Chapter 4: City of Treasures - Goron City. Flames of Forewarning Darkness.

Our heroes make it to Goron City, but run into unexpected trouble.

Chapter 4: City of Treasures: Goron City.

Flames of Forewarning Darkness.

                “What was that Varn?” Jade asked.

                “It seems that we just did some breaking and entering,” Varn replied.

                “Huh?” Jade was confused, she looked around and saw nothing. “What are you talking about?”

                “I feel it too,” Matt said. “They’re coming in fast.”

                “Who?” Jade asked.

                “Seems like there is 20; no 100 of them,” Patience analyzed.

                “100 of what?” Jade asked again. Her irritation could easily be heard in her voice.

                “You think we can make it without contact them,” Eric asked.

                “WHO?!” Jade exclaimed.

                “That’s unlikely,” I said. “They are coming way too fast.”

                “WHO DAMN IT?! WHO?!” Jade yelled at the top of her lungs.

                Suddenly a monster-like coyote pounced at Jade. I popped a wheelie, electrified the tires and blasted toward Jade. I crushed the monster under my wheel and let the engine rip. The monster exploded and left behind a small torch.

                “Oh them, the Fiends,” Jade said.

                The Fiends, the 2nd Dark Symbiote created during the dark takeover process. Fiends are the corrupted Souls that have been infected by the leftover negative energy of the Henkei takeover process. The corrupted also leave the body and enter into dead animal. When the corrupted Soul or Dark Soul enters the dead animal body’s remains and brings it back to life, acting as the revived animal’s Spirit and Soul at the same time. However, the side effect of an animal being brought back to life by a Dark Soul is that their body becomes corrupt and turns the animals turn into destructive, monstrous creatures. They more or less behave like normal animals expect they are more aggressive and quick to kill. They do cause some trouble but not as much as the Henkei. And just like the Henkei, once they are killed they release their purified souls called Spirit Torches. We also collect Spirit Torches in order to fully restore the Dark Symbiote victims to human.

                “Yeah, the Fiends,” I said sarcastically. “For someone who has a large amount of Spirit Energy you would think she would sense them.”
   

“Shut up!”  Jade exclaimed.
   

“Let’s not waste any time,” I said. I revved up my engine and charged at the arm of Fiends. I ploughed through them as if it was nothing. I got off my bike and used my Bolt Stream, instantly killing the Fiends around me.

The Fiends started to surround me. I launched a fury of kicks all around me, knocking the Fiends back. I ran towards them at full speed, my kick was fast and strong that it sent them flying. I breathed heavily as all the Fiends around me began to disappear. Suddenly without warning, a Fiend pounced right at from behind. I tried to counter by the Fiend was too close I wouldn’t be able to hit it. The Fiend just came closer and closer. Every passing second I could see, its jaws peer closer to my face. It sharp teeth ready to strike me. I couldn’t believe I left such an opening, so vulnerable, so careless. I might as well have flashing lights on my back saying “Here’s an opening!” A bite from a Fiend at close range gives them a chance to release venom into the system. If they get at you close, you might as well be dead. I didn’t want to accept that I was so weak, so defenceless. I had a sudden urge to win at all cost, a need, a desire, and a lust. And then blank. There was nothing.

“Kwasi, KWASI! KWASI!” I heard a voice yell my name repeatedly!

“Who’s there?” I asked. I felt like I was floating in a dark empty space. Void of anything, I could feel anything, I could see anything. I could only hear and I could barley think.

“KWASI, KWASI!” The voice yelled again.

“Who are you? What do you want?” I asked.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” There was an ominous laughter that circled all around me. So loud that it drowned out the voice, that called for me. “This is fun!”

“What?” The laughter started again louder and louder. I started to feel again, but this feeling was too painful, it was if my head felt it was being torn apart. “Stop...please, just stop it...STOP IT!”

“STOP IT!” It was the voice! It repeated what I said. “STOP IT! STOP IT! KWASI!”

A sudden light appeared in front of me. The light grew closer and closer. I shined so brightly that it blinded me. Then without knowing, I slowly opened my eyes. What I saw, would never escape me. My left arm grasping hard on a Fiends throat, pressing it to the ground, my body was covered in blood. My right arm, with fully charged Thunder Wing pulled back and ready to pierce through the Fiends disgusting head. This would all be normal if the Fiend wasn’t already disappearing. Delivering a killing blow before the Dark Symbiote was finished being purified, would destroy the Dark Symbiote’s soul or spirit. Thus stopping us from reviving them to their true form, it is taboo for all Spirit Hunters.

I released the Fiend as it disappeared and became a torch. I looked at by bloody hand as I deactivated my technique.

“Heh, too bad you had to wake up. And it was just getting fun too,” Said the mysterious voice. “Oh well either way, my time will come soon. Thanks for the fun, later. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!”

I jumped and looked around me. I saw a destroyed field filled with the bodies of disappearing Fiends, but no one else.

“KWASI!” Jade sudden appeared next to me. “What’s up with you? WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!”

I stood there silent as she grabbed my shirt and violently shook me.

“ANSWER ME DAMN IT!” Jade demanded.

“What exactly happened?” I asked.

“What happened? WHAT HAPPENED” Jade exclaimed?! “What happened was that you charged full speed at all Fiends ruthlessly killing them. You went so far that you almost committed the taboo. Patience followed you and called to you but you didn’t even face her. And what more she got distracted and attacked from behind. You’re lucky I was ready to bail you out in time.”

“WHAT!” I yelled. “We have to go save her.” I tried to walk by my leg was bleeding, probably from my rampage.

“Yeah, right,” Jade said sarcastically. “Like you can go anywhere, ‘sides look at Patience do you really thinks she needs help.”

She was right. Patience ploughed through every Fiend in sight. She was fighting like 20 of them herself and barely breaking a sweat. She ran towards us as she knocked back every Fiend that pounced at her.

“Kwasi, are you okay?” She said worried at the same time as she back kicked an incoming Fiend. At that point, I realized that Patience was the one that was calling for me in the dark space. But then who was the one that was laughing?

“Yeah, I think,” I responded.

“What happened to you back there?” Patience said.

“I-I don’t know,” I answered. “I just lost it...I guess.”

“We don’t have time for this!” Jade yelled as she punched a Fiend back. “Tell us later! Right now we got work do!”

“Right!” I tried to get up but I just fell back down from a sudden pain in my side. I slowly looked down and saw the intense bleeding coming from my ribs. I at this point I was in no condition to continue. “Damn it.”

“Kwasi, what’s wrong?” Patience asked.

I looked up and was about to tell her that I was just fine but then a Fiend pounced at her without warning. “Patience, MOVE!” I yelled as the Fiend came close.

Patience turned and put her guard up as the Fiend came at her. But before it take a bight out Patience a pillar of stone rose from the ground with such intense speed that it ripped off the Fiends head.

“Your guys okay?” Matt came landing right in front of us.

“Yeah thanks,” I said.

“Looks like your hurt, Kwaz. You should sit this one out,” Matt advised.

“But I - !” I blurted out.

“No, stay out of this. Leader’s ruling.” Varnit appeared behind us, surprising Patience and I.

“But!” I was quickly interrupted by a creepy Eric rising from Matt’s shadow.

“You know it’ll be a real pain if you die here cause you didn’t listen. So sit there like a good helpless child and leave the fighting to us adults,” This is the first time I have ever felt zinged by Eric, it was pretty embarrassing.

I sighed and accepted defeat as I just lied down in a comfortable position, drank a potion and watched as my friends leaped into action. I sensed that at least half of the original Fiends were killed when I went berserk. But it seemed that the number of Fiends tripled when I came to. Meaning there was about 60 Fiends out there.

Jade was of course the one to get first blood. She punched two Fiends and sent a Star Flash to a line up of Fiends, eradicating them. She jumped in the air and used her Star Chain to wildly whip, cut and pierce about 15 Fiends at once. Varnit jumped on one of the chains and used it to propel herself in the air. Cold air surrounded her arm and her arm began to slowly freeze over.

“Swallow Snow Storm” Varn sent a multitude of swallows at them instantly freezing 10 Fiends and shattering to millions of pieces!

Varn it then created a path of ice in the air and slide across it, whipping through the air. Matt came out of now where and uppercut one of them. I jumped and back and used his Stone Spear Technique. Clumps of rock started to float around him the clumps combined together to form four large, sharp cones. Matt thrust his arm and sent the stones at the Fiends. The stones impaled about four Fiends on each. The rocks exploded sending smaller chunks at the nearby Fiends. A little ways off Eric was surrounded. Eric’s arm rose and the shadows below him gathered around turning his hand into a blade.

“Shadow Blade” He swung his blade and in an instant he cut right through the 7 Fiends around him. He sank into the shadow as the Fiends dropped and disintegrated.

In the middle of it, all was Patience. She was using amazing martial arts to fight off the Fiends. But it wasn’t strong enough to kill them. As they attacked, she backed away with a series of back flips and then jumped into the air. She sprouted her wings and took the skies. She put out her arms and began to charge energy.

“Shining Light” A beam of light was sent flying towards the Fiends! The beam made contact and immediately exploded, instantly killing the Fiends.

And just like that, it was over. All of the Fiends were gone and all of their Spirit Torches were absorbed. I was really amazed at the power that my friends displayed. We haven’t all been on a mission together for a long time. So this was pretty amazing. After I got stitched up, we found our bikes and continued on our way to Goron City.

*

After several hours of riding later we saw the wide city of Goron City in the horizon, you can imagination our excitement. We entered Goron City without hesitation, which turns out to be a huge mistake.

“YOU SIR, HOW BOUT YOU BUY THIS ANCIENT SILVER PEN! IT WAS SAID TO BE USED BY THE FIRST SPIRIT HUNTER! ONLY 800 PESOS!” A man advertised.

“800 pesos! FORGET IT!” I yelled. 800 pesos was about 60 bucks in Canadian dollars. Like I would waste that much.

“MAGIC FLYING CARPET! 100000 pesos!” Advertised a woman.

“NO!” Jade yelled.

“SUPER STRONG SILLY STRING! 6000000 pesos!”

“WHO WOULD BUY THAT?” Matt yelled.

“BEANS THAT CAN MAKE YOU PURPLE!”

“No thank you,” Patience kindly rejected.

“HELLO KITTY HAND DOLL! IT ONLY A HAND! LIMITED EDITION! 90000000 pesos!”

“I am so there!” Eric exclaimed. Eric ran up to the merchant and bought the doll hand.

“ERIC WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” I yelled.

“What? He said limited edition.”

“But that’s $6,814,570.17 in Canadian!” I explained.

“Yeah buts not like we can’t afford it. Remember that all Spirit Hunters get $9,999,999,999,999 for mission purposes. We all kinda rich right so this is no problem.”

When Eric said that things got a lot worse. And sure enough every merchant in the area heard that. And sure enough, we like honey to those bees. In seconds, they swarmed us with buy offers much more expensive than before. There was pushing, shovelling, selling, no...ing, punching, kicking, swearing, and...

“Oh my gosh, someone just touched my butt!” Patience yelped. Yes, there was groping there too and you can believe I wasn’t too happy about it either.

“WHOEVER DID THAT IS SO DEAD!” I yelled. But the threat was fruitless as I was around like a rag doll.

“OH GOD HELP US!” Varnit exclaimed.

“DAMN IT ERIC! I AM SO GONNA KILL YOU WHEN THIS IS OVER!” Jade announced.

“Sorry!” Eric apologized.

“JUST SAYING SORRY IS NOT GOING TO GET YOU OUT OF THIS!” Matt said.

Bum rushed by crazy salespeople. That is so not the way I want to die. Drastic and completely stupid times called for drastic measures. I focused all my Spirit Energy on my legs. Concentrated everything to the soles of my feet.

“5^th Gear...unleash!” Around me, everything began to slow down. All the sales people started to move slower and slower and slower. The voices also became slower. Everything around me went into slow motion.

“5^th Gear is a technique that concentrates spirit energy into my legs and allows me to travel so fast that it slows down everything around me. We everything in slow-mo I easily escaped the mass crowd and found my way to the town square. I took a deep breath and decelerated. As soon as by body stopped vibrating the world around me returned to normal speed all at once. I exhaled loudly and started to breath heavily. Using 3rd Gear does wear on me if I turn it on and off quickly.

“Man that was a pain,” I said. I looked back at the market and saw the large crowd of people pushing on something, most likely one of the guys. “Those guys are seriously crazy. Well I better get back in there and save everyone.”

I got myself ready to go back into 5^th Gear mode until someone bumped into me. The impact may have been small but the person’s weight sent both of us crashing to the ground.

“Ow. Sorry ‘bout that,” Said the voice. The voice was obviously female. And me being the gentlemanly type, I immediately went in nice mode.

“Oh no. It was my fault for standing in plain view,” I never said I couldn’t be sarcastic and sound nice.

The women go up from the ground and reach her hand out. I grabbed her hand and she pulled me up.

“Are you okay?” Said the women. I could tell from her voice that the women was young maybe about 18 to 20. But she was shorter than normal 18 years so that kinda threw me off. She was wearing a gray hoodie so I couldn’t see her face. But from how low the hood was I doubt she could see mine.

“Yeah fine,” I responded. I tried to nonchalantly look under her hood to see her face as I was talking. “So are you here on vacation?”

“Uh...no...more like a business trip,” She answered. She noticed my weird bending and stretching movements to look under her hood and backed away. “A-and what about you?”

“Job. I’m a Spirit Hunter. I’m here to investigate the city and location two thieves and suspected murders. Cool huh?” I said proudly.

The woman was silent. Her fist clinched as (what appeared to be) she stared at me. And in one swift movement, she grabbed me and threw me over her shoulder. I landed on me feet and held my ground.

“Hey! What was that fo-” A sharp pain in my abdomen interrupted me. I slowly looked down and saw her foot deep in my belly. I collapsed to the ground groaning in pain.

She looked right down at me. I looked at her, trying to peer into the darkness of the hoodie but I saw nothing. But from her angle, I’m sure she saw my face clearly. The woman staring stop as she covered mouth and started breathing like was crying.

“I-I can’t believe this...your still okay,” I saw tears run down her face. She sudden embraced me with a hug. “You okay...it has been so long. I promise you that we will soon be reunited completely, but for now you must forget.” She looked at me with tears running down her face like a fountain and a large smile.

Suddenly my head started to hurt. I feel like someone was dissecting my brain, everything was being unravelled and taken apart. And without warning, I blanked out. When I came, too I had completely forgotten the women and everything she said and did.

“Excuse me?” I asked. “Did I just blank out.”

“Yes. I suddenly collapsed. I helped you.” She said.

“Thank you.” I said. “I’m Kw-“

“Beware of the Fayth young one!” She interrupted.  “For you as you know yourself shall rest and fall to the abyss.”

“What?” I had no clue what the woman was talking about and just as I was about to ask and house behind me went up in flames.

I quickly turned around and looked at the burning house, I heard sirens so I knew the fire fighters were on their way, I turned back and found that the woman was long gone. I looked back the burning building, and I could swear as I looked deeper into the flames the flames turned black for a second. I felt chills down my spines, it was like something really bad was going to happen but I didn’t know what.

I suddenly remembered my friends in the death that is the sales people. I shook off the eerie feeling and went into 5^th Gear mode to get the others. In about 3 minutes, we were all gathered in the square in front of a hotel.

“Oh gosh. I thought I was going to die in there,” Matt said. “Thanks Kwaz.”

“Yeah thanks Kwasi,” Patience thanked.

“No problem,” I said.

“Man I wonder how we even got into that mess,” Eric said obliviously.

Jade let out a loud roar. “I’M GONNA KILL YOU!!!!” Jade charged at Eric with death in her eyes.

Jade chased and beat on Eric for about 10 minutes as I told the others what happened.

“Huh? So some random woman took care of you when you blanked out, gave you some weird poem and disappeared,” Varnit summarized.

“Pretty much,” I answered.

“Must be some weird street performer,” Patience said.

“Yeah, best to forget about it,” Matt advised.

“...I guess you’re right,” I agreed. “So, what’s on the agenda?”

“Investigation. We need to ask around the city if anyone say anything weird,” Varnit explained. “Well separate into 3 teams.”

“Alright then Matt and I will cover downtown and -”

“No Kwasi. You and Patience will cover uptown. Matt and Jade will cover downtown and Eric and I will cover the market,” Varnit interrupted and ordered.

“Wait...WHAT!” Eric and I exclaimed simultaneously.

“You want me to go back there!” Eric exclaimed.

“And you want to partner with Patience!” I exclaimed.

“Yes,” Varnit said calmly. “You two got a problem with that?” A dark aura came around Varnit. Intimating us to cooperate.

We searched around the city for about 6 hours, 9 for Patience and I cause be we’re so shy around each other. We all gathered back at the hotel. We got some rooms and had our meeting, we compared notes and ended up coming up with nothing.

“So all that work for nothing,” Eric complained.

“You’re just mad ‘cause you had to return all the items we were forced to buy,” Varnit said.

“Well in any case we are at a disadvantage at this point,” Matt stated.

“Yeah if we don’t find those guys soon we’ll probably lose them forever,”Patience said.

We all sat there depressed. What could we do we had no leads and no way to find anything. We were basically screwed. As we all sat there, a sudden knock came from the door.

“Yes?” Varnit responded.

“Miss Gerwal there is a phone message for you on line 7.” Said the bellboy.

“Thank you.” Varnit said. She grabbed the phone and pressed the 7 button.

We stood there in suspense. As she nodded. “Wait, what going on?! HEY!” The room was silent. So quite that we all hear the dial tone.

“What was that about?” Matt asked.

Varnit slammed the phone down and stormed out as said “We have to move now!”

“Wait what’s going on?” Patience asked.

“No time to explain. We have to move now!” Varnit repeated.

We all got up and ran out of the hotel. We followed after Varnit. We all ran past downtown and the market and all the way to end of the town. We finally stop at an old hut, I would describe that hut but I couldn’t. The hut was in up in flames. The flames were so large that they were covered the not just the house but spread across the sidewalk

“Whoa...,” I said.

“Don’t just there! We need put out the flames!” Varnit ordered.

Varnit created a huge ball of ice. And Jade quickly melted the ice, created a waterfall on the house.  The flames were extinguished and the house was in shambles. Any second the house would collapse.

“Matthew! Keep the house standing! Patience provide cover! Kwasi! Eric! Get in there and find an old woman!” Varn ordered. At this point we really knew Varnit was serious we didn’t hesitate to follow her orders.

Matthew summoned stone pillars to hold up the house. Patience used her light energy to keep falling debris from the others. I dashed into the house and looked everywhere for the old woman. But I found nothing. Eric and I searched for about an hour. I came back from the house and said I found nothing. Eric then came, his back was towards us.

“I found her,” Eric turned around and showed he was holding an extremely burnt human in his hands. “I think this is old woman you were looking for.”

“She...she’s dead isn’t she?” Varnit asked, already knowing the answer.

“I don’t think anyone could survive flames like that,” I said.

“What’s going on here Varn? Was she the one who called before?” Jade asked.

“Yeah. Matt and I went to her house earlier today. She said she didn’t want to tells anything and brushed us off, we just thought she was some crazy person and left. But when we were at the hotel and she called, she was in a panic and said she didn’t have a lot of time and said that this was “too big for us” and we should leave,” Varn explained.

“”Too big for us”? You mean looking for the grave robbers. What would she know, she’s crazy...or was...,” Jade said.

“Was she? She also said that we shouldn’t at under any circumstances, “go to Mt. Fayth.”” Varn said.

“And then when we go to see her, her house is burned to nothingness and she dies from extreme burns. I don’t think that was a coincidence,” Matt analyzed.

“So does that mean you think the robbers did this?” Patience asked.

“Most likely and if she said it was too big for us it means we are not strong enough to face them yet,” Eric said bluntly.

“So...does this mean our mission is over?” Patience asked.

There was silence for a few minutes. I can’t say for the others but I was thinking very hard about this. I may be cocky but I’m not stupid. If this was way, too much for us we should leave. But how could I just let this pass by. If this old women was giving us cryptic warnings mean that there is a good chance that Master Cid’s killers and thieves were here. I told myself I wasn’t going to leave until I found them.

“I…I’m not leaving.” I announced. Everyone just stared at me like I was crazy. “Look guys we need to do this. That woman’s warning was probably about the mountain plus a civilian died because there is something in that mountain that someone doesn’t want found. And we made a promise to Master Cid that we return his body and his weapons back to where they belong. So I’m not leaving after one day of work. We have a lead and we should follow through with it.”

They started to think even deeper about it. It was dead silence. I could only imagination what they are feeling. I mean I made up my decision based on the fact that I never break a promise. But the others are different I found it unlikely that they would come to the mountain with me since the danger there could be more than we can ever handle.

The silence was broken as Jade stood tall and said “I think it’s about time we give back what we owe to Master Cid. ‘Sides I been itching to face a stronger opponent.”

That was just the push the others needed.

“I’m going too. Master Cid has done so much for me and I need to pay him back.” Matthew said.

Varnit came forward and said. “I need to go to keep Jade in check and get a little pay back for the old woman.”

“I’ll go too. I made a promise to Master Cid, and now I will make the same promise for this old woman. I promise we will find and defeat your assailant.” Patience said confidently.

Eric sighed. “Wherever Patience goes I go.”

“So its unanimous.” Varnit announced. “Tomorrow, we set out to the Mt. Alph.”

Author's Note

Tell me what you think of the sorty it's self. And please tell me if I made any grammer mistakes, spelling errors, or ways to make the story better.