Justice by R.T. Adams (reading list .TXT) 📖

a long time,” she said. I just looked forward and continued. When we get there, it won’t be there any longer. After the long journey on the bridge, we came across a checkpoint into the city.

“It’s not going to be easy entering,” I said, “Hand me my sword.” I looked back at Randolph, who bent over and picked up the sheath of my new sword. I grabbed it and put it between my legs. I pulled over just before reaching the checkpoint. Two of the guards looked at each other and began walking over to us. I pulled out my sword from the sheath between my legs. I stood from my seat and hopped out of the side of the car, jabbing the tip of the sword towards the guard, who swung down to deflect my attack, but without doing anything, a burst of heated wind came out of the sword, colliding into the guard, who was send flying. He rolled around on the ground, patting down his body as if he’d been burning to a crisp. Once he realized he wasn’t on fire, he looked for his sword and quickly grabbed it, getting to his feet. I looked at the sword in my hands, wondering just what it was. I lifted my blade and swung horizontally at the other guard, my blade colliding with his sword. Even from here, I could feel immense heat coming from my own sword. However, it must have been much more heat than I thought it was, considering the guard’s sword started to melt like snow. He pulled his blade back, but instead of coming off in one piece, it looked as though it tore apart, the metal still dripping like syrup. I stabbed forth, my blade successfully penetrating the man’s abdomen, apparently scorching hot on his insides. I twisted my sword and pulled it out of his abdomen. It appears that the blade was so hot that it caused his blood to literally boil. He fell backwards, no longer moving. The other guard, now in a cold sweat, began stepping backwards in fear. He dropped his weapon and fell backwards.

“Open this gate,” I said. He simply nodded and started scrambling to get up to the gate. I went back to the car and put my sword back in the sheath. It was definitely a suspicious sword. Watching the gate open, I drove through. Now, we could see the buildings and houses inside the stronghold. There had also been a power plant, as well. Not only that, but there had been many mechs walking around, along with tanks roaming. Suddenly, a loud alarm began wailing.

“Dammit, should have known,” Randolph said. By now, our only option would be to plow through the forces coming at us. I stopped the car at the bottom of the bridge, where several mechs and tanks awaited our arrival. Quickly, I grabbed my new sword and pulled it from its sheath. The others exited the car and, in only a moment's notice, a mech began attacking. Three missiles fired at once from it. Quickly, I ran forward, towards the mech that fired the missiles. I stabbed my blade into its metal and started climbing it from the back. The missiles, original in front of it, all landed at its feet, causing it to fly upwards due to the force of the missiles. Just before landing on its back, I hopped off and onto one of the tanks, in which a man was on the turret. I stabbed through his neck and lifted him with my blade, throwing him aside. I opened the hatch and reached into the tank, where one man had been operating it. Pulling him upwards, he struggled to release my grip. I simply sliced his neck and threw his aside, lowering myself into the tank and closing the hatch. I shoved my blade into the sheath and began looking around with the tank. I found that Arcanum had been struggling to fight these, as he usually goes against opponents who are easy to kill. I fired between two of the mechs in front of him, each which were forcefully pushed apart and onto their sides. I then moved the barrel towards another tank, in which I fired at. Of course, it hadn’t done too much to it. Slowly, I noticed its barrel turning towards me. I fired again, at the base of its barrel, disabling it. I continued firing at the other tanks and mechs, each until they were all down. I got out of the tank and looked around. It appeared that they were all fine for now.

Without taking the car anywhere, as we would be an easier target to spot, we ran through the city, noticing tons of citizens, mostly Justice-related, walking around. They had no weapons or anything, so we shoved past them. However, suddenly, one particular person stood. He had a long sword with a small spike at its end, pointing forward. Without a word, he immediately attacked us. Quickly, Randolph lifted his blade and blocked, forcefully pushing backwards, in which the man then flipped and landed on his feet swiftly. He brought down his blade, not at any one of us in particular, but right into the ground, the spike breaking through, and into, the ground. He then ran forward, the hilt of the blade in his hand and released it as soon as he got to me. Unexpectedly, he struck my gut with one fist and my left cheek with the other as I was hunching over. Pain struck me quickly. He then grabbed his blade which had now been just behind him, and lifted it over his head and was about to bring it down on me. However, Alicia came to my aid and deflected his blade, causing it to crash into the ground next to us. That, however, did not thwart his plans. He immediately lifted his knee into her left side, then released his blade and brought his elbow down into her shoulder. He then placed his hand on the side of her head and threw her downwards, towards the ground, headfirst. He grabbed his blade and swung all the way around, just above me and into Randolph’s large sword. Without trouble, Randolph shoved it away, but just as he did so, the man released his sword again, running forward to Randolph, then jammed his fist under his jaw. Randolph, still not falling, swung one of his fists at the man. However, the man simply ducked under his large fist and kicked Randolph’s stomach, causing him to stumble back a few steps, and then, once more, forcefully punched upwards into his jaw, causing him to fall back. Alicia, knocked out cold from the forceful push downwards, and Randolph, finished from a second uppercut, but not quite unconscious, were now lying there, as if waiting for someone to come save them. Then, he grabbed his blade and swung it towards Arcanum, who quickly deflected with what looked like his bare fist, but then I noticed a small dagger in his hand. The man, one last time, released his blade to strike him, but Arcanum grabbed the man’s fist and kicked him in the chest, causing him to practically fly back. He quickly retaliated with a rock he simply picked up from the ground, throwing it at Arcanum, who simply took the hit. It crashed into his arm, but it seemed as though nothing happened. The other man closed the space between them, but Arcanum quickly moved out of the way and wrapped his arms around the other man, commencing in a suplex, smashing the man’s head into the ground and releasing him, quickly getting back up. However, the other man still persisted, even with blood dripping down his face. He took a small dagger and plunged forward. To Arcanum’s surprise, and ours, the dagger managed to just barely slice a part of Arcanum’s mask and hood. The mask fell loose and exposed a portion of his face. Quickly, the man ended up cutting the cloth around Arcanum’s face, exposing more portions at a time. Underneath the mask and hood, a man with short, vibrant blonde hair with scars over both of his eyes, presumably meaning he was blind. All this time, he managed to fight ever so valiantly and vigorously.

“Prince?” Randolph said, exhausted. Regardless, the man didn’t bat an eye, but it did hinder his performance, as the man with the dagger successfully stabbed him in the stomach. Thought fazed a bit, Arcanum grabbed the man and, as before, his hand began emitting some form of mist. Looking over to him, I could see he mouthed the words “thank you.” Abruptly interrupting the moment, several black shards all went through both Arcanum and the man. As the shards slowly vanished, both of their bodies went limp and fell to the ground.

“Prince!” Randolph yelled with all he could, reaching out to them, slowly crawling over to them. He lifted his own body to a sitting position, pulling Arcanum into his lap. His visor was cracked apart, exposing one of his eyes. His eyes were closed, and his breath soft and quickly fading. He didn’t say a word, but only smiled. As he smiled, his breath slowly faded away and his heart stopped beating. I noticed a drop of water on his cheek, then another. When I looked up to Randolph, I could see streams of tears coming from his face. He lowered his forehead onto Arcanum’s forehead. For the entire fight, and even during this time, I forgot we had been in the middle of a Justice stronghold.

Before any more Justice members or artillery could appear, I quickly got everyone up and ready to go. Sadly, we had no time to properly bury Arcanum. We were all running past the masses of people, shoving through. Soon, we arrived at a wall that split the housing section from the industrial area. Several guards along with two mechs waited for us to appear, the gate closed. I noticed a control panel in a tall tower nearby. I turned to Randolph and Alicia, who had still been a bit off-track, and gestured for them to deal with the guards. They nodded and I split with them, running towards the tower. A few guards split off to intercept me, so I pulled out my sword cut the head off one of them and then stabbed my sword into the other, twisting and pulling. I continued running up the stairs of the tower. I turned around and noticed a group of guards coming towards me. I found a support bar holding up this section of the stairs and cut it, a clean cut. Suddenly, the stairs began to slowly creak and break apart from the rest of the tower. I ran up the fall portion of the stairs, quickly making it to a part which had still been attached. Soon, I reached the top of the tower, only a few guards between me and the control panel. I cut through their swords and then through their torsos, watching them fall before me. I stepped over their body and put my sword away, looking at the control panel, which had a lever and a big button. I pulled down on the lever, which gave a lot of resistance, and pushed the button, which soon set off an alarm, notifying the people that the gate was opening. Slowly, the gate started sliding into the wall, making a small gap in the middle. When I looked down, I noticed that all but one mech had been defeated. Soon, the mech fell sideways, with one missing leg, and my friends ran between the gate. I climbed over the railing and hopped down, on top of a guard under me and, stumbling momentarily, began running towards the gate. In front of us, a mass of guards waited.

“Dammit,” Randolph gritted his teeth.

“I know that by the time we got here, they