Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 296: Time's Up

Tommy was shaken, not having any warning. His guys were likewise shaken and instead of continuing the fight, ended up backing up to form up around Tommy.

Laz had managed to push him away before falling backwards, only managing to not hit the ground as Ruby had arrived in time to support him. Not just her, but everyone still alive on Laz's side also rushed to his side.

"What now?" Jennia asked, looking frightened.

"Make for the door, quick. We need to... fuck...." Laz said, looking over.

Tommy and his group were far more whimpy than Laz gave them credit for. They might act tough towards those weaker than them, but when something unexpected comes around, they scattered like cockroaches. Just as Laz was speaking, Tommy and his crew took off, went through the gate and didn't look back.

"Son of a bitch..." Dwayne said while watching them run.

"You've got to give them credit for being decisive. They wasted no time going..." Laz said while the rumbling continued. As he was helped to his feet, the noticeable size hole in his chest started healing at a rate which astounded everyone around. It only took a few moments for it to close completely.

"Damn bro... you sure your not part me? But I mean hell, even I don't heal that fast..." Dwayne said... poking at the new skin until Laz pushed his hand away. Laz suddenly felt something and looked up. Although the image was blurry and far off, he felt like a pair of eyes were watching him. Laz could help but mumble 'thank you' to his savior. Just as Jennia was about to say something, another ground shaking rumbled caused everyone to almost fall over.

"What exactly is that?" Helen asked while looking all around. For some reason, everyone got the feeling that what they were sensing wasn't mother nature.

"That.... is that!" Laz then pointed up to the sky. Everyone looked up to where Laz was pointing and as they watched, several large building in the distance crumbled apart while fragments of metal were sent flying, almost like an explosion had happened underground.

Then, while everyone was shocked, a large beast raised itself out of the ground, making another heart wrenching noise.

It felt like they would suffocate just from the pressure of that beast.

"Stand tall and stay firm... Let the feeling of it wash over you..." Laz commanded, rather strangely. He knew not everyone would or could listen, but he was going to give this chance to those who did.

As Laz stood there, watching the creature rise from the ground, many thoughts that weren't his own went through his head. A weak glow of golden light could be seen coming from his deep blue eyes as he stood firm, unwilling to back down.

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Ruby was quick to stand by his side, although part of her wanted to run away. She held hands with Laz as she looked on. Helen, the four sisters and most of their team did the same, bracing themselves against one another. Helen had been told to listen to Laz and was going to follow those orders to the end.

Jennia was finding it hard to even remain on her feet as the pressure from the creature battered her body. Just when she felt like falling to the ground like the others, a strong hand grabbed her arm and pulled her up. She looked for the owner of the hand, only to find that it was Dwayne who was standing tall. She wanted to push him away, but then decided not to and slowly stood. He was the only thing keeping her standing. As for the Vodun who were still alive, they tried their best, but had very little success, with only four who could stand in the face of the pressure.

As for the council members who had followed Laz, only Damien and Remi were able to stand up while the few who were still alive had basically curled into a ball on the ground and tried their best not to wet themselves.

"What's the deal boss man?" Dwayne asked, looking over.

Laz collected his emotions and responded.

"This creature that you see... it's a sky whale. It's part of a species that lives a long, long way away from here. In fact, there might not even be any of them left and this one is also dying. But even then, it is far stronger than anything you have encountered so far. So this pressure that you feel is from your blood telling you that it's dangerous and you should run away. But this is also the perfect way to temper something that is almost impossible to temper otherwise; your heart. You standing here, facing this impossible beast, is akin to looking death in the face and not flinching. It's like standing at the gates of hell and strolling in. For many, that's impossible to do. Your fear and survival instincts won't let you. Look at those around us who can't even open their eyes. But that is normal. For those of us who can stand strong while looking death in the face, we will go much further along the path. Their journey will probably end after today... if we make it out alive. But ours shall continue on..." Although Laz was rambling a bit, everyone understood. Even Ruby was looking astonished at Laz's insight on this. She had fought many battles, had killed and almost been killed numerous times and even for her, the pressure was intense and hard to stomach. But she also knew that the benefits of surviving an impossible situation leads you to be stronger in the end. But even she would never have thought to use this type of situation to train the heart.

She couldn't help but feel quite a bit more respectful of her man who was a few years younger than her..

"And there is one more reason for this..." Laz said, his voice trailing off... He didn't explain further even though everyone was looking at him. The reason they were looking on was as a sign of respect to his teacher. This sky whale had been a long time friend of Rak'sha. Although his teacher had passed on, it was only fitting that his only disciple would be there to see the end of his friend.

"No one should have to die alone..." He finally said, causing everyone's faces to go a bit funny. After all, this was a giant whale... wasn't it?

When the creature fully came into view, everyone decided Laz had no idea what a whale looked like. This creature that had risen out of the ground and was floating in the sky had masses of tentacles stretching as far as the eye could see. If they were to compare it to any sort of sea animal, it would be more apt to say it looked like a mythical Kraken as opposed to a whale. To Laz's vision, it was still the same creature that had toured the universe with his master. But it had been misshapen due to it's own hatred and the harsh experiments that it had endured.

His eyes weren't lying.

The creature that had risen up from the ground let out another heart stopping wail before its tentacles started to raze everything around it into the ground. With a single sweep of one of it's many arms, buildings were demolished or sent flying into the air. These solid metal structures were like tissue paper before the beast as it went on a rampage. What's more, it started making it's way towards the gate.

To make matters worse, there was a strange clicking sound that was echoing through the outpost, reaching everyone's ears during the times when the demolition wasn't as loud. While the creature sent waves of fear into their hearts, the clicking sound was mind numbingly getting louder.

"Baby?" Ruby asked, looking at Laz who was still observing the creature.

"Hmm?" Laz peeled his eyes away to take a look down at Ruby and saw the concern written on her face.

"That clicking... is that what I think it is?" Thanks to meeting her 'ancestor,' Ruby had learned a little bit about the nature of the creatures who lived on this planet. The fact that the clicking was getting louder indicated that they were getting closer. Even with the sky whale raging in the skies, the planet's native species wasn't stopping at all.

"Yeah... And that's a problem..." Laz said, looking out at the roads that were still in tact and wondering what he was going to do.

"What wrong?" Helen asked noticing Laz's gaze and hearing Ruby's question. Dwayne, Jennia, Remi and everyone else focused on Laz, noticing that there was another problem.

"Well... I think... I have an idea..." Laz suddenly got a flash of inspiration as he looked out on those who were trusting him to get them back safely. Although a part of him wanted to keep observing the final minutes of the sky whale's revenge, he was not his master and had other responsibilities to attend to. At least he had seen it one last time.

"So what's the plan?" Jennia asked, her normal arrogant attitude long gone.

"We need to head back before this place is destroyed or before the power comes back on. I'm not sure which will happen but we can't be here for it."

"Ok. Yeah. Head back. Remi agrees. But the enemies beat us there first and it's not safe to cross. Remi doesn't want to leave the frying pan just to enter the fire," Remi spoke up, voicing everyone's thought.

"Yes. Well, that is an issue. So we will need to cause a little chaos over there first before we jump back in," Laz said with a wicked grin.

"And how we doing that?" Dwayne asked.

Laz took the time to lay out his plan. There was no way he would miss the doubt that everyone was showing after listening.

"Any questions?" Laz finished up with.

"You sure this will work sir?" Helen asked, looking more than a bit nervous. The plan could be described in one word, 'Crazy.'

"No. But if anyone has a better suggestion, I'm all ears," Laz replied, expressing his own helplessness. He knew it was a long shot, but with the limited time window and the fact that there was an army waiting for them on the other side, it was the best he had.

"It sounds crazy, but I trust you," Ruby said.

"We will believe in him," the four sisters said at the same time.

"Remi has no other ideas."

"Fucking insane... but what isn't right now?" Jennia asked.

Everyone had to agree, there wasn't another choice. They couldn't stay here and miss their chance of getting back. More than one of them promised to never gate jump again for as long as they lived.

"Bro. I'm with yah. But I got to ask, how are you sure those creatures are going to be just hopping through like that? I mean, even if they dumb as rocks that doesn't mean they don't have a survival instinct, right" Dwayne asked, figuring out a flaw in the plan. Jennia, who was right next to him, couldn't help but nod approvingly. She was glad Dwayne was using his head when she hadn't even thought of it.

"Well, I have a plan for that, but first..." Laz took a few steps back and raised his hand in the air. The last time he had used the runes to mark everyone on his team in a type of cloaking, it had worked well. There was no reason it wouldn't work again. Added to that his increase in power and Laz didn't even need to do everyone one at a time. He just summoned a whisp of black flame, drew the symbol in the air and slapped it with his palm. The symbol then broke down into many smaller, complete versions and hit everyone at the same time, causing their bodies to fade.

"Grab the ones on the ground. Even if they are useless, we can't leave them here," Laz ordered. Before long, everyone was either standing and being held up when the first native creature made it's appearance.

It's body was as far from human as it could be. Black sections of armor covered the creature from head to toe while it's almost three meters of height was leagues taller than Dwayne in his battle form. Behind it, more and more of these creatures came into view as the clicking grew louder. Everyone understood that the clicking was the sound of their armored feet hitting the metal ground.

Before long, it seemed like they all were looking at the group of people standing there, as though they could see them and Laz's rune had failed.

That wasn't the case.

"Alright everyone, back up," Laz ordered as everyone backed away from the gate.

"What are those things?" Jennia asked as she moved.

"Best way to describe them would be bugs. Imagine really large cockroaches and that's about right," Rudy answered.

"Hey Bro... why is it that they seem to be looking at me?" Dwayne asked, noticing that the creatures sight seemed to be locked on to where ever he went as opposed to everyone else.

"Well. Remember you asked how I was going to get them to go through the door?" Laz said as he made his way over to Dwayne.

"Yeah..."

"Well... I planned to use bait. Sorry bout this bro as it's going to hurt. But on the plus side, at least you won't die. Probably," Laz answered with an apologetic smile.

He hadn't used the Rune on Dwayne.

"OH FUCK NO. FUCK THAT... YOU SON OF A...." Dwayne's last words were cut off as Laz threw him into the gate. Just as his body disappeared, the large cockroach in the front of the pack made a loud screeching noise before it and all of the ones around it charged for the gate and jumped through without stopping.

"He was a brave man." Ruby said right away.

"He will be missed," Helen added on.

"Remi thought he was funny."

"Manly!" The sister's commented.

'Good luck bro. Don't die. Cause I'm probably the only one here that will miss you,' Laz said a silent prayer before getting ready for part two of the plan.