Chapter 8: Stalkers
By JBV and Joel Quill
Kins's tendrils dug themselves into the metal and coiled like springs. The burly woman sent a large cargo container flying towards Kins, but just before impact, the tendrils launched Kins into the air over the container. Two more came flying towards him, but instead of hitting him, Kins dug his tendrils into them in midair and launched off them to gain more height. Kins had a clear view of the battlefield below him, he could see very clearly the large woman, but the skinny man had disappeared. Kins tapped his fingers to his hands as he began to fall back towards the ship. With each tap, thorns began to form on the tendrils. Kins began to spin, and spin faster, causing the thorns on the tendrils to shoot downward covering the ship where the woman and man were. The woman stretched out her hand and the very platform beside her lifted itself to cover her head, although even with that a few thorns made it through the metal to hit her, she appeared unaffected. Kins extended his hand and moved his fingers rapidly back and forth from his hand, as he did so the branch from the tree that was covering the cargo container extended to give Kins a soft landing. Once his feet hit the end of the branch, he clasped his hands together and thrusted them forward. Two of his tendril shot forward and began to turn away from one tangled mess into dozens of vines. Jay and Lily could not see their target, but Kins could see the aura of the invisible man. They began to spiral around him, completely immersing him in vines until his form was visible as he struggled to get out of them. Kins clasped his hands harder until his knuckles were white, the vines constricted harder around the man. A piece of sharp metal came sailing towards the vines and glimmered in the sunlight as it cut through the biological tendrils. The cocoon that held the invisible man unwound and he became visible once more, gasping for breath. Kins winced as the vines were cut and looked to the point where the metal came from. With just a slight tilt, he saw the woman launch herself into the air by raising the metal underneath her and jumping towards kins. In midair, metal flew around her and formed a gauntlet that led to a point around her arm and came sailing towards Kins face. The tree responded to this attack by growing a new branch in front of Kins. The sharp metal pierced through the branch, cutting deeply through until the point came out the other side, the woman was suspended in midair with her hand stuck in the branch, just inches away from Kins. Kins held his hand up in front of him and vines encompassed his hand and grew thorns. With one swift motion, he punched the woman in the face with his vine covered hand, breaking the branch she was stuck in with the impact, sending her flying downwards towards multiple cargo crates. She hit one with a clash and the cargo crate dented beneath her form. She was still for a moment, but then began to move again, spitting out blood onto the dented metal. She threw off her hood and looked up at Kins. She has short brown hair and heavy grey eyes. Her face was broad and chiseled, giving her very tough features as if her face was made of stone. However, the facade of her immovable expression was broken by a group of gashes and holes in the side of her face where Kins punched her, causing blood to run across her face. She wiped it away and looked up at Kins with stone cold anger, Kins smiled back.
Jay and Lily were so caught up in the fighting they forgot themselves, and were surprised when suddenly Lily was picked up from the ground by an invisible form. Jay felt confused, then a rush of pain across the side of his face as the invisible man gave him a nasty right hook. Jay stumbled back and looked around him but Lily and the man were nowhere to be seen. A kick came at the back of his leg causing him to fall to his knees then he was kneed in the face. Blood flew from his nose as he collapsed on the ground from the impact. Jay begins to try and rise again, but his equilibrium is completely thrown off and he dizzily tries to stumble to his feet. Jay finally is able to get his feet, but a few seconds after feels his feet swept from underneath him and hits his head against the ground hard causing his vision to go almost completely dark. He holds onto consciousness as if it were a fleeting thread, as a barrage of punches hit him while he is on the ground. Even with all the damage, Jay was still unable to tell where the man was, each time Jay tried to get a grasp of where the punch was coming from, the location of the hit changed after each impact, not allowing Jay to get a grip. Suddenly the punches seemed to stop and Jay heard a loud scream. Through the haze he could see the blurry image of the man now with his hood taken off of his head and blood running down the side of his face. He had sunken eyes, a small middle section of hair that ran long ways to the back of his head, and all of his features seemed to be a reminder of death. He began to flail about as Lily had somehow gotten onto his back and was biting his ear. Jay began to regain more consciousness and noticed that Lily was using her magic to keep him relaxed, even though the pain was immense he could not move to take her off of him as his arm would relax before it could reach her. Jay began to feel rage rise inside him once more. He reached out and obtained a tight grasp around the man with his unseen telekinetic force. Jay began to lift him into the air. As the man began to rise higher, Lily jumped down and ran over to Jay. Anger welled up inside the man, he yelled louder and louder, phasing in and out of view. He rose until at least 400 feet in the air, before Jay began to lose his grip, and in an instant. The man began to fall back towards the ship, accelerating as he fell. The closer and closer the man came to the deck, emotions of regret and exhilaration ran through Jay's body. Jay had hurt people but never gone so far as to kill someone, and this man was about to be his first victim, was this just a natural progression for him or was this pushing him to a darker path. However there was power in what Jay did, he was able to raise a man high into the air and drop him, and the man could do nothing to stop it. The fifth son who had deemed himself as having lesser magic was able to beat someone using magic more powerful than his own. Jay could not figure out if when this man hit the deck he would feel like a stronger man, or a different person entirely. Just before the man hit the ground he disappeared once more, and Jay expected to hear a crunch or any other kind of noise that is made when something falls a great distance. But instead it was just quiet. Jay rose to his feet, still wobbly and looked around in confusion. There was no possible way that man could have survived that fall, no one without some form of flight magic could have done so. A knife came seemingly out of nowhere and struck Jay in the shoulder. He howled out in pain, as blood streamed from his shoulder blade and his eyes began to shake. The man became visible once more and pinned Jay to the ground.
"Well," The man said in a raspy, tired voice, "I guess I can't waste time anymore. I thought it would be more fun to pummel you but…" the man yawned loudly, "I think I am still just as exhausted...oh well." A knife appeared in the man's hand and he thrusted it towards Jay's neck. In a last ditch effort, Jay stopped the knife inches away from his throat. The man tried to push the knife farther, but it would budge as if it was stuck in midair. The man sighed and a knife appeared in his other hand and he thrusted that one towards Jay, but again Jay stopped it just before it reached him. The man sat up and sighed, then was astonished to hear a war scream coming from Lily who stood behind Jay. She had a berserker look in her eyes, but the man did not feel threatened and just looked at her quizzically. Lily jumped towards the man, who in turn disappeared, Lily expected to collide with the invisible man, but instead she jumped clean over Jay's body and her head hit against the ground. Lily had tears in her eyes as she looked up from the metal, and promptly felt a swift kick to her stomach, that launched her into the railing, knocking her out. The man appeared again and sighed once again in boredom. "I really wish I didn't have to harm a little girl, but she made the choice herself." He said and shrugged and headed towards Lily but was stopped in his tracks, he began to try and move but his body was completely frozen aside from his head. "You have got to be kidding me. You are way too persistent." The man said, but despite his words Jay noticed that as he held him the man was not able to become invisible. He would go invisible for a second, but immediately appear once more in the same place. The magic Jay wielded was able to hold the man in place. Ever so gently, Jay lowered the two knives to the ground, releasing the two from his grip, and he began to rise. He stumbled over towards the man, limping and swaying after the beating he had taken. Sweat rolled down his face as the pressure he held above himself was immense, and felt even worse due to the damage he had sustained. In a moment of pure adrenaline, Jay pulled the knife from his shoulder, wincing in pain before taking the same knife and stabbing it into the man's leg. A grimace of pain went across the mans face, and he gave Jay a weary smile.
"Huh, you are stronger than your brother made you out to be," the man seemed to doze off as he spoke, Jay became puzzled at the mention of his brother, "oh well, I would prefer not to die right now so…" The man began to shine brightly, so brightly in fact that it blinded Jay causing him to avert his eyes. Black spots covered his vision as he looked around. By the time he could make out silhouettes again, the man was gone, Jay no longer had a hold on him.
In the moments that Jay and Lily had dealt with the invisible man, Kins was having trouble dealing with the woman. Fighting her was easy as Kins clearly outclassed her in his magical ability, but his attention was often diverted trying to make sure Jay and Lily were safe. Each time he lost focus another barrage of broken cargo containers and various items came rushing towards him to bring his attention back to his main opponent. The final two seeds felt heavy in Kins's pocket, but he was reluctant to use them unless it was absolutely necessary. Around the time that Lily was kicked against the railing, Kins extended the tree with a swish of his hand in order to block any on coming metal, and jumped down towards his allies. Just before he could reach his allies, the woman ran across the metal deck, crumpling it as she ran, and jumped up towards Kins to meet him in midair. A tendril came from his back to block the long sharp metal gauntlet from stabbing him directly in the stomach, but the force of the impact caused the two of them to veer off course. Instead, they hit the edge of the deck of the ship that led to a point. The girl struggled to get to her feet, but Kins jumped up easily and brushed off his arms and body.
"You ok girls?" he asked as he looked at his tendrils, the tendrils snuggled up to him and he laughed in a giddy manner. Howls of anger came from Kins's attacker, her eyes glowed brighter and the deck itself began to break apart and formed a makeshift armor around her body. Pieces of railing broke off and became makeshift clubs in her hands. Kins rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, at this command one of his tendrils separated, folding back until it revealed an exotic and beautiful flower with thorny spikes all around the pistil. The woman began to charge towards Kins, yelling as she ran in rage. With a single pluck, Kins took one of the thorns and sidestepped away from his oncoming foe. Just as she passed him, Kins stuck the thorn in her neck, just underneath her makeshift helm, and she collapsed to the ground. "You put up a good effort, I won't lie," Kins taunted her while laughing. "I am not one to make fun but man you were very uncoordinated! Do not get me wrong compared to others, your magic is quite advanced but sadly enough you just had to face me." The girl let out a grunt and her armor fell off of her body, she looked around wildly. "I can tell what you are thinking," Kins said as he leaned down to look his enemy in the eye, "Why didn't I do this sooner? Well the truth is that you never really got close enough for me to be able to actually stick you with it...and when I did have the chance, in the heat of the moment I decided to punch you in the face. Probably the wrong decision on my part." Kins laughed once more, this time covering his eyes with his hands, "Look at me, monologuing, I should probably go help my friends." With a swift turn, Kins began to run back towards the tree and main platform, but stopped, then turned back to the girl. "By the way," he yelled cupping his hands, "Zantedeschia Aethiopica, that's the name of the flower thats coursing through your veins right now, if you leave as soon as possible with your friend you can probably stop your body from shutting down and being left to have the skinny dude feed you for the rest of your life." Kins gave a thumbs up and continued to run towards the platform.
By the time he arrived, Jay was stumbling about blinded by the man's bright light,and Lily was knocked out cold. Both of them were in no condition to fight any longer and although Kins had taken little to no damage, he was nearing exhaustion from the amount of magic he used. Kins looked over the railing to get one last look at their attackers. The man lifted the woman up, holding her so she wouldn't fall over from the poison. Drool came from her mouth which made Kins smile, but the eyes of the man were laced with hostile intent. A deep anger began to well up inside of him, he wanted to kill them, but there were too many unknowns and Kins knew that if he killed the woman, the man would have no incentive to leave. Without having a full idea of his magic, and fighting by himself, the best option was to give them a timetable to save her so that they would hopefully prioritize each other over who they were attacking. As Kins and the man looked at each other, a mutual feeling of defeat washed over them. Kins had not been able to fully protect his rescuers, and the man had failed at quelling his target. The man took the bait, and turned the two of them invisible. Within a couple of seconds, Kins could no longer see their auras. A deep breath of relief released from Kins lungs as he looked around him. The deck was in shambles, and his party was badly hurt. Walking slowly, Jay grabbed Kins for support. The two of them grabbed Lily and headed for the orange device Kins called a submarine. Jay's consciousness went in and out as the code was being punched in until finally he collapsed. As blackness overtook him, Jay could only make out the following events through sounds. Metal twisting and gears lurching, the soft footsteps of Kins carrying his two allies, the opening and closing of a hatch, and the turbulent water as the craft stuck the ocean. The sound of moving parts was unbearably loud inside the sub, but even so eventually, Jay's consciousness completely drifted off.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone