Chapter 23: Separated

We took off towards the stone.

"Do you think," I shouted between breaths, "Breccan's already there?"

"Yep," answered Kiko.

My heart sank a little. If we lost, it'd be my fault again for slowing us down.

"He won't touch it until we arrive though," she assured me. "I'm sure he's waiting for us to cause a distraction."

"Cause a distraction?"

Rei chimed in. "We're not the only ones here, remember?"

That's right. There were others on this planet looking for the stone as well.

"Do we have a plan?"

"Mmm …" Kiko thought for a moment. "Rei and I will take care of anyone getting in our way; you go for the stone."

For someone who was supposed to be a fierce, conquering warrior—that was a pretty vague plan. I just had to believe they knew what they were doing and focus on what I was supposed to do: get to the stone first.

I rubbed my hands together while chanting my role to myself. It was an easy task, and the most important. There was no way I was going to screw it up. Wait a minute. I stopped rubbing my hands and focused on the stone. If we could see the large stone from the distance we were at, this thing had to be huge!

I had to ask, "How are we supposed to bring this back to our ship? Let alone fly it off the planet?"

Kiko thought again. "Just focus on claiming it first."

I pinched the bridge of my nose with a sigh. She had no clue.

We sprinted through the trees and brush, jumping over fallen logs and rocks.

"There's a group we're catching up to just ahead of us," Rei announced.

"No problem, we'll just run through them." Kiko took out her blaster. "Sarth, just keep running to the stone. Don't stop."

Rei took out her blaster as well, and the three of us sprinted through the jungle. We took the group by surprise, running past most of them until they jumped to their feet and began shouting.

"Intruders!"

"Stop them!"

Pew! Pew! The sound of blasters whizzing by us only made me run faster. Rei took care of everyone in front while Kiko would occasionally turn around to fire. Not a moment later, we found ourselves being chased not only by the humanoids, but by their pets as well. Ravaging, four-legged beasts with long sharp fangs, they caught up with us much faster than their owners.

"Go on!" Kiko ordered as she stopped to face the beasts.

I wasn't sure leaving her was a good idea, but I knew I had my own job to fulfill.

Rei and I went on ahead, losing all our pursuers. We made it to the edge of the jungle where we looked down at the humongous crater made by the falling stone.

"Well, this isn't good," Rei said as we looked down upon hundreds of humanoids and different species. "For some reason I couldn't see them here."

A horn blew from the direction we'd just came, and in an eerie simultaneous moment, all eyes were on us.

"Uhh, so what do we do now?" I asked, trying to catch my breath.

"Keep charging!" came Kiko's voice from behind. She didn't stop running, and she jumped to slide down the side of the crater, leaving Rei and me to chase after her.

A rallying cry came from the group that was ahead of us. It was a mash of deep roars and high shrieks but in such a volume that any wildlife around us took off, terrified. I had to force myself not to hesitate. I was with Kiko and Rei after all, and they seemed unaffected. In fact, they looked way too happy for our predicament. We were facing hundreds, just the three of us. Where were Breccan and his crew?

"Don't stop, Sarth!" was the last thing Kiko shouted to me before running ahead and making a path for us.

I weaved and dodged past anyone who came close to me. I was definitely much better after training with Rei and Kiko for a few months.

Every few feet I would see a small group of people sent flying into the air by Kiko. She had no trouble at all charging through the crowd.

Soon they were swarming to us. I was trying my best to avoid getting hit or captured, but one of the men seemed to come out of nowhere and blocked my path. He surprised me, and I had no time to react.

I heard Rei inside my head. "Sarth, duck!"

My instincts took over, and I immediately ducked as Rei shot the man in front of me with her twineulator and then someone else, dragging the man to the other target.

"Thanks!" I replied in my head. I took off again, getting closer and closer to the stone.

I was almost to it when an odd-looking mammoth of a man appeared in front of me. His size threw me off, but I figured since he was so big I could easily outrun him. I was definitely very wrong. The second I tried to get past him, he caught my arm with a single grasp. His giant fist almost covered my entire arm. I struggled to get loose, but he had inhuman strength.

He bellowed out to Kiko and Rei, "You think you petty humanoids can just fight right past us and take the stone?" He picked me up by my head, his rough palm masking my entire face, and held me in the air. I fought to break away, but it was like hitting a giant rock.

"I'll only say this once," he started as his grip tightened, making me grunt in pain.

Kiko and Rei tried to move closer, but the giant man stopped them by squeezing my head harder.

"Like I said, I'll only say this once to you disgusting—"

WHACK!

A large dark figure appeared out of nowhere and punched the man so hard that he went flying to the other side of the crater, a plume of dust and rocks covering his body. In that same moment, I felt something wrap around me in a firm but comfortable grasp. I couldn't see anything but felt the grip on my head loosen considerably. I tried flinging it off my head, and it plucked right off like taking off a tight face mask. I glanced down to see the severed hand twitching and oozing black sludge where it was cut. The sight of my savior took me by surprise though; it was a huge demon. At least what I thought a demon would look like. Hell's fire even seemed to be burning off his dark hide-like skin.

Lux was next to us. Her whip in one hand and a blaster surveying the area in the other, ready to attack anyone who threatened us.

The other fighters seemed confused about something as murmurs suddenly filled the air.

The demon set me down next to Lux and spoke in a very deep, ominous voice, "Set down your weapons and leave this place!" he demanded.

The rest of Breccan's crew slid down the sides of the crater from different directions and converged around the flaming demon. Lux turned her attention to me and asked if I was all right.

"Yeah I am, but who's that?" I asked.

"It's Breccan. These men were raised to obey the species Breccan currently is," she said simply. "We were hoping to end this without having to fight, but I doubt it now."

That was Breccan?

The large man burst out from under the rocks in the side of the crater, his skin falling off like old torn paper peeling away from a wall and revealing another demon like the one who saved me (or Breccan I should say). The man was now growing to the same size as demon-Breccan, shredding off his fake skin to reveal his true form.

"These slaves are mine!" the new demon roared back. Then he turned to his men and ordered, "Get to the stone! Take it back to the ship or I'll kill you myself!"

That seemed to jumpstart all his men's brains because they suddenly came back to life and continued to fight their way to the stone.

The new demon charged at demon-Breccan, and they engaged in battle. I saw Lux fighting her way towards the stone and remembered the deal we made with Breccan and his crew. My only job was to get to the stone; I could at least do that much.

I took off after her. Dodge, dodge, dodge. We were both getting closer to the stone, but I was still two steps behind. She was apparently the runner for Breccan because the other members of his crew were helping clear the path for her.

Faster! I need to run faster!

Somehow Lux kept getting farther and farther away from me. There was no way I could catch up with her now.

I'm not going to make it …

"Duck!"

I didn't even think; I was ducking on the ground before I realized it. Rei caught Lux on the leg with her twineulator and pulled her back, stopping her from running, but she caught on quickly.

She swiftly cut off the twine attached to her leg with a tap of her whip. That brief moment was enough for Kiko to catch up, and Lux was forced to dodge a lightning-fast kick.

"We don't need to stop you, just slow you down," Kiko said with a grin.

"Go, Sarth!" same Rei's voice again.

I bolted up and took off for the stone. I had to use this opportunity to win, and it was a clear straight shot right to the stone now.

Wrong! Out of the corner of my eye I saw Pippa take over the run for Lux as soon as she was stopped. She sprinted up the small hill where the stone was waiting and took out a funny looking blaster, aiming it at me.

There was no way I could dodge without losing speed; I would have to take the hit. I focused on the stone and mentally braced myself for whatever Pippa had coming for me, but it never came. As soon as she took out her blaster and took aim, it was shot out of her hand. I didn't have to look back to know who it was.

Pippa and I ran up the hill, both of us at about the same distance from the stone. It would come down to who could get their hand on it first. I could feel all eyes watch us as we sprinted like our lives depended on it.

We ran and extended our hands towards the glistening ruby red stone. Both of us were even and showed no sign of slowing down. As soon as the stone was a few feet away we both lunged at it with everything we had left.

I braced myself to be stopped by the stone once my hand came in contact, but that didn't happen. Pippa and I both reached it at the same time, but I was the only one to fall right through it.

I was on all fours when I looked up to see Pippa holding her hand on the stone, trying to catch her breath with a surprised look on her face as she stared at me, from outside the stone. I could see everyone else with the same look on their faces behind her.

The stone suddenly shuddered and began shrinking. I searched around frantically for an exit, but it was shrinking too fast for me to react in any way. I shut my eyes tight and took a deep breath, waiting to be squeezed to death. Instead, something fell on my head.

"Ow!" I looked around to see what hit me.

A red stone bounced to the ground in front of my feet, and I picked it up. It was like a miniature version of the large stone that was now nowhere to be seen. This had to be one of the four stones. It was still a beautiful ruby red as I clutched it in my palm.

The sky suddenly darkened, and a loud CRACK echoed throughout the crater as the sage layers that were protecting the area began to break apart. Many of the fighters stopped to see what was happening.

"Time to go!" Pippa took my arm to lead me to where the others were grouping up. "Looks like the stone was helping protect this area only until it was found."

The ground shuddered violently, and most everyone fell to their hands and knees. CRRRAACK! Chunks of the sage ceiling began to fall, crashing violently all around us.

"RUN!" Kiko yelled out to everyone.

We all took off back in the direction we came from. It was now raining green slabs everywhere, and an icy wind began to pick up. I watched as men from the other crew fled with us, a lot of them getting smashed by sage pieces.

We weaved and dodged through the falling sage debris, making our way back to the small mountain pass, where the green pillar had vanished.

"Forget it! We're better off going around!" Breccan yelled from behind. He was back to looking like his normal self again.

"This is the fastest path!" Kiko argued.

"The path is probably blocked by now! We're going around!" Breccan said sternly, insinuating his authority.

She didn't like it, but Kiko gave in and we took another route around the mountain pass. It was quite a distance from the mountain. It was a good thing too because halfway around, a large piece of fallen sage—the largest by far—shattered the mountain like it was made of brittle sand.

We were almost back to the entrance of the protected area. Animals and creatures fled alongside us until we were all one mob fleeing in the same direction. When we got closer to the entrance, our mob grew bigger and bigger, coming to a halt when they reached the high snow-covered wall that used to be protecting them from the extreme elements on the other side.

"That way!" Pippa pointed toward the entrance we came through that was now covered with fallen stones and sage.

We found our packs and the PSL untouched under the ridge of the rock, exactly how we left them.

"Stand back. I'll re-open it," Kiko said, tossing the PSL on her back again.

She pounded through the rock and sage, making a new opening.

We all followed her as she kicked away the remaining large pieces that were blocking our path. A few of the animals saw the new opening and followed us through, disappearing into the dark abyss that led to the other side.

I staggered over a few larger rocks while trying to keep up. I completely lost my balance over one rock and fell over. The next thing I knew someone sprung me back on my feet as a large rock fell from the ceiling where I had just fallen over.

"Thanks—" I looked up, shocked to see it was Tobiah, but he ignored me and removed the spear strapped to his back.

I looked to see what made him grab his weapon. The demon from earlier was back and slashing through rocks and a few fleeing animals with a long sword to reach us. Tobiah took off his pack and took out a square box from inside. He pressed something on his belt, and an energy shield blocked the demon from reaching us and supported the crumbling rock ceiling. Tobiah was on the other side of the shield as well though, and he took off his cloak, revealing his rough, scarred tan skin.

Breccan sensed something happening and turned around.

"Tobiah!" he yelled at him through the shield.

Tobiah was facing the demon, ready to do battle with his spear in hand. He turned his head slightly and nodded to Breccan before engaging the menacing demon.

The Breccan crew took a last glance at him battling the demon before taking off again.

"Let's go," Breccan said as he pushed me forward through the cave.

"Wait, what about Tobiah?" I asked, stopping myself to look back.

"That shield won't slow him down for long." Breccan's voice was strained. "Tobiah knows this. He made his choice, and even I can't stop him."

Then he gave me a firm shove by my backpack to move me forward. The path to the other side seemed shorter this time around as we sprinted through, and we barely made it out in time to avoid being crushed as the pathway closed behind us. We were now back on the blizzard side of the mountain, but at least no one was following us.

"Go on, keep moving," Breccan mumbled, ushering the others ahead so he could have a moment alone to stare in Tobiah's direction.

Everyone took out their snow gear again, and we went back down the snowy mountain with one less man. We walked in silence as we trekked across the thick snow. The weather was getting worse by the minute. This was definitely going to be a rough journey back to the ships.

A few hours later I noticed I was getting colder and colder. I checked the battery around my waist and saw it was dying a lot quicker than I'd anticipated. I didn't have long to worry about it because a powerful cracking noise and shudder made everyone stop in their tracks.

We all glanced down to the slick ice walkway beneath us. We'd made sure we weren't walking too close together, to help distribute the weight, since the path was only thin ice, but the mountain was falling apart too quickly. Lux was behind me, and I noticed the ice around her was giving away the most.

I was the first and closest to take action as the ice block below her crumbled away, taking her along with it. I lunged for her hand and grabbed her just in time as I lingered on the edge of the hole. The ice below me didn't last long though, and soon we were both falling. A split-second later I felt something hit me hard on my pack, and I snapped to a stop, still holding on to Lux's hand. I looked up to see I was attached to the twineulator.

"That was too close," Rei said through her mask.

"I'll pull them up," said Kiko.

"Wait!" Pippa interjected. "Oh no, the ice is cutting—"

Suddenly the twine lost tension. Everything was muted as Lux and I found ourselves falling off the cliff of the snowy mountain.