Page 45 of Orange Lake
Elyat nodded to him and we noted there were tears in the older slave’s eyes. We will remember this tent and make sure they get out of here alive.
Moving on, we passed the tent like ghosts. We are now nearing tents pure as white, others golden as the suns continue to rise. We moved in under 10 minutes when something exploded.
Volks. He always like explosions. There will be more. It will be hard to distinguish friend or foe, slaves and gang members, so the explosions are just distractions. There will be no casualties if everything goes to plan.
The whole camp erupted with shouts and chaos. We have to move fast.
“Sonis!” one of the warriors said and Sonis narrowly missed a sword from a gang member.
There are more of them where he came from. I drew my swords out.
Five members went to me at once but having two swords, it was easy to deflect their movements. They are fierce.
Too bad they have to die. I jumped into the melee in front of me. There were so many of them but we are warriors. We also know we can’t fight them all so we moved strategically towards the main tent. We expect Crix and Roqs to be there already. I am part of the backup.
More explosions, louder this time. It was loud enough to knock some of our enemies on their feet.
Blood sprayed every time my swords hit my opponents. I can hear Roqs berating me that I have no finesse. Good thing I am wearing black today.
My beast sensed them coming from behind. Without thinking, I jumped backwards and slashed three of them in one go. More of them attacked me and the other warriors I’m with. One thing our informant failed to tell us, it seems like more than half of this camp are gang members.
More enemies and my beast feels glorious! There is a sense of fulfilment knowing I am defeating my enemy one at a time. Or, slash, three at a time.
“Zirc!”
I turned at the same time deflected the swords aimed my way. Good thing someone brought out the big guns and fired at us at the same time.
We jumped away but consolidated in a circle. Another warrior, Amin, used his crystal to shield us from the onslaught of crystal firepower aimed our way.
Thank you enemy crystal user. Our enemies fell down in one swoop around us. Whoever held that crystal is probably frothing in the mouth. That much power will consume a tremendous amount of energy.
This is where my beast and I are separate. So many manasties dying today. We only number a few million on this vast planet unlike other planets in our galaxy. This makes me angry. Angry at Kilo sacrificing the life of their members. He takes on more slaves to replace the ones dying. For what? To enslave more people and rule the planet?
The path leading to the tent is now clear, but with more enemies lying down, it is full of blood.
I stopped and let my senses go. The fur at the back of my neck are standing up. Someone is watching me intently. I know there are others watching me, watching all of us. But this set of eyes set my senses tingling. I can feel my beast crouching inside me, as if trying to pounce on whoever owns those eyes. Friend or foe?
One of the slaves.
Not an enemy. An enemy would attack by now.
I took a step to look back -
“Zirc!” Roqs shouted.
I faced forward again.
Might be nothing there. But my beast is agitated as I jogged towards Roqs and his team.
Their faces look grim. Not good.
“They are not here,” Crix explained when we near.
“What do you mean they are not here?” I struggled not to roar. I looked around as if I can visibly see through the tents and chaos around us.
Crix is right though. I can’t see any of the officers in the area. Is this a trap?
One with thought, we formed a circle as if all of the slaves will attack us. They were looking at us. Some are weary. I noticed some of them are old and frail. No other youngling or juveniles. In fact, there are very few able bodied slaves that I’m seeing. Something is not right.
