, get your heart beating as the protagonist chases down the antagonist in a deadly dangerous pursuit, or bring tears to your eyes from the heroic death of a noble character, then he's satisfied enough. Elazar writes to move audiences and perhaps inspire them to create their own worlds in which they can mold characters, nurture plotlines, and write something worthy of being passed on to the next generation.
He currently works on his web novel, Carmators, which can be found on WebNovel and other online writing platforms. The biggest endeavor he's had in the genre of romance, he's excited to hear what readers think of it and hopefully publish many more seasons in the future.
Elazar can be found on both his subreddit and discord server, where he daily engages with readers and turns an ear to any feedback or critique they might have. Feel free to join now and tell Elazar what you think of his work!
Discord: discord.gg/JJg2pgvmaN
Subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/EJFBooks/