FSE

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Raptyr, Iggy and I were the first ones out. Mira and Rin were too precious as the healers to allow to investigate something like this so I told Mazurek and Vincent to keep the two of them safe.

We chased the noise, it was quite far away and we were out roughly half a mile from camp before we discovered the source of the noise. The perpetrator was standing in the middle of a small clearing of trees, he wore a coat with six large buttons in three rows of two. It was lined with fur. He wore blue pants that were some strange material I haven't really encountered, it wasn't like silk or cloth, it seemed rougher. His head, posture and stance marked him as some kind of canine, possessing the ears, stance, leg shape muzzle of a canine. I noted, however, that whatever canine it was, it wasn't a fox. He had piercing amber eyes. He carried some sort of projectile firing weapon, or so it seemed, this one possessed strange modifications on top of the barrel and below it, it was about the length of his arm.

Iggy glanced casually towards a tree with a huge hole in it and bit his lip. "You wouldn't happen to be a person who makes guns that fire bullets like that, would you?"

"Who knows?" The strange canine creature said in a voice that seemed to mock Iggy, as if he was imitating something he had heard.

"Have you recently shot anybody with that weapon, say in the past day?" Iggy asked, making a fist.

"You mean that one kid with the strange sword?" He inquired. "Would you believe me if I said no?"

"Oh my god... you shot Vincent?" I asked.

"YOU BASTARD!!!" Iggy roared, all the spikes and claws, barring those on his feet, suddenly dissolved and a large maul-like weapon appeared in his hands. He lept at the creature, this wasn't good, he was too riled up. "Flame Emperor's Maul, Incinerating Strike!"

A pillar of fire suddenly erupted where the hammer made contact with the canine creature. It dissipated quickly. It felt somewhat short lived.

The canine creature suddenly became easier to make up and it was evident that he had eaten the attack. He had completely absorbed the fire and had even stopped the maul with his left hand. "Toasty." He commented. "Sorry kid, but as long as I am linked to the fire princess, fire attacks like that will only make me stronger. Here's a consolation prize though." He held a now empty hand out, a small sphere of something that looked like iron appeared.

Time seemed to slow down as he moved his arm to Iggy's chest. I lept into action, manifesting my glaive and aiming it right at his chest. Not missing a beat, the iron disappeared and he grabbed the maul with his other hand, swinging it, along with Iggy, into me. We were both knocked back into a tree and he escaped out of sight. He hadn't run, but I didn't know where he was.

"COWARD! FACE US!" Iggy screamed as he got up. He swung his maul in an arc from right to left and sent out a wave of flames that incinerated all the trees in its path. "HEAT WAVE!"

I stared in awe at the sheer destructive force of the attack. He had utterly annihilated the vegetation in the area, what kind of monster could have this kind of destructive power and not be a demon.

We quickly spotted our target with no trees in the way and Iggy predictably lept right at him, swinging the maul right at him. It was no use though, he just lept out of Iggy's range, what a frustrating opponent.

"You seemed so concerned about your brother when I shot him full of holes, you freaked out and everything. Did most of your rage disappear when you defeated my subordinate? Or do you really just care about your brother that little?" He chuckled mockingly at Iggy.

"I'LL KILL YOU." The maul was engulfed in flames as he lept this time. Still, our opponent wasn't going to fall that easily, he lept back out of Iggy's range once more, Iggy went in swinging his maul at him but none of the swings connected. I kept looking for an opening but this guy wasn't engaging himself in an attack enough to leave any openings, he was quite adept.

I noticed that he wasn't as shadowy as the others, was he even a reaper I began to wonder. I kept moving around the side, keeping clear of Iggy's wide attacks but staying well within range to exploit any kind of opening that might appear. In the state that he was in, I feared that he might lose the ability to discern the difference between friend and foe.

"I'm beginning to wonder about you now. What, did your parents favour him over you? Now it all makes sense, you WANTED him to die so they'd love you more or something, am I right? That's pretty screwed up. You must have had some pretty fucked up parents, huh kid?"

Iggy screamed in unbridled rage, I could feel a mass of murderous intent I had only seen in demons. "DON'T YOU SPEAK ILL OF MY FAMILY!" He demanded as he began spinning the maul with both of his hands in a circle. After it reached a certain speed and became a blur he stopped and made an arcing swipe in the direction of the canine.

A flaming serpent appeared from the maul and began chasing after him as he ran from it. He was so distracted he didn't even seem to notice Raptyr who had only now reappeared.

Raptyr had completely hidden his presence, a trick that worked all the more thanks to Iggy's murderous rage. He was now gripping our opponent by the head.

"There's a limit to what you can absorb, even with that creatures influence, its not a perfect ability that can just be used continuously." Raptyr observed aloud. "Your reactions to his attacks, you goaded him on and constantly jumped out of his range, you wanted to burn him out. He didn't give you enough time to fire a shot, that was fine though, it was only a matter of time before he couldn't keep up that reckless style. Your actions became predictable though..." Raptyr gripped its head tighter.

"Sorry Iggy, but I never had any intention of letting you fight him on your own." Raptyr explained as Rin and the others suddenly caught up. I remembered that Rin was clearly a sensory type and must have realized when things went wrong.

Their presence seemed to be enough to calm Iggy down and I suddenly took a deep breath. My heart had been pounding from the tension and fear of the moment. Whatever this kid was, I was extremely thankful he was on our side.

The canine creature observed the situation and quickly seemed to realize how outnumbered he was. The next events happened faster than I was able to react to.

Raptyr was momentarily distracted by the sudden intrusion. It was more than enough time for the canine to materialize a weapon. He aimed it at Vincent and fired. The sheer noise of the gun firing was overwhelming and it shocked us all. He escaped as our ears were still ringing from the noise.

A huge cloud of dust suddenly surrounded Iggy, Vincent, Mira and Rin. I was overwhelmed with despair, the explosive force that the bullet had generated suggested that it was likely strong enough to kill at least half of them. My heart seemed to beat a mile a minute and I was gripped by terror at the thought of losing Rin.

The smoke began to clear and Mira appeared to be the one who had protected the others. Somehow, she was still alive and mostly unphased by the bullet. I couldn't help but wonder how.

"That was a close one. I had a bad feeling, so I increased the density of the slime my body naturally emits, I focused it all in one spot." Mira explained. "If I hadn't done that, we might not be standing, did the shock-wave hurt any of you?"

Everyone in the group shook their heads, staring mutely at her, she was clearly adept at sensing attacks. There's no way she had reacted fast enough to the bullet itself. She must have somehow been able to predict it, long before the bullet exited the chamber or the gun even appeared. Clearly, none of these creatures was even remotely normal.

It was unanimously decided that we needed to head to that castle and hope that we reached the new opponent before he was able to regroup with his allies.