Earl sat down in his cell, confused, conflicted, alone, with only the voice of Yen in his head to keep him company."Rai?... As in the current leader of the ORA?" Asked Earl, "that was the one who betrayed you? Who backstabbed you? Who killed you? During the Retusian war?" Earl was baffled."What he currently leads is none of my concern, but that snake of humans deserves the cruelest of deaths!" Said Yen.Earl could feel the anger in his voice, the pain, the sadness. Maybe it's because they were souls bound to the same body, no—it's most likely because of the weakening of his control over him, or rather the strengthening of the Retusian soul."Yen, what happened between you and Rai?" Earl asked with a sad expression on his face, "... What happened?" Yen repeated, "... What happened... Why do you wish to know child? What good would telling you do?" He asked.Earl stayed silent. He gathered his thoughts, his feelings, not like much of that was hidden from Yen... Regardless, he spoke."R
Chief Uvo was running as fast as he could, straight towards the pit. He had to get there fast before anything happened to Tyger, to Kipple, to Earl... He couldn't let anything happen.He ran even faster and faster. The innocent civilians lives were in danger. A huge vein popped on his head. Why the hell was this happening now!!?His destination was now in sight. He could see smoke erupting from the top of the building, that wasn't a good sign.It would still take him about 40 seconds to get there... He was hoping he wouldn't be 40 seconds too late. "Damn that Hank! I'll find and kill him myself!" Thought chief Uvo, "if he lays a hand on the king, Emilia, Earl, Kipple, my wife, or Tyger... I'll break every bone in his body!!" He yelled.****Within the pit, Tyger was still sat down quietly in his cell, waiting for Earl's match to finish and for him to return.That's when he heard a loud sound. It was a metallic noise. It was slightly out of sync, but he recognised it... It was the cel
Austin was standing in the middle of a vast forest. A confused look on his face and some gear laid at his feet.Standing nearly 5 meters wide and 10 meters tall was an enormous tree, right in front of Austin. It was the tree he'd come to.There were more than one of these trees in the area, but for some reason he was fixated on this particular one. Probing and poking at it, searching desperately for something."Austin!?" A voice came from behind. Austin spun around and got into a battle stance, "who goes there!?" He began circulating mana within his body."Chill out man," said Annie as she poked her head from behind a tree. Austin lowered his guard, and with a confused expression asked, "Annie?" She finally came out completely from behind the tree and walked towards him, "I thought it was you," she said, "what are you doing here?" She asked."Well some poachers attacked me, and then their boss told me how to get here... So I'm here to bust their operation!" He grinned."You too huh?"
The man took another step forward. "They call me Adam," his gaze was like daggers in Annie's eyes, "it's the last name you'll hear before you die."A cold sweat ran down Annie's face, "I miscalculated. I waited to see if anyone would come out so that we'd find their entrance, but since no one did I assumed they knew our position and were waiting to strike," thought Annie."Striking first using Proper Impact and Thorz should've knocked down their base, but who would've thought that they already had someone on the outside!? Or maybe he dodged it and got up here before Thorz hit?" Thought Annie."Your deduction skills are commendable, but lacking," said Adam. Annie's eyes shot open in shock, "w-what?" She asked."I didn't simply dodge the attack or Pop out from the outside, that Thorz attack of that boy on the ground did in fact connect... And as great as it was, it wasn't enough to put me down!" He took a step forward."What's going on? How does he know what I'm thinking?" Thought Annie
Mr Stevens closed the distance between him and Adam in a second, swinging his tie sword straight at his belly.Adam dodged it, taking a step back before lunging at his opponent, "if that thing touches me, I'll be cut in two!" Thought Adam.Stevens slammed his hand into the air beside him, right in the direction of Adam's lunge. Adam slammed into the air between them."More tricks!" He yelled as he gathered mana in his fist and drove it with all his force straight into the solid air.A huge thud echoed through the woods, the air cracked in half and shattered, his fist ran through it like a bullet train."Be it solid or not, air is still air afterall!" Smiled Adam.Meeting the other end of his fist was Mr Stevens, with a punch of his own, the two fists colliding in a test of strength.A gust of wind blew about in the area surrounding them, "using your alchemy on yourself? Making your own arm more solid to resist the strength of a strong Alchemist, what brilliance!" Smiled Adam."I'd pre
Mr Stevens now stood face to face with Adam, Leo, and Kettle all boosted by the Storm drug, all looking to spill even more blood."When we kill you, we'll kill that girl over there, and then we'll experiment on all your bodies," said Adam."But you proved an admirable fighter, so we're giving you a few seconds, speak your last words now!" He smiled.Mr Stevens turned to Annie, "can you walk?" Annie looked at him confused, "if you can then run away from here... I don't think I want any student of mine seeing what I'm about to do next!" He smiled.Mr Stevens turned to his opponents and immediately pulled out a piece of chalk, and in the blink of an eye, inscribed an alchemy circle on his hand.He then bit on his thumb, drawing blood, and then smeared his blood on his palm, cutting the alchemy circle in two. Small blue particles began floating out of his hand and the alchemy circle turned black.The three opponents seeing this all had different reactions, Adam smiling, Kettle raising a b
The entire group of Ralph, Austin, Annie, and Mr Stevens were back at base, with all three of the kids huddled around the fire, and Mr Stevens off to the side doing his own thing.As the three sat there in silence, Mr Stevens turned and glanced over at them, "they're sulking? I guess that's a normal reaction... Let's hope they don't stay that way for long," he thought.He turned his attention to the letters he had in his hand, he took a good look at them, he then turned to his students once more."It's been a month already hasn't it?" He said as he sat down and looked up at the sky. "We'll be meeting in a month from now before continuing our journey..."His mind remembered the past, when he received a letter from Charlie, stating how he'd found Earl's familiar Plushmellow and how they were headed in the right direction.He gripped the letters in his hand tighter and looked down at the three alchemy return circles he'd drawn."We'll find you kids soon enough," he said as he dropped eac
Sidney was seated on his bed, it'd been three days since Ronda and Veronica had talked to him, and he'd been mostly alone the whole time.Spike and Viking occasionally dropped by, but he turned them away a lot of the time. Partially due to their excessive noise and trying to set off explosions and test out new gizmos in his room, but mainly because he was deep in thought.Take a risk with the enhancements, or stay natural but walk on thin ice, it was a decision he still hadn't made.On the one hand, enhancements would solve his current problem and put him at ease, but there were a lot of factors involved.Ronda said that his body would adapt to the poison, but wasn't it purely because his body failed to adapt to his new Channel spell that he ended up in a worse state than he was?But on the other hand, if he took the natural route, things would be even more hectic. His body was extensively damaged after all, and he'd been bedridden—and would stay bedridden—for days.And he'd had time