The Leaders

Wren stood and took off toward the leaders, circling around and coming in from the rear. The plan was to get them to turn their backs on the fighting at hand and put their sole focus on the two of them.

Hopefully, it would break their hold over the lesser Zentiths and take some of the strain off the rest of the group. They had not made it far when the leaders took notice of them, dispatching the smallest one to take care of them.

Talon and Wren made their way to the leader. He was a short, balding man, wider than he was tall, but they could feel the power radiating from his body, and they knew.

“Would you like the honors?” Talon asked.

“No. You may have this one.”

Talon watched the fireball grow in his hand, letting his gaze drift to the Zentith before him. “Will you show yourself to us?” he asked politely.

The Zentith laughed and shook his head. “I rather like this body, thank you.”

“Then I am truly sorry for this,” Talon said. He threw the fireball, and the Zentith merely swatted it away, along with the second one Talon had thrown directly after the first.

“Cute trick,” Talon commented, turning to Wren. “Your turn.”

Wren nodded, standing still as she watched the Zentith watch her. She had been practicing this in training but had never put it to use in combat.

“What are you doing?” the Zentith asked as he watched the woman before him.

Her hair started to rise as he watched, and he could feel the air around him come alive. Wren merely smiled as she dropped a bolt of lightning down on his head, covering the area with dust and smoke.

As the smoke cleared, Wren could see where she had cracked his shell, but she had not been able to completely remove his skin. “I see. That is a dangerous trick you have there,” the Zentith said, shaking his head.

His skin was ruined, and he was not happy about it. “I think I will kill you now,” the Zentith said. He moved so fast that Wren could not see him until he stopped in front of her.

If Talon had not thrown a shield around her, she would have died. Talon moved in and threw another fireball, burning more of the Zentith’s skin away.

“Why you…” The Zentith growled as it started to peel the burning skin off its frame, coming out of the skin. It was tall and skinny, its reptilian skin changing colors as it moved.

It pulled back its mouth to grin at them, showing the rotten flesh, and Wren gagged at the smell. “I will kill both of you now.”

“I think not.”

Talon and Wren moved as one, attacking it from both sides. The Zentith merely stood there, blocking their advances with a laugh.

“You are no match for me.”

“Like hell we are not,” Talon said. He gave Wren a nod, and Wren dropped a bolt on the Zentith’s head as Talon infused it with his own firebolt.

They watched as the lightning opened a crack and the fire snaked its way into the Zentith’s body, burning it from the inside. The Zentith let out a shriek of pain and flailed as it began tearing its own burning skin off before crumbling to the ground, dissolving to ash.

“One down, two to go,” Talon commented as they made their way to the remaining leaders. “That seemed too easy,” Wren said.

“He was the weakest of the three, I am sure.”

Talon did not say what was on their minds. They were tired, and they had used quite a bit of energy already.

Did they have enough to take out the remaining two?

***

“Did you feel that?” “I did and look.” Michael pointed toward a group of Zentiths that had suddenly turned their backs and fled.

“One of them must be dead,” Carrie said.

“One down… How many more to go?” Emerald asked what they were all thinking.

***

“I see you have managed to defeat my brother. He was a weakling.”

They stood before the second leader. This one was tall and skinny, looking like a bag of bones with a skin covering.

“We will see.” That was all Talon said before, once again, asking the same question. “Will you show us yourself?”

“With pleasure.”

They watched as the Zentith took off his skin, stepping out and tossing it to the side. “I always did hate that thing,” he said.

This one looked much like the other Zentith, only his skin seemed to be oozing some kind of dark fluid. “Poison, I am sure,” Talon commented.

The Zentith laughed. “For humans,” he commented before shooting some at Talon and Wren.

Both threw up their shields in time and watched as the poison slowly slid down the shield, burning it away as it went. “Seems to stop it, but it also destroys it,” Wren commented. “Shields will only work for so long.”

“Then we need to take him down quickly,” Talon informed her.

“You cannot take me down if you cannot get to me.” The Zentith smiled, slime oozing out of its mouth, burning the ground and dissolving the dirt where it fell.

Talon shot a couple of firebolts at the creature, but it merely created a thick black cloud of smoke as it made contact with the slime. “Do not breathe in the fumes,” Talon warned, covering his mouth as Wren did hers. “Fire will not work.”

Wren shot a bolt of lightning toward the Zentith and watched as it traveled across the Zentith’s body and was shot back at her, this time covered in the poison. Wren dodged it and jumped into the nearest tree.

“Well, that does not work either,” she said.

The Zentith stood there and watched them. “What will you try next?” it asked.

“Does it have any other weapons that you see?” Wren asked Talon.

“No,” he replied.

“Then, if we can get within striking distance, he should be no problem,” she said.

“Easier said than done,” Talon commented.

Wren looked around the clearing, wondering how to get close. “I can get within striking distance, but I would need diversion,” she said.

Talon nodded. “Allow me,” he said. He dropped from the tree and headed toward the creature, doing what he could to keep the poison from him as the creature attacked.

Wren moved through the trees until she was directly behind the creature. She knew she had to time it perfectly.

She took her weapons and snapped both in half. The Zentith would expect two, so the third one should go through and the fourth one… She hoped she would not have to use it.

She waited patiently, watching as Talon sacrificed his shield, time and time again, to keep the poison at bay.

She watched until she found the rhythm in the Zentith’s attack and then… There, she saw her opening. Without thought, she threw one…two…the Zentith deflecting both, and then the third slipped past and buried deep into the Zentith’s side as the fourth lodged itself into the Zentith’s shoulder.

She followed the weapons with her lightning, and Talon threw his own bolt into the mix.

They watched the Zentith Leader explode, shooting her weapons deep into the bark of the nearby trees.

Wren quickly gathered the pieces of her weapons and met up with Talon, who was resting against a nearby tree.

“Are you all right?” Wren asked.

Talon’s shield was destroyed, and he had burn patches on his body from where the poison had hit him. “I will be fine,” Talon said, breathing heavily. He was hurting.

Wren touched his wounds, healing them just enough that the poison could not travel into his bloodstream. “I am sorry, that is the best I can do for now,” she said.

“It is enough.”

“Shall we rest?”

“Only for a bit. The others need us to succeed.”

“True, but look.” Wren pointed to where the lower-level Zentiths were starting to turn and run away. “There is only a third of the number there was before.”

Talon nodded and closed his eyes. “Any food around here?”

Wren laughed and sat next to him. “I will cook you anything you want when we are done,” she said.

“I want Chinese.”

“Then we will eat Chinese for a week, despite what Carrie says.”

“Deal.”

***

“More are leaving,” Mr. Lee commented. “They must have taken out another leader.”

“Then we need to work in shifts for a bit and conserve our strength,” Michael commented. “There are few enough now we can at least hold them at bay for a while. We will not be able to win, but we will be able to stand our ground.”

“Agreed.” The director took over. “Emerald, Evan. Go to the Library, get some rest.”

He turned to the others. “We will change out every half hour.”

“Got it. Come on, Emerald.” Evan dragged her away from the fight.

“But I want to fight.”

“Then you will die,” Evan bit out.

Emerald shut up and followed him. He was right. They would die if they did not rest.

“Director. You go as well.” Mr. Lee could feel the director’s power core struggling. He would not last much longer.

“Thank you. I think I will.” He followed the kids.

“Who’s next?” Carrie asked the Zentiths as more fled before them.

***

“How long have we been resting?” Talon asked.

“A couple of hours, maybe.”

Wren and Talon lay in the branches of a tree. The area was quiet. No sign of the third leader around.

They had pulled back to regroup before moving to the area the third Leader had claimed. They did not know what they were going up against, so they were using the time to rest and heal.

“How are your wounds?” Talon asked.

“Getting better, but I have not let my body heal them properly, so there will probably be some scarring.”

“I would rather have you alive and scarred than dead and perfect.”

“Me too.”

“What of your weapons?” Talon asked.

Wren glanced down at her wrists where her bracelets glimmered, now with a faint crack through them. “They seem to be holding up, but I do not know what permanent damage I did to them.”

“That was a foolish thing to do.”

“It saved your life.” That was all she said.

They sat there for a while longer, listening to the battle in the distance.

“I wonder how they are doing,” Wren said after a while.

“I am sure they are holding their own.”

“Do you think the baby will be all right?”

Talon shrugged. “Only Lily will know that, and I do not think she will allow anything to happen to it.”

Talon let out a sigh. “If we are going to end this, we need to get going.”

“Agreed.” Wren stood and looked at the ground.

“Scared?”

“So are you.”

Talon pulled Wren into his arms. “I will not lose you,” he said.

“And if I lose you?”

“Then I expect you to mourn for me for the rest of your life.”

Wren rolled her eyes. “You are supposed to reassure me that I will not lose you.”

“But I cannot,” Talon told her with all seriousness.

“I know.”

“Shall we?”