Chapter 17 - Betrayal

A day earlier, Fenres had explained the plan to Quin and the rest of the squad.

“Alright guys!” Fenres slammed his free hand on the table, “So let’s do one more quick run down.”

“Again?” said Chugol, “Just because you can’t remember it, doesn’t mean you need to tell us sixty-four times.”

“I wasn’t asking,” said Fenres, confidently, “So, Quin, you should already know your role by now. You’re the star of the show this time.”

“Lucky me.”

“Chugol, you’ll be in the audience. Sneak in as best as you can.”

“Roger that,” Chugol saluted Fenres sarcastically.

“Vaichehen, Seil…” Fenres nodded his head in deep thought, “Hmm… I’m sorry, but I really can’t think of a way to integrate the two of you without attracting too much attention.”

“Don’t worry about it, Captain,” said Seil, “My abilities aren’t really suited for covert operations. Besides, I don’t think Vaichehen wants to do any work anyways.”

Vaichehen nodded his head silently.

“That leaves me. I’ll be in contact with the Monarch in case anything goes wrong. Remember, our cover story is that Quin went out on his own to assist his new friend Ashur; we’ll just be out searching for him.”

“Sounds good,” said Chugol.

The group stood up and began to walk away from the table.

“Oh!” Fenres turned around, “One more thing.”

“What’s that?” said Teek.

“Don’t tell the Museum members anything about this plan. In fact, I’ve already told them that Quin will be the only one present during this mission. Ashur is the only one who knows otherwise, and he’s agreed to keep it a secret, albeit begrudgingly. The others think that we’ve had a different mission assigned to us at the last minute. I trust them. It’s just… they have more than enough reason to hate the Coalition.”

“Shouldn’t you tell us something like that sooner?” yelled Chugol.

“Ahaha,” Fenres rubbed the back of his head, “I forgot.”

**

Ashur looked back at Lasia with strained eyes. His tail drooped to the ground.

“Lasia… you,” he said. A sarcastic grin overcame his face through the pain, “Ha! What a good actress you are.”

“What can I say?” Lasia chuckled nervously, “It wasn’t easy to trick your Spirit Reading.”

“No, I mean right now. Was that attack meant to kill me or something? It’ll probably be healed within the hour. Even now, I can barely feel any killing intent from you.”

Lasia bit her lip in anger, “What could you possibly know about me!”

She waved her hand fan, and several more ice crystals solidified around her, suspended in the air. She raised the fan above her head, and prepared to fire off the crystals, but was interrupted.

Quin came in from the side and grabbed both of her arms, tackling her to the ground in the process.

“Why would you do this!” yelled Quin, pinning her arms to the ground, “I thought you trusted him!”

“You don’t need to know,” Lasia said somberly, “Really good choice, by the way.”

Before Quin knew it, the palms of his hand were freezing around Lasia’s wrists. He pulled his hands away as fast as he could, but his skin ripped in the process. His hands were covered in scratches and cuts. He jolted off of her before she could try anything else.

Quin got into his fighting stance, wincing as he balled his hands into fists.

A spike of dirt formed from under Ashur, but he managed to roll out of the way just in time. Another one formed. Ashur continued to roll his body along the ground with every successive spike, each forming with the intent to impale him. After the fifth or sixth spike, he slammed his arms into the ground, throwing himself into the air and sloppily landing on his own two feet.

Ashur looked as though he could barely stand. 

“So much for that,” said Patipay.

His Manifest, a large firearm, appeared in his hands. Its barrel widened conically at the end, lending it the appearance of an ancient blunderbuss.

“He’s got a gun!” one of the participants said.

“Where did he get that thing!” the announcer yelled, “Everyone, get to safety!”

Save for Quin, Lasia, Patipay and Ashur, all of the participants ran back through the gate that they came from.

The stands were in chaos. People attempted to run towards the exit, but it was quite crowded. The frantic crowd tripped over itself, with no regard for keeping one another safe.

He stuck the barrel into the ground, and when he pulled it out, a chunk of dirt was missing. He pointed the weapon outward towards Ashur.

Ashur put his guard up lethargically, but he miscalculated.

Patipay fired his weapon, but it wasn’t towards Ashur. A mound of dirt flew out of the Manifest, soaring high over the edge of the arena.

“You’re kidding!” Ashur yelled.

He ran up to Patipay and swung at him, but his movements were ineffective, too dulled by his injuries. 

The dirt lodged itself near the entryway to the staircase attached to the stands, narrowly avoiding hitting everyone.

Patipay fired another shot, and that one landed near the other entryway. The piles of dirt gathered themselves into large, thin blockades around the entrances. The majority of the spectators, still struggling to evacuate, pounded on the dirt walls, but they were impossibly solid.

“The pit fight is officially over!” the announcer anxiously yelled, “We all need to get out of he-”

She stopped speaking abruptly. Her body ragdolled off of the floating platform, and she fell down into the arena. 

Patipay put away his Manifest and caught the announcer in his arms. He grabbed the microphone from her limp hand, and dropped her down to the ground.

Ashur looked at her body and sighed in relief as he saw that she was still breathing.

“Alright everyone!” Patipay yelled into the microphone, “This pit fight will be going a little differently from here on!”

Ashur launched another kick at Patipay, attempting to interrupt him, but Patipay effortlessly dodged.

Quin was far too busy avoiding Lasia’s harsh, cold attacks to interfere with Ashur’s fight.

Ashur gave up attempting to interfere, and stood in deep contemplation.

“Long before the Coalition ever existed,” Patipay continued to yell into the mic, “pit fights stood as a traditional way for aristocrats and politicians to settle disputes! If the bigshots couldn’t agree, they would fight each other within a set of rules, no need to involve the common people at all! But what’s this now? You filthy bureaucrats have completely forgotten what this planet was founded on, and have reversed the situation for some sick, twisted form of entertainment!”

It was unsure if any part of the crowd was paying attention to what he was saying as they all scrambled around chaotically. 

“Don’t worry, though,” he said, “We, the Partition, will take care of this problem. All of you cowardly bigshots will remember what it really means to abandon your own people,” Patipay pointed at Ashur, “This boy right here represents everything wrong with the Coalition, he attempts to claim that he has no affiliation with the Ranger Corps, but not only did he bring a Ranger here,” he glanced at Quin, “but he’s also the son of the current Ranger Monarch! How disgusting it is that this Veetan would actively defend the ideals that he claims to hate!”

Ashur looked up at Patipay after hearing those words, snapping himself out of his own trance.

“Quin…” said Ashur.

“Yeah?” Quin barely managed to respond as he was narrowly avoiding being pierced by sharp ice.

“You can handle Lasia. The way that she is right now, she won’t be much of a threat to you.”

“Was already planning on it,” said Quin, “Can you handle the other guy?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll get serious now.”

Ashur exhaled deeply, and in his right hand, his manifest appeared.

It was small, no more than fifteen centimeters across. It was comparable to a lotus flower, but it was made entirely of metal. The dozens of petals on it seemed to be alive. Ashur let go of his Manifest, and it remained suspended in the air. It floated around Ashur’s head. Several of the petals detached themselves from the main body, orbiting it as they pleased.

“Once I take care of this complete fraud,” Patipay continued speaking into the microphone, “the Partition will finally have made its claim as the group that truly opposes this backwa-”

Patipay was cut off by a multitude of small pieces of Maelsteel rushing directly at him, cutting up his body as they passed. One hit his knee, one hit his elbow, and another one straight into the hand that was holding the microphone, which dropped to the ground with an ear-splitting thud.

The petals returned to Ashur. 

Ashur approached him, letting a heavy, menacing aura emanate from his body.

“You talk too much,” he said, coldly, “It’s a good thing no one’s listening.”

“You…” there was a certain shakiness in Patipay’s voice, “You really think this’ll be easy?”

“Yep.”

Ashur spread his arms wide open as though they were wings. His tail loosely dragged behind him.

His Manifest released every single one of its petals, and they headed for their target at a nearly untraceable speed.