Jumping down from the building, Sydra turns in the direction of the Lunarmoon Kingdom. When he had met back up with Nate, they agreed to discuss more about the secrets of the Emerald Sea Forest when Sydra visited the kingdom. That was the main reason Sydra never stopped at any of the remaining temples, the other one being that he wanted to start exploring the continent as soon as possible, in the hopes of finding a way to heal Robert's arm.
'I thought some of those regrowth pills might help Robert, but it seems that whatever I did keeps them from working,' Sydra thinks as he walks out of the town.
The Lunarmoon Kingdom is in the northern part of the continent, and traveling there by foot was going to take Sydra at least two months. He had thought about purchasing a horse, but the stable was owned by the Guildhall, and he would have had to show his insignia to purchase one.
Over the next few days, Sydra travels on foot over the rolling plains, before stopping in front of the Listless Forest. Deciding to set up camp for the night, Sydra pulls off his backpack and takes out a sleeping bag. After laying the sleeping bag on the ground, Sydra sets up a few straw golems to keep guard as he sleeps.
"Five should be enough," Sydra says, sitting down on his sleeping bag, and pulling out a bag of jerky. Most of the food he acquired over time stayed in the Arbor Sanctum for Marie and the children, and there was also the garden he set up as well.
Once finished with the jerky, Sydra lays down and looks up at the night sky, watching as stars sparkle above him. The sound of the wind blowing through the tall grass causes Sydra's eyes to become heavy, and he soon finds himself drifting away.
Sometime in the middle of the night, the sound of swords clashing awakes Sydra, and he shoots out of his sleeping bag. Looking around, Sydra finds the straw golems in the midst of a battle with bandits, two of them already taken out.
'Great, I can't even get a night's worth of sleep,' Sydra thinks as he pulls out his daggers and runs towards one of the bandits. Seeing Sydra's approaching form, the bandit focuses his attention on him and releases a blast of energy.
Raising his arm, Sydra activates his bone shield and deflects the blast of energy to the side, before lunging the remaining distance towards the bandit. Plunging one of his daggers into the bandit's chest, Sydra ducks as another bandit swings a sword towards his head.
"Guys, I found the one controlling the straw golems!" The bandit yells out, bringing several of the other bandits over in his direction. Finding himself encircled by the bandits, Sydra takes to the air, his bone-root wings sending several of the bandits flying backward as they spread.
Once in the sky, Sydra reaches into his Arbor Sanctum and pulls out the Ice-Dragon staff, pointing it towards the ground. Releasing its aura, Sydra fires several bolts of ice towards the bandits, forcing them to pause in their attack and dodge out of the way.
"Dang it, how many abilities does this guy have?" a bandit yells as he watches the guy beside him turn into a statue of ice. Turning to face Sydra, who is darting through the sky as he dodges attacks, the man begins to condense his aura for one massive attack.
Noticing the man just standing there, Sydra feels a foreboding feeling grow, and tosses his Ice-Dragon staff back into the Arbor Sanctum while activating his bone shield. By now, the man has condensed more than eighty percent of his aura and releases it towards Sydra, a blazing ball of magma leaving his hands.
"Crap, that attack is too much for my normal bone shield to handle," Sydra says as the magma sphere soars directly towards him. Looking around, Sydra sees that all the possible directions he could have dodged have been covered by attacks from the other bandits. "I guess I'll just have to up my defenses, then,"
Conjuring a bone flame, Sydra spreads it over his shield to enhance its durability, before facing the magma attack head-on. The force of the magma hitting Sydra's shield pushes him back several meters in the air, and the magma begins to eat its way through the shield.
Shaking his shield, Sydra flings the magma off before glaring down at the bandits, "So... Is that the best you had?" he asks, the light from the moons causing his silhouette to appear majestic.
Folding his wings, Sydra drops to the ground in front of one of the bandits and sends his head flying with the flick of his dagger. The movement was so sudden that the other bandits had no time to react, and Sydra uses their hesitation to take out three more of them.
Coming to his senses, the bandit that had fired the magma ball turns around to run, only to find his path blocked off by a young man with golden hair. Dropping to the ground, the bandit begins to beg, "Please Holan, we can't defeat him on our own, he has too many abilities. We need your power if we want any chance of stopping him,"
Glaring at the bandit in front of him, Holan slaps him to the side before looking towards Sydra, who is in the process of petrifying two of the bandits at once. 'So, that is the one Ascape want's me to take care of? I can't believe I had to hire this bunch of idiots to help me do it,' Holan thinks as he steps over the bandit and approaches Sydra.
Noticing the eyes of the bandits in front of him start to gleam, Sydra ducks to the ground as a blue sword flashes above his head. Turning around, Sydra sees a man in a black jacket, outlined with blue flames. The man's green eyes appear surprised that Sydra managed to dodge his attack, and he sweeps his golden hair away from his face.
"It seems I will have to become serious if I want to end quickly," Holan says, his sword flashing towards Sydra once more.
Deflecting the sword with his bone shield, Sydra studies the man carefully, "You don't seem like the other bandits, almost as if you have had training,"
Smirking, Holan sends out three more strikes with pinpoint accuracy, forcing Sydra to move at odd angles to dodge them, "That's right, and I was sent here to take care of you. You see, there are some people who don't like the fact that you are growing so quickly, and requested that we halt that growth,"
'Wait, someone is coming after me?' Sydra thinks, 'But why? I have kept to a pretty low profile so far, so why would someone come after me?'
While Sydra is thrown off by Holan's words, Holan manages to wound Sydra with the edge of his blade. Shocked, Sydra glances down at the cut on his arm, the area around it turning a light blue, and a feeling of weakness coming over Sydra's body.
"What did you do?" Sydra asks, backing warily away from Holan, who is now smiling widely.
"My blade has the ability to seal other's powers or at least the ones they have used within the past day," Holan says, watching as Sydra tries to verify what he is saying by activating his wings. Seeing that nothing is happening, Sydra turns back to Holan, who has sheathed his sword "By sending the bandits out first, I had you use all of your powers before attacking. Now the only choice you have left is to surrender,"
Grimacing, Sydra glances around, noticing that the remaining bandits have begun to approach him. 'I have to escape, or else who knows what will happen to me,' Sydra thinks, turning around and running towards the forest behind him.
Watching him run, Holan begins to laugh as he commands the bandits to chase after Sydra. Trusting the bandits, Holan walks over to the campsite Sydra had been sleeping in before the attack. 'I wonder if he left anything in his bag,'
Running through the woods, Sydra dodges as an energy beam passes over his shoulder, causing it to slam into a tree further ahead. Unable to use any of his previous abilities, and not sure what would happen if he used the remaining abilities he did have, Sydra is forced to escape using only what he was born with.
'They're too fast, and there are too many of them to be able to fight back. I'm not sure I'll be able to survive this,' Sydra thinks while jumping over a log. As he lands on the ground on the other side, Sydra feels his foot slip, and a loud crack rings out.
With his leg bent to the side, Sydra finds himself falling headfirst down a hill. Unable to stop, Sydra rolls down the hill, bouncing off the trunks of several trees on the way. Suddenly, the ground beneath his body disappears, and Sydra begins freefalling down the side of a cliff towards a running river hundreds of meters below.