5.

Tony.

It was complete chaos down there.

Planets, or what remained of them floated around , creating massive asteroid fields. X was tense as he barely missed them. He had tried contacting the Le'uthara post, but got the same dead signal. Things were bad. From what X told me about the Gentry, they seemed very domineering and powerful. For a single army to attack them, it meant they were unimaginably scary. A disembodied arm hit the windshield, just as X got out of the last asteroid field. When the arm flew off, I was left with a view of Le’uthara. It was massive, with rings made of energy surrounding it. It glowed and pulsed and I could make out the faint construct of an energy shield. The planet looked fine, totally different from what I was expecting. I was about to take a sigh of relief when Ko'vren entered orbit and I saw the other half of the planet. Harbingers, divine ones, with a number enough to make up a small army, were bombarding the planet’s shields.

“Ko'vren, switch to assault mode.” X finally spoke as he tapped a circular orb at the centre of the command deck. A hologram appeared, showing all the harbingers and the gentry defenders. He turned to me. “Take the wheel”, he said as he stood up and went to the door. “I need you to draw their attention while I kill them off with the annihilation spell.” He touched his chest and an emerald glow surrounded him. “Seriously man, can’t I get to fight one of them?” I sit in the chair and lock on to them. “They’re rare, you know.” X's eyes glowed as his hair turned pure white. I’m never telling him that he looks so cool when he does that. “It’s for your safety man. If you get overwhelmed, they could take the shard and God knows what a harbinger with a shard could do. Just shoot, okay? It’ll be fun, just like using a VTOL, except in space, and you’re shooting corrupted gods and.....you know, it’s nothing like a VTOL. Anyways, you’ll get the hang of it” He jumped out and I turned my focus to the console. I aimed at the ugliest one I could find, locked on and fired. A bright yellow beam fired into the side of the thing and it immediately turned and rushed at me.

“Here we go....” the harbinger started flying towards me and I opened fire, shredding it before it could reach. “Yeah, definitely not a VTOL, this is way cooler” Others noticed their fallen counterpart and started rushing to the ship. “Uh, X? You done yet?” X was by the side, brows furrowed in concentration. “Ko’vren? What else do we have here? I looked at the holographic screen and saw something suspiciously similar to a Railgun. I tapped it and a 3D model attached to my arm. I saw the 'arm' of the Railgun outside the ship. “Okay....let’s see what you can do.” Ko'vren locked on to a bunch of the approaching harbingers and fired. Bolts of lightning fired at the monsters and they just burst. “Whoa! I’ve got to try that again” I tried firing again, but the Railgun was recharging. My joy was short-lived as I saw the entire flock of harbingers headed for me. I switched back to the normal cannons and fired. It was futile. They were about to swarm the ship when I heard a low resonating hum and X's booming voice.

“Antaroq Eznon Dymor!” Almost immediately, the ship was bathed in a white glow. A whole array of sigils, all facing the oncoming threat. I heard a roar like a waterfall, and then a cannon fired. It was at least a planet’s diameter, completely annihilating the harbingers and shaving off a good portion of the shield, enough for us to fly into. “Tch, show-off”, I say as he enters the ship again.

“You could’ve fired it immediately we started. You wanted me to see the new spell.” He sat down beside me and turned the ship back into flight mode. “ I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The ship entered the crack in the hole, entering the atmosphere. “Of course you don’t”, I say, jabbing his arm. As the ship soon stops as another ship like it appears in front of ours. “Identify yourself, or we’ll shoot you down.” On cue, other ships appear all around us with bigger cannons. X calmly walks out the ship and floats mid air. The person in the other ship is in shock as he recognises X. “You traitor! Fire on him! Now!”

X lazily redirects all the fire out of harm’s way and they come out of their ships and start attacking him. Some of them come towards Ko'vren and I come out to fight too. “Finally, a warm-up. I feel my body heating up as my shard activates. My senses sharpen and I float up a bit. The first ship opens fire on me and I dodge the beams. I fly through the first ship, destroying it and then through the second one. They change tactics and come out from the ships and try to overwhelm me with numbers. I make a staff out of energy and rush at the group. They go into formation and cast spells, firing bolts of electricity at me. I whirl the staff and catch the lightning bolt with the tip of the staff and redirect it to them. It hit one square in the chest and he falls to the ground. I twirl the staff again and throw it at one, reaching it the moment it hits his face, catching it and whacking another one in the face with it. They start running away and I fold my arms. “Disappointing.”, I say and turn around to meet a fist, head on.

I’m barely able to dodge the punch. The resulting shockwave pushes me back. I size up the new contender. A girl huh? A light skinned female stood just in front of me, with a cross expression on her face. She wore the same garb as the rest, a black cloak that fluttered in the wind, with an added gold at the fringe. Probably someone with rank. She looked strong enough, I could tell. Those fists had seen battles. But they were rather slender. Smooth even. I wondered what else her body would offer. Her hands were enticing enough. Focus Tony, focus. X was busy with those ships, so I figured this was my show to run. “You pack a pretty good punch” I float up to her level and summon my bat. She stays silent, entering a fighting stance. Well, so much for small talk. In an instant, she is in front of me releasing a barrage of punches. The bat cracks and breaks and I’m pushed to the ground. She’s faster than me, that’s for sure. Looks like I can’t hold back that much” She continues barraging me with punches, shattering my defences.

“Great. Just great. Getting beat by a girl” I say, wiping the blood from my mouth. She stands there, eyes glinting with malice. Even her eyes are pretty. I stand and close my eyes. Shard release, level one. My blue glow appears and I feel my shard energy course through me . I stretch and run towards her, without warning. She seems flustered at my change of tactics, but quickly recovers. She is running to meet me soon enough, and we clash rather forcefully. Trading blow for blow now, the surrounding area is ripped to bits by the shockwaves from our clashes. I duck as she tries to kick me and kicks her leg. She loses her balance and I take advantage of that. My fist glows and I uppercut her.

Fist of the shard: Railgun.

She shoots into the air, and I follow suit. She stops mid-air and hurls back downward. I can sense a black miasma around her now. A huge black hand appears beside her and shoots towards me. I slash it in half, but it reforms into ropes and bind me. A purple sigil is in front of her now and I watch as she passes through it, totally transforming. Clad in black armour, and brandishing a huge blade, I recognize the familiar demon magic. “Possession”, I say as she fires a blast of hellfire at me. My dome blocks the fire, but not for long. I tear off the binds and release my second shard level. I dodge the burst of flames and fly at her. Orbs appear around me, and they fire concentrated blasts of energy at her. She blocks and I summon my katana.

Sword of the shard, First stance: Cleaver of the Heavens

A huge blade of energy appears in the air beside me pointed directly at her. It fires with incredible speed and she finally speaks. Prayer of the Damned: Inferno of Souls . Her sword burns with hellfire and she hurls it at the oncoming energy blade.

“All right, that’s enough from you two kids” I see lightning flash in the space between our two attacks and they both disappear. A man dressed in a suit, with long white hair is left. Electricity crackles from where his eyes are supposed to be and he wears a wide grin.

“Can’t have you destroying the planet, now can I?” X floats down, putting his sword away. “I thought you notified the Gentry of our arrival, Zeus.” Zeus? The god Zeus? I thought he’d be....well, older. “Oh.... apologies, it slipped my mind.”, He said, still grinning. X gave him a dirty look and sighed. “Well, he knows I’m here, might as well just get on with it.” As Zeus led us to the meeting point, X turned to me. “Who were you fighting anyway?”

I look around for the girl, but she’s gone already.

Ah shit, didn’t even get her name.