home

search

Chapter 24

  From a long walking distance, the party has returned to Malluraea. Upon arriving, Rei notices something different as she walks up to where her ship was st seen.

  "Ehhhh?!" Rei said as she sees something wrong with the picture.

  The party walks over to where the ship was located.

  "No...NOOOOOOO!!" Rei shouted with a worried look.

  Rei's ship was completely gone. Her ship has been wrecked as the remains of her ship is just piles of pnk wood floating in the water and other stuff that was in the ship.

  "Impossible!" Rei shouted, shaking her head as she felt pissed. "How the hell did this happen?!"

  "Perhaps a storm came by and wiped out everything that was on the ship." Marie said, taking a guess.

  "How can you tell?" Rei asked.

  "Hey! I'm just predicting here." Marie replied.

  "Everything we used to have on our ship," Tamiko said. "All the hard work we put to building this...it's all gone."

  "Oh man...the memories..." Beatrice said sadly.

  "After all that we had on that ship..." Rei said, taking just one piece of wood and looks down at it. "What used to be our gateway of adventure...our home sweet home..."

  The party remains silent as they give Rei a moment of silence to see her ship already destroyed in pieces. Rei goes down on both knees and closed her eyes to let a tear go down from her right eye.

  "...looks as if we need to travel to Egesul then." Shokei said.

  "It seems so." Tamiko said.

  "We don't have a choice." Beatrice said. "Let's head to Egesul."

  The party turns to head for their next destination. The party looks up to see that an unknown figure stands in their way.

  "Huh?" Shokei asked. "Who's this?"

  "Woah." Marie said.

  Shokei and her party encountered a strange figure in a bck outfit. The figure has long while hair and wearing a dark cape around his neck. He has two red belts around his waist, cris-crossed. Equipped in his hands are two sharp sickles in his hands and the figure stands on one of the building rocks.

  "What's wrong?" the figure speaks out to the party. "Late for your departure?"

  "Who...who the hell are you?" Shokei asked the figure.

  "I'm amused that you asked." the figure said to her.

  The figure jumps off the ptform and nds on his feet on solid ground.

  "The name is Fozoworu, leader of the Necromutants of Chaos." the figure introduces himself.

  "Really?" Rei asked. "You, leader of the Necromutants? I knew it."

  "I believe we seen many of you guys..." Shokei said. "What do you really want?"

  "You..." Fozoworu points at Shokei and asked. "Are you the one that defeated the guardian of fire and obtained the gem that you possess?"

  "That would be me all right." Shokei replied. "Again, what do you want?"

  "I insist you, dear Emissary, to hand over the gem to me." Fozoworu demanded. "You and your allies will live another day without problems through me."

  "Why exactly would I give up an ancient gem to an enemy that I'm meeting for the first time?" Shokei asked him, recalling what the spirit said to her. "There's no way I will surrender this gem easily."

  "Hmmph! What imprudence, Emissary." Fozoworu said, not pleased. "Face your fate by pying with my little toys!"

  Fozoworu raises both scythes in the air as he prepares to summon.

  "Spirits of the Dark Dreams Gaxy," Fozoworu summoned. "Come forth a creation that will kill the Emissary of Light and her companions!"

  "What?!" Rei said, seeing the summoning taking effect.

  The summon spell became in effect as dark clouds formed from the skies and swirled around the seas. The party looks behind to see that the Necromutant's summon was doing its work.

  "I summon you, Amphisbaena, the serpent of the sea!" Fozoworu shouted.

  Just then, a swirl from the dark clouds' dives into the water and deep into the ocean. Shokei and her party looks out to the sea and there rises a big sea monster, emerging from the waters. There, the monster appears to be a giant sea serpent with two heads that appeared out of the water. The party can see that the serpent has one head as a tail whereas the lead head is in the front. Both heads cried out as their vicious fangs are exposed.

  "Jeepers!!" Marie said with fear.

  "Dammit!" Rei said. "Talk about a monster with two heads on each end."

  "This creature is known to be the mother of ants." Fozoworu tells the party. "With its vicious fangs, all of you will suffer the wraith of my serpent."

  Amphisbaena moves out of the water and charges at Shokei and her party.

  "It's coming! Move!!" Shokei shouted at her party.

  The party gets out of harm's way as the serpent drags its body on the ground, making a straight path. Lei is amused to see that her leader, Fozoworu, summoned this monster. Her disguise as a Necromutant must be kept secret as she does not want her identity to be revealed.

  Never seen such a creature like THAT before..., Lei thought to herself.

  "Marie!" Rei gets her ally her attention.

  "Yes?" Marie looks at Rei.

  "Take Lei somewhere safe for her and yourself to stay away from this monster."

  "All right, but I'll help you guys in case any of you get injured..." Marie said.

  "Don't worry about it!" Rei interrupted her. "Just do it!"

  Marie nodded and then she makes Lei follow her to safety from the threat.

  Shokei and her party gears up for the next battle immediately. There, Amphisbaena stood there as both heads can view their targets.

  "A sea monster with two heads on each end...how are we going to beat this thing?" Saeko asked.

  "We're going to work this out altogether." Shokei said, gripping her sword tightly with both hands. "Get ready."

  Together, the party went to face off against the sea monster.

  The main head of the Amphisbaena made its first attack by charging down at Shokei's party with its fangs, aiming at them. The party sees the attack coming as they all dodged the attack. Ferron takes his sword and strikes down the serpent on the side of its face. Giving the enemy just minor damage, Ferron saw the small head on the end charging towards him and the impact sends him flying back to an abandoned house. Ferron nded inside the house after crashing through the bricks and hits the wall.

  Shokei makes her move against Amphisbaena. The serpent's small head sees its prey and tries to attack her with its fangs. Shokei leaps out of the way and tries to go in for the attack, but she was not aware that the main serpent's head is right behind her and charged at her with a headbutt. Shokei turns to see the main head approaching her, but she failed to defend herself as she was hit and sent back to the ground.

  Saeko and Kichiro fought against Amphisbaena by targeting the main head. Saeko grips her nce and takes a stab at the serpent by aiming for the face and Kichiro swings his axe on the side of the monster's face. The serpent got struck with damage and counters them with the small head at the end of its tail. The small serpent head charged directly at them for a quick attack. Saeko dives away from the tail of the monster and Kichiro rolls himself out of the way, as both avoided the small head's attack.

  Fozoworu watched as Shokei and her party are fighting against the wild serpent. He stands there, studying and watching every move that Shokei's allies are using against his monster.

  Shokei gets up from the ground and takes cover from Amphisbaena. The two-headed sea serpent looks down at Shokei's allies and waits for action. Shokei's allies spread out in case of anything that could happen to them in this fight. Then, Sadako made a move and used an ice spell against the serpent. Unfortunately, the magic did not affect Amphisbaena at all.

  "What?" Sadako said as she sees her spell backfired.

  "Heh! This serpent is strong against any source of cold temperatures," Fozoworu said. "Using a freeze spell won't allow you to stop this creature."

  Sadako felt disappointed and clenched her fists.

  Rei can see the serpent standing in the middle of the field. She has a pn and looks at her surroundings to find anything useful against the monster. Right near her, she sees a big rock. The rock is not big, but big enough to throw. Taking the rock, Rei used her strength to hurl the rock directly at one of the heads of the serpent. The timing was a success as the rock struck at the main head of the serpent and it nailed at one of the eyes. The serpent cried out in pain after the rock pushed back its eye.

  "Yes!" Rei proudly said with a grin.

  Successfully, the main head of Amphisbaena is distracted, and this gave Shokei and her party the advantage within this battle. The serpent lowers its main head as the small head gave a war cry. Athens party acted and charged at the sea serpent.

  Shokei, with her allies, all ganged up at the wounded main head of Amphisbaena. With the help of Beatrice, Kichiro, and Saeko, the four of them hacked away at the monster's main head. The main head is gradually taking damage as it received cuts as it keeps getting damaged. The small head takes note and charged down toward Shokei and her allies with its fangs exposed. Rei quickly leaps in the air and fiercely pounces on top of the serpent's head with her feet. The force of this damage made her stomp the monster on top of its head again. The small head is damaged critically by the skull and felt numb. The main head shakes off from its attackers as Shokei and the others back away from harming the main head. The main head of the Amphisbaena roars out from the pain and immediately has its sights on Rei.

  "Uh uo!" Rei said as she panicked to run.

  Rei makes a run for it as the sea serpent is chasing after her. She rushes through the abandoned housings of Malluraea as she keeps the sea monster in pce. The main head of the serpent charges after her with its sharp fangs. Rei looks behind to see Amphisbaena is moving fast and tries to avoid the dangerous fangs. As quickly as she runs through the abandoned houses and buildings, the sea serpent makes a breakthrough on crashing through walls and demolishing the ruined parts that was left of Malluraea.

  Ferron, recovering from being knocked out from the enemy's attack, looks to see Obsidian coming to his aid.

  "Are you ok?" Obsidian asked.

  "I'm fine..." Ferron replied. "That serpent is powerful, but that attack was nothing on me."

  "Come," Obsidian tells him. "The foil monster is causing havoc on us. It may head here if we're not careful."

  "Really? We better get a move on." Ferron said.

  Both men step out of the house and gets back in action. Ferron is willing to fight again as he vows his vengeance against the serpent that attacked him first. He and Obsidian can see Amphisbaena continues to pursuit after Rei. Rei continues to drive the serpent around in circles with her swift speed. However, the stamina in running from the monster is tiring her out. She slows down and then she fell to the ground. Rei turns and looks up to see the serpent pausing in its tracks. Now the serpent has its eyes on her as it exposes its fangs and is set for the kill.

  Just before the Amphisbaena could kill Rei, the monster felt a sharpness of an object on the side of its head. Ferron made his move as he forced his sword right through the thick skull of the monster's head. The main head cries out in pain as the bde has penetrated through the thick blood. Obsidian goes over to help Rei and guides her to safety.

  Fozoworu is viewing things differently within the battle. He is in disbelief that the main head of the Amphisbaena is struck critically. He growls angrily as Shokei and her party are still in the process of defeating his monster.

  Sadako sees the main head of the serpent suffering in pain as the small head rises from the ground. The small head is regaining its energy and caught its eyes on a prey. Sadako looks to see the serpent growl as she is ready to act. Then, the serpent has its eyes to another direction and there it sees two figures watching the whole battle behind one of the houses on a top floor. Sadako notices Marie and Lei are watching the whole fight and there, the serpent makes a move by charging after them.

  "What the?! Hey, it's coming this way!!" Marie fearfully said.

  "This could be it!" Lei said, now worried. "Brace yourself!"

  Fearing that the allies are in danger, Sadako quickly acts and unleashes a new spell on the tail of the monster.

  "THUNDERING CANNON!!"

  Sadako cast out a lighting spell on the serpent. In a form of dark clouds, a heavy wave bolt of lightning struck the monster in the body. The lighting shook up the body of Amphisbaena and the small head stopped and fell hard on the ground. The electric shock paralyzed the monster with effectiveness.

  "Woah!" Tamiko said and saw Sadako. "Did you do that?!"

  "I...I did." Sadako replied. "I sensed whatever magic lies in me and just let it out."

  "Nice." Tamiko said, nodded.

  With Amphisbaena down, Marie and Lei see the monster lying on the ground. They took a sigh of relief and are gd that their lives are spared from being killed by the serpent. The monster has suffered a mortal blow, but it still breathes while paralyzed, making the lighting effect numb its body. Shokei looks at her party to see that everyone is back together. Seeing that everyone is in good spirits, all of them are all set to finish off the Necromutant's monster.

  "Let's do this!" Shokei said to everyone.

  Shokei and her party are about to finish off the Amphisbaena. Just then, Fozoworu teleports in front of them and appears in their way. The party stopped in their tracks as they see the lead Necromutant interrupting their fight.

  "Enough!!" Fozoworu tells the party.

  Fozoworu looks at Shokei. Then, he turns around and snaps his fingers. The dark clouds swirls around the injured serpent, and the foul monster vanishes into the air. Once the serpent is gone, Fozoworu turns his attention on his enemies.

  "This creature of mine has suffered enough." Fozoworu said to them. "After seeing your performances, I am amused by your fighting and abilities and how all of you fought against Amphisbaena."

  The party listened.

  "However," The Necromutant continued. "Neither of you are worthy enough to handle my own creations."

  "That vile thing of yours was a brute! We nearly killed it." Beatrice said to him.

  "You did..." Fozoworu nodded. "...but I think you have underestimated it far enough. Now, it's time to do my part..."

  Fozoworu looks at Shokei and her party. All of them wanted to fight him, seeing he's a lone wolf of the group. He does know that one of his own allies, Lei, is disguised in the group and he did not think it would be wise to have her fight him. Fozoworu then has his eyes lock on Shokei.

  "...you." Fozoworu points out to Shokei.

  "Me?" Shokei blinked.

  "Of course, Emissary of Light. Who else?" Fozoworu said.

  "What do you want?" Shokei asked him.

  "Perhaps I like to make an offer...no, a request that I have in mind." Fozoworu said.

  "If it's the gem you want, forget it." Shokei shakes her head. "I won't do it."

  "No. That won't be necessary at the moment..." Fozoworu said.

  "Hmmm?" Shokei has a confused look on her face.

  "Perhaps, I would like to have a dual match." Fozoworu requested. "How about a one-on-one match against me? I want to see what you are capable of."

  "What?!"

  Hearing this made Shokei surprised and puzzled by this. Fozoworu looks to be serious, but Shokei now feels unsure about taking on the leader of the Necromutants. The enemy has two sharp scythes on him and going against him would be dangerous.

  "As promised, I may go easy on you..." Fozoworu said, acting as if he is luring Shokei into a trap.

  Shokei takes a deep breath. She thinks about what she is getting into as the enemy wants to take her on in a duel. Gripping her sword in hand, she takes a step forward, only to feel Rei grabbing her by the arm.

  "Hold up now!" Rei gets Shokei her attention.

  "Hmm?" Shokei turns to see Rei speaking to her.

  "You ought to be crazy to go against this creep."Rei tells her.

  Shokei hears what Rei said and then looks behind to see her enemy.

  "Really now...," Fozoworu tells her. "You would listen to your friend's sake? Why won't you fight against me? Afraid, perhaps? Besides, this is just a duel between us."

  Shokei thinks about this and has to decide if it is right to fight against the leader of the Necromutants. By turning down his offer, she wouldn't prove herself worthy of being a warrior.

  "Rei, I know what you're saying..." Shokei said to face Fozoworu. "But looking at him, he doesn't appear to be that serious."

  "It's not about looks Shokei." Rei said. "It's all about appearance. Although he doesn't seem so serious, you really think you got what it takes to go at him?"

  "I...I..." Shokei felt undecided.

  "What is this?" Fozoworu calls out to her. "The Emissary of Light, afraid to lose in an easy battle? It seems that a mere soul like you is too chicken to save this world against us. Coward, proven!"

  Shokei opens her eyes wide as she felt triggered. She immediately turns to face her enemy.

  "That's what you think!" Shokei tells her enemy back. "Don't think you can bel me chicken! I'll prove it to you that I can defeat your ass."

  Before she did anything, Shokei looks back at her party. Her allies can see her being serious enough as if she is ready, willing, and able to fight against Fozoworu.

  "I know you're all concerned for me." Shokei said to her party. "I promise that I won't die on all of you."

  "...be careful..." Marie said, feeling worried.

  "We have your back." Saeko said. "Always."

  Shokei nodded to her party. Then, she looks back and takes a few steps to face Fozoworu at a short distance. With her sword in hand, she was ready.

  "So...you feel courageous enough to take me on." Fozoworu said.

  "Bring it on." Shokei said, gripping her sword.

  "In that case...I won't be needing these."

  Fozoworu did something different. Rather than using his two scythes, he discards them aside and let his weapons disappear. Then, he extends out his right arm and suddenly he has his own sword in his hand.

  "What the?!" Shokei said with her eyes widened.

  "Huh?" Rei notices the scenario pying out differently.

  Shokei can now see her situation has changed. Fozoworu holds a long sword that is about thirty inches and it looks false-edged sword. The sword's grip is made of amber and contains solid metal hilt parts with an antique silver finish.

  "Are you sure that you want to do this?" Fozoworu asked her.

  "Not going to hold back." Shokei replied, getting her fighting stance in pce.

  "If you insist." Fozoworu said, gripping his sword with both hands. "En garde!"

  The fight between both sides has commence and then the fight was on.

  Shokei and Fozoworu charged up to each other and both of them brandish their swords, clinging them together. Shokei can feel the heavyweight of Fozoworu's sword as the Necromutant press his sword against her's. Breaking up, both sides exchange turns for swinging their swords and have close calls into getting hit. Things heat up from sword clinging, to twist and turns, to thrust and guard-impacts, and to where things have gone extreme. Shokei's party watches the fight as they are helpless to help out their lead ally. The fight against Fozoworu was making the situation harder for Shokei to focus on her opponent's moves and attacks. Fozoworu excels well with his sword techniques as he is taking advantage in this dual csh.

  Dammit! He's tough! Shokei thought. What is he made of?!

  The csh between Shokei and Fozoworu continued. During this fight, Shokei could barely swing her sword right at her opponent as she attempted to swipe at him five times. On the fifth swing, Shokei was going for an opportunity to strike at her enemy, but Fozoworu quickly guard-impact her attack and steps back quickly to leap over her in midair. Shokei can see him pulling off a stunt and Fozoworu was open enough to attack her. Shokei quickly turns around and blocks the attack, using the sword as a shield.

  Just then, Fozoworu kicks Shokei in the stomach with his knee. The full force of his knee caused Shokei to be stunned for a moment. Once she's down, Fozoworu made a swift move by going behind Shokei and from there, he sshes his sword by nailing his opponent on the left side of her body, right to where her stomach is.

  "AAAHHH!!"

  Shokei's party was shocked to see what just happened. Shokei cries out in pain as soon as she felt Fozoworu's sword swipe the side of her right hip. With that, she drops her sword on the ground as the cut stopped her in the fight. She immediately felt the spot where the sword had cut her. Just then, Shokei turns and then felt an unexpected attack from her opponent. Fozoworu jumps on his feet and hits Shokei by using both feet like a battering ram. Shokei is sent flying as she skids and tumbles on the ground, sending her right back to where her party is standing.

  "Oh no!!" Rei said, worried.

  "Oh god! No!!" Marie shouted at Shokei. "Nooo!!"

  "Shoot!" Beatrice said, coming over to check out Shokei.

  "Ugh, UGHHH!!" Shokei still feels the pain as she felt the crimson of blood out of her body.

  "I got you Shokei!!" Marie said, coming to her aid.

  The fight against Fozoworu was over as the Necromutant can see that he won the duel against Shokei. The enemy looks to see Shokei with her party at a distance and then he smirked evilly. Marie quickly cured Shokei with her magic and Shokei feels the effects are working for her as the wound is healing her. Rei helped Shokei up on her feet just to have her stand. Shokei looks directly at Fozoworu angry with a sign of defeat. Her teeth show through her anger whereas her party stands near her for protection, just in case.

  "A few inches more and you would've been dead." Fozoworu said to her. "You Emissary is nothing but a weakling. Never would I have expected a warrior like you fought with honor, but you're not full-fledged yet."

  "Grr!" Shokei growled through her teeth.

  "Your standards were nothing but a mere amateur for me." Fozoworu continued. "Quite the impatient one that would go the distance to strike at me."

  "What?!" Shokei said angrily. She stands tall despite the pain that is still in her body.

  "No no..." Rei pleaded. "Just chill. Chill!!"

  "Be gd that you're alive," Fozoworu said. "Until we meet again, I will get my hands on those gems! And I'll be coming for you!"

  After those st words, Fozoworu vanishes and leaves the scene.

  Once the enemy is gone, the party became silent. They can only see the spot where the Necromutant has left. Shokei looks to see her sword is on the ground. Shokei walks up slowly to where she has dropped her sword. She bends down to pick up her weapon. From there, Shokei stands there as she stares down at her sword with both hands. Marie wanted to go over to see if Shokei was ok, but Rei pces a hand on her shoulder. Marie turns to see Rei shaking her head, indicating that it is not a good idea to disturb her now.

  Shokei stares down at her sword quietly for a few minutes. She notices drops of water touching her sword. She holds the sword near her side and then she looks up in the sky to see that it started to rain.

  "...amateur..." Shokei whispered to herself.

  Shokei felt let-down as that word stuck in her mind. She frowns as to see how she really lost the fight against the Necromutant.

Recommended Popular Novels