The wind blew across Elysium, it was warm and smelled of linseed and plant decay. It was the smell of renewed life. I can remember growing up as a boy in Greater Omni Forest, walking with my father though the trees and undergrowth, smelling this smell and it was wonderful. I remembered his eyes as he taught me about Shen and Inner Strength. I remember the first time I shattered a tree, all be it a small one, with my fist. I remember when the Snakes attacked and I could only watch as they destroyed everything I loved. I remember smelling this smell and it is vile.
It was this smell, this feeling that brought me back to stark reality and to the knowledge it was all happening again. It, of coarse, was not snakes that so threatened me. After all this was the brink and very few things could live on the brink.
For the most part Elysium was beautiful. Majestic mountains, calm inland lakes, sparkling vistas. Everything my father would have enjoyed in retirement. But this place was not a place of retirement, it was like the embrace of the loveliest and most enchanting woman you have ever met, loosing yourself in her warmth and gentle caresses, all the while she presses a blade into your spine; Not willing to kill you, only to cripple you so you could never leave.
This is why I am at home here. Her embrace comforts my sense of loss and helps me toward enlightenment. This is why I face the deadliest and most feared beasts in existence time and time again. But this time, something was different.
"Snap out of it Imodale, for Christ sake, they're almost on us"
My eyes snapped back to Kaidance for just a moment and I saw the fear reflected in her eyes.
The scene was of utter Chaos. In front of me was the brink, cold and crisp. The others of our team, an Enforcer, big and seemingly unstoppable; An Adventurer, shaped as a wolf, fierce; both under the palm of Heckler 200 meters in front of me. They were as good as dead to us and probably would be soon.
"Imodale! They are not killing them. The stupid Hecklers are not killing them! This is all wrong, these things don't think, they just kill"
Kaidance sounded more then a little frantic.
Two more hecklers were bearing down on us, their lumbering rocky brown hides ever more menacing as they closed in. Their arms all but dragging through the water as they approached
"Calm yourself Kaid. Just do.."
And they were on us.
With speed that defied their size they closed the remaining distance in seconds. I immediately went into full defensive formation and hit the first with "Upon a Wave of Summer" and followed up with "Blessed With Thunder" and a brawl attack. It swung it's great lumbering arm and I dodged it, mostly. I felt a searing pain in my side as it's bolder-for-fist clipped me. With no time to think I launched myself at it with fist after fist, dodging all the time, chunks of rock flying as I engaged it with all my strength.
"IMODALE!, HELP!"
"Sh*t!" I breathed under my breath. I launched my self at the Heckler again and landed on it's leg and immediately pushed off into a back flip away from it. I felt wind rush by me from it's swinging arm as I twisted to land. What I saw was not comforting. Kaidance was dodging as best she could but her defense was no match for this beast of death. I immediately hit my Flurry of Blows and Aggression Enhance then hit the Heckler from behind with everything I had. I scored two crits and it had the intended affect; it turned away from Kaid and came at me.
"Gotta pull them away" I gasped as I ran towards the shore. I could feel their immense weight shaking the ground as they chased after me. As the great cliff face drew closer I realized I had no where to go and that I would soon join my comrades.
I stopped, turned slowly and accepted my fate.
"I will not shame you father. I WILL NOT RUN" I screamed in defiance
They came and I was ready.
All my attacks had recharged and I used them all again on the Heckler I had attacked to start. They next few minutes were a blur; Fists and rocks, pain and anguish. I hit and hit again, dodged, and hit again. I was weakening, slipping away from myself. I new I could not possibly win, but I would never give up. One of them hit me hard and I new it was over. I flew back and fell to the ground on my hands and knees, spitting blood into the water. Then I felt it, the sweet healing of nanos stitching my skin, repairing damage unseen.
"Kaidance... Thank you" I said under my breath.
I looked up and saw the Hecklers had stopped and were stairing into the sky.
Fifty meters above them floated a glowing white orb,as bright as the sun, shining it's warmth on me; a feeling of peace flooded my very soul.
A voice spoke in my mind, soft but familiar.
"Be at ease Imodale, today you have brought Honor to your family. Today you have made a father very proud."
Lightning shot out from the orb and struck the two hecklers that had attacked us, shattering their bodies, throwing them to the wind like sand in a tornado. Then it turned it's attention on the one holding my teammates to the ground sending a beam of light that hit it in the chest. Nothing seemed to happen at first and then it began to rise from the surface of the water. It flailed madly, as if it sensed it's impending demise. Slowly it rose, twenty, thirty, forty feet then all at once it flew, as if thrown, against the mountain side and burst into a thousand pieces.
I looked up and the light was gone.
I scanned the horizon and saw my teammates, all of them, running toward me.
"How did you do that Imo, what the hell did you do?" was all Kaidance could say.
I looked at them all and they all had the same questions written on their faces.
As a tear slipped from my eye, all I could say was
"I have found my soul."
and I cried.