.~Excalibur~. (2014-05-29 09:07:31)

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Welcome to the beginning of my novel's main story! Enjoy!

If you haven't read the prologue, click here.

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Chapter 1

The Attack

Current Time, Warlock Resistance/Secret Location

Matt

Why was I always assigned for the boring missions? “Post guard.” They’d say, or “Scout mission.” Those two were popular. Boring, but popular. I can’t help but think that I deserve more than this, standing around all day and calling it guarding.

As I looked around, casually circling the large base, I took in the scenery. The sky was a bright blue with the sun blazing right through it, there were very few clouds around. Surrounding me was a very large forest that went on for about a 4 kilometers. There were very many plants and bugs that would never of been dreamed by slave people, though growing up in this place sort of ruins the scenery. It’s always the same.

The uniforms are quite normal, but sort of fancy and expensive, again, if you were not in the resistance. The uniform was in fact armour, the kind that moulds over your skin to fit perfectly, regardless of size. It consisted of gold plating over your chest, pelvis, shoulders, back and legs, with a sort of white elastic everywhere else. Everyone has to wear this except for The Generals. They get to choose their own design, which sucks, seeing as you get easily confused with who is who in this place.

Oh. I almost forgot. What is it that I’m talking about? The Warlock Resistance, that’s what.

A year ago, January the 3rd at exactly 1:15 pm, all around the world, Warlocks went crazy. I was right next to one when the invasion began.

All of a sudden, The Warlock next to me stood attention, which I found was very weird, I didn’t even know his name but I was concerned for what was going on with him. I wasn’t quite sure what happened next, but I recall getting hit in the face. I don’t know what time it was when I woke up that day, but I guessed I was out for hours, since the daylight was making way for the night to come. It was pretty creepy, lying in the middle of the dark street cold and alone, so I got up and investigated, still unsure of what happened.

It was a crazy day, I heard screaming and rushed over the next few streets to find a Warlock shooting fireballs dangerously close to a girl around my age, like some sort of threat or robbery, but I found this hard to believe that such a peaceful being could do this. I grabbed one of the wooden planks laying on the floor, which was from the burning building behind the girl, then snuck up on the horrific Warlock and struck him from behind, he was immediately knocked out and his power flared shut.

“Hey, are you ok?” I asked the girl. She turned to look at me and croaked with relief, then ran up to me and hugged me. “I don’t know what’s going on. He got me by surprise.” She sobbed. “It’s ok, let’s get out of here and we’ll figure it out.” I said to her, but in all honesty, I just wanted to wake up from this crazy dream. Before it becomes a nightmare.

The girl was beautiful, but I barely registered it at the time, due to the adrenaline pumping through me. I told her that we needed to get to my house for safety, but she insisted that we go to her place, which wasn’t far from here, but I saw the colour drain from her face when we turned to see a column of smoke rise out of that direction. We headed towards my house and I was relieved to find that the area was untouched, as we did not live near any warlocks.

I entered the house first, checking that it was clear, I signaled the girl to come in. The place was deserted, and that made me worry about my parents. We both got something to eat, and the girl told me her name was Suzy, then walked outside. That was when the resistance soldiers found us, riding along in a truck, patrolling the area. They said that our parents were safe, and after a visit with them, I felt this weird urge to join the army, to find out what was going on, so did Suzy. We got paired with Aaron, Damian and Euan, and that’s how we all come together. That was a year ago...

“Matt?” I heard someone call, breaking my deep thought and saving me from walking into the wall. I smiled. “Nothing much- I mean, nothing to report, mam.” Suzy started giggling, from a distance. I was feeling much better now that my team was coming. A group of 16–year old kids hanging out on patrol. Weird, huh? This would be my team in a nutshell.

There was Suzy, of course, with blue hair (weirdly enough, it’s natural), with green eyes, very sassy and is not to be underestimated. I learnt that the hard way during a Tae-Kwon-Doe lesson– still have the bruise. Then there’s Euan. A cheery brown-haired, blue-eyed, regular kind of kid. He’s always happy, but he does what needs to be done. Once, he walked over a pile of hot, steaming coal just because he was getting five bucks for it, it was worth it, he’d say. Damian came next, Blonde, brown-eyed, short and chubby. He spoke in this weird way that took a lot of concentration not to laugh at. After that, was Aaron. Black hair and brown-eyes, plus, he’s really skinny. Always grabbing the moment for a joke, even when it’s really unnecessary. Once, when we were all in class and were told to be quiet, he told me a hilarious joke and Euan and I burst out laughing. He acted all innocent when the teacher investigated.

Then there’s me. Matthew Graves, but Matt for short. I’m your average Joe, blonde hair, blue eyes. Nothing special, my team only gets base defense jobs, as the commander of the resistance thinks we haven’t “ranked up to a higher level.” I get the feeling he was quite the computer-screen commando when he was young.

As my team came up, Suzy hugged me, and I began to feel red-faced. “Ha-ha what a great couple!” Aaron teased as he and Euan hi-fived. Damian, or Damo as I liked to call him, started laughing along with them.

While I was red as a tomato from embarrassment, Suzy’s was also red with anger. She let go of me and turned around. “Oi! Stop it!” She shouted, irritation clearly on her face, she quickly turned away and bit her lip, which didn’t stop me from going even redder than before. “Sorry, Madame.” Aaron said, giggling, as he made a half bow. After a moment’s laughing, they finally stopped and got serious. “So, anything to report?” Asked Euan. “Nope. It’s been your average boring day.” I replied. Damo sighed. He loved action.

We continued to patrol around the base, looking out at the forest around us, the resistance headquarters was in a secret forest in, well, I don’t really know, they have a field around the base that makes you forget where you are exactly in the world, so you never know it’s location. It’s a pretty good vantage point, hidden deep in the forest, known only by those who operate there, we don’t use traps, as they are easily trod on by our own people, and it’s not like anyone knows where we are, but we have patrols just in case...

We were casually walking along and chatting when, it happened, I saw the faintest spark, I didn’t notice it, but as the memory processed through my mind, I realised what it was. Static. Colour… Red. Demon aura remnants…? All of this was slowly going through my mind. Oh no. That can only mean one thing.

Warlock energy.

Apparently, Suzy noticed it too, judging by the stern look on her face. I raised a fist. The order for complete silence. These were my friends and they were always mucking around, but this was serious. There was actually danger here. “Take cover.” I whispered. We took out our Anti-Magic pistols, set it to concussion, and took cover behind trees, me, Euan and Suzy behind one tree, Damo and Aaron behind the other. “All five of us, shoot at once when I give the command.” I whispered.

I slowly raised my hand and started to close it slowly. 3… 2… 1… Now! I closed my fist and we all fired, the beams me and Euan fired went into the bushes, but the Warlocks jumped out of the bush and dodged them. Only to be knocked to the ground by Damo and Suzy’s shots. Aaron missed completely, but for a good reason, if one of the Warlocks happened to dodge another beam, they would be hit by Aaron’s. But this didn’t happen, instead, the beam went straight though a hedge, followed by a Zap! An “Agh!” And a thud!

There’s more. This wasn’t right. Warlocks have never discovered us; there shouldn’t even be those two. Ever. But, at least we had new technology on our side. Sadly, that’s all we had. Suzy’s eyes widened in horror, Euan was sweating intensely, Damo was fumbling with his gun, and Aaron set his deflector up, his face a mark of determination.

***

Aaron

I felt as if my face was set in a mask of determination.

The Demon Warlocks were coming. Not just a small group of wanderers. Those were scouts for a raiding squad, and that meant things were getting serious. “Aaron, what do you think is going on?” Damian asked. “I know for a fact, Damian, that this is going to become a small battlefield.” I replied. A brief flash of excitement ruled by fear flickered in Damian’s eyes. I didn’t blame him, this was a very unnerving moment, but also our first.

We all looked unprepared, in fact, I was the only one that was actually ready, everyone else was in a state of surprise, so that they forgot to bring out their shields. “Shields up everyone.” I reminded them. Very quietly, the others snapped out of shock and quietly set up their deflectors. We got them active just as the battle began. The hedge, a tall wall of bushes suddenly started sparking with red static electricity and was blown to bits by a fireball, causing us to jump or be incinerated. The choice was obvious.

We jumped out of the way quickly, when I turned my head, I saw Matt do a quick head count as Suzy and Euan fired shots, constantly hitting Warlocks that came through, but they started to speed up a little using they’re auras. Damo, Matt and I added pressure with more beams from our pistols, downing a few more Warlocks, but they kept coming closer. They started firing thunderbolts at us, only to be deflected by our… Err… Deflectors. When they realised what they were doing was ineffective, they charged on us. “Turtle formation!” Matt shouted. We lined up to the side and, as the first Warlock came up to meet our defensive position, I smirked. Surprising him with my reaction, we turned the electrocution on our deflectors’ right up, and we knocked him out of the way with a bright zap!
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