"Ugh...What took me out?" Elsword groaned, sitting up after hours of being knocked out. He's body still sore and bandaged up. Not to mention, his nogging is throbbing like it was hit by Banthus.
Or one of Rena's kicks.
"Shut it twerp and eat." A boiled potato was pushed into his hands instead, courtesy by an irrate yet blushing Aisha. The girl had woken up from her impromptu sleep with Elsword's head nesting on her chest before Rena hauled the two of them to rest in another room in Adel's home.
"What happened?" Elsword asked her, taking a bite on the light snack.
"We won, that's what." Aisha huffed, wincing as her head injury flared up.
"Oh." Elsword noticed the wound on her, "Then what happened to Raven? The El shards we we're looking for?" He asked.
This time, Aisha blushed for the lack of proper answer.
"We... actually don't have the El shard yet. Raven's knocked out and being treated by some weird Nasod in the other room. Rena and Adel are watching over the process. I just stayed here to rest and watch over you." She replied, looking down in shame.
"Then why are you not on the bed?" Elsword narrowed his eyes as he looked at the girl sitting beside the bed.
"Uhm, hello? Can't you see their is only one bed. Most importantly, you need it more than me." Aisha huffs, puffing her cheeks and crossing her arms.
"Ha! Like as if these wounds would put me down." Elsword scoffs before wincing, making the girl giggle at his expense. With a mischievous smirk, his hand latched on her arm and with a hard yank, pulled her in the bed as he scooted over to make space for her.
"Hey! Hey! What are you doing, twerp?!" Aisha yelled, embarrassed as her face turned crimson red at the close contact. They're face separated by an inch only. She tried to pull away and get off the bed but the boy's grip and strength is far beyond her scope to escape.
"Nah, your resting with me. We'll share for now." Elsword said with an innocent smile. Not like there's something wrong about sharing a bed. He and his sister do it all the time as kids.
"Like that's would work at all." Aisha complains, face burning up at the boy's forwardness and insistence.
"Hey, I'm being generous here so just accept it." Elsword points out like it was something obvious.
"As if you know what the word 'Generous' means!" Aisha bites back.
The two continued to bicker and argue over the bed till finally exhaustion and their injuries knocked them both out asleep. Unintentionally, Aisha snuggled deep into the boy's chest. In instinct and practice with his sister, Elsword naturally wrapped her around his arms.
If Rena saw the scene, she would squealing and jumping in joy like a proud mother except she's not here.
Her lost.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Is he really healed up, Doctor?" Rena asked, poking at Raven's arm.
His new human arm.
"Yes, miss elf. His certainly at full health. Most astonishingly, there's not single sign of Nasod tech inside or outside of his body. Whatever the Nasod had done to him, it fully reverted his body back to it's human origin. It's outstanding!!! I had never seen such thing!" The fluffy doctor exclaimed.
Rena nodded at the doctors words still poking at the arm. It was so strange watching or remembering how it simply formed out of Raven's flesh. She hadn't ever seen any healing spell or ability like it. Even so, it came from a Nasod.
A race not well known for medical arts. For a race made of metal and El shards, healing is more akin to repairing themselves. What the Nasod did is fully contradictory to it's nature.
Unnatural.
Looking at the dormant green ball at the corner, Rena began to compare the Nasod's design over the other Nasods. For a Nasod, it's simplistic in design. A metal round ball as it's chasis yet capable of producing arms and tiny legs. It did look cute it with it's flaps acting like ears.
Yet in her opinion, this Nasod is far too different than those they have faced.
She just can't tell.
Later on, she volunteered to watch over the unconscious man as she's the less injured member of her team while the doctor and Adel left.
"Urgh..." A low groan disturbed her thoughts. It came from Raven waking up.
"Whoa, stop there. Your still recovering even after what your Nasod friend did." She stopped him from sitting up, hands on his bare chest to push him back to his bed.
"Seris?" A name escaped his lips as he looked at the elf in front of him.
Before, he was blinded by the Nasod's control over his emotions and malicious brainwashing. He never saw the elf's face clearly or his head naturally rejected her features.
Because right in front of him, stood a spitting image of his beloved.
"Seris?" He repeated, raising an arm to touch the ghost in front of him.
He raised his missing arm.
His missing human arm.
Raven stared at the human arm where his Nasod arm used to be. He didn't move, too stunned as he looked at what he had lost so long ago. It wasn't until a pair of soft hands enveloped his new hand that his attention focused on the elf.
"I'm sorry but I'm not this Seris." Rena shook her head. She's a bit confused and kind of offended but she didn't voice it. The man just woke up after so much ordeals and whatever trauma he went through if the Pongo's and Elsword's evaluations we're right.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Raven apologized, pulling his hand away from hers. Looking at the new arm, this will take a while to get used too.
"Wait, Nasod friend? Where's Haro?" Raven asked, noticing those choice of words.
"You mean that Nasod?" Rena pointed at the dormant Nasod on the corner.
"It went dormant after healing you. Adel said it went into a hibernation mode to recover from what it did to save you." Rena continued.
"Aaaaa..." Raven's lost for words.
Haro saved him. Him of all people. Honestly, he didn't understand why. He wasn't the nicest person even at the green Nasod. No, he only took in the Green ball to exploit from the start, a decision he didn't regret after all the green Nasod contributed to his cause.
Until they got attacked.
Then so why? Why save him? How did Haro heal him down to his missing arm?
"What happened?" He asks.
Rena then began to recount everything that happened, seeing no harm from telling him. His still recovering and not to mention, unarmed. His blade was lost in the fire and she doubt he could take her on in unarmed combat now that he no longer has his Nasod arm.
"By the way, where's the massive El shard you took from us back then? It's the only reason why we're here and attacked your ship." Rena inquired, her eyes sharpening as her voice hinting an edge. Raven eyed the woman who painfully resembled his fiancee.
He can't help but laugh. They even have the same angry look.
"Hey! I'm serious here!" Rena cried, pouting at the man's dismissive attitude. Was she really not that scary? She used her usual tone and expression when scolding Elsword and Aisha so why it didn't work.
"I don't have it nor it was on the ship." He grunted.
Rena blinked, "Then where is it? We came a long way to recover that El shard. It's very important that we recover it."
"I gave it to the Nasods. It's probably in their main base, powering them. Not sure if I'm right but that's what I know. The king never really told me what is he planning, I'm just a tool." He shrugged. Looking back, he was worse than a tool. He was the Nasod King's attack dog, it's bitch.
How shameful.
"It's one problem after another." Rena sighs deeply, exhaustion now slamming on her shoulders after the day's events.
"Apologies."
"Huh?" Rena blinked, did she heard that right.
"I said I want to apologize." Raven turned his head to her, staring at her deeply.
"My actions had led to dire consequences. With how much you need that El stone, it's probably something important to you and your party. Not to mention, I hurt many more in my pursuit, even this Pongo village. I recognize and remember this place. Me and my men tried to raid this village once but the tunnels are too confusing for us to navigate, we ended up setting traps and capturing the Pongo's instead." Raven confessed, his voice low and sounded so broken.
Too see the man who once oozed with strength in their previous encounters, it felt so wrong for Rena to see him like this.
"But you did free them afterwards before any harm could happen." She tried to reassure him.
"Heh, only after wrestling control over myself. It's pathetic honestly. If my old friends saw me like this, they would beat me up for sure and Series, she-" Raven trailer off.
He still wants revenge. Deep inside, he can't let go of the hate. He wants justice, not for himself but for those who died for him.
Seris and his men, his true friends.
"I think you should rest for now. We'll talk further more when the rest of my team is awake." Rena cut off his thoughts.
"Maybe. Thanks for listening." Raven said, lying down comfortably in his bed to sleep.
"No problem. But just you know, the other two will grill you for more and they're children, goodluck on that." Rena cheekily replied, leaving the chuckling man to rest.
For a sky bandit, he wasn't so bad after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[W---ever you do, do-- tak- -ff your --- ma--!]
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[Unknown data detected]
[Confirm deletion]
[Pending]
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[Pending]
[Confirmed: No]
[Data is corrupted]
[Restoration probability: 0.03%]
[Restoration Progress: 0.00001%]
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"Why is the cave shaking?" A pongo guarding the tunnels mutters as dust began falling from cave ceiling. Curios and alarmed at the sudden shake, he began to move towards the source.
Crawling into one of the pipes, he began his journey deep into the islands core. The pipe twisting and turning yet the fluffy creature expertly navigated through the pipes like they're born in it.
Then finally, it emerge on a wide cavern.
"Oh no!" The pongo gasped in horror as what lay before him.
Alterasia plants, an entire cave system of them. How could this be? They had made sure to cave in the tunnels hosting Alterasia plants, leaving now gaps for them to propagate and spread further in the island. So how did the plants move so close to the village and reproduce at this astounding rate. From the ceiling to the ground, the entire cave is covered in Alterasia!
That's when something lit up at the end of the cave.
A massive red Nasod, towering over other Nasods he had ever seen, is digging through the cave wall using it's bare hands.
"I need to report this to Chief Adel!"
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