"I don't know Gloria, this doesn't feel right. We've been seeing more corpses than actual animals." Martyr said as he threw down the shell of his fully eaten fire-element dragon fruit.
The corpse of the half-human, half-snake was creeping him out big time.
Races of demi-humans like naga's, elves or goblins lived in the wildlands. They were trained to fight the big bag mythological creatures that they lived alongside. Seeing one dead meant big trouble.
"It's gotta be far away, there's no way there could be a creature that big nearby and we just don't see or hear it." Vanagloria responded with a half-eaten air elemental dragonfruit in her hands.
"Well let's go a little further before we find a place to stay for the night. I don't want a tribe of naga's attacking us as we sleep because we are next to a dead friend of theirs." Martyr argued, looking at his surroundings.
"Fair enough." Vanagloria said, picking up a small rock. A sneakily small amount of lightning started coursing down her arm to her hand.
She then flicked her hand to send the rock flying through the air, cracking and popping with electricity as it flung towards the corpse. It created a small explosion of sparks as it hit the naga right in the stomach under its armor.
"You gotta stop throwing rocks." Martyr scolded.
"Sorry but rocks are too much fun to throw, especially now that I can throw it with lightning. How can I not?" Vanagloria didn't even look ashamed, and just seemed satisfied at the damage she caused with the rock.
"Okay I get it. Just eat your dragonfruit to keep your hands occupied. It doesn't taste bad enough to keep yourself hungry." Martyr told the picky eater, starting to walk through the forest again.
"Food named after the coolest creature should taste better than this." Vanagloria said as she didn't take another bite.
"The Phoenix is cooler."
"Nah, but… What?"
"Shhhhh." Vanagloria had completely stopped. She was slowly putting her dragon fruit onto the ground.
"I heard something." She whispered, faint enough he could barely hear it.
Martyr stopped along with her and started to notice something.
He could feel a presence above him.
It was like some sixth sense was telling something was up in the trees,
Watching him.
It was small, but extremely powerful.
Martyr looked up while Vanagloria continued to search the darkness of the forest around them.
He could feel his heart beating faster, his senses getting sharper.
It was dead silent.
No birds.
No rustles.
Nothing.
The fire element he just consumed was swirling around his bloodstream, waiting to be released.
'swish'
Immediately Martyr turns his head to the new area of the sound.
It was in an almost completely different area than where he first sensed.
Vanagloria still looked confused, she had only started to look up.
It's just one creature.
But it was fast and small.
And extremely skilled.
'swish'
This time he followed it.
It felt like the more it gave away, the more he could sense it.
There was some sort of power it had that he could sense.
The more he sensed it, the more he could pinpoint the area it was in.
'swish'
Oh, it was taunting him now.
It was practically giving away its position to him.
He could sense that it knew.
Why? He didn't kn…
"Oh no."
"It's my other element."
Vanagloria couldn't find out.
She couldn't know about his secret.
'swish'
Oh it knew.
It was practically playing with him, like he was some small prey too scared to move.
Martyr really needed to let out some element or else he would probably explode.
He didn't know if he could actually explode but he didn't want to be the first one to find out.
Vanagloria had to get away from him right now.
"Hey, Vana…
'swish'
"Get behind a tree now."
"What?"
"Get away from me. Stay in sight, but get away."
Vanagloria nodded and swiftly crept away without arguing this time.
Man he hated that champion right now.
"Was she even allowed to let us in here? This must be too dangerous. Especially for a girl like Gloria who just got her element."
Anger was boiling in his fiery veins.
Vega knew she shouldn't put a girl that just got her element into the wildlands.
Holy shit he was mad. Fire element naturally did that to their users when it flared up, but Martyr was a different case.
He really couldn't get mad, or let his survival instincts take over.
His other element was too dangerous of a combination with his fire.
'swish'
Shit, he needed to pulverize something right now.
He knew it was out there.
He could feel the eyes of the creature pinpointing on it.
It felt like an itch tha…
'crack'
His head snapped around as he heard the branch above him.
Oh… it just gave too much away…
Martyr knew where it was hiding.
Martyr could narrow it down to the exact part of the tree it was posisited.
He could fully sense its presence now.
And thus full realization dawned on him.
This was no animal.
This was a human.
Martyr was being hunted.
He could almost sense that intent against him behind that trunk.
The challenge was pumping murderous intent through him.
He needed to see blood.
Next time he hears…
'cra-BOOOOOOOOOM'
The trunk incinerated into ash from the blood red fire.
The dark flames fell down from the rainforest ceiling, falling all around him.
It lit up the dark treetops, revealing everything up there for a moment.
But there was no person.
There was no sign of anything but the remains of the tree, he must've missed.
It pissed him off even more.
The dissatisfaction of not tearing something to shreds right now was making him crazy.
He was completely losing himself.
Martyr had never been in a situation like this where he really could let out all the fire he wanted.
If he wanted, he could burn this whole forest to the ground.
'crack'
'BOOOOOOOM'
His arms were practically moving all on his bloodlust powered by his other element.
"I knew you were hiding something."
It felt like the whole forest spoke to him, through every tree.
This was an unimaginably powerful forest user.
Exactly the type he wanted to crush right now.
"What!? You scared!?" Martyr yelled up to the roof of the forest speaking in the familiar voice.
He didn't care how powerful she was.
Out of all the champions, she was the one that would be easiest to turn into a pile of ash.
"Who says you're the only one with an extra element?"
Vega hopped down from her perch in the trees and landed a few trees behind him, not making a sound.
It was way too cocky for her to land so close to him while he was like this.
Martyr couldn't see her behind him but he knew exactly what was going on right now.
He could feel that same extra element coming from her presence behind him.
No wonder he could sense where she was so clearly.
"So you're the same." Martyr said, turning around to face her.
Vega had her silver bow armed with a dark arrow, pointed right at his head, too far away for him to get a clear shot at her.
She was standing in a clearing of the forest, thick black smoke coming right out her eyes.
Moonlight from the blown up treetops was shining down on her, reflecting off her silver bow.
"I couldn't tell anyone about my dark element either. A descendant of Artemis is supposed to be a pure-hearted forest and light user."
The grass she was standing on was withering below her, turning ash black.
The same had been happening around him.
The black smoke and bright red flames coursing together around him creating a deadly crimson fire.
"Satan, Hades, Ares, Surtr, Kratos and now Flugel as his reincarnation. Fire and Dark never make a hero."
His dark element was practically screaming at him to slaughter the other user. The sixth sense was making it so he couldn't concentrate on anything else but her similarly dark aura.
It was taking all his willpower to stand still.
"Who says you can't still be one?" Vega responded, not taking her fingers off the drawn arrow.
"That's what I'm here for."
"You know, the other champions have been way too reluctant about killing the Executor Void. Sometimes it feels like only me and Styrmir are the only ones that still want to get rid of Flugel. I think you, the lightning girl and the oracle might actually have the potential to help us with him."
"Flugel killed my dad. I want to crush him." Martyr could feel the murderous intent flaring up once again.
"Perfect." Vega said, still not lowering her bow.
"Screw your pussy-ass rock champion." She said.
"I'll train you myself."