Destiny Island

Chapter 35

This time, instead of losing control, Royce didn't have any control to start with.
The others had all suddenly gained some useful powers but not him.
He was trying to fight off the evil beings, powerless, using only his quick wit and agility.
It annoyed him that he was the weakest link, the one who always had to be saved, either by his friends or by the magical beings that were trying to help them out.

From the moment they entered Shadoworld, he had no control whatsoever of what was happening, but what was even worse than the loss of control was being so powerless while surrounded by some of the most powerful beings in that magical world.
He felt so small and insignificant in the grand schema of things.

For the first time, he was able to understand how the ants felt surrounded by all those giant beings all the time.
Their lives must have been terrifying.
Faced with his own lack of power Royce felt depressed, weak. That was not the right set of mind for the battle that was unfolding, and he knew it.

He needed to gain some confidence, or he would get his friends killed by trying to save him.
After he was saved by Jade, he knew he couldn't allow himself to be the weakest one, he couldn't allow for Jade to be distracted by worrying about his safety.

Taking a deep breath he did his best to focus on his strengths, after all, he was an intelligent guy who was always able to think outside the box.
What they needed in this battle was that kind of advantage. Raw strength and power wouldn't win them the battle, brains would.
He didn't have the impressive powers that the others had, but he knew he could always rely on his intellect, it had never failed him before and it wouldn't fail him now.

While he was being protected by Lejanida from another attack that targeted him, instead of lamenting the need to be saved all the time he used that time to think of a plan.
He was pretty good at the physical aspect of fighting, but he was terrible at fighting off the powers that the dark beings had in abundance. So, to be able to defeat them he had to think of a way to circumvent their powers and face them off on a purely physical level.
The big question was how could that be accomplished?
That was when a crazy idea occurred to him, and he thought that it might just work.

"Ignacio!" Royce called his friend who was nearby and as Ignacio fought his way through to his friend, Royce's plan was already fully developed.
It was good that Royce and Ignacio knew each other so well, otherwise, Ignacio might not have gone through all that trouble to come closer to his friend in the middle of a full-blown battle.

"From the look in your eyes, I have a feeling that you got another one of your crazy ideas that I am not going to like, but that would nonetheless work?" Ignacio asked.
"I am not sure how well this one will work, but I am done feeling useless. I want to help out and for me to be able to do that I think I am going to need your help." Royce said.
During the whole conversation, they were basically hiding behind the huge dragon since there was no way for them to stay in the open and have a strategic conversation before dying slow and painful deaths.

"This whole time we are just defending ourselves, reacting to what they are doing. It's high time we make them react to us." Royce said.
As it was obvious that Ignacio was thoroughly confused by the statement, which made him thoroughly annoyed Royce hurried up to explain before his friend blew a fuse.
"What I want to say is that we should be attacking them to gain the upper hand. You and I can do that unexpectedly and the element of surprise might give us an additional edge that we need to win this thing. Do you think you could use your powers to move a whole human around?" Royce asked.
"Of course," Ignacio answered.

The truth was he had no idea if that was possible, but he didn't want to seem weak in front of his best friend.
"I want you to float me around an enemy so that I can surprise it with physical attacks and disturb its concentration and in turn power usage. " Royce said.
The glow of determination was so strong in his eyes that Ignacio wasn't sure if that was the same person who helped old ladies cross the street in their world.
It was as if the fire of battle ignited in Royce and turned into a blaze in a matter of seconds.

"I don't know about that..." Ignacio said.
It was one thing to pretend you could do it when he thought his friend would ask him to move around some evil beings, but completely different to play with Royce's life.
However, it was obvious that Royce wasn't listening to him. He was fully immersed in what he considered as a full-proof plan.

"We can do it!" Royce said eagerly.
Some of his enthusiasm seeped into Ignacio, and he decided that he would do it.
He knew his friend enough to know that he would rather die than not be able to help, not be able to control at least something.
Also, he was honored that Royce chose to let him be the one in charge, he would have a lot of control over him and Ignacio knew that took a lot of courage from Royce to do.
Knowing all that, he realized that Royce wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't contribute in some way to the battle and it was Ignacio's job as his friend to allow him to do that and to keep him safe.

It was the strangest thing Royce had ever done, and it did feel strange to be allowed to be carried by Ignacio's powers. At the same time, it felt invigorating to be able to do something.
Ignacio stayed safely hidden behind the dragon so that he could focus on controlling his powers while he floated Royce around to the creatures that were least expecting him.
First, Ignacio chose to attack an evil warlock who was attacking a beautiful phoenix who seemed to be running out of strength to fight the warlock off.

Focused as the dark warlock was one killing the magnificent being, he didn't sense Royce's floating presence behind him until it was too late.
Royce kicked him in the back while floating behind him which made the warlock stumble and lose focus.
While he was trying to regain focus, Ignacio floated Royce suddenly in front of the warlock and Royce punched him in the face.
There was a satisfactory crack as the warlocks nose started bleeding.
Before he had the chance to do anything, Royce was once more floating in the air and kicked him in the chest.
The kick was so strong that it threw him out of the shadow world and Royce was back to his mission.

This time he and Ignacio made a silent agreement to face off against a flying creature, the horrible looking gargoyle who was giving Lejanida some trouble.
She saved him more than once, and Royce wanted to return the favor seeing how much the gargoyle was exhausting her. One look in Ignacio's direction was enough for his friend to understand exactly what Royce wanted.
Disposing of the gargoyle turned out to be much easier than expected since it wasn't such a smart creature and was unable to think of a way to defend its self against a sudden attack.
Its main advantage was using powers and its raw strength but surprised as it was by the floating Royce it didn't have the chance to use either one of its advantages.

With renewed energy and confidence Royce continued the battle with the occasional pull and shove from Ignacio to help out.
They were a perfect team since they could read each other's thoughts, not in the literal sense, but in a way that two best friends could sometimes do.

The battle went on and Royce couldn't help but wonder if it would ever end.