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Chapter Twelve

Dante, Erebosian Wolf

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"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

--Winston Churchill

A murmur spread through the market place as all the Astorians turned to gaze in surprise at the sudden appearance of an adolescent panther in the middle of the square. Dozens of different races ranging from canine, to reptilian, to even a few avians gazed at the young rebel. Most of them were clothed in grey, casual clothing. A few rips and tears in the fabric signified how poor they were. A few choice citizens wore cleaner, nicer looking clothes, which signified their unity and support with the current totalitarian government. As the murmur grew louder, Farinay raised his voice to a loud, booming cry in order to have himself be heard.

"Astorians of great and mighty! Are you satisfied with this oppression?! Is there no stirring within your breasts to push back at those who crush you under foot?! For over half a century we've had to deal with this filth we call government!"

As he spoke, the sky seemed to slowly turned into an orange-yellow hue, but within a few minutes it glowed a dark, blood red. As red as the communist stars worn by the marching officers that ruled over the people with brute force and discrimination.

"Avians! And winged creatures!" cried Farinay, his form noble standing, with his wings arched above himself, which made him look like some dark messenger sent from the gods themselves to send a message,"Are you not enraged by the mandatory clipping of your feathers? We were born with the blessing of flight! We have a right to retain such a gift and not have to be coveted because of it!

"And the scaled ones! Are you not angered by the fact that your shed scales are forced by law to be sent to factories for the production of military weaponry and armor?! What slanderous action is that! They make you act like feral sheep that are shed so that we may sleep in comfortable blankets! "

"And, of course, furred Astorians! What bastardly will wishes that you shave your headfur and donate as much of your body as you can toward other menial things required by this wretched thing we call government!"

Little did the crowd know, which at this time was drawing closer to Farinay to hear his words, that behind the counter of several now abandoned merchant stands, crouched Arron, a grim smile on his grey muzzle, as he struck a match.

Markus stood below Farinay inside of the fountain, letting the water pool around his feet as the cool water vapor refreshed him, and heightened his senses. He felt a power strumming within him, something he wasn't familiar with, but whatever it was it gave him a thrill he'd never before experienced in his life.

"I call you out! You villainous worms! You have brought nothing but depression and sadness upon your own people!" As the last of his words left his muzzle, a loud boom could be heard several dozen yards away. Everyone turned, and Markus saw to his astonishment, a huge red hot fire blazing upwards into the sky, a grey figure shot out into the sky from the base of the fire, and began raining small red orbs down upon ground at the abandoned stands. As they struck the ground and disappeared amongst the numerous crates and barrels they exploded a second later into a storm of fire. The crowd wavered for just a second, before chaos ensued. Astorians began running all over the place trying to escape. One side of the entire square was blatantly open, which is where everyone began sprinting now.

Sirens could be heard in the distance, approaching quickly several dozen solders rounded the street corners and began running towards Farinay and Markus, shouting angrily and waving about their rifles in a devilish style.

"Now!" cried Farinay, as he took to the sky and began working something blue around in his paws, moving them over and over the small item as Markus grabbed a tear gas canister from his belt, uncorked the lid and clicked a small button on it's side before hurling it with all his might into the biggest legion of soldiers. To his surprise, his throw proved strong and true, and the canister landed in the midst of the group and exploded into grey smoke. Cries of surprise then pain came from them, as Markus rounded on his other side, knocking up the arrow he had in his bow and looked around wearily, more soldiers were approaching him fast, and he felt as if he should run for a second.

Farinay suddenly let loose a torrent of large blue flying disks from his paws with hurtled toward several of the soldier squads. More cries of pain as well as the sight of blue and explosive magic could be seen from where Markus stood. He winced, he'd never been a fan of gory scenes in movies before and this definitely wasn't a better alternative. Aaron had now circled the entire square and had created a great fireball in the center of the city, which, Markus realized, had temporarily trapped both the three and the soldiers in a fiery arena.

With Aaron and Farinay's successful strategy, the three had now managed to isolate several of the soldiers which now lead to one on one battle. Markus turned around to find a large komodo dragon anthro bearing down on him, his rifle raised and the blade at one end pointing at Markus. With a cry, Markus took several steps backward, raised his bow and shot the arrow he had already prepared there. The arrow whistled loudly as it flew through the air and landed with a thump in the middle of the Astorian's chest. He gasped once, stumbling forward and collapsed on the ground. Markus breathed heavily, his heart pounded as he began to panic, the stress of the whole situation beginning to overwhelm him.

"I just killed him! It was that easy! He's dead... Bleeding... So many dead! But... But he was intent on killing me too! I don't under-".

Time, slowed. The sounds around him seemed to mute as if they were merely happening in the background. He turned around once more, and as if in slow motion, a tigress solder leapt out of the fog of battle at him and into the fountain. Markus's body seemed to then move of it's own accord. He reached down and unclipped one of his few explosive grenades. As the tigress leapt up again he clicked a button and threw it into her open mouth. A look of surprise spread over her muzzle as Markus then bent down in an extreme show of dexterity, and saw above him the tigress fly over him, and tumble into a group of soldiers running toward Farinay to assist his assailants. Just as Markus was righting himself, behind him could been seen a large explosion, and the flying limbs of half a dozen disembodied soldiers.

He turned again, to see a huge dragon stomping his way towards Farinay, whose back was turned as he dueled three other canine soldiers with a scythe and chain. Knocking an arrow, he let loose another shot, strait at the head of the dragon. It whistled once more, and imbedded itself in the monster's skull. With a roar that caused Markus's ears to ring, it fell to the ground, causing small pebbles on the ground to shake.

The sky was blood red now, filled with the black smoke and morbid blood of the enemy. Markus unclipped another tear gas grenade. He looked over to see Aaron spinning round and round, holding his axes outwards and dealing grievous injuries to soldiers all around him. Markus sprinted toward him, and at the last second, fell and slid towards one of the soldiers, a brown fox. Unsheathing his dagger Markus knocked him off of his feet, as the guard whirled to face him Markus lunged and with a vicious snarl plunged the dagger into his breast, before leaping off of him, still gripping the bow in one paw.

As horrible gurgling noises emanated from the poor fox, Markus raised his bow and knocked an arrow. Pointing it at a red panda Astorian who was about to plunge his blade into Aaron's side he let it loose. It sank into the back of his head, and he let out a loud groan before crumpling to the ground twitching. Aaron thrust forward and finished off the last soldier before turning to Markus in astonishment.

"How did you do-... No time now, you'll tell me later, look."

Aaron pointed to see Farinay also just finish off the last of his enemy, behind him however, at least a hundred reinforcements were marching towards them at an uncomfortable speed.

"Let's get out of here, it'll take them a few hours to take care of the fire, and we need to lead them away now from the barracks they came from."

Markus nodded, he looked down and saw his supplies were barely depleted, however they wouldn't last too long.

Arron yelled out,"Farinay! Take to the sky and circle around leading them to the opposite direction! Markus and I will be running just up ahead!"

Turning, Arron grabbed Markus's paw and said,"This is where the hardest part begins, follow me!"

to be continued