Chapter 450 - The War (8)

Irritated as hell, Ziu rushed outside the control room to find the General. He opened the doors of all the rooms that surrounded the control room, but he was nowhere to be found. In fact there was no soldier there. He dashed to the field outside. 

The entire area, which was an hour ago bustling with human activity, was vacant with only three soldiers going back to their cabins after they had taxied off the aircrafts. An hour ago he was making various plans on how to trample and overthrow Adrianna and now the place was as quiet as a ghost town. 

He went to the enclosure where the tanks were standing. Once again he noticed that there were only two troopers standing. They were talking while smoking a cigarette turn by turn. One of them was leaning against a tank's closed door. 

Ziu went to them. The two of them were pretty perplexed when they saw him standing so near to them. 

"Good- good evening Sir," said one of them hiding his cigarette behind him as the other boy waved the smoke in front of his face to disperse it. 

"Where is the General?" he asked with a serious expression. His eyes were pointed and his fists were closed as if he would punch them on hearing anything negative. 

"We don't know, Sir," came the reply. 

Ziu's expressions changed to something so deadly that the boys started quivering. "The lieutenant inside the control room keeps the track of the General and maintains his schedule. That boy is his secretary in the office too. He will tell you."

Ziu punched the door of the tank on which he was leaning hard. That boy was lying unconscious in the room. A dent was created in the iron. The boys became afraid of the man. Slowly, they moved out and stood at a distance. 

"Tell all those who are responsible for driving these tanks to be ready for the order to leave from here. Tell them to get dressed appropriately. These tanks will leave in the next thirty minutes," Ziu commanded. 

"Yes Sir," said the boy with quivering lips. 

Ziu went back to the control room and entered the cell of the boy who was still unconscious. However, to his surprise the last memory that the boy had of the General was when the screen had turned blank after all the previous lot of fighter jets had met with the accident. He came out of his cell and kicked the lifeless body. It flung across the room. Ziu punched his fist in his hand. "I will crush you, Adrianna! Watch me!"

--- 

Inside the dark waters of the lake Shang Kui swum everywhere. He crawled into each and every space to find the serpents. The ones that had somehow managed to hide from his wrath were extracted from their hideouts and killed mercilessly. Shang Kui clawed each one of them and shredded to pieces. He pelted their skins with his talons and ripped their bodies with his sharp teeth. He left a path of destruction as he reached the part of the lake, which was near the werewolves' territories. To his disappointment, there was no one there. 

He glided his way back searching for the enemy but the lake was flowing quietly with skins, flesh and corpses of serpents. The water had become darker, murkier and crimson. 

Shang Kui slithered all his way back to the end of the lake. As he emerged from the lake, his body shape shifted into the wizard. Half of his body was in the human form outside the lake's surface and the other half in the dragon form beneath the surface when he noticed fireworks in the far distance. The horizon was covered with faint flames of fire. He came out of the water, fully shape shifted as the wizard. He swam to the shore, wore his clothes and mounted his broom that was already waiting for him on his side. Shang Kui flew to the coordinates given by Adrianna for the emergency portal to her kingdom. She had asked him to specifically use only that portal. 

The fireflies were flying in a circle. More fireflies joined them when they sensed someone. Shang Kui entered the portal, victorious and satisfied to the core. 

--- 

Within thirty minutes the five tanks that were standing had the soldiers in them, ready to launch the attack. But their leader was skeptical. He asked Ziu who was overseeing the operation personally, "How are we going to reach the field? We cannot just drive through the town and wake up the people. We are not authorized to do that. It will create panic amongst the residents."

"You don't have to worry about that," snarled Ziu. "When you reach there, launch your bombs on the wall immediately." 

"Okay," grunted the leader. He had gone inside the tank and cussed Ziu. This entire war was so not needed. He had to talk to the General. 

Ziu snapped his fingers. He disappeared from there only to appear on the highest rock that was on the ground near the building. Taking his wand out, Ziu waved it towards the tanks. White sparkly lights zapped around all tanks and suddenly all of them vanished from there. 

The leader was shocked to find themselves amongst the rest of the troupes that were stationed on the east side of the Wizard Kingdom. 

--- 

The aircrafts had taxied off and they had flown to the same coordinates as the General had asked them instead of the ones that Ziu had mentioned. The General had explained to them well that no matter what, they should follow his command. When they reached the desired location, they all saw a gigantic circle of concentric golden yellow rings that floated inside it. 

The team was flying in a way that they harmed a 'V'. The leader was at the helm. When they were a hundred meters away, the leader shouted in his microphone, "Eject!" 

All the pilots ejected together. 

The abandoned fighter jets entered the time circle. 

The pilots landed safely on the ground outside the Wizard Kingdom. 

The jets once again witnessed a time warp. Once again the jets were made to crash against the rocky mountains by the wizards.

And the resulting explosion was what Shang Kui witnessed when he emerged from the lake.