Chapter 10
As Zack walked along the path that he had found after leaving central city, he had out of curiosity pulled out his comcom, and pulled up the map function.
To his surprise he noticed that he was heading towards the Sol Caer Planes which he had only visited once before. He remembered that there was supposed to be an old ruined temple in the center of these planes, and checking the map against the coordinates that he had been given, he realized that that was his destination.
Setting the map Application to track his location, Zack put away his comcom, drew his steel saber, and began to jog along the path. As he hurried along, he thought back on what he knew about locations outside central city.
He knew that the Sol Caer planes had once been home to a tribe of sun worshipers. He had heard rumors over the last four years that some kind of group was reviving the cult, but so far nothing has come of it.
As Zack entered the plains, he glanced at his comcom, and altered his course ever so slightly. The sun beat down on him relentlessly as he continued jogging toward the temple.
Zach knew that these planes had a reputation for having nowhere to hide from the sun. Only night time would give an individual a break from the searing heat of the noon day sun.
Zack's comcom beeped. Looking at the display he saw that he was less than five minutes from the temple ruins. Slowing his pace, Zach approached the ruined temple with Narrowed eyes. He was already sweating because of this beating down sun, but for some reason he felt energized more than anything else. He couldn't explain it, this had never happened to him before. Slowing his pace even more he entered the ruined temple.
Glancing around Zack noticed that there was a doorway with boards piled up against one side. It was obvious that someone had recently cleared this doorway, and was waiting for him behind it. Zack however remembered the words from his eldest sister Christine one day.
"If it looks like a trap, feels like a trap, smells like a trap, then 99 percent of the time it is a trap."
Zach glanced around a little more. He noticed that another door that looked like it had recently been torn off had been replaced, and now seem to guard another entrance. What made this even more suspicious, was the fact that there were bricks actually piled up in front of the door.
"I wonder why they left that door open, but put such an obvious block in front of another one."
Zach drew one of Christine's specially made ninja stars. His throwing skill was absolutely awful, but he could still hit something especially if they weren't moving. He just had to be careful how he threw the star.
Walking up to the open door, Zach drew back his arm and tossed the star with a negligent flick of his wrist through the open door. There was no sound as he tossed the object through the doorway, until the star hit the back wall. Not hearing any kind of movement, Zach stood in front of the open doorway, then turned towards the blacktop door, and flicked another ninja star. This star sailed through the air, passed between two blocks, apparently passed through and illusionary door, then smacked into someone who let out a yell of surprise. Zack smile to himself.
Apparently, the open door was supposed to lore him into an enclosed space, well somebody else came at him from a door that appeared to be closed. Raising his saber, Zack ran across the room, jumped up onto the blocks, and dove through the illusionary door sword already swinging. In the room that looked like it was only about 10 feet square, there were four mast men. Every one of them was caring some kind of dart gun, although one of them was laying on the floor trying to pull out the ninja star that apparently had got stuck in his right arm. The other three had very little warning as Zach barreled through them his saber swinging not wildly, but with purpose.
"Cross cut strike". As Zach called out these words his sword seemed to blur as he cut across in front of him. His sword slashed up both arms of his first assailant, knocked the second one back on the backswing, and knocked the third down from the force of his fist which he had brought forward at the same time as he slashed.
All three of his assailants that he had attacked were out cold on the floor, either unconscious, or at the very least incapacitated. Turning to the one he had hit with a ninja star, Zach reached out, ripped off his mask, and delivered a devastating uppercut at least for him. That snapped the man's head back slamming it into the wall, and knocking him out.
Zach looked over the room breathing heavily after his sprint. He hadn't actually expected it to be that easy. After all his ninja star hitting one of his assailants would have warned the other three that somebody was coming. True it was possible they hadn't expected him, but they should've been a lot more prepared than they were. Zack wondered if where they were happening to have some detrimental effect on their response time. Searching the men, Zach found a note that said "If Zack was able to escape, attempt to direct him towards the Chrono mountains to the north west."
Zach blinked. He hadn't heard of these mountains before. Maybe they were known by a different name in the city? In any event he could see that Alain was not here, and so he determined to explore to the north west, and find these Chrono mountains that the note mentioned.