Solera’s fist knocked loudly against the stone wall as he advanced down the tunnel. His strained ears could hear the sounds of cloth scraping against stone. A channeler appeared into view, his ungauntleted hand still holding his playing cards. Upon seeing Solera, he smirked.

“Oh, you’re the dead-”

Solera’s hand grabbed onto the channeler’s face and twisted, causing the man to yelp and thrash around. After a short struggle, he wrenched the man forward into the well-lit cavity which held the other seven channelers. After a short grapple amidst the yells of the other channelers, Solera was able to grab the man’s gauntlet with his free hand.

“Shoot me and he dies.” Solera growled. In response to another thrash, he twisted the man’s neck a little further.

Solera wasn’t wearing the man’s gauntlet. He couldn’t use it to attack any of the guards, but he still had a hand around the man’s face. Using some verdant power to help him break the man’s neck would be child’s play. The problem was, the channelers didn’t know that. In their eyes, he was still only a teenager. They might not believe that he was physically capable of such a thing. But if he could get his hands on the man’s knife...

A guard pointing a fully charged gauntlet at Solera bit her lip nervously. Her eyes glanced over to the man in charge, one of Rasmurnov’s specialized channelers. He was tall and thin, with gaunt shoulders and a stony, windswept face. A light flickered dangerously in the palm of his gauntlet.

“What do you want?” The specialized spoke slowly, his eyes scrutinizing Solera for any sign of weakness.

Solera stared right back, his expression unwavering. “You’re going to get out of my way. I’ll release this man once I leave this place.”

As he spoke, he moved along the edge of the chamber, making sure to keep the hostage between him and the guards at all times.

“Get out of my way!” He waved the man’s gauntlet arm at the two guards lined up against the wall. They looked at the specialized, who gave a tiny nod of his head. Solera pointed to the center of the chamber. “In the center. Go.”

The hostage gasped for breath. “You’re- you’re fucking dead-” He gasped. “You’re never-”

Solera’s hand moved down to cover the man’s mouth. He was on the other side of the room now. All the guards had their eyes fixed onto him. They were right where he wanted them.

“You.” He waved the man’s arm at the specialized. “Tell me how to get out right now.”

The specialized narrowed his eyes. He spun around, but it was too late. Kunal and the others charged into the room and pounced onto the channelers.

A wind blade buzzed out of the female channeler’s gauntlet and slashed straight through the hostage’s body into Solera’s. With a pained yell, he took his hand off the man’s arm and pulled out the knife in the man’s belt as his left hand shifted down to grab the man’s torso. Solera pushed the man’s body forward towards the woman and doubled over. The wind blade had left a deep gash in his side.

His mouth contorted into a snarl as he leaped forward again. If she was able to fire a wind blade straight through someone, then she could not be underestimated, especially when all he had was a knife.

Some blood sprayed onto his face as he passed Kunal, who was slashing a guard’s neck with a knife he had procured from who knows where. The woman’s gauntlet was charged again, and pointed right at him. As she fired, Solera threw his knife.

The wind blade collided with the knife in mid-air, creating an ugly screech as the knife was shredded apart. Several flecks of metal embedded themselves into Solera, sending stinging sensations of pain throughout his body, but the handle of the knife flew into the woman’s eye.

CRACK!

One of the young men, Solera realized it was Brook, slammed into the top of the tunnel and bounced back down. He could see a dark red gash in the back of the boy’s skull.

“Down!” Kunal dove past Solera and onto the female channeler right as the specialized lifted his hand up.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

A few meters away, Letva’s head exploded into a cloud of blood and brain matter. Next to her, the one-eyed man, Alerion, fell to the ground, a crater in the middle of his back. Dust and rock sprayed out from the wall where Kunal had just been. The specialized lowered his gauntlet, his free hand producing a capsule from his belt.

“Solera, STOP HIM!” Kunal screamed as he climbed up, his hands bloody from slashing his knife into the woman’s body. Without a second thought, Solera tackled the specialized to the ground. His hands went straight for the capsule in the man’s hands. No doubt it held the charges that allowed the specialized to kill so many of them at once.

The man swung the capsule down at his head. Solera twisted aside, sending the metal smashing right into his left shoulder. A numbing sensation ran through his shoulder, but with a shout, he overpowered and gripped tightly onto the man’s shoulders right as the specialized’s gauntlet palm pressed into Solera’s stomach. The specialized’s gauntlet arm trembled and broke in four different locations as a tremendous force ripped Solera away from the man and launched him into the wall. He bounced off the top of the tunnel with a bone-jarring thud, before toppling limply onto the ground.

The specialized struggled up. His gauntlet arm hung limply at his side, and flecks of bone protruded from his ragged flesh; it seemed Solera’s grip on the specialized’s shoulder had transmitted some of the kinetic push’s force back into the man’s arm. His intact arm tossed the capsule onto the ground and withdrew into his robe. When it reappeared, it was holding an ornately carved dagger.

Solera gritted his teeth and sent verdant power blasting out of his Lake and through his channels. As the power seeped out of his channels and into his body, it converted itself into healforce which caused his bones to snap together.

“Put your weapons down and I can still guarantee a painless death.” The specialized’s voice was raspy, his breath coming out in tremendous heaves. He stepped to his left, towards Solera. “This is futile.”

Kunal chuckled as he moved forward to intercept the specialized. “Chump.”

PFOOoom!

Bloody mist sprayed out of Kunal’s front from a wind blade which pierced through his torso. With wide eyes, Kunal looked down, then back up at the specialized closing in on him. With a shout of rage, Solera forced himself to stand up. The specialized’s knife penetrated into Kunal’s body and withdrew along with a fountain of blood. It stabbed in again, and then back out.

To his side, the gauntlet arm of that very first woman he had fought, whose throat he thought Kunal had slit, flop onto the ground. The motherfucker had been alive enough for one last shot, a shot which had undoubtedly killed Kunal and may have ended Solera’s impromptu rebellion altogether.

“Haaahhhh… Haahh…” The specialized gasped. Kunal’s body slumped onto the ground at his feet, blood pooling out of his front. Solera backed away, his eyes sweeping the room. Tamarind and Yarrow were the only ones left, their arms locked around the last guard’s neck and limbs. The specialized looked at them and then at Solera.

Solera balled his hands into fists, his eyes staring grimly at the specialized. It wasn’t over yet, He still had around seven thousand Iotas of verdant power left, enough for another couple seconds of overpower, and this man’s dominant arm was broken. If Solera was careful, he could still kill him.

The specialized turned around and fled into the adjoining corridor. Within the second, another group of prisoners charged out from the opposite tunnel into the room and descended on the last guard, dragging him out of Tamarind and Yarrow’s grip and beating him to death.

Solera took several moments to recover his breath. He looked up at Camela with some shock.

“You came after all.” He said. He wasn’t sure how to feel.

Camela’s eyes shifted away bitterly. “I don’t want to be alive to see what they do after this, that’s all.”

Solera looked down at a knife, embedded inside a nearby corpse. By rebelling, he ensured that the prisoners who remained would feel the renewed wrath of Rasmurnov, and thus had indirectly forced the other prisoners into joining his last act of defiance.

Solera laughed, bending down and retrieving the knife. If it was before, perhaps Solera would have thought dragging others to their deaths unethical. Now, he didn’t regret it even a little bit. As far as he was concerned, everyone who deserved to live had gone to die with him. If he forced everyone who deserved death to also die, then that was fine. No, it was better than that; it was how things should be.

“All right!” Tamarind shouted as she strapped on a wind blade gauntlet. “They’ll be coming back soon! We’ll need to get to the central cavern if any of us are to escape!”

The prisoners roared and charged into the tunnel which would lead them to the main cavern. Even as they left, another batch of prisoners moved in from the cavern. Solera went along, blinking in surprise. With an entire battalion of trained channelers against them, they still considered escape? Even if they somehow made it out of this disorderly mess of tunnels, they would still be hunted down!

They were just deluding themselves, just like he had in the early days of his captivity. Solera no longer cared, though; if their beliefs resulted in the outcome that they would die fighting and killing even one more of these Tornado scum, then all the better.

Solera had long since abandoned any thought of escape. There was only one thing remaining in his mind. Kill as many channelers as he could! Have his revenge on Rasmurnov! Make them pay for their wanton slaughter!

With a snarl, he charged straight into the first side tunnel that appeared in the passageway. He had the power crystal. He had the mentality. Of all the prisoners here, he was the best equipped and most motivated. Because of that, he knew he had to do the most damage out of all of them!

Screams echoed into his ears from other parts of the cave. Solera lowered his chin and pressed on. Behind him and in other tunnels, he could hear the sounds of fighting.

As Solera passed by a chargelight, he tore it down from its place in the ceiling and stabbed the talisman encased within, plunging a section of tunnel into total darkness. Advancing forward, he destroyed the next chargelight, and the next. With lower visibility, the difference in firepower between him and an armed channeler would be that much smaller.

He emerged out of the tunnel into the central cavern, which had descended into complete pandemonium. The channelers had split into small teams of three to hunt down the prisoners. Flamestreams could be seen pouring out of gauntlets in every direction he looked.

Solera stepped back into the darkness as a group of five channelers ran out from a tunnel several meters away, garbed in cloth armor and metal helmets. He stared at the back of the last channeler, who was lacing up armor too big for her as she jogged.

A vicious smile appeared on Solera’s face. He had just experienced a tremendous stroke of luck. Without doubt, they had just come from the armory, where more weapons could be found! Why else would that woman have oversized armor?

Solera closed his eyes and inhaled a deep, deep breath. He was no arms expert, so he could only guess what sort of outlandish weapons lay inside a channeling sect’s armory. Especially this armory; this cave complex was clearly no village, but instead some sort of military outpost. If he could get in and arm himself with crumble discs, like what Chip had used at Fortress Hickory, or even just a sword, then his ability to kill would shoot up a hundredfold. But there was no doubt the armory was heavily guarded, especially with rioting prisoners.

He exhaled, opened his eyes, and charged into the tunnel from which the group of channelers had emerged. High security? So what? At this moment, there was no time for caution. He didn’t give a fuck. He would kill them all!

Solera’s verdant power circulated through his channels, ready to explode out at his will. The moment four channelers appeared at the entrance to the poorly lit cavern he knew was the armory, he was ready.

Solera overpowered and charged forward, throwing his knife as he did. It went straight through the throat of one channeler and exited with the sound of gurgling blood. Simultaneously, A wind blade cut into Solera’s shoulder and sent blood and flecks of bone into the air, but by then he had closed the gap. Solera crashed straight into the smallest guard, sending the two of them tumbling into the cavern, which was filled with rows upon rows of racks, filled with equipment. Helmets tumbled onto the ground as Solera pushed the channeler into an equipment rack and bolted into the rows of weaponry.

Solera dove to the ground as a wind blade sliced through the gauntlet rack next to him. The other channelers charged inside, their gauntlets glowing with multicolored light.

“Spread out!” The leading one snarled as he walked past the rows of weapons. “Cut him off!”

The other two channelers fanned out along the edges of the room, creating a tightening net around his position. Solera gritted his teeth and began crawling along the ground. Incredibly, there was not a single sword to be found anywhere he looked. How was this even possible? He was in a fucking armory!

Sweat dripped off of his face. After his charge, he had absolutely no verdant power left. He could hear the low hums of the channelers’ gauntlets as they swept through the room to trap him. He had to do something, or else he would die in this cornucopia, unable to take advantage of all the weapons at his fingertips.

The leading channeler stepped into Solera’s row. Immediately, his palm rose up. With a shout, Solera body-slammed the nearest rack of weaponry, sending it toppling over as a wind blade slashed into his leg. Ignoring the sudden slack in his leg, Solera crawled into the adjoining row through the gap he had made.

The channeler walked across into the row Solera had just crossed into, his gauntlet aimed directly at Solera’s head. Solera ducked back behind the weapons rack. With a snort, the channeler leaned back into the first row. Another wind blade shot into Solera’s exposed leg, creating an explosion of blood and bone.

His eyes dimming from the pain, Solera reached out and grabbed onto a small, metallic ball along a shelf of similar objects. Solera threw it at the channeler as he walked back into the second row. The channeler dodged away as the ball flew past him and bounced along the ground.

Immediately, Solera grabbed another ball and channeled a few Iotas of power into it. The balls were were some sort of weapon! He threw it again, this time at the opposite end of the row, where another channeler had just appeared.

Shrapnel shot through the armory as the ball exploded with a deafening boom. The channeler’s body was torn apart, spattering all over the equipment he had been near. Some shrapnel slashed into Solera’s left arm, but he didn’t even feel it.

Solera threw another ball at the end of the row where the first channeler had been and ducked back behind the weapons rack. The sounds of metal thudding into leather and metal was accompanied by a bloodcurdling scream.

A rack of weapons near the leading channeler flew through the air and crashed nearby Solera, causing a new set of metal balls to cascade across the ground. Solera haphazardly grabbed one and chucked it back over.

BOOM!

An explosion ripped through the armory. Bits of shredded leather skittered across the floor, and the last channeler shouted as he dove for cover. With a roar, Solera grabbed a cluster of the explosives and sent them flying all over the cavern. The chargelights shattered as a cloud of dust enveloped the entire room. Solera grabbed still more and threw them again.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The very cavern itself trembled from the force of the explosions. A helmet flew into Solera’s chin, sending him reeling onto the ground.

His ears buzzed from the explosions, and pain flooded his entire body with a tingling dizziness. Yet he could hear the footsteps of another group of people, so he forced himself up and grabbed another shrapnel ball. He threw it straight for where he thought the doorway was and slumped down. Bodies tumbled to the floor. They screamed as they fell, but he could barely hear them.

Solera lay on the ground, staring blankly up at the darkness. He had done so much. He had killed so many of them. Far more than anyone would have ever expected from a thirteen-year-old kid like him. That was enough, right? Nobody could call his death pathetic now, after all he had done. He could go in peace now. All he had to do was close his eyes.

Yes, he had done enough. His journey was over. Soon, he would go to Sky. Perhaps parts of his shattered soul would meet Guinness again. No, that wasn’t right. Guinness had never had a chance to go to Sky. The southern immortal who killed him had ensured it wouldn’t happen, the son of a bitch. Who could he meet, then? He could meet Lem again…

Lem. Full name… full name Lemmuelen, or something. Solera’s eyelids, which had almost shut, wrenched themselves open again. Lem had died to Rasmurnov, his head chopped off with casual ease. Rasmurnov had trampled his head until it caved in.

With an agonized howl, Solera sat up. Rasmurnov was still alive! The single most evil man he had known with absolutely no equal, and Solera had met a good amount of people since he left the Grove. Didn’t he say he would kill Rasmurnov? Gouge out his eyes. His damn, dead fish eyes!

His head was splitting with the pain of channeling, but he channeled. The little power he had left flooded through his body, giving him the strength he needed to stay conscious. Lem! Didn’t Lem say he wanted to kill the guards, as well? Solera had done just that, but was that enough?

Solera’s hands brushed the ground. It came across a helmet in the darkness, which he flipped over. He grabbed a metal ball and put it into the helmet. Then another. Before he knew it, the helmet was full. Not that it was enough. Of course it wasn’t enough. As long as both he and Rasmurnov lived, nothing would be enough!

He dragged himself along the ground, his breath coming out in rattling gasps. One hand and one foot pushed his body across the ground, while the other gripped tightly onto the helmet which held his weapons. How could he let the lull of sleep tell him he had done enough when Rasmurnov still lived? What would Lem think of his killer, alive because Solera was too sleepy to do anything more? Solera knew the chances of him killing Rasmurnov were low. Too low. But as long as he was alive, there was a chance. He couldn’t give up now. Not when he still had the ability to do more.

He could hardly make out anything. Sight, sound, smell, touch. These things had vanished long ago. There was only the next step to take.

He had been chosen to be taught by Eden’s greatest military instructors at Fortress Hickory. He would have been an immortal. They had taken everything from him. These people from the Tornado Sect, one of the three countries which had utterly ruined his life. He would kill them all.

Chianti. At this point, Solera had no idea what had become of her. Was she still alive? She had to be. She wasn’t with them at the final battle. If he killed everyone here, he would be taking some strain off of the backs of everyone who was still fighting. He would be saving lives…

The liquid blur his eyes transmitted to him transformed into the sight of the central cavern. He stared at it for a while. Fuzzy figures moved to and fro across his vision, and muted sounds pounded down on his ears.

Using the wall as support, Solera stood up. His functioning leg trembled violently, and his head felt as if it would split apart at any moment. Despite all this, he reached into the helmet and tossed the ball out the side of the tunnel.

BOOM!

The shockwave sent Solera tumbling back to the ground. He slowly picked himself up and threw another one.

BOOM!

Solera gazed blankly into space, which had turned into blurs again. He was killing them, right? Yes, he was. But he needed to kill more. He needed to kill them all.

One more time. One more burst of effort, and he would be done. The Tornaders would die with him!

The last Iotas of power flooded out of his Lake and into his channels, and then into his body. For a singular moment, all the light focused itself into something comprehensible. Channelers, everywhere. The motionless bodies of prisoners. The screams came from afar, but he could hear them again.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!”

Solera howled, throwing another ball at the massive pillar in the center of the central cavern, a hundred meters away. It slammed into the ceiling twenty meters away and exploded into shrapnel. Before anyone he could react, he threw another ball, and another.

The cavern was enveloped in clouds of dust, yet Solera kept throwing. Right as he tossed the final ball, he could hear a faint rumbling noise.

As Solera’s consciousness escaped him, everything began to tremble.

Well, this arc is done, much later than intended.

Uh, there are a lot of factors going into why the chapter releases have been slowed so much, but I'll keep it to the tl;dr.

I think chapter releases will be more frequent from now on, but they will be a lot shorter (1400 words each? idk)

Until next time, guys! :P