Chapter 2: Centre City

Timeline Position: Present
Era: 1st Century STT
Year 87,001 ORT

We had been traveling for about two weeks. The Three Warriors showed no signs of tiring, nor did they indicate much inclination to converse. They just kept running. Jacquelyn hadn’t been able to keep up, so I was carrying her bridal-style. I had to hold back so much just to stay with the women. My Sie’die, or Super Alacrity, was getting uncontrollable. I knew I had to get it out of my system, so I called ahead.

“Can we stop for a while? My Sie’die is getting crazy.”

They slowed down, then stopped. Alleria asked curiously, “Sie’die? What’s that?”

“Super Alacrity, or Super Speed. Holding back this much is stirring up trouble. I need to get it out of my system, so I have to run at full speed for about an hour. Can you wait for about that amount of time?”

“You do seem jittery. Very well, we will make camp here. How are you going to find your way back, though?”

“My wife and I are bonded. We can find each other no matter what. We can also sense what the other is doing.”

“That’s fine, then. We will wait here.” Alleria waved me off.

And off I ran.

One second I was standing still, the next I was dodging trees at a rapid fire pace.

Left.

Right.

Kick off that tree, flip, continue.

Twirl around that trunk.

Jump over that fallen log.

Rocket past that giant snake.

Leap over that river.

Run into a tree.

Ow.

The four women stared after Kronalyrr in amazement, even long after he was out of sight.

“How fast was that?” Muneras asked quietly.

“About 5 km/s.” Jacquelyn replied, equally quiet.

Three sets of heads whipped around to stare at her.

“How do you know that?” Una asked in shock.

“Because he told me.” Jacky said.

“Well, I figured that, but I mean how?” Una insisted.

“The bond. It allows us to communicate via telepathy.”

Alleria whistled, impressed. “5 km/s. That’s fast.”

“It is. He’ll be gone for about an hour. This isn’t the first time someone has attempted to take our lives. He’ll be fine...” Her voice trailed off. Jacky cursed under her breath.

“Unless he encounters a fucking tree, and runs head first into it. Ow. That’s gotta hurt.”

The four all started giggling uncontrollably.

I can hear you, you know. Came over the bond. Jacky just laughed harder, and asked if he was alright between gasping breaths.

Yeah, I’m fine, my head’s just sore. Fucking tree. I’m on my way ba- ... Uh, gotta go. There’s a giant-ass feline in front of me.

Jacky gasped in fright, and told the others what was happening. The Three grimaced in distaste, but they looked resigned.

“There isn’t anything we can do. He’s too far south. If we had his speed, maybe we could’ve gotten there, but we don’t, so we can’t. Let us know what is happening if you can, though.”

Jacky asked over the bond if she could watch, and show the others the fight. Kronalyrr just grunted his permission.

“Here we go, then. Watch.” Jacky told the others. A bright light flared into existence, then dimmed down, showing the fight from Kronalyrr’s perspective.

There were gasps of utter shock from the warriors as they realized what creature he was fighting.

“A Drauras.” Muneras whispered despairingly. She looked over at Jacky with sorrow in her eyes. “No one has ever survived a drauras attack.”

“I’m sorry.”

I narrowed my eyes at the creature. A drauras, apparently. I was watching for a sign of the pounce I was sure was coming.

There.

The drauras pounced.

I started to bring my arms up to block the teeth of the creature.

As I brought my arms up, my wristbands made of Reriadia suddenly started spreading out, forming into armor. The metal spread over my forearms, completely covering my arms up to the elbow. The gauntlets had spikes protruding out of the knuckles. But what really caught the eye was the blade that came out of the slit from on top of the middle of the forearm. It went through a loop in the wrist cuff. The blade was about two and a half feet long, in a longsword form.

The blade swung up, slicing into the shoulder of the beast. The drauras gave a loud yelp, and crashed into me, causing me to tumble to the ground. The two of us separated, growling at each other. The drauras started circling to the left, so I did the same to the right. While this had been going on, my armor was continuing to spread, slowly speeding up as time went on. Half of my body had been covered in Reriadia lightplate. My entire torso was covered in the chestplate, my greaves were in place, the lightplate leggings underneath, pauldrons on shoulders, arms covered, all that was missing was the helm. All of this happened in less than a minute. After another thirty seconds, I felt the helm start creeping up the back of my neck, spreading over my ears, covering the top of my head, and ending with just my face open to the elements.

With a loud clunk, the faceplate covered my face. It was engraved with runes, pulsating softly. The visor was see-through, with holographs popping up in front of my eyes. The drauras suddenly had a targeting reticule, healthbar and defense bar. I gave a feral grin, then suddenly charged the drauras. The sudden movement startled the creature, and it swiped at the armored figure charging it reflexively.

Before I hit the drauras, I leaped into the air, pulling back the blade on my arm then thrusting forward. The blade slipped into the creature’s heart, killing it instantly. I stepped back, then realized my wife was talking to me.

What the hell?! What happened?? Are you alright? Jacky asked frantically.

Yes, I’m fine. Did you enjoy the show? I asked, amused.

We all thought you were done for. I could hear Jacky sigh in relief.

Well, I’m not. I’m on my way back. Be there in about ten minutes. I started running in the direction of my wife and the others.

When I got back, they were all waiting for me. Their eyes widened when they saw me with my armor on. All of them had expressions of awe on their faces, whether from me killing the beast, my armor, or the carcass of the beast itself, I couldn’t tell.

“Well? What are we waiting for? We’ve got a city to visit!” I proclaimed.

That spurred them on, but didn’t stop them from asking me questions ceaselessly.

“How did you get this armor?” Una asked.

“How did you not die from the beast?” Alleria questioned.

“You weren’t lying when you said you were from a different place, were you?” Muneras asked intuitively.

I responded to all of their questions with good grace. While on the move, the Three hunted for food, showing impressive skills for ones so young. They hunted deer, rabbit, bird, and the occasional fox. I was curious about the reason for all the hunting, when I was reminded that it’s good to provide for others, rather than just yourself. I was suitably humbled.

We seemed to attract a lot more predators than usual. There were Dire Wolves, who hunted in large packs. They were quite hard to fend off, but we managed. There were also Light Wolves, which were peaceful until attacked. We didn’t bother them much. There was their counterpart, the Dark Wolves, which attacked anything and everything. There seemed to be an ongoing war between Light and Dark Wolves, because not even ten minutes after we left a pack of Dark Wolves behind, we encountered a pitched battle between Light and Dark Wolves, and they seemed evenly matched. We quickly left them behind, continuing on our merry way, and ended up at a safe house of sorts.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“A resting spot. We’ll stop here for the night, maybe two, since we all seem to need to sleep and regain our energy. Large predators don’t dare come near our resting spots, because they know there is usually something more fearsome, usually us humans.” Muneras said as she walked towards the building’s door.

To me, the house looked cozy but primitive, made of old oak logs, tied together with thick twine, with a leaf rooftop, supported by long branches criss-crossing underneath the layer of leaves. The outside of the house was camouflaged by dead leaves and branches leaning against the walls of the house, creating a near-invisibility effect, where the house couldn’t be seen at all, unless you knew it was there.

We all went inside, hoping to get some rest, but we quickly figured out that there wasn’t enough room for all of us, especially with my over 6 foot frame taking up about a quarter of the space by itself.

“You ladies get some rest, I can keep watch for the night.” I volunteered.

“No, that won’t do, surely you need to rest as well.” Alleria inquired curiously.

“Actually, I don’t need to sleep, I usually only did so because if I hadn’t, I probably would have gone insane from boredom.” I explained while moving a small boulder into position next to the door. “Go get a good night’s sleep, and when you wake up, we’ll get going.”

“Fine, but wake us up if anything happens, alright?” Alleria grudgingly agreed.

“You got it.” I said, having no intention of waking them up at all, even though I had just promised.

Nothing untoward happened overnight, though there were quite a few small animals scurrying around in the dark. When morning rose, and the ladies woke up, we ate a light breakfast of nuts and berries, with some dried drauras jerky, and headed out.

A week later, we arrived at Centre City.

When we arrived at the gates to Centre City, we were immediately hailed.

“Halt! Who goes there?!” A deep voice shouted down at us from atop the large wall.

“Alleria, Muneras, and Una of the Hanet Family! We went out to catch the fugitive Mergat, and successfully apprehended him, with his head as proof! On the way back, we saw a bright flash of light to our northwest, so we investigated, and found these two people. We need to speak to Chief Kythar urgently, as these people bring urgent news from lands very far away!” Alleria shouted back. “And hurry your damn ass up, Varios! We don’t have time for your laziness!”

“Fine, fine, stop screaming your pretty head off! Sheesh, everybody is always in such a hurry.” Varios grumbled as he pulled a switch that opened the gate.

With a loud creaking noise, the large gates swung open, revealing the gloriousness that was Centre City. Or ... not so glorious, much.

Centre City was a giant hole in the ground, going about 3 kilometres down, with bridges made of stone criss-crossing the chasm, going from one large ledge to another, resulting in hundreds of bridges going everywhere. Bright orange and yellow torches were everywhere, and there were thousands of people scurrying from one place to another. The walls of the pit were riddled with holes, and as we descended down a metal lift, I could see people staring at us.

“Welcome to Centre City! To you, it may not seem like much, but trust me, this isn’t all there is to the city. This is quite simply the Central District, which is the main entrance into Centre City. It also serves as our transport hub, where we do our main trading with the surfacers, as well as transporting people, mail, and goods between the districts! Since apparently you need to see the Chief, all you need to do is take High-Lane 1, and Alleria will know how to get you there.” A cheerful voice said. I didn’t get to see who it was, because I was pulled along behind Alleria towards one of the many tunnels that led off somewhere.