NovaForge by Scott Toney Read Free Book Online Page A

there as well, but we must go.”

Chapter 5
     
    A crowd watched on as Ivanus and Riad entered the tunnels beneath Kaskal through the same passage they used before. The people were in awe, more of Riad than Ivanus, but more than fifty people watched as they descended into darkness. Julieth and Bayne remained in the city, on Julieth’s insistence that they help heal Kaskal as much as possible before their leaving in a day or two’s time.
    A shiver ran through Ivanus as he clutched handguns Riad had taken from compartments in his larger weapon. Static from their handles pricked the palms of his hands. “Do you think Kaskal’s people will be alright once we leave?” he asked Riad when they were far enough away from the entrance that they would not be heard. A faint blue glow shimmering off their weapons lit the dark.
    “Kaskal survived for centuries before we came,” Riad spoke. “I do not know if they could handle another attack, but their destruction is inevitable if Samuel is not challenged.”
    Ivanus led them. He could see a vast portion of the underground catacombs with his future-sight. He saw things as if they were behind a fogged glass. He had to focus to see them clearly, and as he saw some things, others would slip away.
    The stone floor beneath them was strange. In tunnels and caverns from his time there would have been moisture in the air and furry winged creatures that would fly screeching through the dark. But this cavern was dry, and though cooler than the land above, still warm. His lips were cracked because of the planet’s air.
    “How far must we go?” Riad asked, kicking a stone as he moved. The sound echoed around them.
    “It is a while further, and a level down.” Ivanus sensed something coming their direction, one of the creatures he sensed when he initially sighted what they were looking for. It startled with the echo Riad caused.
    An airy, guttural sound came from the tunnel before them. A shiver ran up Ivanus’s arms, his hair standing on end as he braced his handguns where he knew it would appear. He saw how he would fire a blast from each weapon, be hit by the beast and fall back before killing it. His sight was proving to be both a blessing and curse. He had quickly learned he could not change the order of events he envisioned, only live them out.
    “Stay back. The creature is mine,” he instructed Riad. “There are no others nearby.” He waited, his heart beating heavily and stress rising in his chest. He did not know when it would come, only that it would. The cold handles of the weapons were solid in his grip. The airy sound consumed his hearing as he leveled them.
    Consuming light and electricity erupted from his guns, booming against a wall of the chamber as the blasts narrowly missed a lanky, tone creature with claws lunging for him. It screeched, crashing against Ivanus and hammering him to the cavern floor. It thrashed its talon like claws against his chest, tearing out strips of leather from the vest he wore. Moist, wide eyes peered out from its skull.
    Ivanus punched a leg against the creature’s torso, causing it to suck in air and rasp before clawing toward him once more. Its chest met the barrel of one of Ivanus’s weapons, electricity evaporating the creature’s chest as the remainder of the thing’s body thrust backward and crumpled to the catacomb floor.
    “There are more!” Ivanus called out as he scrambled to stand and moved back near Riad, taking care not to be alone in a confrontation again.
    The airy guttural noises ceased moments later and a haunting feeling flooded over him. He knew they would be upon him and Riad soon. He saw the battle in his sight, and knew the horde now waited for that moment, staying just out of vision in the darkness, their wide eyes watching them. What intelligence do they have? he wondered. Are they beast, or some relation to man? That thought that worried him the most. They did not look like men, but these creatures had never