Famine

--Belle's Perspective--

-15 Minutes Until Providence's Arrival-

"You're kidding, right? Do I have to fight these two nobodies? Alright, should we get this over with quickly? I want to help out my companions." Famine told us.

The wild-looking Rubeki in front of us, with intelligence equal to our own, drew his primal-looking mace. It had small spikes made of bone on the tip and a tip wrapped in bloody bandages.

Famine swung the mace at me and I summoned a shield made of ice and blocked it completely, shattering one of the bone spikes on the end of his weapon.

He dodged backward in a timid fashion and looked at Alexia and me again, back and forth, as fast as his eyes would move.

"Alexia, I think he doesn't understand who we are." I commented to her. Alexia used her ability to expand her sword to full length while staring at Famine with an empty look, full of hatred for the man who threatened our friends lives.

The look rose out of my gut as well and before we knew it, we both darted forward toward Famine with the pure intent to kill him.

Alexia and I took the same amount of time to close the distance and swung in a parallel pattern at Famine. We hit him easily and blood poured from his wounds, forcing him to retreat again.

"Belle and I grew up together, not missing a single experience from either of our lives. Not one single moment was spent apart, and we didn't grow separately, we grew together." Alexia said. Her sword increased to three times the size and she threw it with frightening strength. She ran and peered over to me and with a quick synchronized nod, I summoned a slide of ice so she could change her direction easily.

Alexia flipped the sword, slamming it into the ice, then flipped her body along with the shrunken sword in her hand.

Once her body was parallel with the ground, she enlarged it as far as her ability allowed her to, digging up the ground where Famine used to be. It missed him and he tried to hit Alexia, but he failed.

A spike of ice shot out of the ground and pierced the bottom of his jaw, sticking up through his forehead and letting Alexia land a solid hit on his stomach with her fist.

She must've shrunk her sword down to the size of a toothpick because as soon as her fist connected with Famine's stomach, a large sword shot out of his body and was thrown a far distance away.

Famine fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and screaming out in pain. Alexia and I grouped up and before I ran over to her, I grabbed her sword and handed it back to her.

"You guys... seriously thought that would be enough? I'm not one of the Four Horsemen for nothing! Haha!" Famine laughed wickedly, like a supervillain.

"I'm painfully aware that you're much more annoying that I would like. Belle, sorry to ask you to waste energy, but we can't let Shike take our spotlight. Let's stomp him." Alexia told me.

"Why are you even trying to kill us? What's your motive?" Alexia asked Famine before I could.

"It's simple. They're orders, I'm sure you're familiar with that. Providence told me to remove anybody unnecessary from the mix, that means you and your friend there." Famine pointed at me while explaining to Alexia.

"Ah, so no real reason besides it being an order? I don't know what I expected. So, this is really what you want? To lose?" I finally chipped in and spoke up for myself.

"If that's what you want to call it, sure. I'll lose, right after you both die." Famine said. He charged in once more, however this time, his body started to fade into smoke.

I stayed alert and attacked as soon as possible, raising spikes of ice everywhere and barely scraping him. Blood shot out of thin air and I called it out to Alexia.

"Alexia! Careful! He can go invisible!" I said again. I rose even more spikes of ice out of the ground around where I saw the blood, but I wasn't able to hit him again.

"I can see him." Alexia said, looking at her sword in a strange way.

"You can see him? What does that mean?" I asked her. She turned her head again and rose her sword, extending it to maximum length and severing Famine's arm.

"You bitch!" Famine said. I couldn't place his voice, as it sounded fluid with the air moving around us, but Alexia could spot him for some reason. Was I missing something?

"What can I do to help?" I asked her.

"I'm not sure, but just stay alert! I might need it." She said once more.

"Providence said you would both be annoying. Your ice, and her weird ability, I see why now. I guess I'll have to use mine against you." Famine said to us.

"You can vanish into smoke? Sounds pretty terrible to me." Alexia said.

Before I could react again, I was struck by his mace in my side. He swung the mace from my side and blood poured out of my stomach.

"BELLE! You son of a bitch!" Alexia screamed out to him.

I put my hand on my side and froze my body so no blood would come out. Then, I started to feel hungry. So hungry that I couldn't even think straight.

"The best part of my ability isn't the invisibility that comes with it, it's the strikes of my weapons. I am Famine, you'll suffer from what I want you to." He said to us.

Famine materialized in front of us with a new form. His legs and arms where skeletal, while his body was shrunken down to the point of being able to see his skeleton from every angle. He laughed like a super villain again.

"Ready to go again?" He asked us.