"Jayson Hillinger. On orders of Commander Kajar, you are to return to Ignus immediately." Clint exclaimed.
"...Elijah, move this." Jayson said in a scarily calm manner.
Elijah who was shaken up and confused about what was happening, listened to what he was told to do. He moved the water from around Jayson and surrounded himself and his daughter with it.
"Daddy... help him." Eliah said as she began to cry. "He said he'd protect me... help him."
Shaedon's body was completely engulfed in flames and was laying there without moving in the slightest way. Elijah held onto his daughter while Jayson calmly approached the two attackers.
"Yanno all of this could've been avoided if you just never left Ignus." Travis stated. "Disobedience calls for a punishment."
As Jayson walked towards the two attackers, he stopped just before Shaedon's burning body and gazed upon it with a blank expression. He tightly balled his fist and a sudden flame appeared from his hand briefly. The rage was about to overflow within Jayson before he realized something. His loosened his fist and squated down beside Shaedon.
"It's bout time you noticed." Clint said. "Burning to death is a slow and painful death, which usually involves a lot of screaming and struggling. That kid didn't make a sound when he fell over and hasn't moved since. That's bad acting if you asked me."
Shaedon's body then began to move, pulling himself off of the floor into a sitting position while still being engulfed in flames.
"Sorry Jay, I thought I could've trick them." Shaedon said as the flames began to diminish.
"You covered your body in fire essence." Jayson concluded.
"Yeah..."
"Who taught you that?"
"If you coat your body with fire essence, you can use it as a net which stops flames from touching you." Clint stated. "Something like that is taught to you as a child, but I shouldn't expect an orphan to be taught anything."
Both Shaedon and Jayson took the insult on the chin, but Jayson deducted something from that statement.
"Was that aimed at just me, or both me and Shaedon?" Jayson asked himself. "Of course he'd know that I'm an orphan, but how would they know that about Shaedon, unless they knew who I left with."
"The choice is yours Jayson. If you want to salvage what's left of this place, you should come back to Ignus, now." Clint exclaimed while holding out both of his hands.
Suddenly a spectral bow and arrow appeared in Clint's hands, aimed towards Jayson.
"...Shaedon, get out of here." Jayson whispered. "Your essence skills won't help in this situation."
"But... you'll be alright right?"
"Of course." Jayson replied confidently.
The both of them stood up to their feet and a few seconds after, Shaedon ran out of the immediate area. However, he did stay close enough to see what would transpire. Jayson looked back at Elijah who had a conflicted gaze on his face as he held onto his daughter. Gathering all of the strength in his body, Elijah nodded his head and dropped the water that was surrounding them. He ran away with Eliah in his arms and before the water could even touch the ground, Jayson infused his water essence into it and pulled it towards him. Clint shot an arrow at Jayson who ducked and dodged it with ease while directing the stream of water towards both of the attackers. Travis ran forward, evading the stream while drawing a dagger out of his pocket. Clint readied another arrow while Travis engaged for close quarter combat. Falling back on defense, Jayson desperately avoided Travis' attacks all the while keeping an eye on Clint who was calmly tracking the two with an arrow ready. Jayson directed the water stream between himself and Travis to create some distance, but all that did was create an opening for Clint to fire his arrow. Jayson managed to avoid that one as well but just by a thin margin.
"If I could find more water somewhere then I'd be able to push the offensive a bit more." Jayson thought. "I won't last long like this."
While Jayson was strategizing, Travis threw a paper box towards him which exploded after it got close to him. The blast was quite large despite the size of the box, however Jayson was also covering himself with fire essence so he was unscathed by the flames itself. However the impact of the blast knocked him back several feet. Before Jayson could even collect himself, appearing from the smoke was yet another arrow. This one connected and went directly through Jayson's left shoulder.
"Mmmm!" He grumbled as he winced in pain.
"Jayson!" Avery shouted as she arrived at the scene.
"I told you to get out of here!" Jayson exclaimed.
"How am I supposed to leave you behind in this situation?! Look around!"
The arrow dissipated but the damage it dealt continued to linger, as it wasn't a physical wound but a spiritual one. Jayson got up and was immediately pressured once again by Travis and his swift attacks. Jayson managed to grab onto his wrist after a failed slash attempt and disarmed him of the dagger. The two proceeded to trade well executed blows in a fight over the fallen dagger. Travis took the upperhand after getting behind Jayson and suplexing him to the ground. Neck and shoulders slammed into the ground first, leaving Jayson dazed, but he still managed to use the stream of water to knock the dagger out of play.
"Look out!" Avery shouted.
Clint repositioned into Jayson's blindspot and charged at him with a metal pole. He jumped and swung down at Jayson who just barely sidestepped to avoid the attack. The pole connected with the ground and produced sparks, which Clint quickly used to make flames and strike up with a fire uppercut. Jayson once again blocked it but was briefly blinded by the fire. Travis pounced on the opening and kicked Jayson in the side of his head, flooring him. The water stream also fell to the ground following the brutal strike.
"No! Jay!" Sayu shouted.
A circle of fire ignited around Avery and Sayu, stopping them from going anywhere.
"Stay out of grown folkes business." Clint said to them.
Jayson struggled to push himself up with weak arms as Travis and Clint stalked him. Once he got onto his hands and knees Travis delivered a heavy boot to the side of his face, dropping him to the floor again. Avery, Sayu and Shaedon watched on as Travis preceeded to needlessly beat Jayson into the ground. Avery began to wail while holding Sayu close to her so she wouldn't be able to witness this scene.
.....
Townspeople ran for their lives as cries and screams echoed through the ashes that descended over the settlement.
"I guess we didn't arrive on time." Guren said as the three walked through the settlement.
"She told us to be here before the ash begins to fall, and now I see why." Kiri stated. "Finding them like this will be troublesome."
"Maybe we should've brought Newt with us after all."
"If we had arrived on time, we wouldn't have needed Newt." Mateo exclaimed.
"Yeah, yeah, my bad."
It was then two people appeared amidst the ash rain, running towards the Luminents. This happened to be Elijah and Eliah. They didn't know what they were running towards, but was attracted to the glowing light which was illuminating the gray streets of Himawari.
"Stay behind me Eliah." Said Elijah.
"Good afternoon." Guren said greeting the two.
"Who are you people?"
"That's irrelevant." Kiri answered. "Where can we find Jayson hillinger?"
"That kid... you're after him too?" Elijah questioned.
"I believe there is a misunderstanding as we are not 'after' him, but rather trying to help him."
"That way!" Eliah shouted while pointing in the general direction. "He's over there!"
"Eliah!" Elijah said as he pushed her arm down.
"Thank you child." Kiri said as she quickly walked pass the two.
Mateo followed behind her without saying anything to the two.
"Enjoy the rest of your day guys, it can't really get worse." Guren said jokingly.
Elijah and Eliah watched on as the mysterious people disappeared into the falling ash, leaving just the eerie glow of their face mask which eventually faded away as well.
"What is happening?" Elijah questioned.
.....
"We gave you the chance to come back willingly." Clint said to Jayson who was laying face down on the concrete.
Clint looked up to the sky towards the cloud of ash which was slowly starting to disperse.
"It's about time for us to make our way back. Travis, let's go."
Clint casually turned his back to the seemingly unconscious Jayson and began walking away from the scene. Travis had a more dissatisfied look on his face as he threw Jayson's body over his shoulder after retrieving his dagger. Shaedon was given a full view of Jayson's bloodied face and became absolutely terrified, to the point where his joints locked up and his muscles twitched and shivered uncontrollably. The attackers took their prize without being faced by much of a challenge.
"Put him down!" Avery shouted.
The two attackers turned to acknowledge her and the pain she poured into that command, but of course they didn't comply. Sayu was left inside the ring of fire as she didn't know how to use fire protection, but Avery stepped out with tears flowing down her face, ready to fight for her friend.
"Put... him down." She repeated.
Clint looked over to Travis and laughed.
"Why don't you come and take him back." Clint replied.
With a shaky step forward Avery turned a small ember into a bright ball of fire. Without hesitation she launched it at the attackers. Clint walked forward and allowed the ball of fire to hit him directly. Of course that attack didn't even phase the skilled fire essence user, but that wasn't the aim of the attack. Jayson swiftly grabbed Travis' dagger and slashed his upper thigh with it. Travis dropped the beaten up Jayson who stumbled to his feet, and backed away as much as he could before dropping to one knee.
"Son of a bitch!" Travis exclaimed holding his leg.
He soon after began to treat his own wound with life essence.
"Of course it wouldn't be that easy." Clint stated as he shook his head.
Clint finally unveiled the sword he was carrying with him, and angrily walked towards Jayson. Just as he took his third step a stone wall erupted from the ground, separating Clint from Jayson.
"Sorry to interrupt, but if I'm not mistaken you two seem quite strong." Guren said. "Would you mind entertaining me for a little while?"
"Who are you?" Clint asked confusingly.
"Don't worry about all of that, you should focus."
With barely a second to spare Clint was able to raise his guard and defend against an attack from Mateo and his own steel sword.
"Let me say this before anything else... I hate you people." Guren said in an intimidating tone.
Mateo immediately initiated the action, swinging on Clint several more times but was either deflected or blocked. Travis got up to assist but couldn't move as his feet were sealed in the ground.
"Don't look over there, your opponent is me!" Guren said as he charged at Travis.
Before Guren reached him, Travis pulled out another one of those paper boxes he threw at Jayson earlier and tossed it at Guren. He slid to a hault and quickly pulled up a barrier between himself and the box. Once hitting the wall the box exploded and heavily damaged the barrier. Travis immediately took the fire from the blast and surrounded Guren with it.
"Uh oh." Guren said as he quickly surrender himself with stone.
Travis ran up to the stone sphere and focused the fire onto one general area, followed by him punching the flame and creating a devastating blast that way. However when the smoke cleared there was no sign of Guren, instead there was a rather large hole in the ground.
"Over here!" Guren said from behind him as he swung at him with a heavy punch that Travis blocked with his arm.
"Ahhh!!" Travis shouted.
After taking the lunch was when Travis noticed that Guren was wearing stone on his fists shaped into brass knuckles.
"Come on, fight back will ya."
Guren prepared to throw another punch but was interrupted when another ball of fire and debris crashed down from the sky. The two just nearly avoided it. Jayson finally began to rise back onto his feet, but it was clear to see he was heavily injured.
"Jayson Hillinger I presume." Kiri said from behind him.
"Huh? Who are you guys?"
"Listen to everything I have to say without asking any questions please, we don't have the time. Leave this village immediately and head north east to the frozen lake. You'll find something there to help you on your journey. Get to Aestus as fast as you can and also take this."
Kiri placed an unknown object in Jayson's hand carefully.
"What's this?"
"Think about what it could be while your moving. That is all I was meant to say to you. Good luck."
"Wait, none of what you said makes any sense. How do you know that I'm going to Aestus? Where did you-"
BOOM!!!
He was interrupted by another falling ball of fiery debris.
"I suggest you leave Jayson Hillinger, now that is." Kiri stated.
Jayson had no idea what this person's intentions was behind their glowing blue mask, but he decided to trust them anyway. Her calm but assertive nature really propelled Jayson into listening to her, but also made him more and more curious about who she was. Jayson poured all of the strength he had left into his legs and began walking around the battlefield.
"Take this with you." Kiri said as she offered him one final piece of assistance.
An extensive stream of water flowed around Kiri and was presented to Jayson.
"Do with this what you believe is necessary." Kiri stated.
A glimmer of light sparked inside of Jayson as he looked back over to the Luminents who were still battling the attackers.
"Do not worry about them, protect your own."
"Jayson!" Avery shouted from the otherside of the battlefield.
Without hesitating Jayson shot over a large stream of water to douse the flames surrounding Sayu.
"Run! I'm right behind you!" Jayson yelled.
Avery lifted Sayu into her arms and took off, along with Shaedon who finally regained enough confidence to move again. Jayson mustered up all of his remaining strength and sprinted behind the others.
"Get back here!" Travis said as he equipped another dagger.
He aimed it towards Jayson but before he could have thrown it, Guren raised the ground underneath him to throw him off balance. The dagger however still grazed Jayson's left leg causing him to stumble and grimace a bit. Mateo was overwhelming Clint with a relentless barrage of attacks, leaving him with zero openings to even make an attempt at using his essence. Jayson seemingly was in the clear and was about to get away. Sayu looked over Avery's shoulder and watched Jayson as he slowly caught up to them. She began to smile for a brief moment before it was wiped off of her face.
"Jay watch out!"
Jayson looked over his own shoulder just as the smoky sky above him ripped open and revealed one last enormous ball of fire and rock. With quick thinking, Jayson used the remaining water he had to propel Avery and Sayu forward and just out of harm's way.
"Bluejay!" Avery shouted as she got up at the last second to see the impact.
Jayson managed to outrun the projectile itself, but was caught in the large blast radius.
.....
"Jayson! Say something, come on!" Avery cried.
No matter how far you think you can run, there are things in this life you could never elude. Sorrow, inadequacy, emptiness, guilt, fear.
"Jay... please get up... you're scaring me." Sayu tearfully said.
"Everywhere your people go problems follow!" A lady in distraught shouted towards Avery and the others. "Conflict follows behind you people like a shadow! Can't you see?! This is your fault!"
Conflict? Yes, I guess if I had to pick one thing that I've never been able to escape, it would be conflict. A baby born to represent peace between nations, is what Jayson Hillinger was supposed to be. However, right now I'm just a problem for both sides.
Jayson then fell unconscious.