Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Primis
Primis
Chapter 2
'The name of the ancient enemy to the Legendary Heroes has been forgotten to time. But the name of their ally was not. They were simply known as “Keepers” beings who are tasked with the preservation of the living world. Powerful beings with unparalleled power just at the tip of their fingers. Crossing the Keepers is a quick way to get yourself killed.'
Naruto was keeping himself calm despite the gravity of the situation. Snow was everywhere; the wind was biting cold. Helen and Deneve were nowhere around, having gone in to that walled city nearly a day ago. And in front of him was a three headed, four armed tentacle abomination that had more teeth than those yoma's Helen and Deneve informed him about.
So he was alone. By himself in a dire situation.
His sword was ineffective against it. It just bounced off its hide. It was so thick not even the blue flame could cut through. It was like it was invulnerable or something! He was fast enough to avoid the spiked tentacles however but there were a few close calls.
The decision he took after facing those facts was understandable: he ran. And he was heading towards that city in the distance.
He just wished he had a weapon that could take it down from long range!
It was then he found the grip in his hand had changed to something else and when he looked down he was surprised to find it was a bow that looked to be made out of bone like material. Still running he pulled back the string and was surprised, yet again, but an flame tipped arrow appeared between his thumb, fore and middle fingers.
He's not going to complain. He turned halfway around to aim the bow and let loose. And the arrow exploded when it impacted the monster.
“Holy shit!” he exclaimed; he was dismayed however when the three headed beast was seemingly unharmed by the blast. But it looked irritated if its roar was anything to go by. So repeating his action, Naruto let loose and fired arrow after arrow, pelting the beast with explosive shrapnel. But like before it didn't do anything except annoy it. It didn't even leave a mark on its hide!
Just then another being appeared beside Naruto taking him by complete surprise. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was unearthly. It had large sharp teeth and no visible eyes, similar to the creature chasing after him and has three clawed fingers on each hand. It was levitating. It was wearing dark red robes with gold embroidery, a hood and a symbol proudly displayed on its chest; a circle with four ends jutting out, making the left and right sides, including up and down; the symbol of The Keepers.
It followed beside him, looking him over as if sizing him up. Before it's eyeless gaze landed on the Bow in his hands. It opened its mouth and hissed; but for some reason Naruto just...knew...that it wasn't out of malice or anger.
It grabbed Naruto's shoulder and the two of them vanished in a ball of light. The beast followed after them in the same manner.
X.X.X.X
Eliza stood outside in the biting cold wind as a lookout. She didn't feel the cold thanks to her being a hybrid. Nor could she get sick. Her task for the moment was to keep an eye out for any approaching awakened beings and to alert Miria, the acting leader of this suicide mission when they make their move.
So far she detected no approaching yoki but kept her guard up.
Then suddenly a ball of light appeared, startled and alarmed, Eliza reflexively reached for her claymore. It was to her surprise that a hooded poncho wearing young man, wielding a bow of unknown material, stumbled out of it.
He wildly looked around for a moment before his gaze landed on her. Pushing her surprise to the side, Eliza focused on the more prominent problem.
“Who are you? How did you get here? What was that?” she demanded; they did not need this right now! There was an impending battle on its way and it can happen at any moment! They did not need to look after a human during such a conflict!
The cowl wearing young man was about to reply only to get interrupted by two more orbs of light. With one of them being much bigger than the other.
A robe wearing monster appeared and quickly floated over to the young man. Eliza bared her teeth in fright at the mere sight of it; what on Earth was thAT THING?!
Then another creature appeared from the larger orb. A four spiked, tentacle armed abomination with three heads, that are made up of teeth than anything else. And it towered menacingly over the three of them.
“Oh for fucks sake!” the young man cursed, before turning tail and running away as it went for him. The robed monster – because that's what it was in her eyes - didn't bother looking at the silver eyed, and pale blonde haired woman as it followed the young man.
Eliza on the other hand ran inside the building to inform her comrades of their current problem.
X.X.X.X
"Captain! There's a problem outside!"
Miria stood to her feet immediately, on high alert as she reached for her claymore. "Have they launched their first wave already?!"
The warrior, Eliza, who had barged in the debriefing room shook her head, panting. "No, it's something else!"
Just then everyone in the room heard the unholy roar that could he heard for miles around. Followed by an annoyed, "Oh shut the hell up!" from a young man which two warriors in the room recognised and an explosion one after the other.
Deneve and Helen exchanged looks, the former looking mildly irritated and the latter worried when they heard him yelling in pain. The shorter haired of the duo sighed. "I can safely say 'I told you so', Helen."
"You two know who that is?" Miria questioned with a stern frown.
At her superior and friend's question, Deneve nodded. "Yes, he is the one I spoke of earlier."
Miria nodded at the explanation. "I see. Well let's get out there and keep him alive, I want answers after all this."
Moments after those words left her mouth an orb of light appeared in the middle of the room. Everyone reached for their swords hilt in preparation for a potential enemy. They were surprised when they found an injured Naruto falling out of it on to his hands and knees, clutching his blood stained abdomen; he was grasping at something. With a pained grunt and a yell he pulled out a wicked looking spike from his gut, spurting blood from the open wound and on to the floor, before he carelessly tossed it to the side.
Helen was about to go over to him only to stop when another ball of light appeared in the room directly beside Naruto. The robed monster from before emerged from it and started floating around the wounded teen protectively. A small ball of electricity floating in the middle of its weaving clawed hands.
Panting Naruto summoned the bow, Wrath of the Ancients, to his hand and used it to get himself up.
“Stupid three headed monster...” he painfully groaned, before turning to the robed creature. “I don't suppose you speak English do you?” all he got was a hiss from the eyeless creature; he shrugged, “Worth a try.”
"What on Earth is that thing?!"
"I can't feel any Yoki..."
The women muttered in bewilderment, watching the scene unfold before their very eyes.
"Engage! Don't just stand there!" Miria barked, readying her weapon as she herself prepared to attack the robed monster.
Naruto and the robed monster stared at the women as they charged at the latter with their claymore's ready. His companion stared at them from under its cowl, completely calm and unconcerned before raising its hand at them. All the women in the room froze in place and were unable to move their own limbs.
"Wait!" Naruto yelled getting its attention, much to the women's astonishment. "Don't hurt them! Please?"
It hissed and reluctantly lowered its arm and the hybrids found themselves able to move again. The robed monster hovered itself behind Naruto and started looking around the room, as if searching for something.
Naruto looked at it from over his shoulder; he knew what it was looking for, the three headed monster.
“Naruto,” the hooded blonde looked at Helen who was slowly walking over to him. “what is that thing? It's not a yoma.”
"No idea, but it's friendly enough. I think." Naruto shrugged tiredly, truthfully he was a bit unnerved at its appearance but so far so good. It made no moves to bring him harm after it teleported him away from the thing twice, and that was enough in his book.
“Keeper...” he heard a voice say in plain English.
“Wha-” he slowly looked at the robed monster.
“That is what I am. My species. We are called Keeper.” it replied.
“I thought you couldn't speak English.”
“I cannot. Your memories give voice to my words. It is how only you can understand me."
"Oh. Okay then." he didn't know what to say to that, other than, well, that.
“You can understand it? All we're hearing is hissing.” Deneve questioned him and that was when Naruto realised that everyone was giving him odd looks.
“Yeah.” Naruto answered with a nod. “It calls itself a Keeper. That's the name of its species.”
"A Keeper?" Miria was staring at the robed monster with wide eyes. "Does that mean you know about Primis? The Four Legendary Heroes of the Old World?"
"So that's what 'Primis' means...I had no idea what it meant," Naruto admitted, scratching his cheek hidden beneath his hood.
"I have known the four all those years ago. They were our allies against our most hated enemy." the Keeper looked at Naruto who was relaying what it was saying to the hybrids, and added, "When you used the Wrath of the Ancients, a weapon of the Old World, imagine my surprise that I found you, battling one of the hated enemy."
“That three headed thing is your enemy?!” Naruto exclaimed in pure shock after he realised what the Keeper had just said.
“Yes.” the keeper replied. “And there are bigger, more dangerous ones.”
“Oh crap. Whoa...” Naruto stumbled unsteadily and had to use the bow to keep himself from keeling over. The amount of blood he was losing is starting to make him feel really light headed. It made it difficult to focus on the task at hand.
“You are injured. You are no longer in any condition to fight” the Keeper stated the obvious.
“Thanks for pointing out of obvious Keeper.” Naruto deadpan snarkered; he started to sway and Helen appeared by his side, with his arm over her shoulder to hold him up. He made the bow disappear so his acquaintance would have an easier time carrying him. “I don't suppose you have anything that can heal injuries?”
“I do.” The Keeper threw its arm out to the left wall and everyone saw a small, dark turquoise and white painted contraption appear out of thin air. “The four called them 'perks' and they grant abilities to help you survive. This one heals you of all wounds no matter how severe they are and it helps you heal your companions quicker.” it left out only a few people are capable of utilising them though; but it knew the teenager can use them though.
Naruto looked at the machine with wide eyes. “No kidding? Helen, help me over there would you?”
“Erm, sure?” feeling more than a little uncertain Helen helped Naruto over to the machine. She watched her footing so her feet would not slip on his blood.
The other hybrids watched as the hooded teen leaned against the contraption. Damping his bottom lip Naruto looked it over to find a way to get it to work. He saw a coin slot on the front; figuring it wouldn't hurt to press the button that would slid the coin inside, he went and did just that.
“You need a little revive! Yeah!” everyone except for the Keeper was surprised when they heard a man singing.
Then a glass bottle with blue liquid inside of it popped out of the top. Sharing a look with Helen, Naruto sighed and grabbed the bottle, undid the top and downed the entire thing without stopping. He gagged in dislike at the taste it left on his tongue, “Ack, it tastes like raw fish!”
“Naruto,” Helen breathed, surprised, and he looked where she was pointing and to his astonishment found that his wound was sealing itself up. Almost like regeneration. “it's healing.”
“I'll be damned.” he poked his finger through the hole in his clothing and felt unblemished skin. He was fixed up in seconds.
“That's impossible! He's not a hybrid like us! Nor a yoma. He shouldn't be able to regenerate!”
“That liquid he got from that thing must be the cause of it.”
While the women muttered in disbelief Naruto turned to the Keeper. There's still the problem with the monster who's surprisingly hard to kill.
“Keeper, how do I kill that thing? It's invulnerable as far as I know.” since only Naruto could understand it no one could tell what it was saying. All they heard was hissing. Nevertheless Naruto understood the Keeper and was astonished and really irritated at what he had been told. “Really? That's it?”
The Keeper nodded and Naruto groaned out of annoyance. If it were that easy then he could have taken it down by himself. For fucks sake!
Summoning the Wrath of the Ancients Naruto with irritated grumblings made his way out of the briefing room and into the outside where the three headed monster was waiting for him. The other hybrids looked at Miria for instructions, though Helen looked like she was barely holding herself back from dragging him back in.
Miria closed her eyes, sighed and followed after the young man. “Come on. Let's see what he's going to do. If he needs help we bail him out of trouble.”
All twenty three women followed Miria out, although one hybrid with a pageboy styled hair had stayed close to Helen and Deneve. Both of them know who this woman is; they were with her on one of their awakened beings hunts in the Paburo Mountains, Clare and she is one of the few half-awakened hybrids.
“When did you meet him?” Clare asked.
“On our previous assignment. It was a weird one too.” Helen replied, much to the interest of Clare.
She pageboy haired woman glanced at her from the corner of her eye, “Really?”
It was Deneve who answered and even she was still stumped on what she saw. “We encountered a yoma unlike any other. It was more of a rotting, walking corpse than anything.” she said, much to Clare's astonishment and disbelief. A walking corpse? Were they serious?
Oh god they are, Clare realised.
“And it was moving so fast we could barely keep up with it.” Helen continued. “It was mainly focused on him though. Kept saying Primis as well for some reason.”
When the 24 women walked outside it to the sound of an inhuman roar they heard before. That was when they saw the abomination for the very first time. Her eyes steeling themselves Miria instinctively reached for her claymore upon seeing it, as did the other women.
It towered over everyone that was assembled. It's four spiked tentacle arms slithered and weaved through the air; its three mouthes opened and closed as green acid like liquid seeped out from its maws and onto the snow.
“My god! What is that thing!?”
“It has no yoki. Like the Keeper...”
The women said lowly as they did not want to bring its attention on to them. While the abomination isn't as big as some of the Awakened Beings they encountered in the past it was just as intimidating and threatening. And they remembered him saying it was invulnerable.
“I'll call you Margwa.” Naruto casually said, and as the named Margwa bellowed out in mindless anger, the Wrath of the Ancients materialised in his right hand. The hooded blonde stopped and pulled back the string, a light blue flame tipped arrow appearing notched on it. “Come on. Make my day you three mouthed fucker.”
The Margwa opened its mouths to let out a loud bellowing roar. This quickly became a mistake on its part when Naruto let the flame tipped arrow loose. It struck home, managing to enter one of the three mouths. The Margwa roared in agony as the arrow exploded, taking off one of its three heads in a display of green blood, scales, skull fragments and brain matter. That same agonised roar quickly became one of anger and it chased after Naruto in retaliation.
The person in question was quick to realise the Margwa was running a lot faster than before. So he kept his distance from it. The memory of getting struck by one of its arm tentacles was on the forefront of his mind and he is not fancying another incident like that again.
The silver eyed women who were watching all jumped at the unexpected explosion; Miria however was analysing the bow. It was far from ordinary that much was obvious. The mineral used to make it is one she is unable to discern. She never heard of any metals with properties the bow has. If she had then the chances of the organisation using it for their own ill gotten goals and gains would be statistically higher than they were now.
The Margwa kept its remaining mouths closed as it closed in on Naruto with a vengeance. To its frustration and anger however the hooded teen kept his distance from it. It opened one of its mouths to let out a roar and Naruto capitalised on it the second he saw the opening. He quickly turned around and fired an arrow. Unfortunately for him the arrow missed its intended target and whistled past one of the tentacle arms, where it exploded on impact upon connecting with the ground.
“Dammit!” he quickly pulled the bowstring, getting another flame tipped arrow to appear, took careful aim this time and let it loose. Unlike the previous failed attempt the arrow struck true and the second head met the same fate as the first.
The Margwa roared as its second head was blown off. It got even more angry, even more faster. It couldn't take another one of those. Naruto knew the intel he had been given by the Keeper was right. The open mouths were its weakness.
While the Margwa was angry it was also unfocused and is unsurprisingly bleeding profoundly. All it could think about is catching up to the pest of a human and sink its teeth into his flesh, and rip him to bloody pieces!
Naruto sprinted away to his distance and waited for it to open its third and final mouth. All while under the watchful eyes of 24 women. All of them were watching in either awe, or were impressed on how he was handling the creature by himself. But they were prepared to intervene if it looked like he was about to die or get hurt though.
When the final mouth of the Margwa opened Naruto stopped running and took aim with the bow. He launched the arrow and it struck home with its target. The final head exploded in a gruesome display and the Margwa stumbled back on its feet from the shockwave of the explosion before falling on its back dead.
Switching Wrath of the Ancients out for Ancients Wrath, the Namikaze slowly approached the corpse with Miria and the others making their way over as well. He moved one of its bigger tentacle arms with his foot and to his relief it didn't respond.
“So he can take care of himself.” he heard Deneve say, with Helen cheerfully adding, “See Deneve! I told you so!”
One of the hybrids, a young woman with pigtailed hair, walked over and gave the corpse an analytic look over. “So you kill it by destroying the heads?” she looked at Naruto.
“Yeah. It's pretty much invulnerable anywhere else.” Naruto answered and made the blade disappear. The women, excluding Helen and Deneve, were a little put out. They're not use to – in their eyes - a frontal display of magic. “Before the Keeper and I got here, I fired several of those arrows at it. It didn't leave a scratch.”
“If they are able to shrug off attacks like that then how are we suppose to fight them if its friends decide to show themselves?” a rather muscular women with two claymore's asked with a deep frown.
“As long as you go for their heads when the mouths are open you should be fine.” he answered with a shrug. “I recommend using ranged attacks. Getting hit by those spiked tentacles is not a pleasant experience.” he added, rubbing where he got hit. He can still feel it. It was more of a phantom pain now.
“So now that the...Margwa is dead, what are you going to do now?” it was Miria who asked that.
Sighing Naruto rubbed the back of his neck through his hood. “I'm going to try and make my way back outside.” he informed her.
Helen went wide eyed and immediately protested against that course of action. Knowing what is beyond those walls she knew going out there would be a death sentence for him. “No! Absolutely not!”
Everyone was surprised at Helen's fierce outburst, but none more than Naruto himself who turned to look at her. “What? Why not?” he asked; he couldn't see the problem in getting out of their hair. They would have one less problem to deal with if he was gone.
“Helen is right Naruto.” Deneve said. “It's not safe beyond the city walls anymore.”
“I know that.”
Helen and Deneve shared a look and looked back to Naruto. “...You do?” Helen asked.
“I may not know much about you women, because, you know, being foreigner and all that.” Naruto promptly ignored the confused looks and mutterings he got from those who weren't in the know on him being from another continent. “But having 24 of you in one place? Either you're having a meeting – which is unlikely – or you're here to prevent something. I'm betting it's the latter.” he looked over his shoulder towards the city walls. “The way you're against me going outside, and that this city is practically abandoned makes me more certain it's the latter. And if I stay here, not only will you have to deal with whatever problem you were sent here to take care of, you also have to protect me.” he turned away from the wall and leaned forward as he looked at Helen, “So what do you prefer? Having to look after me while you're also fighting a problem here. Or letting me go beyond the city walls, so you don't have to look after me?”
“If you were to go outside you would be a much easier target for the voracious eaters that are waiting.” the pigtailed woman beside him politely pointed out and now that Naruto was thinking on her words she added, “If you were here however then they would be more focused on us.”
“But I would also be in the crossfire. Not to mention you girls already have your hands full.” he pointed out to her.
“Cynthia does have a point.” Naruto looked at the woman who spoke; she had her hair tied back in a tight ponytail.
“Thank you Veronica.” Cynthia said.
Veronica nodded to her friend and looked at Naruto with crossed arms. “Going outside is a death sentence. For you and for us.” she began with grim eyes. “And while I may not know much of the Old World, what I do know is that the Keepers are powerful beings. Having one of them here with us would give us all a better chance of surviving.”
Hearing that Naruto looked at the Keeper who was still on the sidelines watching them converse.
“If you're as powerful as she says you are, then how come you had me fight that thing?” Naruto demanded.
“It was a test.” it answered.
“A test?”
The Keeper nodded. “Yes. And you succeeded.”
Naruto sighed and gave the Keeper a flat look from under his hood. “I am going to take a guess and say, you wanted to see if I could kill the Margwa by myself?”
The Keeper nodded and Naruto, he merely exhaled with a great amount of exasperation. Right. The whole thing was a test. Well. It's not like he can do anything about it now.
“So what should I do?” he asked the Keeper.
“My advice? Stay with them. While it may be because I would be here as well, these hybrids do raise some valid points. Going beyond the city walls would be a death sentence.” the Keeper replied.
The silver eyed women then looked at Naruto expectantly.
“It said I should stay with you.” he told them.
Helen was relieved to hear this, and then grinning cheerfully she went over and threw an arm over Naruto's shoulder and pulled him to her. “Great! Come on, lets go back inside!” she then dragged him back to the building.
“Wha- Helen I can walk myself there!” he protested.
“I know. Don't care!”
As the other 22 women looked on in bewilderment Deneve let out an exasperated sigh at her friends antics. Troublesome as ever, that woman. Nevertheless she followed after the duo. The Keeper watched the strange human, and the hybrid dragging him with a curious gaze. It looked at the other hybrids for a moment before following after the human.
As for Miria, as her eyes followed after the floating Keeper, she felt a weight lifted from her shoulders. With it with them their chances of survival increased. She didn't like the fact they're going to have to protect someone who's going to be a burden, but right now she'll take all the help she can get.
If getting Naruto to stay got the Keeper to stay, then so be it.
Meanwhile said young man huffed as Helen had finally let get of him now that they were inside. The grinning woman merely ruffled his head before she walked off, standing next in place to Deneve's side.
“That one has personality.” the Keeper said as it looked at Helen. It's tone full of fondness. “It reminds me a little of Dempsey,”
Furrowing his brow Naruto gave the Keeper a curious look. “Who's Dempsey?”
“He was one of Primis.”
“You know Primis by name?” Naruto question had gotten the attention of everyone within ear range. Which consisted of Helen, Deneve, Miria and a few others such as Clare, Cynthia and Veronica.
The Keeper nodded in the affirmative. “Yes. They were a unique group. All four came from different countries and with different ideals. But they were the best of the best.” which was an understatement of the century. Those four defeated the Keepers nemesis, the original, and first, harbinger of doom; not once, but several times in many dimensions. Some ended up dying in their final battle. Some lived to tell the tale. But when ever the enemy showed themselves, Primis would defeat them. Every. Single. Time.
There was one exception however. Where one of the four had gotten corrupted, captured and wiped the minds of the other three, and ended up destroying the Earth. But another Primis group, a younger version of them, reversed all of that.
“They must have been one effective team then.” Naruto stated.
“They were. While they were ordinary humans, everywhere they went the destruction and massacre of the enemy followed.” the Keeper said almost reverently.
“So...” Helen piped up, bringing the attention of Naruto and the Keeper on her. “one of the four was called Dempsey?” the Keeper nodded to her answer. Helen dropped it at that satisfied with the answer. At least they have a name to give one of the legendary heroes.
“Who were the other three?” Deneve asked.
“Do you want to know their full names, or by the names they went by?” the Keeper asked, with Naruto translating for it. Deneve wanted to know their full names. “Very well. Their names were 'Tank' Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki and Edward Richtofen.” Naruto once more translated the Keepers words.
Helen and Deneve, including those who were close enough to eavesdrop were happy to finally have the names of the Legendary Four. Their names had been lost to time since the fall.
Exhaling Naruto walked to the wall furthest from the others and sat down. He didn't want to get in their way after all and he can already tell he's going to be giving them an unnecessary problem. The Keeper teleported beside him and floated there standing guard.
“What are you going to do now that you're staying?” asked the Keeper; it kept its hissing down so only Naruto can hear it.
The sitting man cocked his head slightly to the side. “Keep myself out of their hair obviously. No matter what I do I am going to be a burden on them. I may as well keep myself out of the way as much as I can so I won't distract them.” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
The Keeper just give him a look and he had no idea how, but he could tell the Keeper was giving him a disappointed look. Even though it had no eyes and and didn't convey anything in its gestures. He just knew the Keeper was giving him a disappointed look.
It was...a little creepy to say the least.
Chapter 2
'The name of the ancient enemy to the Legendary Heroes has been forgotten to time. But the name of their ally was not. They were simply known as “Keepers” beings who are tasked with the preservation of the living world. Powerful beings with unparalleled power just at the tip of their fingers. Crossing the Keepers is a quick way to get yourself killed.'
Naruto was keeping himself calm despite the gravity of the situation. Snow was everywhere; the wind was biting cold. Helen and Deneve were nowhere around, having gone in to that walled city nearly a day ago. And in front of him was a three headed, four armed tentacle abomination that had more teeth than those yoma's Helen and Deneve informed him about.
So he was alone. By himself in a dire situation.
His sword was ineffective against it. It just bounced off its hide. It was so thick not even the blue flame could cut through. It was like it was invulnerable or something! He was fast enough to avoid the spiked tentacles however but there were a few close calls.
The decision he took after facing those facts was understandable: he ran. And he was heading towards that city in the distance.
He just wished he had a weapon that could take it down from long range!
It was then he found the grip in his hand had changed to something else and when he looked down he was surprised to find it was a bow that looked to be made out of bone like material. Still running he pulled back the string and was surprised, yet again, but an flame tipped arrow appeared between his thumb, fore and middle fingers.
He's not going to complain. He turned halfway around to aim the bow and let loose. And the arrow exploded when it impacted the monster.
“Holy shit!” he exclaimed; he was dismayed however when the three headed beast was seemingly unharmed by the blast. But it looked irritated if its roar was anything to go by. So repeating his action, Naruto let loose and fired arrow after arrow, pelting the beast with explosive shrapnel. But like before it didn't do anything except annoy it. It didn't even leave a mark on its hide!
Just then another being appeared beside Naruto taking him by complete surprise. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was unearthly. It had large sharp teeth and no visible eyes, similar to the creature chasing after him and has three clawed fingers on each hand. It was levitating. It was wearing dark red robes with gold embroidery, a hood and a symbol proudly displayed on its chest; a circle with four ends jutting out, making the left and right sides, including up and down; the symbol of The Keepers.
It followed beside him, looking him over as if sizing him up. Before it's eyeless gaze landed on the Bow in his hands. It opened its mouth and hissed; but for some reason Naruto just...knew...that it wasn't out of malice or anger.
It grabbed Naruto's shoulder and the two of them vanished in a ball of light. The beast followed after them in the same manner.
X.X.X.X
Eliza stood outside in the biting cold wind as a lookout. She didn't feel the cold thanks to her being a hybrid. Nor could she get sick. Her task for the moment was to keep an eye out for any approaching awakened beings and to alert Miria, the acting leader of this suicide mission when they make their move.
So far she detected no approaching yoki but kept her guard up.
Then suddenly a ball of light appeared, startled and alarmed, Eliza reflexively reached for her claymore. It was to her surprise that a hooded poncho wearing young man, wielding a bow of unknown material, stumbled out of it.
He wildly looked around for a moment before his gaze landed on her. Pushing her surprise to the side, Eliza focused on the more prominent problem.
“Who are you? How did you get here? What was that?” she demanded; they did not need this right now! There was an impending battle on its way and it can happen at any moment! They did not need to look after a human during such a conflict!
The cowl wearing young man was about to reply only to get interrupted by two more orbs of light. With one of them being much bigger than the other.
A robe wearing monster appeared and quickly floated over to the young man. Eliza bared her teeth in fright at the mere sight of it; what on Earth was thAT THING?!
Then another creature appeared from the larger orb. A four spiked, tentacle armed abomination with three heads, that are made up of teeth than anything else. And it towered menacingly over the three of them.
“Oh for fucks sake!” the young man cursed, before turning tail and running away as it went for him. The robed monster – because that's what it was in her eyes - didn't bother looking at the silver eyed, and pale blonde haired woman as it followed the young man.
Eliza on the other hand ran inside the building to inform her comrades of their current problem.
X.X.X.X
"Captain! There's a problem outside!"
Miria stood to her feet immediately, on high alert as she reached for her claymore. "Have they launched their first wave already?!"
The warrior, Eliza, who had barged in the debriefing room shook her head, panting. "No, it's something else!"
Just then everyone in the room heard the unholy roar that could he heard for miles around. Followed by an annoyed, "Oh shut the hell up!" from a young man which two warriors in the room recognised and an explosion one after the other.
Deneve and Helen exchanged looks, the former looking mildly irritated and the latter worried when they heard him yelling in pain. The shorter haired of the duo sighed. "I can safely say 'I told you so', Helen."
"You two know who that is?" Miria questioned with a stern frown.
At her superior and friend's question, Deneve nodded. "Yes, he is the one I spoke of earlier."
Miria nodded at the explanation. "I see. Well let's get out there and keep him alive, I want answers after all this."
Moments after those words left her mouth an orb of light appeared in the middle of the room. Everyone reached for their swords hilt in preparation for a potential enemy. They were surprised when they found an injured Naruto falling out of it on to his hands and knees, clutching his blood stained abdomen; he was grasping at something. With a pained grunt and a yell he pulled out a wicked looking spike from his gut, spurting blood from the open wound and on to the floor, before he carelessly tossed it to the side.
Helen was about to go over to him only to stop when another ball of light appeared in the room directly beside Naruto. The robed monster from before emerged from it and started floating around the wounded teen protectively. A small ball of electricity floating in the middle of its weaving clawed hands.
Panting Naruto summoned the bow, Wrath of the Ancients, to his hand and used it to get himself up.
“Stupid three headed monster...” he painfully groaned, before turning to the robed creature. “I don't suppose you speak English do you?” all he got was a hiss from the eyeless creature; he shrugged, “Worth a try.”
"What on Earth is that thing?!"
"I can't feel any Yoki..."
The women muttered in bewilderment, watching the scene unfold before their very eyes.
"Engage! Don't just stand there!" Miria barked, readying her weapon as she herself prepared to attack the robed monster.
Naruto and the robed monster stared at the women as they charged at the latter with their claymore's ready. His companion stared at them from under its cowl, completely calm and unconcerned before raising its hand at them. All the women in the room froze in place and were unable to move their own limbs.
"Wait!" Naruto yelled getting its attention, much to the women's astonishment. "Don't hurt them! Please?"
It hissed and reluctantly lowered its arm and the hybrids found themselves able to move again. The robed monster hovered itself behind Naruto and started looking around the room, as if searching for something.
Naruto looked at it from over his shoulder; he knew what it was looking for, the three headed monster.
“Naruto,” the hooded blonde looked at Helen who was slowly walking over to him. “what is that thing? It's not a yoma.”
"No idea, but it's friendly enough. I think." Naruto shrugged tiredly, truthfully he was a bit unnerved at its appearance but so far so good. It made no moves to bring him harm after it teleported him away from the thing twice, and that was enough in his book.
“Keeper...” he heard a voice say in plain English.
“Wha-” he slowly looked at the robed monster.
“That is what I am. My species. We are called Keeper.” it replied.
“I thought you couldn't speak English.”
“I cannot. Your memories give voice to my words. It is how only you can understand me."
"Oh. Okay then." he didn't know what to say to that, other than, well, that.
“You can understand it? All we're hearing is hissing.” Deneve questioned him and that was when Naruto realised that everyone was giving him odd looks.
“Yeah.” Naruto answered with a nod. “It calls itself a Keeper. That's the name of its species.”
"A Keeper?" Miria was staring at the robed monster with wide eyes. "Does that mean you know about Primis? The Four Legendary Heroes of the Old World?"
"So that's what 'Primis' means...I had no idea what it meant," Naruto admitted, scratching his cheek hidden beneath his hood.
"I have known the four all those years ago. They were our allies against our most hated enemy." the Keeper looked at Naruto who was relaying what it was saying to the hybrids, and added, "When you used the Wrath of the Ancients, a weapon of the Old World, imagine my surprise that I found you, battling one of the hated enemy."
“That three headed thing is your enemy?!” Naruto exclaimed in pure shock after he realised what the Keeper had just said.
“Yes.” the keeper replied. “And there are bigger, more dangerous ones.”
“Oh crap. Whoa...” Naruto stumbled unsteadily and had to use the bow to keep himself from keeling over. The amount of blood he was losing is starting to make him feel really light headed. It made it difficult to focus on the task at hand.
“You are injured. You are no longer in any condition to fight” the Keeper stated the obvious.
“Thanks for pointing out of obvious Keeper.” Naruto deadpan snarkered; he started to sway and Helen appeared by his side, with his arm over her shoulder to hold him up. He made the bow disappear so his acquaintance would have an easier time carrying him. “I don't suppose you have anything that can heal injuries?”
“I do.” The Keeper threw its arm out to the left wall and everyone saw a small, dark turquoise and white painted contraption appear out of thin air. “The four called them 'perks' and they grant abilities to help you survive. This one heals you of all wounds no matter how severe they are and it helps you heal your companions quicker.” it left out only a few people are capable of utilising them though; but it knew the teenager can use them though.
Naruto looked at the machine with wide eyes. “No kidding? Helen, help me over there would you?”
“Erm, sure?” feeling more than a little uncertain Helen helped Naruto over to the machine. She watched her footing so her feet would not slip on his blood.
The other hybrids watched as the hooded teen leaned against the contraption. Damping his bottom lip Naruto looked it over to find a way to get it to work. He saw a coin slot on the front; figuring it wouldn't hurt to press the button that would slid the coin inside, he went and did just that.
“You need a little revive! Yeah!” everyone except for the Keeper was surprised when they heard a man singing.
Then a glass bottle with blue liquid inside of it popped out of the top. Sharing a look with Helen, Naruto sighed and grabbed the bottle, undid the top and downed the entire thing without stopping. He gagged in dislike at the taste it left on his tongue, “Ack, it tastes like raw fish!”
“Naruto,” Helen breathed, surprised, and he looked where she was pointing and to his astonishment found that his wound was sealing itself up. Almost like regeneration. “it's healing.”
“I'll be damned.” he poked his finger through the hole in his clothing and felt unblemished skin. He was fixed up in seconds.
“That's impossible! He's not a hybrid like us! Nor a yoma. He shouldn't be able to regenerate!”
“That liquid he got from that thing must be the cause of it.”
While the women muttered in disbelief Naruto turned to the Keeper. There's still the problem with the monster who's surprisingly hard to kill.
“Keeper, how do I kill that thing? It's invulnerable as far as I know.” since only Naruto could understand it no one could tell what it was saying. All they heard was hissing. Nevertheless Naruto understood the Keeper and was astonished and really irritated at what he had been told. “Really? That's it?”
The Keeper nodded and Naruto groaned out of annoyance. If it were that easy then he could have taken it down by himself. For fucks sake!
Summoning the Wrath of the Ancients Naruto with irritated grumblings made his way out of the briefing room and into the outside where the three headed monster was waiting for him. The other hybrids looked at Miria for instructions, though Helen looked like she was barely holding herself back from dragging him back in.
Miria closed her eyes, sighed and followed after the young man. “Come on. Let's see what he's going to do. If he needs help we bail him out of trouble.”
All twenty three women followed Miria out, although one hybrid with a pageboy styled hair had stayed close to Helen and Deneve. Both of them know who this woman is; they were with her on one of their awakened beings hunts in the Paburo Mountains, Clare and she is one of the few half-awakened hybrids.
“When did you meet him?” Clare asked.
“On our previous assignment. It was a weird one too.” Helen replied, much to the interest of Clare.
She pageboy haired woman glanced at her from the corner of her eye, “Really?”
It was Deneve who answered and even she was still stumped on what she saw. “We encountered a yoma unlike any other. It was more of a rotting, walking corpse than anything.” she said, much to Clare's astonishment and disbelief. A walking corpse? Were they serious?
Oh god they are, Clare realised.
“And it was moving so fast we could barely keep up with it.” Helen continued. “It was mainly focused on him though. Kept saying Primis as well for some reason.”
When the 24 women walked outside it to the sound of an inhuman roar they heard before. That was when they saw the abomination for the very first time. Her eyes steeling themselves Miria instinctively reached for her claymore upon seeing it, as did the other women.
It towered over everyone that was assembled. It's four spiked tentacle arms slithered and weaved through the air; its three mouthes opened and closed as green acid like liquid seeped out from its maws and onto the snow.
“My god! What is that thing!?”
“It has no yoki. Like the Keeper...”
The women said lowly as they did not want to bring its attention on to them. While the abomination isn't as big as some of the Awakened Beings they encountered in the past it was just as intimidating and threatening. And they remembered him saying it was invulnerable.
“I'll call you Margwa.” Naruto casually said, and as the named Margwa bellowed out in mindless anger, the Wrath of the Ancients materialised in his right hand. The hooded blonde stopped and pulled back the string, a light blue flame tipped arrow appearing notched on it. “Come on. Make my day you three mouthed fucker.”
The Margwa opened its mouths to let out a loud bellowing roar. This quickly became a mistake on its part when Naruto let the flame tipped arrow loose. It struck home, managing to enter one of the three mouths. The Margwa roared in agony as the arrow exploded, taking off one of its three heads in a display of green blood, scales, skull fragments and brain matter. That same agonised roar quickly became one of anger and it chased after Naruto in retaliation.
The person in question was quick to realise the Margwa was running a lot faster than before. So he kept his distance from it. The memory of getting struck by one of its arm tentacles was on the forefront of his mind and he is not fancying another incident like that again.
The silver eyed women who were watching all jumped at the unexpected explosion; Miria however was analysing the bow. It was far from ordinary that much was obvious. The mineral used to make it is one she is unable to discern. She never heard of any metals with properties the bow has. If she had then the chances of the organisation using it for their own ill gotten goals and gains would be statistically higher than they were now.
The Margwa kept its remaining mouths closed as it closed in on Naruto with a vengeance. To its frustration and anger however the hooded teen kept his distance from it. It opened one of its mouths to let out a roar and Naruto capitalised on it the second he saw the opening. He quickly turned around and fired an arrow. Unfortunately for him the arrow missed its intended target and whistled past one of the tentacle arms, where it exploded on impact upon connecting with the ground.
“Dammit!” he quickly pulled the bowstring, getting another flame tipped arrow to appear, took careful aim this time and let it loose. Unlike the previous failed attempt the arrow struck true and the second head met the same fate as the first.
The Margwa roared as its second head was blown off. It got even more angry, even more faster. It couldn't take another one of those. Naruto knew the intel he had been given by the Keeper was right. The open mouths were its weakness.
While the Margwa was angry it was also unfocused and is unsurprisingly bleeding profoundly. All it could think about is catching up to the pest of a human and sink its teeth into his flesh, and rip him to bloody pieces!
Naruto sprinted away to his distance and waited for it to open its third and final mouth. All while under the watchful eyes of 24 women. All of them were watching in either awe, or were impressed on how he was handling the creature by himself. But they were prepared to intervene if it looked like he was about to die or get hurt though.
When the final mouth of the Margwa opened Naruto stopped running and took aim with the bow. He launched the arrow and it struck home with its target. The final head exploded in a gruesome display and the Margwa stumbled back on its feet from the shockwave of the explosion before falling on its back dead.
Switching Wrath of the Ancients out for Ancients Wrath, the Namikaze slowly approached the corpse with Miria and the others making their way over as well. He moved one of its bigger tentacle arms with his foot and to his relief it didn't respond.
“So he can take care of himself.” he heard Deneve say, with Helen cheerfully adding, “See Deneve! I told you so!”
One of the hybrids, a young woman with pigtailed hair, walked over and gave the corpse an analytic look over. “So you kill it by destroying the heads?” she looked at Naruto.
“Yeah. It's pretty much invulnerable anywhere else.” Naruto answered and made the blade disappear. The women, excluding Helen and Deneve, were a little put out. They're not use to – in their eyes - a frontal display of magic. “Before the Keeper and I got here, I fired several of those arrows at it. It didn't leave a scratch.”
“If they are able to shrug off attacks like that then how are we suppose to fight them if its friends decide to show themselves?” a rather muscular women with two claymore's asked with a deep frown.
“As long as you go for their heads when the mouths are open you should be fine.” he answered with a shrug. “I recommend using ranged attacks. Getting hit by those spiked tentacles is not a pleasant experience.” he added, rubbing where he got hit. He can still feel it. It was more of a phantom pain now.
“So now that the...Margwa is dead, what are you going to do now?” it was Miria who asked that.
Sighing Naruto rubbed the back of his neck through his hood. “I'm going to try and make my way back outside.” he informed her.
Helen went wide eyed and immediately protested against that course of action. Knowing what is beyond those walls she knew going out there would be a death sentence for him. “No! Absolutely not!”
Everyone was surprised at Helen's fierce outburst, but none more than Naruto himself who turned to look at her. “What? Why not?” he asked; he couldn't see the problem in getting out of their hair. They would have one less problem to deal with if he was gone.
“Helen is right Naruto.” Deneve said. “It's not safe beyond the city walls anymore.”
“I know that.”
Helen and Deneve shared a look and looked back to Naruto. “...You do?” Helen asked.
“I may not know much about you women, because, you know, being foreigner and all that.” Naruto promptly ignored the confused looks and mutterings he got from those who weren't in the know on him being from another continent. “But having 24 of you in one place? Either you're having a meeting – which is unlikely – or you're here to prevent something. I'm betting it's the latter.” he looked over his shoulder towards the city walls. “The way you're against me going outside, and that this city is practically abandoned makes me more certain it's the latter. And if I stay here, not only will you have to deal with whatever problem you were sent here to take care of, you also have to protect me.” he turned away from the wall and leaned forward as he looked at Helen, “So what do you prefer? Having to look after me while you're also fighting a problem here. Or letting me go beyond the city walls, so you don't have to look after me?”
“If you were to go outside you would be a much easier target for the voracious eaters that are waiting.” the pigtailed woman beside him politely pointed out and now that Naruto was thinking on her words she added, “If you were here however then they would be more focused on us.”
“But I would also be in the crossfire. Not to mention you girls already have your hands full.” he pointed out to her.
“Cynthia does have a point.” Naruto looked at the woman who spoke; she had her hair tied back in a tight ponytail.
“Thank you Veronica.” Cynthia said.
Veronica nodded to her friend and looked at Naruto with crossed arms. “Going outside is a death sentence. For you and for us.” she began with grim eyes. “And while I may not know much of the Old World, what I do know is that the Keepers are powerful beings. Having one of them here with us would give us all a better chance of surviving.”
Hearing that Naruto looked at the Keeper who was still on the sidelines watching them converse.
“If you're as powerful as she says you are, then how come you had me fight that thing?” Naruto demanded.
“It was a test.” it answered.
“A test?”
The Keeper nodded. “Yes. And you succeeded.”
Naruto sighed and gave the Keeper a flat look from under his hood. “I am going to take a guess and say, you wanted to see if I could kill the Margwa by myself?”
The Keeper nodded and Naruto, he merely exhaled with a great amount of exasperation. Right. The whole thing was a test. Well. It's not like he can do anything about it now.
“So what should I do?” he asked the Keeper.
“My advice? Stay with them. While it may be because I would be here as well, these hybrids do raise some valid points. Going beyond the city walls would be a death sentence.” the Keeper replied.
The silver eyed women then looked at Naruto expectantly.
“It said I should stay with you.” he told them.
Helen was relieved to hear this, and then grinning cheerfully she went over and threw an arm over Naruto's shoulder and pulled him to her. “Great! Come on, lets go back inside!” she then dragged him back to the building.
“Wha- Helen I can walk myself there!” he protested.
“I know. Don't care!”
As the other 22 women looked on in bewilderment Deneve let out an exasperated sigh at her friends antics. Troublesome as ever, that woman. Nevertheless she followed after the duo. The Keeper watched the strange human, and the hybrid dragging him with a curious gaze. It looked at the other hybrids for a moment before following after the human.
As for Miria, as her eyes followed after the floating Keeper, she felt a weight lifted from her shoulders. With it with them their chances of survival increased. She didn't like the fact they're going to have to protect someone who's going to be a burden, but right now she'll take all the help she can get.
If getting Naruto to stay got the Keeper to stay, then so be it.
Meanwhile said young man huffed as Helen had finally let get of him now that they were inside. The grinning woman merely ruffled his head before she walked off, standing next in place to Deneve's side.
“That one has personality.” the Keeper said as it looked at Helen. It's tone full of fondness. “It reminds me a little of Dempsey,”
Furrowing his brow Naruto gave the Keeper a curious look. “Who's Dempsey?”
“He was one of Primis.”
“You know Primis by name?” Naruto question had gotten the attention of everyone within ear range. Which consisted of Helen, Deneve, Miria and a few others such as Clare, Cynthia and Veronica.
The Keeper nodded in the affirmative. “Yes. They were a unique group. All four came from different countries and with different ideals. But they were the best of the best.” which was an understatement of the century. Those four defeated the Keepers nemesis, the original, and first, harbinger of doom; not once, but several times in many dimensions. Some ended up dying in their final battle. Some lived to tell the tale. But when ever the enemy showed themselves, Primis would defeat them. Every. Single. Time.
There was one exception however. Where one of the four had gotten corrupted, captured and wiped the minds of the other three, and ended up destroying the Earth. But another Primis group, a younger version of them, reversed all of that.
“They must have been one effective team then.” Naruto stated.
“They were. While they were ordinary humans, everywhere they went the destruction and massacre of the enemy followed.” the Keeper said almost reverently.
“So...” Helen piped up, bringing the attention of Naruto and the Keeper on her. “one of the four was called Dempsey?” the Keeper nodded to her answer. Helen dropped it at that satisfied with the answer. At least they have a name to give one of the legendary heroes.
“Who were the other three?” Deneve asked.
“Do you want to know their full names, or by the names they went by?” the Keeper asked, with Naruto translating for it. Deneve wanted to know their full names. “Very well. Their names were 'Tank' Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki and Edward Richtofen.” Naruto once more translated the Keepers words.
Helen and Deneve, including those who were close enough to eavesdrop were happy to finally have the names of the Legendary Four. Their names had been lost to time since the fall.
Exhaling Naruto walked to the wall furthest from the others and sat down. He didn't want to get in their way after all and he can already tell he's going to be giving them an unnecessary problem. The Keeper teleported beside him and floated there standing guard.
“What are you going to do now that you're staying?” asked the Keeper; it kept its hissing down so only Naruto can hear it.
The sitting man cocked his head slightly to the side. “Keep myself out of their hair obviously. No matter what I do I am going to be a burden on them. I may as well keep myself out of the way as much as I can so I won't distract them.” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
The Keeper just give him a look and he had no idea how, but he could tell the Keeper was giving him a disappointed look. Even though it had no eyes and and didn't convey anything in its gestures. He just knew the Keeper was giving him a disappointed look.
It was...a little creepy to say the least.
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