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Chapter 4
By the time Astreryl made it to the
town, the orange mushrooms had been completely wiped out by the advanced
Hunters. She ran past J Man while he ran the other way, toward the giant orange
mushroom on the beach, in order to help Schimmel and Raquen.
J Man came to see Raquen still holding off the mushroom with
the flat of his blade up against it, pushing it away. He was struggling now, he
probably wouldn't last another minute or so. J Man snuck up behind the mushroom
and took out his dagger. He stabbed his dagger through its back and ripped it
out upwards with a jump. While in midair, he kicked off from the wound he made
in its back and ended up a few feet away with a clean landing.
The mushroom felt the sharp surge of pain from J Man's attack
and it was left weak for a second. Raquen used this to his advantage and hit it
back with all his strength. It fell back on the ground in pain.
J Man and Raquen looked at each other, then back at the
mushroom. J Man figured it was safe, but wanted one last stab at it to make
sure. He stepped up to its back and watched as he noticed the wound healing
over.
"What the hell? Hey, watch out man! That thing isn't
gonna die so easy!" J Man called to Raquen as the mushroom suddenly jumped
up and hit J Man, who landed on his back a few feet away with a yell of pain and
a soft thud from landing in the sand.
It turned back toward Raquen, its wound completely healed now.
Raquen decided the obvious thing to do was to run toward SouthPerry with it
following him. He couldn't fight it here for risk of the two knocked out kids,
and Astreryl should have gotten someone to come beat this thing by now, so he
may as well bring it to them.
Astreryl looked around SouthPerry, the advanced Hunters were
all getting on the boat to head back to Victoria.
"Wait!' she yelled after them, "There's one more! A
big one, you have to come help! Two people are in trouble!"
She stood near the boat, which was about to leave, as one of
the Hunters stepped up. He looked to be a Warrior class. He had a badge on his
shirt that displayed the number '52', "Alright, I'll wait for the next
boat," he said, "Take me to it young miss."
Raquen was now running along the beach toward SouthPerry,
getting himself to go as fast as he could go. He quickly found out that it was
really fast. It was gaining on him and he was losing strength.
"Come on Astreryl..." he thought to himself.
Distracted for the split second by the thought, he tripped in the sand and fell
over on his side. He tried to get up, but couldn't get up in time. The mushroom
landed on his legs and smashed them, making a cracking sound. He yelled in pain
and couldn't feel his legs anymore. He tried to ignore it and drew his sword,
slashing at it to get it off. He only made slash marks in it, which healed
quickly afterwards.
He looked up and it's eyes looked down into his, they were
glowing again. It was going for the finishing blow, but stopped to look up when
it heard a scream.
"Raquen-kun!" Astreryl was yelling, "Help him,
please!" she called out desperately to the Warrior.
"No problems, Miss," he said calmly. He ran towards
it and tackled it off of Raquen with ease. He landed with a roll while the
mushroom landed perfectly and lunged back at him. He got up from his roll and
thrust his sword at the incoming mushroom. The mushroom ran into his held out
sword and the Warrior drove it in further. He held it up in the air with the
blade through it.
"Final Power Strike!" he yelled as he slammed it
into the ground with a powerful slash and spun around with another downward
slash, further pounding it into the ground. The mushroom faded away, defeated.
He walked over to Astreryl and Raquen, Raquen was still injured on the ground
and couldn't get up. Astreryl was on her knees next to him.
"You guys okay there? That was a pretty rough critter,
don't usually find Mushmoms 'round here," he said to Astreryl and Raquen,
"Seems you were lucky that pretty young one came and got me or ya woulda
been trampled by the thing, eh?"
"Good ol' Astreryl, saving me again," he chuckled
with a thumbs up. Astreryl smiled at him, he had that sense of humour in the
strangest of times. His face suddenly went void of humour though and went to
serious, "Hey, those other two guys are over there two. They were both
knocked out in the fight against it."
"Two more? You guys were really trying to beat it up
good, eh? Well..." he said, picking up Raquen under his arm, "I'll
take this guy and one other guy down there. Can you take one of'em, Miss?"
"I think so, I'll try," she said as she headed down
the beach with the Warrior as he carried Raquen along. They got to where
Schimmel and J Man were knocked out in the sand.
The Warrior walked up to J Man and picked him up under his
other arm, "Alright Miss, I'll come back if you can't carry the other one
back to the town. I'll put these guys in the Cleric's House, and you bring that
guy there too, alright?"
"Um, okay," she said as she nodded. She looked down
at the unconcious Schimmel and wondered how to carry him. She decided to pick
him up the best she knew how to pick anyone up. She put one of his arms around
her shoulders and one of her arms around his back as she dragged him along the
beach toward SouthPerry.
Schimmel's eyes slowly opened to see that he was moving,
"Uhh.... Wha...? Whe-" he tried to look around to see what was going
on and looked up to see some girl carrying him. She looked down at him and
dropped him suddenly.
"Ah, oh, oops. Sorry, you surprised me," she said,
stepping back a step from him.
"Uh... ouch..." he mumbled in the sand. He tried to
roll over on his back but felt a sharp pain all through one of his legs and
rolled back over on his face, "Ack! Damn, I remember now... that giant
orange mushroom... but how...?"
"A Warrior Hunter came and defeated it for us. He saved
our lives," she said to him.
"Ah, okay... tell him I said thanks..." he still
sort of moaned his words as the pain in his leg was pulsing badly.
"You're injured, the Warrior told me to take you to the
Cleric's House. Please let me take you, I don't want either of us to get
attacked by monsters while we're out here, " Astreryl explained as she
stepped up to his side, lifted him up, grabbed his arm and put it around her
shoulders, and held onto his back to carry him again.
Schimmel was barely concious as Astreryl entered the Cleric's
House and laid him down on one of the beds. The Warrior was watching the Cleric
of the house heal Raquen and J Man back to health.
"Ah, great, he needs healin' too Miss, if you don't mind.
Another victim of the darn Mushmom's attack," he explained, "They
actually put up a decent fight against it. Usually it would have beat them down
a lot quicker than it did," he continued as the Cleric began a healing
spell being cast on the three of them.
"What's your name, Miss?" he asked.
"Astreryl. The boy here told me to tell you he said
thanks for rescuing him," Astreryl said.
"Ah, so he woke up on the way, did he? Alright, I'll talk
to him when he gets up. Shouldn't be too long now. This Cleric here's an expert
if I do say so myself. Just look'a'that, her badge shows a dazzling 72," he
smiled at the Cleric.
"Um, what exactly does the badge mean?" Astreryl
asked him.
"Ah, why it shows the power level of the person as a
Hunter. The longer you've trained in the class, the higher the number gets and
the more your power grows. It takes a very long time to reach a power level of
72 like hers though, you really have to work at it," he explained, just as
the three woke up simultaneously.
J Man jumped out of the bed and drew his knife, "Where is
it?" he yelled. He looked around to see where he was and quickly put his
knife back, "Oh, oops."
The Warrior laughed, "It's gone now. You can rest in
peace, everyone that was involved is safe. In fact, you're all up for insant
promotion to Hunter rank!"
They all jumped at this. Raquen asked, "How did we manage
to pull that one off?"
The Warrior laughed again, "You survived against that
beast as long as you did, and I'm recommending you to start as Hunters
immediately. All you need is the okay from me and you're all set," he said,
taking out four slips of paper from his pocket and handing one to each of them.
"They're handwritten passes from me. Just give them that and they'll know I
sent you guys."
Raquen and Schimmel both got out of bed slowly, afraid they
might have the pain come back. Surprisingly, none came. That Cleric must have
been pretty powerful. The four of them thanked the Cleric and Warrior for their
services and went out to the docks to wait for the boat to Victoria to come
back. Schimmel was the last one to head outside, but the Warrior behind him
nudged his arm and sat him in a corner, both of them sitting in two chairs
facing each other.
"Now you listen to me... I saw that." he said
quickly
"Eh? Saw what?" Schimmely asked, confused.
"That star mark... on the back of your hand."
"Oh, I've had that since birth, what about it?"
"Hm... you haven't felt strange ever? Like a strange
feeling you've never felt before just come over you?"
"Uhh... like indigestion?"
"No... like a power. Like a strange force just seems to
come over you and you feel like you want to control it but can't. Something like
that."
Schimmel thought back to alot of times he felt that. He
remembered a few quite clear. One time his favorite toy as a child was stolen
and that sensation had come over him. Another time when he was being bullied by
Alex, the Mayor's son in Henesys. The most recent time... right before he had
been knocked out against the Mushmom earlier.
"Yeah, a few times... but how did you know?"
Schimmel asked.
"Oh no... this is bad.... Listen to me. I want you to
make good friends with those three and any others that may come by. I want you
to eventually form a guild with all your friends and have a good life. Just for
the love of Pete... don't let anything turn you over the wrong side. Keep doing
what you think is right." the Warrior almost sounded desperate in his
voice.
Schimmel didn't know what to say besides, "Uh... okay
then, I guess."
"Good, go catch up with them then, don't want you to miss
the boat 'cause of me," he said as he stood up and lead Schimmel out to the
boat.
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