ExhaviorR.C.

I think this new web blog will be really interesting. I am not a part of either facebook or twittter, so this is my only real way to communicate with people other than a cell phone. I look forward to creating, posting, and receiving feedback on my stories. I have quite a few ideas, and I can't wait to hear what my class thinks. Also, this is a much cooler way to get and answer homework then writing it down in class, even though I've been doing it for years. I can't wait to read my peers' stories and CRUSH THEIR DREAMS! No, I won't post anything TOO negative, but I will be completely honest. I'm looking to this school year with high hopes. This blog will definetely help me excel in my studies. It would help sooo much if my fellow classmates were to upload anything helpful, or create a link to a study sight. I consider myself slightly above average as a writer/reader, but theres always room for improvement. I would also like to help anyone who may have issues when it comes to writing. I'll try my best to create links to anything that could help. It's my personal goal to help everyones grades improve! The canned food drive begins tommorrow on Wednsday the sixteenth.In an effort to help you remember this, check out this video. Because even cartoons love chunky soup: [|Remember the canned food drive!]

So here's a little story I'm working on:

Chapter 1 "Crud, crud, crud! I am so screwed!" I screamed out as I hurdled over the boulder in my way. As I leapt, I felt a surge of searing heat fly right behind me."Shoot," I thought,"The dragon is closing in on me!" I pressed the buttons on the keypad on my arm in the sequence that the seniors had so thoroughly pounded into my head. Instantly the energy shield formed over the wrist pad at the same time the wyrm swooped upon me. The energy had taken much of the force, but an adult dragon can quite easily shatter a basic energy shield."Oh, how did I ever end up in this mess," I spoke aloud. "Think back. What do I know" I thought as the memories of the last week came flooding back to me.

My name is Axel Flint. I am 17 years old. I have eyes as blue as the sky, a tiny nose, and a killer smile. I have long, auburn hair that's cut just short of my shoulders, which I'm extremely pround of. I'm about 5"10" and have a decent build. I am a junior in high school, decent academically, and superb physically. I live with my dad, Exhavior Flint, and mother, Sarah Flint. I am part of a secret Government organization known as the Eternals, a group of new age knights with the job of eliminating any traces of creatures that the general public have deemed "myths and legends." My father had been an Eternal, and so had my mother. That's how they had met. They had both insisted I should stay away from this business, but I had always declined them. I have been training for this highly exclusive job since I was 10 years of age. Since then I had sworn to myself that I would eventually become the top class knight.

I enjoy hanging out with my colleagues in the business. Most of them are well into their twenty's, there are two others I hang out with. There is Ryan, an eighteen year old with an hardened attitude. He has black hair that covers one eye and is heavily muscled. He's shorter than me by a few inches, but could pound me silly if I ever stepped out of line. He's been a "big brother" to me since I joined. Ryan is amazing when it comes to tactics and battle strategies. He's always is training, because his motto is "There is great, but then there's better." Then there is Ivy. She is 17, same as me, and is simply gorgeous. She's an inch shorter than me, but she doesn't seem to notice. I love her silky chesnut hair that barely surpasses her shoulder. And her caring brown eyes that just seem to sparkle when I stare into them too long. She has a short, petite nose, a dazzling smile, and a voice that chills you to the core. She has an amazing body and is deadly with a plasma bow. Sometimes I just end up daydreaming about her until everything else dissapears...

I'm quickly snapped out of my trance by a green fireball spiraling towards my face. I pull up my shield to catch the blast just in time to block my face. The dragon sure has nice aim! I try retyping the longsword code, but I forget the last button. Of all the times to forget! I randomply press a button and pray. I feel my stomach begin to knot up, but am reassured by the low hum I begin to hear. Seemingly out of nowhere, a glowing blue sword materializes out of thin air. I feel a silly grin growing on my face as I feel that my fight has just become more interesting. Chapter 2 As I leap out of my hiding spot, I catch the beast off-guard. I then to use my superior training as an Eternal to find a weak point. "The dragon's tough scales cover it's entire body. It would take quite a few hacks and slashes to pierce one of them." And then I notice the eyes.

The eyes had a clear film covering them, most likely to prevent bugs or debris from irritating them while they're in flight. It would provide little to no support in protecting the eye from impact. There was only one major issue in taking out the eyes. To get to the eyes, you had get past the mouth. Like the fire wasn't bad enough, now I had to worry about these 6" inch wide, razor sharp teeth. I wished I could conjure up some decent armor, but the battery on the wrist plate was draining fast. "Well, I guess that's what I get for hastily running off to fight a wyrm."

By now the winged demon had gathered it's bearings and was readying what looked to be another aerial strike. I decided to follow through with my plan and charged straight at it. As it's massive claws swung I nimbly leaped up and over it's arms. I then noticed the eerie sound of wind being ripped away from the spot I was just in. I tuned it out and jumped, aiming my shield straight in front of me. The dragon had thought it was now being given an easy snack and opened Its gaping jaws for the feast. I tried my hardest to fight back the urge to puke, which wasn't easy when you got a face-full of dragon's breath. Nevertheless, I threw my shield into the dragon's mouth, temporarily prying it open. I then proceeded to use the shield as a source of propulsion, as I kicked off the shield towards the eye. I summoned all my strenght as I desperately lunged my sword into the wyrm's eyes. It then let forth a mighty roar that shook the cave. Before I could get a chance to replicate my actions on the other eye, the beast crushed the shield in it's mouth and gave a giant shudder that knocked me right off. It's wasn't completely blind, but it had severely lost it's depth perception. Which meant it could no longer fly, or accurately shoot fireballs.

I sprinted towards a large rock to shelter myself from the dragons's rage. I then felt a searing sensation coming from the perimeter of the rock, and eventually the center. Already I could feel the blisters begin to form. If I sit here any longer it will grill me alive! Thankfully, my prayers were answered and the flame stopped. Although my mind wasn't yet functioning normally, so I decided to peer over the top of the rock. A rookie mistake. The dragon has suspected this movement and shot a fireball the second my hair rose above the rock. The disadvantages of having one eye was starting to take affect though, as it missed me by mile. "Okay, I've had my fun. I think it's about time I finished this."

I dashed out from behind my rock, somewhat surprising the beast. As I circled the perimeter of the room, the dragon shot countless fireballs, and not even one came remotely close. I unexpectedly turned in from my circle and was now heading towards the dragon's back. The creature had started to swing it's tail at me, but I nimbly hurdled the obstacle and kept going. The dragon was now frivolously trying to slap me away with his tail, in which all attempts failed. As I reached the back of it, I hopped onto thw scaly surface and trudged upward. I kept my sword out in front of me to steady myself as I walked. The beast shook and growled but I stayed on. By the time I reached the neck, the creature was panicking. It had swung it's claws and flipped it's tail, but all to no evail. I feverishly began to hack an "X" into the scales, which didn't take long. As the scaled chipped away, all that was left under it has raw hide. I lifted the blade over my head and swung down, hitting the neck with the blunt side of the blade. The impact shattered the vertebrae, giving an immediate and painless death. One last slash and the head was chopped off. Because dragons don't have the same bodily organs as humans, no blood was shed. I walked over to pick up the head and stuff it in my storage pack. If I went through allt that trouble, don't I at least deserve a trophy? "Looks like I've got quite a story to tell Ryan and Ivy," I said with as smile as I teleported back to base.

Chapter 3 "Woah, that thing is freaky!" yelled Ryan."Put it away already. It's creeping me out!" "I'll second that notion," exclaimed Ivy. "Well I think it looks amazing, which is why I'm hanging it my room." I told them.

The second I had returned from the mission, Ryan and Ivy tackled me to the ground. "What were you thinking!" they screamed in unison.Then Ryan took over with,"Running off to fight a dragon without so much as a proper briefing! You're insane! You think you're lucky the dragon didn't kill you, just wait until your folks get their hand on you!" I had grown used to his chastising. It made me feel better to know that he cared for my well-being. I just wished he'd show it in a more gentle approach.

"Well I'm glad your not dead. Isn't that enough for you?" Ivy teased with me. She knew I was crazy about her, and she made it her personal goal to tease me as often as humanly possible. I thought it was adorable." You know Ry-ry's right, though. You have done some incredibly stupid things in the past, but this surpasses them all. You better hope your parents are more forgiving than Ryan is." She gave me a quick peck on the cheek. "I forgive you." And with that she turned and walked towards the door. "Dude, you are pathetic. Shes totally coming on to you, and you're just going to stand there with your mouth open and a blank expression on your face? Man up!" I could never tire of hearing Ryan's typical insults. I just shrugged him off and began the walk home.

I walked up the first few stairs of my house before stopping to think. Okay, there's not a doubt in my mind that my parents have already beeen informed of the mission I had gone on. Knowing dad, he would give me a quick grin and hen pretend to be angry with me. But mom would be completely different. She would go ballistic the second the door shut. I'd be lucky if I was allowed to leave the premises within a week. Nothing I couldn't handle, but it would tick me off something fierce. I mentally prepared myself for the punishments at hand, and opened the door. Huge mistake.

"AXEL CORNELIUS FLINT! You are in //so// much trouble!" screeched my mom."Do you know how terrified me and your father were! You are only a rank three! Dragons are for rank fours! What were you thinking when you illegally took this mission?" "I was thinking 'Why am I not a rank four yet?'" "Don't you get smart with me young man! Exhavior! Come in here and teach your son some common sense," she called as she left the room. "On it honey," my dad called fom upstairs. I could hear him walk halfway down the stairs, and then pause to listen to mom's footsteps. As soon as she walked outside, he jumped down a total of nine stairs. I could hear the enthusiasm in his step."So, did you really kill it?" "Yeah. I've even got the head in my storage unit!" "Thats so cool! I was never assigned a dragon mission, which was totally fine with me. I would never be able to handle the pressure. But to think, Axel, my own son has slain a dragon. Its completely beyond my comprehension! Axel, the wyrm slayer! It has a nice ring to it, don't you think so?" I could tell he was just as ecstatic as I was.

Right then I heard the back door re-open and feet step inside. Dad immediately put a very solemn look on his face, and I tried my best to look utterly miserable. Mom proceeded to walk into the room, and was pleased with our expressions. It was only seconds before she popped the all-important question. "So, have we come to a punishment, because I thought of a great one." I could hear the sheer cruelty in her words. Like nails on a chalkboard, every word stung my ears. "I have no suggestions that could suit the intensity of this crime. Go on dear." "I say we make him repeat basic training. Let the instructors show him how to act in our line of business."It was over for me. They stabbed me where it hurts. I hated basic training the first time, so the second time will, literrally, kill me.

Chapter 4 "Good afternoon, maggots! I'm paladin grudge, and I have the miserable job of teaching you how to be a successfull Eternal," yelled the teacher. I hated Grudge, and the feeling was mutual. He told me that I was much too young to join, and that I was receiving special privelages because of my parents. He strarted down the line of recruits, demanding name, age, and preferred work place. As he walked to the recruit next to me, he stopped mid-sentence to look at me. I noticed the malicious grin grow across his face as his black, bushy eyebrows creased into a full "V". "Well, look who's back, begging for more training from the master. Little Flint, still can't handle himself in the big bad field," he spat out at me."What happened? Did a baby imp stomp you a little too hard, or did a goblin scare you?" "I killed a dragon without my parent's permission, and now my punishment is to go here." I said with a touch of both pride and sarcasm. "That's a load of garbage. You couldn't kill a fly, let alone a nasty reptile." By now all the other recruits had turned their attentions toward me and Grudge. "Want to see the head? It's in the bag here. Just give me a sec and I-" "The only thing I want to see is you dropping and giving me FIFTY!" I looked around at all the other recruit's faces. Half stared at me with horror, a sheer sense of dread, realizing they were in for about the same punishment. The other half had a look that told me,"Punch him in his stupid face!" I didn't like where option two would have landed me, so I buckled."Yeah, you better obey, or else I'll bump it up to seventy-five! The rest of you, start with ten pushups. When you're done with that, all field operatives follow me."

"Okay, you worthless losers, its time to learn the basics. This part of your training will be all about utilizing your wrist synthesizer. This interesting little gadget will be your best friend throughout your Eternal carreer." Blah blah blah. I had learned all this before. I had even learned more advanced techniques as I advanced the ranks. Rank ones were given a dagger, slingshot, and buckler. They were just as useful as bare fists, except for the buckler. It had saved my hide on more than one occasion, and I have used a shield ever since."...and finally, press the buttons in this order, 938461, and your buckler will appear." I noticed an expression of awe on every new recruit's face. I made a quick decision in my mind, knowing that this would land me in a load of trouble. As I summoned my longsword, kiteshield, and light armor, about three-fouths of the crown had turned their attention at me. "Hey grudge," I called out,"how about a little sparring match? Show these recuits how to properly use their weapons." "Against you? You gotta be kidding me! me against a little kid like you would be murder. Just sit down and practice with your synthesizer." "What's wrong Grudge? Too chicken to fight someone younger than you? We're the same rank, therefore we're about the same skill. Just one match, just as a demonstration." "Fine. I'll enjoy pounding your face into the ground. Maybe teach you some respect while I'm at it."

As me moved into the holographic training stage, half of building came to watch us fight it out. A young, female scientist then gestured to us which stage we'd prefer. "I don't care what it is. I'll wreck you anywhere, anytime kid." He was so cocky it made me sick. I wanted to smack my shield into his face over and over again until he forgot where he was. I gestured to the woman that we wanted the rain forest. Grudge saw my gesture and simply shrugged. I had spent an equal amount of time in every possible enviroment, but the forest had contained the most obstacles. My strategy was to tire himout with all of the obstractions, then come in to finish him. It suprised me slightly when he summoned a claymore, a shield with spikes on it, and crossbow. "Those are rank four weapons. How do you have those?" "One of the benefits of being a teacher. No running away now, though. Start the match in ten seconds!" He called out as they shut the door. As the hologram started, I rolled out of his line of sight and into some small shrubs. I quickly jumped out of th bush and kept running straigt until I came to a river.

"Perfect, I'll hide in in that tree above the river. The sound of running water should mask any sounds I make." As I started my way up the tree, an energy bolt hit and stuck into the tree beside me. Shoot, he already found me! I pushed my feet off of the tree, spiraling backwards as I dodged another shot. I landed awkwardly on the dismount, causing my arms to flail wildly trying not to fall back into the river. Grudge understood my predicament, and tool full advantage of it by firing three bolts at my face. I realized my only option, and willingly fell into the river. Huge mistake. While the energy projectiles missed, the river was running fast and was littered with large stones protruding from the water. As I involuntarily swallowed the salty, foamy water, the river repeatedly smashed me into evey rock it had. I felt my nose go under, and held my breath just in time. I saw a few black and white dots circling around my face, but dissapeared as soon as they had come. As I surfaced the water again, I noticed a sandy beach coming up fast on the left. I vigorously started to kick my feet in an attempt to swim over, but I wasn't moving fast enough. So I summoned my longsword and plunged it into the gravel below me. It did slow down my progress of moving downstream, but would it be enough? I started kicking my feet, which made a lot more progress than the first time. When I was about two feet away from the beach, the water in front om me randomly splashed up. I didn't immediately see a source in front of me, so I looked behind me. What do I see? Grudge, standing two feet from the water's edge, shooting his crossbow at me! What was the idiot thinking! If he knocked me out I could drown! As I pulled my exausted body out of the water, the sand next to my face exploded. He's still shooting! He's trying to kill me! I raced off into the underbrush, temorarily shielding myself from his eyes. He'd find a way across eventually, and I had until then to prepare.

"You can't hide forever kid. I'm over the river, and can take anything you can dish out." I could here his revolting voice from about two hundred feet away. Some teacher he was, just giving the element of surprise away. He was so overconfident it was obnoxious. I will enjoy what is about to happen. After I summoned my bow, I shot a quarrel into the bush where I layed the trap. He heard the noise and came running over to investigate. When he walked over to the energy bolt stuck in the ground, he seemed to notice the wire I made out of a vine, which connected to a sack of coconuts above his head."This is pathetic kid. Did you really expect me to fall for this? What a child," he said as he slashed the rope with his sword. I watched in glee as the snare around his foot tightened and flung him all around in a floppy passion. He looked as if he were ready to puke. He regained his thoughts though, and made the decision every other person would do. He looked below himself, saw a soft pile of leaves, and cut the rope with his sword. Of course I also knew he'd do that too, so I laughed hysterrically as he cut the rope and fell into the pit I dug. I could hear his screams of both mercy, and extreme anger. I stooped my giggling and walked to the pit. It was about 15 feet deep, and a foot wide. He looked up and gave me a face that suggested murder was on his mind. "Fine," I thought,"stay in the hole all day. See if I care." And with that I started walking back to the door with a spring in my step and a smile on my face.

Chapter 5 Needless to say, my parents did not appreciate my little stunt. When I told them that it was a demonstration to show that there was nothing else the class could teach me, they said that the purpose of me going to training was to help me learn my place in my job. Of course, attacking my superior didn't help win an argument about how I have a need to rebel. No, they said I need to take a more drastic approach. "How about we send him on a mission with one of his close peers that don't rebel, and hopefully they'll rub off on him," proposed my mom. "That's a great idea honey," was what my dad's mouth said. His eyes though, said,"Are you crazy! It will never work. Face it, our son is a trainwreck." Good old, loving and supporting dad.

So that's how I ended up on a new mission with Ivy. They couldn't have chosen Ryan, could they? Neither of us jumped at the idea of the job, but we didn't completely shoot it down. Our assignmenet was to track down and destroy a medium-sized horde of wood trolls. Wood trolls travel alone, are typically quite docile, and are rarely reported as a threat. But a decent size army of them have been sighted in the Appalachian Mountains. The trolls typically stick to high climates, which is why they never attack cities. But because they normally travel alone, we know something big is going down. So we teleported out about five miles away from their sighting and began our trek. We had no idea how long this mission might take, so we brought our own sleeping bags, a few kitchen utensils, a piece of both flint and magnesium, and enough food and water to last three days. Using our advanced tracking techniques, we manuevered north towards the sighting. After traveling about five and a half miles, we figured we were close enough to the sighting. "You ready to set up for the night?"I said through short breaths. "Yeah," was all she could say. We were both panting pretty hard. That is the last time I decide to race someone half a mile, through the woods, carrying a fifty pound bag on my shoulders. I summoned my longsword and walked over to the first tree I saw, beginning to hack into the bark. I had learned what trees you should and shouldn't burn, and the tree I was swinging at was a white birch. Basically, the fire I'll make with this should be able to light up a football field. I found it ironic that a small shrub, mountain-laurel, was growing right next to it. If mountain-laurel was to be burned, it would eventually kill a person. When I finished chopping down the tree, I brought the pieces over to where Ivy had already set up our sleeping bags. Being the resourceful genius that she was, she wove a makeshift hammock out of treee branches to lay our sleeping bags on. "Did I ever tell you that I'm not a huge fan of bugs?" she giggled as she tossed the two sleeping bags onto the hammock. "No, but I'm grateful you are." I joked."Otherwise I wouldn't get to sleep in such a nice bed." "I couldn't let you sleep on the ground,silly. Besides, I need a big, strong man around to protect me," she teased. I tried to puff out my pecs to look as manly as possible."And since there aren't any out here in the forest, I'm stuck with you." "Why are you so cruel to me? What did I do to you?" "I just like the way you writhe in embarassment everytime you think I'm hitting on you. It's crazy funny!" I was glad that it was dark outside, so she couldn't see my scarlet cheeks. "Could your big man make an amazing fire?" I asked before I thought. "Well, judging by the clouds and the full moon, I'd say that we have about an hour until it starts to pour. I wove a roof above our heads, but the fire wouldn't last too long." "Well thanks for making me feel both stupid and useless. It really helps with the fact my parents don't trust me. They expect me to go out there and get myself killed." I sobbed. "That's not true. Your parents love you, they just don't want you coming back from an assignment in a coffin. The same way I feel." I started to feel the teardrops fall out my eyes. Ivy came over and embraced me for a long time, squeezing the sadness out of my eyes. And before she could pull away, I stole a kiss on her lips. I stopped my fake crying immediately as the wicked grin grew across my face. Oh, I was in for trouble all right."You little faker! That was all just an act?" She yelled in fury. "Pretty good, right? I've been working on my acting. The fake crying happens when I pinch my arm real hard." I laughed. Then the smile spread across her face,"If you weren't such a good kisser, I would smack you. However, I could always make my hammock smaller." And with that she created a shortsword and cut two branches loose, causing the half of the hammock with my sleeping bag to collapse. I just shrugged and got as cozy as I could. I was almost asleep when the scream woke me up. I opened my eyes to see a punch soaring at my face. I couldn't get my arms out of the pack fast enough, and the fist brutally collided with my face, knocking me out cold.

As I slowly regained consciousness, my brain began to pick up details. I'm strapped to something, high off the ground.Ivy is strapped on the other side of me. There is a smell of smoke in the air. A fire is burning below us. There is chanting going on around us. I can't make out any english, just low grumbles and grunts. From the information I had gathered, I could think of two possibiliteis. The first, was that I was in one of the craziest parties I've been to in a while. The second, was we were being sacraficed by the trolls. Probably number two. I looked around at the area around me, and took in every detail, from the granite pillar I was tied to to the hoarde of about a hundred-seventy trolls. I could probably take all of them, considering the tallest of all of them was about four foot three. Most of them had maces and battle axes, the weapons of barbarians. There were a few with bows and tomahawks, but they were probably grossly inaccurate.

I could now start to hear Ivy's shouts and pleas for help. She was desperate. There was a major battle flaw for Ivy, which was why she trained so hard as a sniper. If she was constricted into a tight place, or had to fight at close range, she panicked. "Hey, I could get us out of here in three seconds flat. Only if you say the magic word though." Oh, I was enjoying this. This was the first time I had ever received a chance to torture her back. I was willing to take full advantage of her weakness. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you so much! Fine, Axel, will you please save my life." I could practically taste the malice in her words. "Actually, the magic word was 'trout', but I'll accept you plee because you're pretty." With Grudge's dagger lesson still in mind, I tapped the buttons on my wrist synthesizer and help the small knife in my hand, and sliced through the rope. As I fell down, it occurred to me I probably should have looked down befor I cut myself free. Falling about ten feet will knock the wind out of you. Ivy hit the ground about a second after me, and didn't sound too happy about the fall either. My parents were somewhat right. I will admit, I don't always think thing's through all the way. As I regained my composure, I switched my dagger with a londsword, and had just enough battery left to summon a kite shield. I took a few steps back, started to run towards the fire, threw my shield underneath my feet,and flew over the ring of fire. As they began to cirlce around me I called out one last order to Ivy,"Take out the ranged ones!" The next thing I noticed was the tomahawk flying towards my face.

Chapter 6 I didn't have enough time to block or avoid the tomahawk, and mentally panicked. I had a small heartattack when the energy quarrel shot the tomahawk about an inch from my face. As the shrapnal scathed my face, I scanned the area to try and decide where to start fighting. This is where Ryan would excel, so I tried thinking like him. Personally, I would have thought to run into the forest to give myself the cover of trees and darkness. But after evaluating the situation further, I realized that was probably one of the stupidest things to do. The trolls could probably see better in the dark than I could, they could manuever faster in their natural terrain, and they could easily light the forest on fire, trapping me. Ryan's first choice would have probably started with the small cliff on the edge of the terrain. It was a gradual incline on one side, and a drop off on the other side. Perfect, that means that they can only come at me from one direction.

So I took off in the general direction of the cliff, slashing through the scores of trolls. The first wave of them seemed smaller and faster than the rest of them, which is probably why the sword cut through their pathetic cloth armor. One of them managed to dodge my sword slash, and swung his mace at my back. It was a small troll, but it still had enough power to knock me on my back. I always underestimate these losers. Even the smallest of them could swing hard enough to dislocate a bone, which meant the big ones were lethal. As I crumbled to the ground, they started to swarm over to me. I had an estimated ten seconds before they would come and maul me. I brought up my shield over my chest to block the next swing from the same dwarf. I countered then by smacking the shield into it's face, then swinging my sword to decapitate it. I got up just in time to dodge the battle axe that lodged itself into the ground where I had just been. I shook of the eerie feeling off and swung the broad side of my blade at the battle axe, flicking it back at me. I dropped my sword for a second, caught the axe, spun around, and chucked it into one of the troll's heads. Unfortunately, the half-a-second I let go of my sword was all it took for the for the trolls to pick it up and hack at me. I parried it with my shield, and smashed it into the troll's rib cage. As the sword clattered to the ground for me to pick it up, I noticed I was at the foot of the hill I had originally wanted to climb. About two minutes and two dozen troll casualties later, I arrived at the top of the hill, laughing at how easily I was winning.

I took the time I had briefly been given not slaughtering the creatures to look around the war zone. With much dread, I noticed a small battalion of the monsters forcing Ivy into a corner between a boulder and an enormous tree. I couldn't help but think of the saying,"Between a rock and a hard place," but this was no time for humor. It would take at least a minute to walk back down the hill, and a few more moments to reach her. So I did the only illogical option. I shoved my sword into the hard dirt on the side of the cliff and jumped. The fall was at least fourty feet if not fifty, and the sword didn't do too much to slow my descent. So I shoved the sharp side of my shield into the dirt, which also did little to slow me down. I was going to die, because of something I did without thinking. "I hate it when my parents are right." I screamed mentally. As I readied to face my death, the tallest of the trolls came over to where I was sliding down. He has what seemed to be a smirk on his face as he raised his double sided battle axe above his head. Apparently, me falling to my doom wasn't enough for him. Oh well, he just saved my life. I slid the shield out of the wall and slid the dandle over my sneakers. It was too late for the monster to pull his axe away, and he switched expressions pretty quickly. As the shield slammed into the axe, forcing the blade into the troll's skull, I rolled to help transfer some of the weight. I took off running towards Ivy, praying she could handle herself in this situation. A few stupid trolls decided to block my path, which were quickly dispatched with a fell swoop of the blade. I charged through the crowd surrounding Ivy, beating them away with my shield. I swung around in a blind fury, trying to mow down their numbers. Surprisingly, the method actually worked. Grudge's number four rule for soldiers was,"Never swing randomly. Enemies could easily block and counter your movements. It's suicide." Once again, I proved Grudge didn't know what he was talking about.

I noticed that the few survivors, maybe a dozen and a half, fled to the forest, calling out in their native language. It sounded like a cry for help, but somewhat angrier. I quickly learned why when the ogre llumbered into the clearing. It was about three times as tall as I am, and easily ten times as wide. It knocked some of trees over as it walked, and held a fully grown oak tree in one hand. It swung it around above it's head like a club, signalling it wanted to fight. Now it all made sense. The trolls grouped together to get protection from the ogre. They probably meant to offer us as a sacrafice to the ogre when we were still tied to the pillar. I turned my head to face Ivy, and she gave me the same look I had on my face. I screamed out as I ran at the ogre, and Ivy took up a firing stance. The monster swung it's mighty tree at me, but I leaped onto a rock and then over the trunk. I kept running until I slid under the ogre's legs and started running towards the cliff. By now there were about four or five energy bolt protruding from the beast's neck, but it didn't seed to take notice. I started to trek up the hill until I was at shoulder lever with the ogre.Once it got near enough, I jumped onto the creature's chest, trying the same move I used to traverse down the cliff last time. I was only fifteen feet high, so the speeed didn't pick up too much. I hit the ground with a thud though, and a pain in my ankle from landing wrong. The ogre was now in much noticeable pain. Another three arrows were now sticking out of the ogre's neck, close to the first few. As I watched the last arrow fly into it's neck, the creature started to sway back and forth. When the last arrow stuck in withe rest of them, the monster finally stumbled onto it's knees. I sprinted away from the sight just in time to avoid the body and head from crushing me. That would have been the worst way to die. "So, what are the chances Ryan or Grudge believe a word of what happened here tonight?" I asked. "Slim to none."

Chapter 7 As Ivy and I walked through the doors to enter the building, Ryan was already out of his chair and running at us. Ivy had enough sense to jump out of the way, but I was too slow. He tackled me to the ground and pinned my arms down, telling me to beg for mercy. I sort of suspected him of doing this, although it hurt less in my imagination. Unfortunately for Ryan, I had gotten much stronger since the last time he tried doing this. I lifted my arms up and punched him in the gut, then swung my leg around into his hip. He fell over with a sigh as I rolled on top of him and pinned him down, "Woah dude! When did you get so strong? I remember when I used to be able to pick you up and throw you." "I've been working out. I've got to keep in good physical form. And it doesn't do bad with the ladies." "Would you say you're 'sexy and you know it?'" he mocked. Ryan had heard a stupid song on the radio and was obsessed about it.

Sometimes it felt funny to me, how people like me and Ryan had such secretive and odd jobs, yet we all had social lives outside of work. We listened to music, had chores to do, and Ryan even played lacrosse when he wasn't on missions. I still had to go to school though, which I personally thought was stupid. I work for a small division of the FBI, and I still flunk my math tests. I don't know why I complain though, considering I'm only their a fourth of the time as a regular student. I got excused from school on many occasions, which made my classmates question why I left school so often. Every time my employers would come up with some other stupid excuse that would actually fool my classmates. Last time it was,"Axel needs to go home because his entire house is swarming with cockaroaches. He needs to collect his valuables and move to his grandma's for a day or two while the house is being fumigated." Surprisingly, everone bought into it. They even covered our house in a blue tarp. Of course, the dark pixies I had to deal with on that day weren't exactly a walk in the park. I would have much rather fought cockaroaches than a thousand flying dwarves with knives for teeth. Not a fun memory.

Thats when Ryan snapped me back into reality. "...so the newest Paladin was appointed today. He's about to preform a demonstration in the holographic training room. He's fighting one of the older paladins. They're having a fight until one of them surrenders. I heard it was supposed to be epic. You want to come?" "Sure, why not?Who else is going to watch?" "Pretty much the entire facility. This sort of fight hasn't been approved in years. C'mon!" he called as he took off towards the training room.

"Okay, so here are our rules," said the refferee inside the glass chamber. "The fight will take place in the dessert. All weapons are allowed. The second one of the fighters is badly wounded, the match will be called off. The winner will have the honor of going on the next exclusive mission. Are we clear gentlemen?" "Clear," said the new paladin. He was tall and caucasion, with huge muscles. He seemed pretty cocky for such a serious fight. He had a black crew cut and a clean shaven face. He looked twenty eight at the oldest. "Affirmative, sir," said the older recruit. He was also white, but with brown hair falling down to the middle of his forehead. He was a few inches taller than the other man, but was much thinner. He was a good seven years older than the first guy, but seemed just as energetic. Unlike his compeititor, he seemed solemn and well trained. This would be an interesting fight. "You will each get five hundred points of energy in your synthesizers. You have thirty seconds to summon up whatever you need. The battle will begin when you hear the bell. You may begin." the ref called as he ran through the door to the viewing area. He obviously didn't want to be in there when they started. I couldn't blame him. The second paladin summoned up a scimitar, a broadsword, a batttle axe, a large circular shiels he could clip to his right arm, and heavy duty armor. He was ready to take down an army of orcs. He held the scimitar in his left hand, clipped the shield to his his right hand, snapped the battle axe into a slot on the outside of his right leg, and the broadsword across his back. The first paladin didn't seem to to notice him. He conjured up a thin layer of armor and three doubled sided spears. One in each hand and, the third loosely hung on his back. He just stood there,exposing himself to the much more protectem man. Stupid move there. I was contemplating how the battle would go when I heard the shrill scream of the bell. Then the match began.

Chapter 8 For a few seconds, the two just started circling eachother. Both of them knew enough that the first person to act would have the disadvantage. Finally, the older, more armored man ran forward, swinging his sword at a speed that was almost too hard to follow with the eye. Somehow, the young soldier effortlessly sidestepped the swing and countered by swinging the back side of one of his lances. The second one narrowly blocked it with his shield. The young man kept at it ith both of his lances now, every third strike smashing into his armor. In a few more blows, the armor would break. By now, the man was in a steady pattern of left front sweep, right front slash, right back stab. The old man had a genious idea and started using his sword along with his shield, and started blocking all of his attempts to breech his armor. The young paladin had broken one of the most important rules of fighting. Never fall into a pattern, because the enemy can learn this and can counter hard. So that's what the old man tried. He smashed his shield into the stab, knocking the attacker off balance. He then lunged at the opponent with his sword. Somehow the first man regained his balance incredibly quick, twisted his lance around the curved sword, and yanked it out of his hands. He then threw it up into the air, and smashed it into pieces on the way down. With an awed expression, the senior paladin took the axe out of the holster on his heel. Round two.

The young man slid his second spear over his shoulder with the other one, and held the last one with both hands. The other man unclipped his shield and slung it over his houlder, and grabbed his broadsword with his free hand. His armor had multiple scratches across the chest and abdomen. It had approximately three or four decently powered strikes before it broke. The young man took no time lashing ou in a wide, powerful arcing motion. The blade at the end came down hard on the other man's broadsword. While still applying pressure to the tip of the spear, he swung the bottom portion of the weapon towards his pants. The elderly man barely had enough time to parry the strike with his battle axe. There they both were, standing against each other, pushing their weapons against one another's. The man with the spear kept applying pressure on the midsection of the lance, while he speedily swung his left hand hard into his face. The older man recoiled in pain, and the first one took this opportunity and struck him in the chest with the spear, hard. His body armor looked close to shattering, and he didn't have enough of a charge left to summon some armor of the same calibur. He was being beaten, and he knew it. In addition to that, he realized he had never even landed a blow on the younger man. He was becoming desperate. "They're just staring at each other! C'mon, cut his arm off or something," chanted Ryan. God, he was really getting into this fight! It felt it was a little unhealthy for him to really want another human hurt, but I could care less now. The paladins had started fighting again.

As the repeated swings and lunges coming from the old man kept missing, he seemed to be losing his vigor. He was wearing himself down, while the other man easily sidestepped every swing, predicting every next movement. Right, back, left, left duck to the right, back, left, then swing the spear. The tip connected with the middle of the chest plate, shattering it and causing it to fade away. The old man knew he was on his last legs, and reconnected the axe to his heel. He reached for the shield over his shoulder, a point at which the younger opponent could have easily ended the fight, but he allowed his rival a few seconds to spare. The next thing the old man did was extremely unexpected, and even more risky. As he was about to lock the shield onto his arm, he grabbed it in his shield with his free hand and whipped it like a frizbee at the other man's shins. The man reacted surprisingly fast, planting his spear into the ground in front of him, but the shield had too much power behind it and knocked him on his back. The older man's stupid and risky plan had actually paye off, but he had a mere fraction of a second before his opponent was back on his feet. He had already snapped the shield in half, causing it to disintegrate. He used the last of his energy to restore some decent armor. It wasn't anything super powerful, but it could take a few hits. The guy who was previously on the ground leaped back up, and I could clearly see from thirty feet away, he was angry. He undid the straps on his other two spears and got in a battle stance. He wielded one of the spears in his left hand, and the other two in his right. He started swirling the lance in his left hand around in circles. After it picked up speed, he threw it high up in the air, still twirling. He then started swinging the other two spears in seperate hands. Right as the airborne spear started plummeting back to the ground, he tossed up the lance in his right hand to around the same height. He caught the first spear while it was spinning and kept it in motion, slowly progressing towards the man. As the "Fans of Death" swirled around in the man's hands, the older challenger was trying to decide what was left to try. All he had remaining was some armor, his axe, and the broadsword. And he was all out of energy, both physically and electronically. He did what he could to block the spears, but everytime he thought he blocked it, his younger apponent would counter. He knew what was left to do, and admitted defeat. "I surrender!" he cried.

Chapter 9 As I watched the one man slowly rise off of the ground to shake his opponent's hand, high ranking officers started to scatter the viewers. I guess they must not want average operratives knowing about the new secret mission. My sense of curiosity was quickly eating away at my common sense. I tried turning around and ducking under one of the guards, but he just moved his foot into my path, and pressed onward. I would have kept trying, if it hadn't been for the fact that I slowly became aware of Ryan tearing at my arm. "...Come over here. Ivy got herself a new mission. And while at it, she found one for you and me." It took my brain a few seconds to switch from completely focused on the paladins to what Ryan was saying, but when I finally translated his rabble into proper English, I was just as excited as he was. "Do you remember the last time we had been on a mission together?" As a matter of fact, I did.

Me and Ryan had been ordered to reduce to population of wood gnomes. Wood gnomes were a variety of gnomes that were made entirely out of wood. There were also rock gnomes, clay gnomes, and magma gnomes. When we got to the burrow of the wood gnomes, me and Ryan decided to have a small contest. All we were allowed to use as weapons were our own armor. At first, I didn't quite comprehend what Ryan meant by that. All I did was conjure up the most durable armor I had at the time, and Ryan did the same. But when the first gnome came out of the hole, Ryan jumped up high into the air and body slammed the gnome, crushing the gnome to splinters. Then I started to understand his idea, but by then Ryan had crushed another three against a tree. Ryan four, me zip. I noticed a few of them climbing out of a backup exit at the bottom of a hill. As they started to trek up the hill, I had an ingenious idea. I got on my butt and started to slide down the muddy hill. It was too late for the gnomes to back track, so they just tried to stand their ground. At that moment I understood what smashing through wood gnomes going twenty five miles an hour down a 55 degree angle felt like. As of now, me amd Ryan were tied at about twenty. I quickly dashed over to a group of three gnomes and did half a back flip over them, demolishing them with my weight. Before either of us could continue on a loud, low grumble sounded out from beneath us, from the gnomes' lair. As I continued pummeling the poor, defenseless gnomes, the proud owner of the grumble decided to show himself. All gnomes have a form of "Champion", so to say. It could be a gnome, it could be something else. I had even heard stories of orcs being persuaded to leave their barren wasteland kingdoms to fight for the gnome armada.

If that would have been the case, Ryan and I would have immediately quit our silly game and suited up for one heck of a fight. Orcs are generally anywhere from six to nine feet tall, and have green skin. Two very notable features. They typically have long canines that will protrude from the bottoms of their mouths. They are a more advanced race of mythical creatures, comparable to elves or dwarfs. They typically wear a form of steel or iron armor with a lighter chain mail beneath it. They are considered warriors, so their weapons would most likely be swords, maces, spears, and shields. Orcs are known to be just as intelligent, fast, and cunning as humans. Plus, they were your everyday super man when it came to strength. When an Orc is in the area, you most definitely do not want tickets to the gun show, if you know what I mean.

Like I said though, that wasn't the case. As the champion of the gnomes revealed itself, I had to bite my lip to contain my growing need to burst into laughter. The lord of all the gnomes was a sprite! A tiny sprite, no bigger than a hand, was in charge of the army of buffoons. Sprites are tiny fairies that lived strictly in the forest. They are only females, and wear intricate robes made of leaves, grass, spiderwebs, and just about everything else you could just find lying around in a forest. They are gifted mages, and specialize in elemental MAGIQ. They are hardly considered threats and, rarely show them selves to humans. They prefer peace to violence, but would give anything to protect the forest they live in. They normally traveled in large groups so their influence grows. I wonder why it was guarding a gnome village? I really didn't pay too much attention to things back then. As if the fact that she was stronger than any gnome wasn't funny enough, the gnomes all bowed down as the sprite came into view. In their primitive clicking language they started to get down on their knees and pray to her. The laughter poured out of me like the flames poured out of the forest guardian's hands. The inferno seemed to engulf everything, hiding the world from view. At least thats what it may have looked like to the sprite. I just kept laughing as the fireballs were thrown. They were about the equivalency of a match being lit and tossed at my armored chest. I finally started dieing when Ryan picked up a large fern and started swinging it at the sprite like a fly swatter. The sprite wouldn't dare hurt anything green, so it just floated there as Ryan smacked it to the ground. I was actually in pain from rolling on the ground laughing, but not as bad as the sprite was hurting. It was a hilarious memory. It was one of my favorite missions.

Chapter 10 "Of course I remember. I still have that fern that you beat up the sprite with." I told him. "Good thing you kept it. I'm convinced it's lucky. If it hadn't been there, that thing would have killed me," he mocked. I admired his sense of humor.