Two Halves: chapter 34

34, woo!

Behind them the melted wall of concrete began to vibrate and crack. A chip shattered and spun out across the floor. From the small hole a series of bullets began to whiz out and bury itself in the opposite wall for Nicolas and Zeckle had thrown themselves to the floor. Bestalel stood there and aimed with his hand rifle and a column of superheated plasma was released from the barrel, it burned a small black whole in the concrete and there was a cry as a force shield was overloaded and the man was hit by the charge.

 

“They are using kinetic rounds, which gives us a advantage. They also don’t seem to be any of the Academy’s soldiers, or that round would not have penetrated his armor. I expect the third man would have ran to tell his commanding officer.” Bestalel flicked a small switch on the butt of the gun and looked at a display inside its stock. He looked back at the cracked wall at the moment then turned around and began to run down the hallway. Nicolas picked himself off the floor and followed him, and was aware of the distant sounds of shouts.

 

On the way down the hallway they passed several more passages with different signs, but none of them the one they wanted. Suddenly a small explosion erupted behind them, and a cloud of debris flew out of the hallway they had been in.

 

“They broke through the wall, we have to hurry!” Nicolas yelled at Bestalel’s back in front of him. Zeckle was loading another bolt into her crossbow, though this one was far more bulky and was tipped with a jet-black stone. A shout echoed from behind them; Nicolas turned around and saw several men rounding the corner. Their armor was far larger and bulkier than the previous guards, anti-siege armor. The force shield surrounding them was powerful enough to be visible, and shimmered a dull blue in the light.

 

He heard a grunt from Zeckle as she fired the crossbow. The black tipped bolt seemed to vibrate for a moment, then split. Instead of one, eight bolts flew through the air. Each connected with the others by thin strings of rippling black energy. The bolts embedded themselves in the walls, ceiling, and floor of the hallway near the guards.  Then small lines suddenly became rope like tentacles of black lightning connecting the arrows, and as one of the guards approached the energy leaped out and hit him full in the chest. He was blasted back off his feet and crumpled on the floor several feet from the wall.  It didn’t overload his shield, but it had gotten close; the two generators units on his back belched steam as it tried to compensate for the strain.

 

“I bought us time, but it isn’t going to last for long.” gasped Zeckle; she was breathing hard after producing that strike. Her demon magic had put quite a strain on her. Demon magic had never worked like human magic; they had no need for he runes and incantations that magi employed. All they did was concentrate in order to mold their essence into different forms, one of which was now the bolts inside the walls. Ahead of them Bestalel turned down a corridor, and a shout reverberated from within the pathway as several bullets buried themselves in the wall.

 

As they turned down the corridor Bestalel was standing over two bodies while he was holding a third by the collar. His force shield was bending around Bestalel’s fist, and small arcs of lightning spread from small organic circuits up and down Bestalel’s arm. From his wrist to his shoulder golden metallic membranes glowed, and small rushed of electricity jumped around them. The fabric of his shirt was burning and slowly flaking off in bits of ash.

 

Bestalel pulled the guard until his feet were dangling off the ground, and he was spluttering incoherently. Bestalel reared his shoulder back and smashed the guard into the wall cracking the concrete behind him,

 

“Access codes! What are they!” Roared Bestalel. The guard’s eyes were wide with panic, and he was gasping for breath as he tried to speak. His hands tried to remove Bestalel’s, but his grip was deadlocked around his collar.

 

“3-8-7-6! It’s the code to the door, just don’t hurt me!” Bestalel’s lips curled into a grin, which on his normally stoic face looked disturbing. He raised his other arm and brought it close to the guard’s face. His skin crawled and from under it extended several semi-organic appendages. Suddenly the strands sprung forward and cracked through his shield and buried themselves in the guard’s throat. For a moment his eyes widened in horror and pain, but then he went limp, and Bestalel released him. The guard crumpled onto the floor, and sat there in a heap.

 

“He told you what we wanted, why did you kill him!” demanded Nicolas. Bestalel turned to him and for moment his grin persisted, and then his features reaffirmed themselves into a stony blank expression.

 

“I didn’t kill him, that was a sedative. He will wake up in a few days.” Bestalel said. His voice had returned to their normal tones.

 

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but they just broke through my barrier.” blurted Zeckle. There was a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead from the strain of maintaining the barrier. Bestalel turn and began to sprint down the hallway again; the golden circuitry on his arm slowly faded as he continued down the corridor, Nicolas and Zeckle in his wake.

 

“Once we get into DRG 3’s control room I will cut us off from the rest of the base. Then I will open the portal inside of the control room.” suddenly Bestalel skidded to a halt in front of a door, and stared to input the code the guard had given them. After a moment the door began to release several heavy bolts with a series of clanks. Bestalel gripped the wheel in the center of the door and pulled, with a screech of heavy hinges.

 

Inside were several men sitting at console. Bestalel ran to the nearest one and grabbed him from his chair, and before the other could react he hurled him out of the open door. One got up and looked to about to shout, but Bestalel hit him hard in the stomach and hurled him from the room as well. The last man scrambled over his keyboard in an attempt to lock it, but Bestalel gripped his wrist, and with a sickening pop broke it, and as he wailed in pain he joined his friends in the hallway.

 

A yell came from outside as they pulled shut the massive door. Bestalel ran to one of the several control panels and typed furiously. The door’s dead bolts slid into place along with several more that hadn’t previously been engaged.

 

“Nicolas! Melt it!” said Bestalel urgently from the console. Nicolas obliged and pressed his hands against the doors cold surface, and spoke a long incantation under his breath. Just saying the spell name would have taken to long, saying the incantation as well gave it the extra power to melt the door immediately, turning it into one solid piece of steel. As he drew his hands away a force shell spread across the walls cutting the room off from the rest of the base.

 

After nearly a minute of typing and muffled shouts from beyond the door a small patch of air began to bend. It was as if reality undulated around a thin line of space near the third console. Then reality split in two. Beyond the portal looked to be a dark storage room, several wooden boxes sat around and a single bare bulb on the ceiling illuminated it.

 

Zeckle immediately leaped through and stood in the room beyond, beckoning to Nicolas and Bestalel. Nicolas stepped through, and heard a spluttering cough from behind him.

 

“Hurry, they’ll probably get in soon.” Shouted Nicolas. Bestalel was doubled over in the chair he had been sitting on, coughing loudly.

 

“One, moment. Must destroy evidence.” he mumbled between coughs. Then with a hacking wretch something plopped into his hand. It was small, white, and stained with blood. Bestalel smashed it onto the counted where is molded like putty and pressed a small black pad on its surface. Then calmly got up and walked through the opening and into the room. The last image of the room was it erupting into a violent ball of incandescent blue fire, before the portal abruptly died out.

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait on this chapter. I was busy yesterday with my grandpa, but today was also my last day of school. This means my writing is going to increase dramatically. Say hello to 4k words a day :)

P.S. Bestalel is such a bad ass in this chapter.

Reviews

[Miss Coral]

Some grammatical errors and typos, but overall another good installment. Great job. :)

[Aggie Skeleton]

Nice action, just what I've been dying for. I haven't seen much of it latley.

[James Watts]

From the small hole a series of bullets began to whiz out and bury itself in the opposite wall for Nicolas and Zeckle had thrown themselves to the floor.(From the small hole a series of bullets began to whiz out and bury themselves in the opposite wall for Nicolas and Zeckle had thrown themselves to the floor.)

Noticed some punctuation and a few -ly adverbs that could be removed, but nothing major. The action is fast paced and pulls the story along fine.

[Dutch Jr.]

Cool. I like this chapter, let's keep the pace moving.

[Emily Paige]

Your a good writer

[Nicaushio Yamaki]

keep up the good work