Heir Of Chaos

The feeling of freefall hit Dale for the second time in one day. If there was one merit to it, it was that he was a little bit more familiar with it than before.

He planted his foot on the ledge of the middle floor and kicked off the watch tower, putting some extra distance between him and the assassins.

It seemed like he was wasting his time by trying to run. Maybe he was but it was useful to take the fight out of the watch tower.

Not only did he have to preserve the only habitable structure in a 200-mile radius, but he also wanted to ensure that the phone that had been tossed aside wasn’t completely damaged.

As he hit the sand, he spared a second to look at the sky. The usually azure firmament was an orangish hue, signifying oncoming sunset.

Dale sucked his teeth and coated his body in lightning, dashing forward.

He barely moved a few meters away when what was unmistakably a foot slammed into him, throwing him down.

His sabers flew from his weakened grip, landing on the sand a few inches from him.

Dale crawled forward as quickly as he could but a foot stepped on his hand. He groaned and turned to look at who was stepping on him.

Much to his surprise — shamefully — he saw a woman he was unfamiliar with... well, more unfamiliar with.

She had icy blue hair and porcelain skin. It was as though someone had animated a perfect doll.

It was as mesmerizing as it was unnerving.

Dale didn’t ask any questions and slammed his palm into her heel, using Energy Pulse. The wave of energy coursed through her foot yet seemed to have no effect.

"Interesting." The desert air seemed to strain itself to carry her words forward. Her voice was smooth and so alluring.

It wasn’t hard to assume that she was the leader of the assassins as she was the only one who hadn’t covered her face.

’What the hell is up with my luck?!’ Dale was about to try again but she didn’t let him.

She raised her foot off his hand, kicking his jaw and disorientating his focus. The small reprieve from being trampled on allowed him to reach his sabers.

He aimed the tip at her and fired a bolt of lightning. She lazily shifted, avoiding the bolt.

Yet that was all he wanted. He grabbed the other saber and tried to sprint, but before he could, her other foot slammed into his torso, lifting him a good meter in the air.

If he had gotten off with a few scratches before, then he for sure had bruises.

Dale landed with the grace of a falling rock. He turned over and faced her, raising his hand. "Okay. Okay. Let’s talk. You know what they say, ’the pen is mightier than the sword’, so let’s use our words."

From behind her, he could see the other two assassins leave the watch tower. They quickly closed in on them.

The lady with the poison ability skill pointed a finger at him. "He killed Ghost!" She screamed.

Dale forced a wry smile, "It was self-defense. You can’t attack me and expect me to take it." He knew he was probably digging his grave but he would die either way.

The woman with icy blue hair turned her head to stare at her. "And where were you?" Despite the evident anger in her voice, it was as smooth as ever.

"I was just recovering from one of his attacks." She replied, seeming a little nervous. Clearly, they were afraid of the lady with icy blue hair.

Dale noted this mentally but said nothing, just watching.

The lady with icy blue hair turned to him. "I am Sera. He’s Block and she’s Toxin." Sera spoke.

Toxin seemed just as shocked as he was. Clearly, she hadn’t expected Sera to speak to the one they had just been hunting.

Block grunted, not saying anything coherent.

As Dale watched the otherwise comical interaction, he dropped his hand and gripped the handle of his sabers.

The poison had numbed his legs a lot but there was still feeling within them. At least he could hope to escape.

He raised a finger and pointed it behind them. "What’s that?!" Dale screamed in his most convincing voice.

Sera, Toxin, and Block looked behind at the watch tower.

Dale stood and started sprinting. The lightning coating him augmented his speed and reaction time so he covered a large distance within a few seconds.

Even without looking behind him, he could feel someone giving chase to him. The blood running down his head hadn’t reduced in flow and more black spots started to appear.

His fingertips also started to lose all sensation. It wouldn’t take long before he either passed out or died.

And if he stayed with them then it would be no different. It really was a lose-lose situation.

Perhaps it would have been if Dale were a normal person. No, far from it, he was a cockroach who would even betray himself if it meant that he would survive.

That was how he had survived the slums and it was how he would survive now.

He aimed the tip of his saber at a random hill of sand and started blasting lightning bolts at it.

A few were destroyed with no effect but some were different. They collapsed and giant worms sprang out.

The worms started moving towards them. Some moved to him while others attacked the assassins.

He wasn’t so deluded as to expect the worms to kill them but at the very least they would buy him some time to escape.

The ground in front of Dale split open with a worm jumping out. He leaped over its open mouth and continued running.

’Shit! Shit! Shit!’ He could feel his grip weakening and even his mind had started to slow down.

A sharp jolt ran down his spine and he fell to the ground paralyzed.

The black dots in his vision had almost all connected. With the spare seconds of consciousness he had, he forced himself to turn around.

Dale’s jaw dropped as he stared at what he struggled to believe.

Sera was in the air with luminous golden wings spread out behind her back. She had a simple bow in her hand.

Dozens of worms were swarming around her yet she seemed completely uninterested. Her slender fingers drew on the string of the bow and the world itself seemed to halt.

As she pulled, specks of golden energy materialized and coalesced over her fingers. They slowly formed a golden arrow.

She let go of the string and let the arrow loose. It scattered mid-air into dozens of smaller arrows that perfectly impaled the worms, ending them on the spot.

With the wings, bow, and magnificent arrow, she seemed like a warrior angel come down to Earth.

’Curse my luck.’ Was his last thought before he passed out.