100 S.A, month 6, Lunar 16
A steel book rack of three different slots was at the corner of the room. The first and last slot were full of books while in between them was a knife and a pistol. A bed lied at the other corner of the room. A soft pillow and a warm blanket were placed neatly. In between the book rack and the bed was a door made of sturdy wood. The door was half-open. Therefore, the room had some lights brightening it. The opposite of the door was a table with a thick-covered book in the middle, a pen at the right and a table lamp on the left. A wooden chair was there in front of it.
Got up and walked toward the writing table. As always, a glimpse was taken of the “outside world”. It was a mess. There were sheets of paper all over the floor on the red carpet. Chairs and tables were knocked down, broken. A few books fell onto the floor, half-opened.
That was not my world . . .
Nooo, it is yours . . .
Yours ---
I was shocked. I turned around and there was . . . nothing! No one’s there! There was nothing but darkness; cold and chilly air flowing in the room. The only sound I heard was . . . my heavy breathing. I pulled the chair out and sat down. I reached for the pen on the right, pulled the cap off and positioned the pen’s tip on the first line on the book, my diary. It was too dark with me blocking the lights from the “outside”, so, I flipped on the table lamp. It buzzed and gave a little blink before it was on.
I was ready to write when a thing ambushed me from behind, trying to pull my head off. I can feel a pair of legs pushing against the chair and a pair of small hands on my forehead. I grabbed its hands in an instance, trying to break free. I pulled hard and slammed it against the wall. The lamp were knocked off and died. I stepped a half-step to the right and reached for the hand of the little thing. I grabbed it and threw it out. It rammed into the wooden shelf and withered. Its head fell off. Its eyes were in blood red and there were sharp teeth. I saw its mouth moving and its body cramp, a pulse after another!
There is n-nothing you can do!
There is nothing . . .
Nothing!
I reached out for the pistol, when I was back at the door there was . . . nothing! No blood, no body and no talking head!
I heard a woman screamed on my left. I pushed opened the door and saw another creature rammed against the woman. I lifted my hand with the pistol and the other supported it from below. I aimed and pulled the trigger! Too late I was. The creature’s blade pierced through the woman heart before I shot at it. The creature body stopped moving and fell onto the floor. I walked up to the scene and examine the body. It has a four pairs of spider-like legs protruding out of its back. Two of it was long and obviously it’s the limbs it used to move around, the others had sharp razor blade at the edge. It has got no head and by the looks of it, it’s a parasite on human body.
I went back to my room and picked up the knife, kept it. As I exited the room I heard a soft voice, so, I turned around and saw the woman pointing towards me and said “Y-you . . . you!” Then her body withered together with the creature. In seconds, they become ashes.
I head out carefully still wondering about her last word.
Left, checked.
Right . . . cleared.
There were rubbles on the left, blocking the way. I had no choice but to take the route on my right. Then again, I had this idea about jumping out of the window to escape. I slowly approach the window and . . . it is impossible. There was nothing behind that window. It’s as if the window were just for decoration!
Why?
Where was I?
Why am I in that room? Was it mine?
I walked down that pathway with a red carpet neatly placed and saw a few vases along the way. I walked pass four rooms. To my surprise, the only one that had a wooden door was mine! There is a right corner head on after these doors. I approached it and turned to the right to find myself another corridor.
The corridor was dark, lights broken down. Something was ramming against the wall at the end of the corridor. Its cracking, the wall was!
Bang!
G-g-giv
Giv-give me
Soon it fell and rubbles dropped all over. I can hardly manage a figure was there. Something was charging at me. I jumped and rolled to the left to where the dim light was. It rammed against the wall and pause for a moment. That thing was now visible. It limbs has got lumps of monstrous muscle. There was something in the middle that act as the body. It was a round ball-like figure. There were blood dripping out of it and its thumping. There are four thin yet muscular line-like objects that linked it to the limbs, giving it command to move . . . maybe.
By the time I was up and running, it picked up its position and started his “run” towards me. I turned and shot at one of its limb. The bullet sank in deep but it was still coming at me. I tried to dodge to the left but his right arm got me. I was thrown back and knocked onto a table. The knife I kept stabbed into my leg in the commotion. I took the table as a support to get up.
Hand raise and aimed. The creature had started to ram again. I shot at that red ball in the middle and its movement slowed. I shot a few more. It stopped just in front of me and its limbs muscle began to burst. Lots of blood squirted out.
Need a place to get a treatment and rest!
And some strong barricade too!
I’ll try those steel doors.
I stepped through the pool of flesh and blood. I tried the first door on my left.
Security code needed?
No way would I know it! I leaned against the wall and pressed on. Upon reaching the second door, a machine called out “Please identify”.
A hand size mark glowed on the screen. I pressed my hand on it and it opened. I went on in and the door closed behind me.
The room was in good condition. There is a desk in the middle, a medical box on the right and a steel cupboard on the left. There were a few documents on the desk.
I reached out for the medical box and tow out a few equipments; a pair of scissor, a roll of bandage, a fibre thread, a needle and disinfection. I pulled out the knife and blood squirted out. I took some of the bandage and pressed on the wound. It took some times before the blood flow slowed. I clean the wound up with some iodine. It stung. I bit the reel of the fibre thread to make it firm. Slowly, I crossed the needle in and out of my wounds, pulling them together. I bit the reel real hard. I tied a knot at the end and I’m done with it.
Tired I am. I lied down on the floor and soon fell asleep . . .
100 S.A, month 6, Solar 17
I woke up to a sound from above. Something is up there, in the ceiling.
Blood Successor
Chapter V
Wind Users
To the west of the chapel was the town which known for its systematic build and to the east was plainly forest. Walking to the north for approximately twenty minutes and people will get by the shore and the forest to the east was connecting to the south side of the chapel. Therefore the chapel was mainly covered by the so-called cursed forest.
The cursed forest was a maze with foul stench of corpse and filled with spooky flora and some was said to move and have thoughts of their own. Several occasion such as howling and screeching added the effect to these rumours.
Outside the chapel, Adel and the other guy were quietly listening to Peblo’s lecture. The old man sat on the stairs in front of the door while the two boys sat on the floor.
“Basically there are five elements in our world and that is fire, water, earth, metal and nature.” He paused a second and continue “these elements counter each others in nature but with an exception.”
“So what’s this other element and what exception you meaning, old man?” the other guys asked.
“Hold your horses Seth.” He took a glanced at Seth “Fire burns nature, nature devour earth, earth takes in water, water distinguishes fire.”
“Hey, where goes the metal?” Seth asked eagerly.
“Can’t you be quiet like Adel?”
“How can I be? I’m not him and he’s not me and he knows magic and I don’t”
“Forget it!” Peblo sounds a little mad “Element counter each other but they can support each other too.”
Peblo took a sip from the cup beside him and continue his lesson “Element can be combine, for example you casted earthquake and then you casted another element that is fire you transform your magic into an earth magic that burns.”
“You could have just said it’s a volcano, old man.” Seth interrupted.
“No, you cannot. To make a volcano from nowhere into somewhere you need to add a little metal and water element.”
“That is so very complicated but for a genius like me it has got no problem.” Seth self-proclaimed and he laughed.
“Too much of your self-praise and you’ll have a taste of defeat someday.” He paused a moment “Enough about combining magic and would you please explain enhancing magic for us, Adel?”
“To enhance element into weapon or for one own self the caster must be sensitive to the ambience of the target they cast.” Adel stopped.
“Could you be more detail as our self proclaim genius here will never understand that explanation.”
“Hey old man, even genius need to learn!” he shouted.
“Ha, this is the first time you make some sense!” he smirked.
“Why you!” Seth stood up and was preparing to put up a fight.
“Stop it, he’s teasing you can’t you notice that?” Adel stopped him and continued with his explanation “Ambience in here means the flows of particles in your target, for living object it is way harder to read them as their ambience change according to their mood and character while surrounding added extra effect.”
“Oh, so you mean to enhance element to a sword easier than to a human?” Seth asked seriously.
“Yeah, you could say that but still there is little difference between them as different material causes a little change to ambience.” He coughed and continued “That was only for making the near-perfect enhancement so you could probably ignore them.”
“What’s that near-perfect enhancement?”
“A near-perfect enhancement amplifies the weapon power 2 fold but a normal enhancement only amplifies its power by 1.5 fold which was a little lower.”
“So that was enhancement!”
“Well, now that we’re done with enhancement I’ll explain further about the other element.” Peblo began his lesson “Beside those five element we’ve got, there are a few more. They are darkness, light, wind and thunder. These are hard to find element which is useless if your base mana affinity is not the same type as it is.”
“Wa-wait a sec! What’s that base mana affinity?”
“Oh my, how forgetful of me not to told you that. Base mana affinity is that the mana you trained and gathered have their own preference to what element they like.” Peblo exercise his legs a little.
“Father Explanation was different, he says that a person affinity is affected by his character and may change and so mana affinity can be built to be suitable for all elements.” Adel interrupted.
“That is very true, but”
“Hey old man you try to trick me!” Seth shouted.
“Can’t you be quiet a little? That theory is only applied to those of wind element affinity since the start!”
“You should’ve said that earlier!”
“You’re the one who interrupt, you pesky brat! Now start collects your mana at your palm to test your affinity.”
Adel sat on the ground resting his body. His eyes focused on Seth while Seth tried to gather mana on his palm. A ring of silence echoed the forest; wind blew gently soft with the “dancers” on the ground swaying their body, bending toward the direction of the wind. The wind slowed down and energy began to gather around Seth. Beads of sweat rolled down his cheek, dripping away to the earthen ground. He tried harder to concentrate his thoughts of collecting mana to his palm and with force he managed to pull something deep inside to resonate. The wind picked up and blowing insanely, circling him up.
His sweats were still dripping and the wind carried it along its path, shimmering in his own sweats a gust of wind exploded. Seth fell onto the ground, looking at his palm he knew, he knew that he failed to draw his mana out. A sense of sadness flickered in his eyes and he bent his head down to make cover. When he was up, he casted away his sadness and put on a smile. Adel saw that and said nothing; quietly he waited for him to speak himself.
“It is almost certain that your element is wind!” Peblo spoke, he pushed open the door and walked into the chapel.
“Wind? But I haven’t collected mana to my palm yet so how did you know?” He was surprised; he summoned his strength and gave chase.
Before Peblo tried to give an explanation, Adel called out for Seth “You had the same thing as I am that’s why.”
“Same thing? How same was that?” he turned around and dash out from the chapel.
“The scene is similar and” he paused a moment “I’m a wind user too”
“Scene?”
“Yes, the way we try to collect mana and wind resonate with our thoughts”
Seth looked at his eyes and then to the sky. “Hey, the Sun is dropping?”
“Dropping? It’s SETTING!” Peblo walked out from the chapel “Come in and have dinner.”
“I like it to sound DROP!” after saying that he dashed to the kitchen in a brink of an eye, well to heal his stomach of course.
Adel slowly got up and walked up the stairs, into the chapel. He closed the door on his way in and locked it.
Lights slowly dithered away as The Moon rise. The lights inside the chapel were turned on under the pale moonlight. Chilling breeze began kicking in and fogs started to grow thick. Night animals lurked around, hunting for prey and some sang the night.
