thirty-five

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Oscar was getting tired.

His right arm hung at its side. He'd been grazed by a knife a few minutes before. Luckily, it was only a small nick. That didn't mean it didn't hurt, though.

The battle in the shadowy ravine had begun to die down a bit, but Kismet was still fighting. Frost surrounded herself with a wall of ice and was directing sharpened icicles at anyone who dared to get near her.

Breathing heavily, Oscar clamped a hand over his bleeding forearm and took a moment to look around. Emily was crouched behind a stack of crates with her bow drawn. Every now and then, she'd let off a blast of sonic energy from her mouth at a group of arriving Kismet soldiers.

Theo was still zipping around, knocking soldiers to the ground and stealing their weapons, but it was clear he was tiring as well. He wouldn't be able to keep that up forever. His asthma and fatigue would catch up eventually.

Oscar's eyes widened.

Andre.

He had seen when the boy had his arm severed by Apex. It was a gruesome sight that he feared he wouldn't be able to erase from his memory.

Andre had been carried from the battlefield by a few Atlas agents. Oscar just hoped he was still alive. If he learned that his friend had died because of what Apex did, he would probably spontaneously combust into a cloud of hellfire and reduce every Kismet soldier to a pile of ash.

Clenching his jaw, he turned his attention to Lycan, who was currently barreling through a small squad of Atlas agents. They shot at the werewolf-like Prime, but their bullets did nothing against his tough skin. The huge beast swung a claw at one of the agents, sending their body flying like a ragdoll.

Oscar sneered.

You're going down, dog.

Yelling like a maniac, he encased his fists with blistering flames and ran at Lycan.

#

The battle in the ravine had lasted for at least another twenty minutes before Atlas eventually overcame the rest of Kane's forces. Oscar, with help from a few of Emily's explosive arrows, had defeated Frost. As for Lycan, he'd finally been defeated by Oscar—with a little help from some of Emily's explosive arrows.

His large, still body laid face down on the ground with blood matted to his fur. A chill trickled down Oscar's back as he stared at the creature.

Once the fighting finally ceased, he let out a massive sigh of relief and dropped to his knees. His muscles ached and a throbbing pain tore through his arm, but he didn't care. They actually did it. They managed to defeat Kismet, once and for all.

Wiping the sweat from his face, which was peppered with snowflakes, he noticed something shooting into the sky. He tilted his head upwards to get a better look.

A beam of red energy torpedoed into the clouds. Within seconds, the entire sky had turned the color of blood. The world darkened as the sunlight struggled to break through the crimson veil. The snow falling from the atmosphere ceased for a moment.

Everything went silent.

Oscar's heart thumped in his chest. He heard his blood rushing in his ears as he gawked at the bleeding sky.

Oh no.

Wind whistled past him. It seeped into his bones and grabbed hold of him like an angry ghost. He shuddered.

Then the snow came down again.

Snowflakes tinged with crimson particles fell down from the heavens like a bad omen. Their intricate shapes were marred with the knowledge of their contents; of their creation. Of their meaning. Oscar held his hand out reluctantly and caught one.

Red Skies | The Prime Archives #1 ✓Where stories live. Discover now