Mr.Who2123: Well, after our HILLARIOUS chapter of a drunk Kratos, we swoosh into I think more serious stuff…I am not sure yet.
Kratos: She doesn't own TOS, we've said that 24 times now.
Mr.Who2123: I like the word swoosh. SWOOSH!
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Kratos took a huge nervous breath and walked back into the inn room, expecting, well, the worst. When he took one step in, Anna burst out laughing, picturing him getting drunk. Kratos reddened and sat down in between his companions, his eyes plastered to the floor.
"C'mon, cheer up, Kratos!" Anna whined and snuggled next to him, offering some comfort. He made a small smile and lifted his eyes to meet her green ones. Yuan was resting, and decided to drop the subject of the story. The story itself was bad enough, but teasing would be too much for his friend. I'll let Anna console him, Yuan thought, and drifted into a shallow sleep.
Kratos felt much better after closing his eyes and pushing the thought out of his mind. Anna had her head on his shoulder, and Kratos had a hand round her waist, and the two were content to the fullest.
"Hey, Kratos," Anna started and Kratos looked down at her. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to find the rest of the materials needed to make the ring and save the two worlds," he replied. "No, what are we going to do?" Anna continued. Her eyes were dispirited and she wanted to cry again. Kratos understood the message and wrapped his arms around her stomach and rested his head on her shoulder. She was a comfort to Kratos and he was a comfort to Anna, and the two rested in silence for awhile.
"I'm going to kill Mithos, no matter what," he whispered. "And we can live together." Anna smiled and leaned against her love and fell asleep in a heartbeat.
-.-.-.-.-
Everyone was outside and packed, ready to move on. Noishe padded up to the group as soon as he saw them, and whined in pure glee.
"Hey, Noise. Did you miss me?" she cooed and rubbed one of his large ears, and Noishe whined again. Kratos smiled and Yuan tried to pat the dog's head, but Noishe saw the blue and inched away a little.
"Ready?" Kratos asked after Noishe was finished with his treatment of rubs and pats. The two nodded and Kratos turned towards the Goarrachia Forest, but felt a welling of mana. He reacted instantly and drew his flaming sword, and spun around. Anna gasped and backed away behind Kratos and Yuan drew his twin bladed sword.
"I see the traitors are together, now," a malicious voice sneered. Yggdrasil, with his giant violet wings flared out, was behind them. "Yuan, I trusted you, and you betray me too?" Yuan raised his blade in readiness and just glared at his former master.
"You're ways are pure selfishness and evil. I would never work with someone like you," he snarled back. All four just glared at their enemy until Yggdrasil caught sight of Anna hiding behind one of the seraphim. A smirk reached his lips, and he disappeared and reappeared right behind Anna and grabbed her wrist before she could react.
"Who's this little disgusting human?" Yggdrasil asked calmly.
"Mithos don't touch her!" Kratos yelled, but Yggdrasil's smirk just increased.
"I've never seen you like this. Is this wretched being someone you actually care for? Do you love this human, Kratos?" Yggdrasil continued to tease. Kratos charged at Mithos with all the speed his legs could muster and sliced at his leader. Mithos, however, disappeared behind his attacker and had a beam charged.
"Kratos, behind!" Yuan yelled alarmingly, and cast a quick lightning on Yggdrasil to give Kratos some time. Kratos twirled and struck Mithos in the side, and the cruxis leader let his hand go of Anna and to his bleeding wound. Anna stumbled to the ground from being let go of so abruptly, and Kratos raced to her side.
"Kratos, you pathetic human! You'll pay for this! JUDGMENT!" Mithos screamed. Rays of light fell everywhere around the small town, and destroyed many of the small, wooden buildings. Burning rays burst the giant vines and left black marks all over the village floor only a couple minutes after it started.
Kratos' first intuition was to protect Anna, so he flung himself over her, shielding her with his back as one of the rays fell upon them. The attack burned away at Kratos' skin in a heartbeat, and Kratos grunted with exertion to not collapse on top of Anna. Pain smothered his back and crawled up his neck, leaving charred skin and blood falling down his partly bare back.
Yuan summoned a force field in time to block a couple rays that headed for him, and the rays bounced back or dispersed when they hit the shield. He noticed the predicament with Kratos badly wounded, and Yggdrasil slowly approaching the two with his mana well ready to be used.
"Get away from them, Yggdrasil!" Yuan yelled, and then mentally slapping himself for not attacking while he was unnoticed. Yggdrasil turned quickly to Yuan and lifted his hand at Yuan.
"Why do always insist on helping others? You'll just get killed, Yuan," he said carelessly, and mana gathered at his hand. He smiled maliciously before letting the beam loose, and the powerful attack raced towards the seraphim. Yuan spun his double blade in front of him and inserted mana into it to create a quick, yet effective force field which deflected the magic attack, splitting it and sending it in all different directions.
"Yuan helps others…because this is what happens," a voice behind the two said. A flaming sword appeared suddenly through Yggdrasil's mid section, and he widened his eyes.
"Kratos, how COULD you!" he screamed, and fell to the floor, sword still inside him. Blood circled and covered the cruxis leader, red encrusting to his golden hair and staining his pure white clothes.
Kratos though was having a bit of trouble as well. The wound was still open and the blood was flowing, though it lessened much. Yggdrasil looked up at the two traitors and cursed.
"Pronyma, help me!" he muttered, and fell unconscious. Kratos roughly pulled out his sword and limped over to Anna who was told before to stay down and face away, and cover her ears. Kratos touched her shoulder and she turned quickly to a red filled village.
"What happened Kratos?" she asked, standing up abruptly. She noticed the wound that Kratos had and instantly bent over slightly to touch it. "Does it hurt?" she asked, placing a gently hand on the wound. Kratos squinted his eyes and nodded slightly to answer her question. Yuan raced to the other two quickly, also noticing the wound.
"Kratos, why didn't you use guardian?" Yuan muttered, examining the wound. Kratos didn't reply, but went to his knees to let the two treat his wound. Yuan and Anna immediately went to cleaning the wound by picking out all of the flesh and leftovers of burnt clothes that stuck to his wound.
"I guess I forgot," he replied sullenly as Yuan and Anna kept picking the bits of charred flesh and clothes off the wound.
"This wound is pretty big. Kratos take off your shirt," Yuan stated. Kratos sighed in annoyance and even slight embarrassment as he peeled off his blood stained clothing, revealing a strong back with a few scars that ran down it from his years of warfare and fighting. Anna poured water on the burn, and Kratos muttered in pain of the sharp sting that tortured his spine. Yuan grabbed a homemade solution that looked like yellow cream, and smeared a little on the wound.
"At least that doesn't hurt," Kratos uttered very softly, enjoying the cool feel to his burn. Last, Anna wrapped the wound with a white bandage, and the wound was finally treated.
"Good as new!" Anna exclaimed, patting Kratos on the shoulder. Kratos, however, was focused on something else. The large puddle of blood which Yggdrasil was in was gone, blood and all. Mithos was nowhere to be seen, and Yuan noticed too shortly after Kratos.
"It looks like Pronyma got him while we were focused on your wound," Yuan murmured. "Well, we should get you a new shirt anyways." Yuan grabbed a bag and fished out a new shirt and cloak, tossing it to his fellow seraphim that caught it carelessly. Kratos threw the clothes over his head, and soon he looked fine although his back stung when he bent over.
"It looks like you can't fight for awhile, Kratos," Yuan said when Kratos winced for the third time, trying to get his bag. Yuan got it instead and gave it to Kratos with a sad smile. "If you overdo it, you could be paralyzed." Kratos, exhausted, just followed Yuan with Anna at his side, willing to verbally or physically support her love.
The group of four, since Noishe came back after the fight, had to stop three times for Kratos to rest for a short while from exhaustion or pain that would build up and overwhelm him every hour.
"It will be a long trip through this cursed forest," he muttered, and Yuan nodded in sheer agreement.
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Mr.Who2123: Well, this took me a couple days to write since I only had bits of time to write, but enjoy it!
Kratos: Review.