Daedric Puppet: So...some time has passed... here's the next chapter... and I likely won't be done rewriting chapters 1-5 for a while. Posted at 2:52 in the morning.
"You killed me!" I shot awake, standing quickly and breathing heavily, feeling the familiar weight of my Kotetsu in my hands for some reason. My surroundings finally registered to me, it was the Mosphoran Trading Checkpoint, under attack by The Highwaste Marauder's. I saw, just out of the corner of my eye, a weapon coming to towards me, I threw myself to the ground and rolled away, scrambling to find my footing as the person who wielded the blade, who appeared to be injured already, swung at me again. I barely parried and delivered a headbutt to the bandit's nose, feeling it break under the sheer force and knocking him flat on his back. He screamed and instantly got back up, swinging like a mad man and scaring the ever living shit out of me as I did the same, sparks flying from our desperate clash of life and death. The man…no…the boy…already had a stab wound…
"YOU KILLED ME!! He howled at me in a ragged, horrible tone. We clashed.
"YOU KILLED INNOCENT PEOPLE!!YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!" I screamed in rage, tears rushing down my face as I broke the clash, and slashed him across the face.
He didn't even flinch.
"WHO ARE YOU TO DECIDE WHO LIVES AND WHO DIES?" He slashed me across the chest, I cried out and fell to the ground, blood gushing from my wounds. Dying. I was fucking dying.
"I'M NOT! I'M NOBODY!! I WAS TRYING TO PROTECT INNOCENT PEOPLE YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!!" I wailed in contempt, "FIRA!!!" I blasted him at point blank with everything I had and more, an eruption of fire completely rocking the ground as he walked right through it, grabbed me by my throat and lifted me off the ground.
"YOU ARE A COWARD WHO CLAIMS TO KILL IN THE NAME IF THE INNOCENT! NOTHING MORE!" He brought his sword arm back—
"WAKE UP SHAYLUM IT JUST A NIGHTMARE! WAKE UUUUUP!" A feminine cry of anguish woke me from my horrible dream, the sheer roller coaster of emotions turning me into a sobbing mess as soon as awoke, curling up into a ball on the soft surface I was on.
"He was just a fucking kid…He almost killed me in my dream…"
"Shaylum…don't blame yourself. You must learn to forgive yourself for breaking your own code, you cannot seek redemption from a Dead man. You must know this. I know you're a smart guy." Natalia said, sitting cross legged beside me.
"I know how you feel. In the heat of battle, it seems so simple, but… afterwards…it's always going to be like that, you just…gotta justify it in your head like everyone else does in their own sick way. I've…"
She looked away as I sat up and gathered myself, wiping my own tears away as I settled down.
"Had to." Natalia said, going completely silent.
Had to. She did because she had to. I had to defend myself. I had to defend others.
I told myself, over and over. It felt so wrong. Like I was wrong. But she wasn't. It sounded so…logical, yet… fake. What I did was so fucking gruesome, beyond brutal. The worst part was how good it felt. The rush of adrenaline surpassed any form of shame and self loathing I had ever felt before. I murdered that boy. It wasn't a fair fight at all, he didn't need to die…
" I've made up my mind. Let's go kill that thing for Migelo." I stood up, a look of determination on my face. "Where are my weapons and my satchel?" I asked as steadily as I could.
"Here. I held on to them." She had all three sitting behind her on the ground, my weapons in their sheaths and my satchel on top of them.
"Thank you once again Natalia. I owe you for helping me." I gave her a light smile as I thanked her.
"No problem Shaylum." She looked away, making me feel for a second like I was somehow making her pity me enough to like me. I didn't like that idea.
I gathered my equipment and Natalia and I left the half an excuse of a tent, walking over to the blue tent where we had met the members of the Moogles Guild.
"Hello? It's the Hunters."
"Enter." We did so, once again meeting the three Moogles.
"Well, you're on your feet rather swiftly after that thrashing you took! Good to know Montblanc has been staying true to his code of 'quality over quantity' as well!" The red vested Moogle praised, which I took great pride in.
"What can I say, I'm a real sucker for life and death situations." All three laughed at my happy-go-lucky tone.
"Aha…Anyways, you've more than definitely earned your reward! And considering how much we would've paid a party of six, I think you'll like the bonus as well." Natalia and I looked at each other and grinned madly.
"20,000 to the both of you. AND!" The red vested Moogle raised his arm dramatically, "We'll build you each a house."
"WHAAAT?!?!" We both exclaimed in amazement, excitement overwhelming me as we squealed like little kids with money to blow at the candy shop.
"Any time you both manage to gain some property, contact us." The Moogle in red said, completely confirming the deal had been made. Natalia and I shook hands with all three of them, saying our thank you so much and taking off with our roll of twenty 1000 Gil coins each.
"Holy shit!" I jumped for joy, this amount being the largest amount of Gil I ever had on me. I immediately pocketed it, shoving them into the pockets of my combat boots.
"Is right!" Natalia seemed to be shaking from excitement, just like myself. "A house! Made by them! The Guild! Ahhhh!" She squealed happily.
"This is awesome, this is awesome!" The both of us continued our victory jig for a few more seconds before regaining a professional composure.
"So…what now? Is it still the same day?" I asked, curious to the amount of time that had passed. It was night time, the air had grown quite chilly and I could see my breath from the cold.
"Yeah. We killed that Behemoth about four hours ago and it was close to the evening during that time. So… I'd say it's around ten or eleven PM."
"Eleven thirty!" We heard a call from the Moogles tent.
"Thank you!" We both said in the tents general direction.
"So it'd be best if we waited until tomorrow before continuing." I said, crossing my arms and thinking about the Swordbeak hunt we took on for Migelo.
"I don't mean to go against your idea, but we should go on right now. The Highwaste Marauders that retreated likely know our faces, and if they find us during the day, we're dead. If we travel by night, even if they do harass us, they're less likely to know who we are and if they do find out who we are, we can make a run for it." Natalia explained her idea in detail, making several good points that could very well have meant our survival.
"You make several good points, not only that, if I go to sleep again, I'll be sore as hell tomorrow…" I said, "God I'm hungry." I sighed, remembering the loss of my food for the sake of the Hunt.
"Well good thing I have some extra rations. We probably wouldn't have pulled that battle off if you didn't come up with that plan, so it was a necessary sacrifice. That, and I couldn't stand the damn smell! Seriously, how do you EAT that shit?!"
I laughed at her words.
"I've got special tastes." I replied.
"Yeah, special, riiight…" Natalia's tone dripped with sarcasm.
"Either way…" I walked over to the Teleport Crystal and touched it, a flourish of green and pale blue light flashed across my body briefly, before vanishing, my aches and pains dulling along with them. "Let's get a move on. You sent our Chocobo's back, right?"
"Yeah, turns out their not too keen on blood and Behemoths. Poor guys were losing their shit when I was untying them." Natalia shrugged, seeming rather sad.
"And so, we walk."
Shortly after, Natalia shared some of her food with me and we left the remains of the massacred encampment. The rocky cliff faces on either side if the dirt road seemed to glow a hazy dark brown in the moonlight as we marched further north, crickets chirping and mosquitos buzzing around us. My body throbbed and my head ached all the while, but I knew it would go away eventually.
"You alright?" Natalia asked quietly.
"Yeah, I'm good. Still a bit sore. Argh…" I groaned as my ribs got a twinge of pain while I spoke.
"That Behemoth was a real pain…"
"Sure was. I was very surprised to see you slice that Behemoth horn off, however. How did you do that?" Natalia asked, sounding curious.
"Well… I held a lightning spell in both my hands so my attacks would be faster and had the heat of a lightning bolt at the same time, so cutting through things becomes a synch. Problem is maintaining it, it costs a ridiculously high amount of magick power. That's why I don't use any Ra's or Ga's, because I'm afraid I'll go overboard and wipe myself out halfway through a fight, then I'm a dead man." I explained the pros and cons of my recently created technique.
"That makes sense, holding spells at their full magnitude while engaging in physical combat is difficult, especially retaining your concentration all the while. Makes even more sense to not over shoot your capabilities, but I hope you know there are times where it won't be an option, where you'll need to fight with everything you have and more!" Natalia spoke with a calm ferocity that unsettled me. But she was right.
"Trust me, I know. I've…made poor decisions at the cost of someone's life before."
"That kid-" She started,
"Is not who I am talking about." I cut her off before she could continue. A moment of silence, and a quiet "Oh…".
"If I may ask-"
"My Brother." I said, the guilt from that day, four years ago coming back to the forefront.
"I'm sorry." Natalia said, sounding sympathetic to my pain.
"How could you know? Unless you heard rumors?" I shrugged, uncaring to her unknowing.
"Well…I didn't not know…" Her words annoyed me slightly,
"Why ask then?" I said, letting some impatience sink into my tone.
"Because I want to know if it's true, from the first hand accounts, not half assed extrapolations from a bunch of assholes that clearly don't like you." She elaborated,
"They say you killed him."
" 'They' like to talk too much. As if they were there, when they were not. I…" I started,
"Fucked up. I made a decision that ended in catastrophe." I stated, keeping my tone free of anger as much as I could. Then something crossed my mind.
"Why are you interested in my past?" I asked, changing the subject before she could respond.
"Because, Montblanc and Amal seem to have a lot of respect for you. Same with Bansat and Monid as well, and it ain't easy earning their respect. I want to know why they do. What they see in you." Natalia explained herself in what appeared to be genuine honesty.
"And what do you see so far?" I asked.
A light gust of wind caught my attention as I realized there were no other sounds being made. Not by wildlife, the bugs we're even less prevalent.
"Stop." I raised my hand as Natalia was about to speak.
"What is it?" She said, a stern expression crossing her face.
"Do you hear that?" I whispered as we stood there in the path led to the peak of the hill we were on. A few more seconds went by as Natalia carefully looked around.
"No, I don't."
"Exactly. It's the middle of the night, so why is there no animal activity? There's only two of us and we haven't been making any commotion. Something's wrong."
As the word left my mouth, a began to see a orange, flickering glow beginning to rise over the ridge of the path, the sound of metal boots accompanying the light as it drew closer. I reached into my satchel and withdrew my binoculars, discovering one of the lenses was broken and having to use it as a mini telescope. Hands wielding torches crested the hilltop, seeing mismatched armor sets upon the individuals wearing said armor and a multitude of different weapons on each person. As I gained a better visual, someone part of the group ran to the back, looking frantic. His face looked half broken.
"It's them…" Natalia stated apprehensively, drawing her bow very slowly. We were not in a good position, if we climbed the cliffs, they'd kill us with magick and projectiles, if we retreated they'd know something was up and likely setup an ambush for later. Meaning if they saw us, we were surely fucked.
"Start backing up, look for anything large rocks or boulders you can shoot at. I'm gonna focus my magick, in case we end up in a skirmish. We find a way to distract them and we'll take another way." I instructed, charging up my magick reserves as I handed Natalia my binoculars. My body quivered as I drew upon more and more of my life force, a low, purple glow resonated off my form.
"They see us! Fuck, we gotta go now!" Natalia spoke, her breath quickening as we both struggled to come up with an opening.
"Run! We'll double back up the other path we passed a few minutes ago!" I heard steel being drawn from sheaths and could see the movements corresponding to the sound, staves and bows being drawn with them.
Natalia and I bolted in the opposite direction of the band of Marauders, knowing full well that we would not be able to fight them. At least not head-on. I glanced behind me, seeing fire arrows being readied. I charged two blizzard spells, one in either hand as we booked it for our lives. I looked back again and they fired.
"STOOOP!! BLIZZARA!!!" I forced an arching wall of ice 2 feet thick to erupt from the ground behind us, completely cutting off the pathway for our assailants and allowing Natalia and I to take cover. Flaming arrows and fireballs rained down on us, but my wall of ice protected us from the downpour of fire projectiles and magick.
"NOW!" We ran from our cover, hearing the Highwaste Marauders calling out at us in contempt as they stampeded down the hill towards us.
"Shaylum, light these arrows!" Natalia stuck out three arrows that had a black, bulb shaped tip towards me,
"Gotcha!" I snapped my fingers and a small flame materialized, allowing me to ignite the projectiles. Natalia notched all three and fired high over the arch as we continued to flee.
"You may have overshot that!"
The three bright explosions behind us negated my previous statement as cries of agony and rage echoed throughout the valley.
The path from earlier came into site, Natalia and I picking up the pace as we raced up said path, trying to lose the Marauder's in a desperate act of flight.
"UP THERE! MAGES! ARCHERS!" The man I assumed to be in command barked at his entourage.
"FIIIRE!!!" He bellowed. I drew my Defender and charged another Blizzara spell, slashing the air twice in a wide x pattern, the myriad of spells and arrows being displaced by the two archs of ice that cut into their path. The archs of ice crashed into the other side of the lower valley, shattering like glass on impact and sending a combination of large boulders and rocks tumbling down upon our enemies.
"BASTARD!" I heard the man curse me. "RUINA! TAKE HALF OF THEM AND FOLLOW THEM UP THAT HILL! I'LL TAKE THE OTHER HALF AND DOUBLE BACK TO CUT THEM OFF! GO!"
"YOU GOT IT, BOSS!" A woman called back,
Ruina, huh?
"Oh fuck! A pincer attack! Now what?!" Natalia questioned with a panicked tone.
"Get to the top! As long as we make it before them, we can break line of site and escape!"
"You better be right! I can't run much further!" Natalia huffed between strides.
I could hear them marching, closing in on us, cutting off more avenues for escape
"FIIIRE!!" Alarms went off in my head as I heard the woman Ruina, call for another downpour of flaming arrows and fireballs to be fired upon us.
"BLIZZARA!" I cast as quickly as I could, not using my weapon as an output this time and putting up another wall of ice to shield us from certain death.
"FIIIRE!!" A roar came from the other direction, the blood in my face draining in fear. I rushed in front of Natalia, watching unblinking as arrows and fireballs rained down. I quickly deflected two arrows away from Natalia, but could not put up my guard in time for a Fira strength explosion to send me back first into my frozen barrier.
"Gaaaaah!!" I growled, gritting my teeth as my shirt was charred and my chest burned like the pits of hell.
"PROTECT!" Natalia stood in front of me, a greenish, white aura coated her form as a hexagonal pattern shield stopped the onslaught of projectiles with one hand.
"SHELL!" She cast another spell as more Firas crashed down on us. I dragged myself to my feet, drawing an ether from my satchel along with a Hi-Potion. I drank the Hi-Potion as Natalia covered me and I handed her the Ether as the barrage of Fira and projectiles died.
"GO!! We can still make it!" I rushed further up the hill, Natalia in tow, huffing and puffing in exhaustion all the while. Fatigue began to rear it's ugly head for the second time in less than twelve hours and I was feeling the effects. Fear began to set in. What if I was wrong? What if my plan was only going to get us killed? What if this is the end?
Natalia and I finally crested the hill top, seeing no avenue of escape except for a forty foot drop down a mud slick hill.
"Shit! We're trapped!" Natalia cursed.
"Maybe! But we can still fight! They may be killers but they are not fools, if they're sending ground troops after us, they can't fire on their own."
"So what are you saying?! We fight them head-on?! Are you crazy?!" She asked, an expression of disbelief and anger on her face.
"Not head-on! We force them to come to us! I'll keep putting up walls of ice on either side, when they break through, I'll throw another one up on the other side and we deal with the ones that broke through, and so on!" I looked at the ground, the top of the hill plateaued, a large slab of rock covering most of the ground we stood on.
I charged my black magick, creating yet another ice barrier from where the team of Marauders were doubling back to, making it 5 feet thick and 8 feet high.
"That'll buy some time." I looked at the barrier on the other side of the path where we were pinned in at. It was melting, and I could see torch light getting brighter, along with the sound of marching and calls for our slaughter. I popped my last Ether and drank it, feeling my magick reserves restore itself over a few seconds.
"I don't know about this Shaylum!" Natalia paced with her bow in hand, breathing heavily from the stress of our predicament.
" Please trust me Natalia. In order for this to work, I need you to trust me." I said to her, keeping my tone calm and collected. She looked at me, raising her eyebrow initially at my calmness, but then shaking her head with a grim expression.
"Okay…I trust you."
"Thank you. The plan is I rush down there while the ice barrier here remains, you are to cover me and tell me when the barrier starts breaking down so I can back up and cut this path off, so we can deal with the ones on the other side, thus negating their pincer attack, since we only have to deal with each team one at a time."
"You're gonna go down there YOURSELF?! You are fucking nuts!!" Natalia exclaimed.
"YOU GOT ANY BETTER IDEAS?!!" I barked at her insult to my intelligence. She glared at me hard.
"Didn't think so." I walked up to my deteriorating Blizzara barrier and booted it down with two hard kicks. I leapt over the frozen rubble and strolled down the hill, sheathing my Defender and drawing g my Kotetsu with a quick flourish, the singing of steel ringing out as I did so. I ran towards the marching, seeing at least twelve people with weapons drawn and spells prepared.
"DID YOUR BITCH LEAVE YOU?!" One them called out as the squadron marched up the hill towards me as I marched towards them. It was the woman, Ruina, garbed in a metal chestplate and wielding a shortsword who bellowed at me.
"I COULD ASK YOU THE SAME!" I barked at her, raising my blade as I continued to close the distance.
"YOU WANT TO DIE?! YOU AND YOUR WHORE VERSUS ALL OF US?!"
"HARDLY A FAIR FIGHT WHEN YOU'RE TOO FUCKING STUPID TO KNOW THAT YOU DON'T GIVE AWAY YOUR TACTICS TO THE ENEMY UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE! SO THAT'S REAL FUCKING IRONIC!!" I roared at the group of people trying to kill me. Several arrows rained down on them, killing two and injuring one, allowing me an opening.
"THUNDARA!!" I cast the spell from my weapon, a ball of electricity rocketing towards my enemies and exploding, bolts of lightning electrocuting all those in the spells range. Smoke veiled me to my attackers, allowing me the element of surprise as I rushed through the smoke and ran someone through, jerking away and tearing my weapon out of his soon to be lifeless body.
"HE'S RIGHT HERE!!" One called out, just before I slashed him across the throat, blood spraying across my face as I broke through the smoke,
"FIRA!!" I punched the ground with the spell, an fiery explosion, enveloping the immediate area in hot flames, sending two of my enemies, one mage and one Archer, down the face of the cliff. I heard movement to my left and I stepped back one step, narrowly evading a downward slash from a woman with a look of pure ferocity on her face. She swung her shortsword at me again, and I leaned back ever so slightly, the blade passing less an inch away from my head. Wide open, I delivered an underhand vertical slash across her torso and she shrieked, falling on her back and looking nearly hysterical from the pain as she began to laugh, staring me dead in the eyes as she did so. Not allowing this level of horrific to affect me, I rushed a shield and axe wielder as more arrows killed two more of my opponents further behind them, a greatsword user and a twin dagger user. I dodged a skull smashing swing from the shield user, twisting my body in the same direction of his swing, bringing my foot up and cracking him across the side of the head with a round house kick, send him staggering to the side, allowing me the opening I needed and impaled him in the back with my Kotetsu. I tore the weapon away seeing the other five remaining Marauders, two of them scraping the woman I slashed off the ground as she laughed madly and the other three taking the forefront.
"You don't want to do this. I've already slain most of your friends, call it quits while you still breathe." I said in a deadpan tone, blood dripping down my face as I held my ground, cutting them off from my backup.
"SHAYLUM!" I turned and ran as soon as I heard Natalia call for my aid, throwing a wall of ice up as I fled and adding another for good measure. I made in back to the plateau just in time, seeing several bandits hacking away at the large chunk of ice.
"WATER!" I cast above the band of killers, raining liquid down on them but not harming g them.
"WATER!!" I cast again, a larger stream of water crashed down on, seeing them slowly considerably.
"RAIN?! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!"
"HOW ABOUT A THUNDERSTORM?!!" I returned, my voice full of venom and spite.
"THUNDARA!!!" Screams of agony and terror erupted amongst their ranks as the third-tier thunder spell shot from my blade and into the sopping ranks of the bandits, listening to most of them drop dead after my spell died off. Most of them anyway
I heard the sound of gunfire, and I screamed as a bullet tore through my left shoulder, my vision blurring from the sheer amount of agony I felt as I hit the ground. I whimpered as I forced myself to sit up, ignoring my body's continuous pleads for rest. An arrow was drawn and fired, a cry of pain following soon after. Thanks Natalia.
"DAGGER NOW!" I spoke to Natalia frantically, as she kneeled down beside me, a white glow in her hand. She handed me the Gladius handle first, I gripped it and drove the hilt into my shoulder, screaming as sweat seemed to pour down my face. I got the hilt behind the bullet and forced it out, my body throwing itself back to the ground once free of the intrusion. I was shaking, but my vision began to return, just in time to see more of the Marauders climbing over their dead comrades.
"Heal me… I'll keep them off…" I said shakily, preparing another thunder spell in my right arm, lifting my head off the ground just enough to see where I was casting at.
"YOU DON'T LEARN!" I raged, letting another powerful thundara release from my fingers without even saying the word, watching as looks of confidence turned to horror in less than a second.
"Holy fucking shit…this is insanity…" Natalia spoke she directly applied her cure spells for better effect, I could feel my skin and muscle tissue, slowly, but surely, knitting themselves back together.
"Ha! It's working isn't it?!" I half laughed, half cried.
"ARRGH! USELESS FUCK HEADS! THERE WAS ONLY TWO!" I heard that man who was commanding them. I could also hear the other group of people trying to murder us breaking through my other ice barrier. Fuck.
"Now, we make our escape!" I whispered unnecessarily, forcing myself to a stand as soon as I felt my skin heal over completely, courtesy of the most helpful white mage I'd ever met. I walked over to the cliff face, the one with the forty foot drop down to a muddy hill.
"Grab onto me." I told Natalia.
"Oh HELL NO! WE ARE NOT DOING TH-"
"TOO BAAAD!!" I crouched down before she could react, lifted her over my shoulder and leapt.
"YOU SONUVABIT-"
"AERORA!!" I cast with all I could muster as we began to fall, Natalia losing her shit and hitting me all the while. We hit the ground hard, not as hard as we could have but still pretty bad.Natalia broke away from my grip as she and I tumbled and slid down the hill.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"THAT YOUR ALIVE? GEE, THANKS! MEANS A LOT!" I shot back,
The ground disappearing from beneath us brought our attention back to our predicament, the both of us screaming as we fell far, far enough that if we hit solid ground, we'd be dead.We landed in deep water, thankfully, but the current was strong. Swimming for all I was worth, pushing my way back to the surface as the strength of the current tried to pull me back under. Gasping for air as I broke the torrenting water, I wiped my eyes of water and looked around desperately as the warm rapids threatened to drown me.
"NATALIA! NATALIAAA!" I called twice, hearing the echo of both bellows, noticing my surroundings to be a cave, dark and unhelpful.
"I'M HERE!"I heard from further ahead of me. I was yanked under the water by its sudden immense gain in strength. Choking on water and kicking and scraping my way up the current, I suddenly began to think about Rabanastre. How everyone knew me, who knew me, what they knew about me, who I knew, who I didn't know. Why was I thinking about this now? Is my life flashing before me? Or is this just another cruel reminder of my failures? I'd leave my mother and father childless… known as the man who killed his brother all the while?
I couldn't breathe at all. What little air my lungs managed to get was quickly depleted, my chest twisting and churning, my body aching. I could feel my arms and legs losing strength, fear and terror overwhelmed my entire body in a vain attempt at swimming. I couldn't keep my mouth shut and lungs closed any longer, losing feeling across my entirety as I sunk further down, my vision darkening.
"Brother…"