RED HOOD ✔

THE FALL

The climb up the mountain was as stressful and vexing as possible... Normally, being a normal human being, I would have taken the easy way out and flown up on Kendra, but for some reason (This is once in a lifetime people) Kendra said she can't help me, she said I should do this alone, and 'that its part of my quest to true greatness' and other rubbish like that, I mean, why can't stuff ever be normal... Can't this lady arachnid be somewhere I can just take a short stroll to, not climb a damn mountain.

"Be careful Vincent... This place is crawling with monsters of different species" said Anna. Great... Monsters, just what we needed, don't stop there you stupid mountain... How about you spit fire. At that moment, the mountain rumbled violently almost causing Anna to lose her grip. "Don't anger the mountain Vincent" said Apsychos.

"But I didn't say anything"

"But you thought it" said Anna. How does it matter that I insulted this dumb mountain in my mind. It rumbled once more, more fierce than the last time, Anna fell off, but Apsychos was able to grab her in time and drag her back to the wall. "The mountain can hear your thoughts Vincent... Its a beast" great this stupid... I mean very intelligent and good looking mountain can hear my thoughts... That's just what we needed.

It was night time now, we met a ledge and climbed on... We decided to rest here for the night before resuming to climb this death trap of a mountain... Hopefully, it was too busy to hear that.

Apsychos had made a fire pretty quickly, and it was what we needed because this mountain was freezing, Anna sat down on a log, looking deeply into the fire, her mind was far away from here. "Anna can I join you" she didn't hear me, "Anna?" She shook her head and came back to reality, "sure" she said.

We awkwardly sat there now both looking into the fire, I wanted to say something but what would I say, what if I say something stupid, ughh... Whatever "are you okay?" I force out of my lips, she turned to me "its just... What are you going to do if you defeat the beast?", wow... Ruth asked me that question before but... I never put too much thought to it, "well... When I defeat the beast" I say correcting her "I'll probably go home and meet my dad, I mean... That was the plan right?" I said giving out a friendly smile "yeah... It was" said Anna looking sad now, did I do something wrong? "You sure you okay" she looked at me a little bit teary now, "It's that I cared about your mum so much before she died and I was shattered when she left, I don't want to feel that way ever again, I don't want you to leave me Vincent" said Anna rushing in to hug me, I was surprised by this... I never thought I meant this much to her, "Anna... I will always be here... Someone has to protect this village... But I have to see my dad, he must be worried sick about me, I've been away for two months, trust me... After a while in the normal world, I'll miss this place so much that I'll be begging to come back" I said and she replied with a nod before falling asleep in my arms and it wasn't long after till my eyes began to close.

It was a wonderful morning... Why? Because I didn't have a stupid dream about the wolf, the sacred four or any other stupid thing that's out to kill me, but with my luck, things will probably turn sideways any minute now.

As if to prove me right, four giants climbed up the ledge, and charged at us unexpectedly, I jumped and rolled away and dodged the giant at the last minute, "summon your weapons" I yell, everyone does as I said, Apsychos with his sword, Anna with her spear and me with my sword and my quiver resting at my back, it was four against three, the odds were really bad, Apsychos charged at a giant and the giant swung his club at him, but Apsychos slid beneath it and bashed his sword at the giants arm, cutting it off, the giant scram in pain right before Apsychos jabbed his blade into the giant's throat and it bursted into flames, oh... And when I said that the odds were bad, I meant for them, the giants were a cake walk at this time in our lives. I rushed a giant and attempted to thrust my blade in its chest, it blocked my attack with its club and my blade stuck in it, the giant forcefully lifted up his club and I followed, causing me to be flung into the air, I summon my bow and I pull out an arrow from my quiver while in the air, I pull the arrow against the bow and let out an arrow into its head and it bursted into flames leaving my sword stuck in its club, I landed harmlessly and unstuck my sword from the club, I look to my right to see Anna fending off a giant with her spear... "This almost feels like cheating, I mean, your just a little girl" said the giant to Anna, and may I just add: that was the greatest mistake a living being can make. You do not underestimate Anna, you could see the fire in her eyes she stuck her spear into the giant's foot and it yelled, she then sidekicks it into the chest and it fell down with the spear still in its foot, she picks up her spear "this 'little girl' just kicked your ass" she said right before sticking her sword into the giant's chest causing it to burst in flames. There was one more giant and three of us, the three of us stood side by side watching the giant who stood in front of the ledge, it started to charge at us and I sighed, I shot an arrow at it and Anna threw her spear into it... But it still stood, it yelled before charging again, Apsychos then ran up and karate kicked the giant of the ledge. It was over.

We resumed climbing the mountain, "that was strange wasn't it?" Said Apsychos, I nodded, "yeah... Those giants didn't attack us for no reason, someone sent them" I shook my head "not someone, but some people... It was the sacred four" they all had disgust in their faces, each swearing and cursing in their thoughts, "come on... We still have half a mountain to climb".

After a few close calls and an encounter with a female mountain goat that was on heat... We finally made it to the top. There was a cave at the top... It was more than obvious what or who we were going to meet in this cave, but we proceeded anyway cause we had to face her sooner or later, I didn't know what to expect... Her name was lady arachnid... could she just be a female version of spiderman or does it have to be something stupidly dangerous like every other thing in this village. I saw a beautiful lady sitting at a table with white cloth sipping tea, "who is that?" I ask Apsychos, "that's lady arachnid" he says... Finally, I'm so happy, we can just talk to her. "Stop... You want the moonstone right?" Asked the lady, I nodded, "how did you..." I was cut off with her hand gesture as she took a sip of her tea and stood up, "that's what they always want" she said with a beautiful smile, she had red hair and wore a white night gown, she had pale white skin and her eyes were... They were black, all black, she had this tone in her voice... It lured me for some reason... I just wanted to come close to her, to be with her, "Vincent... You look tired, let me make you better" I didn't know what was happening, my legs moved against their will and the worst part is... I didn't want them to stop, I just wanted to be with her at that moment.

I could hear a faint whisper of my name, I ignored it, the chanting of my name started to transform from a whisper to a yell "Vincent!!! Its a trap" I shook my eyes and I saw lady arachnid for who she was, a gigantic spider that had a woman's waist to head where its head was supposed to be.... Damn... I knew it, it can never be easy. Vexed that her plan failed, she jabbed one of her eight legs at me and I parried it with my sword, it launched  another leg at Anna but she summoned her shield just in time to defend herself  from the leg, it was too fast.

"Vincent, Look!!!" Yelled Apsychos, he pointed at the beast's head and I noticed a bluish thing that was mounted on her forehead, "that's the moonstone" he explained. I nodded, I knew what must be done, I charged at the beast and it launched web fluids from its mouth but I slashed it in time, I continued charging, it tried to step on me but I rolled away in time "you got it wrong lady... We step on spiders, not the other way around" with that she got mad and she bashed one of her legs against me and I flew into a wall and fell to the ground roughly, causing my bow and quiver to fall off, next to me was a skeleton, and a pile of bones, she is sick... She ate the warriors. She used two of her legs to try and pin me down, but I separated my blades into two and blocked her attack, I forced her back and jumped of the wall behind me and landed next to Lady arachnid's human parts, I pull out the moonstone mounted on her head and I jumped off.

"Nooo...return the stone at once" she said in a stern manner, I was heading for the exit of the cave so were the others but lady arachnid was able to catch Anna and pin her down with her spider legs, "return the stone  or your friend dies" she said with a crazy grin on her face, I have a plan, I toss the stone at Apsychos to return it, and as he walked, I look over to where I hit the wall and my quiver was just laying there with my bow, I commanded an arrow to be pulled against the bow and fired it straight to the beast's head, causing it to burst in flames.

We all shared smiles, "you did it" said Apsychos, "yes I did" I said smiling, Anna shoved me "oh... You were expecting me to be sappy and say 'we did it', I can't say that, people only say that in fantasy books, this is real life" I said smiling, just then... To spoil the moment... An army of spiders started to crawl towards us, "we can't beat it" said Anna, "then what are we going to do" I ask a little bit scared, "run!!!" Yelled Apsychos, we ran towards the ledge and stopped, there was no way out... We can't climb down, they'll kill us before we get to the bottom, "there are two things we could do: a.) Falling to our death or b.) Being eaten alive" said Anna, "well I choose falling" I said trying to give out a smile like I wasn't scared, we all hugged, we were about to jump when Anna dragged me back and kissed me, "I'm sorry... But if we are going to die... I had to get that off my chest" said Anna, I was shocked for two seconds then became angry because I was pushed down by Anna. We all just free fell, waiting for death, I looked at Anna and I could see a tear in her eye and the same was with Apsychos, they risked their lives to help me and now they are going to die, we are all going to die.