Incandescence Of Darkness

Strikers were now ready to go to Venviiya village. As a precaution, they planned to buy a few provisions from there. “Nick, can you stay here with Michael?” Strike asked. Nick agreed, “Roger! I’ll look after…” “WAIT.” Coughing, Michael spoke “If our scout groups…noticed someone on this vessel they will not hesitate to destroy it with us. So better leave it. I can walk; somehow.” Nick ran towards him and put Michael’s hand around him. Noah sighed. “Are able to defend yourself, at least for a short time?” Michael laughed quietly, “short time you say? I’m a short blade wielder. And a first ranked front liner in melee combats.” “Yeah right. I notice your defence skills when I see your body” Noah mocked. “That because I was out-numbered and ambushed; by a group of assassins. Don’t know who they work for. Had some sort of a crossed sign in their left hand.” Michael excused. Strike’s eye went big. For two reasons. One, he’s a short-blade wielder who they needed for their team. Two crossed signs. Which isn’t actually lambda. “Michael, answer me straight. Is the crossed sign you say… is it something like this?” Strike reluctantly removed his left-hand glove. There was the exact symbol (Ӝ) scarred on the back of his hand. “You!? One of them?” Michael’s legs started shaking. “No need to be scared of me. I’m not one of them.” Strike said.

“Not a one of what exactly, Strike? Are you hiding something from us?” Knightin Gale questioned with narrowed eyes. Leaving Strike speechless for a moment. Luckily and unluckily Nick shouted, “Hey! what’s with that smoke?” a grey smoke kept rising to the sky. And it was in the direction of Venviiya village. Now the whole crew including Michael were speechless and unpleasantly surprised. “Where there’s smoke…” Knightin Gale hinted “…there’s…” Noah tried to finish. But Strike and Mike ran towards it. “Guys wait! We don’t know how to come” Noah screamed. “Damn it. Mike, keep going we’ll come soon as we can. Go.” “But…Strike”, “GO!” Strike ordered Mike. Mike nodded, took his scythe and ran as fast as he could.

“All of you come. Mike will get there before us. We need to hurry.” Strike said, rushing. “What’s going on? Fill us in” Knightin Gale said. “The village is under attack.” Strike said. “Come on people! You too Michael. Welcome to the team striker.” Strike shouted and all the strikers started running. “I have…a…question…” Nick said; carrying Michael while running. “Why are we running? The Venviiya village is more than ten miles away.” He questioned. “We are running to catch the sea rail. It’s the quickest way to go to a few places around the island. Runs on rails. One maximally pressurized shot from the starting hangar, it goes six and a half miles. One. There’re hangars so we can get enough pressure shots to, quickly get close to the village. Then we have only a seven-mile run. We can take stallions from the stable near the hangar 9; the number of the hangar we have to stop. Don’t worry I know the route.” Strike said to others while running. Others listened, shrugged and agreed.

( Part one: Country rails )  

“Hurry. On board the cart.” Strike ordered. “Sir Strike!” workers of the hangar came. “You have to help us. The Venviiya village is under attack,” they spoke hopelessly. “Yeah. Those Y-squads right? We are trying to get there. Mike went before me.” Strike said. “He not just went. He stole a sand- rider from the hangar. We thought he was a thief. Thank god he stole to get to the village.” A worker said. “Young alpha, I change the pressure of the shot. So you can go directly to Venviiya.” A really old worker told. “Really! You can do that?” Strike asked, “Then what are you waiting for…? do it! And thank you. Strikers, on board the rail-cart.” He shouted in a hurry. The old worker started adjusting the pressure. And another worker came towards Strike and whispered. “Sir Strike...” the worker asked to get Strike’s ear close to him. “Ysquads aren’t the only thing there. It’s the ‘the inverteds’ too” he whispered and touched Strike’s left hand and tapped. Strike looked at the worker surprised. And the worker nodded. “Alright! Pressure shot calibrated. All onboard? Shot fire in five…four…three” “Oh god! Just press it.” Strike yelled and hit the fire button. The rail-cart rocketed; leaving nothing but dust in the hangar (they didn’t take the workers with them. Just the strikers and the cart whooshed) 

After a terrifying ride to the hangar 9, Nick and Michael were jaws dropped and shivering, Knightin Gale couldn’t walk straight because her legs were shaking, but Strike and Noah seemed fine. “Hurry up. Every moment is important.” Strike rushed. “EXCUSE ME, I can barely walk straight.” Knightin Gale complained. “Let’s roll” Nick put his chest up and held tight on Michael and came to Strike. “We need to run to the stables.” Strike said. “Where is it?” Nick asked awfully. “Over there. It says ‘Stallion Stable’ right above it” Strike pointed to his left. “Seriously!?” all others said disappointed in themselves for not noticing it. “Then we have a quarter-hour journey to Venviiya.” Strike said pointing in the Northwest direction.

Strikers clashed into the stable and Strike yelled “Grab any horse you can and go go go!”. “Sir Strike! What’s all this commotion?” the stable owner asked. “Sorry. No time to explain.” Strike said “Venviiya is under attack by the inverteds.” And he explained. “Then take the stallions over there. They are the fastest.” The stable owner pointed to a mixed group of black, white and brown horses. Strikers took each and left the stable.

( Part two: The lightning struck )  

Half an hour later; closer and closer the strikers got, more and more the road got covered with haze. No turning back. They managed to see the village from a distance. The more they got closer, the more they heard innocent screams and evil laughter. They saw Mike fighting all alone. A few minutes later they entered the village burning in the blaze. Then, a wounded villager shouted, “THE ALPHA IS HERE!” managing to say there’s still hope. “Everyone, FALL BACK. They still have an alpha!” The y-squad leader shouted. The enemy started to retreat and villagers started cheering. But Strike’s whole face was covered with hatred and anger. He had taken the emperor’s sword drawn. The sword started shaking, glimmering with red hot, molten iron colour. Strike didn’t notice that. “Why? These are lives” Strike tried to hide his tears in pain. “I won’t let you run free Yaeries. YOU HEAR ME! This is MY island” Strike screamed and draw his sword at the enemies, warning them. But the sword didn’t stay put. Since Strike was grabbing it too hard…the sword blade separated into small pieces and whizzed towards the enemies’ sand-riders, blew them all up (about 6 or 7 sand-riders) and retracted. And the glimmering went off. “Damn it. Run for life men” The enemies kept retreating. “WE WILL BE BACK ALPHA!” the squad leader shouted. “Let’s finish them off…” Knightin Gale said. All but Strike drew their weapons and tried to pursue. “Ignore the wimps. Help them to put the fire out. Help anyway you can.” Strike ordered. “Strike…this is all my fault, right? You should kill me right this instant!” Michael said. “It’s not your fault. No need to be afraid of them. You may be one of the Yaeries. But you are one of us now. And I’m not a killer. I never kill. And never will be.” Michael felt what Strike said, to his heart. “I shall be under your command.”

“Strike, is that the royal army?” Mike pointed North. “What the? Now? they coming now?” Strike was pissed. “The alpha? ...” the captain of the squadron that reached them saluted. “Royal Army, squadron 5, reporting. Your orders, sir!”. “My orders? Are you mocking me? You should be here before any of us.” Strike exclaimed in anger. “I told the king, I’ll be off from the island for a few weeks”. “But sir…king says you didn’t tell him anything. And not doing your duties.” Captain said. “someone made sure the king didn’t receive my mail” Strike whispered in wonder. Strike pulled the right arm of the captain and rolled his sleeves to check whether he was one of Yaeries or not “You! Send your men to chase the Yaeries and…” and Strike whispered something to him in the ear.

“Men, begin pursuit, enemy last went to the south. Move out!” the captain ordered, saluted Strike and left. Mike came to Strike with blood spots and wounds on his face. “why do you keep looking at South Strike?” soon after Mike asked. A burning arrow shot into the sky. Strike’s eyes went big. “recruit all the Strikers! NOW!” Strike shouted in urgency. “Affirmative” Mike said and gathered all of them. “Listen to me carefully. No ‘oh my god’, no sighing, don’t express any feeling from your face. Got it?” Strike said. The strikers nodded and agreed. “All the mails we sent to any palace have been blocked or stolen. Not only that, there’re moles in the royal army as well. And I bet, all squadrons have more than half of the troops as moles.” “then we should inform the king…” Nick said. “if we try to inform him, the next day he’ll be dead. The chances of sending a mail without detection are…well…actually impossible.” Strike said it more seriously than he ever did. “we need to quickly get to Zornd bay.” Strike rushed; again.

 (Part three: Went wrong )

“How do we quickly get to the bay…” Mike asked. All of them (except Mike) abnormally giggled and hinted at Mike. “WHY do you want me to RIDE A PONY! You know…aaa…AAA…AAACHOOO! Snfgh. You know I’m allergic to ponies Strike.” Mike complained about sneezing and rubbing his nose. “Sorry, Mike. No quicker way to get there before you know who; Yaeries show up and kill NG’s friends. Plus, for your info; these are stallions. So, don’t insult them by saying ‘ponies’.” Strike teased Mike. And all the others laughed. “That’s…AAACHOOO! Snfgh. No funny! Besides, what’s the difference. Whoa!” Strike’s horse (I mean stallion) stood up on two legs and dropped Mike off. Again all strikers laughed. “Easy boy…easy” Strike calmed the stallion. “It’s actually a female horse, a mare.” Knightin Gale ridiculed Strike. Strike looked at Knightin Gale with narrowed eyes and showed he didn’t care. “Mike, think you can grab a dirt-rider? Sand-riders won’t work off-desert.” Strike suggested. “Fine. Go on. I’ll find one” Mike agreed. “Okay. Strikers, advance to Zornd bay” Strike ordered. All the others left Mike behind and left. “Strike…simple probe. Was there any dirt-riders nearby…?” Knightin Gale probed “Oops. He’s not near a place to find a dirt-rider. Well, that’s collateral incidence. Not my fault he’s having horse allergies right?” Strike grinningly questioned. Others sighed.

Meanwhile, Mike was shouting. “Hello! Anybody here…anybody with a dirt-rider…hello…? What in god’s beard!?” Mike gasped… Strike and the other has been riding for hours. Now it was sunrise. It’s a beautiful view of the Zornd bay when it’s moonset. (unfortunately, they were still on their way). “How long do we have to ride…?” Noah asked. “Well…let me see.” Strike looked around. He put a finger in his mouth and held it up. He felt the wind from the Southwest was greater than the wind from other directions. He put his hand down. And pulled over. “Why are we stopping?” Nick asked. “We got lost. Aren’t we, Strike?” Knightin Gale suspiciously asked. “You are wrong NG” Strike replied with a weird voice. And “arhm…” he coughed and cleared his throat. “We didn’t get lost. Yet we already passed the bay.” Strike grinningly excused and looked away. “I’m sorry, WHAT?” Knightin Gale said. “all the time we were riding these cute stallions in WRONG DIRECTION? Wait…we dropped Mike in the wrong place too?” “Well…you are half, half right.” Strike said. “We dropped Mike before we passed the bay, but we were going in the right direction.” Strike explained. “But, we are still so close to get to the bay. Follow me to Southwest” Strike said. Some looked down and sighed. Some looked up and took a deep hard breath. Strike took a few minutes and came towards the Southwest. They all came to the ocean. And they were seeing a peninsula ahead of them. “Where are we…?” Noah asked, but Strike didn’t answer. “Let me check the map...” Nick said and pulled out the bundle of maps from the bag his father had given. “Blastrik…Blastrik…there it is!” He found the map of Blastrik island. “According to what Strike said, where THAT peninsula…” pointing the peninsula “…and this island…” pointing ground “…meet, will be the Zornd Bay. Yup! We have to find where to meet. Oh…Zornd bay is a small harbour too.” Nick completed his lines. “We should’ve let Nick manage directions…Because somebody who lives in the Blastrik doesn’t know where to find what.” Knightin Gale narrowed her eyes and blamed Strike. But he didn’t care. He was thinking far more serious things.

Another, a couple of minutes later, they came to the Zornd bay. More surprisingly. Mike came before they arrived. “How in the hell you got here before us?” Nick asked. “Am I the only one who realized that Michael was silent all this time?” Nick said again. “Wh…what…oh. I actually didn’t have any reason to speak about it.” Michael said desolately. “Hey you!” Noah shouted. Michael was shocked and reactively shot up from his saddle. “Whoa! Michael, you just flew” Mike gasped and said. “Sorry man, didn’t mean to scare you. I was about to say relax and cheer up.” Noah apologetically said. “No prob.” Michael smiled and nodded once. But Strike didn’t even care to listen. “Knightin Gale…” Strike asked without looking. Knightin Gale saw Strike’s fury in his face. “Yes Strike?” she answered. “Where are your friends?” Strike asked. “Well… actually they should be here by now.” She said. “Hey look at that fishing boat. And it’s all mine.” Mike grabbed and threw his scythe. It went right through the broken fishing boat’s hull and came out from the other side and stuck. “You are coming to my collection of fishing boats. I can fix you” Mike laughed so evilly that Noah and Nick were terrified thinking he got deranged. Mike rubbed the grip of his weapon to retract the chain.

( Part four: The final recruits )

And the boat came with it. “You are all mine.” Mike tried to run. “Mike WAIT!” Strike ordered and Mike froze instantly. “You three examine it.” Strike ordered Knightin Gale, Noah and Michael. “Strike…from your current activities…you’ll probably assign me instead of Michael. What are you planning?” Nick questioned. “Nick, think there’s somebody inside…if it’s NG’s friend she can recognize if it’s a…” Strike eyebrows narrowed again “…if it’s one from Yaeries, Michael can understand. If it’s someone other than we know…or any booby-traps or sudden movements, your brother can see, and defend the other two.”. Strike said.

“What about Mike…he loves boats and ships. Why didn’t you send him also…?” Nick questioned again. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone” Strike said. “I promise!” Nick said. Meanwhile, Mike was trying to retract his scythe to the grip. And it was not working. “Mike’s weapon is cool. His problem is he can’t react fast enough to quick attacks. He also gets shocked, sometimes even passes out, he runs and is caught up in almost any trap.” Strike said. 

“Why is that...? A trap phobia?” Nick asked. “DO NOT ever talk about, what I’m now going to say unless you want to get killed by him. Understood? Mike’s whole family died in the barn, in flames because he was caught up in a terrorist trap. The trap was built to destroy Mike inside out. But he, fortunately, didn’t fall for that trick. He managed to escape from there and came to my brother, to report” Strike said casually, but Nick noticed a small teardrop stuck in Strike’s right eye. “Don’t worry Strike. I understand the situation” Nick said.

“COME on…arrrr…Got it. Oops!” Mike pulled the scythe and it retracted completely. Unfortunately, a part of the hull came with it and knocked him out. Nick ran towards the boat with an empty sack and filled it with seawater. And he came back towards Mike and poured it all onto his face. “What the…are you trying to DROWN ME!?” Mike yelled while coughing. Nick grinned and smiled. The incident made Strike giggle. “EVERYONE, HOLD YOUR POSITIONS! Strike, am I seeing things or did you just laugh” all except Michael gasped. “What’s up with the simple laugh?” Michael asked. “It’s a huge deal! Strike never laughed after his…never mind. It was a long time after he ever laughed. Even for a bit” Knightin Gale said. Michael understood. Strike looked down, and turned East. Then looked up. Sun was up. He understood that keeping gloom and fury on his face ‘always’, don’t help him.

“Strike! My friends are here!” Knightin Gale shouted. “You two help me to take’em out” she said to Noah and Michael. “They are all ladies!?” Mike said. “What did you expect? A girl’s first and trustiest friends are girls themselves. You have no right to question me about that.” Knightin Gale said annoyingly. “Alright …. take it easy.” Mike apologized ignorantly. 

There were six ladies around Knightin Gale’s age. And all of them were soaking wet. “Come on, breathe…” Knightin Gale slapped all of their faces. Pressed their chest to take out any water in their lungs. At that moment Knightin Gale lost her hope and began to cry. One by one started coughing and waking up. Knightin Gale hugged them all with joyful tears in her eyes. 

“What happened to all of you?” Knightin Gale asked them. “Some guys hit us and ran. We were about to sink. We saw no help so we tried to get off the boat, but we couldn’t in time. Thankfully you people arrived. Thank you.” One of the ladies spoke. Just after a moment one of the six ladies jumped into Knightin Gale’s shoulders. Strike saw it coming and drew the emperor’s sword and tried to block her. But the traitor resisted and blocked it. That blow to the emperor’s sword from the daggers was so powerful, that the emperor’s sword’s force backfired, dislocating Strike’s right shoulder. Strike knew he couldn’t use the sword while having his shoulder dislocated. So he quickly grabbed and put the sword back in its scabbard. The traitor held her crossed daggers above Knightin Gale’s head and tightened up her neck to choke her to death. “You’ll die for what you did. pal” the traitor lady said.

Mike tried to come towards Strike. He didn’t notice one of them was about to die. All the Strikers were stunned, wondering what to do. Mike hit his foot in the same plank that knocked him out. “This stupid plank! GET OFF FROM ME!” Mike kicked the plank so hard to eliminate his anger. Fortunately, the plank of knockouts knocked out the traitor on Knightin Gale’s shoulder. All of the remaining was gasping while being stunned. Mike rubbed his foot. “Holy salmon in ocean! Did I kill her! NG please forgive me. I didn’t mean to…” Mike apologized. “It’s okay Mike, she was trying to kill me. Besides you just knocked her out. Well, the plank did that so” Knightin Gale said, shrugging her shoulders off (it’s a way to express ‘it’s okay’).

 “So who are these guys?” another lady asked. Pointing all the ‘guys’. “Oh they? They’re my new team.” Knightin Gale said. “YOU JOINED SOMEONE’S TEAM!?” all ladies said in unison. Knightin Gale grinningly introduced everyone. “Strike, these are my friends. Naomi, Sabrina, Kaecy and Zumi. They’re best at the heavy swords, archery, whips and kerises. Yeah,  basically your team’s, girly version” Knightin Gale proudly introduced. “Okay. Welcome to the family. You ladies are officially strikers.” Strike said and went towards Nick and asked for a map. And he kept looking at it. “Strike…don’t you wanna share anything else with new recruits…?” Knightin Gale questioned. “Noah…would you mind?” Strike asked Noah to explain the present and future plans. Noah nodded and agreed.

“So basically what we need to do is, go back to the coastal bridge and depart to XOULE islands. Right?” Sabrina probed. “Basically, yeah!” Knightin Gale approved. “But we don’t even know whether beast exists or not. It might be a huge detouring; costing us more time.” Naomi said. “THAT’S IT!” Strike shouted as he figured something out. Meanwhile, Knightin Gale was tying up the traitor with a rope, to a nearby rock.

“You two hold them” Strike ordered Michael and Mike to grab and hold Nick and Noah. And they did, Nick and Noah couldn’t even move a muscle. “Strike. Man, what are you doing?” Noah asked; unable to figure out what was happening. “You two were supporting Yinsu aren’t you? How did you get the beast scroll to your house?” Strike exclaimed and choke held Noah from his left hand and raised him. “Strike you are going a bit too far…” Knightin Gale tried to stop Strike from killing Noah. “Who asked you?” Strike yelled. Knightin Gale and her friends wondered answerless. “Giving you only 10 seconds Noah. Spill the beans or rest in peace.” Strike yelled to Noah to explain himself. But as Strike was holding too hard Noah couldn’t speak. “Alright I’ll tell you everything. PLEASE spare his life!” Nick shouted. “There it is. I wanted you to answer me, Nick. Now explain everything.”

( Part five: Hint of truth ) 

“I’ll tell you everything without leaving a word behind, only if you let go of my brother.” Nick said. “Nick, buddy, please. You two are the ones we suspect. Tell the truth then, we consider your lives.” Strike said in a scary way. Strike slightly loosened his hand so Noah could breathe. Noah took a deep breath and coughed.

“It all happened two days ago. A masked man held a knife to my neck and gave my brother the scroll. Told us to, give it to the first group of people that showed up. A group searching for an armourer. That’s all he said. Nothing more, nothing less. You have to believe me.” Nick said everything he knew. “You little…” Strike went furious and tried to squeeze Noah’s neck. Mike came, held and squeezed Strike’s hand. “I know you been through a lot of scenes than any of us. But that doesn’t mean any of us have ever been there or not. Even so, do you want Nick to feel the same way you did and turned him against you?” Mike said to make sense to Strike. Strike threw Noah down toward Nick. “If this kind of activity means…I can’t trust any of you. Isn’t that right Knightin Gale? I’ll stop the war by myself as the first thing I’ll start doing tomorrow. I don’t need a team that my brother wanted to build. After all,  he’s not my brother in blood” Mike and Knightin Gale gasped. 

Strike’s face was covered up with obscurity. His whole appearance was like a pitch-black storm cloud. Strike went away from his teammates. He touched his right shoulder and lifted his right arm. He screamed silently but all of them heard it (just like, not silent at all), and relocated his shoulder. Strike pulled over the emperor’s sword. And looked at it. “all of this…is a lie?” he angrily whispered to himself and his sword to the ground. Now all the other strikers gasped. It is not right for an alpha to let go of a sword that isn’t dull. Strike began to walk towards the ocean, opposite the side of the bay.

A few minutes later, strikers could no more see Strike. Went out from their sight. Mike and Knightin Gale were heartbroken. By knowing the truth and losing a friend. “Well, guess I’ll keep the emperor’s sword until I find someone worthy.” Noah said and grabbed the sword. But he couldn’t lift it off the ground. After he released his arms from the sword. The sword cooled down and about fifteen-inch radius ice field formed around the sword. Now, if anyone tried to touch it, their hands will get paralysed by the cold temperature emitted by the sword. The worst part was the small circular ice field started growing bigger and colder. “Sword chooses its master. That’s what father said!” Nick remembered a lesson from Mr. Wiscurd. “We need to convince Strike to pull that sword off otherwise the whole archipelago will be covered in ice.” Knightin Gale said. “How long would that keep…” Zumi asked. “Until the next worthy person draws the sword from ice.” Noah answered.

The strikers ran towards Strike, calling out his name. But he advanced forward, without looking back, simply ignoring them. “Nobody ignores their best friend. NOBODY!” Mike yelled and threw his scythe before Strike and quickly enabled retracting mechanism. “Mike…you know you’ll cut your best friend if he didn’t block. And he doesn’t have the emperor’s sword.” Knightin Gale said. “Oops.” Mike said and begged god, please Strike block the scythe. Luckily the scythe went too far. But Strike didn’t care its passing him. The scythe came too close to Strike. Mike couldn’t see it. Mike closed his eyes and yelled hard as he can. “Dodge that damn blade STRIKE!”. Strike heard it. His eyes went big. Reacting, without knowing and had a flashback of his and Wiaeve’s final training session. Strike was stunned. The scythe force was too strong, but the sword itself was also strong. A stalemate collision. Neither the scythe got retracted nor the blade broke. Mike ran towards Strike. He was still stunned and his eyes were watery. Accidently, Mike rubbed the grip downward, forcing the scythe to retract. That force outstood the sword's strength. Michael who saw Mike’s move threw a three-sphere triangle-like thing to Strike’s left leg. Making Strike unable to stand and fall backwards. Michael’s quick reflexes saved Strike’s life. But Strike was STILL stunned. “Strike…? STRIKE snap out of it!” Mike rouse him up.

( Part six: Frozen flames )  

Strike started speaking. His eyes were all wet and looked shocked. “He knew…my brother knew…knew me all inside out!” Strike said. “Far as I know you brother…I don’t know what the hell you meant by that. Honest” Mike expressed. “The group didn’t disband. It never did. Strikers are still on their mission. Move out. To XOULE islands.” Strike raised his voice a bit and said. “We should’ve done, what Mike did before you set the whole archipelago to freeze!” Noah blamed Strike. “What do you mean?” Strike questioned. Then after, Knightin Gale and Nick, explained the ‘thing’ with the emperor’s sword. “I’ve…WHAT!?” Strike eyes went big. He ran towards the sword, but the ice field expanded towards the sea. About one-tenth of the bay was now covered in ice. All Strikers kept moving back. Rate of land getting frozen kept rising up. “What do we do?” Naomi questioned. Strike put his right leg; his boot got frozen in seconds. “Let’s throw Strike towards the sword! Like this baby rock” Mike suggested and threw a small rock. The rock, fell right near the sword; covered in thick ice. “Maybe not.” Mike excused. Nick kept rubbing his hair, hitting his head, thinking of some way to put Strike near the sword. Strike smirked and silently said “light run”. He rocketed to the sword.

The cold temperature of the area kept freezing Strike. Strike was now halfway there to grab the sword. Half of his body, from toe to hip was frozen. Strike was crawling, using two knives that kept hiding under his sleeves. Strikers kept cheering him, that’s the only thing they could do at the moment. After few minutes, the only places where Strike was not covered in ice were his head and hands (only from the elbow to palm). But he kept crawling. Strike face started to cover with ice. He whispered “almost there…” in cold agony. He raised his fingers, and soon before his whole body turned into ice. Strikers went speechless. Their hope is about to vanish. But fortunately, Strike’s middle fingernail managed to touch the frozen blade. Knightin Gale fell to her knees. Covering her mouth and was about to cry. But after a few seconds…The sword went red, started to shake and sent a shockwave through the ice to break. The ice melted due to the heat waves sent by the sword. Ice-covered Strike turned back to normal but collapsed. But the heat was so high, it turned the sand in the bay to glass dust sort of thing. (wonder how Strike didn’t get roasted…?). the sword shot to the sky and fell in front of Strike. Just a few inches away from his nose. He barely opened his eyes and saw his own reflection from the blade. Strike stood up and pulled the sword off the ground, gave it a wave and put it back in its scabbard.

“People! We’re leaving. If the Yaeries planned us to get trapped, we’ll get trapped. And we learn, we fight, we save. Move out to coastal bridge – to get the ship – to sail to XOULE.” Strike said at a high speed. “Does it rhyme?” he also asked. “a bit” Nick said. “boys!” Naomi shouted. While the gents ignored them and complimented Strike’s victory of returning the emperor’s sword. Knightin Gale shrugged and sighed.