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

and stormed out of the building, not giving in to her. Outside, my car was in the parking lot. Randolph and Alicia were nowhere to be seen. I ran over to my car and tossed both of my swords into the back of the car. I looked at my pants and looked at the hole in it, where the sword penetrated my leg. A white bandage was under my pants, clearly visible. I looked around once more, but there still hadn’t been anyone around, other than a single vendor on the street with a small crowd around him and a few people walking around. I walked over to the vendor and took a peek between the few people who had been there. Cheap jewelry, such as necklaces, rings, wristbands, wristwatches, and all the likes. Most of them weren’t very expensive-looking, but rather self-crafted by the vendor, himself.

“Come and get specialized jewelry, such things to help you in your daily life and even at night against demons!” he shouted, a smile on his face. A few people glanced over and walked by, some stopped and browsed, and only a handful actually bought something. I walked up to the vendor and looked at one particular ring, made of a stone-gray metal with engraved writing in latin.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Interested? It’s the old king’s ring, infused with powers beyond those known!” he was trying to make up some sort of backstory to it. I was interested, but not because of his story. There was something that stood out in this one among the others, even the ones that shone brilliantly in the light.

“It’s a bit intriguing,” I said, “How much?”

“Sixteen hundred,” he said.

“Sixteen hundred?” I said. Surprisingly high, much higher than I thought.

“Indeed,” he looked up from the ring to me. I reached into my pocket and looked at the few bits of money I had. I did have enough, but just barely. Even though I was a bit reluctant, I still gave him the money and he gave me my change. I shoved it into my pocket and took the ring. Looking at the engraved bits on it, I tried to comprehend it, but I wasn’t able to. I took the ring and slowly put it on my finger, but I felt nothing different. I knew it was some sort of rip-off ring, nothing special but the writing on the ring. I turned and noticed Randolph walking over to the hospital. However, before he got to it, he noticed me.

“Kimbo!” he said loudly, running over to me. Once he got to me, he stopped.

“Yeah?” I said.

“You’re alive and well,” he said, “Thank goodness.”

“Of course I am, don’t think I’ll just keel over and die,” I said, smiling and placing my hand on his large shoulder. He smiled and turned, looking around.

“We should find Alicia,” he said, already walking off. Without a word, I followed silently behind.

Walking through the city, we searched for Alicia, but we couldn’t find her yet. We searched through the main roads, the side roads and some alleyways, as well as inside the public buildings, such as restaurants and shops. We asked around about her, but either no one knew her or knew where she was. By the time we made two rounds around the city, we weren’t able to find her. The bars were currently closed, and so we didn’t have the ability to ask the knowledgeable bartenders about the situation. It would be about another half hour until the bars opened, so we decided to make another round, just in case we could find her. Randolph went one way and I went the other. I walked through the few groups of people scattered around the city, but I couldn’t seem to find her. To get all the way around the city and back to the center took about twenty-five minutes, leaving five minutes until most of the bars opened. We went straight for the bars, asking the bartenders about Alicia, but for the most part, none of them knew her. I few said they’d seen a woman that looked like her, but they had no other information. Suddenly, we found a place where the bartender actually knew some information about her. Seated at the bar, few people inside as of now, we were prepared to start asking a few things.

“You said you know a bit about Alicia,” I said to him, “Do you know where she’s going?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t just give information like that,” he said, “If anything, it’ll cost you to know.” I sighed and pulled out some money and threw it on the bar counter.

“That enough?” he was counting the money, then threw back a portion of it.

“This’ll be enough,” he said, “She told a group of people playing poker that she’d be headed to a Justice stronghold in Kuey High, if I remember, the stronghold’s name was Tiamon.”

“Tiamon’s one of the largest strongholds that Justice owns, on top of a mountain,” Randolph spoke up.

“Why would she go alone?” I said, quickly jumping up from the stool and running out of the bar, quickly to my car. Randolph followed behind me. I hopped into my car and started it, Randolph hopping in just as I was pulling out. He gave me directions to Kuey High, the mountain in which Tiamon, Justice’s stronghold, was at. As we were driving, we were listening to a radio station, in which a man was speaking.

“Today, a former member of Justice, Alicia Garnet, was captured by Justice elites, a group of newly-formed members who were formed just for the reason of defeating the small group which Alicia came from, the other members being Randolph Quay and Kimbo. However, Kimbo’s real name was released earlier this month, known to be Zephire Myles, the son of the current Justice Emperor. His reasons to oppose the Emperor are currently unknown.” The radio had given us information as to what happened to Alicia. Considering there’s only one prison nearby, in the desert, it’d be safer to assume that she’s there, the same place I was locked up in. Quickly, I pushed down harder on the gas, as far as it’d go.

The car had been going roughly one ninety kilometres per hour. Randolph, even for how fast we were going, was still reading a book. Soon, the prison came into view. A tall, large gray building, one which would look menacing to a normal person, but considering I’m both a hunter and have been there once, there isn’t an issue for me. I pulled to the side of the road and got out of the car, pulling my two swords from my car, putting both the sheaths on either side of my hips, each with a sword in the proper sheath. At the front gate of the prison, two soldiers stood, practically immobile. As we approached, they walked forward. Of course, they knew our faces. I pulled out my old blade and cut through their swords, then right through them. Feeling their warm blood splatter onto my face, I continued forward. Randolph didn’t even have a chance to pull out his sword after I’d quickly finished them. However, he pulled out out anyway. He then swung down on the gate, which crunched at the force of his sword. A small group of about eight soldiers suddenly turned their gaze over to us, preparing their weapons. They ran over to us, simply falling at our feet as each came to us. With haste, we made our way through the practically unprotected prison, which was awfully strange. We bursted through a door, which lead to many soldiers protecting one particular object in the room, a paper. Quickly, me and Randolph cut through the soldiers, as well. I put my sword away and grabbed the paper, seeing that it was a record of all the prisoners who have been locked away. I flipped through the pages, finding that Alicia was definitely on the list, as well as her cell number. Special detainment, Cell five twenty-one. The first number is spaced out from the last two, likely labeling the floor number, five, in room twenty-one. I tossed down the clipboard and ran out of the door, over to the stairs and began running up them, finding my way to floor five, shoving open the door into a long hallway. Currently, we were in the normal cells. Looking left and right, I noticed practical skeletons sitting in cells. Some of them even stood up and ran over to the bars, reaching out to us, yelling at us like maniacs. We went past them, to the hall where the special detainment cells were. I kicked open the door and, even still, room twenty-one wasn’t in this area. I walked over, looking around in the metal doors with small windows, noticing all the different people who were too strong or intelligent to keep in the normal cells. I walked over to the corner of the hallways, looking to my right, down the hall, noticing a large cell with a single door and several different-looking guards standing in front of the cell, along with the portly man who released me.

“Kimbo! What a joy to see you again,” he said, a greasy smile on his face.

“Quite,” I said.

“Have you come to retrieve something you forgot?” he said.

“No, I can to get something you stole,” I said, looking over to Alicia, who was bound to a large metal object, submerged in a tank of water, wearing only a one-piece black material over everything except her head.

“She was quite the feisty one,” he said, “Perhaps I could make her mine?” Suddenly, something ticked inside me, as my hand immediately went to my sword. However, Randolph grabbed my arm.

“Don’t get too heated, he’s trying to reel you in,” he said. I sighed, releasing some of the strain on my body.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“What do I want? For you and Alicia to come over to Justice,” he said.

“What’ll happen to Randolph?” I asked.

“He’ll be harboured in one of our strongholds, so don’t worry,” he said.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“I’ve been loyal to Justice for ever so long, and besides, my dear mother told me to never lie to others, especially those who you like.” He was beginning to annoy me.

“Precisely, you’re with Justice, there isn’t a way to tell if we can trust you,” Randolph spoke up. He just laughed and walked over to one of the soldiers and spoke into their ears. He then signaled the others and began charging towards us. The several soldiers held nothing in their hands as of now. I pulled out my old sword and swung at one, but missed entirely. The soldier seemed to disappear, but just as I looked up, I noticed one jumping down from the ceiling at me. I began lifting my sword, but just as I thought I was going to get hit, closing my own eyes, I didn’t even feel the clash of swords, I quickly opened them and noticed everything around me moving twice as slow. I moved out of the way and lifted my sword, slicing down through the soldier and then turned around, noticing the other soldiers moving slowly, as well. I started cutting through them, all until the last one was cut through. Suddenly, everything went back to normal. I looked down at my sword and noticed a fading green glow coming from the ring, then its glow went away.

“What the hell is this?” the portly man coughed, partially choking on the smoke he inhaled from his cigar from the turn of events.

“It doesn’t matter what just happened,” I said, “What matters is that you’ve no longer got any protection to hold us back.” He stepped back, his back now on the bars of the cell that Alicia was in. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys, quickly and clumsily unlocking the door, then locking it again. I cut down