A Hero's Journey - Mysterion's Story

Chapter 25

                   Aoi scooched back quickly all the way to the wall of the cave and dug his head into his lap, trying to hide himself. Eisu tapped his shoulder and signed to him asking him if he was ok.

"HOW ON EARTH COULD I POSSIBILY BE OK?" Aoi yelled.

Aoi quickly cupped his mouth, and they took a glance under them making sure the Byoku was still asleep. Mysterion and his allies finally found them and Aoi pointed to the deadly beast below them. They started whispering out plans, Aoi tried contributing ideas to the group, but they ignored him, so Aoi just quietly sat there forgetting about escaping. Aoi was too busy thinking about ways he could repay Eisu for saving him, maybe he could slay the Byoku himself, so then they could head to the Kingdom faster, then that would be is chance to escape as well. The group of friends started walking down the steep trail leaving Aoi alone. Super Craig took a glance back and remembered Aoi.

"Oh yeah what are we going to do about him?" Super Craig asked pointing to Aoi.

Aoi quickly got up.

"Let me help you fight" Aoi said sharply.

"Tsk you'll probably try to escape again" Ikari said bluntly.

"Hey, shouldn't his hands be tied up?" Mosquito said glancing at Aoi.

Mysterion had also noticed that Aoi's hands were completely free.

"I promise I won't try to escape; I mean I could have just ran away right now if I wanted to, right? Besides I owe it to Eisu," Aoi said scratching his head.

Eisu signed at Aoi. Mysterion had the feeling she said something like, "If you want to be helpful, stay here."

"I don't know if you haven't noticed, but we do not have all day" Yui said joining in.

"We have to hurry, the beast might wake up soon, Aoi just stay here and don't cause any more trouble for us" Mysterion directed as he walked down the steep, rocky, trail.

His allies followed him, grabbing out their weapons just in case he Byoku woke up. Mysterion walked towards the giant beast, right in front of its face. The creature looked just like a sleeping kitten while it was unconscious, he wondered how the Byoku would look like if it was awake, not just in Yui's illusions but in real life. Mysterion didn't want that to happen though, so he quickly walked over to one of its enormous fangs, while everyone else was surrounding the beast. Aoi was watching from above, he wouldn't be able to fight properly without his weapon, so he would just watch them. Aoi wasn't going to run away, once he led them to the Kingdom, he would be able to trap them and the general would be so pleased that he might even move Aoi to a higher rank. Mysterion paused and took the vial from his pocket. He put the vial to were some of the venom was dripping down from the Byoku's large tooth. Mysterion made sure that none of the venom dripped on him and then sealed the vial with a cork. He signaled his allies that he was done, Mysterion walked away, heading back the steep trail, but he could feel the wind push him hard. The wind couldn't possibly push him that hard from inside the cave. Oh no... Mysterion thought as he slowly turned around.

"Don't move, the Byoku can hear you, but it cannot see where you are that well" Yui said calmly.

Mysterion stood still, he could feel the Byoku's deep breaths on him, then it turned back into loud snoring.

"Do not move just yet the beast not fully asleep" Yui said warning Mysterion.

Mysterion see from a distance that his allies were staying still as well, which calmed him down. Suddenly, he heard a yell and saw that Aoi had jumped onto the giant beast. Mysterion quickly turned around and saw two light yellow eyes widen. The Byoku roared in fury and tried knocking Aoi off, but instead caused rocks to fall from above.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT" Ikari yelled.

"YOU CAN THANK ME LATER" Aoi yelled back still gripping onto the fur of the beast.

Mosquito used his ranged attacks and blasted one of the Byoku's legs, the beast roared and leaned over a bit. Eisu shot the beast with her arrows, and Mysterion ran to the stumbling beast and slashed the Byoku's legs, he didn't cut off its legs completely, but it made the Byoku fall over. Super Craig flew up to the top of the beast's head.

"C'mon we have to hurry" Super Craig said reaching out his hand.

"Wait" Aoi replied while bending down.

Super Craig looked at him in confusion, and Aoi plucked some strands of the Byoku's fur.

"Ok! We can go now" Aoi said getting up.

The beast got back up immediately and roared in pain, the Byoku crashed into the wall and the cave started to collapse a little, Super Craig and Aoi stumbled and fell, Super regained his balance in the air while Aoi was still falling. Ikari jumped and caught Aoi just in time.

"We need to go" Ikari said sternly while plopping Aoi down.

Mysterion yelled to everyone else and they all ran in the direction away from the Byoku, but the beast still had ran after them. Eisu paused, and everyone else had stopped too. The beast was roaring in anger from a distance, the beast would catch up to them if they didn't run. The cave was collapsing and Mysterion spotted an exit not too far away.

"The exits not too far we need to hurry before the whole cave collapses" Mysterion said catching his breath.

They had started running once again and were close to reaching the exit, Mysterion could feel the fresh air outside not too far away, but then he felt the ground rumble and heard the beast getting closer, the exit started getting covered up by boulders and rocks. By the time they had reached the exit, it was already covered in giant rocks. Mysterion tried lifting them but every time he removed a rock there were even more. Super Craig, Aoi and Ikari started lifting off the rocks as fast as they could, and Mosquito used his attacks on the Byoku, but stopped after he realized that made the cave collapse faster. Eisu walked towards the charging beast and then stood still. Eisu took out her bow and arrow and aimed at the Byoku's eye, Mysterion was starting to get worried. Eisu wasn't shooting, and the beast was getting closer.

"EISU ARE YOU NUTS? SHOOT ALREADY" Aoi yelled from behind.

"Shush Eisu knows what she's doing" Ikari said smacking Aoi.

After a few moments, Mysterion knew exactly what she was planning, Mysterion walked next to her standing his ground. Eisu pulled back the string as far as she could, the beast was getting even closer. Eisu squinted and then let go of the string. The arrow flew right into the center of the beast's right eye. The beast screeched in pain and took a stumbled a step back trying to get the arrow off. Now this was Mysterion's cue, he ran as fast as he could directly at the beast and raised his sword above him. The beast was still stumbling and couldn't see Mysterion below him. Mysterion ran as fast as he could under the beast, slashing a long deep wound on its stomach. The Byoku roared loud enough that the whole cave shook, and then stumbled down in defeat. Mysterion ran to the other side making sure the beast wouldn't fall on him. Then he felt a hand grab his arm, it was Eisu's, she ran lighting quick back to the exit, dodging falling rocks, dragging Mysterion with her. Mysterion took a glance while he was running and saw that the exit was now clear. Eisu ran out of the exit, and the others followed her, they kept on running quickly, because there was a chance that there could be an avalanche after the cave collapsed. They could hear crashing and rumbling from behind them, they ran further, even after they couldn't hear the rumbling anymore.