CLANG! CLANG!
The sound of metal hitting a hard, unrelenting surface reverberated throughout the otherwise desolate forest. In the aftermath of the sudden flash, the mangled corpses of several birds by the now-splintered tree's mouth lay cooling at the foot of the large crystalline structure now standing in the wooden tower's place.
Click. An explosive crash, responded to with a steadfast screech. Another fractured pellet burnt away against the clear rock and mixed into the dirt beneath.
"This crystal shit's way too hard! Even a bullet won't even make a dent!"
"Stop wasting ammo on it," Sid said, swiping at different areas of the structure with his heavy blade, trying, in vain, to find some sort of weak spot. Although it wasn't noticed at all by Dan, the worry in Sid's mind grew more intrusive with each worthless slash. As his blade bounced off yet another time, a heavy bead of nervous sweat trickled from his brow, stinging his eye on the way down.
Sid thought to himself, searching for an answer somehow. People are definitely going to come to investigate the sound of that huge explosion soon. If that happens and they get caught out in the open, things could go really bad really fast. Shit, what could they do? They definitely had to get that kid out and leave… or should they just cut their losses here and just bail? But at the same time, this place is so close to their base… what're they going to do once we leave this area?
Survive out in the open with nothing? There wouldn't be enough time to grab survival supplies without the possibility of others ambushing them while things were getting retrieved from the base. Find another group— one that has survived all this time— and take their base without even scouting out the area first? That would also be nigh impossible.
No matter how it looked, the only thing that could be done was try and get that kid out of there. After all, he had done… something… and whatever that something was… it was protecting *him* so well, wasn't it?
They'd get him out, figure out what exactly he did— getting rid of him or exacting torture according to the situation— and go from there.
But Dan and Sid wouldn't be able to get to Boro before anyone else showed up. Sid stopped his weapon as Dan held his gun toward the direction of the crunching leaves.
"Don't move!" said the big guy.
The footsteps didn't stop getting closer to them. It was another pair of two, the one in front weighed down with equipment, the one behind light like a ghost. "Come on. If you were going to shoot me, why haven't you done so already?"
"Everyone's just doin' whatever the hell they— "
Sid waved his hand, stopping Dan from making an impulsive shot, but also getting between the two groups. "Who the hell are you two?"
The old man smiled devilishly while pulling his long silver hair back, revealing his wood-like hardened features. At the same time, the man behind him almost snarled in response to the question, glaring threats of death under his black hunter's hat.
"Us? We're just here to retrieve our troublesome little member," said Lucius, pointing up at the top of the crystal spike, "I hope you don't mind."
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It happened so quickly that it could have just been a trick of the light— a quick-moving cloud or something of the like. However, Lucius and Kent felt it at the same time, like a brief thunder that shook down to their bones. They looked at each other, and then to the direction where they felt the impact originate from.
"Did you feel that?" asked Lucius.
Kent nodded. "That's… that's the direction Jon went to, isn't it?" They paused, digesting the implication of that fact.
Lucius looked in that direction, then back towards the shelter in the direction of the storage. Standing up, he opened the hatch and wandered inside, throwing recent collections out and to the side, making a mess by the opening.
"What are you doing?" asked Lucius, with a tone of genuine curiosity as he kicked back a stuffed bag that was rolling away in a minuscule attempt to organize the chaotic state of things below him.
"I'm looking for… some things that I haven't touched in a very long time," said Lucius in a delayed response. He seemed to be struggling with something, as from the darkness of the small underground room came the old man groaning against tearing cloths and the clanking of various metals. Whatever these things were, they were coming from the very back of the storage.
Kent was about to offer some help when Lucius finally stepped out of the opening, bound around his limbs many leather straps which secured two cylindrical canisters and their respective rectangular cases to his thick legs, eventually joining together into a series of mechanical systems spread across his back. Over his shoulder, he carried a long bag, inside of which there seemed to be a half dozen of long metal poles.
"What in the world are you wearing…" asked Kent, who had never seen such tools, "...what is all this?"
Lucius glanced away from Kent and looked over his equipment, making sure everything was in order. "You could say they're something of a family heirloom." Lucius said dismissively as he clicked one of the triggers to the contraption in his right hand. The sound of pressurized gas cut through the air and stabbed into the wood on the adjacent wall with great force. As Lucius clicked the trigger again, the hooked blade pulled back, splitting the age-blackened wood and leaving a gaping hole where it had caught into. "Good. It still works."
Watching the man he feared, but at least thought he knew, stand there examining the edge of a weapon he had never before seen, Kent could barely make out the right words to say.
"Those weapons… that gear… no way it's— could it be… from the age of…"
Lucius took out two of the hidden blades from his sides and swung them parallel in a fierce practice, cutting Kent's words out of the air with a force that made the wind scream for a second.
"It's probably what you think," said Lucius, heading outside of the shelter while sheathing the swords. "Come on."
Kent hesitated to give chase but was prompted to as Lucius shot one of his grappling lines into a far-away tree to quickly propel himself up and towards the location.
Bolting out of the shelter, Kent held his hat from slipping off his head while struggling to keep the soaring figure from fading away out of sight. "That's not fair…" moaned Kent between breaths.
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"Fine." said Sid, crossing his arms and stepping out of the way. Dan looked at him with confusion, but his thoughts of interjecting were cut off.
"On one condition." said Sid, raising a finger to the group, "after you free the kid, you let us join your group."
"WHAT?" Dan and Kent both retorted in near-unison.
"You're in no position to make demands," smirked Lucius. "You have nothing to offer us— no leverage here."
"Perhaps so, but I think you'll still take me up on this for some reason." Sid returned the smile. Their saccharine tones muddled the otherwise tense atmosphere. Peeking through his wide smile, Sid took another glance at his wager.
The old man's eyes held a degree of capable confidence that bordered perhaps on arrogance if it wasn't substantiated so, but they were not eyes that regarded life as something without inherent worth. Those eyes were something Sid would be willing to bet on.
"Sure," said Lucius, shrugging and taking two steps closer. "I'll take your little offer if it makes you happy."
"Are you crazy, Lucius?" yelled Kent, forgetting his fearful reverence for a second and grabbing the old man tightly by one of the straps on his back, "These guys are probably the ones that killed Jon! Didn't you see what they did to him on the way here? That guy with the weapon on his hip… you want to let these guys join— live— with us?"
Twisting his body away from Kent's grip, Lucius continued walking forward while staring up in perusal of the giant crystal. He spoke absentmindedly, "Trading one for two, that seems like a pretty good deal to me."
Sid moved and stood back by Dan, watching Lucius from a distance. What would he do against the crystal that wouldn't even take a dent after all that they already did? It would be curious, indeed.
Before Kent could further object to Lucius' decision, the latter shot up into the air with the sound of streaking lines and a heavy burst of steam.
Dan couldn't hold back his astonishment, mouth wide-open, he unwillingly asked, "He… flew?" Even Sid's rather unemotional face couldn't keep its composure when witnessing such inconceivable events.
Everyone on the ground watched silently, unable to say a thing as the feat was carried out in front of their eyes.
With the press of a button, the spear detached from the string and the built-in propellers within it sent it speeding with a roar into the upper portion of the crystal. Although it was much different hitting a specific target while in the air, the movements had been so ingrained within Lucius' body that missing didn't even seem like a possibility to him as he took his shot. Surely enough, the point of the pole dug deep into the side of the crystal overlooking the land. With a terrible explosion following a brief lapse of silence as the weapon dug deep, a sound of shattering glass caused both the land and sky to shudder.
Time seemed to stop as the remaining crystal seemed to splinter and sublimate in a chain reaction to the destruction. With the work done, the old man dropped down, his back to the crowd as he faced the mouth of the tree that once stood. Out of the wreckage, a body soon emerged.
"Protect Fen." That was the goal in mind that served as the catalyst for the transformation. With the hazy feeling of having done so, withered by the feeling of waking, Boro's still-steaming body weakly watched as one of the men stepped toward him.
Breaking away a sheet of compromised crystal, Kent grabbed the weakened Fen by the scuff, holding the animal around the neck so it couldn't bite him, before taking his sheathed knife to the dog and keeping his foot against the semi-conscious child.
"Hey! What if he—" cried Sid, vaguely defending his body with his arms while backing away slightly.
"Lucius." muttered Kent, barely able to hide the panic in his voice. "If you don't kill him now, I will. We have to do something before he tries to do whatever that was again!"
"He shouldn't be able to transform again so soon. Especially not after his first time." said Lucius, rubbing the shoulder that shot the lightning spear.
"So there's nothing to worry about." said Kent, moving to point the knife downward at Boro, who was glancing at the weapon with half-open eyes. "We kill him now!"
Lucius' hand moved upwards to rub his neck. He breathed out, sighing to the side. "Mm. Yeah, we could do that." he said in a half nod. He pulled something out from behind him: it was sleek, thin, compact, and the black finish had blended it in perfectly with the rest of the gear. He pointed it at Kent. "Or, you could let down the dog and step away from Boro."
"Are you crazy…?" said Kent, eyes widening in a half-whisper.
The silence of the stand-off was broken by another click, this time behind Lucius. Dan stood close behind so that the muzzle of the gun was almost flat against the man's silver hair. "You sound like you have some idea of whatever's going on here."
"Dan!" said Sid, now gripping his weapon too. Sweat dripped down his nervous disposition as he felt the deadlock threaten to shatter at any moment. It was the second time today that he felt like everything might go wrong— an emotion he wasn't used to at all.
"Hey now," said Lucius, unfazed, "I thought we were joining hands or whatever."
"We are." said Dan, coolly, "As soon as you tell us everything you know, friend."
"Fair enough." said Lucius, looking up at the disintegrating crystal. His mouth widened into a grin and he laughed. Dan moved the gunpoint closer, but Lucius took his time. "I didn't believe it either. Thought it was all a hoax— a waste of time. All until today." He turned to face Dan, who swallowed, trying to maintain composure. "This is known as 'the power of the titans.'"
"What the hell does that mean?" asked Dan.
"I'm not quite sure myself, to be honest." Lucius pointed at Boro. "I think he's the one to ask."
"What?" said Kent, still holding the knife to the boy. Sid looked at the child as well, still heavily on the defensive.
TWING!
The forest was filled with the ring of metal hitting metal at supersonic speeds.
"FUCK!" someone shouted. The gun in Dan's hands had been raised upward to the sky. Suspicious stares danced around the field.
"Did you shoot?!" screamed Sid, who now had his machete out in the open.
"No! It wasn't me!"
Meanwhile, the knife was no longer in Kent's hand. Fen had escaped, fleeing from his captor who was clutching his now-empty hand, reeling from the shock and sheer impact. A small billow of smoke was rising out of the mouth of Lucius' pistol. "Gotcha."
"Lucius— "
"Old man, you— !!"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Four shots were fired into the sky silently by Lucius, sweeping a strange calm over the group. Despite his earlier tone, his eyes didn't bare a shred of kindness. "This is my decision, Kenton. There is one more bullet in this gun. If I have to use it, I will."
Suddenly, Lucius was twisted around violently by the collar and made to face Sid, who was very unused to being so on the sidelines. "Hey, what the heck was that!" On account of all the strangeness he had come across today, he had deferred to the role of voiceless observer for some time, but he could take it no longer.
"Don't worry," said Lucius, keeping the gun and his empty hand between them, "I don't have any more bullets to shoot with except for the one."
"That's not— don't you get it? How… how have you survived this long?! Don't you get it? People are going to come to investigate all the sound, and you just keep— "
Lucius made a shushing sound, bringing a finger to his mouth. "We won't need to worry about that too much." he said, pointing to Boro, who finally seemed to be coming to. As what could only be a natural reaction to the situation, his body stood itself up slowly as it regained the capacity to do so. "Besides, I think having people come here wouldn't be so bad of an idea, actually."
Breaking away from Sid's grip and stepping past the flustered Kent, who was still paralyzed from the aftermath of the altercation, Luicus put his hand on Boro's shoulder. His grip was firm, yet uncharacteristically gentle. It was a strange, almost unsettling feeling that thrust Boro out of his sleeplike state.
"Boro. Do you remember what you just did?"
Boro stared off, away from the group— past Lucius, at something he was still questioning to be real or not. Kent saw the child's gaze wander far away from him, gritting his teeth as he held himself back.
"I… I think so." said Boro, blinking slowly. He looked around. Sid and Dan were watching him at a distance, gripping their weapons tightly, fully fixed onto him. Kent had his hands at his side, formed into fists. Fen was watching closely, now safe, wagging his tail with an eager rhythm. He looked to Lucius, who was still by his side. "What's going on?"
"As you can see, we've joined forces." said Lucius with a smile. The others had no response, but held their stances wordlessly.
As Boro processed that statement, looking over the group again, something caught his attention. "Is that…?"
Jon's still body lay in the distance where it had been left.
"Ah…" said Lucius, putting his head down. "... that's a little something that happened a little early on, but we're all past that." He looked toward Kent, who was biting his trembling lip, the rest of his expression hidden behind a hat.
"That bastard," said Sid, spitting, "he's long dead now. Cut him through every disgusting layer of fat he's got."
"No… he's still alive. Just barely." said Boro, staring intently at the body.
"What?" asked Sid, doing a double-take.
"There's something…" Boro spoke slowly with uncertainty, taking a step toward the body. "…something I can do…" He raised his hand toward the half-corpse.
Sid drew his blade instinctively but was waved away by Lucius, who watched the scene with quiet interest.
As a wave of heavy smoke emanated from the pores of Boro's outstretched hand and drifted down toward Jon, carried by a wisp of wind, Fen let out a low, feral growl, but was held still by Lucius, still entranced by the event.
"Stay silent, dog." he muttered under his breath.
What seemed like a fruitless effort was suddenly interrupted by the violent contortion of the body, in which Jon arched backward in an impossible angle, opening his eyes and mouth as if to let out a primal scream, before they were filled with an unnatural, blinding light.
When the luminescence subsided, a hulking giant was kneeling still before Boro. It was roughly seven meters tall, given its stance. It had inward, small, almost non-existent facial features, with its small caved-in eyes, flat nose, and a few pathetic patches of hair, except for the mouth, which bore a set of tall, jagged teeth, permanently extended outward from its thin lips.
"I-It's a monster!" yelled Dan, taking aim with his rifle and firing toward the titanized Jon. The bullet ripped through the close side of its face, dislodging an inhumanly large eye and ripping chunks of flesh and bone matter from the body and strewing the ground with them.
"What are you doing?!" yelled Sid, followed by Lucius, grabbing the gun away while looking back at the titan, "don't go antagonizing that thing!"
Fortunately, the titan didn't show any signs of retaliation, instead standing still without emotion despite the damage it had taken.
"My God…" said Kent, with eyes wide and his mouth hung open.
There were no words that could be said by the men, looking on as the giant creature remained motionless and slowly regrew its missing parts with a steady inward gust of steam. The bloody bits on the dirt were already sublimating into the air.
Dan broke the silence. "C- Can you control that thing…?"
Boro looked back without giving a reply, but after a few seconds, gave a slight nod and looked back at Jon.
"Please pick up all the broken wood back there and put it all in one pile." said the boy, pointing back at the wreckage of the giant tree where he had just been. Receiving his command, without a second glance at the child, the titan made its way over to the location of its goal, paying no mind to the shocked faces watching it.
While Sid, Dan, and Kent were frozen in place, Boro looked back and called out to Fen, who recognized the voice and dashed towards his friend after the briefest hesitation. The dog was followed by Lucius, who looked at the titan with the faintest of smiles before looking back at Boro.
"Well," he said, partly to those men behind him as well, "shall we speak of the future?"
Hello readers,
I'm very sorry for the sudden break. I've spent the past few weeks going back to the source material, and have been just so engrossed by the beautiful worldbuilding and general development. At the same time, I've been a bit concerned if the level of planning I had could result in a product I'd be proud to put out there.
With that, I've spent some time unwinding, fleshing out plot directions and characters, looking through the relevant source materials, and even drafting a few maps of locations (which I plan to make relevant soon!)
I've gotten busier with life things recently, but hopefully, I can upload more consistently and tell the story I want to tell, and hopefully the one you all wish to read.
Thank you all again for your support,
-Pondue
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