In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (25 page)

“You
did this!?” Noata yells.

“How
do you know my name?” Wilker states.

The
alpha hovers down and floats only inches about the blood stained floor.

“I
was tasked with killing you and your team. I know everything about you titans.
Especially about this golden group. Serena Freeman, a quick learner with years
of martial arts experience but she trembles at the site of blood. A hindrance
that makes her ineffective at combat and forced to join this group of
weaklings.”

Serena’s
voice echoes in, “How about you say that to my face out here!”

The
alpha laughs and he slowly approaches Wilker and Noata. “And Noata
Tarou
, the youngest of the titans, a one who understands
and one of the ones with the most potential. But with no combat experience
you’re mostly just a walking target.” The alpha closes in.

Noata
backs away toward the door, but Wilker stands his ground. He is no coward.

“And
then there is you. Thomas Wilker, a disgraced scientist who almost discovered what
we were doing out in space. You’re truly the special one, you actually know how
to use your powers. How does it feel? Knowing that when I rip out your throat
you can met your whore of a wife in hell?”

Wilker
swings, the alpha leaps back and skids in the blood.

“Ha-ha,
you’re going to be fun.”

“And
whose honor do I have to privilege of killing?” Wilker asks.

“
Iseul
Caelinus
.”

“You
think you know me,
Iseul
. You think you know what
I’ve been through?”

“I
don’t just know, I pride myself on the information I’m able to gather from my
enemies. So let’s have a little game. I keep killing my opponents before I
start having fun so I’m going to handicap myself. Myself versus you three, but
I’ll limit my ability to fly. You can fly around all you want.”

“Fly?”

Iseul
laughs, “Don’t worry, if you truly
have the power to understand then it will be easy for you. Just watch.”

It’s
only a few minutes later. Wilker and the others huddle outside of the
auditorium talking.

Iseul
impatiently taps his foot near the
entrance. “Come on already.”

Noata
glances at the alpha. “Are you sure we can do this?”

“Yes
we can, all you need to do is run. I’ll do the rest,” Wilker says looking at
Serena. “Do you think you can do it?”

“I
think so, I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Iseul
grunts, “Anytime.”

“None
of us have,” Wilker states.

Flying
is simple, after being shown by
Iseul
multiple times,
he can easily do it. At least he thinks he can. To fly
it’s
very similar to the force blast, instead of pushing the energy away from him,
he has to manipulate the energy around himself to propel himself while at the
same time using it to stabilize himself.

“Are
you guys ready?” Wilker asks.

“Yes,”
Noata and Serena say in unison.

“Finally!
About time!”
Iseul
hops around and stretches. This is
a game to him. It makes Wilker sick. “Alright let’s do this!”

Noata
and Serena step back. Wilker stays in place.

“This
is going to be fun.”

Noata
and Serena leap high into the air and into the streets behind Wilker.

Iseul
attacks, a volley of fist hurl at
Wilker. Wilker ducks and weaves his punches and kicks. Wilker moves with ease.
He sees an opening and lands a leg to
Iseuls
face.
Iseul
flies back.

Wilker
swings and a force blast comes from his hands.
Iseul
jumps dodging it.

The
air around
Iseul
explodes as Wilker throws another
one.
Iseul
grins as he lands without a scratch on
him. The blast didn’t work.

“You
didn’t think we couldn’t defend ourselves from it did you?”

He
leaps over Wilker into the sky

“You
said you wouldn’t fly?!”

“I’m
not flying!”

He
lands in the street.

“The
hell!?” Wilker shouts.

Noata
and Serena didn’t make it far and they’re not flying. They’re leaping high in
the streets like grasshoppers, they haven’t gotten the hang of their powers
yet.

“Shit.”
Wilker runs for them, but
Iseul
runs faster, leaping
hundreds of feet in the air, compared to Noata and Serena’s measly fifty.
Closing in fast.

Wilker
needs to stop him. Wilker runs fast, so fast his feet under him becomes a blur,
his feet lifts off from the ground as his body keeps moving forward.

He’s
flying. Ahead of him
Iseul
closes in toward Serena
and Noata, only a few leaps away. Wilker flies slow, just getting the hang of
this power. He closes in but he’s not fast enough.

All
he can do is watch as
Iseul
lands before his final
leap toward them. Wilker notices he favors his left leg, the entire bases of
his movement favors his left side. As
Iseuls
legs hit
the ground, a blurred version of
Iseul
leaps out from
him.

It
lands between Noata and Serena, Serena and Noata leap onto the opposing
rooftops, but the being moves fast. It flashes in front of Noata and swings.
Noata braces as an energy sword appears in the beings hand and his hand flies
into the air. Loped off from the bone, blood spurts off in the air.

“
Noo
!” Wilker screams.

The
being grabs and hurls Noata at Serena on the other roof. When Serena tries to
catch him, blood splashes on her face, she panics and a blade pierces her chest
from behind. The being appears behind her with a smile.

Wilker
blinks,
Iseul
is still mid leap toward his team and
Noata and Serena are still running away. It didn’t happen yet. He’s just seen
into the future. He can stop him.

Iseul
lands between Noata and Serena,
Serena and Noata leap onto the opposing rooftops, but
Iseul
moves fast. He flashes in front of Noata and swings. Noata braces as an energy
sword appears in
Iseul’s
hand and Noata’s hand flies
into the air. Loped off from the bone, blood spurts off in the air.

Iseul
grabs and hurls Noata at Serena on
the other roof. Wilker catches him in midair, Noata’s blood splashes on
Serena’s face. She panics.

Wilker
throws a blast behind her and hits
Iseul
.
Iseul
explodes back and slams down onto the rooftop.

Noata
screams out as Wilker holds him. He convulses in Wilker’s arms. “Hold still!”
Wilker yells.

Wilker’s
hand glows blue, the matter in his hands super-heating. He places his hand on
Noata’s stump with a sizzle. Noata screams one last time as he passes out.

 Serena
curls into a ball in front of him. He kneels down and holds her. “It’s going to
be okay.” He wipes the blood off her face.

“I-I
can’t do this,” she mutters.

“Don’t
worry. You don’t have to do a single thing anymore.”

Wilker
stands and faces
Iseul
, who wipes himself off across
the rooftop.

“You
truly are one who understands.”

“Leave
them out of this, I’m your opponent.”

Iseul
grins, “I always wanted to fight one
of your kind,
this
is going to be fun.”

Noata’s
lies on the ground, eyes closed. His chest slowly moves up and down. Wilker
kneels over him. He clutches Noata’s stumped arm. He’s seen it when it was
removed. Because of his power he should be able to fix him.

Wilker
grabs both of his arms and closes his eyes. His hands light up blue, Noata’s
charred stump rips out, blue translucent veins spits out of it, growing up like
blue vines. Bone exudes out and stretches out into a bony hand, the veins wrap
around the bone as pink fleshy muscle blanket over them. And then cell by cell,
skin forms over it.

Noata’s
eyes open slowly and looks his new hand, the skin is a couple shades lighter
than usual and baby smooth. An after effect of what Wilker just done.

This
is amazing.

Wilker
looks at his hands, with this power he can change humanity,
he
can transcend thousands of years of research and make an immediate difference.

The
clouds turns yellow as the sun sets behind them.

“Are
you done yet?”
Iseul
sits on an AC unit watching
them.

But
first he must take care of
Iseul
.

“Serena,
take Noata and run.”

Serena
nods and picks up Noata. Her face lacks color, she’s shell shocked. “Don’t get
killed,” she says as leaps off the roof.

She
is a good fighter but Wilker can’t use her in this state.

“Tsk-tsk,
do you feel like a badass now that you know how to use your powers?”
Iseul
marches toward him. “After I take care of you,
they’re next.”

“You
seem so confident, are you sure you can beat me?”

“That’s
because I know you Wilker, I know your vices, I know you hate Jahum for lying
to you, I know you fear being alone. How was it like to have your wife die in
your arms? To be a Peon in our war.”

Power
pulses through
Iseul’s
veins, to Wilker his veins
light up blue, seen through his skin. Wilker can see how he works just by
concentrating hard enough. He can beat him, he’s sure of it. “I’m not the one
to suffer fools gladly. You’re too much bark, let’s end this.”

“Just
because you have the power to understand doesn’t mean you can beat me. You can
see my movements but can you match them?”

There’s
a crack in the air as Wilker propels back. Blood escapes his lips.
Iseul
moves fast, he didn’t even see his fist.

Wilker
lands on another roof top,
Iseul
appears in front of
him and punches him again. He’s not giving Wilker a chance to see his before
image.

Wilker
tries to defend himself but
it’s
useless, to him
Iseul
is just a blur, his laughs echoes out as he moves so
fast he’s creating after images. Wilker’s body rocks into the air, fist and
kicks coming all around him. His body smashes into the ground. He wipes the
blood from his eyes.

Iseul
stands across from him, “It’s seems
my bark is too much, I was expecting this to be a little bit more fun.”

Wilker
needs to concentrate, he stares at him. Hundreds of blurs of
Iseul
erupts from
Iseul
, all
moving in a slightly different way. All possible movements that he will make,
he’s seeing multiple futures.

“If
you’re not going to take this seriously then I’ll have to end you now.”
Iseul
swings out his hand and an energy sword appears. He
creeps toward Wilker

“Come
on Wilker concentrate.” Wilker has no battle experience but if he can predict
his movement then he can beat him. He empties his mind as he sweats. If he
analyze
Iseul’s
previous movements then he can…

The
images turns into just one, there’s only two of him now, the before image only
a few inches in front of the original as they both lurk toward him. By getting
his ass kicked by
Iseul
he now knows his movements
better, he can get a better look into
Iseul’s
future.

The
before image jumps, Wilker leaps at it and lands a fist right into the
original’s chest.

Blood
spits out as
Iseul
flies back. He laughs as he lands.
“Now this is a fight, ha-ha, if you’re done playing let’s dance.”

They
dance.
Iseul
moves incredibly fast but Wilker is
ready. They leap rooftop to rooftop clashing. When
Iseul
swings, Wilker blocks it. Wilker is leading him on a chase,
Iseul
laughs as they dance. But as Wilker plays for time,
Iseul
looks to spice things up. As they land on another rooftop, there are three
images of
Iseul
.

“What?”
Wilker yelps. He attacks one and his fist goes right through it. A laugh comes
from behind. Wilker ducks as
Iseul
swings at him, his
fist scrapes across his back and grabs his arm.
Got him.

Wilker
swings him off the edge and leaps.
Iseul
explodes
down and crashes in the pavement as a force blast rips off from Wilker. Smoke
bellows from where
Iseul
landed.