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ROIbots
With a gasp Eoryn
turned and ran towards the stairs leading off the tower. He was running still
as he reached the bottom of the Light Tower and ran towards the inn his friends
had entered. Up ahead, he saw Lucas and Finiah walking down the street, no
doubt searching for him.
“Ah, there you
are!” Finiah said as his panting friend approached. “Where were—” but Eoryn cut
him off.
“Finiah, there is
no time! There are ROIbots coming!”
Finiah, his face
suddenly puzzled, couldn’t reply. Lucas spoke, his voice elevated above his
usually calm tone, “You are certain? You have seen them?”
Eoryn nodded
rapidly. “I saw them from the Light Tower, and they were making towards the
city! Finiah, run to my ACVOT and grab as many Double Blades as you can carry,
and Lucas, alert the rest of our group to our danger! I will try and find help;
meet me at the eastern edge of the city. Hurry!”
The three Kinrin
parted, all three of them running in different directions. Eoryn headed east
down a street, shouting as he did, “Alarm! Alarm! To arms!” The few Kinrin in
the streets paused and stared at Eoryn, and several doors were flung open, the
Kinrin stepping out of them looking startled and dazed.
“What is the
meaning of this?” one of the male Kinrin shouted from a doorway.
Eoryn stopped
before him. “ROIbots are approaching this city! We must gather and fight!”
“ROIbots?” A female
Kinrin shook her head. “We need not fight them! They are good.”
“No!” Eoryn
exclaimed. “They are coming to destroy this city. They will kill you!”
Several of the
Kinrin burst out laughing, and most of them returned to their doorways. “Go
home, lad. You know nothing.” one of them called before closing his door with a
bang.
Eoryn looked
desperately around him. Lord, I can’t do
this alone. He again resumed running down the street, calling, “To arms! To
arms! This city is being attacked!” Slowly, a small group of Kinrin gathered
behind him as he neared the eastern edge of the city. It was only a handful of
the citizens of the city, but the small group encouraged Eoryn.
He turned to them
once they reached the edge of the city. It took only a glance to see that most
of the Kinrin before him were older men around his father’s age, and some of
them were unarmed. All of them looked expectantly at Eoryn, waiting for his
instructions. “Kinrin,” Eoryn said, “I thank you for your faithfulness. How
many of you are armed?”
A handful of Double
Blades were unsheathed and held high, but it was clear that more than half of
the Kinrin were unarmed. “Very good,” Eoryn nodded, “I have a friend coming who
can supply Double Blades to the rest of you. We will wait here for him.”
“What are we
attacked by?” one of the unarmed Kinrin asked. “Can we face them alone?”
“ROIbots,” Eoryn
replied. “I saw them from a distance, but there seemed to be at least a dozen
of them.”
A murmur rippled
through the group. “Lad,” one of the oldest of the Kinrin said, “I would
suggest that I and whoever is armed make with all haste outside the city and
form a line of defense there. We cannot be caught here in the streets by
ROIbots.”
Eoryn looked into
the weathered face of the Kinrin who had just spoken. His intense blue eyes
stared calmly back at Eoryn, and it was clear that he had been a leader in his
fighting days. “Yes, that is a good idea. Lead the armed Kinrin outside the
city while the rest waits here. We will come as soon as we are armed.”
The older Male
Kinrin nodded, and he led the detachment of armed Kinrin down the street at a
rapid pace. Meanwhile, Eoryn heard footsteps coming from the opposite direction
and turned towards the sound. Lucas and the other Kinrin from the Inrelion were
running towards him. “Why are we waiting here?” Lucas asked urgently as he
stopped by Eoryn. “Surely the ROIbots draw near!”
“We are waiting for
Finiah to come with the Double Blades. Have you seen him?”
“No.” Lucas shook
his head.
A tense silence followed, and Eoryn started
pacing. He knew that Finiah would be slowed with an armful of Double Blades,
but he wished his friend would come quicker. They could not wait much longer,
but without the Double Blades, their numbers would be cut in half. Finally
Finiah came, running as fast as he could with an armload of the weapons. There
was a cheer from the unarmed Kinrin, and they began arming themselves, Finiah
passing the Double Blades out as fast as he could.
“May I have a Double Blade?” It was Lucas who
asked this to Finiah.
“But you are
already armed!” Finiah said, passing a Double Blade to the last of the unarmed
men around him.
Lucas shook his
head. “No, I am not armed for combat against ROIbots. Please give me a Double
Blade.” For only an instant, it seemed as if Lucas’s calm face flickered with
anger. Finiah, a little surprised, shrugged and handed him the last of the
Double Blades.
All of them armed, the
group started down the street to join the Kinrin who had gone before. Before he
followed the group, Eoryn turned to the two female Kinrin from the Inrelion.
“Nayele, Alena, stay here. If it looks like things are going poorly or if we
don’t return, take my ACVOT and leave the city.”
Nayele’s brown eyes
flashed. “We will not stay here! We can—and will—fight!” She unsheathed her
Double Blade almost fiercely.
“No! I am doing
this to protect you. Stay!” Eoryn said, his voice rising. He had no time to
argue with the girls.
His eyes turned to
Alena, and this time she held his gaze for more than a second. It seemed to
Eoryn that she was searching him. “Nayele,” she said quietly after a moment,
“we need to stay here.” This statement was said quietly, but it was firm.
Nayele, who had just opened her mouth to give a haughty reply to Eoryn, turned
to Alena and fell silent.
Eoryn stepped
forward and handed the key to his ACVOT to Alena, and she said as she took it,
“We will wait as long as possible; we will only leave if it looks like you and
those with you have been overrun.”
Eoryn nodded and,
turning from her, ran down the street to help in the defense of the city.
Cresting a rise in the street, he beheld the plains stretching out before him.
The loyal Kinrin were stretched out in a thin line some fifty feet from the
first buildings of the city. The ROIbots loomed beyond this line. They were
still a distance away, but they were rapidly closing the gap.
Eoryn ran to the
front of the line of Kinrin. “Prepare to meet the ROIbots! Stick together and
hold your positions as long as possible. Only retreat if our enemies shatter
our lines!” Eoryn unsheathed his Double Blade, and those who had not yet
unsheathed their weapons did the same.
The man who had led
the first wave of Kinrin stepped to Eoryn’s side and turned so that he too was
facing the line before him. “Soldiers, I
see that many of you are my peers in age, so as a result, most of you have seen
battle before, but I doubt any of you have faced a ROIbot. They are fierce adversaries,
and they cannot be defeated alone. We must face them in groups of three and
four, for that is our only hope of victory. Is this clear?”
The Kinrin around
the leader nodded or voiced their understanding, and the man continued, “Let
none of you give way to fear! Remember who we fight for, the one we draw our
strength from. Let us fight for the Creator, and let us win his victory!”
There was a rousing
cheer from the Kinrin, and they held their Double Blades high. Eoryn and the
man who had spoken walked back to the front ranks of the line of Kinrin and
turned so that they faced their oncoming enemies. The Kinrin were ready for
battle.
Eoryn stood with
Finiah and the three male students from the Inrelion. “Stay with me,” he said,
looking at each of his young friends. “We cannot be separated.”
The ROIbots had
come much closer, and they were now so close that Eoryn could make out their
features. Their towering, metallic bodies were shaped like those of a human,
but they were much larger, being at least twelve feet tall. All of them held
huge metal hammers or a long, sharp piece of steel in their hands. Eoryn
counted fifteen of them.
The ROIbots closed
the distance, and with a fierce yell the struggle began. The ROIbot leading the
group swung the huge sword he carried into the line of Kinrin, literally
cutting two of the men in half. Bursts of purple flame from the Double Blades
enveloped several of the ROIbots at the same time, and the ROIbots inflicted
with the fire bellowed, their strange voices loud and piercing. Kinrin were
sent flying from the hammer strokes of their terrible adversaries.
A ROIbot raised its
sword and brought it down on Eoryn, who dodged the blow. He felt the heat from
his Double Blade as purple flame arced between the dual blades and then shot
forward into the ROIbot before him. The robot let out a piecing scream, sparks
flying from its body as the fire burned any exposed wires. This burst of flame
hardly slowed it down, though, and he swung his sword again. The aim was off,
and the sword implanted itself in the ground under Eoryn’s feet, the force from
the blow knocking him off his feet. Seeing him fall, Finiah jumped to his
friend’s side and helped him up.
Meanwhile, Lucas
sprang forward before the ROIbot could free his sword from the ground, trying
to take advantage of this opportunity. He swung his Double Blade at the robot’s
leg, and the weapon sunk deep. The ROIbot fell to his knees with another
screech. It finally freed its sword and jerked it back, and the hilt of the
weapon smashed into the back of Lucas’s head and stretched him flat on the
ground.
Jalen and Kiran
sprang forward. The ROIbot, still on its knees, was too quick for them, though.
It again swung its sword, and both of the brothers raised their Double Blades
to block the sweeping blow. They were knocked off their feet and sent tumbling
across the ground, their Double Blades notched from the tremendous strength of
the blow.
The ROIbot turned back
to Eoryn and Finiah, and it laughed as it raised its sword. But it never got
the chance to swing it. A purple burst flew from Finiah’s Double Blade and
surrounded the ROIbot, and Eoryn charged at the distracted enemy. He drove his
Double Blade up to the hilt in the ROIbot’s chest just as the flame dissipated
from his friend’s weapon. The robot shuttered, but the hand not holding its
sword suddenly gripped Eoryn’s waist. The ROIbot lowered its head so it was
only inches from the Kinrin’s face, and a torrent of its strange, robotic
dialect assaulted his ears. Its red eyes fixed onto him, and it squeezed. Eoryn
felt as if he would be squashed in half.
Suddenly a Double Blade
cut into and through the ROIbot’s neck, and it released Eoryn and pitched
forward, its head rolling away from its body. Lucas stood before Eoryn,
breathing heavily. Their eyes met, and Eoryn nodded his thanks. He turned to
look for the rest of the young Kinrin around him. Jalen and Kiran had regained
their feet, and Finiah stood unharmed.
The battle raged
around them. The massive forms of several of the ROIbots lay unmoving on the
ground, but many more human bodies were strewn about the plain. The line of
Kinrin was breaking, and already many of them were retreating back towards Erailindor
in ragged groups. The ROIbots also were running towards the city, squashing
anything that got in their way. The group of young Kinrin was in danger of
being cut off from the city.
“We need to get
back to Erailindor!” Eoryn exclaimed after seeing their predicament. “We will
be trapped alone here if we stay!”
The five of them
ran back towards the city, running at an angle to try and avoid the ROIbots.
They reached the city’s edge, but a scene of chaos met them. Here and there
Kinrin stood in the streets, trying to fight the ROIbots, but the majority of
them fled down the streets. The remaining ROIbots tramped through the crumbling
streets, smashing buildings and people at will. They were overrunning the city.
A wall of bricks came crashing down before Eoryn and the others, dislodged by
the hammer of a ROIbot. Dust and wind flew through Eoryn’s hair as the cascade
of stone slammed into the ground.
“The girls,” Lucas
shouted, “where are they?”
Eoryn looked around
desperately at the chaos. Alena and Nayele were nowhere in sight. “They are
probably headed towards my ACVOT!” he shouted back. “We should head there too.
We need to leave this city!”
Lucas nodded, and
he, Eoryn, and the three others resumed running. They wove their way between
buildings, taking side streets and alleys, trying to avoid the ROIbots and
crowds of fleeing people. Suddenly Jalen shouted and pointed to two female
forms running up the street next to them.
“There’s Alena and Nayele!”
The male Kinrin
quickly altered their course so that they ran onto the street the girls were
on. “Nayele, Alena, wait up!” Kiran shouted as they approached.
The girls turned,
and Nayele said as they approached, “Hi! You did a great job of protecting the
city, huh?”
Eoryn ignored her.
“We need to get out of here! The ROIbots are destroying the city.”
Alena nodded. “We were
headed for your ACVOT.” She handed the key to the vehicle back to Eoryn.
“The ACVOTS should
be just a few blocks down. Let’s go.”
Suddenly there was
a scream from one of the fleeing woman. A tremendous crash followed, and a
ROIbot emerged from a crumbling wall onto the street the group of young Kinrin
was on. It was only forty feet away, and as Eoryn looked up at it, the robot’s
red eyes fixed on his group and it made towards them with hammer raised. “Run!”
The seven Kinrin
started down the street as fast as their legs could carry them, the male Kinrin
with their Double Blades still unsheathed. The ROIbot had singled them out,
though, perhaps because he saw they held Double Blades, and it trailed them
doggedly, ignoring the other people that scurried out of its way. It was
gaining on them.
Eoryn suddenly
turned and led the Kinrin up the steps to a towering building. “I think our
ACVOTs are just on the other side of this tower,” he said in almost a gasp. “We
can cut across it and maybe lose the ROIbot behind us!”
He threw open the
huge wooden doors of the tower, and they quickly filed inside. Finiah and Lucas
stopped to close the doors, wedging a stout plank of wood between them. The
group was little more than half way across the floor of the building when there
was a tremendous crash behind them. The ROIbot broke through the doors.
There was a shout
besides Eoryn, and he turned just in time to see Lucas charge the robot with
Double Blade in hand. With a backhanded stroke the ROIbot met this sudden
attack, and its hammer smashed into Lucas, sending him through the air and into
the wall of the building. Lucas slumped with a groan to the ground. The ROIbot
turned to Eoryn, who stood alone before it. The rest of the group had continued
on some ten feet before they had realized Lucas’s attack.
Eoryn dodged the
first hammer strike, and summoning all his strength, he flicked his Double
Blade over his shoulder and leveled it at the ROIbot. Purple flame burst from
it and surrounded the robot, keeping it from attacking the rest of the group as
it bellowed in pain.
“Go! Go!” Eoryn
shouted, sweat standing out on his forehead from the heat of his Double Blade.
“I will hold it back!”
Jalen and Kiran ran
to Lucas and helped him up, and the two of them supported him on either side as
they made for the opposite door. Already Finiah had led Nayele and Alena to the
door, and he stood with Double Blade ready to defend them as they opened the
door for Kiran, Jalen, and Lucas. The girls, Lucas, and his helpers got safely
outside, but Finiah paused at the doorway, looking back at Eoryn.
Sweat poured down
Eoryn’s face now. It took a ton of effort to hold the Double Blade steady as
purple flame poured from it, but he kept the flame tormenting the ROIbot,
desperately trying to keep it from reaching his friends. “Go!” he exclaimed
hoarsely to Finiah. “Lead them to the Crystal City!”
Finiah opened his
mouth to respond, but no words came. He turned, head bent, and ran out of the
tower.
Finally Eoryn let
the flame stop arcing between his weapon and into the ROIbot, and he collapsed
to the floor, exhausted. He expected his death to come quickly, the hammer of
the ROIbot smashing him where he lay, but the excruciating pain did not come.
Opening his eyes, he saw the ROIbot hunched over and having trouble getting to
its feet. Smoke billowed from it. A
surge of adrenaline swept through Eoryn’s veins, and he stumbled to his feet.
Maybe there was time to escape. The ROIbot saw him making towards the door, though,
and with a robotic cry it sprang forward and blocked Eoryn’s retreat.
The two faced each
other. Eoryn was too tired to make any more flame come from his Double Blade,
and for its part, the ROIbot seemed to be weary or wounded, for it did not
imediantly squash its opponent. Suddenly it flung its hammer at Eoryn, and he
dropped to the ground and rolled sideways, trying to avoid the heavy projectile.
The hammer smashed into the ground and slid along the floor till it hit the
wall. The ROIbot, now empty handed, pounced on Eoryn. It picked him up before
he could regain his feet and tossed the young Kinrin across the room like a rag
doll.
Eoryn landed part
way up a flight of stairs leading to the next level of the tower he was inside.
It was by no means a soft landing, but it was better than hitting the wall and
falling to the floor. Eoryn, holding his bruised side, started climbing up the
staircase. The ROIbot retrieved his hammer and followed after, intent on
killing its prey once and for all.
Reaching the second
level, Eoryn saw before him several metal cages at the bottom of a long vertical
shaft. They were a sort of elevator used to transport a person to the higher
levels of the tower. Eoryn ran into one of these and quickly shut the metal
gate of the cage shut. The ROIbot scaled the steps behind him and slammed his
hammer into the cage, rending a massive dent in the metal. Eoryn frantically
grabbed and pulled the lever that started the elevator, and the cage lurched
forward up the shaft. Another blow from the ROIbot made the cage shudder, and
sparks flew as the cage was thrown partly off the tracks that guided it
upwards. Metal screeched against metal as the cage continued upwards, and Eoryn
desperately pulled at the lever, trying to stop the elevator, but nothing
happened to slow the lurching progress of the cage. He knew that the cage could
very well be thrown completely off its tracks and fall to the ground, and he
also knew what that meant for him. He was already some five stories high.
As a last resort,
Eoryn threw himself against the door of the cage-like elevator, hoping to open
it and go tumbling out onto one of the openings to the tower levels. The door didn’t budge. Eoryn stepped back
into the middle of the cage. He wondered if the dented contraption he was
trapped in would continue to rise till it slammed into the top of the shaft
then fell all the way back down. Eoryn shuddered and prayed silently. Lord, please save me! Help me find a way
out!
Suddenly a tremendous rending of
metal interrupted his prayer. He opened his eyes to see that a metal barrier
along the shaft had shorn the front side of the elevator completely off. This finally
threw the cage wholly off its tracks, making Eoryn tumble forward. He landed
with a thud on a hard surface. He had rolled out onto one of the story level
openings. There was a great crash in the open shaft besides him as the cage
fell back to the ground.
Eoryn said a silent
prayer of thanks as he stood up. Looking over the edge of the elevator shaft,
he saw that he was a good ways up from where the remains of the cage lay at
least twenty stories below. He began to turn from the shaft, but a noise caught
his attention. Looking down it again, he saw two red eyes staring up at him.
The ROIbot was climbing the shaft.
Eoryn turned and
ran, or at least tried to. His body was bruised and beaten, and he could manage
little more than a limp. The hall he started down had doors spaced at even
intervals along the walls, but he could see that the hall ended up ahead. He
turned into one of the doors, hoping either to hide or chance upon an escape
route, but the room the door led into was small and dark. It had no windows or
any other openings. Eoryn started to retreat back out of the empty room, but he
heard heavy footsteps coming towards him. The ROIbot was near. He closed the
door to the room and locked it.
He then backed
into the middle of the dark room, waiting. He heard doors being thrown open in
the hall. The ROIbot was searching methodically for its prey. The sound of the
doors being kicked open came closer, and his door suddenly shook. The ROIbot
bellowed when the door did not imediantly yield, and the door shuddered with
the weight of a blow from the robot’s hammer. Eoryn backed up further into the
room, holding his Double Blade at the ready. The door cracked and began to give
way.
———
Outside the tower,
Eoryn’s friends quickly boarded their ACVOTs. The vehicles roared to life.
Behind them, a ROIbot slammed his club into the edge of a tower. The tower
shook from the demolishing blow, and again and again the ROIbot pounded it,
intent on bringing the structure down. All around the robot its comrades were
likewise destroying Erailindor.
A cascade of stone
finally fell from the ROIbot’s blows, and the tower cracked and began to
topple. It was the tower Eoryn was trapped inside.
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