Damn it! Eric thought. With this heat around me I can't…! He didn't find the need to complete the sentence. The blazing sun was heavy on Eric's tense body. He was careful not to move an inch – scared of what he could lose. An arm? He guessed. A leg? My head? The bubbling heat continued to wrap around him, as if he were a fragile, beloved treasure around blistering hands. I can't move… I can't protect Walter or Mark! But I have to! It's my purpose… I can't lose someone else again! Eric demanded of himself as he pictured his mother's last old and wrinkled smile, her face baggy like a teenager's jeans. I won't…. let… that happen… again!
Eric gritted his teeth as he tried hard to move. This heat blanket must be user operated. So even if it is friction-sensitive, that salamander guy has to focus to increase that level of friction to an explosion. Without him, it's nothing but a hot armor. Also, it's thickening by the second, making it hard to move... damn it! Eric tried to bring his arms to his face. His tanned forearms felt heavy like two ton boulders, only moving inches from all the effort given. Damn it…! he cried out in his thoughts once more.
The sun, a blazing circle of light in the distance of the sky continued to intensify. Its blinding light peeled off the clouds as it approached them, slowly attaining the acceptance of the cloudy boats sailing in the azure world. The trees' heads seemed to inch toward the scene as if getting up from their seats and leaning in awe to see the fight. Their wooden limbs cheered in a chant of confidence. Wandering, dusty smoke continued to cloud the scenery. It swayed in every direction possible. Walter… Eric hoped. Just give me some time. I'll help you… if it's the last thing I do, I'll help you – save you.
Gaia scoffed, amused. "I'm surprised you can stand up, stupid brat," Gaia mocked Walter. The Water Minor didn't answer and shifted his weight, narrowing his eyes meanly. "You can't even free your friends at this point. The only you couldn't gotten out is because you dampened the heat from the inside. But that's a different story than from the outside, isn't it?" Walter narrowed his eyes once more, and shifted his feet, making himself more prepared with a bit of nervousness. That nervousness was nothing compared to his want – no, need to fight. "From the inside, you can blast water from the tiny pores that are friction sensitive located in random areas of the heat armor, which bursts it apart and carried it away. However, from the outside, there are no pores that are friction sensitive, since they only have a purpose if they go against the victim's skin; therefore there is no need for them to be on the outside. Because of that, there is no way your water can enter and break the heat armor," Gaia explained. He chuckled and grinned, excited. "Isn't that right?"
"I told you," Walter said calmly, gripping his fists tightly. "I'll take you down. I won't let you get in my way," he explained, his cool headedness never leaving him. "And also," Walter added. "There is no reason why you should be surprised," he told, referring to Gaia's first statement. Gaia scoffed meanly, narrowing his eyes into grudged slits. His envy emerald eyes seemed piercing. With that last word, Walter rushed outward. One second, he was there in your sight, the next, he was a blur. Dust trailed behind him as the darting blur made its way through the forest.
Prepared, Gaia put his arm out and shielded himself from a drop kick. The defense gave the forest audience a glimpse at their favorite fighter, the most talented Minor. Flipping through the air, Walter made expert flips above the fused enemies. Twirling his body like an acrobat he delivered multiple punches and kicks as he slowly wheeled down to the ground. It was as if he were too talented for gravity. They continued the round of punching, Gaia smirking as he enjoyed himself, Sanshouuo groaning in impatience. With Walter's last punch, Gaia's scythe-like bone from the back blocked the impact, taking the reduced damage.
With a hateful throw, it sent Walter flying backward. The skilled Minor skid on the dirt ground, dragging dust with him as he gained his balance once again. With another blurry rush, Walter took off again, sending another rush of angry punches and kicks. Dodging to his side to escape from a slash of bone, Walter sent them flying to the edge of the field with a strengthened palm as he let out a despaired cry of hate. "I won't let you get in the way!" he declared as their body was knocked against a tree. A clattering fall brought them to their knees, giving them a hard time to get up.
"Damn…" Sanshouuo muttered irritably. "This kid won't shut up!" he groaned in an upset rasp as he and his brother got up to their weakened feet. It took a while for them to get used to those human legs. "How vexing."
"Let's show him," Gaia said with a weak grin. Sanshouuo nodded, finding it too hard to speak. Gaia's crooked smile grew into a deviance of unexplainable quantity. "Chiri Nadare! –Dirt Avalanche!-"
With a burst of quaking earth, the dirt in front of the two enemies in one body began to rise with a great current. Its tidal look seemed deadly as it elevated threateningly. The ground hissed and shook as it churned upward, the crackling earth shaking beneath the Minors' weak feet. Walter scoffed at the challenge. Walter screamed as he charged forward. The wave of brown seemed to react, leaning toward Walter as well. The two sides neared each other, the forest full of audience waiting to see the collision. Mouths dropped open and wide grins grew as everyone waited to see the outcome.
A long shadow fell upon Walter as he charged, his battle cry filling his ears with a confident beat. He watched the base of the avalanche coming toward him, and felt the least bit challenged. Had he gone completely crazy? No. He's just become completely full of his purpose. Yards away from the dirt wave, its base launched sharpened clay. It fired from the shifting brown like gunfire, bursting from the half liquid substance.
With a haul, Walter stopped in his tracks and brought his hands to the ground before him. "Maina Mizu: Suidangan!" The aquatic bullets sprang from his back again and eliminated the danger of the sharp, clay shards. Bits of yellow rock flew everywhere as the pressurized water fell limp to the floor in tiny drops. Resuming his charge of bravery, Walter neared and neared the base of the leaning tower of mud and dirt. The shadows became overwhelming, and took his eyes away. His wounds hadn't healed yet. The blood kept coming down from his head and body, yet he ignored them. Ignored them completely as if they were just a tiny nuisance – a second's worth sensation that you shouldn't become to close to.
PoVS
The sky was bright with the sun's blunt light. Cloudy ferries rocked past as they waded through the sky's blueness. It was a whole another world up there, because it was so different. Because the smell of death threatening blood didn't linger everywhere, because not every second of your life was risked and not every moment you lived wasn't in danger. And it wasn't just the Swamp of Mystery. It was the whole world that the Minors lived in now. The whole world they had caught themselves in, and the ones they have to be careful for now. Discipline was a necessity. Unfortunately, one from a certain group didn't have the slightest idea of what that meant.
"I can't believe these wounds from Madasora hadn't even healed yet!" Zack complained. His eyes slanted in a childlike manner as he watched his bandaged forearms. The pain had left but it was a bit annoying to have mummified arms. He sighed as he held the skewered fish in the other hand.
"Stop complaining," Derek insisted with a groan. He didn't make eye contact with Zack. He just sighed in belittlement as he brought tanned fingers through his spiky black hair. "At least you don't have a permanently damaged chest," he said, referring to the black bandages wrapped around him underneath his black garment.
"He's right, Zack-san," Dylan muttered through a full mouth. Chunks of fish sputtered out as he closed his eyes in enlightenment, his cheeks going round and round and his jaw going up and down in a satiating hunger. In one hand, he held the hot wooden skewer with the burnt fish. Its body was blackened and ashy from the fire, its mouth wide open in a guilt-jerking shock, its eyes beady like ebony pearls drained of life. The smell of cackling ash and the thick scent of cooked fish filled the air. The light of the burning fire spilled on everyone's face as they sat in a circle. "You shouldn't complain. It's not a permanent damage, and it's not bleeding, either," Dylan went on. He stopped chewing and gave a loud swallow, feeling the hot fish plop in the pit of his stomach. "My wound stings and is still bleeding a little. You should be grateful you left that battle without wounds. Even more than that, Zack-san," As Dylan went on, Zack gave a bored, murderous look at Dylan. His eyes seemed to be filled with boredom that was vexed by Dylan's constant nagging. "As Minors, we have no time to worry for small wounds that don't matter," Dylan finished up. Zack sighed, closing his bored eyes of murder.
Derek scoffed and peered to the forest. Sunlight filtered from every which way. "We have to get going after this," he said in his strong, deep voice. His legs were spread out, as if trying to wrap around the fire. He supported himself with his hands on the dirt ground. "The smell of fish and fire is bound to attract enemies," he said with his eyes wandering off. His handsome, dark eyes seemed to identify everything in the forest, being very watchful of his surroundings. Dylan agreed cheerfully. Zack seemed to become more uncomfortable. Derek felt the perspiration begin on his brow.
"What's the matter, Kawari-san?" Dylan asked in a fatherly voice with a delicate tone to match. The blue haired boy jerked his head upward, not have taken a bite of his skewered fish. He cried out in acknowledgement, snapping himself away from his thoughts. Dylan looked at him blankly and a bit suspiciously, although he was never really suspicious of him.
"Oh, nothing," Kawari said unenthusiastically. He seemed to avoid eye contact. Dylan raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. Kawari held his skewer weakly, the fish's fin inches from the floor. This one's a talkative and curious one, Kawari told himself. He sighed deeply to brush away the pain slowly that seared through his head like an intense migraine. I'll have to keep away from him, Kawari warned. I don't see why I just don't – nah… Kawari had a change of thoughts. That's not part of the deal. I have to remember that, he reminded himself. "Just thinking," Kawari cleared Dylan's thoughts. The Botany Minor nodded in acceptance and gullibility.
PoVS
The crashing. The horrid ear splitting crashing. It rang against the scene like a piercing scream. It curdled the heads of trees in a deep, bass echo. The shifting dirt and mud seemed to claw desperately forward to Eric's feet. It was like the hope that he couldn't reach. He wanted to breathe heavily, but he knew he could put himself in danger like that. Oh, how Eric wanted to jump out of that stupid blanket of heat and come out and search for Walter. Walter, who was beneath the heavy layers of mud. Walter, who was trapped underneath it all, with no air to breathe. Yes, Eric just wanted to rip that hotness apart from him and just dive into the dirt, desperate to save him. But he couldn't do anything. He had no power at this point. He couldn't even move a finger. How?! Eric asked himself. How do I do this!?
Mark and Eric continued to stare in disbelief as the rushing dirt calmed. Nothing was left now but a whole entire field of darkish brown. Satisfied grins grew on Gaia and Sanshouuo. "… My purpose!" Eric remembered Walter's voice say. An angry, life threatening frown grew on Eric as anger took over him. But the anger was of no use. It was soon wiped away.
The ground shook again eerily. Its quakes banged against everyone's feet, begging them downward. "What? What's going on?!" Sanshouuo demanded as he almost fell on his back, stammering. Eric and Mark were asking themselves the very same question.
Then, from the middle of the settled dirt and mud came a huge eruption. It was an eruption that blasted through the air and went a million feet high up into the air. Water poured out from the opening, its tremendous pressure blistering upward into the sky, a long, thick hand reaching for its dreams; the clouds. The huge erupting geyser revealed Walter in the middle of it, who clapped his hands together as the intense waves of water continued to pour out. His eyes were glowing with that bluish glow from the Half Spirit inside him. His clapped hands gave him a disciplined look as water rushed at his feet, blowing heavy breezes into his clothes with no sense of privacy, his hair fluttering wildly like long, thick fingers playing the keys on the piano.
Walter! Eric thought to himself as he watched the water form false rain drops to the muddy ground. More water blasted out from the opening and weathered rocks were spread out all over. "How did he…?!" Sanshouuo cried out in surprise as he stared in awe, his mouth hung open like laundry held by the ropey string on a hot summer day.
Slowly, the Walter everyone saw at that moment faded away. He became discolored, the brownness of his hair and eyes beginning to fade into lighter colors. The peach tan that covered his skin turning into a dreadful blue. The blue of his clothes slowly faded into a more gelatin like blue. More shocked cries emitted from different directions as the Walter they saw before him dispersed into nothing more than water, spilling back into the main pillar of water, an optical illusion that left people confused.
I see, Eric thought. So he molded the water into a form that looked like him so people would think that was him, but all the while the real one was right… Eric didn't need to finish the sentence. On cue to his thought, a tiny figure from far away sprung from the main geyser, bursting out with a trail of blue leaving behind it. That tiny dot high in the sky and soaring downward towards Gaia and Sanshouuo was none other than Gaia. Walter soared downward, the intense rising wind filtering through the three "strands' of his hair. His teeth were tightly grit and locked in an angry confidence.
As he soared downward, he turned discolored, too, giving more shocked expressions. But this one was definitely the real one. He turned into water again, his feet fading away into nothing but a trail of water from his waist down. He snaked downward and crashed into the ground before the two enemies sharing the same body. Dust flew everywhere as they were forced to shield their eyes with their discolored arms. The real Walter snaked around them in an aquatic dance, spiraling above them as he crashed himself into the ground, Gaia and Sanshouuo barely dodging the attack. Walter unharmed, he arose from the ground as the dust cleared away and headed for the two again. His swift movements were barely caught from the corner of your eye. His snake like body assisted him as he made various puzzling movements around the two enemies, confusing them in every way possible.
Having decided that he beat them up enough, he returned to a more human form, and four separate geysers sprang from around them, like caging them in an aquatic prison. I can't use too much water, Walter told himself as Sanshouuo and Gaia watched the crazed, wild geysers rush upward in the air, about to fall on them like the hugest wave you've ever seen. There's only fifty-six percent of my body's water left. My Half Spirit must increase the limits of dehydration to some scale for me. It's better to not push it right now. Also, I can create more water than my regular body has because of my Half Spirit as well, so there's no need to overuse it, unless it's completely necessary.
The geysers fell down and Walter controlled the four waves of water, blasting each one of them again and again at the enemy. They soon found themselves trapped in a cornering wheel of water, unable to move or do anything, just like they trapped Eric and Mark.
"Damn it!" Gaia cried out as he shielded his eyes from the stormy waves of liquid. "This much power… how did he get it!? I can't even…"
"Just as I thought," Walter explained as the water wheel continued circling them. "You use your skin to turn it into the dirt and mud you use for attacking, right? But, that only works if it's your skin and nothing else. But now you can't use your abilities because of the additional water I put into it, right?"
"Damn you!" Gaia shot at Walter.
"He's figured it out," Sanshouuo muttered in a rasp. No one's ever figured it out! Gaia thought angrily. His fun was now taken away from him. No enjoyment remained. Nothing he thought remained except confusion and seconds' worth of confusing attacks that he couldn't even tell were coming. Just how did he do it?! What is this kid!? A monster!?
With a rush of more energy, Walter took back in the water from the churning wheel and brought it back into his body. Bursting with power, he launched more kicks and punches to them. Trying to land a kick to their arm, Walter's attack was blocked by an arm of Sanshouuo. The red-eyed opponent showed great strength as he tightened his grip around the Water Minor's leg. His long nails dug into his skin and leaked out blood as pain seared through it. It seemed like he was going to cut his foot off.
Walter squinted and restrained a hurtful cry. He held back the pain. Using the other available side, Walter tried to land a punch. It was blocked by Gaia's open hand. "Face it," Gaia said, irritated and impatient on his own now. "You may be smart enough to figure out our abilities, but just because your intense rushing of multiple attacks doesn't mean you can beat us. You're still weak!"
Walter scoffed. "I'll kill you!" he threatened. Gaia narrowed his eyes into hateful slits. Taking back his punch by a centimeter, Walter turned his punching arm into an aquatic one, and let it snake around Gaia's arm in a tight grip. Using the other arm, he did the same and wrapped it around Gaia's arm again.
"What're you trying to pull? You freakin' brat!" Gaia mocked angrily as he found the unavailability of using his arm.
"If you break his arm, I'll slice off your foot," Sanshouuo threatened.
"Yeah, right," Walter said through gritted teeth. "Die!" Walter cried out.
"What?!" Gaia cried his own cry out as surprise and shock overtook him. He's not going to…! With a loud gasp, Gaia felt the pain sear all over him as he closed his eyes, feeling the pain in his arm take over him.
"First I'll break your arm," Walter explained, struggling the least amount possible in the position he was locked in, feeling no pain from the five fingernails dug deep into his ankle. "Then I'll cut it off!" Walter cried out.
"No!" Gaia begged. It was too late. The sound of slicing energy filled the dreadful air as blood found its way to Gaia's cheek. With the huge amount of pain and blood spreading all over, it forced Gaia to close his eyes, trying hard not to throw up. Walter got some blood on his face, too, and Sanshouuo was too shocked and petrified as he stared that he didn't even care for cutting of Walter's leg anymore. Soon, it was all over. And soon, chunks of meat and bone were all over the floor, again with that silver, brainwashing energy thick in the air.