Sorry once again I have been extremely busy, tired, sick, and going through shit with work and school... I have also been experiencing writers block as it seems pretty obvious my recent chapters have been crap, but I hope to start releasing things at a faster pace.

Chapter 20: The brief intermission

Volume 2 Chapter 7

The darkness of this night would be illuminated by the stars in the moon lit sky and the beacon that pulsed like a torch, the light did not stretch too far but it made sure to glow bright enough to highlight the forms of the angels.

The angels quick white blurs that appeared above the bonfire that was once a city, Artok would perish this day as the majority of the city burned and the citizens of this city would not be seen fighting but running.

"Gabr--l, w-ke up!" Anastasia shook me awake

"Im up, im up... why is it so bright? is it morning already?" I said rubbing and shielding my eyes

"The city of Artok is being attacked by Angels, we have to help them!" Anastasia said while crushing my shoulder subconsciously

"Aghh my shoulder, can you let go Ana?" I said with a pained expression

"Oh right sorry, and don't call me Ana." She said as she looked back at me with a glare

As we came closer to the city we were unprepared for the rotten scent of burning meat, smoke, and blood in the air.

Everyone was taken back with the foul scent except for Paul, he seemed like he was getting excited as he repeatedly clicked his foot on the wooden floor of the wagon, he did well hiding his smile.

"Whats her problem?" I asked Paul

"Hmm... did you say something Gabriel?" Anastasia and Paul said in unison

I chuckled as I thought to myself 'Paul's too distracted by the war going on, he can't even focus clearly.'

"What's so funny and what's that smell?" Shiro said as he sits up and rubs his eyes

"I just thought of something funny is all, and the smell is death... wherever there is war this smell will follow it..." I said as I shook my head

"Weirdo... you almost sound like you have smelled this before." Anastasia said while sneaking her glares at me

"Were about 10 minutes away from a blood soaked battlefield, chances are we are going to see things we had hoped to never see." I said while looking at the reaction on the others faces.

The smell only got worse the closer we came to the blood stenched burning city, no doubt in my mind it would surely get worse before it got better, a silence embraced us as we got closer to the battlefield.

"Anastasia I am curious, Why all the hostility, did I do something?" I asked Anastasia while listening to the scratches being made as our Lizard lead our wagon towards the burning city

"Something about you doesn't feel right, I feel as if you have been hiding things from us since you got here... simply put I don't trust you." Anastasia said as she glared at me

"Well at least she doesn't hate you because she thinks you are a perverted asshole, am I right?" Paul says to me as he looked at Anastasia's bouncy assets

"Damnit Paul, can you be serious for one day, we are about to fight some strong enemies that have killed countless people from our world and you want to stare at my boobs?" Anastasia says as she shifts her hateful glare from myself to Paul

Anastasia reached for Brooke to wake her up and I grabbed her hand and said "Let her sleep, she's not ready for what's to come."

"We need her magic, I don't believe we should underestimate these angels." Paul said as he pushed my hand away

"Brooke you have to wake up!" Anastasia yelled and shook Brooke, however Brooke laid there lifelessly in a comatose state

"She's asleep and probably not going to wake up anytime soon anyways, and even if she did wake up she couldn't move around on her own. Is Paul supposed to carry her everywhere while fighting or are we supposed to put her on the roof of this wagon and have our lizard escort her as she fights? So stop Anastasia and let her rest!" I voiced my opinions and Anastasia pushed her hand away.

"Fine, we should be thinking of battle plans anyways." She said as she looked towards Paul

"Naturally since the angels can fly, they will have a better perspective of the fight and our positions most of the time, we can launch a surprise attack but chances are they will sense it coming." Paul said in a confident tone

"If they will see our surprise attack coming, there really is no point." Anastasia said and then looked at me

"We can have somebody act as a decoy, in which we have a better chance of catching these angels off guard." I said trying to pitch some ideas

"Of course your plan involves sacrificing someone, I am not surprised by your plan Gabriel." Anastasia said before speaking her plan

"We can separate them and try fighting them all one on one, from what I can tell there are only 3 or 4 angels." Anastasia gave her input

"I think Paul and yourself will be the only ones able to fight these angels one on one, if you take too long with your fights we may be killed by the other angels."

"We can split into three groups, one team focuses on confrontation another as assassins and the last focuses on support and rescuing the citizens." Shiro said as he looked at the rest of us

"Having a team focus solely on rescuing citizens doesn't sound that bad, considering we were going to rescue any citizens we found anyways." I said rubbing my bandaged ribs

"I have an idea of how the teams would look, I would be the decoy or confrontation group or however you want to call it, Anastasia would be the assassin group, and the rest of you would be support?" Paul said as he pointed at us while he talked about the roles we would be in

"Not quite, I want Shiro to be part of the Assassins group, his skill can be used from anywhere and he can make his blades fast and control them freely." I said looking at Shiro

"I feel he would be better suited for the support group, I understand he has killed animals but Angels aren't animals... I think he's too young." Anastasia said while looking fiercely at Paul silently asking for support

"I know what you mean, but its better he experiences the feeling of really taking a life now rather than leaving it alone and being forced into a situation where he has to kill to survive... If he is put into a situation where he has to kill to survive and he doesn't have the will to take the life of his enemy or hesitates, the enemy might not be so kind." I sighed as I said this, and then looked at Shiro and said, "hesitation, it is the bridge that connects life to death... if you don't strike first you may not be able to strike at all..."

"I will support Anastasia and Paul, Anastasia let me do this, I am ready." Shiro said as he looked at Anastasia with confident eyes

"Fine but I want you to stay with me and follow my orders." Anastasia said while looking towards Shiro

"Ok, I wil-" Shiro replied before the roof of the wagon collapsed on us

The wagon came to a screeching stop, with all of us surprised and Paul quickly standing up and stopping the roof from collapsing any further, the rest of us jumped out of the wagon at an inhuman speed

I was the first to jump out of the wagon, I executed a roll as I tripped when I hit the ground, sand blowing in my face from an unknown wind source coming from the wagon

Past the sand screen I saw while blocking sand from going in my eyes an Angel using its wings to gain speed as it tried to squash Paul and Brooke with the roof of the wagon.

Shiro, Ares, and Anastasia joined me outside the wagon moments later, they all scrambled to their feet and within seconds Ares and Anastasia jumped towards the Angel trying to crush Paul and Brooke

"Take that you bastard!" Ares yelled as she threw her dagger towards the direction the wind was originating

Tink

The sound that was clearly heard was apparent as it was the sound of metal hitting metal, only a low pitched laugh was heard follwed by a bang

"Hahahahahaaaa was that a coin?" ???

Anastasia jumped towards the overbearing wind and had unsheathed her sword in the air as she swung the blade down towards the Angel

I am not sure what happened but I know Anastasia was thrown back towards me however she wasn't holding her weapon in her hand anymore

The wind stopped and the sand settled on the ground, moments later we saw an Angel his skin as pale as paper, with green eyes and absolutely no hair anywhere to be seen, a bit muscular and had to be at least 170 cm, giant white wings at ease behind him standing on our wagon in his right hand he was holding a jet black spiked mace with blood on it and in his left hand holding shards of Anastasia's dagger and seeing the rest of it fall into our broken wagon

"My names Giro Teran, and it is your misfortune to have entered into my view, and it is to my great fortune that you have come into my view... so might we call this fate and get down to your executions? Well the males executions anyways I have other plans for you females." This Angel spoke confidently and brazenly while licking his lips

"Nooo Brooke! Paul! can you hear me!" Anastasia screamed as she saw the blood coated, dented roof of the wagon resting on Paul and Brooke.

"I'm okay he just got my arm, the one that was injured before... why do they always get the left arm..." Paul said as he threw the roof back at the Angel, causing the angel to jump backwards

"Oh, so you lived... I am surprised, I thought I smashed your hea- Who is that cute girl?" Giro frowned and then smiled when he pointed towards Brooke

"That's enough talking, after watching you this whole time I am pretty sure you are retarded, I am just going to take over your body and make you slit your own throat!" I said as I cast my Soul Corruption

I instantly flew out of my body and came in contact with his however to my dismay he repelled me away

"Wow you said I was retarded, name calling is uncalled for!" as he shook his finger at me

"You got to be shitting me, his intelligence stat is higher than mine?" I said while looking towards Anastasia

"I don't know what yours is but mine is 2100, I am an enchanter after all... SO WHO IS THE REAL RETARD!" Giro said smiling innocently

Paul joined us outside and used his Singularity to drag Giro off balance, however to our surprise Giro wasn't effected, it was as if the gravity from the singularity wasn't strong enough to pull in Giro.

"You humans, always trying so hard and yet nothing ever works out for you, honestly I pity you... but I also enjoy watching you humans writhe in pain and suffering." Giro said as he readied his Spiked mace and dashed towards Paul

Paul readied his weapon with his right arm and prepared for the attack, and with a clash of metals Paul was sent flying into the bushes just off the trail we were riding on

"Gaaaaaaaaaaah, I fucking hit my arm again!" Paul yells from the bushes

"Ares throw me a dagger, I will go high and you go low." I shouted and then whispered to Anastasia ”Ana finish him quickly."

"Yeah, Ares go low... real low!" Giro hinted at his junk as he hip thrusted

I ran forward and then to the left and Ares ran to the right, Giro had readied his Mace to fill me with holes.

"Why don't you take it out? I woundn't mind cutting it off!" Ares yelled while running towards him

When Ares and myself got within 3 feet of Giro I slid and Ares jumped up and we both thrust our daggers at him, I aimed for his privates and Ares aimed for his neck, seconds before we connected Giro had released his mace and grabbed our hands before we reached our targets.

"You were really going to stab me in my D-" Giro had backed away slightly while in a crouching state obviously feeling the trauma of almost losing his best friend, and then before he was finished asking his question he was interrupted by the blood clogging his throat that rushed from the dagger Anastasia had placed in his neck when she teleported to his shadow.

His grip on our hands loosened, with both of his hands free he used his left hand to cover the wound on his neck and wobbled in the direction of his mace.

he didn't get 3 feet before falling to his knees coughing up the blood that he was drowning in, I grabbed the dagger that I dropped and walked up behind Giro and slit his throat and whispered "It's unfortunate I couldn't make you do it." into his ear.

After that fight we were without a wagon and the lizard that we spent our gold on had its head bashed in... I don't quite know how he did it, anyways we talked for a brief minute, Anastasia wanted to call off this plan of fighting the angels after realizing she was the only one capable of killing them and it was only by surprise she could do it, and the rest of us wanted to save the survivors of this attack.

'Of course the people who can't do anything are the ones who want to help people' I thought to myself

Anastasia voiced her opinion that we should just leave before things get worse, and of course it would... it always does on this fucking planet.

We hid Brooke in some bushes far away from the batter that just took place so if any Angels had been alerted to our fight they wouldn't find her right away, Paul was injured so we had him babysit her, and Ares stayed behind as well considering she wouldn't be strong enough to support us in battle, and Anastasia told Shiro to stay behind too, this time I agreed, I had to agree the Angels were stronger than I thought.

Anastasia wanted me to stay behind as well but I insisted on acting as a decoy as she might need a decoy.

We started travelling by foot through the forest until we reached the outskirts of Artok, as we walked through the outskirts we heard screams and shouts, crying and laughter.

We saw a child standing over a woman's body laughing, the child was holding his left arm with his right hand, his left arm only extended to his elbow, his face was covered in tears that ran right over his bruises, I bandaged his arm to the best of my ability and lead him to a house we would use as a rescue zone.

In this house the family that occupied it had been dismembered, 3 children and 1 older woman... it was a horrific sight, "Good call on leaving Shiro behind" I said as I grimaced

We saw many more disturbing sights as we moved through the outskirts finding survivors and directing them towards the rescue zone, such as people split straight down the middle both vertically and horizontally, people dead in a puddle of their own blood, hearts gouged out, decapitations. Bodies that looked like they were dropped from very high up.

"Argggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh help!"

we heard the scream and ran, I got to the alley where the sound originated before Anastasia, and saw an Angel tear off a woman's leg and toss it aside.

A second later, a fireball emerged from the woman's hand at point blank range, the explosion engulfed a small area in flames, the woman screamed again

Laughing came from inside the smoke, followed by some taunting, "That was point blank and it tickled, hahaha fucking hilarious." the angel appeared unscathed after that fireball which mirrored his flaming red mohawk, and blazing red eyes, on the left side of his face he had a scar that stretched from right below his left eye horizantally down to his chin. He had a body full of muscles as if he spent the last 2 years lifting weights.

"Let's see if my fireball does any damage at point blank!" I said from the opening of the alley, with Anastasia concealed from this mans view.

Previous: http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=8171

Next: http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=9729

Comment if it pleases you, I appreciate all feedback and I hope you enjoyed.