Jason battled through the Krizian forces, creating a circle of death around him several feet wide in any direction. The wave of soldiers saw what was happening and, instead of charging right into him, went around the outside of the reach of Jason’s blades. At least they tried. As the area where he’d been fighting emptied out of targets he moved, cutting a path through the enemy. They attempted to move out of the way, but they had only two options. Fill in the empty space that Jason had just made or run directly into him. Either was likely to end in death, but they had no other options as every other inch of the battlefield was filled with other soldiers.

His sword was coming down on one of the Krizians when the blade was stopped in place. A large black blade had been thrust into its path. Jason looked along the length of his weapon till his eyes came to the one wielding it. It was the Krizian Tok`phane Captain clad in black armor. He could tell that this wasn’t an ordinary enemy. Jumping back, he took up a defensive stance, preparing for a battle with this new enemy. Before he has his footing a claw slashes across his back. He turns. Nothing is there. The Tok`phane charges at Jason, thrusting his claymore at the middle of the spine of his enemy. Jason spins around, barely avoiding being impaled by a hair’s edge, following through and landing a cut on the Tok`phane’s shoulders heavily, but doing no damage. Just as Jason thought he had found his footing against this opponent the Sil`phane captain drug her claws across the his midsection, however, this time, Gabbi’s ooze rushed out from under the his clothes, through them, climbing up the arm of attacker before she could complete her maneuver. He slammed his hilt downward at the captured feline-like humanoid’s head, attempting to knock her out with the pommel.

A shadow crossed over the army. The giant captain with the labrys launched himself over the crowd at Jason, swinging his mighty axe down at his target. Out of the corner of his eye Jason saw the rapidly approaching shadow. Gabbi released the Sil`phane Captain, returning back under Jason’s ARMS armor a moment before the giant captain slammed into where Jason and Gabbi once were. A crater formed around them, knocking Jason to the ground. Gabbi protected him from the fall, but she couldn’t do nothing to stop him from stopping the inertia of it. Before he could recover his momentum was stopped by yet another captain’s legs. Jason looked up only to see staff with several gems encrusted along its length emitting an aura of black myst, growing in intensity. it was broken up by a white light gathering at the end pointed at Jason. His instincts triggered. He jumped to his feet, dodging out of the way just before the staff released a beam exploding the ground where Jason had just been.

The giant once more swings his labrys horizontally where he expects Jason to raise to his feet, but Jason rolled under it and into the center of the clearing that he’d made earlier. Forming a square around him stood four of the captains, letting Jason get to his feet and see how much the odds were stacked against him. He prepared himself, but after the brief exchange he knew had little or no chance against the four of them together, but he believed that there was still a chance. That is when the fifth Krizian captain made his presence known, stepping out of the smoke and dust that had been kicked up. The man held himself above it all, his jeweled robes and accessories shimmering from the light of the noon day sun. Beneath his robes, the outline of the hilt of two swords could be seen, but if one weren’t paying attention they could easily miss them.

“It looks like we’ve caught the little trouble maker responsible for all of this,” the jewel encrusted captain said.

Jason breathed heavily, trying to calm himself and catch his breath.

“Lord Kriz will be pleased,” the captain who seemed to be cloaked in smoke said.

“Let’s kill him!” the Tok`phane spoke up.

“It’d be dishonorable to kill the fool without telling him our names. Call me Captain Caloway, kid,” the giant man said. If one didn’t know better they’d think he wasn’t Human, but the reality was that he was just naturally that large.

“Mittens,” said the Sil`phane, she’d been given the name by Chris. He thought it was funny to have a cat-girl named Mittens, just like his pet cat back home, but this kitty was a much better pet than that one the psychotic would-be god thought.

The armor covered Tok`phane snarled, “Blasphemers need not know the name of their executors. All they need know is that they are punished for their disregard for the Lord’s rule.”

“Oh, come off it Shadow. You just don’t like the name that Lord Kriz gave you. He does so like to demean you J`nkians,” the myst cloaked man said, his staff held in front of him, being used to lean on. “You can call me the mage of the end, Gannon,” he lifted the staff and used it to push up his glasses, “It isn’t my real name, but in this world we were all able to reinvent ourselves, weren’t we, Jason?” A grin spread across the man’s face, knowing that Jason didn’t recognize him.

“I side with Shadow. It is unimportant that you know our names. You won’t remember them when we’re done. Whether that is due to death or you become the cozy home of another of my kind,” the bejeweled captain said, his eyes pulsing with a light as his voice became slightly deeper, “But if you must know, you may call me Ank’Orra.” He gave a deep bow, spreading his arms wide as if in presentation of himself.

Jason quietly listened as his mind raced. His eyes darted from captain to captain, looking for every bit of information he could acquire. It appeared as though they were smarter than the average soldier. Their ARMS units were all hidden from site. This meant he couldn’t assess their power in comparison to his own. From the brief exchange it seemed that they were on par or just about with his own gear meaning that he couldn’t defeat them with brute force as he had s many others before. His silver ARMS Sword was one of the few that they’d ever found and likely was among the most powerful weapons available on Debris, but there was no way he could be certain of that. Their search area was restricted to such a small area that it could be that the equipment he had access to were still equivalent to a newb village. Strong in the setting, but weak in reality. Regardless, it was all that he had.

There was only one way he was going to survive this encounter now and it wasn’t by defeating these captains. The goal would have to be to escape to the boats and get away before they could be overtaken. He’d been too arrogant engaging as he had and this time it might be his final mistake.

The six fighters all stood, ready to attack or counter attack. Jason locked eyes with each as he formulated a plan. They expected him to retort. That he could use to his advantage. The longer they waited, the longer he had to think. Mittens was definitely faster than him which meant directly running was out of the question. Confronting them all head on would also be suicide. Caloway and Shadow would not be easy to injure. One was too armored while the other seemed to revel in being hurt by the looks of his scars. If he hoped to hurt them he would have to exhaust himself hitting them as hard as he physically could. The other two looked to be balanced mid range fighters; One able to go long range if needed, the other able to close in and fight at close range. They were a well balanced team, but were they really a team he wondered. They were all captains and much of the Krizian training seemed to be towards selling your “comrades” out. That was something he could exploit.

“Let’s go. I’m tired of waiting,” Caloway shouted. Before he was finished Jason drew his dagger and attacked Ank’Orra, forcing all the combatants to react. Ank’Orra drew his sabers to block. It was anticipated. Jason clashed against his enemy’s weapons and spun, using the momentum of the attack to get behind him, exchanging positions with him, putting the captain in the line of attack from Mittens. Her claws slipped through the robes he wore and ripped at his skin. It wasn’t optimal to what her goal was, but it was hardly something she cared about. What she did care about is that her arm got tangled up in Ank’Orra’s robes. Jason set his foot to the back of the parasite’s host’s back and pushed off as hard as he could sending it into Mittens and the two cascading to the ground.

Jason didn’t have time to celebrate. He still muttered, “neutralized,” under his breath as he turned from the others and booked it away from fight, into the crowd, slicing his way through the masses as quick as he could. Gannon fired a shot of what seemed to be a white plasma bolt after him, but all it caught was his own allies. Shadow followed after him, sheathing his broadsword opting instead to use two smaller shortswords. Much like Mittens, he didn’t care about the lower ranking troops. Any that didn’t clear the path in front of him faced the consequences, losing life and limb, whichever made his passage quicker. It was unfortunate for the rank and file. None of them were paying much attention to the smaller fight happening, concentrating instead on breaching the wall that was proving to be a bit more difficult than they’d expected, having gotten so close and all previous cities were much easier to take than this one. Jason was halfway to his destination when Caloway dropped out of the sky ahead of him.

The giant captain landed on his own men, cushioning his fall and killing or disabling them instantly. Jason paused for a moment to decide which way to go to avoid the incoming fight. It was just long enough to allow Shadow to catch up. Blood splashed onto Jason from the sweep of swords the dog-headed dark knight wielded. More splatter him from the opposite side as Caloway cleared his path.

Jason blocked Shadow’s swords, but his eyes were constantly on the move watching every soldier around him and Caloway behind him. He had to make a quick decision about what to do. It would have to be a hail mary to work. It was just as Caloway was upon them. The labrys was high in the air when Jason turned to stab at his midsection. Caloway brought down the labrys to block, but Jason switched his momentum, turning back around to place his feet on it. Gabbi firmly attached them to the oversized axe. Jason stopped Shadow’s attempt at taking advantage of the opening he’d made, knocking both of his short swords to the ground just as Caloway angrily lifted the axe to throw Jason off. At the apex of the swing Gabbi released her grip on it, launching the two of them high into the air toward the wall. They were on their way to safety.

All they had to do was land and it was a straight shot to the boats. If they could do that, which they didn’t see a reason why couldn’t they’d be homesafe. There was just one little thing they forgot. An arrow of white light as large as a cannon’s barrel flashed across the sky engulfing Jason in its deadly brilliance.