Title: From bad to worse
Genre: Action, friendship
Summary: The quintet escapes an MT ambush and retreat to a nearby forest only to find more trouble.
Chapter 16: From bad to worse
Five weary travellers trekked through what seemed an endless mattress of moss and thick spruce vegetation. They had been pushing through the coniferous forest for hours with no end in sight. The faint afternoon light that managed to peek through the trees quickly faded to give room for dusk. What little light they had previously relied on was completely gone within minutes and the forest was shrouded in shadows. Noctis switched his pocket flashlight on and pushed past another spruce tree. The branches humbly bent for the prince and smacked unceremoniously against Prompto's face who followed closely behind.
"Ow!"
"Quiet", Ignis ordered.
The quintet had run from an ambush. They had first fought adrenaline strongly pumping in their veins as they cleared row after row of magitek troops. Even as Noctis kept lending his powers and pushing his brothers with inhuman resources of endurance and Luna kept throwing spells left and right while dancing with a rapier in left hand it soon became evident it wasn't a battle they would win. Whoever was pulling the strings of those MTs knew what they were doing and didn't merely rely on their clumsy pre-coded AI to do the work.
Noctis had nearly passed out from exhausting his magical energy. Luna and Ignis had to half-drag half-carry him to safety while Gladiolus and Prompto secured their retreat. The quintet had seen no other option than to run to the nearby forest. The thick vegetation shielded them from MTs bullets and hindered their unrelenting advance.
Silence hung heavily all around them. The air was tense and they could feel countless unseen eyes watching. Their shoes sunk into the soft moss as they stumbled forward. Only a crow would occasionally let the tired travellers know its distaste to their presence.
A squirrel skittered past the dark clad prince and disappeared underneath needled branches. Noctis smiled faintly at it, but didn't stop pressing forward. Suddenly he felt something thread-like press against his face. His flashlight briefly revealed a spider swinging, trying to get hold of what was left of its day's work that the passerby had rudely destroyed. The prince let out an undignified yelp and brushed the webs and their creator off his person. Prompto didn't have time to stop himself and ran face first into his best friend's back.
"Ugh", the dark haired man grumbled under his breath.
"Another spider web?" Prompto had lost count after the twentieth web.
"Yep."
"Icky."
"Yep."
Luna pushed past the men with a rotten branch in hand.
"Allow me to take point", she offered and proceeded while waving the branch in front of her to avoid running into webs.
"That's a good idea", Prompto mumbled and swatted another a mosquito that had landed on is exposed arms.
They continued onwards. The moss silenced their footsteps, but occasionally one of them would misstep on a dry branch. The rustle felt like a gunshot in the silence of the forest. Luna pulled her hood up to cover the back of her head from the swarm of insects. Noctis stared daggers enviously at her sensible choice of attire. Another mosquito buzzed next to his ear and he swatted it away in annoyance. It was impossible to camp in here. They had left their equipment in Regalia and there was no way Noctis would be able to sleep through hundreds of bug bites. He could only hope that the stupid bucket heads didn't have the sense to move the car.
It was gradually getting cold. Noctis rubbed his arms in discontent cussing all the while in his head. They were still nowhere near a clearing where they could at least build a fire. The thought of mosquito-clearing smoke and chance to curl up next to heat made his mood even sourer.
Something smacked the back of his head.
"The hell?" he turned around, teeth grinding as he itched to unleash all his bent up frustration. Prompto held his arms up and took a nervous step back from the agitated man.
"Easy! Just took care of a mosquito."
The prince huffed and stomped after Luna.
They continued to move in silence for another ten minutes before Luna halted.
"What is it?" Gladio walked next to her.
"We are going in circles", she bluntly stated.
"You sure?"
Luna turned to point at a tree that had been ripped off the ground, its many roots sticking to every direction.
"We passed that thirty minutes ago."
"Could just be another one. We've been here for at least two hours", Prompto suggested.
"What about that stump next to it? It's exactly in the same place as the previous one. There are hardly any other notable landmarks. We've yet to step on mossless ground. I highly doubt we are making much progress", she insisted.
"In other words we're lost", Ignis summarized.
"Not much can be done about that. We can't see the sky, so we can't navigate by using the stars. We don't have a compass or a map, either", Gladio crossed his arms and tried to peer through the dark forest roof.
Prompto took out his phone and attempted to use navigation services, but his phone couldn't reach any networks. For all they knew the MTs might be purposely blocking them.
"In any case we cannot linger here and I doubt any of us will get much rest with all this insect activity", Ignis sighed. He turned to look at the prince quizzically. "There is one thing we could try."
"Spill it", Noctis urged impatiently.
"The trees are difficult to climb, but with your warp strike you could get to higher ground and see which way is the forest's edge."
"Done", he summoned his Partisan and threw it effortlessly to the highest tree peak he could make out in the darkness. Blue sparks lit up the forest below as he warped and hung from the tree. He hoisted himself up and let his feet balance on the spear while he pushed needled branches aside and peered into the night.
Fortunately it was a cloudless night and he could see clearly with the aid of a full moon.
"If we turn East and walk for few kilometers, we should make it to a clearing", Noctis called. He bounced off the tree trunk and dismissed his summoned spear and resummoned it to warp strike safely down to the forest floor. He looked around, but didn't see any of his companions nor the telltale shaft from their flashlights.
"Guys?"
No answer.
As he was contemplating whether he should warp back up he noticed something move out of the way of a flashlight. He hurried towards the light, but froze in his tracks when his own flashlight hit a scaly white surface. With a trembling hand he moved the spotlight upwards. The scaly surface belonged to a giant snake's body. As the light unveiled the rest of the creature Noctis felt a chill go down his spine.
Attached to the body was a sickly pale humanoid head with a pointy nose and sharp features. Its sunken eyes were lidded and they shone with a pale yellow gleam. Dark tangled tresses of dirty hair hid the side of its skeletal head and on top of it rested an ugly crown made of bones. The creature remained unmoving, but as the light hit its nocturnal eyes it let out a sound that was somewhere between a croak and a hiss. Slowly it extended its long neck to allow the lidded eyes escape the harsh light. Its mouth opened to reveal a row of razor sharp teeth.
Noctis summoned his Zweihander and wasted no time to swing at the horrifying creature. He underestimated the naga's speed. It effortlessly evaded his heavy attack and left the prince stumbling to regain balance as his feet sunk to the soft moss. The naga turned around, its corpse-like head hanging limply high above the ground before it charged. Noctis summoned Partisan and let the creature impale itself. The spear went straight through its fanged mouth, but the daemon didn't seem fazed. It kept pushing its impaled head towards the prince and snapping its jaws impatient for human flesh.
"Piss off!" Noctis gritted his teeth and lifted the spear – naga and all – and with all his might connected the spear's tip with the forest floor. The pinned naga gurgled and hissed, its head sliding up and down on the slippery bloodied pole. Wasting no time Noctis resummoned Zweihander and cleaved the creature below the neck and watched as its snake-like body fell to the ground twitching. He exchanged his greatsword for Blood sword and put the creature out of its misery. Shuddering he watched the naga's tongue loll out of its mouth and the faint light in its nocturnal eyes fade away.
"Man, that's disgusting." Dismissing his weapons he rushed to the only other visible flashlight.
It belonged to Ignis. He was out cold and his glasses had flown off to who knew where. Roughly he shook his advisor awake.
"Please point the light elsewhere", Ignis groaned. With Noctis' help he stood up and rubbed his aching eyes.
"What happened? I was away only for a minute", Noctis demanded.
"I'm not sure. Something grabbed Prompto and pulled him further into the forest and Luna gave chase. I saw something move in our flank and tried to warn Gladio, but something hit me hard and knocked me out", with a flashlight in hand he began to scour his immediate surroundings for his glasses.
"Great. You wouldn't happen to know which way they went, would you?"
"Afraid not."
This night was just turning worse by the minute. He was so tired. And hungry. Soon the cold would start bothering him again once his blood cooled down from the brief fight. Even should they be lucky enough to be graced with daylight they would still have trouble finding their lost companions or getting out of the forest.
Lunafreya ran as fast as her tired legs would allow her. Her breathing was shallow and she could feel her body to be ready to give out. But she pushed on and followed the faint yelps and grunts of the younger blond. She couldn't slow down lest she lose the only thing she was able to track down.
Just when she was sure her feet would carry her no further she came across a cave entrance. Prompto's flashlight had fallen off and lay on the cold stone entrance. Gingerly she picked and pocketed it before drawing her rapier. With a nervous inhale she crouched and entered the cave.
It reeked of what she could only assume to be remains of corpses and the predator's manure. She wrinkled her nose and forced down the bile that threatened to come up. A sound of what she could only describe as crooning echoed through the cave. She picked up her pace and passed countless piles of cleaned bones.
She came to a fork. Straining to hear which way the crooning and quiet whimpering came from she failed to notice a presence behind her. A hand came to cover her mouth and another took hold of her sword arm to keep it steady. The large hand lifted her sword arm to eyelevel and she saw the tattoos decorating the man's arm. She relaxed and Gladiolus let go of her. Shaken, she turned to face the man and noted he had come alone. She could only hope that the prince and the advisor were unharmed.
The two of them stood still for a moment and listened to the echoing sounds. Gladiolus pointed at the left passage and gestured her to follow. They made way past the dirt, bones and manure. The air grew heavier with each step. Gladiolus covered his flashlight with his hand and crept closer, Luna followed his example. They entered a small natural chamber. They could make out two sets of nocturnal eyes glimmering in the dark; one adult and one youngling. Luna could hear Prompto's loud ragged breathing as he resisted succumbing to panic. The tiny pair of eyes slithered towards Prompto's location while squeaking happily.
"Snakes, why did it have to be snakes", the blond whimpered.
Luna patted Gladio's arm and took Prompto's flashlight out of her pocket while making sure to cover it completely. She made a throwing gesture and moved it next to Gladio's face. The bodyguard nodded in understanding and carefully took the flashlight from her. He threw it in the middle of the chamber.
The nagas startled and threw their heads back at the sudden blinding light.
"Prompto, get ready to fight!"
Luna removed her hand from her flashlight and charged at the smaller naga. What they could presume to be the mother deflected her rapier by smacking her hard with its scaled tail. Luna stumbled back and parried as the daemon struck again. Prompto summoned his pistol and aimed. The loud shot made their ears ring in the confined space. The bullet penetrated the naga's chin. Its tongue hung loosely from its mouth without a jaw to support it. Its lidded eyes burnt with hatred as it turned to the lunge at Prompto. Gladiolus pushed Prompto from harms' way and blocked the razor fanged mouth with his greatsword.
Luna took the chance to go after the smaller naga while the mother was distracted. It hissed at her and attempted to stretch as tall as its body allowed. It was tiny compared to the mother, but still reached Luna's waist. It bared its fangs and hissed through the small slits that extended from the corners of its mouth. The blonde settled to an offensive stance and lunged at the miniature daemon. Unfortunately even the young ones seemed to possess an impressive speed. Again and again her rapier slashed at air. Growing annoyed Luna chanted a fire spell and made a show to lunge again with her weapon. As expected the naga threw itself away from her reach, but paused for a second before moving again. That was all the time Luna needed.
The daemon screeched as its tangled hair set in flames and the fire slowly melted the hard scales on its back and scorched the soft white stomach. It flailed around and nearly set Luna herself on fire. She barely managed to sidestep as the naga hurled itself towards the men and its mother. Prompto took careful aim behind the safety of Gladio's blade and put down the creature before it could harm any of them.
With renewed hatred the mother lunged impossibly fast at Lunafreya. She shielded her head and stumbled backwards, but the naga's mouth reached her leg. The upper fangs tore through the cloth and sunk deep into her flesh, all the way to her bone. She screamed.
"Luna!" Prompto rapidly shot at the snake, terror shaking his hands and lowering his aim. The bullets hit only the hard scales of its back and had hardly more effect than an insect bite. Gladio charged and swung his broadsword with all his strength. The force penetrated the scales of its neck. The tattooed man kicked the twitching body off the severed head and grabbed the head by its dark locks. He forcefully pulled it off Luna. The fangs ripped more flesh as it came off her leg. She cried out in pain and clutched to her leg, tears blinding her vision. Gladio tossed the severed head next to the burning carcass of its offspring and dismissed his weapon.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no", Prompto chanted, eyes wide with alarm. "That looks really bad."
"Stop bitching", Gladio grunted and knelt down in front of the Tenebraean. He took out a mostly used potion bottle and emptied its contents straight into the wound. "Sorry, Highness, I don't have any cloth at hand", he ripped the already ruined pant leg from Luna's injured leg and wrapped it tightly around the cut.
"We'll need to find Ignis. C'mon, I'll carry you." Luna nodded and continued to bite her lip to keep herself from alerting every living creature within hearing distance. Soon blood trickled down from her lip as her teeth penetrated the soft flesh.
"Prompto, watch my rear."
"Yes, sir!"
Noctis peered through branches and scoured the landscape. They had been following the forest's edge to avoid getting lost a second time. Beside endless mass of trees there was hardly anything noteworthy. He couldn't make out anything even resembling a flashlight in the darkness. With an angry sigh the prince warp stroke back to the forest floor.
"Still no sign?"
"Not a thing. By the time morning comes there won't even be bodies to find. We might find bare bones if we're lucky."
"Pessimism doesn't suit you, Highness. We mustn't give up."
They kept moving North-East. So far they had encountered only regular fauna that were easy enough to scare away with a well-lit fire spell. They had been searching for the rest of the group for an hour. Noctis took out his phone and checked the time.
3am
Still three hours before daylight. If they didn't catch the daemon that dragged Prompto away or find Gladio or Luna before dawn all would be lost. They were very aware how impossible it was to encounter a daemon during daylight hours. That is, unless they were manipulated and forced into service by Niflheim.
"There must be some sort of cave or a hole nearby. Nagas don't just simply sleep under moss and mingle with tree roots during day", Ignis pondered.
"I've yet to encounter one", Noctis muttered. "I'm gonna go up again." With that he warp stroke and peered into the darkness once more.
This time he could see a faint light illuminating the trees around it. It came from the opposite direction from where they were heading.
Must be Gladio.
"Ignis! I found them!"
Prompto thought his luck had taken a turn for the better when Luna and Gladio had arrived to save him from what was possibly his worst nightmare. Ignoring the fact that Luna was deeply wounded he liked to think things would only get better from now on.
He should've known better.
It started with a squeal. Then another. And before they knew it they were surrounded by a several dozen sets of glowing yellow eyes.
"They must've smelt my blood", Luna managed to rasp.
Prompto attempted to summon his pistol, but nothing happened. Noctis was too far away. "Not good."
"You think?" Gladio muttered. "Don't miss."
"I can't summon my weapon!"
"What?!" the bodyguard attempted to materialize his favored greatsword, but was met with the same result as the blond. "Damn it."
"T-take m' rpier", Luna slurred. "Bettr thn nthng." Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she was out cold. Gladio passed the unconscious woman to Prompto and untied her rapier from her waist.
"Just stick close to me. I'll take care of 'em."
The first goblin lunged towards the blonds. It went down with a guttural cry. Then four at once made their way, all from different sides. Prompto attempted to kick the ones that came too close, but his balance was already compromised thanks to the extra weight. Gladio circled the blonds and shielded them with his meaty arm while striking down the assaulters with the rapier.
Soon they were overwhelmed. Sharp fangs reached eagerly towards bare skin, thin fingers twitching and flexing in anticipation. Prompto cried out as a goblin latched to his ankle and bit down while another climbed on top of the first to steal what little possessions the freckled man owned.
"Hey, give that back!" The goblin ran off with his medicine pouch.
One goblin jumped on the frantic blond's back and sunk its teeth on his collared neck. Fortunately his sleeveless jacket shielded him and the fangs didn't penetrate through the several layers of cloth. Prompto twirled and shook forcefully and did his best to get rid of the goblins that were quite literally piling on top of him.
"Gladio! Little help here?!"
With a furious roar the bodyguard slashed three goblins and grabbed a fourth and used it as a club to strike its brethren. He made his way through what seemed like a sea of goblins. Stabs, slashes, cleaves… Goblins fell left and right in his path. He grabbed a goblin that was hanging from Luna's injured leg, its disgusting face centimeters away from the bandaged wound.
Prompto's arms protested as more and more goblins latched on to Luna's clothes and another climbed on his shoulders. He fell over and was swarmed. Countless sharp claws scratched at his face and bare arms. He closed his eyes and lifted his bloody arms to shield his face from the worst damage.
A sound of a greatsword cleaving several goblin necks at once halted the goblins' advance. With terrified shrieks they retreated from the bloodied blonds.
"About time, Noct!" Gladio summoned his greatsword and dropped the rapier. With renewed battle-fervor the tattooed man charged at the nocturnal creatures.
Prompto felt a gloved hand gently touch his shoulder. A cool sensation surged through his entire being. He could feel the cuts and bite marks on his skin knit themselves shut and the aching subdue to a dull throb and then to nothing.
"It's alright, you're safe", Ignis' soothing voice assured. Prompto removed his arms from his face and accepted the extended hand to stand up.
"Phew. Glad you were there. Thought I was a goner", he summoned his pistol and joined Noctis and Gladiolus on finishing the rest of the bloodthirsty critters.
Ignis checked Luna's wound for poisons and took out a napkin from his pocket and uncorked a potion. He dabbed the napkin with the clear liquid and removed all the dirt and gore from the wound before rewrapping the makeshift bandage. He finished by casting several healing spells.
Blond lashes fluttered as the woman came to. "Here", he helped her lift her head enough to gulp down the rest of the potion. She willingly complied while clutching the moss beneath her. Gradually her hold relaxed as the pain lessened.
"Where's Prompto and Gladio?" her voice was barely louder than a whisper.
"They're fine. They are finishing off the goblins that ambushed you."
"Thank Etro", she sighed and allowed her eyes to close for a moment.
With a frantic squeal the last goblin fell to Noctis' Avenger. The three men dismissed their weapons. Noctis looked at the tattooed man and gave out a low whistle. He had ugly scratch marks all across his chest and several sets of angry fang marks – all which bled. His chest was like a child's paint canvas.
"Not my finest hour", Gladio chuckled.
"I'll make sure you never forget it", Noctis assured with a smirk. "Have Ignis take a look at that. Etro knows I can't carry your heavy ass through this forest."
"Not with skinny arms like yours", the older man agreed and tousled the prince's hair before limping towards the unofficial team medic. Noctis turned to face his freckled friend who had sat down to catch his breath.
"How's it going?"
"Could be worse!" he grinned sincerely. "Thought we lost you for a second." Noctis smiled faintly in return and bent down to give him a high-five. So like the blond to worry about him even when he was the one being eaten alive.
The quintet moved slowly through the moss and spruce trees. They weren't any less tired or hungry than before, but they felt more optimistic as they now knew which way to go. Within thirty minutes they finally saw stars glint through the needled branches and five minutes later they had lit a merry campfire. Lunafreya offered to take the first watch. When the men began to protest and make a fuss about her injury she quieted them by assuring she was fully recovered thanks to Ignis' expertise and that she had had enough rest while she was knocked out cold.
She fingered a small pouch of medicine she had picked from one of the goblin corpses. She had intended to just fetch her discarded weapon, but the brightly coloured pouch had caught her eye. It was most likely from them as she was fairly certain no other person was foolish enough to come to this forest. She glanced up to see Prompto toss and turn restlessly. She silently crawled next to him.
"You okay?"
"Can't sleep", the freckled youth sighed. "My painkillers were stolen by one of those creeps."
"What do you need painkillers for?"
"It's my arm", he pointed at his right bicep. "It's an old wound, but still it acts up once in a while. It didn't get the chance to heal properly back when I got it." Groaning he covered his eyes with his arm. "Wish potions worked on it. Not that we have any left after all the fighting we had to do today."
"Your painkillers wouldn't happen to be in here?"
Prompto removed his arm from his eyes and stared at the bright yellow pouch with a silk lace. Abruptly he sat up and looked back and forth between her and the pouch in wonder. "Where did you get this? I looked everywhere for it!" He eagerly took it from her and popped a pill and swallowed it dry.
"One of the goblins. Figured it might belong to one of us. Sort of forgot about it when we started the fire."
"Oh yeah. Gotta love that smoke. Keeps all those nasty mosquitos away. Although we'll all probably smell of smoke for the rest of the week."
"A worthy trade for a restful night, I believe", Luna hummed and turned to watch the stars.
"You bet." Prompto pocketed his pouch and eyed the Tenebraean for a moment. "Hey, Luna?"
She faced the younger blond and offered a small smile.
"Thanks for coming for me. It really means a lot to me", he hesitated for a second as he gathered his thoughts. "I mean, it's good to know you have my back. And you bet I'll have yours!"
"If rumours are correct you already proved that and much more. I mean, protecting me from a pack of goblins unarmed is quite the feat", she eyed him slyly from the corner of her eye.
"W-who told you that? I'm pretty sure that wasn't mentioned at any point!"
"I might've been briefly conscious for a few seconds at a time during the fight", she admitted. "I could hear and feel what was happening around me, but I was too out of it to really do anything or even react when I was being eaten alive."
They both cringed at the memory. It was by far one of their least favourite memories.
"But we made it in the end, all in one piece. That's all that matters to me", Prompto said before closing his eyes.
"Same. Now rest. We'll need all the energy we can muster for tomorrow."
The tired blond went out like a light.
A/N: So I said I wouldn't write anymore action, but I felt the last chapter was so stupid and random and pointless that I just had to have some battles and stuff to pick up the pace. Plus I wanted to stuff as many Duscae battle quotes as I could.
Btw., don't watch the gameplay beta video of fighting against nagas in slowmotion. It's f***ing scary.
Ps. I drew a cover picture for this chapter: goo. gl /43a5Kl