The Dream Shifter

Chapter 252

Wind blasted out from Yumi. A dust cloud kicked up partially obscuring her from view. Making things worse, a bright green light expanded from Yumi shattering all of the weapons. Yumi charged through the cloud that she created trailing streams off her ragged cloths.

It surprised Photine for only a moment as she experienced this before. She sent in more weapons to pin Yumi down. However, Yumi raised up her hand with a rectangular section of her barrier expanding from her palm. Photine thinned her eyes at the strange behavior. "Have you forgotten it doesn't work?"

Yumi gave a bit of a smirk through the barrier at Photine. She otherwise ignored her. The barrier came between her and the sword. It looked a little more opaque than normal, but hovered with the movement of her hand. Particles trailed from the edges. Yumi narrowed her eyes to keep her focus. One of the numerous swords flew directly in front of her.

The moment froze for a second as it looked like the sword would stab Yumi ending the fight. However, Photine's sword shattered when it hit Yumi's barrier. Pieces bounced off her barrier out of Yumi's way.

"Impossible!" Photine shouted in disbelief.

Yumi charged through Photine's broken offense. The surprised look on her face crippled her reaction leaving the rest of the swords to pass harmlessly by Yumi.

As she closed with Photine, the barrier disappeared. Her hands came up slicing through the air creating arcs of energy. They plowed through Photine casting her to the ground. Blood from her past wounds sprayed the earth.

Yumi panted standing over top of Photine. The last series of moves exhausted her. Still catching her breath, Yumi spoke down to Photine. "Your swords no longer have an effect on my barrier. And with my remaining abilities..." Yumi's voice trailed off. Her eyes began to shake suddenly.

A hand clutched her head as the images came back to her. "…blood…so much…blood…" Blood surrounded everything. Yumi choked on the air as she saw corpses around Photine. "…no…" Photine disappeared from the mountain of corpses. She stepped away not wanting to be anywhere near it. However, a few steps was all her feet allowed her. "…not again…"

The corpses suddenly jerked. A body carelessly fell to the side rolling down the mound. Deep inside a wave moved through the sea of crimson flesh. It slowly rose up as though something underneath pushed up wanting to be free.

Yumi shook her head slowly. She could not escape them. "…n-n-no…not real…" A blood soaked hand broke through pile of bodies. It savagely clung to the flesh. The hand scrapped and pulled ripping flesh free trying to get a hold. "…not again…I can't…let it…" Another hand breached the surface of ragged meat. It had a stronger hold.

It could come out.

Yumi screamed a b****y cry rattling down to the bone. It made her pant even heavier afterward, but she staggered forward. She was free. She could move. Her eyes fixed ahead at the threat. "…I have to…" The top of a head grow out of the dead mountain. "…end the delusion…before it consumes me…"

An awkward smile grew across Yumi's face. A smile built from self-assurance. It grew to split her face almost. "I must destroy it before it destroys me… It'll keep coming back…" Yumi gave a rusty nod to herself. "I'll end the delusions with my hand… Then it'll be over!"

Yumi raised her hand up. Green energy swirled above her quickly growing in size. No longer her usual arc, a sphere of tightly packed energy shined across the camp. The force of its presence started to blow out winds from Yumi tossing lighter debris away. "I can end it!" she laughed. "I'll be at peace again!" Yumi threw her hand down at an immobile Photine, no longer seeing her.

The light engulfed the entire area as it quickly expanded. Photine disappeared from sight. A shadow darted through everything and suddenly the light faded away. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" snapped Chiharu as she slapped Yumi.

Yumi blinked in confusion returning to reality. The sting on her cheek went almost completely unnoticed as Yumi tried to re-establish her situation. She looked down her arm to see Chiharu tightly holding her wrist out of the way of Photine. The energy in her hand wavered, but spun around waiting. Yumi's eyes shrank in horror when she realized what she had almost done. Responding to her diminished desire, the energy evaporated.

Chiharu released Yumi allowing her to back away a couple steps. 'I lost control of myself…to those delusions…what's wrong with me? I almost…' She glanced over at Chiharu, who stood between them now. A strange innocence burned into Yumi's face. It mixed awkwardly with the horror and disbelief. Yumi suddenly transitioned to surprise realizing Chiharu was safe and stood before her. "Chiharu! You're alright!" She began to move towards the young girl wanting to touch her and confirm reality. "We didn't know what happened to you."

"That can wait," snapped Chiharu. Her features narrowed to a point. It brought Yumi to a sudden halt. "Your foolish recklessness nearly got everyone in the area killed, including your brother! What were you thinking?!"

The scolding turned Yumi's voice meek. She only managed a stutter. It was all so much of a blur to her. She just wanted the delusions to end. Yumi did not fully understand what went through her. A strange feeling overcame her losing control. It made her retreat into her mind. 'What did I do? I-I…my brother…' Her body ran colder than the winter they walked through in Antarctica.

Numerous small fires still hung barely lit around the charred crater. A smoke cloud loosely covered the area. The battle between Fumiko and Stamatia ended a while ago, but their passion left the area in raging turmoil. Heat still dissipated from surface. It made the air thick and chunky. A single breath taken in was enough to make one choke.

No one entered the area. The fates of both women waited on endless spires of time. But waiting for them finally came to an end. The long held silence broke with the crumbling of roasted wood planks. Out of the smoke, a dirty and charred arm broke free. A second hand lifted up to pull themselves out of the pile. The blast from their attacks sent them flying away and buried under debris. She barely held on through it all with only a sliver of consciousness. Her stubbornness saved her.

Stamatia coughed and brushed aside the strains of hair in her face. Her military uniform appeared back on her. It shined an oddly bright shade of white as though it remained pure. A long fatigued expression drew across her face. She stood, but it did not look like it was enough. She appeared defeated by something.

A wrinkle swept over her brow. It made her body shake. Stamatia lifted her hand up clinching it into a fist. "Damn it…I'm right…" Her eyes widened suddenly as her legs lost their strength. Stamatia collapsed to the ground a moment later. She struggled to claw back up, but her hands found nothing. Even her stubbornness gave her no strength. She was completely empty. "…damn it…" Stamatia passed out.

Out of the shadows, stepped a tall man still mostly obscured by the night. The moon gave enough light on him to reveal his white uniform. He knelt down next to Stamatia checking on her condition. "That baggage of yours is going to get you killed one day." His head lift to scan the area. Standing within the battle zone rather than outside gave a different feel. "You were a bad match, but in the chaos the Captain didn't have a lot of options."

He stood up and started walking away from Stamatia. The view he had of the fight from beyond the danger gave him a better idea of the aftermath than those in the Command Tent. He strode over to the opposite side of the crater. 'The scale…hard to believe if I hadn't seen it myself…' Witnessing the destruction caused by two fire wielders reminded him how dangerous it was when two non-humans clashed. He had not seen such damage since the rebellion and only in reports. He imagined it looked very similar.

"She fell around here somewhere…" he noted aloud. His eyes scanned the area, but saw nothing that stood out to him. A ripple expanded from his feet. It turned the entire area into a flat plain black surface of little characteristic. However, he did not need anything special. It gave him exactly what he wanted. He found the body of Fumiko no longer covered by the debris she buried herself in when she fell.

Before moving closer, he examined her from a distance. The flame arm returned to the normal state. Apart from the missing arm, she looked an average girl caught in the wrong place. He knew not to trust appearance, but it still unsettled him seeing someone nearly a third his age involved in such things. 'I wonder if this is how the rebellion started… incidents like this…' A complicated thought entered his mind. He preferred to keep his distance from such thoughts.

He reached down to pick up Fumiko. "She just needs to be captured. It's a little lacking in honor taking advantage of someone else's work, but we're all just following orders." When he came in reach of Fumiko, a fist flew out at him. His hand stopped it, but not without being pushed back some. It made his eyes narrow becoming serious. "That's some strength you got for your condition."

Fumiko panted heavily as she finally had a real moment to breathe. 'I'm glad I hid… I got him nice and close…' She shut down her outward fatigue and focused on the sneak attack. Her magic felt small, but still available. Fumiko had not experience the feeling of missing her magic. It almost felt like half of herself was gone. She knew it would eventually come back. She just needed to keep going.

It took longer than she thought to get her magic to move for her. The usual feeling she had when it flowed did not occur. She felt blocked. 'Come on! I still have enough! Don't stop now! Just a little more!' Fumiko's eyes thinned out as she forced her focus, but nothing came to her. Something felt wrong.