Deliverance

CLANG! CLANG!

The sound of metal hitting a hard, unrelenting surface reverberated throughout the otherwise desolate forest. In the aftermath of the sudden flash, the mangled corpses of several birds by the now-splintered tree's mouth lay cooling at the foot of the large crystalline structure now standing in the wooden tower's place.

Click. An explosive crash, responded to with a steadfast screech. Another fractured pellet burnt away against the clear rock and mixed into the dirt beneath.

"This crystal shit's way too hard! Even a bullet won't even make a dent!"

"Stop wasting ammo on it," Sid said, swiping at different areas of the structure with his heavy blade, trying, in vain, to find some sort of weak spot. Although it wasn't noticed at all by Dan, the worry in Sid's mind grew more intrusive with each worthless slash. As his blade bounced off yet another time, a heavy bead of nervous sweat trickled from his brow, stinging his eye on the way down.

Sid thought to himself, searching for an answer somehow. People are definitely going to come to investigate the sound of that huge explosion soon. If that happens and they get caught out in the open, things could go really bad really fast. Shit, what could they do? They definitely had to get that kid out and leave… or should they just cut their losses here and just bail? But at the same time, this place is so close to their base… what're they going to do once we leave this area?

Survive out in the open with nothing? There wouldn't be enough time to grab survival supplies without the possibility of others ambushing them while things were getting retrieved from the base. Find another group— one that has survived all this time— and take their base without even scouting out the area first? That would also be nigh impossible.

No matter how it looked, the only thing that could be done was try and get that kid out of there. After all, he had done… something… and whatever that something was… it was protecting *him* so well, wasn't it?

They'd get him out, figure out what exactly he did— getting rid of him or exacting torture according to the situation— and go from there.

But Dan and Sid wouldn't be able to get to Boro before anyone else showed up. Sid stopped his weapon as Dan held his gun toward the direction of the crunching leaves.

"Don't move!" said the big guy.

The footsteps didn't stop getting closer to them. It was another pair of two, the one in front weighed down with equipment, the one behind light like a ghost. "Come on. If you were going to shoot me, why haven't you done so already?"

"Everyone's just doin' whatever the hell they— "

Sid waved his hand, stopping Dan from making an impulsive shot, but also getting between the two groups. "Who the hell are you two?"

The old man smiled devilishly while pulling his long silver hair back, revealing his wood-like hardened features. At the same time, the man behind him almost snarled in response to the question, glaring threats of death under his black hunter's hat.

"Us? We're just here to retrieve our troublesome little member," said Lucius, pointing up at the top of the crystal spike, "I hope you don't mind."

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It happened so quickly that it could have just been a trick of the light— a quick-moving cloud or something of the like. However, Lucius and Kent felt it at the same time, like a brief thunder that shook down to their bones. They looked at each other, and then to the direction where they felt the impact originate from.

"Did you feel that?" asked Lucius.

Kent nodded. "That's… that's the direction Jon went to, isn't it?" They paused, digesting the implication of that fact.

Lucius looked in that direction, then back towards the shelter in the direction of the storage. Standing up, he opened the hatch and wandered inside, throwing recent collections out and to the side, making a mess by the opening.

"What are you doing?" asked Lucius, with a tone of genuine curiosity as he kicked back a stuffed bag that was rolling away in a minuscule attempt to organize the chaotic state of things below him.

"I'm looking for… some things that I haven't touched in a very long time," said Lucius in a delayed response. He seemed to be struggling with something, as from the darkness of the small underground room came the old man groaning against tearing cloths and the clanking of various metals. Whatever these things were, they were coming from the very back of the storage.

Kent was about to offer some help when Lucius finally stepped out of the opening, bound around his limbs many leather straps which secured two cylindrical canisters and their respective rectangular cases to his thick legs, eventually joining together into a series of mechanical systems spread across his back. Over his shoulder, he carried a long bag, inside of which there seemed to be a half dozen of long metal poles.

"What in the world are you wearing…" asked Kent, who had never seen such tools, "...what is all this?"

Lucius glanced away from Kent and looked over his equipment, making sure everything was in order. "You could say they're something of a family heirloom." Lucius said dismissively as he clicked one of the triggers to the contraption in his right hand. The sound of pressurized gas cut through the air and stabbed into the wood on the adjacent wall with great force. As Lucius clicked the trigger again, the hooked blade pulled back, splitting the age-blackened wood and leaving a gaping hole where it had caught into. "Good. It still works."

Watching the man he feared, but at least thought he knew, stand there examining the edge of a weapon he had never before seen, Kent could barely make out the right words to say.

"Those weapons… that gear… no way it's— could it be… from the age of…"

Lucius took out two of the hidden blades from his sides and swung them parallel in a fierce practice, cutting Kent's words out of the air with a force that made the wind scream for a second.

"It's probably what you think," said Lucius, heading outside of the shelter while sheathing the swords. "Come on."

Kent hesitated to give chase but was prompted to as Lucius shot one of his grappling lines into a far-away tree to quickly propel himself up and towards the location.

Bolting out of the shelter, Kent held his hat from slipping off his head while struggling to keep the soaring figure from fading away out of sight. "That's not fair…" moaned Kent between breaths.

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"Fine." said Sid, crossing his arms and stepping out of the way. Dan looked at him with confusion, but his thoughts of interjecting were cut off.

"On one condition." said Sid, raising a finger to the group, "after you free the kid, you let us join your group."

"WHAT?" Dan and Kent both retorted in near-unison.

"You're in no position to make demands," smirked Lucius. "You have nothing to offer us— no leverage here."

"Perhaps so, but I think you'll still take me up on this for some reason." Sid returned the smile. Their saccharine tones muddled the otherwise tense atmosphere. Peeking through his wide smile, Sid took another glance at his wager.

The old man's eyes held a degree of capable confidence that bordered perhaps on arrogance if it wasn't substantiated so, but they were not eyes that regarded life as something without inherent worth. Those eyes were something Sid would be willing to bet on.

"Sure," said Lucius, shrugging and taking two steps closer. "I'll take your little offer if it makes you happy."

"Are you crazy, Lucius?" yelled Kent, forgetting his fearful reverence for a second and grabbing the old man tightly by one of the straps on his back, "These guys are probably the ones that killed Jon! Didn't you see what they did to him on the way here? That guy with the weapon on his hip… you want to let these guys join— live— with us?"

Twisting his body away from Kent's grip, Lucius continued walking forward while staring up in perusal of the giant crystal. He spoke absentmindedly, "Trading one for two, that seems like a pretty good deal to me."

Sid moved and stood back by Dan, watching Lucius from a distance. What would he do against the crystal that wouldn't even take a dent after all that they already did? It would be curious, indeed.

Before Kent could further object to Lucius' decision, the latter shot up into the air with the sound of streaking lines and a heavy burst of steam.

Dan couldn't hold back his astonishment, mouth wide-open, he unwillingly asked, "He… flew?" Even Sid's rather unemotional face couldn't keep its composure when witnessing such inconceivable events.

Everyone on the ground watched silently, unable to say a thing as the feat was carried out in front of their eyes.

With the press of a button, the spear detached from the string and the built-in propellers within it sent it speeding with a roar into the upper portion of the crystal. Although it was much different hitting a specific target while in the air, the movements had been so ingrained within Lucius' body that missing didn't even seem like a possibility to him as he took his shot. Surely enough, the point of the pole dug deep into the side of the crystal overlooking the land. With a terrible explosion following a brief lapse of silence as the weapon dug deep, a sound of shattering glass caused both the land and sky to shudder.

Time seemed to stop as the remaining crystal seemed to splinter and sublimate in a chain reaction to the destruction. With the work done, the old man dropped down, his back to the crowd as he faced the mouth of the tree that once stood. Out of the wreckage, a body soon emerged.