The windows exploded inwards. Shards of glass flew in every direction as the four teenagers fell to the floor, covering their heads. The front door slammed into the invisible barrier and stood, propped against it. With another crack, the door splintered, shattering the barrier. By the time Eric looked up, Link was already standing, flames in his hands, Emily’s clothes were bundled on the floor and she was nowhere to be seen and Sophie was frantically blinking around the room, her eyes closed and lips moving rapidly. Link began hurling his flames at the masked figures entering through the door before turning and throwing the flames at those trying to sneak up behind him. Sophie suddenly wrapped her arms around Eric and suddenly he was at her house. He quickly raised his hand to his mouth, cheeks bulging as he ran for the bathroom.

            Sophie was suddenly by Eric’s side, comforting him. The bathroom door burst open as Link strode in, took one look at Eric and sidled back out. Eric stopped vomiting and looked up at Sophie, tears in his eyes.
“What happened?” He asked, retching as he tried to wash his mouth out.
“We were attacked. Those people are supporters or the Dark Souls. I teleported you out of there.” Sophie replied, still holding his shoulder. “Come on, we aren’t safe here either.”
“Wait, you guys keep mentioning the Dark Souls. What do you mean by this?” Eric asked. Sophie brushed the question off with a noncommittal answer.

            Eric followed Sophie out of the bathroom to find Link standing beside a completely naked Emily. Eric blushed as his arousal became apparent. Emily noticed this and quickly covered up with her hands. Eric tried to look any direction except at her, but his eyes kept drifting back. Sophie took charge of the situation.
“We need to move out of the area, but I can only move one of you a short distance at a time. I’m going to take Eric. Link, Emily, You two will have to meet up with us across the other side of town.” Link and Emily nodded in unison before she disappeared and he followed her out the door. Sophie looked at Eric with a small amount of pity in her eyes. “Don’t vomit on me.” She said as she wrapped her arms around him.

            Link and Emily sprinted from shadow to shadow, taking care to not be seen by any pedestrians or drivers. If the pair could get to their destination safely, they would be there soon after Sophie and Eric. Emily ran across a street unseen, with only the sound of her footsteps to give her position away. Link looked all around, to determine whether it was safe to follow. When he saw nothing, he stepped out and began running across the street when he was halfway across, a black sedan came around the corner at a high speed and stopped right before touching him. The four doors opened in unison and four figures in black leapt out.

            Sophie was sweating and panting by the third teleportation. She and Eric had covered six kilometres in a matter of seconds. No doubt they were further than Emily and Link. They teleported between a small group of trees and Sophie instructed Eric to run. As he started to move, he turned to see his girlfriend surrounded by the same men who destroyed Link’s house. He stopped running, adrenaline taking over and charged back to fight these men. Sophie noticed this, shook her head slightly and Eric stopped again. He turned and started to run away, but one of the figures had noticed him and was rapidly gaining. Eric ran twenty metres before he was tackled to the ground. His mum was going to kill him for getting grass stains on a white shirt.

Before he finished his thought, the other man was on his feet, kicking at Eric. Luckily, Eric had a little padding from the month of inactivity, and was able to absorb some of the damage. He reached out and grabbed the man’s foot as it slammed into his body again. With a firm grip on the ankle, Eric stood up and the other man was on the ground. Eric still had the man’s ankle when he stomped on his groin, causing a whimper and the man’s body to crumple. Eric let go as Sophie appeared beside him, took his hand and teleported them both away.

Link watched as his girlfriend dropped one of the men and encapsulated another in a force field. Link hurled his green fireballs at the other two. When they dove out of the way, Link manipulated the flames to come back upon the men from behind. The third tried yelling warnings at his comrades, but the sounds passing through the chamber he was in were that of a mime. The flames burst over the backs of the foes, who screamed in pain as it seared through their thin clothes. Link hurled more flames at the men before he turned and ran. Emily dropped the force field around the final man as she swept his legs from underneath him and stomped heavily on his neck. She ran after Link as they distanced themselves from the enemies they were slowed by.

Eric opened his eyes to see Sophie had gotten them to the headland, looking out over the sea. The beach was crawling with people on this hot day and Sophie was quick to step back into the shadows. When her breathing eased, she took Eric’s hand and teleported them further towards their destination. The two stopped in a park, watching to see if any children had seen their sudden appearance. When none of the playing kids reacted, Sophie and Eric started running towards the far fence.

***

Dark figured poured out of purple flames around the two lovemaking couples on the beach. A skeleton grabbed Sophie and dragged her, screaming back into the flames. Another reached for Eric and groped his exposed manhood. Eric threw a solid punch and the bones fell to the ground in a pile. On the other side of the other side of the fire, three human skeletons were struggling with a screaming Emily and Link’s attempts to free her. One fell in a head on the beach. The purple flames opened up behind the other two and they started advancing through. Link punched another skeleton and it smashed apart, but the remaining skeleton had taken his girlfriend, completely naked through the flames. Before he could react, something grabbed him from behind and dragged him through the flames. Eric continued punching and kicking everything the purple flames threw at him, smashing skeletons, beating down half human half animal creatures, even kicking away dogs. Eric began to run, after seeing his closest friends sucked into the flames screaming, he wasn’t going to let it happen to him. He needed to find help.

***

Link and Emily continued running, nearing the park Eric and Sophie had just teleported into. When they jumped the fence, they saw the children playing happily on the equipment and decided to move away from the innocents as quickly as possible. Ahead, there were more believers waiting for them to pass through. Just beyond the other fence, Link caught sight of Eric and Sophie fighting with more. Link sighed spoke softly so Emily could hear him:
“We need to be quick, weapons ready.” He heard the rasping of her blade against its hidden sheath. The men fell one by one, each suddenly wearing a new gash on the throat, bleeding through a sudden pierced heart or a slice through the femoral artery. The grass was slicked with blood before Link ran through. Emily’s hands were now visible, having been covered in blood, and there were several floating spots of blood, where it must have splattered against her body.

Sophie noticed Link running through the field as believers fell as she fought another group herself. A quick leg sweep to drop one out for a moment’s respite, and elbow cracked against another’s chin. She spun around and dropped a knee into the fallen man’s spine as she ducked under another’s roundhouse. From below, she punched up into the man’s diaphragm and followed with another elbow to the chin, knocking him unconscious. Eric had fought two in the time it took her to finish three this time, his fighting blood was flowing back through his veins. Sophie was concerned that these men were still following them so close to their destination.

Link and Emily had caught up to the other two, moments before the fight finished. They didn’t stop to talk, but kept running. The teenagers blended into the shopping district, slipping through old arcades and back streets. Not a soul noticed these teenagers as they slipped into the forested area beyond the War Memorial Pool. Down on the boardwalks, the sounds of the city were drained, leaving only chirping birds and rustling leaves. The group slowed to a walk, Eric was sweating and panting heavily. He bent over, supporting himself with his hands on his knees. He looked up after catching his breath to see Sophie and Link standing alert, scanning the trees and the paths.

“What’s going on? Who are those guys?” Eric asked. He noticed a bloodied hand floating and opened his mouth to scream, but Sophie was suddenly covering his lips before any sound came out. The hand floated to the edge of the boards, dropped and dipped into the stream of water.
“As we were trying to explain, these men call themselves the Black Fang. They dress in black, they cover their faces and there are too many of them to all be from our dimension. They want to let the Dark Souls into this world.” Link explained, still keeping a vigilant watch in all directions. “We have to keep moving, this place will conceal them until they’re on us.” Eric looked for the blood covered hand by the water, but the red tinted water had run downstream and now Emily had only water on her body which dripped to the boards below.

Eric was no longer on a boardwalk. He fell to the ground, retching, but Sophie pulled him back to his feet. They were running through a large open field that Eric soon recognised as the Showground. He was sprinting to keep up with her as they darted right through the middle of the field. Sophie vaulted over the low barrier in one swift motion, but Eric was forced to slow down at the barrier to not trip on it. He caught up with Sophie, her back against the wall of the toilets building, her head peeking out to scan the area ahead. She saw what she needed to see, because she turned and grabbed Eric by the wrist, and they were beyond the fence, running between trees. One last jump and Sophie stopped, panting. Eric looked around, taking in an unfamiliar house. The front door opened and Link walked in, hesitated and closed it behind him. Emily became visible again as she started to look for clothes.
“This is our safest hideout,” she started, “We spend the morning preparing it. It blends into the area, we have support in a few neighbouring houses and there is an elaborate alarm system set up.” Emily had found some underwear and was pulling them on.

“We’re safe now?” Eric asked. As soon as Emily confirmed, he continued, “then you can explain what it happening. How are you able to disappear? And you, how did we travel so far in the blink of an eye?” Sophie looked meek, her cheeks slightly tainted red. Link refused to answer and Emily simple ignored the question.
“Listen, we’re safe now,” Sophie said in her soft voice, the same one Eric ad fallen in love with, “Come with me upstairs, we’ll settle down and reduce the adrenaline levels.” Eric was so entranced by the voice that he didn’t realise he was no longer sitting on a couch, but the edge of a bed.

Sophie looked at him with big eyes, taking his arousal in her hand as her lips crashed down on his. Eric relaxed and started kissing back. He found himself lifting her shirt and unclasping her bra before she started undressing him. Her eyes screamed “I missed you” as she pushed him back onto the bed. Eric took control of the situation and rolled his girlfriend over. He pulled her remaining clothes off and used his tongue to stimulate and excite her as she moaned loudly. Slowly, he pushed a single finger inside her as his lips kissed a trail up over her waist, between her breasts, along the side of her neck before they met hers once more. He circled the index finger on his left hand around her right nipple, stifling her moans with his lips. A fiery passion burned between them as her tongue locked with his and he pushed inside her to finish the act. As he drew near, Sophie finished and wrapped her legs around his lower body, pulling him deeper inside. She stopped him from pulling out and was forced to spill his seed deep inside her. Right at that moment, Link and Emily walked in trough he bedroom door, which was left wide open.
“Oops, this one’s taken.”

After consummating their love, Sophie and Eric laid in the bed for what seemed like hours, with her head on his shoulder and hers eyes drooping, half asleep. Eric could feel her muscles relaxing for the first time in forty days. He stood up and pulled on some pants, muttering something about finding the others.

“What was that?” One of the girls asked, glancing into the shadows. “Something just made a sound.”
“Emily, calm down, it was probably a possum. No one else knows how to get here.” A boy replied. The darkness gathered around the group as they sat watching the waves crash against the headland and roll onto the beach, robbing it of the country’s sand. Two young couples sat on a dune, barely held together by some vegetation as the sun drooped low over the mountains to the west. The sky was streaked with raspberries and lemons and blueberries with some soft marshmallow clouds floating by. The air was still on this perfect afternoon.

Four teenagers, fresh from high school were celebrating their freedom with a week away from home. As night fell, one boy started setting up a small fire in the sand on the beach while the others lounged and laughed. Their stomachs would be settled by some wood fired sausages and potatoes before they settled in a circle around the fire.

“I’ve always wanted to go skinny dipping” Emily admitted to the group as they sat around the fire.
“You… What?” The boy Emily was leaning on stuttered. He had known hr for years and she never had high self-esteem. He pulled away from her and she looked up at him with innocence playing with fire in her brown eyes. He studied her expression for a moment before deciding it was a genuine comment. “Well, no one ever comes here. I guess we can.” He finally managed.
“Well… look away.” Emily shyly said.

A sphere of purple flame floated slightly beyond the dune. Emily dropped her clothes in the sand next to her boyfriend, who turned around. He studied her figure before standing up and stripping off beside her. They walked to the water, hand in hand and stole into the waves. The flames puffed out as the fire between the couple started burning brighter.
“Come on, Link, we have to go further out so I’m not here, naked and half showing.” Emily told her boyfriend. He hesitated for a moment too long and Emily turned to him to see why. As her eyes locked with his, their lips clashed in a fierce battle and the couple started back for the fire.

***

Three teenagers have been reported missing near Little Digger’s Beach this Saturday. The alarm was raised when a single teenager returned from their trip alone, with clothes in tatters. The police are investigating but so far, no evidence has been found.

With seven days passed since their disappearance of three teenagers, hope is dimming for the teenagers’ lives. The search zone has expanded again to the area between Coffs Harbour and Woolgoolga. The police have released a statement following the questioning of the boy who returned, stating that his story did not make any sense. His identity has still not been revealed.

Police have stopped searching for three teenagers who have been missing for over a month. The two girls, Emily and Sophie, along with one boy, Link, aged eighteen disappeared without a trace on November 11. Police have searched the area and interviewed residents to find any trace of the missing teenagers. The parents are laying blame on the teenager whom made it back to town, though the police are not convinced the boy caused the disappearances.

***

            Eric was sitting in his room, watching anime when he heard someone knock on the front door. His parents were downstairs, so he ignored it, assuming one of them would answer. No one stirred downstairs. He heard rocks clacking off his windows. Louder and louder. He paused his show and opened the curtain. In his yard, a blonde haired girl stood, a handful of pebbles and tattered clothes. She threw another pebble at his window as he stood, entranced. This girl, he watched disappear, forty days ago. Now, she had come back. He rubbed his eyes and she was gone again. Disheartened, he sat back at his computer and pressed play.

            Not a single line of dialogue had passed when Eric heard a knock on his door. He opened it to see Sophie standing there, smiling. He almost pushed the door shut again, but she slipped through, throwing her arms around him. Her clothes disintegrating as she planted kisses on his unshaven face. He let himself believe this was real, that she had come back for him for a moment before he stopped to think about what was happening. He pushed her off him and she landed on his bed. How had they moved so far into his room?

            “There’s no way this is real. You’ve been missing for forty days. There’s physically no way you are alive.” Eric said to her, trying to look through the hallucination. Her lopsided smile and brilliant green eyes shone back at him.
“Why not? I’m here now, aren’t I?” She replied. He hadn’t shaved since she last saw him and he had certainly put on some weight. “You look different. You been eating more?” He looked hurt.
“I can’t believe it’s the real you. How did you get back? Where are the others? How did you survive?” Eric asked, a small spark of hope igniting the fire within his body.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now, I want a shower, some fresh clothes and something disgustingly unhealthy.” Sophie stood up as her shirt fell off and walked from his room. Eric was hot on her heels, but when he got to the door, she was gone. He looked back at his bed and noticed her favourite shirt, ripped and shrivelled.

            Another knock on the door. Eric turned to see Link standing in the doorway. He strolled in and sat on the bed before Eric realised he was missing his clothes. He quickly averted his gaze, looking instead at Link’s dark hair. Eric’s eyes wandered down as Link started talking, oblivious to the inspection.
“I hope you have some clothes I can borrow, the public don’t take too kindly to me walking around like this.” Link’s jawline was more defined and his stomach was now stiff. Eric’s eyes continued to wander as he replied.
“It is really you, Link? I can’t believe you and Soph have both made it back. How did you…” Eric trailed off as he noticed that over the forty days, Link had lost all modesty and was sitting, legs spread and hands on the bed. Eric looked back up to Link’s eyes and continued, “what happened? Where’s Emily?” Link raised a hand and cut Eric off.
“Clothes. Now.” Eric was spurred to action, handing Link a set of his clothing that were now too small for him. Link dressed and gripped Eric’s wrist to drag him outside. “Let’s go, sweetie.” He said over his shoulder, though when Eric looked, he could not see anyone.

            Eric and Link walked for twenty minutes before they were standing outside Link’s house. Eric remembered Sophie was in his shower at home and tried to pull away, but Link’s grip was firm.
“I have to get home, Soph is still in the shower,” Eric started. “Your parents aren’t big fans of me anyway.”
“Never mind her we have to go inside and tell them I’m alive.” Link twisted the doorhandle. He rattled is for a moment, stunned by the locked door before he remembered the spare key. With the key in hand, he managed to get the door open and strolled inside, pulling Eric by the wrist. After a moment, Link shut the door behind them. Eric was shoved into a couch. Link walked upstairs, a second set of footsteps following him up. As soon as the footsteps subsided, Eric was back on his feet, pacing around the room. He stepped towards the door and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.

            The footsteps started again and Eric rushed to the couch. Sophie appeared in the room suddenly, halfway through putting a shirt on. She… appeared in the living room? Eric’s heart was racing. Surely this was all a dream, he had to wake up. He tried pinching himself. Nothing. A set of clothes walked downstairs, followed by Link. The clothed phantom sat on the couch adjacent to Eric’s while Link paced the room, visibly distressed. Sophie blinked to the couch beside Eric and laid her head on his shoulder. The room stayed silent while Eric was bursting with questions. He inhaled to ask a question and Link looked sharply at him. Sometime between Sophie moving to him and this, the clothes sitting on the couch turned into a brown haired girl. Eric sat stunned as he was reunited with his four best friends.

***

            The naked couple strolled back up onto the beach, dripping wet. Eric disentangled his lips from his lover as Link and Emily’s laughter rolled up the sand like waves. After a quick glance, he turned back to Sophie and engaged his lips with hers once more, this time with his right hand firmly cupping her breast. The fire threw shapes and shadows over the two as they slumped onto the sand, lips still interlocked. Darkened figures waited just beyond the light of the fire.

            Link and Emily fell into the sand beside the fire. The two remained uncovered to the night as their lips remained woven. The two were no longer aware of anyone beyond the world that was each other. Eric noticed the thud as the bodies hit the sand and glanced over to see the others wearing no more than they were while swimming. He looked back at his own lover, willing a suggestion to strip down to match their friends. No such suggestion came.

***

            Eric snaked an arm around Sophie’s neck and planted a kiss on top of her head. The soft scent of her clean hair filled his nostrils and at once he realised his friends were really back. Emily looked at Link longingly as she witnessed the lovers embrace on the other couch. Link seemed to feel the gaze as he immediately turned and sat with her. She drew close to share his warmth with her cold skin. Eric turned to watch the movement. Link looked like he was about to speak, but closed his mouth and looked at the floor. Suddenly, Emily disappeared, leaving only her clothes visible. Eric was alarmed by the fact Link didn’t seem startled by this. Link finally made eye contact with Eric and he noticed Link’s eyes were not the vibrant blue they had once been, but now a dull grey.

            “You remember exactly how it happened,” Link started. Eric didn’t need further explanation, “What you don’t know is what happened next. The landscape was the same. The buildings weren’t, nor were the people. Suddenly, we were surrounded by shorter than average people. We were regarded as large. Not a soul in this world, this dimension was the same as here, home. There was no happiness. Everyone there lived in fear, fear of the Dark Souls inhabiting the world. No one knew when an attack might occur. We’ve seen these people be slaughtered by beings we couldn’t see. We were there for months.” Eric looked confused.
“You were missing for forty days.”
“I counted six months. These people were ripped apart, shredded if you will. We rose to the occasion. We trained and fought back. We were released from this dimension that held us prisoner. We’re back now, but… we aren’t the same.” As Eric started to wonder what Link meant by this, Link held his hand in front of his eyes and summoned a ball of green flame.

“What do you want to know most?” Link asked after the four teenagers reconvened in the living room downstairs, all in varying states of dress. Eric furrowed his brow as he thought. He gaped at the question as it sat in front of him. Finally, he managed to speak up,
“Why do you guys have powers, things no one else can do?” He immediately regretted his question and started thinking of a replacement, but nothing came.
“While we were missing, we were in another dimension. You remember the skeletons that dragged us through purple flames?” Eric nodded. “They were portals to another plane of existence. The people who lived there were constantly living in fear, never knowing when another attack might come. We helped fight back, and in turn, developed our own powers. We can use them, but it’s all limited use. Sophie can only teleport distances no greater than two k’s, I can only wield fire and air and Emily can’t change her state of visibility within ten minutes of the last change.”
“So if you have powers… Could I have hidden powers?” Eric asked hopefully.
“We were afraid you would ask,” Link started and Eric lost the smile from his face, “Nah, just kidding, everybody on Earth does, just not many people know how to access them.”

Sophie took Eric into the backyard, somewhere they could test for what powers he might contain. She explained to him how she teleported first, which he tried and tried, to no avail. She explained how Emily could change how light reflects and refracts off her body to give the impression she isn’t there, as well as how Link could feel how fire, water, earth and air collided with each other and he could reach into any of these elements. None of these powers worked. Eric, disheartened, followed Sophie back inside. Link and Emily were watching TV, something the three had missed, but Eric was shifting from foot to foot. He didn’t want to sit down and waste time, he was ecstatic that his friends had come back for real.

Someone knocked on the door and Eric was so startled he almost fell off the couch. How had someone made it through the alarms that Emily had told him about? No one else seemed as startled as he was, Emily even got up to answer the door. She welcomed a grizzly old man in and in hushed tones, conversed with him, glanced at the group and pointed Eric out. He walked to the couch, took hold of his arm and marched back into the yard. Sophie stood by the window, watching, willing. The old man told Eric to move his arms left and right, to try reaching into the underworld, try draining power from the sun. Nothing worked.
“Try reaching into the shadows,” The man tried. Eric kneeled over and touched his own shadow. “Not like that, try picking my shadow off the lawn from where you are.” Eric raised an arm, fingers splayed, and grasped at the shadow beneath the old man. He willed it to lift off the ground. Nothing happened for a moment, when the legs detached from the man’s and lifted off the grass. Eric dropped the shadow back on the ground in shock. He tried picking it up again, but couldn’t.

Eric splayed his hand, grasped at the shadow and pulled it, trying to separate it once more. His heart raced, he held the shadow up next to the old man. It balled around his fist as sweat beaded on his forehead. Soon exhausted, Erick dropped the shadow, which fluttered back beneath the man. He nodded brusquely and left through the house. He left only words where he was standing: WORK FOR IT. Eric witnessed these words explode into small fireworks before returning inside, grinning. He slumped on the couch beside Sophie, who rested her head on his shoulder. The TV was turned off now, and Link turned to Eric, with a serious expression and Eric’s smile slowly fell from his face, caused by the heavy atmosphere in the room.

“This is bad news.” Link stated plainly. He didn’t keep Eric waiting this time, so he knew it was really bad. “The Black Fang are moving in greater numbers than we had feared. Something has the riled up.” Eric felt queasy. He looked to the girls to see some kind of smile, anything other than gloom, but their expressions failed him. Alarms started ringing as a black van drove slowly past the front of the house. Eric, startled, fell from the couch to the ground, covering his head. Sophie, smiling, pulled him back up onto the couch.
“No one can see in through the windows. Its part of the security package we have in place.” Eric sat, trembling on the couch.
“We have to find out what has them so worked up.” Emily said quietly.
“I just hope it’s not as bad as I think.” Link finally said. “You’ll need to practice your magic, things may get really bad, really quickly.”

“Here’s the plan, Emily and I will head out in the morning and see if we can bring one of these goons back here. Sophie, you and Eric are to find some things to keep a guest.” Link said. He took his girlfriend’s and after she stripped off and she turned invisible. Sophie took Eric into the garage, which was completely empty. While he was practicing wielding the shadows, she looked around, finding a roll of duct tape on a shelf. Eric had a ball of shadows violently writhing around his fist when Sophie disappeared and reappeared moments later with a chair. The shadows started to drip off Eric’s hand as he managed to fashion them into a spike, which soon melted to the ground.

The night had fallen quickly over Coffs Harbour, the bright streets now drowned in dark hues. Eric’s phone buzzed as his mother called for the umpteenth time since lunch, when he didn’t come downstairs. Eric noticed it ringing for the first time and answered, explaining he was out with some friends, because he figured it would do him some good. His mother found this agreeable and bid him good night. Wondering what the sleeping arrangements may be, Eric stole upstairs to find on bedroom door closed, with the squeaking of bedsprings coming from within. Another spewed light through the door and in that room, he saw Sophie, wearing bright red underwear, laying seductively on the sheets. He walked into the room, stripped off and crawled into bed beside here, ready to sleep.

***

Emily led Link through the streets as the sun rose, looking for some sign of the Black Fang, but there were no vehicles, nor figures clad in black leather. They continued along the streets until waves could be heard and salt spray was high in the air. From the headland, the pair spotted no one on the beach either. When they stepped down onto the sand, the waves crashed meaningfully onto the beach, the breeze blew gently in a southerly direction. Link walked along the beach, following the footsteps of his phantom partner. Another wave rolled up, this one washing away the footsteps of the girl in front of him. From behind, Link heard he sounds of someone rapidly approaching and turned.

Link tried using the seawater to slow the advance of the Black Fang, however, he only managed a small splash in the water. Emily stopped moving completely. She didn’t turn to watch the approach, but instead, used her magic to forge an invisible blade, which she held in her left hand. She formed a barrier between the Black Fang and Link, which stopped several for a brief moment before the barrier shattered. Then the enemies were upon Link. Already, he had green flames burning from his hands. Link lobbed his left flames directly into the enemies and counted as they scattered.
“Ten.” He said quietly to Emily. He felt her shift uncomfortably as the first foe was upon him.

Link ducked under a punch, rolled to the side and yelled “NOW”. Emily threw her blade over her shoulder, which pierced through the goon’s eye. Another man was already throwing punches at Link. A high right. Link countered with a burning hand. The man shrieked and threw a blind left, which Link brushed aside with another burning hand. The seared flesh produced a rotten smell, but Link was now on the offensive, slicing through the man’s wrist using strong, concentrated gusts of wind. Emily was engaging with a woman. The Black Fang woman bent over double, tears coming to her eyes. She swing a frenzied fist, but hit nothing. Emily was already behind the woman. With a quick thrust, there was a new puncture in the side of the woman’s neck. Emily washed the blood off of herself in the rolling waves.

A woman had made her way behind Link in the confusion and now had an arm around his neck. Another man was moving in to beat on Link. The flames in his hands has burned out as the oxygen supply to his brain. Panicking, he clawed at the arm around his neck, but nothing happened. The man punched, hard, right in Link’s stomach. He slumped forwards. With his sudden shift in weight, the woman’s grip loosened for a fraction of a second. Air flowed back into Link’s lungs and his mind cleared. He used the air around him to create a resistance between his neck and the woman’s arm that allowed him to breath freely, though let her believe she still had a good grip on him. He absorbed another punch from the man in front before he slammed his head into the woman’s nose, breaking her grip. Link thrust lime green flames into her face and the woman shrieked as her eyeballs and skin melted under the heat.

Emily encapsulated a young woman in a barrier. Some strands of her blonde hair was caught in the barrier, but the rest stopped moving in the wind. She swept the legs from underneath an enemy and sliced through his throat. Blood fountained from the man’s throat and splashed off the barrier. The blonde inside screamed, but no one could hear her. Emily dropped her blade and slammed a bloodied hand against the barrier, scraping downwards. The girl inside started beating on all sides of the barrier, but Emily was supporting the strength of this one.

Link used the air to cut through the leather clothes of the man in front of him. Tears appeared on the shoulder, chest and abdomen. The man yelped as small cuts opened his flesh. He flung a roundhouse kick into Link’s ear, knocking him down. The man stood above Link, laughing with the sun behind him. Link noticed, almost too late, that the man was holding something. Something that glinted in the sunlight. The man brought a blade down and Link shifted his head to the left just far enough so the blade nicked his cheek. While the hand was stuck in the sand, Link grabbed it with his own burning hands. As the sand melted around the blade, the goon’s right hand sizzled and popped. Link let go of his hand and buried his face into the superheated sand, absorbing the blade.

Emily continued to harass the girl in the chamber. She started cutting the leather from her body. Another goon watched as the girl’s tunic fell silently to the ground. She tried to cover up, but it was too late. The young man had already seen it. Confused, he walked closer, taking caution of the body on the ground. He stepped close to inspect the floating blood splatter. The girl, crying, shook her head violently. He turned to see what she was looking at, but there was nothing there. He touched the smooth cacoon around her and stepped backwards, tripping on the body that was lying in a pool of blood. He looked back up at the distressed girl and watched her as she bounced and let go. He smiled as a red smile opened on his throat. The girl screamed and slumped backwards as her leather pants fell away.

Link gestured at the approaching woman. Her white hair stopped moving as all of the oxygen in an egg shape around her body evacuated. She started to choke, trying to get a small amount of air, but to no avail. Her eyes rolled back into her skull and her body hit the ground with a soft thump. The handless man tried punching at Link again, but was rewarded with a flaming fist into the stomach. His body fell to the sand in a crooked manner.

Emily dropped the force field around the blonde girl. Her unconscious body fell backwards to the ground as the floating blood smear dropped to the ground in front of her. Link saw a girl’s body lift into the air, providing the distraction his foe needed. Link caught an elbow with his jaw, followed by another punch to the stomach which put him back on the sand. The man lifted his foot to stomp on Link’s head, but, it wouldn’t come back down. He hopped, suddenly off balance as Link stood and delivered a punch in the groin, followed by a knee to the jaw. He picked up this man and followed the floating girl back up the path to the headland.