Your New life with Darkness

The Chase

Due to the height of the moon and the month of the year, it was about midnight when you woke up. Your arms were empty and darkness was no where to be seen. You got up and cleared your vision, you noticed a shadow sitting next to the mouth of the cave. The shadow got clearer and clearer as you got closer, it was Darkness sitting there all alone.

You sat next to her and held her hand, it was rather cold since she wasn't wearing gloves. She laid her head on your shoulder, a word wasn't spoken between the two of you. You laid a gentle kiss on her head as she drifted away in her sleep. Already tired and sad, she fell asleep quickly.

It was very dangerous at the entrance of the dark cave as your scents were easily spread across the woods to attract many predators. You got up and picked her up in a cliche way where you hold her from her knees and back, like in a superhero movie. You laid her back on her sleeping bag and laid next to her.

An hour has almost passed and you haven't fallen asleep yet. You hear Darkness and the others snoring and sleeping peacefully. The worries and thoughts of this mission were roaming your mind freely, giving you some insomnia.

There was nothing left for you to do other than wait for sleep to get you. The lack of skin contact between you and darkness really didn't help your reassurance of her being safe. These thick plates of steel keeping you apart for almost a day was unbearable, who knows if there would be any contact between the two of you after this mission. Eventually, all the thoughts made your mind so tired you fell asleep.

Dawn arrived as Megumin was the first one to wake up. She woke up Kazuma who woke up Aqua who then woke up you and Darkness. Luckily the night passed without any problems from the animals. Megumin heated up some water to make a special tea for the mission. According to wiz, it gave you a little health and defense boost, which would be heavily needed.

A slow meal was shared by all of you, as you all understood this could be your last meal together. Wiz and Aqua shared a prayer, which probably wouldn't do anything but with strong belief, it could. You all packed your bags again and got ready to keep scaling. The sun was just beginning to come out when you all headed out.

The mountain got steeper and steeper the more you scaled. It almost seemed the peak was getting further and further.

After a few hours of climbing you reached a river. It was running roughly so it didn't seem to be passable that easily. Wiz even tried freezing the water to make a path but the river just washed it away. It wasn't safe for Wiz to make an ice bridge over the river as ice isn't strong enough. The only thing that could have been done was for her to make a tall pillar and for you all to find a way to jump over.

Standing at the top of the pillar you all thought of ways to get over when Kazuma took out a rope from his bag. He tied that rope to an arrow and used his snipe ability to shoot the arrow tied with the rope across the river and straight through a sturdy tree. One by one you all courageously zip-lined across the cold, rushing river using belts and your weapons as the handles. At one point wiz almost fell into the river but managed to quickly freeze the water and run the little distance that was left.

After that near death experience you all reached the peak of the mountain about an hour before mid-day and got ready to go down in order to carry on the ambush and rescue.

Everything was going smoothly and better than expected when you all felt a foul smell nearing by.

Darkness: What the hell smells like that... It's so... putrid...

Aqua: I have no idea what's making that stench but whatever it is, it can't be good...

Darkness: Its getting stronger, we're getting closer to it.

Kazuma: Be on guard, it could be something dangerous.

As you approached the smell you all saw something none of you could have imagined.

A gigantic eagle was sleeping in the middle of the forest, one so huge it reminded you of real world airplanes. The stench was coming from the boar carcass the animal had trapped in its huge beak. This would be a huge problem if it woke up so you all decided to walk away slowly.

As you all made a break for it the beast heard something. A squirrel was running across the forest, stepping on all the dry and crunchy leaves. It got in the eagles way and the behemoth got up and flapped it's airplane sized wings. It was enough to blow most of the leaves off the trees and make you all get spotted.

The colorful clothes you all were wearing caught it's attention quickly and it started chasing you. You all ran down the mountain, gaining a little speed because of the steepness on the way down. It was recommended not to split up but it was unavoidable. The team was split in two, making you, Darkness and Wiz one team and Kazuma, Megumin and Aqua another.

Darkness: Run into the woods and find shelter! We cannot take this thing down!

Wiz: Y-you're right! It's feathers are as thick as sheet steel!

Darkness: We need a way to distract it without hurting ourselves!

Kazuma: Something thrown directly at it's face would be very useful right about now!

Wiz: My ice magic won't work from this far! but I can try!

It was gaining on all of you and swooped down when Wiz tried to blast it's wings with ice. The beast fell down and crashed into the trees but almost no damage was made. It quickly broke through the ice and got back into the sky to keep the chase going. Megumin tried sending some explosion balls towards it but just like the ice, it didn't manage to hurt the beast in any way. Not to mention the trek down the mountain was as dangerous as ever, not to mention the teams split up to the point that you couldn't see each other anymore.

Trees and boulders in the way made it even more difficult to run while keeping an eye on the animal and your surroundings. All hope seemed lost when out of no where, something hit the eagle out of the sky. What could have been so strong as to knock that thing out.