The warm sunlight filtered through the canopy of leaves. It was a clear day, directly contrasting the situation that three members of the El Scouts had found themselves in.
"What's with these guys?!" Aisha scowled as she blew away yet another pink bird. She huffed as the others finally finished clearing out the mob of birds that had assaulted them.
Rena cast her searching look through the foliage, spying what appeared to be a nest.
"We must have been trespassing on their territory," she observed. "I've heard that the pink birds, dubbed "Ruchi" are uniquely native to the forests of Ruben."
"How do you know that?" Aisha questioned as they continued on the path.
"I may not come from around here, but I have a duty as an elf to know of the inhabitants of nature, whether that be in Ruben or elsewhere. Besides, all my years of carrying out missions for the elder has given me some knowledge of the world."
"You say that like you're an old hag," Elsword commented. Aisha promptly whacked him with her staff.
"Do you have any idea how rude that is?!" she snapped.
Rena sent Elsword a chilling death glare before clapping her hands together. "No arguing. We have a mission to fulfill, so let's get moving!"
The three of them pushed on, traveling deeper into the woods. As the three of them were about to step out into a clearing, Rena abruptly stopped and held up a hand.
"Quiet," she whispered, shoving the other two into the bushes.
"What was that fo-"
"SSH!" Aisha hissed. She glanced over at Rena, who was intently observing something. As she peeked out from under her cover, a group of bandits met her eyes.
So that's what she saw, Aisha thought.
"Why aren't we-!" Elsword shouted, but was cut off as Aisha jabbed him in the stomach with her staff.
"Quiet!" she hissed. "Don't you want to figure out what they're doing here?"
"Well, they're obviously trying to steal the El Shard-"
"They've already stolen it!"
"Oh- well- just beat the answer out of them!"
"That'll alert the enemy to our presence! And that might allow Banthus to escape! Again!" She sighed as she turned to Rena, whose only sign of hearing the argument was a twitch of her ear and a vein on her head.
"Children..." she growled, not once taking her eyes off the bandits. Both Elsword and Aisha let loose a small squeak before turning their attention on the bandits again.
"Extract the El... transport... mission... Banthus..." they heard the bandits mutter.
"Tch, just admit it, we're stuck here doing nothing when Banthus gets all of the fun!" one of them burst out. "No one's gonna come after us, so this 'bodyguard' job thing is useless!"
Another one of them laughed. "Yeah, those El Scouts... they sure are stupid!" he hollered. "They didn't even notice that we stole their El... and they're not even here to stop Banthus!"
Aisha slowly (and somewhat hesitantly) turned to look at Elsword, who had a dark look on his face and eyes burning with anger. His fingers were practically choking the life out of his sword.
"They shouldn't even be called El Scouts. They should be called El Shits!"
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT!" Elsword roared, bursting out of the bushes and smashing a bandit as hard as he could. Aisha clenched her staff hand, a furious look on her face. A similar look was on Rena, as she drew her bowstring taut and fired.
"Elsword!" Aisha cried as she clenched her staff hand. She looked at Rena, who had a deadly look on her face as she drew her bowstring taut and fired.
"Come on!" Rena shouted, grinding her teeth and flying to meet the opposition. Aisha swung her staff and blew out of the bushes, summoning fireball after fireball at the enemy.
In the meantime, Elsword was swinging with grim determination, blasting apart the bandits. "No one insults my friends!" he cried as he batted away another bandit. In moments, the so-called "bodyguards" were completely decimated. Elsword stood in the middle, panting, his eyes covered by his hair.
"Banthus?" Rena quietly questioned.
"Banthus," Elsword answered. "He's going to pay."
They stood in front of the vine-covered doorway. His anger had somewhat died down, but that was only so he could save it for the one who dared to mess with his home.
"I can sense someone," Rena informed. "Likely Banthus. You ready?" she asked the others.
"Of course. He won't stand a chance," Aisha answered smugly.
"He won't know what hit him," Elsword added.
With a bang Rena kicked open the door. The three El Scouts charged in, immediately spotting Banthus and targeting him.
"Hand over the El Shard!" Elsword demanded.
"Like I'll answer to kids like you!" Banthus retorted, lifting his giant sword and swinging it straight at Elsword. He readied his sword in response and blocked, grunting at the effort, but succeeding nonetheless. He slipped around and delivered a solid strike, jumping away right as Aisha sent her fireballs at him. Before they knew it Rena slid in low to the ground and struck with her legs. Aisha readied yet another spell as Elsword charged in again.
Banthus roared and leapt high into the air, slamming his sword into the ground on the return trip back. "Rena!" Aisha cried as Elsword and the elf in question were sent flying. She teleported up close to Banthus and slapped him with her staff before he could assault the two others.
Rena flipped in midair and slid back from the force of the strike. She quickly jumped right back into the fray, leaping in the air. To the surprise of all the others, she jumped a second time in mid-air and then slammed both of her legs into Banthus's head. The crack of bone rang in the air. Banthus stumbled back, retreating to the other side of the clearing. The El Scouts stared him down, getting back into fighting stances for the second round.
"I don't have time to mess around with you brats!" he snarled as he clutched a yellow necklace around his neck.
"Give it up, Banthus!" Elsword demanded once again.
"Like I would," Banthus sneered. He then began shining a bright white light, blinding the El Scouts and forcing them to shield their eyes.
"W-what?!" Aisha commented as soon as she was able to open her eyes. In Banthus's place was a giant white Phoru, eyes glowing a deep red. "Teleportation?!" she gasped out loud. In response, the giant Phoru roared, the sound reverberating through the area.
"Not now, Aisha!" Rena exclaimed, rushing forward. "We have to focus on beating this Phoru!"
"R-right!" She summoned even more fireballs and commanded them to fly straight at the Phoru. Elsword followed behind, striking the Phoru as he got closer. Rena flung her legs out and drop kicked the Phoru before spinning around and firing arrows one after the other. Even then, the Phoru wouldn't stop its rampage. With a roar it charged forward, batting away Elsword and almost getting Rena, who ducked out of the way.
Aisha teleported over to Elsword and held out a hand, spying claw marks on his face welling up with blood. "You alright?" she asked.
"I can get up by myself," he hissed in response.
"Fine then, be that way!" Aisha snapped. She turned to look at the Phoru, who was currently being distracted by Rena. However, they all knew that it wouldn't be long before she tired out or made a misstep.
"Out of the way!" a voice cried behind her. She spun around only to see Elsword blow past her and rush at the Phoru.
"Mega Slash!" he cried, thrusting his sword in a wide arc and bringing the Phoru to its knees. Aisha blinked in surprise. This power... He's stronger than I thought!
"We should get out of here while we have the chance," Rena gasped as she wiped sweat from her brow.
"But Banthus got away!" Elsword protested. "And he still has the El Shard!"
"Aaaaaargh!" Aisha shouted, tangling her fingers in her hair. "I can't believe that I let him get away!"
Rena walked over to the Tree of El, running her hand along the bark as she cast her watchful eyes upon it. "Good," she sighed. "The Tree of El is still safe. At least we did one thing right," she commented wryly. "There's not much else we can do here. We should report back to that person. Lowe, was it?"
"Yeah..." Elsword sighed. "I still don't like it."
"None of us do," Aisha retorted. "But we have to."
"Come on!" Rena called. "I don't think anyone is seriously injured, so we can do checkups back at the village. Now let's get going!"
Rewritten: September 15, 2016
Was the anger burst in the beginning too much? Too little? Eh, probably did something wrong there lol. I'll try to explain why as best as I can in the chap 4 rewrite tho - -;
I feel like I am/(might be) writing them out of character e.e Any thoughts?
/is waiting patiently for the moment they get out of Ruben ;w;/
