Chapter 40: Battle?

"Look at her go." Myst pointed at Lua who was currently tearing through the monsters like a wild beast. "She did say she needed this so I guess she's really relishing in this." Mill responded as he was casually taking out the monsters as well. Mill was quite surprised. He thought that the shapeshifting creatures would be more difficult to take out but they were all quite weak. His blades cut through them so easily that he barely noticed that he was hitting anything. 

"Something's off." Mill turned to Myst who had a very concerned look on his face. "What is it?" Lua asked as she continued to shred the enemies apart with a wicked smile. "They seem very weak even for low ranking monsters they shouldn't be this easy to take out." Mill spun in a quick circle to take out all of the enemies surrounding him then spoke. "Maybe we're just too strong for them? I've been working my ass off to get stronger so they should be at least this easy. I do wish that they didn't have as much give though."

Myst turned to Mill as he took out another group without even looking at them and asked inquisitively," What do you mean that they have too much, 'give' is that some fancy slang that you kids use these days." Mill took two more monsters out with very little emotion as he was trying to control his ability. "You really are an old man. Guess all of that white hair ain't just for show." Myst responded to Mill's insult with a slight chuckle.

"That one was pretty good kid. Now would you mind explaining what the phrase means to this old man?" Mill had to control his excitement that his joke landed well and continued to take out monsters with no emotion. "When I hit them it's so easy to cut through them that I can't even feel them touching my blade. It's like I'm not even touching them." Myst stopped fighting for a second and started to look around at the monsters.

They had been fighting these things for at least 10 or 15 minutes so there were quite a few on the ground. After, examining the bodies of the creatures Myst noticed that all of them were cleaved apart in one way or another. Myst thought back to how he had been swinging his blade. He hadn't even unsheathed it because he was going to let Mill and Lua do most of the actual fighting but the monsters were so weak that they just went down in one hit so he hadn't thought about how he was fighting himself. These were the enemies that he was fighting so they shouldn't be cut at all but somehow they were.

It was then that a sudden thought had come to Myst's head that he thought wasn't even a possibility when Mill's party took this Warrior-Rank quest. Myst stood up quickly and shouted, "We have to go now it's a trap!" The sudden shout surprised Lua and Mill causing them to stop fighting and turn to their chaperone. "What trap? This was already an ambush! You think these weak things are smart enough to plan that far ahead?!" Mill nodded agreeing to Lua's point.

"THIS IT NOT THE TIME TO ARGUE WE HAVE TO-" Before Myst could finish, a screech that could deafen people filled the air and caused the group to cover their ears from the noise. "WHAT THE HELL?!" Lua shouted but no one could hear her as the screech seemed to get louder. Mill looked around to see where this glass-shattering noise was coming from when he noticed that the bodies on the ground had started to shake violently as the severed limbs slowly recombined and stood upright yet again. "SHIT! MYST WAS RIGHT!" Mill fell to his knees as the pain from the screech was making him weaker and weaker. He wanted to say something but couldn't so he did the only thing that he could do.

Mill closed his eyes and covered his ears as he imagined training for the academy with his Aunt and Sister. They helped him so much and it's thanks to them that he even can fight without using his abilities. His mind wandered the memory of one his training sessions with Nova.

"I don't know what that weird transformation thing you do is but you need to become less reliant on it." Mill's big sister Nova was currently standing over him in this memory. "I keep telling you Nova, it's my ability." Nova scoffed. "Ain't no ability that I've ever heard of. Regardless you seem to lose control when you use it so you shouldn't be too reliant on it." Mill stood up and returned to a battle position.

"Why would I not use my ability in combat isn't that the point of having one in the first place?" Nova shook her head. "An ability is normally used to enhance the skills that someone already has not as their main form of attack. If you just use it at full force from the start you'll just wear yourself out or give your enemy time to come up with a counter." Mill was surprised. "Wow Nova, I know you're an adventurer but you didn't tell me that you were actually a good one." Nova couldn't help but blush at her brother's complement even though she knew there was an underlying insult. "Get back up then. I'll teach you how to handle yourself so that you can hold back the ability and not get killed." The memory flashed out of Mill's mind as for the first time in the entire battle he started to smile." Time to use my ability so that we don't get killed." Lightning cracked and at first it was drowned out by the screech soon the tables turned..

Mill's body started to shake and Mill smiled bigger and brighter. He started to laugh as all around his body lighting cracked and popped. Lua and Myst looked over to Mill as the thunder was completely overshadowing the screeching. "WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING?" Myst tried to ask Lua but the thunder was just too loud. Mill became more and more excited and his laugh more intense as a result until within the blink of an eye Mill disappeared. Myst and Lua started to frantically look around for the boy but couldn't find him. Myst turned to Lua, "What the in the hell is going?!" Lua looked at Myst and responded, "I honestly don't know what thi-" Before she could finish a bright flash of light appeared and snatched her away. Myst noticed that the light looked familiar and stood completely still as he waited until the light took him as well.

Myst appeared next to Lua in a destroyed house that was at least far enough that they couldn't hear the screeches anymore. "That boy is really something else." Myst said as he pulled a cigarette out and started to smoke. "He could have at least warned us before just taking us away." Lua complained but she was truly relieved that Mill has come through for them. The sound of thunder roared one more time as Mill returned with Xenai in his arms. "You sleep like a rock kid!" Xenai was extremely confused because Mill was acting different now. Mill put Xenai down as he closed his eyes again and slowly calmed himself down. Everyone watched as his body stopped shaking and the lightning that was sporadically cracking around him slowly until it stopped all together. Mill let out a big breath of relief.

"That was close. I don't know what those things were planning but I'm glad we got out of there." Mill looked at the rest of the group and they all stared back. Lua was the first to speak," I'll never get used to seeing you change so much with your ability. But it seems like you at least have some control now." Lua closed her eyes and sighed and Mill nodded in agreement. "So what do we do now?" Myst asked Mill. Mill was thrown off but he was made the leader for some reason and now was as good of a time for him to take the lead as any. Mill thought for a second. "We don't know where Darren and Karl are so we could look for them but I'm pretty sure those two are fine. So we should just head to the next objective."

"Which would be?" Lua asked. "The Mine. Xenai said her father worked there so she should be able to work as our guide. If she's okay with it, of course." Mill looked at Xenai and she nodded. "My dad was really clumsy so I had to bring his food to him a lot. I remember the way to the Mine perfectly." Mill smiled and rubbed the kid's head gently causing her to smile. "Then it's decided. We're off to the Mine." The group grabbed all of their stuff including some extra rations that Mill had brought along when he grabbed Xenai.

" 'Ey, maybe Karl and Darren are already in the Mine waiting for us." Mill gave the idea. "They better be. They have a whole lot to pay for making me wait on them and wasting my time." Mill chuckle nervously at Lua's threat to the boys.

"Maybe they really shouldn't come back. I mean they're probably safer wherever they are now than anywhere around Lua."