The Sanctuary Side-Story (12/17)

"You can...?!" I asked her in confusion, and she nodded as the guards started running at her.

"Have you ever considered why Genesis has that power?" Nova asked me.

She ran into the cluster of guards, pole-launching off of her staff and hitting three people in the head in one widely-swung arc before landing on the edge of the pole again, bouncing herself like a pogo stick to hit more guards out of the way and push them onto the ground.

However, she wasn't done with them.

With a subtle, yet strong smack from the staff that killed the people she hit, she ran to everybody she knocked over to finish the job, taking swords out of the hands of the attackers, sending them to the floor, and knocking the wind and life out of everybody.

Some of the people I've known for over a decade had gone out against Nova to fight her, only to be killed instantly by her staff. Something inside me knew that watching Nova act like this, she had to be stopped. But, could I compete?

Well... technically I could now, but I'm not sure how to use them.

I saw how Nova used them, to manipulate the positioning of her staff, to grow it, and to increase her strength, but it wasn't practical in any situation.

And here I am, being stupid again, and running in to stop Nova with brute force.

I put my arms around hers and held her down, making sure she couldn't do anything.

"You need to stop this! Not even I can support this anymore! You're killing the people I grew up with, if you go any further, I'll have to kill you myself!" I yelled out to her.

Nova pushed her body back so we both fell on the sand, slammed her head into mine, and then kicked out my ankles to drop me onto the floor.

"Remember what I told you a while ago? It was a long time... Arkians, we're all Arkians, but I never told you how I knew that, right? Well, let me explain to you now." Nova said, flipping her staff and causing her attackers to come to a standstill.

"I remembered my full name, along with yours, but there were other things I knew as well. Our history, before this Isle, and everything before that all came into my mind. I died, a long time ago, and I was reincarnated here. The last thing I remember was being killed by an Arkian. One of us. Those Arkians that killed me... they were murderers. They killed my entire family, they brutally tortured us, all on a false accusation. And time and time again, every time I encounter an Arkian, you lot are the most brutal things in this galaxy." Nova finished her sentence by slamming her staff into the ground and looking back at the city's guards.

"And if you want proof, look at your group. Your pathetic city collapsed on itself as soon as I was absent. My iron grip around your livelihood was loosened, and you hated me for it. Your hatred is unfounded, it's ignorant, but I expect nothing else from you Arkians. I will never forget what you people have done to me, or my family. Supporting your terrible ways by fighting me now is doing more damage to this city than you think." Nova said.

She flipped her staff with a kick on the bottom half and pointed it at the dead center of my chest.

"And your violence has corroded your way of life. The only Arkian I've ever met that I would never kill is Kire, not because he hasn't attacked me, but because he understands how to peacefully resolve things, unlike you ignorant Arkians." Nova said.

"Ignorant?! We have you surrounded, you really want to make fun of us now?!" I heard a citizen say. Nova held me close to the ground with her staff and I was unable to get up, but she clicked her tongue in irritation as we made eye contact.

"I might be killing your friends, but when you're alive and much smarter than this crowd of sheep, you'll thank me. Here, hold this." Nova said. She tossed her staff down into my hands and turned around with her hands raised.

Engaging in hand-to-hand combat, Nova defused the guards, who were using swords and shields, with no effort at all. She pushed the shield aside, kicked the swords out of their hands, and punched them so hard in the face their head ricocheted from the brute force of her punches. Hearing the bones crack and the blood splatter was surprising... but I couldn't watch this any longer!

I picked up Nova's staff and held it above my head, running at her to slam it into the back of her head. In retaliation, she side-stepped about two inches to the left, caught the staff, and lifted my entire body off of the ground before slamming me back-first in front of her. Then, she flipped the staff around and used it to defuse the rest of the guards that were rushing her.

Nova pushed the staff to the ground, ran up to the edge of it, and grabbed the edge, flipping her body, slamming it into the ground, and then kicking the edge to launch it into somebody's head.

That person grabbed it before impact and swung it widely at Nova. However, Nova blocked with her left forearm, and the staff exploded into strings.

It put the fight to a stop for a moment as the man wielding the staff was dumbfounded. Nova took advantage of him and put him to sleep with a chop at the neck, and then slammed her elbow into the side of his head, which put him to the ground.

"Still, you fight. I wonder how many of you I will kill before you start to wisen up, and at least try to run away. There is no fighting chance as I am right now, and I will be standing around a pile of dead bodies before you know it. I will have a conversation with Kire and kill as many as I need to before it ends, and after it ends, it will be a total wipeout of this city and all life on this Isle." Nova said.

Again, we were hit with a wave of silence, realizing that nobody could stop Nova from doing that... unless...

"So, Kire. Before I start hunting the others, I must ask you a few questions." Nova began.