By Timothy Walsh

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Phaedrin tucked and rolled out the back of the truck, nimble despite her heavy armor. While fast, she wasn’t subtle, and the sound of her impact and roll rang out as she quickly surveyed the area. She found herself on a broken road through scraggly, rocky woodland. Small arms fire spattered on the ground around her as she quick-stepped away from the back of the truck and scanned the treeline for hostiles. She noticed some of them -- a handful of mostly Humans and Naguli -- had taken covered positions behind rocks and fallen trees. None seemed to have any weapons larger than a rifle, which suited her fine.

She stopped moving and planted her feet. Pulling the hilt of her starblade from the back of her belt, Phaedrin ignited the weapon. The dark red blade extended with a burst and hiss, throwing new shadows around in the thin sunlight, and Phaedrin openly grinned at the sudden silence as the weapons fire stopped. Taking a deep breath, she schooled her expression into a serious one as shouted across the small battlefield.

“Bandits! Raiders! I am Phaedrin, Paladin of the Vilithic Church! You have one chance to lay down your arms and submit to local justice, lest the wrath of the Gods and Their might fall upon your heads!”

The weapons of the bandits remained silent, even as Phaedrin’s local companions threw themselves from the back of the truck and scattered behind what cover they could. As he moved behind her, Phaedrin heard Ricard saying, “Oh now it’s time to be dire,” and she struggled to keep a straight face.

The silence broke with a single voice shouting from the trees, “You all know what we have on our side! Take them!”

The weapons fire began all at once, and Phaedrin no longer had to fight to remain serious. She remained planted, narrowed her eyes, and reached out with her empty hand. Shouting aloud in an old form of Urunar, she felt a presence in the back of her mind as a dark and depthless anger flowed from it, through her, and into the world. A lance of black fire leapt from her hand, howling almost as if in pain, towards a group of three Naguli with rifles -- only to spatter against a nearly invisible heat shimmer in the air before it could reach them.

Her eyes widened, but before she could say anything Phaedrin was forced to throw herself into a desperate roll as greenish black vines, thorns glistening with something she didn’t want to contemplate, burst out of the ground where she had been standing, flailing hungrily for something to latch on to.

The raiders gave a hopeful cheer, and the weapon fire intensified on both sides. Lasers spattered off Phaedrin’s armor even as she moved her starblade to deflect what she could. The bandits were focusing on her, leaving her squad of locals free to return fire, but she knew that she couldn’t keep this up for too long. Her attention was pulled as if by chance towards an older human man standing off to the side of the bandits. Phaedrin felt his gaze focusing on her, and knew that whatever had just tried to happen to her, he was responsible.

“What are you?” she yelled, and called upon her Gods. Power infused her body as she sprinted from the road into the thin woods, directly towards the man. Her sight narrowed until he was all that she saw. He was older, greying, his skin weathered and clothing hard worn. He didn’t appear to be carrying weapons, but even as she saw his eyes widen in fear, he kept chanting words that Phaedrin could not hear. She grew closer, but her focus left her no ability to dodge the shards of wood which pulled themselves from a nearby tree and flew into her, trailing a faint green mist. Most of them shattered on her armor, but she felt one slam into her thigh, and the burning in her muscle was from more than just a simple wound.

It didn’t help the man, as Phaedrin reached him and slammed into him at her full supernatural speed. While he spun from the impact, Phaedrin planted her feet and skidded to a sudden halt. Spinning to face the human, her wounded leg buckled beneath her and she began to topple. Mid-fall, she swept her starblade down in a burning arc, fully severing one of the man’s legs at the knee. He barely managed to cry out as he fainted from the pain.

The sounds of the battle continued around her, but Phaedrin only had eyes for the fallen human in front of her. “Everyone else here might get dealt with by the locals, but you? You’re coming back to Kel with me.”

THE END… for now.

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