It was supposed to be a normal reunion.
Samus and Reed, best friends for well over a decade, had finally reunited again after a two-year break. Three years ago, the two friends had fled their hometown of Tinto to escape the wrath of their employer, Lilly Pendragon, who doubled as the biggest brat in a two-thousand mile radius. After fleeing Tinto, the two friends had come upon the Grasslands, which was a good ways away from their hometown.
After arriving, Samus and Reed had split to go meet up with their loved ones they had met during a war that had occurred around three years ago. Reed, the blonde man, had ran off to Budehuc Castle, a small castle on the far side of the Grasslands, to reunite with his girlfriend Kathy, the castle rancher. Samus, the dark-skinned, white-haired man, on the other hand, had gone to his real homeland of Karaya Village where he finally found his childhood crush, Anne.
Two weeks ago, Reed had come to Karaya with Kathy to visit Samus, whom during the two-year period had married Anne. To add to Reed's surprise, Anne was also four months pregnant, and she and Samus were expecting their first child within the next few months to follow. The foursome spent the past couple of weeks mingling with each other to see how the other happy couple had been keeping up during the time they hadn't seen each other.
On this particular day, it was the day before Reed and Kathy had to depart back for Budehuc. Samus had decided that he and Reed hadn't had a lot of time to themselves, and asked his friend if he would like to take a walk along Amur Plains, a field just to the north of Karaya, to reflect on old times. Reed agreed, and soon, the two best friends were walking along Amur Plains, having a friendly conversation about the times they had in the Tinto Training Academy, where the two of them had met.
Unfortunately, things took a drastic change for the worse. Just as they were finishing their conversation, which had lasted a good few hours, they saw several identical figures materialize out of thin air. The ghostly faces and spot-free armour gave the evil monsters away.
Mirages, ghostly phantoms armed with swords. And the worst part about these vile creatures was the fact that they traveled in groups. Almost instantly after the first wave of Mirages appeared, more came after them, followed by even more. Amazingly quickly, Samus and Reed were outnumbered a hundred to two. Realizing that they had walked into an ambush of some sorts, Samus and Reed each drew their respective swords, Reed a sleek, thin Tinto blade and Samus a thick, powerful Karayan blade, and charged into battle.
The battle raged for at least fifteen minutes and the two friends had managed to destroy almost half of the Mirages. Both had several cuts on various parts of their bodies and their cloths had a few rips, but neither had any major injuries thus far.
"Gah!" Samus grunted as he ducked under a Mirage's blade to avoid getting his head cut off. "These things never end!"
Reed quickly sliced off the sword arm of a Mirage before quickly decapitating it. "We're getting there, Samus! Let's just hope we can take out enough to escape!"
Just as Reed destroyed another Mirage, a third one crept up behind him and pulled its sword back. Reed turned around, but it was too late to do anything to stop the attack. The blonde man's eyes bulged in pain and shock as the Mirage's sword plunged into his stomach. The Mirage's blade wasn't long enough to go all the way through Reed's body, but the damage was done.
Samus was struggling to break his sword away from one of the other Mirages while this was happening and looked over his shoulder just in time to see Reed get attacked. The dark-skinned man's eyes snapped open in horror as he watched a sword go into his best friend's stomach. "NO!" Samus screamed. After the Mirage had pulled its sword from his stomach, Reed sunk to his knees, then collapsed onto his side, the severe bleeding from his stomach turning the grass a dark shade of red.
Almost instantly, Samus pulled his sword away from the Mirage he had locked blades with and decapitated it. Samus scrambled over to Reed's side, killing a few more Mirages as he went. The white-haired man was quickly at his friend's side and dropped to his knees.
"Come on, Reed!" Samus said as he pulled a cloth from his pocket and applied pressure to Reed's stomach wound, hoping to slow the bleeding. "Don't do this! Not now!"
Reed weakly looked up into Samus' eyes and managed a painful-looking smirk. "Man. I didn't think I'd go this way." He chuckled before groaning in pain. "I honestly thought I'd die getting pneumonia or something."
Samus shook his head. "Don't say that, man! You're gonna be alright!" Samus was so focused on helping Reed that he didn't notice the remaining Mirages forming a huge circle around the two friends, the closest ones standing about six feet away from the two.
"No, Samus." Reed said weakly. "I don't think I'm going to make it through this."
"You mean after all we've been through, you'll just give up like that?" Samus asked, tears freely streaming down his face. "You're stronger than that, Reed!"
Reed coughed up a small amount of blood and looked back at Samus. "Sorry, man." He replied. "I can't really do anything now."
"No way! You can pull through this!" Samus said. "Remember back in the academy days when we were attacked by those Wild Boars? You thought you were going to die when you received that severe head injury from that boar ramming its tusk into you!" Samus continued. "The Tinto doctors said that even if you pulled through, you'd have brain damage the rest of your life! But you still pulled through! You can survive this!"
Reed again shook his head slowly. "Sorry, Samus. I can really feel my life slipping away." He looked around, his eyes looking like they were starting to cloud up. "Everything's…Going dark."
"Reed, you've still got your whole life ahead of you!" Samus shouted, sounding like he was bawling at the same time. "What will Kathy do if she found out you had been killed?"
The blonde man's eyes suddenly returned to normal. "K-Kathy?" He repeated. "S-Samus…Please t-tell her…That I l-love her and tell her to…Go on w-with her life and f-find another guy."
Samus shook his head vigorously. "No way, Reed! You're not going to die on me!" He said confidently. "I'm going to take you back to Karaya and get you a doctor!"
"J-Just leave me, Samus. D-Don't put yourself at r-risk for m-my sake." Reed said weakly, starting to drift off. "I-It's already too l-late for me."
"No can do, pal! We've been best friends for almost twenty years! I'm not going to leave you to die like a wild animal!"
Just as Samus reached over to pick Reed up, the blonde man's hand gripped his friend's arm amazingly firm, stopping him. Samus looked into his dying friend's eyes. "Please, Reed. Don't do this." The white-haired man whimpered.
Reed smiled weakly, his remaining strength vanishing quickly. "Farewell, my friend." He whispered. "Make sure you take care of Anne like a good husband should."
After he said that, Reed went limp in Samus' arms, his eyes closed. Samus, overcome with horror, quickly felt for a pulse. "Reed! No! Don't do this!" He shouted before becoming slightly relieved that he found a very weak pulse.
Suddenly, Samus' wet eyes narrowed in fury as he grit his teeth. Standing straight, Samus turned and looked at the army of Mirages with more hate than he had given anyone in his life. Without looking, Samus bent over and picked up Reed's sword at the same time he pulled his own sword from the sheath on his back.
Samus glared daggers at the Mirages, his rage building by the second. In his right hand was Reed's Tinto sword, the sleek and deadly blade looking like it wanted to take out some Mirages. In his left hand was his Karayan sword, the curved and thick blade having taken out more than thirty Mirages thus far and still not look dull. Samus gripped the two swords so hard that his knuckles were turning a pale white, matching the colour of his hair.
Letting out a roar of anguished fury, Samus charged headfirst into the swarm of Mirages. If Reed had any chance of surviving, Samus would finish the battle quickly so he could get medical attention for his friend.
But if Reed was already dead, Samus would make sure whoever was in charge of this ambush would die a very painful death.
END