CHAPTER 15

"If both of you don't want to die, then follow me! We're out of here!"

The second Zephyr yells, he jumps on the next platform with his bags. Eylventh and Urth follow suit. Alister and Riley look behind them and bear witness to the mess they have been missing, before deciding to follow the teenager. The orbs attack again, trying to engulf them in their light in vain.

They dash as fast as they can to the next platform. Alister and Riley activate their flashlights. The animals follow behind them.

These orbs are fast and start separating, a few going on the hunt for Eylventh who flies near the platform.

Most lights darts for Alister, the man who inspired their bloodthirst with his scary interaction with Riley. The assassin's trance has been ruined. He looks behind him, watching the scene he has created with horror, a clear depiction of what his craving for violence bears.

More suffering.

Suddenly, without thinking, the assassin's whole body becomes engulfed in this aura of thunder.

"What…What's going on Ali-!?" Is about to question the young blacksmith, before seeing a flash near him shine for a split second. He feels an intense heat source near him, as he looks to the ground to the wall of the pit, he sees a trail of melten rock.

Alister fled onward, leaving the team behind.

Zephyr is left speechless. In the midts of this chaos, Alister has the gals to run away from something he's responsible for. What is the point of acting with such cruelty if you are going to run like a coward right after?

The young blacksmith, mad, sees that the doctor is left to his own devices, clearly panicking. A dozen of orbs are chasing after him. Supressing all of the anger that want to burst out, Zephyr dashes straight at Riley.

"Hey, Riley! Take a cue from the hunter and move faster!" Screams the blacksmith.

Brandishing his torch blade, Zephyr arrives at the platform Riley is stuck in. A pack of orbs are about to catch the scientist in their blinding light. Urth follows the blacksmith closely.

"Z-Zephyr!?" Is the only thing Riley can muster before ducking, letting Zephyr swing his giant claymore engulfed in flames towards the lights. Most dodges, but two orbs get hit clean by the blade. They are disintegrated on contact. The flames seem to help with that.

"Right, when the orbs contain too much energy, they vanish…" Recognizes Zephyr.

"But-But if you swing that sword all day, we will eventually end up as food for them to consume! There's got to be a way to produce more flames that forces them to absorb energy and die!" Adds the scientist.

His presence is enough to spark disgust in Zephyr, contrasting with the imminent danger in front of them.

"Riley, you'll be more useful by running and staying out of my way!"

"Boy I wish! The thing is, well…!"

The scientist points towards the trail of magma. Where they need to go, more lights return to hunt them. They couldn't catch up to their original target, so the easiest heat sources to reach became their targets.

Meanwhile, Eylventh is able to kill the orbs chasing after it by making them crash on each other. This produces so much energy that they destroy one another on contact. The flying crocodile repeats the maneuver a few times to eradicate all of them. It then observes the situation of the others, seeing that Alister is out of sight.

Zephyr starts swinging wildly again. He can't hit a single orb. Seeing how their kin has perished, they are now more on the defensive. The boy is starting to panic, loosing his composure in the face of what feels like his last hourra before collapsing into pure energy.

Riley has an eureka moment.

"Boy! Use Urth's wind to project all the flames you've got at them! At best we wipe them out now, and at worst this buys us time to escape!"

Urth nods at its master and position itself behind the blacksmith, ready to strike. Zephyr doesn't give an eye to at his arch-nemesis, the closest he can do to show agreement with his plan.

"Okay Urth, let's do this!" Yells the blacksmith.

Urth gathers as much wind as it can in its body, while Zephyr prepares one big swing. The orbs see an opportunity to strike and charges all at them.

They fly so fast towards them that Riley covers himself in fear.

Zephyr shouts while swinging his sword, followed by Urth sending a great wave of wind towards the lights. The gust of wind carries a ginormous barrage of flames similar to a flamethrower close to reaching a mile.

Most of the orbs disintegrate on impact. The remaining lights remain static, phased by this super attack.

Greatly effective.

There's a pause, an uneasiness. Zephyr and co await their next move, still in battle position, Riley still cowering in a corner.

The lights slowly return to their original light-yellow shade. They slowly starts hovering in a peaceful fashion again.

Riley J. Smith falls on the floor, speechless.

"Hahaha! We are alive! I can't believe this! We-We made it!"

The scientist screaming of joy for his life resonates to the point the blacksmith panics and places his right hand on the doctor's mouth. Riley feels the young man's paranoia when their gaze meet.

"Be quiet, damn it!" Whispers Zephyr. "What if they pick up on your shouting and decide to attack!? Let's leave, quietly!"

"R-Right…" Quietly responds the scientist.

Something about the boy feels unnatural. He's forcing himself to do something he clearly wouldn't do. He walks past the bullfrog. Eylventh and Urth's eyes meet. The crocodile spots worry on Urth's reptilian eyes, and produces a noise, as if it's asking, "are you okay?".

Urth can only ribbit back.

They don't have the means to communicate.

Zephyr is too preoccupied with his own thoughts to see this, so does Riley, who instead urges them to move forward.

#

Alister coughs heavily while wiping his eyes. Blood.

Whatever did the Bottomless Pit do of his body, this power bestowed on him is showing its side effects. They are cruel. It's only the second time he uses it, and he already has trouble seeing. The assassin shakes off the symptoms, before sitting on this platform he doesn't take the time to analyze.

He's preoccupied by what happened to the others.

He shouldn't be, after all the crap he endured from both Zephyr and Riley. Regardless, he is.

Not able to understand this side of himself, he tries to take a nap.

The image of a man a head taller than the hunter hunts him. Similar features, same hair color, same eyes. Alister crawls into a ball, whispering "fuck off..." to himself. He cannot sleep.