Shadowforce

SCOTT

"Alice?" Charlie asked surprised, confirming my guess.

We all looked at Alice as if she was some alien, but she herself was least affected by that. Considering the number of months she had been missing, we were all mentally sure that she was dead. We were so in awe and shock in seeing Alice that we failed to see the person behind her.

"I see that you already recognise Alice... it's a pity you all don't know me, I am Rancour... pleased to meet you all. Oh, look at that Alice! your sister did not make it!" he said in very charming but cold voice. Alice just remained quite the whole time not moving at all, just standing there.

He seemed to be only a few years older than me, maybe the same age as Alice; even he wore a hood identical to that of Alice's. He had quite a peculiar pair of eyes; I mean one eye had a red eye colour while the other eye had a greyish purple eye colour. The red eye was brighter that the other eye which may even cause it to shine in the dark. He also had a villan-ish kind of charm. (And one smile from him may send a nice and long chill down your spine.)

But as Rancour finished his introduction something felt really wrong, we all felt it. Rancour gave us quite a creepy smile as he realized that we were realizing that something was wrong (keep up, don't be confused.). It felt as if Rancour was trying his best to irritate us every way possible.

Catherine gave us the signal that was supposed to mean "get ready to attack" but suddenly I felt so exhausted I could not even have a nice grip on my wand. I looked at Brittney who was just beside me with a puzzled look and she in turn gave me the exactly same look. Alice and Rancour saw that and they seemed to be very happy about it,

"Alice, what are you doing here? SWA has been searching for you for months now and..." Catherine said stepping towards Alice but Rancour stopped her,

"You should not move that much dear Catherine, you will only waste your energy. Alice is in a fine state, aren't you Alice?"

"Yes master." Alice answered.

Okay so in conclusion something was really wrong, Alice does not just call anyone "master". I have met Alice two times to be precise and she always seemed really energetic, she seemed almost dead now.

"What are you talking about?" Brittney asked considering the "don't move" thing.

"Oh, you see the walls of this cave are luminous for a reason, this cave has a spell on it which causes it to draw all the energy slowly and nicely into itself. It does not affect us though. Well, the less you move the slower the process is. We don't want you to die just now. I mean a little fun wouldn't harm us..." just as Rancour said it Lucy just fell on the ground losing her total consciousness. Drake immediately moved to Lucy's side to check on her.

"See, this is the problem of our guests, you never listen to us, and she will be just fine... I mean it will take her at least ten more minutes before she dies. So she is the weakest of your puny group, good to know the standard of your powers. But before that" Rancour said as he took out what seemed to be a whip. He stopped for a few second, as if concentrating on something and the next thing I know he is flying midair his whip glowing blue surrounded by something which seemed like electricity.

"Let's play a little"

He then hit Drake with the whip two times causing the electricity to surge throughout his body which was bound to hurt a lot. The screams of Drake in pain echoed in the cave. We had to do something and so even though I would risk losing my energy I used a spell which would stop the whip from moving at all. When Rancour realized that he looked at me directly,

"Are you serious? You actually think you can beat me? You can't even beat Alice! Forget about beating me." Breaking my spell a like it was nothing. But it at least stopped Rancour from hurting Drake anymore.

"Yes" I replied with all the confidence I could sum up at that moment.

"what??" Rancour asked  narrowing his eyes.

"Yup,we can defeat you, both of you actually." Charlie said backing me up. At least we had managed to gain some confidence, though we were 75% bluffing. Rancour was surprised by the answer it seemed,

"How hard could it be to fight ya? I mean it may be true that both of you are really powerful but we still have the advantage here. The spell of this cave works slowly as you said yourself, yeah it works but it's really slow. We six leaving out Lucy have a chance of defeating you if all of us attack together." Catherine said boosting our confidence.

"Make it five." Alice said suddenly.

"What?"

"What Alice means to say here Brittney, is that Drake is already unconscious. The amount of electricity of my whip is at the most 100 milliamps; they cause extremely painful shock, respiratory arrest (breathing stops), and severe muscle contractions. Flexor muscles may cause holding on; extensor muscles may cause intense pushing away. Even death is possible. And I hit him two times with it; it would actually be a miracle if he can even walk for the next eight hours. So it is in no way possible that he can fight. To be honest I wanted to really play with you that's why I was even showing him mercy my whip can has maximum electricity of 10,000 milliamps by which death is probable."

"Wow... such mercy..." Charlie said sarcastically. "So what if we are only five, we still have an advantage against two of you."

"Yes that is true, but your advantage would not work if there are only four of you."

"What do you mean?"I asked him.

"Tell me something, do all of you trust each other?" Rancour suddenly asked.

"Of course." Charlie answered at once.

"Seriously Charlie?"

"Yes Rancour, seriously. But how do you know our names?"

"Oh... long story. But umm... has it never occurred to you that someone may be betraying you?"

"What do you mean by that Rancour?" Catherine asked him demanding a clear and straight answer.

"Well, you just said pretty confidently that the five of you can easily beat me. But that's where you are absolutely wrong. You see, even without any amount of my energy I can make you five, four. But judging by you face dear Catherine, you want a clear answer. So though I like answering in riddles I will do you a favour. The reason why I know you all so well and why I can make you five four is because of my brother."

"What Brother?" Charlie asked.

"Not any brother Charlie, Rancour's brother... they share the same blood."Alice said as if trying to give us a clue. Rancour smiled as Alice before saying,

"Meet my little, sweet brother.... Josh Crusader".