Resident Evale

Chapter One: White Night Fantasy


By Joker's Specter

WARNING: This story contains a lot of blood, gore, and scary images. Do NOT read if any of those things disturb or bother you. This is unlike any of my other stories, so don't expect any similarities. Read with caution.

And also, this is an AU fic.

I was inspired to write this upon completing Resident Evil 4, so you will probably notice a lot of similarities and jokes referring to that, as well as a few scenes taken directly from the game. In fact, it's almost better if you have played the game. In any case, most of it is all original stuff, spawned from the twisted parent that is my mind. The style is inspired by Post.

Special Thanks To: Sora G. Silverwind for not killing me over my terrible first draft, and for beta reading. Wuv uu, sis. :3
-Joker


Disclaimer: Golden Sun is owned by Nintendo and Camelot. Resident Evil is owned by Capcom.
"Myehehehehehe..."

"Hm..."

tk...tk...tk...

A small group of shadowy people sat at a metallic table, waiting patiently for their orders. None of them bothered to turn on a light in the pitch black room. The previous twenty minutes had been the same thing; they simply sat there, in the dark, not moving or doing much at all.

Other than the occasionally sigh, giggle, and the slow rhythm of something tapping against the table, nothing could be heard.

And even less could be seen.

tk...tk...tk...tk...

The mysterious rhythm echoed throughout the room, bouncing off the walls, interrupted only by the giddy laughter of the smallest figure at the table.

"Hehehehehehehaha..."

Suddenly, the room lit up brightly. A large screen on the nearest wall showed the blurry image of a man hiding his face inside a cloak. The light from the screen illuminated the room, showing off an entirely empty blue area, except for the table and three people sitting at it.

tk...tk...

"Agatio...are you ready?"

"Eeeeehehehehehehe..."

Agatio stood up quickly, staring at the screen the entire time. He hooked his ragged blue cape to his thick shoulder armor, and then nodded. "Yes, we're ready to move at your command, master." A grin spread across his face.

"And you, Saturos?"

tk...

Saturos stood up, ceasing tapping his knife on the table. He fastened his own cape onto his back, hooking it onto his much thinner body armor. Saturos had never felt the need to wear too much armor, as it slowed him down far too much. "I've been ready for the past four years," he answered, twirling his large knife around in his hand.

"Excellent..."

"You'd better keep your promise," Saturos added, staring hard at the screen.

"Mm... Yes, you will get your chance to confront Felix. I will make sure of it," the shadowy man on the screen said, nodding and causing his cloak to fall over his face more. "And...you--"

"READY, SIR!" the third figure shouted, jumping up into a standing position. He grinned, widening his black eyes. Despite having the appearance of a youth, he was actually quite a ferocious person. So ferocious, in fact, that he had to have his own hands reconstructed on a monthly basis because he always ended up eating them.

The man on the screen paused. "Yes...that's good. You, too, will have the chance to confront your past."

The youthful person licked his lips.

The shadow on the screen was silent for a moment, and then continued. "Everything will go according to plan. Don't screw up, or my dog will have your intestines for dinner."

The boyish figure giggled. "Mmmmmmmmm...that...sounds...yummy!" he murmured, poking at his stomach. "Gahahahahahaaaa..."

Saturos' hand twitched. The mention of intestines made him want to gut something...anything. He spun his knife around in his hand and closed his eyes.

Agatio just smirked.

"Well then, gentlemen," the cloaked shape said. "I trust you won't mess this up."

He paused, as if allowing time for the words sink into their minds.

"And," the cloaked figure added after a moment, "I hope you enjoy what awaits you..." His voice lowered a bit. "Vale will not know what hit them..." Chuckling to himself, he walked out of view.

And then the screen faded to black, leaving the room to be taken over by darkness once again.

The smallest of the three ran to the doors, which automatically opened and shed light into the room. He then ran out, shouting out in a sing-song voice, "Mmmm! Here I come! Eeehehehahahahaha!"

Agatio gathered up a few papers from the table and followed. Saturos stood still for a moment, still having his eyes shut.

"Hello, Felix..." he said, opening his eyes.

He stayed like that for a moment, not saying anything.

Shaking his head, he began to walk out of the room.

"Hello, Felix... No, no... Hello, Felix..."

He shook his head again just as the doors shut behind him.

"I bet you didn't expect to see me here, did you, Felix?"

His footsteps slowly became more silent.

"My, my, Felix... What a surprise to see you here..."

The sounds of his footsteps disappeared, as did his practice speeches.

Vale's destruction was at hand.

!-S- -K- -I- -R- -T-!
!-N- -I- -N- -J- -A-!

VRRRR-RR-RR-RR-RR-rrrrrrrr...

"Still nothing..." Garet muttered, kicking the bumper of the truck.

Felix bent down over the engine, causing his brown hair to fall over into his eyes. He pushed a few strands back as he pondered what to do next.

"Try again?" Isaac called from the driver's seat of the truck.

"Not yet!" Felix replied, using his other hand to poke around the engine with a wrench. "Garet, I need more light."

Garet nodded. He concentrated on his hand, already slightly alit with fire around his fingertips. With a clench of his fist, he summoned more Psynergy. The flames flared up around his hand, illuminating the area and casting dark, dancing shadows.

"You know...this probably isn't the best thing to be doing around a truck, Felix," Garet mused while staring at his hand. The specialized glove, made for mars adepts like him, almost appeared to be glowing from the flames. The flames themselves were an odd sight next to Garet; they appeared to be mimicking his hair.

WHAM--CLANG!

"What?" Felix asked after smacking the engine with a wrench. He stood up straight, and stared hard at the engine while listening to Garet.

Garet lowered his hand down to his side. "I mean, having flames around while you're working on the truck. I'm no mechanic, but aren't there a lot of flammable chemicals in there?"

"Yes," said Felix. He raised the wrench over his head again.

WHAM--CLANG!

"Just be careful," he added, looking back to Garet.

Garet just shook his head, smirking slightly. "Yeah, yeah... I gotcha."

"Good." Felix stuck his hand around the hood and gave Isaac a thumbs up signal. "Try it now!"

Isaac turned the ignition key again.

VRRRR-RR-RR-RR-RR-rrrrrrrr...clk-clk-clk-clk...

All three of them were silent for a moment.

Garet extinguished his hand, and then said, "Well...I don't know what that clicking sound is, but I'm assuming it's not good."

Felix shrugged. "I'm no mechanic either, actually, but it doesn't hurt to try."

"It wasn't clicking like that before," Garet moaned. "You broke it more, Felix!"

Shrugging again, Felix said, "That's fine with me. I'm up for a walk."

"Guh, when we get back to HQ, one of us is going to learn auto mechanics."

Isaac stuck his head out the driver's side window of the truck. "We giving up, then?" he asked, brushing a few strands of golden-blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Yep," Garet said as he walked around to the passenger side of the truck. He reached in and grabbed two swords, taking one for himself and the other for Felix.

"Right then," Isaac replied, grabbing his own sword and jumping out of the truck. "How far away is Vale?"

Felix squinted, looking hard through the night. "Well, I see the forest separating us from Vale right down there...so if we walk, it should be about two hours. We only just left Vault about half an hour ago, so that sounds about accurate."

Garet tossed Felix his sword, and began strapping his own onto his belt. He then reached into the truck and grabbed a few black padded jackets with the letters "SGV", which stood for "Specialist Guardians of Vale", or as Garet liked to say, "Sexy Guardians of Vale", stitched on the side of the arms.

"Here," he said, throwing one to Felix and another Isaac.

Isaac caught his and gazed at it. "It's not cold, Garet."

Garet smirked. "No, but the thin layer of metal and padding inside of these should be a good thing to have right about now, don't you think? I really don't wanna go through that forest without it." He put it on and zipped it up. A pained expression crossed his face. "Last time I went through there with Aaron, he died because he didn't have one of these, remember?"

Everybody's thoughts turned back to the event that had happened about seven months ago. Garet staggered into the gates of Vale, cradling Aaron's bloodied corpse in his arms. His little brother had been attacked and killed by wolves, and he almost lost his own life recovering the body, had it not been for the sturdiness of the protective jacket. Garet insisted that Aaron would have been saved if he had also worn one.

"Hm...good idea," Felix said, sliding his arms into it. He left it unzipped, and then began to strap his sword onto his own belt.

Shrugging, Isaac put his own on and zipped it up about halfway over his white shirt.

"Let's keep a quick enough pace, guys," Felix said. The three of them set off at a brisk walking pace in the direction of the forest. What little moonlight there was that remained quickly disappeared behind a thick layer of dark clouds. Felix looked up and stared at the dim glowing spot behind the clouds for a while as he walked, silently wishing the clouds would move on quickly. Even though the landscape was mostly just a clear field, with a few areas of trees and rocks dotting it every now and then, there were still plenty of places for enemies to hide in the cover of the darkness.

He didn't know how much time had passed since he and the others abandoned the truck, but he was quickly snapped out of his wishful state when he heard sounds approaching to the left of him. He broke his gaze away from the moon and swiveled his head to look in the direction the sounds were coming from.

Something approaching fast. Very fast.

A car.

Felix saw the headlights appear over a hill a good distance away to his left. Both Isaac and Garet had heard it too, and all three of them stopped walking to watch the car.

"What in Weyard...?" Garet muttered, speaking the minds of both Felix and Isaac as well.

The car swerved left and right, narrowly dodging lone trees and rocks. The Adepts had no idea what was going on; it looked as if the driver had never driven before.

The car's rear end suddenly jerked, and the vehicle spun into a small group of trees.

CRAASSHHH!

The three Adepts watched in surprise as the car's front rammed into a tree trunk. They gaped even more when the tree actually tipped over from the impact, ripping its thick, wet roots from the soil.

"Come on!" Felix shouted, not willing to waste any time as he began to dash for the car, with Isaac and Garet following closely behind.

Moments later, Felix reached the car, and headed straight for the driver side door. Isaac and Garet reached the scene a few seconds after. Since it was dark, they couldn't see much except for what the headlights were shining on, so Garet used his Psynergy to light the nearest tree on fire.

Isaac glared at Garet, but decided it was best not to start an argument at the moment.

"What is it? What happened?" Garet asked, ignoring Isaac's glaring and running up beside Felix.

Felix's eyes shot wide open as he stared in horror.

His mouth shut tightly.

His breath caught in his throat.

The driver, who now had half of the steering wheel lodged into his face...was armless from the shoulder joints down.

Blood gushed out of what remained of his arms, pooling onto the seat and floor.

Felix's heart pounded against his chest. He scanned the car for anything else of importance that he may have been able to see from where he was standing, and then turned away as fast as he could.

Isaac stepped up to peek inside, instantly regretting doing so.

Garet just stood still, staring at the poor soul. "His arms...were eaten?" he asked quietly.

Felix shook his head. "Look on the passenger side."

Garet tilted his head a bit to get a better view of the other side of the car.

Two arms lay on the floor, creating a small pool of blood around them.

Isaac was shaking his head. "Ripped right off," he muttered to himself. "No signs of being cut or anything,just...pulled apart from his body." He bit his lip. "I don't want to run into whatever can do that..."

And then Garet bent over and vomited.

Felix shut his eyes and let out a breath. Ever since Aaron's gruesome death, Garet had become sensitive to blood and gore. He used to be able to handle it just fine. Now, he just acted like he could.

Isaac put his hands on Garet's back. "You okay?" he asked quietly.

Wiping his mouth off, Garet nodded and pushed Isaac's hand away. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Let's just get back to Vale. I don't think we can do anything here, right Felix?"

"Not unless we can find out what did that to the driver. We should probably search the rest of the car, I suppose... Be on guard," Felix said, opening his eyes. He unsheathed his sword and walked around to the other side of the car.

"It had to have been small." Isaac gingerly lifted the trunk of the car, as though he were expecting that same creature to leap out at him. "It would have had to fit in the car, right?"

Felix inspected the outside of the car. "Possibly...I'm wondering how the steering wheel managed to...get so far pressed into his face... The crash wasn't that hard."

"Maybe whatever did that to his arms also mashed his face into the steering wheel?" Garet suggested.

"I don't get it... What's the purpose?" Isaac pondered, looking around the back of the car. He tapped the inside of the trunk a few times with his sword, finding nothing of importance.

Felix poked his head in through the passenger side window. "I think this man was deceased before the crash. There's a brick down by his foot...do you see that, Garet?"

Garet looked up at the man's feet, by the gas pedal and break of the car. "Yes..." he said. His eyes rest on a brick, sitting off to the side of the gas pedal. "You think someone had the car going with that?"

"That's my guess," Felix replied. He pulled his head out of the window. "Whatever did this could be anywhere by now. It's pointless to search at the moment, considering we have to get these papers to the Mayor of Vale." He patted his pocket.

"The renewed treaty with Vault?" Isaac asked, slamming the trunk shut.

"Yeah. Let's hurry and get back. I'll contact HQ in a moment to let them know of this so they can send a crew out as soon as possible," Felix said.

Garet stood up straight and looked directly at Felix. "Wait a second, you mean you've had a radio with you the entire time?"

"Yes." Felix reached into a pocket on the leg of his pants and pulled out a black radio.

"Well, why the heck aren't you calling them and telling them to send transport for us?" Garet exclaimed.

Felix smiled, and began walking towards the dark forest in the distance. "I already told you. I'm up for a walk."

!-S- -K- -I- -R- -T-!
!-N- -I- -N- -J- -A-!

The three Adepts walked towards the forest, now at a faster pace than before.The darkest clouds in the sky seemed to cover the moon, making the Adepts uneasy. Garet muttered loudly to himself about getting home faster. Isaac and Felix stayed alert.

"Man, I don't like this," Garet moaned, his copper eyes darting from side to side. "Anything could leap out of those trees and rip our throats out at any second!"

"So?" Felix said. "That's what our swords are for."

"They have sucky reach, though. I'm talking about heavy artillery—M16's and Kalashnikovs!" Garet mimed a shooting action, using his sword as a stand-in rifle. "Wham! Bam! Alakazam! I'd have those suckers down before you can say 'lunch.'"

Felix's gaze traveled to his own sword—a family heirloom. "Well, even though we're allies with Vault at the moment, we still aren't allowed to carry anything other than a sword into town. Security reasons and such. We'd need the go-ahead from their government."

Garet looked sour. "And I'm guessing we still don't have that okay, huh?"

"That's correct."

"Gah... That really sucks. First, they send us on this stupid mission, which should be work for another division of our government, not the Guardians. Then, they don't even allow us to wield what we use best!"

"Garet," Isaac said, "I actually am better with a sword than a gun."

Garet smirked. "Well, your aim is terrible. You don't count. Sorry, bud."

Isaac just chose to ignore the comment.

Continuing his complaints, Garet added, "And what's with these late hours?" He looked up at the moon. "I mean, seriously, what time is it? I should be in bed by now, not out here finding people with their arms ripped off!"

Felix glanced at Garet for a moment. "So just quit if it's so difficult."

Garet grinned. "Yeah, that'd be the smart thing to do, huh? Ah, well, even though there's a lot to hate about this job, I still love it...most of the time. Right now is a huge exception." His thoughts returned yet again to the horrific scene he had seen in that car.

Isaac slowed down a bit, locking his eyes on an area to his left.

"Then will you just stop complaining, Garet?" Felix said in a frustrated tone. "It sounds like you're complaining just so you can hear your own voice, yeesh..."

Grinning a little less now, Garet said, "Well...nothing wrong with talking, is there? It helps keep me focused."

Felix looked behind him, and then stopped walking. "Oh yeah? If you're so focused, did you notice that Isaac's not with us anymore?"

Garet stopped as well, and then looked over to where Isaac stood about ten feet behind them. He was staring directly at one area, and not moving at all.

"Isaac? What are you doing?" Garet asked.

There was no response.

"Hey, Isaac! What's up?"

"Shh," Felix said, pressing his gloved hand against Garet's mouth. Grease from the truck's engine smeared all over his mouth from the glove.

Garet grunted in disgust and pulled his head back away from Felix's glove.

"What is he doing?" Garet asked in a whisper.

Felix followed Isaac's gaze, turning his head to look across a river.

He held his breath when he saw what Isaac was looking at.

"What is it?" Garet asked again, desperately wanting to know the situation.

"Across the river," was all Felix said.
Garet looked to the other side of the river to their left, and spotted four dark figures wandering awkwardly in the direction of the forest. They were barely visible in the dark night.

"Ugh...a few drunks?" Garet asked, squinting.

"No, I'm almost certain they're zombies. And take a look behind them..." Isaac finally said quietly, surprising both Felix and Garet.

Felix narrowed his eyes and just barely saw what Isaac was talking about. Almost blending in with the darkness, dim red eyes could be seen everywhere. Dozens upon dozens of them were visible. Not only were there zombies, but many different types of undead creatures or hideous mutants.

"Oh..." Garet said, a little surprised. "I see...there's...a lot of them."

Felix reached into his pocket and grabbed the radio. He hoped to get in contact with Vale. A quick attack with some reinforcements could take out a few dozen monsters easily.

He flipped on the radio.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--

The radio made a loud, monotonous tone. Felix almost dropped the radio in surprise.

--EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--

"Turn it off!" Garet said as he covered his ears.

--EEEEEEEEE!

Felix shut the radio off, and then examined it, wondering what had gone wrong with it.

"Guys!" Isaac shouted. "The zombies, they see us!"

The zombies growled among each other, saying things almost coherent enough for the Adepts to understand, but not quite.

And then they attacked.

The closest monsters ran towards the men, crying out orders to attack. The rest of the creatures who were visible soon followed.

"Run! I'll hold them off!" Isaac shouted, pointing to the forest. Felix whipped his head around to see a clear path through the forest, which was the best escape route at the moment, and would take them to Vale eventually.

Garet and Felix exchanged looks.

"You go. I'll help him," Felix said, unsheathing his sword. "Get to Vale and warn the others, just in case. There could be a lot of them...and I doubt that an army of undead creatures will just choose to sit around out here over attacking Vale..."

Nodding, Garet spun on his heels and bolted across the dark landscape into the forest. He paused only momentarily to light himself a torch using a branch from the ground and his Mars Psynergy.

Isaac turned around to look at his friend run off, and then grabbed the handle of his sword firmly. "Felix? Why aren't you going?" he inquired, even though he knew the answer.

"You honestly think I'd just leave you here to fight them all by yourself?" he asked, pointing across the river to the approaching horde of undead monsters. Dozens of ugly abominations were approaching, with many more following closely behind.

It would only a matter of time before they all reached Vale, which Felix assumed was their ultimate goal, judging by the direction they were heading before.

Hideous moans and hissing sounds rang out from the enemy wave as they ran towards the two venus adepts.

"No time to talk!" Felix said as he took a few steps backwards.

He closed his eyes, and a dull yellow glow engulfed his body.

Isaac raised his sword up to chest level, preparing himself for battle.

"GAIA!" Felix shouted, extending his hand upward. The ground immediately began to shake.

R-R-R-RUMBLE!

The small group of undead creatures who were closing in on the two adepts stopped in their tracks. The earth beneath them shook violently.

C-CRACKKK!

The ground split open, sending tiny rays of light out in various directions.

FWOOOOMMMM!

A blinding beam of light burst out from the ground. Chunks of the earth flew upwards as the beam engulfed the closest creatures, throwing them into the air.

FL-FLASH!

The beam of light flickered twice before disappearing almost completely.

SPLCH! FWUMP! WHAM!

Bodies and pieces of monsters rained down, splattering into the hard ground.

A couple of the monsters struggled to get up, despite missing a few key parts of their body.

"...I don't think we'll have enough Psynergy for this," Isaac muttered, pointing his gloved fingers beyond the river.

The dim light that remained from Felix's attack showed hundreds upon hundreds of creatures, many of which Felix had never before seen in his life.

His heart thumped against his chest.

"Oh no..." he muttered.

The undead horde began moving again at top speed across the grassy field, plowing straight through the shallow river, and towards the adepts.

Their eyes flashed as they ran towards them in a violent rage.
Their battle cries rang out through the night.

Arms were reaching outward.

Reaching for the Adepts.

Ready to kill on contact.

Felix shivered.

"Isaac?"

"What?"

"...wanna run?"

"I think that would be best."

The two wasted no time in fleeing. They pumped their legs hard, running for the forest. It would take a while to get to Vale, even if they ran the entire way.

Which is what they really wanted to do.

"Ssssscrrreeeeeee!"

Isaac looked behind them just in time to see some sort of undead creature with wings swooping down at them. Its red eyes widened as it opened its mouth wide and extended its small arms, revealing black fangs and claws.

"DUCK!" Isaac shouted, tackling Felix to the ground right in front of the entrance to the forest.

FWIIIISH--WHAM!

The creature's claws barely missed Isaac's back as it flew past and collided directly into a tree. Isaac's hair blew around wildly from the gust of wind caused by the creature.

Isaac glanced up and watched the creature's body fall to the ground.

"C'mon, let's get into the trees before they can do that again!" Isaac yelled, jumping to his feet.

Felix stood up and they both began running again, entering into the dark forest.

Dead, decaying trees flew by as the adepts ran. Everything Felix saw gave him the image that the trees were reaching for him.

Grasping for him.

Trying to stop him.

He ran faster.

"So," Isaac said, a few minutes after entering the forest. He panted heavily, dodging trees while sticking close to Felix. "What's the plan?"

Felix didn't have time to reply.

Isaac's eyes suddenly went wide. "Felix! Watch out for that--!"

FWAP!

His body fell to the ground.

Isaac skidded to a halt and turned to look at Felix. "...tree branch?"

Felix mumbled something angrily in the dirt.

"Are you okay?" Isaac asked, running up next to him.

Felix sat up and nodded, closing his eyes and biting his lip. A moment later, he said, "Yeah, I'm fine. I can barely see a thing in this forest...and everything I do see, I don't want to see."

He winced in pain.

"...yeah, we really need a plan. I'm starting to regret having Garet run ahead," Isaac replied, helping Felix to his feet.

"Heh...in the long run, it might be best. He'll be warning Vale of this attack, after all."

"Yeah..."

Felix looked around. The dark, eerie forest had always made him feel like he was a helpless child again. Nothing could be heard of the horde of creatures, no matter how hard he listened.

Absolutely nothing.

He shivered.

"I don't know what's making me more nervous right now...the lack of light, or the lack of sound. I stopped hearing them a while ago," Felix said while gripping his sheathed sword tightly.

Isaac shrugged and looked behind them. "Maybe they stopped chasing us at the edge of the forest."

"Maybe...but that doesn't sound likely. I'm still curious as to why we're under attack in the first place." Felix flinched and removed his hand from his face. "Guh...this hurts less than it would if they caught up to us. Let's keep going..."

Suddenly, the silence of the area was shattered, as a new, terrifying sound could be heard.

thump-thump-thump-thump--

The sound of trees being ripped from the ground and falling over could barely be heard over the thumping sound. Tiny pebbles bounced up and down on the ground at Felix's feet each time the frightening sound was heard.

"What the heck?" Isaac exclaimed, spinning around to look in the direction the sound was coming from.

--thump-thump-thump--

"Something's coming..." Felix whispered.

--thump-thump-thump-thump-THUMP--

Isaac could have sworn it was his heart that was making the sound. He held his breath. "Those can't be footsteps...can they?" he asked, almost whimpering.

--THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP--

--THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!

They both watched in horror as two trees were knocked over, followed by the appearance of a gigantic ogre-like creature, which appeared to be about three times the size of Felix. It snarled, twitching its nose and sniffing the area, realizing it had found exactly what it was looking for.

Felix's eyes widened.

The creature looked as if all of its skin had been stripped right off of its body. Rough muscle tissue could be seen everywhere.

Its red eyes glared at the two adepts.

It threw its large bald head back.

"GRRAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGHHHHH!"

It cried out, letting its allies know that he had caught up to the adepts.

"MOVE IT!" Felix shouted, grabbing Isaac's scarf and tugging him back.

The skinless ogre acted quickly.

It bent over, pointing its back upwards.

The muscle tissue on its back ruptured and bubbled rapidly.

"RAAAAGGGHHHH!"

A section running down the center of its back suddenly began to stretch and rip open slightly, spilling out blood down the creature's back.

SLLURRR-POP!

The huge creature's back split open entirely, showering the area with red slime.

Dozens of thick tentacles sprouted out from its back, uncurling and waving around in the air wildly while flicking more warm slime all over the place.

Isaac and Felix were speechless, frozen in place.

The pair snapped out of their trances, turned around, and attempted to continue their escape.

The tentacles shot out in every direction, wrapping a around a circle of trees and creating a wall-like structure around the small area with adepts and itself.

"Oh, great!" Isaac said sarcastically. He yanked his sword out of its sheath, tossed it up into the air, and caught it by the handle, preparing himself for the task of cutting down the tentacles. He'd choose that over facing the monster any day.

Felix knew what Isaac was going to attempt, and decided to buy him some time.

Placing his palms on the ground, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

"SPIRE!"

His hands glowed.

The ground around them shook.

R-RUMBLE!

A large, sharp, jagged rock shot upwards underneath the skinless ogre, reaching to about its knees. Acting as quickly as it could, it leaped backwards.

Felix put more force into his attack, digging his gloved fingers into the ground. The stone spire shook violently and suddenly launched upwards again, even faster and with more force than before.

The ground ripped open where it was bursting through, sending dirt flying everywhere.

The ogre jumped back again, barely getting nicked in the chin by the point of the stone spire. Blood trailed down its neck, mixing with its visible muscles.

"GRAARRRGH!" the creature shouted, throwing a fist into the spire. A large chunk of it shattered off of the top, sending pieces of it flying everywhere. Felix held up his hand to block a few from hitting his face.

Isaac, meanwhile, had begun hacking at the tentacle wall with his sword, trying to cut through.

THWACK!

"It's--"

THWACK!

"--not--

THWACK!

"--CUTTING!"

His sword bounced off the tentacle wall every time, barely managing to leave an imprint in it.

Felix turned around and said, "Keep trying, I'll see what I can do about him!" After pausing for a moment, he added, "If you can't break through, we'll just have to try to our hardest to kill him!"

He looked back just in time to see a huge fist flying in his direction. The skinless creature launched a punch right at Felix. Because of the tentacles, he couldn't move much, but his arms reached far enough to get to Felix.

Grunting in surprise, Felix leaped to the side, and rolled out of the way.

FWAMMM!

Felix dodged the attack just in time. The creature's fist slammed into a tree instead, knocking it over.

Brushing some hair out of his eyes, Felix looked from the tree to the creature, and quickly formed an idea.

The ogre-like creature's eyes stared hard at him, almost glowing in the dark night. Felix could only vaguely see his figure, illuminated just barely by the small amount of moonlight that shown through the trees.

Felix sheathed his sword. He needed to be able to move quickly.

"Isaac, get ready to dodge this!" Felix shouted, running up next to his friend.

Isaac looked at him with a confused expression. "What?" he asked, breathing heavily.

Pointing towards the creature, Felix shouted, "Dodge his attack!"

Turning to look at the huge monster, Isaac widened his eyes and gasped.

The creature was pulling its fist back, ready to throw a punch right at the two adepts.

It put all of its weight on its right leg, pulling its fist back even further.

Felix's heartbeat felt like the only thing that was going fast to him at the time. Everything else felt like it was in slow motion.

The creature lunged forward.

Obeying Felix's orders, Isaac jumped back.

The large fist flew towards them, rocketing through the dark air.

Felix jumped back as well.

The creature didn't have time to stop.

Its fist collided directly into the tentacle wall.

SPLISSHHHH!

In a sickening rain of dark blood, most of the tentacles split apart. The pieces that were ripped off began twitching on the ground, while the tentacles still connected to the creature began flailing in the air wildly, showering blood all over the place.

"GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!" the creature cried out in pain. He pounded his fists on the ground, and then began throwing them around the area, shattering the spire and knocking down trees.

Isaac and Felix wasted no time, and began to run, hoping to get to Vale before anything else showed up.


End: Chapter One