Killian twirled his arm around, making sure his joints were ready for the pounding they were about to endure. The guard he was up against wielded a weapon he was rather unfamiliar with. Instead of some traditional weapon anyone was familiar with, the guard carried a chain that was half his arm’s length and had two metal rods at each end.

“Hey,” Killian pointed at the weapon. “What’s the thing called?”

The guard, taken aback by the first floorers lax attitude, pointed at the weapon. Killian nodded, and she sighed. She had a feeling this wasn’t going to last very long, and although she was glad that she could get her job done quicker, disappointment still arose since it wouldn’t be fun anymore.

“It’s called a nunchuck.” The guard answered. “You ready to get this started, or...”

Killian got his answer and satisfied his curiosity. There was no reason for him to spare her now. Putting an incredible amount of force in his legs, he sped forward and let his first punch fly. He activated the red lightning before attacking. The constant electrical shocks burnt into his hands, but he endured the pain and went for the first strike.

The guard, reacting quickly despite being caught off-guard, dodged the punch. She flung one end of the nunchuck out and grappled Killian’s wrist. It went around twice, neatly securing her prey, and she grabbed the end as it swung back to her. He pulled at the chain, trying to lift her off her feet. When she didn’t take off the ground, he pulled harder.

Despite giving his all, she refused to budge, and the chain stayed steady with no lack of structure. This time, it was her turn to pull. She delved deep within her Gaxtex reserves and pulled out as much strength as she needed. She yanked the chain and Killian came flying to her.

With a quick swing, she released one end of the nunchuck and the chain unwrapped itself. Killian flew into the town streets with little warning as to what he’d bump into. He collided with pavement, barrels, store stands and more. Blood erupted from his head as he was sent careening, finally stopping himself on a house wall, cracking it to hell. A man yelled inside, but Killian couldn’t hear what he said with the ringing in his ears.

He hadn’t been in such a predicament for a long time. Anytime he fought someone, he came out on top with little difficulty. That was what his father trained for him to do. He needed to become the invincible warrior in order to protect the family name.

A bright flash of memory burned in his mind as he remembered his training days. Once he saw those final few frames of trauma and despair, his vision began to fade. He was going dark, and something else was coming to the light. Something that he deeply feared throughout his entire soul. He could only pray that the damage would be kept to a minimum.

The guard sped through the streets after her target. He should have been incapacitated by repeated blows to the skull, so all she needed to do was find his Gaxtex Sheild while he was out, then kill him. It was a simple yet effective way to fight. She’s trained herself in the many ways to use a weapon, and not in a traditional sense. Her weapon wasn’t the nunchuck, but rather the momentum of the person fighting. The nunchuck just helped with that.

Keeping her ears perked, eyes forward, and nunchuck ready, she trailed after the devastation that was left behind after the throw. Blood speckled the street, and the road cracked under the weight and power of what had come barreling through. She needn’t care about consequences since the town would be in more danger if the first floorers were allowed to roam free.

The trail of cracks and blood splatters came to an end at a home around half a mile away from where she threw him. She stopped and looked at the wall. It was cracked in multiple places from something being thrown harshly against it. A light shone from the window above the cracked wall. A man stuck his head out the window when he saw her approaching.

“What you need?” The guy asked. He pointed at the wreckage below. “Is this the council’s doing?”

“Sorry sir.” She bowed her head. “I’ll pay for any damages that your home sustained. Can you tell me what happened to the person here.”

The man scratched his chin and looked to her left. “He got up and went over there. There was something off about him.”

The guard turned her head to see a fist of lightning flying at her. It came in contact with her jaw and sent her flying above houses and stalls. The man yelped and ducked below his window. He kept his eyes above the window line and inspected what was happening. A man glowing with crimson stood with blood dripping down his face. He didn’t know why, but just the mere sight of the man sent shivers down his spine.

He feared for his life, yet he couldn’t look away. There was something almost entrancing about the bloodlust he was exuding. He turned and looked at the man, his eyes glowing pure fire. He dropped and hid beneath his window, turning off the light. That was no man. That was a god of death in a man’s body.

The guard lay on a random roof near the council’s headquarters. Her jaw was separated completely from her skull. It should reattach in time, but it’ll take several hours of doing nothing and pain for it to heal. However, if she died here, then it wouldn’t matter if her jaw healed. She’d be nothing more than a useless idiot that couldn’t protect her home.

The roof vibrated as someone else stepped onto the top. She strained her neck and saw the first floorer looking down on her. A slight terror exited her gut. Her heart pounded and her breathing became erratic. Closing one eye, she took deep, steady breaths, calming her down. If she was scared then she’d begin making mistakes, and one mistake could end up costing her life.

She stood, her jaw hanging limply with nothing keeping it shut. Pain flowed through her face. She ignored it and grabbed both ends of her nunchuck. She pressed a button, and the chain illuminated red. The rods stayed the same since she rarely ever used them when fighting.

Killian rushed forward and unleashed a barrage of blows, all aiming for her face. She sidestepped him completely and went behind. Whipping her chain around his neck, she pulled and began tightening the grip. He rose his hand and put it in between the chain and his neck. Wrapping his palm around it, he pulled at the chain.

This time, she moved. Her feet lifted off the ground and was tossed toward him. With a quick turn, he grabbed onto her throat and squeezed. In quick succession, her windpipe and neck bone were crushed. She died instantly and dangled from his hand.

He opened his palm, and she fell limply on the roof. Shingles came loose and toppled down the slope and onto the ground. Her body fell in a way that her arm wrapped around her neck and her legs were parallel to each other despite being on her side.

Killian looked off the roof’s edge and saw multiple people standing outside. They looked up, eyes wide and mouths agape at what was happening. As the death god took one glance at them, they ran back into the house that he was standing on.

He blinked and the death god in his eyes vanished. They were replaced by a confused stare as he looked around him. He didn’t understand what had just happened or how he even got to the roof. With one quick glance at the guard’s body beneath him, he understood perfectly what happened. He had lost control again.

“Dammit.”

He sat down, crossed legged, ignoring the incessant yells from the people inside the house. Looking up, he stared at the twinkling dots in the sky. He had no clue what they were called, but he knew the feeling that the sight dug within him. As he looked up at the glowing dots, a longing called out to him. He wanted to finally be rid of his other self since all it did was cause nothing but problems. The screams and corpse were just another problem added to the list.

Killian stood, deciding to leave before things got even worse. He grabbed the guard and leaped from roof to roof, back to Linux and his friends.

Linux clashed against the guard’s spear. They swung their weapons, the clang of metal sounding in the air. After Linux had dodged the blade whip, he got stabbed in his side by the spear. Blood dripped from the wound in his shirt, but it quickly came back in before touching the ground.

As blood flew into the air, it froze momentarily, lightning sparked, and flew back into his wound. The air glittered with a cycle of red going in and out of the hole in his liver. The dance of blood and blade only glowed brighter by the lightning exiting the weapons. A clang of metal, blood flying, and red lightning arching from the weapons created a mythical battlefield that only the most battle-hardened veterans could call triggering.

Linux twirled his staff around, regularly whacking the guard with as much force as he could exert without tiring him. In a battle with Gaxtex Sheilds, doing as much damage as possible will get people nowhere. They could end up accidentally killing their opponent, and that’s not what he was aiming for. If he finds and breaks the Gaxtex, then the guard would have no choice but to surrender.

As for the guard, he wasn’t aiming to kill either. If he so much as struck anywhere near the face and heart, he’d be reprimanded and jailed for the rest of his life. His job was to detain, not kill. By killing him, he’d be damaging everyone’s future.

The guard leapt back and charged forward, the tip of the spear pointed toward his stomach. Linux, grabbing his staff in a way so lightning would arch over him rather than hit him, raised the staff above his head and swung downward. The staff slammed into the guard’s shoulder, but he managed to slice open his gut.

The guard fell to the ground; the impact breaking his nose. Linux stepped back and held a hand to his stomach. He looked at the bloody palm of his hand. Lightning sparked in the blood as some left from it and re-entered the wound. It would take nearly an hour for it to heal, and meanwhile, he could barely stand from the pain.

Maybe I should put more blue energy in the Sheilds.

The guard jumped off the ground and held his spear to his side. The blade shined from the moonlight and lightning, and in its reflection was Linux’s armpit. He had managed to figure out where his Sheild was and he still needed to find the guard’s.

With one quick thrust, the spear shot toward his arm. Linux dodged and twirled the staff in his hand, building momentum. When it had the appropriate amount of speed, he whacked the spear, sending it flying from the guard’s hands.

He moved forward from his weapon suddenly being yanked from him. Linux spun and hit the back of the guard’s neck, forcing him to greet the ground again. He placed his foot on the guard’s back and put all his weight into it. He tried to stand back up, but Linux put more weight into his foot and slammed him back down again.

He prodded the staff against his body, searching for the Sheild. When the staff reached his ass, he felt the unmistakable metal against one of his cheeks. He didn’t know whether to find that disturbing or hilarious.

Linux looked at the guard like an insane man, and he could only respond with a humble voice. “Look, I got drunk one night and thought it would be funny to stick it there.”

“And you kept it?”

“You think people would expect it to be there. My mind is beyond the common man’s understanding.”

“Yeah, okay.” Linux slammed the staff against his ass, breaking the Sheild hiding behind it. He could feel the guard growing weaker as he struggled less and less. “Now why don’t you get that genius brain working and tell me what the council knows about me.”

“They just thought you were going to hunt a Tetson. None of them expected you to be doing such a devious act like hiding first floorers.”

Linux laughed at the guard’s audacity. “Saying what I’m doing is a devious act? Have you all forgotten what happened to my father.”

“You dumbass. Your father wanted to risk lives just to complete a passion project of his. He killed himself for no goddamn reason, and you just want to risk more lives for a stupid project. You bring people outside and just let them die. You’re the bad guy here.”

“They volunteered to help me. They risked their lives for progress. They benefited the next generation. We have to make our lives harder to let the next generation live easier. Can you not understand that?”

Linux couldn't stand to hear the guard's ramblings. He's cried for the people that died in his watch. He had to stand and take a mouthful of scorn and agonizing remarks about how he was the worst person imaginable. The insults were beginning to get old by this point.

“Then why do you have first floorers here.”

“Because they're not like the others.”

“Look behind you!” The guard screamed in desperation. “They’ve already killed people.”

Linux took in a sharp breath. He turned and stared straight into the eyes of hell. Blood littered the ground, reflecting the moonlight shining down. One of the guard’s head was ripped off with Kauss and Helona right beside him, either dead or knocked out. Another guard had a wound deep in his head that was slowly healing as green lightning sparked out of the injury. Killian and the other guard were gone, probably fighting it out in town somewhere.

Suddenly, someone jumped down from a rooftop, and Linux’s eyes widened. Killian came walking forward with the body of the dead guard in his arms. Her jaw was hanging opened and her eyes were slightly parted, looking up at the final amounts of moonlight she’d ever see.

The second floor was scarred with another memory of murder. After a hundred or so years of peace, the floor was covered in the blood of fellow men. What was worse to him was that these deaths served no true purpose. They didn’t benefit anyone.

Linux stepped off the guard and approached Killian. His face was red and he squeezed his staff with an indecent amount of fury. As they approached each other, Killian set the dead guard down beside the one that Helona had killed. He looked over and saw his friends lying unconscious. He tried to check up on them, but Linux stopped him before he could take a step.

“What do you think you three did?” Linux didn’t even try to hide the anger in his voice.

“We fought and won against the guards.” Killian looked over at his unconscious friends. “At least I hope.”

Killian’s distant and nearly emotionless voice hurt his ears. It was like he didn’t even care about what was happening. Frustration boiled inside of him, and he could only release it through destroying his teeth by grinding them against each other.

“You didn’t win anything. Because you killed them, they won’t hesitate to kill you. Killing them only hurt us.”

“It won’t hurt us if we clean up the bodies. Just toss them out for the animals to eat and we’d be safe.”

“There’s blood everywhere.” Linux waved his hand over the scene. “It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out what happened. Not to mention, you were in the city. How do you know no one saw you?”

“No one saw me.” Linux checked for any hint of a lie in his voice. He found none. “By the way, your target escaped.”

Linux turned and saw the guard had disappeared. He was so blinded by rage that he had forgotten to knock him out. Groaning, he walked over to the unconscious bodies of Kauss and Helona. Killian followed, staring at the back of his head, wondering what the problem was. They were just defending themselves. It didn’t matter if there was no point in killing them. If someone wanted a fight to the death, a fight to the death they’d get.

“I’ll grab Kauss. You get Helona.” Linux said.

“What about hiding the bodies?”

“It doesn’t matter now.” Linux grabbed the bag that held their clothes, Kauss’ vase, and several energy capsules inside. He tied the bag around his waist and it slightly pulled his pants down.

He bent down and grabbed Kauss. Picking him up, he heard a groan exit him. He was alive, but obviously in pain. If they were still in the first floor, then there’d be no way for them to survive, but with the Sheild it’s possible. They’ll need around two days to heal, especially Kauss, but they had to hide in order to buy that time.

With their hands full, they headed out of the dome and into the night.