Chapter 2: Chapter II: Warrior

Chapter II: Warrior

Orange lights danced across the walls made of hides. Fires cracked inside the tent. Children’s voices.

They shrieked loudly as Kai ran after them making monstrous growls.

Cries of joy.

“I’m going to eat you. Argh!”

He laughed as they screamed again at his terrible acting.

Their mother spoke up from across the tent. Mira sat on the floor.

“Are you sure you don’t have more important things to do, Kai?”

“Don’t worry. I want to stay with them until my brother arrives.”

A faint smile grew on her lips, but not enough to hide the worry on her face.

“Alright.”

Kai turned back to the kids. Half a dozen little devils.

Blue skins like their father.

It took some courage to raise kids in this world. Or maybe it was something else, he didn’t know for sure.

Looking at them, while they looked at him with puzzled expressions and wide eyes, Kai wondered if he had it in him as well…

He raised his hands in the air like claws.

“Where were we? Argh!”

Something greater than a warrior’s courage.

The tent flap swooshed open. They all stopped and turned at the noise, their excitement vanishing as the figure they saw was not who they expected to be.

It was a warrior of red skin like himself, but grayed by time, riddled with scars.

“You have been summoned, Kai.”

His muscles tensed by instinct. Kai squeezed and released his grip continuously.

“I’m sorry, Orion. But I won’t be leaving until my brother arrives—”

“There was another bombing.”

His hands stopped.

One of the kids spoke up.

“What’s does that mean?”

It was hard to believe, but Kai knew exactly what that meant. He could hear his own breath.

He made himself speak, before the kids could ask anything else.

“I see.”

There was painful silence from behind him, where Mira sat.

“Are you ready for battle?” Orion asked.

Suddenly, no. For the first time, Kai wasn’t ready. But he’d never say that.

Had grief turned him into a coward?

He spoke despite himself.

“Haven’t we had enough?”

What was it? That voice that came from him wasn’t his own.

Orion frowned. He never saw the man frown before.

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“Excuse me?”

Mira broke out in tears at last.

Kai opened his mouth, but nothing came out this time. He lowered his head.

Orion did not seem pleased, his voice turned harsh.

“We’ll retaliate tonight, and you’ll be leading the vanguard.” He turned to leave. “Do your duty.”

As the tent closed, and Mira’s tears crashed, thus came the questions.

Where is Kade? Where is Father?

War. Humans. Hatred.

It is the end of the world.

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Spears all around. Faces of men, warriors, mutants they called them, under a night sky full of stars. Many more followed behind, but this was the vanguard—the forlorn hope—which meant the ones who die first.

Kai wasn’t in the mood for speeches, and he doubted anyone wanted to hear anything at this point. So, he squeezed the shaft of his glaive—a massive spear-like weapon with a curved blade—and raised it to signal the attack.

They marched in the open, as the humans had cut down the trees for visibility, leaving only stumps behind.

But it was dark, and they hadn’t moved against this remote outpost in a long time. The sentries were likely asleep or bored out of their minds.

As the vanguard of the vanguard, Kai was the first to step into the human’s line of sight and within the reach of their guns. He waited, watching the trenches stretch in the distance.

To confirm his suspicions—not a single shot fired.

“Let’s go.”

He trotted. The others followed in silence, just the rustle of rapid footsteps behind him, growing in speed and number.

A bright light pinched his eyes, as an enemy spotlight shot directly at him. Panicked voices began to erupt at various points of the trenches.

The sentries woke up.

But it was too late, as the trots turned to sprints. His people ran fast.

Erratic gunfire cracked, muzzles flashing in the dark. Cries of pain behind him, as the first warriors fell.

When the humans’ features became visible, Kai leaped, bullets whistling past his face.

Half a dozen men stared at him, as if they knew what was about to happen but couldn’t believe it.

It was hard to believe.

With a roar, Kai swept his glaive wide in an arc.

It was the end of the world.

Makeshift rifles clacked against the floor, as their torsos fell from their bodies.

Mutants swarmed into the trenches, and the chaos of close-quarters combat began.

Spears and daggers. Limbs blown off at pointblank. Some humans panicked, unpinning grenades right before getting impaled, taking everyone around down with them, including their own.

One of the green skinned warriors emerged above the trenches. His head flung back as if drinking air, chest swelling. A viscous jet burst from his mouth as he spit corrosive, steaming bile all over the humans’ fighters below.

Victory was near. They likely wouldn’t need the main force that hadn’t even arrived yet.

Kai breathed easily again.

The spitting warrior let out a war cry above them. Others followed suit, cheering along the conquered trenches, when someone pelted him with bullets from afar.

They fell silent as his body dropped limp into the trench.

Startled, Kai turned towards where the shots came from.

A maniacal cackle rang out in the air.

The rumble of motor getting closer. More rapid gunfire and cries of pain from men he couldn’t see.

A jeep emerged into view, riding alongside the trenches. There was a machine gun mounted at the rear, flashing at the muzzle as it mowed down the warriors below. Someone behind it.

Kai looked around him, perplexed.

The battle was over. The main force would soon be here. Those men in that lonely jeep were committing suicide, for what?

The very young man behind the gun laughed hysterically under his pilot cap, medals glinted on his chest.

A demon worse than him.

But the battle was over, and men were dying for nothing. The glaive’s shaft groaned in his tightening grip. The jeep was coming his way.

Kai crawled out of the trenches, laughter still hurting his ears. He took a couple steps forward, then stuck the bottom of weapons into the ground, propelling himself towards the jeep.

“HA HA HA—”

His laughter burst into a guttural wet gurgle as Kai smashed the wooden pole right in the middle of his face.

The boy, yes, he was just a boy, flew off the back of jeep and fell in the mud, choking in his own blood. Seeing that, his transport turned and fled, abandoning him to his fate.

“Enough,” Kai muttered and turned to leave himself.

Something hissed behind him, as if someone unsheathed a blade. He glanced over his shoulder.

The human was on his feet, a mess of blood and mud. A long knife in his hand.

He charged towards Kai with a mad look on his face, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Kai doubted he could even see right.

He stepped aside and smashed the blunt part of his weapon against the man’s stomach, who doubled over in a coughing fit.

The long knife glinted again, shooting upwards in a desperate attempt to reach his face.

Kai dodged with ease, frowning.

The ground trembled beneath his feet. Noises of an army approaching.

The main force was almost here.

Yet, this human was still trying to kill him. He swung the blade and missed. Again.

Kai gritted his teeth and punched him in the face with his free hand, multiple times, getting angrier with each blow, until the boy fell back into the mud, landing hard on his rear.

Kai filled his lungs, releasing his teeth.

“ENOUGH!”

Between the bruises, cuts and swells, his eyes widened, looking up at him in silence.

He was reaching for the knife again.

Kai hissed, his features contorting as he raised the glaive above his head.

The boy took the knife and ran away.

Kai exhaled in relief, tired arms falling limp to his side as an army slowly emerged behind him. No humans in sight when they arrived.

Orion came up beside him and patted his shoulder.

“Well done.”

Kai turned and left the battlefield without a word.