TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue--------------------------------------3

Leaving Home Base---------------------11

The Desert----------------------------------18

The Oasis------------------------------------25

The Siege------------------------------------36

The Escape----------------------------------42

                     Prologue

"You have to be ready." Tydu looked up at the raised platform above him, and Master Boli standing upon it. "You have to be prepared for anything." Boli flipped backwards and landed in front of Tydu, lifting his hand out towards the wall on Tydu's right, lined with Boli's swords. "Watch this." Boli closed his eyes and shuddered as the air rippled around his hand and the sword's hilt flew across the room to meet Boli's hand. "Be quick!" Boli sliced the sword across Tydu's stomach and chuckled as he collapsed to the ground, screaming as he clutched his gut. "You lost because you're too slow." "I'm sorry, Master Boli. Maybe this is just too much training for me."

Prologue

"No. You are to stay in Clidiiland until you're ready to win a war." "But there is no war!" Tydu cried, slowly getting up onto his feet, still covering his torso with his right arm. "Let go of yourself, Tydu. Drift off into unconsciousness. Can't you see? You were destined for so much." Tydu laughed coldly, blood beginning to bubble in his mouth. "No. You want me dead." Now Boli laughed. "I don't want you dead, Okllka. I want you to fulfill your destiny. Become a hero and destroy your enemies. Take over Mentite. Kill Mentatenta I." "No, Boli.

Prologue

I don't take orders from a monster." "I, a monster? Far from it, Tydu. You're the monster. And you need to accept it. You were born to kill. Now fight me!" Boli used telekinesis to send a sword flying into Tydu's right hand, and he grabbed it, letting go of his stomach. "It's over for you, Boli," he said, smirking as he spun around, sword raised above his head, and sent it crashing down onto Boli. Boli blocked it with his own sword, backing up and pulling a grapple from his belt. He swung up onto the rafters of the dimly-lit warehouse, running along the 

Prologue

narrow two-by-fours until he finally dropped down behind Tydu, stirring the dust on the floor. Tydu was just about to strike again when the doorbell rang. "They've found our base," Boli said, snapping his fingers. The swords disappeared. "Take the hatch," Boli ordered, slowly clomping across the warehouse towards the front door. "Yes, sir," Tydu said dutifully, running towards a hatch, hidden under a layer of dust in the corner. He wiped the dust off and grabbed the handle. The trapdoor slid open with a hiss as he jumped in. He felt his body 

Prologue

fall, and he heard a monotonous, electronic voice chirp "Three. Two. One." Tydu flipped himself so that he should crash headfirst into whatever was below him, stretching his body out into a diving position. He finally slammed into water, feeling it flow around him, and opening his eyes to see where he was. He was in the middle of a huge pool, fit for an intergalactic king. He was about ten feet under, so he prioritised reaching the surface, and soon found himself breathing heavily as he kicked his legs to keep himself afloat. He looked around  

Prologue

and saw lanterns dotting a path that wrapped around the pool. On the wall farthest from Tydu, he saw hundreds of bottles of water and packed meals. Upon closer examination, he discovered that there was a toilet, and a stove, too. Tydu began to head towards a ladder on the other side of the pool, one of four that were placed on each wall. Just as he climbed back up and laid there, finally resting on the path just inches away from the pool, he heard three consecutive gunshots, then a scream. Boli's scream. Tydu gasped, running along the 

Prologue

path and looking for a way to climb up to the hatch. Just then, the hatch slid open, and a bloodied body fell down into the pool, tainting it with red. An alarm began to ring as Tydu dove into the pool and swam up to the body. Boli. Tydu screamed as seven police officers fell down the hatch and splashed in the water next to Tydu. Tydu threw himself toward them, pulling one under the water as the others were still blinded. As the alarm continued to wail, and the police officer under Tydu flailed, a red button seemed to slide out of the wall, setting in place among  

Prologue

the bricks. Tydu let go of the police officer as he finally sunk into the depths, swimming over to the wall and climbing out. He ran over to the button, closed his eyes, and reached his hand out to press it.

            Leaving Home Base

Tydu was flung backwards against the wall instantly. He heard a snap, the break of his left arm, and slid along the brick wall, finally collapsing on the path by the pool. He heard the alarm continuing to screech, followed by more explosions. He kept his eyes closed as the ground crumbled around him, and he finally heard an explosion close to his feet, and he flew backwards again, finally landing in water. When he opened his eyes, all he saw was blinding, burning red. He screamed underwater, pulling himself up onto the broken, shattered ground as the alarm continued ringing. The path around the pool was destroyed, chunks of stone and rock littering the 

Leaving Home Base

ground. Various body parts were floating in the pool and stuck to the wall, and he even saw a full body frozen in place, reaching for Tydu, screaming. The police officers were gone, for the button had released several missiles down from the ceiling and walls. Tydu got to his feet and walked down the unstable path, gasping and bracing for impact when the ground wobbled and slid out from under him. He tripped a few times along the way, but eventually found, on the wall beside the stove, a grapple. He picked it up, aimed it at the opening that led to the 

Leaving Home Base

hatch, and shot it. He felt his body fly up into the air as he held tightly to the grapple, slamming into the wall and grunting, spinning in circles as he slowly rose up towards the open hatch, laughing when he saw the perfect way the hook latched onto the hatch's handle. He climbed out to see the warehouse burned to the ground. The bullets that missed Boli were still stuck into the dirt, and Boli's swords were laying in a pile on the floor. "What happened here?" Tydu asked. Nobody was there. A faint siren began to sound in the distance. "They're here." 

Leaving Home Base

Tydu rolled out of the way of a bullet, grabbing a special green sword from the pile. Take this if they find us, Tydu remembered Boli saying to him. It will create Quickshot. You will be saved. Tydu chuckled as he ran across the ruins and lunged over a chunk of flaming metal, whipping the sword out and blocking a series of shots from the Clidii military. He whistled and threw the sword into the air, cheering when a huge orange-red bird popped into existence, screeching as it dove down and caught Tydu with its claws. Tydu shot his grapple at a 

Leaving Home Base

normal silver-bladed sword, catching it and dragging it through the air behind him as he held onto the giant bird. "We've done it, Quickshot. Now we just need to get out of this desert."

Tydu awoke sprawled out on a sand dune, shaking the sand off him as he got to his feet. Quickshot was collapsed in the sand next to him, with a torn wing and a broken claw. "What happened?" Tydu asked. He had been flying on the bird, hundreds of feet in the air, when 

Leaving Home Base

the bird's wing was shot. He'd been asleep when the attack happened, but the bird slowly dipped, then dove downwards, finally catching itself twenty feet in the air. Tydu had flown off of the bird, slamming into the sand dune, and the bird had hit the ground at incredible speeds, attempting to brace himself with his claws. His left claw had snapped, though, and it couldn't fly. Tydu clomped up the sand dune, leaving the bird, and gasped when he saw what lay ahead of him. A huge base, built into a cliff, with thousands of aliens shuffling around in

Leaving Home Base

hallways exposed to the vertical drop. And at the top of the plateau, above the cliff and the precariously placed hallways, stood a man with a sniper in his hands. And it was aimed at Tydu. 

                 The Desert

Tydu dove out of the way of the shot, slamming into the sand and coughing. He heard a faint alarm, reminiscent of the one in the warehouse, and when he looked up, hundreds of aliens had weapons pointed at him from the distant cliff. "Fight me, then!" he cried, the word 'then' turning into a scream as a grapple's hook flew at him. It caught his shirt, and as he tried to pull it off, he soared through the air, ever closer to the top of the plateau. He suddenly jerked up into the air, slamming into the alien with the turret. Tydu laughed as he kicked the alien's face, knocking him off the plateau and landing next to the turret, pulling the hook off of his shirt at long last.

The Desert

He spun the turret around smoothly, shooting the first alien that poked its head up from a stairwell that led from the base to the plateau. "Come at me!" he cried, taking his time to observe the desert around him in between shots. The bird's body was still laying there, and Tydu suddenly realised it was dead. Sand dune after sand dune, with a sign in the distance, west of the alien base. He couldn't read it, obviously, but he could head down then and reach the sign by nightfall. He decided to do exactly that, tearing the turret off of its stand and 

The Desert

lugging it down the stairwell and down the hall. The aliens gasped whenever they saw him, but he shot every one he could find to keep them quiet. He tried to give the first one he saw a chance, to let him live, but the alien had pulled a horn out and attempted to blow it. Tydu shot him seven times in the chest before he could touch his lips to the horn, and laughed as the alien slid down the wall, leaving a bloody stain on the white marble tiles. Tydu looked up at the ceiling, which was also tiles, but this time resembling a Clidii apartment. He finally found 

The Desert

a room with a huge open balcony. No railings. Just a drop into the sand hundreds of feet below. The walls were lined with parachutes, and Tydu grabbed one, diving off the ledge and pulling his parachute out. He suddenly jolted up and floated through the air over the endless sand, slowly moving towards the sign. He heard the aliens screaming, followed by the sound of the horn and three poofs. Tydu turned around and saw three aliens with wings chasing him. He screamed and jerked his parachute downwards, falling through the air until he

The Desert

pulled it up seconds before he hit the ground. He screamed as he flew up, dropping the parachute, then fell back down towards the ground. The aliens were still chasing him on their wings, and Tydu began to run shakily towards the sign, which grew closer and closer as he charged. "Come on!" one of the aliens cried, dropping down directly on Tydu's head. Tydu screamed and grabbed a knife from his pocket, flipping it open and stabbing it quickly behind his head. The alien let go and crashed into the sand, screaming in pain and clutching 

The Desert

its chest. "COMEON!" the same alien cried as Tydu reached the sign. "Finally," Tydu said, turning the sign around so he could read it. It read: 

                              The Oasis

                          7 miles up the path

                       Beware of the Gunbubeasts.
                           Sincerely, Lokomi

"Who's Lokomi?" Tydu asked himself. "And what's a Gunbubeast?" He saw a tall hill ahead of him and he climbed up it, slow and steady. He gasped as he finally 

The Desert

made it to the top of the hill, and with the aliens close behind, he looked ahead of him. A huge city, made with sandstone and jewels, stood ahead of him, complete with a huge sandstone skyscraper, flooding at the top with the clearest, most beautiful water he'd ever seen. It flew down the fountain-esque skyscraper, pooling in a huge basin that covered half the city. "What is this?" "The Oasis," someone whispered behind him. He turned to see Boli, glowing a golden yellow, floating in the air at the top of the sand dune. 

               The Oasis

As Tydu reached the city, he saw, for the first time, how many people truly lived there. The streets were crowded, full of sweat-covered men and skinny, tall women, walking around the city carrying baskets of fruit and bricks of sandstone. Vendors stood behind stands that lined main street, waving and offering food and other items. "Come on!" someone said to his friends, walking up and slapping Tydu on the back. "A newcomer! I have an idea," he said, pulling Tydu into a dark alleyway, where garbage piled up in the corners between high-rises and brown, decaying bricks stood, stretching into 

The Oasis

the sky on all sides. The man's friends clomped into the alleyway behind him, cracking their knuckles. "We're not gonna beat him up," the man boomed, and his friends all seemed to shrink. "We want to stage a coup. Take over the Oasis. You can be our leader. You just... emanate power. You're from Boli's warehouse out in the middle of nowhere, aren't you?" Tydu nodded. "I knew it. So I kinda convinced Boli's last apprentice to rebel against the Oasis and he died, but I think you're better. Oh, yeah! By the way," he added, looking around the alleyway and 

The Oasis

peeking his head out to look across the street, "where is Boli?" "The police killed him," Tydu said sadly, looking up into the sky. The sun flared brighter, and Tydu swore he could see Boli's face. "Take me to those officers," the man seethed, punching his palm. "I killed them," Tydu said, pulling a sword out of his shirt. "We need to get you a proper holster," the man said, clomping out of the alleyway and dropping three femurs onto a stand marked HOLSTERS FOR SWORD. The small, round man behind the stand reached underneath the stand and 

The Oasis

pulled out a holster. The man from the alleyway grabbed the holster and brought it back to Tydu. "Oh! What's your name?" the man asked Tydu. "I'm Tydu," Tydu said. "Well, Tydu, I think we're ready to start our coup right now. Follow me to Lokomi's place. It's that skyscraper up there." The man pointed at the shiny fountain skyscraper. "That water's about to turn red." Tydu looked up at the water, not wanting to ruin the perfection of the pristine palace. "We're gonna kill Lokomi?" Tydu said, confused. "Yeah. He keeps raising the taxes and taking all the

The Oasis

gold. That's why he's got a huge palace and we have to use animal bones as money." Tydu nodded. "After we do this, where's the nearest city from here?" "It's Nükitük, but you're not leaving. You're staying here at the Oasis, as the new leader, and you're gonna make some reforms." 

"We have news," Wright I sighed, sitting down at the table in Acenecrell Hall. "There's a new threat in Clidiiland. Apparently Boli's apprentice escaped the raid,

The Oasis

and he's at the Oasis now. With tensions rising, this might result in a huge riot in Clidiiland, specifically in the capital, Clidhaara." Pokollo Sriiet, the guider of the kings, stepped into the meeting room, chuckling at the 3D map of Clidiiland projected onto the screen. "It's very simple, my friend. Launch a siege on the Oasis, find Tydu, and kill him in front of the masses in Clidhaara. Crush their dreams of revolution." Wright I sighed, turning to King Pwooplin. "Make a decision, your Highness," Wright I said, staring at the king. "We'll have to launch the siege."

The Oasis

"Here they are. A maze of underground tunnels, one of which will lead us to the palace. The area near the palace, above and below ground, is heavily guarded, but it'll be easier to go underground, 'cause we can just blow 'em to bits." Tydu chuckled, swinging his sword. "Explosives won't be necessary. I'm... sneaky." The man grabbed Tydu's arm, whipping out a dagger. "The goal is to do this quickly, with as much damage as possible. The big men will see what we're made of." "What's your name anyway?" Tydu asked as he stepped into the rusty, dusty,

The Oasis

crusty, musty tunnels. "It's Xvil. Xvil Yusia. Me and my men, we're a team. And we're gonna go down fighting. You're gonna pick up the pieces." Tydu gulped as he pulled out his sword and walked into the darkness.

Lokomi stepped down from his throne and walked across the red carpet, towards the two open wooden doors in front of the castle's drawbridge. Something was rumbling on the other side of the drawbridge, hidden from view. Something huge. "Who's here?" he asked,