It Was Not a Bird
Emile laid on the sand, crushed by the corpse of the Locust. Green slop rushed out of its head and smothered Emile below, but the constant ringing in his ears and the shock from surviving sentenced Emile to remain beneath the creature.
Moments passed and then the sand shook. Another cloud burst into the air not too far away. The last few minutes rushed back into Emile's head causing him to explosively push the Locust off of him.
Emile stumbled as he stood up and looked around. The cloud around Blood finally settled revealing his ongoing battle with three Locusts. The small amount of blood he had used to bind Emile was rapidly maneuvering in the air.
Other than that, Emile couldn't find Jumper between the growing sea of clouds that surrounded him. A screech rang through the battlefield and Emile looked up. Another Locust was about to impale him.
Emile jumped backwards and simultaneously the ground in front of him turned into a black oval. The Locust rocketed into the hole and vanished from sight.
"Excellent work, Unnamed." Jumper's voice spoke from behind Emile.
The rift closed and Jumper helped Emile up. Another Locust was barreling towards the two. Jumper adjusted his glasses and held his hand towards the sky.
White particles burst to life around Jumper's hand and a single barreled pistol manifested into reality. It was made of polished silver and had a white, birch handle. Jumper cocked the pistol cannon and aimed it at the head of the Locust plummeting towards them.
Then, the same incredibly loud blast shook the air and a black sphere propelled out, ripping through the skull of the Locust.
The blast also affected the Locusts' trajectory, and the scaly creature's corpse crashed to the ground beside them.
Jumper's pistol evaporated and returned to his soul. He held his arm out towards Blood, who had killed one of the Locusts, but even more had arrived.
"Shall we?" Jumper asked.
Emile watched Blood's fight for a moment. He was surrounded by four Locusts. The Locusts were circling him, slowly pushing their pincers closer to Blood, cornering him in the center.
Blood crystallized the blood around his arm, creating the largest shield he could stretch without making it thin enough to crack. He was constantly spinning around, trying his hardest to block the incoming lances.
"What do you want me to do?!" Emile panicked.
"You can do so much more than you think." Jumper responded as he nudged Emile towards Blood.
Emile stepped over the corpse of the Locust, the green goop sticking to the bottom of his shoes. As he approached the encirclement of monsters, he really started to smell the things.
The Locusts had a very distinct sulfur smell, like a skunk was constantly spraying to ward Jumper and himself off. Emile stopped about ten feet away from them, trying his absolute hardest not to gag. He could barely open his eyes since they stung so bad.
"Now now—I do apologize for this, Unnamed."
Suddenly, Emile felt a burning sensation in his shoulder. He looked around only to find Jumper holding the dagger that was lodged into his body.
Then, Jumper ripped the dagger out and stepped away. Blood splurged out of Emile's shoulder while he just stared at Jumper, lost, confused, all sorts of feelings kept him from reacting.
Meanwhile, Jumper grabbed Blood's attention and the boy looked over. Noticing Emile's blood soaked state, a grin spread on his face.
Blood flicked his wrist up and blood was forcefully pulled from Emile's body. First, it was just the blood that soaked into his clothes, but then waves of blood tore through Emile's shoulder, further opening his wound.
The liters of blood flew into the air and separated into two long, crystal spears. The crimson spears began to rapidly rotate.
Once Blood felt they were spinning fast enough, he launched them through the air and each of them impaled a Locust. The spears tore through the Locusts and soared themselves back into the sky only to plummet back down into another Locust.
Within a matter of moments, the Locusts surrounding Blood were slaughtered. Their bodies littered the desert around them, green sludge seeping into the hills.
Blood wiped his forehead then looked up to the remaining Locusts. He aimed his two spears and then immediately sent them into the sky.
The crystal spears ricocheted between all the Locusts in the sky, popping their heads as they traveled creating a morbid, blood soaked firework show.
"Well—that was fun." Blood said while still admiring the falling corpses above him. "Hey, thanks for the blood new guy!"
Emile ignored Blood and stepped up to Jumper.
"Really?! Why didn't you stab yourself?!" Emile shouted.
"I noticed the hole in your foot had healed, being able to heal yourself made you the best candidate to donate blood." Jumper responded.
"I prefer to heal other people!" Emile said as he turned away from Jumper and walked to Blood. "Blood, he knew I could heal other people right?!"
"The only thing anyone knows about you is that you're a healer. Self-healing still counts as healing, you know?" Blood said.
"What good is a healer who can't heal other people?!" Emile asked.
"Well–we just found out didn't we? We worked pretty well together… I wonder how much blood I could take from you without you fainting?"
"Okay! That's great! We should really get going!" Emile happily smiled and walked back to Jumper.
"Hey, aren't you forgetting something?" Blood yelled.
Emile turned around and Blood had already crystalized his harness, he had it floating beside him.
"What am I gonna do?!" Emile threw up his hands and gestured all around them, "Every single direction looks the exact same! And after all the Locusts dove into the sand our footprints were washed away! Going with you two is the only way I'll survive this oversized sandpit!"
Emile turned back once again and walked to Jumper.
"Let's go!"