maga366
03-19-2008, 01:22 AM
Hey guys. this is my first novel, and this is Chapter One. ( rough draft)
i have inspiration from Hellgate London, but my plot is nothing like it.
The onlything similar is that there are demons and things that fight them.
Chapter 1
Rome, Italy
2031
The crunch of rubble that littered the destroyed streets of the once beautiful Rome under Kale’s heavy boot pierced the night. This worried Kale deeply, as he did not want to attract any unwanted attention from nearby hostiles. “Tread lightly. We cannot afford any more loss. Night is upon us, the Stalkers will be hunting. Be on your guard.” Kale looked over at his friends that were accompanying him on the scavenge for food and to look for survivors. “Aye, this much is true. But if they do come, I am ready for them.” Blaise tossed his sword from hand to hand, with a childish grin on his scarred face. Almost a year ago, a demon had attacked him by surprise and grated his face with its claws, leaving gaping gashes. The demon was about to kill him when Kale took hold of his sword and swung it at the demon on Blaise’s chest, and cut the demon in two. Although Blaise was very skilled, his daring ways would surely get him killed.
“Unnecessary danger is just that Blaise; unnecessary.” Nathanial gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“He’s right. Let’s move on. Choose your steps wisely.”
They started to move on, when they realized that Leander wasn’t with them.
They looked back and Leander was knelt on the blackened earth. The body of a small girl was in front of him, ravaged by some wretched demon. Her lifeless eyes stared into Leander’s. There was a small, bloodstained doll lying beside her, with its arm ripped off.
“She’s just a girl, Kale. How many more have died like her? Left on the streets to rot?”
Tears were visible in his eyes, and the sorrow he felt was passed on to the 3 other men. Ever since the invasion, the deaths have been en masse. Women and child, slaughtered like pigs, littered the streets. This was seen often, but they never got used to it. The Sentinel did their best to recover the bodies and bury them, but they always seemed to come back, always seemed to be more death.
Kale knew they had to keep moving, but he couldn’t just leave the body on the street.
There was no way to bury the girl, they didn’t have the time. Nathanial noticed a hole in the ground made by a tree being ripped from its roots, probably from a behemoth demon, looking to eat a human that had, in a last desperate attempt, ran up a tree. There was a body tangled among the boughs, but there was no head. Definitely a behemoth, thought Kale. Behemoths have flat teeth similar to that of a cow, that were meant to crush bone, or in this case, a skull.
“Kale, do you think that hole in the ground near that fallen tree will be suffice?” He gestured to the black pit.
“Yes, Nathanial, that will work, but we have to cover her body up, or else it be eaten by some scavenging Fiends.” Leander picked up the body as gently as he could, for the body was almost in two. He placed the little girl’s body in the hole, rested the doll on her chest, and they covered it in slabs of debris from the destroyed buildings. They took a moment of silence for the girl.
“God rest your soul. I hope you are in a better place then this hell.”
Leander felt a sudden surge of anger and a great sadness.
“You speak of God?! There is no God! If there was, he wouldn’t have let the demons invade us,”
Leander was furious, “Look around you Kale! Does this look like God is here with us, protecting us?”
He waved his hand towards the destroyed buildings, and the desecrated city of Rome, once tall and proud in its beauty. When the demons came, they swept the lands like a plague of locust, destroying everything in its path. The world was in the rotting, scaled hand of the demons. The world’s population was incredibly low; most had been killed within the first four months of the invasion.
“Leander, you must control your self. Do you have a death wish? I will not let your foolishness get you or anyone else killed”
Kale’s voice was quiet, but it held such an air of authority that Leander, though still angry, remained quite.
“I understand your pain, really I do. We all do. We can only take it one day at a time and focus on surviving. That’s all any of us can do.”
They moved on, searching the blackened streets of Rome.
“Hold steady men; airborne wraiths above.” Kale pointed out the huge pale skinned demons above, which landed on top of a large building. Wraiths had pale blue skin, almost purplish, with darker colored wings. Even from a distance, their glowing red eyes pierced the night like hot embers. They were lucky they weren’t seen, the party didn’t have the resolve for a fight with wraiths. They were a formidable force.
The men backed into an alleyway to avoid the fight. That’s when they heard the odd scuffling sounds behind them. They jumped to face the sound and readied themselves for an attack.
“Don’t strike!! Please, help me!” It was a woman, covered in dirt and grime, with bags under her eyes. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and looked no more than 25 years of age. She would have been pretty if it wasn’t for the wounds and the dirt and grime that coated her skin. She appeared to have not eaten in days, and could barely stand. She wouldn’t have made it through the night. When she saw that it was a troop of Sentinels, she realized there was hope of her survival.
“Oh thank the heavens,” she started to cry, “Sentinel have come.”
She started to get up, when a clawed hand reached out and grabbed the woman’s head. A claw pierced the woman’s eye, and long gashes opened up on her face. Blood poured from it and her bloodcurdling screams echoed into the night. A wraiths screech was heard far away as if to laugh at the women’s pain.
“Stalkers!!!!” The men were equipped with Shredders; a pistol that shoots out wire nets that when on impact trap the victim in its metallic grasp and tightens, digging into the skin, and eventually, shredding the body into nothing more than a pile of gory mess.
They fired hopelessly into the shadows. Stalkers were almost invincible in the shadows, but in the light, they were helpless.
The woman was dragged into the shadows and the sparks from the metallic net lit up the alleyway enough to see a pack of four stalkers tearing the woman limb from limb. The Stalker that grabbed her head squeezed it, and it turned to mush in his hand. The cracking of her skull and bones was audible even over the screams and growls.
Nathanial was the most inexperienced and wasn’t used to such a sight, he gagged and retched. This wasn’t the time for that, Kale reminded him.
“Keep firing!!!! Show this hell spawn no mercy!” The tangy, metallic smell of blood was inescapable, and it filled the air, which would surely attract other demons. Kale unlatched a Sundisk from his belt and threw it into the pack of stalkers, now feasting on the shredded body, totally unaware of the barrage of fire they were under. Stalkers, when in the shadows, were essentially shadows, they weren’t solid beings. But in the light, the ultra-violet rays reacted with something in their skin, and solidified them. The Sundisk hit the wall exploded into a blinding light. There was the flash of light, and then the shrieks of the Stalkers. When the Sentinels vision wasn’t hindered by the bright light, they saw the Stalker’s bodies, now solidified from the UV rays of the Sundisk, smoldering and the skin was boiling away, revealing muscle and bone underneath. The smell of burning flesh invaded their nostrils. The men took up their swords and thrust them into the bodies of the wretched things. Black blood oozed from the wounds, and dripped to the ground. One of them grabbed Kales throat and squeezed. Kale stared into his eyes, hatred visible on every inch of his face.
“Die, you wretched beast” The grip the demon had on Kales neck was weak; life was fleeting from it fast. With its last breath it screamed into Kale’s face as loud as it could muster. Its putrid breath burned his nostrils, and acidic spit sprayed on to his face, burning him. Kale twisted his blade and pulled up, and its innards poured out. The life completely faded from its eyes. Kale removed his blade and kicked the demon down. The body smoldered a bit more, then turned to ash. Suddenly, there was a demonic shriek, followed by the cries of Leander. A nearby stalker had heard the cries of its brothers and came to investigate. It knocked Leander to the ground and he felt the air rush from his lungs. His armor was being slashed and clawed, and the sound of claw on metal rang out; sparks flying. Leander powered his armor and grabbed the beast’s throat. With his free hand he hammered the stalker’s head over and over again, dull thud after thud, until the thick skull cracked and caved in under the relentless blows from the Sentinel’s armored hand. Its grip went slack and it went dead weight in Leander’s hand. He tossed the carcass aside, and activated the epinephrine auto injector. He needed energy, and he needed rest.
The attack was over, but the woman was utterly destroyed. Her remains were scattered among the various pieces of rubble and shrapnel.
“Foul beasts!! Damn them to hell!” Kale punched the wall beside him, and sent cracks up it like an intricate spider web. Kales armor allowed him inhuman strength, an enchantment made by the Psion elders allowed this.
The toll of battle and the unfailing sight of death was a burden on Kale, on all of them.
Kale bowed his head and hit the wall once more, and pieces of brick started to fall from it. The sound it made when it struck the ground was odd and out of place after the screeching of the stalkers and the screams of the helpless woman as she was murdered.
“Kale, we have to move on. There is nothing we can do.” Blaise put a comforting hand on Kales broad shoulder, what else could be done? Kale straightened himself and wiped the dark hair from his eyes. This reminded Kale that he needed it cut, for in battle, having hair in your eyes could lead to your death. He also needed to think about getting protection for his throat. It’s as if the demons can sense that weak spot, and knew to target it. If it weren’t for the sword thrust into the demon when it grabbed his throat, he would be dead. He was very lucky, and he knew it. He had to stay strong; any weakness at all could be perilous.
Although they didn’t want to have to leave the body the way it was, they had no choice. The smell of blood attracts the demons, and avoiding a confrontation is always the best thing.
“We have to continue on, we don’t want to be here when the fiends come to feast.” Kale said. “Kale, we should burn the body. The stench will be horrendous, but at least the demons won’t be here when we come back this way to get to the sanctuary.” said Nathanial.
“Good thinking, Nate. Men, grab what you can, put it in a pile. We must move quickly,” Kale ordered, “Hold your breath, the smell isn’t as bad, but somehow, its still there.”
The four men salvaged what they could of the woman’s desecrated body and put it in a pile, and took a piece of burning wreckage and lit the pile. It took a few seconds for the blood-soaked flesh to catch, but when it did, the alleyway was filled with a warm glow, which was ruined by the stench of burning blood and flesh. Leander and Nathanial gagged and vomited, and Blaise closed his eyes and looked away, not breathing. Kale stood there, staring at the burning heap, breathing like he normally would. He forced back the need to retch. He was letting this fuel his desire to make the demons pay for what they have done. Not even 10 minutes ago this woman had been crying tears of joy because they were there to save her, and then in mere seconds, her life was over, torn to pieces at the hands of the demons.
The men left with heavy hearts, and continued on through the carnage that had befallen the once great Rome.
High above them, wraiths circled the various towers, scanning for its next victims, letting out shrill wails, as if to say ‘I’m coming for you. You can’t hide, and you will die.’
An image passed through Kale’s mind suddenly; the image of himself and the three men beside him in their teenage years. It was soon time for them to get their armor and sword forged and enchanted by the elders of Psion. Kale let out a sad chuckle, which surprised him. He didn’t know such a thing existed.
“Something funny Kale?” Blaise gave him a puzzled look.
“More ironic and sad than funny.” Kale ran his leathery hands through his lengthy dark hair to get it out of his eyes.
“What is?” Blaise asked, still confused.
“I was just remembering when us four, the best of friends, and we still are, if not closer than we were, were sitting in our sleeping quarters fantasizing about our first set of armor. We were talking about how glorious it would be to have it forged for us, and to receive our first sword.” Kale looked at the ground as he remembered.
“Aye, I remember that,” Leander said suddenly, he was oddly silent until know, “We were convinced it would be the best thing to happen to us. We thought it would be glorious, to be able to defend the human race.”
“Little did we know that when the demons came, they came in unimaginable numbers. Sometimes I think we are doomed to die, and that nothing we can do will save us,” Nathanial shook his head slowly. A deep sadness made his voice hoarse “There is nothing glorious about watching everyone you have ever known and loved be ravaged by demons. It’s not glorious, its pure hell.” Kale stopped and put his armored hand on Nathanial’s shoulder.
“Nathanial, this isn’t over. We can still win this. There is a way to defeat them. There has to be. We just have to find it. Have hope, brother. We will be triumphant.”
The men walked on in silence, memories of the time before the invasion, and their loved ones fleeted through their mind.
Leander’s parents, both killed when a pack of stalkers pulled them into a shadowy death on their way home from the movies. The news and newspapers said it was ‘a wild beast that roamed into the town’, but the Sentinels knew. Wild beast’s don’t shred bodies like these were. This happened before the invasion was in full force.
Blaise’s brother and father, killed while trying to save stranded survivors from a behemoth. When the bodies were recovered, they were missing their heads, as the behemoth had eaten them.
Nathanial’s parents were dead all his life; they died in a car accident when he was almost a year old.
Kale remembered his mother’s beautiful face as it was before the fiends captured her 2 years ago when she was bringing in a supplies truck. He still try’s to force the image of his mother mangled body out of his mind. The demons dropped it in front of the sanctuary gates, as a warning to the Sentinel.
They were so caught up in their memories they almost didn’t hear the screams.
“Did you hear that?” Leander asked, readying his weapon.
“Yes, it’s coming from behind that building to our right.” Blaise pointed to an ice-cream shop, the front wall totally demolished.
They powered their suits, and called upon the enhanced speed their enchanted armor allowed them. They raced behind the building to see a troop of demons, a behemoth and 3 fiends, chasing a woman and 2 children, presumably mother her two kids. This was the worst possible thing to happen at this moment for them. The behemoth, a hulking eleven feet tall, brown scaly-skinned demon had four eyes with no eyelids, and a huge belly. It had large, flabby arms, and when it walked, the earth shook. When it ran, the ground felt like it was falling apart.
The only thing similar between Fiends and Behemoths are their undying thirst for blood, They are about 6 feet tall, and have either blood red scales from head to toe, or dark green scales. They have two rows of serrated teeth that jutted out from their mouth, and have slits for a nose. Large pointy ears made their slanted, yellow eyes look out of place on their hideous face. There body was pure corded muscle, and it helped them to run a lot faster than typical demons.
The horrified shrieks of the victims rang out into the night. The demons were closing in. Something had to be done. The Sentinel didn’t want to see themselves fail ever again.
Kale pulled out his Shredder and fired at the fiend near the rear. The whoosh of the net as it flew towards the Fiend was drowned out by the snarling of the demons. It sparked as it hit its scaly hide, and blew up into a metal death trap that dropped the fiend in its tracks. The net slowly bit into the scales, and then flesh of the demon as it screamed ear splitting screams. After it was through the protective layer, it sliced the demon into mince meat in a matter of seconds, cutting off its cries of pain and anger rather abruptly.
The Sentinel caught up with the demons and Leander had his sword ready to strike. With all his might, propelled by his speed, he swung the sword at the fiend to the left of the behemoth. It struck it in its shoulder and cleaved through the flesh, splattering blood and gore everywhere. The demon was cut in half diagonally. The halves dropped to the ground with a sickening thud, unheard by anyone do to the sounds of combat. The last fiend stopped chasing the woman and children and turned its attention to its attackers. It hunched itself up and flung itself with great speeds at Blaise, who saw it coming and sprinted at its airborne assailant. He collided with it with giant crash with the sound of bones snapping, and sent the demon flying, most of its teeth knocked out, black blood pouring from its mouth. Its left arm was bent all the way back around its body, clearly broken. The demon hadn’t given up and it flung itself at Blaise once more, who caught it with a wire net from the Shredder. It was turned to a pile of gore mid air, which plopped to the ground with a mushy wet splat. The Behemoth wasn’t affected by the nets of the Shredder fired by the Sentinel; it was too big for the net to engulf it. Kale slashed out the back of its legs with his sword, and the Behemoth fell to its knees. Kale seized this chance to plunge its sword straight down into its spine, severing it. The wretched thing was paralyzed from the neck down. It lay on the ground, screaming as loud as it could spraying acidic spit all over them, as the blood from its crippling wound pooled around it. Kale calmly walked up to it, bent low over it, and looked it straight its four eyes, which were wild with rage.
“I am Sentinel Kale Rivera, son of Sentinel Gabriel Rivera. I am the last thing you will see before you die. We will purge the Earth of the hell spawn that have infested it. Every last one. We will not give up. We will not be defeated.”
The demon screamed the loudest it possibly could in Kales face, and Kale screamed back.
“EVERY LAST ONE!!!!!
Kale amplified his strength to the level where if he wanted to, he could uproot a tree and destroy most of it in one hit, and punched the demon in the face as hard as he could. His punch destroyed the demon’s skull with ease and continued on into the earth below with a huge bang, leaving a gore filled pit of demon flesh and splintered bone. Blood and earth splattered everywhere, all over Kale’s armor.
“Kale,” Blaise started to speak but Kale cut him off.
“Get the survivors; make sure they are safe and not hurt. If they are, aid them. We are going back to the sanctuary.”
“Kale,” Blaise attempted again.
Kale lost his cool, angry at himself more than anyone. “BLAISE!” Kale screamed. He immediately regretted doing so. “Get the survivors!” he said in a less angry tone, almost apologetic. Blaise understood.
“Ok Kale.” he said, and went to the aid of the huddled family huddled behind a fallen car.
The trek back to the Sentinel Sanctuary was a long and quiet one; the only sound being made was the terrified whimpering of the small children on the backs of the Leander and Nathanial, and the wails of the Wraiths up above.
* * * * * * *
i have inspiration from Hellgate London, but my plot is nothing like it.
The onlything similar is that there are demons and things that fight them.
Chapter 1
Rome, Italy
2031
The crunch of rubble that littered the destroyed streets of the once beautiful Rome under Kale’s heavy boot pierced the night. This worried Kale deeply, as he did not want to attract any unwanted attention from nearby hostiles. “Tread lightly. We cannot afford any more loss. Night is upon us, the Stalkers will be hunting. Be on your guard.” Kale looked over at his friends that were accompanying him on the scavenge for food and to look for survivors. “Aye, this much is true. But if they do come, I am ready for them.” Blaise tossed his sword from hand to hand, with a childish grin on his scarred face. Almost a year ago, a demon had attacked him by surprise and grated his face with its claws, leaving gaping gashes. The demon was about to kill him when Kale took hold of his sword and swung it at the demon on Blaise’s chest, and cut the demon in two. Although Blaise was very skilled, his daring ways would surely get him killed.
“Unnecessary danger is just that Blaise; unnecessary.” Nathanial gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“He’s right. Let’s move on. Choose your steps wisely.”
They started to move on, when they realized that Leander wasn’t with them.
They looked back and Leander was knelt on the blackened earth. The body of a small girl was in front of him, ravaged by some wretched demon. Her lifeless eyes stared into Leander’s. There was a small, bloodstained doll lying beside her, with its arm ripped off.
“She’s just a girl, Kale. How many more have died like her? Left on the streets to rot?”
Tears were visible in his eyes, and the sorrow he felt was passed on to the 3 other men. Ever since the invasion, the deaths have been en masse. Women and child, slaughtered like pigs, littered the streets. This was seen often, but they never got used to it. The Sentinel did their best to recover the bodies and bury them, but they always seemed to come back, always seemed to be more death.
Kale knew they had to keep moving, but he couldn’t just leave the body on the street.
There was no way to bury the girl, they didn’t have the time. Nathanial noticed a hole in the ground made by a tree being ripped from its roots, probably from a behemoth demon, looking to eat a human that had, in a last desperate attempt, ran up a tree. There was a body tangled among the boughs, but there was no head. Definitely a behemoth, thought Kale. Behemoths have flat teeth similar to that of a cow, that were meant to crush bone, or in this case, a skull.
“Kale, do you think that hole in the ground near that fallen tree will be suffice?” He gestured to the black pit.
“Yes, Nathanial, that will work, but we have to cover her body up, or else it be eaten by some scavenging Fiends.” Leander picked up the body as gently as he could, for the body was almost in two. He placed the little girl’s body in the hole, rested the doll on her chest, and they covered it in slabs of debris from the destroyed buildings. They took a moment of silence for the girl.
“God rest your soul. I hope you are in a better place then this hell.”
Leander felt a sudden surge of anger and a great sadness.
“You speak of God?! There is no God! If there was, he wouldn’t have let the demons invade us,”
Leander was furious, “Look around you Kale! Does this look like God is here with us, protecting us?”
He waved his hand towards the destroyed buildings, and the desecrated city of Rome, once tall and proud in its beauty. When the demons came, they swept the lands like a plague of locust, destroying everything in its path. The world was in the rotting, scaled hand of the demons. The world’s population was incredibly low; most had been killed within the first four months of the invasion.
“Leander, you must control your self. Do you have a death wish? I will not let your foolishness get you or anyone else killed”
Kale’s voice was quiet, but it held such an air of authority that Leander, though still angry, remained quite.
“I understand your pain, really I do. We all do. We can only take it one day at a time and focus on surviving. That’s all any of us can do.”
They moved on, searching the blackened streets of Rome.
“Hold steady men; airborne wraiths above.” Kale pointed out the huge pale skinned demons above, which landed on top of a large building. Wraiths had pale blue skin, almost purplish, with darker colored wings. Even from a distance, their glowing red eyes pierced the night like hot embers. They were lucky they weren’t seen, the party didn’t have the resolve for a fight with wraiths. They were a formidable force.
The men backed into an alleyway to avoid the fight. That’s when they heard the odd scuffling sounds behind them. They jumped to face the sound and readied themselves for an attack.
“Don’t strike!! Please, help me!” It was a woman, covered in dirt and grime, with bags under her eyes. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and looked no more than 25 years of age. She would have been pretty if it wasn’t for the wounds and the dirt and grime that coated her skin. She appeared to have not eaten in days, and could barely stand. She wouldn’t have made it through the night. When she saw that it was a troop of Sentinels, she realized there was hope of her survival.
“Oh thank the heavens,” she started to cry, “Sentinel have come.”
She started to get up, when a clawed hand reached out and grabbed the woman’s head. A claw pierced the woman’s eye, and long gashes opened up on her face. Blood poured from it and her bloodcurdling screams echoed into the night. A wraiths screech was heard far away as if to laugh at the women’s pain.
“Stalkers!!!!” The men were equipped with Shredders; a pistol that shoots out wire nets that when on impact trap the victim in its metallic grasp and tightens, digging into the skin, and eventually, shredding the body into nothing more than a pile of gory mess.
They fired hopelessly into the shadows. Stalkers were almost invincible in the shadows, but in the light, they were helpless.
The woman was dragged into the shadows and the sparks from the metallic net lit up the alleyway enough to see a pack of four stalkers tearing the woman limb from limb. The Stalker that grabbed her head squeezed it, and it turned to mush in his hand. The cracking of her skull and bones was audible even over the screams and growls.
Nathanial was the most inexperienced and wasn’t used to such a sight, he gagged and retched. This wasn’t the time for that, Kale reminded him.
“Keep firing!!!! Show this hell spawn no mercy!” The tangy, metallic smell of blood was inescapable, and it filled the air, which would surely attract other demons. Kale unlatched a Sundisk from his belt and threw it into the pack of stalkers, now feasting on the shredded body, totally unaware of the barrage of fire they were under. Stalkers, when in the shadows, were essentially shadows, they weren’t solid beings. But in the light, the ultra-violet rays reacted with something in their skin, and solidified them. The Sundisk hit the wall exploded into a blinding light. There was the flash of light, and then the shrieks of the Stalkers. When the Sentinels vision wasn’t hindered by the bright light, they saw the Stalker’s bodies, now solidified from the UV rays of the Sundisk, smoldering and the skin was boiling away, revealing muscle and bone underneath. The smell of burning flesh invaded their nostrils. The men took up their swords and thrust them into the bodies of the wretched things. Black blood oozed from the wounds, and dripped to the ground. One of them grabbed Kales throat and squeezed. Kale stared into his eyes, hatred visible on every inch of his face.
“Die, you wretched beast” The grip the demon had on Kales neck was weak; life was fleeting from it fast. With its last breath it screamed into Kale’s face as loud as it could muster. Its putrid breath burned his nostrils, and acidic spit sprayed on to his face, burning him. Kale twisted his blade and pulled up, and its innards poured out. The life completely faded from its eyes. Kale removed his blade and kicked the demon down. The body smoldered a bit more, then turned to ash. Suddenly, there was a demonic shriek, followed by the cries of Leander. A nearby stalker had heard the cries of its brothers and came to investigate. It knocked Leander to the ground and he felt the air rush from his lungs. His armor was being slashed and clawed, and the sound of claw on metal rang out; sparks flying. Leander powered his armor and grabbed the beast’s throat. With his free hand he hammered the stalker’s head over and over again, dull thud after thud, until the thick skull cracked and caved in under the relentless blows from the Sentinel’s armored hand. Its grip went slack and it went dead weight in Leander’s hand. He tossed the carcass aside, and activated the epinephrine auto injector. He needed energy, and he needed rest.
The attack was over, but the woman was utterly destroyed. Her remains were scattered among the various pieces of rubble and shrapnel.
“Foul beasts!! Damn them to hell!” Kale punched the wall beside him, and sent cracks up it like an intricate spider web. Kales armor allowed him inhuman strength, an enchantment made by the Psion elders allowed this.
The toll of battle and the unfailing sight of death was a burden on Kale, on all of them.
Kale bowed his head and hit the wall once more, and pieces of brick started to fall from it. The sound it made when it struck the ground was odd and out of place after the screeching of the stalkers and the screams of the helpless woman as she was murdered.
“Kale, we have to move on. There is nothing we can do.” Blaise put a comforting hand on Kales broad shoulder, what else could be done? Kale straightened himself and wiped the dark hair from his eyes. This reminded Kale that he needed it cut, for in battle, having hair in your eyes could lead to your death. He also needed to think about getting protection for his throat. It’s as if the demons can sense that weak spot, and knew to target it. If it weren’t for the sword thrust into the demon when it grabbed his throat, he would be dead. He was very lucky, and he knew it. He had to stay strong; any weakness at all could be perilous.
Although they didn’t want to have to leave the body the way it was, they had no choice. The smell of blood attracts the demons, and avoiding a confrontation is always the best thing.
“We have to continue on, we don’t want to be here when the fiends come to feast.” Kale said. “Kale, we should burn the body. The stench will be horrendous, but at least the demons won’t be here when we come back this way to get to the sanctuary.” said Nathanial.
“Good thinking, Nate. Men, grab what you can, put it in a pile. We must move quickly,” Kale ordered, “Hold your breath, the smell isn’t as bad, but somehow, its still there.”
The four men salvaged what they could of the woman’s desecrated body and put it in a pile, and took a piece of burning wreckage and lit the pile. It took a few seconds for the blood-soaked flesh to catch, but when it did, the alleyway was filled with a warm glow, which was ruined by the stench of burning blood and flesh. Leander and Nathanial gagged and vomited, and Blaise closed his eyes and looked away, not breathing. Kale stood there, staring at the burning heap, breathing like he normally would. He forced back the need to retch. He was letting this fuel his desire to make the demons pay for what they have done. Not even 10 minutes ago this woman had been crying tears of joy because they were there to save her, and then in mere seconds, her life was over, torn to pieces at the hands of the demons.
The men left with heavy hearts, and continued on through the carnage that had befallen the once great Rome.
High above them, wraiths circled the various towers, scanning for its next victims, letting out shrill wails, as if to say ‘I’m coming for you. You can’t hide, and you will die.’
An image passed through Kale’s mind suddenly; the image of himself and the three men beside him in their teenage years. It was soon time for them to get their armor and sword forged and enchanted by the elders of Psion. Kale let out a sad chuckle, which surprised him. He didn’t know such a thing existed.
“Something funny Kale?” Blaise gave him a puzzled look.
“More ironic and sad than funny.” Kale ran his leathery hands through his lengthy dark hair to get it out of his eyes.
“What is?” Blaise asked, still confused.
“I was just remembering when us four, the best of friends, and we still are, if not closer than we were, were sitting in our sleeping quarters fantasizing about our first set of armor. We were talking about how glorious it would be to have it forged for us, and to receive our first sword.” Kale looked at the ground as he remembered.
“Aye, I remember that,” Leander said suddenly, he was oddly silent until know, “We were convinced it would be the best thing to happen to us. We thought it would be glorious, to be able to defend the human race.”
“Little did we know that when the demons came, they came in unimaginable numbers. Sometimes I think we are doomed to die, and that nothing we can do will save us,” Nathanial shook his head slowly. A deep sadness made his voice hoarse “There is nothing glorious about watching everyone you have ever known and loved be ravaged by demons. It’s not glorious, its pure hell.” Kale stopped and put his armored hand on Nathanial’s shoulder.
“Nathanial, this isn’t over. We can still win this. There is a way to defeat them. There has to be. We just have to find it. Have hope, brother. We will be triumphant.”
The men walked on in silence, memories of the time before the invasion, and their loved ones fleeted through their mind.
Leander’s parents, both killed when a pack of stalkers pulled them into a shadowy death on their way home from the movies. The news and newspapers said it was ‘a wild beast that roamed into the town’, but the Sentinels knew. Wild beast’s don’t shred bodies like these were. This happened before the invasion was in full force.
Blaise’s brother and father, killed while trying to save stranded survivors from a behemoth. When the bodies were recovered, they were missing their heads, as the behemoth had eaten them.
Nathanial’s parents were dead all his life; they died in a car accident when he was almost a year old.
Kale remembered his mother’s beautiful face as it was before the fiends captured her 2 years ago when she was bringing in a supplies truck. He still try’s to force the image of his mother mangled body out of his mind. The demons dropped it in front of the sanctuary gates, as a warning to the Sentinel.
They were so caught up in their memories they almost didn’t hear the screams.
“Did you hear that?” Leander asked, readying his weapon.
“Yes, it’s coming from behind that building to our right.” Blaise pointed to an ice-cream shop, the front wall totally demolished.
They powered their suits, and called upon the enhanced speed their enchanted armor allowed them. They raced behind the building to see a troop of demons, a behemoth and 3 fiends, chasing a woman and 2 children, presumably mother her two kids. This was the worst possible thing to happen at this moment for them. The behemoth, a hulking eleven feet tall, brown scaly-skinned demon had four eyes with no eyelids, and a huge belly. It had large, flabby arms, and when it walked, the earth shook. When it ran, the ground felt like it was falling apart.
The only thing similar between Fiends and Behemoths are their undying thirst for blood, They are about 6 feet tall, and have either blood red scales from head to toe, or dark green scales. They have two rows of serrated teeth that jutted out from their mouth, and have slits for a nose. Large pointy ears made their slanted, yellow eyes look out of place on their hideous face. There body was pure corded muscle, and it helped them to run a lot faster than typical demons.
The horrified shrieks of the victims rang out into the night. The demons were closing in. Something had to be done. The Sentinel didn’t want to see themselves fail ever again.
Kale pulled out his Shredder and fired at the fiend near the rear. The whoosh of the net as it flew towards the Fiend was drowned out by the snarling of the demons. It sparked as it hit its scaly hide, and blew up into a metal death trap that dropped the fiend in its tracks. The net slowly bit into the scales, and then flesh of the demon as it screamed ear splitting screams. After it was through the protective layer, it sliced the demon into mince meat in a matter of seconds, cutting off its cries of pain and anger rather abruptly.
The Sentinel caught up with the demons and Leander had his sword ready to strike. With all his might, propelled by his speed, he swung the sword at the fiend to the left of the behemoth. It struck it in its shoulder and cleaved through the flesh, splattering blood and gore everywhere. The demon was cut in half diagonally. The halves dropped to the ground with a sickening thud, unheard by anyone do to the sounds of combat. The last fiend stopped chasing the woman and children and turned its attention to its attackers. It hunched itself up and flung itself with great speeds at Blaise, who saw it coming and sprinted at its airborne assailant. He collided with it with giant crash with the sound of bones snapping, and sent the demon flying, most of its teeth knocked out, black blood pouring from its mouth. Its left arm was bent all the way back around its body, clearly broken. The demon hadn’t given up and it flung itself at Blaise once more, who caught it with a wire net from the Shredder. It was turned to a pile of gore mid air, which plopped to the ground with a mushy wet splat. The Behemoth wasn’t affected by the nets of the Shredder fired by the Sentinel; it was too big for the net to engulf it. Kale slashed out the back of its legs with his sword, and the Behemoth fell to its knees. Kale seized this chance to plunge its sword straight down into its spine, severing it. The wretched thing was paralyzed from the neck down. It lay on the ground, screaming as loud as it could spraying acidic spit all over them, as the blood from its crippling wound pooled around it. Kale calmly walked up to it, bent low over it, and looked it straight its four eyes, which were wild with rage.
“I am Sentinel Kale Rivera, son of Sentinel Gabriel Rivera. I am the last thing you will see before you die. We will purge the Earth of the hell spawn that have infested it. Every last one. We will not give up. We will not be defeated.”
The demon screamed the loudest it possibly could in Kales face, and Kale screamed back.
“EVERY LAST ONE!!!!!
Kale amplified his strength to the level where if he wanted to, he could uproot a tree and destroy most of it in one hit, and punched the demon in the face as hard as he could. His punch destroyed the demon’s skull with ease and continued on into the earth below with a huge bang, leaving a gore filled pit of demon flesh and splintered bone. Blood and earth splattered everywhere, all over Kale’s armor.
“Kale,” Blaise started to speak but Kale cut him off.
“Get the survivors; make sure they are safe and not hurt. If they are, aid them. We are going back to the sanctuary.”
“Kale,” Blaise attempted again.
Kale lost his cool, angry at himself more than anyone. “BLAISE!” Kale screamed. He immediately regretted doing so. “Get the survivors!” he said in a less angry tone, almost apologetic. Blaise understood.
“Ok Kale.” he said, and went to the aid of the huddled family huddled behind a fallen car.
The trek back to the Sentinel Sanctuary was a long and quiet one; the only sound being made was the terrified whimpering of the small children on the backs of the Leander and Nathanial, and the wails of the Wraiths up above.
* * * * * * *