The Paradox Corridor

Chapter 45: The Tainted Blade

Time seemed to slow down. James and Andrew both watched as the robot seemed to fly through the air, sword ready to slash. They were both beginning to realize how dumb it was to challenge a 50 foot robot to a sword fight. Their swords, Andrew's spear, and James' bow and arrow? Completely Useless against something made of metal. Both Andrew and James thought at Amber: "We need help! How can we hurt this thing?" Amber didn't respond, but the presence did.

"Remember! The whole point of this is to wipe out the Chosen army as collateral damage. Keep it coming after you, but make sure not to die!" James and Andrew turned to run, and time began to move at normal speed again. James and Andrew bolted as fast as they could, running straight through the circle of Chosen that had surrounded them. The Chosen didn't even react to them at first, their eyes focusing instead on the robot, which was a mistake (for them). As they charged through the Chosen ranks, Amber yelled:

"Jump! Now!" The two boys jumped as far as they could, and just in time, too. The robot had landed directly on top of the circle of men that had surrounded them, and the shock wave it had created had been about to knock them over. As Andrew rolled to a stop and James landed on his feet beside him, they turned to look at the robot. It was trying to find them, but the dust cloud it had thrown up made it hard. Unfortunately, at that very moment, the Chosen got over their confusion. With at least 30 men dead at the hands of the robot, like a hive mind they all simultaneously recognized a threat to their safety and they responded. Every single Chosen turned towards the robot and charged. The archers loosed volley after volley of arrows, James joining in. The robot looked confused for a moment, then slashed downward with it's sword, killing at least a dozen Chosen knights instantly. But more kept pouring towards the robot, and as it hacked and slashed through the army the time travelers realized that this was their lucky break. For now, it seemed, the Chosen were not their enemy. But as James loosed another arrow directly at the robot's head (it clanged off), something hit him over the head (thank goodness for that helmet!) and he toppled over. He rolled over quickly, and saw a Chosen spear man standing over him, about to strike. Suddenly, with a flash of silver, Andrew deftly blocked the spear. The spear man jumped back and thrust his spear at Andrew. Andrew dodged to the right and stabbed the man in the knee. The man immediately blacked out and collapsed to the ground, the pain apparently unbearable. Andrew helped James up, both breathing pretty heavily.

"Thanks, Andrew." James said, deciding not to comment on the fact that Andrew seemed completely unwilling to kill. Not that he wanted to. He still hadn't killed anyone yet. However, this was a war. I they refused to kill, then they were fighting with one hand tied behind their back. Suddenly, Andrew interrupted his thoughts.

"James, we have a problem. Two problems, actually." Andrew replied, pointing toward the robot. Many Chosen soldiers lay around it in a large mass of black and red. The robot's sword, having shed so much blood in such a short amount of time, was now completely red: no black to be seen. That wasn't the problem. The robot had, for some reason, stopped fighting the Chosen, completely ignoring them altogether. The Chosen, in return, were now ignoring the robot, and the 1/3 or so of the army that remained had begun marching towards Arthur's keep. That was the first problem. The second problem was that the robot had finally spotted them, and it began marching towards them, dead Chosen corpses falling off of various parts of its body, coating its legsblood red.

"Amber, we could really use your help right about now!" James thought loudly as he turned around to run.

Amber hadn't been lollygagging that whole battle, like James thought she had. Besides killing every spell caster the Chosen had, she had been working on a very complicated spell. She chanted and waved her wand around. She focused her mind, willing the wind to slowly begin flowing straight to her. It took a couple of minutes, but as she starting getting the spell going objects in the Chosen encampment began to slowly move towards her. At first it had been small things, like knives, swords, arrows, and the dust. When they neared her, she bent the wind around her, making a funnel of wind that objects began hovering in to. As more and more objects flew toward her, the various objects began to mingle with each other, making a mini-tornado of sorts. But it didn't stay mini for long. As she got further into her spell, larger and larger objects began flying towards her, and from a further and further distance. Soon entire tents and racks of weapons began flying towards her. As she neared the end of her spell, the wind had picked up to a rumbling roar. Suddenly, admits her controlled chaos, she heard a thunderous BOOM! Slowly, so slowly that it was hardly noticeable, the foundations of the black tower began to crumble and divide. She could feel the presence drawing power away from James and Andrew, giving her as much power as it could. She remembered what Merlin had told her,