A/N: Finally! The update's done! Muahahaha...too much work here! >
Chapter 12:What Are We Going To Do Now?
Shenzein was the first to wake up. He sat upright and pondered for a while what woke him up. Then he heard a soft rustling noise just among the leafy greens nearby. Cautiously, he inched his hand closer to his staff, his eyes growing accustomed to the darkness. He tried to see who was the intruder, whether it was an enemy or otherwise. Unfortunately, the darkness was overwhelming as the fire had died out and he couldn't even see the outline of the unknown creature.
The sage thought quickly. He could take his chances with whatever that was, or he could wake up the others. He looked at the sleeping faces of his friends and made up his mind almost instantly. Grabbing his staff, he stood up cautiously, conjuring up a small fireball to light up the area. The fireball danced around him merrily and Shenzein made his way towards the bushes as quietly as possible.
He knew that the light would give him away but he had no choice. It was better to get a clearer view rather than to be attacked against his advantage. The rustling increased. Shenzein stopped at his tracks. Quickly preparing a fire spell in his mind, he raised his wand and aimed it directly at the bushes.
"Fire mists," he chanted softly, feeling the familiar surge of energy coursing in his body as he stared at the rustling bushes. Tiny motes of red soon began to form at the tip of his staff. The sage concentrated on the bush and directed the glowing motes towards it, straining to control the motes from being too dangerous. He planned to merely frighten whatever was within the bushes without harming it, for he still wasn't sure whether the intruder was on their side or not.
He needn't worry about that.
Just then he heard a loud raucous howl from behind him. Startled, Shenzein lost concentration on his spell. The spell was broken but the motes continued to burn the bush happily. Anexia was the next to awaken, her sharp senses alert almost immediately. She took a quick look at the sage and grabbed her katars without a word.
"Wake up, Trexxy! It seems that we have company…"
The priest jolted upright and stared blankly at his sister momentarily. Then, as if realizing the current situation, he quickly stood up and blessed everyone with agility, defense and protection. Alyssa, however, was still in deep slumber.
"Alyssa, wake up!"
Unfortunately, Alyssa slept peacefully, oblivious of the trouble brewing right under their noses. Shenzein uttered an explosive sound and ran towards her. He stabbed his staff on the rocky ground and muttered a few words quickly. A faint blue sphere formed around the sage and the alchemist, protecting them both from the dangers yet to come. Then Shenzein stepped out, careful of not breaking the safety circle around Alyssa.
Then he looked at Anexia grimly. The growls were coming closer. Any moment now, and they would soon find out what made those noises. He was not disappointed. Just a few moments after he left Alyssa in the protective circle, a few snarling wolves appeared. Most unusually, these beasts were horrifyingly twice larger than the ordinary size.
Astrexil immediately casted protective spells on all of them, blessing them with the agility of the wind, strength of a giant, and heightened their sense of defense. Anexia gripped her katars tightly and assessed the situation calmly. She glanced at the sage. As if communicating through their minds, they nodded grimly and readied themselves for an attack. The first wolf, still growling deep in its throat, stepped forward and lunged towards Anexia, its jaws wide open.
The wolf bared its teeth, its saliva flecking on the assassin's face. Grimacing, she steadied her stance and calmly calculated the distance between the beast and herself. Teeth baring, the wolf leaped on Anexia, targeting her throat. But just before he closed his jaws on her throat, the assassin moved her head and ducked its attack, her katars moving in a graceful motion against its chest, causing a gaping hole there. The beast did not even flinch as it fell down, dead.
Another two wolves leaped up and bared their teeth to Anexia. One of them dashed suddenly towards her, its sharp teeth gleaming against the moonlight. She merely tightened her grip and stood there like a statue, moving at the very last minute. Streaks of silver shone as she slashed the wolf heavily on its chest, her left hand making a horizontal motion against its neck. The second wolf leapt into action. Instead of rushing headlong towards Anexia, it swerved on her right at the very last minute, avoiding her deadly movements and wounding her by the waist at the same time.
Anexia's face contorted in pain as she struggled to ignore the stabbing pains from the deep gash on her waist. She glared at the wolf and moved swiftly, ignorant to the flying drops of blood splattering everywhere. Thank goodness for the swift agility her brother has blessed her a while ago. She deftly avoided the harsh blow of fur and claws of the wolf and stretched out her hand, the blade moving swiftly creating gashes of red on its body. Then she herself summoned up her strength and controlled her body weight as she concentrated on her final and deadly blow. The wolf howled before stopping short in surprise. The assassin's blow had hit the target, killing the sounds of the beast almost immediately.
Meanwhile, Shenzein had some difficulty fending off four wolves at the same time. He had managed to cast off one wolf by turning it into a charred mess, but they just kept on coming and coming. Grimly, he eyed the creatures beadily as he quickly conjured up a spell in his mind. He raised a hand, palm forward, and shouted out, "Firefly Demon!" He felt the hot rush of wind as the energy contracted forming bursts of flames shaped like insects with razor sharp 'pincers'.
The howls of pain mingled with the sharp outbursts of crackling flames filled the air. The wolves jumped crazily around as sparks of fire licked their way on their furry backs. Without a second glance, Shenzein raised both hand upwards, holding his staff erected and concentrated hard on the spot where the wolves were. A reddish mist began to form as he watched before bursting into tall flames. The wolves howled even more and tried to escape from there, but the sage had placed a sticky spell on them that they could not even move a single large paw. He watched for a few moments as the wolves tried in vain to escape their fiery death.
"Shenzein, look out!"
Startled, the sage whirled backwards, only to be knocked down by something furry and huge. Reacting instinctively, he cast a defensive shield on himself. The force of the shield glowed brightly for a moment as it threw the creature off. Standing up, Shenzein glanced at the thing that had tried to attack him, and received an ugly shock. The thing was a wolf, and yet it was different from the rest of the pack attacking the veterans. One eye bore a red, ugly scar, causing its vision to be partially impaired. Its teeth gleamed eerily against the moonlight glow. Fur bristling like ten wolves combined, it was no other than the leader of the pack; Vagabond.
"Damn it, why do I get the hard one?"
Shenzein quickly readied himself for an attack, thrusting his staff in front of him to cast another spell. As if realizing the sage's intention, Vagabond lifted its head and gave a loud piercing howl.
"Aaaah-"
The sage dropped his staff and closed his ears. The howl was dreadful. It pierced through his concentration and is now disrupting his thoughts. Not to mention that that howl made him feel that his eardrums were about to split. Dimly, he could see that Anexia and her brother too dropped on the ground, their heads down as they too, tried to block their ears from the dreadful noise.
"Silence."
The leader of the wolves stopped abruptly, and turned its mighty head towards the alchemist. Shenzein too, looked at Alyssa weakly. His vision was already dimming due to the piercing noise. "A-Alyssa…" he said weakly. Then he stopped. That was not Alyssa. The Alyssa he knew would not emit a glowing red aura around her. The Alyssa he knew would not have hands that glowed with dark energy forces.
"Vagabond…"
Vagabond stood still, its eyes still fixed on Alyssa. The alchemist continued to gaze at the mighty wolf, and drifted across the camp towards it. She's not even walking, Shenzein realized in shock. Her feet were not touching the ground. Instead, she floated oddly a few breaths from the rocky surface, her bloody aura emanating the whole campsite.
"I saved your life once and you had save mine. Leave these people alone. Join me."
Alyssa raised her left hand, palm forward. Her hand glowed even stronger, the dark motes danced rapidly around it. Then suddenly, a small circle of white light formed in the midst of the motes. As the others watched in amazement, the light grew brighter, and the Vagabond sat firmly on the ground, as if waiting for something. Then the massive wolf did something unexpected. It stood up, stretched itself, and jumped straight towards the open palm. There was a burst of light that blinded the veterans temporarily and the beast was gone.
Anexia rubbed her eyes disbelievingly. Where did Vagabond go? She looked around her wonderingly. Both Shenzein and Astrexil were unconscious, probably from the strength wasted and the burst of light a while ago, she supposed. Then a small sound made her turn around. She was just in time to watch the bloodied aura emanating from the alchemist to extinguish, and that she fell onto the hard ground with a bump.
"Alyssa!"
Anexia tried to get up, but ended up wincing in pain. She stared at her hand, stained with her own red liquid. The wound on her waist was killing her. Large gongs were sounding off in her head, making the world spinning. Grimly, she looked back at Alyssa, and was somewhat relieved that she was actually still resting peacefully.
"Shein, Trexxy, wake up! Wake up!" the assassin said pleadingly, unable to move. She looked back and forth between the two unconscious men, praying that they would open their eyes. Finally, after what seemed like eons, Shenzein blinked and sat up groggily.
"Eh, what happened?" he groaned, rubbing his sore head. He felt a huge lump there. Great, I'm going to have a killer headache from that, he thought dazedly. He stared around blankly for a moment, trying to digest the current situation. Then he remembered.
"Oh damn! Where's Alyssa?" he demanded before spotting her nearby.
"Alyssa!"
"She's all right, Shein," said Anexia wearily. The loss of blood was making her weak and dizzy. "She's still sleeping as a matter of fact," she continued, "But would you mind waking up my brother, please? I need him to check my bloodied waist here."
The sage nodded and semi-roughly shook Astrexil awake. The priest awoke with an abrupt jerk. Like Sheinzein, he looked around once and focused his eyes on his sister. In a thrice, he was next to her, tending on her gaping wound. Anexia exhaled in relief. At least the wound was not stabbing her with pains anymore, or rather it lessened drastically. She looked at her brother gratefully before turning to Shezein.
"Shein, think you could carry Alyssa to her sleeping bag? We'll discuss about this in the morning."
Again, Shenzein nodded and went to the sleeping alchemist. As he carried her, he gazed fondly on her peaceful face. How can such a strong character possess such dark powers, he wondered. Then he sighed. Whatever it was, it was bound to appear again, and this was not the time to think.
He gently lowered the alchemist into her sleeping bag and covered her with a woolen blanket. Then he went towards Anexia and Astrexil, who were beside the fire discussing in low voices.
"So what do you think happened," questioned Shenzein as he sat cross-leg beside the priest. Anexia shook her head, bewildered. "I'm not sure, I haven't seen anything like this before," she replied. Then she glanced at her brother and said, "You know something, don't you, Trexxy? I can sense it."
Astrexil sighed, his weary face illuminated against the flickering flames. "I can't say I know for sure what had happened back then, but I can't say I didn't guess what was happening. I only hope that I'm wrong…" his voice trailed off as he stared hard into the flames.
"What is it?" asked Anexia exasperatedly. There were times she felt like strangling her brother for playing word games with her. She hated it when he twists his words at times like this.
The priest looked directly at his sister, and glanced briefly at Shenzein before continuing, "That was the power of a goddess. A goddess also known as Hel, who rules one of the nine worlds in Hell. I'm not sure what does this have to do with Alyssa, but from what I can tell is that if we don't save Alyssa from the goddess' clutches, she will never be the same…forever."
Shocked to numbness, Shenzein could only stare at Astrexil with his mouth open. Anexia felt a surge of emotions clogging up her throat. There was a moment of silence. Finally, Anexia cleared her throat and said forcefully, "Well, I don't care. Alyssa's our friend and I vote we should do something about it!" She looked at her brother defiantly.
"I agree with Anexia, we should do something!" Shenzein voiced out his agreement.
Astrexil looked at both of them, inwardly marveling their strength and courage. Outward, he shook his head sadly and said, "It cannot be done. Alyssa must fight this battle alone and none of us can intefere. The goddess chose her and her alone. So if Alyssa doesn't want her, she would have to fight for her own freedom."
Shenzein banged his knee in frustration. "There must be something we can do!"
Again, the priest shook his head. "I'm afraid not, my friend. This is not our battle to fight," he said softly. Suddenly Anexia looked up
"Trexxy, how did you know that it would be a goddess inside Alyssa? How sure are you that it isn't something else?"
"I'm not sure, Anexia. But I had read somewhere about Hel and the powers she possessed. You saw what Alyssa did to Vagabond. He didn't just merely disappear, Anne. He went willingly to Alyssa to be her pet."
"What? You mean that Alyssa actually tamed that beast into a pet? Impossible!"
"It is possible, but not for a mere being I'm afraid. Those made me wonder about the reincarnation of the goddess in the first place."
There was another moment of silence. Each of them was lost in their own turbulent thoughts. All of them had the same troubled question: What are they going to do now?
A/N: I made up a few skills of my own here. Notice that I made the character shout out the spells, but it's only temporary. Later on I'll just go one without the usual spell-shouting/casting...hehehehe..This update is a bit weird cause I was soo sleepy when I wrote this up!