Tyse, shocked from the response, showed his eyes brighten up. He was surprised from the sudden change of her mind and was filled with hope. He felt as if a flame had ignited in his heart. Seeing this annoyed Nova a bit, but she pushed on, “In and out with the Glaive though, and don’t get in the way! You will stay behind us at all times!”

He nodded, “I understand.” He said.

She paused, “If you decide to follow us in… know that you will be risking your life. That’s just putting it lightly…”

He thought for a moment all the consequences that will and can come if he does go in there. He knows that he will most likely die when he goes in there, but he didn’t care all that much. He was tired of not being useful, and as he thought about earlier how he froze in the police station and how he wasn’t of much help in the fights, he couldn’t bare the feeling of being a coward. He was tired of not being as great as everyone else that he has seen. The bravery and strength of Nova and Finn, the mages that he has looked up to all his life. He felt so worthless when comparing himself to them and he hated the feeling.

“I made my decision.” He said, “If I die then I die! But I am tired of feeling so worthless compared to everyone else in my life. I may not be much of a fighter or be able to use magic… but I want to make something of myself for once and this is my chance to do something and say that I actually did something great in my life.”

Nova turned back towards the manhole cover and started towards it. “Don’t delude yourself. There is nothing great about any of this” She said.

She opened the cover and went down the ladder. Tyse froze in the moment, not knowing of what to make of all of this or how he managed to get all of that out. Finn walked over, putting his hand of his shoulder to get him going. They both began walking towards the sewer entrance as Finn signaled the students the time to start the show. Twelve minutes is the time that the three of them had to be ready and in position before the distraction starts.

They passed through the sewers without much to say. This was the first time Tyse has ever been in the sewers before so his nose was sensitive to the humid musk in the air. He wanted to thank Nova for letting him come along with them, but hesitated, afraid that she would get mad from the gesture. He decided to tell her another time as they continued to traverse silently in the dark mazes of the sewer. They arrive at the basement entrance of the mall and make it up the ladders quickly. Tyse didn’t have time to be amazed at the emptiness of the mall as he followed Finn and Nova as they rushed out to find legionnaires on patrol. They all stop to hide in one of the shops nearby. All was quiet as they listened to the hollow hallways, but then they heard footsteps from somewhere. Finn focused to hear where it was coming from, and after a moment he determined that it was coming from somewhere above them on the upper floors. He went out of the shop first to see if the coast was clear and waved the others out to follow. They peaked around and saw on the reflection of windows that there were four legionnaires on the railings looking down from the second floor. They all broke for cover before they could be noticed too. Finn hid behind a kiosk with various different items, while Tyse was hiding behind an indoor planter with Nova hiding behind a pillar not too far off. There was no way they were going to get up there without being noticed.

Finn looked at the others, signaling them to wait a moment. He took out his bow and slowly knocked down some items off of the kiosk to create some noise. This clearly alerted the legionnaires as they quickly stopped the small talk they had amongst themselves. It was silent and none of them dared to breathe. They listened as the footsteps and metal clanks of their gear gradually grew louder as they approached the source of the noise and not too long did it take for them to get to the disturbance. The patrol was now at the base of the stairs, rifles drawn. They saw the fallen items at the Kiosk and drew closer to it. Finn looked over at Nova and nodded. She nodded back and got out of her cover quietly. The lookout man on the back of the group scanned the room while the other three investigated the Kiosk, but Nova was just out of his line of sight to his right as she creeped up closer to him. He noticed something on the corner of his eye, but it was too late. Nova pounced on him, striking her knife into his neck then attacking the closest legionnaire with her blade. The patrol now alerted of her presence turned their attention towards her, ignoring the Kiosk which Finn hid behind. Their guns were pointed ready to shoot, but suddenly an arrow was placed into the neck of one of them and Finn jabbed an arrow into the next. Tyse looked in horror as this happened, while still hiding next to the planter. Without wasting a second. Nova and Finn dragged the bodies off to the side, inside a nearby shop, in case other patrols were present in the building. They looked to see Tyse still hiding by the planters. Finn waved him over and so Tyse did reluctantly. They began stripping three of the bodies of their uniforms, wiping away the blood as best they could. Nova and Finn then put on the uniforms over the clothes they were already wearing. It was uncomfortable to say the least, especially when they already have their own weapons and gear to worry about. They were done with putting on the uniforms and were ready to depart. Finn looked over at Tyse and noticed dread on his face. Finn stepped over and pat his shoulder, “I know that this is all frightening to you.” Finn said, “But you have to be brave for whatever comes next. We all need you to get your head straight, now more than ever.”

Tyse looked him in the eyes, “How do you guys do it? You both do this as if it were nothing? Isn’t it scary for you too?”

“Well you get used to it.” Finn laughed for a second, “In all seriousness it was scary having to fight my first time too. You just need to fight your fear before anything else. Got that?”

Tyse nodded, “I think so.”

Finn smiled, “Good. Now here.” He shoved a rifle in his arms, picked up from one of the bodies next to him, “You ever shoot a gun before?”

Tyse looked confused as he examined the weapon, “Yeah, me neither.” Finn said, “But what you should know is, safety off to shoot, trigger is to shoot, and you need bullets in your magazine to shoot too. Here’s the safety, magazine release, and select fire. Looks like between semi-auto and auto.” He pointed the parts on the gun. “Point and shoot… but let’s just hope it doesn’t have to come to that.”

Finn stepped over to Nova who was leaning against a wall waiting on them both. They put on the legionnaire head gear and flipped down the battle visor to cover their eyes. They walked in unison out of the building exit and into the heart of the base. They looked intimidating wearing the uniform, which consisted of a mix of Kevlar and metal armor. The uniform was mostly a color of grey, black, and red, with a mix of the steel armor distributed around the uniform itself. Vests outfitted with pockets and pouches for magazines, black gloves, black boots, and a nice backpack which they were able to use to store the things they couldn’t fit into the uniforms. Finn felt naked without his bow in his hand, and had to rely on a mounted knife that came with the uniform. Nova, however, didn’t like the idea of putting away her weapons entirely so she put her short blade in the pack while she just stuffed her knife in the pocket of the uniform within easy reach.

They walked together through the base, so far no one noticed them or paid them any mind. It wasn’t long until the distraction is set to go off, so they hurried their pace towards the Glaives holding area, with the most security around. Two guards stood by in front of the building doors, signaling the group to halt as they came near. “Halt, state your business!”

The group stopped in front of the guards. Finn quickly talked before the guards became even more suspicious, “We got orders to report in.”

“Report in? Report in to who?”

Finn tried to pause for as much was necessary to buy time, “We were called in by base commander to report in here. Inside this building if I’m not mistaken. You’re… being relieved of watch duties.”

They couldn’t tell what their eyes must look like with the battle visor in the way, but they can tell that they must be very confused and suspicious right now. Tyse tightened his grip on the rifle and Nova tensed up. “We have orders of no one in unless notified, and we are not to leave our post until pick up arrives.” The soldier paused, looking at the three of them, “What unit you from soldier?”

Finn stumbled with his words, “We are uhh…” He didn’t know what to say next. The panic in the group silently rise along with the guard’s alarm. The first guard whispered to the other to call for back up, “Now I’m going to ask one last time before you make me real nervous.” The soldier said, slowly readying his rifle, “What is your unit?”

Finn couldn’t say a thing, and thought about when the distraction was going to happen already. That’s when a loud boom filled the air as a large fire burst right outside the western walls of the base. Everyone was caught off guard, even Finn. The guards lost their attention on Finn and the group and diverted their eyes onto the explosions. It was at this moment Nova and Finn took the opportunity and killed the guards while they were distracted. Both took out knives and stabbed into the neck, around the protective armor. The door was keycard protected, so Finn searched a guard briefly for a card and swiped it before anyone else notices what they have done. He runs the card through the reader and it beeped twice, with green lights and a click at the door. Quickly Nova and Finn dragged the bodies inside as Finn followed behind, making sure no one saw them.

The room was cool and somewhat dark. It was all just one room and at the end of it was a high tech, translucent case with the blade inside, faintly glowing hot orange. Before it was a console controlling the holding mechanisms of the blade. They approached the case cautiously in case there were any other security measures, however, there were none to be found. It was quiet in the room, the noise of chaos outside were dampened from the thick metal walls and the only other room that could be heard was the soft hums of the containment mechanisms. Nova approached the container looking at the beautiful glows of the sword. It seemed to be locked up tight. The glass was thick and most likely bullet proof, the latching mechanisms looked very complex, and the box itself seemed to be latched onto the pedestal which it rested on. Tyse got on the console, he looked at the on screen buttons and commands which all seemed very cryptic to him, but after examining all of the buttons and functions present he started to understand what some of the commands were for. He pressed some buttons for a while until, finally, there were a series of clicks, whirring, and hisses. Vapor was released from the container as it unlatched itself and opened. The sides of the container separated and slid down the sides of the pedestal, where it then rested. All of them approached the blade, feeling a slight warmth radiate off of it. Nova slowly reached out to grab it, but Tyse reacted quickly and stopped her. “Wait!” He said, “Don’t touch it unless you plan on talking to Pyrium herself!”

Nova paused, her hand hovering just inches away from the Glaive. She hesitated for a moment and then backed her hand away. Tyse looked as if he took a sigh of relief. He took out from under his uniform a large cloth and wrapped it around the blade before carrying it. “It’s a good thing I brought this?” He said.

Finn looked at him strangely, “You wanted to come along so you can give the sword a blanket?” He said.

Tyse chuckled, “Well no. When I said that stuff about talking to Pyrium, I didn’t really explain it that well. You see, you don’t touch a Gods weapon unless you plan to commune with the God, but even then two things will happen: You will be deemed worthy and merge with the God, or… you’ll be found unworthy and die on the spot.”

Both Finn and Nova looked surprised. “You’re kidding right?!” Finn said.

Nova looked at her hands, realizing that she could have just lost her life then and there. In her head she didn’t hear Pyrium mention this detail at all during the time she was explaining the lives of Gods. “Thanks for the heads up.” She said quietly.

Tyse picked up on it and smiled slightly. He stuffed the sword into the backpack and they all got ready to go. However, just as they began walking towards the exit, the doors opened abruptly with a hand full of legionnaires. They were here to check on the Glaive, but then they stumbled upon the two dead guards that Nova and Finn had dispatched earlier. They looked down at the bodies in awe, then looked up to see the group and the sword missing. Without another delay the legionnaires took defensive positions on the door, while Nova and the group didn’t have any option but to charge towards them. Finn scrambled for his bow in his bag, while Nova took the rifle from Tyse’s hands and started shooting at the doorway. The legionnaires tried to return fire, but only managed to get a few out before getting hit and ducking into cover. She ran out of ammo, so she opened a pouch on the uniform to reload. At that time two legionnaires got out of cover to return fire. Nova couldn’t reload fast enough to shoot back and so got ready for the shots to come, but just as she readied herself to get hit, the two shooters were hit by an arrow. Finn had gotten his gear out just in time to prevent them from shooting.

Finn readied another shot and Nova finished reloading the gun, giving it back to Tyse. She ran towards the door and reached in her pack, taking out her sword. As she made it towards the door, she tackled a legionnaire looking in and held him as a human shield as the other legionnaires began shooting. She charged at the shooters with her human shield, shoving the body at them and jumping in to break their formation. She took out the shooters on the door and waved in the doorway to signal the group to come out. They rejoined each other and made a break back inside the mall. They were halfway there, until they started taking fire from the entrance and rooftop. They took cover behind a nearby vehicle. Nova could charge head on and face the ground opposition, but the rooftop snipers made it too risky. “Finn, think you can take care of those snipers?”

He tried peeking out to see where they were, but came back in cover as a bullet barely missed him. “If I cared to be shot in the face today then I would. Sadly today is not that day.”