The Rising Sun: Episode 2 by J Hawk Page B

Ion a
sluggish second late. His eyes went wider. “You’re … one of them.
The Xeni.”
     
    “And you’ve heard about us,” Eryx’s sneer
stretched. “That’s good. You’ll be going to you’re grave with the
knowledge of who it was you trifled with.”
     
    “Trifled with? I don’t even know you. Any of
you.”
     
    “No. but you’re about to join the Nyon. And
we can’t allow that, now, can we? The last thing we need is for our
sworn enemies to gain the benefit of a fresh young mystic joining
their ranks. See, kid, the brotherhood is weakened. Badly. They
haven’t had a lotta new initiates in a while. Finding and getting
stray mystics to join them is becoming harder and harder for them.
They’re in a bad state… and at the brink of an inevitable
collapse.” Eryx gave a nasty laugh. “We can’t let someone like you
join them and lessen the odds of that happening, now, can
we?”
     
    Ion had heard enough. He felt his mind
sharpen with a rising fury. He stared Eryx dead in the face.
     
    “You aren’t stopping me.” he said quietly. He
took a step forward, closing the distance between their faces to a
few inches. “Now get out of the way … unless you’re a little
confused about what’s good for you.”
     
    Eryx stood there, unmoving. The silence of
the alley suddenly seemed louder as the two of them stood there,
glaring at each other…
     
    “Get out of the way,” repeated Ion, his voice
a breathing hiss. “Or you’ll be sorry you called me in the first
place.”
     
    “Oh no, Ion.” Eryx’s sneering face livened
with malice. “In the following few minutes, no one in the
spectrum’s gonna be as sorry as you.”
     
    And then, the dustbins on each corner of the
alley wobbled and the lids covering them flew off. A cloaked figure
with a sword emerged from each dustbin, climbing out of the bin
with his eyes focused dead on Ion.
     
    Ion felt his jaw slide open. As he turned his
head back to Eryx, he realised his mistake. A second too late…
     
    Eryx’s sword, now drawn and ignited, lunged
at him from the side. Ion threw himself off the way, only to feel a
fiery, scorching feeling across the brace of his skin by his hip.
Giving a mild yelp, he landed on three limbs, his hand still
holding his sword.
     
    The four other cloaked figures, now having
crawled out of the dustbins, ignited their swords and came
sprinting to the centre of the alley, where Eryx and Ion were.
     
    Ion felt the air in his lungs go thin, as he
realised there was no getting away this time … His mind sped up,
and he leapt backwards a second not too soon to avoid a slash from
one of the Xeni, and then ducked another from the second. The third
slash almost caught him by the side of his face. Without bothering
to stop for a breath, he threw himself aside. A split second later,
the two glowing swords of two other Xeni clashed against each
other, showering sparks right around where he had been
standing.
     
    The three others, standing a few feet ahead
of him, sprang towards him, their faces livened in the flickering
light of their glowing swords. Making a lightspeed leap to the
side, Ion dodged the first man’s blade, then ducked as another two
slashed at the air to his ribs. His sword left a thin, loud cling! in the air as it blocked the third man’s sword, and
then slashed across the fourth’s with such speed that the Xeni’s
blade went spinning out of his hand…
     
    Eryx charged at him from right amidst,
sending a fist hurled at him. Ion’s ribs throbbed with pain, as the
force of the man’s punch sent him flying. He felt his sword leaving
his hand, twirling off his grasp… and his body soared back and
crashed loudly on one of the dustbins of the alley.
     
    He rolled off the rummage and slipped to the
ground of the alley, his vision flickering slightly. He fought the
spinning sensation over his head and watched helplessly as the five
mystics, their glowing blades in hands, came strutting upto where
he lay,