Entry 12: Matok's Test

I think this is the first time the group as a whole has run into Matok. It's hard to convey in the journals, because Zero has already seen every trick in the book, but Matok is supposed to be one of those skilled tactician types. He's probably the most formal and least insane General. Journal format restricts this sort of thing though. Getting these journals online has made me consider actually writing the whole story out, but it would be a bit redundant at this point. I'd be able to do a good job with it right now. Stuff happening and such.

It's been 2 days since I wrote last and let me start by saying that today could have gone better. I got up for morning patrol and it was pouring, and continued pouring for the rest of the day. This wasn't so bad, a simple barrier kept me dry for all my outside excursions. I didn't see anything as per usual and headed over to Ein's for breakfast. Leon and Serene were soaked and tracking water everywhere, which was kind of funny. Most everyone else seemed unaffected, living in the same house and all. Cierra and my family were fine, Kazé having stolen my barrier idea when they made the trip.

There was a bit of discussion about giving everyone a day off from training. I still wanted to give it a go, The Origin doesn't really mind weather that much, however I was universally voted down. That settled we decided to just relax and wait for the weather to clear. For maybe 20 minutes.

It was faint, and almost completely masked by the rain, but those of us with sharp ears could hear their spells hitting the wards around town. Sounds of a rather large fighting force were coming from all sides so we split into 4 groups. Cierra and I went to the southern side of town by my place. Ein, Fia, and Nardi made their way north to check on The Elder I suppose. Chris and Ledah went west after telling Rose to hold down the fort. Finally Leon, Serene, and Kazé went east towards the Grove.

I assume everyone else saw the army that circled town. Those wards of mine were holding strong but if we didn't stop the assault they'd eventually crumble. Cierra did what she does best, flinging meteors at people and reducing them to a fine ash. I decided to help by using the rain in the air, collecting it and flinging it around, knocking Husks back before entombing them in ice. This worked pretty well until Matok showed up. He saw the Husks weren't doing well so he started killing and absorbing them in order to give himself more energy to work with. I told Cierra to take out the stragglers before he could eat them and summoned my Diviner.

I've fought Matok before, he's a crafty bastard, uses a spear called Ziegtem and flings around void energy. Void energy is kind of like, how should I describe this. Anti-Energy? Getting hit by it is a really horrible idea but it's easy enough to neutralize if you're me and can throw around a lot of magic at will. Void neutralizes energy but the act also nulls out the Void so if you have enough energy you won't have to worry. Well you don't have to worry about having yourself erased from existence anyway. Matok is still a capable fighter with his spear and has numerous backup strategies for fighting me.

He employed one of his more common gambits, attacking other people so I break my guard to protect them. After a few failed attempts at getting past me to target Cierra, he gave up, falling back on the energy he'd gotten from the Husks to try and overwhelm me. He blew through his reserves pretty quickly before noticing that the armies around town were starting to really thin out. At that point he pulled a strategic retreat, knowing I'd let him get away so I could go check on everyone else all the faster. With our side of town settled, and the army well and truly thrashed, we went back home and waited on the others to trickle back in. I got healing ready and waited. What follows is what happened to everyone else to the best of my knowledge.

Ledah and Chris hit the western side of town and started reducing soldiers to ash. Chris knows how to deal with Husks so even in large numbers they really aren't a big deal to him. Eventually what was left of the army fell back around the same time Matok retreated. Chris and Ledah only sustained minor injuries during this brawl, which is pretty impressive considering. Even when he didn't know what they are Ledah had no trouble fighting Husks so I guess that isn't too surprising.

Ein, Fia, and Nardi faced much the same. Nardi was the star here, Ein and Fia being ill-suited to fight such large numbers. Nardi's destruction element really lends itself to fighting Husks. If it so much as clips them they're left seriously disabled, or, more likely, straight up dead. I'm a bit sad I missed this, it's a rare day that Nardi really performs above and beyond like that. Nardi took a hit to the back. Ein and Fia weren't to injured too badly, nothing disabling or life threatening at least.

Leon, Serene, and Kazé really benefited from all the rain. They can all use ice competently and that's exactly what they did. If they only had to fight the army of foot-soldiers they would have been perfectly fine and I would have had to clean up the new mountain of permafrost and dead bodies. However, their section of army was backed up by Scath. From their injuries and what Kazé told me, it didn't go well. Leon stepped up to fight one on one with him. Kazé, I guess, letting him do so. Leon took a Sephian to the shoulder before Kazé and Serene jumped in to save his ass. Again. He also wouldn't let them kill or even seriously injure Scath so they were forced to hold back against a Greater Demon. Kazé was still strong enough to force Scath to retreat but both he and Serene took a few hits.

In the end it was a victory for us. Matok picked the wrong target, or was just trying to keep me from single-handedly ruining the army's day. If he'd gone up against someone else we might have had a casualty or two. Scath, on the other hand, went right to where he could do the most damage. If Kazé had gone with anyone else Scath would have defiantly killed Leon and probably Serene as well. If Scath wasn't such a massive sadist he'd have probably killed Leon already.

We all migrated back to Ein's and got the injured healed up. I asked Leon what he thought would have happened if Kazé or I were too far away from his fight to save him. He said he didn't care and was going to save his brother.

I'm honestly at a bit of a loss with Leon and Scath. I decided long ago that this was Leon's call, but if I ignore him and kill Scath myself Leon will live, but he'll never forgive me. But if I let him keep on as he is, he'll get himself killed. I know Leon won't be able to save Jack on his own, I watched Alex, a much more experienced Angel, die trying the same damn thing. I just can't get that through his skull. I'm going to have a talk with Serene to see if she can get him to come to his senses.

Since Fia was exhausted, I took care of dinner. Fixed everyone something nice and soothing to reward them for doing so well. Afterwords, I took Serene outside and told her to try something. She agreed and we went on our separate ways. I headed home early and started working on enchants for a new scythe. I'll get Serene to come in tomorrow for it. Maybe she can use it to save Leon later. Cierra and the guys got in about an hour later, Cierra going straight to bed. Nardi bragged for a bit before giving into his own fatigue, falling asleep on the couch. Kazé and Chris came into my room to help me out for a bit before going to bed themselves. I turned in a little later. I'm going to enchant a pendant for Leon. Maybe I can figure out something to save the both of them.

-Ø-

I use the phrase army in this update a lot, it's more like 4 large squads of husks, but none of the characters realized this because they didn't have a good grasp of the situation. Husks can't be sensed you see, they're hollow. I guess the best way to describe a Husk is to call it a Dusk type nobody from Kingdom Hearts 2. Husks look like normal, albeit skinny, people though, and have weapons, but the similarity is there and I never really intended to have their names so similar. Crappy vocabulary I guess.

I'm sure there's a few of you that remember where I'm going with Leon.