The calm breeze of wind, the birds chirping, the beetles buzzing their wings, the sounds of small critters chattering, chattering enough to lull John into a deep sleep…
A dark surrounding of unknown size. For all he knew, this void was as tiny as a small box, or as large as the largest buildings. The only illumination inside this dream world was his body, which shined brightly through the darkness. He frantically looked around, searching for something or someone that was also illuminated in the endless sea of black.
“Five.” A man’s voice whispered in his ear. It was also soft, like a father calmly reminding his children.
He turned to the right, no, no one there. However, he saw 4 silhouettes. These silhouettes levitated and bopped up and down. Each one was outlined and highlighted with a different color that was just as illuminated as his body. He had no idea what was going on.
“The five aspects.” The voice boomed out again.
Oh, did I mention his name’s John? John Bayani, to be exact. He’s a 15 year old living in the fantastical nation known as Slamerica. If you ask me, he’s prime material for a main character… Oh, right, he IS a main character, isn’t he?
John awoke feeling confused about what he saw. Why in an empty void? What was with those outlines? And who even was speaking that voice?
“What… What the heck was that?” John exclaimed; he shook his head. He saw his face on the windows in his bedroom. Olive skin, green eyes, and short spiky brown hair. He took a deep breath and left his bed. He put on a brown tunic, dressed himself in some blue, baggy pants, and set out.
In the kitchen, his mother greeted him with a plate full of juicy, roasted pork. The aroma was savory yet sweet, and it was too much for John to resist. He sat down and rapidly ate it like a lion devouring its prey. Uh, I know that made John seem like a brute, but bare (or is it bear?) with me.
“Hey, Johnny, you slept in pretty hard… You better go quick before you’re late for your day at the Academy!” His mother said. She had long, straight, caramel hair, and her calm smile always soothed John when he was younger.
“Oh, you’re right, I should get going.” John said, and as he quickly paced over to the front door, his father stood up in the direction of John to stop him.
“Hey, son, I know you might be a little stressed to go to school without us. But we want you to know one of these days, you’ll have to manage yourself. It might be hard, but you’ll eventually find a group of people that you confidently refer to as family. Do you get that?”
“Wha- What are you saying?”
John’s father sighed deeply before crouching down to face John.
“I’m saying, if your dad or your mom were ever to leave your life, we want you to be strong, we want you to know how to handle yourself. Make any sense?”
Yeesh, talk about subtle foreshadowing.
“Hmm, I think.”
“Great, you have a good day. Make yourself a friend.”
His dad patted his head, stepping to the side to let John walk out.
With a swing of his arms, he opened the fuzzy wooden door. Stepping out, he could see the blades of grass dancing on the dirt, the wind rushing busily through his body and face. He could see the vast peaks of mountains in the distance. Trees with lush green leaves scattered all over the place like seasoning.
Crack, crack..
“What the?” John exclaimed as he heard footsteps from some bushes. From the corner of his eye, he swore he saw a big horn emerging from the shrubs, but when he turned to face whatever he saw…
Silence. Silence was the only thing that met John, silence and the grunt of a frightened boar retreating off into the shrubbery. John simply shrugged after scratching his hair with a finger, assuming he was just hearing things.
John walked from his home on the hill and began to walk towards the academy. Of course, it was a far distance, so he decided to think of a way to reach the academy quicker. He stared at the ground below him, put two and two together, and an idea sparked in his head.
“You’re so clever, me.” John muttered to himself.
John placed his hand on the ground. The earth shook and trembled violently. A large wall of stone rose out of the ground, growling and rumbling. John quickly turned his wrists, rotating the wall from being vertical to a horizontal platform that levitated in the air.
John lowered the slab and hopped on top of it, pointing his right finger forward. The large platform raised itself, and began to fly, in a sense. It sped through the air, and John could feel all the wind blitzing, weaving through the strands of his hair. He could see the academy building in the bustling village known as “Smallroot Town” below. He pointed his left index finger to an area just outside of the town’s front gate. The town was relatively big: it was in a flat grassy field, with a lake of clear water next to it.
John descended on the area and got off his platform. He snapped his fingers, and the platform lost its life in a screeching halt, falling and making an audible “thud” sound. He saw the two tall guards standing and keeping a vigilant watch. They were so good at their job, you’d be forgiven for mistaking them as statues with them literally not flinching at a two ton wall falling down just meters away.
RING…. RING… RING….
“Don’t want to be late,” John said to himself.
At the school, John settled down in a room full of rowdy classmates. They all were showing their recently obtained powers, some showcased lightning, some presented ice, others showed off slime. John simply took out a book from the shelf and decided to read it:
An Idiot’s Guide to Elementals
“Why is this book so aggressive?” John thought to himself.
A nitwit already knows that elements are based on personality, but if you think that’s the only method to be an Elemental, then you’re-
Not wishing to take any slander from whatever this book was about to offer, he placed the book back on the bookshelves.
The voice of an adult woman called out to the class. She sounded enthusiastic and bright about the day.
“Alriiiight, class! Everyone get to your seats!” It was Miss Oliver, the history professor for John.
Once the rowdy class quieted down, John began to listen intently to the teacher.
“Today, we’ll learn a bit about our origins as elementals, followed by taking some class work on what we learned today.”
Everyone collectively groaned, John started to hear meek whispers as conversations began to spark.
“You got your element yet?”
“Nah, not yet, you?’
“I got the explosion element! How cool is that?”
“What the- Is it strong?”
“You bet your… butt it is!”
I know, I know, replacing you-know-what with “butt” doesn’t make the phrase hit as hard, but we gotta stay squeaky clean, y’know?
“Listen closely and note this down! Since the beginning of the new world, we elementals thrived, but that all changed a thousand years ago, when the Balandians attacked. Can anyone tell me who the Balandians were?" asked the teacher.
A student spiked their hand into the air.
“Yes, Leigo?”
“Leigo? That guy doesn’t know a thing about history-”
“Balandians are the evil race of elementals that used to live on a far off island?”
“Yes! Of course, we all know that the Grand Elemental won that fight, but what you may not know is that after that epic battle, the Grand Elemental decided to banish the Balandians to an entirely different dimension, making future invasions physically impossible!”
“What the?”
“So you’re telling me that there’s a different dimension out there?”
“Huh, and we’re supposed to be just fine with it?”
Unfortunately for background student #3, his concern was true- oh wait that’s a spoiler.
After the day at the academy was over. John pulled another platform from the grassy field and flew back to his home. What? You thought I was gonna write him doing class work? Well, guess what? Turns out fantasy classwork is about just as boring as actual class work, this ain’t no chunin exams. Anyhow, he started to smell the faint scent of… Fire? No…
“DAD! MOM!”
Picking up speed, it wasn’t before long he found his home in ruins. The hungering blazes had engulfed his home, burning it to total destruction. The grass nearby wasn’t safe either, it had been set ablaze by the flames too. Grandie… What happened to this place? Well, I am the narrator, so I can just switch point of views to the parents. Let’s go!
----------------------------------------
John’s father was calmly sitting in his seat. He was feeling a bit drowsy, having to constantly jerk his head upwards just to keep himself awake.
“Oh, come on, Joseph, what’s got you in a sleepy mood?”
“Er, nothing, Maryiln. I’m still not exactly used to this whole parenting thing.” Joseph explained sleepily. He was really about to knock himself out, huh?
“Geez. Regardless of whatever boredom you feel, it’s not like we have to deal with them anymore.”
“Them? You know I hate pronoun games. Who are we talking about here?”
“You know, the Balandians we had to fight against in that war so long ago.” Marylin said, exhaling.
“Oh, yeah, the Athens. Geez, those guys just wouldn’t go down without a fight, too many to count…”
“No, I just had to remind you that their weakness was a good smack in the back.” Marylin said teasingly.
“You- I was handling them perfectly fine!”
“Nuh-uh, you were all like, ‘Oh! Marylin! Save me!’” Marylin teased.
“Sure, sure, like someone like me would say that. One of these days, it’s gonna be-”
CRASH! A loud and sudden explosion-like sound bursted out of nowhere, but judging from the direction it came from, Joseph and Marylin assumed it was near the house. They looked at each with confusion.
“What the?” Joseph exclaimed.
“What was that? It sounded like something crashed out of the sky.” Marylin theorized.
“A meteor? I’ll go check.” Joseph said.
Joseph headed outside. He scanned the area, closely examining many of the surrounding plains. He remembered what Marylin said about the source of the strange noise being around the back, and went off: when he reached there, he saw a peculiar, black, spherical pod of sorts; it came with a large blue window and what Joseph assumed was a door. It had created a small crater, possibly from the velocity of impact, and it appeared large enough to hold one adult sized person inside. Thankfully for him, neither Vegeta or Nappa came to destroy the world, but unfortunately he was going to run into something evil regardless.
He stepped closer to the pod, noticing that no one was either near or inside. He looked up to gaze around the surroundings, spotting something strange. He could hear audible speech: a raspy, deep voice with a distinct accent that sounded like it was tearing away at the vocal cords.
“Argh! Of all the places to drop me off! Why didn’t we use laimós* or something? Jerk-offs…” As the being was badmouthing the comrades who brought it here, they felt something go off within him. A sort of pressure ringed throughout the body, throbbing in pulses. Just from the pressure, whatever it was that came here realized that two Elementals were lurking around the place.
That voice, it sounds simi- Oh no. Joseph thought.
Joseph looked up to see the back of a being all too familiar to him; A black, horned humanoid figure, its appearance a mockery of nature. It was wearing light amounts of spiked black steel armor and had sharp, appalling claws. While the figure was clearly solid, it also seemed slimy, with black viscous and gooey liquid dripping from its body and head. This appearance forced memories into Joseph’s head. Memories that should’ve stayed buried: The Balandians.
“You people again.”
The Balandian turned its body around to face the voice calling out to him. It revealed his face with its crescent-shaped eyes and purple, spiral-shaped pupils. To add onto Joseph’s bad memories, its mouth was in a crooked smile that reached from ear to ear.
“You people again?” Why do you say that like you know me, stupid?” The Balandian barked in that wretched, raspy accent.
“Truth is, I’ve fought your kind before; you’re not exactly pleasant.” Joseph scoffed. He didn’t ever think he would be fighting them again, but here he was.
“Hehe, then you must know what I’m capable of. Let me see that element!”
Hm, this guy obviously wants to steal my element, but from my experience, Balandians can only plunder elements if they beat their enemies to a pulp. Can’t let this guy beat me, then. Joseph fought them before, but because of the nature of Balandians, no fight would be an easy one.
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“Well? Are you gonna stand there, or are you gonna fight me?!”
“Hm, guess I’ll use some good old foxing.” Joseph declared.
Joseph took a stance, placing one leg in front of the other and his arms in front of his face.. Joseph smirked at the Balandian before clapping his hands together: A burst of fire began to wrap and coil around Joseph’s arm, like a python, twisting to ensnare its prey. After a few moments, the wrapping flames became a full serpent engulfing Joseph’s arms.
“The heck is that? Are you planning to burn your arms off?” The Balandian mocked Joseph
“Fire elementals are fireproof, stupid. This is called: Foxing.”
“Foxing? You like to dress up as animals or something?”
“No, stupid. It's a fighting style that involves punching our foes with blows powered up by fire, that’s all you need to know.”
“No weapons, huh? Fine, I’ll pummel you, too!”
The Balandian charged at Joseph, with speeds the likes of which Joseph was not expecting, especially out of the obligatory chapter one featless fodder enemy. No, seriously, what hope do you have for this guy? He doesn’t even have a name! Anyhow, the Balandian swung at Joseph with a big, slow right punch. Joseph responded with a reflexive dive out of the way, and delivered a strong straight blow to the gut. The Balandian grunted and backed away in pain.
“Crap, what was that?”
“What do you mean? It’s not that deep, you just tried to throw a power punch, and I countered! You just suck at this, that’s all.”
“Damn elly!” The Balandian loudly exclaimed. It raised its left arm up into the air, where sharp looking blades protruded out of the claws. No, those weren’t blades: those were literal claws! It dashed towards Joseph again, who tried to block the incoming strike. Eager, the Balandian swung down with his claw, slashing at Joseph’s arm, and opened up a wound. No blood came out of the wound, strangely.
“What the-? How are you not bleeding?” The Balandian groaned.
“Geez, you’re pretty incompetent, are you? Why would an enemy explain their secret trick? That’s like, fighting 101!” Joseph exclaimed smugly.
Heh, he doesn’t know that heat can cauterize open wounds! If I can keep this up, I’ll wreck this guy so hard I won’t see straight.
“You idiot, you just explained to me what Foxing was! Isn’t that your big trick?!”
“Nuh uh, it’s just how I fight. Ain’t nothing secretive about that.”
The Balandian and Joseph continued to brawl. The Balandian attempted multiple times to hack away at Joseph’s arms, to no avail. Either Joseph dodged and striked with a strong counter, or the slash didn’t draw blood.
“Hm, if I can’t beat you in a fist fight, I’ll just throw you!”
The Balandian reached out and yanked on Joseph’s legs; Joseph was completely caught by surprise. The Balandian then proceeded to do a fireman’s carry drop on him, causing one of the walls of the house to cave in from Joseph’s momentum.
“...He… Actually hurt… Me…” coughed out Joseph. He was so injured, he didn’t even notice Marylin staring at him with open and scared eyes.
“Joseph! Joseph! Are you alright?!” Marylin called out to him. Joseph finally came to his senses and looked at Marilyn, and shook his head.
“The Balandians are back, there’s one here right now!” Joseph yelled. He didn’t notice his fire still being active, which caused flames to spread from his arms to the floor, and eventually to the whole house, causing it to fall like an inferno.
“Piece of work… You just don’t go down, will you?” The Balandian angrily exclaimed, when Marylin heard that diabolical accent, she immediately recognized it.
“Hm, you look injured. Stay here, I’ll handle this.” Marylin sighed, she blasted a powerful gust of wind that put down the flames, eliminating the blazes that were consuming their house. Too bad the damage was too great to ever be fixed.
“Two on one isn’t fair, you know.” The Balandian teased with an air of frustration that he couldn’t finish off Joseph… right?
“Against your kind? I think it is.” Marylin flatly proclaimed.
Beginning her assault without warning, Marylin shot two streams of coiling wind from her fingertips. This wind howled and roared akin to a pair of wild, savage animals. When the streams connected, they grabbed onto the Balandian’s arms. It couldn’t feel anything major, but the Balandian did feel an enormous grip on those two limbs, like two big strong hands with the grip of tree roots.
“Wind is a finicky one; It can become powerful enough to lift trees out of their roots, but it can never rip apart human beings, and you’re not any different. This won’t kill you, but I’ll make you regret ever invading this world.” Marylin claimed. She began to do some sort of gesture with two fingers, making a peace sign. When the Balandian processed what she did, he felt his arms lift up with no effort. He looked up, he tried to lower his arms, but they wouldn’t budge; the grip of the wind was too strong for him to overpower.
“The Badlands is this?!” The Balandian yelled.
“It’s a little technique I learned, I can use up to two of my fingers to fire grappling winds that hook onto enemies. Once they latch on, I’m free to contort them in any way I please. For example…” Marylin gestured towards her peace sign, which she bent her fingers down to a fist; when she did, the forearms of the Balandian bent down like a ventriloquist’s dummy. Marylin heard the loud, pained screaming of the Balandian as the arm bent into ways it should not have.
“I think I’ll break those legs, just to make sure you can’t walk.”
Marylin released her winds, and immediately grabbed onto the legs of the helpless Balandian. He only gazed in fury as she widened the gap of her fingers, making the Balandian’s legs bend to an excruciating width, the Balandian yelled out in agony.
“Hm, that’s what you get for hurting my love.” Marylin scoffed, she finally released her fingers, the Balandian fell down, coughing and groaning in pain. She walked up to it, examining its body. When she got closer, it strangely felt like the Balandian was acting, like it was never truly in pain the whole time…
“Just kidding!”
He was acting.
The Balandian grabbed her by the head and slammed her down on the ground.
“MARYLIN! NO!” Joseph screamed. The Balandian heard his yell and swiftly kicked him in the chest. The Balandian turned Marylin’s head to face her and her bloody, battered face. It sighed, before giving out an overly critical speech.
“Why?... Why the heck would you just go for my arms and legs?! That’s obviously not going to kill anybody! You should’ve just gone for the head, stupid lady! Oh ho ho! I know, it’s cuz you’re too gutless to take a life! And even if you had tried to snap my neck, fun fact…!”
The Balandian spun its head in a 360 degree motion, horrifying Marylin.
“...We have no bones! Tell me, didn’t you think it was weird that you didn’t hear any sound of bones cracking?! Huh?! Didn’t you?!”
Marylin recalled her fight, and she didn’t remember a single time where the distinct crack of bones breaking was heard.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, you ellies* are as STUPID as ever! Oh, and for your information; ONLY OUR FRIGGIN’ HORNS ARE BONES!!”
Marylin instinctively, yet laboriously lifted her fingers up to aim at the Balandian’s horns. The Baladian immediately grabbed both of her fingers and snapped them; he covered Marylin’s mouth violently before she could yell out in pain.
“Don’t even! If you hadn’t explained your abilities like your husband did, we might not have been in this situation at all! Hahahahaha! Time to plunder your element!”
“I… Beg to… Differ…” Marylin coughed, she raised her other hand, pointed a single finger at her head. The Balandian was too confused to react as Marylin smirked for the last time, grabbed her own head with her fingers, and snapped her own neck, ending her life.
The Balandian dropped her dead body in extreme anger, it stomped the ground furiously as it cursed her out.
“That brainless witch! We weren’t playing Simon Says! How did she know that- snif sniff. Huh? What the? That scent coming off her… Can’t be a dead body, how did I just notice this now?.. Could she be- OH whatever! I’ll just wreck that Fire guy and steal HIS element!” It barked at no one but itself.
Murmur murmur… Huh? They have gender? Geez, fine, he turned to face where he thought he kicked down Joseph, but he wasn’t there, he just… Disappeared, among all the debris and destruction.
“Where in the-”
“Lookie here, you little snot.”
WHAM!
----------------------------------------
And now, back to our main point of view.
John, confused and scared at the inferno, leaped down from the platform of stone, disregarding the distance between him and the ground. He rushed to the scene, seeing his dad engaged in a fight against a strange figure: John had seen these figures and remembered their descriptions in legends and at school.
It was a Balandian.
John turned to look at his destroyed house. He saw his mother, dead, with her head twisted to the side as if forced with a strong pressure.
“Dad! What happened here!”
His father didn’t respond, he simply continued to fight the Balandian. Jab after jab, uppercut after uppercut, he never saw his dad fight this seriously with his foxing style outside of defending his home from wild animals. To John, this was surreal.
Joseph landed a right hook that stunned the Balandian, finally giving him a chance to briefly speak with his son.
“Hey, kid… I know, it looks pretty nasty right now, but your old man has it in the bag, just stay back until I beat this guy, okay?” His father cheerfully said. There was no lies in his words: John detected the confidence, and pure unrivaled determination of his dad as Joseph returned to his fight, delivering a deadly combination of a jab into an uppercut. John was mesmerized by his skill, his silent rage, all while calmly speaking to his son like they were on a breezy fishing trip.
That trance was ruptured when the Balandian slashed Joseph in the chest, causing red to blossom out of his torso.
“DAD!”
Not like this… Not like this… Not like this…! John repeated to himself. The Balandian kicked Joseph, sending him flying to the debris, he raised his bloody claw up, poised to finish him.
“NOT LIKE THISSSSS!!!!”
John yelled and charged the Balandian, he began to crudely cover his arm in stone, forming some sort of makeshift, shoddy gauntlet, he struck the Balandian’s head before he could react, and it sent him flying out the window and onto the grass. John immediately rushed over to his dad, who was laying there, in a bloody mess.
“D-Dad! Are you OK?”
“Deja vu, it’s alright, Urk! I’ll just use my fire to stop this bleeding, but it doesn’t look like I’ll get up for a while, heh. John, you’re grown up, I think you should tag in.” Joseph said to John right before he groaned in pain. He just looked at him, confused.
“Just go! I’ll be alright, really!” That sentiment snapped John out of it, he ran outside, facing the Balandian with a newfound feeling inside of him; A feeling that he had never experienced before, a feeling that was strange before. This feeling was anger.
“You, you killed my mother, and you hurt my father. For that, I’m going to kill you.” John said. There were no audible emotions. Only the silent rage of John screamed out.
“If those two grown adults couldn’t beat me, what makes you think you can?” The Balandian mocked.
“You never know until you find out.”
John winded up his right arm, charging up a punch and generating stone with an actual form this time. It started slowly, but quickly accelerated, when it was done forming, John smiled. A gauntlet of stone, covering his arms perfectly.
“Pfft! What’s that gonna do? You can’t even punch good with that-”
Wham! A hard punch to the face, sending the Balandian flying into a nearby tree. The impact hurting his back like a sudden crash into a wall.
“Blast, blast! That kid made me hit my back! I have to retreat now!”
John sprinted towards the Balandian, but a dark shadow loomed over him, John stopped in confusion, as the void shadow began to envelop the Balandian. When it completely engulfed him, he disappeared into thin air, but not before delivering one final remark.
“If you thought what I did was bad, you’ll never make it past the commanders!” Was it’s final words before fully erasing itself from John’s view. He knelt down in despair, with his home devastated, there was possibly no hope…
“John Bayani.”
A voice, similar to the one that called out to him in his dream, was heard, he looked up to see an impossibly bright light, a light so bright it completely covered the face of the figure floating above him. It looked to be a male figure, his silky red robes and calm stance entranced John. He leaned in, gazing at John’s face. One trait of it intrigued him deeply.
“You… Have green eyes.”
“Who are you? Are you the Grand Elemental?” John asked in awe.
“Perhaps I am, perhaps I am not.” He said.
“If you’re here, then please tell me this never happened, please tell me I was dreaming, that this night never happened.”
“This is very real, unfortunately. However, there is something you can do. John Bayani, you are the key to saving this universe from impending doom.
Those words, like before, struck a chord with John. How would someone like him, someone who lost his home and father, someone with no hope and in a place of absolute unknowingness, be the one to save the world?
“What? How?”
“It is too hard to explain right now, but if you come with me, you can encounter a journey, a journey that will end this madness, alongside finding new friends. Friends you can call a family.”
Those words reminded him of his dad. John looked up with his green emeralds, distraught with what to do.
“I don’t get it, how am- Oh, whatever, if you’re the Grand Elemental, then there can’t be anything false about what you’re saying, right? I’ll follow you.”
With nowhere to go, out of desperation, he reluctantly took his hand. Only the sound of fire cackling and gnawing away at wood broke the distressing silence.
“Welcome, hero.” The Grand Elemental calmly said.
Before John could say anything, he fell down and passed out, tired from what happened today.
Joseph got up after cauterizing his blood wounds and enduring the pain, he saw the light of the Grand Elemental, holding the arm of his unconscious son. He initially reacted with concern for John, but he considered the implications of this, and smiled upon realizing them. He looked up at the Grand Elemental to speak to him.
“If you’re here, I guess it means it’s time, then.”
“The cogwheels of fate have been set in motion, correct. I hope you know that your child is in good hands.”
“Yeah, yeah, that should be obvious, you’re friggin’ god, yo. Sigh, give him this, will you? I’ve been working on it for a while, in case the day ever happens. Yellow button delivers convenient exposition to the reader without it feeling like a dump, and the red button’s for emergencies.” Joseph pulled out a small device out of his pocket and tossed it to the Grand Elemental casually, as if he was meeting an old friend. The Grand Elemental caught it, and observed it. He cracked a smile.
“The cunning and creative imagination of humans never ceases to amaze me. When he wakes up, I’ll pass this over.”
----------------------------------------
The Geddónas* Core Regiment was awfully quiet. Way too quiet. This was especially strange, since they had the reputation among the Balandian Forces to be the loudest and most assertive Regiment. There was a good reason why this silence was present, though. They had recently begun a joint mission with the Anichneftís* Regiment for reconnaissance of the Krobus dimension, the domain of the Elementals. There was a mass crowd of soldiers from both regiments gathered around their barracks. The new teleporter they set up was placed there. It looked out-of-this-world, with a large cold steel circular frame, a purple swirling pattern in the center with multiple blue particles emitting and rushing out the portal.
“How long is that punk going to take?”
“Commander Leontó ain’t gonna be happy with this.”
The purple portal suddenly brightened up, everyone’s eyes focused on the portal now as this meant something, or someone was about to go through the portal. It could be their friend.
And so it was their friend.
A balandian was thrown out of the portal, he painfully rolled and bounced on the ground before landing face-down, sliding across the black grass. Yikes, that’s gonna leave a nasty skid mark.
“Ow…”
“Hey, man, are you good? You look like somebody taught you a lesson.”
The balandian slowly and laboriously stood. His face looked very mushed up, especially in the area where he was punched. He seemed dizzy, occasionally stepping forward and back as if trying to find his balance.
“Crrrrrapppp… Ugh… That kid socked the heck outta me. Dude.”
“What? A kid? Prox, don’t tell me you had to retreat because of a kid! That’d be embarrassing!”
The whole crowd exploded into hysterical laughter.
“Ye-Yeah, I’d like to see you all laugh after being punched in the face by a solid fist of rocks! Jerks…” Prox said in an attempt to get the mocking crowd to pipe down.
“What even happened?” Asked his peer.
“Mannnn, I won’t even tell you, I’ll just report my mission straight to the Commander.”
“What?! No man, he’ll blow you to smithereens if he hears how badly you messed up! Just tell us, and we’ll lie and say everything went smoothly!” His peer said, winking and raising a thumb up. The whole crowd shortly followed by muttering in agreement.
“Fine.. It went a little something like this…”
Of course, you, the reader, already know what happened in this chapter, so you don’t need to hear him recap what just happened. What you should know, though, was that Prox’s group of fellow Balandians snickered, some nodded in respect as he explained his confrontation with Marylin and Joseph, while others almost cackled at his defeat.
“Alright, thanks for sharing, we’ll sugarcoat that and tell it to the boss, OK?”
“Yeah, sure, if I’m not alive by tomorrow, I’ll hunt you from beyond the grave.”
Prox turned around and sat down, thinking about various things, John being at the center of his thoughts.
That kid… I’m going to make sure he pays for what he did… From now on… That brat will be my rival…!