Chapter 8: Tornado Warning
*Ka-Chik*
*BOOM*
The tree that I'd been using as target practice burst into flames, the flame elemental energy from the shotgun in my hands creating a much larger ignition than what you'd get from say, dragon's breath shells.
The blast itself was also pretty violent, almost a foot thick gout of fire being fired out of the barrel at nearly the speed of sound. Apparently different elements traveled faster, with lightning being near instant, most were a bit slower than the muzzle velocity of modern shotguns though.
"Woah!" Luka looked over from his training with Alice, promptly getting hit on the head for losing focus.
"The last thing we needed was you having magic," Alice sighed, "but here we are."
"It's not magic!" I exclaimed. "Well… kinda." I guess the word would be what? Magitek right?
"Oh? And how is that?"
"Well, ok. The shotgun has magic, yes. I do not." I emphasized.
Alice massaged her forehead, "And that makes it so much better."
"Alice, it's not that bad." thank you Luka, "it's not going to be that bad, right David?" He looked at me, I couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
"No… ok, fine. Alice, I promise not to burn down, or destroy anything. Better?"
"No, not really." She stared directly at my eyes for a moment before relenting. "Just don't kill anyone with that and we'll be fine."
"I won't, I won't." I held my hands up, grinning despite myself.
"That expression certainly makes me believe you." She said sarcastically.
Turning back to Luka, Alice had him return to training death sword chaos star. I think I get why Luka shortened the name. The motion was difficult for me to follow, but I understood the general idea of the attack. A pattern of slashes and thrusts that appeared random unless you understood it, making the attack difficult to block unless you used chaos star as well.
Alice had him try to hit her while teaching the movement, something that I guessed wouldn't happen for a long time. He was progressing abnormally fast, according to Alice, almost like sword fighting was part of his genetics, which it kinda was.
We were nearly all the way to the forest now, we'd been walking for a few days, with the scenery becoming much greener and the plants much thicker recently. Right now we were getting ready for the night, having stopped early, a little before sundown, so that Luka and I could practice.
As they continued training I loaded another five shells into the shotgun's internal magazine, the original Model-10 had a mag capacity of six, with another in the chamber, that wasn't the case with mine though.
I'd tried out the lightning, fire, and ice shells so far. Lightning, like Jerome had said, wasn't actually all that destructive, a really high powered taser in actual practice. Ice shells had been quite powerful, with it covering the tree in a thick layer of ice, something that I doubted many would be able to get out of. Fire had so far been the only obviously lethal option.
Right now I loaded in the last element, wind. I guessed it would be like a big blast of force as the blacksmith Jerome had said. If he made this would he technically also be a gunsmith now? Probably.
Sliding the last shell into the magazine tube, I inserted one into the receiver. A quick pump of the gun's action readied it for firing. Walking back over to where I'd been shooting, I set the stock into my shoulder and aimed at the tree again.
Squeezing the trigger, the shotgun's barrel erupted. However, where the fire shells had resulted in a massive blast of flame, the wind shell exploded in a massive gale. The hurricane force wind was enough to bend the tree it had hit to a noticeable degree.
I blinked. "So… not gonna use that against a slime." I could just imagine how far the pieces would fly, I'd probably atomize them. This didn't seem very much like a non-lethal attack, even against a normal monster, not even mentioning a human being.
I pulled the slide back, catching the shell that was ejected. Unlike an ordinary casing, or some of the other elements, the wind shell was almost a slight cold feeling. Like a nice breeze I guess, not that I'd have thought of that because of its power.
I took it back toward my backpack after ejecting the other four wind shells, putting them back into a compartment on the pack. I'd used quite a lot of my ammunition in the testing today, aside from the more normal rounds. Hopefully they'd be recharged by tomorrow.
"AHA!" I heard an excited yell from a few meters away.
"Lucky shot." Alice had a very small glowing cut on her arm. Luka was bouncing up and down in celebration, Angel Halo held in hand.
"Holy shit, he hit you?!" If there wasn't already a good example of how far this kid was gonna go, here it was. Not that I had any doubts.
"He got lucky." Alice said with a scoff, though I thought I saw a slight smile for a second, huh. "Besides, he wouldn't have had that many chances in a real fight."
"I'm pretty sure that if you had a real battle now he wouldn't even be able to draw the sword." Luka still had a long way to go, but it was crazy to see just how quick he was improving.
I looked over toward the aforementioned fake hero, who seemed to be done celebrating his singular hit on Alice. And who's body had made impact with the ground.
"Oh…" I stared for a second. "Guess training's done, huh?"
Alice slowly nodded her head after a few seconds. "It's getting late anyway."
It was probably close to midnight now, the three of us had been practicing, testing, and training for the last few hours now, well me and Luka at least. "Yeah, I'll grab him."
"No it's fine, I'm the reason he fell over… I'll pick him up." Well I wasn't gonna argue with her about it.
I crawled into my sleeping bag after making sure that all our stuff was accounted for. Alice placed Luka on top of his. He was sleeping like a rock already, I doubted he'd wake up even if Alice molested him in his sleep.
Alice sleeps in a fairly hilarious way, coiling her tail under herself and just laying on her tail like a bed. It'd resulted in one morning with her flopped face down on her coils, drooling all over her own scales.
With that funny thought I closed my eyes and tried to drift off to sleep, it came quite fast.
"Oh brave Dav- pffahahahaha!"
"Hello Alipheese." I groaned and blinked my eyes open to see the dark god cackling while holding her stomach. We were in a complete void of blackness from what I could see.
"How-heh! How does she do it?!" The laughter continued for a few seconds until Alice I pulled her lips together and settled for a slightly unnerving smile.
"So… what's funny? I feel like I'm missing something here."
"I tried doing that schtick of Ilias', the 'oh brave Luka' thing. I don't know how she can keep a straight face, it's so fucking stupid."
"Manipulating your grandson to kill the monster lord lets you do many things I'd imagine." I wasn't really sure why Alipheese was so much less insane than her counterpart, but I'd take what I could get in the case of gods. Then again she was basically in prison right now, so the feeling was probably mutual.
"How is that going by the way?" She cocked her head a bit.
"Killing the monster lord? Or do you mean not killing the monster lord."
"Same thing really." I supposed she was right.
"It's going… well?" It'd only been a few days since the two of us last talked. "Why'd you want to see me again so soon?"
"Eh? I thought it would be another few weeks. How long has it been?"
"Like three days." I paused, "Thanks for the shotgun." I figured I could be polite at least, even if she did screw me over with that blessing of hers. "Wait! I thought you couldn't interact with the world?!"
She shrugged, "It's a lot more difficult than talking with you, but implanting a vision or idea in someone's head is something I can still do from here in subspace."
That was good to know, "Anything else? Or do you want to wait and show off later."
"Nope. Ideas are about the only thing that can get from here to my world. I can't even see anything going on there, it's infuriating."
"What about the others? You can't talk to each other?" That sounded like it sucked, all trapped in their own little world. At least it looked like they could control the space around them, or at least Alipheese could.
"Oh, I'm the only one that's conscious. My daughters aren't powerful enough to stay awake in the seal. When they wake up it will be like no time has passed at all." Huh, that was probably good.
The space around us flashed a few colors, I had to close my eyes as an intense feeling of vertigo came, eventually it passed and I looked around. We were now back in the familiar walls of the house from last time.
"Making breakfast again?" I wondered why she chose this as where we talked, maybe something from home? Probably not with all the modern appliances and furniture.
"No." Alipheese looked at me with a more serious expression than usual, like how she'd been when we met. "I figured I'd inform you of something I noticed. While I can't view the world from here I can still feel its energy, and it feels… wrong, somehow. I can't really describe the sensation, perhaps Sylph will be able to tell you, but I figured I would let you know."
"Uh… thanks?" It was kinda vague, "Why though, maybe it's because I'm here? It's not like this happened in the original story."
"No, it didn't, and you might be right. But I would rather you be careful, you know what will happen if my heir dies and the world is reset by Ilias." I didn't need a reminder.
"I'll… I'll do that, thanks." I wasn't sure what would cause that feeling other than myself. I probably would have to be careful though, just in case Ilias could feel it too.
I took a moment to collect myself, "So… anything else?"
The dark god gave me a sharp smile, "What, you don't want to stay and chat?" Not really no, as nice as she currently seemed to be, she did threaten endless pain the first time we met… and just now.
"I woke up somewhat exhausted last time we talked, and we've got a lot to do tomorrow." Bullshitting a god was probably a really bad idea. In truth I'd woken up slightly more rejuvenated, no idea why though.
"Damn." She hissed, "I thought I figured this thing out by now." She muttered something about practice, then waved her hand in my direction. A purple light filled my vision and I was pulled from her domain.
I awoke without anyone else, the other two were still asleep it seemed. Not for long though, the sun was starting to become visible on the horizon. I guessed I'd have a few minutes before they were up, might as well start getting ready to leave, Luka didn't like to waste much time.
Rolling up my sleeping bag and packing it into the bag, I wondered if there wasn't some sort of bag of holding we could buy. Well, probably not, we didn't have money per say, Alice did. I didn't really know how much she'd actually be willing to spare on anything that wasn't food.
In the middle of organizing my bags, I heard something shift to the right of me. The sound of cloth on cloth stopped, "Oh, you're awake already David?" It was Luka, who was sliding out of his own sleeping bag.
"Yeah, guess I'm finally getting used to sleeping outside." When we had started this journey I'd found it somewhat hard to sleep in the open air and on hard ground, I'd wake up several times a night and end up the last one awake because of it.
Luka rolled his joints, several popping and cracking sounds coming from them. Checking his own bags and rolling up the bedroll he'd been using, afterward turning to look over at Alice.
"Nope."
He sighed, "David… please?'
"Nope."
Luka looked up into the sky, seemingly for guidance. I chuckled a bit, his face slowly turning to stare, dead eyed, right at me. "..."
Muttering something under his breath, the purple haired hero began walking toward Alice, looking like a prisoner who was sentenced to death row. I was trying my absolute hardest not to start laughing at the ridiculous scene.
Luka paused over Alice, letting out a final sigh before slowly reaching out to touch her.
"Ah-" a noise came from Alice, Luka glanced in my direction before continuing, "AH-CHOO!"
"AHHHH!" Luka yelled, falling backward, tripping himself over Alice's tail as he did so, landing hard on the end of the red appendage.
Alice shot up, yelling from the pain, biting her own tongue in the process. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" She screamed at Luka, who was still laying on the end of her tail.
"Ow." The dazed boy replied.
I looked on incredulously, how… just how was about all I could wonder.
Alice looked around, her eyes falling on me. "Explain."
I couldn't take it anymore, I wasn't sure whether the hilarity of the situation itself had finally gotten to me, or if Alice's deadpan voice broke the camel's back, but I burst into laughter immediately following her question.
"So… let me get this straight. You two, have been taking turns waking me up if I don't get up by myself?" Alice asked the question slowly, and with no small amount of mirth. "Why?"
I stepped over a larger root, "Well, ok. You're really not a morning person." I received a raised eyebrow.
"Everytime we wake you up, you nearly kill each of us." Luka explained, calmy, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"I what?" Alice turned to look at him with confusion all over her face. Nearly leaving herself open to getting clotheslined by a tree branch.
Luka stared at me, well alright then, "You go completely crazy, like someone's going to attack you or something. Then when you're done, you fall back asleep and wake up like it never happened."
Alice blinked, cocked her head to the side, then settled on narrowed eyes, "First damn it."
"What?" both me and Luka asked.
"Damned foxes." Oh, yeah that explained it, for me at least. Alice seemed to realize Luka had no idea what she meant, and I tried to look as confused as I could. "I'll explain another time, we're here."
Indeed we were, we'd been walking through the outskirts of the forest of spirits for a little while now, the trees had gotten progressively thicker in number. All of this led to what almost looked like a wall of wood and leaves, only a hundred feet ahead of us.
"Well that's ominous."
"Thank you David, I hadn't noticed."
"Well, you two have fun. I'll be waiting for you on this side." Alice explained
Luka, understandably, was alarmed. "What! Why don't you come with us?"
"It wouldn't be very fair if you got through the forest with the monster lord's help, now would it. Every monster in there would stay as far away as they could if I were to enter."
"I… suppose you're right." He conceded.
"I wouldn't worry about being harmed here though, the inhabitants of this forest supposedly are pretty gentle all things considered, if a little mischievous." She reassured the hero, "But, if you do lose, just know that you'll never even get close to becoming strong enough to go any further."
"Luka's eyes hardened a bit, he nodded. Turning to me, "You don't need to come with me David, I'm the one that needs the spirits."
I grinned, "Hell no, I'm coming with you. Even if you're the hero, I still gotta learn to defend myself right?" This would be the best chance I had to field test my new weapon as well.
Luka looked unsure for a moment, "Alright, just don't get hurt okay?"
"Wasn't aware you cared so much, but yeah, I'll be careful."
Alice rolled her eyes at the whole exchange, "What are you wasting time for? Get on with it."
With those final words, me and Luka stepped in through the thicket ahead of us, entering the forest proper.
I'd been hunting a few times before with my dad and my mother's brothers. Right now the amount of noise Luka and I made while walking through the foliage would have made any one of them cringe.
It'd been maybe fifteen minutes since we entered the forest. I was amazed that an elf or fairy hadn't arrived to impede us so far. As if summoned by these thoughts, a quiet and energetic humming filled the air. Two fairies appeared before us, joy.
The pair were humming a sort of jaunty tune, I almost wanted to join in. It was so happy sounding. The two of them finally noticed us when Luka shifted on his feet, a small twig cracking.
"Oh! Visitors!" One of them said excitedly, her whole body bobbing in the air under her wings.
"We should play with them!" The other sounded so joyful I almost forgot they were about to molest us.
Luka was not fooled, good on him, drawing his sword from his hip. "We just want to see Sylph!"
"Oh?" The first one almost paused.
"They're heroes! We can play with them lots!" The other one continued flying at him.
Luka didn't look like he wanted to hurt them, they were so tiny. But he was eventually forced to swing at the persistent one, to very little effect. The fairy dodged under his sweeping blade, the "edge" of angle halo hitting nothing but air.
"Wha-!" The hero stumbled backward, nearly tripping on a root. I almost moved to help, before hearing a familiar sound, looking back to see the second fairy moving toward me.
I couldn't very well use a 12 gauge on something as small as her. I supposed I'd just have to grab her. In hindsight, this was a stupid idea.
The fairy zipped toward me, "Hehehe! Let me play with your penis!"
Something about that coming from a person just a little smaller than the aforementioned organ, was a little disturbing to me.
I tried to reach out and grab the small… woman? I wasn't sure what to call her other than fairy. The hand that I used missed, the small being zipping over my arm, nearly hitting me in the face at her speed.
"Hey! Watch out!" I yelled, she could've hit me in the eye!
"Hee hee! I'm coming for it!" This time she went lower, directly at my dick.
I waited a second, letting her get within arms reach. It was like reacting to a tennis ball. I knew where she was going, but if I focused on her I would never hit her. I had to aim ahead.
My open palm hit the air again, damn. I was getting a bit annoyed.
The next pass had no luck either, at the very least the fairy hadn't touched me as well.
Again I missed her. And again she came back around, I had the feeling she was enjoying this, the little sadist.
"Just." whiff.
"Stay!" Another miss!
"Still!" I felt something hit my hand, instinctively I closed my fist.
It was a flower, a goddamned flower.
*click*
Oh fuck.
I whipped my head down, the fairy had undone my pants, a wide grin on her face.
A small, but not fairy small, hand grabbed her before she got into my underwear. I jumped back, falling on my ass.
Luka stood there, completely drenched in sweat, a very annoyed frown on his face. He threw the fairy, not softly, but like a pitcher would a fastball, as far into the forest as he could.
"WEEEEeeeeee!" The high pitched voice trailed into the distance.
I panted, covered in sweat as well, I had no idea how long that ridiculous exchange had gone on for. "H- holy shit." I sucked in a lungful of air. "What the fuck was wrong with those two?"
Luka looked at me, "I have no idea. But We're leaving before they come back." He started walking.
I scrambled up, re-buckling my belt and buttoning my pants back up. "Wait for me!"
Eventually we came to a small stream, I realized neither of us knew where we were going. "Uh, Luka?"
He sat down and sighed, "Yeah, I know. She has to be in the heart of the forest right?"
"Where the hell is that?" I asked, getting a shrug in response.
Just great, we had entered the forest almost an hour ago, and were no closer to our goal than before. I pulled out my shotgun, making sure it was loaded with the newly dubbed 'taser' shells. I didn't want to accidentally kill someone, and these electric bullets were my best bet.
"Don't you find it odd we haven't seen any other monsters yet?" I asked.
"A little bit, Alice made it sound like this place was filled with them on our way here." He shrugged and got back up, "let's get going again, hopefully we can find it soon."
He took exactly two steps before an arrow plunged into his shoulder. A startled cry came from him before he hit the dirt.
I launched myself behind a tree, bringing my gun to a ready position. I held it under my shoulder, instead of against it, the good thing about the electric shells was they had very little recoil, and I needed a smaller profile right now.
I carefully turned around the wooden trunk, I could see her, an elf with blonde hair and a bow. She was perched on a tree branch a few meters off the ground.
I readied myself, bringing the firearm to my shoulder, I couldn't fail here. I took a deep breath, stepping out from my cover, lining up her form in the sights.
*K-BBBZZZTTTT*
A bolt of pure electricity flew from the barrel of my gun, a near instant attack. She had no time to react, the bolt missed.
"MOTHERF- AH!" My eyes widened, jumping to the side as an arrow nearly hit my chest.
I slid along the wet ground, rolling over myself until I was behind a larger rock.
I'd missed, oh fuck. I was completely screwed.
I took a few breaths to calm myself. I heard nothing, no creaking branches, rustling leaves, absolutely nothing. I could almost feel her presence though, a stalking wind. Heh, I was giving this elf a cool nickname.
An arrow thudded next to my crotch.
"HOLY SHIT!" I couldn't move an inch, she was there, right above me on the rock. I couldn't see her, too fixated on the arrow not even an inch from my privates.
"Quiet down!" she hissed. Eh? "If you scream, then it'll only draw closer. You and your friend have chosen an awful time to visit this forest."
What the hell did she mean by- oh, oh no. The chimera! But that shouldn't have been here yet! The dryad chimera only appeared once Luka got sylph! I had to get us out of here!
The elf crouched beside me, "Wait. If you move now, it will kill you." She stared at me, any of the typical emotions I might have felt such as lust were absent from my body, replaced by overwhelming dread. "Keep quiet, stay here. I'll let you know when it is safe."
Then I heard it, the creepiest sound I'd ever heard in my life, unfortunately nothing compared to what I imagined would come later.
It sounded like a woman's moan of pleasure, but horribly deepened, then a low groan of pain as an underlying tone that became all too noticeable far too quickly. It sounded like the creature was in purgatory, at least that was what came to mind.
The elf to my right shuddered, "It's moving away." We waited a few minutes longer, much longer than it had taken for the sounds to disappear.
The elf stood, I breathed a sigh of relief. "Is it safe now?"
"For some time, it will come back though, you need to leave now."
I held a hand up, "Wait, wait. Me and my friend came here to meet Sylph, we can't leave without doing that.
Her eyes narrowed, I was afraid she would take us out anyway. "Hah, fine."
I blinked in surprise, before remembering Luka. ran back over to where he had fallen, nothing was there. Oh god.
I heard a snap, and then a thud behind me. Luka was on the ground, struggling to move in a panic, his whole body was wrapped with a thick rope made of vines. I ran over, helping him out of his binds.
"What- what was that thing?!" Apparently he'd seen the chimera when he was up in the tree.
"We don't know." the elf that had saved us answered, "but none of us have a chance of defeating it. Be glad I saved your lives, you would be dead otherwise." I assumed she was why Luka had been wrapped up in a tree.
"Yeah, thanks." I grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet.
"Your friend has said you seek out Sylph?"
"Yeah, we're looking for her." he answered.
"I will take you to her, she is on the way out."
The two of us, Luka and I, glanced at each other. "Wouldn't she be closer to the middle of this forest?" he asked, looking at her suspiciously.
The elf smiled, "of course a human would think so, the wind moves all around, and so does its spirit."
"So… we could have been here for hours, and never even seen her?" Luka sounded exhausted.
"Yes, she is rarely ever in the same location, if she wasn't on your way out, I would never have even thought to take you to her." She admitted.
"Alright, let's go… before that thing comes back."
It took us nearly another half hour to make it to Sylph.
At first glance, the diminutive figure ahead of us seemed no different from a normal fairy, only slightly larger than average. But it was also completely obvious she was who we sought, the feeling around her almost made you feel free, like a bird with wind beneath its wings.
The elf motioned for Luka to move forward, which he did so quickly.
"Are you Sylph, The spirit of wind?" He asked.
"Yep, I'm Sylph. Do you require something?" She floated toward him.
"Uh, yeah. I'm on a quest, and I need the four spirits' help to complete it." He explained to her.
"What?" It came, muttered, from the elf beside me, I'd almost forgotten she was there, "A human is seeking the spirits? The last time that happened was…" Her eyes widened in some sort of realization.
She looked at me for a moment, "you wouldn't happen to know who that boy is related to would you?" Oh… she recognized his features.
"No, why?" I lied.
"He… looks so similar to that man. Is it possible?"
"Looks similar to who?" I asked.
"...I have been in this forest for a long time, long enough to see monster lords come and go. He looks similar to one human, so similar, who slayed the 8th." Well, she was old.
"Coincidence maybe?" I shrugged at her theory.
"Perhaps…" She trailed off, looking forward instead at the spectacle we witnessed.
Luka was battling Sylph, well battling wasn't exactly the word for it. He would lash out with an attack, and Sylph would counterattack easily with her speed. He never even got close.
Until of course, Sylph got tired. A slow, almost lazy strike from Luka hit her in the chest, sending her to the ground.
The elf tensed, I grabbed her arm. She jumped at the contact, before settling down as Sylph rose off the forest floor.
"He did it." She sounded amazed.
"Hell yeah he did." I chuckled, grinning.
As Sylph and Luka completed the contract, Sylph disappeared into pure wind that flowed into Luka. He walked over to us, smiling wide.
"I did it David! I have the power of wind!"
I smiled right back at him, the guy had actually managed it. I was literally witnessing history be made at this very moment.
The elf walked up to him, "You. You are the first human in 500 years to contract with Sylph." She looked at him closely, "I am impressed."
Luka grinned even wider at that, "uh, thanks. We probably wouldn't have found her if you didn't help us."
"You are very welcome." She smiled back, a smile which became just a bit too friendly. "Perhaps you could thank me another way as well?" She raised an eyebrow at Luka, I struggled to contain a snort.
I could have sworn a drop of sweat ran down his head, "u-uh, thanks for the offer, but we really have to get back on the road."
She smiled a bit more, before relenting finally, "Oh fine, it's for the best anyway, that abomination will be back eventually."
We said our goodbyes to her, the elf leaping off into the trees again. Heh, stalking wind, I liked her.
When we finally got back to Alice she quirked an eyebrow at us, "What took you two so long?"
"We uh, well. Sylph moves around a lot, and we couldn't find her." Luka explained.
"But you did eventually. Unless there's another spirit of the wind I'm not aware of?" So she could already sense Sylph.
"Yeah, we got ambushed by an elf. She helped us find Sylph on the walk back." I said.
"You… wait what? An elf helped you find Sylph?" She didn't seem to believe it.
"Yeah, well kinda. She saved us from this huge monster, said it was an abomination actually. When she was going to take us out of the forest for our safety, we convinced her to help find Sylph." I elaborated.
Alice's eyes narrowed when I said the word abomination. "I've never heard of a monster like that, even the more dangerous types are good around most other monsters. And besides, there shouldn't be any dangerous ones around here to begin with."
I was about to explain it more, when I heard it. That low groan, and the higher sound of ecstasy. Purgatory had come for us.
It lumbered out of the trees like an animal near death. I wasn't sure what I expected to see, but I wasn't prepared for what I got.
It was horrifying in every aspect, even its pale, more humanoid body was unnatural. There were many different plants and flowers hanging off of its back, its right arm was disfigured in a grotesque fashion, and many slithering tentacles writhed from its body, some even poking from its skin like maggots on a dead carcass.
"What the hell is that!" Alice was visibly disgusted by what she saw. She glared at it for a moment, "It feels off, very off. What is this thing?"
I shrugged, "You're asking me?"
Luka looked uncomfortable in its presence, "Sylph says this thing is bad, really bad, it's unnatural."
"How?" Alice asked.
"She doesn't know, but it's not a monster."
Alice raised her palm toward the monster, an orange ball of fire forming before it.
*FWOOSH*
Flames washed over the chimera, a shrieking scream coming from the monster. All of us held our hand over our ears, it was deafening.
I shook my head to clear it, Luka was saying something to Alice. "-ave the power of wind, I think I can take it on."
Alice glanced at the beast again, and sighed, "ok, I'll be waiting for you when you're done."
She looked at me, I pulled my gun off my back, loaded a couple of ice shells, and pumped the slide.
Alice disappeared, leaving me and Luka to take care of the chimeric dryad.
"If you use the wind to stay away from its attacks, I'll hit it with Ice so that your attacks will shatter it."
He looked at me, contemplating it, "alright, i don't want to cause more pain,but I think that will finish this faster."
I nodded.
Luka leapt into action with a thunder thrust, the blade of angel halo sinking into the chimera's chest. Leaping back right as a tendril moved to snare him.
I blasted it with a shower of frost, freezing solid a number of vines, and one of the big flowers on its back. Ice cracked on its own as the monster turned to face me, before shattering as luka hit it with a solid attack of chaos star. Half of the creature fell to the ground in pieces, I racked another shell into the chamber.
Luka kept the chimera's attention as he darted around with the power of Sylph, far too fast for it to hit him.
Another blast of ice coated the monster, freezing the rest of its body. Luka leapt off of a tree, bringing down angel halo on its head. The rest of the monster broke into pieces, split down the middle by Luka's beheading attack.
As the ice shards hit the ground, flowers, leaves, and plants of all kinds burst from the shattered pieces. Settling on the ground as a reminder of the foe we had just defeated.
"So… Is that enough horror for us today?"
"Yeah, I think I'm good." Luka answered.
"Now where did Alice wander off to?"
I stepped by a tree, gathering the two shells that had been ejected from my shotgun.
"BOO!"
I nearly blew Alice's head off for that.
AN: Well, this took a while huh? I wrote about half of it a couple weeks ago, got caught up in some real life stuff, and then wrote the other half last night. Also, I FIGURED OUT HOW TO USE SCENE BREAKS. Goddammit those things are not obvious at first, I thought that, all this time, FFN was acknowledging the separated scenes, apparently not.