Justice by R.T. Adams (big ebook reader .txt) 📕

“Who might you be?” he said, his voice a bit rough, but nonetheless comforting.

“My name is Kimbo, this is Randolph, Arcanum, and Alicia,” I pointed to each of them as I stated their names.

“Oh, the four wanted by that wicked empire?” he said, “Mind you not to tell them you have come here, as they may come to destroy this city.”

“I’ve noticed a few of the students have joined with Justice,” I said, “It may be a bit complicating to roam the city freely without them noticing.”

“Apologies, but the empire requires us to allow any students that are eligible, and they just so happened to be,” he said. I nod and he smiles back, waving at us as we make our way back down the stairs. However, just as I reach the bottom of the stairs, I noticed a small group of Justice students. Two females, three males. The females both seem to be slightly wary of the males, but are still accepting them. One off the males was large and brawny, practically constantly showing off and admiring his own muscles. One of the other males seemed like some rich snob who managed to get into Justice and this school only because of money. The last male seemed entirely uninterested in the girls, as well as uninterested in the guys. He was looking around sharply, as if on guard. Perhaps he earlier made friends with the two guys and ended up getting stuck with them. I tried to quickly hide before he in particular spotted me, but his eyesight was much too keen.

“You there!” he shouted.

“Dammit,” I muttered. I stepped out from behind the wall.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Nothing in particular,” I said.

“You’re clearly suspicious,” he said, “Might I see your identification?” I pulled out my hunter’s permit and handed it to him.

“Kimbo?” he said, “The infamous hunter who turned to destroy Justice bases?”

“I never turned, nor am I a traitor to you. Hunters and Justice were never on the same terms to begin with,” I said.

“But she is a traitor,” he pointed at Alicia, “Mind to come with us?”

“Sorry, but I’ve got business to tend to, I can’t stand around meddling with some kid,” I said.

“So be it,” he grabbed a small dagger from a back sheath and quickly sliced at us. However, his movements were much too slow, allowing me to easily dodge.

“Speed isn’t exactly your forte, is it?” I said.

“Not in particular,” he said, “But would you say trickery is?” Before I could react, I noticed that the two females were already out of sight.

“Arcanum!” I shouted.

“On it,” he said, already headed off somewhere.

“Make sure not to injure them!” I shouted. Unsure if he heard me, he left quickly. Suddenly, a huge, polished sword came falling from in front of me, but then another huge blade blocked it before it could hit me. Without a problem, the defending blade shoved the other blade back. Randolph and the large student were now fighting. Considering Randolph’s immense strength, the student was no match. Alicia quickly darted in front of me, Slicing her blade down in front of one of the members, keeping them away. The rich kid cowered back, trembling. The last one, the one who spotted me, jabbed forward with his dagger. I jumped back, easily dodging his attack.

“Let’s not make this a pointless matter,” I said, “In the end, we know I would end. Besides, I have more stamina than you. I’d be able to dodge your attacks endlessly as you ran out of breath.” I continued to dodge his attacks. However, by the time I noticed, it was much too late for me to do anything.

“As I told you, trickery is my forte,” he said. Small, almost undetectable sharp strings were all around me. Suddenly, Arcanum dropped down nearby with the two now unconscious females lying at his sides. He slowly began walking over to me.

“Hold on!” I said, stopping him, “Look carefully.” He looked around and saw a thin string in front of him. He pulled out a blade and sliced it in two. It fell to the ground, no longer usable to damage anyone. He continued cutting through the strings, until each and every one was now useless. When I looked over to Randolph, he managed to knock out the kid without severely injuring him, such as cutting him. Alicia managed to scare the rich kid into pissing himself, then blacking out. From behind, Randolph and Alicia stood. In front, Arcanum and I. The last kid stood, grimacing.

“Damn you,” he said, “I have no choice but to let you go, now leave.” We all put our weapons away and resumed walking. As the kid said, he would let us go. He didn’t try attacking us as we were vulnerable. It would appear the kid is honorable, after all.

We eventually returned to the car and left once more, considering there wasn’t anything as particularly interesting as we thought there would be. I continued driving forward, hoping the road would lead to where the fleet went. As we went on, I noticed freshly destroyed land around, likely meaning the fleet went this way. Looking in the sky for just a moment, I noticed the fleet hovering above something, but I couldn’t see what that something was. Suddenly, a random beam of light shot up through one of the ships, but it appeared for only a second. A few more seconds later, a loud boom, then the ship suddenly went falling. Surprised, I stopped the car and got out, and so did the others. We all stared at the ships, suddenly being struck by beams of light from nowhere. They fired back, but I assume it was to no avail. Soon, all of the forty-so ships were gone from the sky, falling down to form a sizeable ship graveyard. Anyone with the right mind or a mechanic would go to salvage the parts. I looked over to the others, who were just as shocked as I was. I hopped back in the car, as did the others. I started it up and pushed hard on the gas. The car started picking up speed, soon reaching its max limit. The trees and a few so rocks and creatures passed by with only a second’s time to be seen. The area in which the ships fell was coming closer and closer. A mountain range lied ahead of us, along with a presumably long tunnel in front of us. Soon, we entered the tunnel with dimmed lights inside of it. I maintained the speed we were previously at, slowing only at turns. Soon, I noticed a light at the end, and so I started to slow down. We then emerged out of the tunnel and into a fairly darkened location. Looking around, I could see a lot of smoke blocking the sky around here, just hanging around. On the ground, there weren’t just a few fifty ships, but hundreds, all different variations. There had even been some older Justice models which had a huge hole in them, presumably from the large beam of light. Looking at each and every ship, they all had one large hole in them. It would appear that there’s a stronger force than Justice in this region. We continued driving, slowly through the eerie location, around the ships as necessary, as they had blocked the road when they crashed. After passing hundreds of ships, we found ourself at another tunnel, one in which some of the lights were damaged and no longer working, or flickering. I turned on the headlights so I could see while driving. I assume there are many more ships than just the ones in that graveyard we just passed. There are likely plenty on top of the mountains, as well as on the small cliff this tunnel is under. The lights were probably knocked out by the vibrations of the ships hitting the cliff. After passing through the tunnel, we were now on an overhang, where below us was supported by only the rocks. Looking down, a ravine was visible, dark and empty at the bottom. We then went into another tunnel and quickly emerged at its end, inside of a luscious, beautiful city. Considering the past few places had been just a bunch of dark areas and a bunch of destroyed ships, this was most definitely worth it. Its beauty is by far incomparable to the beauty of any other place we went to. We were currently on a long, huge bridge decorated in many lights and hanging lanterns to the city. Once we reached the end of the bridge, it lead directly to a parking lot, fairly large, too. I parked the car and we all hastily got out to take a better look at the city’s beauty.

“Not something you get to look at every day,” Randolph said.

“Not for us, but perhaps for the citizens,” I said.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Randolph said, laughing a bit and scratching his head.

We soon walked on a path which had been between two widespread buildings, making for a large path. Tons of people flooded the paths, making it hard to get around. Going too fast would end up splitting us apart, but going too slow would make it so people would become angry at us, or it would end up almost halting our movement completely. Soon, we came out of a location particularly where people weren’t at. It was odd, considering people looked as if they were purposely avoiding it. People’s eyes and faces shifted over to us for only a moment as they passed by. I continued to walk towards the center of the area in which they avoided. In the center sat a small statue of a child in which had been sitting, as though he were crying. There was no plate to read, so I couldn’t find out why the little boy was crying. I looked at all areas around and on the statue, but there was nothing. I stood up completely and scratched my head. When I looked around, I noticed something had changed about the ground. Footprints were now imprinted into the ground, as though someone stepped into the cement as it was still wet and being placed. I followed the footprints, not paying attention to hardly anyone else around me. When the footprints stopped, I was lead to another area in which people avoided. A statue of a large blade stabbed into the ground. On it, a small text in Latin, the language that the royals use. I try comprehending it, but I couldn’t read it. I turned to Randolph, who came over and began reading the text.

“Come one who shall be worthy to obtain the power of Gods. Prove not of worth, then you shall perish,” he read the text aloud to us so we could understand.

“Power of Gods?” I said, “What kind of power would that be?”

“I assume the power of the old Gods, all which controlled the elements,” Randolph replied. I looked around, the people still staring at us. Suddenly, I felt rumbling on the ground, as well as the rough sound of rock grinding against concrete. When I looked forward, in the area behind the sword, a cave had opened. Slowly, I made my way down a long set of stairs which had been exposed by the new opening. As each one of us entered, the rocks began to close again. Torches were hanging from the walls, Each already lit. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I heard the sound of water splashing. I looked down at my feet and saw that I stepped in water

“The floor is water?” I said, slightly confused.

“Rather, the floor is filled with a small bit of water,” Alicia said.

“Right, makes more sense,” I said, continuing to walk, each