Mordred 1.2

The New Realm

The human eye is an organ that reacts to light and has several purposes. As a sense organ, the mammalian eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including colour differentiation and the perception of depth. The human eye can distinguish about 10 million colours. In my case, it was no different.

When I stepped from the lighted eatery into the darker zone of the street, I was momentarily blinded then. It was also the body was given a series of hits. I was to retaliate but the guy was fast with his moves on the punches. He got me down on my knees in seconds and then lashed out a knee onto my face. I fell backwards onto the dark dirty flooring. The murky water there splashed into my face while my elbows prevented me landing flat. I rolled to the side in time to avoid the stomp of the feet. That roll was not a favourable move but it allowed me to half crouched. It was a reprieve but the iron toe capped shoe was aimed at my face. I rolled aside but then I had lashed out with my right leg towards him. It was a hasty counter attack but it did knock him off his lunging leg. He lost his balance and fell next to me.

I knew then the fight was mine to finish.

I had my right leg lashed again out onto his face. He fell backwards onto the flooring where he tasted the murky water. He was a tough one and was soon getting up on his feet. He had one knee up and then the other before he was half crouched like a footballer. I have seen those moves before. It was called putting your weight behind your body slam. He came rushing at me just then when I was to stand up. I took the body slam by taking some steps backwards while bending my body along with it. In the same movement of the body I had my left fist extended out to hit at the right ribs of the guy.  

Wham!

I heard the bones cracked and he slowed down. I used the same momentum to turn my body to the right with the left leg. I moved into position in an angle where I could follow on with the right fist to move towards the left ribs.

Oomph!

There go two broken ribs on the poor guy. He went down clutching the chest where his ribs were broken. I stepped away from the body and use the left leg with a tight swing towards his face. The guy went down sideways and the fight was over. The crowd did not cheer then. I was not expecting that for they were not my fans but the fallen guy’s. I shrugged my shoulders then and looked towards them.

“Anyone wish to take his place?” I spoke before spitting out the blood in my mouth. I pushed my shoulders upright and heaved in a deep breath but my eyes did not take off those cunning bastards there. In the dimly lit alley, the single bulb shone like a beacon to all. It was then for none came forth to show their pugilistic skills. They proceeded to seek their way back to the eatery.

I stepped over my fallen opponent and reached for the large curved tooth that the guy wore around his neck. I pulled hard at it and held the tooth in my left hand. It resembled a large tooth of the dragon but that one was a fake. One made by the sweat shops to be bought by the idiots like my fallen foe. They think the tooth will make them stronger but in actual fact, it made them brash and most times ended up beaten if not dead. I seek the shining beacon of the eatery. I made my way to the front where I left my jacket. Old Man Daley was still on his seat holding my gun with the holster. I took that before slipping it on past my shoulders.

“Ouch!” I cried out. The darned guy gave me some good punches at my ribs, and it could be more than bruised.

“Mordred, we got to move. They called in for backup at the Square.” I heard my partner then and pushed the smile on my face. Both of us then moved to leave the eatery when the fans took in their champion brawler. I stopped at the doorway and faced those few fans.

“When he wakes up, tell him to leave my turf.” I cautioned them. “Hell Gates have only room for one demon hunter, and that is me. They called me Mordred but you can call me the Guardian.”

I then threw the curved tooth at them.

“When he wakes up, tell him that was a replicate from some sweat shop. It isn’t the dragon tooth but that of manmade ceramic piece.” I then staggered out to join Daley in the corvette that served as our patrol car. Daley was my partner, and we were both detectives of the Occult Squad. Street alley brawls was my other pastime besides investigating paranormal events.

Soon we reached the Square and the uniformed have cordoned off the area. It was past midnight but the crowd there hardly sleeps at those hours. Daley stopped the car after the cordoned line when he flagged his badge. The uniformed sneered at us before he lifted the tape for us to drive through. It was not us but Daley’s dark red corvette Stingray was the envy of the Precinct. It would had not matter much but Daley was squat and obese in his forties. That combination does not rhyme with the usual owner profile of a corvette. Poor Daley had to struggle in and out of the corvette most times. I was better off with my slimmer look but I don’t own the car or any with four wheels. My transport was the public trains and dirty cabs that ply the streets.

I stepped out of the corvette before latching on my own badge.

Lieutenant James Mordred aka the Guardian.

Fuck that rank ought to get me the lays among the ranks but with my usual selection, I may end classified as Necrophilia. In fact I have an obsession with them but I drew the line on the laid option.

“Mordred, you took your damned time to get here.” Captain Lovelet voice came out across the tarmac covered area like a resounding boom when the plane hits pass the sound level. The man was huge and with his uniform, he ought to be on the recruitment poster but his smile would have tarnished the image.  He looked like the Drill Master I saw in the Army Camp; everything that comes of his mouth was curses and more curses. If he was a wizard, his spell book would have made a good reading for the teenagers to learn new words. If his large frame does not impressed then looked at his sawn shotgun, there aren’t many who will comment on his look in the face after they saw the gun. The twelve gauge double barrel shot gun will wipe any smile of the face.

“I can see you were in one of your fights.” Nothing escaped the Captain’s observation. “You must have cost me one less vigilante on the demon hunt list.”

I was not there for the usual repertoire of ‘do not scare my members’ inspection. I shrugged my shoulders to ease the pressure of the holster on it. I felt the pain coursed through my body when I did that. Damned guy sure gave me a beating then until I floored him. Daley was trying to cover for me but he got shut up.

“Shut up, Daley.” Captain Lovelet lowered down the shot gun he carried every time. “I don’t need you telling me lies about Mordred.”

The Captain then looked towards me. He motioned with his shot gun to the rear of him by laying it on his right shoulder. There was the Square which we all knew. A slab of concrete measuring in equal length on all four sides at fifty feet and right in the middle was the flag pole. What was unique on the Square was the list of names casted into the flooring to show the forefathers of the city. Ironically, each day the pedestrian on the area just stepped over those names without a thought of it.