Blade(Part 1): Dawn

Chapter 40: Dameon

From midday to midnight, there was chaos in Noglidas. The weapons that Alexius and Zoya provided to the colonists were put to good use. By the time the day ended, nearly every Skaolan soldier in the city was dead. They were either shot with the hijacked beam rifles, slashed with the curved blades, or stabbed with the spears. Dameon killed a few of them himself. He saw Alexius, Zoya, and Shala kill a few themselves, possibly even more violently than him. Once Dameon pulled his cutlass out of one more spearman, he joined his friends in front of the keep in the center of the city. The people of Noglidas that survived were also in front of the keep built by the Astros' Sevorgradian founders. They were all armed with their hijacked weapons, shouting angrily against the gates to the keep.

"Nouzari's hiding in there, isn't he!?" Dameon shouted, over the mob's voices.

"Hey, just...," said Shala, turning him around by the shoulders and pushing him away from the mob. Alexius and Zoya followed them.

"Yes, Nouzari is hiding in there," Alexius answered.

"Well, this won't end until he's dead," Dameon reminded. "Well, it won't begin to end until he's dead, anyway."

"Well, now's your chance," said Shala. "While his guards are distracted." Dameon saw a team of spearmen and Undying behind the gates to the keep. He would never be able to fight his way past them, but he didn't see another way.

"I don't see how you'll get in there," Alexius observed. Suddenly, a screech came from Rda as he flew overhead. He flew past Dameon's face, and then to the top of Nouzari's keep, perching himself above a window.

"Is he a friend of yours?" Zoya wondered.

"Sort of," said Dameon. "How am I going to get up there?"

"You're the Blade of Midnight, not any of us," Shala reminded. "It's your game. Make sure that son of a bitch suffers for what he's done."

"Oh, I will," Dameon promised. There was no hesitation in his voice. Lord Nouzari had killed his parents, the leaders of Shala and Alexius' squad, and so many others. Now, he would pay for it. Dameon pulled his hood over his head and clambered over the wall, landing in a bush on the other side. There were no guards on the ground. They must have either all been inside or at the gates. Dameon looked to where Rda was. He was right under the window he needed to get to, but it must have been a few hundred feet in the air, too far a range for the grappling gun, with no ledges or bricks protruding from the wall. He couldn't climb it.

"Shit," Dameon cursed. He had to find another way inside the old fortress. He heard another screech from Rda. Dameon could only feel that the falcon was rushing him, telling him to hurry up.

"Yeah, yeah," Dameon spat. "Just give me a minute." He would probably have to go all the way around the entire fortress to get to the window that Rda sat above.

"Here goes nothing," Dameon sighed. He climbed onto a lower roof, then around the fortress, to the base of a watchtower with a Skaolan rifleman positioned in it. If he spotted Dameon, the mission would be over. The assassin climbed the tower until he was hanging from the top by his fingers, then he pulled himself up far enough to grab the soldier by the back of his black armor, and threw him out of the battlement. His neck snapped as he crashed onto the ground. Dameon then climbed down from the watchtower, then found that there was more surface to climb on. Roofs that were stacked on one another, each one behind a high wall, leading to where Rda was perched. Soldiers patrolled each wall that stood before the buildings, but they were distracted by the mob outside the gates. Dameon had no trouble sneaking right up to the first wall, firing his grappling gun to the top, and pulling himself up there. There were two spearmen with shields, just thirty feet from where he pulled himself to the top of the wall.

"Hey!" a third one suddenly shouted, on the other side of him. Dameon quickly extended one of his bracer blades and rushed forward. He grabbed the top of his shield and vaulted over him before driving his blade into the back of the soldier's neck. The other two then looked his way, pointing their spears at him. Dameon drew back a lightning arrow with his bow and shot it right between both of the spearmen, zapping them in both of their heads as it flew past. They both dropped to the ground, dead. There were more soldiers patrolling the further inner walls. Dameon couldn't possibly kill every single one without raising the alarm. It would give Nouzari fair warning, and plenty of time to escape. He had to scale the fortress as quickly and as quietly as he could. It was Zenartha's deadliest game of "hide-and-seek". Dameon jumped from the top of the first wall, grabbing onto the roof of the building just below it, and pulling himself up. He crawled on his chest across the flat roof, with the dark colors of his outfit and the night hiding him, before launching himself to the second wall, grabbing onto a protruding brick. Dameon then climbed to the top, making sure there were no guards positioned above him. None were right beside him either, but they were coming. He rushed across the top of the wall, but there were only smaller buildings between it and the next wall. Dameon noticed a large container filled with straw just under him, though. Seeing no other option, he jumped from the wall, landing in the straw on his back. The pile cushioned his fall, but he still felt a "thud" from the ground under him.

"Ow," Dameon groaned. When he approached the second wall, he noticed a large crack in the bricks, probably caused by the attack on the city during the Colonial War. It was just wide enough for Dameon to squeeze through with his chest sucked in. The window that Rda had perched himself above was all the way on the other side of the keep, with about a dozen soldiers standing between it and Dameon. There was no way he could sneak past all of them without getting spotted. Dameon went through the buildings between the second and third walls, to the far right side, and climbed all the way to the top before jumping onto a roof behind it. He kept himself as far away from the guards as possible, all the way to the right side of the fortress. When he turned the corner of the wall, there were no soldiers in sight. They were all at the front, facing the mob at the gates. Dameon had no trouble climbing the third wall, and then the keep itself. He went across the tallest roof, to where Rda was perched, and the falcon flew off. When he hung his head in front of the window to look through, he saw him. It was the one face he had never forgotten for ten years. Nouzari himself was sitting at a desk, writing on a piece of paper with a quill. He seemed to have little care about the angry citizens of Noglidas that wanted his head, and had gathered right outside his doorstep. Dameon took out his translocator and tossed it into the office, and it took him inside, where he faced Nouzari. The assassin took his hood down and drew his cutlass. He stared at the Lord of Astros with anger, who stared back with dread in return. Nouzari was too frightened to even call the guards.

"Look at me," Dameon growled, his voice filled with rage. He threw the table out from in front of him, then pointed his cutlass at Nouzari.

"Look at me!" Dameon shouted.

"I don't know you," Nouzari shuddered.

"Of course you don't," Dameon spat. "I'm just one of thousands whose parents you've murdered. Well, you won't kill any more." Dameon drove his cutlass straight through Nouzari's lower chest, making sure to notice every ounce of terror in his face before he died. The Lord of Astros was then lifeless. When Dameon pulled his sword out of his body, though, there was no blood on its blade.

"What the hell?" he cursed. There was no blood bleeding from Nouzari's corpse, either, but he still wasn't moving, or even twitching. Dameon looked closely at the wound that his sword made in Nouzari's chest. He noticed a few electrical sparks flashing from several wires that the cutlass severed. The damn thing was an android of Nouzari. Dameon gave an angry shout as he kicked the robotic shell all the way to the wall. He then climbed back down the walls of the fortress, to where he could see Shala, Alexius, and Zoya, and rolled the android's head to them. The three of them stared at the hunk of metal with confusion when they saw the severed wires through the neck sparking.

"Is that... Nouzari?" Shala asked.

"No, it's not," Dameon snapped. "It's a damn bio mechanical duplicate. The real Nouzari is probably miles away from this city."

"Of course, he is," Alexius growled, then he stomped on the head with his armor-plated foot, crushing it.

"How are we going to find the bastard?" Shala wondered.

"We'll find him, eventually," Dameon assured. "He lives as a coward, so I'll make sure he dies like one."