Dark Stag Ch. 11

"Come on Rejon... We can't let him get inside!" I said. The mighty dark stag continued to sprint, gaining on the rover. He was running far too fast for me to take aim with my bow. I unsheathed my scimitar, as we closed. The gate was coming up fast.

With just a few moments to spare, the blade decapitated the man. He rolled off his horse, his head and body falling near each other. I sheathed the saber, as we continued around the perimeter. Eventually all the rovers were taken down outside the perimeter.

Rejon and Bastion leapt over the fencing with ease their size wouldn't suggest. Here there were rovers on foot, easy targets! Gou and I began taking them out, Gou using his staff to bash their skulls while I slashed with the scimitar. It almost felt unfair. These patrols didn't see us coming. It made the advantages of using a dark stag clear compared to being on foot or horseback. They had speed, stealth, agility and power! They were the perfect platform to combat any threat this city could throw.

With the area clear, Gou and I headed to the front of the law official headquarters. I unmounted, standing at the front doors. Gou led Rejon around the other side, to the point of exit. As I made my way to the door, my stomach twisted into knots. What was I about to get myself into? I waited just out of sight, ready to spring into the door.

"I'm moving to position..." Gou said through the aural link.

"Alright." I said back.

I sighed, pushing the door open for the headquarters. Everyone paused, looking at the door. They all sat at their desks, staring as I stepped forth. Fear was spread across their face, unsure what to make of the man in black shreds, a mask and bloody blades coming forth. Someone began to get to their feet, an unnerved expression written across his face.

"You don't seem authorized to be here?" He said, unsure.

I was so nervous, standing before these men. There were dozens of them!

"Kijus..." Gou communicated over the aural link, "Take out the lights and go to work..."

Slowly, I looked at the lights above my head. One by one they began to explode. Something in the display behind the mask flashed a strange abbreviation, EMP. I didn't know what an EMP was but it seemed to disable the lighting.

"What the fuck?" Someone asked out, as panic began to spread.

"How is he doing this?" Another man asked.

Somehow, the darkness didn't prohibit my sight! It had to be this mask.

"Quick..." Someone said, rushing to a cupboard. He pulled up a windup torch, cranking it. I rushed forward in the darkness. The man winding up the torch got the light to work. Just as he shined it in the darkness, he was met with my blades.

The sensation was weird. It was as though these blades had a reverse recoil and a mind of their own. It felt as though they could read my thoughts before I could make them come to fruition. Several other people had warmed up their torches, shining them on their dead friend. It was a shock to see the dead body before them. A chilling silence spread across the room before panic set in.

Frantically everyone began to search.

"Where'd that thing go?" Someone asked. I had escaped to the rafters above their heads. I moved through them slowly, quietly and stealthily, waiting for someone in the loft-like office space to isolate themselves.

"That's it, I'm getting a gun..." Someone said. A man ran towards the armory. Just what I wanted.

The man unlocked the armory reaching for numerous guns. He began tossing them to several others around him. Without anymore hesitation, I launched of the ceiling onto the man, digging both of my blades into the man's chest. The law officials opened fire on me. As they did, these blades, knocked the bullets out the sky, moving my wrists at speeds I wasn't expecting. This shocked me. These blades placed the power of a god on your hands.

It was the confidence I needed. I rushed forward, the blades continuing to deflect bullets, rotating and blocking every round that was fired. The falchion slid it's razor sharp curved edge across the belly of another man as I spun. The scimitar found it's hooked end embedding into the forehead of another. I pulled the blade from his forehead, the man being thrown to the floor.

The falchion continued to take charge of my body, deflecting bullets as the men shot at me. The falchion dismembered many men while the scimitar's speed disemboweled others. The speed of the assault kept the men from continuing to shoot. As I came down with the falchion on one man, he deflected with his rifle, the mighty longsword embedding deep into gun. I yanked the rifle out of his hand with the falchion, the man looking at the expressionless red mask. He had fear in his eyes as he knew death was only seconds away! The scimitar hacked into his neck, it's hook imbedding into the bone as I flung him into another of his comrades.

"Okay!" Someone said, dropping his gun. He got on his knees crying as he placed his hands behind his head. The handful of remaining officials surrendered as well.

As they did, one took off down the hall.

"INTRUD- AGHHHHHH!" He fell as the scimitar whirled through the air, embedding into his shoulder.

"Don't kill us..." A law officer said. I looked at them, unsure whether or not I should.

"Kill all that stand in your way... Leave no one to witness..." Gou said to me. I nodded, before sending the long sweeping falchion across the belly of the three men.

I began to walk down the hall where the man who tried to flee was. He was still crawling. I yanked the scimitar out of his shoulder before digging the hook of the saber deep into his skull. I continued to walk down the hall, the Official law headquarters being a labyrinth.

"Where am I?" I asked myself.

"Head down the hall you're on, take a left to the adjacent corridor and you'll see a room with two heavy doors on the left side. Your blades can cut through the doors easily. Mercury is in that room!" Gou said through the aural link.

"And where will you be?" I asked.

"I'm moving into position now. With this stretch, it's important for you to go unnoticed. That means take out anyone who could be a witness. We may have to fight our way out..." Gou continued.

"Whatever..." I sighed, wanting this night to be over.

I did as instructed. Making pace through the halls. There were a number of offices and labs in the section of the building as well as isolated cells for holding. Screaming from down the hall had me worried.

"Oh my god..." Gou said.

"What?" I asked.

"There's another captive... a child!" He said, "I'm moving now!"

Suddenly the sound of glass shattering ringed through the halls. A number of people came from their workspaces at the sound. They entered the room with the heavy doors. This was the room the screams were coming from, the room Mercury was in! I chased after them, unsure what was happening inside.

To my shock, Gou had broken through the skylight, engaging in combat with a number of men. I rushed in leaping onto the wall to spring myself onto a man sizing up Gou from behind. I sprung off the guy, flipping towards another. The falchion hacked through his shoulder as the scimitar sliced through the throat of another man. I yanked the falchion out of the clavicle of the man behind me as I spun around to kick a man rushing towards me

Gou was a beast of his own making. While I relied heavily on speed and acrobatics, he relied on sheer brute power as he and his combat botons cracked through the skulls of many of the reinforcements. His armor plated elbows slammed into the heads of numerous men, his boots sending many flying to the walls. While most of my fighting was done in the air, his was done planted firmly on the floor.

It was a system that worked well as the room's floor was littered with every reinforcement that had showed up. It was an exhausting fight though. I walked over to Mercury, cutting him out of his chains. I helped him to his feet, the boy wincing in pain as he was hoisted up.

"He's not looking good..." I said through the aural link.

"Neither is this kid..." Gou said, snapping the younger boy's restraints. I looked at him, recognizing the kid as the pickpocket that Mercury was good friends with.

"No..." I said, hating the fact that he was dragged into this as well.

Gou said nothing else of it. It made me feel no better, as we toted both boys out. We headed down the hall.

"The exit point is down an adjacent hall..." Gou said.

"Alright..." I sighed, exhausted. We were all most out.

However, things never went to plan. A number of armed reinforcements had come in a last ditch effort to stop us. They took aim at us.

"Freeze!" One of the officials said. We were surrounded on both sides of the long hall. I began to grow very tired of this night, easing Mercury to the floor. Gou did the same, easing the kid on his back down right beside Mercury. He turned to face the officials on the other end of the hall.

"Turn off the lights..." Gou said to me.

"My pleasure..." I said back. I looked up at the flourescent bulbs in the hall. Each one began to explode, darkness spreading through the halls!

"Now!" Gou said, launching his attack. I did the same. The thirty or so men fighting blind on the dark were overwhelmed by Gou and I. They were dispatched within seconds. By now, Gou and I were both tired.

I hoisted up Mercury in the darkness, Gou picking up the kid. He led us down the hall past the dead bodies. We reached the exit where the two dark stags were.

"That was fairly, simple... a lot more simple than I could have imagined..." I said.

"These suits are state of the art highly machined pieces of work. Not to mention," Gou said, hoisting the kid onto the back of Bastion, "You have incredible skills that not many people can combat against... You are an Illisian warrior..."

"I try to not show that Illisian nature... Underneath the cool, calm and collected nature," I said back, placing the barely conscious Mercury onto Bastion, "We are some pretty awful, and barbaric people... Our civil wars are not pretty! But I'm only half Illisian. My father, was a Tanzanian man of Bantu and Persian descent. He belogned to a different warrior tribe all together, the most powerful in all of the land. I've heard the stories of his people's combat abilities. He and my mother trained me on both cultures before what happened when I was seven. My maternal uncle continued to train me in Illisian sword fighting and hand to hand combat up until I was sixteen..."

"So when I left the blessed lands what happened?" Gou asked, tying both Mercury and the kid down.

"We went through I our worst drought. Years later, when the rains returned, the animals didn't. By then my parents were both gone so I was already on my own and pretty adept at living off of nothing. The remnants of our family had broken up to spread the resources we could scavenge even thinner and to reduce conflict. What about you?" I asked.

"When you met me, I was already doing my Free Agent training for the UCM. It started pretty young and I needed exposure. The canyon civilization I call my own, is the Free Agent base camp where we send our merchants out to report on corrupt regimes. This operation you're in has unearthed some dirty politics," Gou said climbing onto Rejon, extending out his hand for me to climb after him, "This is what us free agents specialize in."

"You want me to help out with bringing down the people that need to be brought down?" I asked, wondering if he was insinuating this.

"With your skillset, that would be wonderful." Gou shrugged as I climbed on, "But that means you'd have to get out of that filthy brothel..."

"I can't you know it..." I sighed.

"Well," Gou responded, kicking Rejon's sides to get him moving, "I'll have to hold off on saving this city until you leave."

"You may be a friend but I'm not one to hold up your job..." I said, whistling for Bastion to follow. To my surprise, the smart antelope did so, "Who's been training him?"

"Roi..." Gou said back, "He's adamant on making sure you succeed. You have a lot of promises riding on you."

"I know..." I sighed as we made it out from the rear of the headquarters.

Rejon and Bastion still managed to get up to a full bound despite the doubled payload. Dark stags and their strength never failed to impress me. There was no wondering why the people in Tanzania would use these mighty antelope. The perimeter was coming up on the horizon. As it did, I could see horsemen in the distance.

Slowly, I reached for the bow on the side of the mount.

"More reinforcements?" I asked.

"I believe so." He said, as we hopped over the perimeter fence. I could see the signature patrol official's trench coat as the horsemen came closer. Without hesitation, I took aim calculating the displacement I'd need considering Rejon's speed.

I fired, the arrow digging into the neck of the horseback rover. He fell off, the horse still galloping.

"Are we taking out all who see us or making a run for it?" I asked.

"A mix of both... We don't want any witnesses tracing us back to anywhere." Gou said.

"Okay..." I responded, whistling a command to both Rejon and Bastion. Both antelopes began to sprint, Gou steering Rejon back to the brothels. He took the long desolate alleyways where very few people would be.

We arrived back at the Felker distribution warehouse where I dismounted Rejon. Gou looked at me, saddened about what I was about to do.

"Stay safe my friend. If you need anything, it takes Bazahra only an hour to reach my canyons." He said.

"Just keep me up to date... I'm learning this place, building a routine..." I nodded.

"Very well!" He said, before whistling commands to Rejon and Bastion. I watched the two stags disappear into the desolate night streets of the lower ring. It was a strange feeling. I literally could have left, and not came back to this horrid place but I was dedicated to my mission! That feeling of no turning back began to overwhelm me once again. I scaled the side of the building, getting back to the top. The window I initially crawled out of was daunting. I didn't want to go back inside. Nonetheless I did, entering the brothel, scaling down the crates and platforms to find my cell.

It was locked. I guess there was nowhere for me to spend the night. Sighing, I walked around, the guards all looking at me with scalding seriousness.

"You came back..." Someone said. I turned, unsure why it brought such joy to me to see Devari.

"Yeah..." I smiled.

"I can't work with you... If you're royalty though..."

"I'm NOT royalty! My father was a leader of a tribe... that is all." I said, clenching my head. Devari looked at me intently, arms folded, nostrils flared.

"Very well..." He said.