3 The Elemental

It wasn't the first time Ciyaka left the city neither it was the first time he saw the path of destiny. He had seen it many times before. When he first saw it he was curious, but it was soon forgotten until he heard the story.

"Be serious, we are not on a field trip. We are in the danger zone." Captain scolded him as soon he asked.

Hearing the stern remark from the captain he is slowly edged closer to Mayumi and Kisa. Cikaya was one of the attackers of the group whereas Kiria was one of the 3 long range attackers. The new guy was only elemental of the team who was in the rear protection unit. 2 were in the middle and two were in the front including the captain. Grim was the only scout of the team and also good in close combat.

Just as Cikaya was about to ask something again, Grim came back in hurry. The captain quickly hand-signal other to be ready for battle.

"Quickly move out the way, it is wild black Hog horde."

With Grim's warning in time, everybody moved quickly. The captain grabbed Mayumi and Kiriya got hold of Kisa as they quickly climbed the tree. Though the trees were bare it wasn't hard for them to climb with their enhanced strength and stamina.

It wasn't long before the black hogs reached their position. The horde contained more than 500 hogs. their height is more than 1.5 meter. Even some of them reaching almost 2 meters. The end of the horde content a hog over 3-meter height, who was probably their leader.

"What a big animal. I have never seen something like this before." Kisa exclaimed as they were on their way down. Before Mayumi could say anything Grim jumped towards her and push her from the way. Even before she could recover from the shock the captain took her behind his shield. Looking at the serious face of the captain she understood something was not right.

By the time she looked around Kisa was already taken behind the tree by Kiriya. But what surprised her was the tree in front of which she was just standing was now covered in ice with an arrow stuck at the center.

With the signal from the captain, Kiria shoot multiple arrows which were followed by some scream. The sound of the clashing sword was coming closer. Some unknown people were fighting with a red bear. With the signal, the captain left Mayumi at the back of the tree and left towards it.

What caught her attention first was the shoulder of Grim. It was covered in ice. She couldn't help but shivered while thinking about the consequences if that arrow had stuck to her. It was her first time seeing something violent.

Amazingly the red bear's coordination with Cikaya and the captain was very good. As soon as the captain deflect the weapon of the enemy with black turtle shield Cikaya came from the side and attack the enemy. Even before the enemy could react perfectly to his attack he would have been slammed by the red bear from the blind side.

There were not many enemies. It didn't take a lot of time to clear them out. Seeing, Mayumi sighed in relief. Even before she could react a flying dagger was flying straight towards her.

She wasn't like these battle-hardened mercenaries. She could just close her eyes to accept her fate. But to her surprise, she felt nothing. When she opened her eyes she could see that Grim already caught the dagger which was just an inch away from her nose.

The person who had thrown the dagger was running for his life. Unfortunately even before he could turn around an arrow passed through his left eye. With a blood-curdling scream, he falls down and died. The last look of the dying man Mayumi made her nauseous as she vomited. She could not forget the face of the person with an arrow sticking out of his eye-socket, the blood running down his face made the scene more gruesome. She couldn't control her emotion. Her feet started to turn cold as she started to cry like crazy.

Unknown to her before the other mercenaries could tend to her, or even look for any other enemy they also felt that something was wrong. It started to turn hotter around them. No matter how much they looked they couldn't find the source of the trouble.

Unknowingly they also began to feel nauseous. Kisa was the one to fall down first, all the mercenaries begin to follow the suit. Even the strongest of them all, the captain began to lose his consciousness. He looked around for his fallen teammates but the fog began to eat away his field of vision. Not long after he also falls unconscious.

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Mayumi didn't know how she came here, but the place where she was standing is surrounded by fog. She looked around her but couldn't find anybody. There was none protecting her.

She tried to look back hoping to find Captain or Grim, but to her surprise, she couldn't move her body.

Suddenly the fog in front of her began to swirl, something was coming towards her.

Its steps were resonating with her heartbeat. Soon she could see a pair of the blue blazing spot in the fog, like a pair of eyes.

No matter how much she struggled, how much she quivered she couldn't free herself from the invisible constraints that were binding her at the spot. Her heart was beating faster, the monster was becoming faster too. Within a few moments, she could vaguely make out the outline. It was huge.

With a roar, it came out of the fog. It was like thunder, Mayumi closed her eyes in fear.

She couldn't help to think she is going to die again on the same day. Grim saved her once but there was no one here nor could she run. Even if she could move she doesn't think that she could outrun the monster.

In the face of death, she couldn't help herself not to smile. She was ready, ready to embrace the death with a smile.

But what hit her was a beautiful voice. It is so sweet that she could hear it all day.

"Agun? What are you doing? Making the child afraid of you again, at the first meeting?" said the sweet voice.

"I couldn't help it. Nobody plays with me nowadays. I am lonely." the husky voice sounded rather sad.

"If you act like that this child will not play with you too"

Hearing the conversation Mayumi couldn't understand anything. Her curiosity overcame her fear as she opened her eyes.

What greets her can be considered the most beautiful woman of the world and an old man with a long blue beard and hair. His eyes were also blue. A mischievous smile was hanging from his face.

"Who-Who are YOU?" Mayumi asked while stammering.

"Child, shouldn't you be worried about your life rather than asking our identity?" The Blue old man thundered.

Suddenly she felt the weight of the situation.

"Don't worry child we are not here to harm you." With the beautiful voice, Mayumi felt that all her worries went away.

She wants to know about the woman but didn't ask, as she was afraid of angering the Old Man.

"Child, I am Agun, and this is Jaal" the husky voice answered.

Hearing this Mayumi looked up and she was greeted by a kind smile of the blue old man. The woman was also smiling.

"Don't worry child though he behaved like that sometimes, he is very kind at heart. You don't even know how much he was worried when you were attacked"

"Jaal please!" The old man was embarrassed.

" Who are you, people? Where are we now? Where are my friends?" Mayumi was worried. How come she couldn't see other?

The woman slowly came forward and kneeled before. Even when kneeling she was still higher than Mayumi. "This place is inside you. Do you know, child, who you are?"

"I am Mayumi," she said innocently

"Yes you are, but you are elemental. Born from both of us"

"You are not my parents." She tried to inch back, but she couldn't move. Her father had always reminded her to beware of the suspicious person. And she thought that this woman talks like one.

Suddenly the old man started laughing thunderously. "She thinks you are a suspicious person."

'How did the old man knew what I am thinking?' Mayumi was beyond surprised.

"Because this old man and that granny is inside of you"

Mayumi was speechless. What are they talking about? 'There is no way by which this two people can fit inside my body, unless'

"Are you my guardian Spirits?" She asked curiously.

"You can say we are guardian spirit, in some way" Jaal was little hesitant to call themselves guardian spirit.

On the other hand, Mayumi's heart jumped." I knew it, my father can never be wrong" She was too excited to listen to what they have to say.

"Child" Agun's voice thundered again to calm her down. With the thunder, Mayumi became an obedient child.

"We are ancient elements," Agun said with pride.

"Not elemental??" Mayumi heard about elementals who wield different elements. Her father used to tell her stories about those mighty elementals. But what she didn't understand is how elements can be a living being.

"Let me explain. In the beginning, when we first gained sentience we roamed the world. No one to stop us, none to bar. Slowly it began to change. Human began to show up with the strange power to wield against us. Some of us became slaved. Some been killed."

"Don't know from where one of us got a funny idea of bestowing our power to other. Hence came the Elemental beast. They wrecked around the world while we were hiding."

"Then another group of human came, who called themselves…" Agun thought for a moment and said "I don't remember what they called themselves, but they came to kill us. Fought for 7 days straight, but none of the elements know what happened"

Agun sighed while Jaal started "When we woke up we were inside the human bodies. Our essences were already mixed with the essence of Human. Those were called Elementals. They like sons and daughters of us."

From the childhood, Mayumi liked to hear stories, stories about unbelievable things, about ancient, about an unforgettable hero, unbeatable demons and many more. She even heard stories about great elemental kings from her father but never heard about Elements. Even her father knew nothing about them.

"Of course he didn't know about us. We are the pure one, no human can hold us inside their body, but" both Agun and Jaal beamed towards her.

"But you are special. You can hold not just one but 2 Elements in your body. There were only two people in the history of elementals could call themselves "True Elements" but none of them could hold two, only you can." Agun was really excited, so do Jaal." But.."

Mayumi was really happy till now but the sudden 'but' just stopped her breath. As she thought she couldn't be this lucky. There has to be a catch.

"Yes there is a catch," Jaal said with a smile ".You can be just one element, not both"

"Why not both?" Mayumi anxiously asked

Both of them laughed loudly and said: "As I said it's hard to contain an element in your body so you could become only one element, then, could merge the other one into yourself."

Mayumi asked quickly "Then what will happen to you guys?"

Agun smiled and pinched Mayumi "Don't worry dear, we can't die unless someone destroyed out the essence. It's not like old days. Now very few people can see our essence."

Jaal added, "You need to produce an essence identical to us to become an Element, and if you merge the essence of us you will become a new essence."

"How much time will I need to become an essence?"

Mayumi's question took them by surprise but they answered with a smile "10 years at most."

"So which essence you want to produce first," Agun asked with anticipation.

" The one that will make me stronger." Mayumi resolutely answered.