Into The Tainted Waters

Unbeatable Enemy

The lightning fist I threw wasn't powerful enough as I didn't even break his stone armor. His punch however, propelled me across the yard. "Unnggh!" I grunted as I hit the ground, leaving a trench as I slid. "Alright asshole, we're gonna have some problems!" I yell at him while sprinting towards him. He goes to punch me again, but he is slower in this armor. I duck and slide on my legs, hitting him with a burst of steel shrapnel that embedded itself into his armor. Caoimhe came running to help me by ensnaring his feet in rubber. I take the advantage and create a large spear of titanium, which I then impale my opponent through the chest with.

"Hell yeah!" I celebrate and high five Caoimhe. "Let's help the others" she tells me as she runs to join the fray. I begin to walk but find my legs covered in stone. "What the hell?" I say as I turn around to see my opponent alive. There was stone from the ground running into the wound to heal him. "Alright, guess I gotta kill ya a second time" I say, breaking out of the stone. I create another spear and jump into the air, aiming for his head. He lifts his hand and shoots out a stone replica, then proceeds to grab me by the throat with it. I toss the spear, but it is slapped away by another stone hand.

"You've gotten me to get serious, I commend you" he says in a deep gravelly voice. He raises his hand to the sky, which encases all of his allies in stone armor to bolster their fighting prowess. "That should put them on equal terms with your little group" he says squeezing me with his hand. "My name is Ignatius Clive, and that will be the last name you know cretin" he snarls. The squeezing ramps up in intensity when a water jet cuts through the arm, letting me escape his grasp. I turn my head to see Viktoria flash me a thumbs up before returning to the fight. Ignatius seemed distracted by her as he looked to her direction. I charged my body with lightning to give my muscles optimal movement and sprint to him in a millisecond. I throw a hard kick with my leg encased in steel, which shatters the armor on his head.

"Impressive, but that won't happen again" he says, retracting his armor. I rush to him, still bolstered by lightning and throw a series of strikes. Everyone that lands seemed to get blocked by a sudden appearance of stone on his body. "Come on coward, fight me!" I yell at him. At that moment he cocked back and punched me. I tried my best to block with a steel shield, however it broke through and hit me in the face. "This isn't good" I think to myself as I land back on my feet a few yards away. "You can't beat me fool" he gloats "I am the most powerful Sentinel in this country, and I owe allegiance to Arkyn". He walks towards me and raises his hand. All of a sudden I get impaled by three stone spikes that run through both of my legs and arms.

"Arrrrrrrgggghhh!" I yell out. My teammates rush to assist me but are blocked by other Sentinels. Ignatius slowly gets right in my face and presses his palm to my forehead. "You know, you look kinda like a younger Arkyn" he says charging up a stone spike to kill me with. Kisen appears right next to us and gets Ignatius' attention. "What do you want prisoner?" Ignatius asks him. "Well, I couldn't help overhearing that you said you were the most powerful Sentinel here" Kisen tells him. "Yeah what of it?" Ignatius asks. "Well, I am obviously your superior so, you are a liar" Kisen informs him. "Hahaha, what can you do with that colla-" he says but goes pale in the face. I turn to Kisen to see what Ignatius was looking at when I saw that there was no collar on him. "Stray bullet" Kisen says with a smile.

"Now wait wait, I can offer you a premium position in Arkyn's regime so, think about what you do" Ignatius scrambles to say. "You were gonna feed me to him before, but now that I have the power you want to grovel at my feet" Kisen says "Pathetic". Ignatius turns to face him quickly an fires his spike through Kisen's head. He hits the floor with a hole in his skull and stays still. "HA, who has the power now!" Ignatius yells, turning back to me. Kisen stood back up and looked at Ignatius, his wound getting stitched up with this black muscle looking fiber. "What was that 'cretin'" Kisen jested.

Ignatius falls to the floor and throws up a thick stone shield to protect himself. What I saw happen made me more fearful than I ever had been in my entire life. Kisen's skin melted away to reveal this black muscular system that was always shifting. Nothing was still and nothing was bright. There was no blood, no organs, just tissue. He raised his hand, which he turned into a shaft and shot it at Ignatius, piercing through his shield and lifting him into the air. A few more shot out of the ground and grabbed Ignatius at different angles. Certain ones stiffened into small blades, while others turned to whips. Kisen then began to rip Ignatius apart slowly and slice off tiny bits. It seemed slow but, in seconds he was gone.

He turns to me and breaks the stone in my limbs. Kisen touches me and I instantly feel my wounds close, like some sort of miracle. He then stands away from me as hundreds of black muscular shafts burst from the ground and grab a hold of our enemies, everyone of them torn to shreds. "Kisen, calm down, we aren't gonna hurt you" I try to assure him. "Shut up idiot, I swear fealty to the Council so I am not gonna hurt you" he snarls at me. Caoimhe walks up slowly and asks if he is gonna behave. I told he he has sworn fealty to the Council and she seemed relieved. "Let's get the hell out of here" she says, gathering up all of the Sentinels.

Caoimhe calls the Alharis military airbase and asks for an extra transport. "Well, I guess we found out that we aren't really a match for some of these guys" Nate says walking up. "The caliber of Sentinels is rising, not even Caoimhe or I could take that last guy" I tell him. "Hey, can I tell you something in private" He asks me. "Sure man, anything" I tell him, beginning to walk out of earshot of the rest of the group. "So what's up?" I ask him. "Well, Viktoria and I have decided that we both like each other sooo" he says nervously. I start to smirk at him and pat his shoulder. "Congratulations, I'm happy for you guys" I tell him happily. "Keep a secret okay?" He asks me. "Yeah, my lips are sealed" I assure him.

We walk back to the group just as two transport crafts arrive. Sentinels pile into one of them as my team and our targets pile into the other. The craft takes off, and as it speeds up we start to celebrate. "Fuck yeah, first successful mission!" I exclaim, giving everyone high fives. "Maybe it's the beginning of a great team" Caoimhe says. "I'm looking forwards to getting all this sand out of my hair" Charlyse says. "I think we are all looking forward to some down time" I say nudging Caoimhe. We arrive back at the city only to hear loud noises and see bright lights. "What the hell?" Nate asks as he unseals the door. "Oh my God the city is under attack" Caoimhe says, falling to her knees.