Adrenaline

Ansel, Eira and Kaito ran down the streets of Ydiria, flames plaguing the roofs of buildings and debris constantly falling beside them. Kaito ran ahead of them, the adrenaline making him not even notice blood dripping down his legs. He pulled away from them and made it to the castle fence in no time flat. The guards he’d met the day before were gone, yet the gate itself remained closed. He looked up at the castle, its white walls illuminated by the moon’s light. He saw the windows lighting up with various colors, the sound of wails and smaller explosions leaking from them. That explosion he’d seen had been the moment the demons entered the royal castle and began their siege. Kaito looked around, the yard empty and a smaller white building a few ways away from the castle.

Without warning, the wall of the castle facing the smaller building exploded. Rubble and debris fell to the cold grass. Looking at the event, Kaito laid eyes on a girl with a build similar to that of a high school girl. In that moment, he thought to himself of what Shuna had said, how they strangely connected, and how she’d known about today. Her shiny hair flowed down majestically in the night sky, the color as black as a waterfall of oil reflecting only the light of the stars.

He knew it was her, there was no mistake in his mind. But her eyes were strangely different to the dark bluish hue they’d had when they met. They glowed a red-orange light, almost as if they were small lanterns.

He saw her swift descent and silent landing despite, as they happened, a shocking feat as it looked like she’d jumped out of a third floor. He felt his heartbeat bang against his lungs and his arms and legs locked up—only a second passing by. The adrenaline in his body was slowing, his body was cooling. He needed to keep moving.

Kaito turned away swiftly and made distance between himself and the fence. He saw Ansel and Eira finally catching up with him but he had no time to explain. Turning his back to them and running full speed his tattered body pushed itself to its limit. Kaito’s adrenal glands let the hormone flow and flow, his bloodstream polluting with adrenaline as he leaped over the royal fence. The 10 foot separator from the outside of the royal castle and the inside of the royal castle was a black luxurious fence. It had swirls and curves with arrowhead-like shapes at the very top of it. Kaito’s leap at all but left him must short of completely getting his body over it, yet his quick reflexes allowed for him to grab onto the arrowhead-like shapes and pull himself through to the other side.

Without realizing it, a gash on his ankle was created as he completed his parkour-ish motion. Making him lose his balance on rolling violently upon his landing.

“Kaito!” Eria yelled, but he was already getting up.

He darted his eyes about, not knowing where it was that she went, until he saw her hair briskly moving into the palace. He ran toward it, leaving the other two in confusion. His legs were still functioning and his arms swayed quickly; he himself felt as if he was in top shape despite his blood and burns.

KABOOM!!

Time seemed to slow as it happened. This time Kaito only fell backward to the shockwave, the flames having concentrated on something else. Ansel and Eira saw it happen from a distance and opened a path for themselves using Ansel’s chain mail spell. Katio was still warm. He stood as if nothing had happened, patting himself down peeking into the place where the explosion had come from.

The cold wind seemed to take emotion with him as he looked inside. An intense battle between a demon and the two shields had begun.

Talos!

He saw him flying with lights in his hands as another girl with wavy hair seemed to launch a barrage of fire spells. Talos lowered himself and focused a beam of light right onto the demon. Kaito was in shock, not knowing where Shuna had gone he saw something even stranger. A young adult man was hiding behind what looked like a 15 year old girl up on the pedestal of a statue. The man looked like a noble, fitted with some elaborate clothes and jewelry, whilst the girl simply wore a white dress and the same headband as the shields.

He assumed it was probably just another shield but something about her didn’t sit right with him, or with the cowardly man behind him. He was visibly shaken and closed his eyes as his mouth opened.

“Just DIE!!!” he yelled.

The battle continued and the demon began to change the tides in its favor. Talos and the Blaze shield were slowly backing into a corner as the demoness retaliated with stronger firepower and faster spells.

A sudden hold of Kaito’s shoulder made him jump.

“Ah!”

“What’s your problem!!”

Eira and Ansel pulled him away from the entrance, looking at him angrily.

Kaito was about to apologize when an even stronger pain ran through his entire being. This time an iron-like taste welled up inside his throat of which he snapped his head to the side and coughed covering his mouth with his hand. He felt a liquid come out of his mouth, the color hard to distinguish as the dim sky illuminated it, but he already knew what it was that was on his hand.

“ARGGGGGGHHH”

A treacherous scream came from inside. Kaito pulled away from them quickly, his time now trickling down. He ran inside to the sight of the demon without an arm, and her eyes now facing the exit, looking at him. They were the same red-orange color that Shuna had had just moments ago. He saw the girl with the white dress, a giant orb of water floating next to her as he ran inside.

The nobleman was kneeling on the floor behind the statue now. Three blindfolded children fighting the demon and seemingly overpowering her. His steps were swift, time was ticking down. The pain seeped into his mind running as fast as he could to find him.

The girl with a white dress shot fine jets of water at the demon, its body slowly getting nipped at each and every misstep she made when dodging. The Blaze shield was supporting the attack, launching a barrage of fireballs at the many black flames that the demon spewed out. The golden boy flying about beams of light raining down from above.

Kaito looked over at the battle, the demoness was screaming in pain and soon her face began to bubble up. Something was happening to it, the attacks were no longer hitting. Out of nowhere, a scaly tale grew from behind her back and she fell over as if the new limb had torn through her entire body. In the midst of this she grinned wickedly, her eyes essentially glowing in the dust and smoke that was being created. Her body disappeared in the cloud.

Talos flew in and was smacked to a wall, a giant claw growing from the smoke. Its claws were full of blood, the demon's blood, quickly falling to the floor devastatingly so. Kaito rushed and rushed, the room so big that the distance between him and Talos was almost endless. His mind was going blank and his body was beginning to fail him. The three children were reduced to two, the blaze shield and the mysterious girl with a white dress. Their attacks increased in number, and the surrounding areas began to level upon itself under the intense amount of spells. Concentrated rivers of water and a tornado of flames lit the room clear as day.

Kaito fell over just a few feet away from him, his ankle twisting and rebounding inside his leg.

1 Minute Later:

Huff 

A blindness had kept him from being able to think. His eyes hadn’t seen light in over a year, a strange irony hidden in his name. The Sun Shield. A bloody hand pulled the headband off his eyes.

Huff Huff 

His eyes opened gently. A tower of fire in the background. The sound of rocks being plowed through with pure water.

RRRRAAAAAGGGRRHHHHHHH!! HAHAHAAHHAAH!

The scream and laugh of a distorted voice, almost monstrous.

Huff Huff Huff

In front of him an older man, his face burnt and bloodied, yet strangely familiar.

“So? Huff Huff Huff  How was school?”

Kaito collapsed in front of him prompting Talos to quickly catch him in reflex, too many questions flooding his mind for him to make a coherent sentence.

SCREEEEAAAACHHHHHH!

Behind Kaito, a lizard-like monster with wings made of black flames roared in delight in the distance. It had a man groveling in front of it, and two girls standing beside him as stiff as dolls. The room they were in was unfamiliar to Talos, it was as if he’d just been at the academy only a few moments ago.

“TAKE THEM!!! THEY HURT YOU!!! I SURRENDER!!”

“Hey.” The voice in his arms called to him.

“Let’s go home.”

“Okay.” said Talos, his voice unfamiliar to him.

The two walked over to the destroyed ground, water pooling up and black burn marks along the walls. Over at the doorway he could see two more familiar figures. The brother and sister that he’d grown up with his entire life. They stepped in, not knowing that there was a monster in the room just a few meters away.

Milandra had pushed herself to the extent of her ability. Her furia had transformed her into something akin to a dragon which had made her more resistant to the prince’s tools. She was about the size of a small building and her face had morphed into a four eyed monstrosity. Using Shuna’s mind, she had decided to rush the prince and make him have her opponents stop. Now Milandra and Shuna stood above him, two offerings being given to her in place of the prince himself.

{What a dumb human.}

[Just…kill him quickly. I don’t want to be any more a murderer than you’ve already made me.]

Milandra’s tail quickly rose up and squashed the prince as if it were a cockroach plaguing her room. Their face was a wretched crocodile green with two pairs of eyes one being Milandra's, a red-orange hue, and the other Shuna’s, her dark faint blue eyes now glowing a sky colored light.

They had done it. She had done it. Milandra had killed their king, their capital had fallen. Her dragon body tore through the palace ceiling and a roar echoed throughout the city. Roars of victory began to spread through the wind, and her lower body stomped in celebration at the ground below.

—--

Kaito was on the edge of a cliff.

His body had cooled and the pain had rendered him immobile. Rather than walking together, Talos was dragging him over to the exit. Ansel and Eira tripped over themselves stumbling across the rubble, they stood in front of Talos and hugged both of them tightly, prompting a yell of pain from Kaito.

“Ah sorry” apologized Ansel.

“Let’s…gasp go home.”

“Let’s go,” said Eira. She smiled warmly at him, the four of them now together after so long.

Their knees trembled suddenly. The demon behind them had just torn through the roof with a great CRASH and roared out to the rest of the city. It stomped the ground in celebration as the four were about to leave. Talos, Eira, and Ansel looked ahead out into the open field. Only Kaito creaked his head back. He laid eyes on the beast yelling to the sky, the roof slowly falling apart as it continued. It had two pairs of eyes, each with a different color. The upper eyes looked back at the ground meeting a pair of human eyes it’d seen before. The stomping continued.

The blue eyes cried out to him, water beginning to pool in its eyelid—a thought shooting Kaito in the head

It was you.

The demon’s tail moved swiftly and suddenly Talos, Ansel and Eira had been pushed through the doorway.

“Ow!”

“Ugh.”

“What the h-”

The three looked up and saw Kaito; he stood just inside the building. He was out of breath, his body was bleeding all over, and tears flowed down his eyes. 

SWIP

Kaito no longer felt anything. He saw nothing. He was nothing. One second he was looking at his family, his party of adventuring friends, whom he'd spent nearly four years with. And at the next, he died.