Genesis | Book One, The Genesis Series

THIRTY-SEVEN

Dylo's lungs were on fire. Taking cover behind one of the mounds of snow littering the battlefield, he opened his suit's nourishment compartment to find that he was out of power pellets. Sighing to himself through heavy, painful breaths, his hands fumbled as he closed his compartment.

He turned his focus back to the battlefield.

Troy attacked from the purple skies, raining explosive spheres of fire down onto enemy troops. A small amount of them were obliterated instantly, but most of them merely shook off the devastating blasts. The good thing was that the heat from the flames warmed Dylo up a bit.

The blond's ears then registered a slightly distorted boom as he turned around to see Rift, emerging from one of her portals. The red-haired woman twirled her daggers in between her fingers as a menacing smirk creeped across her face.

She tightly gripped her daggers as Dylo looked closer at her fingers, noticing a blue ring. It must've been where her portals stemmed from. If he could find a way to get that thing off of her hand, he'd be able to defeat her with little difficulty.

"Pleased to see me?" Rift teased, swiftly throwing one of her daggers in the speedster's direction.

The surprise attack had nearly caught the boy off guard. Ducking backwards as he felt the tip of the cold blade scathe his nose, he slightly winced at he felt a small sting. His eyes registering a storm of knives heading his direction, his feet slipped on the snowy concrete as he attempted to evade them.

Luckily, he regained his footing before the barrage of blades could make contact with him. The seams on his bio-suit emitted a golden glow, illuminated the white frost around the boy as he zoomed around his opponent.

"Hell no." Dylo shot back, attempting to accelerate up to a higher velocity. The golden trail radiating off of his body began to flicker as his motion faltered. He was having a bit of trouble avoiding Rift's flying daggers due to his depleting stamina.

"I can hit a moving target." Rift taunted, chuckling as she increased the rate of her dagger attacks.

Dylo stumbled a bit before speeding up and shifting his location onto the sides of the metallic wall beside of him. The barrage of blades nearly made contact with the boy's heels as they emerged from one of Rift's portals. Fortunately, he was able to get off the wall and back onto the ground in a flash of yellow.

He found himself straining, ducking and weaving under the blades as he neared Rift's position. The cold temperatures were decreasing the speed of his molecular structure, making it harder to avoid projectiles. He felt a few stings all over his body as some of the knives sliced the exterior of his bio-suit, but he made it through them all.

"This one hits back." Dylo retorted as his vibrating fist rammed into the woman's face. She winced slightly, stumbling backwards a bit. The blond turned around, gripping the cold ground to stop himself from sliding backwards as he faced the woman with a scowl.

Rift then spawned one of her portals beside her before jumping into it. Dylo was unable to move before one of the woman's daggers ripped through the flesh of his thigh. Blood oozed from the wound as Dylo yelled in pain and discomfort.

The woman's heel then struck his chin, with him feeling his back strike the snowy concrete not a second later. He gazed up at Rift, a bit of blood stemming from his bottom lip. Tiny, red spots peppered the skin under his nose.

"Catch of the day, huh?" She chuckled to herself triumphantly, looking down at her defeated opponent with a smirk as she aimed her dagger at the boy. "I'd deem this one trophy-worthy..."

Before the rude woman could finish her sentence, a figure appeared out of thin air with a low hum, uppercutting Rift in the jaw. She staggered back, wiping the blood from her lips as her eyes settled on the dagger-wielding girl before her.