Chapter 4: Chaos in the Desert

Town in the Middle of the Desert (1:45PM)

The monster looked very similar to the previous monster they fought, back on the way to Zaphias. The only difference being is that it has one of its eyes scarred, its body was covered in several wounds and its only horn in its head was broken. The feeling that the monster was giving off was anger, so a battle seemed to be unavoidable.

"YURI! WHERE ARE YOU YURI LOWELL!" the monster was shouting as he fired another fireball from his mouth to a nearby building.

The town was in a state of panic, the knights and guild members that were stationed there was in a state of chaos. Neither side could decide what to do at this point. Seeing the state of chaos Karol acted fast.

"The imperial knights, you guys should handle the evacuation! The guild members, look for anyone that needs help in the evacuation! We of Brave Vesperia will handle the monster!" Karol commanded to the guilds and knights.

Surprisingly no one questioned his authority and went on there way to do what they were assigned to do. Everyone else was impressed at the command that Karol showed.

"Wow, that was some show of leadership Karol." Judith commented.

"Yeah, you've changed Karol." Nan said smiling at Karol.

"Ah it was nothing." Karol said blushing, and scratching the back of his head. "Anyway, let's get that monster away from here!"

Karol, Raven, Estelle, Judith, Repede and Nan approached the monster with their weapons out. The monster, apparently sensing that the humans that stopped before him was actually going to try and take him down, he diverted his attention from destroying buildings to them.

"What do you want humans." The monster asked them, though it was still evident the monster that was still rather mad.

"Stop what you're doing or else we'll be the one's to force you to stop!" Estelle shouted to the monster.

"Wait… Are you the friends of Yuri Lowell?" The monster asked Estelle, sensing the familiar scent within the people before him.

"Yes! Why do you want to cause our friend harm?" Estelle said.

"I've been ordered by my master to eliminate the one that wielded the Feather Blade that destroyed the Adephagos." The monster replied. "Answer my question or you shall face my wrath: where is Yuri Lowell?"

This monster is definitely working together with the other monster they've fought before. Was there something special with Yuri that someone would want to eliminate him?

"Even if we knew we wouldn't tell you!" Karol shouted to the monster. "We are his friends after all."

"Then so be it." The monster replied. He then fired a fire ball at the general location of the party.

"Looks like we'll have to battle this guy." Karol said, he was still scared but he decided to fight nonetheless.

"Don't be too nervous Karol," Nan said to Karol. "This guy isn't as strong as he used to be! He's seriously injured."

The monster then fired another fireball at the direction of Karol and Nan, splitting them. Raven fired several arrows to the monster, though they all bounced off due to the red aer that was acting like a barrier.

"Damn, even if he's weakened, that red aer is still acting like a barrier against any physical attack!" Raven shouted as he jumped from one area to the next, dodging each fireball that was aimed at him. If this was any other occasion, Raven would have been fully tired after his first few jumps, but since this is a life-or-death situation, he kept on going without signs of tiring.

Judith then jumped from a building behind the monster and stabbed her spear into the red aer. Surprisingly, it pierced the red aer, but it only managed to graze the monster's skin. She was then shook off the monsters back, her spear still left at where it made contact.

This gave Rita an idea.

"Estelle! Can you lend me the strength of the spirits?" Rita asked, as she put her make shift blastia replacement on her left wrist.

"Umm… ok." Estelle said as she approached Rita.

Estelle then held Rita's left wrist and began channeling the power to the make shift blastia.

The monster however noticed the concentration of energy from the two girls and diverted his attention there. The monster then let out a stream of fire to the location of Estelle and Rita.

"Estelle, Rita! Watch out!" Karol shouted to them.

Crap it's heading this way! Rita thought as she closed her eyes for the coming impact.

As the two waited for the inevitable impact of the flame, nothing came. When they looked up, Flynn was there using his shield to guard against the stream of fire the enemy was letting out.

"Flynn!"

"Lady Estelle! Please move to a safer location!" Flynn said as his shield begins to melt from the extreme heat.

Estelle nodded, along with Rita moved to a safer location to commence what they were originally planning to do.

Seeing Rita and Estelle has moved out of the way, Flynn then removes his shield and jumps to the right to avoid the flame stream. Karol was also in the area where Flynn jumped to he then gave Flynn an Apple Gel to hopefully heal the burn he got from shielding the princess.

While everyone focused on keeping the monster at bay, Rita and Estelle began what they started. After a few seconds, the makeshift blastia has begun glowing a bright green. Rita, satisfied with the energy gathering within her makeshift blastia, she then began chanting the spell aiming at where Judith's spear was stuck on the monster.

"O righteous will, let fall thy sword of lightning upon those who bear fault... Thunder Blade!"

Using the spear as a sort of lightning rod, the lightning bypassed the red aer, shocking the monster to the ground. The red aer then dispersed, and the monster fell to the ground with a thud. The makeshift blastia also broke due to the stress.

The monster was still alive though, but it was fatally wounded. Seeing the monster won't last long, Flynn approached it and began to ask questions.

"Why are you after Yuri Lowell?" Flynn asked the dying monster. "And who's your master?"

"We are after… Yuri Lowell the wielder… of the feather blade because he's a hindrance to our master's plan…" the monster then smiled and continued. "As for our master, we would never reveal it…"

As the monster said those words, the monster then stopped breathing and lay on the ground motionless.

Seeing the destruction in the town, Estelle went around town and healed the injured. She apparently wasn't as tired as before when they fought a similar monster.

As Flynn ponders and began to think of the possible people after Yuri, he was disturbed from his thoughts when Karol, Raven, Judith and Repede came to him.

"Flynn! What are you doing here?" Karol asked. "Aren't you stationed in Aurnion?"

"Well I came here due to the monster sightings in this area, since it could be my lead to find some answers…" Flynn replied. "…and since Lady Estelle is here, that means you were the guys that took her from the castle…"

"Ah… Well, she wanted to come with us to look for Yuri." Karol said.

"Anyway, what answers were you looking for when you planned to come here?" Raven asked the Commandant.

"Well I've been sent by Emperor Ioder to assist with the look for Yuri Lowell." Flynn replied. "Yuri is a good friend of mine and there's no way I won't help on looking for him."

This was well known to everyone. After all when Yuri fell to the ocean from on top of Zaude, he sent ships to search for his friend despite that the chances of finding him alive was very low.

Town in the middle of the Desert (5:00PM)

Everyone then started to help the town people. There were no casualties, but a lot of property destruction was done by the monster. Flynn commanded the knights and helped direct there efforts, Karol and Raven on the other hand helped on the guild side. Nan headed back to Hallure after helping with the guild efforts. Estelle tended to the wounded, while Rita and Judith examined the monster.

The monster that they defeated eventually faded away much to Rita's dismay, but they were surprise to find that there was some sort of core at the remains of the monster similar to Raven's blastia heart. The core however was shattered, leaving only one fragment of what looks like an apatheia. Whatever it was originally seemed to have self destructed the moment the monster died.

"This fragment looks a lot like an apatheia." As Judith picks up the strange looking fragment. "But it's definitely not one, but only similar."

"By the looks of it, we can safely say that this is what was manipulating the aer to become a barrier." Rita said while she takes the fragment from Judith. "I'll do some more research with this fragment, while I create another makeshift Blastia."

After everyone was doing there respective responsibilities, they then gather at the Inn to talk about there next course of action.

"Well, according to the town people, the man that single handedly warded the monster off the first time headed off to the south-east direction." Karol said in front of the group.

"Well looks like that's our next direction." Raven said, he then looks outside at the setting sun. "But we'll have to rest for today."

"But we can't do that!" Estelle was deeply worried for Yuri, "Those monsters are still after him! And he could still be injured!"

"Estelle." Judith approached Estelle and sat next to her. "We can't look for Yuri at the condition we're in… And you should have more trust in Yuri."

It's true that searching at the condition they're in would prove fruitless as if they come to contact with those monsters again, they'd probably won't be able to win the battle. They were lucky today since the monster was already injured, but fighting a monster that isn't would be like trying to fight against a monster wolf with a tree branch.

Flynn then entered the room where they're in, he's apparently done with his duties as a Commandant for today. "I'll be joining you guys on your quest to look for Yuri. I've been given orders by Emperor Ioder to assist for the search for Yuri and find out what these monsters are after."

Rita, who has been silent the whole time tinkering and analyzing the fragment, decided to finally talk. "Well since it's decided, let's take a rest in this town and stock up on items."

The day has finally ended, but everyone was still unsure of what this new threat has planned.

Author Notes:

This is of course a tales of fan fiction, so I figured battles will have to come in every now and then.

Flynn has finally joined the party! Despite that I'm basing this somewhat in the PS3 version, Patty Fleur will probably not make an appearance in this fan fiction. Though that may change at any random time.

Oh and about the town's name in the previous chapter, I took the translation from the aselia wiki as well as the wikipedia translation… So until I research again, I'll leave it as is.

I appreciate all your reviews and corrections, and please continue to do so in this chapter!