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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1924780" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 103: DutyPassing over that dune was not nearly as easy for Akan and Red Tail as it had looked to Voort. And truly, neither of the two truly were thinking of the dangerous task. There was simply no time at all. With so many creatures all around them each having four arms each and swords in two of those arms, there was no chance to stop moving. Far too many close calls and near misses occurred, and while Akan knew that it was both the Force and the faster Alraxian reflexes that were keeping him alive, he was truly amazed at Red Tail. Sure, Akan had a couple new scratches along some arms and had lost a few hairs and nearly his tail a couple of times, but Red Tail hadn’t been touched yet. The Topsider was a blur of movement, spinning and ducking and jumping around with such speed that Akan couldn’t help but wonder if this creature was at least somewhat Force sensitive. But nothing supported that idea...which would mean that this Red Tail was just extremely skilled. To Akan, this was even more admirable. Even he knew that sometimes the Force was used as a crutch.    Working together and sticking close, the two of them continued their push. It was once they got out of sight of Voort that the real trouble kicked in. There, the lines of troops were nonexistent. Instead, there was just a crazy mass of creatures in all directions. Even more chaotic, and forced even more attention to be divided. This ended up causing the two of them to slow down. It was all the worse for Akan because now he could see that entrance to Sadrak’s facility. It was just across the sands. Probably a hundred or so meters away from them. But now that there was no need for the enemy to divide their focus between the two crazy warriors plowing forward and the lines of troops ahead. On this side of things, with no opposition beyond Akan and Red Tail, they became the prime targets.    And to add to this, fatigue was setting in. Even for an Alraxian, this constant fighting and moving and fighting was tiring without any kind of break. This showed itself in Akan’s ignoring of minor cuts and bruises, not even bothering to remorph them. While Akan had learned how to morph efficiently, it was still impossibly taxing on his body and energy level. The more he had tried remorphing, the harder it became to do anything else. Even the minor cuts had gotten to the point of taking massive amounts of energy to deal with. Of course, Akan was smart enough to pick up on this and go back to that old fail safe of not getting hit in the first place.    Then something odd occurred. Akan’s lightsaber cleaved through two different creatures, and he found himself continuing to move and readying another attack...but there was nothing there. He stopped in his tracks, more out of reflex from surprise than anything, having gotten so used to being constantly surrounded. When he looked around, it was quickly apparent that Red Tail had also noticed this problem. The creatures weren’t just throwing themselves onto the weapons anymore. They had now set up a large circle around the two of them, not yet closing it in but that was the obvious result.    As Akan finally allowed himself a moment to catch his breath, he exchanged a look with the Topsider he was back to back with, “Should have seen this one coming...”    “Yesss...” Red Tail responded with a nod of his head, and a somewhat interesting looking flaring of the small crest on his head, “I do not expect that it will be easssy to reach the entrance anymore...”    Akan also nodded, raising his lightsaber in a more general defensive position but still looking to the Topsider, “Not much else we can do but try, yes?”    That got a smile on Red Tail’s face. It was a toothy, almost dangerous looking smile, but that was more from the lizard-like appearance. For some reason, reptiles always looked sinister and dangerous no matter how friendly and helpful they actually were, “You are correct,” Red Tail turned to look Akan in the eyes, that smile becoming an almost grin, “Forward it isss then.”    Akan even grinned. It was the way that Red Tail said that. You could tell he was actually enjoying himself in all of this. Not that Akan wasn’t...but...well, there were still other things on his mind. Currently, the largest being why Shadow was hiding from him. But no, that wasn’t important right yet. That would be something to worry about if he got inside. It was a good thing that Akan didn’t dwell on these thoughts, too, as Red Tail let out a fierce roar and suddenly charged forward. Raising his lightsaber, Akan was only a few steps behind the Topsider. It looked like the creatures had been surprised at the sudden charge, and this made it fairly easy to cleave through four of them before actually having any real trouble. And then the chaos of battle erupted around them again.    Akan was staying low, moving in all directions as he let the Force guide his blade and his movement to avoid the assault of an uncountable number of blades. These creatures were not unskilled, either, and Akan was having far too many close calls.. After quickly lopping off two arms from the left side of one creature, he was bringin his sword across to take its head off. But his blade never met with its target. Instead, a sudden and very violent pang shot through the him from the Force. Danger. No. Not just any danger. Immediate danger. Allowing his strike to fall short, Akan tried to jump back. His eyes caught sight of two blades where he was moving towards, and knew it was too late to stop the backwards jump. But when he reached the point where the two blades should have dug into his back, nothing happened. Well, no...something did. Instead, he slammed into the back of a heavy body.    At the same time, there was an awkward and pained sound that Akan could recognize in a haunting way. Risking a short glance to the creature he had fallen back against, he saw a what that small voice in the back of his head had worried about. Red Tail. That sound was coming from the Topsider’s throat.  Akan spun around, taking down two enemies with his lightsaber in the process, and soon found himself side by side with his companion. A horrified look passed over Akan’s face as imagination and speculation on what had happened collided head on with reality.    The two swords Akan had been falling into were now dug deep into the Topsider’s chest and stomach. Blood dripped onto the sand below, and there was a strangely calm moment where everything seemed to stop. Akan just looked at this Topsider who he now considered a friend, with the reptilian creature focusing its anger and attention on the stunned abominations around them. No one moved. Akan wanted to say something. Anything. Through the Force, he could feel the Topsider’s life was dwindling into nothing. Yet he could do nothing about it.    Slowly, Red Tail turned to look to his Alraxian companion. Presenting his brother in arms with a smile, Red Tail spoke in a quiet voice, though it was not at all weakened by his state, “Go. Find your friendsss.”    “I won’t leave you here,” Akan said quietly, wondering why their enemies weren’t simply finishing the job. Was it shock? Or perhaps mere curiosity? Or possibly even something more dangerous...    Red Tail shook his head, “I do my duty. I ssserve my family. Ssserve yours,” the Topsider then turned back to the creatures who watched him with stunned looks on their faces, though still spoke to Akan, “We will meet again when the time isss right.”    And then, only a second later, all of the chaos returned in a flash. Despite the two swords dug deep into the Topsider’s body, Red Tail took a heavy step forward, and swung his sword at the wielder of the two weapons. In the moment that the creature’s head left its body, Akan started moving forward. He didn’t risk another glance back to Red Tail as he cut and stabbed his way to make himself a path through, but could hear the sounds that easily showed a fierce fight. That was one Topsider who would not die without a fight.    But it wasn’t over yet. Akan still had a good distance to go. Though the number of enemy creatures was lessening as he got farther, that fatigue continued to grow as muscles in his body began to ache. With just four more heavy steps and strong swings of his lightsaber, Akan was within a few meters of the entrance. His eyes fell on one of the enemy creatures that was moving towards him. It wasn’t any trouble to duck under the horizontal swing from its first arm, but the spin to avoid the second strike was ore complicated and even more tiring. Akan managed to sweep his lightsaber around with his spin, taking the creature’s life before another attack could be made. Two more were already at him, though, diving in recklessly with swords swinging down at the tired Alraxian.    Quickly jumping over a low strike towards his legs, Akan kicked out at the first attacker. His leg caught the creature across the side of the face, stunning it for a half second and enough time for Akan to land. His lightsaber was following up with a violent follow up blow to finish the creature off when a shock of impossibly intense pain rocked through his hand. He looked to the side to see that other enemy he’d ignored for some reason, and also took in the horrible sight of the missing right hand. The sword did not cut cleanly like a lightsaber, and instead left a blue bloodied and disturbingly grotesque image of Akan’s arm ending at the wrist. It wasn’t a second later that another shock of pain rocked through him, this time from behind. His eyes opened wide with pain, and somehow he avoided yelling out from the intense pain. When he had a chance to look down, he could easily see nearly a fourth of the metal blade extending out from his chest. He didn’t know what to think. In fact, the only thing that really crossed his mind was the realization that the weapons were metal. Such a stupid thing at a moment like this, as he could feel at least two of his internal organs had been punctured if not completely destroyed. Even if it wasn’t a metal weapon, he didn’t have nearly enough energy to remorph the tiny cuts along his body, much less his hand and internal organs.    It was in those moments that Akan found his mind race back towards the first time he’d lost his life. A thousand thoughts tried to get through, but the one that actually was clear as his eyes closed was an odd one. In a bright flash, he felt himself lying down in a warm bed. He felt warm, comfortable, and impossibly happy. It wasn’t long at all before he noticed some weight on his shoulder, and glanced down to see a head there resting. No...sleeping. A smile crept onto his face, but it was odd to not be able to pick out anything beyond that being a figure. And then it flashed away as quickly as it had came, but Akan was not sent back to the painful reality. Instead, he saw one last thing. Children. Three young children. They were playing some kind of game, laughing and obviously enjoying themselves. It took only a second before one of them saw him, grinned and pounced. The next thing Akan knew, he was on his back, tackled by three happy children who were trying to ‘kill’ him.    There was no flash back to reality. There was no last sight. The only thing Akan got that could have been considered close was confusion. What had those been? Why see things like that? Especially at a time like this! What could have been, perhaps? Or maybe it was the way of the Force to show one a last comforting sight before death. Akan didn’t find out, and he never actually felt himself hit the sand.</blockquote>

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