Chapter 2: A Tutorial Fight

They continued to travel through the crunching snow until the sun slowly started to set and the group was forced to find a cave for the night. The cave itself was small, but offered a shield from the cold, howling wind on the outside though Dia worried about what kind of creature might call this little cave home. She didn't say anything though as the others slowly began to settle in seemingly exhausted from the long journey thus far.

Dia quietly moved away from the rest of the party and began working on setting up a campfire as the others spoke about who was going to take watch at night. Rei offered to take first watch, but seemed reluctant about the entire situation as she didn't like the idea of having strangers moving about while she was asleep. Noah seemed to share her sentiment while at the same time offering to take the second watch which left Key with third watch. Dia had quietly offered to take a watch as well, but the group hadn't seemed to hear her quiet voice over the boom of their own in the echoing cave.

As the fire began to slowly roar to life the conversation of the other three began to die out and once more silence washed over the group.

"So, might you be willing to share what kind of world you came from?" Key spoke up while looking toward Noah.

"That's none of your business. As far as I'm concerned I'm in the same boat as that prickly woman over there. Once we go meet this old man with all the answers I'm leaving you lot," Noah quickly responded as he eyed them somewhat suspiciously. His words didn't seem nearly as prickly or annoyed as it was from Rei though and it left Dia with the impression that he was somewhat friendlier than their guide.

Noah soon laid himself out beside the fire with his back turned toward the rest of them with the obvious intent of ignoring any attempted small talk. Dia could hear the subtle sigh from Key and turned her attention toward him which caused them to make eye contact for a brief moment. For a second, she thought he might ask her the same question, but instead he merely gave her a small seemingly unfriendly frown before proceeding to copy Noah by turning his back to the party.

Dia quietly sat by herself near the fire for a bit more time before finally choosing to also lay down. She slowly closed her eyes and pretended to sleep though much like every other night of her life for the last several hundred years sleep never came for her. She instead chose to listen to the sounds of the crackling fire and the breathing of her travelling companions. Her thoughts slowly shifted to that of her son as she convinced herself that he must have escaped the city with her own father.

Soon, she heard Rei and Noah speaking as the former seemed to have finished with her watch while the later seemed half asleep as he sat up.

"Watch for three hours and then wake up Key. You also need to make sure to keep the fire going," Rei said as Noah slowly stood up and made his way to the entrance of the cave, but not before swiping a Pyre fly from the air and swiftly eating it.

The night quietly continued like this with Noah eventually waking up Key and giving him the same message he had received from Rei earlier.

As the hours continued pressing forward though the sound of the crackling flames slowly began to die out and then after a few more minutes they finally did die. Dia shifted slightly in her fake sleep to look over at the dead camp fire and then over toward the mouth of the cave only to see Key sitting safely on a large rock and yawning. Dia slowly shifted back around once seeing that their travelling companion was indeed safe, but she didn't say anything about the fire. She didn't know if she had upset Key before in the short time they knew each other, but the frown he gave her earlier was enough to deter her from bothering him too much. She was sure that he'd eventually turn around to see the unlit campfire or maybe he wasn't worried about the cold too much now as the sun was just barely peeking out.

A few minutes went by and she finally heard some shuffling of feet which was soon followed by the sound of crackling flames, but what she didn't hear was him heading back to his post. She slowly shifted around once more only to see Key frozen in his spot with a look of utter horror splashed across his face. She followed his gaze toward the entrance only to see a tall and skinny figure standing there. The creature was a sickening color of gray with a bloated, distended abdomen that almost made it appear as if it were pregnant. It was tall and lanky with arms that extended far passed its knees while its fingers were long, bony, and clawed. Its soul though, unlike itself, was small and unimposing.

Its face lacked almost all features without any form of nose, mouth, or even ears and where one would normally see eyes she could only see the eye sockets. It raised a hand up toward where one would normally find a mouth before slicing into its own flesh to create a make shift mouth. The blood that spilled from the open wound was black and viscous. Dia and Key watched the creature as it opened its mouth, unhinging its jaw, and splitting the injury it created before an ear piercing scream escaped from its mouth. The sound caused Dia to jump quickly to her feet while the other two, Noah and Rei, quickly awakened to the ear shattering sound; however, despite their quick responses the four of them seemed to be frozen in fear. None of them seemed to move a muscle even as the creature began to start moving forward.

Dia tried too will herself to move, but no matter how much she tried her feet seemed to be glued to the floor. It was as if every muscle in her body was trying to tell her that if she moved any closer to that creature then she would surely die. She tightly held her breath as the creature finally stopped right in front of Key and slowly raised a hand to gently touch his check in way that seemed almost as if it were caressing the fair skinned man.

Noah was the first person to finally move and he seemed to almost trip over his feet in sheer panic before he finally grabbed Key's shoulder and yanked him back causing the horned man to land harshly on his bottom. The dark skinned men then quickly delivered two swift blows with faintly glowing fists onto the creatures distended abdomen and the other to the lower jaw. The thick black blood of the creature coating his fists and slightly burning his flesh though Noah didn't seem to notice or rather he might have been choosing to ignore it. The creature, as if surprised by the sudden retaliation from Noah, suddenly moved a clawed hand at surprising speed aiming to slice open Noah's own abdomen.

Dia; however, finally found her own footing and ran into range of Noah before pursing her lips and loudly whistled rather abruptly. She and Noah soon disappeared completely from their spots though moments later they reappeared in the other persons spot. Noah now standing a few feet safely back while Dia angled her shield just enough for the claws of the creature to suddenly slice against the cool metal. From behind her, Dia could hear Key getting up to his feet and quickly moving back to Noah before muttering a few words in a language Dia didn't understand. Key's own hand soon began to glow a gentle red before he grabbed Noah's own hands and watched as the flesh seemed to bubble up slightly before slowly reforming and closing its wounds. Key then quickly left Noah and ran toward Rei only to grab her shoulders and gently shake her before speaking words of encouragement that Dia could hear the magic from.

It seemed to her that in the way she channeled her magic through whistling, Key channeled his magic through words, while Noah seemed to use his own body as a medium to empower his attacks.

Noah quickly made his way back toward Dia who was now raising her shield to shove the creature backwards. She managed to knock it back a few feet, but sadly the creature managed to stay standing even against her barrage of shield blows. She let out another quiet whistle as her shield began to glow in a warm, white color and then once more she tried to slam her shield into the creature. The magic that now reinforced her shield was enough to knock the creature to the floor and with just enough time for Noah to come flying in to deliver a swift blow to the lanky creature while it was down. The pale creature laid against the cold cave floor as if it were dead causing Dia and Noah to somewhat let their guard down as the two shared an inquisitive glance with each other.

"It's a cave horror! It's not dead yet! Only sunlight can kill it!" Rei hastily screamed out as she pointed at the creature. A green glowing leaf like mark appeared on the creature's chest before she quickly pulled back her bow string and released two arrows. The two arrows quickly flew at the mark landing perfectly at the center as if being drawn to the mark by magic. The creature screamed in pain as it moved to get up, but Dia and Noah were quick to knock it back down and then grab its wrists. They attempted to drag it out of the cave where the sun was quickly rising; however, it struggled with tooth and nail to escape their grasp. A few quick words from Key though and suddenly the thing was going slack as if momentarily stunned; however, the stun only seemed to last a few seconds before the thing was kicking and screaming again.

Those few seconds were all Dia and Noah needed in order to drag the thing out of the cave and into the sun. The disgusting creature's flesh then quickly began to bubble up in the light before each individual boil began to ooze and then burst with a vile black liquid coloring the white snow. The mass of withering flesh and black blood continued to cook and boil down until nothing, but the contents of its stomach was left.

Dia and Noah looked at the content of its stomach with horror and disgust because what they saw were partially digested human parts and an infant baby with grey skin that was devoid of any facial features. It too started to bubble and burst in the light of the sun though sadly the process didn't finish before Key and Rei came to join them.

"What the fuck was that?!" Noah finally burst out after a long few moments of painful silence as the groups adrenaline and disgust died down.

"As I said, it's a cave horror. It's a creature that usually moves in the night. It usually won't approach groups of people or light so it's weird that it came anywhere near us," Rei spoke up in a somewhat annoyed voice as she glared at the spot where the corpse once was. "And they aren't capable of reproducing. That was not an ordinary cave horror which might explain why it was so easy for us to kill," Rei finished speaking just as a jewel she had embedded in the top of her right glove began to glow a bright red color.

"Y-Your jewel is g-glowing," Dia spoke up nervously as she looked up from the glowing jewel to Rei who was sporting another look of sheer terror.

"We need to leave! Now! My jewel only glows when there's something deadly in the vicinity!" Rei quickly spoke up before turning to leave in something of a hurry. Noah was going to call out after her, but was interrupted as a tree flew above their heads and landed at the entrance of the cave blocking the mouth of it from them.

The group quickly looked up to see what appeared to be some form of large, metallic like creature that stood far above the trees. It was massive in scope, but simple in design with a large, smooth sphere at its center and then six large appendages springing outward and then downward from there. The party couldn't see where its appendages ended especially with the tree line hiding most of its form from them. The last three of the party quickly began to chase after Rei who had left them a little bit ago.

"That's a Ramra! We need to split up now! It chases down groups of people! We'll go two and two! The village we want is due north!" Rei said between labored breaths as she tried to run and bark out orders; however, after spouting out her orders she quickly ran away from the party with Key quickly following after her. Dia and Noah shared a worried look with each other, but none the less they quickly moved in the opposite direction of the other two and they didn't slow until they were both sure that the creature was no longer following them.

Noah leaned up against a tree while Dia herself bent over slightly with her hands on her knees and panting for breath; however, unbeknownst to she was faking. In actuality, Dia had no real need to breath and nor did she ever feel exhausted. She chanced a peak over at Noah; however, she was surprised that he was quite literally steaming, but once more she chose to say nothing since it wasn't any of her business so long as he wasn't injured.

"What the heck is wrong with this world? And what's up with this steam?!" Noah spoke up angrily once he had finally caught his breath as he looked toward Dia who was slowly straightening herself out though unlike him she wasn't steaming.

"I d-don't know...I've never um...experienced any-anything like this..." she responded quietly while casting her gaze slowly downward.

"Sorry...Sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you," Noah said somewhat more gently as he offered a hand outward toward who only quickly looked back up toward him with a bit of surprise. She took a small step back, but was caught off guard when the curly haired man quickly grabbed her hand. "Let's just try not to separate and find our way north," Noah grumbled somewhat quietly before looking around with something of a confused look. The steam around him slowly seemed to be dying down so she hoped that meant it wasn't something serious.

"I c-can figure out which way to um...g-go," Dia spoke up somewhat nervously as she stared at the hand that gently held her own, but she couldn't tell if that hand was cold or warm...she honestly couldn't even feel his flesh against her own.

She soon gave a soft whistle that was gently carried off in the howling wind. Dia closed her eyes soon after that and listened to the rustle of the trees, the quiet songs of the little birds flitting about, and the gentle buzzing sound of the pyre flies.

"Ah um...t-the village...t-they said it's that w-way..." Dia spoke up softly as she pointed in a direction with her free hand.

"They said? I didn't hear anything...guessing you used some sort of magic," Noah asked as he moved forward in the direction she pointed while gently pulling her along.

"It's the um...v-voices of nature...I can sp-speak with the a-animals and such..." Dia responded softly while allowing herself to be dragged along with him.

"Huh? Really? You're pretty useful. I appreciate what you did for me back there too. You know, using your magic to swap places with me and all," he said.

Dia couldn't help smiling slightly at his gratitude and quickly nodded her head in response to him as the two slowly fell into a comfortable silence as they carefully moved north together.