[Lord Stanley]

CHAPTER NINE

Klot had not seen the Imperial Guard at work before, but he knew that to be given the privilege of guarding the emperor, they had to be pretty impressive when they unloaded their guns into someone, and Klot didn’t want to stand around and become that someone. As the guards whirled toward him, moving for Emperor Essir to pass between them, raising their Inriks to their shoulders to fire, Klot moved.

He threw himself forward into a roll, grabbing the first guard around the ankles with his huge hands, attempting to plow the guard off his feet. The guard fell forward with a short cry – but before Klot could take advantage of it, the other guards fired their Inriks. Klot dove to the side, allowing seven bolts of Inric energy to blast the fallen guard to death.

All around him, the crowd of Vamps were running for their lives, screeching aloud in fear. Some males were pulling pistols from their pockets in self-defense, but Klot had no time to take notice of them; he was too busy putting his hard-earned gladiator skill’s to use against the emperor’s guards.

Inric bolts sizzled and fried the air around him, some spattering out against the stone floor of the Gladiator Complex. Klot rolled around on the floor, trying to get out of the way of the guard’s shots. He had no plan in mind except survival; was he going to merely escape the complex, or if he was going to fight back against the guards.

Any way he looked at the problem, he was still a wanted being. He ducked an Inric charge that would have blown his head off. Wanted by the Vamps, no less, the beings with the largest empire on Oddworld. What was he going to do even if he made it out of this deathtrap, past these super-armored Imperial Guards who were no longer even guarding their emperor –

That was it! That was the answer! If he could take Emperor Essir hostage –

He was so taken up by his momentary thought that he did not think to keep up his pattern of ducking and dodging, and an Inric bolt flew straight and true at him from behind.

Inric bolts were the Vamps’ greatest creations in war. Since the Vamps wanted land for their empire, they did not want weapons that caused overextreme collateral damage, they had designed the Inrics. Inric energy, tapped from the natural reserves of light and darkness combined, did damage to living flesh and bones only, causing no damage whatsoever to vegetation and inanimate matter. Of course, there was always the threat of armored enemy war machines, but the Inric guns always had extra mounted laser devices on the sides that could burn through almost anything.

Thus it was that, though the Inric bolt struck his hand, it did not burn through it; instead, the energy contained in the bolt dispersed through the bloodstream of his hand, setting his nerves afire. Klot fell to the floor, screaming in pain. Behind him, he could hear the footsteps of the Imperial Guards as they moved in for the kill –

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