Devils Own ( Steampunk and Mystic ) 5.2

5.2

Kassius found himself frozen in his limbs while he was in the gateway; floating yet moving with various speeds through the realm that was there. He saw strange landscapes and images that will haunt him; images in vivid or distorted colors. He saw images of himself from his childhood to his current age but they were different from what he had experienced. Later, he saw images of different landscapes from dry to wet and the vast oceans as if he was sailing on it, then to the limits of the skies. He found himself afloat in total darkness and then bathe in sunlight but there was nothing he could do to protect himself.  The next stage of his trip saw him slowed down to more images, but then the senses of his mind came into play. He could smell, hear and even feel the sensation around him; the sultry salt on his tongue and the prickly feel of the heat on his skin. At the last stage, he felt his body was intruded by the sight of lights that penetrate his body without harming him. He tried to move his face but it was not possible. Just when he thought it was to last forever; an existence in limbo, he found himself stepping into a new land.

It was a land of dense jungle foliage and the screeching of the dwellers sounded through the trees. Kassius found himself standing on the solid grass land looking at the surrounding trees, and thick overhanging bushes. He crouched down to feel the blade of the grass, and then opened his mouth to taste the moisture in the air. It was all there and it was real. It was not an illusion or one that was created by the ring.

He had arrived.

He looked back to the ring that he was supposedly had stepped through but he found nothing there. There was no more metal ring there, but only the trees. He looked to the side of him and saw Irina with Derreen. They were in the same state of mind as he was. Just when he was to ask them of their well being, he sensed danger around him. His first instinct was to reach for the sword on his back. He swung it wide and found his target was the severed head of the serpent which fell to the grass land. It was a huge one with a head the size of Kassius thigh.

“Huh?” Kassius stepped back as he had never slay one that big. He had seen serpents but they were no thicker than his wrist, but that one was huge.

“There are more!” Irina warned him, while she reached for her flame shooter on her back. She grabbed the handle with the nozzle and pulled the trigger towards the nearby tree. It caught fire and the serpent on it fell down with the flames engulfing it. It was no ordinary flame but the same ones that Merlin inflicted on the dirigibles.

‘Praise with to you, Merlin.” Derreen muttered out while she reached for the slung bag of hers. Inside she pulled out the foot length stick and swirled it in front of her. “Reveal to me the hidden foes.”

Five more serpents fell from the branches as if it was not able to grasp the branches. They were all huge ones with the length of over twenty feet each. The serpents coiled up and raised its head to the height of five feet with their fangs revealed in their jaws. The unique part of the serpents was that on their scalp was some metallic skin that covered from there to the lower jaw.

“What the...” Irina muttered but her reply was the five shots that came from the trees. Each shot was well placed and took off the serpents’ head. Irina turned to look at the source of the firing and saw an elderly man stepped out from the cover of the trees. He was dressed in the blue tunic and darker pants tucked into the soft leather boots. He had on a waist belt with an ammo pouch and a foot long bayonet on the left side. His weapon looked like a rifle but it had seven flint lock barrels on it. It was an improvised version of the Nock Gun, but that one looked it fired off each barrel at a time, instead of one discharge.

“Sergeant Harper, Ma’am.” The shooter stepped forth with his rifle leveled at the serpents. “Those slitters are mighty dangerous. They ain’t dead until you see their eyes lose its red glisten.”

The sergeant was a man of average height with wide shoulders and sturdy frame, with his head piece that resembled a cap covered with the leaves from the trees. He reloaded the rifle while he approached the trio.

“We have been waiting for you since the message came through.” Sergeant Harper smiled to show his decaying teeth while he signaled for the rest to come out. There were three others, and all were dressed like the Sergeant but they carried the long barrel flintlock rifles.

“The Selected Ones at your service, Ma’am.” Sergeant Harper was obviously impressed with the ladies, and ignored Kassius. “We had our birdies told us you were coming through and awaited here. “Or there. We have a few location marked. Them so called gates are unpredictable.”

The sergeant looked to the dead serpents and then back to Derreen. He kicked at the nearby dead serpent on the body. He then crouched down and had his bayonet stabbed at it several times.

“That’s for my Maize and kid.” Sergeant Harper then looked to Derreen and smiled. “I am not sure if I was to ask. But if you could teach us some of your tricks, we might not be recruiting so often. These slitters had bitten or carted our mates more than we could recruit.”

“Actually~” Derreen was to explain when Kassius stepped in. The later was dressed in his uniform with the vambrace holding his daggers and the waist belt held his air pistol with the metal balls clip. On his back was the leather case that covered half his back. Inside it were his spare clips, more thin wires that was his basic tool for climbing and at times, to secured things and also medical supplies while his sword scabbard was on his back.

“Who are the Selected Ones?” Kassius interjected in. The sergeant looked at the former who had spoken. He gave him a once over and then remarked.

“Are you out of line, guardsman? I am addressing your Lady and respect ought to be maintained.” Sergeant Harper glared at the assassin. “More when I held top ranking here.”

“Pardon me, Sergeant…” Derreen intervened before the two get into an argument. “Kassius here is …our leader. He  ...”

Derreen was interrupted by the Sergeant. Kassius had also sensed the oncoming danger and drew out his sword. The Selected Ones had then surrounded the ladies and leveled their rifles to the trees. The sergeant did not have a chance to warn them before the creature appeared out of the trees. It was not any creature but a mechanical contraption that resembled an eight legged freak with an oblong fifteen feet by eight feet hull shaped on the top, and was armed with the twin mounted machine gun beneath the hull in the fore.

“Spiders!” One of the Chosen Ones shouted out and then fired his rifle. He was met with the spiked metal leg that came down onto his chest. He was impaled by it while the machine gun opened up. The gun took down two more Selected Ones, before the others managed to find cover among the tree trunks.

Kassius had jumped up to the branches and climbed up. He had reached the height where he could leap onto the spider contraption. He had missed the hull but his sword made contact with the side. It cut into the hull body and then he swung the sword to cut at the joints that held the left front leg. He managed to cut but ended up beneath the hull. The hull was twelve feet in height from the ground, but Kassius was focused on the three remaining left legs. He slashed through them and caused the spider contraption to topple onto its side. On the top of the hull was a hatch which was opened from the inside. The sergeant rushed forward to the open hatch and emptied his seven shots inside there.

“Damn! That felt good.” Sergeant Harper smiled. He then turned to the surviving Selected Ones. “Climb in and remove the guns. And ammo.”

The surviving unit member climbed in while the sergeant slides off the hull. Sergeant Harper saw Derreen glaring at him and he nodded back.

“I would have climbed in but my left knee gets cranky when I moved it too much.” Sergeant Harper smiled. “We need to be going now. If one Spider is here, then the rest could be nearby.”

Sergeant Harper led the trio into the jungle and soon they reached a large bush. He moved the bush to reveal a covered doorway. He pulled it open and asked that they stepped in. Inside the pit was a stepped ladder with a strong pungent smell and it was lighted by the sunlight that shone through the opening. Once Kassius had descended down three steps, the pit was lighted up by two gases light on the side of the wall to reveal a tunnel in front of it.

“Move along the tunnel. It’s tight and your heads low.” Sergeant Harper told them. They proceeded along the tunnel for over a distance of a hundred feet. The tunnel was descending in its path before they reached a dug out cavern that measured fifty feet and twelve feet high with reinforced steel beams. In front of them was a gunner with a machine gun with a metal plate to cover the gunner from explosions.

“Jimmy, hold onto your braces. They are friends.” Sergeant Harper told the gunner. He then explained to Derreen that the gunner had lost his legs in an earlier battle and volunteered to guard the tunnel. They proceeded to the center of the cavern and there the sergeant held opened another doorway going down. They climbed down the ladder for over twenty feet before they leveled in another cavern. The cavern was smaller with a dimension of ten feet by ten feet, but there was a tunnel ahead. They walked that for over twenty feet before they climbed up another flight of ladder to another cavern that resembled the first one. This one had another guard, and was holding a rifle leveled at them. Sergeant Harper ignored the guard and led the three to the rear of the cavern into a longer tunnel. Finally they reached another exit which required them to climb up. They stepped out then into a stone walled chamber where a number of the so named Selected Ones were resting.

“Welcome to the Selected Ones Fortress. We prefer to call it Atlantis.”