Chapter 2: Battle

Cries of pain and attacks filled the air. I managed to open my eyes, and found
myself in a position in which I was unable to look towards the village. Slowly, with
much hard work, I managed to turn myself around on the ground, feeling and movement
slowly coming back to me. What I saw was very little... at least, until I managed to look
into the sky. Smoke and battle cries filled the air. The stench of death and blood
seemed to fill the air all around, as well. Large explosions, small ones, and arcs of
lightning wove from the ground and up to the air, and sometimes, it was the other way
around. Being slow and rather quiet, I managed to get to my feet. Rather shakily, I
looked around carefully, figuring out where exactly I was, and which direction I should
go. Then, I remembered the prize I had found earlier, and I quickly searched around,
wincing in pain as I felt my body getting jerked around while I searched for the package.

Sighing in relief, I spotted the package. It was but a foot or so away, and had
been hidden from any of the monsters by the fact it was inside a small hole. Slowly,
carefully, I walked toward the hole, and kneeled down to pick it up. Sure enough, I
cried out in some pain as I picked it up. Then, with a fast turn about and a run, I
headed back towards my cottage. I just hoped the monsters hadn't found it, or
even worse, I hope they hadn't destroyed it. At breakneck speeds I wound through
the wildlife, passing through trees, plants, and all sorts of vegetation as I headed home.
The thought of my pick ax had suddenly crossed my mind, but I simply decided to forget
about it again. 'Even weaponless, I am an okay fighter,' I thought. But that was wiped
away as the stench of blood and death surrounded me once more. My face went pale
as I stepped from the ill-used path and found myself in the clearing in front of my house.
"Oh no..."

The cottage was on fire. But that wasn't the worst of it, not by a long shot.
There were at least a dozen lost disks surrounding the house. There were also several
human bodies there, too. I didn't dare look at them, to try and recognize them... I'd gone
into shock. My hands, arms, and legs were shaking uncontrollably as I sank to my knees
on the muddy ground. I closed my eyes to stop the tears from flowing, which was when I
heard an unfamiliar voice come from nearby. "Well now, it looks like we missed one!" a
rough voice spoke, and then a few others laughed. From the sound of their laughter, I
determined that they were Hare monsters, with perhaps a single Jell monster with them.
I opened my eyes, and found that I was right. There were 3 Hares and a single Jell
monster, all slowly making their way toward me.

I felt the rage surge within my body as I slowly stood. The laughing monsters
looked at me with evil intent in their minds and in their gait. I simply stood there, waiting
for the monsters to reach me, to strike me down so that I may be with those that I
remembered as friends, as family. 'But,' I thought, 'if I must go, I don't want to go
alone.' I flashed the monsters a slight grin, and, with a sudden turn, I ran for a tree that
stood nearby. As expected, I heard heavy steps and plodding behind me, as the Hares
and Jell ran after me. I knew what I was doing, for I had attempted to use this tactic
against a Tiger before. Unfortunately, Tigers were too agile to be fooled by this
maneuver, but Hares and Jells certainly were not. With a sudden jump toward the
tree, I shifted my body weight so that my feet would come to bear against the bark.
With another shift of weight, as well as another jump, I sent myself almost cartwheeling
backwards, head over heels, and I landed on my feet. With a look over my shoulder, I
smirked slightly, seeing the Hares and Jell slamming into the tree with so much force
that the tree had been knocked partway out of the ground.

"Torpedo!" a familiar voice said, and immediately, I ducked from the attack,
jumping to the side. Just as I had thought, a bolt of electricity slashed through the
air where I had been, and then back into the four clumsy monsters behind me. The
attack struck all four monsters, and I knew that this was my best chance. Scrambling
to my feet, I ran at full speed toward the origin of the Torpedo attack. Standing on top
of a branch of a tree was Jound. There was no sight of his pack, however. I flashed a
grin at him, and he returned the favor, before looking back towards the Hares and Jell.
They'd just collected themselves, and were about ready to start fighting again, and that
was when Jound and I decided to take them on.

"Tyson, let's go!" he said, and he dropped off of the branch and next to me. With a nod, I
climbed onto Jound's back. Fortunately, he'd been able to bear my weight for a long time now
(I'm not fat- in fact, I'm rather thin), and Jound took off in a dead run toward the four monsters.
I readied myself for one of the basic attacks that Jound had taught me when dealing with
monsters like this. Steadying my legs on either side of Jound, I focused on the targets that
I had given myself. Knowing Jound, he'd concentrate on the other two, after I'd attacked
mine. With my gaze on two of the Hares, I quickly jumped from Jound's back and into the air
as we'd gotten close enough. The two Hares were so surprised at this maneuver that they forgot
about attacking, and looked up at me. A simple flip in the air, and I dove at them feet first. A
dropkick, a rather hurtful maneuver for human and monster alike, was the first real attack I'd
learned when training with Jound a long time ago (it was also the only effective attack I'd ever
learned from a Tiger). Unfortunately for me, however, one of the Hares moved out of the way,
and wound up an attack of its own.

Without a word, the Hare struck out at me just as I manage to connect with its partner.
"Guru-Guru!" the Hare yelled at the last moment, slamming the wound-up attack out at me. I
ended up kicking the one hare that hadn't moved in the face, and then I found myself getting
hit in the back, forcing me to basically tackle the same Hare I had been attacking. "Dang it..."
I muttered, wincing in pain before moving out of the way, ducking out from between the two Hares.
Just as I had suspected, the same one that had moved had come in close for a one-two attack,
which just barely missed me. Unfortunately, it didn't miss the other Hare, as a blinding light flashed,
and in that hare's place was a lost disk.

Jound was doing quite well on his own against a Hare and a Jell. A Torpedo attack had sufficiently
knocked out the Jell for a moment, and the Hare was too slow to even hit Jound with any of its
attacks. Guru-Guru, 1-2 Punch, Gas Attack... none even came close to Jound. Then, that was
when something unusual happened. A pair of powerful red beams came from somewhere close,
barely missing Jound as he jumped out of the way. The beams did connect, however, with the
newly lost disk, disintegrating it completely. All the fighters looked back towards the new arrival.
The Hares and Jell grinned evilly, while I paled. Jound simply growled angrily at the monster. I
slowly looked back toward the newcomer as well, and I found myself going pale as I saw the monster
there. The same thought that had run through my mind earlier- that is, the one about the monster
that had nearly killed my father, ran through my mind again as I gazed upon the monster standing
before us.

It was a greenish-purple color. Its lower body was that of a large, long snake. It could move
almost silently when it tried to, and when it moved fast, it would still be rather quiet. The upper
torso, however, was much different from the bottom half. Two large, muscular (scaled, no less) arms
jutted outward from the monster, ending in human-like hands, although the fingers were really claws.
The scaled torso got larger at the chest, showing off the monster's muscular build. Along either
side of the monster's neck was a hood-like protrusion. All this led up to the reptilian head that
looked a lot like a normal cobra-snake's head. 'My father was right,' I thought, barely whisperng
this out loud on accident. No one seemed to hear me... at least, no one commented about it.
'This must be a Naga.'

"Because of your incompetence..." the snake-like monster hissed out, looking first toward the
three monsters that were part of its army. "I will never tolerate failure. Because you have failed to
defeat even these two, I will punish you. Eye Beams!" and with that, the Naga proceeded to launch
another pair of eye beams at its own compatriots. Two were caught by the blast, and were
immediately turned into lost disks. The remaining Hare, however, started to run for its life, not
bothering with the human and Jelly Hound anymore. Another pair of eye beams and the very last
hare had been turned into a lost disk as well. Then, the Naga looked towards the two remaining,
living beings upon this battlefield. The burning cottage cast an ominous light over the three
beings that were present. Upon the Naga's chest, I noticed, was a small, brown emblem. It was
etched in an old sign, one that I was sure I had seen before in an old book.

The Naga noticed my gaze, and it grinned evilly to answer my unspoken question. "You and your
friends..." he began, sweeping an arm toward the village. "Are the first to feel our Master's wrath.
If you will join us, fellow monster, I will spare your life. As for you, boy, you will die by my hands.
I will give you a few seconds to decide, after which will be the end of the human's life." The thing
watched at us expectantly. I glanced toward Jound, and was surprised to see it bolt out toward the
Naga. "Run Tyson! Head toward the hiding spot I told you to get to! I'll meet up with you there!"
I grinned, and nodded in agreement, turning my back quickly as I heard the Torpedo attack flash
through the air. I ran, leaving the two monsters to fight. I ran as fast as I could, heading toward
the caves to the north, carrying with me the mystery disks I had found earlier, a small pack that
had but a day's worth of food within (which I'd forgotten to eat earlier for lunch) and a small blanket.

For over an hour, I ran, stumbling over rocks here and there, banging parts of my body against rocks,
trees, branches, and needled shrubs. By the time I found myself near the caves, my legs and arms
were bleeding. I must have been running due to something other than oxygen, for I was completely
out of breath when I got there. I made one step into the cave, and collapsed. Pain, exhaustion,
and numbness had never been so powerful within my body, and now, all I wanted to do was sleep.
However, before doing so, I managed to drag myself completely into the cave before sleep overcame
me. With an outstretched hand above me, and the other hand clutching the mystery disks close
against me, my eyes slowly shut, and my pain and exhaustion was swept away as the numbness of
sleep overcame my weary body.