Episode 63 – Halflings, the Battle Begins With Six Students!
During track practice, Mariel tiptoed into the football field. Shirley stood there, sniffing in tears. Mariel reached Jaime and she suddenly dragged him away from the field while he was doing pushups. “Come with me, we’ve got an urgent mission!”
While Jaime was being rubbed against the ground, he said in struggle, “T-That sounds horrible, what the hell are you doing?! Argh, let go of me!”
Mariel held his arm then she slammed him onto the floor like a worm, “Don’t talk to me like that! You have to help us.”
Jaime stood up and he saw Shirley in light tears with reddish teary eyes. “Eugh, what happened to her? She looks horrible.”
Shirley cried loudly again and Mariel stomped her foot. “Don’t talk about a girl like that!! Anyway, I’ll tell you the details later. I called Santi to help us and he said him and Matt are on their way. Danny isn’t even picking up his phone and so isn’t Yessenia. For us, we need to go to Echoville.”
~~~
In Arkon’s Magic, Matt finished gliding after a few minutes. “Hey, this actually isn’t so bad after a few practices. It’s easy because in the seventh grade, we got to ride these weird skateboards that could fold.”
“Is that so? I believe I had those for PE in seventh grade as well.” Santi stood up from a chair near his Arkonic home, “I am surprised you could control it faster than I expected. By the way, I planned us to go to Echoville and now you have more of a reason, no?”
“Me? I don’t know…”
“Your friend over there.”
Santi pointed at Yessenia and Matt felt exhausted. “Ah… man, that’s right. Is there a way to make her stop being possessed?” Yessenia was still frozen from Santi’s time powers and if she was to be unfrozen, she would begin to attack her surroundings since she was possessed.
“Whoever controlled her is the only one that can return her back to normal. I assume she got it in Echoville since the last time I have seen her in El Monte.”
“That’s right… then I guess we have to go back into the jungle of Echoville and find whoever did this to her.”
“Exactly. Now, let us head on over to Echoville. Mariel told me she will hurry there.”
“Why are they going?”
“She wanted to tell me some urgent news but she wanted to tell all of us power users at the same time, I am guessing.” Matt decided that it was time for him to enter Echoville along with Santi. Matt held onto Yessenia’s shoulder. They both clicked the ‘Echoville’ button as they teleported away.
~~~
In Echoville, Matt, Santi, Shirley, Mariel, and Jaime all appeared together along with Yessenia who is still frozen. Danny is shown sleeping beside them. Mariel turned in a 360 position to check if everyone is present. “Alrighty, it looks like we’re all here.” She took the book from Shirley and opened it to the first few pages, “For some reason, the next pages are empty but as for these pages, it shows the context of Echoville. Here is what it shows…”
~~~
In the world of Echoville long, long ago… there lay twelve sectors made to be protected by twelve Halflings. These Halflings are commanded by the angelic leader, the Ice Queen. There was once a lovely village in the large jungle of Echoville, however humans from islands afar had arrived to take over. The Ice Queen had a child who was considered the Ice Princess. As the years passed by throughout war between the Halflings and the humans, many Halflings looked at the princess differently. No one loved her whenever she attempted to go to school. They all blamed her and her family for being terrible leaders of Echoville. By the end of the war, a strange Halfling hidden in his own little cave decided to use a large explosive that would obliterate all of Echoville’s jungle. As already mentioned, the twelve Halflings were underground, looking for this man. The explosion had also erupted towards the sacred buildings nearby the docks. The twelve Halflings went back up to the surface and realized that Revel had sacrificed himself in order to kill all humans and Halflings.
Even so killing the Halflings in the surface, the twelve remaining Halflings praised him for killing the never ending amount of humans who constantly came ashore from other islands. Ever since then, the Halflings had no trust towards any human as they believed humans only wanted to kill and take over. Now, the Halflings only want to protect the jungle by killing any human in sight.
Legends say that reincarnations constantly appear towards these Halflings. The Ice princess tends to show up often and she is meant to suffer with a death penalty in the end. The Halflings believe that a girl with pure innocence shall light up the day of the jungle instead. And so, all of the companions of the Ice princess, all six of them, had to abandon her in response to saving their own lives.
~~~
Mariel closed the book, “And that is all the context gives us.”
Shirley was shaking. She closed her eyes in fear. Jaime sat beside a building with his arms crossed behind his head, “So you’re saying that in Echoville’s society, people repeatedly come visit and end up sacrificing the Ice princess in the end?”
Mariel nodded, “Yeah. I think that they all entered the jungle in hopes of finding new discoveries and these twelve Halflings captured everyone and said that if they got to kill the Ice princess, everyone else would be set free.”
“Has it been like this for many generations? The history of Echoville is beyond me.”
Mariel thought about his but she only frowned. “I don’t know anymore about Echoville either.” She turned to Shirley, “She’s been frightened, crying so much and thinking about if we were going to abandon her if we get caught too.”
“Then screw this world. We don’t have to be here.”
Santi tapped on Yessenia’s forehead, “You have forgotten that we have to get her fixed from possession by the culprit. We still have to find whoever did this to her.”
“What the hell? Damn Yessenia, we could have easily left Echoville the way it is.”
Santi remembered what happened in Olympia as he continued speaking, “The thing is, what is fate trying to tell us? In order to make our world keep constant and original, what do we have to do in Echoville? Anything in our world will change if we screw up.”
Shirley screamed, “Fate is saying that I should be abandoned by you all! Don’t you get it already? The book is trying to say that Class of 2011 students with powers is the next trial to be targeted at. The past of many millenniums probably failed to escape from these Halflings or whatever they’re called. Either fate is saying that I should be sacrificed, or we have to turn the tables and avoid getting caught by these Halflings that live in the jungle!”
“So if we fail… then you will… be killed?” Mariel dropped the book. “Why…?”
“That is what fate is telling us.” Santi was walking away from the group and he was heading closer to the docks. “If we do not act up now, things might get worse for us. These Halflings know of our arrival and I guess we have to play the game: Survival.” Matt, Jaime, Mariel, and Shirley watched him. Matt and Mariel began shaking in fear. Shirley covered her face with her hands, in tears.
Matt stood up, “Well, I guess Santi is right. Shirley is our friend and that’s a good reason enough to try out best and not get caught. Even so, we will not leave you, Shirley, no matter what. Friends shouldn’t just leave each other even through sacrifices.”
Mariel agreed with him, “You’re right. We will just have to fight and give it our best. Even though I haven’t had an actual battle with my water powers, I’m tempted to try!”
Jaime coughed. “Eherm, I guess me too. What a drag, seriously.” He got up and Shirley watched them all walking towards the docks.
“Everyone… Thank you…!” She began to smile and she followed them. “Oh wait, one more thing.” She ran back to where they sat and she kicked Danny in the stomach. “Wake up, let’s go!”
~~~
Before taking step on the cloudy bridge, Santi stopped the whole group of six. Matt had Yessenia frozen up behind him. Santi knelt down to feel the cloud, “I see what is going on. They are kindly welcoming us into the jungle so that they can all kill us.”
Mariel shivered, “Eugh, that doesn’t sound so good already.”
Matt remembered the last time he entered the jungle. “I remember that once I stepped into the jungle, some guy with a weird sword appeared on a tree and he threw knives. He said his name is Captain Silver.”
Danny jumped, “Oh, oh and I met some snake lady!”
Santi turned around, “The one I saw trying to attack you? She is Lamia. The sniper man in the tree is still unidentified.”
Shirley thought about it, “Come to think of it, I met the cloud man Sirius, but he was pretty stupid.”
Santi began having them all walk down the road in the jungle after crossing the cloudy bridge. He pointed at a few openings off to the side, “I get it now. These openings are not just here for a reason.”
Matt and Danny were surprised. “I’ve seen them but I didn’t think they were important.” Matt commented.
“Me either.” Added Danny.
Santi explained, “Alright then, we have to choose a door. From the context that the book gave, there are twelve sectors. Some may be stronger than others.”
Danny smiled, “Ehe, why don’t we all stick together. Just the seven of us.”
“That will not do. Eventually, all twelve of them will attack us at once and that will not be a good outcome. That is probably how it led the past generations to fail. In other words, we have to split up to fight them all one by one.”
Mariel giggled, “Hehe! No problemo! All we have to do is press the ‘home’ button when we’re in danger and we can always just come back from the beginning.”
“Not necessarily.”
Matt and Mariel yelled together, “WHAT?!”
“I am warning you guys now. If you are scared, then leave because it is already too late. You can use the ‘home’ button once since the cloud user will only block our path.”
“Oh yeah? Then why didn’t that stupid cloud thing do it now? We’re clearly here.”
“They are only getting ready to attack. Right now, we have one main goal and that is to revive Yessenia from being possessed. As of now, we have not a single clue whether it is better to leave these folks alone or not.”
“You mean the Halflings?” Jaime questioned.
“Exactly. That is why I am telling you now, we should all split up. There is something that is bothering me by a whole lot. Do you guys have the thought in your head as well?” Santi said.
“No.” Matt, Mariel, and Danny said at the same time.
“You three just do not understand much, do you? The thing is, why have we never heard about these powers in the real world before? Why was it not in history books, not even a single trace of it?” The group was in silence. “That is correct. I believe that fate is saying that if we want to survive, we must defeat these twelve Halflings. The most possible outcome was that in past generations, they have failed to do so and they have either been killed or trapped here in Echoville, losing their cellphones or having it being taken away by the Halflings. There are other worlds out there and we have no idea how many there are. We were given these powers as a sign of survival.”
Matt thought about Winny and how she was responsible for Matt gaining fire powers. “(Imprinting something into my chest…)” He turned to Santi with a slightly angry face.
Santi asked innocently, “Oh? Matt, is there something that is bothering you?”
“No… not at all. Let’s just get through with these twelve sector things. I’m sure you want us to defeat the twelve Halflings.”
“Now you get the idea. Do not worry, if you cannot handle the pressure in battling these Halflings then escape now and leave the rest to those who remain in our group. But I will warn you guys now, if you leave, then you are weakening the group, causing us to mess up and end up failing fate.”
Mariel walked towards one of the entrances, “I’ll just choose this one then. I don’t know where it will lead me but who cares.” She read the sign ‘sector 8’.
Jaime walked towards ‘sector 3’, “I’ll be right here.”
Shirley headed towards the one furthest from the group which was ‘sector 12’. She did not say a word since she was frightened by the book’s context. Danny took ‘sector 9’ next to Mariel. Santi stood nearby ‘sector 6’, “I believe Matt and Danny came here earlier. It might be fun to see who made you two run away.”
Matt rolled his eyes as he walked up to the sector next to Santi, ‘sector 5’, “Fine, I’ll take this one then.”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: Next week on episode 64, we're going to see the first battle in Echoville. Shirley versus a puppeteer, who's going to win?
ShirleyC: I will!
Santi: That is not wise to say. People in Echoville are not to be messed with. They are so powerful that you were already in danger from far away.
ShirleyC: Psch!
Mariel: B-B-B-Bazooka?!
Matt: Gah! A thunderbolt! This place really isn't safe at all!
Matt: Shirley's battle will be shown the most. We'll already find the result next week. What happens if she loses? Next time on episode 64, The Battle Begins, Shirley vs. the Puppeteer, Marri!!
Shirley: I'm so gonna beat the crap outta that puppeteer, just watch!
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