Rise of Resistance

Chapter Four: Cavern Pass

Shaith was just laying lazily in a low tree branch just outside the walls of Snake Pit. Her right leg dangling off the side and her arms crossed behind her head. She stared up at the sun, which was slightly dimmer than the one we have here on earth, so it didn’t burn her eyes. She absentmindedly played with a small bud on the tree’s branch, making it grow in twisted, spiraled curves. She smiled lightly and let the gentle breeze carry her mind even further.

         The Overlords had no problem taking out the camps with speed and silence. All of the soldiers were currently unconscious, locked up in the prison cells and casually guarded by two Infernos that Talon had summoned. Anyone who tried to escape before Creed got back would be burnt to a crisp.

         The day seemed to be a success, but Shaith had a feeling that something was going to happen; perhaps not too bad, but something… odd. Shaith dismissed the thought, wondering if perhaps she were able to tell the future, and continued her daydreaming, until something caught her attention.

         Creed was walking fluidly through the sparse thicket of trees, his skin bare and his swords strapped to his back. Next to him stood two people she had never seen before; one was a robot, a model that she’d seen several times in the city. The other appeared to be some sort of Covert Ops Borg warrior; but she couldn’t be sure about that.

         Shaith sat up and turned towards Creed, who happily stopped and looked up at her. “So, how’d it go?” He asked, obviously in regards to assault on Scales’ troops. Shaith paused before answering, it was odd seeing him without armor, or clothes on.

         “Excellent. They didn’t even know what hit em. We got em locked up in the prison right now, the last time I saw em they were unconscious.”

         “How many of them were there?” Creed asked, curious.

         “Dunno. I’d say around sixty to seventy.” Shaith said, as if it were a small number, trying not to smile when she felt the surprise of Creed’s friends. Creed winked at her and casually introduced Meg and Murdock to her. Shaith hopped down from the low limb and introduced herself. Creed sent them into the town, telling the guards that it was safe to let them in. Then Shaith pulled Creed away from the gates, with a worried expression on her face.

         “What are you thinking? Bringing to agents of the Shadow Smith industry into the Resistance! What if they report to Cross about everything? What if they betray us and try to kill us?”

         “They’re safe.” Creed said, matter-of-factly, as he pulled his armor back piece by piece and started putting it on.

         “How do you know?” Shaith said, still a little bit frustrated.

         “Trust me, I know. I’ve been watching Murdock for awhile, and Meg is just like him. They’re safe.” Shaith went silent after that, she bit the inside corner of her lip and looked down, away from Creed as he continued to dress himself. “What is it?” Creed asked, he hadn’t even looked at her since he had finished his last sentence.

         “I have a bad feeling…”

         “About Meg and Murdock?”

         “Maybe… I dunno what it’s about, all I know is something bad… or… odd is going to happen.” Creed remained silent, he slung his sheaths over his armor and placed his swords in them.

         “Do you think this could be one of those unknown powers that I have, starting to resurface?” Shaith asked.

         “Perhaps. But I doubt it, it doesn’t seem to correlate with your element. Anythings possible though.” Creed put his robe on, which would seem crazy in the hot weather, but left his mask off, holding it carefully in his hand. He faced the wall, looking up at its edge.

         “I’ll keep your feeling in mind Shaith,” he said soothingly, pulling on his hood and putting on his mask “but for right now, let’s keep it quiet, we don’t want to scare anyone.” He quickly scaled the wall, with Shaith right behind him, and hopped down into a narrow alleyway. By the time she hit the ground, Creed had disappeared. Shaith stood up rigidly. “How does he do that?” she mumbled. Looking down all of her possible routes she quickly jumped on top of a building, crouched down, and made her way back towards the Hall of Snakes.

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         Creed stood before the prison cell where their captives sat, bundled together in one huge mass by rope, unconscious. One of the Infernos, hulking and crackling in its form, growled ominously at Drake, who stood cowering behind Creed. Creed shot the Inferno a warning glance, which quickly shut it up.

         “What are ya gonna do with em?” Drake asked, still a bit shaken up by the Infernos.
         “I'm gonna send them to Oblivion, where they'll be judged by Oblivion himself about whether or not they are worthy of being reincarnated after the war is over. If they pass, they will await reincarnation to their families until the war is over, and if they fail... well, that's a different story altogether.” Creed flicked his wrist, and with a sudden flash of light and a crackling sound Scales' troops vanished. Creed turned to Drake, a slight smile under his mask.

         “So. Now for your end of the bargain.” He chuckled.

         “But first, let's get everyone rounded up in the Hall of Snakes, then we'll talk business.” Drake suggested.

         “Just what I was thinking.”


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The group sat in their regular fashion, Creed and Drake at the heads of the tables, and everyone else lined up along the edge. Creed propped his mask less face upon his right palm, and tapped the fingers upon the table with a clicking sound. Creed bared a simple smile from under his skin, which never failed to make Drake and Tamarah's skin crawl.

“So where is this 'Cavern Pass'?” Creed asked after introducing Meg and Murdock formerly to the group; they seemed to be generally like by the veterans of the Resistance, but they would take some warming up to. After all, they were former SSW members.

         “It's just a mile or so north of here, it's deep and runs long, so it may take a few days to traverse it. But I've traversed it many times, I can get us through it with ease.”

         “You'll be coming with us?” Creed asked.

         “Yes, Tamarah will be filling in for me while I'm with you.” Creed asked no questions about this, instead he impatiently stood upright and hooked his mask into place. “When can you be ready.” Drake hesitated for a moment.

         “By tonight, I guess.”

         “Good. We'll meet you back here. Alright?”

         “Deal.”

         It was obvious that Creed was impatient to get going, for some reason. He usually liked to think things out a few moments more before heading out.

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         Nightfall had come, and The Resistance walked calmly and casually through the dense forest towards the entrance to Cavern Pass. Creed was fully clad in his armor and ready for anything, and the rest of the Overlords were just the same; but they didn't manage to lose a single shred of their calming presence. Meg and Murdock felt eerily at ease around them, even though they were gods.

         Drake, on the other hand, wasn't at ease. He had the same bad feeling that Shaith had. He felt as if something odd, or terrible, was on the horizon. He was walking slightly off line, and his whole body was slightly sweaty. Creed picked up on his friends discomfort, and he dipped his senses into his head, undetected. Once he realized the problem he quickly defused it and let Drake relax. Nothing worse than a nervous, unfocused guide.

         Within no time they reached the entrance to Cavern Pass. A large hole in the ground covered with gnarled tree roots and old vines to hide it from enemies. Drake and Creed quickly shuffled them aside and peered down the hole. “It's only a few feet down, even though you can't see the bottom.” Drake mentioned, his voice echoing down the hole.

         “I'll take your word for it.” Creed said, motioning for his the Overlords to hop down the entrance. One after another they jumped in, until Creed was the only one above ground. He jumped and closed the entrance using his will. The swirly designs etched into his armor glowed brightly with purple colors, lighting up everything in his path.

         The pass seemed fairly simple, not very treacherous. It was just a simple tunnel, carved by water possibly. Creed didn't hesitate, he was in a hurry. He walked quickly, but calmly down the pathway. The Resistance following close behind.

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         A day passed and they were about halfway through the pass. The gentle glug of water could be heard on the other side of the rocky walls; which made the mortals a bit uneasy, the walls could break at any time, letting the raging ocean in as it pleased. But Creed made sure it didn't get to them, he didn't want them to be too nervous.

         The Overlords, due to the fact that they didn't need to sleep, didn't wish to waste any time. So when their mortal companions needed rest, they'd simply snatch them up in their arms and carry them while they slept. It was due to this that they gained time, speeding ahead faster than Drake and his troops ever had.

         Within two days they had reached the end of Cavern pass. But before they left the gloomy world of the underworld, they stopped to rest, and devise their plans.

         “So how do we go about doing this?” Murdock asked warily, finally warming up to his allies.

         “Slithra is set up on a large scale defense set. Everything is centered around the Tower or Serpents, the main building of Slithra.” Creed said, scratching a map of the city in the dirt upon the floor. “The tower is monstrous, rivaling the size of the Imperial Grace tower in the heart of the Empire. Some even believe that Tower of Serpents is made out pieces of Imperial Grace, but that's just a myth.” Creed couldn't hide the twinge of sadness in his voice at the mention of the Empire, nor did he bother trying, but he continued on.

         “Scales resides in the very tip top of the Tower of Serpents. We need to figure out a way to get there. So we have to ways of going about this: first is to go full force assault upon the city and fight our way up the tower and through the town; or second, sneak in and face Scales undisturbed.” The group unanimously voted upon the second option, no one wanted direct conflict.

         “Good... now for how to get in there...” Creed pondered.

         “Well, we could always climb.” Geary mentioned, which made Shaith shudder.

         “But the tower is to big to do such things.” Creed paused even longer, he seemed stumped. “Both myself and the Overlord will distract the guards, lure them away from the tower, and you will infiltrate the tower.”

         “What about you though?” Meg asked nervously, referring to all of the immortals in the room.

         “We'll catch up.” Creed said calmly, leaning against a rock behind him. Silence followed, like it so often did, and for a few moments Creed immersed himself in the calm minds of his companions. Their thoughts were so interesting, so in depth that it was like reading a book.

         After a few minutes conversation started to pick up a bit, everyone was chatting absentmindedly Creed smiled lightly, and Drake piped up, “Ya know, Creed used to be quite the magician back when the Empire was alive.”

         Creed laughed and waved his hand at Drake, dismissing his thoughts. “Oh c'mon Creed! Show em what you got.” For a minute or two Drake persisted against Creed’s stubbornness until Creed gave up and pulled his sleeves back.

         Creed held his hands out twirling them together in a mesmerizing fashion. Blue, smoke like mana roiled in the air between his hands, bubbling and churning in mid-air. The smoke split apart, into smaller bubbles of mana, forming into different shapes; people, buildings, monsters, weapons. The scenes they formed flashed by so quickly it was almost sickening. A room filled with people dancing suddenly turned into a monstrous beast with spiraling horns and razor sharp teeth. A fast paced sword fight between several warriors churned into a long hall filled with people arguing and bickering, with Creed sitting at the end in a throne watching distastefully over the scene.

         The rest of the Resistance watched, entranced by the smoky scenes. The scenes continued on and on and on until all of the Resistance, with the exception of Creed, was asleep. Even the Overlords lay down so absentminded that they might as well be asleep. Creed continued to sift through his memories using the smoke he had formed. He sighed at the happy ones that had passed, and quickly dismissed the ones he disliked. He had forgotten how troubling his past was. And when the last vision morphed into the smoke, he simply stared at it with contempt, and hatred. He swiped his hand through it, and watched angrily as the ghostly image of his eldest “son” dissipated into the air.

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         “This is it.” Creed said lightly, crouched down under a cloak with the Rest of the Resistance just outside Slithra's walls. “I've decided to change the plans a bit. We'll do this quietly, but not as quietly as planned. This will be a full out assault upon Slithra, attack every soldier you see, and leave them where they die. We'll fight our way to the Tower of Serpents with honor, and valor.” Creed removed the cloak and stood bolt upright, the rest of the Resistance hesitating before the stood to face the towering walls of Slithra, hiding the rest of the massive city from their view.

         With a swift motion of his hands Creed ripped the walls in two, sending debris careening towards the insides of the city. Creed nodded towards Talon who, with a mile on his face, raised a hundred or so fiery warriors from the Scarlet Islands to invade. The burning creatures dashed through the city walls with malicious looks upon their face, and the sound of guards screaming filled the air.

         Everyone in the Resistance leapt into action, they ran through the chrome
paved streets with their deadliest weapons drawn. Every guard that threw themselves at them were taken out quickly. The Infernos and Scarlet Warriors that Talon had summoned scouted ahead to lessen the threat as they fought through the city.

         Creed walked calmly into the city with his head bowed, his eyes burned so brightly the pupils were invisible. Several Elite Guards engaged him with their swords, he quickly disabled them with several motions of his fist and turned his attention to the massive tower in the center of the city.

         It stood so tall that it looked as if it were touching the clouds. Its spikey appearance looked black under the clouds, with an ominous feel to it. Creed cocked his head slightly. “They'll be locking down the tower as soon as they get the alarm.” Creation noted.

         “Not if we disable their electricity they won't.” He raised his hand towards the sky and flicked his wrist. The clouds turned a reddish black color, and bolts of bright lighting began to reign down upon the city. Lights from buildings and houses all over flickered and went out. The Tower of Serpents suddenly went dark, and Creed walked fluidly into the city, following the path of chaos that the Overlords had left behind.

         It seemed to Creed that something was coming. Not like Drake and Shaith had felt, but something was coming. Creed climbed a nearby transmission tower and looked down over the city. He could see the Overlords ripping the guards down, but their progress was slowing, The guards were getting tougher, and soon they wouldn't be guards at all. Talon's summons were all depleted, and the only back up the Resistance had were several Earth Elementals that Shaith had formed, but they were falling fast.

         “We need back-up.” Destruction sighed. Creed nodded and looked towards the sky. The clouds suddenly parted, as if the sky had cracked in two, and hundreds of dark looking creatures slowly descended from the sky, hunched slightly and clad in dark, spiked armor. They slowly descended upon the city, until the clouds reformed and hundreds of dark warriors stood before Creed.

         The lead warrior stepped forward and removed his helmet, revealing a scarred, twisted face. “Why have you called us here mi'lord?” He growled angrily.

         “You and your followers have been sent to the scorching realm of Oblivion for your misdeeds, have you not?”

         “Tis true.”

         “Five thousand years, is that right?”

         “Yes.”

         “We need back up, and if you and your followers will aid me in this battle I will tell Oblivion to reduce your sentence by half.” A roar burst out through the crowd of dark warriors, and the lead turned towards them with a smile, then quickly silenced them with the wave of his hand. He turned back towards Creed and replaced his helmet “The Dark Arms are at your service mi'lord.” He scowled.

         “Take down every Slithrin troop you see!” Creed roared with rage and courage. The crowd rose into an uproar, drawing their menagerie of weapons and charging in towards the city. Creed watched them scatter throughout the narrow alleyways and thick streets, destroying everything in their path. Something caught his eye, he zoomed in slightly to see hundreds and hundreds of troops of the highest rank accompanied by several large robots that were about the same size as a small house.

         “So much for being inconspicuous.” Creation muttered distastefully.

         “Perhaps we needed to be blunt... straightforward...” Creed couldn't seem to find the right word.

         “Hasty?” Destruction suggested.

         “Yes.”

         “Well we should make haste and take out as many of those platoons as we can.” Creation said with worry in her voice. Creed took her advice and drew his swords, leaping onto a nearby building and, running as fast as he could, jumped onto the next, and the next, and the next until one of the platoons were directly below him. Creation and Destruction lashed out and impaled the robots that stood at the lead, then threw them into the crowd of Elites behind them, killing all of the platoon but two robots.

         Creed leapt onto one of them and sunk his fist into the top of its head, causing it to explode like a stick of TNT. He grabbed the last robot with his swords and ripped it into the air then cut in half with a downward stroke of his blade.

         “We should regroup and let the Dark Arms distract them for a bit.” Creation said, and without even replying Creed made his way towards the Resistance with enough speed to crush anything that lay in his path.

         The Overlords were in great shape, for the amount of fighting they had done. Although Meg had a slight dent in her head and Drake had a small wound on his left leg, they were still more than worthy to continue fighting. Creed looked down upon them from atop a small house and called to them.

         “The time has come to assault the tower! I have called upon the Dark Arms to destroy as many soldiers as they can, and I have taken out their electricity. Shaith, Drake and Aeri will come with me to the tower and infiltrate the tower while the rest of you stay out here and hold as many of their remaining ground forces as you can.” They followed his orders without question, or answer and followed him calmly down the street as the rest stayed behind, bracing themselves for any troops that might pop up around the corner.

         No one said anything, but Creed was a bit scary. He seemed angry, cold and hasty. It seemed as if he would make an irrational choice and cost all of them their lives, but they still followed him, without question and without doubt. Just like they always had.