Amity

Chapter 17: The Spark Ignite

The seven of them were still in their shoes, deathly silent.

"That was close," Kim whispered, panicked. "Oh, God, that one was close."

"Please tell me one of you have any ideas," Dré said, trying to sound calm.

No one could speak. They were all too afraid of what the Edge Walkers would do. Would they attack them right now and rip them to shreds? Would they allow the students to run and hunt them down one by one? Would they simply let them leave the forest?

Because that totally sounds like something that would happen.

"You'd stand a chance if you could use your elemental powers," Daven said.

"That- that's good then, right?" Megumi said hesitantly. "I mean, you could just blast them with your powers, right?"

"Well, I suppose we could do that. I have a better plan." Daven's voice grew cold.

"What plan?" Megumi asked.

"This!" Daven stated the same time Kamatsu said, "I sincerely apologize for this."

Dré quickly turned around before Daven's team shoved Dré's team towards the roaring. "Let's go! Move!" Daven commanded to the rest of his team. They started down the dark path behind them, knocking the lights out of the way.

An inky-black figure rushed out of the trees, standing even taller than Michael or Daven. Two red, eye-socket like crevices seemed to be drilled into an elongated head, while bright red slime oozed from its mouth. Long arms drooped far below its knees, it's fingertips sharpened and blood-red. Dré felt his heart racing, his legs grew weak as they stared the Edge Walker.

The Edge Walker pounded towards them on all fours, the ooze from its mouth splattering over the forest floor. "Get out of the way!" Dré cried out as he, Megumi, and Kim quickly rolled out of the way, narrowly missing being decapitated by the skin of their teeth. Kim jumped to her feet as nimble as a cat, fear in her eyes.

Megumi grabbed Dré by his forearm and jerked him up with so much force that he almost toppled over again before she pushed him away from the Edge Walker. He was stunned by just how strong she was.

The Edge Walker was on her before she could react, swatting her across the ground with a sickening crack.

Dré watched in horror as it raised his claws, ready to finish her off. He felt something deep inside of his psyche stirring as she was seconds away from death. He had just met this girl, only known her for half of a day, and yet he felt a deep stab of rage going through him. He snarled as he rushed to the Edge Walker and rammed both feet into its chest with enough momentum to knock it into the darkness of the woods.

"Dammit!" she wailed through her teeth as she struggled to stand. "I didn't think they'd be that fast. I'm gonna kill that blond-haired bastard the next time I see him."

"Let's just hope we live that long," Kim said as she rushed to Megumi, gingerly helping her to her feet.

"Thanks," she wheezed.

"Don't mention it," Kim said, struggling to grin. Her grin quickly faded as the Edge Walker appeared from the darkness of the forest and was now dashing at them, its claws dragging into the ground.

"Look out!" Dré called out as they rolled under its jab. Dré looked over his shoulder and saw that its hand was stuck through the thick tree bark.

You'd stand a chance if you could use your elemental powers.

Those words appeared in his mind as he watched the Edge Walker struggle to free its arm. He wondered if his power had awakened since he thrice had escaped from getting impaled. Better yet, he wondered if Megumi's power was unlocked since she had gotten attacked. "Screw it, here goes nothing," he said to himself as he held his hand out in front of him, aiming directly at the Edge Walker's back.

He focused with all his might, imagining something, anything, shooting from the palm of his hand and destroying the thing. Nothing happened. He hadn't felt any different than when he first entered the forest.

Kim watched on, hopeful. "Anything?" she questioned, helping a dazed Megumi to her feet again.

Dré shook his head. He couldn't believe that after all that had happened, he still wasn't able to produce any type of element. He started to ask Megumi to try her luck until he saw that the Edge Walker had turned around and were now glaring deep into their souls. Its shoulder had been dislocated with a loud snap, but it still managed its stare, completely oblivious to the black ooze spilling from its shoulder. It roared as it began yanking its arm free from its body.

"Oh God, now what do we do?" A wet, ripping sound filled the area as the Edge Walker tore its arm off its shoulder. His heart drummed against his ribcage as he looked behind it. The arm fell limp back to the ground as the monster rushed towards the three, the thick, black ooze flowing freely from where its arm had once belonged.

"Now what do we do!?"

"Not die!" Megumi said as she held a hand towards the Edge Walker. "I hope this works!" she yelled as the Edge Walker closed the distance between them, readying another wild swipe. It was only a few feet away before a large fireball erupted from Megumi's hand and enveloped the Edge Walker. They sidestepped it as it crumpled on the ground, shrieking loudly as it convulsed on the ground. The fire died out, and the large black husk that was once an Edge Walker evaporated into dust.

Dré and Kim panted as they looked from the remains of the Edge Walker to Megumi. Smoke was still spewing from of her hand. "Whoa. That was pretty bad-ass," Megumi whispered.

"That was. Did it hurt?" Kim asked.

"Not really. Before it happened, I felt like I was on fire. It was almost smothering me at first. But then the heat was almost cocooning me. It made me feel good, like something deep inside of me connected. After that, releasing it just felt like second nature."

"Well, I'm just glad you managed to get it off in time," Dré told her through a smile. After hearing that, he couldn't wait to unlock his elemancy.

There was another gurgling cry behind them; they spun on the balls of their feet and readied themselves to attack until they saw that the Edge Walker behind them was lying face first on the ground, writhing as a large sharpened tree branched jutted from the back of its neck. Almost instantly, they saw a small body fall from the trees, landed on the creature's back, and jerked the branch out of its neck.

"Keiko?"

Keiko looked up at Megumi, beaming as she said, "You three need to be a lot more careful. I almost didn't hit it in time."

Another body descended from the tree and landed beside Keiko. The large crucifix on his shirt seemed to shine under the hovering lights. He had two sharpened tree branches in his hand and one stuffed under his belt. "Aside from almost killing it too late, you did well," Michael said to Keiko. She grinned as she gave him a thumbs-up.

"Where did you two come from?" Kim asked, her eyes shifting between the two newcomers.

"We've been following you three from the trees," Michael stated.

"But why? I thought you didn't like us," Dré said.

"I don't," Michael said as Keiko said, "You're our only friends in here."

"At any rate," Megumi began, "we aren't done yet." She looked at her hand, her palm empty of smoke. "Only one of us unlocked our power. We've got to continue."

"Wait, what about this one?" Dré said as he tapped it with the edge of his boot. Its body twitch violently, making Dré yelp as he jumped back a few feet.

"Simple." In one swift thrust, Michael drove his heel into the back of its neck. It puffed in a black smoke as it exploded in a puff of black smoke. "Stay with them," he told Keiko. With that, Michael scaled the tree.