Shadowy Nights

Shadowy Nights is a story about Spydra's actions on Bara Magna. It takes place about the same time as The Legend Reborn.

Five years ago...
Two dozen Glatorian and Agori drove a caravan through the wastelands of Bara Magna. They were headed for Vulcanus, where the Glatorian would be fighting in the arena tonight for the Agori to watch. So excited were they that they never noticed a shadowy form watching them from behind a boulder. The strange creature witnessed the caravan head for the gates of the Fire village, and then his form shimmered and faded away.

Perditus, the prime vehicle pilot of the fire tribe, stood with his companions on the caravan. For a second, he had thought he had seen a shadowy form on top of a rock, but then he looked again. There was definitely nothing behind the boulder now, but he could have sworn he saw someone there.

He didn't see anything suspicious until he reached the gates of his village, and then he didn't see anything, as the caravan exploded beneath his feet and sent him hurtling through the air. He crashed into a rock and his semiconscious body skidded to a halt under an outcropping. He was just about to lose consciousness when a huge explosion outside made him jump up. He crawled across the floor to see what was going on.

The sight that met his startled eyes was shocking. It wasn't the burning caravan that caught his attention. It wasn't even the bodies of his Glatorian and Agori companions, frying in their armour. Rather, it was the huge form that towered over everything. Perditus couldn't see his form properly because it was dark, only his glowing red eyes. Then his body vanished as he teleported away. Perditus ran towards his companions. All of them were dead. All of their organic tissues had instantly been fried and disintegrated. All that was left was twenty-three burned-out shells of armour. There were no markings at all on the armour, but every scrap of organic tissue had been blasted out of existence in a millisecond. Their mysterious executioner was nowhere to be seen, but Perditus was taking no chances. Better to be safe than fried, he thought, keeping to the shadows as he made his way towards the gate, which was now only about thirty feet away. He took off running. Nothing tried to blast him from the inside out. Twenty feet...ten...five...he was in! There were living fire Agori all around him. The mysterious killer had not been into Vulcanus. That was good. I'll still have to tell them, though, thought Perditus. He walked over to his house, jumped into his Thornatus and switched on the engine. An instant later, he was away and headed for the centre of the village.