Chapter 23

I opened my eyes. The limp bodies of Reyn and Sharla were at the edge of... something. A beach?

I rubbed my eyes, tiredness settling in.

"Ugh..." I rose slowly, staggering until I used my sword to support myself.

This was a beach. We were blasted off a cliff and...

"Where are we?" I wondered.

Sharla coughed, coughing up water. "Ugh..." She sat up. "Andrew?"

"Hi." I waved.

"Oh... Reyn!" She rushed to him as quickly as she could, and slowly dragged him from the edge. "Help me!" she called.

I came over, and the two of us dragged the adult and flipped him over. Sharla... did something, and he soon coughed up water.

"Ugh!" he groaned, opening his eyes. "Geez... what happened?"

"And where's our weapons?" wondered Sharla, worry in her eyes.

Right... she has Gadolt's Rifle now, I thought. "Is... this a beach?"

Reyn groaned, rising with Sharla's help. "Look." He pointed, and there was a cliff with a huge amount of forest. "Must've fallen from there, huh..."

"How do we get back up there again?" I asked.

"Let's worry about that later," spoke Sharla. "Right now, if anything comes by, we're almost doomed."

I grunted. If I didn't ache all over, I sure did now. "Reyn." I walked deeper into the water, and picked up a big metal object. "Is this your Driver?"

He winced. "Yeah, sure is." He grabbed it. "Where that guy stabbed me, there's a hole..."

"At least it's still in one piece," I commented, picking up Sharla's rifle. "Sharla... looks like part of the grip broke off."

She breathed out as I handed it to her. "But it's still usable," she replied. "Alright..."

I blinked. "So... how do we get back to Shulk and them? And where are we?"

"I think we're still in Makna Forest," responded Sharla. "We were thrown off that cliff, and... now, there's no possible way we could possibly get back by climbing the cliff."

"I hope that the guy Shulk was fighting didn't... uh..." He paused. "Kill him, or something."

"Probably not," spoke Sharla. "Come on, Reyn! Think positive!"

Is that something she would say? I wondered. Not too sure on that... "Uh... how do we reunite with everyone else?"

"If we can get towards... that Nopon village Melia told us about, I'm sure the others will do the same," reasoned Sharla.

"Sounds like a plan!" declared Reyn. "Uh... but where the heck is this Nopon village?"

"When did we get told that?" I asked.

"Sometime when we were traveling," answered the sniper. "I think you were daydreaming. It was called Frontier Village."

I groaned. "So... are we going to use the magical powers of choosing a random direction and hoping to get lucky?"

Sharla shrugged. Reyn moved his arm in a circle.

"Perhaps I can assist you."

I lunged forward at the voice, stabbing with my sword. Alvis dodged the attack with ease.

"Alvis," I breathed out. "I swear, if you do something like that again, I will have a heart attack."

"Considering you have asthma, I wouldn't entirely rule that out," he mused. "Anyway..."

"Wait... this guy is Alvis? That guy Shulk and you saw at the lake?" asked Reyn.

"Yeah," I replied, placing my sword on my back again. "So where's Frontier Village, Alvis?"

"That way." He pointed north with one hand.

"Andrew." I turned around to look at Sharla, and so did Reyn as she started to talk. "Do you trust this guy?"

I looked behind me, and he was gone. "Well... there's no other leads," I spoke. "So let's go!"

Reyn ran in front of me, with Sharla chasing after him. I smirked at a sudden thought before going after them.

Alvis can teleport like Deadpool, or maybe like Dante. OR SOMETHING!

...

"Phew!" breathed Reyn as he shoved back a big flying bird. "This thing's tough!" he called.

I grunted, just dodging the creature's attack. "Damn!" I cursed, wiping sweat from my face. "This thing is taking a lot of abuse from our weapons!"

"Hey... there's no gems!" noticed Reyn.

"What?!" I responded. "The hell did you get gems?!"

"Shulk explained them to me, just before we left Colony 9 for this journey," replied Reyn. "And there were-"

"REYN!" screamed Sharla. "LOOK OUT!"

"Hunh?!" he grunted, and he gasped as razor-sharp claws sunk into him. "Ugh...!"

Now! I thought, letting out a roar as Time Slow came into play. Wow... that Jake guy was right. I feel a ton better, but not so awesome because Sharla's still firing Ether rounds... anyway...

I shouted, running to the beast. Its gaze shifted slowly from Reyn to me, and I used Slide Edge to sink my blade into it. I then got on top of the large eagle beast thing. Time returned to normal by now.

"Sharla!" I shouted, using Stab Strike to stab the beast. It squeaked in pain and agony, letting go of Shulk's childhood friend. "Get Reyn back for a moment!"

She rushed forward. "What are you doing?!" she yelled as she shot a healing bullet into what was definitely her future love interest and starting to pull him away from the bird's wild movements as I twisted my sword.

"There..." I let out a howl, morphing into my power-up form. I leapt into the air, using my wings to move around to a better position.

The eagle screeched at me, and its wings swept towards me. Sharp wing projectiles rushed at me, looking like Beowulf's annoying attack THAT I ALWAYS GET HIT BY in Devil May Cry 3.

I grunted, using Aura Wave to launch shockwaves to overwhelm the feathers, and there was one shockwave left to strike the bird, in the wing in particular. It instantly began to plummet, yet still tried to keep up in the air.

"HAH!" I released my form, and fell in the air. A smile came over my face, and I let out a roar, using Whip Slash to cut the head of the eagle off from the rest of the body.

I landed on the ground safely, somehow, and rose to my full height with a smile. "That was fun!" I commented.

Reyn grunted, smiling a little. "That looked pretty cool, man."

"Thanks," I replied, placing my sword on my back again. "Sharla, how is he?"

She breathed out. "Alright. But..." She shot another round into him, and her rifle's barrel sizzled slightly, and she sighed. "My rifle's overheated. Just wait for a second..."

"I'm fine," grunted Reyn, rising, but she pushed him back to the ground. "Sharla?"

"No!" she responded, a fierce expression on her face. "Your wound's only half closed by my rifle. If you move again, and if we get into another fight, you could easily bleed to death."

He sighed. "Okay, fine. How about we rest here for a while?"

"Alright," I replied, breathing out as my rush of adrenaline left me. I sat down.

Then there was a rumbling, almost like a small earthquake. Like something used Magnitude in Pokemon and got 1.

"That can't be good." I stood, drawing my sword again. Tiredness flooded my limbs and my legs shook. "Huff..."

"Hah!" I raised my sword, just blocking a spear stab aimed for my face. I just deflected the attack so that my cheek was cut slightly instead.

"Nice reflexes!" Jake bounced away from me with a smirk. "Hi."

"Why can't you just leave me alone?! Seriously! I just want to live!" I growled. "That too much to ask?"

"Remember what I said? I want to kill you." He settled into a ready stance. "The only way you'll manage to get rid of me for good is to kill me."

"Damn," I cursed. "And just to be sure... there's absolutely no way I can get rid of you otherwise?"

"If you don't want to die."

With that he stabbed the ground. What looked like a massive blast of Ether rushed through the ground at me. I leapt away from the blast and he lunged with a stab at my face.

"Rrgh...!" I used Defensive Reversal to block his stab, and our weapons met, sparks flying. "Ugh!" I ducked, though he still managed to cut my arm slightly. "Ow..."

"Don't get distracted by pain!" shouted Jake, striking at me with his spear. I grunted, using Whip Slash to just deflect his attack. "HAH!" He stabbed his spear in the ground, and a blast of Ether from below blew me away. "Heh."

"UGH!" I groaned, sliding along the ground. "That has gone so well..." I slowly arose.

Sharla paused, cooling her rifle from shooting healing rounds into Reyn. "Andrew, are you okay?"

"Hell no," I replied. "That guy's gonna kill me at this rate. Does that sound like someone who's okay?"

"No," she admitted. "Here, I can heal you..." I waited for a moment before she shot a large burst of Ether into the air, which floated down to heal all of us.

"This heals us a lot more than all your other healing Arts," commented Reyn, rising again from the ground.

"But I have to cool my Rifle," she muttered. "Cover me, guys!"

"Whoa!" I grunted, just dodging a stab from Jake. "Hi!" I slashed at him, as Reyn pushed forward at the spearman.

"RAH!" he roared, stabbing the ground again. Bursts of Ether burst up to force all of us away.

"UGH!" groaned Reyn, as a tree branch impaled his leg. "Ugh!" he yelled.

"Reyn!" gasped Sharla, as her gun slowly cools."Come on!" she hissed.

"You're going to die first," mused Jake, looking at the sharpshooter. "Can't have you healing everyone else, can I."

"Andrew!" shouted Reyn, struggling to free himself from the low-hanging branch that had gotten through him. Blood pumped from the wound. "Go for Sharla!"

I grunted, recovering as Jake prepared to stab for Sharla. "NO!" I shouted, using Time Slow as I spoke.

Jake, however, was still moving, almost too fast. I reached out with my sword, just deflecting his stabbing attack.

"Heh... RAH!" He suddenly was much faster, and our weapons clashed several times.

Sharla and Reyn... they're still slow! I thought. How is this guy moving at... normal speed...?

"I told you about your Time Slow power, right?!" Jake cut me again, and I staggered back from him. "Well, I can use Ether too. I can slow time as well."

"Well." I used Stab Strike, and he dodged with ease. "Ugh!" I moved away, just dodging a stab.

No choice, I thought. If he's moving as fast as me now, then I have to... "RAH!" I let out a howl as I transformed again.

Jake smirked. "That form again, huh?" he mused.

"I'm not letting you win now!" I shouted, lunging. Our weapons met again, and he smiled. "Huh? What's so funny?!"

He forced me back somehow. "I'm like you, actually... an Outsider." His form flickered with a deadly blue aura, as a massive, ghostly blue demon materialized behind him.

"I can use the Soul Trigger too," he smirked. "So don't think you're so special."

I blinked. I swear, we are copying Devil May Cry now.

Thanks for reading!

(Also, disclaimer: I do not own Devil May Cry, Capcom, Pokemon, Nintendo, or anything I reference.)