Acquisition

Chapter Three - Atmos and Co.

Ryqdar Lynkshen

Year 2 Part 1

Nimenax and I traveled west. We were going to the City of New Dalion. The carriage rocked over the cobbled road. Even then Nimenax was intimidating. His mask never left his face. Even I, his brother, have yet to see his carefully guarded secret. He can never reveal it, though. Not after the incident. Father Atmos is having us get to the safe box in the Baron's mansion. It is a heavily guarded facility, but with the powers of ice and lightning, it is no matter. I looked at my gauntlet. Lights danced along the edges and the palm flashed with a pale blue. My more aggressive brother had red lights flashing along his, with a dark blue palm that in itself implied pain and suffering.

We climbed out of the cloth covering and into the rain that seemed to be starting. Lightning split the sky and thunder crashed as we walked in. Upon entering we lowered our cloaks nearly simultaneously. I took the right side as security piled towards us. I shot a blast of ice to each security guard that came by, and Nimenax blasted them with thousands of volts. The initial wave ended and round two began. Crossbowmen shot from the railing above the stairs at me and my brother in the main chamber. I shot ice in all directions and the firing ceased, not resuming until after my brother shot all of them. Neither of us said a word until the waves of enemies were defeated. A single opponent crawled to me, legs frozen. He was he last of the guards. I picked him up by the collar of his dark uniform. Night's watch. At this hour? That could only mean...

An army assembled at the top of the stairs.

...these were just the ones resting.

Rows of enemies cut through our defense simply, leaving me with a single option. I surrounded my brother and I with a bubble of ice that I thickened as the enemies got closer. My counterpart began charging. Building energy in his hand. His body became the host of immense electricity. It began to show and I created armor of ice as the bubble cracked under the combined power of the baron's guard. Nimenax exploded with energy. The stairs collapsed. The roof fell in. The building fell apart. A shockwave decimated everything and a rippling effect tore at buildings and people miles away. Blood rained from the skies, working with the actual rain to create a watery bloody mess the pelted us both as I dispelled my armor. We turned left and dived into what could have been a hallway.

Stairs led up and down. We headed down and navigated through the rubble, jumping over missing steps, and sliding down the split railing where necessary. We made our way down to the lowest floor the stairs would take us and jumped down, into what was left of the basement.

It was fairly untouched by the destruction, but beams leaning to the left and right hinted at the mess my brother created. I blasted a beam in our way with ice, and my brother kicked it into a thousand shards of glass.

There it was. The strongbox. I walked up to it first and pushed the lid open. There was an object I lifted to investigate, but it twisted out of my grasp and floated in front of me, revealing itself as a blue-trimmed suit of armor. My brother touched the other object. It had the same effect but was more passionate. More intense. We looked at each other and nodded as we reached out to the suits.

We united are fire and water.

We rivaled are justice and fury.

We are enemies for life.