HYDE'S POINT OF VIEW.
The forest, apart from the cooing of birds, is livened up by our steady footsteps crunching against dry leaves on the ground.
Sunlight floods all our faces, creating a dreamy effect, however;
-It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that the atmosphere, in contrast with the sun light, is incredibly dense-
Faria doesn't say anything on our trip back home, but she emits a bloodlust that nearly smothers me.
Skunk doesn't help matters either, he keeps on assuring me of my sure death;
"You know Faria is gonna kill you right?" he leans in to whisper for the umpteenth time, I push his face away;
-He did save me back there but I'm definitely not appreciating him when he's being an ass-
Treya abruptly stops in her tracks dragging me by the scruff of my neck, thereby halting me as well;
"What were you thinking?" she hisses in a whisper, once the rest have gone a short distance from us;
I stare at her blankly;
-What was I thinking?-
Skunk turns back at us in curiosity.
"One thing Faria loathes is someone going against her instructions and you practically put our lives on the line for whatever selfish..." she stops and sighs;
"Listen up, I'll give you some advice...the first opportunity you get...RUN AWAY, we're going to get to a juncture of this forest, and when I give a signal, you have to flee as fast as your legs can carry you"
She looks up at me, her eyes trying to communicate volumes of thoughts that I can't seem to figure out.
"Thank you Treya, but I don't think Faria is going to kill me...I mean, wouldn't she have done it already?...."
"No, but there are so many things much worse than death" she interrupts greatly exasperated.
-By the way, why is she so concerned about what's going to happen to me?-
We catch up to the rest,
-I keep looking ahead to see Faria's present expression, but I'm too scared to get close enough to properly observe-
Then a high, piercing whistle slices into the serenity of the forest.
A bout of arrows erupts from underground all over the areas we are walking on.
"AMBUSH!" Faria yells.
The scuffle begins.
We are suddenly attacked by a group of people who literally came from nowhere.
I've never been in a combat situation before, so at first I find myself paralyzed from the overwhelm of the clash.
Instead I watch with interest as I scope out the abilties of my companions;
-Faria doesn't seem to have any particular ability but she seems to be at least one step ahead of all the people she's taking on, plus the dart-like weapons she's using don't seem ordinary in anyway-
Meanwhile, Clot pulverizes his attackers effortlessly;
-He moves acrobatically, whilst spilling a raunchy liquid from his palms at our foes, immediately it makes contact with his opponent, that person's skin instantly begins to melt-
Now, our attackers decisively avoid him;
-I notice how blackened and hard looking his palms appear; I suppose spewing deadly chemicals from your hands obviously takes it's toll-
Something rams into me, pushing me away from my hiding spot by a tree, I look to see Treya floundering with an stacker;
"HYDE, ANYTIME NOW!" she yells while flashing me our curious hand signal.
Yeah, this would be the perfect time to run, besides it doesn't seem like any of the attackers are noticing me.
But, for some reason;
- I'm rooted to the spot-
It would seem that Treya manipulates shadows, she envelopes her opponent in some sort of shadow portal, when she's close enough to establish contact.
-I wonder where all the bodies go-
But that's the least of my problems right now, finally someone comes onto me.
The person rushes at me, an intimidating blade uplifted.
I successfully dodge and give myself enough distance to analyse him.
First, he behaves strange, it's almost like he's under some sort of spell, his movements are drunken-like and his eyes appear crazed.
Also, his speed is crazy for an ordinary human, I barely evaded his last attack.
-I can't run forever-
I stretch out my prostethic arm, switching it to axe- mode.
When he gets up to me, I swing at him with all my might, but with expense of getting grazed by his blade;
-My injured shoulder hurts like hell-
But I manage to bring down my axe once more to seal the deal of his death.
-Did I just murder someone without even thinking twice about it?-
I tremble as the fact that I've just killed a person douses me with utter guilt, but I'm not even given any time to recover as two people land on me.
-Where are these people emerging from and why are they so many?-
As I struggle with one person, the other attempts to pull my prosthetic off from my shoulder.
I try to push them off, slightly holding back because I don't want to kill another person.
However, I snap back to reality soon enough as one manages to get a knife to my throat.
With a rather deft sweep of my arm, the blade of my prosthetic arm slices his hands off, I land another hit on my other assailant, and this clearly demobilizes them, a snap sounding like the crack of a whip rips right above my head and I turn in alarm to see someone who wanted to attack from behind, on the floor convulsing from shock.
I turn to see Skunk flick out his tongue at me;
-Why does such an irritable fellow have to be the one to save me everytime-
A sort of excitement wakes up within me, borne from a desire to prove myself worthy of protecting myself without some skunk's help.
I rush at the assailants who have remarkably thinned out in numbers, hitting them and managing to evade their attacks.
-The guilt of killing has somehow faded away-
I feel someone's back against mine;
"Hyde, you're not going to ceize the opportunity to run?" Treya blurts in an undertone.
I shrug as I rip through somebody's lower torso.
She sighs heavily;
"Fine, do what you want... but don't forget I tried to warn you"
-I know, but where would I even run to?-
I see that Faria's hands are full, so I rush to help her.
She's about to get hacked from behind, but I arrive in time to prevent that from happening.
"This doesn't mean you're off the hook yet" she blurts without turning back.
"Please forgive me" I mumble with effort as I strain from exhaustion.
-Forget house chores, combat takes another kind of toll on the body-
I move around with sluggishness now, and my senses are numbed, Faria, on the other hand fights with vigor.
Abruptly and without turning she screams;
"HYDE BEHIND YOU!"
It's too late to react, I slump from the impact of whatever this is, to my head, and black out.
HYDE'S POINT OF VIEW END.
RAVE'S POINT OF VIEW.
This is not a very steep precipice.
However, the goal of climbing this, seems impossible due to the heavy burden I'm currently with.
Upon the hours I spent weaving leaves into ropes that has resultantly left my hands incredibly bruised from all the knotting.
Upon the fact that I'm currently straining to breathe as the braided ropes crisscross against my chest.
Upon the creaking of my bones, the buckling of my knees and the pathetic dust-stained sweat clinging to my skin, under this monstrous weight strapped to my back.
Upon the jagged edges of the titan rock mercilessly sticking to my bare back.
I'm still supposed to climb up the hill upon all of this.
I never thought such a small incline would look so intimidating...so mocking.
I plant my feet on the soil, my knees protesting even before I take a proper step.
I grab at the first potrusion on the hill while trying to haul myself up.
My muscles protest, and the stretched ropes thankfully hold up, but at the expense of leaving horrible welts upon my flesh.
A tremor runs down my spine, as I labour to let out breath while climbing.
And then, a blasted strip of ground lets way, nearly tumbling me down, and betraying all my efforts.
I dig my nails into the earth in exigency, with such force, my nails have surely torn out.
I finally get some footing, just before gravity embarrasses me.
With a pitiful, inhumane groan, I manage to pull myself up.
The summit seems insurmountable but I refuse to give up.
-Is it just about the desire to kill someone?; Of course not, it's also because I refuse to not finish what I've already begun and I refuse to let anything limit me-
I drive forward in labour, each step I take threatening to shatter my very body.
-My eyepatch falls off, but it's not like I care right now-
I heave and ho, exerting the most energy I have ever.
-It's insurmountable but not impossible-
RAVE'S POINT OF VIEW END.