Authors: Philip Mcclennan
The Alexandrian knight was more than a match for them, however. Auron’s knowledge when it came to sword techniques was unrivalled by anyone within the realm. He blocked Lucius’ attacks and then launched several of his own. Lucius was immediately on the back foot and struggled to defend the blows off. Auron disarmed Lucius of his sword and kicked him back, knocking him to the ground.
Lucius crawled back several feet and looked up at Auron. It seemed as if the tide of the battle was shifting and Auron was becoming the more dominant of the two, but Lucius gave a sinister grin. He crunched his right fist tight and whispered something. A green mist formed around his right hand and he punched the ground hard. In doing this, Lucius unleashed the Earth Elemental power possessed by all Underworld natives. The truly great Underworld warrior’s had the ability to manipulate the natural grounds around them with the Earth Elemental skill. Lucius jumped back as the ground broke all around him. Auron, who had begun to rush towards Lucius was caught unawares and fell down as the ground crumbled beneath him. Several trees around Auron began to collapse due to the disturbance of the earth and the Alexandrian instinctively rolled out of the way to avoid being crushed.
Auron rose to his feet, but he had lost his blade in the fall. Now both unarmed, a fistfight ensued between the pair and they exchanged fierce blows. Auron took a quick glance up at the top of the tree where the Dark Archer had been watching from to see that the creature was now missing from the branches. Auron now turned his full attention towards Lucius.
As the fight drew on, both Lucius and Auron were becoming more enraged and it was looking increasingly likely that this would be a battle to the death. Lucius threw a right hand, which Auron blocked. The Underworld native threw a left hand, which the latter blocked once more. Auron now held both Lucius’ fists in his hands and a test of strength ensued. Auron was naturally the stronger of the two but due to the disadvantage he faced of fighting within the Underworld realm, Lucius overpowered him. Auron retaliated by head-butting Lucius in the face, which flung the General of the Underworld armies back several feet onto the ground.
The Dark Archer had now taken up a closer view of the action from a tree a few feet from Auron and he placed an arrow into his crossbow. He was set to fire the arrow right through the Alexandrian’s heart, but the knight had become aware of Xavier’s location once more. He picked up Lucius’ sword, which was at his feet and summoned an ice bolt, which glowed through the blade. He fired it at the foot of the tree the Archer was sat on which prevented the demon him firing the arrow towards him. Indeed, the tree had become dislodged from the impact and the Dark Archer jumped from it and into the cover of the trees behind him.
Lucius, who had picked himself up to his feet whilst all of this was going on, punched Auron on the chin with all his strength. Auron flew down to the ground, but this only sought to further anger the Alexandrian, who raised straight back up. The pair, who had begun fighting simply to mock each other to begin with, now fought driven by sheer hatred.
The Dark Archer rushed on ground level through the trees towards the two men, who were far too busy with each other to notice the demon’s approach. Lucius and Auron charged towards each other but the Dark Archer jumped between them and kicked Lucius whilst in mid air. Lucius flew back into a tree, smashing violently through the trunk due to the sheer force of the Archers kick. This time, Lucius didn’t rise to his feet. He lay face down on the floor, showing little sign of movement.
Auron, who was surprised by the ease in which Lucius had been struck down, looked around frantically for the Dark Archer, who had disappeared from view once again.
I will kill him, finally…
Auron looked around for a few moments. There was an uncomfortable silence in the air. The Alexandrian felt the demons large eyes watching him from the shadows. Auron looked around in every direction, high into the trees and low into the earth, but there was no sign of his enemy. The Archer suddenly reappeared directly behind Auron in an instant, almost as if he had appeared out of the thin air. The Alexandrian knight quickly felt the presence of the beast behind him but his reaction wasn’t quick enough and Xavier grabbed him with one hand around the neck and hurled him up against the trunk of a tree.
Auron, whose feet were lifted off the ground, struggled to breathe due to the demons firm grip around his throat. This was the first time Auron had the chance to see his former friend up close. He noticed that one of the Archer’s eyes was not quite…human. The entire left pupil of his eye was red, as red as blood. Also, the left hand that gripped him didn’t seem human either. The skin of the beast’s hand was dark and rough, certainly not the grip of a regular man. The half man, half demon being had a claw-like grip and the nails on his left hand were long and sharp.
Years ago, as punishment for his sins during the war, Trenkenth had altered the body of Vincent Xavier. He was more demon now than man. Due to the demon that lay silently within him, the Dark Archer was also immortal and ageless. He could be killed, but he would never grow old and never die of illness or disease. The Creator wished for the Archer to suffer the guilt of his treason for eternity and so he created this half-breed, a being that belonged to neither world.
The demon inside Xavier increased his strength levels far above that of any warrior from either realm. It was, for this reason, he was able to lift Auron off the ground easily using only one arm.
As the Dark Archer tightened the grip around Auron’s neck, a horse could be heard galloping away in the distance. Auron managed to turn his head slightly to see Lucius riding off on his horse in the direction he had originally set out on. “Come back…coward!” Auron shouted, struggling to get his words out as he choked against the tree. The demon took out a dagger from within his cloak and was set to pound it through Auron’s chest. Something stopped him, though. The demon heard something lurking in the distance from afar. As mentioned before, the creature had excellent hearing abilities and could sense that someone was headed in their direction.
The Archer released Auron from his grip, which resulted in the latter crashing to the ground with a loud thud. He began to look in the direction from which Lucius had galloped away. His eyes narrowed, almost as if he was looking right through the oaks of the trees themselves.
Auron, who had spotted Lucius’ sword on the ground several feet away from him, crawled over and grabbed it. He struggled slowly to his feet and turned around to where the Archer had been, preparing to fight him. Auron looked around in confusion as the Dark Archer was now gone. Auron looked in every direction, desperately trying to sight him.
“Come back here you foul creature! I’m not finished with you!” he cried out, but it was no good, the man once known as Vincent Xavier was nowhere to be seen.
“Master Auron!” shouted a voice from beyond the trees. Five Alexandrian guards emerged from behind the woodlands.
After Auron had set off from Alexandria without the king’s blessing, Zeris had sent men after him to stop his friend from doing something foolish. The king also feared for Auron’s safety after the knight had set off to Underworld alone. Auron had already guessed why the men were here.
“Master Auron, we’ve been searching for you for many days. We have been half a day’s ride behind you since you left,” said one of the guards. After a brief chat, the six men, including Auron, set off on the long journey back to Alexandria but not before Auron took one final look back into the trees to see if he could sight his foe.
This isn’t over
, thought Auron, who reluctantly departed the forest along with the other men.
As the group left the area, the Dark Archer looked on from the top of a nearby tree. He followed the group from the safety of the trees until they reached the outskirts of the forest, but he did not strike upon them. He let them leave the Dark Forest unspoiled. When he was satisfied the men were truly gone, he set off back into the depths of the forest without a trace.
Chapter 7: The life of an agent
In the two years since he had graduated into a government agent, James’ life had changed beyond his wildest dreams. He now lived in American, in the city of New York, as per request of the world’s enforcers. Each agent had a city and New York was his. It was his job to make sure the city was clean from corruption, from crime, and also to watch out for other specialised organisations activities. You see, the World Order had no shortage of enemies. While an agent’s job was to ensure that the world was secure from threat, other foreign powers were forever trying to take control. Some group’s craved nuclear wars for business whilst other’s wanted land or power.
The Order was formed to fight off threat on a global scale. The identity of the top people in the organisation, known as The Patriots, was unknown. The patriots decided exactly what the organisation would do and indeed what it would not do. In effect, the patriots controlled the planet, having agents scattered in every corner of the world. The agents had derestriction over their cities but when the World Order needed them to undertake missions, which tended to happen quite regularly, they would be sent off to carry out their task. This could vary from a rescue mission, to seize and capture, or even kidnapping in extreme cases. James wasn’t too keen on the latter but still did as his superiors asked. The kidnapping was used as leverage against foreign powers when things got tough. As much as he hated that task, as long as it was for the greater good then James would continue to obey.
James had a seventh-floor apartment deep within the heart of the city. He also had the cover of a part time job so that on the surface, he seemed like a regular, everyday New York resident. Banking was James’ cover job and he hated it with a passion. Still, it provided him with details of people’s finances and he could easily identify any large cash instalments from abroad that may have been payment to possible foreign agents for accepting or completion of a job. James had good ties with an inspector at the police department, who would provide James with full details of any incident’s that took place within the city limits.
James did enjoy the power and responsibility that came with his job. He was, in a way, a silent protector of his city, as indeed all of the agents were. However, the job was a lonely one at times. He missed his friends most of all. He and Chad could not be further apart if they tried. Chad was allocated to Paris and he had lived there for the past twenty-two months. He had seen Chad only a handful of times since they were assigned to their cities and James missed him dearly. They talked on the phone all the time though. They talked about their mission’s on their own secure line free from ears dropping. They both discussed how their abilities had progressed. With each passing month, the pair was getting stronger, faster and more durable.
They kept promising to meet up, however, a mission always seemed to crop up or something else would always ensure they never got the chance. They only seemed to get the opportunity to meet when they were assigned to high-risk missions. Tasks when the World Order had the need to unleash their big guns. They would send in both James and Chad for such missions to pound the enemy into submission. They were the strongest two agents the World Order had. It hadn’t taken long for both of them to establish big reputations and earn the respect of even the most senior agents within the organisation.
Sergeant Cooper had become very cautious of the pair, and of Chad in particular. Whilst respecting and acknowledging the pair’s abilities, he did feel it was dangerous to have two men who were far superior to all the other agents.
What if they sell out to another super power
or
what if they try and take over
? The man often thought. The Sergeant had always been wary of the potential threat the two might pose, but Professor Milton always eased his concerns. Professor Milton had practically raised the boys from when they first joined the training programme and he knew them better than anyone. He knew that the boys had good hearts and despite Chad’s rashness, of which he had not grown out of, he still meant well.
The Sergeant and Professor had another cause for concern. Over the past year, the World Order had come across an unknown faction trying to obtain mystical artefacts all over the world. The sergeant knew little of the worth of such artefacts, but Professor Milton knew otherwise. Ever since discovering Chad and James’ unique abilities when they were children, the Professor (who always had an open mind on such things) began to study mythical objects from apparent other worlds. He had grown fascinated and obsessed with the subject. He knew if other groups had become interested in obtaining these items, then there must be at least some truth behind the myths of great and ancient power.
The Sergeant was a strong disbeliever of such things until a mission two years ago. It was the mission in which James and Chad graduated as agents. Indeed, it was the same mission that James had acquired the mystical dagger from the tower that lay deep within the remote island off the coast of Costa Rica. The dagger remained at headquarters all this time. Professor Milton and his team of scientists had been running tests on the strange object but could not determine its place of origin. During his research of the dagger, the professor had tested the dagger’s material against every known element on the planet. He had found no match, leading him to believe that the object was not of this world.
The Professor had a hard time selling Sergeant Cooper on his theory, but the latter was starting to come around to the idea. The defining moment had come upon the discovery that the dagger was invulnerable to every other component they could mix it with. The professor had tried to melt parts of it down in an attempt to find out what material it was made of. No matter the heat of the furnace, the dagger would not melt; indeed it came out of the fire at exactly the same temperature it had gone on. The object did not boil, nor did it scratch.