I awoke to my door being slammed into the wall.

“Eli! Eli! Get up!” Suri ran into my room, a grim expression across her face.

“What’s wrong? Is everything alright Suri?”

“They… they are killing everyone.”

It was then that I noticed the crimson liquid dripping from her face.

“What?! What happened to your face Suri?” I reached up to touch her face but she pulled away abruptly.

“I’m fine! I need your help. Please use your power! It’s the only way to stop them!” The fear in Suri’s eyes were not something I had seen in a girl who, a few days ago, was so prideful about her strength.

I attempted to focus my power like they had told me earlier. I focused… focused… and focused. Nothing happened. I tried again… focusing… focusing… focusing. Nothing happened.

“Suri, it’s not working. I’m not sure what to do.” At this point, I still didn’t know anything about my power. I didn’t know how it activated or how to use it when it did activate.

“Let’s go meet the others. We need to get out of here before it’s too late.”

We made our way out of the small bedroom and down a narrow hallway strewn with the bodies of Suri’s fallen people. She grimaced as she passed each body, and the smell had begun to overtake the area.

“I was sent to get you from your room. While we were resting, the Athenian army breached the entrance to our city. They overwhelmed us quickly. Many of the Athenian soldiers did not fear death. My father took the Empress and Felicia to his safe room near the bottom. Hurry, we need to keep moving.”

Suri and I continued our descent into the lower levels of the city. Many soldiers from the Athenian Empire were making their way to and from certain areas and cleaning up any survivors that they had missed previously.

“Woah! Wait a second.” Suri stopped me at the corner to the next hallway.

“What’s wrong?”

“There are three guards up ahead. They seem to have five or six civilians there.”

I peeked around Suri to see what looked like four adults and two children. The soldiers had lined the six up against a wall and surrounded them. All of the soldiers were suited with full plate metal armor and were quite intimidating, especially for civilians.

“Please! Just leave us be! We have children here!” One of the women in the group attempted to plead with the soldiers.

“Shut your mouth!” One of the large guards smacked the woman across the face sending a bloody paste shoot onto a nearby wall.

I jumped forward behind Suri. She slammed her hand into the middle of my chest.

“What the hell are you doing!? You can’t run out there! Especially because your power is essentially useless.”

“We can’t just stand here! I’m going!”

I pushed Suri aside and ran towards the huddled group.

“And who the hell are you?!” One of the guards turned towards me with a fierce expression. I may have underestimated how large these guys actually were.

“I… ugh… well…” As I was attempting to stammer out a statement, a loud thwack echoed from the back of his helmet. Suri was standing behind the guard. Her tail had left an indentation in the back of the guard’s helmet. The other guards pushed their way towards her. Suri quickly swung her tail toward one of the guard’s feet. He attempted to squirm away, but Suri had already grabbed his leg and slammed him, face-first, into the ground. Teeth splattered on the floor. The remaining guard pulled his sword and swung it in the direction of Suri. Suri dodged the swing and finished the fight by quickly plunging the end of her tail into the guard’s stomach. I was surprised of how easily it pierced the metal plate armor.

“Not bad Suri. Thanks for your help. I froze up a bit.” I was embarrassed of how I had acted and attempted to divert how poorly I had performed.

“N-no! NO! Bentley wake up please!!!” One of the women from the group of adults had begun shaking one of the two children. A red gash had formed just above his belly button, and the child wasn’t responding. Is this because I didn’t react in time. I could have done something if I could control my damn power!

“Eli! We need to go!” Suri began tugging at my arm in an effort to have me follow her.

“We can’t just leave the kid. He is going to die Suri!” I made a desperate plea to Suri. She shook her head.

“Eli, we can’t. He will slow us down too much. The most important person here is you right now.”

“I’m not going without the kid Suri. Maybe Felicia or Grace can help him?”

“Fine. Get him and let’s go.”

I picked up the boy and held him in my arms. The blood from his wound spread across my shirt. It was bad. If we didn’t hurry, he would surely die.

“Stay close behind me Eli.”

We continued for another 500 meters and reached a large library with bookshelves lining the walls. A variety of desks littered the rest of the room. It appeared to be some type of study hall.

“Over here Eli.” Suri pulled back one of the books on the far wall and a loud click could be audibly heard from where I was standing. The bookshelves opened to reveal a small hallway barely large enough for Suri and me to fit through.

“They should be at the end of the hallway. How is the boy doing?”

I glanced down at the boy. His breathing had become ragged and his complexion had taken a turn for the worse. The scales covering his tail had begun to peel. We reached the end of the hallway and Suri spoke to the door.

“It’s us.”

The doors slowly began to creak open. Appearing from behind them stood Grace, Felicia, and King Vulcan. They were surrounded by about a half dozen of King Vulcan’s guards.

“Oh, thank goodness! You all made it safely!” Grace ran over to us. “When they found the city, we were immediately ushered here but your room was on the opposite side. We sent Suri to get you.”

“Can you or Felicia help this child?! He was cut by one of the soldiers from Athenia.”

I placed the child on the floor and looked helplessly at him. Felicia walked over and unhooked one of the molds from her belt. She held it over the child.

“E-Eli… he’s gone. There is nothing we can do for him now.” Felicia looked up from the child, and I met her eyes.

“What are you talking about?! You haven’t even tried anything yet!” I wasn’t going to let this child just die without trying.

“Eli, calm down. I’m sorry but he has lost too much blood. Nothing we do now will help him. We can only make him comfortable.” Felicia looked at me with an empathetic frown.

“H-h-he can’t die. I-I-I should have not stood there like an idiot… what was I thinking. If I had actually done something, he wouldn’t have been hit by the soldier…” My stomach began to turn, and I vomited on the floor. The guilt had overtaken me. If I hadn’t froze and dispatched the soldiers, he would still be alive.

Grace moved beside me and placed her hand on my shoulder.

“Eli, it isn’t your fault.” I pushed her hand from my shoulder.

“But it is! I wanted to do something, and I froze! If it wasn’t for Suri, they likely would have killed the entire group, including myself!” Just as I finished my sentence, an explosion rocked the small room.

“What was that?!” King Vulcan barked to one of his guards.

“They have found the entrance, sir!” Another loud explosion echoed down the hall.

“Breach!” One of the guards who had stationed himself near the door called out to our group.

“It appears our time here is done. Suri, open the door.” King Vulcan waved Suri over to the far side of the room. Suri began to chant at what looked like a regular wall. Soon, the wall opened to reveal a large tunnel, similar to the one Felicia had made at the Palace.

“Let’s go everyone!” Suri yelled.

As I began my way to the exit, the door to the room detached from its fastens and landed on the opposite wall. It appeared that the Athenian soldiers had finally arrived. One of the soldiers had a robe covering the majority of her plate metal armor and was holding a staff which had a mold secured on top. Before I knew what was happening, she aimed the staff at the conglomerate of individuals near the entrance to the tunnel and fired a red ball towards the group. I ran quickly and jumped in front.

The ball of light impacted my chest. A sharp pain spread across my body. However, instead of injuring me, the light reflected and shot back towards the unsuspecting Athenian soldiers. They attempted to avoid the light, but it cut through them like a warm butter knife. I collapsed to the floor. The pain overwhelming my body.