Guardian(Part III): Desolation

Chapter 31: Haemon

The ground began to shake, and I could feel an aura of darkness outside the walls of the Home Base. There must have been portals opening above the ground outside the walls to send Turned and other monsters to attack us. I could sense a feeling of immense dread from Finn and the other Guardians I stood with, but Mom had no such feeling. We had both fought against armies of darkness enough times to not be frightened by them. We could hear the sounds of marching in the distance. They were Turned soldiers wearing metal greaves. I wanted to fly into the air to meet them in battle just to see how many I could kill by myself, so I did. Mom reached up to grab my foot as I flew into the air, but I was already as high up as Maddy was before I dove towards the battlefield. I went towards the source of the aura of darkness, the front lines of Thulgrium's army. I twirled my staff in my hand as I slammed into a shield-bearer, killing him instantly. I didn't bother finding out exactly how much Turned I was up against. I just began to fight. The other Turned surrounding me began to attack back, either with their assault rifles or black blades. I managed to deflect every swing from their cursed swords or spears, and shatter every orange plasma bolt fired my way with the blunts of my staff. I didn't feel myself tiring or becoming exhausted, even after it felt like I had been swinging my staff for hours. I was sure I had killed at least a hundred, if not more, by now. They were mostly riflemen and shield-bearers, and a few juggernauts with hand-held cannons or heavy machine guns, but they were all equally easy to kill. The real danger was how many of them there were. I didn't run into any War Machines yet, though. Yet. After what I saw in the Dragon Spine Mountains, I was prepared for at least one to come out of nowhere, because I knew that there were a few that could. I continued to carve my way through Thulgrium's army, when all of the Turned that surrounded me began to die one by one, and not by my staff. I followed the trail of bodies dropping with my eyes as I tried to figure out who was the one killing them. Once they stopped dying, I saw Mom standing above their corpses, with her aura blade emitter set to a long glaive.

"What were you thinking!?" she shouted.

"That I needed to find out exactly how much Turned we were up against," I frantically answered. That was a lie. I just wanted to fight and grew impatient. Mom could easily sense that I was lying to her, though.

"How many, then?" she questioned, crossing her arms.

My heart began to race with terror. I didn't have an answer for her because I didn't fly over the wall to count the Turned soldiers. My shirt was bouncing off my chest because my heart was beating so fast, and my mind was throbbing against the inside of my skull. I blurted out the first thing that I thought of.

"A lot?" I answered, hoping it would satisfy Mom. I could tell from the look on her face that it didn't.

"Well, there was a lot," I added. "I was losing my patience, okay!?"

"Haemon!" Mom suddenly screamed, hurling her aura blade emitter my way. I looked over my head and saw it impale a Turned juggernaut with a machine gun in his hands. I assumed Mom was done scolding me at that point. More Turned emerged from the woods surrounding us, and Mom and I came together, putting our backs towards each other. Mom reached her hand out, recalling her aura blade emitter back into her hand, still set to a glaive.

"At least there's not one of those... what did you call it?" she said.

"A CDM," I reminded.

"Yes, one of those," said Mom.

I looked at the darkened soldiers that stood around us. Riflemen and shield-bearers, mostly. They wouldn't present much of a challenge as long as Mom and I stood together. The riflemen fired from their assault rifles, and the shield-bearers charged forth, swinging their black swords. Mom wrapped her arm around me and pulled me close to her, then unleashed a powerful aura blast all around us. All of the Turned surrounding us were reduced to ash, and I realized what Mom had just done. She grabbed me to draw from both my power and hers in order to deliver that aura blast. I would have appreciated it if she would have told me about that strategy before doing it, but we were surrounded by what must have been a hundred Turned, and there were still thousands more. The army's aura of darkness was hanging over the entire forest, but we could sense several smaller ones that were all around us. They felt like Turned, but I couldn't see anything.

"Hmm," I hummed. I could hear footsteps coming towards us, but I couldn't even see anything that would be making those footsteps' noise. I then heard a footstep right in front of me, and I knew what it was.

"Cloakers!" I shouted. I swung my staff out in front of me, and hit a Turned that wore lighter armor than the others, and held two shortswords with black blades. He was hidden under active camouflage, and there were others that surrounded us, and they revealed themselves when they saw their comrade die.

"Stay close," Mom warned.

"Where else will I go?" I wondered. All of the cloakers charged forward with their black blades at their sides. There were a dozen of them, with half of them attacking Mom and the other half attacking me. I deflected a swing from one before smacking him with the other end of my staff, killing him, then another one attacked. His black sword bounced off my aura shield, then I swung my staff at his chest, sending him back into the woods. When the others rushed forward, I flew into the air, then went down, slamming the blunt of my staff into the ground, unleashing an aura blast all around where it hit. Two of the cloakers were dead, and one of the last two charged forward. He swung one of his shortswords at me, and I blocked the attack with my staff before swinging it at his face, slamming it into his head, and almost knocking it off his neck. When the last one lunged forward, he swung both of his black swords at me, and when I raised my staff to block the attack, my it flew from my hands! The cloaker swung a second time, and both blades striking my aura shield completely shattered it. Before he could swing again, I warped behind him and tackled him to the ground. I stood on his back and grabbed his leather cuirass, then I fired my propulsion boots. The Turned was burned to ash, and once his body was completely gone, I suddenly flew into the air. I flew back down as my aura shield came back, then picked my staff back up. Mom's attackers were dead at her feet, but we both knew that this battle wasn't over. Before we knew it, more Turned surrounded us.

"Stay close," I warned, as Mom and I put out backs together.

"Where else will I go?" Mom jested.

Even though she was joking, I didn't sense any doubt in her voice. We both knew what was going on here. We were in this together.