5. Kel's Mistake

Munchin and I nervously watched both Kel and Ether. Nether of them was moving. Ether's eyes narrowed as her gaze drifted from Kel to his blaster, aimed at her.

"You are… making a big mistake." She finally said, her voice void of any emotions. And that was perhaps even more frightening than if her voice would have been full of the anger she was obviously feeling.

"Nah, don't think so." Kel said with a shrug. "I'd be making a mistake if I didn't do this. Now hand over the stone Ether. Don't make me fire at you."

There was a tensed silence and then Ether spoke the fatal words: "Come and get it."

And then only the weapons spoke. Kel ealized he'd have to take the stone by force so he fired a searing energy blast from his blaster. Ether jumped out of the way and raised her bladed hands. Kel was upon her in a second, reaching for the stone she had attached to her right shoulder. Ether swung her right pincer at him, but Kel blocked it with his shield. He aimed his blaster again, but she gave him a kick with her feet that blew him away. Ether spread her wings and sped towards him, her eyes blazing with anger.

"I'm going to beat you to crap for even having the idea of letting us… me walk around like this just so you can be a stuck-up, robotic idiot!" She hissed.

One swing of her mighty blades and Kel landed in the mud. Dazed, he attempted to get up but Ether wasn't going to let him get away so easily. She flew towards him again, but this time he was ready. Quickly Kel fired another shot at her which she could barely avoid. But it gave him enough time to start his jet rockets again and be airborne once more. He followed that up with a barrage of shots. To Ether's credit, she was quick and agile, but even she couldn't dodge around twenty shots of Kel's blaster. One of them struck her and exploded, unleashing a painful blow and searing heat that burned her despite her now armoured skin. Groaning in pain, Ether was forced to land. This left her unprepared for Kel racing over towards her and smashing into her with his shield first. Ether was slammed back by the force of the collision and landed painfully on her back in the mud. Kel stood over her, victorious and reached down for the keystone.

He would have grabbed it, if it weren't for Munchin grabbing him with all four of his hands. Our mosquito-like friend shot up in the sky on his wings and once high enough, threw Kel towards the ground. Kel fired up his jet rockets again and could prevent himself from colliding with the ground. But he had barely regained his balance in the air, or Munchin slammed down on him from above with his feet, slamming Kel towards the ground once again. Once again, Kel landed in the mud. Smirking, I loomed over him.

"You know what your problem is, Kel?" I said quietly. "You believe this is your game. You think you're an almighty Overlord here like in your stories. But you aren't. You are simply another pawn of the Occuria in their little amusement game."

"Keep talking…" Kel grumbled as he got on his feet and raised his blaster to point it at me. "This is not you guys' game either."

"You're right…" I replied. Then, I made the ground under his feet repel him and he was knocked in the air. Next he knew, I slammed into him and gave him a good punch – well, as good as a punch I could give, anyway. It's hard punching people with blades instead of fists – mixed with some of my repelling power. Kel sailed a few more metres through the air, before landing in a deeper part of the swamp and sinking out of sight. Satisfied he was gone out of sight, I returned to the others.

Munchin was helping Ether to her feet by the time I rejoined them. All of us three had furious and disappointed looks in our eyes.

"Damn that Kel… I should have known he would've wanted to stay in Ivalice…" Ether cursed. Behind us, Kel suddenly emerged from the swamp waters. He glared at us.

"This isn't over." He snarled. "We'll get those keystones before you guys do and then you'll just have to wait until we're satisfied being here."

And with that said, he flew off quickly. There was no point in pursuing him.

"Asshole." I cursed, slamming one of my hands hard in the ground to get rid of some of my frustration.

"I say." Ether agreed. She still looked beyond furious. Munchin however, had a thoughtful frown on his face and seemed to be thinking about something.

"Hey Munchin, what are you thinking about?" I asked carefully.

"About something Kel just said." He replied. "He said 'we', didn't he?"

I nodded slowly, then my eyes widened in realization. "Of course… Now I get it." I glanced at Ether and Munchin, who seemed a bit confused. "If this is all a game for the Occuria… what better way to lengthen our suffering and their amusement than by creating another team that will be looking for the keystones, but just so they can prevent us from going home?"

"Makes sense." Munchin agreed.

"If you are right Icarax… Then I wonder who Kel's team mates are going to be." Ether muttered. I shrugged.

"No way to know unless we run into them, I fear." I gazed over the swamp of the Nabreus Deadlands. Matters had just been complicated a lot. Now our search for the keystones would actually be a race. We had to get those damned stones before Kel and his team did, or else it would be very hard to pry them from their hands.

"Let's not waste time standing around here." I suddenly said. "Kel and his team are out there looking for the keystones. We have to find them first. So let's start looking."

--

I was quietly stalking through the waters of the swamp. The murky waters reached up to my waist and there were already weeds and plants sticking to my pincers and body. I didn't mind that, though. I could fly, of course, but now that we were dealing with intelligent – wait, let me rephrase that, sentient would be a better word – opponents I decided to go for stealth. And that was, like I said a number of times before, the one thing this cursed body was good for: stealth. My bladelimbs made little sound when placed upon the ground and under water nothing could be heard at all. I moved slowly, as to not make any splashing sounds. I had to glide through the water, slowly, steadily and quietly. And so far, I was doing fine. And one point I had even walked completely submerged over the bottom of the swamp. I had discovered that when under water, I could repel the water around me enough to create a bubble of air around me, allowing me to breath. And thanks to the murkiness of the water, I was as good as invisible once fully submerged.

Ether, Munchin and I had decided to split up to cover more ground that way. Somehow, I was sure Kel and his team had done the same. As for me, I was quietly stalking through the swamp in the direction Kel had flew off to this morning. I avoided the Necrohol of Nabudis and instead went to deeper waters. The swamp now reached up to my neck, but still I went on as quietly, quickly and stealthy as before. I glanced to my right, a thick mist was drifting in my way across the swamp. I thought for a while, then headed towards the mist. Water is fine and dandy and all, but it's still wet and cold. Not to mention all those weeds and vegetation sticking to my body now. I climbed on dry land and, covered by the mist, continued on my way by land. Now and then a monster crossed my path, but to my surprise, I rarely had to defend myself. Most of them fled when they laid their gaze on me. Great, just what I needed, monsters fleeing because of my ugliness.

"Damn you Kel…" I muttered heatedly. "How can you condemn me, Ether and Munchin to a life like this?!"

The sound of hooves made me come back out of my thoughts. Apparently I had disturbed a Leynir. You know, those horse-like things with their weird metal helmets? As said before, most monsters fled when they saw me. But it seemed this one was so pissed that it brushed aside my appearance and charged at me. I snorted.

"Ah, fuck off you dumb thing…" I hissed. I then made the air around the Leynir repel the beast. And I mean all air around it. The animal's lungs were crushed by the sudden pressure on them. It sank to the ground, dead. With one swing of my right bladehand, I knocked it aside, out of my way and into the shallow water. Predators would take care of it. I didn't have time to feed now, nor did I feel the desire. I was still energized enough by the Foobar of this morning.

A sudden chill made me realize that a wind was coming up. The mist was fading, ripped to shreds by the wind. Wishing to stay under cover, I entered the murky waters again. I was becoming used to the constant weather changing in these Deadlands. A movement in the corner of my eyes caught my attention. I quickly lowered myself into the waters, slowly crawling deeper until only the top of my head and my eyes were above the water. A figure clad in black and silver armour zoomed overhead, totally unaware of the fact that I was observing him. I noticed the figure was flying in a south-east direction. A sly smile crept up my face. This was obviously one of Kel's team mates… As I watched him become a little dot in the distance, I wondered briefly how Ether would kick the crap out of him (or her), since the figure was flying in the direction Ether had headed off to as well. And it just wouldn't be her to not notice the figure and knock some sense into him. Smiling at the pleasant thought, I walked further into the waters, fully submerging myself. And as I repelled the waters around me, I moved further on across the bottom of the swamp in the direction Kel had gone to.

--

We kicked Kel's behind but he's pretty determined to have his way regardless of what we are going through. Now both teams have split up and search for the keystones. Will we be successful in our search? And what will happen once we encounter somebody from Kel's team? Again, that's for me to know and for you to find out. :p

In the next chapter, I'll probably introduce the two other members of Kel's team.