"How'd you know?" Zoe asked..
"Because Ned has never been wrong.." Sandy smiled. "But he broke that record today."
"So..?" Lyn asked.
" From my deductions, they... " he pointed to a tree "...changed the moment we came in." Sandy stood up and walked towards a tree. "Like they are responding to signals."
"Commands, you mean?" Ned corrected.
"Whatever." Sandy winked.
"But the question is what it is?" Lyn said.
" It was a specter..." Sandy answered.
Silence...
"Okay.. Excuse me." Chiyo lifts her hands up. " What's a specter?"
"Ned...." Sandy turned towards Ned. "Your call..."
"Seriously... Why me?" Ned asked.
"Because you can explain better." Sandy placed his hands on his chin. "But keep it simple..."
Ned groaned in frustration before looking at Chiyo who had an expression of anticipation, Ned placed his hand on his face in worry of how he would make it easy for her to understand...
"Well...." Chiyo impatiantly spoke.
"Well.... Spectres are shapeless shadows that dwell in places that had negative sensations created by man." He began. " Kind of like your dark spirits, only man-made."
"So how were they discovered, or created?" Glen asked.
"There was a man who made it known to all..." Sandy walked back. " He was the sole survivor of the first spectre attack. An ambush in the woods. Almost the same conditions as ours currently."
"Did you say escape.... How'd he escape..?" Zoe asked.
Sandy smiled and pointed upward as everyone followed his gaze and looked up, they looked back at him again as he smiled like an idiot in front of his crush.
"What do you expect us to do ?" Glen asked.
"We think outside the box...." Sandy smiled.
"Huh....?"
"The only way the man escaped the haunted woods." Sandy looked up. " It was by climbing up the branches."
"You mean we go up..?" Ned commented.
" We are not going up... We are gonna fly over this damned sandwich." Sandy grinned.
.
.
.
" Remember, we don't want to kill it. Just try to get close enough to get the driver away."
BANG...
Neil had switched position with a branch that had just been crushed to pieces, he sighed heavily before turning his head towards his comrades that had been dodging the specters attacks. Delia conjured a wall of ice off the ground at the specter, on making contact with the shadow... The iced wall turned black and reversed towards Delia.
She immediately conjured an ice with the length of a pen, spinning round and threw it at the wall... The ice grew longer to spear length at the blacked iced wall.... Shattering the wall to pieces.
SCREEEE...
A long spear-like shadow came out from behind the shattered wall and aimed straight at Delia, she couldn't dodge it easily as it approached really fast. She lifted her hands upward conjuring another iced wall to shield herself from the attack that has headed her way....
BANGGG.....
The shadow made contact with the wall realeasing a large amount of force that pushed away everything that was close by, Delia out stretched both arms releasing more energy towards the iced wall to prevent it from shattering... The impact drifted her backwards but she held her ground and pushed forward, the gale storm associated with the impact had forced the rest of the team to retreat.
"Now's our chance.." Miss Wade remarked.
She moved faster than before and headed straight at the specter with her associates, Freda moved ahead of them with cheetahs speed and the specter grew extra tentacles as it began to strike out towards the rest of them while keeping Delia busy.
CRACK....
Neil looked over to see Delia's iced wall as he heard it crack, he looked ahead at the specter before spotting a stone close to the shadow. He looked over towards Delia again and knew he had to act fast...
The specter struck out towards Neil but it went above him as he swiped underneath the specter's speared tentacle, he picked up the stone and tossed it towards Delia.
ZAP.... CRASH...
The iced wall shattered to pieces and it's particles flew in the air, Freda stopped and looked towards the wall only to see... Delia was missing.
Reece had remained at the hill and didn't descend from it to help out, he was breathing uneasily as though he was suffering from asthma. He contemplated around trying to find Neil who was no where to be found, fear crept up his sleeves.
"Where's Neil?" Jayden asked Freda.
"Can't find him..." Freda answered as she dodged a tentacle all the while looking at Jayden. "Likewise Delia.."
"Well that's messed up..." Jayden laughed. "I thought he was the strongest amongst us.. But now he bailed like a scared little kid."
" What makes you think so Jayden..?" Freda dodged another tentacle with her eyes still fixed on Jayden.
"I don't know..." Jayden shrugged. "Maybe it's just a hunch."
Jayden bent over slightly to avoid a tentacle attack before spining round with the same motion to release a massive blast wave at the specter, the attack made the specter contract for few seconds after the wave hit it...
It gave out an angry eerie cry that shook the heart of the woods, it expanded again and released more tentacles than before.
"Fall back..." She ordered. "You've just pissed it off..."
"Sorry...." Jayden said.
The tentacles began to rain down in front of them as they dodged and hopped back, Freda escaped from two at once and hopped in mid air.. another tentacle shot at her but went past her as she spined in the air to avoid the attack.
"Freda watch out...." Jayden yelled.
Freda spotted the tentacle from the corner of her eyes as she spined in the air, she tried to avoid it but the motion of her body refused to respond to her will.. The tentacle drew near and was about to strike her at the waist.... Swish... Zap... Boom.....
"FREDAAAAAAA..." Jayden yelled.
Silence....
"No... Not again..." Jayden watched the specter as rage welled up in his stomach. "Does it have to be this way....?"
Miss Wade placed her hand on Jayden's shoulder to restrain and ease him of his anger, though he wasn't accepting the fact the Freda is gone again.... He was about to sprint towards the specter when he heard a loud thud and someone laughed, someone familiar...
They turned around to see Freda brushing off dirt from her clothes, she walked towards her companions with smile on her face..
"Why are you smilling like you've been kissed by Zeus?" Reece teased.
" Whatever..." She rolled her eyes.
"What just happened?" Jayden asked.
Freda placed her fingers to her face and drew the hair strands in front of her face backwards before pointing behind her using the same gesture, they looked up to see Neil standing at the top of the hill... Delia came right out from behind him and stood by his side.
"Why did we have to make an entrance like that? " She thought.
Neil just chuckled.
Both of them descended down the hill.
.
.
.
Sandy thrust a stick into the ground and drew on the Earth's surface like he was sketching, there was a smile on his face but his eyes told a different story.. He was deep in thought.
"There's literally no way for that plan of yours..." Ned queried.
" Huh?"
" The spectre will try to fight us every step of the way." He adjusted his glasses. " We are only 70% sure, and some of us might get lost along the way. By the way, basing our entire plan off a legend is..."
"Hey, stop. You've got a better idea?" Sandy asked. " Then I'm open to your suggestions."
Silence.
" I thought as much." Sandy scoffed.
He brought out a plain card and a pen from his waist bag, he drew shadows floating in the air.. Few seconds later he slut it into his glove with his head slightly bent towards the ground, he looked at his classmates with a devilish grin.
"Are we ready?" He asked them.
"I don't know about them..." Clint smiled. "But am ready to get outta here."
"Everyone with an aerial ability, line up"
Clint, Zoe, Ned, and Glen moved forward on cue.
"Okay, so Clint take Cheryl with you.."
"Ned, you're with Rory"
" You know, when you say it like that it sounds obscene..." The bespectacled boy adjusted his glasses.
"Just shut up.." Sandy continued with the arrangement.
" Zoe take Chiyo. Your aura armor should be the most stable and the safest for her."
" Thanks" Zoe said before taking Chiyo who has been quiet all this time in her arms and summoning the eagle aura armor.
"Guess I'm stuck with you, Sandy..."
"Oh yeah, about that..."
.
.
.
The picturesque calm of the forest ceiling was suddenly broken by several bodies rising from within it. One was an airplane, although small in nature. If you looked closely, you'll find that it was composed of numbers and shapes. Standing inside was Ned, his eyes flashing with data.
"Turn 30 degrees westward and then straight ahead. The dark energy is making things harder but I can sense our bus in that direction." Rory spoke from where he was sitting cross legged behind him.
"Alright."
The plane turned moving rapidly, while the other figures, a floating leaf cluster, a giant albatross with soulless eyes, and Zoe's eagle armor followed it's lead.
Levitating behind the pack was Sandy, who still had that smirk on his face, and Lyn who looked... confused to say the least.
"Erm.. Sandy."
"What?"
"When you said we were gonna be free flying, did you mean like this?!"
The red haired kid drifted over to look at her face. He raised an eyebrow. " Yes. Anything wrong, Lyn?"
She gulped. "Well... I think I have aerophobia."
"You're sounding a lot like Ned right now." Sandy chuckled.
" Fear of heights." Lyn quipped. Looking down at the distance between herself and the forest canopy that was filled with nothing but air.
"Wait, What?" Sandy shouted. "Why are you just telling me this?"
"Because I just noticed it right now." She screamed back.
"Okay okay, what do you think would help?"
.
.
.
" Is that what your plan was... " Miss Wade asked.
" Positive...." Neil answered.
SCREEEEEE.....
The specter struck out towards them making them hop backward.
"Are you sure it will work.?" Jayden asked.
" Affirmative..."
Miss Wade watched the specter as it struck out again, the kids jumped back.. Miss Wade took a step forward and waited for the specter's attack to come, she dodged as soon as it approached her.
She looked at the specter's tentacle that stroke out before turning around to face the specter again, she looked at the the kids and then at Neil then tilted her head a bit to the right.
"You're on..." She mouthed.
Neil nodded..... He turned towards his associates and smiled.
"Let's do this...." He telepaths. "Reece stay close..."
" Understood...."
" Let's go..."
Miss Wade walked backward towards Neil and stood by his side as the rest of them dashed towards the specter, their only option is to get close to the specter without attacking it.
They hopped around each attack thrown at them, but kept pressing and pushing. They did it with smiles on their faces, all except Delia remained blank... As usual. They kept twisting and turning to get close to the specter...
Neil was on the hill watching intensely at his comrades as they got close to it, he turned towards Reece and nodded at him to be prepared...
Freda made the final twist with excitement as a tentacle narrowly missed her head, soon as she regained herself from the twist she ran towards the center to meet Delia. Jayden on the hand decided to retreat because he was far from them, he flipped back and cart wheeled away from each attacks... Before running backwards...
"Neil.... Nooooooowwwww....." Freda called out.
" Understood." Neil telepaths.
Time froze. The moment seemed to stretch infinitely as glitches in the air appeared like space cracks. All this were seen only by one person. Neil closed his eyes focusing his mind and energy, envisioning what he wanted as the flow of energy moved in accordance to his will.
ZAP..