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I pushed myself out of bed, throwing the covers to the ground. Tau was also awake; she rubbed her eyes and jumped to her feet. Eno hid behind our bed.
The three armoured females stood in front of the entrance to the shack, now reduced to a puddle of water, leaving nothing but the furniture and floorboards under our feet. Like when we first met Tau, the women had their combat armour on, and each had colourful streaks in their fringes.
The woman at the front still had her hands outstretched to where the door had been. She was darker-skinned than the other two. Her hair was similar to mine, but black. She appeared strong and athletic, maybe in her early twenties.
Tau turned to Eno and I and backed away. 'You both need to give up. Please. You could get hurt. They are too powerful for you.' She had a genuine look of fear on her face.
'What?' I said, stalling the situation. 'You want to go back to killing people again with them?' I tried concentrating on a new destination. We needed to leave here right away.
'Sacet, you need to surrender, for your brother's sake,' she said as she walked to the three women and stood by their side.
I couldn't tell if she was she serious, or if she was trying to play them. But I didn't have time to debate.
'I guess this is farewell then,' I said. I turned, throwing my hands in front of me and used all of my strength to open a portal next to Eno.
'Malu!' I heard one of the women yell from behind.
There was a moist, slurping sound as I went to jump, and both Eno and I fell into a pool of waist-high, brown water. The ground had been liquified, a slush of what was once the floorboards. The one called Malu had both her hands flat to the ground. The trail of liquified floorboards and soil led straight back to her hands, its path like a small river. She rose again, and under her gloves I saw that her fingertips were exposed.
The second soldier, a short, brown-haired girl, strutted forward. She was only a child, half the size of the others, and about the same age as Eno. Until now, she'd appeared disinterested in what was going on.
'It isn't going to be that easy,' she said, now giving me her full attention.
She closed one eye and raised her fingers in front of the other, before spreading her thumb and index finger apart. Then she retracted the two closer together again. As I stood in the water, there was a strong pinching force on my body. I couldn't move. I was stuck! The pain caused my portal to close.
Keeping her fingers in front of her open eye, she raised them higher, and I was levitated out of the water. Suspended in mid-air, I struggled against the invisible, vice-like grip she had on me.
The small girl's uninterested face turned to that of maniacal joy. 'There's no point struggling, desert cretin. If I wanted to, I could crush you like an egg.'
There was a much stronger squeeze and I shouted out in pain. Her grin grew wider.
'Sacet!' Eno yelled out from the water below. He waded over, grabbed my legs, and tried to pull me out of the air. 'Let her go!'
Tau moved in closer to the others. 'Please stop. I'm sure she would make a great soldier. She's... she's very resourceful and powerful.'
'Do not speak out of turn, trooper,' the stern woman at the back said. 'I fully intend on allowing her to live. But I want to see what she can do first.'
This woman was middle-aged, tall, slender, and had long, curled blonde hair reaching past her shoulders.
The small girl still hadn't broken her line of sight. 'I'm surprised you haven't asked me to put you down yet.'
Had she been waiting for me to say it? Was she trying to humiliate me?
'Okay... argh... put me down!' I said, barely managing to utter each word through gritted teeth.
'Sure thing,' the girl said as she flung her hand to the side and cackled. I was thrown clear past the trees and down the riverbank, so fast that the wind whistled in my ears.
I splashed into the water, sending out a ripple of waves. I tried standing, but my bare feet slipped on the slime-covered stones on the riverbed. I rose to my feet a second time and faced the women, who were walking down the bank. Tau ran over to Eno and helped him out of the shack's liquified remains.
I was outmatched, but I needed to fight back all the same. I had to get Eno out of here. Somehow, I felt reenergised.
I spun my fingers around, and the breeze along the river intensified. A set of portals opened, one on the riverbank, the other above my enemies' heads.
Bringing my hand down, the portal above plunged down with crushing force. But I wasn't fast enough to get all three. Both the older woman and the younger girl sidestepped. Malu stood her ground and looked straight up.
She brought her hands up. The portal encircled her, pushing her into the ground on the other side, but it didn't crush her. A large puddle had formed underneath the portal on the shoreline. I closed my portals; I had failed.
Malu calmly stepped out of the puddle she had created on the other side. She rested a hand on her hip. 'You're going to have to try a lot harder than that to kill me.'
With this, the child acolyte shook her head. 'This is boring.' She turned back to the blonde-haired woman. 'Verre, can we finish this and go back home?' The Verre woman must have been the one in charge, but that didn't change the girl's attitude. She even spoke to her in a rude tone.
Verre crossed her arms. 'No, Iya. We're not done here yet. You there, girl, I'll make you a deal. If you impress me, I'll let the boy go free. He's of no use to us.'
I raised an eyebrow.
'She's lying!' Eno shouted from Tau's side farther up the bank. 'Portal away, Sas! Run. Let go of me–' Tau had grabbed Eno and muffled him with her hand.
'Don't make them any angrier, they'll kill you,' she said.
I shrugged at Verre. 'As if you would let any of us go.'
She grinned. 'For all you know, my offer could be genuine. But for your impertinence, now you'll need to impress me if you want that little boy to live.' Verre glanced back at Eno and Tau, who suddenly disappeared from where they'd been standing.
'Eno!' I shouted, looking in every direction to find them, before bringing my hate-filled gaze back to Verre. 'What did you do with them?'
She smiled, and the three soldiers went fuzzy, quickly fading from view then back again. Confused, I blinked and refocused my eyes. The women then disappeared from their positions, too. I was alone.
A great force smacked into the side of my jaw. I heard a loud pop. The attack sent my body careening through the air. The shooting pain was immense. I collided with the water and sunk, completely disoriented.
I floated up off the bottom and stood back up with difficulty. I held my throbbing jaw and moaned, but opening my mouth caused even more agony. Was it dislocated?
The water had cleared from my eyes, and I saw all three women beside me in the water. Malu was the closest, with a clenched fist and a furrowed brow. How did they get here so fast?
Verre had her hands on her hips. 'Maybe we should leave both of you dead in the water right here? What could you do about it, hmm?'
I frantically searched for Eno. If I found him I could at least portal him away. So long as he was okay, I didn't care what happened to me.
'You won't find him,' Verre said, realising what I was doing.
I glowered at her. 'Fine, I'll play your game,' I said, every word bringing me pain.
Verre raised a hand to stop the others. 'Let her make the first move.'
The little one sighed.
Malu nodded then gazed back to me. 'Bring it on.'
I slowly reached down into my clothes for my knife and brandished it in front of me. The women stood their ground, unperturbed.
Given how fast they were, I knew I had to make this quick and unexpected. I took a couple of steps back, then imagined the portal I wanted to make. One end would be next to my knife, which I would immediately stab through, and the other end would be in front one of their throats. Then I would rapidly slash the second portal across all three of them.
Verre crossed her arms. 'Well? We're waiting.'
No sooner had she finished her sentence did my portal open. I stabbed through and swiped the other portal as planned. The knife made an audible swish and made contact with all three.
An awkward moment passed where their bodies weren't reacting to my attack. But then all three simply vanished, like they were never there to begin with.
'Hmm, going for the jugular?' Verre's disembodied voice echoed around me.
Suddenly, the entire river was filled with hundreds of copies of Malu. What was going on? Were they even real?
'You have a killer instinct,' Verre's voice continued as the clones slowly closed in on me. 'That's something I can work with...'
The first copy was almost upon me, so I swung the knife portal at her, causing her to instantly disappear like before. Then another came and I stabbed her, too. Then another and another.
'Not too smart, though,' Verre quipped.
After I had cleared several other copies, the illusion suddenly dropped, revealing Verre still by the shoreline. Eno, Iya and Tau were still there, too. Eno had been raised into the air by Iya, and Tau was watching on in horror. Eno kicked and squirmed to no avail.
I stepped forward. 'Let him go!'
A hand grabbed my shoulder and firmly spun me around. It was Malu, the real one. I brought my knife portal towards her in response. Rather than dodge, she raised a palm to the incoming knife. Instead of piercing her hand with it like I expected, the knife turned to water on impact. Then, with the same hand, she grabbed my wrist and pulled me farther into my own portal.
I panicked, trying to wrestle my arm back through, but her grip was too strong. She looked to Verre. Verre nodded, as though granting permission.
With her free hand, Malu leapt forward and punched me square in the nose. I flew back from the force. My arm was freed from her grip and the now closing portal. My eyes watered and blurred as my face stung.
I crashed on the water's surface and plunged under. This was hopeless. I wasn't going to get the better of them. I floated for a moment, battered and bruised, before raising myself onto my knees.
I had to send Eno away from here at least. I struggled to raise my hand towards him and thought of a distant location.
Malu looked to her commanding officer again and shrugged.
Verre sighed. 'She's done.' She made a gesture towards me.
My eyes were getting blurrier. I couldn't make out Eno's features. I couldn't concentrate on where he needed to go.
Malu produced a small weapon from her belt, pointed it at me and fired. A sting hit my neck. My whole body convulsed, then my face hit the water's surface and I blacked out.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
