THE SOLAR DRAGON MOUNTAINS
THE CITY OF LONG YANG
THE VARSESSA AND NISI ACADEMY OF MARTIAL AND MAGICAL ARTS
30 SEPTEMBER/ 10 NEW UNIVERSE ERA
2:55 PM
MIKE
I passed out for a while, but I was able to wake up thanks to the incessant licking of my still unarmed soul beast. That and of course the loud barrage of gun shots I was hearing. I was a little confused to be honest, because I'm not sure I remember any one of us coming here with a gun, but when I got back up to my feet, there was Max and his Spirit beasts being held by their throats a few feet of the ground, and Lillian poking a massive looking blob thing full of holes as she shot at the tentacles it kept sending at her body.
I wanted to help, I really did, but apart from the Wail Lion cub, I had no other means of attack, and I doubt my physical abilities are powerful enough to cause any sort of damage to that thing. The only other option was to use my eyes, but such a move was scary, not because of how painful it would be for me, but because I'm not so sure I had an iota of control over it, I could hurt Max and his spirits. But with the way things were going, I might actually have no other choice.
Lillian kept shooting at the black humanoid blob monster, but then she took a step back, pulled out a round looking silver sphere with a red band around it from God knows where, and then she pressed a button on it and quickly threw it at the face of the monster.
*Bang!*
A loud explosion ensued that threw me backwards and on my ass, while Max and his spirits were released from the monster's grip. Though to be honest they did not seem to be in good shape, but that didn't stop him from getting back to his feet and glaring at the monster as if it had killed everything he ever owned. Lilian brought out another sphere, but this one had a light blue band around it, then she threw it at the monster, and it exploded into a shower of white fog as the temperature of the room dropped down by a few dozen degrees.
On half of the monster's body was frozen solid and it was pretty much immobilized. She took advantage of that fact and pulled out a bazooka from literally out of thin air. She pointed it at the monster and pulled the trigger. The force of the bazooka was powerful enough to throw her fourteen year old body backwards, and that was saying something seeing as Lilian was the most balanced out of all of us.
*BOOOOM!* *SCREEEEEEEEECH!*
That was the first sound of pain I've heard this thing make, and it was so loud that Max and I were hunched over with pain, bleeding from our ears as our head pounded. Whatever that screech was, it's obviously a mental attack, Lilian looked completely fine as she was protected not just by the fact she has an armor, but by the fact that she probably had the most evolved and advanced brain out of every person currently in the academy, but that was just speculation on my part.
*GROWWLLLLLL!*
That sound sent goosebumps across my entire body, it came with an aura of savagery and bloodlust I've only ever felt once, and even then it wad just a fleeting experience. My heart started pounding as sweat broke out on my skin, the Wail lion cub had retreated behind my legs, and even Lillian and Max's spirit had already moved back and out of danger.
*CRAACK!* *POP!* *CRAAACK!*
It was an extremely stomach churning yet somewhat beautiful sight. Max's bones broke and expanded, contracted and elongated as his skin peeled away and pure white bristling fur covered his hunched frame. Then he stopped, one half of his face was that of a wolf, and the other was that of a human. Max had tried to shift, but obviously it didn't turn out as planned, and it was the first time he ever tried to do so. Max had been too scared of the pain that came with shifting, even though he had already triggered his werewolf gene.
*AOOWOOOOOOOOO!*
And then he pounced, lightening rippling allover his grotesque half man half wolf form. He was using his highest ranked skill (Lightening stride) to increase his speed, which because of his partial shift, had already increased to insane levels. Max's claws glitter with lightening and a steel like edge as he dug his claws into whatever was left of the bloody monster. Lilian pulled out two handguns and handed them to me, before pointing her assault rifle at the monster.
"Make yourself useful!" she said to me in the coldest voice I've ever heard before. And at that moment I was so filled with shame at my inability to even be of any sort of help to my friends when our lives were on the line. I couldn't take the bandages on my eyes off, I was just too scared to do so.
I raised the guns and even though I couldn't see shit, I could tell where Max was based on how he was moving and the disturbances in the air. And I could tell where the head of that bloody thing is, after all it was screeching really loudly.
*BANG!* *BANG!*
The guns had quite a kick to them, but I was more than strong enough to handle them. I had no idea where I had shot the thing, but it was definitely really painful as it screeched even louder and moved back in agony. Lilian shouted for Max to get clear, and to my intense surprise he heard her, not completely lost in the madness of his half shifted state. Lilian threw two more of those red band silver spheres at the blob. How I could see their shapes and the color around it was still a mystery to me, however it I knew what came next, so I was prepared and braced myself for it.
*BOOOM!* *BOOOM!*
*Screeeeeeeeech!*
"Fucking shit! How much more can this thing take! Won't it fucking die? It's taken enough explosions to level this entire building! Guys I'm out of options." Lilian said to me and Max. And Max didn't even need to talk for me to know he was also out of options.
"Let me handle this." I said to them both as I moved forwards and started to take my bandages off. Then I felt Max's clawed and furred hands grab mine as he said.
"Don't risk it, we can find another way." I smiled at him and said.
"There's no other way."
I continued unwrapping my bandages, and as I did so, I cold feel a dull him building up at the back of my head. And when all of the bandages had finally called down, I left my eyes closed for a moment, before opening them. Then I could see her, not the monster, but the girl who's soul was stuck in it. My eyes glowed as a massive rune circle appeared in the air in front of me, and right in the middle of it was the draconic symbol for soul. It was then I realized that the doctors were wrong, my fears were all wrong. What I had was not the destructive power of a soul, but rather it's ability to cleanse and heal.
Veronica's soul was left in shambles because when you think about it, if you clean something a little to much or too hard, it's bound to get worn out, or even fade. And the destruction that came with it all had to do with the fact that I was using the eyes for the first time. They were right that I couldn't leave my eyes exposed though, there were just too many risk given that I had absolutely no control over it.
The rune circle spun, and then flew forwards before hitting the monster on the forehead and then everything turned white. And I was somewhere else, standing in front of a girl, the girl I saw within the monster.
"Hi, are you here to set me free."
I blinked my eyes, everything around me apart from the girl in front of me was an endless expanse of white. The only thing here was me and her, I was a little confused though, scratch that, I was very confused. So I asked her
"Where are we? What's this place?"
"ummm I'm not really sure, but I think it's the place where souls come to be saved....or condemned. Aren't you here to save me?" she asked me as she moved forwards a bit.
The girl looked to be about fiver years old, she was wearing a yellow dress with white flower prints on it. Even though I was wary about this entire place, and the fact that there was just this strange little girl around, I couldn't help but give her the answer she's probably been waiting for, for quite a while.
"Yes! I'm here to save you."