Chapter 9:

Kamikaze and Bloodied Snow

Arcana

"What about the endurance booster?" I ask Ray.

"It's on this mountain. In a shack." He says.

"A shack? And wait, why were you telling Emerald and not me?!?" I ask.

"...Because I don't like you." He mumbles.

"Well- I don't like you either!" I say.

"Shut up. What do you mean it's in a shack?" Emerald says.

That zipped me up real quick.

"It's hidden in a box in a shack a bit to the west on the mountain. That's where Lady Scarlet keeps it." He says.

I thought it belonged to Kamikaze.

"And why are you telling us this? The others definitely didn't seem to want you to speak up about it." I question him.

He looks down.

"I thought it was the right thing to do. Please don't blame Lady Scarlet for this! I know she has her reasons for lying. She has to..." Ray looks sad.

I give him a tiny smile.

"I'm sure she does too. Don't worry, we'll figure this out. Emerald, go get changed out of your pajamas. Let's do this now, in the dead of night." I look to her.

"Got it." She runs to her room.

"I should be getting changed too. We'll be back soon once we have the booster." I turn around to walk back to my room.

"Be safe... Something seems off tonight. Just be careful." Ray says from behind me.

I smile.

"Awwww, worried about me?" I tease.

"Wha- Am not! Just hurry up and go! Before someone notices!" He yells.

"Got it, got it." I laugh, before running off to my room to get changed.

---

*CRUNCH* *CRUNCH*

I put my helmet on my head as me and Emerald walk along the snowy path, trees everywhere, and the moonlight as our only guidance.

"To the east right?" I ask Emerald.

"West." She corrects.

"Oh, right. My bad." I've never been great with navigation.

"..."

"Pretty eerie out tonight." I say.

"...Not really." She replies.

*SNAP*

Emerald jumps and bumps into me.

Just a squirrel.

"...I tripped." She looks away.

Pfft.

"Are you scared of th-"

"I'm not scared." She interrupts me.

"Right. Right." I smile.

Something catches my eye. I see what looks to be a little roof sticking out of some snow. If I wasn't actively looking I would've completely missed it. It's almost fully buried in the snow.

"Is that it?" I ask.

"Probably. Come on." Emerald responds.

We run over to the roof in the snow and begin clearing the snow. Doing that reveals a trap door on the roof of the shack. I hop in without saying anything and Emerald quickly follows. The shack is fairly empty, but I notice a little lamp on one of the shelves, which I turn on.

"This place is dusty as shit." I cough.

"Let's just find the booster and get out." Emerald says.

It doesn't take long to find a box on the shelf about the size of my forearm. I take it off the shelf and bring it to the middle of the shack and open it.

Inside we see it. A silver capsule with an injector. This is it.

The endurance booster.

"Okay great. Let's get this down to Squad G right now and then-"

I'm interrupted by something piercing through the roof at rapid speed, stabbing into the ground only about 1 foot away from me.

"What the fuck?!?" I yell.

It's a long, thin, silver spear. Upon closer inspection it almost looks like a needle. Like, the kind you use when you're sewing but like, really oversized.

Emerald instantly jumps out of the shack and hides behind the tree for cover, and I follow.

"Give me the booster." Emerald says.

"What?!? Why?" I ask.

"I'm better at avoiding attacks. Whoever threw that was clearly trying to kill us. Give me the booster so we can dodge this properly." She explains.

"Okay, fine." I hand her the booster and she puts it somewhere on her back.

"Move!" She screams.

We both jump in opposite directions just before another thin spear pierces through the tree, strong enough to knock the entire thing down.

Who's attacking us?

My question is answered as I hear an impact nearby, and a large, armoured man jumps into view. Just one look is enough to send me chills. He looks maybe even larger than Klein, and his armour has a wavy, almost spiky shape, and is tinted slightly purple. His helmet has the same pattern, and it freaks me out.

"I think that belongs to me." He looks at Emerald.

His voice is very deep, and I hear a tinge of craziness in it.

"...Kamikaze." I say, still staring at him.

The man who's facing Klein in the war. Said to be even scarier and more dangerous than Klein ever will be.

The next events happen so fast, I don't even have time to compose myself. Emerald stands up and begins jumping through the forest, using the trees as boosts. She's moving fast and I can barely follow her with my eyes, and Kamikaze dashes after her, showing no interest in me. He just wants the booster.

The two are already starting to get out of sight, and I know I need to do something. I begin to run after them, attempting to catch up, but I'm stopped dead in my tracks by a fireball that hits right in front of me.

No.

I slowly turn around and see Scarlet staring down at me from a tree branch, orange flare in hand. Her dress is a mixture of brown and black, and she's wearing a red crystal amulet.

"...Scarlet. What's going on?" I ask her.

"I'm sorry Link. Trust me, I wouldn't be doing this if I had any other choice." She says sadly.

She shoots off a massive beam of fire at me, and I counter it with my own beam of blue fire. The flames clash and enter a battle over dominance, but mine pushes hers back because my fires always been hotter. This forces Scarlet to jump down from the branch she was on. When she does, she practically glides in the air until she falls safely on the ground.

When she lands, I swing my katana full force, but stop just a few inches from her neck, creating a tiny gust of air. A blast of fire forms from her body, knocking me back and onto the ground.

"Why are you working with Kamikaze?" I force myself up.

"As long as I help him out, the village at the foot of the mountain will be under his silent protection." She says as she slams another fireball into where I was standing.

I jump out of the way and throw my own fireball at her, which she dodges.

"So blackmail?" I ask, lunging at her with my sword.

"This is the best option for everyone." She ducks and grabs my arm, pulling me behind her.

I kick out my leg and hit her in the knee, sending her to the ground. I point my gun at her on the ground.

"Just giv-" She envelops her whole body in flames and pounces at me, hitting me into a tree a knocking my weapons out of my hand.

She charges up another fire beam and fires it at me, blasting me right in my chest continuously.

"Hehe- HAHAHA! Don't you remember? My skin absorbs fire." I gloat.

"I remember. Lucky bastard. But I wasn't trying to burn you." She says.

Huh?

I turn around just before the tree I was leaning against collapses, falling right on my chest and trapping me.

"Fuck." I try to push it off me, but it's too heavy.

At this point, there's a small scale forest fire of both orange and blue flames.

"Please, just stay there until Kamikaze gets back." She says.

Dammit...

---

He's right behind me. He's big but he's fast. Somehow he's still managing to keep up with me as I jump from tree to tree, as fast as I can, my green hair flowing behind me.

*CRASH*

Kamikaze is throwing his spears at me, but they keep missing and crashing into the trees, going right through and knocking them over. Despite being so thin, those spears really pack a punch. I can't keep doing this forever. I need to get back to Link.

"Just give up and die!" Kamikaze screams from behind me as he throws another spear.

I have to try something.

"If you give me the booster now, I'll just kill you without turning you into my slave! Wouldn't that be much better!?!" He keeps yelling. So noisy.

The next tree I land on, I boost myself the opposite way I would normally, and jump the way Kamikaze is coming from. He doesn't have time to stop himself, so I fly right by him and land on the snow, rolling to soften the fall. When I land, I turn to Kamikaze who's still in the air, and charge up on of my arrows. It glows green and I shoot it right into Kamikaze's back. The arrow breaks on impact.

Huh? Even supercharged? This is gonna be annoying.

Now, we're staring at each other in the snow.

"Hehe. Just hand it over girl." He looks at me.

"Okay, fine. Here." I take it out of my back pouch and hold it out.

"Hm?" He tilts his head.

When he takes one step, I throw the booster on top of a nearby tree.

"Gh!" He jumps at the tree to retrieve it.

I shoot an energy arrow at the tree, knocking it down and falling on Kamikaze. It barely fazes him at all, and the tree breaks on him. I quickly run to get the booster back but when I do, I notice a fire spreading. It's blue and orange. Orange? Could it be that childhood friend girl whatever her name is? I need to get back.

"Pathetic." Kamikaze looks angry.

I dash away again trying to find the source of the fire, and I see Link crushed under a fallen tree, with the brunette girl standing beside him. His weapons seem to be out of reach.

"Link!" I yell at him.

---

Emerald?

She throws my sword to me but Scarlet catches it before it can get to me.

"Shit!" I yell.

Suddenly, Kamikaze lands right behind Emerald, catching her by surprise. He brings his spear over his head.

"Emerald! Look out!" I scream.

But before I know it, the snow surrounding the area goes from a white colour, glittering in the moonlight, to a deep red.

"NOO!" I try once again to lift the tree, but it's no use.

Emerald falls to the ground, bleeding out fast from the back.

"FUCK! FUCK!"

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