Emergence: Chapter 64

Arms reached from the darkness as the fires raged around him. Shaking them off, he limped to his ship, barely mustering the energy to clamber into the cockpit, leaving a thick trail of blood in his midst before he blacked out...

“Ash?” Carnat shook Ash awake, knocking him from his slumber.

“What?” Ash rubbed his eyes. “Is it time?”

Carnat nodded. “We're over Prauw now. We should kill the Dominort and his accomplice before they land.”

Ash nodded. “Makes sense.” He shifted nervously. “Kinda wish we hadn't sold my weapons now.”

Carnat shrugged. “You were never great with that anyway.” He grew part of his exoskeleton into a blade-like shape, before snapping it off with a wince and handing it to Ash. “Here.” Ash took the weapon, finding it surprisingly heavy. “If I don't kill them, you need to.”

Ash nodded confidently, but inside he felt anything but.

“Ready?”

“Yeah.” Ash nodded again.

Carnat pushed a button on the wall, and the cargo hold's door slid open with a hiss.

“What was that noise?” came a voice from elsewhere in the ship.

“Shit!” Carnat hissed, before running and dragging Ash with him to hide around a corner further from the cargo hold and the cockpit.

The Dominort was the one who investigated, his hulking figure stooped over in the cramped corridors, tusks almost scraping the sides. He looked at the cargo hold, and closed the door again. “Something was in the cargo hold; we've got stowaways.”

Ash's heart beat faster than it ever had before. His hope of escape, of a new life, was over if the Dominort found them.

“Should I hunt them, Lord Xaos?” The Dominort sniffed the air.

“Lord Xaos?” Ash mouthed to Carnat, who rolled his eyes.

“Kill him too.” Carnat mouthed back. “They're both planning to use the Corlens.”

The Hak'i sniffed the air again, and his head turned directly to Ash and Carnat's hiding spot. “Oh shit...” Ash muttered.

“You don't usually swear.” Carnat sounded surprised.

“It seemed appropriate.” Ash hissed back. “What do we do?”

“I'll take on the Hak'i. You take out Xaos.” Carnat sized up the Hak'i. “I think you've got the easier job.”

“Yeah, so do I.”

Carnat stepped out from their hiding place with his hands in the air, as if surrendering. “You've got me, oh great Dominort.”

The Hak'i smiled and his tusks moved. “You're the arena fighter who escaped. Is the other one with you...Ash?”

Ash followed Carnat out, hands up. “Yeah, I'm here. Please don't kill us. Forgive us.”

The Dominort snorted. “You defied my orders, my wishes, and the rules of the arena. Punishment is death.”

With that, the Dominort lowered his head and charged at Carnat, who shifted his stance and braced for the impact. The Dominort was surprisingly fast, but that didn't matter; as the hulking figure hit Carnat, he steeled himself, holding the Hak'i in place, before twisting and throwing him through an interior wall. “Go!” He yelled to Ash, who nodded and began to run.

Ash ran through the twisting corridors, ignoring most of the empty doors, and drew the makeshift dagger from his pocket before entering the cockpit. He looked into it, and saw no trace of the Xaosian. Edging forwards slowly and quietly, he entered the cockpit.

An arm grabbed his throat, tightening on it as Xaos hissed in his ear, “Did you think you could catch me out so easily?” Ash felt a metal cylinder being pushed into his back; a gun barrel. “Drop the dagger.” Ash did not. “I said drop it.” The hiss became more malevolent, sending chills up Ash's spine. “Do it!”

Ash moved his arm, extending it outwards as if to drop the dagger further from him, before he reached up, stabbing into the Xaosian's arm. Xaos recoiled with a scream of pain, bringing the gun up to shoot at Ash, but one shot missed, and the other grazed his arm. Ash winced, before running at Xaos, stabbing him in his gun-hand. Xaos dropped the gun as blood poured out of the wound and he fell to the ground, where Ash leapt on top of him, before Xaos head-butted Ash in the nose. Ash heard something crack, but he didn't think his nose was broken. He brought the knife up to plunge into Xaos one last time, and stabbed it into his throat. The Lord gave a final gargle, and when he breathed his final breaths, more blood poured out of the wound until his head fell back and his eyes glazed over.

Ash wiped the dagger on Xaos's robes, before putting in his pocket again. He walked over to the flight controls and saw that the course was set for Munau, Prauw's capital. “Nuh-uh.” Ash muttered to himself. There was a chance that Carnat might not defeat the Hak'i, they were well-known for being resilient. Ash reprogrammed the co-ordinates for the ship's destination so it would not land at the spaceport in Munau, but instead crash into the spaceport, hopefully killing the bastard. Ash walked over to Xaos's prone corpse and picked up his gun; it could come in handy.

A scaled hand grabbed his ankle.

And pulled him down to the ground. He hit his head with a loud thunk and for a moment he saw nothing but darkness. What the hell? Xaos stood above him, snatching the gun from his grasp. “You can't kill me, Ash.” Xaos croaked, blood pouring from his throat wound with every syllable. “Xaos is gone, but his body still serves a purpose.”

Ash ignored Xaos's voice; he'd think about that later. He swung his legs round, uprooting the Xaosian, sending him crashing to the floor. Ash grabbed the gun, and tried to wrench it from his vice-like grip with one hand, before drawing the dagger with the other, stabbing holes in Xaos's chest. But whatever was controlling the corpse gave no reaction to the pain, and seemed unphased by the blood pouring out, and instead tried to break Ash's grip on his gun. Ash stabbed the blade into Xaos's wrist, and the gun dropped to the floor; must have severed a nerve. Grabbing the gun, he shot the corpse in the head, over and over until it was nothing but shattered bones, blood and chunks of brain. He tossed the gun aside; it was empty now.

Collapsing to the floor, Ash took a second to get his breath back, before getting back up with only one desire: to survive. As he ran back to assist Carnat, he failed to notice the fractured Inducer mixed in with Xaos's remains.

“Carnat!” Ash called. “We've gotta get out of here!”

Ash came round the corner just in time to see Carnat be stabbed in stomach by one of the Dominort's tusks, cutting through the exoskeleton. Carnat roared in pain, before returning the blow. The Dominort stumbled backwards and Carnat hobbled away, muttering “Agreed.” to Ash. Ash put his arm around him and dragged him to the escape pods. The Hak'i roared again, and Ash sped up, heart racing and sweat drenching his body as he pulled Carnat into the pod, sealing the door behind them.

“Which one's the eject?” Ash yelled, panicked as he heard the Dominort pounding on the door.

Carnat hit a red button and Ash felt the weightlessness as the pod dropped.

“You ok?” Ash asked his friend.

Carnat nodded, but groaned as he did so. “That bastard did a number on me, but I'll live; we heal much faster than you humans.” He looked Ash up and down. “That your blood, or his?”

Ash looked at his clothes and found that they had almost been dyed completely red. “His.”

Carnat looked shocked. “How many times did you stab him?”

“I had to kill him twice.” Ash said, voice shaking. “I killed him once, and then he came back. Pain didn't bother him when he came back, and he referred to Xaos in the third person. As if his corpse was being controlled by something else.”

Carnat made a thoughtful noise. “Maybe this eplains why the Hak'i Dominort and the Xaosian Lord are going to war with the Empire. Maybe they're under control of...something or someone and they're fitted with something to make them under control even after death.”

“It's probably in the head then, because I took his gun and turned that to mush, and he seemed to be dead then.”

Carnat considered this. “Makes sense.”

There was an unmistakable thud as the pod hit the ground, and Ash was jolted out of his seat before the door opened. “Oh shit.” Ash muttered as he took in the devastation. Trenches lined the streets, buildings only half existed and fires raged in the distance, throwing the horizon into a grey enigma. Corpses lined the streets; some in grey armour, some in black. “Do you know where we are?”

Carnat looked at the display in the pod. “Looks like we're in Atui, a small town not far from Munau. But it looks like we just got out of the fire...and into the frying pan.”

“What's going on over there?” Ash pointed.

Carnat saw it; a man in black had a woman – a seemingly innocent woman – by the throat. “We should have a look.”

Ash and Carnat jogged over and Carnat shouted, “Put her down!”

The armour-clad figure turned to see them, before throwing the woman down. She clutched her throat and breathed hoarsely, sprawled on the ground. The figure faced them, drawing a blade from his belt.

“This guy means business.” Carnat muttered to Ash. “I think he might be an Assassin.”

A sound echoed overhead, like a thousand mini-explosions. Ash looked up to see hundreds – no, thousands of silver spheres flying over them. “What the hell are they?” He asked.

Carnat's face fell. “Those are Corlen Warspheres.”

Ash looked up and watched them fly over, before turning his focus back to the Assassin walking towards them. “Do you think we'll get out of this alive?”

Carnat shook his head. “Not at all. But let's take this bastard with us.”