22
“We are hours away from Danyen,” Suzanne said putting a bandage on her bruised arm. She sat next to me on the far right side of the caravan. “As you can see there is no turning back now.”
She was right, we couldn’t turn back now. The path behind us had been blocked off by the army of skeletons, leaving only one way for all of us. I sighed slowly trying to control myself from panicking. Looking slightly up, the sky was blue and clear and the sun blazed our skin warmly. The cold feeling I had felt seemed to have vanished unnaturally. Still something bothered me about what Suzanne said, I felt like asking her since she was already next to me and the driver.
“Are there any more surprises I should know about now before we reach Danyen?” I asked politely staring her in the eye, “Skeletons that fight and don’t die is definitely something I would have wanted to know ahead of time.”
She didn’t answer as she watched the surrounding while her hair ran wild with the wind. Her eyes looked like a vast blue ocean as they reflected the light from the sun. I wanted to touch her smooth black hair, but chose not at the last second.
“Danyen is just that,” she replied without looking at me. “There is no way to describe it. It used to be paradise until Katarina took over fifteen years ago. Now it is just a place where monsters and creatures from beyond this world dwell. I remember a time I used to go there with my brother and parents, but that is now all just a memory. Nevertheless, I believe in you though, somehow I know you were meant to end this madness.”
Again that wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear. Her words rained down on me like large boulders, putting even more weight on my shoulders. Suzanne’s faith in me was one sided, I didn’t feel the same way about myself. Believe me, I would do anything to make her happy, but this was way beyond me. I was a banished prince of Rogue, an outcast and a thief. What did I know about saving people? I had caused more tears than joy in my whole lifetime. What was I supposed to do? It was mere coincidence that bound this gauntlet to my arm, I never wanted this power. In a frantic attempt to acquire more power and save my friends, I made a promise to Ebi that I would vanquish these monsters out of this world. Thinking back on it now, I was sort of regretting that decision. Who was I kidding? I was no match for those villains and everyone else knew it. But I was their only hope, their lives rested in my ability to lead and defeat the Rainku. I wrestled with my thoughts, unsure of what I was supposed to do for what seemed like a long time.
“You are not alone,” Suzanne held my hand gently. Her hand was so warm and so soft it distracted me for a second from all my worries. “We all came here with you and we shall stand along you to the very end.”
Her words soothed my soul deeply. I looked directly into her eyes and smiled. My companions were here with me, I was not alone in my struggles. If the end was to come, they would stand by my side till the very last moment. With that in mind, my entire qualms disappeared. The road was rough and it seemed we had been moving for an eternity. It was all dusty with no trees and grass for miles, almost dry like a desert. The stench of rotten flesh clouded our sense of smell, lingering in the air like a thick fog. Danyen was truly going to be my worst nightmare brought to life from the looks of things. Up ahead, I noticed a few trees come into sight. They almost resembled the ones I saw in the princess’ room. Speaking of which, I wondered if they had found Jisembo yet. I sort of felt sorry for him, but oh well.
Just a little up ahead, we suddenly came across a swamp. It appeared out of nowhere and felt rather out of place. The dusty road ended in the disgusting water, meaning we had to cross through it to get to the other side. It was so vast. The thought of going around it was out of the option. Oddly enough, I felt some sort of presence in the swamp, a very unfamiliar and powerful force lay hidden inside it. This strange water spelled trouble. Whatever was down there was dangerous and best to avoid if possible. I wanted to save our energy for our final fight with Katarina Fox, and not waste it on her petty minions.
“Stop, there is something down there,” I warned the driver quickly.
He stopped the horses in their tracks as I jumped off quickly with my guns now in my hands. This was the path to Danyen, I had to be prepared for anything. I walked carefully to the shallow end of the swamp and bent down for a closer look. The water was not too deep to sink the Caravan, much less to drown someone like Kaya. “Wait, a minute.”
For some reason, I could now see the dirty and eroded great walls of Danyen. I could see them as clearly as day like my eye’s power had increased. We would reach the city before sunset if we were fortunate. All that stood between us and the city was this swamp. Needless to say, that was not going to be an easy task. Whatever lurked inside these waters was something none of us had probably ever encountered before. So it would not be wise to waltz in carelessly
“So what’s down there old wise leader?” Dien joked patting me on the shoulder. “I will take care of it with one hand.”
“Do not be so reckless,” I warned him straightening up again.
I still didn’t like the way he talked to me; however, his great confidence was most admirable. The others got out of the caravan and stood next to us silently. None of us brilliant gentleman could come up with a safe way across that didn’t involve noise or violence. Dien suddenly moved in front of us, sinking his feet half into the water. The water simmered as he turned into fire and began to burn it away. Instead of stopping him, I watched carefully sensing how the presence I had felt in the water would react. Steam rose into the sky and yet no monster sprang out. I was a bit disappointed and a little happy. Perhaps, we would cross safely this time without trouble finding us. Wait, I spoke too soon. Something wasn’t right, the presence I felt in the water stirred a little around. Massive surging and uncontrolled waves of water erupted everywhere in the swamp. We all backed away and took refuge next to the horses. Oh no,
I had been wrong all along. There was no monster in the swamp. The swamp was the monster. It was embarrassing to think that I had just figured it now at such a critical time as this.
“Stay away from the water,” I warned everyone quickly. “The water is the monster.”
Once everyone was at a safe distance, I took a quick run and jumped into the air, soaring up high for a better look. It was incredible, I really did enjoy this ability to fly like a bird. It was freedom, the kind you want to last forever feeling. I felt the wind hit against my face as I dive bombed down towards the swamp. With my flintlocks facing down, I shot two bullets of rage into the swamp sending massive water splashing everywhere. A howling noise disrupted me before I could pull the triggers again. It was coming from inside the swamp itself.
“Stop you are wasting your time?” Dashe yelled harshly towards me. “Your guns and energy blasts won’t work on this type of monster.”
“Oh yeah,” I said feeling stupid
I felt like I should have known that. To make things even more humiliating, it had been Dashe who had pointed that out to me. Unexpectedly, the water began to come together, taking on a smaller form. It took on a humanoid structure as the massive pile of water lumped together on it.
“Oh great,” I panicked a little.
Fighting a massive pile of water was a lot easier than a condensed humanoid form of it. There was no face or flesh on it which made it look even more sinister and frightening. Within a blink of an eye, I was instantly slammed with a neck breaker, surging me up uncontrollably into the air. For a whole second, I blacked out completely unsure of what had just happened. The soreness in the neck revived me back to reality as I regained my posture in the air. It was hard to breathe; I gulped each breath like it was my last. The water creature was nowhere in sight. It had vanished again with such astounding speed. I couldn’t read it’s movements at all or pinpoint the exact location. This was starting to become a huge problem. If I wasn’t careful, I would die. With my fist up and guarding my face, I raised my power a bit more in order to counter this new foe. As I was about to make my move,
Dien intervened, moving in front of me. He looked at me before turning his backing towards me. What on earth was he thinking?
Half of his body had been turned into a massive and destructive ray of bright fire. I could feel the scorching fire intensely oozing out of his body. This was no ordinary trick, it was the curse of the white water mist. Dien was no longer his usual overconfident self, his facial expression was serious and determined.
“You shouldn’t waste your time here Rid, leave this to me,” he growled at me and pushed me out of the way. “I will hold this creature off for as much as I can, we can’t all stay here or we’ll be picked off one by one.”
The confidence in his voice seemed a lot weaker now. He looked at me and for an instance and chuckled, “Suzanne believes in your strength and so will I. I can’t help, but feel like you were destined to change the chaos the world is in right now. I believe if you cannot stop this madness then no one can”
No way! What was he saying? There was no way I was going to leave my new comrade behind to face such a deadly opponent as this water creature. Nonetheless, he was absolutely right. We would surely all perish if we all stayed here.
“No, I can’t do that Dien,” I replied and moved in closer. “We are comrades, and no one is going to get left behind.”
“Stop it,” he cut me off and grabbed me with his dark tanned arm that wasn’t blazed in fire. “You are too naïve Riyo. Being a great leader is all about making the necessary sacrifices to accomplish our goals. Truth is, some or all of us will not make it out of Danyen alive.”
I felt a pinch of pain in my heart. He had revealed my deepest fear, the one thing I dreaded the most. The risk of losing all of my new companions at the hands of Katarina Fox was an almost certain. Dien was absolutely right, there were going to be sacrifices regardless of how strong we were. Overwhelmed with anger, I clenched my fists unable to comprehend the weight of his decision.
“Don’t worry,” Dien said, he raising his arm up to his waving me off. “I will catch up with you guys later in this world or the next. Take care of the others Riyo.”
With that said, he soared across the sky at full force towards the water creature. I could finally see it again, it was hunched down slightly in the air without a clear shape. Dien fully turned into a flame humanoid, attacked viciously at the creature with his fire balls. Shockingly, Dien seemed more formidable that I had imagined. If I was a gambling man, I would put my money on him. Dien and the creature traded blow for blow across the entire sky violently. The whole sky rattled completely from the combination of fire and water. Their elemental powers were almost on par, although it seemed Dien had the advantage. Not to be biased, the creature had better agility and speed, although it could go either way.
“What are you waiting for?” Dien screamed looking at me for a flash of a second. He fired an intense array of heat balls directly at the creature to prevent it from coming towards me. “Don’t waste my efforts okay? Go now to Danyen, I can’t keep this up much longer.”
Engulfed by intense emotions, I descended down quickly towards the ground and rejoined the others. They were outside the caravan watching the battle in the sky. I warned myself not to look as I relayed Dien’s message to them. After a slight argument, we all boarded the caravan filled with guilt and left Dien to fight off the creature. The swamp was gone leaving a clear wet muddy road straight to Danyen. The caravan began to speed off as our driver hit the horses hard with a whip.
“We can’t just leave him to face that monster by himself,” Suzanne bellowed at me with a look of worry. “He’ll die.”
I felt the same way too, but we had to respect his wishes and keep going. To go back and rescue him would only diminish his quality as a man. He had made this choice so that none of us would have to. Truly worthy of honor!
“Don’t worry,” Showe reassured her patting her right shoulder. “Dien is stronger than he looks, it will take more than that level of power to bring him down.”
In some way he was right. I felt his strength and it was indeed massive, almost close to mine when I used the third level technique. Although, I still doubted he would be powerful enough to defeat a creature of that magnitude. No, I needed to believe in him, believe in the power of his devotion. Everyone looked nervous from hearing the loud clashes in the sky above us.
“Don’t stop for anything,” I yelled to the driver through the window hitting my fist against one of the walls of the caravan. “We have to respect his wishes.”
Beyond a doubt, I wanted to go back for him. Being a leader was one of the hardest positions for anyone to have. The weight of making a difficult decision was horrendous.
“Don’t die Dien,” I said in a whisper. “We’ll all be waiting for you in Danyen.”
From the brink of massive attacks he somehow smiled and nodded like he could hear me. Only I saw it because of my eye power. I forced myself to smile back as I looked back for the last time.
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