After I finished my pathetic whine I wiped my tears and got up “Let go back to the village” I said to Brandon and walked off in the direction of the village. Brandon doesn’t respond and follows suit with Athena on his back.

The entire walk back we had been completely silent, which was perfect for me as I didn’t want to talk much.

Night had come over us and it had turned completely dark. I could hardly see anything. However, this caused my other senses to heighten as I relied on them more, my sense of touch had been especially strong when Brandon suddenly put his hand in front of my stomach stopping me in my tracks.

“Take her,” Brandon says handing me Athena's sleeping body.

“What's going on?” I ask

“Ghost flies,” Brandon explains

“I’ll put you in a-” I cut him off “Can I watch?” I ask.

He looks at me a bit puzzled “It’s not safe here” he says

“You’ve got to protect you’re sister”

“I’m not the one protecting my sister- rather I can’t protect my sister. ” I respond; frustration at my weakness present within my voice.

“Can you put her in a ball by herself? I want to watch” I beg the man.

Brandon doesn’t answer “Please” I plead causing him to break “Fine, put her down,” he says

I put gently put down Athena. Then Brandon pulls out a seed from a pouch attached to his waist and puts it on top of Athena “Back up” he orders and I oblige backing away from my sister when the seed starts sprouting and enwrapping Athena into a ball and digging into the earth.

“Thank you” I give my appreciation.

“It’s fine, but I need you to hide behind that rock before it gets dangerous,” he says pointing in the dark.

“Okay, got it” I agree and aimlessly walk in the direction Brandon points to until I feel a large piece of rubble. I follow the edge of the boulder until halfway through I hear a sound reminiscent of a tea kettle and crackling.

I look towards the noise and see a star moving in the sky over the horizon. As the noise got louder, the star started getting larger and losing its form making it appear much more wispy than before.

“Hurry!” Brandon yells.

I start rushing towards the other side of the boulder, watching my step as I move. I looked back and I noticed a blotch of white light in the sky. It hadn’t been the stars, as the blotch of light had been moving in erratically almost as if it were shaking. I could tell immediately that the blotch had been the swarm encroaching on our position.

A few seconds later the wispy swarm was becoming much more distinguishable with each passing second. Finally, the swarm had come so close that the light emitted from the hive provided enough light to light a stadium. Thanks to that I no longer needed to watch my step. I took that opportunity full sprint to the back of the boulder where I watched the battle take place.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

After taking my position behind the rock I began to witness what would be what I would soon come to discover as the most beautiful representation of strength I would ever see.

The swarm had taken position right above Brandon; they were blitzing around as they surrounded their prey just waiting to pounce.

Brandon had seemed calm despite being at the epicenter of the swarm. The swarm at the distance it was at now was ear-piercingly loud; the clacking of their wings reverberated throughout my entire body shaking my very bones. However, it had no noticeable effect on Brandon.

Nobody was making any noticeable movements; Brandon seemed to be waiting for something, while the swarm was just blitzing around aimlessly in a miniature moon of insects above Brandon.

Suddenly the crackling stopped and was soon replaced with the high-pitched noise of a tea kettle nearly bursting my ear drums. The ghost flies burst into formation circling Brandon and forming a tornado of red dirt blocking me from seeing anything meaningful.

I watched intently as the tornado of red and white continued spinning around the now non-visible Brandon.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Ear-piercingly loud explosions emanated from the tornado as ghost flies pieced in and out of the tornado.

Is he alive? I find myself doubting Brandon; the ghost flies have provided a grand display of their abilities and from what I could see they were one-sidedly pummeling Brandon, not that I could see what state Brandon was in, but the fact that he had not counterattacked this entire time had been concerning.

As quickly as my doubts came they faded when a giant tree trunk emerged from the hurricane and swept against the rotation of the hurricane instantly flattening a whole barrage of ghost flies and blasting them into the ground where they would bounce past me at insane speeds as if they were stones bouncing against the water.

Brandon’s cross-rotational attack helped disperse the whole hurricane allowing me to see the fight now much more clearly.

Brandon had once again become visible, and he seemed fine and had no visible injuries on him.

The Flies promptly got back into formation and the battle had begun once more. The flies shot themselves at Brandon in sporadic and unpredictable ways to catch him off guard. However, Brandon seemed to be holding his own as he dodged all the bullet-like attacks.

As Brandon dodged he would counterattack. Brandon grabs a seed from his pouch and tosses it into the swarm of flies. The seed manifested as a tree; piercing all the flies in its path with its branches creating an image of an ethereal tree with white wisps for flowers.

The dance between Brandon and the flies continued, as Brandon gracefully dodged the fierce and straight attack from the flies, returning with sweeping attacks of tree trunks that seamlessly followed the flow of his dance and trees that would pierce hundreds of flies simultaneously.

Brandon continued sprouting trees to pierce the ghost flies creating a unique ecosystem of wispy white ethereal trees and white flowy flowers amongst the shiny chitin outer shells of all the bugs that had remained lifeless amongst the dirt.

The once-empty field had turned into an ethereal springtime.

After the battle had finished and as the light of life emanating from the ghost-flies began to flicker away the last thing I saw was Brandon’s silhouette standing victoriously at the epicenter of the fading white flowers and wispy trees. Everything that had once held life was being wistfully carried off in the gentle wind.

The scene had been truly beautiful as if it were straight out of a fairy tale. I couldn’t help but be moved by the amount of inexplicable feelings I felt watching that battle.

The absolute power of these two opponents going head to head; the fluidity of Brandon’s movements narrowly dodging each of the flies’ bullet-like speeds and counter-attacking with the destructive power likely surpassing a wrecking ball. And the sheer devastating power that came from the flies’ sharp and quick attacks.

I could only describe the scene I had witnessed as indescribably beautiful.