Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion by Christian Kallias Read Free Book Online Page B

light
in the corridor. He held both cables at Argos’ temples while he was distracted by
his cut limb. An intense electrical current passed through his body and he
shrieked loudly as more and more juice traveled within his cranium.
    Slowly and
painfully, with jerky motion, he grabbed Ares’ left hand, diverting only a
little of the juice through him as he did so. Argos had trouble calling upon
enough strength to yank Ares’ hand away. The pain was excruciating and he
clenched his teeth tightly, electrical sparks and lightning running over his
dentition and between his eyes. Finally he mustered the necessary strength,
yanked one of the cables off and thrust it in Ares’ abdomen, who received the
deadly electrical current and dropped the other cable to the ground.
    Ares managed to
swipe away the cable currently juicing him with a swift motion of his hand and
took a few steps back.
    Argos’ rage
amplified tenfold. The entire base shook in response. Sparks flew off many
electrical components; paneling bent everywhere around them.
    Argos created a
fireball in his good hand and used it to cauterize his wound. While doing so he
felt something hit his face with little force.
    “Dropped
something?” said Ares, who had just thrown Argos’ severed hand at his face.
    Argos’ red eyes
shone so brightly that the light almost blinded Ares, who put his forearm in
front of his eyes to protect his sight.
    Meanwhile, Argos
slashed his good hand in the air vertically and Ares felt intense pain. He
looked for his left arm but it wasn’t there anymore. He saw it impact with the
ground.
    “Not so fun, is
it?” said Argos, with pure hate in his glowing eyes.
    Blood gushed from
Ares’ left shoulder. He put his other hand on the wound in an attempt to prevent
the blood loss.
    “I don’t care. That’s
one hand you won’t be using against Chase when he comes to take vengeance for
Sarah’s death!”
    “Sorry to
disappoint, Ares,” said Argos with a smile. He picked up his hand and put it
back on his severed limb. An intense red glow formed between the hand and the
forearm, and soon it was reattached. Argos moved his fingers.
    “I should have
cut off your head!” said Ares, with blood now flowing profusely from his mouth.
    “Yes, you should
have. Unfortunately, as much fun and surprisingly challenging as this
distraction of a fight has been, your time is up.”
    Ares looked
straight into Argos’ eyes and ran towards him.
    Argos smiled,
prepared a fireball and threw it at Ares. Using every bit of remaining energy,
Ares deflected the attack, slid to the floor between Argos’ legs and rolled
back up to his feet. He resumed running back towards the communications room.
He shot one fireball at the ceiling, collapsing some of it in his wake. In the
room he went for a control panel in one corner and lifted a glass flap to
reveal a large, red button, just as he heard Argos explode the rubble out of
his way to come running in pursuit.
    When their eyes
locked, Ares spoke. “Goodbye, asshole!” Argos understood Ares was about to hit
some sort of self-destruct and shot a fireball at the controls. But Ares’ fist
was faster and it struck the button full force before the fireball hit his hand
and exploded it clean off, sending sparks and blood all around the panel.
    “Self-destruct
damaged,” said a female voice through hidden speakers.
    “You’ve got to
be—” But Ares never finished his sentence.
    When he looked
down at his chest, he saw Argos’ arm impaling it, exploding his heart on its
way through. Everything turned black. Death was upon him now. After millenias
of living, with many good and bad choices, his last breath had finally been drawn.
    “Goodbye, Chase,”
he said, before Argos removed his arm from his chest in a swift motion.
    Ares’ body fell to
the ground.
    Argos snorted and
smiled. He healed his wounds and walked back towards his ship.
     
    *  
*   *
     
    Chase was eating
the flash-unfrozen sandwich that Keera