CHAPTER THREE: WRAITH VALLEY (2)

 Chad's golden eyes widened as he noticed Ricky aiming a fist at his head, which he avoided with great reflex only to spot the fist making contact with a creature mid-air. Chad quickly took five steps backward to get a better look.

"It's a Zeal-leacher," Cassandra spoke up as she reached Chad's side. "You okay?"

Chad nodded before glancing sideways at the combination of a scream and guttural croak. A distance to his left, he saw a female finalist struggling beneath another Zeal-leacher that suddenly released its tongue to latch onto her face and she slowly went still.

Cassandra comprehended what had happened and turned to Ricky. “Hey! Get away from that thing!”

“Not fast enough.” Simply ignoring the warning, a cocky smirk was well plastered across Ricky’s face as he began throwing brutal punches that seemed to keep the Zeal-leacher down. “You don’t seem much of a challenge. Turns out your strengths are mere exaggerations.” He then switched to stomping on the creature’s face. “Should have known better than to take the words of a dainty priestess without a grain of salt.” He then grabbed the nearest stone and repeatedly smashed the creature's head, only stopping when it became a green-blooded pulp. He walked back to find the two with expressions of displeasure. "What? Would you prefer I give it time to recover so it can do that to us?" He pointed at a male finalist with a Zeal-leacher sucking at his face.

“Sandra just wants us to be more careful.” Chad fist-bumped him. “Hey, thanks for the save.”

The three proceeded forward. With Chad and Ricky’s physical strengths and Cassandra’s great agility, they took down five of the valley’s itinerants along the way.

Then they hear the most wretched scream coming from a corner to their left. The three made silent motions of agreement between themselves before carefully moving towards the source where loud grunts and croakings soon followed.

“Who is that?”

There, they sighted a lean boy with an appearance as equally wretched as his screams, ruthlessly punching and tearing against seven Zeal-leachers. Three more creatures were laid around him in pools of their blood.

“Look at what he’s wearing. There’s no way one civie did that much damage.” Cassandra mused to herself. She was proved wrong as she and the other two witnessed him forcing his hand inside a Zeal-leacher’s mouth through its tongue and ripping it out; its blood spilling as it dropped to its knees. She gulped. “Or I was wrong.”

"Is it just me or do those creatures look different from the ones we've encountered?" Chad pointed out and the rest soon noticed these Zeal-leachers' skin looked a bit darker and their eyes filled with the green of their blood.

Ricky’s sneer turned a cocky shape and began sprinting towards the battle spot. “I bet you these ones won’t take up our time at all!”

Cassandra grabbed his shoulder to a halt. "Okay, you can't be this dumb. Interfering with another's trial is forbidden, remember?"

Ricky harshly pushed her back, watching her do a smooth backflip to balance herself. He was starting to get irritated with this lady's lectures. "But he's not a finalist; there's no way he's taking a trial. Those things have to be extremely weak if he could easily kill them." He pointed a warning finger at her. "Mind your business from now on; we're not that close."

Ricky and Cassandra could only look at him with great appall.

Ignoring them, he turned around and dashed the rest of the way to deliver a punch with all his might. Unexpectedly, the impact sent him staggering two steps back with a stabbing pain in his wrist. It took him a few breaths to realize his mistake, and he looked up to find it was also too late to turn back. The infuriated creature immediately lunged at him, belching deep croaks at his face as it bent ever closer.

His recklessness finally dawned on him. It turned out these creatures were fighting with greater strength than the cream-skinned ones. His strength only held fallacy in comparison. His desperate eyes searched around to find the faces of the pair he'd rudely left back at the hidden spot, then at the crazy-looking young man still holding his own. How could someone be that strong? Who was he? All this remained internal questions as the creature's wide open maw clenched around his throat, dug in then tore it out.

Ricky couldn't even feel the seconds of physical agony as an intense tide of fear and helplessness rushed into him. The awful wave battled harshly against the priestess' protection. Yet, this was the retribution goddess' territory; the blessing crumbled and dissipated after a while. Was this the trial that was supposed to determine whether they become star-touched or not? He scuffed in self-mockery as he could feel himself slipping into death's arms.

Cassandra chewed heavily at her lips to stop the tears from falling while Chad clenched his teeth as he continued watching until he was sure Ricky was dead. The jet-black-haired girl glanced at Chad and rubbed a consoling hand. He was closer to Ricky than she was. She only ever saw him as an egotistic comrade.

 With a mouthful taste of human blood, the Zeal-leacher stepped away from the dead boy and sent a booming belch to the sky. The five remaining creatures surrounding the wretched-looking boy immediately crouched towards it and began striking their palms against the floor. Echoes of croakings and running soon reached them from a great distance. They've called for backup.

Chad unclenched his fist and steeled his face. “We need to get out of here; the rules have been broken. Those creatures might be coming for our blo………...”

The wretched man suddenly dashed past them and they raced after him as soon as they realized he was running away. This stranger had probably been here longer than them; he had to be doing something right if he'd survived this long.

Guttural croaks creeping up behind them told the murderous creatures were not letting them get away that easily. They ran around the valley, bypassing some of the other finalists, more of them unconscious than dead.

The crazy stranger suddenly turned back at these two who had been running after him the whole time, quickly tackling the much larger of the two straight to the ground.

The 6'3" foot mass of muscle was struggling to hold him back. "Star blast! This guy is strong."

Cassandra took advantage of the crazy man’s distraction to get a much clearer view. “There’s something off about him; his eyes are not focused. He seems to be fighting on instinct alone.”

Chad groaned in annoyance. “Sandra, this is not the time for one of your analyses." He turned his full focus back on the guy pinning him to the ground. "This guy reeks of a chaotic vibe. I…mmgh….think something happened to him here.”

Cassandra didn’t reply as she could now see the much larger group of Zeal-leachers reaching them. “Chad!”

The golden-eyed boy didn't have to look back. "Sandra, it’s okay; run!”

“Shut up!” Sandra raised her fists, ready to face these things. “I am not leaving you here alone.”

“Who are you guys?”

Sandra turned around to find the feral-looking man glancing around with much calmer eyes. Chad shook himself of his momentary shock at the man's sudden change in behavior and delivered a solid punch that sent the 6'1" ft man flying backward into an unconscious heap of mess.

Chad was puzzled. "Why is he so weak now?"

“Chad, get ready!” The honey-skin-toned woman glanced around in vain. "I really wish weapons were allowed right now." Even the bones and metal scraps lying around would do, though she doubted it would do well in fending these creatures off.

Chad joined his 5’9” ft friend. “Together then?”

Sandra gave a dry chuckle. “Like I have a choice right now.”