“Just great, looks like I’m stuck with you,” Ray growled.
“Wow you sure are moody today,” Lynx laughed. “Aren’t we the type of friends who argue a lot? There’s no need to be so feisty.”
Much to Ray’s annoyance the group sent to deal with the criminal Zachariah Hoon was separated and he only had Lynx to keep him company as they walked through a towering maze. It wasn’t a part of the plan that Dimetrios created and it happened so suddenly that there was nothing that Ray or anyone else could do to change what occurred. Dimetrios’s plan was simple, track down the enemy, distract him by a full-on attack and immobilise with Pennie’s summon Spiderbait. As a secondary plan, he asked Ray to cast Toivoa Field if the man began to cast his maze magic before their plan fell into place. However, all their planning went to waste as the enemy must have sensed their presence the minute they arrived at the Whispering Willows Forest. The criminal created the maze before they could get anywhere near him, leaving Ray alone with the one person he didn’t want to be anywhere near. It had been about thirty minutes since then and Lynx was getting more annoying every minute.
“How long do we need to keep walking for anyway?” Lynx asked. “Do you know some tricks to get through maze’s Brayden?”
“You really don’t know how to stop talking,” Ray sighed with annoyance. “I’m not walking for hours with you so I’m going to cast Toivoa and get rid of these stupid walls.”
“Very well, nice talk,” Lynx forced a smile despite seeming to be offended by what Ray had said. “I do enjoy our discussions Brayden.”
Ray rolled his eyes and walked over to the dark grey brick wall of the maze. He placed his hand on it, took a deep breath and attempted to analyse its magic power. It wasn’t like anything Ray had seen before. The wall towered over him and would be impossible to jump over them. They couldn’t even use flames to hurtle himself upwards as he could faintly see a barrier that would stop anyone from flying out. As far as Ray could tell, the maze was massive had would take a lot of Ikiru energy to create. He had originally planned on saving his energy until they reached the enemy as Toivoa was an exhausting spell to cast. However, he changed his mind after having to listen to Lynx whine, complain and talk continuously, keeping Ray from focusing on the task ahead.
“So, can you make this maze disappear?” Lynx asked.
“Theoretically,” Ray muttered closing his eyes and taking another deep breath.
He had been practicing Light Elemental magic and Toivoa to the point he no longer had to say the word aloud, all he had to do was focus. However, just as Ray started to the cast the spell, pain shot through is head. It was quick and painful like a being shot by a gun, making his head spin and draining him of energy. Although the pain faded, he still felt exhausted before he could even finish casting Toivoa and had no choice but to stop.
“Ummm, the maze is still there,” Lynx commented as Ray removed his had from the wall. “Why did you stop?”
“It’s not going to work,” Ray lied, as the light-headedness eased slightly. “I need to get closer to the Oviri in order to activate Toivoa.”
“A little aggravating but that’s alright,” Lynx sighed. “And are you sure that’s the case? Maybe you’re not casting it correctly.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Ray snarled as he started to walk again, deciding that he had no choice but to keep going through the maze and hope that the dizziness would go away.
“You can be honest with me. I know you can’t do it and the last time you used Toivoa was a fluke,” Lynx assured him, following closely behind. “It’s no big deal. I support you, even though you completely failed us.”
“Just shut up and let me concentrate,” Ray growled.
“What is your problem?! You spend most of the time ignoring me and when you do talk to me you are so rude!” Lynx yelled, as he stopped walking. “What did I even do?! I bet whatever it was it wasn’t even a big deal!”
“Ohhh of course you’ve forgotten! So typical of you!” Ray groaned in annoyance, turning around in a huff and facing Lynx. “Let’s see what was it you said again? Oh, that’s right, you said that my amnesia is laughable. That because I lost my memories, I’m pathetic and that I probably deserved it. So yeah, no big deal at all.”
“And that was months ago!” Lynx interjected. “Sure, there were times since then I may have been a little mean, but I have been really kind to you of late. I have been trying to make things better between us, but you won’t even try and listen to me. Just get over it already!”
“Oh! Get over it?! Let me guess, you want me the act like nothing ever went wrong. Not going to happen!” Ray continued to yell, letting go of the pent-up frustrations he had been holding onto for months. “You a horrid piece of work! The only reason I’m even bothering being around you is because it’s necessary to the mission!”
“Geesh it was just a joke, you should be laughing,” Lynx shot him an evil grin. “Despite our differences I have been trying my best to hang around you as the good friends we are meant to be. Come on, just forgive me already.”
“You think that if you act all friendly and humorous that I’ll forget the horrible thing you did. It’s just annoying,” Ray growled with a dark look in his eyes. “I’m not forgiving you that easily! Do you even realise the pain your actions caused?! Just for once could you think about someone besides yourself Darius?!”
“Darius, who’s that? I’m Lynx,” Lynx frowned, looking confused.
“Right… forget I said anything,” Ray muttered turning away from Lynx.
He didn’t know why he said that name, he didn’t even know who that was himself. It just seemed to naturally escape his lips making him think that the exhaustion was causing his mind to turn to mush.
“Okay, then what can I do to make things better?” Lynx asked. “I’m sick of you not talking to me. Trust me, it bugs me as much as it does you, but we should at least try to get along.”
“A decent person would apologise,” Ray stated bluntly, walking away. “But I guess you aren’t one of those, are you?”
“Hey, that’s not…” Lynx began.
“That’s enough. Let’s keep moving and get this over with,” Ray stormed off, turning the corner.
“Hey, wait for me,” Lynx yelled.
“No, you hurry up,” Ray snapped, not waiting for Lynx to take his time. He noticed that there was another path before the end of his current path and decided to go down it. He figured that going that way may lead him closer to their target. “If you don’t, I’m going to…”
Ray turned his looked behind him to find that Lynx was nowhere to be seen.
“…leave you behind,” he sighed.
He didn’t mean to completely ditch Lynx. He didn’t even realise how fast he was going but there wasn’t time to go back and find him. With a heavy sigh, Ray kept walking, closely examining the area as he did. Even with the massive walls that obstructed the natural foliage the area, Ray felt he had been in that location before. It had nearly been a whole year since they through Visola in the Whispering Willows forest, but that was in an entirely different part of the forest. That area had crystallite growing out of the ground and his current location seemed to be much deeper into the forest.
“Why is this place so familiar?” Ray muttered to himself as he came to a stop for a second to observe his surroundings before starting to walk again. “Is it possible that I’ve… been here before?”
Much to his dismay, the minute he thought about it, images began to appear before him, forcing the memory of the forest to return. It was the exact place Ray walked when he was younger, barely clinging to life as he searched for help. The memory of it was so real he felt as if he was reliving it. He remembered using his blood-soaked hands using the trees to keep him on his feet as the agonising pain from the bleeding left side of his torso got worse with every step he took. He remembered being unable to breathe and weakly begging for help as the cold rain and violent wind from the terrible storm hit his already aching body. The last thing he saw was Aleron in the distance before his vision blurred, returning to his focus to the present and causing the sun to make his eyes ache. The sudden memory of the day Aleron found him caused his head started to pound harder, making him so dizzy that he nearly tripped over his own feet. He had to stumble towards the nearest wall and hold onto it to keep his balance.
“Not…good,” Ray mumbled, clutching his aching head with his free hand. “Everything is spinning too much.”
Despite the overwhelming sick feeling that hit him suddenly he continued to move forward, using the wall to support his shaking legs. He couldn’t stop, it was the first time he was allowed to take a mission in months, and he had no idea when he’d be allowed to go on another one. Ray had no other choice but to push through the pain but the more he moved the more his breathing began to stagger, and his vision to blur. Seconds later voices began to talk as the pain increased.
“Ray, you can’t be serious about doing this,” said a voice that sounded similar to the young Darkyn he saw in his dream earlier that morning. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Shut up and leave me alone,” Ray growled, wanting the voices to stop.
“You need to get out of here before it’s too late,” Darkyn claimed. “If you don’t leave now you are going to be killed.”
Ray stopped walking as the darkness on the edges of his vision became larger. With a deep staggering breath, he looked up to find the ex-CSOG solider they had been searching for walking around the next corner. The man had not spotted Ray, which worked in his favour. Knowing there was no time to waste, he started to follow the corrupt man. That was when the voice of the red eyed man from Ray’s nightmare began to ring in his ears.
“You know what you must do Brayden, that is the enemy,” the man whispered. “What do we do to our enemies?”
“Shut… up…” Ray muttered, trying his best to ignore the voice. “I know… what I’m… doing.”
“Don’t be so naive, just do as you’re told,” the man barked. “Do not make me re-educate you on how you are meant to behave.”
“I know… I’ll defeat him,” Ray muttered as the pain became so bad that his consciousness began to fade. “It’s my… job… I’ll win… I have to…”
“Show him no mercy. Attack viciously and ferociously,” the man laughed. “Defeat them perfectly and cruelly even if you have to kill them to win. Punish all those who get in your way.”
“Mercilessly…and cruelly…” Ray muttered unintentionally as everything went completely black. “Must… punish…”
Stomping his feet while walking, Lynx was enraged by Ray abandoning him. They were supposed to work together but found himself trying to find his way out of the maze on his own. To make him even more annoyed, he seemed to be going around in circles.625Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYq386WQK1
“Great! Fantastic!” Lynx yelled, kicking the tree he had passed seven times already. “Damn him for running off on me. Why did he have to be so god damn moody?”
Lynx still had no idea what he had done wrong or why Ray was still upset with something that happened months ago. He understood that he shouldn’t had such terrible things, but he thought Ray would have simply snapped at him and then forget about it a few weeks. He tried to make amends on several occasions by pretending to be kind even though it aggravated him, but he kept getting ignored.
“Apologise? Not a decent person? He has some nerve,” Lynx complained. “Why do I have to apologise? It was his fault that I said that anyway.”
“Lynx? Is that you,” Pennie’s voice came from behind him.
Lynx turned around to find Pennie, Dimetrios and Kaela running towards him. He was a little annoyed that he had to be the one stuck with Ray while the others managed get together. It also bothered him that they were able to navigate their way through the maze when he could hardly get anywhere at all. However, despite feeling all that, he was mostly relieved that nothing had happened to them while they were separated.
“Oh, thank god!” Lynx exclaimed. “Maybe now I can get out of here.”
“So, this is where you two…” Kaela began, stopping when she noticed Ray was nowhere to be seen. “What happened to Brayden?”
“We were separated,” Lynx replied. “He was walking too fast and I couldn’t keep up. And get this when I asked him to wait, he said he wouldn’t and then turned a corner and then he was gone.”
“That doesn’t sound like him, he’s normally very careful not to leave people behind. Even you,” Pennie stated. “Did something happen?”
“Well, we may have had another argument,” Lynx sighed.
“Wow, you must have done somethin’ really terrible if you got him to yell at you,” Dimetrios scoffed. “He hasn’t spoken to you in ages, even when you were obnoxiously annoyin’.”
“Wow, and what makes you think it was my fault?” Lynx asked.
“Because you have a nasty habit of saying things that people find extremely offensive,” Pennie replied. “You knew Ray’s amnesia was something he struggled with, yet you made fun of him anyway.”
“But I’ve been trying to fix things, but he wouldn’t even listen,” Lynx complained. “Whenever I try to talk to him, he gets mad and walks away.”
“Did you actually ever apologise for what you said though?” Kaela asked.
“Well… no,” Lynx muttered, taken by surprise that she had said the same thing as Ray. “But I thought he would have been over it by now. He’s not the type to hold a grudge, I mean he forgave Dimetrios for nearly killing him.”
“But I apologised, somethin’ obviously you don’t know how to do,” Dimetrios stated. “Brayden and I a cool now. Perhaps you could learn a thing or two from me.”
“Ray may be a genius but when it comes to things like this he’s a little clueless,” Pennie stated. “He’s not going to know that you feel bad about what you said unless you tell him. You need to apologise to him before things between you get even worse.”
Lynx didn’t say anything as he knew Pennie was right. He was just too proud to admit it. Before anyone could say anything more, there was a loud and rattling explosion and the walls of the maze began to vanish, returning to forest to its original state. Flames and mass of thick black smoke arose above the trees in the distance. The fire slowly died down only leaving the tint of orange that filled the sky.
“Looks like Brayden found the enemy,” Dimetrios smiled. “Man, that Toivoa spell is somethin’.”
“Was that really Toivoa?” Lynx wondered. “I can’t recall it making that booming noise before. And I don’t recall it making smoke either.”
“Never mind that,” Kaela stated. “Now that we can move freely, we should head to where that explosion came from. Brayden’s going to need our support to take down this foe.”
With their mission nearly complete they did not waste any time heading towards the smoke. However, something was off. Instead of getting warmer as they closed in on the fire it got colder. The atmosphere became so eerie that Lynx began to shiver, not from the cold but from fear. They ran out into a clearance unprepared for what they were about to see. All that could be smelt was ash and blood as they came out into the open. Simultaneously they all froze. A few meters from the river that drifted up the hill and into the distance was the body of the man they had been hunting, lying on the ground with severe burns and his blood filling the cracks of the rocky terrain. He was knocked out cold and was barely breathing, probably only just clinging to life as well. Standing over him was Ray, his hands drenched in blood and strange yet vicious yellow flames circling his body before vanishing into the wind.
“What the…” Lynx muttered, so shocked by the sight he was lost for words.
Ray slowly turned around to face them and looked up with a blank expression. There was a dark look in his lifeless eyes that made Lynx’s heart beat so hard that it felt like it was caught in his throat. He had known Ray for years and he had never seen him look so frightening. It was almost as if he was a completely different person and the aura around him was almost monstrous. There were millions of questions that came to mind, but one thing was for sure, Lynx had never felt so afraid.625Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQC9gfJ6PCV
