Tides of Twilight - Chapter 19#1: A

You decide to go after Grau!

You quickly break off from your comrades and chase after the sinister man, not taking your eyes off of him. You thought, if you could take him out now, then it would probably trump Exodus' entire operation. 

To your surprise, he was moving quite fast even though he appeared to be moving slowly. Every tree he would sneak around and then appear on the other side of saw more and more distance between you two, so you decide to go on a full sprint towards him. 

Before you knew it, you were standing in a small clearing face to face with General Grau, far away from your friends.

Grau: Hehe, man, you're persistent. Is there something you want to tell me? 

You: Hold it right there, General Grau!

Grau: Hey, I'm standing right here!

You: Why did you tear a rift into Einhera!? 

Grau: Well, why do you want to know? 

You: Don't be cute with me! Just answer the damn question. Also, I want to know what you plan to do with Stiff. 

Grau: Dragon boy? I plan to use him for my evil little master plan involving "Einhera" that you Brigade and Legion junkies seem to fetishize so much. So, so ignorant...

You: Wait, Legion? Are you saying they know something about Einhera? 

Grau: Hmm, I'm assuming they know no more than you Brigadiers do. But who knows? I've made an a*s out of myself in the past. 

You: I know more about you than you think. I've seen you before in my dreams. 

Grau: Right, so you think about me in bed. Who cares? 

You: You tore that rift into Einhera using a strange weapon-- a large cannon. I saw it. And you fought against Stiff and the dragons of Sky World. 

Grau: Alright, then... You might know a little more than I thought. You know what this means, right? 

The muscles under his contrasting, pitch black arms and hands begin to shift quickly in an unnatural manner. Like something out of a horror story, a large pair of glaive-like blades emerge from both arms, lining the length of his forearms and sticking out past his elbows. 

Grau: I'm going to have to kill you now. With dreams like those, I'd reckon you're a pretty reliable source of information. If only you had kept your mouth shut, my dear fool.

You draw out your special dual guns and aim them straight at him, narrowing your eyes. 

You: You'll be dead before you get the chance!

You open fire directly on Grau as he charges at you, though he makes a mockery of your bullets by using those arm blades of his as deflectors. In fact, just to toy with you after coming inches from you, he simply somersaults over you and smacks the back of your head in midair before landing and leaping back many feet away. 

Grau: Strike one. 

You: Damn you... 

Furious, you open fire yet again. Despite trying harder to aim, he makes an even bigger joke of your attempt by leaping around the clearing at an alarming speed. It becomes clear to you that this man wasn't a normal human like his acquaintances. 

After a few more leaps, he ends up in front of you like before and flicks you on the forehead with his index finger, actually knocking you down to the floor. As you kick yourself back up, he laughs and jumps away once more, this time landing somewhere within the trees. 

Grau: Strike two. Get your game on! You won't be able to cap me if you keep telegraphing your shots like that. Anyway, you've got one more chance! 

You: How is he moving like that...? I can't land a single shot!

Grau: It's over!

You hear a sudden, ringing swish in the air, like that of a steel fan. As you turn in the direction of the noise, you have just barely enough time to drop down to the floor as you see one of Grau's arm blades coming straight towards you. 

By some miracle, it misses you! Though the air that it was releasing as it propelled past you managed to slice open the back of your Brigadier armor. You did not want to know what it would have done if it had made contact...

The spinning blade makes its way back into the trees and out of sight. 

Grau: Look at that! There's hope for you yet. So, look, I decided I'm going to let you slither on back to your buddies. It's not like I care whether you live or die, but I'm sure that Steffan and that totally bomb female friend of his would have told you all about what happened up there. 

You: ...

His voice begins to fade into the distance as he leaves you there, traveling within the trees. 

Grau: For your own sake, you'd better stop having dreams about me, kid! 

You: ...He's gone. 

You push yourself off the ground and furrow your brows in thought.

You: I didn't even stand a chance. What in the world is he...?

Regroup with the others.