The Frontier: Light Among Darkness Ch. 10 - The Fires of Combat

Hello, and welcome back to The Frontier! I am Overlord, and today I will am bringing you chapter ten of The Frontier: Light Among Darkness. Action, intrigue, and plot twists await, so stick around! Enjoy! “Arm yourselves! We’re heading to The Hearth to practice some combat.” Vixen informed the three Knights . Seb, Min, and Dover all jogged down a wooded path towards a doorway built into the hillside in response, to grab their gear. “What's the Hearth? I assume it is your training area.” Lyla asked. “The Hearth is a bowl-shaped area where the ground is so scorched and melted from all of the Sol we produce that nothing can grow. It’s a hot, dirty place where we rigorously fight and train until we have reached a certain point. Everyone needs a refresher now and then though, so we go there and back occasionally before missions or challenges to practice.” Orion stared at her, and then responded sounding more arrogant than he intended. “I don't think I need any training.” He said. Vixen smirked. “That's what I like to imagine when I'm not feeling humble, but think about this: when was the last time you fought an opponent close to your skill level?” Orion thought for a moment back to his “fight” with Echo, the strangely psychotic Lore nerd. “Yesterday.” He responded. “And was it a fair fight?” She asked, as if she knew the answer already. Echo had sucker punched him, he immediately recalled. “No.” He admitted. “And before you ask, I didn't win. I see your point.” Lyla patted him on the shoulder. “It's ok, Orion. It happens to the best of us.” She consoled, dripping with sarcasm. He was going to give her an icy glare, but then realized that he deserved it after calling her “kiddo”. “Alright then. We shall train.” Orion said, sighing. “Just tell me when.” “Well, we need to wait for the others. But I appreciate your enthusiasm.” Vixen snarked. “How long have you been with the Knights of Dawn, Vixen?” Lyla asked conversationally. “About a century now, if I recall. I had actually finished escaping my old employers.” Vixen began. “Travis found me on earth, in the tower, exhausted and overwhelmed by all of the joy and light I found there. Turns out we got assigned to a vanguard mission together, and we became friends after that. He told me he had this idea to form a group that would protect people who couldn't protect themselves. I was up for it. I had been doing terrible things to those people in my previous job, but I was DONE with that. So I did. And then together, Travis and I started this order.” Vixen said, unconsciously tugging one of her braids. It was cute, even though this was apparently the Knights most vicious fighter, and someone who had slain a baron, skinned him, and made his bones into a chair. “Who did you work for?” Orion asked curiously. “Oh look, here come the other Knights.” Vixen said, completely ignoring his question. Seb, Min, and Dover met them, swords sheathed, weapons holstered, armor polished. “SHALL WE DEPART?” Seb asked. “I AM EAGER TO WET MY BLADE.” “We know, Seb. We’re going to fight now.” Min reassured him with a pat. “We are, right?” she asked Vixen less confidently. “Indeed. We shall depart now, comrade.” Vixen responded, looking at Seb. “ Time to go to the Hearth.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Hearth was, indeed, a scorched, dry pit of a training area. Large boulders had been forcefully moved by the strongest Titans of the Order and shoved into the ground, and enormous mounds of dry dirt were in place. All of the objects in The Hearth had black scorch marks, courtesy of the Solar Fire of the Knights of Dawn, and there were small craters covering the ground. “Team Beta will consist of Orion, Lyla, and - wait. These teams aren’t fair.” Vixen’s voice boomed, amplified by settings in her helmet. “Don’t worry, I’ll join Beta.” Dover said cheerfully. “Have fun on Theta, guys!” he called out to Min, Seb, and Vixen.” Vixen blinked. “How kind of you, Dover! Now as I was saying, I will join Team Theta, which will consist of Min, Seb, and I. Clear? Alright, get into positions.” the Lady Knight put on her snarling Fox helmet, and with a word her clawed gauntlet tips transmatted onto her fingers. “I’m a decent marksman. I’ll stay on this mound-” Dover said, gesturing to a dirt pile “-and pick them off. Sound good?” he asked. “Sure.” Orion said. “I’ll try and flank around for a maneuver in the front. Lyla, can you be the distraction and big gun in the center?” Orion asked her. “Big gun. Well, I’ve got several.” she replied. Dover snorted. “I have it covered.” she said, more seriously. But Orion was already gone. “Five, four, three, two, one, go!” Vixen counted down, shouting out the last number. Like a charging Bison, Sebastian thundered down the center and clashed with Lyla immediately. They wrestled, with Lyla using the Void to pick him up and hurl him into a boulder with a crunch. From his cloaking tech, Orion appeared, tackling Vixen through a dirt pile and out the other side. “Clever.” she snarled. “But not clever enough! Flanking is one of the oldest tricks in the book!” Orion hip-fired his hand cannon rapidly, landing three shots on Vixen, but not before she could maim his side with her small fusion rifle. As Orion recovered, she straddled him and tore into his body with her claws, ripping his armor with animalistic fury. Before she could open him up and reach his gooey center, he grabbed her in his arms and threw her to the side. Vixen revved up her fusion rifle, just as Orion blinked to a different position in order to evade it. She shot him anyways, though, and before long the comms echoed with Spark’s voice. “Guardian down!” He warned, and he hid near the site of Orion’s death, working to resurrect him. “Dark.” Dover swore. “Can't help you, Ghost.” He swore again after a shot from Min’s sniper rifle grazed his arm. “Lyla? Can you help Orion?” He asked. Lyla grunted, and then blasted Seb in the chest with a splash of Void energy. The enormous Titan staggered and bellowed while on bent knee. “I HATH BEEN SMOTE!” He thundered, but then stood up again. “BUT I HAVE RISEN!” He charged towards Lyla’s back, where she was hurriedly helping Spark resurrect Orion. Orion turned invisible immediately after being revived, and lucky he did, for Lyla was sandwiched between Seb and Vixen with a bone-jarring impact. “Ouch.” Dover winced. “Hang on Orion, I'll lay down some covering fire!” He blasted a few shots, and hit Seb in the head, downing him. “All right! I-” his voice was cut off because Min was holding him in a headlock, crushing his windpipe. Suddenly Vixen caught aflame as Lyla rose, bathing in Solar flames. “The power of Sol bends to NO ONE!” She screamed, crashing into the fox-helmeted Knight and tossing her down. “Maybe not… BUT YOU WILL!” Vixen growled, her gauntlet claws becoming awash in Solar Light. She slashed Lyla across the chest and scoured a deep gouge in it, but was then treated to a Solar bath from Lyla’s grenade to the face. Vixen stalked Lyla like… well, a fox. She circled the Warlock, looking for an opening. She got it when Lyla tried to scorch her with her solar melee attack, and left herself vulnerable. Vixen pounced, lashing out with her solar claws and tearing Lyla’s arm off. Lyla screamed a genuine, painful scream, that comes out when you lose something important to you. Like a limb. Vixen grinned in bloodlusted triumph, raised her claws, and found Orion’s Arc charged knife sprouting from her chest. “Curs’t dar-” her body disintegrated before she could finish. “Well. Thanks for that.” Lyla said, clearly disappointed at being defeated twice. “Hey, now we’re even for you saving me.” Orion reminded her. Lyla snorted. “We’re definitely not even. I killed that Ogre-Knight-thingy, remember? You still owe me.” Orion pretended to be disappointed, but he was happy after so much time to… to have somebody. “Alright. It's a start though.” He said with a sigh. They heard a wet crack, and turned around to see Dover throwing Min’s limp body to the side. “Heeey, guys.” Dover said, his voice cracking and slurred. He had a gaping hole in his chest. “Nice fightin…” he stopped, as he bled out. “Well then, let's-” Orion began. And then Seb’s fist of havoc wiped them out. _________________________________________ This chapter is continued in the comments! 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