Distant Elemental

A low roar sounded. The noise swelled, growing in immensity as the floor shook. Hands were clapped across ears as the very building trembled. The roar rose to a high keen similar to the shriek of a skidding car. As the pitch increased, glass shattered, covering the floor nearest the windows and doors. People started screaming and ducked beneath tables and behind the counter. The three elementals and Nova remained behind, hands covering ears, swaying with the ground.

“Watch out!” Nayru screamed. She felt a hand grab hold of her and in a flash she was gone. Andromeda, Nova and Nayru appeared on the other side of the store, and Fulgora flickered suddenly to another, and just in time. A massive fist smashed through the roof and hit the floor right where they had been. Cement, bricks, mortar and tiles flew through the air, shards blistering the remaining structures. The roar sounded again, shorter and louder this time; a blood curdling screech of longing and anguish.

Their view now of the thing hovering above them was a monstrosity. What hit them first was the awful stench, something between decaying socks, rotten eggs and a filthy cess pool. The second, most noticeable thing was the eyes. Cold, cruel, gleaming red slits for eyes, shining through the mass of black. The head was dominated by these shining orbs, and the rows of jagged teeth in the wide mouth. Atop the head were curving horns, making the figure seem demon-like in its appearance. The rest of its body had no prominent figure; it was more like shadow, a black wisp that floated beneath the head. There were legs and arms, two sets of arms, but the black fog rippled across its figure and made it hard to discern. The legs and arms themselves seemed to be made of this undefined mass.

“Great, what do we do now?”Andromeda yelled. Nova and Nayru, the only two who heard her, simply shook their heads.
“Let me try something!” Nayru called. With a wide, sweeping motion of her arms, a thick cloud appeared as she sucked in all the moisture from the air. She threw this at the monster, which roared again and raised a blackened paw to swipe away the fog, resting its lower set of arms on the floor as it crouched down. The thick fog stuck like glue to its sides, and in seconds it solidified into tiny particles of ice that clung to the monster and halted its progress.

“Woo, I stopped it!” The monster seemed to be shuddering as it tried to move, to break apart the ice encasing its limbs. More and more fog appeared, and the layer of ice thickened.
“Alright, time to bring this thing to the ground!” Everyone felt the sudden swooping sensation in their stomach as the natural gravity changed nearby. With a shudder of its joints, the monsters knees and elbows of its lower arms gave way, and it felt to the ground with a terrible shudder. Some of the ice encasing it shattered, but this quickly melted, stuck to the monster’s new position, and solidified there.

A massive roar started up again, and everyone clapped their hands to their ears. Just like the glass before it, the ice shattered, and as the floor trembled Andromeda lost her balance. She crashed into Nayru and the two tumbled to the ground. This was enough- the beast was back up again.
Fulgora appeared before them, her arms spread in a defensive position. Nova was beside her, lifting the two of them up. The beast loomed above: unsettling, chill.
“Come on guys, we’ve gotta pull this thing down!”
Before anyone had a chance to move, another sound interrupted. It sounded similar to the noise of an engine, and even the beast paused to listen. Disliking the noise, the beast opened its jaws and again started to make its siren shriek- but with a sudden blasting noise, a torrent of fire tore through the restaurant. With a boom, Blaise crashed straight into the beast’s flank and the creature was cut short of its call and fell sideways to the ground, smashing chairs and tables in its progress. Blaise, knocked aside by the collision, neatly twirled in the air to face the beast while falling to the ground. He landed with one foot scraping along the ground as he skidded to a halt besides the other four, leaving a burn mark on the ground before him. Nayru had to admit, “that was pretty suave, Blaise.”
A savage grin spread across his face.
“Yeah, I thought so too. Let’s do some damage.”

Before anyone could move, Fulgora walked forward and pointed at the nearest recording camera. With a zap, a bolt hit the camera, and a nice sizzling sound announced its destruction. Now lifting both hands, Fulgora looked around the room, finding every camera with her quick eyes, and with one flick of her wrists, five separate bolts hit the remaining cameras.
“Nice thinking. Now let’s kill that thing.”
The beast was already rising, a thick shadow hiding everything but the eyes. It seemed to have shrunk, as though its body had turned into the shadow now encompassing it, but its imminence was no less, nor its threat.

More ice started to encase the monster just as Blaise engulfed the thing in fire, and neither was effective. A shudder of the floor and a boom meant one step closer, and the gleaming eyes appeared above them. Andromeda made a downwards cutting signal as though rending the air apart with a karate chop, and the beast automatically slammed its head to the ground. The limbs on either side, however, were free to move and these shot towards the four. A sudden radiance surrounded the five, and they appeared quite suddenly behind the monster, outside in the carpark. Blaise turned to look at Nova.
“Was that you?”
Andromeda laughed as Nova shook his head. “No, I’m a sub-elemental of space, it was-”
“It was me, of course. Get your head out of your butt!” Andromeda laughed again.
Everyone gasped and lurched all at once. A shadow was before them, infiltrating the space they stood. Amongst the gas were those two, madly gleaming slits of crimson.
Wait for me, I’m COMING!
A surging gust of wind tripped everyone over, but at the same time released them from the hold of the beast. Like gas particles, the beast was blown back from the tremendous force of the wind as Skye landed amongst the others.
“Hey guys! Don’t worry, I’ll protect you! Some brute, huh? What’s with its head? It looks like a cross between a Chinese short snout and a Hungarian-”
“Just shut up and help us Skye,” Blaise interrupted her evenly.
Skye put her hands on her hips but said nothing. They didn’t have much time for chit chat- the creature rose again, settling back into a solid form.

Running forward, Nayru put her hands together and pushed out with a yell. A torrent of water came from no-where, rushing straight for the beast and tripping it up. Nayru spread her hands and a freezing air rose, chilling everyone to the bone as the water slowly turned to ice. The beast scrambled back, rising once more to a gaseous form and was blown apart with a gust. Surprising everyone, the two eyes split, and two forms solidified, one on either sides of the building as they now battled in the car park, amongst the far-flung ruins of the building. These two Cyclops ran towards the youths. A sudden red flash absorbed one of the monsters completely and Nova raised his hands towards the other. The first beast appeared again, in the way of the other, and they crashed together, limbs tangling, twin roars rumbling. The beast split again the same way it had before, and as it solidified once more, a surge of lightning struck one with an echoing clap and the other was burnt with a fireball. The two dropped simultaneously to the ground and struggled to move. The once more merged to their singular form and came towards them with a tremble of the ground.
“Oh no you don’t!”
Dark hair twirled, green eyes flashed. Massive roots burst from the ground and wrapped around the deformed ankles of the beast. It squirmed as a third root appeared, reached up to the thing’s head.
“Don’t-” The root pulled back before whistling towards the beast and whipping it across the face. Its head lurched aside when struck. “You-” again the root struck, this time the other way. “Hurt-my-friends!” In between each word the root struck like a cruel slap. In response to this a massive roar tore the ground from beneath Autumn and she flew backwards, neatly caught by Skye in the air. The root was snapped suddenly in half by the gnashing teeth of the beast and misshapen claws cut the creature’s bonds.
“How do we kill this thing!?” Autumn cried out towards the rest, who were all glad to see her.
This, however, was the most puzzling question of all.