A Routine “Break” 3

“Here, your equipment is in my bag; come grab your own along with your gemstone quickly. Unfortunately for us we ain’t got our weapons here and we do not have the time now to return to our rooms, so we’ll deal with them with what we have.”, Shegnor said in a rush while zipping his green bag open.

Everyone gave a look of relief toward Shegnor’s position and hurriedly put their hands in the bag’s insides. Each got their personal gemstone and supporting gear accompanying it and placed it on its corresponding spot.

Rosa took a Garnet and placed it in her right-hand bracelet and the scribblings inscribed on it lit up making Rosa momentarily feel like her soul was slurping away from her body and being placed on the gemstone.

Everyone experienced the same feeling. Auriel with her jet-black Tourmaline which was placed in a choker, Sherice with her sea-colored Aquamarine and her left-hand bracelet, Zan with his violet Lapis Lazuli equipped on a right-hand black glove, Shegnor with a pale pink Feldspar placed in his glasses, and lastly, Chie with her white Moonstone equipped in a left-foot bracelet.

“Doesn’t matter if we don’t have our weapons, they will be gone in a matter of minutes.”, Auriel said while taking a pose like she was getting ready to run a race.

“Auriel, wait! Rosa you too as well. We can’t risk putting you in front without your knife, and we shouldn’t let Rosa unleash her spiritual powers if not necessary, because otherwise the trees will be burnt along with them.”

“Tsch, Zan’s right. If we can handle them without burning the whole place down it’s preferable.”, Rosa said in a kind of bummed-out voice.

Chie listened patiently to them the whole time and responded to Rosa’s last words.

“It’s alright you guys, leave it to me and just back me up when you can 🎶”

Everyone nodded and run at a higher pace toward the pine tree area while assuming what was like a battle formation with Zan and Chie in front, Shegnor and Sherice behind them, and Rosa with Auriel at the back.

When they reached the place they heard a distinct voice, they saw 3 pale figures with a big hole on their face-areas surrounding what seemed a shaking man with his back on a pine tree and a disfigured body covered entirely in red beside him.

“P-p-please, d-don’t hurt me.”

At that moment, sharp javelin-shaped glasses landed at the place of one Regretter eradicating it into thin white-colored smoke that headed toward the now orange sky.

“One’s down! Two to go!”, Shegnor uttered with bravado.

The other two figures turned their holed heads in the direction the javelins came from and let out an immerse scream toward them from the opening in their faces.

In defense of that, a big glass cubicle was formed along with a shade of the same shape that covered Zan and everyone.

“We didn’t make it in time…Fuck!”

“We can still save the man at least. Let me and Shegnor undo our barriers and at that time Chie can unleash her attack.”

“I am already on it! Just say the word and they are dust 🎶”

Chie had her two open palms close to each other and made circular moves with them like amassing power. In the space between her two hands, a light blue sphere was formed. She then looked at Zan and Shegnor and nodded.

“GO!”, Zan shouted from the bottom of his lung.

At his command, both barriers went down and a light blue spiritual beam got fired at the Reggretters’ place, covering the area they were both in.

“AHHHHH!”

Both figures screamed and vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of their existence behind them. Rosa walked in front of everyone and turned her eyes at Chie with her right hand on her chin.

“No matter how many times I see it, I am still amazed by your powers Chie. It must have really taken you a long time to master spirit manipulation to make it pure spiritual energy. We all must have it easy possessing a specific characteristic our spiritual powers turn into in comparison to you that is just pure energy.”

“Haha, I wouldn’t say I have mastered this yet, Rosa. But, yeah, I am still awesome as is 🎶”

Everyone let an exaggerated sigh at Chie’s words while pacing toward the man.

“M-my wife… We only wanted to make one simple leisure trip…”, the man said while looking at the dismembered body next to him. At that sight, a stream of tears gushed down through his eyes while he averted his look in the opposite direction, holding his mouth like he was ready to puke.

Everyone closed their eyes and placed their heads down in a prayer-like manner.

At that moment —

*Clap, clap, clap* “Wh a t a spl e ndid show you ha ve gi ven”

“Look out!”

Sherice, being the first to notice a dark beam coming at their side, formed a large water wall in front of everyone. The dark force crushed the tree and the man sitting in front of it and landed on the water wall.

“Wuh! I can’t hold much longer guys, leave!”

Auriel, at Sherice’s words, immediately touched everyone’s back and they all suddenly dodged at a faster speed than normal on their left and right, evading the dark energy that surpassed the water wall in the meantime.

“We let our guard down.”, said Auriel while looking at the second dismembered human in front of her.

“You both…nice save…Are you all alright?”, said Zan while patting who was now lying on the floor after the quick maneuver he did.

“I am not sure we would get out without Auriel’s speed increase…But, why on Arcadion is there a Despairer lurking here too?”

From the tree’s punctured area, a murky figure could be seen.

“A ra? I did n’t ki ll th e m?”

“Like hell you did! Auriel! Give me another boost!”, Zan shouted at Auriel’s position and she immediately touched herself and closed her and Zan’s distance in a split second, touching his elbow from behind in the meantime.

“Get this beast.”

Zan formed 3 shade arrows in one circular motion of his right hand and unleashed them toward the dark figure.

“You’ll pay for this!”

The shadowy figure exerted dark energy in his surroundings and thwarted the 3 arrows coming at it. But then, Zan emerged from the tree’s shadow that was lying next to it with a shade knife and pierced the Despairer from the back.

“I, I…”

The Despairer, before uttering any other word, became black smoke that evaporated in the air.

“Why can’t we or any other human find solace even in places like this…”, Sherice murmured at the smoke’s sight.

“That’s how this world operates. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“Let’s give these 2 at least a proper burial here.”, Rosa added at Auriel’s speech with a sympathetic tone.

Zan came back to their place, and with Shegnor’s help, they dug a big hole near the cracked tree to put the two bodies in.

After that, the group decided to return to the peaceful beach, now covered entirely by the moon’s pale colors, and try to take their minds off the recent fight.

This is a side story featuring the main cast from my work-in-progress novel, "In The Ashes of Forgiveness", originally published on Medium.

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