The Phoenix's Maiden

Garden of Eden (Part Two)

Amber's Point of View

I continue to wander deep inside the cave to follow the voice of the pleading woman inside. I want to get there as fast as possible but I still need to look out for possible ambush from the enemies and I don’t want to die before I get there. Yes, I am strong enough to defend myself from them but not at all times, that’s putting my guard up is the safest way to approach this place.

I’ve been thinking that the woman’s voice is like a loop playing over and over again, but again I am not sure what lies ahead, and confirming what is it is the best way. If it is really a woman then I will help her, if it’s something, then I’ll deal with it depending on the situation that I am in.

This mission sure has a lot of detours, but what can I do? It’s already done and I just need to move on from that and the most important thing right now is I get out of this forest. I also have the urge to find the origins of the first humans in the world, but it will be more dangerous for me to find it. I can go back in this place anytime soon, but I am really hoping that I stumble upon that place while I am on my way on getting out of the forest.

The cries start to be loud and clear and it is really a woman crying for help, but I still can’t see them.

“Where are you?!” I shouted asking for the woman’s location. “I am here right now!” I added hoping to convince the woman to come out of her hiding place and come to me. “It’s okay, I’m not some kind of monster and I am here to save you,” I said.

I looked around in this dark chamber only using my torch ball to light the way and I needed some kind of flare that will not extinguish for a long time so I know where I will go, when I am heading back. The wails and call for help continue and I needed to find them.

But now I can easily locate them while leaving some flare behind me that maintains the light in the way and that’s fourteen moves left out of twenty that I have to accomplish.

“Please,” the plead became clearer and it is just one turn away and they are there, hiding, maybe, or just luring me to be its victim and once again, maybe.

“Hey it’s okay,” I said and I walk carefully towards it and I leave the last flare that I have to follow later. “We can get out of here,” I added. “I’m not here to hurt you, I am here to help,” I said in a soft voice to make them comfortable with me.

“I- I c- can’t,” she said.

“Why?” I said while I tiptoe towards her.

“H- help,” she pleads again for my help and I am confused right now what to do with this girl because she is not discrete on cooperating with my offer. I can’t leave her behind in a place like this so I was left with no choice but to take the initiative and come to her to offer my help.

“There’s nothing to w-“ my jaw dropped when I saw a set of sharp teeth floating in the middle of the darkness while I saw an unconscious girl lying on the ground, I am not sure if she is still alive or not. I don’t know but I need to deal with this creature. It’s similar to a crocotta, if I remember it correctly.

*Crocotta – It’s a mythical beast from India and Ethiopia, described as an animal that looks through and teeth that can crush anything. In ancient times it is believed to be a deadly enemy of humans and dogs, as it had the ability to lure its victims from places where no one can see them by mimicking the speech of humans by calling their names. They are known to devour soul and has the ability to shapeshift in human form so they can have contact with its unaware victims. It’s true form is unknown except for it’s jaw and its set of large and sharp set of teeth, which makes it similar to the creature that Amber is encountering right now.*

“Two souls to devour,” it shows its true nature and its voice changed instantly too from a pleading woman to a hungry monster, I can say that I am a fool for being lure by an obvious trap, but it’s worth the try because I am right that there is really a woman here waiting for my help dead or alive. She is clearly not a human and came from some Mystic race. I noticed that this creature said two and there is only three of us here and putting him out, there’s only two of us to be devoured.  I don’t intend to be eaten right away but I need to save this woman first.

Obviously, I feel fear but the mental training that the goddess has given me is sure proven to be effective right now. I can feel my mental fortitude and it is time for me to face my first fight. A real fight where life and death are betting on us, I still don’t know what to do but I need to improvise.

I don’t what this creature is thinking of me right now but I will let it to think as much as it like. I don’t want to create such mess that I will hurt the unconscious woman too from the attack. I need to attack with focus fire that it will only hit him.

Speaking of that, I don’t know what is his weakness and I sure am in the dark right now. I really don’t know much about crocottas and I am not sure if this creature in front of me is a crocotta in the first place. Should I just throw a simple attack right now?

Maybe to test its limits, I would throw a small fireball at its direction but if the only vulnerable part is the visible teeth and jaw, I might burn the lady behind it and I don’t want that to happen if I want her to get out of here alive.

So, I extinguished the flames on my hand and back down, I need to think of more sophisticated way to stop him. Then how can I do that? I need to think quicker if I want to get out of her as soon as possible, but how. I needed to do this.

The creature is well aware of my thoughts that I don’t want to hurt the woman behind it so it stays put in front of it, that’s why ranged attacks are out of the option right now, if he only puts some distance then I can throw as much fireball that I wanted.

Close combat attacks, I don’t really have any experience with close combat but the goddess trained my body to endure the fatigue of using my aura so it enhanced my muscle too which will help me to enhance my strength even though that time I am unsure where will I use it. But now it is clear as day in my mind. It’s for situation like this and an idea popped into my mind once again and this time my skill sets was reduced to only four remaining to created with a small fireball.

Augmented physical attacks and it is simple and since this is the first time that I will try it, it’s natural for so many ideas to come to my mind at the same time. Actually, I am so thankful right now that I will get to use that hard training to use now.

I will augment my fireball like gloves that will empower my physical attacks and hopefully that will apply some burn effects to the inflicted enemy. I know that I am thinking like a geek, because I only played one game in my whole life which is an RPG game that helped me get through my depression, and this idea is thanks to that since element augmentation in armors is a thing back then.

I thought all this time that touching my own flames will also hurt me and thanks to that Gerarda earlier that forced me to overcome that fear and learning something from it. I get to use this idea. I used pyrokinesis when I merged the fireball in my hand making it looking like fiery gloves and also on my foot to be my boots.

After that I also wore a flaming vest that will protect me from its incoming attacks which is great for me since I don’t want to get hurt this early, I mean hurt like I can’t move anymore. The warmth of my flames also enhanced my mood and comfy too. It’s strange to feel like this in this kind of situation but what can I do, this is just me.

Now I call this my fiery armor, and I will use this every time I engage in close combat since I am not confident with my fighting abilities right now. For now, I will focus more on fire power than strategy. I think that he is surprised on what I did.

I dashed forward him and these boots don’t just enhance my kicks because I can produce more flames from it to boos my speed for brief moment of time and there, I punched his teeth with all my might because it’s the only thing visible from here.

-The Phoenix’s Maiden-