Freedom in Fire - A LotR Adventure

1 - Middle Earth

The girl in the picture is Leah :)

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The sound and feel of the breeze was comforting. It was a powerful force, ruffling my dark tousles wildly and threatening to push me off the thin parapet of the four storied building I stood on. But I remained still as stone, my nose twitching to pick up the scent of the human I was to find – a normal human, to be more precise, one not like me.

I opened my eyes to look straight ahead when I caught the scent strong in the air. Lowering my gaze without a move of a muscle, I saw a man clad in a formal suit smoking a thick cigar and walking out of the building opposite to me with three bodyguards by his side. He carried a briefcase in his hand, filled with black-market weapons I was to confiscate before killing the four. Standing in the alley next to the building was Hannah, ready to serve as backup in the likelihood of backup on our target's side.

She regarded me with a nod and I jumped down from the parapet.

I pulled on my hood and mask to cover my face as I jumped from one slab extension to another until I was on the ground. Swiftly, my form bent to increase speed, I crossed the busy street, missing passing vehicles by mere inches. A few screeched to a halt in surprise but had no time to witness my disappearance. Even before the four men could notice my coming, I was in front of them, my eyes looking dead into the man's I was ordered to kill.

"Huh, so you're finally here," he mused. He took a deep inhale of his cigar and puffed out a cloud of smoke with a grunt. "I've been expecting you Shadow Legion members to show up for a while now, though I didn't quite expect that they'd send a child to deal with me."

"I am not a child," I whispered barely loud enough for him to hear.

"Not a child? You are a child! At least, you look like it." He snorted. "Well, it doesn't matter if you're a child or not. I know why you're here and I've been prepared to deal with you for a while now."

My gaze did not stray from the man even as a dozen men surrounded us, all armed with guns and daggers. I did, however, resist a sigh. There were more people than what I wished to kill to get this mission over with. And Hannah wouldn't come to my aid unless absolutely necessary. With the genetic upgrade I or anyone from the Shadow Legion had, dealing with at least a dozen strong men at once would be nothing more than cake-walk.

With a flex of my forearms, I released the lock that held my daggers hidden in my sleeves. They slipped out of my sleeves and into my hands smoothly, the metal shining in the light. A surge of power pushed my strength, speed and senses into overdrive. With a powerful push with my foot, I lunged forward. It was less than ten minutes before all the men he called his bodyguards were motionless on the ground, all dead, not only from precise cuts to fatal points of their bodies but powerful jabs that had made their arties and organs burst.

Pulling my dagger out of the last bodyguard, I straightened up. I looked into the boss's eyes that now held unmistakable fear. He flinched even, at the obvious swirl of power visible in my electric-blue eyes.

"Y-you!" he stuttered, shuffling back with a stumble in his step. "How? To kill more than a dozen grown men so easily – how is this possible?! I had only heard rumors o-of powers that the Shadow Legion possesses but it's true! You're freaks! Freaks with-gguugh!"

His face was out of my view while I stilled with my daggers in his torso. Blood had splattered onto my face, stained my clothes, and the drip-drop of what fell to the ground was excruciatingly loud in my ears. My eyes appeared dazed, and I was dazed, but only for a moment before I pulled my blades out of the man to let him fall to the ground with a gasp.

I stared down at him while he met my eyes and the light faded from his. A deep exhale left my lips while my eyes remained on the now lifeless man. This was a scene I had witnessed many times, far too many to count, and yet I could not get used to it – the way the life left someone's eyes as they stared at me in fright and awe was uncomfortable to say the least. The grip on my daggers faltered and they fell to the ground with loud clatters. Raising my hands, I glimpsed over the blood that stained them. There was so much.