Do You Remember? (Chapter 2)

Raid

Adrenaline gushed through Derin’s veins pushing his legs to maximum speed. He was not a runner and he never wanted to be, but when one’s life depended on it, it was only natural to sprint as fast as you could. He could feel the beasts breath tickling the hairs on the back of his neck. Gardilla beasts weren’t known for their amazing speed, but that didn’t seem to make them any slower. He could feel the sack of his sister’s medicine against his leg.

"Come on people pick up the pace! If you don’t move faster than me then you’re Gardilla bait!”. Derin didn’t dare look back to see if his teammates had heard him, he was sure that if he saw the Gardilla beast he would freeze where he stood. Gardilla beasts were hairy, foul smelling animals with a poison that bloated then killed a person. The nasty part was that the poison took two days to put the victim out of their misery.  Not many had been as lucky as Aria to survive a Gardilla attack. As a reminder of her encounter with the Gardilla her health had been permanently damaged, the pigment in her hair bleached out until it was completely white.

A thunderous bellow echoed throughout the richly decorated mansion. Surely if the owners of the house hadn't already been alerted of their presence they would now know.

"Get down!” The scream was shrill and panicked. Derin hit the ground with full force, unfortunately some of his other teammates were not as fortunate. Their screams sliced through the air penetrating his thoughts. It felt as if a heated knife were being slowly stabbed through his heart, the lives of those lost would not be forgotten.

Tears welled in his eyes but he brushed them away, it was a good thing that he had made Aria stay back with the Yuns, or newbies. She wouldn’t have been able to stand the sight of the Gardilla, it would bring back far too many bad memories. Behind him he could hear the terrified shrieks of another Clan Elite. A small figure clutched in the beast's serpent-like tail, flailing back and forth. That's what must have taken out the others.

When fighting a Gardilla what you needed to avoid were the claws and teeth, what you needed to watch out for was the tail. Not many viewed it as a potential threat, and that was how they normally winded up nothing but a splat of red on the ground. He watched for a couple seconds, observing the tail's movement. He would need to run fast in order to rescue the Elite, but he figured his odds of making it were decent.

There was no debate on what Derin did next, he rushed the Gardilla and stabbed its leg violently a dozen times over. With a flash of light and the buzz of pure energy a Pyrg was embedded in the arm of the Gardilla. Black blood spurted from the wound covering the clan member head to toe in ichor. More Scithes followed in the first’s path resulting an earth shattering screech.

Derin’s hands clamped over his ears trying to block out the harrowing howl. He could do nothing but watch as the clan member fell from the tail of the Gardilla. Her head hit the ground, hard. At the very least she would have a major concussion, at the worst, he didn’t even want to consider what would happen. It was about time to leave and ditching her was not an option. He sprinted towards the fallen figure and scooped her up gently but swiftly.

Carefully he removed her mask to analyse her injuries. Her face was pale, almost grey with fever. Blood trickled down the side of her face, she looked as if she were crying tears of blood. White strands of hair cascaded down her broken figure, why in the world was Aria here?