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Cole Sanders

Standing in the midst of the battle scene, everything feels superficial. 

It was just yesterday that I considered my basketball career to be the most hectic thing I would ever face in my life. Now, here I am, literally facing a life or death situation.

I've always been a team player, putting my trust in them and all, but this team was different; weird. I try to put my trust in them. I really do. But the way each moved didn't really help ease my nerves. 

"I want everyone to approach the nighlok from all sides," Bloom's sharp voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "We might be strong together, but the nighlok is stronger. We must weaken him first to get our perfect final blow."

"Scared to face the nighlok head on?" Jax remarked, and I could almost imagine him smirking within the helmet. 

Bloom simply shakes her head and continues. "Don't try to destroy him now. Just focus on weakening him. We need our strength for the quintuple slash."

The first few things I learned when I heard the news of becoming a ranger was the quintuple slash, and as far as I know, it isn't that power consuming. It is true you need high symbol power for initiating the final blow, but was it as much as Bloom says it to be? Guess the red ranger knows the best. 

"Regroup before you go in for the strike," she finally instructed and took her battle stance. 

Soon, we were pouncing on him from all directions, just as instructed. The nighlok was swatting us away like we were child's play. 

It seemed to go on for hours. My muscles ached and my knees felt like molten lava. And as I observed, the others felt the same too, except Bloom. The initial speed the rangers were fighting with had reduced, again, except Bloom. She had gone slow from the beginning, calculating her strikes and hitting only where it counted. Brilliant strategy indeed. 

The tiredness in our steps made way to us flying in the air and falling 100m away. My body ached all over and I struggled to stand up. Now, Bloom was the only one fighting, her steps still calculated, her blows still measured. The only hint of exhaustion was her labored breaths. Other than that, she seemed perfectly fine. 

"How is she still going?" Rose murmured, her voice full of awe. 

"By following the instruction she gave us, " I said, a little too mechanical, like the answer was too obvious. 

"And we didn't follow it," Lia muttered, more to herself than others. 

"Alright! Alright! Quite whining!" Jax exasperated, leaning his hand on the ground to stand up. "I came here to blow stuff up. We haven't blown stuff up. Come on! Chop, chop!" He said, finally standing up.

And at that moment, I was relieved he wasn't our leader like he claimed to be. But he decided to fight again– I should give him credit for that. 

Soon, all of us where up. With a silent nod of acknowledgement, we dashed towards the nighlok again, joining our leader in the battle. But, she apparently had it under control. With a little help from us, she started her vigorous fast paced attacks on the nighlok, leaving us fumbling behind, totally clueless on our next blow. Soon the nighlok was off balance. 

"NOW!" She screamed and we realized we had automatically regrouped.

"Spin sword!" We yelled in unison. "Quintuple slash!"

The nighlok flew back, halting at a pillar with severe damage- to the pillar or him? I didn't know.

"You can't defeat me that easy, rangers!"

Wait... he is still alive? How?

Before any of us could voice out the concern, Bloom was taking out another disk and placing it on her spin sword. With one long swing, a ginormous sword, almost the size of her, appeared. 

"Fire smasher! Final strike!" She yelled and slashed it into the air, creating a very powerful surge of energy, hurling towards the nighlok. 

Soon, the nighlok erupted in flames and burst in thin air.

"Woah!" I said, the word leaving my mouth before I can stop it.

"Woah is definitely right," Lia commented with a slight nod.

"Show off!" Jax muttered under his breath, probably audible to me only because I was standing close. Bloom turned and looked at him, giving a once over. Did she really hear what he said? 'Cause that would be impossible. 

But she didn't say anything regarding it, instead said, "get ready for the mega monster."

Mega monster? The mega zords... of course! The nighloks always had two lives!

As if on queue, the nighlok grew ten times big. We had to take a few steps back to prevent ourselves from getting squashed.

"You can't get away this time, rangers!" The nighlok bellowed. "I will fulfill my Mistress' wish!"

"Mistress?" Bloom muttered, confusion laced in her voice. She shook her head immediately, as if trying to clear her mind of whatever thought that occurred to her.

"Follow my lead," she instructed, scanning us, looking at each and every one of our eyes. She then turned, bringing out her Lion folding zord. Soon, she placed it on the floor, writing the symbol for the folding zord. The Lion grew full size, demanding attention like the king of the jungle indeed. 

We followed suit, forming our own mega mode of our zords. 

My zord, the dragon zord, came to life and I boarded it. The cockpit was a magnificent white, with my console glowing an ethereal blue. Magnificent. Just magnificent.

Snapping my attention back to the fight, I placed my disc into my control panel, powering up my zord. Placing the mega blade into its slot, I was now ready for the battle ahead.

"Zords, combine!" I heard Bloom's voice through the comms. Before I could realize what was happening, my zord was being pulled back and apart, leaving me feeling nauseous for a minute. With few more twists and turns of my console position, I was left at a larger cockpit and saw Bloom standing in the center along with the other rangers, her back straight like we just didn't go on the world's worst roller coaster.

The other rangers looked worse too, the only consolation that I wasn't alone in this.

"Next time, warn us before you do it," Jax hissed, and strangely, I felt him.

"Of course," Bloom spoke nonchalantly. "I will let you know the next time instead of focusing my energy on defeating the nighlok."

Wait. Was she serious? It was clearly sarcasm but, her body was completely rigid and focused on the battle field ahead, like she is ready to fight any second of the day. Everyone kept staring at her with gapped mouths- that is, I assume they are. My mouth is definitely open.

Looking at us, she gestured towards the consoles, as if telling us to hurry up.

Placing our swords back in the console, we took our positions. Again.

Our swords moved in sink and the zord moved forward.

"Nice origami doll you've got there," the nighlok taunted. "But it is no match for me!"

"Take that!" Rose yelled and moved her sword forward, hitting the nighlok with the zord's arm. 

"My turn!" Lia yelled, a little too cheerful. The nighlok stumbled back on her impact. 

"Nice," I heard Bloom mumble beneath her breath, a hint of surprise in her voice. With the push of her sword, the zord pushed forward again, as if she had the command of all our zords.

"Okay!" Bloom yelled, her focus completely on the nighlok. "We are gonna do some tough maneuvers here. A little bit of jumping, a bit of zipping, a bit of slashing and a whole lot of sneaking. To do that, we need complete coordination. Am I clear?"

I almost said yes mam. Not a very proud moment. I settled with, "yeah." 

After a few more yeahs from everyone, we were back in the game. It was a little tough to coordinate, to say the least. It was either both foot forward or both arms backward or at times, a full fledged twist, but after a few more trial and error, we got it right.

Bloom's plan was put into motion. The nighlok lost his footing faster than we had expected, but something told me our learning session threw him off course than our actual maneuver. 

"Ready for the final strike?" Bloom asked and she actually sounded excited. And if this really was the final strike, trust me, I would be excited too.

"Megablade! Activate!" She yelled and pulled out her sword. We did the same, feeling our power coursing through us to the sword. It was oddly... tiring.

As if working on the same mind, we lifted our swords in air and brought it down with such a lot of force.

"Final strike!" We yelled and the blade made its way down the middle of the nighlok. The nighlok erupted in a fury of electricity.

"You may have defeated me," he bellowed. "But the ancient nighloks have risen, and you won't escape them!"

The words he used. The way he said the ancient nighloks sent shiver down my spine. I never realized there was a timeline in the nighlok world. If Master Xandred was more than a century old, how old will these ancient nighloks be?

Bloom stood nonchalantly, like nothing on this earth bothered her. Her posture said, I have seen worse. Could that be true? Could she have actually seen worse? But she is just like us, right? A last minute substitution since the world was in peril again and the heroes who were supposed to fight were not in a condition to fight?

The nighlok burst into flames and Bloom finally placed her sword back in her console. The megazord put down its sword as soon as her sword was placed.

"Samurai rangers," Bloom called, her voice an epitome of professionalism. "Victory is ours."

Netherworld

"He's destroyed?!" The Mistress bellowed, the river raging with her, the ship swaying to its merciless attacks. "What do you mean he's destroyed?"

"The rangers defeated Rogolder, Mistress," Octoroo said in a whimper.

A feral scream left her mouth, shaking the ship with a much more force.

"Ooh ah ooh! Please be cool!" Octoroo tried to persuade, but it was words on a wall.

"Where are the other nighloks I asked you to summon?" Mistress Xalia asked, Octoroo's tentacles in her hand, dangerously tight.

"Ooh ah ooh," Octoroo muttered, trying to find the right words. "It takes a lot of power, Mistress Xalia. I'll go right now and summon another one!"

"Run!" The Mistress commanded. "Make it quick! This time, summon a more powerful one unlike the stupid Rogolder!"

Octoroo ran out of the ship, thankful that he wasn't a prey to the Mistress' rath.

He was now determined. He will get Mistress Xalia's trust just like he got Master Xandred's, and he'll do it by summoning the best nighlok who will make the rangers crumble under pressure. 

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Hey guys! Me again. How did you like the snippet I posted on the previous chapter? Did you like it? Did you check out the book? Or do you think I should stop talking about my other books?

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