Chapter Two – "A Rainy Day"
A day like all the others, still walking away from it all. Hoping that they could forget what had happened, or at least have peace with it. But for now only one thing occupied the minds of the four friends. In the last outpost they where, right before moving on into the jungle, somebody had walked up to them with a piece of cloth that looked exactly like a piece of their guild cape. The guy carrying it said that a tall muscular figure had given this to him saying that if he saw four adventures with the same capes as him that he should give him the shard of cape. Off course, as the Charr invasion struck, the people in the Tyria had become poorer by the day, war was thinning the civilians out. So before he wanted to give up the piece of cloth and some additional information they needed to do something for him.
"Why can't those guys just think of something inside an outpost for a change" John muttered when the man was giving them orders and information of how to attain this, possibly, important piece of cloth. "So when we left our house I forgot my alchemist book, without it there will be no way I can make a living" the man, seemingly an alchemist, explained to the four. Phoenix reacted, "and because you're a wimp we have to get this dusty old book for you?" but he didn't wait for a reaction and started to walk towards the gates of this outpost. John followed him immediately, in this jungle danger could be right outside the gates.
Radeon didn't follow immediately, instead he stopped Aeolus from following his two friends, his moa bird was a bit confused as to whether to follow Phoenix and John or stay with his master, in result the bird was pacing back and forth unable to make up his mind. Radeon had stopped Aeolus to ask the directions, they had bought a map of this region some time ago and since Aeolus could get them everywhere, as long as he knew where to end up, Radeon thought it would be wise to let Aeolus take in all the information about the route.
The gates closed behind them, the guards had warned them over and over again that this was a perilous place to wander off. They didn't care, if there was any chance of another survivor from their guild they had to grab it, with both hands. "There is actually another survivor, another friend!" John couldn't keep his excitement in, but his excitement and hopes where soon crushed by his companions, "don't get your hopes up, for all we know it's a dirty trick to try and kill us after all this time" Phoenix said "And to be honest, I don't think death would be all that bad" he added with his normal, emotionless, voice.
The Moa bird looked at Phoenix with big round eyes, probably wondering what he just said, then he looked back to Aeolus. The uneasy silence confused the bird, what had happened, what was going to happen. Again the bird was confused and looked back and forth, from Phoenix to Aeolus. When he looked at Aeolus he opened its beak and let out a cry.
"Don't say things like that mate" Aeolus broke down the doomsday thoughts of Phoenix. "After all these years we're still alive, because we never gave up. I am not about to give up now" with this he looked at Radeon wanting support from him in his statement, "and neither am I" Radeon added to Aeolus is little speech. John just nodded, he didn't speak but everybody knew he was not about to give up. Only Phoenix looked down at the soil really thinking about what the use of all this really was. There was not much time for all the friends, it's not as if they are all immortal. They had to get to this house, because if they would die they would at least have something to tell Grenth, they would've fought, they would've died for a cause.
With a not to bumpy ride getting there they got to the house. It was crawling with spiders and there where storm riders floating around it, "this is going to be fun" John said under his breath, right before he wanted to dash in. "Stop!" they heard somebody shout from not so far away, Aeolus immediately turned to the origin of the sound and aimed his Bow. Somewhere in a past long abandoned, they recognized the voice. "I knew that greedy peasant wouldn't keep his promise" a tall and buff warrior crawled out from the bushes, when he saw the arrow aimed at him he immediately put his hands up, "Not the welcome I suspected!" he let out in a loud whoop of both a bit of shock and humor.
"Angys, Mate!" Radeon said to the tall warrior, "I should've known you survived" he added to his joy, but it wasn't for long, the sounds of their voices had reached the spiders, "Ehm Guys, we might have a little problem" John said holding firmly to his hammer, the spiders came closer and Angys joined John in front of the group, "It feels good not having to avoid them anymore" Angys said, he had only survived through not fighting and avoiding, he had to, he was alone for the past two years.
With screeching sounds the spiders seemed to communicate, and a volley of poisonous projectiles flew their way, Angys blocked most of them with his shield, most aimed at John hit but on his armor, only one seemed to hit the flesh him. Several shots flew past them straight into Phoenix, Aeolus and Radeon. Phoenix, who was floating in mid air already casting a spell ignored the pain and poison and kept casting, Aeolus got hit and immediately grabbed some kind of potion from his bag and drunk some, the poison wore off immediately. Radeon had been hit but the poison didn't seem to penetrate his armor, he looked at a spider and his eyes turned black as he sapped the life from him to patch up his own wounds.
John was still ignoring the poison as he ran into the group with his hammer swinging madly back and forth from left to right, the ones he missed where spiked by Angys his sword. There wasn't much left for the moa but to trample on some spiders that weren't quite dead yet. With a shout Phoenix notified John that he was ready casting his spell and big glowing rocks where coming down from the skies crashing into the spiders and knocking most of them down. John could barely pull Angys out of harms way. They all forgot that Angys never was with their group and didn't know any of the signs or tactics used by the four.
The poison was wearing off but it had taken a reasonable amount of strength from John. And as the meteors stopped falling and Phoenix landed, he didn't have enough strength left to stand on his feet, he collapse heavily breathing trying to get some oxygen in his lungs.
There was no time, a second wave of spiders came running from the house, dashing to the aid of their screaming and burning comrades. This was not good, they had a crippled and wounded warrior and no more caster, Aeolus put away his bow and arrow, he first needed to help his friend. He took out the potion again, meanwhile it was Angys his turn to safe John, another volley of poisonous stings flew their way but now Angys jumped in front of John holding his Shield up high blocking almost all the projectiles that where aimed at them, some missed, some fell short. Before the Spiders could spit a new volley Angys jumped forward sweeping his sword, now John was the one behind finishing off the leftovers, finishing the struggling spiders, bashing the ones that evaded or just didn't die.
They clawed through the spiders as a farmer would do through his crops on harvesting day. Radeon finally came back to his senses, up until now he had only summoned cursed upon the spiders, because a good friend behind him fell to the ground, because he saw the strongest and tallest warrior buckle under the poison, he was confused, but seeing all the dead spiders on the ground he snapped back to his senses. A slight grin covered his mouth as he started summoning from the corpses. Bone horrors sprung from the bodies and immediately leaped into combat as well, because before their souls where lost in the mists there was one more thing they had to do.
Phoenix fully recovered from the poison thanks to Aeolus his antidote, he was furious, "How dare they!" he shouted firing volleys of fire balls, he felt energized, injected with new power. With fireballs flying over their heads Angys and John continued their onslaught through the spiders. They where exhausted when Angys stabbed his sword through the head of the last spider. "That's the last of them" Angys said, they all looked at each other in a split second of silence. "Let's get the book" Aeolus said, not with the intention to bring it back to the man, he had heard that it was an alchemist book, that meant even more knowledge about plants and their healing, and poisoning, powers.
They walked into the house, there where spider webs anywhere, but at least there weren't any spiders left. They walked through what once was the living room, through the kitchen into the study, and library, of the house. There where a lot of books "remember we only need the alchemist book" John said avoiding the prospect of him carrying all those crap books. Aeolus nodded, "Here it is" he said as he walked to the desk and picked it up. "Now we can go back" Phoenix said immediately turning around towards the exit.
Up until now the stormriders had held quiet and on the background, nobody knew their motives but it seemed that the closer the group came the further away they floated. When the five adventurers stepped in the house, however, a second battalion of storm riders came floating, under the command of a bigger and stronger stormrider, if you didn't know better you would think that the storm riders waited for reinforcements, off course they weren't intelligent enough to think of this and it was all a coincidence, or wasn't it? The riders came closer to the house, 27 stormriders not including the biggest and baddest one.
The team followed Phoenix to the door, Aeolus grabbed the book under one arm, and followed behind. But when Aeolus went around the corner he saw Phoenix sprinting back behind his Warrior comrades. "Dammit!" he shouted, "Stormriders, and lots of them!" Aeolus immediately dropped the book on the floor and got out his bow and arrow. Stormriders where a pain in the ass, especially in large groups. Slowly they came floating through the door.
"This is going to be fun" John said. He concentrated for a bit and got his defenses up, at least it would stop the first one or two mesmer spells but after that it was all man to man, no protection just fight until you drop and hope his three friends had learned the monk profession enough to keep him alive. The first stormrider got unlucky, with a sweep from his hammer from left to right he splattered the beast between the hammer and door post, the bones must have been shattered but Radeon could still make a minion out of it. But when it crawled out of the corpse the minion immediately got hit by an unlikely amount of chaos balls. It dropped dead even before it could swing is arm to do some damage.
"This is bad" Radeon said, he got ready to not only defend himself and his friends but also for the run they might had to make. Angys and John did there best to keep the stormriders from flowing in like water that broke through the dam, they swung their weapons, when they came through the door one by one it wasn't at all hard but all of a sudden they came in groups of two, sometimes even three. With the manic swinging of the hammer and the slashing of the blade they killed at least 4 more of the stormriders, but now there where inside the house with to many.
Getting hit Angys flew back, and without his help John couldn't stand for long, they had to step back a few meters to regain control and a steady foot. They fought again but now the riders had the door their numbers where growing faster then they could chop them down, finally the big stormrider came through the door, its purple eyes gazing over his minors onto the adventurers.
For a moment there was a calm and silent atmosphere, it was rudely interrupted by an exploding arrow fired from the bow of Aeolus, it did damage but the arrow alone wasn't enough. After the explosion everybody leaped into battle, it was an ongoing spell casting hell, as John suspected his guard didn't held for long, it reflected the first two mesmer spells but the next came through. Radeon didn't even have time to throw curses on the enemies, he had to use all his time and energy to protect his friends. Phoenix threw fireballs and what not to try and drive the creeps back, again it didn't help much. Although the numbers slunk it seemed that even more Stormriders entered the house. Phoenix shook his head and stopped casting fireballs. "It's no use" he stated and took two large steps back, his eyes narrowed, he got a really evil look on his face, "Keep them back as long as humanly possible" he said as he started mumbling some words they never heard before. Aeolus though it was useless to keep firing his arrows and also put all his energy towards keeping his friends in front alive. "I'll take Angys" he said Radeon just nodded.
Phoenix was floating in mid air and the energy that surrounded him was immense, bigger then they ever felt. He was still saying things they never heard before, he must have never used this spell before. His energy reached its peak, it was so much that if one wouldn't have full control over it could kill them all. "Get back here!" Phoenix shouted with a heavily exhausted voice, it did take him a lot of power to even maintain this amount of energy, now all he had to do is release it in the right direction. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Phoenix shouted again, Aeolus and Radeon took some steps back to end up behind Phoenix and still being able to keep their friends alive. Aeolus saw and felt that Phoenix wasn't going to be able to hold on to this power for long, "Angys, John! get Back here!" Aeolus shouted, John swung one last time with all his power, knocking back some Stormriders giving him time to run off, at the same time Angys let a shock of energy explode a nearby corpse to give himself some time to get back behind Phoenix, when they where all there Radeon looked up to Phoenix, who was still in mid-air, and said "Do your thing" to make sure Phoenix was still aware of what was happening around him.
With a loud shout Phoenix released the energy into something that seemed an enormous fireball, but just before the fire ball hit the group it unfolded into a big burning bird, his wings hitting even the stormriders that weren't in immediate danger got hit by one of the wings. The bird incinerated several stormriders in its path heading for the final kill, the big one, with some kind of high pitched scream the big stormrider fell to the ground. Most of the stormriders where incinerated by the spell, some died because of the extreme heat, others missed half their bodies. The big stormrider was still twitching, trying to gather some strength, at least enough to get away. John got from behind Phoenix and slowly walked up to the, still smoking, stormrider. John smiled down into the big purple eyes, he knew that no matter what creature it was, it would understand. With a shout to gather strength John raised the hammer to above his head, leaving it there for a split second and then crashing it down into the face of the stormrider. With the loud crack of the skull and blood almost exploding from his body the last stormrider died.
John turned around back to the four other guys, he looked Phoenix in the eyes and raised an eyebrow "I never saw you did that bird trick" he said. "I've been saving it for a rainy day" Phoenix said with a twinkle in his eyes and a grin on his face. Aeolus picked up the book from the ground again, "Shall we then?" he said to his friends being happy that they survived yet another fight. Radeon nodded and wiped the sweat of his forehead. "And John, that was a Phoenix, not a bird trick" Phoenix said explaining to him a bit late.
They walked back to the outpost, to bring back the book to the man who had asked it from them, Aeolus was wondering why they couldn't keep it out loud, "I mean come on, he double crossed us!" he said, Phoenix felt something for the plan to keep the book, "it might contain some useful stuff" he explained to John and Radeon, who still thought it was best to give it back. "Yes he did but if we don't give it back to him, we will be just as bad" John defended himself, "I agree, although he might have almost got us killed I don't think we should give in to the temptation to steal this from him." Radeon started "because no matter what the world does to us I think we should keep to our honor" he added tapping the guild emblem of the Locus ut Sileo guild on the golden thing that held his cape together. Now they all looked at Angys, he had been quiet up until now, they needed his vote to break this thing up.
"I think we should stick to our honor" Angys stated, John immediately wanted to take the book from Aeolus and bring it back, "However" Angys interrupted him, "what if we first have a look if there is anything useful in there" he said with a smile on his face "you and I both know that when you leave a book in the wild some pages might disappear, those pages could be useful to us" They all grinned at this remark from Angys, then all of a sudden Aeolus became quiet. "Where is my moa?" he suddenly asked.