The Guardian of Light.

Chapter 5: The Darkened town

     Sarah and I agreed on a deal. Take a three year brake, gather three months worth of information, then head back. On arrival back in our hometown, things already started off bad. I forgot that the main base of the Darkened was in my town. Now my town is the Darkened base. "Uh, Zack?" Sarah said, confused when we got a little past the dock. I looked around to see quick wooden towers set up. I looked ahead of me to see two Darkened soldiers trying to pull a darkened monster across the street.

      "Head down, mouth shut, follow my lead precisely. We can't afford being caught." I whispered to Sarah. We walked right under the left tower. It's usually a blind spot for most spot towers. We saw another guard patrolling the street ahead of us. Since were still by the sea we had no choice but to turn right. Now that we were in a bigger part of town, things, got a little trickier.

     We saw two Darkened guarding the street in front of us. "Get out of our town!" We heard a voice yell. The darkened turned around  and saw us. I turned around and saw two more Darkened behind us. From the right and left streets ten people, most likely rebels, came out with makeshift weapons. "Aww...Great." I groaned.

     The Darkened took care of the rebels in no time flat, and we were stuck. I summoned my sword and Sarah pulled out a pistol. "Where'd you get that?" I asked. "Just because I'm not a military expert doesn't mean I can't fight." She said. We went back to back. The Darkened in front of me charged. I blocked the first one, then grabbed the second one and threw him into the first one. I jumped and stabbed both Darkened at once.

     The two Darkened behind me started shooting at us. "Could you guys be any worse shots? I mean come on that's a freaking semi-automatic!" I taunted. They both started shooting at me. While they were distracted Sarah shot them both. "Ooh, blindsided." I said to the dead bodies. I looked up out at the sea. When I looked right I saw a problem, this one huge. One of those Darkened monsters was right there. The two Darkened holding it by chains let it go. It started chasing after us. "Sarah, we got to go, run!" I said.

     We turned back and started running. We tried to make some sharp turns to lose it. It was still hot on our tail. We ran past one of the guard towers and I chopped down the supports as we ran by to give us some time. It powered through the wreckage with ease. We continued running. Sarah shot behind us. The bullets slowed it down a bit but didn't stop it. We turned left and I saw the forest. "There! Run around that tree!" I yelled, pointing to a tree slightly bigger than the rest. We ran around it, the monster ran right through it. Of course it's strength is enough to knock over a tree. The monster was in his arm's reach of us. "Into that cave!" I yelled pointing.

     The monster grabbed at us. It missed and dug up the ground. I tripped. Sarah continued running. I got up. It clawed me in my back and I fell again. It continued to grab at me but kept missing. I ran as fast as I could and barely got into the cave before a hand tried to grabbed me and would have succeeded. It crashed into the rock wall above us and fell unconscious. I jumped on it and stabbed it in the heart. We stared at it. Sarah was shocked. I smiled. "Zack two! Monster Zero!" I cheered. "Wait, you've killed one before?" Sarah asked. "It wasn't easy." I said. "Zack, you, are, amazing." She said. She hugged me. Now I remember why I only socialized with those in my military group.

     "Hey Sarah." I said. "Yeah?" she asked. "How about instead of a break let's change the plan, Let's join the rebels and take back our town. We'll be heroes." I suggested. I didn't realize that my thoughts were because I was purely a soldier. "Sounds like a plan. Can't we take a brake for one week?" She said.  "Alright deal, there's a nearby town that I doubt is taking over. It has a casino with a card game I'm really good at." I suggested. "Alright, let's head over. It's flash isn't it?" She said getting up. "You got it." I laughed. I haven't played flash in forever. "Let's play one practice game. You remember the rules?" I asked. "Vaguely, but refresh my memory." She said.

     "Alright, this was originally made by the military for monster recognition in what, the 500s, when the first Darkness appeared. Now it's just been a fun game, two more cards were added recently." I said. "I asked for rules, not history silly." Sarah said. "Oh, right. Monster Card, abbreviated to MC because it sounds better, has two ways to play, flash and pick. In flash you pick the cards on top of your deck. In pick you get to pick your cards, but your opponents know what they are. I have  20 cards in my collection deck." I said. "I have 25." Sarah said.

     "Alright the rules are simple. In a 4x4 grid, the cards can be laid in any of the squares within the grid. The spinner here, is made with 5% markings. Depending on the strength of the card, the higher your winning chance. If your card strength is higher than your opponents, then you have 5% higher chance of winning. Say, my card strength is five and yours if four,  the odds are 55% to 45%. If you win, the opponents card is yours. Cards can only be matched in battle if they oppose and are next to each other. A player must have a certain amount of cards, depending on how many players there are, to continue to the next round. The max amount of players there can be is 5. Since there are only two of us here, the round requires ten cards." I explained. "Alright, let's play." Sarah said.