Chapter 4: Gather Together, Pendant Bearers!
As the sun slowly started to rise over Direwood Forest, an unseasonable fog clung to the forest. Creeping around and filling every bare spot the forest allowed.
The town of Zean was the sight of the thickest fog in the entire forest. If anyone was willing to step out in this fog, they would have to have very good eyes, or else they would easily get lost.
At a chain link fence near the edge of town, someone was crouched down by the ground, waiting and watching as a small patrol made its third round in two hours. They carried torches so it made them easy to spot in the fog, but the fog was still very thick. This person was Kage, and he was waiting for his chance to move, after spending the night in his own home and trying to sleep with all of the commotion going on.
He watched as the torches started to blend in with the fog and the sounds of the men’s footsteps became silent. Kage was amazed they hadn’t noticed him, even thought they were within two meters of him, the fog obscured his figure.
Musta thought I was a bush or something… he thought as he quickly jumped over the fence and landed crouching down. But this is still so strange. Why would someone be after my pendant? And what kind of a guy is Garm anyway? He stood up, keeping his ears open for sounds of oncoming soldiers where ever they would be coming from. Nothing.
He tapped the front of his left toe on the ground as he looked around and making sure no one was there. Kage started to walk towards the forest.
“Hey you! What are you doing?! FREEZE!” shouted someone behind Kage and he jumped in shock. He spun around, his two claws whipping out of his gauntlets and ready for anyone or anything… except what he saw.
Nothing. No one was behind him, or even was starting to materializing through the fog. Then there came the sounds of a fight. Metal clashing and the grunts of some men while they were being hit, but not with any weapon.
“Hey did you hear it?!”
“Over there!” replied someone else.
Kage spun around and saw a group of soldiers start to materialize through the fog, their torches giving their position away. He let his hands hang by his sides, blades still extended.
The group of soldiers stopped at the sight of Kage just standing there.
“You there! Who are you, and why aren’t you inside?!”
Kage let out a little laugh. “Who am I?” he said, trying to sound intimidating. “I’m the one you’re after.”
They drew their swords. “So you are the one with the pendant. Are you going to give it up, or are we going to be forced to take it from you.”
Kage raised his arms. “Well, that depends. Do ya feel suicidal?” He planted his feet and got into one of his fighting stances, his fists raised and ready. “Well? Do ya?”
“Attack!” and the soldiers lunged for him, swords raised.
Jumping back, Kage ducked under one slash and sliced upward, dropping the soldier where he stood. Two more came rushing him and he flipped over them and when he landed he drop-kicked them both with a long swipe of his foot. Someone swiped down and Kage tuck-and-rolled behind him. He stood up and slammed one of his blades straight into the back of the man who had just tried to attack him. The yanked it back out and the soldier dropped over, probably going to bleed to death.
When he turned and faced the two remaining soldiers, they just ran off. Kage started to back up, preparing to turn after he was sure the soldiers who ran off weren’t going to re-enforcements.
His back bumped into someone else. Out of instinct he would have spun around and been ready to slice their head off, but something told him not to and he kept his arms by his side.
“Who’re you?” he asked.
* * *
Amalthea awoke that morning to find a dense fog surrounding her.
“Horus? Horus?! Where are you?!” she shouted, slightly startled.
“I’m here.” came a reply.
“Where?” Amal looked completely around her, Glaive held tight in her hands.
“Up here!” he shouted. “In the tree!”
Amal started to follow the voice and she saw the trunk of a tree form from the fog.
“Up this one?”
“Yeah!”
“What are you doing?”
“Hang on, and I’ll be right down.” Horus shouted back.
Amal stood back and to surprise, Horus fell down and almost hit the ground, flat on his face like yesterday, but at the last second he stopped and floated up so he would land on his feet.
“So what were you doing?” Amal asked again.
“Trying to see how bad the fog is this morning.” he replied. “It’s pretty thick, and stretches all the way to the edge of the forest itself.”
“This is the worst I’ve seen it too. We usually do have a little bit of fog, but it’s never been this thick before.”
“Then there’s the question of whether we move now, or wait till the fog clears. There were some patrols going around this area, but not as many as I thought there would be.”
“You’ve never been here have you?” Amal asked.
“No,”
“I can tell. Anyone who’s lived in Direwood can find their way around without having to see everything. Which way is east?”
Horus pointed to behind her.
“Okay, then we head west. By the time we get to the edge of the forest, the fog should clear.”
“Sounds like a plan, let’s go.”
Horus slipped his weapon onto his belt and Amal still had her Glaive in her hand. Together, following Amal’s directions, they walked into the fog.
* * *
In a tree, Sora and Zera had spent the night, not wanting to spend it on the ground where soldiers might happen to spot them. They had managed to get some sleep despite the excitement of the day before.
Sora’s head felt a little weird and opened her eyes after a restless night’s sleep. She saw the gray fog, but her mind was working a little slow, so she stared at if for several seconds before it registered.
“Oh,” she mumbled. “It’s foggy out today.” She stayed there for a few more seconds. “Maybe I should wake up Zera so we can get moving…”
She looked both ways but was surprised to find that not only was Zera gone, so was the tree they had slept in. She looked up and to her surprise she saw the ground above her head, then looking down, she saw the top of the tree and her legs caught in a branch.
The realization hit her instantly. She was hanging upside-down in a tree with her legs hooked onto a branch. The reason she was feeling funny was because most of the blood had rushed to her head.
“ZERA! WAKE UP!”
Zera was a heavy sleeper and mumbled a reply. “Who turned on the alarm?”
“GET UP!” Sora screamed.
Finally Zera opened his eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them. “What’s all the ruckus?” Then he noticed that Sora wasn’t in the tree, and her legs were sticking up through the branch. He scrambled over onto the branch and was surprised to see her upside-down in the branch.
“What happened?” he asked trying to muffle a laugh.
“I don’t know, just get me down!” she replied.
Zera looked at her jeans and the smaller branches were tangled around them. Deciding not to mess with them he reached down.
“Give me your arm.”
Sora bent her torso, and reached up with her right hand, and Zera caught the wrist. He started to pull her up.
CRAAAAACK!
They both stopped and looked at where the branch connected to the tree. Suddenly the branch broke and they fell to the ground below with a crash.
Sora was laying on her back, her legs still caught in the branches of the tree, Zera had landed right on the main part of the branch. They should feel a little bit of pain, but were too dazed to realize it.
Sitting up, Sora shook her head. “Now all the blood is leaving my head. It kinda feels better…”
Zera pushed himself up and sat back. “My ribs won’t feel better for a few weeks.. Ouch.”
Then there was the sound of clanging metal and they looked up. Sora’s Kama fell straight down and the point of the blade cut into the earth, just inches away from Zera’s important area.
“DAMN! What does your Kama have against me?!” he exclaimed, scooting backwards.
Sora grabbed the handle of her Kama and proceeded to hack her legs free. “Maybe because you’re not helping…” She carefully cut through the smaller branches her pants were hooked into.
Zera stood up and grabbed his Blade, which had also fell from the tree but landed on the other side of the broken branch. With one slash he cut through the bigger part of the branches connected to the main part giving Sora some better room to maneuver her Kama.
It was a few moments before she was free and they stood, wondering which way to go.
“The fog’s so thick I can’t see the sun…” Zera commented, holding a hand over his eyes.
“That would help… but still there’s all those patrols around. The fog’s slowing them down too.”
“Yeah… HUH?!” Zera exclaimed. Sora looked in the direction he was looking.
Three separate flames bounced in the fog, getting larger.
“I heard the sound this way!” a man replied.
“Oh no!” Sora and Zera mumbled and ran off down one end of the trail.
* * *
“I should ask the same.” a younger voice than the soldier’s replied to Kage’s earlier question.
“Why don’t you answer my question first?” he asked back.
“How about this,” the person stated. “On three we step forward and then face each other.”
“Okay.” Kage replied.
“Three!” they both shouted and jumped away from each other, spinning on a heel to face the person they had been standing back-to-back with.
To Kage’s slight surprise, it wasn’t a soldier that was behind him, but someone who looked slightly younger than him. Spiky hair stuck in every direction, and the guy had green eyes. Two fingerless gloves and shackles on the gloves and on his boots. His pants were a black with red slash designs on them. He was wearing a brown vest and a dull white shirt under it, a dirty yellow arm band was around the upper part of his left arm. A long katana-like sword was clutched in his hands but what got Kage’s attention was the thing hanging around this guy’s neck.
“Who are you? And where did you get that?” Kage motioned with the Claw on his right arm to the pendant around the other’s neck.
“Just call me Saké and this,” Saké motioned to the pendant. “Is from my father.” he lowered his sword. “Now who are you?”
“I’m Kage Ikagaide, and I also got this,” he motioned to the pendant hanging around his own neck. “From my father.”
He noticed a look of shock appear on Saké’s face, and the spiky-haired swordsman stuttered for a bit.
“That’s…!” but Saké was interrupted.
On all sides of the fighters, soldiers came from the fog, each having their swords raised and ready to attack. Saké and Kage backed up, only to find themselves up against each other’s backs once again.
“I think the time for introductions is over.” Kage commented
“Well, how about we introduce these numb-skulls to our blades?” Saké replied, giving a smart-aleck smirk.
“Fine by me.” Kage replied a smile on his face. He liked this new guy.
“Are you two going to give up?”
“Hardly.” Saké replied.
“Can’t you idiots come up with any better threats?” Kage added.
Before the Captain could order his men to attack, Saké and Kage jumped into the fray, weapons ready, in different directions.
Kage moved fast, and sliced a few stomachs open on his first pass. He impaled another soldier who had gotten too close. There came the sharp sense of pain in his back and he twirled around, roundhouse kicking a man’s head back. Kage stopped to touch where the pain was, he winced a bit and brought his hand back, he could smell his won blood.
“You cut me you moron,” Kage spat before spinning like a top and cut the throats of four soldiers who started to get close.
Before Kage could react, four soldiers came in from behind and grabbed onto his arms and neck, trying to restrain him. Kage was starting to lose his temper, and nothing survived when he lost his cool.
“YOU DO NOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE F***IN’ DEALING WITH!” he roared.
He thrust his arms together, smashing two soldier’s heads together, breaking their grip on his arms. Then his fists went back, the blades locking under their lower jaws. He used his own body as a pivot and tossed the two men over his shoulders and to the ground, dead before they hit. There was one more remaining, the one that had grabbed onto Kage’s neck. Before Kage could whip around and slice into the man’s chest, the man jumped back, two pairs of dual claws from places on his own wrist.
“This should be interesting..” Kage thought out loud.
Saké jumped and flipped over the soldier’s heads, landing behind them. He drop-kicked two, but two more began to flank him. Putting his sword in his left hand he clenched his right into a fist. Pulling it back until it was at his side, he started concentrating. The fog was thick, but the sun’s rays could be seen peeking over the top of the mist and they began to be pulled down towards Saké’s fist. Light began to form around his right fist, getting larger until a sphere enveloped most of his arm, the center of the light ball being his fist.
“Go, Photon Blast!” he shouted and extended his right arm and opened his hand.
The sphere of pure light blasted away from Saké’s hand, connected by a beam that came from the center of his palm, and still surrounded his hand. He aimed for the group of soldiers he had jumped over, not at them exactly, but at the ground in the center of the mob. The Photon Blast attack exploded when it slammed into the ground. The resulting shockwave blasted the soldiers away in separate directions, bruised and battered, but still alive.
Kage bent his legs and let his arms hand at his sides, claws still out. The man with the dual claws lunged for him and he swung up. His right claw slashed up, cutting the claws, and the soldier’s head, in half.
Hearing some shouting behind him, Kage spun and landed one of his claws right into the stomach of a rookie soldier. The rookie just stood there, the sword still raised above his head. He forced himself to look down and into Kage’s burning red and black eyes. Kage shot the rookie a smirking, bloodthirsty, grin, and it sent a shiver up the cadet’s spine.
Kage twisted his claw just a bit, and the rookie winced in pain, then he raised the rookie over his head. His claw was thrust right up to his knuckles, blood running down his arm and spattering the ground. More blood started to flow from the corner of the rookie’s mouth. Thrusting his other claw, Kage impaled the cadet’s chest several times in a few seconds and then finally let it rest there. More blood flowed down his arm and stained the earth beneath him.
Finally Kage raised the rookie a little higher, before swinging him down, head-first, to the ground. The cadet’s head and shoulders smashed into the ground, more blood leaked and soaked into the moist earth.
Black energy began to swirl and sway around Kage’s right hand. It got larger, energy circling his fist. He raised his arm, and the energy blasted everywhere. “GRAVITONE!“ Soldiers who had just entered the area were forced to their stomachs, gravity suddenly increasing. The force became so much, their lungs collapsed, killing them, and the corpses that already littered the area were crushed until they were unidentifiable pulps of bone and blood.
Kage lowered his arm, and released the switches on his gauntlets. His claws went back into their locked positions. He popped his neck and then called out. “Saké! You still alive?!”
“Of course I’m still alive!” Saké replied as he thrust the butt end of his sword handle up and into the chin of the last soldier he had to fight. The man was flipped into the air and came crashing down again, out cold.
Denisu Wamiyazen hadn’t killed any of the soldiers he had fought in the last few minutes. The Shrine’s teachings condemned any form of killing, and death was something Saké wasn’t accustomed to at all, especially after his mother’s death. He slipped his sword onto the sheath on his back and started making his way to where he had heard Kage shout a second ago.
His feet plodded on the ground until they kicked something and Saké looked down at it. At first it looked like one of the helmets the soldier’s were wearing, but something was pouring out of it. Saké looked at it for a bit longer and found out what it was, a severed human head.
“AAAAAHHHH!” Saké jumped back at the sight. It wasn’t the mere fact that there was blood, just the shock of seeing an actual human head not attached to a body. Then he noticed that there was blood and bodies everywhere around him.
Then Kage came running through the fog, Claws extended and ready for more fighting. “What happened?” Then he noticed the bodies around us. “Oh, that.”
“Oh that?!” Saké was trying to get his combination of shock and anger into words. “You killed them!”
“So? It’s either them or us, and don’t plan on dying anytime soon.” he replied, with a touch of smugness.
Saké saw the blood on Kage’s claws and forearms, and sighed. Kage appeared to be ruthless, but Denisu saw a different side to him when he looked into Kage’s eyes. “Okay, now what do we do? Moving around in this fog is pointless.”
“Yeah, but remaining in one spot isn’t exactly the smartest idea in the world either.” Kage replied.
The two warriors looked at each other.
“Let’s move.” they said as one and started to run from the scene, and away from Zean.