CHAPTER 45: WAR ZONE

The sky teemed with spaceships. Crazy-looking ones, actually.

Floating metal beasts, dark and massive, each one stretching across the sky. Some looked like flying fortresses—jagged and armored, with hulls so black they seemed to swallow the light around them. Others were sleek, dagger-shaped, glowing faintly with red and blue veins, as if they had blood running through them.

There was even one that was shaped like a monster.

That one gave Julian the creeps.

Weapons jutted from the sides, some like long barrels, others like claws waiting to rip through an entire planet. Engines hummed at the back, wide and circular, spitting out slow trails of heat that shimmered in space like ripples in oil.

Above, the command ships hovered higher than the rest. Bigger. Meaner. Covered in layers, like they’d been rebuilt again and again from every war they ever fought. Their underbellies glowed with a thousand blinking lights, like angry eyes.

Some ships didn’t fly straight. They drifted, twisted slightly, like they were too wild to stay still. Like they were always hunting.

And they were fast.

Too fast.

Blink, and they were gone. Then blink again, and they were right above you.

Julian found it all to be crazy. In fact, it was highly ridiculous!

He wondered how this was possible.

How...

Damn!

Hurijaa wasn’t wrong when she said that this was a galaxy of war.

He had doubted it would be regular. He had hoped it would be something that, you know, occurred once in a while, but then—this was crazy.

Rehul pulled him ferociously by his shoulders now, like her life depended on it.

Julian looked at her, raising his eyebrow, a sign that asked:

"What?"

Rehul didn’t talk. She just pointed upwards, to their left.

Julian looked at it, his eyes expanding, opening so wide.

"No, no," he muttered.

He held Rehul by the hand and flung her with himself also forward.

Boom!

It was a missile, and it was earlier coming in their direction.

The vehicle they used as a shield exploded.

The parts flew across them, reeling them backward a bit.

Julian stood up, still holding Rehul’s hand, his eyes searching for a vehicle.

All were being driven by soldiers with large guns in their hands, shooting at the other soldiers.

From what Julian had noticed so far, the fight had been even.

No one had been really exceptional.

And the spaceships in the sky—he noticed that a larger portion were owned by Drayyors.

The problem they had was that, even with the many weapons and vehicles and spaceships, they weren’t so good in combat.

And that was what gave the opposition a greater advantage over them.

They had fewer weapons but were incredibly superb in combat, and the reason it had been an equal fight was because of the missiles and bombs Drayyors were launching.

Julian didn’t know the name of the opposition and he didn’t mind. It was not like he cared, anyways.

He needed a vehicle ASAP or he would be cooked!

Rehul was at guard, looking around for any attacks.

It was not like anyone paid them attention, by the way.

They were just sticks who landed right in the middle of where trees were fighting.

Finally, Julian found a vehicle—one that looked sleek and was pretty fast, with large tires and a smooth interface (at least from what Julian glimpsed at).

Julian heaved a sigh and, still holding Rehul by the hand, ran over to it.

Now, why was he running over to it?

Well, it was quite simple.

It was being attacked by Drayyors soldiers. It was the opposition’s vehicle.

The opposition might not have many weapons and spaceships, but the ones they had were dope.

Julian ran over to it.

He was going to be the governor of Drayyors any minute soon, but then, at this point, he wasn’t taking sides.

He would kill anyone.

That was for certain, and he told Rehul that.

"Kill them all," he said. "Don’t spare any because the moment you do, any of them might kill you."

Rehul nodded in the affirmative.

They stepped on fallen debris. Smoke reeked in the air, probably from an explosion. The foul stench of dust was very much prolific in this region, and bullets danced in the air like the guns were throwing a party.

Julian went through it all, a stern expression on his face.

He summoned the mech rifle as they were now closer, Rehul too summoning a cool-looking gun too (not exactly the way Julian summoned his though).

There were three soldiers fighting fist-to-fist on the vehicle.

Two were inside, battling for the steering wheel.

Julian’s helmet glowed red.

The right color for this occasion.

It was time to shoot.

"I take on the ones on top and you take on the ones in the car," he said to Rehul, who nodded in the affirmative.

He pointed his gun forward now, aiming at his targets. From what he’d learned while fighting the large mech monster, it was that the gun released more than one bullet at once.

It released four, to be precise, and he had just three people to kill.

Nodding his head forward and not even stopping to run, he signaled to Rehul to shoot.

They were going to shoot together.

Ckannk!

That was the sound that his gun made.

The extremely large bullets shot out.

Julian grinned under his helmet.

He had forgotten that the bullets were like small missiles.

’I’m sure not to miss,’ he thought.

With that thought...

He heard the soft sounds of blood.

The three men were down.

Rehul too had shot hers, but then, it only met one person.

The surviving soldier, afraid for his life, started the vehicle and dashed it forward.

Julian wasn’t bothered. Not at all.

Not when he could move similar to the speed of lightning.

Whoosh!

He dashed at the car. Coming like a flash, he drove through the window. It was without glass...

He had already summoned his sword mid-air and now, closer to the soldier, he plunged into him, driving the sword into his neck.

This happened so quickly the soldier forgot to think. He didn’t even know what was happening until it struck him.

Julian immediately handled the brakes of the vehicle and brought the car to a halt.

Rehul was already running toward it, and now she opened the door and entered.

Julian exchanged places with her, so she could drive the car.

Some Drayyors soldiers, thinking they were from the opposition, fired bullets at them.

Rehul was really an expert in driving because she was swerving the vehicle to the left and to the right like it was nothing.

Julian held the rifle very tightly.

He concluded he would not fire shots at Drayyors soldiers, as he didn’t want to kill any.

The soldiers he had murdered earlier were simply because he wanted to take the car.

Moreover, his main reason for coming here in the first place was to rule them, not to kill them.

He was bulletproof (the knight armor), so he didn’t need to dodge so much as many bullets were fired at the direction of the car.

The side Rehul was on wasn’t that much in shooting, so she was safe.

Julian was thinking...

...didn’t he come to be their governor? Then why was he running away?

Just as he thought about that, he saw a dozen soldiers clothed in incredible-looking mech armor.

They were Drayyors soldiers.

Julian suddenly had an idea...