The Great

Evay Maver: The quiet rustle of the trees, the chilly wind whooshing through my ears, and the bleak morning air all hit me like a truck as James and I tried our best to move quickly and quietly. There were two more ground scalers to our far right and one more to our far left. James gave them both a glance and without saying a word they all dove deeper into the forest. James leapt through bushes, dove through branches, and slid under giant fallen logs all without making a sound. I slightly floated off of the ground and glided through the air as I tried to keep up with James’s blistering pace. This dude is faster than me and I can literally fly. I did a mini barrel roll around a particular thick cluster of branches and kept following James, “Are we following the others? What did you tell them?” He spoke without stopping,

“They know the formation and the signals I give them. We’re pretty much just doing a very basic encirclement tactic where we surround the enemy camp with eyes and ears. If we do get caught we’re so separated that at least some of us will get away and this allows us to get better angles for seeing stuff.” He jumped high into the trees and hopped from branch to branch like a giant, deadly squirrel.

“We’re going to be getting the front view of the camp—aka the best view. So make sure to report a lot.” I gave him a confused stare,

“Wait, shouldn’t this whole scouting thing be done by intelligence? Why are we doing this? This is Zia’s job.” James slid down a large tree branch and landed on the ground without making a single sound,

“She already did. The only reason I’m able to go this fast is because she mapped out the trails for us. We know roughly what their camp looks like and where they are but Zia—and frankly any other intel-warrior—can’t really use their abilities without giving away their presence to the enemy. So we go in there to confirm specifics. Look for specific people, weird things that stand out, new weapons, new strange looking equipment, and anything which looks or sounded out of the ordinary. Don't get caught.” I nodded and he gently pushed away a large clearing of foliage.

I felt my heartbeat quicken a little as I got my very first look at an enemy camp. It was very similar to ours—they had massive amounts of tents, similar stations for hygiene and training, and they had soldiers just like us. Their entire camp did look a lot more thrown together than ours though—which made sense since they were on enemy territory. Their soldiers all looked pretty similar as each of them had caramel colored skin, short black hair, and dark brown or black eyes. They all wore blue and white battle vests which didn’t blend in very well with the environment and made them super easy to see. A giant commander’s tent was set up at the head of the camp and a bunch of soldiers were gathered around a table with a map on it. I narrowed my eyes and focused on the map—using my enhanced vision to read the small print from a large distance away. Their language made no sense to me but I could kind of see some of the stuff they had marked on the map. I whispered in a quiet voice, “James, they have a large red circle around the corner of their map. What does that mean?” He gave me a confused look,

“You can see that? How?” I kept whispering,

“That’s got to mean that they’re targeting that spot right? They have a bunch of lines that are scribbled around places as well. I can try to listen in—hold on.” He kept giving me confused glances as I closed my eyes and tried to pull in their voices. Their words and conversations slowly started to come together as I tried to make out anything that they were saying. I had no clue how to speak the language of Praga but I could tell that they were discussing something serious. Their voices carried a hush and silent tone as one voice in particular stood out from the others. I opened my eyes and saw a rugged and terrifying looking man with a dark expression and cold eyes standing at the head of the map-table. He had short black hair and wore an elaborate blue and white commander’s uniform. It was his voice I kept on hearing…. He must be the commander. His voice kept on streaming into my ears as I tried my best to make out anything he was saying. What am I doing? I can’t understand him anyway, I should listen for other things like—

Suddenly, the words started to come back to me in my own language, “The sea warriors will not be here until a week has passed. The northern forces will coordinate with us and feint a strike three mornings from now. The Taegan warriors will waste resources and soldiers to protect their camp and then Raga will take advantage. By then the sea warriors will be here as well and we will join in on the fray. After, we march on the capital.” My eyes widened as I smacked my head. James gave me a concerned look,

“What the fuck—man what the fuck are you doing man? What did you see?” I shook my head hard and listened in closer,

“Do not be worried about spies. We know where they are—they can know what they want to know.” The commander turned towards me and stared directly into my soul through the massive foliage and grass as my blood turned ice cold. I grabbed James on the shoulder and spoke in a soft whisper,

“They know we’re here.” James gave me an exasperated look,

“How do you know?” I tightened my grip on his shoulder,

“We should go. Trust me—I was right about the map thing wasn’t I?” He gave me an angry look,

“How can I trust that you were right about that? I know you’re scared but you're going to be doing this stuff a lot so—“ I giant arrow the size of a tree branch sunk itself into a tree trunk right behind us as James suddenly stopped speaking. He threw a small handful of metal balls to our right and they tussled the leaves and grass as they rolled onto the earth. A hundred more arrows, even larger than the one aimed at us, bore themselves into the ground where James had thrown his metal balls. He motioned for me to follow him as we retreated back into the forest. I looked back and focused on my vision. There were four arrows soaring through the air raining down on us in rapid succession. I saw their flight and movement through the leaves and various tree branches as I pushed James to the left. He was shoved off of his feet and a huge arrow bore itself into the ground right where he was originally standing. He quickly got up and leapt up on the branches—swinging from branch to branch like a giant ape. A few more arrows pelted into the ground as I soared higher into the air. I looked back at the Praga camp while flying backwards and used my see through vision in order to make out the enemy forces through the massive amounts of foliage and trees standing in my way. The entire forest seemingly disappeared from my vision as I could clearly see the Praga camp and their various soldiers who all looked really pissed.

James suddenly shouted over the rush of the wind, “Zia’s got eyes! Evay the southern flank is the safest route back—apparently there are enemy Praga soldiers active in the forest right now. They just started to move so if we beat them to the southern flank we should be fine. Remember, we can’t engage right now.” I shouted back to him,

“Why the fuck can we not!?! We have our forces don’t we? We know where they are—let’s level them!” James slid down a huge branch and flipped over a giant leaf all while speaking,

“Because our forces are scattered right now! Our camp hasn’t coordinated an attack with the other camps along the western coast—if we need backup or something goes wrong our camp is left to fend for itself. Also, we need to be watching the coast, remember? No fighting these fuckers.” I put my head on a swivel as I used my see through vision in order to see if any potential threats were nearby. I turned to my left and saw a huge waterfall with lots of natural cover and caves lining the bottom of it. I looked at James and pointed to our left,

“Let’s go there—it’ll give us some time to breathe.” I turned and soared through the foliage and James followed right behind me. We burst through the dense leaves and branches and massive amounts of sunlight suddenly hit my eyes as a beautiful open waterfall connected to a massive lake appeared before my eyes. James landed softly on a nearby collection of rocks at the base of the waterfall and I gently flew down next to him. He slid into a small cave covered by a curtain of heavy, falling water and I followed right behind him. He sat down and took a deep breath,

“Zia will keep giving us more information and tell us what our best path is soon. For now we should lie low and think about our next best option. Evay, tell me exactly what you can do—so I can better understand how and what you can help me with.” I nodded and took a seat,

“I have see-through vision—it doesn’t go very far but I can pretty much see through objects up to a certain distance. I have a great sense of smell, hearing, touch, and taste, and I can fly. I can explode stuff, I can summon a spear, I think I can curse stuff, and I can also put shields on people and myself. Here,” I cast my hands out towards James and a glowing golden shield with white symbols and markings all over it suddenly surrounded him. He looked around in awe as he gently touched the golden shield which buzzed slightly at his fingertips. I waved my hand and the shield disappeared. I kept my eyes on him while speaking, “It’s not indestructible—Geon has broken it once but not anyone else. Tell me a bit more about your abilities—actually tell me more about everyone’s abilities. I don’t know you guys.” James nodded,

“Zia has an ability which I like to call ‘sonar head.’ She can basically create a perfect three dimensional mental image of her surroundings up to a certain radius every few seconds. She’s very good at providing live intel on the battlefield. Zella has the ability to control the flight paths of certain objects. She uses her military grade liquor bow to fire her arrows and she uses her liquor abilities to make sure they hit the mark.” I nodded,

“What about you?” He took out some water from his pack,

“It’s called density. I can change the density of any object that I can touch and control. I can only use it on two objects at a time so I usually manipulate my density and the density of my axe. I don’t have my axe on me right now though because this was supposed to be a stealth mission but I really regret not bringing it now.” I gave him an impressed stare,

“That’s a pretty crazy power man–is that why you’re so useful for groundscaling?” He nodded,

“I can make some super heavy attacks but I can also make myself really mobile as well. That’s why I’m also really good for stealth missions–I’m a bit of an all rounder.” I smiled and gave him my hand. He took it and we both stood up and cautiously walked out of the waterfall. I couldn’t hear anything approaching us and I didn’t smell anyone around us but the forest and the water was messing with my senses… I focused on my vision and scanned the surrounding area. The trees, rocks, bushes, vines, and leaves all disappeared as I tried to make out everything in our surrounding area. Vast distances of forest vanished before my eyes as I frantically looked for any people dashing, jumping, or sneaking around us in hopes of taking our heads off. James looked at me and I gave him a thumbs up. He nodded and he jumped high into the air and landed softly on top of the giant waterfall. Gold’s Veil instantly adorned my body and I gently floated up to the top to meet him. He dove right back into the thick, dense forest and I followed as the intense greenery hit my eyes once again. We silently zipped through the jungle as I shook my head and tried to get my head right. The forest was messing with all of my senses and I didn’t like it. The only thing I could really smell was dirt, soil, and nasty bugs, the only thing I could really see was green and brown, and all I could hear were the rustles of some leaves and the snapping of twigs off in the distance. It was like my entire head was being flooded with useless, buzzy information and for the first time since I had gotten them my heightened senses ended up being more of a curse than a blessing. The forest finally cleared as we stopped at the edge of a cliff overlooking a giant basin filled with lush trees, bushes, and a crystal clear lake. I looked at James and he gave me a nod, “Let’s wait for some more information from Zia. I don’t like going in here blind, we’ll have too–” a giant, shrieking, terrible buzz went off in my ear as I instinctively pushed James out of the way. His eyes went wide as a giant dark crystal spear sliced narrowly missed his face and sliced his upper cheek. An intense force rammed into my body as pain seeped through my entire being and blood came pouring out of my mouth. My body slammed through tree, after tree, after tree as I finally turned myself in the air and flew as fast as I could back to James. Three giant crystal spears shot towards me and I barrel rolled around one and flew over another. I flew far to the left and shot around a huge clearing of forest before I dashed back into the clearing. I slammed myself into the mystery figure who had just tried to kill us and he barely blocked my attack. He slid far back but managed to stay on his feet. James came sliding to a stop behind me and I held up my hands–which were glowing with an intense golden light. James spoke,

“Who the fuck are you?” I murmured under my breath,

“Good question.” There were two people and they both looked pretty strong..

The one on the left was a pale looking man with dark brown hair which was shaped into a man-bun. Thin strands of hair ran down his face and his dark eyes matched well with his serious expression. He had a small scar on the left side of his face and he wore a leather tunic with white sleeves and baggy white battle pants. The other one on the right wore a black battle vest and dark gray sleeves with dark gray battle pants. He had long messy black hair which ran down his face and covered parts of his forehead and some of his eyes. He was a lot taller than the other guy but he was noticeably skinny and much younger looking. He looked a lot closer to me in age than James which made me wonder if the other countries had conscripted their warrior students as well. I looked at both of them cautiously and spoke up, “Speak up.” The older looking one spoke with a thick accent,

“Shut up.” I shrugged,

“That’s nice. Are you Praga soldiers?” The younger one knelt down and touched the earth. James whispered to me quietly,

“If they so much as spit on the ground I want you to incinerate them.” I nodded,

“You on the right, or I guess your left, get up. Stop doing that.” They didn’t move. “Stand up and we’ll go our ways. We know where your camp is by the way, if you let us go our guys won’t wipe it off the face of the earth.” The older one held up a small ring and Jame’s eyes went wide. I gave him a cautious look, “James, why are you looking at him like that? What’s up with that ring?” James whispered,

“That’s Zia’s ring–they got her.” I looked at the man with cautious eyes,

“Where did you get that?” He spoke without taking his eyes off of me,

“Girl, with black hair. Useful eyes.” James held out his hand as an intense rustling sound filled the air. Several large trees tumbled in the distance and the very earth shook and rumbled as a huge axe the size of a horse carriage flew into James’s hands. The glowing light in my palms started to get brighter and brighter and brighter until it illuminated the entire forest as I smiled manically,

“Yo, dodge this motherfucker.” I released all of the energy in my palm as the world disappeared and fell into an intense golden light.