Chapter VII: Gale

"Storm's brewing up..."

On the sandy cliffs of Rathian Desert, the guy who said that was sitting on a rock that stood tall. A white scarf was wrapped around his neck as it blows against where the wind faces with bits of sand and dust flying by it. The only other thing visible was a large revolver with a broad blade attached to it on his back and a little red sprite with the shape of a cat with ears so long they extend to its legs. Looking up, he sees the sandstorm transits into a more violent velocity.

"Here he comes..."

Somewhere close by, two Elementals were crossing the harsh desert plain, both being potentially forced down by Mister Sun. Solis, however, is pretty much used to the heat since he usually goes to harsh environments where potential hunting may occur, or is it because he's a Solar Elemental? He was able to catch a glimpse behind himself to find Eve huffing exhausted breaths. She's been holding on and tugging on Solis' hunting uniform due to the fact that she doesn't want to waste anymore energy on her sense of sight. He thought he'd find some place for them to rest until they came upon the mouth of a cave. Perfect.

"How much farther?", says Eve, leaning on the wall of the cave to cool-off. The loose coat she wears was soaked in her sweat as it drips from her skin. Fortunately - maybe unfortunately- the cave was shaded, making it hard to see her clothes which were stuck to her body due to perspiration.

"Actually", says Lux as both antennae twitch to the gust of vicious gales of sand outside the cave, "I think he's caught in that sandstorm."

A few moments ago, the guy with a white scarf was sitting on a rock, remember? Well now he's caught in the gusts of dusts, gunblade in hand, with a demon trying to kill him in his current situation. Specifically, the demon looked like a shadow of an aswang, monsters born out of an Elemental's imagination; it's probably causing the sandstorm.

Solis could barely see anything from inside except for two shadows clashing, one with huge claws and another with a peculiar weapon. After a series of sparks flying off each others weapons, the guy with the claws finally teeters off then gets knocked back to the cave by the other guy. His back rubs against the sandy ground, stopping behind Eve who was still leaning on the wall. Clearly this guy is a demon and is causing the sandstorm since the gale shifted to the direction into the cave. He tries to stand up but then Solis intervenes by saying:

"Hey!"

Just as he said that, a blast of frost comes right at Eve and the guy with the claws, freezing them in place up to the neck. Then in a flash, the other guy emerges from the storm as he jumps through the cave's opening. He was about to hack and slash his opponent but his hands backed down because Eve could get caught in the area of where he cuts. Instead, he lands right in front of her, revealing his crimson/azure heterochromic eyes, both with a serious look.

Unfortunately, his target slips away during the small gap between the time taken as he breaks off the icy blight then vanishes. By then, the sandstorm became a lot less disruptive to the eyesight, and that's when he noticed.

"He got away..."

He turns around then heads for the cave entrance when some idiot with golden-brown hair tries to slash him with a sword from behind. After a clang that sounds off when two metallic bodies collide, Solis finds his attack blocked by some sort of sword that fires bullets.

"Don't get in my way...", sinister words for a sinister look.

"I'd like to know why you frosted my friend to the ground over there", says Solis as he slightly lowers his weapon.

"He's an Elemental", says Eve, breaking off the icy trap.

"Look", he explains, "this is no place for Humans. There's a demon in here and I don't want to peer at road-kill when you get caught in the storm."

"We're not Humans! At least according to her."

By then the guy understands. They're Elementals too.

"You trying to save the world with an incompatible weapon for yourself, tanga?"

"Hey! I know what that means!"

"A, so alam mo ibig-sabihin ng sinasabi ko ngayon?"

"Oo naman. Ano 'kala mo sakin, bobo?"

The two kept fighting in a language Eve couldn't understand so she just gives an uneasy look to Lux who answered her with a shrug. After a few more words that she didn't understand, the two look like they've finally come to an agreement.

"Sige, basta ang usapan natin, ah"

"Sure. We help you; you help us."

"Help him?", asks Eve.

"We're going hunting!"

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[1]

"I tried suicide once and I'll try it again"

"That's why I write songs where I die at the end"

Two Elementals were merrily singing their hunting song - they seem to get along pretty well- , leaving Eve to suffer the goad of the annoying tone of two idiots trying to join melodies. The plan was to hunt down "Buhangin", the Desert's Embrace, a sand based Demon capable of conjuring Sandstorms to catch unfortunate prey and to conceal himself whenever in danger. As awesome as that description is, Solis and his Frost Elemental friend are pretty much annoying the living hell out of the Darkness Elemental that's trailing behind them with their cats, making a total of six individuals crossing the dusty plains of Rathian Desert. Yes, the Frost Elemental has an Anima too.

"Are these two like this with other people?", Eve, asking both Anima as hers moves a bit ahead.

"Nope, not really", the two answer together, "Maybe it's because they've never met anyone their age", Lina, Credo's Anima, follows up.

Credo, the Frost Elemental, has gained the infamy of being a Demon Hunter who was eventually given the title "antidisestablishmentarianism" - no one has a clue what it means. He started this dirty job when his Elven foster parents were executed for keeping a Human - at least what looked like a Human - as their child, which is against Elven law. His father always told him that "dark times are coming" when he was young, that the Demons were getting more and more stronger, hence, he taught himself how to use a sword in secret everyday. As of now, he's on his way to complete a cooperative mission assigning him to hunt down the Desert's Embrace.

"By the way, what's the plan?", asks Solis after pausing their hunting song.

"This guy's got a very elusive nature. He usually runs off when things get too great a threat... to his [2]Blood Well", Credo explains.

"What's a 'Blood Well'?"

"It kind of works like a monster's nest, where he sleeps, eats, and recovers miasma. There might also be a few [3]Broods back there so it's dangerous to go alone, and that's where you two come in", Credo elaborating the plan.

"Oh...", Solis nods as if he comprehends, "... what's a 'miasma'?", guess not. 

"Miasma...", Eve moves at the pace of the two, " is the magical energy exhumed by Demons from mortal sins that they use as a source of power", she then moves ahead of them without looking.

"What's with her?", he asks Solis, as if he even knew the answer to that.

"Don't know", he answers, "I just met her when she explained what I really was. Guess the world wanted me in the scene after all."

"Must be hard having some girl barge-in like that in your peaceful life" he keeps up half-way on Eve's pace, "...but it has its perks.", he says with a smirk-filled wink.

"What do you mean?", he wonders.

Crack, crash, followed by some frail, girly screaming.

Their man-to-man conversation gets interrupted when Eve's steps fall through a thin bed of sand, leaving her to thud on the hole hidden underneath. Luckily, it was just a few feet below, causing a slight amount of pain on the gluteus maximus from which she landed and a bit of cough from the dusty particles.

"Are you alright?", says an overly worried main character as he slides down the gap to where Eve fell, Lux and Tenenbaum sliding down with him.

"Yeah", she says, trying to get up, but instead was given a hand by Solis.

They take a second to observe their surroundings. It looks like a nest for a small [3]Zerg outpost, or in layman's terms, a bug nest.There seemed to be a tunnel leading to another area which glows emerald as the rest of the room. Almost like a cave lit up by the lime stones that reflect each other in a luminous pattern.  And of course, a nest is not complete without the huge, pulsating egg-sacks stuck to the ground and on the walls, leaving an unsettling question: Who the hell laid these eggs!

"Kimochi warui...", Eve spat out, disgusted by the wet layer that covers the eggs.

"But still pretty", says the Slayer, fascinated on how much he could sell these for.

"We're here...", says Credo, sliding down with Lina to catch up with the nest.(Pun not intended)

Suddenly, one-by-one the clusters of eggs started pulsating even more violently and erupted with a green smoke popping out. It looks like their incubation stage was skipped due to the irritation from the ultraviolet rays of the Sun. As a result, juvenile [3]Broods emerged from the eggs. Some were missing legs and some had their venom sacs dripping from their underdeveloped mouths. Solis stomped on one that got too close to Eve, mainly because of his "Hunter's Instincts", causing the swarm of underdeveloped spiderlings to flee through the tunnel nearby.

"Hey, get back here!", says the Slayer, eager for more specimens to dissect.

Well, they didn't come back, but their parents did. How do you know it's the parents? Notice the ear-splitting shriek of the monstrous arachnid and the fangs dripping with an eerie venomous gale that surrounds and stills the air. Terrifying? The Slayer doesn't think so. In fact, that makes him want to kill it a whole lot more since he's never seen anything like it before.

"I love my job..."

And out pops Kirin.... 

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1. Lines from the song: "C*m on Everybody" by Eminem.

2. I probably got this from Aatrox, a champion from League of Legends.

3. From Starcraft

Reviews

[❀Subaru_Nyaa!
..]

Acutually = Actually
antidisestablishmentarianism = Also, this word desperately needs some space.
unborn mouths = Undeveloped mouths or Under Developed mouths would be better

[Oran]

Fixed, except for 'antidisestablishmentarianism', which is going to be part of something later.

[❀Subaru_Nyaa!❀]

antidisestablishmentarianism, I wasn't asking to change it, I was just saying that I heard it crying for some space

[Oran]

It doesn't have space. It's an actual word. Try Google it.

[❀Subaru_Nyaa!❀]

I did google it first, I just said that the word needs some space. It was not meant for correction, it was meant for a subtle joke