"A level 15 beast?" Kip asked looking at the other guild member. He wasn't use to the ranking system they used yet. His ranking system usually just was ignorable, weak, decent, hard, or run. Fighting in a team to take on much higher ranked beasts was new. Not to mention he never fought battles he wasn't 100% sure he could win. Granted he also never had anything that needed protecting except his life.
The other continued to gossip about the news of its appearance. Kip was glad for once that Miami was located at the tip of Florida. He'd rather not meet this unrankable beast. James had mentioned it to him before and he had been interested in seeing it. Only once he saw it would he know just how powerful it was. For now though his main problem was not falling asleep in the session where the high ranking member was talking about elemental fighting tactics. 'Teamwork' wasn't exactly his specialty.
He caught a glimpse of Kyle leaving the guild hall. What was he doing here? Didn't matter it was his fault he was stuck here. Kyle should be forced to go through this torment with him, not that he wanted to spend time with him or anything. That would be ridiculous. Although his hair looked kind of pretty fluttering in the light breeze.
...….
"Finally!" Gasped Kip to himself since no one was currently around. His torment was over at last! the last day of his 'forced' week at the guild. All and all it hadn't been bad or anything. He'd even kind of enjoyed it. Not that he would ever let anyone know that. Even if he enjoyed it though, it was too different from his reality. He wasn't sure he could ever go back to a peaceful life like this, not after all that he'd seen.
He headed toward James's office in the guild hall to turn in his official resignation. He had already told him yesterday and despite his efforts James remained sad to see him go. Ah darn! Why did he feel like he was letting people down all the time. This is why it was better to be alone.
The door to the office was cracked open and a light in the early morning was already on. Interesting he had expected an empty desk this early, had James wanted to try again to persuade him? A small part of him wanted James to force him to stay. He didn't deserve this happiness not when he had been the only survivor.
He was about to push the door open further when a voice caught his attention.
"The scout team was wiped out!" huh he recognized Kyle's voice.
A short recording was played. Static, some details of the yak monster, must be that 15 rank beast, something he didn't quite catch about null users or element less people who still fought. More static. It was hard to catch much of anything with the door in his way. Then a bunch of screams and the line went dead.
"Got any ideas?" asked James.
"Not really, we have to act on something though, it crossed into Florida this morning." Kyle replied.
Kip felt his gut clench up. He didn't want them to go fight, he liked them. They should run instead. Yep running was a safe choice, just move the city. Darn it why did he keep picturing a hideous beast stomping on Kyle's lifeless body. Kip shook his head to clear it and then entered the room.
"Kip, good morning." Said James his tone immediately changing.
"Morning" Kip replied keeping his tone steady. He handed James the envelope, stupid paperwork it's not like it was actually truly used or enforced anymore.
"You sure you won't change your mind?" James asked for like the sixty eighth time.
Kip replied with a grunt. He didn't trust himself to actually speak. A sad look crossed over James's face but he just nodded and accepted the envelope.
"What you aren't staying!" said Kyle looking surprised. Kip wondered what he actually thought was going to happen. He gave a shrug in response and caught Kyle biting his lip from the corner of his eye. What a weird guy.
He walked back out of the room and closed the door leaving a small crack again. He paused by it to listen again, why did he care so much and why did his heart beat faster? He really should leave now.... But what about them?
"They said something like it's impossible, you know toward the end." Kyle stated as they replayed part of the tape. Kip caught most of it this time.
Static "what! Did you... see that!" static "I .... Magic ...… it's impossible!" static screams.
Kip clenched his teeth, why was his heart telling him to follow them when his brain screamed to hide? Ugh feelings. Fine but this would really be the last time. He took a breath and went back through the door.
Seeing both of them look up from the table at him his mouth seemed to freeze for a moment then he finally muttered, "I want to help with the yak thing."
James looked curious while Kyle looked …. Deadly? Weird expression to make.
"Absolutely not!" growled Kyle at once.
"It's a bad idea, from what we heard from our scouts the monster seems to be able to weirdly affect null monsters around it, the same could hold true for humans." James said.
"Weird how?" Kip asked.
James paused as if he didn't want to say it then finally muttered "it seems to have some kind of sonic wave pattern that slowly kills any non-elements. If you tried fighting you'd have a time limit and range before it killed you."
Kyle's eyes remained deadly, "You're not coming" he replied firmly.
"You aren't my boss" Kip replied feeling annoyed, now he definitely wasn't going to back down. "I'm going."