So now let's fight begin and lol
Chapter 5 : Holder of Nature
"Before you lies the wonder of nature
Within it lies the very shadow of your past
What will you do to gain what you wish for?
The holder of nature is awaiting you answer."
"Ealonna, Reiber Village. Anne's Shop"
"Welcome~ What can I do for you today?" Anne greets her customers as usual. In this time of the day, noon, is when she has the most things to do, at least around these times.
"Ah. Give us the usual please." Roth comes in with some other Belzt Scouts and split up into groups to fit the shop's small table.
"Alright! Coming right up! Aida! Belzt's menu!" as Anne says that, a small figure peer out from the cook, nod slightly and close the door.
It took awhile for the food to finish, everyone there just talk about their daily schedule of training and patron around the area. It is quite lively compare to the morning but doesn't to be the same as usual. Anne brings out the dishes for the scouts and finally finish the distribution at Roth's group's table.
"There seems to be less people here than before, are you guys busy?" Anne asks while laid out the dishes.
"Aye. Something from the higher-up come down so we have to send more troops to explore the forest." Roth answer while scratching his head, isn't very pleased.
"You are having a hard time again huh?" Anne snickers "...Just make sure to choose the wisest choice, ok?" finished with the dishes, she walk back to the counter.
"Well..." he pulls his share and avert his view toward the woman's back who is walking to the back "I don't have a choice, do I?"
Meanwhile
At a certain part of the forest, some crash and explosion can be heard.
The Ancient Phoru smash the grounds with its paw, crushed everything in front of it. It roars and swings it claws violently, blasting everything in front of it away.
"Tch... This thing doesn't have any pattern to it!" Erille backs away from the Phoru and evade it attacks "It doesn't seems to get a hold of itself." Elvis is doing the same while jumping away from the one tree to another.
The two have been fighting this creature for awhile now and still haven't been able to damage it at all. This ancient one is covered in crystallized scales so directly damaging it isn't very effective. It has been on the rampage while chasing the two and both of them are pretty tired out. Erille tries another time with the attack.
"Kuh! Take this!" Erille jumps on one of the phoru claws which was just smashed into ground and run up its arm and deliver a direct blow to its head with her spear. Still not very effective, the creature easily shakes off Erille and knock her to the other side with its other paw "Gah!"
Erille got knock into a tree and fall down. Before Erille could get up, the Phoru immediately charge another flame breath in, prepare to vaporize her along with another section of the forest.
"Stop right there!" Elvis shouts as she soar in the sky and delivers a diving kick straight into the phoru's head before it could unleash the fiery breath.
The impact cause the charged breath to recoil and explode in its mouth. The forces that burst out from the explosion send Elvis flying. The Ancient Phoru got staggered and leave an opening.
"Why you!" Erille grabs the opportunity and charges right under it and deliver a powerful thrust. Surprisingly, the thrust seems to have more force on the ancient one, make it to lose it balance and fall on its back.
"It seems that its abdomen is its weakness." with that thought Erille climb onto the giant.
The phoru reacts violently, while trying to get up it swing its claw trying to shake Erille off its body. Erille manages to slip through those attacks, are intend to stab her spear into this giant belly. But right before she could thrust it down, a fireball flies into her and blast her away. The phoru is firing out small fireballs, trying to blast her off.
"This is getting annoying." Erille says while keeps dodging all the swings and fireball coming at her, she jumps up from the phoru belly to avoid one of its claw attacks but end up being open to another fireball flying randomly right at her "!"
But right before it could hit her, a projectile collides with the fireball, making it explode right before it hit Erille, letting her land back on the phoru.
"I hit! Are you alright!?" Elvis is standing over a bushes and seems pretty tattered due to the last attack.
"It seems that its abdomen is the least protected area. You aim for that while I distract this thing!" Erille yells at Elvis while deflecting another fireball into the phoru's face.
Elvis is surprised by the sudden order of Erille "Eh? M-Me?" suddenly being told something like that is pretty much good enough but doing something about it is another problem.
Erille isn't very fond of working with this air-head either, but for now her priority is to survive this, and taking down this thing is more important.
"Get into it! Or do you want me to slaughter it myself!?" Erille shouts as she guard against another claw swing.
"Tha- Alright! I got it!" Elvis tenses up after hearing Erille threaten to take the creature life and start to look for a way to deal with the situation.
There is no way a simple hit would be enough to take out the this big one, and she doesn't want to use arrows because it might be threatening, after all her shooting skill isn't that good so it might not end well if she accidentally shoots into some fatal places.
"Let's see... Think! Think! My legs alone won't be enough. What should I do?" Elvis tries to looks around for some way to knock the phoru out without killing it.
She looks around the landscape, tries to find something that could she could use to her advantage. While looks upside down for a spur moments, her crossbow give her a pretty good idea, though she has never tried to do something like this before.
"Alright! Eri! Can you try to turn its belly to the left when I give the signal?" Elvis shouts while runs to the other side of the ancient.
"Huh? Woah! Alright, whatever but it better work!" Erille answers while nearly got whack by the phoru paw.
Elvis stops at the site on the left where trees have been destroyed, leaving a wide enough space for her plan to work "If I limited the length to match, then I could accelerate!"
She then jumps straight into air and aim her crossbow at the ground and fire an wire-attached arrow like the last one she used with the thief phoru. The arrow pins into the ground and she lands while stretching the wire out. When the wire seems to reach its length limit, Elvis starts to run in circular motion using the pinned arrow as the center.
"If I use the centrifugal force, I can accelerate my speed and can make a stronger kick!" Elvis keeps running as her speed increase "And if I add a bit of this it would be even stronger!" The spirits energy gathers at her feet, empowered it and further accelerate her speed.
Erille still there struggling to fend off the creature which is trying to stand up again "Not a chance! Haaa!" Erille converses her energy into an energy balls and repeatedly at its legs and head, keeping it from regaining balance of its body "Now how did I learn to do that again?"
The struggling continue as Erille averts her attention toward Elvis "What took her so lon-" but she have to change her sentence when she saw the whirlwind Elvis is creating "What on El are you doing over there!?" she yells at Elvis.
From within it, Elvis voice can be heard, flabbily though "I'm~ almost done~ Can you turn~ him around now~? Be sure to~ get out of the way~ too~!"
"What's with that voice of her?" Erille doubts but still follow nonetheless, she dodges a fireball and dive into the right side of the Phoru "This will give you a blow!"
Erille charges energy similar to how she charged he previous energy ball instead of throwing one, she dash right at the Ancient Phoru hip and release the energy at point blank "Haaaah!"
The energy hit creates a powerful explode that turn the whole Ancient Phoru to the left side exposing its abdomen toward Elvis while. Erille quickly regain her footage after the impact and dash out of the way.
Elvis calculate the timing and aim right at the middle of the Ancient Phoru belly "Right! Discharge!" As Elvis shouts, the wire holding her and the arrow disappears, launching her at the Ancient Phoru with incredible speed. Her slide kick strike right in the middle, with the empowered energy, a blast of wind burst out and blast the Ancient Phoru away, breaking quite another part of the forest.
The explosion launched Elvis into the air but she gracefully lands without any problem. Erille, on the other hand, after handle the pressure from the explosion, start to check for the Ancient Phoru condition.
She walk up to its head, it seems it still has a bit of consciousness left. It gives out faint growl and the black aura also fades as its eyes close.
"...Done here..." Erille breathes a sigh, it really was quite a fight for her to have to put up with.
She walks over to Elvis who is still kneeling on the ground "To think you could manage to pull that, you are quite someth-"
Before Erille could finish her sentences, Elvis grabbing onto her arms with both hands "Wha!? What are yo-" Elvis tighten her grips even more "Is she trying to nail me down?" Erille assumes while trying to break free.
Elvis slowly raises her head while Erille is still trying to get out of the situation, only to further disappointed the Nasod girl "Uehhh... Why are there five of you Eri?~" The question make Erille stops instantly "What?"
Erille slowly looks down at Elvis face, which has turned totally pale, dumbfounded "H-Hey..." Erille performs a quick scan over her physical condition "There are some disorders in your body. Don't tell me..."
Elvis tries to explain with her iris still going in a helical "That was... the first time I do something like that... It is kinda... too much... I thin- Uguu!"
"Hm? What? H-Hey! What are you!?" Erille panics.
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Hm? Did you hear someone screaming?" Roth asks his companions while putting down his cup.
"Ahahaha! Those kids are trying to scare each other with bugs again that's all, captain." One of them looks out of the window and responds.
"Is that so? I thought it was more like a scream of..." Roth wonders "Ah well... Anne! Give us some desserts, please!"
Erille stands on the side of the Ancient Phoru while Elvis tending to its wound, Erille malicious aura gives Elvis a chill.
"Um... Eri, can you please don't look at me like that? It kinda... unpleasant." she says while slowly looks back at Erille.
"Said the one who forgot she is wearing a bladed shoes and stomp right into the stomach of the thing she said doesn't want to kill? It's like you was fooling around with me!" Erille says with utmost animosity, although her face doesn't show it, the aura is undeniable.
"I'm sorryyyy~" Elvis cries and apologies while keep tending to the Ancient Phoru wound. The wound isn't very deep, good thing that this one is so tough.
"Tch... You should be thankful, if not for that pathetic condition of yours before, I would have kill you by now!" Erille says while clenching her teeth.
"I said I'm sorry. But we managed to take it down didn't we? And you didn't have to stain your hand killing it too." Elvis says with a downed spirits while sniffing.
The way she put it make Erille remembers the tragedy occurred back then, but she ignore it and just turn around and go away. But just one step away, Elvis jumps down from the Ancient Phoru "Where are you going, Eri?" she asks.
Erille for some reason don't really understand why did she go with this woman flow so easily, she dislike human but yet go along with one? But it doesn't matter anymore, she has used up too much energy for this and doesn't want to end up wasting more just to find an answer to this ridiculous creature "I'm looking for something, don't try and follow me human. And who is this Eri?"
"Eri is short for Erille. Easier and shorter to call right?" She says with a smile.
"...I don't care anymore, just do whatever you want, human." Erille shakes her head and sigh, this is beyond her calculation already.
"Human?" Elvis says in wonder "I'm no human, I'm an elf." and she keeps smiling again.
"What?" surprised Erille turns back to look at Elvis, she do a more throughout scan at Elvis "Indeed her structures is similar, but it is somehow different... None of this is on my database" Erille stays quite for awhile then decides to ask " So just what ar-"
"Oh, wait! Are you here to explore the ruins too?" Elvis suddenly jumps at Erille with utmost excitement.
"Huh?" Dumbfounded again, Erille back away from the exciting Elvis.
"That's great! If you're going there too then let's go together! I can get you there! I happened to know where it is!" Elvis holds Erille hand and start to drag her away.
"What the- I'm not-"
"Don't worry if we go fast then we will get there in no time!" Elvis is very exciting, as she thinks this is the first time she is exploring together with someone else.
Erille... on the other hand has given up "...Give in to the situation might be a better solution to preserve energy..."
The only thing that still bugging her is, in fact, the reason why her malice has somehow dissipated. Is it because this woman said she is not human? But she hasn't confirm if it is true or not or it is because this one is simply... different? For now, she will have to follow the flow in order to reach more accurate calculation.
Fifteen minutes later.
"I'm beat..." Elvis falls down, exhausted.
"..." Erille looks at her, doesn't know how to react "Weren't you the one who was so exciting about that? What's wrong with you?"
"I was so excited to find a companion that I forgot I'm still exhausted after the last fight...Uuu~" she says with a depressed face.
"Haa...I don't have time for this." Erille sigh and looks around the place "And I don't even have data on this place we're in."
"Why don't you just chill out and rest a bit? Taking everything so seriously won't be too good." Elvis tries to talk while still holding onto her abdomen "Come over here, this will be a nice place to rest."
"Nice, huh? The only thing I see base on the calculation within your body is that there is still disorder in you organ. I don't want to stain my body with stuffs coming out of your gastric!" Erille says sarcastically.
"Ugh... You should really take other feelings into your calculating." Elvis grunts a little but smile again in no time "Come on. Let's rest a bit, you must be exhausted too, right? Fighting so hard against that."
"There is nothing I can do around here yet so preserving some energy is a good solution." Erille then walk over to another tree, a bit away from the one Elvis is sitting at "Guess I will standby for a bit."
The two sit idly for a bit before Elvis takes out some food from her bag, it seems like she is already hungry. Not very surprising for someone who just ended up pouring everything out of their stomach. It's looks like vegetables, a whole mass of them too.
"Do you want some, Eri?" she asks while still munching.
Erille remains silent, pretending not hear what she said.
"It might be just vegetables but it's really tasty you know." From when unknown, Elvis has already been next to Erille.
"!" Erille jumps back "Don't you try and spit stuffs on me again!" There is a bit of disgust in her words, not appearing on her face as usual though.
"I won't!" Elvis's cheeks puff up, she must be a bit angry and embarrassed for Erille to keep bringing that up "Here! Have a taste!" and put some vegetables into Erille's mouth right when she let her guard down.
"Muguu!?" Erille got surprised by her action, but not really annoyed "This... isn't too bad." she says as she munch on the vegetables, it might has been awhile since she last eat something.
"Right? It's the best in the village I got these from!" Elvis smiles brightly as she takes out more to eat.
As the two of them eat, a bit of memory from the peaceful day appear within Erille's mind, very similar but she shake it off, she has already decided to put away those memories.
"Say..." Erille says faintly "You said you are an elf... What exactly is that?"
Elvis kinda surprise by the question and looks toward Erille right away.
"I haven't heard about this "Elf" race before at al... Just what are you?"
Upon hearing that question from Erille, Elvis quickly wolfs down her share of vegetables "So you don't know about us?" she asks while still chewing some of the last remaining veggy in her mouth.
"Not a thing." Erille answer blankly.
"Ahem" Elvis cough "Then let's me tell you something about us and by the way I'm not you. The name is Elvis, Elvis Sardo"
"...For some reason, that name sound a bit intriguing yet weird at the same time." Erille says with a troubled expression.
"Ahahaha. If you write it down it would be better, it kinda like a male name in human language after all." Elvis puts her hand on her cheek, seems troubled.
"Elvis,huh?" Erille mumbles.
"Vis is fine. So what do you want to know, Eri?" Elvis asks with a smile.
"Everything, I don't want half-baked knowledge."
"Alrighty! Then let's use the time to rest our body too! Let's see where should I start. Today is the second time I got asked to tell a story, hehe~"
"Achoo!" Anne sneezes
"Hm? What's wrong, Anne? Catch a cold?" Roth asks while taking his desserts.
"Eh...No. I don't think so, maybe something got into... Achoo!" the sneezes isn't going away "Is someone talking about me?"
And that's that, next one will be another information page so if you want how know how I mess the lore up then feel free to look forward to it. Haha... not funny at all.