“Zahria—” Reve yelled from the hoverbike he was currently dangling from.
He threw her dropped sohnoblade to her as the bounty hunter he held onto for dear life took a lethal swerve left.
The black fabric of his robe flipped over both of their faces as he used the momentum to hook his leg around their waist and find an unwelcoming seat on their lap.
Burly trunked trees, easily ten times his width, whooshed past them in a blur of green and brown as they raced through the forest.
“Shall we make a move?” Reve grinned as his furious companion pulled the cover from their faces and attempted to reach for the kunai tucked into the holster strapped around their thigh.
Without giving them a moment to recover, he used his left hand to snap the seatbelt buckle open and tilt them sideways, until they were freefalling through Zorpha’s foliage. The hoverbike was left to whizz into a tree and burst into flames.
As they fell, Reve pulled two stars from his back pocket, aiming them at the helmet covered head of his companion.
They whistled through the air, only scratching the face covering rather than dealing any real damage.
Reve looked down.
He looked back up.
The bounty hunter was gone.
“Ah, wonderf—”
Before he could finish his sentence, he collided with the hard leather seat of a dodger, the clumsiness of Zahria’s aid winding him.
“Did you get them?” she panted as Ishaan and Maali came up on either side of them on their hoverbikes.
“No, you swooped in and grabbed me.”
“Ardin saw you guys fall; he’s gone in pursuit,” Maali stated, her wrist twisting as she made no waste in following.
Trust Maali to get riled up by a good chase.
“You heard her. Let’s get moving. The Order is not going to let it slide if we lose them for a second time,” Reve chastised.
They made the descent into the never-ending layers of green, slowing down at the sound of fighting.
Silently, Reve jumped from the dodger before Zahria had time to stop, his sohnoblade already fit into the palm of his hand.
The second he laid his eyes on Ardin, his feet were rushing into the grassy clearing.
“Ardin!”
His friend ducked just as Reve activated his sohnoblade and the small white crystal elongated into a long, sharp blade—come alive with the cells of his being and the science of the Black Moon.
It sang as it sliced through the air, carving an angry red line against the bounty hunter’s back.
“Ah!” They ripped off their helmet, stumbling to their knees between the two men.
“Give up, we have you cornered. If you come back with us now, we may spare your life.” Reve tried reasoning.
“Actually, it is you who is cornered.” The shrill, distorted voice of New Sun soldiers rang through the clearing as they stormed the treeline on all fronts, surrounding them in their silver and black armour.
Reve spared Ardin a look before they both stood on either side of the fallen hunter, small white blades becoming full-length glowing swords in their palms; the razor-sharp edge daring the soldiers to engage.
Charged silence rippled through the giant forest.
The sighing hiss of destruction brought by sohno was the chime of the final hour.
In an instant, chaos ensued.
Reve’s blade danced through the air as the New Sun soldiers hurled their stars toward them and charged their guns with the stolen blood of his captured comrades.
Their barrels glowed red as shards of sohno cut through the air in whistling harmony.
Ishaan had fought his way to them through the chaos, and soon they were joined by his other comrades.
“Why haven’t you killed them yet?” Ishaan yelled over his shoulder as he squared off with a soldier who had foolishly decided to take him on as an opponent.
“I thought they’d be of use,” Reve grunted back, grabbing the collar of the now unconscious bounty hunter they were referring to and heaving him over his shoulder as he deflected the onslaught they were receiving.
“Why do you always make things harder for us?” Maali growled, pulling her blade from the chest of a fallen soldier with a flourish.
Reve couldn’t help but laugh, even as they were surrounded and slowly losing strength.
“The Black Moon is with us,” he reminded them.
“And The Sun won’t rise!” they bellowed back.
As if the words were a pill of energy, they instilled a deep motivation within each of them and carved a path through the enemy with the hungry determination of a starving babe.
They were a reminder of why they struggled, why they joined The Order in the first place, and why they were currently in the depths of Zorpha fighting an outmatched battle in pursuit of a single bounty hunter.
If The Sun rose and the Black Moon was destroyed, it would not just be The Order that would fall.
The entire galaxy would be reduced to ruins. Planets would collapse and ecosystems would die.
If The Sun rose, death would follow.
Alisha Umar has a deep thirst for knowledge and a beautiful appreciation for learning. She spends hours pondering over her recent reads, researching for her own stories and scouring every inch of the library. When she’s not engrossed in her books or posting on her social media she can be found spending quality time with her friends and family, engaging in meaningful debates with her loved ones, taking down the next food destination on her bucket list and fantasising about which places she wants to travel to next- whether fictional or real. You can find her on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube @authoralishau
Featured image by Jim Strasma on Unsplash.
