Umbra《Book 2》

Chapter VI

Kryoz

Kryoz opened his eyes slowly and winced. His head throbbed and his body hurt. He tried to push himself up off of the uncomfortable surface he was laying on. He was in a forest with thick oak trees around him. There were a few palm trees that danced in the breeze.

"Grizzy. Get up." Said a female voice. Kryoz glanced over and saw Sparrow crouched over Grizzy who was knocked out. She looked at Kryoz with her hollow black eyes.

Grizzy groaned, "What happened?"

"We were teleported somewhere on an island. My guess is by an abilitor." Sparrow said. Grizzy pushed himself up and glanced around.

"You're saying the others were teleported here too?" Kryoz asked.

Sparrow shrugged, "Assuming since the rest of us turned transparent. I'm not sure though."

"Why here though? What is this place?" Grizzy asked as he stood up.

"A trap obviously. It is definitely the work of an abilitor who doesn't like us." Kryoz answered.

"Like Neo and Nycta?" Grizzy asked.

"Neo nor Nycta have the ability to teleport people. This is the work of someone else." Sparrow said.

"Well, it has to be someone we angered then. We've stopped a lot of abilitor collectors." Grizzy pointed out.

"Let's just stay alive. If it is an abilitor, we need to stay on our toes. Let's find somewhere to camp." Sparrow said and she started to walk into the darkness of the trees. Grizzy followed her with Kryoz behind. He wondered where everyone else was. Were they in this forest too?

"So what do you think brought down a whole ass plane?" Grizzy asked to start up a conversation.

"Something large." Kryoz responded.

"Shhh!" Sparrow snapped. Kryoz was about to retaliate but he froze when one of the trees moved. This tree was skinnier than the rest. The trunk of the tree lifted up off the ground and stepped down. It wasn't a tree. It was a leg. Kryoz's eyes traveled up the body of the creature to a tall monster with a deer skull for a head. Two antlers stuck out from the white skull. It stood taller than most of the trees and was so skinny, Kryoz could see each of its bones through its black skin. Its fingers were long and almost dragged on the ground.

"What is that thing?" Grizzy whispered-yelled. The creature's head suddenly snapped to the sound. It had empty eye sockets. It started at the clearing they crouched down in. Kryoz held a finger to his lips to tell Grizzy to stay quiet. The monster took a few sniffs of the air before screeching. It spread its large hand and was about to bring it down on them.

"Move!" Sparrow shouted. They scattered right as the monster's hand slammed onto the ground. Kryoz summoned a bolt of lightning from his own body. The volts would be enough to kill a normal man and when Kryoz struck the beast, it howled in agony.

Kryoz smirked at the immense power he possessed and just sent through the monster. His smile quickly faded when the monster groaned and started to move again. "What? How? That should've vaporized it!" Kryoz snapped.

"Apparently not!" Grizzy responded. Kryoz glared at him.

"Kryoz! Look out!" Sparrow shouted. Kryoz narrowly avoided being crushed by the monster's hand. Its fingers snagged his body. The wendigo picked him up off the ground as he struggled to get out of its tight grasp. He released the mass amounts of energy his body produced. He knew that that was about four lightning strikes worth of energy at the bare minimum.

The monster screamed and released him. He didn't fall far but the monster nearly fell over. It recovered by catching id fall with its hand. "That thing is still kicking?! That would've killed anything!" Kryoz shouted.

"Well, this ain't your normal animal." Grizzy responded.

"Your lightning seems to disorient it." Sparrow said, "When I say, give it everything you got, Kryoz. Grizzy. I need you over here."

Grizzy dodged a swing from the wendigo and joined Sparrow under the safety of the trees. Grizzy grabbed a large stone that anyone would've had a hard time throwing a few feet but he hurled it like it was a football. It hit the monster in the knee causing it to fall to one knee. "Now Kryoz!" Sparrow yelled. His eyes glowed blue like the lightning that arced off of his body.

The clearing lit up with blue light from the amount of energy Kryoz released on the monster. The beast squealed in pain before collapsing to the forest floor. Smoke curled off of its body. Kryoz breathed heavily. It took a lot of him to let off that amount of power so he pleaded that it wouldn't get back up. He didn't think he could do that again. "Damn dude. That was badass. Did you kill it?" Grizzy asked.

Kryoz tried to keep himself from falling over. "I think so." He said a bit tiredly. The wendigo started to turn transparent before it vanished.

"I doubt that will be the only monster on this island. There is an abilitor that is making these." Sparrow said.

"How do we stop them?" Grizzy asked.

Kryoz sat down in the grass to keep from falling over, "Like how we normally do. We track them down and take them out." Sparrow nodded.

"This looks fine to camp for the night. Got enough juice in ya to light a fire?" Sparrow asked Kryoz. Kryoz nodded. "Grizzy. Let's find some firewood. Kryoz, build a fire pit." She ordered.

"Yes boss." Kryoz said while doing a weak solute. Sparrow rolled her eyes and she disappeared into the forest with Grizzy. Kryoz pushed himself up and found a few large stones to build a fire pit. He could feel the exhaustion in his limbs from using his ability so much.

A while back ago, he and the others decided that they each needed to discover their weakness so they could avoid it. Kryoz discovered his ability was like a battery. A powerful one that needs recharging if he uses too much at once. He could easily fully recharge with a good night's sleep or time for him to recover.

Grizzy came back with dry branches and placed it in Kryoz's fire pit. He held up a finger gun and shot a small bolt of electricity to ignite the dry wood. The flames grew and helped light up the clearing while expelling the cold air. Kryoz kinda wished the air would turn bitter cold so it would mean Smii7y was close. He leaned back and looked up at the dark sky and the stars. If this was the work of Neo, he had to find Smii7y before Neo did if he hadn't already.

He fully believed Neo was behind this. He was trying to get inside Smii7y's head and get rid of the rest of them by either using these monsters or using Smii7y against them. Kryoz would use more electricity on Neo than he did on the monster if he even glanced at his friend.

The grass wasn't comfortable and the ground was cold. Crickets chirped in the trees and Kryoz saw the stars disappear and reappear like something was flying around in the sky. It must have been bats or monsters. Grizzy was already snoring away and Sparrow was poking at the fire with a stick to keep it going. "Get some rest, Kryoz. We may need your ability again." She said.

Kryoz sighed. He hated that she was right. Grizzy's ability was strong but he could only do so much against the monsters. Kryoz may have to go supercharged again and that would slowly sap his energy even if he did sleep a lot. It could take him several days to recover fully from a supercharge.

He put his hands behind his head to try and get comfortable. He closed his eyes and listened to the fire crackle and the crickets chirp until he drifted to sleep.

Word Count: 1329