Crimson Beast - The story of Raven Blair

Ima didn't think of Raven's idea to go into the water, so she just nodded and kept shooting at it. Maybe she could try lifting it out of the water with gravity? But Raven might have a plan...so she kept shooting and waited.

Raven's swords struck down, only to be blocked by a swift wall of water, followed by another, and another, Raven's speed increasing to the point his strikes were simply blurs of red, tan, and glimmering silver in the night air, yet none would connect.

This thing.....was toying with him.

The sheer thought of it enraged him, forcing him to strike faster, yet no results. Finally, a last wall of water wrapped around his blade, pulling him in closer to the staue. It used it's blank glowing blue eyes to stare into Raven's near equal crimson, before rearing back and punching him in the jaw. Raven soared through the air, his sword still gripped in his through sheer desperation before smacking the lake face, sinking in.

The statue slowly turned to look up at Ima, holding it's hand up. The water rumbled before towering up underneath her, forming a spike.

Ima squealed in surprise before tumbling a bit in the air to get out of the way, almost making it. Almost. The spike tore her arm a bit, and she cringed before getting out of the way completely.

Seeing that Raven had fallen into the water, she dove in after him without a second thought. Not a smart thing to do, maybe, but she did it.

Raven sunk down lower and lower, his conscious going in and out before his head shook, his eyes snapping open. It took very short time before Raven gripped the situation. They were inside the very weapon they were facing! He gathered his energy, shooting up through the water and actually catching Ima, irony for the situation.

They emerged from the water with just enough time to escape a second spike. Raven landed on the water face, his aura the only thing between him and the water, holding Ima sitting on his shoulder.

The statue only stood there, still unmoving until it's scythe carrying arm rose up to it's side, Raven having no idea what was going on. Suddenly, the Statue slid across the water without moving it's legs, spinning at top speed with a slash. Jumped up at the last second, landing behind the statue, yet it turned again, sliding back at them, multiple slashes being thrown as Raven dodged them, finally leaping again into the air to dodge multiple spikes of water.

"Should I ask Leviathan to help?" Asked Ima. Had they not been in the situation they were in, she would have been giggling about Raven putting her on his shoulder like she was a much smaller child. But they were in that situation, and now was not the time. "He could probably help a whole lot."

"Not this time......"

Raven looked at the enemy with narrowed eyes, carefully holding up Ima. He thought about the fight. This water just didn't give this thing life, it made it stronger, faster, and served as it's weapon. None of their attacks could penetrate it. Their power was not enough.

Wait.....their power.....together!

"Ima, hold out your gun and aim it at it!"

"Like this?" Ima did as was told, pointing one gun straight at the monster. "Shouldn't I be shooting though? And use my other one?" Still, she didn't, and waited until Raven said the next part of his plan.

Raven reached up, placing his hand on the side of the toy-looking gun. His dark aura seemed to expand and crawl over the weapon. It's colors deepened, darkened. Red glowing streaks appeared all over it.

The statue turned, looking on to the actions. It reacted with a single slash, sending another wave at them, this one larger than any before. It rose up twenty feet, ready to crush.

"Now! Fire!"

Ima fired, hoping that whatever Raven planned would work. If not...she'd rather not think about that. That would be a rather unpleasant outcome...

The red laser launched, but unlike any other time, the beam had gone quite chaotic, appearing sharp and jagged around the edges, streaks of deep black going through it. The beam crashed through the wall of water as if it were formed of paper, the water falling back down as the beam approached the statue that could do nothing.

The beam crushed into it, cracks forming from the contact point. It looked down at the beam before looking back at the two who fired the blast, then exploded into a cloud of bright blue and gray. Stones sunk into the water, the fight ending.

Raven sighed a breath of relief.

Ima's eyes widened. Her laser had certainly never done that before. Was it breaking? She rather hoped it wasn't, they didn't exactly have the time.

Then she realized that it was probably what Raven planned and went "Oh."

She smiled at him. "We did it! That was neat."

Raven listened to her as he walked back to the shore, letting down Ima on the ground before closing his eyes, the aura around him fading and retreating back into his body. He slouched over just slightly, fighting back the want to pass out from the explosion of energy.

"Y-yeah it was. I never transfered to someone else's weapon before."

He took a deep breath, letting out a "whew" sound after. He turned, droping to a seated position and facing the waters, now calmed again. He couldn't help feel at piece here.

"This place is beautiful when it's not trying to kill us."

"It really is." Agreed Ima, sitting down next to Raven. She debated going into the lake a bit and splashing him for fun, but she was tired as well. Maybe someday they could come back and play...but for now, it was just nice to look at the lake.

"The story we were told about this place, it must be true. I've never seen a lake do what it just did. I gave life from nothing......impossible...."

Raven tried to wrap his mind around the situation before shaking his head, grunting, and holding his shaking cranium in place as he laedback, his right knee bent up, his hands behind his head.

"Screw it, too much to think about."

He scrunched his face before chuckling to himself, taking a long deserved rest. After a few passing seconds he opened one eye facing Ima.

"You know we have to follow them still, right?

She nodded. "I know. I just hope that we get to follow them to somewhere SUNNY." The alien frowned slightly, almost pouting. "I'm already tired, and this darkness is not helping."

It was true, but not in the way most people would think.

With a little sigh she stood up, brushing off her dress a bit. The teen smiled at Raven then. "Shall we go? Or do you want a nap first?"

Raven was about to respond, his ears perking up.

"There's someone coming."

He pushed himself up, grabbing Ima's wrist and leaping into the brush, hiding deep enough for the glowing leaves to not give them away. Two foot soldiers of the royal family made their way past the path and into the clear, the dancing lights reflecting off of their armor.

"Why are we even here? The gaurdian took care of them hours ago, there's no way they could fight all of Lake Ignis."

"Shut up, idiot. We're here to account for the bodies, that's all. His highness declared it, it must be done."

The two continued the bickering as they searched the banks and the brush near by, but nothing far enough to find them. Raven spied on, watching their every move. His hand slipped onto one of his guns, just in case.

"Nothing. The Gaurdian must've dragged them down with him. We're wasting time, the convoy's moving through the Lumen Pass and if we don't catch up we'll be going through the sands alone. I don't want to do that, do you?"

"Not in this lifetime."

The two gaurds began to walk away, triggering Raven to look down to Ima, motioning with his head that they should follow them. The bike would have to be left here, there were more important things at hand.

Ima stared curiously at the two men through the leaves before nodding to Raven. It would definitely be for the best to follow them. Again, though, the child couldn't mentally help but to hope that wherever they were going was sunny.

She also couldn't help but wonder about the prince. If he had sent people to look for bodies, then was he worried? Or was he simply trying to be thorough? Seeing as he had sent people and not checked himself, it might have been the latter.

Or he was a lazy meanie.

They slowly crept behind the two as they went along the route, heading through the woods. Where ever they were heading, it was a long ways away.

Time had past, and finally they had arrived, his eyes, as they have been doing over and over again since they had arrived in Arcana, widened. A unit consisting of hundreds of soldiers lined up in a row, in the front three large vehicles were placed, all bearing the royal crest. The Prince or King were no where to be found, but Raven knew these troops were leading to him. There was a plan going on here, he just didn't know what it was.

He searched to the front of the pack, now gazing down what appeared to be an enormous cavern pass. A blue light eminated from inside just like the lake. As the final troops marched into the cave.

"Ima, be quick, we need to keep up with them."

The alien's eyes also widened. There were so many of them! So many soldiers, what could they all possibly be going to do? Surely that many weren't needed if only to protect the royal family.

Ima opened her mouth to reply before thinking better of it and just nodding. Better not to take any chances and so they wouldn't end up getting caught after all. That would be bad, if they got caught. They wouldn't be able to follow the people to where the king and prince were.

She quietly began to follow the troops, floating so she wouldn't make any footsteps. She gave Raven a look that asked if he wanted her to make it so he could do the same.

Raven shook his head, opting to sneak by himself. Shadows of the troops crawled across the stone walls thanks to enormous crystals that jutted out from the ground and wall, yet those were not what they were here for. Raven couldn't understand, but kept going.

As he continued, some new sounds caught his ear. things that were not supposed to be in caves. The pass opened up into a large cavernous room, larger than anything they could have expected, and filling this room were tons and tons of steel machinery and walk ways.

"Whoa."

What was all this for? Raven looked ahead as the troops had been making their way through this maze of mechanics for quite some time. When all seemed clear, the luck of the hero kicked in. A few soldiers in the back turned, keeping read gaurd, catching the two strays in the opening.

"They're here! They're here! The assassins are here!"

Raven put his hands on his hips, then out to this side, shrugging with annoyance.

"Ah man, assassin? That's kind of harsh, isn't it?"

He turned to Ima.

"Looks like they brought the party into their house this time, Ima!"

He smirked as he quickly flashed his hands behind his back, pulling from it his two handguns, spinning them with a deadly flair before aiming at the soldiers on the other side of the cavern, a quarter of the huge force shuffling into the maze of the machinary.

"Good thing the losers have to pay for the damages!"

Ima nodded. "It would cost a lot of money to fix a place like this..." She said this as she looked at all the machines. Her curiosity was flaring again, but again she managed to keep it in check. After all, she could always ask questions later.

...It was so TEMPTING though...

Ima pulled out her own guns and smiled. "So let's make sure we win."

Raven opted to charge down the stairs before them, ducking past randomly placed pieces of metal and gears long abandoned. He pressed his back against one of them, looking over his shoulder at the opening, the area where he anticipated the soldiers to run from, his guns aimed up at his chest.

Then they didn't show.....

Raven waited and waited, trying to figure out why the soldiers never arrived. He couldn't figure it out, then the sound of metal meeting metal clanged out. Bullets smacked into the steel walkway as Raven ran from the spot, looking behind him to see that the soldiers had climbed onto the machinary, shooting down at him. He cartwheeled, then began to flip back in a tumble and with every flip, took quick aim, firing shoots upside down in mid-air. A few stary shots caught a couple attackers, sending them to the ground, finally triggering more to run around the corner, some charging with swords, others taking aim with rifles. Raven reached into his ammo pouched, placing a few bullets into his guns and firing them off. On contact with the ground,they exploded into a red goo substance, snagging onto the feet of the charging soldiers, tripping them and bringing them to the ground.

"Gell Cap rounds, gotta love em!"

Ima just floated up high into the air, shooting at all the soldiers from there. She couldn't help but giggle and feel bad for the soldiers at the same when she saw them trip thanks to Raven's round-thingy. Though she didn't see anything really round...but tripping sure could hurt.

She mostly concentrated on shooting those that were still on the machines, but shot at a few near her friend too. After all, even if was strong and could probably, definitely take care of all of these people on his own, she wasn't going to not help her friend!

Raven tapped his foot, listening to the sound of bullets riccocheting off of the steel all around him. He closed his eyes and nodded his head in the same motion.

"Oh man.....that beat is amazing!"

He dodged around as the lasers from Ima's gun as if hey weren't even there. He spun his guns again, picking out a few more bullets in his pouch, slamming them into his weapon. A quick spin lead to a few more shots fire, the bullets connecting with the riflemen behind the trapped soliders in the adhesive. The rounds exploded, a black substance showering them

"What the hell is this? It burns my eyes!"

"Just my way......"

A red flash crossed Raven's eyes as he took aim.

"Of turning up the heat!"

A red bullet launched, one of Raven's incendiary rounds, which usually resulted in decent size fires, but as it hit the black subtance, a towering inferno took it's place.

"The old one-two bang-a-bang! A Raven special!"

Raven threw up a victory hand signal with his fingers, a random sparkle appearing on his teeth as he smiled at his attackers.

Raven always seemed to have so much fun doing all this, Ima couldn't help but think.

She took out a few more of the soldiers that Raven hadn't reached with his fire attack, and some that she had missed before when shooting the people on the machines.

Then she giggled when she saw Raven smile. Yes, he was definitely having fun.