The Flux's Flower

Bladed Rain

Lalna was awoken by the sounds of buzzing and shouting. Opening his tent and peering out, he saw Shadow fending off various monsters, mostly taint swarms. Shadow glanced over at Lalna and ran to him, while still firing back on the monsters.

  "Good, you're awake. We need to leave now"

  "Wait, what?" Lalna looked around groggily

"The taint advanced faster than I calculated for. Pack up camp and run straight north. I'll cover you."

Lalna's eyes widened at the last sentence "You'll provide cover? Against all of this?" Lalna gestured over to all of the monsters approaching.

Shadow glanced at the monsters, then to Lalna. "I have my ways. Now go!"

Lalna hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly did as Shadow commanded, packing what little he had and taking off over the treeline. Not long afterwards did he stop, looking back. "I can't just leave him like that, he'll get himself killed." Lalna moved to fly back just as a massive storm gathered, relentless rain pouring down over the clearing where Shadow was. Confused, Lalna flew closer, stopping at the treeline behind Shadow. He watched as Shadow held a trident in one hand, and in the other, pulled out a gold necklace with a battered key on it. Shadow glanced around, then put the necklace on, causing his hands to glow with a golden aura. He rose his hands, and the clouds started to glow. Upon sweeping his hands down, a hailstorm of what looked like weapons flew from the sky, exploding in a wide arc upon the approaching monsters, decimating them.

"What the..." Lalna muttered to himself. "I've seen Nano perform some pretty impressive magic, but nothing like that. Not even her Excalibur could defeat such an army."

As Shadow put the necklace away and began to fly up, Lalna spun and hastily tried to take off. He only succeeded in crashing into the next tree over just as Shadow saw him. Shadow's face-plate was expressionless, as it always was, but it was clear he had been caught by surprise. "Uh, you okay there?"

"Never better." Lalna hovered up and dusted himself off.

Shadow was silent for a moment, and Lalna was sure he'd been caught spying. He could only imagine what that weapon would do to him if it tore apart entire armies in seconds.

"Alright then, let's keep going. We're almost there, so we should keep to the skies. I don't want to have to fight another army."

Lalna let go of a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding. "Yes, lets go." He grinned and began to fly off, but even as Shadow was clearly ignorant of his spying, Lalna couldn't help but wonder what that device was, and why Shadow needed such a powerful weapon if he knew a cure.

Gripping Nano's cleaver hilt so tight his knuckles turned white, Lalna glanced up at Shadow and thought to himself. "One sword against a hundred. Some odds, right Nano?"