Ryllah snapped the whips at Shalika, but again the feline warrior was too fast. She flipped, rolled, and dodged out of the way of every attack. With each evasion she strategically positioned herself closer and closer to Ryllah. When she got close enough, she pounced. Displaying large sharp teeth that were headed straight for Ryllah’s throat.

   Just before she could sink her teeth into her, Ryllah quickly manipulated her electric whips to wrap around Shalika. She then gracefully moved out of the way as her opponent face planted into the ground.

   “Now who’s monotonous?!” She asked as she started pumping more volts into the whips.

   Shalika let out an awful high pitch growl that vibrated along with her convulsions. Her tail, which stuck out of her electric bindings, was fluffed up to five times its normal size.

   “Are you just going to stand there?!” Shalika cried out.

   Ryllah turned to see who Shalika had yelled at but was too late. A large shadowy hand shoved her up against the wall that was four paces behind her. When she tried to peel the shadow off of her all she could feel was her own clothing and flesh. Yet the shadow still kept her held up to the wall.

   Lucius looked at where the source of the shadow was coming from. In the doorway stood a slim man in a long black jacket. His eyes were red and glazed with bags under them. As if he hadn’t slept in days.

   “That Telmont bastard said they were a rogue Elementi family that came out here to start a new life. I’m starting to think he was lying to us.” Then the man’s shadow stretched out and helped Shalika up.

   “Found yourself a feisty one, eh Shalika?”

   “Hold her for me.” She said with a snarl.

   A bolt of white lightning came at the thin man, but his shadow leapt from the floor and absorbed the blast.

   “A valiant effort, but that kind of attack isn’t going to work on me.” He said with a cocky tone.

   “Let’s see you pull off that trick from point blank!” Lucius said as he dashed forward.       “Good luck.” The man laughed. His shadow then grew and split into several humanoid shapes that started to rise from the ground around him.

   Before Lucius made it to him, he was attacked by one of the shadows. He blocked a punch and to his surprise the punch felt solid as steel. The shadow quickly sent a volley of attacks that Lucius had no trouble blocking. When opportunity struck, so did he. Only his kick went straight through the shadow. As if he had tried to kick a hologram.

   The man who controlled the shadows laughed again, “Won’t be that easy!” Another shadow started attacking him as well and it took all he had to ward off both enemies.

 

   “I’m going to enjoy killing you nice and slow.” Shalika said as she stumbled over to Ryllah. She seemed to still be a little disoriented from all the volts she had received from Ryllah’s whips.

   That’s it, you stupid cat. Just a little closer. As soon as Ryllah felt she was close enough she sent a web of electricity from her palm that was too widespread for Shalika to evade. She once again growled in agony.

   “Damn it, Shalika!” The thin man yelled. He sent his shadow out to assist her, but as soon as he took his attention off Lucius he was blasted with a large jolt of electricity. All of his shadows receded to him and jumped in front of the blast to protect him. The shockwave was still enough to knock him back on his rear as thunder boomed through the room.

   When Ryllah was certain that Shalika would not be getting up anytime soon, she manifested her whips again and ferociously attacked the man with the shadow barrier. Each whip cracked and was met by shadow again and again.

   “This is ridiculous!” She yelled as she kept at it.

   Lucius sprung at their enemy from the other side and proceeded to try melee attacks. Each one was also met by shadow. Almost as if the shadow were acting on its own.

   At last one of Ryllah’s whips breached the barrier. She was using so much force to try and break the barrier that when she finally did get through, the whip knocked him into the wall where he slid down unmoving. His chest and neck were a bloody mess where the whip had opened him up.

   “Gross.” She said turning away. “I’m not going to puke. I got this. I am strong. I am lighting incarnate. I…” She bent over and threw up hard. She made sure to face away from Lucius as she did.

   “You gonna make it?” He asked. He tried to fight his smile, but he could not help it. He found her innocence to be a refreshing contrast to the chaos driven girl he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with.

   “Please. Please erase this moment from your memory.” She pleaded.

   “Oh no.” He laughed. “I’m afraid it’s too cute to forget, but I promise to never bring it up.”

   “Ugh, I need water.” She groaned.

   “Let’s find you some. You think that was all of them?”

    “Not quite.” A deep sinister voice said from behind Lucius.

   As soon as he turned around, he was grabbed at the throat by an invisible force. He flailed and pulled at whatever had a hold of him, but he could not make it budge in the slightest.

   A large man covered in red and black scales slowly came into view. He had only slits where a nose would be and yellow snakelike eyes. A couple small white horns protruded from his jaw pointing down. With his hand around Lucius’s throat, he lifted him high into the air.

   “More Elementi?” He asked with a wicked looking grimace. 

   “Let him go!” Ryllah demanded. She gathered electricity into both hands and prepared herself for anything.

   “If you insist.” He said before he threw Lucius through a window.

   “Lucius!” Ryllah screamed. She sent her electricity at the scaled man and ran toward the shattered window. He easily evaded her attack and caught her with a sweeping kick in the abdomen after only a few steps. She was sent out the doorway and roughly 13 paces down the hall before she skidded across the ground and into a roll.

   She lay gasping for air in the dark hallway. Her lungs refused to take in any air for a couple of seconds. When she was finally able to get in a breath of air, she immediately spit up blood.

   “Shit.” She said wiping the blood from her lips.

   “Not your day, is it little Elementi?” He was already standing right above her.

    Ryllah knew he was somehow able to sneak around without drawing attention. She could not figure out how he snuck up behind Lucius in the control room. Just like she never heard or saw him approach her in the hallway. She was not able to spend too much time thinking about it because she was soon lifted her by her hair. She screamed from the pain and gathered electricity into her hands, but he slammed her head into a nearby wall before she could unleash it.

   “I keep hearing what great warriors you are.” He said slamming her face back into the wall. “I come from a planet far from this side of the galaxy. My people have conquered and enslaved hundreds of worlds.” He shook Ryllah a little to make sure she was still conscious. When she reacted, he slammed her face back into the wall.

   “When it comes to this side of the galaxy, I don’t believe I’ll meet my match. It is clear to me now that it will not be an Elementi who finally defeats me. Your species is far too weak and fragile!” He yelled as he threw her further down the hallway.

   Ryllah again skid across the ground a couple times before going into a roll. When she stopped rolling, she noticed it was because she had rolled into someone’s legs. She was seeing triple from all the head trauma she had just endured, but she could never mistake Marilyn’s favorite pair of long tall boots. Her friend had finally arrived.

   “Sorry,” Ryllah said, ashamed that she had to be rescued.

   “Don’t be. Where in the abyss is Lucius?” She asked as she kneeled beside her beaten and bloody companion, but Ryllah had already lost consciousness.

   “Hang in there, Ryllah.” She said before she stood up and faced the scaled man.

   “I take it you must be Horbel?”

   “The very one.” He replied. “You must have gotten the better of Klasp. Too bad you weren’t quick enough to come help your friends. Perhaps the three of you could have presented a challenge.”

   “I’ll be all the challenge you need!” Electricity jumped wildly around her as she got into her stance.

   “Gods, I hope so.” He said as he sprung for her.

   Marilyn did not expect him to be able to leap so far from a standstill position. She was barely able to react in time. He came down with a powerful punch that took both her arms crossed above her head to block. He punched with so much force he was able to sustain himself in the air long enough to spin into a kick aimed at her side.

   She caught the kick and held his leg against her body. With her other hand she unleashed a massive amount of electricity into his chest. When she let go of his leg the power behind the electricity carried him down the hallway, through the control room, and out the same window that Lucius had been thrown out of.

 

 

   Lucius had slowed himself down by shooting lightning at the ground. Despite using this little trick, he still landed hard. He fought the pain and started his long climb back to the window he had been knocked through. He knew Ryllah was in grave danger.

 

   He was almost back up to the control room when he saw Horbel get blasted out the same window as him by a huge bolt of lightning. Then he soon saw Marilyn jump out after him.

   “You’ve got to be kidding me!” He said as he watched her land gracefully by shooting a bolt of lightning at the ground at just the right time.

   He jumped in through the window and quickly went to searching for Ryllah. Shalika still had not moved since Ryllah had blasted her with lightning. He checked her vitals and discovered that she was still alive.

   In the spirit of freedom, Overlord Darex did not frown upon killing defenseless enemies. He left that decision up to his warriors. Lucius had never killed someone who was unconscious before, and despite feeling like they had their hands full with Horbel, he chose to spare her. He found Ryllah soon after.

   When Lucius saw how bloody and beaten sweet smiley Ryllah was, his blood started to boil. He was so angry that he lost control and accidently unleashed electricity from his body that shot out in all directions. He quickly calmed himself and was grateful that he had not accidentally struck Ryllah. He had seen and heard of other Elementi lose their temper so severely that they lost control of their ability to manipulate and manifest their element. However, this had never happened to him.

   Lucius sent a transmission to Kembro to bring the ship over so he could get Ryllah into one of the cryo-chambers. He waited by the window as he held her in his arms.

   “We’re going to get you taken care of.” He told her. “Then that scaly bastard is going to pay!”

 

   Kembro arrived in no time and hovered the ship near the broken window. When he opened the door and saw Lucius, he quickly drew his laser pistol.

   “Whoa! Easy big guy!” Lucius tried to yell over the ship’s engines.

   Kembro opened fire and missed wildly. When Lucius turned around, he saw Shalika on the ground with several holes in her. He jumped aboard and quickly took Ryllah to a cryo-chamber.

 

   “Thanks.” He said to Kembro after returning to the living quarters.

   Kembro was still by the door watching the ground far below. “Never turn your back on a Kachanian! My people have warred with the them for several millennia.”

   “Is that what she was? I think I have seen a male before, but it was at a good distance.”

   “The princess is going to need some help. I’ve never seen her fight someone like this before.” Kembro said with his ears back. “I’ve also never smelt anything like this guy before.”

   “You can smell him from here? What can you tell me about him?”

   “He’s not from our neighborhood. He’s… something else.”

 

 

   “You sure can take a hit.” Marilyn said as she approached Horbel.

   “That was impressive, girl.” He admitted as he stood up. He brushed dirt and rocks off himself, appearing to be completely unharmed. “You just might present a challenge. Maybe you are the one I’ve been looking for.”

   “If you’ve been looking for a slow and painful death then yes. It is I!” She said while keeping a good distance from him. As far as she could tell, he had no long-range forms of attack. If he was fast enough to avoid her lightning, then she wanted to see how he did it.

   “Amusing.” Said Horbel. Not sounding the least bit amused. He took a step forward and was instantly hit with a bolt of lightning in the chest.

   “I think I like you better over there.” Marilyn said with her hands up and ready to shoot more electricity.

   Horbel gave a big grimace and his scales all started to blend into his surroundings until he was completely invisible.

   “Big whoop! I’m not so inexperienced that I haven’t come across this before.” She listened intently to everything around her. Watched every red blade of grass as it blew in the wind. There was no way she would not notice any disturbances being made.

   “You don’t watch your back very well.” Horbel said from just one pace behind her.

   A cold shiver went down Marilyn’s spine. How did he get behind me? He was too far away to be behind me that fast! She spun around ready to defend herself. She was not nearly fast enough as she took a hard left hook from Horbel. He followed with a quick combo of punches and kicks before hitting her hard enough with something to knock her off her feet. She landed 16 paces away. Near the start of the forest that spread throughout the foot of the mountains.

   “Ouch.” She said as she gathered herself up. She looked around, but again saw no sign of Horbel.

   “Already getting real sick of that.” She said as she surrounded herself with electricity that shot off in all directions. She closed her eyes and focused on the energy that she had sent out. She could sense when it connected with an object and as soon as it did, she attacked that object with everything she had.

   This completely caught Horbel off guard. He quickly came into view as he was forced to defend himself from her onslaught of attacks. At first Horbel blocked each attack with ease, but the more Marilyn stayed on the offensive the more her intensity grew.

   Lightning started to flash down from the sky every time she struck. She eventually broke through his guard and was just about to connect a powerful punch to his face when she was suddenly hit by an invisible force.

   He took advantage and quickly gave her an uppercut that knocked her several paces back.

   “Who’s helping you?!” Marilyn asked as she looked around for what could have hit her. “You didn’t hit me!”

   Horbel held out his hands. “Who’s to say?”

   She rushed in to attack him trying to keep her same level of intensity. Again, she gained the advantage and was about to deal a finishing blow when she was suddenly struck by an unknown force.

   “You are a better fighter.” Horbel admitted. “I’ll give you that. What is your name?”

   She slowly got back to her feet. “Princess Marilyn Thunderfist.”

   “Well, Princess Thunderfist, If I was any ordinary being you would certainly earn a noble victory here today.” He said while gesturing towards the lack of injuries on his body. “But I seem to be godlike on this side of the galaxy. No mere mortal can seem to inflict enough damage on their own!”

   “Then it’s a good thing she’s not on her own!” Lucius yelled as he appeared from the forest.

   Marilyn would never ever admit this to anyone, but she was happy to see him.