Adrian spread his arms out, trying to grab hold of anything that could stop him from spinning within the tornado. The force alone made him feel like he was being crushed, and the violent winds drowned out his own screams. Soon enough though, even they got drowned out by an intimidating, low rumbling sound. Growing at a rapid rate, pulsating and spinning right next to him was a rogue spirit’s core. It's ominous glow, blinding him.
He flailed his arms around like he was trying to swim, in order to get away from it. Thin tendrils of spirit energy started to wriggle their way out from its outer membrane, then weaved around each other and interlocked. The next thing he knew, the tendrils had sped up, and whatever they were forming, pounded him in the stomach at full force.
He held in his scream and was launched out of the tornado, bracing himself with amplification. First contact with the ground was unfortunately granted to his face. He bounced off and managed to find his way to his feet, sliding across the ground to break his momentum.
“I-Isabelle, Alex! We gotta make a beeline for the core!” He wiped the mud from his face and looked around, confused, when he didn't get a response. They weren't next to him. His eyes darted right back to the tornado, as it raged on. At its peak, it was almost as tall as the trees, but as quickly as it had appeared, it died down. The debris it picked up, all fell to the ground, and in its place, it left behind the weirdest rogue spirit that he'd ever seen.
No arms, and no legs. Just a freakishly large purple blob, with an eye that looked like it could pop out of its socket at any moment, and a devilish smile stretching across its face. Behind it, more tornadoes were starting to spring up, and the sound of fighting that followed sent Adrian into a panic, scrambling off the floor to get back to his friends.
“My bad, ugly,” he said, approaching the rogue, “but I’m gonna have to-”
A sharp streak of wind whizzed by his face. He dug his feet into the ground, feeling his heart skip a beat. There was suddenly a thin, stinging cut running across his left cheek. The rouge’s mouth was wide open, and a long, spirit energy infused tongue was quickly retracting backwards like a fleshy tape measure. Adrian took a step back, hoping to not still be in range of the attack, and got to racking his brain for a solution.
Assuming the tongue attack was a unique ability and not just manipulation like the humanoid used last week, then it was likely that in exchange for the insane speed and strength of the tongue, the rogue itself was bound to remain stationary no matter what.
Dodging wasn’t an option. He hadn't even been hit by the tongue itself. It was the wind created from the force of its swing. Regardless, the way to get past was simple, all he had to do was run around it from a safe distance to get to Alex and Isabelle. That much was obvious, but when he attempted to do so, he was met with yet another tornado. He swiftly turned back to run the other way, and another one sprung up in his path again. The core must have been closer to them than he thought. With that in mind, he activated amplification across his whole body, and took some deep breaths, fully resolved to brute force his way out.
“Adrian! Don't do anything stupid, I swear to God!” Even through all the noise he could tell that was Alex’s voice. More importantly though…
“Why’d you think I was about to do something dumb?! I’m not-”
“Me and Isabelle can just barely see the core from here! Turn around and run! Find a flank route and meet up with us there!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Adrian noticed the ditch where Charlie and Ali's bodies lay. A wave of doubts started to flow within him, but he couldn't argue with Alex's idea being logical. Still, If something were to happen to them while he was still finding his way, he knew he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. There was no way in hell he could let it come to that, so he bit his tongue and ran.
He ran like he'd never run before, stumbling over himself in his desperation as the howls of multiple tornadoes forming around him streaked past his ears. While he jumped over, and weaved his way in between them, Claws and fangs launched at him from all angles, trying to drag him inside. They scratched through his jacket, penetrating the skin in his arms and face. He clenched his fists and powered through the pain, but didn’t turn to look at them, and didn’t try to fight back.
After running for a little longer, he had gotten far enough from the tornado maze, and made a sharp turn. He expected the core to, more or less, be a straight line from there. His body was covered in cuts, but his mind was set on that one goal. Even if that was the case, the path ahead couldn't be any more antagonistic.
Another rogue spirit stood in a clearing just in front of him. A bear with light purple fur, standing on its two hind legs. Patches of flesh where the fur wasn't present puffed up like warts all across its body. It hadn't noticed him yet, but the dying foliage of the forest was becoming more and more claustrophobic. Sneaking around it without making noise would be near impossible, so he slowed his run down into a speed walk and used sixth sense to see exactly what he was up against.
The sensation he got from every other rogue born from the mist was the same. He couldn't describe it in words. It was something much more intrinsic. Even if he encountered one of them outside of the nest afterwards, he was sure he'd be able to tell where they came from. That's why it was instantly obvious to him that this bear was from somewhere else. He didn't have time to speculate the implications. Furthermore, after seeing the amount of spirit energy it had, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to kill it in a timely enough manner. If possible, he'd have liked to run straight past it.
So again, he sped up, side-stepping through the branches, and keeping his eyes locked on to his target like a hawk. Oblivious to his presence, the rouge perused around the area with heavy footsteps, and the moment Adrian broke through into the clearing, its neck snapped one-hundred and eighty degrees to turn at him. With a delayed reaction, the rest of its body followed.
Adrian kissed his teeth and tilted his head forwards as he dashed onwards. With each of his strides, he emitted a flame under his feet to propel himself faster and with that same tactic, threw up his leg and launched a roundhouse kick at the rogue’s head. It blocked the kick with its arm and without a single sound or a delay, the other claw was already on a collision course towards his face. His senses were working overtime, though. Instinctually, he leaped backwards with two flames under his feet keeping him afloat for an opportunity to strategise.
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This thing's a super huge and super fast melee fighter. I doubt I'm getting past it without killing it first, so at the very least, I should make it a ranged fight to take away its main form of attack.
His plan was shut down. In the three seconds He was in the air, he watched with bated breath as the rogue fell onto all fours, baring its fangs at him with a crooked smile.
Holding his breath, he lifted both of his hands into the air and sped up his descent with two flames erupting from both his hands. The rogue took its chance and lunged forwards to chomp him, but not before he’d already hopped back into the air, tucking in his legs and narrowly dodging its bite. Prime position. Emitting two flames from hands, he utilised the momentum they granted him to flip in the air and send a burning hot axe kick down from above. The counter from the rogue was instant, rolling onto its back and lifting its leg to block the attack.
“You can't be fucking serious,” He said, laughing to himself.
It was clear at this point that all of his moves were gonna be matched with an uncomfortable amount of precision. The fight could go on forever without either of them landing any decisive blows, which was the last thing he wanted. If he ran then he’d be caught within seconds… Maybe he could use that somehow.
The moment his feet were back on the ground, he took the gamble and sprinted off. It didn’t even take three strides. The bear was already right behind him, lifting its claws in anticipation to slash him. After a short prayer in his mind, Adrian slowed down ever so slightly, relaxing every muscle in his upper body. There was a moment where it seemed like the rogue noticed the change and delayed its attack to catch him off guard, but his wide eyed focus was nothing to be played with.
With a light jog, He looked back, and out of the corner of his eye, waited for the slightest indication that the rogue had taken the bait. Its claw jerked up before falling to the ground. He let go of the tension in his legs and dropped before it could catch him. Extending his hand to the side, and using much more of his flames than he had before, he shifted that falling momentum to the side. Keeping close to the ground, he slid through the dirt, and thanks to his meticulous aim, made his way behind the rogue in an instant.
He clenched his fist with amplification, leaping into the air once more and pouring every ounce of strength into a heavy punch, connecting with the back of the rogue’s head with an echoing thud. It slid forwards, clearly shaken, but still managed to stay standing, despite Adrian's efforts.
“Not even that was enough? Shit.” His arms and legs started to numb with the fatigue catching up to him. He readied himself again as the rogue turned back around, but an attack never came. Instead he was met with a hearty, distorted laughter. A drop of sweat trickled down his face.
“Lovely,” the rogue said in a gargled voice, “Your agility and quick thinking convey your love for combat magnificently.”
“...I’m not here to enjoy myself-”
“That sensation; that love. You humans are even capable of feeling it for one another. It's something which I desire to understand for myself.”
Adrian stepped back a little bit, but feigned confidence when he spoke. “A rogue talking about love? This is some kind of trick, right?”
“A trick? If we had met in a different era, you may have been correct, but this is the desire I was born with in this era. I only came to understand it after hearing that man speak about how we rogues have evolved over the years.” A feeling of uneasiness hung over Adrian as the rogue’s face morphed into a psychotic, disturbed stare. “As an organic being, it should be natural to wish to understand these things, no? As beings born from humans, it's only natural for rogues to evolve and wish to understand their creators, no?”
“...What man? Who are you talking-”
He was suddenly cut off when the rogue dashed forwards. By the time the thought of lifting his arms to defend had crossed his mind, he was already being lifted into the air by his throat.
“I desire to understand. It's said that a human's final moments can bring out their true self, but these, so called, 'final moments' won't be the end for whatever lies in your heart. Find solace in the fact that I’ll carry the knowledge I gain for as long as I live, and allow me to understand what the root of that emotion is.”
Adrian clawed and kicked to escape its grasp, as an eerie hissing sound started to rise up all around him. His breaths were becoming thinner and more raspy by the second. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a pink smoke emanating from the rogue’s body. Survival instincts told him to avoid it, but by then he had already ingested it in his helpless struggle.
Slowly, his very will began to leave him. Consciousness gradually faded out along with a splitting headache, and following that was the fall.
He couldn’t tell if he was truly falling, or whether the smoke had just evoked that same sensation somehow. It didn't feel like the rogue’s hand wasn’t around his neck anymore, and even stranger, he felt no need to convulse into a fit of violent coughing now that his ability to breath had been granted back to him. Neither did he feel the pain from the headache. It was serene. Like he’d never been grabbed in the first place. His attention wasn’t focused there, however. It was on the swirling vortex of sounds and colours that he had been abruptly thrust into. Sometimes the colours formed shapes. Ones that he felt he recognised. Sometimes the sounds, muffled and playing over themselves, reminded him of his early childhood. Mira’s constant nagging, the TV playing his favourite cartoons, and the eccentric, but comforting sound of his dad’s voice.
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“..rian… Adri…”
…
“Adrian!”
He wanted to shoot his eyes open and answer the distant voice that was calling him, but he couldn't even muster the energy to do that much. Somehow, he’d found himself upright, stumbling around, and being attacked by the headache from earlier again. With one hand, he clutched his head, and with the other, reached out for something to keep himself upright.
He landed on a smoother surface than he was expecting from a tree, and when he opened his eyes, he understood why. It wasn’t a tree. It was the familiar creamy white walls of...someone’s House? His vision was wildly impaired, and his whole body felt weak. Everything around him was doubled on top of itself, with the second image floating around and coated in a dreamlike, pinkish-purple haze. The real source of his panic, however, was the childlike size of his hand.
He moved it away from his field of view for a second, afraid that if he looked at it even more, it’d solidify it as the truth. He stood horrified in a cold sweat before looking again, shaking his head in disbelief as he analysed it.
“What the-”
He slapped his mouth shut the second he heard his own voice’s squeaky tone. Legs stiffened with dread, he stepped back and squinted at his surroundings more, fighting to combine the twin images he was seeing into one. To his right was the kitchen. Through the sliding door, he saw the back garden as it was when he was younger. The deflated pool sat where it always did, off in the corner, ready for when he’d next want to use it. In the very passageway where he stood, pictures of him and his family hung on the walls. He had to strain his neck and get on his toes in order to see them properly, but there was no mistaking his suspicion now.
“This is my house…”