Elementals: Book 1: Resistance

Chapter Eighteen

“What's the plan boss?” Jinx asked as Ash looked around at everything that was going on.

“We fight, I'll handle my family, the rest of you need to get the rogues away from the humans. Do whatever you can to take them down and protect the humans, Ash, A’rien, and Anarchy know the way to the old base if you feel the need to go there to fight. But don't take on a rogue alone, do it in pairs and you're more likely to succeed. Understood?” Tsubaki ordered.

“Yes Tsubaki,” they all said at once.

Ash leapt from the top of the stairs and bounded towards the marketplace, he didn't know why he chose there but he could sense something pulling him in that direction. As he rounded a corner and saw all of the colourful carts and stalls, he spotted Aylin walking towards him.

“Were you draw here as well?” She asked.

“Yeah I guess so, why here?” Ash replied.

“I'm not sure, but there must be something.”

A crackle of Lightning arced across the stalls and ignited several fires, another one forked off it and began snaking it's way towards Ash and Aylin. They managed to jump out of the way and avoid getting shocked. More and more bolts of Lightning shot out from the main one, which didn't seem to end, and spark more and more fires. Ash tried his hardest to extinguish them all, but for every one he put out, three more would appear. Pretty soon the entire square was alight and there was nothing Ash or Aylin could do to stop it. Through the fire they spotted a creature's shadow, flicking through the flames, before either of them could react, it disappeared. An evil laughter came from their left, they turned to see the shadow standing there, as if to mock them. Ash fried off a Fireball, it pierced through the fire but the shadow was long gone before it could make contact with it.

The two of them began to freak out, something was seriously wrong with their current situation and neither of them knew what was going on others what to do. Both of them readied Fireballs, Ash flapped his wings to try and disperse the flames but now they were so close they could feel the intense heat. The shadow kept flickering around them, going from one place to another without any true pattern.

Ash's brain suddenly sparked with an idea, but it was risky, especially with Aylin so close. They locked eyes and it was clear the hybrid wanted him to do it, without any other thoughts, Ash began to absorb the fires around him and store the Energy in his body. The fires began to quickly die down but Ash was quickly reaching his limits, he expelled a good portion of the Energy by creating his Totem Armour, luckily it was enough to extinguish the flames and give him full Power. Now they could see what was causing the fires, it was a bleach white creature with a rounded blue LED screen for a face, Ash looked at it with a puzzled look before recoiling as the creature fired off some strange squares of what looked like Digital Energy. The squares cut through the Totem Armour and sliced Ash at its core. He responded by firing off a blast of Fire from his mouth, a cannon blast echoed through the city. As the dust cleared, the creature was nowhere to be seen. Ash and Aylin looked at each other before turning back and heading through the city. As they approached where Volt and Jinx were fighting, Ash fired off another cannon blast, just in time to cause one of Nox’s worms to explode. Everyone turned to them just as Shade reappeared bedside Nox.

“Four versus two isn't very fair,” Nox exclaimed.

“Aylin, go help Tsubaki,” Jinx suggested. “He's not as strong as he makes himself out to be, look after him okay?”

“You got it,” Aylin said turning and leaving.

“I'll probably start heading towards the other base,” Ash began. “I haven't seen Elynxis, Kato, or Sirius. And I don't know where Alpha flew off to. So I'll leave you four to it.” Ash turned and began heading towards the city gates. He encountered several Elementals along the way, none of which could compete against the Totem Armour. Ash made it to the city gates, he turned back and winced at the sheer destruction the rogues had caused, bodies littered the ground, everything was on fire, there just nothing left of the Township once called New Haven.