Guardians Of The Arcane Chronicles

Chapter 10: Us Versus Them

It was a trap.

This was a gods-damned trap and he had foolishly fallen right into it.

Felix breathed heavily, feeling his power surge through his veins. The Necromancer beside him put up a brave front, though it was obvious how much he was trembling. A group of metas stood in a circle around them while the rest of the fleeing metas disappeared behind them.

Cowards.

The Guardian recognised every single one of his opponents' sneering faces. He was not facing mere petty thugs this time. These metas were criminal leaders with men under them, and were all at least Tier three or higher. So Felix made the first move.

A pink bubble encased Orpheus and pushed him out of the cabin.

The criminals moved all at once. Red energy exploded from a pair of eyes, clashing with an intense psionic beam emitted from the boy's hand. His telekinetic senses screamed in warning as a meta on his left disappeared in a flash. Felix's mind worked furiously, crushing the speedster on the floor before his feet. The temperature dropped considerably as an ice wall hurtled towards him.

Another psychic blast bursted from Felix's other hand, pushing back the ice. The metas collectively bellowed in effort as they engaged in their individual wars of attrition. Felix controlled his breathing, gradually increasing his power output to push them back.

Movement caught Felix's eye in the midst of the chaos. The overgrown vines in this abandoned house were moving like snakes and rapidly multiplying themselves. He looked on in confusion as razor sharp tendrils began to grow out of their leaves.

The surrounding walls crumbled into dust as the psychic yelled in a final effort, knocking out the stubborn metas with a single wave of psychic energy. He turned his attention to the last standing meta, whose deadly harvest seemed to be ready. Her eyes glowed green as she sent a huge wave of barbed vines towards him, but Felix was not impressed.

"You attack me with vegetables?" he roared as though he was genuinely offended, shredding the plants easily with raw psychic energy. But his concentration was slipping.

Vines wrapped his limbs from behind, catching him off guard and ending his onslaught abruptly. The boy yelped in surprise as they stretched his body out while lifting him up in the air. The woman panted with effort, desperately trying to transmute a leaf into a jagged branch before Felix broke free of his restraints. A shadow approached them.

"Arise, my warriors."

Ceramic tiles cracked as skeletal hands burst from the ground, rising from the graveyard just beneath the battle ground. The risen skeletons got to work quickly. Some used their sharpened bones to hack away at the vines holding Felix while the others faced their foe.

The criminal leader shrieked in primal fear, falling over her feet this time and scrambled backwards. She whimpered pathetically as the army of rotting skeletons descended upon her, commanded by the Necromancer who was now by Felix's side.

"You magis and your weak spells."

A powerful shockwave interrupted the spell and disintegrated all the skeletons. Felix immediately put up a force field before it reached Orpheus. It flashed intermittently as the psychic grunted in surprise. This was his first time blocking such an enormous force; none of his foes had ever managed to generate such power before. Felix glared warily at the figure standing in front of the woman. Just who is this guy?

"Felix Pagonis." The man gestured for the lady to flee. "I've been looking forward to meeting you, comrade. My name is Titus Angelo, and I have a deal for you."