August Intruder- Chapter 196- His Or Madness

The glaive cut through the air, roaring with a maddening hunger.

Melmarc could feel its need for blood as he ducked the blow. It cut something, cleaving beyond just air, trailing a path of black ichor.

Balusad twirled the weapon with practiced familiarity and brought it down on Melmarc’s head. He stepped to the side and it cleaved the rocks on the ground.

The Oath’s smile was no longer there. Curiosity was replaced by a quiet fury. His leg shot out suddenly, instinct guided Melmarc. Years of self-defense came to life and he moved in perfect harmony with his thoughts.

His leg came up and checked the kick. He pushed it aside and attacked with a combination of his own. Back rounded and hands raised, he stepped into the Oath. Fists moving, he threw a combination of strikes. Three jabs to test the waters. The Oath was fast. The firs jab was turned aside with the handle of his glaive. The second was slapped away disrespectfully, sending growing ire through him. The third jab was defended with a roll of his shoulder.

Melmarc did not let it phase him. He’d thrown them specifically to test what the Oath was capable of. Succeeding the three jabs was a body blow. With his flowing robes, Melmarc could not ascertain the man’s true size. He could not tell if he was too skinny or just skinny enough. Where his blow should stop was one thing he did not know.

Commit to it.

Overextend.

Instinct guided him and he obeyed. Throwing the fist with everything that he had, his fist dug into the robe and kept on going. Then it passed through the robe, the Oath pulling his body away only slightly.

The momentum carried him and Melmarc spun into it as he watched the glaive come down on him. He did not fear it, though. He hated it. And fueled by the hate, he spun from the body blow into a back handed spin. His elbow struck something hard and painful.

Pain erupted in Melmarc’s elbow. It was loud, supported by the pain from the injury in his bleeding arm.

Gritting his teeth, Melmarc moved, dancing away from Balusad, only to realize that the Oath had done the same, distancing himself from Melmarc.

A coward’s move. Weak.

And you have done the same.

The thoughts flooded him out of nowhere. It was like have two contrasting instincts trying to guide you on how to win.

To win, you don’t have to always be on the attack.

There was silence as the Oath watched him and his minds agreed with each other. In the silence, the Oath checked its weapon.

He frowned.

His vision better than it had ever been, Melmarc saw the reason for its frown. A crack in the handle of the glaive. It leaked mana, black and putrid, dripping from it like an injury from flesh. Unlike blood, it was ichor, its viscosity high.

It bleeds, his mind called to him and, without being given any context, Melmarc knew that it spoke of the Oath even as he watched the staff.

When the blade had chipped, it had not blade. But the haft was a different conversation.

“One,” he muttered under his breath. “They are one.”

An idea settled in his mind now, and he wasn’t sure if it was his or the madness.

He took a stance, a very low, stable, and powerful stance. His knees bent deeply, Melmarc kept his body relatively tucked in. It shifted his center of gravity as he placed both hands dangerously close to the floor one hand touched the dirt very subtly, closed in a fist.

He looked straight ahead, right into Balusad’s eyes.

A stance had been chosen. The stance of a sumo wrestler. The spider stance

To fight a monster as if it was a human was incredulous even if it was an Oath. Was this his idea or that of the madness in him?

A chuckle slipped from him.

His or madness?

His chuckle became a full belly laugh.

His or madness?

The insanity of it was mind numbingly hilarious

“What does it matter?” he hissed at himself. “Me or madness?”

He tightened his muscles, activated every skill he had that would make a difference.

“I am Madness!”

He leapt forward, crossed the distance to his prey in the blink of an eye.

…

Bright skies and a quiet day had since become nothing but chaos and fear. All the news outlets, the ones that anybody could listen to, had it broadcasting already.

Shield frowned as she stomped into the elevators. There were Delvers that were happy. She’d seen a few with smiles on their faces as they geared up for what was to come.

The audacity of them.

Did they not understand what this meant? The country was currently experiencing a history high in portal outbreaks. There were too many, far more portals than there were Delvers to go into them. It was only a matter of time before the portals would become Chaos Runs.

They could not be so stupid that they did not understand what that meant? Could they?

If the portals started becoming Chaos Runs, there would not be enough people to handle them. The monsters would run rampant. They would lose sight of what came out of where, how many, what species.

How would the creatures even survive in…

The elevator stopped on its way up to Inevitability’s floor and opened. Shield scowled at the delay. A staff member took a step inside, saw her face, then took the same step back out.

“I’ll use the next one,” he said apologetically.

The elevator doors closed and her trip resumed.

Sheild’s frown became a scowl. She was supposed to apologize, offer him the chance to ride the elevator with her. She did not. Still, her scowl was not for the man, it was for herself. Inevitability had said it time and time again that he did not like it when she was rude to people, especially those under his employ.

If he found out about what she had just done, he would be displeased.

Please be displeased.

For him to be displeased, he had to be in his office.

Shield paused, shook her head. The pause in her trip had taken her out of her line of thought. The monsters, yes. They would come running out of the Chaos Runs in massive numbers. Too many Chaos Runs. Too many monsters. The Delvers would not be able to keep track.

That was it, she realized.

Monsters of different types roaming the forests and the streets. Volatile and with no known ecosystems they would try to make their own on earth.

The thought weight down on her. How could the people be protected from that? It would be death and carnage. They would have to allocate patrols, create a new branch for Gifted activities.

She placed a hand on the side of the elevator for stability, breaking out in a cold sweat. People would die. There would be no escaping that one.

So many.

She felt the pain of failure even before she had failed.

No! she refused, defied.

There had to be a way.

The elevator opened at the final floor and she stepped out. Her long jacket, a makeshift gown really, swept across the ground as she stepped into the hallway leading to Inevitability’s office. Why the man had an entire floor to himself and the elevator did not open into his office was just annoying for her.

She strolled down the hallway and got to his door.

Someone had said it was for safety purposes, so that some random waste of time did not just step into his office, but she thought that was just bullshit.

She imputed his security code into his security keypad and placed her palm on the biometric scan. It chimed the sound it made for successful verification and the lock on his door opened.

If security was the man’s problem, then he could’ve just put all this in the elevator. To access his floor—because he was the only one on his floor—you needed to have the code and necessary biometric permission.

Shaking the thought, she turned the door handle and pushed it door open. She walked into the room with haste. Her path was steady, past the couches that he did not have enough visitors to use. She ignored the new snooker table, not bothering to wonder how he got it up here as well as who must’ve helped him, and ended up at his desk.

“Tell me you left it here, Chetam.” She opened his drawers, checking each one.

She found what she was looking for in the last drawer on her right. Bringing it out, she pushed the keyboard to his computer aside and placed his laptop on the desk.

There was no presence of mind to know if the keyboard was still on the table or not. Thinking better of it, she checked. All she had to do was turn her head.

Nope. It was not there. She’d cleared it straight of the table.

He would forgive her for breaking his gaming keyboard, right? She could certainly buy another, the exact same model, and replace it for him… right?

The world is going to shit! Stop worrying about a keyboard.

With the laptop opened, she tapped a few keys and saw what she needed to. Her heart fell at the sight. A map of the entire world sat on the laptop screen in front of her.

Too many.

There were too many colored dots appearing, and they were still appearing. The only color not on the map were blue and red. This wasn’t happening in select countries, it was happening everywhere at the same time.

Nigeria.

South sudan.

Australia.

China.

The list went on and on. Even in the polar ice caps. Inevitability had his own secret method of confirming portal appearances that was superior to anyone anybody else had. Even Shield did not know how or what he had done to acquire such a comprehensive system. But he had it.

And right now, it showed that they were fucked, royally fucked.

She shook her head again. This was not why she was here. It was one reason, but not the main reason. She was here for something else, to call someone with Inevitability’s office line since the person was not picking hers.

Taking the phone from the landline, she typed in the numbers, committing them to memory. Unlike hers that rang forever and was never picked, this one rang once before it was picked.

“Hello,” the voice asked. There was a tone of anger and displeasure. The sound of passing cars.

She was on the move.

“Hello,” Shield replied.

The person on the other side paused. “Shield,” she said with certainty. “Are we using Inevitability’s phone now?”

The woman still hated her. She could not entirely blame her. Inevitability had brought her as close enough as possible to understanding the weight of what she had done to wrong the woman. But all that did not matter now.

“Inevitability is not around,” she said simply.

“In a portal?” the woman asked.

Shield shook her head. “No, he’s gone. Just gone. They are all gone.”

“What the hell do you mean.”

“The Oaths are gone.” Shield bit down on her fear for Inevitability’s life. “All of them. The portals are powerful, strong. I don’t think we can close them fast enough.”

“We can’t.”

Good. The woman was working on logic right now, not emotions. “I say we prioritize the strongest ones among the SS-rank portals.”

Hesitation. Silence.

“How many SS-ranks are there right now?”

Shield looked to the side of the screen where the colors were given identities. “Fifty-two.”

The woman took in a deep breath. “Fifty-two.”

She understood the weight of it just as easily as Shield did. This was beyond being a problem.

“I’m organizing the teams of the Oaths as we speak,” she explained. “Each team is going in. They might not be as strong as an Oath, but some of them have SS-ranks that have worked with Oaths. They have to be able to do something. I’ve gathered your team, too.”

“My team.”

Shield drew in a deep breath. She knew the woman was occupied with her own problems, but there were more important things than the problems of one person. It was the same mindset that had led to the rift between the Oaths and Madness; the same line of thought that had made them enemies of the Lockwoods.

But it was the right mindset.

“I don’t know what is on you priority list,” she said very carefully. “But we need you, Aurora… the world needs you.”

Her words were followed by silence, and Shield prayed to any deity that would listen. She was the only Oath on earth right now. And she needed the next best thing. Bound by nothing, Aurora could say no and listen to her government or do whatever she wanted to do.

Her government would prioritize their country instead of the world. Aurora could very well choose to be the guard that would keep her kids safe.

Please be smart about this, she pleaded in silence. Do not forsake your world.

Aurora sighed. “Send me the location you need me at.”

YES! She pumped her fist in the air in joy. “I’ve got the coordinates right here. And I’m sending someone to come pick you up.”