Finding my Parents in Another World

Ghira swung his blade down on Famina, who waited for the last moment before letting loose spikes from her hand and rolling out of the way. Ghira had to be expecting it for his shield was already raised and the spikes bounced harmlessly of the shield. Instead of pursuing Famina though, he leapt straight at Zoe.

A man who follows orders to a T huh

Zoe knew she was at a huge disadvantage in a 1-on-1 fight, especially against someone who had already unlocked and Inito. By default she would have to be on the defense.

"Sand Prison." She cast, but Ghira was used to it now. He waited for the perfect moment to circumvent the sand coming from the ground, by jumping over the sand globe and then using the downward momentum to speed him forward towards Zoe. He thrust his sword forward, and Zoe just had time to build a makeshift sand wall to block his thrust.

Undeterred, Ghira raised his sword preparing to strike down when Famina let loose another burst of spikes. He tried jumping away but this time Zoe was ready and raised a column of sand which encircled his leg, preventing any escape. As a last resort Ghira raised his shield in front of him, but the spikes from Famina's body changed direction at the last second, turning around his raised shield and piercing his right arm through the gaps in the armor.

Ghira cried out in pain and jumped back, clutching his now bleeding arm.

"So you can also control the movement of the spikes." He said through gritted teeth.

Famina didn't respond and immediately let loose another round of spikes. Ghira slammed his shield on the ground and a wall of grass rose up before him. The spikes again tumbled harmlessly against the wall.

Zoe had however used this chance to maneuver herself behind Ghira. As soon as he raised the wall, she cast Sand Prison again.

"What the-" This time there was no escape. Ghira was encased completely in the unbreakable Sand Prison.

Zoe stood before the prison, huffing on her knees. It took a lot of concentrated effort for her to cast Sand Prison, and all the running she was doing at her age was finally catching upto her.

Thank God I still kept somewhat in shape.

Her break however was short-lived. As soon as she stood up again, a huge figure came hurtling towards the Sand Prison. As the figure crashed into the Prison, Zoe recognized it as General Fridt.

She looked up just in time to see Exi following close behind. He raised his hand and it turned to steel and he smashed it once more against the General who attempted to weakly block it and was again thrown off.

Now Exi was standing in the middle of the destroyed Sand Prison, with Ghira in front of him looking dazed, Zoe on his right and Famina to his left.

"Oho it seems you have me surrounded." He said and then threw a punch towards Ghira right in front of him. Instead of raising his shield, Ghira instead counterattacked by trying to move and swinging his grass sword.

As his sword came towards Exi's neck, his fist lost the steel cover and instead his neck became steel instead. The grass sword bounced harmlessly off it and Exi immediately turned the steel on his neck off and turned on the steel in his still travelling punch, which caught Ghira on his stomach and sent him flying straight into the trunk of a nearby tree. The force of the impact was so much that the tree broke from it and came crashing down on the soldier.

Zoe didn't know whether the soldier was alive or not, but she had bigger problems now. Exi was now circling in between her and Famina, looking at both of them through his sewn eyelids.

Where is Midir??

Zoe frantically looked around but the guide was nowhere to be seen.

Is he dead?

"If you are looking for your companion, I already dispatched of him." Exi said with a smile pointing towards another area of the forest where there seemed to be a small crater.

Zoe cursed under her breadth. Midir was their best bet at defeating Exi with how their powers lined up. She had to come up with another plan, and fast.

Without warning, Exi jumped in the air, twirled and then shot towards Zoe, who jumped out of the way as Exi's fist made contact with the ground, immediately creating a large crater there.

Taking advantage of this momentary stationary moment, Famina immediately extended her hands and shot out more spikes towards Exi's exposed back. In an instant however his back turned into steel.

"I told you girl, my magik hard counters yours. You cannot hope to damage me with your puny spikes." Exi said gloating.

Zoe was however looking at his hands.

They are not metal anymore.

He can only turn one body part to metal at a time!

Of course! If he could turn any number of body parts to metal then wouldn't he just turn his whole body to steel?

However Zoe had no way to communicate this vital piece of information to Famina, considering Exi was still right in between them. Exi stood smirking right in the middle, looking and assessing each of them in turn.

A thunderous roar interrupted them and General Fridt leaped back into the action swinging his battleaxe viciously down on Exi, who for the first time seemed he was not prepared for it. He started dodging but at the same time realized that he would not be able to make it in time and hardened his neck instead to protect against the strike.

This was exactly the kind of opportunity Zoe was waiting for.

She immediately summoned a pair of sand hands from the ground and pummeled then towards Exi's stomach, right before the General's hit landed. Exi's eyes widened, but just as predicted he wasn't able to harden his stomach but was instead forced to take the less deadly hit, which sent him staggering back. The General's axe however once again bounced off harmlessly from Exi's hardened neck.

Exi clutched his stomach and looked up towards Zoe, a murderous glint in his eyes.

"You're too smart for your own good, you know." He said, almost growling.

The General turned to face him as well, readying his axe once more.

"So it seems the kidnapper has found your weakness." He said in his trademark voice. Zoe noticed there was a deep cut in his arm from which he was bleeding profusely.

Exi laughed. "Old man even if you knew all my weaknesses, that would still not be enough for all of you together to beat me."

General Fridt shrugged. "I am not fighting you together with these criminals anyway."

Zoe noticed again that General Fridt's axe was different than before. It was much larger for one and there was an almost imperceptible ring of light that surrounded the blades of the axe. She guessed that this must be his Inito though she didn't know the name of it. For the umpteenth time that day, she cursed her inability to learn Inito.

Both of my enemies tonight have it, and the one of the people on my team who had it is dead.

There was a rustling sound, and Zoe turned around at the exact moment to see Ghira crouching behind her with his sword raised.

Make that three.

Zoe cursed as she jumped back too late and Ghira's sword scratched her right thigh. Blood began to trickle down from the open wound, and Zoe was surprised at how much that relatively minor injury smarted.

"AAAAAH!!"

Famina cried out from behind her and launched herself in a frenzy at Ghira, who was clearly unprepared for a melee response from Famina. He weakly tried to move away but he was too late as Famina jumped on top of him and began trying to physically pierce her spikes into his neck, while he began thrashing about pushing her spiked arms back from his exposed neck.

General Fridt roared and jumped in the fray, swinging his axe with murderous intent at Famina, and Zoe had no time to debate whether she should stop or help Famina. When it came to saving the life of one she had already begun to consider as a daughter, there was not really any debate. She conjured up her sand magik again, and hands rose once more from the ground, this time around General Fridt feet, tripping him up.

Exi however seemed to be waiting for just this moment when Zoe would be focused on someone else. He launched himself like a bullet towards Zoe and she noticed too late. Unable to create a sand shield at such short notice, she jumped with full force to her left, wincing as force was put on her recently injured right thigh.

She was however able to successfully evade out of Exi's attack. Famina and Ghira weren't so lucky as Exi's steel punch landed on the ground just beside them causing a small explosion of earth.

"Famina!" Zoe called out frantically but there was no response from the rising cloud of dust.

She jumped without hesitation into the cloud, continuing to call out Famina. She tried to use her magik to force the sand in the dust to settle but there was too much sand, and besides making the sand settle may help Exi or General Fridt and that was certainly not something Zoe wanted to do if she could help it.

But as the seconds ticked by and Zoe still didn't get any respose from Famina, she began to seriously consider expending all her remaining energy in settling the sand and finding the girl. That's when she noticed the blue edge of Famina's tunic, and then she stopped dead in her tracks.

Ghira was on top of Famina, and this time it was he who was strangling her with his hands. Famina seemed to be unconscious as she wasn't moving but Zoe couldn't tell whether that was actually true or whether that was her subconscious not wanting to accept that she might already be dead.

No

No I don't accept this

Zoe's mind went blank, whether from rage or helplessness no one could tell, not even Zoe herself. It was like she had become a robot, moving mechanically doing what she was programmed to do.

She raised her hand and for the first time in her life a long blade materialized in her hand. She didn't scream in rage, in fact she didn't even utter a single word. She simply walked over to Ghira, who was still too busy strangling Famina to notice her approach. Then with a swift and quick movement she stabbed him in his throat.

Ghira looked up in surprise, which slowly turned to fear as he took in Zoe's blank and cold stare and the sand sword lodged in his throat. He clawed desperately at his throat as if to dislodge the sword, but in vain. He gave a last sputter before gurgling on his own blood and falling over dead.

The first.

It was the first life Zoe had ever taken. She had never thought it was possible that she would kill anyone. Indeed she was quite sure that even in self defence she would never be able to kill someone.

However she just killed someone. She looked expressionlessly down at the dead body of the soldier before turning her eyes back to the motionless body of Famina. That was the moment she slowly started coming back to normal. Her eyes teared up and she fell on the ground and held Famina to her chest.

"No,no,no, please no." She said crying and holding Famina to her chest.

For a moment there was nothing, no reaction. And then a sputter and a cough. Zoe looked up in joyous surprise as Famina slowly regained consciousness and weakly smiled at her.

"I..it's not so easy to kill me you know." Famina said with an attempt at a wink.

Zoe continued crying, this time of relief rather than despair.

"You foolish child." She said amidst sobs, still holding Famina to her chest closely. Zoe realized that even if she hadn't said it out loud, losing Raorka to this world had severely effected her, and now the thought of losing Famina had somehow brought those feelings back with more intensity.

"And you murderer." A quiet voice said behind them.

Zoe turned back and stood up. Right they were still in the middle of a battlefield.

And she had just killed one of the enemies.

The General himself however stood before them now, looking mournfully at the dead body of Ghira, which was still leaking blood from the throat.

"You cursed murderer." The General boomed again, truly furious.

"If you try to take my child away from me again, I will not hesitate to kill you too." Zoe was surprised at the words coming out of her own mouth. But she wholeheartedly believed in them. She slowly stood up and then got in front of Famina, raising her right hand protectively over the young girl.

The General sighed. "The Mayor wanted me to bring you in alive. But you are a much bigger threat than I think even he realizes. I will have to neutralize you here."

"Don't forget about meeeeee." Exi said with a playful shout as he slid down the ground into the crater where the rest of them were standing.

"A mother protecting her child and a General taking revenge for his fallen. And me, a simple traveller. Aaaah how poetic." He continued raising his arms at the end of his speech.

Once more the three of them were locked in a standoff, each of them looking at the other two warily. However something was different this time. This time Zoe didn't underestimate herself.

The General of Temuril, Fridt stood resolutely, swinging his battleaxe imbued with light magik. His eyes flitted between his two opponents, each of whom had killed one of his soldiers.

The red cloaked Chianti Hunter, Exi stood in a crouched position, his mouth twisted in a smile but his eyes flitting between his two opponents, each of whom had laid a significant blow to his magik.

The mother from another world, Zoe, stood over the weak but now conscious body of Famina, outwardly calm and cool but inwardly having a fierce debate on how best to protect the young girl. She was looking at both of her opponents at once, trying to gauge who would be the most immediate threat to her objective.

The three of them stood in a standstill. Each believed that they should wait for one of the other two to make a move first. Each was thus stuck in an endless loop.

However the first move was indeed made, and it was made soon after by Exi of all people. He smiled once more, looked once at Zoe and then at General Fridt and then uttered the three words that Zoe had thought she would never hear in her life.

"Word of Power."