Animus

Chapter Thirteen - Blackout

The air stood still as Shiner stood before us. His cold, crimson eyes stared us down as his black wings fluttered in the sunlight. He frowned at Liara and took a few steps towards her. Liara was terrified, I read her expression briefly as she took a few steps away from Shiner.

The trees around the area stood still. There was no wind, and even the leaves that fell off the trees froze in midair. Time was completely halted.

Why is he here? Why now?

I balled a fist as it crackled with energy.

You’re responsible for the destruction.

I broke into a sprint and called upon my scythe. “It’s all your fault!” I yelled, slamming my blade into Shiner.

A pale blue barrier appeared around Shiner stopping my blade mid-strike. The sound of the blade between the barrier sounded like metal being slowly melted down under extreme temperatures. I stood my ground, trying not to be forced back the barrier. The force was massive; it caused my hands to shake.

“Well,” I began, “maybe you can explain this, Shiner.” I pressed more force against the barrier but it wouldn’t move. “Why am I seeing these things? They keep crawling around the inside of my skull!”

As soon as I said that, I was blasted off my feet from Shiner with pure energy. I crashed into Liara and we tumbled together a few feet away from Shiner. I stood up and readied my scythe for another attack from him. I saw his barrier crackle with energy and assumed he was going to attack.

“No you don’t!” I said, sprinting to interrupt his attack.

A large blast of wind and dust erupted from where Shiner was standing. I covered my eyes to shield myself from the dust. When it cleared, Shiner was nowhere in sight. He vanished just a quickly as he appeared.

I slammed my scythe into the ground. “Damnit!” I shouted, as my scythe dematerialized into nothingness.

What the fuck does he want?

As I walked over to Liara, I realized she was shaking. When I placed my hands on her shoulders, she stopped. “I’m sorry,” she said, “that’s never happened to me before. I just…froze.”

“Don’t apologize,” I said, with a laugh. “There wasn’t anything we could do. He was stronger than the both of us.”

“Hey!” a voice shouted from behind us. We turned to see where the voice was coming from and saw a Chiron trainee running towards us. “What are you guys doing?” he asked. “The airbus is going to leave without you!”

Liara and I looked at each other and nodded. We followed the trainee to the landing zone and boarded the airbus.

Once we settled in the barracks we had a few moments to relax before Yumiya and a few other officials stormed into the room. He had a holopanel in his hands, no doubt reporting our results from the aptitude test.

“Before I begin, I want to congratulate Liara Vasir for placing first in the aptitude test,” Yimiya said.

Everyone clapped and some hooted. Liara, as usual, remain unchanged but saluted Yumiya.

Yumiya named off the top 12 scoring individuals who completed the aptitude test. As expected, I was right behind Liara in second place. Once I actually got to look at the results and broke it down, I realized that I was behind Liara by a small margin. Yumiya dismissed all of us and said the rest of the day was ours.

The next two weeks were met with rough training, but it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t handle. As long as it wasn’t the aptitude test again, I probably wouldn’t have anything to worry about. Liara never faltered once in her training in those two weeks. She was strong. “Terribly strong” she called it before we left Central City.