The thief gulped down the potion and threw it to the side, the glass cracking against stone. He was visibly slobbering with his mouth agape as if he had swallowed fire, his chest heaving.

“Kil thhem! Kill them!” he roared.

Orion saw men and women pick up their weapons, their blades angled at him. “We’re only here for Skitters. Just let us get him and we’ll leave,” he shouted in response, his voice filling the warehouse and calming his armed enemies.

“He’s a Zakari, a ZAKARI,” Skitters shouted, his tanned skin tinging purple.

Those who had felt stoked by Orion’s naïve comment now suffered dread, and anyone near a potion sprinted over and struck the lids off.

“You idiot,” Kora said to Orion, “For once listen to me. It’s your family or these scum,”

It felt surreal as he looked around; he now had the reason to cut these people down, a reason he couldn’t oppose or ignore. Yet he found himself resisting, his body chilling at the thought of massacre. The adrenaline rush that had helped him kill the bandits couldn’t be felt, instead replaced by shame and fear.

“THE POTIONS. DON’T LET THEM DRINK IT,” Kora’s voice sent shockwaves through his mind, warming his fingers.

He acted without thought – it was all he could do. Ice spurt out of his right hand and he put his left on the ice sphere that formed. He shot a continuous stream of bullets at the glass and metallic containers, echoing the glass beaker Skitters had thrown as they shattered and tinkled. Even so, some people swallowed the putrid mix before he had a chance, in turn going into the labour that Skitters had just escaped from.

The thief had completely changed now: veins protruded from across his skin, which itself had turned into a sickly mix of purple and green, and the mouth he had collared down now slobbered non-stop, his lips like the edge of a waterfall. Instead of mindlessly charging at them, he lifted a solid-oak desk, spun to build speed, then lobbed it at them.

Before the table could explode into countless splinters, Kora leapt and punched it away, her fist making a wide dent as the table toppled over. “YOU CAN’T DIE HERE,” she yelled once more, before dodging another piece of furniture. “YOU HAVE TO KILL!”

The words cracked Orion as he grinned despite the danger in front of him. His dad could have destroyed the entire warehouse with just one hand – he had seen his dad do similar before. And yet here he struggled against people who knew his identity, hence poisoning his plan. This was why he had wished someone else, heck, anyone else had been the last Zakari, because then he wouldn’t have to burden the murder of hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of innocents on his shoulders.

But looking around for a final time, he figured maybe these people weren’t innocents. The glints of their blades, their gritted teeth, their squinted eyes, their bent brows, their tensed muscles. Anger, fear, disdain - like the Zakari name was some vile beast, like his very existence was something that had to be wiped away. Maybe they weren’t innocents, maybe they were some sort of cancer that had led to his House’s downfall.

Despite his thoughts, the pale Seeker instinctively knew his anger was an irrational wind that would soon blow over as he noted the inconsistencies. But that required time and he wouldn’t have any time to think as long as these people wanted him dead. All he could do now was step back and let Kora take the controls. He had done his best to stamp out what the Zakari military training had instilled into him but right now, it didn’t seem all that bad. Skitters had lit the fuse and watched the explosion: it was now time for him to experience the flames.

Orion looked up and saw a metal weight flying his way, followed by several other objects. How hurt he would be if they hit, if only. He rolled from his spot and vaulted onto a table. The woman below slashed at his ankle but he kicked her wrist, causing her to scream while tripping back. Stepping down, he picked her sword and ended her life, looking up to stare at the remaining enemies.

How long would it take to kill all of them? Too long came the answer. The sword in his hand froze over and he swung it, cracking the blade at the right moment such that shards shot into the crowd, prompting several cries – it was clear the metallic shards were better than his ice.

While Orion moved at his own pace, Kora moved one step faster, sprinting around and slicing as many people as she could. Even when she got hit or cut, she still went on. The unleashed blood floating behind her body must have given away her plan as the unwounded enemies began to run from her, rushing to drink the remaining potions. Contrarily, the wounded ones soon realised their predicament as the small claw scratches began to leak an awful lot of blood, the amount that would have come had someone made fountains of their bodies.

As the amount of blood at her deposal grew, so did the violence of her attacks. No longer were people passively bleeding to death but now the trails of blood behind her acted as bladed hounds, hunting those close enough. But at the same time, the enemies finally got their defence in action as two men shot an unwieldy crossbow, the bolt ripping through Kora’s arm and sending it flying.

The blood blades quickly retreated and engulfed her stump and formed a shield as she roared in pain, growling at the table-sized crossbow. Even then, her attention quickly turned to Orion as she realised while she could heal, one hit and he was a goner. Yet he seemed to know no better as he was crouching with one knee down, his hands flat on the ground.

Orion sensed the earth’s pulse, how it flowed through everything here but died in anything living. Adjusting to the same frequency, his Szu acted through the surrounding ground, making sinkholes from stone which swallowed the surrounding enemies and furniture. Straightening up, he noticed the menacing crossbow and the several others behind that were being loaded.

Realising the threat, he sprayed the area with ice shards while moving closer. These weren’t chipped down ice spheres but instead straight from his right hand. After just a few seconds, he sensed his right arm failing as it lost strength, not long after, completely breaking down as it collapsed. Still, the pain was dull with Giah activated and the earth continued to feed him energy as he zipped around, reaping lives at an alarming pace.

With the crossbows out of the way, Kora’s actions got louder and heavier as well, her blood hounds sharper as the streams grew thicker.

Orion wasn’t even sure when he became aware but at some point, at some time, he realised Kora was shaking him.

“Stop, Stop!” she yelled.

So he listened and stopped.

The adrenaline of the moment slowed as he noticed the surrounding quiet…