Post by Speedlion on Feb 24, 2014 17:41:04 GMT
Chapter 13: If A Vampire Is Cut In A Million Pieces, What Part Will It Regenerate From?
Catching up with Minjo seemed like an easy task to do, but when you spend more time inside the mud than outside the mud, you can imagine how hard it was to be really quick. The only luck Herene and Caylos had on their side was that Minjo had the exact same problem. But this wasn’t the only problem. Only a minute after they decided to go after Minjo, Herene and Caylos noticed that tree-tops were once again adding themselves to the skyline… the sky island was lowering itself again, which meant they wouldn’t be able to see the silhouet against the sky anymore. It also made Herene wonder a thing that some of you might’ve already been wondering.
“Why the heck did Xyle lift up this whole thing?! All it caused was pain… and mud into my mouth. I’m convinced my stomach is processing huge amounts of mud, right now.”
“Well, at least it got rid of the Virus,” Caylos tried optimistically. But Herene wasn’t in an optimistic mood and shot down Caylos’ optimism with surprising accuracy.
“Yeah, it also awakened it!”
“Ah, true,” Caylos reacted with a sad tone.
Both of them jumped to a tree in front of them. It took Caylos three seconds of balancing, before he fell backwards in the mud with a loud scream. Herene sighed very long and hard.
“AGAIN!?” Herene yelled at him angrily, “How many times is that already?!”
Caylos got up annoyed and answered:
“You have no right of whining! You fell into the mud more than I did!”
“Did not!” Herene immediately said.
“What are you, a kid?” Caylos asked her, still annoyed. A sigh followed the sentence, “Come on, we need to hurry.”
Caylos stood on a tree again and jumped forwards, leaving an angry Herene behind.
“YOU of all people should NOT talk about hurrying up!”
It was silent for a few seconds, before a sudden, deafening scream filled the air… a scream from the Virus. Both Herene and Caylos turned around, which made Caylos lose his balance and fall onto another tree, luckily.
“Is it back?!” Caylos asked, whom tried to stand up, not able to look back yet.
“No, it’s not,” Herene told him with a relieved voice.
Another scream was released. Herene realised what was happening.
“That thing is being crushed between the sky island and the earth underneath it,” Herene explained to Caylos, “No regeneration power in the world can help that thing now.”
As if the earth wanted to emphasize her words, another deafening scream came from underneath them. It almost sounded desperate to Caylos. Like… like there was some emotion mixed into the scream…
“Let’s go,” Herene said, turning around and jumping to the next tree.
“I can’t see that guy anymore,” Caylos said.
“He’s heading to Yigixo’s camp, so it matters not.”
After jumping a few more times, Herene opened her mouth again.
“Such a waste of time. We never did anything in this forest, except run into a gigantic monster.”
Another scream filled the air and informed everyone that the Virus was still alive, though just barely.
Dergez’ and Mini’s way towards the fight between Yigixo, Miriya, Lepodes and Xyle was boringly uneventful, unless you want to count the very many times either or both of them fell forwards into the mud. It was like watching fireworks, while locked up inside your house because you’re ill. You see so many humongous things happening, yet, you yourself can’t do a single thing. And unlike Herene and Caylos, who could use trees and branches to be quicker, Dergez and Mini had to walk through the mud. Seeing as the fight with Rimmin ended somewhere west of the camp and the big fight was happening somewhere north-east, it didn’t take them just a few minutes. They could’ve saved a lot of time by going through the camp itself, but neither wanted to risk that with the immobility that mud brought them.
“So, uh… I’m just wondering,” Dergez said, “what are we gonna do once we get to where Xyle is?”
“Why are you even asking that?” Mini answered, “we’re gonna kill ‘em all, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
“With this mud?”
“It’s better than doing nothing.”
Just as she finished those words, the earth started shaking once again and a great shock traveled through the earth, making Mini and Dergez lose balance. Both gave a surprised yell before falling facefirst into the mud for the thousandth time. Dergez stood up again and noticed that the platform had once again been lowered into its original place.
“Nothing really changed. So what the heck was his reason to lift it up?”
“Well, that was a waste of magic power. I should’ve released this amount of rings from the start… then again, I don’t do that because it hurts so much… but it’s still a waste of magic power. But it was really my only choice. Only by shocking them could I make them let down their guard, so I could get out of my miserable situation.”
Xyle looked down at Miriya standing underneath her.
“It seems she can’t make herself fly with that sword. And she’s not so stupid as to keep wasting her magical power by slashing at me uselessly. She knows the extent of her weapons. If only villains in the real world were like they are in manga, my job would be an easy one.”
Xyle sighed.
“Time to take some action,” he said to himself, perhaps a way to motivate himself, “No time for slow moves.”
Xyle walked off the little platform and gravity immediately pulled him towards the earth, where Miriya was eagerly waiting for him to slash him apart.
“Finally coming down, you coward!” she yelled angrily, as she slashed at Xyle, creating a dangerous air-current, which traveled towards the falling Xyle at a high speed.
“Now, now, not so insultive, miss,” Xyle said as he made his Spear disappear, “I was taking a nice look around… this is a nice environment for a vacation, y’know.”
Xyle made the Staff of Gravity appear in his other hand, with which he immediately created a negative force underneath him, which launched himself back up into the air, evading the wind slash attack aimed at him, as it traveled past him right underneath his feet. And then started a fight in which Miriya started launching wind attacks at Xyle, while Xyle skillfully evaded them, trying to find a way to get close enough to Miriya to attack her. Honestly, it looked a little silly from the perspective of a third person. Neither wind nor gravity are really visible, so to an unexpecting bystander, it looked like a women slashing a sword meaninglessly through the air, while a guy was flying around above her with a staff in his hand, making weird gestures with said staff. Of course, neither Miriya and Xyle realized this and they couldn’t care less, since to both of them, it was a matter of life or death. Xyle knew very well that making even one wrong movement would mean loss of a limb or his death. That’s how simple it was. And while Miriya was a vampire with the ability to generate, her generation powers are only possible through magical power, which was slowly starting to run out. But Miriya still had some hope of winning this fight. She still thought that maybe, she could beat this man, get back the Staff of Gravity that belonged to her and take the Spear of Earth as well, with which she would then annihilate that puny companion of Xyle’s, that was now fighting her husband. Little did she know that those hopes were about to get crushed from the person she least expected to have a role in this battle.
It was about one minute after Miriya and Xyle started exchanging attacks with each other, that it happened out of the blue. It’s one of those things that, to Miriya, should logically never have happened. She just stepped a few steps to her left, while blowing ice cold air at the mud to harden it, so she was able to walk on it. She then continued to lift her sword right upwards into the air, causing a small tornado to momentarily appear. Xyle, right above her, had up till now only been evading slashes, which were easy to evade. Expecting another wind-slash, Xyle was caught by surprise and sucked to the ground. Miriya grinned.
“Finally got him!” she screamed in her mind, as she prepared for a wind-slash, one which Xyle wouldn’t be able to evade this time. She was about to slash, when she felt something colliding with her. Something heavy. Something with immense speed. The next moment, she’d lost her head which was now flying through the air, landing into the mud about ten meters further. Whatever had caused her head to get lopped off, it wasn’t stopping. Once more, something collided with her, this time coming down on her vertically. The thin layer of hardened mud she was standing on broke easily because of the pressure and Miriya was slammed into the mud like a hammer slamming a nail into a piece of wood. Behind her, with a huge halter lifted up in his hands, stood a muscled figure. His head was not adorned by a single hair and between his teeth he held a bone.
“Always watch your back, Miriya,” he said with a grin, “betrayal is always an option for everyone.”
With those words, the bald man brought down his halter on her once again. Miriya caught the heavy halter, however. Not a second later, Miriya felt Xyle’s spear piercing her heart. The three of them stayed in that position for a few seconds, while Miriya’s head regenerated. As soon as she had her mouth, tongue and vocal cords again, several curses came out of her mouth.
“GEMERLE! YOU TRAITOR!”
Her face showed one of extreme and utter wrath. He hadn’t just crushed her body in a physical way. He had crushed any and all of her hopes of winning. She was stuck into the mud up to her chest. Her arms were only just above the mud.
“HOW DARE YOU! I’LL RIP YOU APART! I’LL FEED YOUR EYES TO THE DOGS! YOU dastard!”
All the while, the bald Gemerle was looking straight into her eyes with a kind smile.
“This was destiny, miss. It was inevitable. Y’see, I’m not just a traitor, I’m a mole. Xyle right there is a great friend of mine… we’ve been traveling together for quite some time now.”
“I KNEW IT! I SHOULDN’T HAVE TRUSTED YOU! But just you wait. You won’t have much longer to live! Just you wait! I’LL CRUSH YOU!”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, miss… that’s impolite.”
“How da-“
Xyle stabbed Miriya right through her throat.
“Enough chit-chat, you two… Look, it’s gonna be very simple. You could stop your boyfriend there, or I could just stab you until you can’t regenerate and die. And don’t think Yigixo will be able to get past Lepodes. Even I have trouble doing that.”
“Liar,” Gemerle said to Xyle.
“Oh, shut up,” Xyle said to him, irritated, without moving his eyes away from Miriya’s face.
Xyle knew Miriya couldn’t choose for death, simply because that’s how people like Miriya work. She was selfish. She believed that all other creatures lived to praise and obey her. This might give her a lot of pride, but it also means she wouldn’t be willing to die because of her pride.
Xyle took his spear out of Miriya’s throat.
“Think long and hard about your answer while your vocal cords grow back,” Xyle said. The magic rushing through his body gave him pain, which in turn made him very cranky.
Miriya was enraged to realize that she had no other choice but to surrender. She gritted her teeth and looked at Xyle with the most disgusted and enraged faces she could make, but faces don’t kill people, so she eventually had to answer.
“Yigixo! Cease your fighting!”
Yigixo and Lepodes, whom were still at it, with Yigixo trying to get past Lepodes to save Miriya.
“But-“
“LISTEN TO ME!” Miriya yelled angrily.
Yigixo’s gaze moved from Miriya to Lepodes. He lowered his yari, while his face turned angry.
“The yari, please.” Lepodes had written on a note, as his other hand was extended towards Yigixo.
“You dastard!” Yigixo said, as he handed Lepodes his yari, which disappeared into Lepodes’ hammerspace as soon as Lepodes touched it. Lepodes smiled, as he got another rope from under his clothes, which had probably been there for a very long time already. Lepodes gestured Yigixo to turn around and move his hands behind his back, which Yigixo obediently did.
“Oh, Herene, Caylos. There you are!” Gemerle’s voice sounded.
Lepodes looked up and saw Herene staring at him and Yigixo. A silence had fallen… everyone was staring at what Herene was going to do. Even Miriya’s subordinates, whom were hiding in between the remnants of the tents, noticed something was up.
Herene silently walked over to Yigixo. She looked like she was holding back a whole bunch of different emotions, but they all shone through a little in her expression. However, anger was what shone through the most. She kept walking until she was only two meters away from Yigixo. There was yet more silenceas she started observing Yigixo, looking at him from top to bottom. After about 30 seconds, Yigixo asked:
“What do you want?”
For a moment, Yigixo could see anger flare up in her eyes, but she masked it immediately with her bad poker face.
“Do you remember my face?” Herene asked him.
“Did we meet before?” Yigixo asked, wondering about the intentions behind the questions.
“ANSWER THE DANG QUESTION!” Herene yelled angrily. Anger was burning in her eyes.
“No. I do not remember your face.”
“Why?” was the question that followed.
Yigixo tried to figure out the question.
“Like I said: did we meet before?” Yigixo asked again.
“I told you to answer my questions!” Herene yelled.
Yigixo was silent for a few seconds and then answered.
“Because I don’t bother remembering faces of the people I kill,” Yigixo said without remorse.
“How…” Herene asked as she was trembling from anger,” How can you live like that?!”
“That’s a stupid question,” Yigixo said. At those words, Yigixo saw the mask that was hiding her anger falling off. Regardless, he continued talking, “that’s like asking how you can live without knowing the texture of every single grain of rice you ate in your life. It’s pointless, because you don’t even bother looking at them.”
“Shut up.”
“It’s my way of life.”
“Shut up.”
“If you don’t like it, too bad for you. I ain’t changing it, unless you end my life.”
“SHUT UP!”
Herene punched him in the face with her full strength. Several tears were flowing down her cheeks and she was wearing an enraged expression on her face.
“SHUT UP!”
And again, she punched him.
“SHUT UP!”
And again.
“SHUT UP, YOU dastard!”
And once more.
“Herene, stop that!”
The words hardly reached her, as she screamed and hit Yigixo once again. She wanted to hit him again, but something caught her arm, so she couldn’t swing it at Yigixo again.
“Herene, stop this!” it sounded behind her.
“LET ME GO!” Herene yelled, as she turned around and looked into Caylos’ face.
“I will not!” Caylos yelled at her.
“LET ME GO, OR I’LL KILL YOU TOO!” she screamed.
“I’m not letting you go! Hitting him over and over won’t change anything!”
“IT WILL!” Herene screamed, as she tried to get Caylos away from her. Caylos, however, was pulling at her arm with all his might.
“IT WON’T! No matter how much you punch him! No matter whether he lives or dies, it won’t bring back any of the people you lost!”
“WHY AREN’T YOU ANGRY!?” Herene yelled at him. “WHY DON’T YOU FEEL THE WAY I DO?! HE KILLED YOUR FATHER AS WELL, DIDN’T HE?!”
“Killing him won’t change anything!”
“HE KILLED YOUR MOTHER, DIDN’T HE?!”
“Killing him won’t change anything!”
“HE KILLED YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, DIDN’T HE?!”
SLAP!
It was something no-one had seen coming. As soon as Herene had spoken that sentence, she felt someone slapping her. She looked at Caylos in surprise and disbelief about what he had just done. She saw how tears flowed over his face as well.
“Killing him WON’T CHANGE ANYTHING!”
Herene was silent for two full seconds, before she started crying. Losing all power in her muscles through the pure emotion running through her, she grabbed at Caylos’ clothes to try and stay standing, which she failed at, slowly going towards the ground, until her knees hit the hardened mud they were all standing on. She then let out all her tears, screaming and crying out her pent up anger, frustration, and mostly, sadness.
Xyle’s goal had been reached. The Staff of Gravity was now officially theirs and they had also gained two other weapons, Yigixo’s yari and Miriya’s wind sword. There was no reason for Xyle to stay around the camp any longer. After all, it was never his goal to kill Yigixo or Miriya and there was no law enforcement in these parts efficient enough to lock them up. Not that there was any efficient law enforcement on Tennetri, anyways. Tennetri is a world where corruption is as normal as daylight. Only a few countries seemed to have an honest law enforcement, among which, notably, were the Bumble Kingdom, the Xen Dynasty and the Yurgen Kingdom. Despite protests from Caylos to Xyle, the group left with only a warning to disappear from this region as soon as possible.
“Kind of anti-climactic, isn’t it?” Dergez commented on how strange the whole incident ended.
Xyle sighed, as he summoned his rings from his hammerspace.
“Battles aren’t like they are in Qualoppe’s manga. They’re usually like this. I’m not gonna waste time trying to kill her if that’s not necessary to me. Besides, we had quite a climax with this lady here.”
Xyle pointed sideways, at Herene.
“HEY! Don’t make fun of me!” she yelled angrily. She was already back to normal, as if nothing had happened just an hour ago.
Multiple people in the group started chuckling.
“Jeez,” Herene pouted, planning to ignore all the jokes that were going to be made after this.
“That aside, Herene…” Xyle started, “…what’s with the axe? Where’d you get that from?”
Herene was carrying the axe she had used in her fight with the Hydra Virus.
“Got it from a logger’s cottage out there in the woods. Didn’t want to leave it with Yigixo. I’ll probably hand it over to the doctor in Dicarpio.”
“What’d you use it for? You tend to fight bare-handed,” Xyle asked.
“A Virus.”
That stopped everyone except Caylos and Herene.
“A virus!?” Dergez yelled in surprise.
“So that’s what those screams were,” Mini said.
“How the heck are you still alive?” Dergez asked.
“Well, I’m sure we wouldn’t be if Xyle hadn’t lowered that platform. It was crushed in between the earth and the platform.”
“Oh, I see… so it was I who defeated it,” Xyle said, smiling.
“Yes, and it was also the brilliant you that awakened it. Stop smiling like an idiot!” Herene yelled at him.
“In the first place, what the heck were you doing in the forest anyways?”
“Well, there was this “Minjo” guy and…”
Herene stopped talking as she realized that, after the platform had been lowered, she hadn’t seen Minjo again.
“Caylos, did you see Minjo in Yigixo’s camp?”
“I haven’t seen him anywhere, no… I wonder where that guy went.”
“If you don’t know where he is, does that mean you weren’t able to defeat him?” Xyle asked, trying to find a way to tease Herene some more.
“More like, we didn’t even manage to fight him,” Caylos responded.
“HEY! Don’t tell him that!”
“Oh?” Xyle said, smiling, “So, while we were out there risking our lives, you two were making a romantic walk through the woods. I think I know who’s going to do the dishes next month.”
“Like Fwoosh's yard it was a romantic walk! It’s all that idiot’s fault for bolting into the woods without thinking properly,” Herene blamed Caylos.
“Hey! I thought it was the right thing to do!”
“As always, you guys are really loud,” Qualoppe’s voice came.
The group had reached the part of the forest that hadn’t been transformed into a giant mud pool, a place where trees were still standing straight up. It was also the place Qualoppe had been waiting, while the rest had been fighting.
“Ah, there you are. I was wondering where you were,” Xyle said.
“It took you guys long enough,” Qualoppe whined, “I was bored.”
“Y’know, some concern for our lives would be very much appreciated, Qual,” Xyle responded.
“You’ll be alright,” Qualoppe said, “Moreover, you guys look like pigs. You smell too. What the heck have you been doing?”
“Oh, since Yigixo created such a great mud bath for us, we took a dive and had some fun,” Xyle said sarcastically.
Qualoppe was right, though. Aside from being covered in mud in the most impossible places, everyone except Gemerle was covered in cuts and wounds. It wasn’t a very pretty sight.
“I see you’re also back, Gemerle.”
Gemerle nodded and smiled.
“I had some fun,” he said.
“Sorry for this, but who are you?” Caylos asked, curious about whom this sudden new addition to the group was.
“Oh, I haven’t even introduced myself to the two new guys yet,” Gemerle said, as he looked from Herene to Caylos, “I’m Gemerle, one of the two infiltrants working in Xyle’s Hand. Nice to meet you.”
He smiled from ear to ear as he introduced himself. To Caylos, Gemerle looked like a kind person.
“There’s another?” Herene, whom also hadn’t met Gemerle before, asked.
“Yeah, Pitrica,” Gemerle said, as he turned to Xyle, “Is she still investigating Jarred?”
“Yeah,” Xyle answered, “We’ve lost contact with her a long time ago, but I have a general idea of where she went. Anyways, let’s keep moving. We won’t get to Dicarpio by standing still.”
And so, they continued. But soon enough, Xyle noticed that they weren’t the only ones in the forest.
“We have company.”
This only seemed to be a surprise to Caylos, as he immediately started to look around frantically. He felt and arm on his shoulder and looked around to see Dergez.
“No need to be on edge. These guys ain’t enemies.”
“OOOOOOOOOOOI!” Xyle yelled, so anyone near him could hear him, “we know you’re there! Come on out!”
No-one came out. No-one stepped forward and revealed themselves.
“Tch, cowards.”
“Whom were you talking to?” Caylos asked Xyle.
“Probably the people of Dicarpio. Our fight got lots of attention from innocent bystanders,” Xyle explained.
“Ah, I see…”
Xyle resumed walking, with everyone followed his example. Their destination was clear to everyone. They were going back to their hotel first, since that’s where their luggage was. They could throw away the clothing they were wearing right now. They were stained by mud so much that they were beyond help. And that is not mentioning the many cuts they had. Surely, they couldn’t travel on like this. As they closed in on the city, however, even Caylos started to notice there were people walking along with them, hiding. They were getting nervous. Obviously, the inhabitants didn’t trust these powerful humans that had been throwing around rocks bigger than their whole town as if they were playing a game of ping-pong. Then, one of them stepped forward.
“Long time no see,” he said.
Xyle smiled.
“Oh, Bob! How nice to see you again! What are you doing here?”
“IT’S MUFIL!”
“Who cares,” Xyle said, “Can we drop by your house in a few hours?”
Mufil was silent and looked at all of them. He did that for a few seconds and then sighed.
“Guess there’s no choice. But don’t cause any ruckus! I have another patient with a dislocated finger!”
Xyle smiled.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. We’ll be really sweet.”
Caylos looked around, trying to see whether anyone else knew what Mufil and Xyle were talking about. However, everyone had the same expressions on their face.
“Am I the stupid one, or is this an inside joke, or something?”
Extras:
Minjo: You have a habit of not explaining enough about minor characters, do you?
The Almighty Writer: Well, duh… I don’t have time to spend on writing unnecessary things about minor characters. But I guess that’s what this lil’ corner is for.
Minjo: Right… I think you already know what I want you tell those guys reading this on their computer screens.
The Almighty Writer: Right… So, yeah, guys, you might be wondering where the heck Minjo went… well, Minjo is unfaithful, and kind of a coward.
Minjo: HEY! Don’t make it seem like a bad thing!
The Almighty Writer: Shut up, I’m explaining something to the readers here… please don’t interrupt me…
Minjo: *grumbles*
The Almighty Writer: But, yeah… Minjo fled after seeing how Miriya had been caught and the situation was looking hopeless for her subordinates, thinking that they would all be killed, Minjo chose not to help her kind master and instead fled… what an evil thing to do, don’t you guys think?
Minjo: Kind master my Penders. You’re making a joke out of me.
The Almighty Writer: Because you are… while Herene and Caylos at least fought a friggin’ Virus, you were sitting around there lazily, doing nothing but pass the time by picking your nose.
Minjo: I DID NOT PICK MY NOSE!
The Almighty Writer: I’m the author, I have the power to decide whether you were eating your own boogers off-screen or not.
Minjo: *grumbles again* And is this author also planning to make me re-appear later in the story.
The Almighty Writer: No.
Minjo: How da-
The Almighty Writer: Aaaaand the extra is finished. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. It took me some time to finish this one, because I wasn’t sure what to put in it… I’ve been stuck twice in this chapter. In any case, if you enjoyed, please consider reviewing the story, or, heck, just tell me whether you liked it and you’ll make my day :3.
Catching up with Minjo seemed like an easy task to do, but when you spend more time inside the mud than outside the mud, you can imagine how hard it was to be really quick. The only luck Herene and Caylos had on their side was that Minjo had the exact same problem. But this wasn’t the only problem. Only a minute after they decided to go after Minjo, Herene and Caylos noticed that tree-tops were once again adding themselves to the skyline… the sky island was lowering itself again, which meant they wouldn’t be able to see the silhouet against the sky anymore. It also made Herene wonder a thing that some of you might’ve already been wondering.
“Why the heck did Xyle lift up this whole thing?! All it caused was pain… and mud into my mouth. I’m convinced my stomach is processing huge amounts of mud, right now.”
“Well, at least it got rid of the Virus,” Caylos tried optimistically. But Herene wasn’t in an optimistic mood and shot down Caylos’ optimism with surprising accuracy.
“Yeah, it also awakened it!”
“Ah, true,” Caylos reacted with a sad tone.
Both of them jumped to a tree in front of them. It took Caylos three seconds of balancing, before he fell backwards in the mud with a loud scream. Herene sighed very long and hard.
“AGAIN!?” Herene yelled at him angrily, “How many times is that already?!”
Caylos got up annoyed and answered:
“You have no right of whining! You fell into the mud more than I did!”
“Did not!” Herene immediately said.
“What are you, a kid?” Caylos asked her, still annoyed. A sigh followed the sentence, “Come on, we need to hurry.”
Caylos stood on a tree again and jumped forwards, leaving an angry Herene behind.
“YOU of all people should NOT talk about hurrying up!”
It was silent for a few seconds, before a sudden, deafening scream filled the air… a scream from the Virus. Both Herene and Caylos turned around, which made Caylos lose his balance and fall onto another tree, luckily.
“Is it back?!” Caylos asked, whom tried to stand up, not able to look back yet.
“No, it’s not,” Herene told him with a relieved voice.
Another scream was released. Herene realised what was happening.
“That thing is being crushed between the sky island and the earth underneath it,” Herene explained to Caylos, “No regeneration power in the world can help that thing now.”
As if the earth wanted to emphasize her words, another deafening scream came from underneath them. It almost sounded desperate to Caylos. Like… like there was some emotion mixed into the scream…
“Let’s go,” Herene said, turning around and jumping to the next tree.
“I can’t see that guy anymore,” Caylos said.
“He’s heading to Yigixo’s camp, so it matters not.”
After jumping a few more times, Herene opened her mouth again.
“Such a waste of time. We never did anything in this forest, except run into a gigantic monster.”
Another scream filled the air and informed everyone that the Virus was still alive, though just barely.
Dergez’ and Mini’s way towards the fight between Yigixo, Miriya, Lepodes and Xyle was boringly uneventful, unless you want to count the very many times either or both of them fell forwards into the mud. It was like watching fireworks, while locked up inside your house because you’re ill. You see so many humongous things happening, yet, you yourself can’t do a single thing. And unlike Herene and Caylos, who could use trees and branches to be quicker, Dergez and Mini had to walk through the mud. Seeing as the fight with Rimmin ended somewhere west of the camp and the big fight was happening somewhere north-east, it didn’t take them just a few minutes. They could’ve saved a lot of time by going through the camp itself, but neither wanted to risk that with the immobility that mud brought them.
“So, uh… I’m just wondering,” Dergez said, “what are we gonna do once we get to where Xyle is?”
“Why are you even asking that?” Mini answered, “we’re gonna kill ‘em all, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
“With this mud?”
“It’s better than doing nothing.”
Just as she finished those words, the earth started shaking once again and a great shock traveled through the earth, making Mini and Dergez lose balance. Both gave a surprised yell before falling facefirst into the mud for the thousandth time. Dergez stood up again and noticed that the platform had once again been lowered into its original place.
“Nothing really changed. So what the heck was his reason to lift it up?”
“Well, that was a waste of magic power. I should’ve released this amount of rings from the start… then again, I don’t do that because it hurts so much… but it’s still a waste of magic power. But it was really my only choice. Only by shocking them could I make them let down their guard, so I could get out of my miserable situation.”
Xyle looked down at Miriya standing underneath her.
“It seems she can’t make herself fly with that sword. And she’s not so stupid as to keep wasting her magical power by slashing at me uselessly. She knows the extent of her weapons. If only villains in the real world were like they are in manga, my job would be an easy one.”
Xyle sighed.
“Time to take some action,” he said to himself, perhaps a way to motivate himself, “No time for slow moves.”
Xyle walked off the little platform and gravity immediately pulled him towards the earth, where Miriya was eagerly waiting for him to slash him apart.
“Finally coming down, you coward!” she yelled angrily, as she slashed at Xyle, creating a dangerous air-current, which traveled towards the falling Xyle at a high speed.
“Now, now, not so insultive, miss,” Xyle said as he made his Spear disappear, “I was taking a nice look around… this is a nice environment for a vacation, y’know.”
Xyle made the Staff of Gravity appear in his other hand, with which he immediately created a negative force underneath him, which launched himself back up into the air, evading the wind slash attack aimed at him, as it traveled past him right underneath his feet. And then started a fight in which Miriya started launching wind attacks at Xyle, while Xyle skillfully evaded them, trying to find a way to get close enough to Miriya to attack her. Honestly, it looked a little silly from the perspective of a third person. Neither wind nor gravity are really visible, so to an unexpecting bystander, it looked like a women slashing a sword meaninglessly through the air, while a guy was flying around above her with a staff in his hand, making weird gestures with said staff. Of course, neither Miriya and Xyle realized this and they couldn’t care less, since to both of them, it was a matter of life or death. Xyle knew very well that making even one wrong movement would mean loss of a limb or his death. That’s how simple it was. And while Miriya was a vampire with the ability to generate, her generation powers are only possible through magical power, which was slowly starting to run out. But Miriya still had some hope of winning this fight. She still thought that maybe, she could beat this man, get back the Staff of Gravity that belonged to her and take the Spear of Earth as well, with which she would then annihilate that puny companion of Xyle’s, that was now fighting her husband. Little did she know that those hopes were about to get crushed from the person she least expected to have a role in this battle.
It was about one minute after Miriya and Xyle started exchanging attacks with each other, that it happened out of the blue. It’s one of those things that, to Miriya, should logically never have happened. She just stepped a few steps to her left, while blowing ice cold air at the mud to harden it, so she was able to walk on it. She then continued to lift her sword right upwards into the air, causing a small tornado to momentarily appear. Xyle, right above her, had up till now only been evading slashes, which were easy to evade. Expecting another wind-slash, Xyle was caught by surprise and sucked to the ground. Miriya grinned.
“Finally got him!” she screamed in her mind, as she prepared for a wind-slash, one which Xyle wouldn’t be able to evade this time. She was about to slash, when she felt something colliding with her. Something heavy. Something with immense speed. The next moment, she’d lost her head which was now flying through the air, landing into the mud about ten meters further. Whatever had caused her head to get lopped off, it wasn’t stopping. Once more, something collided with her, this time coming down on her vertically. The thin layer of hardened mud she was standing on broke easily because of the pressure and Miriya was slammed into the mud like a hammer slamming a nail into a piece of wood. Behind her, with a huge halter lifted up in his hands, stood a muscled figure. His head was not adorned by a single hair and between his teeth he held a bone.
“Always watch your back, Miriya,” he said with a grin, “betrayal is always an option for everyone.”
With those words, the bald man brought down his halter on her once again. Miriya caught the heavy halter, however. Not a second later, Miriya felt Xyle’s spear piercing her heart. The three of them stayed in that position for a few seconds, while Miriya’s head regenerated. As soon as she had her mouth, tongue and vocal cords again, several curses came out of her mouth.
“GEMERLE! YOU TRAITOR!”
Her face showed one of extreme and utter wrath. He hadn’t just crushed her body in a physical way. He had crushed any and all of her hopes of winning. She was stuck into the mud up to her chest. Her arms were only just above the mud.
“HOW DARE YOU! I’LL RIP YOU APART! I’LL FEED YOUR EYES TO THE DOGS! YOU dastard!”
All the while, the bald Gemerle was looking straight into her eyes with a kind smile.
“This was destiny, miss. It was inevitable. Y’see, I’m not just a traitor, I’m a mole. Xyle right there is a great friend of mine… we’ve been traveling together for quite some time now.”
“I KNEW IT! I SHOULDN’T HAVE TRUSTED YOU! But just you wait. You won’t have much longer to live! Just you wait! I’LL CRUSH YOU!”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, miss… that’s impolite.”
“How da-“
Xyle stabbed Miriya right through her throat.
“Enough chit-chat, you two… Look, it’s gonna be very simple. You could stop your boyfriend there, or I could just stab you until you can’t regenerate and die. And don’t think Yigixo will be able to get past Lepodes. Even I have trouble doing that.”
“Liar,” Gemerle said to Xyle.
“Oh, shut up,” Xyle said to him, irritated, without moving his eyes away from Miriya’s face.
Xyle knew Miriya couldn’t choose for death, simply because that’s how people like Miriya work. She was selfish. She believed that all other creatures lived to praise and obey her. This might give her a lot of pride, but it also means she wouldn’t be willing to die because of her pride.
Xyle took his spear out of Miriya’s throat.
“Think long and hard about your answer while your vocal cords grow back,” Xyle said. The magic rushing through his body gave him pain, which in turn made him very cranky.
Miriya was enraged to realize that she had no other choice but to surrender. She gritted her teeth and looked at Xyle with the most disgusted and enraged faces she could make, but faces don’t kill people, so she eventually had to answer.
“Yigixo! Cease your fighting!”
Yigixo and Lepodes, whom were still at it, with Yigixo trying to get past Lepodes to save Miriya.
“But-“
“LISTEN TO ME!” Miriya yelled angrily.
Yigixo’s gaze moved from Miriya to Lepodes. He lowered his yari, while his face turned angry.
“The yari, please.” Lepodes had written on a note, as his other hand was extended towards Yigixo.
“You dastard!” Yigixo said, as he handed Lepodes his yari, which disappeared into Lepodes’ hammerspace as soon as Lepodes touched it. Lepodes smiled, as he got another rope from under his clothes, which had probably been there for a very long time already. Lepodes gestured Yigixo to turn around and move his hands behind his back, which Yigixo obediently did.
“Oh, Herene, Caylos. There you are!” Gemerle’s voice sounded.
Lepodes looked up and saw Herene staring at him and Yigixo. A silence had fallen… everyone was staring at what Herene was going to do. Even Miriya’s subordinates, whom were hiding in between the remnants of the tents, noticed something was up.
Herene silently walked over to Yigixo. She looked like she was holding back a whole bunch of different emotions, but they all shone through a little in her expression. However, anger was what shone through the most. She kept walking until she was only two meters away from Yigixo. There was yet more silenceas she started observing Yigixo, looking at him from top to bottom. After about 30 seconds, Yigixo asked:
“What do you want?”
For a moment, Yigixo could see anger flare up in her eyes, but she masked it immediately with her bad poker face.
“Do you remember my face?” Herene asked him.
“Did we meet before?” Yigixo asked, wondering about the intentions behind the questions.
“ANSWER THE DANG QUESTION!” Herene yelled angrily. Anger was burning in her eyes.
“No. I do not remember your face.”
“Why?” was the question that followed.
Yigixo tried to figure out the question.
“Like I said: did we meet before?” Yigixo asked again.
“I told you to answer my questions!” Herene yelled.
Yigixo was silent for a few seconds and then answered.
“Because I don’t bother remembering faces of the people I kill,” Yigixo said without remorse.
“How…” Herene asked as she was trembling from anger,” How can you live like that?!”
“That’s a stupid question,” Yigixo said. At those words, Yigixo saw the mask that was hiding her anger falling off. Regardless, he continued talking, “that’s like asking how you can live without knowing the texture of every single grain of rice you ate in your life. It’s pointless, because you don’t even bother looking at them.”
“Shut up.”
“It’s my way of life.”
“Shut up.”
“If you don’t like it, too bad for you. I ain’t changing it, unless you end my life.”
“SHUT UP!”
Herene punched him in the face with her full strength. Several tears were flowing down her cheeks and she was wearing an enraged expression on her face.
“SHUT UP!”
And again, she punched him.
“SHUT UP!”
And again.
“SHUT UP, YOU dastard!”
And once more.
“Herene, stop that!”
The words hardly reached her, as she screamed and hit Yigixo once again. She wanted to hit him again, but something caught her arm, so she couldn’t swing it at Yigixo again.
“Herene, stop this!” it sounded behind her.
“LET ME GO!” Herene yelled, as she turned around and looked into Caylos’ face.
“I will not!” Caylos yelled at her.
“LET ME GO, OR I’LL KILL YOU TOO!” she screamed.
“I’m not letting you go! Hitting him over and over won’t change anything!”
“IT WILL!” Herene screamed, as she tried to get Caylos away from her. Caylos, however, was pulling at her arm with all his might.
“IT WON’T! No matter how much you punch him! No matter whether he lives or dies, it won’t bring back any of the people you lost!”
“WHY AREN’T YOU ANGRY!?” Herene yelled at him. “WHY DON’T YOU FEEL THE WAY I DO?! HE KILLED YOUR FATHER AS WELL, DIDN’T HE?!”
“Killing him won’t change anything!”
“HE KILLED YOUR MOTHER, DIDN’T HE?!”
“Killing him won’t change anything!”
“HE KILLED YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, DIDN’T HE?!”
SLAP!
It was something no-one had seen coming. As soon as Herene had spoken that sentence, she felt someone slapping her. She looked at Caylos in surprise and disbelief about what he had just done. She saw how tears flowed over his face as well.
“Killing him WON’T CHANGE ANYTHING!”
Herene was silent for two full seconds, before she started crying. Losing all power in her muscles through the pure emotion running through her, she grabbed at Caylos’ clothes to try and stay standing, which she failed at, slowly going towards the ground, until her knees hit the hardened mud they were all standing on. She then let out all her tears, screaming and crying out her pent up anger, frustration, and mostly, sadness.
Xyle’s goal had been reached. The Staff of Gravity was now officially theirs and they had also gained two other weapons, Yigixo’s yari and Miriya’s wind sword. There was no reason for Xyle to stay around the camp any longer. After all, it was never his goal to kill Yigixo or Miriya and there was no law enforcement in these parts efficient enough to lock them up. Not that there was any efficient law enforcement on Tennetri, anyways. Tennetri is a world where corruption is as normal as daylight. Only a few countries seemed to have an honest law enforcement, among which, notably, were the Bumble Kingdom, the Xen Dynasty and the Yurgen Kingdom. Despite protests from Caylos to Xyle, the group left with only a warning to disappear from this region as soon as possible.
“Kind of anti-climactic, isn’t it?” Dergez commented on how strange the whole incident ended.
Xyle sighed, as he summoned his rings from his hammerspace.
“Battles aren’t like they are in Qualoppe’s manga. They’re usually like this. I’m not gonna waste time trying to kill her if that’s not necessary to me. Besides, we had quite a climax with this lady here.”
Xyle pointed sideways, at Herene.
“HEY! Don’t make fun of me!” she yelled angrily. She was already back to normal, as if nothing had happened just an hour ago.
Multiple people in the group started chuckling.
“Jeez,” Herene pouted, planning to ignore all the jokes that were going to be made after this.
“That aside, Herene…” Xyle started, “…what’s with the axe? Where’d you get that from?”
Herene was carrying the axe she had used in her fight with the Hydra Virus.
“Got it from a logger’s cottage out there in the woods. Didn’t want to leave it with Yigixo. I’ll probably hand it over to the doctor in Dicarpio.”
“What’d you use it for? You tend to fight bare-handed,” Xyle asked.
“A Virus.”
That stopped everyone except Caylos and Herene.
“A virus!?” Dergez yelled in surprise.
“So that’s what those screams were,” Mini said.
“How the heck are you still alive?” Dergez asked.
“Well, I’m sure we wouldn’t be if Xyle hadn’t lowered that platform. It was crushed in between the earth and the platform.”
“Oh, I see… so it was I who defeated it,” Xyle said, smiling.
“Yes, and it was also the brilliant you that awakened it. Stop smiling like an idiot!” Herene yelled at him.
“In the first place, what the heck were you doing in the forest anyways?”
“Well, there was this “Minjo” guy and…”
Herene stopped talking as she realized that, after the platform had been lowered, she hadn’t seen Minjo again.
“Caylos, did you see Minjo in Yigixo’s camp?”
“I haven’t seen him anywhere, no… I wonder where that guy went.”
“If you don’t know where he is, does that mean you weren’t able to defeat him?” Xyle asked, trying to find a way to tease Herene some more.
“More like, we didn’t even manage to fight him,” Caylos responded.
“HEY! Don’t tell him that!”
“Oh?” Xyle said, smiling, “So, while we were out there risking our lives, you two were making a romantic walk through the woods. I think I know who’s going to do the dishes next month.”
“Like Fwoosh's yard it was a romantic walk! It’s all that idiot’s fault for bolting into the woods without thinking properly,” Herene blamed Caylos.
“Hey! I thought it was the right thing to do!”
“As always, you guys are really loud,” Qualoppe’s voice came.
The group had reached the part of the forest that hadn’t been transformed into a giant mud pool, a place where trees were still standing straight up. It was also the place Qualoppe had been waiting, while the rest had been fighting.
“Ah, there you are. I was wondering where you were,” Xyle said.
“It took you guys long enough,” Qualoppe whined, “I was bored.”
“Y’know, some concern for our lives would be very much appreciated, Qual,” Xyle responded.
“You’ll be alright,” Qualoppe said, “Moreover, you guys look like pigs. You smell too. What the heck have you been doing?”
“Oh, since Yigixo created such a great mud bath for us, we took a dive and had some fun,” Xyle said sarcastically.
Qualoppe was right, though. Aside from being covered in mud in the most impossible places, everyone except Gemerle was covered in cuts and wounds. It wasn’t a very pretty sight.
“I see you’re also back, Gemerle.”
Gemerle nodded and smiled.
“I had some fun,” he said.
“Sorry for this, but who are you?” Caylos asked, curious about whom this sudden new addition to the group was.
“Oh, I haven’t even introduced myself to the two new guys yet,” Gemerle said, as he looked from Herene to Caylos, “I’m Gemerle, one of the two infiltrants working in Xyle’s Hand. Nice to meet you.”
He smiled from ear to ear as he introduced himself. To Caylos, Gemerle looked like a kind person.
“There’s another?” Herene, whom also hadn’t met Gemerle before, asked.
“Yeah, Pitrica,” Gemerle said, as he turned to Xyle, “Is she still investigating Jarred?”
“Yeah,” Xyle answered, “We’ve lost contact with her a long time ago, but I have a general idea of where she went. Anyways, let’s keep moving. We won’t get to Dicarpio by standing still.”
And so, they continued. But soon enough, Xyle noticed that they weren’t the only ones in the forest.
“We have company.”
This only seemed to be a surprise to Caylos, as he immediately started to look around frantically. He felt and arm on his shoulder and looked around to see Dergez.
“No need to be on edge. These guys ain’t enemies.”
“OOOOOOOOOOOI!” Xyle yelled, so anyone near him could hear him, “we know you’re there! Come on out!”
No-one came out. No-one stepped forward and revealed themselves.
“Tch, cowards.”
“Whom were you talking to?” Caylos asked Xyle.
“Probably the people of Dicarpio. Our fight got lots of attention from innocent bystanders,” Xyle explained.
“Ah, I see…”
Xyle resumed walking, with everyone followed his example. Their destination was clear to everyone. They were going back to their hotel first, since that’s where their luggage was. They could throw away the clothing they were wearing right now. They were stained by mud so much that they were beyond help. And that is not mentioning the many cuts they had. Surely, they couldn’t travel on like this. As they closed in on the city, however, even Caylos started to notice there were people walking along with them, hiding. They were getting nervous. Obviously, the inhabitants didn’t trust these powerful humans that had been throwing around rocks bigger than their whole town as if they were playing a game of ping-pong. Then, one of them stepped forward.
“Long time no see,” he said.
Xyle smiled.
“Oh, Bob! How nice to see you again! What are you doing here?”
“IT’S MUFIL!”
“Who cares,” Xyle said, “Can we drop by your house in a few hours?”
Mufil was silent and looked at all of them. He did that for a few seconds and then sighed.
“Guess there’s no choice. But don’t cause any ruckus! I have another patient with a dislocated finger!”
Xyle smiled.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. We’ll be really sweet.”
Caylos looked around, trying to see whether anyone else knew what Mufil and Xyle were talking about. However, everyone had the same expressions on their face.
“Am I the stupid one, or is this an inside joke, or something?”
Extras:
Minjo: You have a habit of not explaining enough about minor characters, do you?
The Almighty Writer: Well, duh… I don’t have time to spend on writing unnecessary things about minor characters. But I guess that’s what this lil’ corner is for.
Minjo: Right… I think you already know what I want you tell those guys reading this on their computer screens.
The Almighty Writer: Right… So, yeah, guys, you might be wondering where the heck Minjo went… well, Minjo is unfaithful, and kind of a coward.
Minjo: HEY! Don’t make it seem like a bad thing!
The Almighty Writer: Shut up, I’m explaining something to the readers here… please don’t interrupt me…
Minjo: *grumbles*
The Almighty Writer: But, yeah… Minjo fled after seeing how Miriya had been caught and the situation was looking hopeless for her subordinates, thinking that they would all be killed, Minjo chose not to help her kind master and instead fled… what an evil thing to do, don’t you guys think?
Minjo: Kind master my Penders. You’re making a joke out of me.
The Almighty Writer: Because you are… while Herene and Caylos at least fought a friggin’ Virus, you were sitting around there lazily, doing nothing but pass the time by picking your nose.
Minjo: I DID NOT PICK MY NOSE!
The Almighty Writer: I’m the author, I have the power to decide whether you were eating your own boogers off-screen or not.
Minjo: *grumbles again* And is this author also planning to make me re-appear later in the story.
The Almighty Writer: No.
Minjo: How da-
The Almighty Writer: Aaaaand the extra is finished. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. It took me some time to finish this one, because I wasn’t sure what to put in it… I’ve been stuck twice in this chapter. In any case, if you enjoyed, please consider reviewing the story, or, heck, just tell me whether you liked it and you’ll make my day :3.
