Light Warriors - (6) - Hunted

Chapter I

He woke.

He quickly scanned his surroundings. He was in a dark, damp cave. He checked his pack. All of his stuff was still there. Water dripped from the ceiling and hit the floor with a soft plunk. He turned around and saw an exit to the cave. He walked out. He was in a forest. A thick blanket of fog covered the wet and muddy ground. It looked like it had been raining recently. The branches of the ancient trees reached towards the starry sky, like if they did that for long enough they could pull themselves out of the forest. He walked along the muddy ground, leaving deep footsteps. A squirrel scampered across the ground. He didn't care. He walked on. A small bead of perspiration trickled down from his hair and ran down his shirt. He was getting tired, but still he plodded on. Suddenly he smelled smoke. Was that... fire? A wall of fire erupted from the trees behind him and he started running. The burning flames swallowed the trees and licked the forest floor. Then suddenly, he heard human voices. Panicked. He wanted to help, but he couldn't do anything. Then he saw a large rock and he dived right behind it. He saw two figures blur past. Human figures. Without thinking, he dived and tackled them both to safety. He glimpsed both of their faces. Both male. They rolled across the wet muddy ground for a while, and eventually stopped. Immediately Xtremeo said 

"What are you doing? You're gonna get yourself killed!"

 Both of the kids had fear shining through their eyes. One of them was wearing a muscle shirt and had light brown hair with eyes as black as coal. The other one had sandy golden hair and piercing electric-blue eyes that seemed to bore into his very soul. The one with the sandy hair said 

"Who are you?"

 Xtremeo replied

"Who are you?"

The kid with brown hair said 

"The name's Atomo. I know it's not a very common name, and I don't know why my parents named me that, either."

The kid with the golden hair said

"Mine's Seebercon. Same as Atomo, I don't know why my parents named me that either.

"Mine's Xtremeo," said Xtremeo. "I guess it's not a very common name either... Anyway, you still haven't answered my question. What are you doing here?"

"Well, it's a long story-"

Atomo's sentence was cut off by the barking of some wild dogs.

"Long story short, we're being chased by some crazy guy, probably a hobo, with a shotgun, and he wants us to join his crazy club." said Atomo

"What club?"

"I dunno, probably a hobo club."

Seebercon chuckled. 

The dogs suddenly burst through the trees and started to circle them, midnight black fur the color of the night sky above. The three boys jumped in surprise. Their gleaming yellow eyes burned with fury, like they wanted nothing more than to rip them apart. Which at the moment, they probably did.

"We're gonna have to fight our way through." Xtremeo quietly said. "Got any weapons?"

"Uhh... I've got my pocketknife.." said Seebercon warily.

"I've got a pellet gun in my bag..." said Atomo.

"Not good enough." said Xtremeo. "Here." Xtremeo passed them both pistols.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Atomo.

"Wait, what about you?" asked Seebercon.

In reply, Xtremeo pulled out his swords. 

"Whoa!" exclaimed Atomo again.

"You do know how to use these, right?" said Xtremeo.

"Of course we do!" said Seebercon.

The boys moved closer together, their backs to each other. The first hound leapt at them, and Xtremeo slashed downwards with Oblivion, cleaving the hound's skull in two. Although no physical steps were taken, the remaining hounds seemed to step back. Atomo squeezed the trigger and at the same time a hound leapt at him. Atomo stepped to one side as the dead body of the hound blurred past him. It skidded into the ground. The last hound leapt at Seebercon and he fired. But at the last second the hound twisted out of the way and knocked the gun from his hand. Seebercon whipped out his pocketknife, and unsheathed it. It seemed to glow green for a second, and then a green dagger of light plunged into the hound's back.

The knife was riddled with streams of green, like transparent veins and green blood.  Suddenly it started to grow until it was the size of a sword.

"How did you do that?" asked Xtremeo.

Then, suddenly, a blast rang out through the night. A split second later a shotgun shell hit the ground where Xtremeo had been standing moments before. He stared at where the shot had come from. A man stood next to a tree, plain fury etched onto his ugly face. He wore a dirty torn hunter's jacket and carried a sub machine gun in his left hand. In his right hand he carried a knife. His hair was dark and scruffy. He was wearing short pants and his legs were covered with long curly hairs. When he spoke, his voice dripped with venom.  "You killed my dogs. YOU KILLED MY DOGS!!"

He opened fire with the Uzi in his hand. Bullets spat into the ground. Xtremeo stabbed downwards with Oblivion, and cracks spread like a jigsaw across the ground. The man leaped just as the earth cracked apart, about to swallow him up like a hungry monster. The ground closed up, just as Atomo fired a bullet from his gun. The man slashed downwards with his knife, and the bullet bounced onto the floor. Seebercon whipped around and tried a slash with his sword. However, he clearly had no experience using a blade, and missed by a mile. The sword hit the ground and he tripped and tumbled over it. Seebercon fell, and the man lunged at him with the knife. Atomo yelled "No!" and suddenly a shield appeared between Seebercon and the man. The knife hit the shield and clattered uselessly to the floor.

"Wha...?" the man exclaimed.

Atomo waved his hand and a humongous spear, tipped with gleaming gold materialized in his hand. It had a dark wooden shaft, and a hilt studded with cobalt. He threw it and it stuck into the man's throat. The man gagged and fell to the floor. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ground. Several men came out from the shadows and started running at them. They each had guns in their hands.

"Run!" screamed Xtremeo.

TO BE CONTINUED....