Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 52. Chapter 52 - Violence in the Streets

The Galaxy Surfer raced through hyperspace toward the island city of Boullia Bay. Lyoth pushed the cavitation engine to its limit.

“Come on,” he pleaded with it, “just a little faster.”

“Five minutes and counting to arrival,” Stawren stated.

“Come on!” Lyoth repeated urgently.

When the Galaxy Surfer dropped out of hyperspace, it was not the only starship above the islands.

“Boullia Bay is under attack!” Captain Suoki declared.

Two Brocian Contingent frigates and a cargo shuttle were in orbit.

“Why didn’t the weapons we set up on the ground take out these ships?!” Lyoth asked the universe at large.

“Look!” Stawren cried. “I think they did take one out! There’s something burning in the water, way out to sea from the islands. I think it’s a starship.”

The Galaxy Surfer rushed down through the atmosphere toward the surface below.

“Suoki! Take the controls!” Lyoth ordered.

“Aye-aye!” the big man replied.

Lyoth turned to Stawren.

“That’s my city down there,” she declared.

He nodded. “That’s why Suoki is flying the ship.” He looked back and said, “Drop us close to the fighting.”

A moment later, the Galaxy Surfer was mere feet from the ground and a few blocks away from the center of the violence, but before Lyoth and Stawren leapt out, the ship was spotted. From down one street, a pair of godstrolls came racing straight for the Galaxy Surfer.

“Get out of here, Suoki!” Lyoth shouted as he and Stawren’s feet landed on the pavement.

The ship pulled up quickly, leaving the two warriors alone. They looked very small compared to the oncoming threat, but size mattered little to the killers, and Stawren and Lyoth already had a plan.

Stawren raced off in one direction, confusing the lumbering brutes, but Lyoth charged straight at them, which surprised them even more. They slowed as he drew closer, but then he dipped down an alleyway. The two monsters roared and one of them dove for him.

Lyoth was out of reach, and as the godstroll’s clutching hand stretched into the narrow space, Lyoth drew a sword from a scabbard at his hip. He swung the blade and chopped off a few of the giant’s fingers. It screeched and yanked its hand out of the alley in a flash, blood spurting into the air.

The other monster shoved its companion out of the way, only to find that it had suddenly become the target of the assault. Lyoth lunged forward, and his sword slid between two of the giant’s ribs, piercing its heart. The beast’s limbs seized, and it tried to grab for Lyoth, but its hands and arms would not obey. Lyoth twisted the blade, and in one fell swipe, he pulled it out of one godstroll’s chest and spun around to slit the other’s throat. Blood coated the alley and splattered on the warrior.

It became quiet where Lyoth was standing, but he could hear violence a few streets over, and he rushed toward it. Six godstrolls were smashing a path through the city, and Lyoth targeted the one at the back of the pack. It did not know he was coming; godstrolls are not used to being assaulted, and none of them expected the attack. Lyoth ran up a flight of stairs that were attached to the outside of a building, leapt over the banister with his sword pointed down, and sank his weapon into the monster’s flesh at the back of its neck. It wailed in agony as the blade severed its spinal column and became lodged in its backbone. The beast fell to the street, and Lyoth rose. He was now unarmed.

The other five godstrolls turned toward their fallen companion, and they saw Lyoth as he darted back into the alleyway, but then another one of the giants screamed and grabbed at its own face. It dropped to its knees and clawed at its eye. The four remaining monsters were startled by the unexpected turn of events. They were not used to being on the receiving end of violence. The godstroll on its knees let out another screech and clutched at its other eye.

This time, Lyoth saw the cause. An arrow pierced and lodged itself deep in the monster’s orbital socket. Lyoth looked in the direction of the missile’s trajectory, and he saw Stawren on a nearby building’s rooftop with her bow and quiver.

The four other godstrolls had also seen her, and one of them grabbed a vendor’s abandoned cart and hurled it in her direction. The wood and trinkets smashed against the building, but Stawren had ducked down, and as soon as the debris began to fall, she popped up again and fired an arrow into one of the monster’s chests.

Her attack did not have the desired effect. The giant cried out in pain and pulled the arrow out of its flesh like it was nothing more than a bad splinter, and the four of them ran at the building. When they reached it, Stawren was already gone.

She suddenly appeared on the street, rushing toward Lyoth in the alley. She was on her device and talking to someone. “Okay, we’re on our way right now!” She looked at Lyoth. “There are three more of them headed straight for Her Majesty’s Hole! Phentrom and Fonith and my dad and a bunch of people are there!”

“Lead the way,” Lyoth replied. “I’ll follow you!”

He and Stawren headed with haste toward her father’s bar, and they saw the trio of godstrolls before they reached Her Majesty’s Hole; they also saw other warriors.

Fonith and the warrior who helped lead the uprising of Boullia Bay, Tenki, were fighting alongside a third person, all with blasters, and they were temporarily holding the godstrolls at bay.

Stawren pointed up a narrow gap between two buildings, and she and Lyoth slipped into it. They managed to bypass the three monsters, sneaking to Her Majesty’s Hole from another angle.

Within the bar, Phentrom was the first to spot them, and he came rushing out to his beloved. “Lyoth!” the mandroid cried, wrapping Lyoth in a tight embrace.

“Phentrom, I’ve missed you,” Lyoth whispered into his lover’s neck, but he forced himself away. “We need to stop those godstrolls! Get back inside.”

Phentrom did not need to be told twice, and he was gone.

Fonith was focused on the monsters as Lyoth came up to her and Tenki, but Stawren rushed to the side of Her Majesty’s Hole and disappeared around the corner.

Tenki, the Blue-skinned man with cybernetic weapons built into his body, was using them like he had never used them before. “I’m running out of ammo!”

“So am I!” added Fonith.

“We all are!” yelled the man Lyoth did not know.

Lyoth then informed them, “There are four more godstrolls headed this way.”

“Oh good,” Fonith replied sarcastically, “seven of them! Lyoth,” she added quickly, “this is Quigley,”

Lyoth knew Quigley was the one who took Phentrom, but so much had happened since then, and Lyoth noticed that Quigley had a sword strapped to his back.

“Mind if I borrow this?” Lyoth asked. Quigley nodded, and Lyoth drew the blade, planning on attacking the godstrolls head-on, but he paused when he saw the weapon in his hands. “What is this?”

“Be careful,” Quigley replied. “I’m not sure exactly what it is, but it makes organic matter disappear. A friend designed it.”

Fonith spoke again. “Quigley, this is our master swordsman, Lyoth.”

The black blade was unlike any weapon Lyoth had ever held. It seemed to almost sizzle the very air around it. “You three, cover me,” he commanded. He stepped out in front of the trio with their blasters and began to advance. Lyoth could see the four other godstrolls heading straight for the nearer monsters.

Gotta make this quick, he thought to himself.

Lyoth stepped right up to a building where one of the three godstrolls was hiding to avoid the blaster bolts, and the monster lashed out at him. Lyoth ducked the strike and stabbed the giant’s elbow. Instead of causing a fountain of blood to geyser from the wound, it was as if a blaster had hit the beast’s arm and vaporized a portion of it. The thing’s elbow was just gone, and its forearm fell to the pavement with a wet flub noise. The godstroll was in shock and staggered back from Lyoth, but one of its companions came after the warrior. It shielded itself with a plank of steel reinforcement as it charged Lyoth. The blaster bolts fired by Fonith, Tenki, and Quigley exploded, but the monster was unharmed.

It swung the plate metal at Lyoth, but he moved like a dancer performing a deadly ballet, avoiding the attack and lashing out at the giant assailant. Lyoth dipped and spun, and he swiped with the sword across the godstroll’s thighs. The monster screamed, and the metal fell from its grip and went clanging to the ground. The devastating weapon in Lyoth’s hand had removed enormous chunks of flesh from the godstroll’s legs, and it fell to the pavement beside the steel plate.

The third of the nearby godstrolls was snarling at Lyoth with its gargantuan maw. It grabbed a lamppost, ripped the pole from the pavement, and launched the thing like a makeshift spear. Lyoth managed to dodge it, but the lamppost smashed against a shed, which exploded with a spray of wooden shrapnel. Several pieces cut into Lyoth’s arms and back.

“Godsdammit,” he growled. He dipped down an alley.

The godstroll peered out to try and spot where the warrior had gone, but he was nowhere to be seen, and the three people with blasters fired as soon as the giant’s repulsive face appeared around the corner. It ducked back, but the warrior with the black sword was suddenly right beside it, and the monster gurgled as Lyoth stabbed it in the guts. The mysterious weapon took a massive chunk of the godstroll’s insides, and the remaining innards sloughed out of the gaping hole in its stomach.

The first of the other four approaching godstrolls was almost upon Lyoth, but several blasts from Tenki, Fonith, and Quigley caused the monster to veer off its intended course and to hide behind a building. Two of its three companions made it to their fallen kin next, and they roared at the brutal condition of the dead and dying. They flailed at Lyoth, but he was armed with a weapon they could not comprehend. In an instant, one giant had lost both its hands; they were completely consumed by the sword, and not even a single finger remained. The other godstroll caught the blade across its side below the ribs, and a huge portion of its abdomen was gone. It fell to a clump on the ground. The handless godstroll was staring at the stumps of its wrists, but then the wicked sword took off the thing’s head.

Now it was Lyoth who roared, and the fourth of the charging godstrolls actually stopped in its tracks. It looked around and grabbed a length of shipping chain used by one the fishing boats that made berth in Boullia Bay. The giant began to spin the metal links above its head like a tornado, and it let out a wail of rage.

Lyoth gripped the black sword’s hilt in both hands, raised it overhead, and he hurled the weapon through the air as if it were throwing a dagger. The blade struck and pierced the monster’s chest, and it kept going. A huge hole was suddenly missing from the center of the godstroll’s torso, and it fell forward as the sword clanged onto the pavement behind it.

Lyoth walked past the giant’s corpse, and he picked up the sword. He turned and pointed the blade at the final godstroll, who was still hidden behind one of the nearby buildings, and the beast began to growl.