Paradise Lost (JSAB)

The Art of War

Random Island in the west, 0945 Hours, ~3 days after New Game

"GUYS!" Tetra screamed, scrambling across the island, yelling at the top of their lungs. "GUYS THIS IS BAD THIS IS REALLY FUCKING BAD, THERE'S A HURRICANE-"

But suddenly they felt something hard crash into them and all air was knocked out of their lungs, being thrown back with a painful "Oof" being let out from their throat. They looked up and saw Lumina tackling them, and a second later a massive Corrupted particle would've landed where they stood. It could've given them a really bad burn. They shuddered at the ghost of the impact, feeling it tingle down their spine.

"Careful." She helped them up and dusted them off. "You can't protect yourself, stay in a corner or something."

'I'm not twelve!'

"Well you do look like it, Sweetie."

Okay, as if "You look like you're twelve" wasn't a painful enough insult to Tetra, that pet name added to the end of that statement added insult to injury. And Tetra can't protect themself? Excuse me, they were the one who consistently beat up anyone who dared talk down to the four when they were all kids.

All along the small island, large particles of snow started to descend on the Quartet, which made Quin run out of the bush from doing something and Pi to suddenly start panicking and screaming. He even punched a particle of snow with a hard fist, only to rile back and shriek in pain as a burn seared his knuckles. What a dumbass. This isn't a battle they can win by attacking, much different to the ones they were used to. Plus, if there's no human behind this, no person controlling the corruption, then there's nothing to attack other than the Corruption itself. After seeing what that stuff could do, no way in hell were they touching that.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Quin screamed as he barrel-rolled out of the way of an incoming attack. The clouds above the island growled with a low bass. Occasionally flashes of white would light up from deep within the depths of the carbon smoke up above. "King Pink Bastard's not nearby, is he?"

'Can't see him anywhere!' Pi answered, the first time he's responded to Quin without it being an insult of some sort. 'He's probably not!'

"Then what's causing this?" Lumina intently watched every single droplet of snow as it fell to the ground. And occasionally when a large specific fast-falling one descended, Especially when it hit the ocean, a large dome of pink would blossom from where the corruption had collided with the ground. When it hit the sea, the dome would be non-existent and be replaced by a rather large splash for such a small snowflake.

"No clue." Tetra snarled between gritted teeth, and focused on every sphere of pink that threatened their existence with a bead of sweat starting to form on their temple. Several were descending in Lumina's direction, a couple riding the wind that Quin managed to steer clear of, and one that's about to hit Pi but he-

Suddenly a blinding feeling of pain engulfed Tetra's being, and all they could see was white with twinkling black stars. It felt like someone shot a stapler gun into their arm, white hot and searing their flesh. They felt themselves losing balance and tumbling over before being caught by someone. The pain reminded them that this wasn't just a dream or a wild as hallucination from unknowingly going on an acid trip or something.

"What the hell, are you blind or something?" Quin spat, clearly unhappy. You know you're blind if someone who couldn't even tell the difference between his sibling and a dead tree tells you that you're blind. "That thing was right above you! You should've seen it!"

'W-Was it?'

"Yeah! Duh, what the hell were you thinking?"

Tetra looked at their shoulder and realised that their entire arm was tender. Did they seriously not manage to see a corrupted particle hit them? Hell, even the burns that they got from New Game like, around three days ago started to flare up again, sending raw throbbing heat through their body. They hissed in pain as the agony multiplied. Damnit.