The Native

'Hm?' the fleeing native glanced over his shoulder and noticed three youths chasing after him.

One was silver haired, holding two short spears which glinted with menacing light. Another who was much brawnier carried with him a broadsword while the last was dark haired, holding a sword which glowed blue.

But how did they notice him?

His getaway hadn't even been noticed by the commander of the enemy forces!

He could only blame it on bad luck.

'Shit!' he cursed and increased his speed.

Behind him, walls of earth formed a barrier to impede the three enemies hot on his heels.

Sounds of metal cleaving through stone resounded in the grassland as Brutus directly plowed through the earthen walls with his broadsword!

Beside Brutus, Jax hurled his spear with full force at the fleeing back of the native.

'Yo Jax, we're not to kill!' Brutus yelled.

'Unnecessarily! This dude commanded his homies to attack us with magic. If we don't end him now, won't he cause more trouble?' retorted Jax.

Sensing the incoming spear, the native was forced to turn and summon a thicker earthen wall which was able to stop the advance of the spear.

He turned and sprinted off again but the distance between them had grown shorter.

Jax somersaulted beautifully over the wall of earth, grabbing his spear in the process, right before Brutus bulldozed through it.

'We should have picked a blaster,' Denzel cursed in annoyance.

If they had a blaster, nabbing this slippery native would have been easier than ever.

Unfortunately, none of them had deigned to take one.

Thus, they could only chase the native.

Jax threw his spear again but the native ducked, causing the spear to fly over his head and into the distance.

Jax smirked. 'Idiot!'

Clearly, the native thought that by dodging that spear, Jax would be handicapped but how could he have known Jax's spear had a recall and auto-targeting function?

His eyes widened in horror as he hastily constructed a wall of earth to block the spear which was headed for his chest!

Due to the low thickness of the wall, the spear directly penetrated through it and was but inches from striking his heart!

Cold sweat run down his spine as he looked over his shoulder again.

Gritting his teeth, he decided to turn and face them!

If he didn't dispose of them, they would hound him and eventually kill him.

Raising his hands, the earth in front of the trio started to stack up, forming a flat stairway.

As they continued to run, the stairway increased in height, forcing the trio to keep running up and up and up.

Finally, the earthen stair stopped, leaving the three boys hanging of a ledge which led to a hundred-foot fall, guaranteed to cause broken bones!

They skidded to a stop at the very edge and watched in anger as the native smiled at them and sprinted away.

'Fuck!' Brutus cursed, watching on helplessly as the native became but a dot in the distance.

'Well that certainly is a unique way to manipulate the earth,' Denzel clicked his tongue as he slid back down to the ground.

'All is not lost guys. When he was near my spear, I marked him. As long as he is within a ten kilometer range, my spear will be able to track his location.' Jax smirked.

He tapped something into the communicator on his wrist and his spear glowed, retracting from the wall.

'Then what are waiting for?' Brutus said.

Seconds later, the three boys sprinted after the hovering spear.

…

'What do you mean Gaelen-II is under attack?!' fumed councilor Gaul.

His forehead bristled with rage, causing the red hexagram on his forehead to become even brighter.

'Gaia invaded Gaelen-II an hour ago, milords. The outpost on the planet has been nuked and all those inside dead.

Only a couple of imperial soldiers who were far away from the explosion site remain,' answered the silver robed man.

Boreas was so furious that he lost control of his power.

*BOOM!

Maids and plates of food were sent flying into the distance but with a wave of his hand, Stafyllidis stabilized the fluctuations of energy.

Vanna said coldly, 'Control yourself Boreas.'

Stafyllidis asked, 'How many forces did they send onto the planet?'

'Everyone, even their reserves.'

Stafyllidis narrowed his eyes and rose up from his seat, the other councilors with him.

'This Zhang fellow is too much! How dare he attack Gaelen-II? All the work we've done will be for naught!' Seren complained.

'Deploy the Imperial fleet to claim that planet right away!' Boreas roared.

'We will have none of that,' said Stafyllidis, looking at Boreas at the corner of his eyes.

The other four councilors looked at him incredulously. 'Stafyllidis, have you lost your mind! We cannot allow them to invade Gaelen-II!

You know how hard we've worked to keep that planet off the radar!' Gaul fumed.

'I understand your concerns and I am as pissed as you are. Nevertheless, let us look at this rationally to avoid mistakes.

If we attack the Gaians right now, we'll have revolts on our hands. Many planets will leave the Federation outright and everything we have worked for will be for naught!

Already, some believe we have too much power for our own good and are waiting for the right opportunity to take us down,' Stafyllidis explained.

Vanna, who was also rational nodded. 'I agree with Stafyllidis. We can't move the Imperial fleet to stop the Gaians.

Not if we want everyone to know what we've discovered.'

'So what do we do?' asked Boreas.

Thinking wasn't really his forte. He preferred to settle most things with brute force.

'We use soft and hard tactics to get them off the planet, secretly. Of course, if they refuse, we can directly apply sanctions and accuse them of unlawful invasion.

By then, nothing stops us from attacking them.

We shouldn't have pushed them to the wall that much.

Their desperation forced them to do this...' Stafyllidis paused.

'We'll offer Zhang an uninhabited planet with the condition that he lives Gaelen-II alone.

It's too early for him to discover that resource and the natives are hostile; they won't divulge the location of those mines easily.

If he's wise, he'll leave silently.

If he refuses, we then have the chance to attack him lawfully and get him off the planet,' continued Stafyllidis.

The other councilors nodded in agreement.

Clearly, due to their planet dying, the Gaians had been forced to invade Gaelen-II. If the Council 'took a step back' and offered them a planet of their own without other inhabitants, they would be happy.

If they refused, the Council could just announce to the Federation that Gaia had turned into a pack of rabid dogs, invading and slaughtering the people on an innocent planet.

They would have every right to attack the Gaians, drive them off the planet and move most of their forces there to 'protect' the planet.

'Very well. Let's call that brat then,' Gaul narrowed his eyes.

…

'How come the bastard is so fast?' Brutus complained even as he sprinted after Jax's spear.

'This planet sure is strange. I don't think any planet in the galaxy has the ability to use elemental powers!' Denzel said.

'Well, once we capture that native, we'll naturally find out everything. This time we might make a huge contribution!' Jax smirked.

If they were able to find out how the natives used elements, they would be rewarded heavily by the military and government!

Hell, they could even get a medal or two.

Suddenly the spear came to a stop in a rocky territory, hovering over a boulder.

Brutus looked at Jax. 'Why the hell did your spear stop? Can't it track the native anymore?'

Jax furrowed his brows and checked out his wrist comm. 'It's still locked in. He must be nearby!'

'So you mean he's in the boulder?'

'Maybe… or even beneath the earth, who knows? Let's just move this boulder.'

Exchanging glances, the three boys took a firm stance behind the huge boulder and firmly rolled it away.

Underneath it was still normal-looking earth.

'I guess we have to dig then,' Jax rolled his eyes.

Denzel regarded the spot, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

Suddenly, he swung his psionic blade, splitting the ground into two.

Chunks of earth caved in, revealing a hole underneath the Earth!

Without hesitation, the spear which had been previously hovering over the boulder, zoomed into the hole.

Jax couldn't help but clap. 'Wow. Very clever.'

'Let's go!' Denzel jumped into the hole.

Jax and Brutus exchanged glances and followed him inside.