Smoke began to fill the room; no one was awake so I knew I wouldn’t be heard yet. All hell was about to be unleashed as soon as someone did wake up, I had to hurry and get my job done and get out of there. I quickly but quietly moved through the room, to the hallway, pick locked the only door, and I saw my prize: The golden head of a lamb. I quickly grabbed it and turned around. “Intruder! Alert!” screamed a robotic voice, I quickly turned towards the sound and threw two daggers at the owner of the voice, I heard two thuds as my daggers hit the target. “Great now their bound to be awake and come towards me” I thought and as if on queue I heard people begin to run towards this way, the hallway was made out of steel flooring and the ceiling was the same, it was a fifty yard run from the beginning of the hall to the pick locked steel door I’d come through. This was meant to be a quick and easy job, but I always come prepared. I grabbed the trigger from my side and clicked it. There was a loud explosion as I clicked it and lots of yelling and screaming. The smoke bombs that were creating a musky smoke when I entered had blown up sending fire everywhere, soon the chemical bomb would go off sending tear gas and methane straight into the air, mixed with any sparks or embers this would create a pillar of fire which was my queue to get out. I through open the door and sent and axe flying down the hallway as I followed it I drew out my sword Siyah, which means black or darkness in elven. The axe I had thrown hit a man who had been distracted by the explosions killing him instantly, the next man was less surprised and raised his shield as I went to drive Siyah through him. “Darkness consumes us!” I yelled. Siyah exploded into a shadow that covered half the hallway and the whole room that was about the size of a small apartment. This wasn’t much of a defense against thieves sneaking in to steal their artifact, but the robot was high tech, which meant they had strong allies. Just great. I ran past the man still holding the handle of Siyah and once I got to the front door I whispered, “Come back to me”. Siyah began to gather back together as a blade and I closed the door on the confused man who was swinging at open air.


Suddenly, the world outside lit up. S***, the pillar. The signal was sent. “I have ten minutes before death rains down,” I said to myself. I ran towards the back of the building, from examining the small building I knew that behind it was a river, this wouldn’t save me from the hell coming but it would provide a quick escape. It was monsoon season and so all the rivers were fast moving; hopefully this one was just like the others. I ran towards it as fast as I could, I shoved Siyah into her scabbard and heard the whine of the rocket incoming. Jumping into the river I went with the flow and let it carry me down, I began to swim hard with the river and suddenly everything went silent as the world lit up with a bright light, I turned to see that the missile I had set up ten miles out had hit. The missile held a mixture of methane and carbon Di-oxide in one section, upon impact the next section release. This section was filled with flint and the missile it’s self was filled with steel on the interior, as the flint scraped against the steel it cause sparks which lit the gases exploding the final section. This section was what I feared. Micro-generiodes, these were my own personal project that consumed all living things within a hundred yard radius; I was nowhere close to that. I swam hard, “Come on Zane, move!” I told myself. The explosion from the gases and stone did cause a tiny tidal wave that carried me, but I was pushed under water. I grabbed the underwater gear that I had brought, it was oxygen in a bar, which allowed me twenty-four hours of oxygen I stayed under while breathing this air and swam as fast as I could following the current.


My watch lit up green putting me in the clear of the micro-generiodes. I was tired beyond belief; I swam towards the riverside and got onto the land. I grabbed my phone out of it’s waterproof bag and dialed a number, “Zane Wolf, mission success, calling for evac.” I spoke into the phone. A couple of seconds later I heard a voice, “Good job Zane, evac incoming to you, eta is ten minutes, your almost home.” I hang up the phone and took out some jerky from my lunch box and began to eat it. I love jerky after a mission. I heard a crunch behind me like the sound of a twig snapping and turned around quickly, pulling out Siyah and sent a dagger flying towards the sound. “That was a warning shot, come out or di…” The dagger flying back towards me interrupting me, I parried with Siyah and stepped back towards the river ready to make a quick escape if needed. “Who are you?” I asked, keeping Siyah in my hand and standing in a defensive stance. “A friend, don’t throw pitiful weapons at an unknown person unless you want to die boy,” replied a deep and commanding voice.


“Come out into the open and show me your face, then tell me your name.”


“We both know that won’t happen, I’m merely watching you. You could say I’m a talent scout.”

“What do you mean?” There was no reply but the sound of a helicopter filled the air around me and landed in front of me blocking the view of forest. I ran towards the back of the helicopter to try and see if the man was there and the light from the helicopter lit up the area close to the forest and the man was gone. “Sir, are you ready?” The pilot had climbed out and was looking at me with curious eyes as I stared into the forest. The man had come from no one and had left without a trace. That is the power I wanted, for no one to be able to trace me once I leave. I climbed into the helicopter and we took off towards the Headquarters. I took Siyah out of her scabbard and took a cloth out of my pocket so I could clean her. I was cleaning her and asked the pilot for some water, he told me there was some under my seat, I took the water and began cleaning Siyah.

Once we got to the headquarters and landed I climbed out and took the icon out of the bag I had slung around my shoulders and looked at it. It had ruby red eyes and the whole head was made out of gold. “Zane wolf, our greatest thief and mass murder, how went the mission?” Said my employer, the Lord of this castle.

“It went great Derek, thank you for the evac, where is my pay?” I replied.

He laughed, “Zane, you must have dinner first, please come,”

“No thank you, I have another job coming,”
“Then follow me and we will give you your money,” He approached me and held his hands out asking for the head of the lamb.

“You can have it after I get my money.” I had been tricked before and I wasn’t playing on letting someone else trick me.

“Smart man, follow me.” He lead us off of the top of the castle, everyone who have money have a castle, buildings that had walls set around themselves. No one has anything too large though, because The Empire would take it over or even just kill you. We walked through a couple of rooms, cameras were not used anymore since The Empire took them all and destroyed them but instead there were sentries and robots as guards everywhere. “I know what you’re looking at Mr. Wolf, you can’t break into here. I have highly trained guards everywhere.” Derek told me.

“Don’t worry, you’re paying me therefore I have no intentions of stealing from you,” I was lying completely. We walked down a couple of stairs, the world was like it had been during the time of feudalism, castle everywhere and everything was built from stone or steel, no one was aloud anything else, The Empire had everything else in their large buildings made of glass and titanium. They had metals that were stronger than anything but lighter than glass, and it was illegal to have anything else. All the guns were destroyed and everyone used knives and swords now. When you found someone with a high tech machine, you knew they were rich. The fact that the tribal building I had broken into held a robot siren tells me there was more to that mission than I’m being told, and even more to this artifact I’m holding, who was that man that I’d talked with, why was there a talent scout watching me, who did he work for? I needed answers, but didn’t know whom to ask.

We came to a large door that had four guards in front of it, two were robots and two were humans, the robots were holding very large axes and the men held staves, they were fighter teams. “Mr. Wolf needs his payment for a job well done, let us in Marx.” Derek told on of the men.

“Yes sir,” said the man named Marx, he grabbed his staff and shoved it into a key hole in the center of the wall, the other man shoved is staff into Marx’s staff and they formed an “L” shape, the staves began to light up and Marx and the other man pushed the first staff forward and the wall began to move, the robots when to the right and grabbed a bag from behind the wall, I tried to look around the wall but I wasn’t able to see anything from where I stood. “That isn’t for your eyes Zane, step back.” Derek said with a serious tone. I was curious how much money was back there. Could I take the robots and the two people and be out of here before anyone saw me? The robots came back. “Sir, we have a problem.” The first robot walked towards Derek and whispered something into his ear.

“What? Zane, follow me. Marx, close the door behind us.” Derek commanded and we walked into the room, he flipped a switch and a room filled with ten or twelve robots and armed men stood there. The door shut behind us. “What is this Derek?” I asked.

“Give us the head now Zane, or do we have to kill you and take it?” Derek had betrayed me. I looked around the room, there were four windows, and iron bars closed them. I looked around and thought of my options. I could try to take all of them and probably die, or I could give them the head. Probably still die though.

“Okay, here.” I went towards Derek to give him the head. I had a plan. Just before I reached him, the windows were pulled out, we all turned towards them. Then the wall blew in and crushed two robots. “Zane get down,” yelled a voice, by instinct and fear I jumped to the floor as blades flew over my head cutting the robots and everything around me in half,. I turned around to see that Derek was pinned to the wall with a very large saw jammed through him killing him.

“Who the hell are you?!” I yelled.

“Shut your trap and get up,” The voice was deep and commanding. I realized it was the man from the forest.

“Who are you? How did you know I was here?”

“Stupid boy, if I told you I was watching you why would I let you die?” He stepped into the room from the whole in the wall. Outside the sun was bright, but he had stepped from the shadows. “Cloaking: Disengage.” He said to the air; as he did a helicopter appear out of nowhere making no sound at all. Instead of an engine it must be from The Empire, where they have machine that run off no sound and the sun’s energy. There were no blades but there were two fans on either side that blew air up, down, forward, or backwards depending on which way you want to go. The man himself was a large man. He had a thick beard of black hair along with long hair that came down past his shoulders. He had all dark clothes on, I couldn’t tell if or not they were black or just a dark shade of some other colour. I was getting up when all of a sudden the wall behind me began to open and I heard people trying to scrap their way in. I pulled Siyah out of her scabbard and yelled, “Shadows consume us!” The room exploded into darkness and I pulled out a dagger and with trained eyes I rushed forward and killed the five people who had charged through the wall and pulled Siyah back together.

“I knew you were trained enough to join us!” He laughed deep and patted me on the back almost throwing me to the ground. “Be proud and stand like a man!” He said to me as he turned around, “Let’s go Zane, time for you to meet your next employer.”

I followed him to the helicopter and climbed in. There was a man with a cloak on and was engulfed by it, he didn’t seem to be breathing and there was a shadowy aura around him as if he was the kind of person that could disappear with out a sound. The kind of man I want to be. The hooded figure removed the hood and a woman’s head came out. I was stunned. “My name is Zoey, I’m the head of this operation. We’ve come to pick you up, you’ve been picked for The Exam.” Zoey had a very smooth and calming voice; it was almost scary how she put my mind into a trance. “You and four others have been hand chosen to take this test, if you pass you will be recruited into The Empire’s secret force, if you fail you will be killed.” Everything she said seemed so calming and relaxed I couldn’t hold any of it in my head, I looked at the man who had rescued me. He sat there staring at me. “We will be landing in five minutes, you will be placed in a chamber and released in two hours, and you must survive and kill the other four people. I will not repeat any of this so I hope you are ready.”

“What?” I said confused, my mind had finally broken free from the trance she had set me in. I knew it was a trick but I had been played into it. What had she said? Where are we going? “Repeat everything you just said,” She slapped me.

“Good luck, don’t die too quickly we’ll be watching.” She pulled a lever and buckled my seat was released from the helicopter and I began to fall through the air, I looked around as I was falling. Keep calm Zane, you got this, where am I falling? I thought to myself. I looked down and saw a large box shaped building, look for a parachute on the chair. The thought came from somewhere but I had no idea where. I grabbed a lever on the chair and pulled. The chair was launched upward as a parachute exploded out of the headpiece, I had bit my tongue and it hurt like hell but I was safe now. I fell through the air into a hatch that opened up on the building, bright lights lit up the whole room and I looked around where I was, the building was empty except for myself. There was a fridge and a bed on one wall, a bow and arrow, crossbow and bolts, and a sling on another. The other two walls were empty, but one wall held a loan stand with a recorder and earpiece, I walked over and hooked up the earpiece onto myself and clicked play on the recorder.

“Hello Zane, you don’t need to know who I am or what I want with you, unless you live. The wall opposite of this stand will open in exactly twenty-four hours from now. There is a bed to your left with a fridge and a set of range weapons on your right along with a sharping stone and cleaning set for your blade Siyah. The door will open to a different environment than the one you saw as you were falling because the place you saw falling was the roof, I will not tell you what is coming but I will tell you that the people being released the same time as you are getting the same message: Kill everyone you see.” A man recorded the message with a deeper voice than the one who had saved my ass. Once the recorder ended it began to smoke and imploded onto it’s self leaving nothing. “Well I have a whole day before I see what’s on the other side.” I looked at my watch and it read ten o’clock A.M. I had along time before I had to leave so I had better rest and get my weapons ready.

I set to work by first sharping Siyah and cleaning her. Then I took each arrow they had provided, a dozen total, and sharpened them. I was all out of throwing knives and axes but I had an idea. I took the dozen bolts they had given me and took them into sets and, with string I had in one of my pockets, tied the sets together and formed throwing knives out of the balanced bolts. I put them into my holsters. Six throwing knives, twelve arrows, and Siyah inventory was looking slim; I hope that the others are close. If they are I can loot a dead body and build more. The recorded said that we were all given the same message therefore we should’ve all been given the same equipment, but I was allowed to keep everything on me. Maybe someone might have arrows already on them; there is no telling what the others have. Don’t let that mess with your mind you have to stay calm and relax, you have a very stressful battle coming up. There was that voice again, who’s is it? Do the others hear it too? If so, can the voice be the woman from the helicopter? Is she a magic user? So many questions, but the voice is right I can’t worry right now. I looked at my watch, twelve thirty, two and a half hours burnt. I set an alarm and went to the fridge; there were all kinds of fruits and some dried meat. I ate the fruit and left the meat for later. The fridge wasn’t on but it was made to look like it was, so I knew that the fruit would go bad, I could taste that they had been there for a while already, the meat would be my breakfast. I went and lay down. The bed was comfortable and relaxing. I went to sleep with Siyah pulled close to me.
My alarm went off and I woke up clutching Siyah tight, today was the day of the fight, I looked at my watch, nine o’clock. I have an hour before the door opens. I grabbed my equipment and ate the meat. Just like I thought, the left over fruit had gone bad. I hope no one else had noticed what I had. We would need all the energy we could get for the fight ahead.
I looked at my watch and it read eleven thirty, thirty more minutes. I stretched and made sure all my weapons were easy to pull out and checked Siyah for sharpness. “I hope everyone is ready, because we will be beginning early,” The voice from the recorder rang from outside of the doors. The door began to light up. It lifted quickly. We were starting.
I looked outside and nothing at first, and then lights blinded me. As my eyes began to adjust everything around me came into view, outside of the door was a barren floor made of what looked to be steel of some sort. There were four other door openings; each was about fifty paces from me. I pulled out the bow and arrow and aimed all around. At first, no one came out I was standing there alone outside my door, but then someone shot out of the room to my right they threw an axe in my direction, with trained skill I dodged it and launched an arrow in the direction of where the figure was running. Seeing where my arrow was heading they sped up and slid right under it, this time I shot two arrows, the first was still in front of the figure but up more, the other was aimed lower in front of the first arrow so if it tried to slid the arrow would strike them still. I heard the clashing of swords to my left and launched another arrow that way. I saw two men fighting both were dual wielding, the one my arrow was heading towards, was a darker man he was clearly very trained with swords because as soon as the arrow was about to hit him the swiped his sword across the head of the arrow and forced it towards his opponent. The arrow struck into the mans arm and he dropped his sword. This was a fatal mistake because as soon as this happen the other man brought both swords down into the others collar area. The swords slammed down and killed him instantly.

I shot two arrows towards him and jumped backwards as another axe flew by me. I jumped back one more time and looked at the person who was running towards me with two hand axes drawn. It was a woman. I threw two of my homemade daggers and threw them in a way that they would go towards her arms. Then I shot two arrows towards her chest. If she blocked the daggers, the arrows would kill her. If she blocked the arrows, the daggers would cause her arms to be useless. I wasn’t worried about her any longer so I turned to see the man that had just killed one person. He was fighting a very large man who held a large two-handed axe. I heard a scream from the woman and looked at her. She had taken one arrow into the right section of her chest and one dagger in her left arm. Smart girl, took one of each so she could still fight. I began to run towards her and threw another set of daggers and shot my last two arrows. Right before I got to her I threw my bow above her to where it would fly over her head. I pulled out Siyah and yelled, “Darkness whip!” suddenly Siyah exploded into a black and red whip. My hand began to bleed. “The price of magic is a great one,” said the voice in my head. That voice, who is it? I made Siyah whip up and grab the bow, I pulled down and the bow came towards the girl. Confused she just stood there. The bow went over her body sticking her in-between the string and curve. I pulled her towards me, She knew what was happening now. Trying to stop it she turned left and screamed in pain. That was her bad arm. As she screamed she dropped her axe. I pulled out one of the throwing daggers and right as she got to me I yelled, “Siyah, bring darkness upon us!” The whip then exploded into a black cloud and the girl’s screaming got louder until it turned into a gurgling sound.

I walked out of the cloud and called Siyah back. I felt weak. I looked towards the last two opponents. They were still fighting. The duelist was winning by the looks of it. The large man was bleeding all over and was slowing down, but the duelist had taken many hits, his leg looked to be bleeding. I took this chance to rest and resupply. I grabbed the dead girls left over arrows, six arrows and a throwing axe. I ate my left over meat and began to walk towards the two fighters. They were into the fight to the point that they didn’t even notice me. I examined the way they both were fighting. I sat down. My head and hand were bleeding. How much more magic could I release? Siyah is tired and so am I. I must end this soon. I watched as the large fighter fell to the ground. The duelist looked at me. “Are you the last?” He asked panting.
“I am,”
“My name is Kyle, I am twenty-six.”
“I’m Zane and this is Siyah. I am twenty-three.”
“Well Zane, shall we begin?”
“Sounds good Kyle. May the best win, and the second best die a painless death”.
I stood and drew Siyah in my bleeding hand, then grabbed a set of handmade throwing knives in my other hand. He stood there with both of his weapons ready. “Willow, Rain, form together!” Shouted Kyle. His swords turned into one wicked looking blade. The handle was a willow tree, the hilt was the root, and they were moving like worms. The hand guard was the top branches of the tree. The blade was thin and blue tinted. “I know you have a magic blade as well. I plan on taking it from you after this fight.”
“Try if you may, but me and Siyah will never be separated. I’ve been with her since I was a child. She is my friend.” I felt a throbbing in my hand. I thought it was my hand cause I was bleeding. “Me and Siyah will kill you.”
“Good luck.” Kyle ran towards me and held his sword up ready to strike. He jammed towards my chest and I parried. I countered with a sweep from my blade and threw both of the daggers at his chest. He jumped back and said, “Willow grow!” Suddenly, the hand guard exploded up consuming the sword and catching both of my daggers in it. “Back!” the branches went back to normal and before the transformation was complete he began to strike again. He cut at my off hand and I dodged. I jabbed at his chest and he jumped back. He countered with a sweep across my chest and I parried. “Willow, Rain, break!” As I parried his swords burst into two blades and he caught both of them and began to strike again with both of them. He did a sweeping move with the blades. I jumped through his blades and combat rolled back up, then I threw my last two daggers and looked for a bow. There was one on the body of the first guy that Kyle had killed. I ran towards his body as Kyle deflected my two daggers with Rain and Willow. I threw Siyah up, last magic for today. “Siyah, Darkness!” I yelled. I grabbed the bow as darkness surrounded me.
“You’re little tricks won’t work on me!” Kyle yelled, “Rain, come down and cleanse the air of this wickedness. Willow become the form of a long sword!” The darkness that Siyah had made was fading as the rain began to fall, and his sword was growing longer. I knew that I could see threw Siyah but he couldn’t. I notched an arrow and aimed at his leg. I shot and as soon as the shot went out I shot another at the opposite arm. Then I shot the last four arrows at his chest. “Siyah, come back!” I pulled her back together and charged towards him. Before I was able to reach him he grinned and spoke to his sword, “Willow, expand.” Suddenly, his sword exploded, growing large enough to protect him on either side for twenty paces. I stopped. “Rain, summon!” He yelled. I heard the sound of a bubble popping above me and looked up to see him. I threw myself backwards and hit the ground hard as he landed. “Willow, come back to me.” He held both his swords in his hands. “Well fought Zane, but sadly there can be only one winner.” He began to thrust his swords down and I felt the pulsing again. I’m sorry Siyah, I’ve failed. I began to wait for the end and the pulsing began to heat up. It felt as though time slowed. I closed my eyes and heard the sound of a blade slicing through skin. “You’ve protected me enough Zane, it’s my turn.” The voice said. I fell unconscious.