Heroes to Hunted

Without turning from the wisps of light, Suda angled her head toward Mizuno. "Yuu! Whatcha thinkin'?! Run or gun?!" she laughed nervously and burst into a cold sweat.

Mizuno gripped both her dual swords and drew them from beneath her cloak. She stood motionless, watching and waiting, seemingly appraising the threat. That threat grew when the wisps started levitating toward us.

Agawa and Kamida shouted for the sisters to back away, but they were ignored. The sisters were too enraptured by the deep blue light.

As the apparitions closed in, Ayame foolishly reached out to touch one. It drifted toward her like a moth to a very enticing flame.

It was inches away from her fingertip when a squirrel carcass flew out from behind her.

I swiveled my head to see the thrower; it was Shrug. He was sprinting toward the sisters with a look of panicked urgency.

Upon contact with the carcass, the entity enveloped the body in a hazy blue mist. Then, a moment later, the orb vanished into the body. It was like the corpse sucked it in, caging it.

For a moment, the body was suspended inanimately in the air. However, that was soon replaced by sporadic muscle convulsions and twitching flesh.

A moment later, the corpse finally exploded into a rotten paste of blood, guts, and bone. It splattered everything nearby in a blue-hued red, including Ayame.

Though the corpse was atomized, the wisp still stood in its place. The only difference; it was slightly denser now.

Upon his arrival, Shrug snatched Ayame and Hikari in his arms. He hoisted them onto his shoulders and ran back toward the campsite. When he reached it, he dropped them to the ground, out of harm's way.

I looked to Takagi, half expecting him to already be running to fight the swarm. Instead, he was watching from back at camp with a look of apathy. I guess he was still too shaken by Nakamura's death to act.

Now free from the sisters, Shrug walked to his hammer and grasped its hilt.

He heaved it from the ground with a gruff grunt, leaving an imprint of it in its place on the earth. Finally, he performed a mock swing, creating a forceful gust of air, and planted the weapon firmly on his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Suda loosed an arrow in retaliation toward the swarm of apparitions, but, as I expected, it phased straight through.

"The hell? Did I miss?!" she cursed under her breath as she futilely loosed more shots toward the creatures. The arrows passed through, only to be lost to the pond's darkened depths.

Hundreds of formless, body-exploding enemies with no discernable way to be defeated? There was no way we'd take those on. Our only blessing was their slow-moving nature.

I spun around to face Suda once more, my voice rising with a sense of panicked urgency. "We need to run! Right now!"

She looked at me, then at Mizuno. "Yuu! Whadda we do?! Run?! Run right?!"

Mizuno turned toward the campsite and grimaced.

We obviously had no time for packing, something she seemed to know. But losing those supplies meant our journey to Freehaven would be exponentially harder.

"Shrug! What're you doing?!" Suda pointed out to Shrug.

With grim determination, he strode towards the horde of blue sprites, his massive hammer at the ready.

Ignoring Suda and Mizuno's orders to retreat, he swung his weapon behind him and gathered a small stream of red power around its head.

The hammer blazed to life and became enveloped in flames that turned the metal orange-red. Raising the weapon above his head, he spun it around himself, creating a roaring cyclone of shifting red flames.

The infernal twister expanded as Shrug unleashed more power, drawing in more of the wisps. To my surprise, their very existence scattered to dust upon contact. Shrug was killing them!

Despite his impressive feat, they were continuously growing in number. The apparitions endlessly poured forth from the pond as if it were a bottomless spring.

Still, everyone gaped at Shrug, at the man who instantly wiped out dozens of whatever the hell those things were. All except for me.

The roaring yellow blaze, the sweltering heat on my skin, the crackling of foliage and insects burning away with its touch. It inspired memories in my mind. Horrible memories.

My breathing became ragged, and a fierce sweat soaked my body. An intense desire to run filled my flesh and soul. Both shouted for me to abandon this place at the sight of the raging flames.

I clutched my tightening chest and forced my breathing to steady. 'C'mon... A little trauma is nothing; just ignore it,' I thought, trying to pep myself.

I turned away to the camp, trying to ignore the gnawing fears within me.

While Shrug fought off the horde, Mizuno and Suda took the others to pack as much as possible. I followed too. My phobia aside, I knew I wouldn't be of use against the sprites, anyway.

Considering what I saw, the creatures weren't affected by physical objects or attacks. However, since Shrug was annihilating them by the dozen, it was safe to say "magic" did work on them.

Sadly, that wasn't something I was sure I could pull off. So I focused on what I COULD do and helped gather up our supplies.

As we packed, Takahashi was exceptionally unhelpful. Rather than aiding us, he shivered in fear as far away as he could from the apparitions.

He wouldn't have helped much because we didn't have long. Shrug's magical attacks became unstable and sluggish. His face twisted into nausea, and a profuse sweat formed at his brow.

He was reaching his limit, and the once-dense conflagration surrounding him scattered into sparks until dying out entirely.

"C'mon, Shrug! It's time tah move!" Suda waved him over after hoisting a rucksack onto her back.

This time, he followed her call. He lowered his hammer and retreated from the growing horde of blue wisps.

There was no time to retrieve any other supplies or pack up camp, so we abandoned everything else. We left with just the rags on our backs, weapons, and the three rucksacks of sparse rations.

I looked back while we ran; our camp was utterly overwhelmed by a blinding blue swarm of light.