Chapter 11

Combat

“Pozhar, was it? I’ll give you one more chance, turn around and leave,” I said to the delusional Russian.

“Pozhar is not afraid of you,” he said snapping his hands making the flames grow larger.

“I’m telling you this for your own good,” I said resisting the urge to sigh.

“Is the American scared of the mighty Russian? The borders might not exist anymore, but Pozhar remembers the might of the greatest nation on Earth.”

“I thought Russia was wiped out first?” I asked scratching the back of my head.

“Scum!” Pozhar shouted before a massive burst of flames sent him flying straight at us. I reacted by leveling my pistols with him and rapidly pulling the trigger. I scowled when I saw the rounds melt before they reached him from the massive amount of heat he was putting off. My scowl only grew when I saw the damage he was causing to my airship.

I considered what to do when Alara flashed by me in a blink. She slammed into Pohzar foot first. He went flying bodily backward rolling end over end. He managed to stop a meter from the edge.

“Don’t break Regan’s things!” she shouted after him.

“Thank you, Love,” I said walking up next to her and grabbing her hand. She had what reminded me of a tan now. It was an interesting change from her usual pale skin.

Pozhar stood up shakily then coughed up a large amount of blood. “Bloody Americans... Always getting in Pozhar’s way!”

I felt a large surge of energy as Pozhar’s body started to shift to pure flames. I saw the metal he stood on start to glow brightly and knew it wouldn’t hold up too much more heat. I quickly bent down to place my hand on the hull of the airship. Using all my current energy and matter, I upgraded the hull to withstand heat up to the temperatures of the sun. Completely drained, I breathed deeply as I laid there.

“Up to you, my love,” I said.

She nodded reaching down and placed her hand on the metal surface. With a burst of energy, a metal tree grew up next to her. She grabbed the bottom and it broke away. She spun the blade around her, and a whistle sounded from the speed she moved it at. She flashed forward becoming a blur.

“Die!” the Russian shouted in an unearthly voice.

He swung his fist and a stream of flames accompanied it. Alara swung the sword and tendrils of metal wood emerged from the sword streaking to meet the flames. There was a boom from the explosion. Alara’s tan got darker from the heat, but she had yet to get burned, thankfully.

She crouched low to the ground as she grew closer to the fire crazed Russian. Dropping into a slide, she brought her sword around slicing clean through Pozhar’s leg. He fell forward but his body reformed, and he caught himself before he completely collapsed. Alara glared at him as she didn’t care for enemies that could recover so quickly.

Pozhar roared and spears made of flames and plasma fired in all directions around him. The airship was able to withstand the blows, while Alara deflected the attacks with ease. I was the one that ended up suffering. Still basically at zero energy, I was unable to move in time and one of the lances struck me in the chest. I roared in pain as it ripped through my lung. ‘damn flesh and blood body,’ I groaned in annoyance.

There was a shockwave as something knocked me back. I looked up from the lance to see anger literally rippling off Alara. I sighed as in my current state there was little that I could do to stop her. I just hoped that the airship survived. In a blink she was in front of Pozhar. Her sword moving so fast it was almost impossible to keep track of it.

She began to slice chunks off his flaming body. She screamed as her speed only increased. I was actually impressed that he’d managed to last this long. I would have to look into the skill he used to become living flame. His luck didn’t hold out however, as his body shifted back to its true form.

Alara either didn’t notice or didn’t care, she sliced his arms off. Blood sprayed from both wounds only to turned to steam from the heat still in the air. She was about to remove his head when a sound made her stop.

“Pozhar? What are you doing here?” Daniel asked with sleep still in his eyes. He yawned as he floated closer.

“Mister Warp. As you can see the Americans are about to decapitate me,” Pozhar said surprisingly calmly. I guess to him and Daniel this was more a video game then real life.

“I’ve told you before you were going to run into someone you couldn’t handle...” Daniel said shaking his head.

Seeing the fight was over, I borrowed some energy from Alara. I could tell she was still quite angry. I gripped the lance in my chest, and it shattered when I extruded enough force on it. Thanks to the heat, the wound was sealed, which I found interesting to be walking around with a hole you could see through in my chest.

As my health recovered, the wound was returning to normal but by normal means it would take a few minutes. I walked over to Alara and pulled her around to face me. Her breathing calmed down as she took in my face. “I’m alright now love.”

“Regan... Don’t scare me like that,” Alara said tears coming to her eyes as she shot forward into my arms. “No one wants to see their lover with a lance through their chest.”

“I didn’t really have control of the matter, my love,” I said with a chuckle.

She pulled away but didn’t release my arm. I smiled warmly at her while taking her hand in mine. We both turned towards Pozhar. “What do you want?” he asked turning his head back and forth between us.

I turned to Daniel. “How do you know this guy?”

“Business associate,” he replied without pause.

“Feelings if I kicked him off the side of the airship?” I asked.

“Not really. He helped me in the past during a botched rescue but you’re the boss,” Daniel said with a yawn. I turned back to Pozhar.

“What to do?” I asked tapping my chin.

“Kill me. I don’t want to owe you filthy Americans anything,” Pozhar said spitting on the ground.

“I told you, we’re not American... If anything, she’s more along the lines of European...” I said with only a bit of exasperation.

Pozhar glared at me for a full minute. “My bad.”

My foot collided with his face before I had a second to think about my actions. I pulled back and just sighed at the moron. “Daniel teleport him to one of the cells. He seems like a good test subject for the power dampening field device.

I turned to look and saw a city in the distance. Skyscrapers reached into the air for hundreds of meters, the center taller than the rest. Factories spewed smoke into the sky covering a good section of the city. To the east were docks where ships in the medium range were docked. Smaller cargo ships were the most common.

In the factory section, smoke that you’d see after a fire or explosion floated up lazily. I guessed they hadn’t finished cleaning up my little present from earlier today. I looked around and spotted a field that would make a decent landing spot. I cracked my knuckles as I took in the scene.

“Time to get to work,” I said with a grin before taking Alara’s hand and heading back to the bridge.

End