Book Recommendation: Slumdog Millionaire / Q.A

(Book originally published as "Q & A") Translated into over thirty-four languages and made into a multiple award winning major motion picture, this debut novel by Vikas Swarup is a powerful novel that hooks you in from the very first page and all the way to the finish. This critically acclaimed novel, featuring a poor young orphan boy growing up on the streets of India, is a perfect example of a riveting and thought-provoking novel that sends a powerful message to anyone who reads it.                                                                                                                                                                            
The book begins with the main character, Ram Mohammed Thomas, being arrested shortly after winning a game show for a billion rupees. The reasoning for his arrest is that he must have cheated. After all, how could an uneducated orphan who"has never even read a newspaper" have answered all twelve questions correctly without cheating?

In the story, he explains to his lawyer how he came to the answer to each and every question through flashbacks and stories about extraordinary experiences from his life, and with each story the plot thickens and draws in and engages the reader. From a voodoo magician to a cricket-obsessed hitman, each unique story has elements such as perfectly formed, relatable characters and powerful undertones.

One of the reasons why I enjoyed this book so much is the fact that it delved into so many different concepts and portrayed them brilliantly, exploring areas such as child abuse, corruption, and prostitution. Through Q & A, Swarup successfully creates a suspenseful and engaging novel that will stay with you long after turning the final page.

Rating:

Story: 10/10

An unusual, non-cliched plot keeps the story interesting and suspenseful, and will make you unable to put the book down.

Character Development: 10/10

With every chapter the plot gets thicker as the effect which events have on different characters is clearly demonstrated and well portrayed. The characters are realistic to the point that you can create a clear mental image of a character, and you can relate with every single one of them.

Light Warriors - [10] - Sorcery

Swish! Xtremeo sliced through the foliage with his blade. Atomo followed close behind. His arm started to feel tired. He drooped a little. He sheathed his blade.They had been searching for Seebercon for the whole day, and it was beginning to get dark, and his eyelids were drooping.

"I think we should set up camp for he night," he said.

The two boys immediately began hacking an area large enough to store their various supplies. There, they set up their tents, and went to sleep.

***

Seebercon opened his eyes. He was freezing cold. A corpse on the floor stared blank-eyed at the ceiling. He felt exhausted, but got up to his feet. He looked around for his knife. It was impaled in the corpse. Or at least it it was impaled in the corpse. The knife had shattered into a thousand icy shards.
Seebercon wanted to throw something. So he did. He picked up a small, thin storage box, and with all his might threw it against the wall. The box creaked as it shattered into a million wooden splinters.

Seebercon tried to calm himself down. He counted to ten. He took a deep breath and surveyed the room. Hey - what was that? He looked at what had been inside the storage box - a curved green weapon with a blade of emerald and a hilt of silver with leather as a grip. He picked it up, and it fit his hand perfectly like it had been made just for him. He found a sheath, which he hung by his trousers. He slipped the sword in, and surveyed the room, to see if there was anything else he had missed. He decided to take the icy spear that had somehow not yet melted. He thought about searching the corpse. Should he? He needed all the stuff he could get - it isn't very easy to survive without anything to use, and he knew that from experience. On the other hand, searching a corpse just seemed plain wrong.  He decided to leave the corpse where it was. It was starting to smell in there anyways.

***

Atomo couldn't sleep. He kept hearing phantoms. He would turn, but nobody would be there. He turned over on the plush sleeping mat he had bought in the village. It didn't seem as comfortable. He thought he heard footsteps. Shadows crept outside the tent. He felt his hands close around the penknife in his pocket. He turned. The shadows moved closer to the entrance of the tent. Atomo flicked open the penknife. His laser gun thingy was in his bag, which was conveniently outside. Just his luck that his best weapon was stuck outside the tent. He heard the zipper open, but only faintly. A hand grasped into the tent. Atomo didn't attack yet, but crouched and prepared to strike. The hand then shook and then exited the tent. Atomo frowned. Then he saw it. A snake! A surge of adrenaline rushed through him. He was about to teach the snake what poison really felt like when he thought of something. The tent was small. If he moved to attack the snake, the people outside would be able to see him move. He cursed quietly. He raised the knife to strike.

***

Xtremeo turned over.  He heard hushed voices speaking outside his tent.

"Do it or I will," whispered the first voice.

"Give me a good reason to," whispered the second.

"If you don't, the master will punish you," replied the first

Xtremeo heard a sigh, and he heard muffled footsteps. He quietly unsheathed his blade.
He heard the tent slowly slip open. He saw a hand grasping a dagger. That was all he needed to tell that the people outside were not Atomo or Seebercon. He raised Oblivion and prepared to strike.

***

Seebercon came upon a clearing. It had two tents, and at once he knew it was Xtremeo and Atomo. He then saw a man in a black leather jacket standing nearby. He looked more carefully. The man turned. Seebercon's eyes widened - for the man was his father. He shook his head. He knew there was some sorcery - this wasn't real. He steeled his nerves. He drew his new blade. The man smiled and pulled out a blade of his own. Seebercon took a step forward and readied himself. Then he charged.

***

The snake disappeared into shadows. Atomo stabbed the empty floor. The knife was then swallowed into the ground. Atomo cursed and dived out of the tent. He ripped open his bag and grabbed the laser gun. He swirled around and saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Without hesitation, he fired.

***

Xtremeo slashed downwards. But his blade simply passed right through. He slashed through the back door of the tent and exited. There was nobody there. He turned and slashed sideways with all his might.

***

Seebercon leapt forward and stabbed. The man smiled and disappeared. Seebercon gasped. He turned around in a circle, looking to see where he'd gone. He saw a blade coming down on him, and as quick as a flash he turned and slashed back.

***

Oblivion clashed against Seebercon's green blade, and a laser beam struck the blades in the middle. The trio's eyes widened in surprise at the people they had just tried to kill. Suddenly, a man with blue robes  appeared. He laughed a mocking laugh. Atomo raised his gun. Xtremeo readied his blade. Seebercon prepared for battle. A wooden staff with a encrusted with a blue gem appeared in the sorcerer's hand. The sorcerer smiled. He raised his staff, and the lightning spilled out of the black stormy clouds above...

To be continued.

Light Warriors - [9] - Murder, Ice, and Magic

Esriah was cleaning her cottage in the dead of night when they arrived. Ever since her husband's tragic death, she wore black, and always tried to avoid others. She swiped the rag across the filthy, grimy windows. She heard a loud noise. Bang. Deafened in her old age, she assumed that the rowdy men in the village had gotten drunk and were fighting one another. Esriah wiped off the last of the dirt and hauled herself inside. She walked over to her most prized possession. She flipped the secret lever that retracted into the secret room,  "Keep this for me, will you?" Her husband's last words echoed through her mind. Adoringly she gazed at the finely polished emerald tipped blade. She heard another noise. She shut the door to the secret room and flipped the lever again. Bang. A lot closer this time. She ignored it and picked up her glasses. She grabbed a book from the shelf at random and began to read. Another Bang. This one sounded like it was right outside her door. Didn't that "Bang" noise sound a little like a.. gunshot? She lowered her book and peered through the window. A man stood at the now open doorway. And the last thing that Esriah saw was the double barrel of the man's shotgun.

Xtremeo, Seebercon, and Atomo exited the forest, where they found a village. A bakery gave out a pleasant aroma. Stomachs rumbling, they ran towards the village. They stopped in their tracks when they was what was going on. A coffin was being lowered into a grave. Many people, all dressed in black, had their heads down, looking solemn. Suddenly they weren't that hungry. Atomo decided to ask what was happening.
"What's going on?" he asked a lady dressed in black.
"An old woman called Esriah was brutally murdered yesterday!" she wept.
"Murdered?" asked Atomo.
"She was found with a shotgun shell in her head, and an expression of extreme terror on her face." replied the woman. "She was the kindest old lady in the village, always took to helping others."
The woman went back to weeping.
                                                                            ***
Seebercon stopped by a cottage that looked like it had been blasted into. Ice coated the doorway, but it was the middle of the winter.  "The scene of the crime," he thought. He walked in through the open doorway and looked around, There was a stain on the floor that might have been honey. He went over to the bookshelf and saw a book that he liked. Maybe it would help him keep entertained in the future. He knew he was breaking and entering but he couldn't help himself. He tried to take the book, but it was stuck. Just his luck. He pulled, pushed, shoved, grunted, but nothing seemed to work. Frustrated, he yanked it with every ounce of his strength. It didn't budge. He suddenly tripped over a stray book on the floor, and grabbed the book he had been trying to get for balance. To his surprise, it came out easily. The floor rumbled and the bookshelf moved aside, revealing a stair case.
"No way.."said Seebercon
A secret room! He walked down the path stealthily. He pulled out his BB-gun and kept walking. Suddenly he heard the floorboards creak in front of him. He crouched behind a wall and placed his hand on the trigger. He peered around the corner. A man stood there, with a double barrel shotgun. Seebercon caught a glimpse of him. His skin was pale, and he had dark hair. His eyes were two different colors - one black, one an icy blue - were as frosty as the freezing winter air outside. In one hand he held an ice-tipped blue spear. With his other hand the man rummaged through a chest that looked like a shard of ice had blasted it apart- weird. Suddenly, the man pulled out a sword with a gleaming black hilt and a razor-sharp emerald blade. He laughed an icy, mocking laugh that seemed to make the frostbound room even colder than it already was.  The man turned - and bumped straight into Seebercon. For a second they just stared at each other. Then Seebercon lifted the BB gun and fired. The man dodged it easily and swept at the air with his spear. A massive shard of ice impaled the area where Seebercon was just standing. What the hell? Seebercon leapt into the air and fired again. His bullet caught the man in the shoulder, but it just bounced off like the pellet was made of ice. Suddenly Seebercon had an idea. He ran to the far end of the room, just as the man shot another shard of ice at him. Seebercon grabbed the shard of ice, and with all his strength flipped it around and threw it back. The man leisurely deflected the shard of ice that Seebercon had just shot at him by firing another shard at Seebercon's shard. They both shattered in midair as they slammed into each other. Seebercon knew he couldn't fight like this forever. Already his strength was dipping. He tossed the BB gun at his opponent, who batted it away. Seebercon drew his pocketknife. The man laughed - until Seebercon impaled his arm against the wall with the knife. The knife started to turn to ice, but then instead glowed green. Seebercon walked over and took back the knife. He flicked a switch he'd custom installed on it, and the knife grew at least twice its original length. He slashed at the man, who was to stunned to do anything except block. Seebercon hit him on the head with the flat of his blade, and feinted towards his left side. However, the man got over his shock and anticipated the trick. He turned his hand to ice and blocked the strike. The man flicked Seebercon's knife away. Seebercon's reflexes turned to their best. And if this didn't work, he was dead.  Seebercon leapt over the man's head, grabbed the knife in midair, did a somersault  and threw the knife. His vision went fuzzy, and as he slammed into the wall, everything went dark.

Light Warriors - (8) - Lord Magma

When Xtremeo woke, he was tied to a tree. Getting free wasn't hard - whoever had tied those knots was obviously an amateur. A sharp branch freed his legs whilst a slash with his teeth opened up the ropes on his hands. He had no weapons, and Atomo and Seebercon were nowhere to be seen. He reached around in his pockets for anything useful and found the star key chain that was his trusty blade, Morning Star. He pressed down on the lock and watched as it slowly grew into a golden double-edged sword with a familiar weight.  "Not that it'll do any good against that tank," thought Xtremeo.

He saw a glow that illuminated the dark forest. He checked the sky. It was was the dead of night. A pitch black sky hung in the air, no clouds, no moon, and no stars. He walked towards the bright glow. Two men sat around a small ring of tents, probably exchanging campfire stories. One of them held a machine gun loosely in his left hand. The first man had a scar over his eye and blond hair. The other one looked like a stereotypical evil movie villain - a man in a dark cloak with glowing red eyes that seemed filled with flames. His hood was up, so with only his eyes glowing his face seemed red.

Slowly he sneaked up on the first man. He grabbed a fistful of blond hair and swung that machine gun into the man's face. The man with the fiery eyes pulled down his cloak to reveal armor that may once have shone silver.

Xtremeo then saw the black dagger strapped to his belt - his other sword Oblivion. Suddenly, defying the laws of nature, the mans hands lit up in flames. In flames. Xtremeo blinked. Suddenly a wave of fire surged out of his body. Xtremeo brought up a massive slab of rock and ducked. The smoke blinded him. He heard the charging of feet and instinctively he raised his sword. He heard the clang of metal against metal. He forced his eyes open and swung blindly, not expecting to hit anything. He saw Morning Star scrape against the fire guy's armor plates. Xtremeo swept Morning Star up in a wide arc, and noticed something. Morning Star had a green button on it's hilt. Instinctively he pressed it and swept downwards followed by a feint and a strike. But his opponent was quick. He anticipated the feint and slashed upwards. Xtremeo noticed Morning Star emitting a kind of golden light, but he couldn't focus on that.

Suddenly, the flames around him dimmed and the grass flattened. His opponent roared and fired beams after beams of fire into Xtremeo's golden bubble shield.

"You think you can defeat me?" His opponent roared.

Xtremeo suddenly had an idea. He dived into the fire guy and sent him flying. Suddenly the green button stopped glowing and the bubble shield disappeared. Xtremeo swung up Morning Star in a deadly arc and lashed out with a kick. His opponent, caught by surprise, fell to the ground hollering. Xtremeo held his blade to his throat. 

`You think you can defeat me?" his opponent roared. 'You think you can defeat me? I am Lord Magma! I will crush your soul for this!" 

Lord Magma blasted himself off the ground with a jet of fire and unleashed a torrent of flames.
And then he dropped unconscious.

Xtremeo blinked. "What?"

Seebercon held a pistol with a smoking barrel. STUN MODE it said on the side. It had a red trigger and a glowing electric blue sphere at the top. Atomo walked into the clearing with a similar gun. Both of them looked tired, their clothes torn and muddy. Atomo tossed Xtremeo an identical pistol. Xtremeo tossed his old pistol into a stream and holstered Atomo's one.

"We found these in one of the tents," Atomo said.

"They shoot some sort of cool electric beam that can stun, kill, or melt," added Seebercon, "and there are a lot of other buttons we haven't figured out."

Xtremeo held the pistol in a two-handed grip and motioned them to come to the tent. There was a shape moving inside. Suddenly, the shape disappeared.

"What??"

Suddenly, Atomo was grabbed from behind. Atomo slammed his gun into his attacker's head. There was a loud crack, and Atomo turned and fired. But there was nobody there.

"This is freaky." said Atomo

"Let's get outta here." Xtremeo agreed.

The three boys ran towards a nearby motorcycle. Seebercon revved the engine, and they sped off, leaving the crows and the withered branches behind them.

Home Invasion - [1] - Home Invasion

I was thinking about school one day, when a thought came to mind. What happens when you mix action with school? That is how I came up with the new idea for my new series, Home Invasion. It is about kids who have to fight off bad guys with whiteboard markers, superglue, scissors, and other school supplies.

So, here it is!
                                                                    CHAPTER 1
                                                                  Home Invasion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I woke to the sound of shouting.

"JARED JOHNSON! HOW DARE YOU, FALLING ASLEEP IN MY CLASS!"

Ms. Smith was the strictest teacher in the school. It was just my luck that I ended up in her class. So of course, instead of "Go to the corner!", Or "Miss your recess!", it was a

 "GET OVER HERE THIS INSTANT!"

SMAK! SMAK! SMAK! She wouldn't let me go until my bottom was a bloody hunk of meat.
"NOW GET BACK TO YOUR SEAT!"

My bottom was too sore, so I squatted. My best friend, Alex, passed me a note. It read:

LOL!

UR PANTS HAVE TURNED RED!

To my dismay, this was true. Pains raced through every vein in my body as I sat down onto the chair. I just hoped it wouldn't be too bad by the end of the day. And of course, when I got home, it would be my fault that I had stained my white school jeans red. And then not only would my butt be sore, so would my back.

"Turn to page 23 of your algebra textbook!" shouted Ms. Smith.

I sighed angrily and flipped my textbook to page 23. And that's when the door was kicked down. 

A man with a purple mask and a  black suit burst into the room. He said in a harsh, sharp voice

"We are taking over this school. Hand over your valuables and you will be treated leniently."

Ms. Smith got to her feet.  "And what if we refuse?" she said in a voice that bubbled with fury.

All of a sudden, he had a gun in his hand, pointed straight at Ms Smith's face. She went pale and passed out. Even though he had a mask on, I could see him smile. Slowly, the students handed over their watches and bracelets and playing cards and earrings. The man gathered all the valuables and left the room. 

At first, everyone was too terrified to talk. Then, at last, Alex spoke up. "What are we going to do?"

And the classroom buzzed into conversation. I walked over to Alex. I saw my reflection in his spectacles. I looked pale and terrified. Alex looked like one of his elderly relatives had just had a heart attack. He buried his face in his hands.

"What are we going to do?" he said again.

"I don't know." My voice was almost in a whisper.

I took my metal ruler. I stuffed it into my belt. 

"What are you doing?"   Alex questioned.

"We could fight our way out of here!" I whispered back excitedly.

I've seen movies where a load of people get held up by a robber or someone, but they fight their way out with champagne bottles and forks and butter knives and stuff like that, so I figured we could do the same.

"Are you insane?" asked Alex. "We could get killed!"

"And what's the alternative?"

"Run away!" he replied! "At least we escape with our lives!"

It suddenly dawned on me that this was not a drill. This was serious.  And one wrong move would cost us our lives.                                                                 

Light Warriors - (7) - Battle of the ancient woods

A bullet whizzed by. Atomo dodged and squeezed off two shots. He had no way of knowing if any of them had hit. A cry of pain and rage sounded from behind them. Good, so he had hit something. Something whizzed by his left ear. He kept running. He heard a bang noise, and instinctively rolled behind a large rock that stuck out of the ground like a knife. He glimpsed a bullet whizzing by and was glad that he hid behind cover. He saw Xtremeo knock a gun out of an opponent's hand and sweep his sword in a wide arc, cleaving his opponent's gun hand in two. The man screamed and Xtremeo spun and his mud stained boot hit the man's face hard. The man collapsed, and Xtremeo deflected a bullet away with his golden sword. Where and how Xtremeo was trained, Atomo didn't know, but he was good.

Atomo saw a figure rushing him with a dagger of some sort. He squeezed the trigger of his gun, but only heard a soft clicking noise. Damn. The man's knuckles slammed into his jaw with the force of a meteor. A second later, the gun was knocked from his hands. His vision was dimming. "No," he told himself. His eyes snapped open and saw his opponent staring into his eyes. Atomo bit his enemy on the nose. His opponent's eyes widened, and the man fell. Atomo got up and brought his pellet gun from his bag. It was a good thing that it was the pellet gun that he brought and not one of those stupid water pistols.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Seebercon fending off an enemy with two pistols. He must have snagged a gun from his opponent, because Atomo was sure that Seebercon hadn't had two guns to begin with. His enemy was using some sort of rock as a shield, and held an semi-automatic in the other. Atomo snagged the  dagger from his opponent. It looked like a pretty cool dagger. For some reason, it was still in some sort of a sheath. He unsheathed it, and a gleaming silver blade with a hilt of ruby met his eyes. It looked pretty cool, but he had no time to waste. He threw it as hard as he could, and it soared through the air. But instead of impaling itself in Seebercon's opponent's skull, it just bounced lazily off his head with a dull thunk. He fired off a round of pellets, and each of them hit it's mark. Smoke curled off the barrel of his pistol. His target turned towards him and closed his eyes. "What the hell?" said Seebercon.

Suddenly, the man was floating upside down. No, wait, he was walking upside down. Suddenly, he shifted again, and he was on the ground in front of Xtremeo. Xtremeo slashed out with his swords, but the man shifted his gravity again and floated upwards. The man pressed a button on his arm, and suddenly his boots had flames coming out of the bottom of them. Rocket boots. Atomo had to admit that this he was a little jealous. 

The man pointed his gun to the ground and started firing. "Aw, hell," Xtremeo managed to say before the bullets spat rapidly from the gun. Atomo let loose another round of pellets and all of them hit their mark. However, although blood stained the man's clothes, he didn't seem hurt. He shifted his aim, and suddenly he was firing at Atomo. A bullet slammed into the floating man's shoulder and he roared in pain. The steady stream of bullets coming from the man's gun cut off. So he could be hurt, Atomo thought. 

Xtremeo was carrying twin pistols, both shining in the moonlight. The floating guy turned towards them. Burning hatred shone clearly in his coal black eyes, and underneath that there was a controlled wariness. He sneered, and turned towards Xtremeo and Atomo, silently asking them to make the first move. 

But the man had forgotten about Seebercon. A silver blade that was glowing green impaled itself in the floating man's skull. His eyes widened in shock, and he went slack. His corpse hung in mid-air, suspended by the rocket boots. Suddenly, Atomo heard a rumbling sound. A tank!

Atomo unleashed hell with his pellet gun, but he didn't even make a dent. A muffled voice from inside said "My turn." A blast fired from the main cannon of the tank, and the three boys were blasted back. Seebercon tried to fire, but some sort of blue beam caught him in the chest, and he fell, unconscious. Xtremeo charged, and at the last second he twisted up and stabbed downwards with that midnight black blade of his. It cleaved through the shell like butter. "Yes!" Atomo thought to himself "We might actually win this!" Then, the latch opened, and a fist wearing a black gauntlet punched him off the tank with a loud thunk. Atomo charged. He picked up a cannon from the ground as he passed and let loose a missile. A cloud of smoke covered the tank, and when it cleared, the tank was in perfect condition, apart from that scar that Xtremeo had left there. Atomo blinked. A blast swept him off his feet, and the last thing he remembered before blacking out was seeing the latch slowly open.

***

TO BE CONTINUED

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....