Waypoint

Omens part 1

AUTHOR'S NOTE: check out the previous chapter, as there was a slight revision to it! Hope you enjoy!

I used to look at all the monsters like they were the scourge of our world, vile filth. I never thought to question the monster inside, who told me such things.

-excerpt from Iadaelus' Journals.

Enix landed hard onto the body of the monster, another Gryphon. It cried out as he grabbed onto the base of its wings and stretched his legs. In his stone body, Enix had enough strength to tear them off. He finished it quickly with a single stop into the neck. He tossed the wings aside and limped away, his stone skin turning back.

How long had it been since he had left the Foundry? He didn't know.

All that he knew was that the fight never ended.

Sure enough, he heard another screech. He rolled as a flurry of feathers and talons swooped past him, cutting open his shoulder. He winced but shook it off as he heard more wingbeats. Enix ran as shadows raced across the ground. Enix pumped his legs as best he could, feeling a shiver run down his spine as he heard the monsters approach.

He morphed quickly into his gelatinous form and rolled a few feet as talons stabbed into him and began to lift him off the ground. He felt two different monster's talons stab into his body as they fought over him, but he felt little pain. He couldn't sense how high he had gotten, but he turned back into his humanoid form, grabbing at the legs that had lifted him.

The Gryphon he was clinging to squealed in surprise. As the other one, slightly smaller, grabbed his legs, Enix concentrated and felt his body grow heavier. He felt the tug on his limbs as the Gryphons struggled to hold him. As the smaller one began to let go of his legs, Enix moved, wrapping his legs around the monster's neck and turned to stone. Unfortunately, the Gryphon he had a hold of had managed to gouge its claws into his left shoulder. Enix felt a white-hot pain, followed by excruciating pain that spread over his arm.

He turned to stone before he could adequately assess what had happened and squeezed his legs together as hard as he could, holding them around the creature's neck long after the snap and it's going limp. As he held it and the other Gryphon's talons, the weight became too much for it as it tried its best to pump its wings. It began to descend rapidly and suddenly at an alarming velocity. Enix looked up to see its wings tucked in and acted quickly.

He let go of the dead one and heaved with his arms, realising that he couldn't feel his left arm through the pain, nor the flexing of it. He saw it dangling, still gripping the Gryphon's arm, torn out of its socket.

"Oh, you—" Enix was interrupted as the Gryphon's wings suddenly expanded outward and caught the wind. Enix plummeted and screeched in pain.

The dirt erupted as he landed hard. Enix gasped. The stoneskin helped block some of the impact, but he still had the wind knocked out of him.

He shook his head as he tried to push himself up, using his right arm. His shoulder was a gaping wound of mimicked boy parts. Any muscle and tendon was instead a tight coil of blue. Enix felt himself shudder at the sensation as the pain quickly left him.

He realised he still held something in his right arm and looked down. He had ripped the Gryphon's arm apart and held its talons and wrist. Standing took a lot of effort, but he managed to do so. On leaden legs, he stepped away, hearing the creature wail in pain above him. He fell against a tree to sit and rest, trying to meditate through the pain.

He wondered if Ingot was alright. Enix gave up on his meditation, instead choosing to focus on his surroundings. Maybe if he recognised where he was, he could backtrack-