Dimensional Warriors: Metudo's Story Chapter 4

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Enjoy the new chapter! Comment and criticism is welcome!

As I pushed myself against the tree, trying to make myself a smaller target, my brother and my teacher faced the creature down. The wind brushed the treetops, lifting loose leaves from their branches. In that same second Anatos moved. He was fast, absurdly so. Not even a few days ago, the morning of the event, the most intensive exercise he managed was some light swimming.

With blinding speed rammed the staff's watery pointy ends into the enemy. Before the target could react he swung down with an overhead swing. It melted away, reforming behind him. He spun, bringing the staff into the center of the creature. It shuddered a moment, and reached out towards Anatos. He pulled back rapidly, skidding along the ground before he could regain footing.

He steadied himself, preparing his next attack. However the moment he moved, he face seemed to drain of color, and he began to fall. The creature took advantage of the moment, and moved to strike. I remember screaming, but it felt like the world had been muted; just a ringing in my ears, overlapped by a steady, dull, thump. I felt, rather than saw a dozen stones fly away from me, trying to halt the creature. Yet in that last second, crimson covered the forest floor.

“Sorry, Metudo.” Master stood over Anatos' still form; a tendril writhing around on the other side of his ribcage. I was still moving forward but my mind was working again. “Come on you bastard. Eat all you want, I'm not on your diet plan.” He yelled suddenly, turning to face the amorphous creature. I reached my brother's still body, lifting him out of the way; but I didn't stop watching the old man. Blood was slowly staining his cloak. Yet as he stood there the tendril began to swell, turning to an ugly violet hue. The swelling rapidly ran its way towards the central body. This only lasted a few seconds before the Beast literally exploded.

Master slowly removed the half tendril remaining from his chest cavity; causing more blood to hit the ground.

“Don't you'll bleed out.” I said, placing my brother down and moving to stop him. He halted me with his hand.

“My foresight isn't too good on when, how though... Well that's a different story.” He grinned weakly at me and sat down with an audible plop. “And so Metudo, I give you my gift, I give you my curse. I trust you will use it as I did. Save as many as you can from this grim fate.” With force he planted his cane into the ground, he was smiling at me. Seconds later a violet light seeped up through the ground forming a circle around me and him. The light held for a moment, forming letters in some ancient language. Then it began to spin; rising higher, forming a dome around us. I felt a pressure fill the air. Then a flash of light behind my eyes. Like my brain had suddenly tried to jump out. I couldn't see.

Then there was a ball, pure, white, like a piece of lint; floating against the darkness. I watched it, as it moved around, in a slow floating gaunt around me. Then it stopped, and grew larger. It spun, faster and faster, as it did it took on color and grew. Blues, greens, browns, whites, oceans, continents. Earth. Then I felt like I was falling, faster and faster; and I stopped. I was hovering above the forest clearing, yet at the same time I was laying on the ground, asleep. Suddenly the form on the ground exhaled a large ball of white. Then the body became pale; like a corpse. I felt it to, the breath stopped in my throat, the steady beat of my heart, suddenly these things stopped. I didn't need them anymore. My eyes caught the little ball my body had exhaled, I was dragged to it as it span. Once again it gained color, this time a planet unrecognizable, with reds, browns, golds. It hung there, growing larger. Then it began to turn gray, and shrunk, died. But as it did another ball was released. This one became a strange planet, and I was again pulled onto it. Again I found my body, my corpse. Its hair had turned violet, it looked flush, alive. I felt myself drawn towards it.

I shot up, breathing rapidly.

“It's alright, you're fine now.” I heard Anatos' voice, then a swarm of other thoughts, clogging my head. I felt like a truck had hit me; and I laid back down, trying to fight the sounds. Then one lifted itself above the others.

“Calm your mind.” Its tone, soft, soothing. As I focused on it, the others became faint, distant. Soon my head was clear, I could hear the night sky.

“What happened?” I asked groggily.

“Not sure what it's called, but it's kind of like being reborn, right?” Anatos said. “You saw some weird things right?”

“Yeah, like a cycle of some sort. It didn't make much sense though. Like the birth and death of planets. No larger than that even. Urrg, My head is killing me.” I placed pressure on my temples as I tried to subdue the pain.

“Well if it was anything like what happened to me, that's now your natural hair color.” Anatos said, sounding like he was trying to suppress a giggle.

“Great, I look like an anime character.” I said sarcastically, as I started looking through the old man's bags, hoping against hope he had pain pills. Unfortunately my search proved fruitless, and I collapsed to the ground, enjoying the feel of the cool earth beneath me.

“I guess we'll sleep here tonight.” Anatos said, pulling aside one of the tents in the old man's pack.

“What happened to you?” I asked as I heard Anatos putting together the tent.

“Well I was in a bad state when I woke up. But an old guy came by and saved me. He carried me for most of a day while that beast thing chased us. But it looked like he killed it, he was wounded though, and I was getting much worse. So he did this weird ritual thing, and there was a lot of light, and suddenly I was... like this.” He said the last part as he grabbed his now blue hair.

“And you got a staff that turns into some sort of larger staff made of water.”

“Actually, I think the water is controlled by me. I just made it a larger staff because it was the first thing I could think of.” I chuckled lightly. It hurt to laugh. “You gonna sleep like that? Or do you need help building your tent.?” Anatos asked.

“I'll move, I'll move.” I said, slowly shifting myself to my feet. As I did I felt infinitely better. Like my body was a hundred pounds lighter. I moved swiftly, piecing it together. My head still hurt a little, but as I focused on the task at hand the pain eased up, and soon I was done. I laid out the bag and realized I had been sitting on the old man's traveling cloak. The blood stains were gone, but the cuts remained. I took it, placing it over me as a blanket.

“Night.”

“Good night.”

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