聖闘士星矢 : Invasion of the Sea

CHAPTER 6

"...Tch."

Ian walked cautiously before him, as he sensed that the woods around him were emitting an ominous aura. He saw several amethyst scattered between trees, and strangely, they were the size of an adult man.

How did they grow so large...?

As far as he knew, it was rare enough for a gemstone to be as big as a fist, let alone as big as a human. Ian, however, was wise enough to not approach them.

He continued his journey deeper into this so-called 'Cursed Forest', watching the environment suspiciously around him. His sharp senses immediately told him a tree was trying to attack him, even though the root was still trying to edge slowly towards him.

!!

Ian leapt up, and nature, sensing that the intruder had noticed its hostility, immediately showed its true colour. The tree branches started to swing furiously, too.

Shwppp!!

Shwppp!!

Thanks to his restored memory as a Hippocampus, he avoided them all, landing from branch to branch, sometimes to the ground.

Shwwwppp!!

!!

Ian noticed a branch sweeping from behind, close enough to behead him. It would be too late to jump, but he had one other trick up his sleeve.

"Aqua Fortress!!"

A sphere of water materialised before his hand, but they were harder than they seemed to. Although the branch was as sharp as a blade and was swiping the mariner at full power, the barrier did not budge.

"Heh," Hippocampus Ian grinned. "Seems like it isn't that hard."

He continued to strengthen his barrier as the trees went on bombarding him with their attacks. He was so preoccupied in generating his barrier that he didn;t notice someone was watching over him.

There are two types of defences; Primary and Secondary. Primary defences are the type of defence when one is attacked. Primary defence helps to reduce the full damage of the attack.

Secondary defence are defences that are made, like barriers or shields. Barriers are divided again into a single focused barrier, which only block a single, strong attack, while Area of Effect Barriers are used to block several small blows, but will shatter easily when faced with a single strong force. Which was exactly what had happened.

While Ian was focused in trying to maintain his barrier as the trees seemed to be more and more furious, he suddenly noticed a presence behind him, aiming right at him with a sword. He belatedly turned, but the impact of the blade shattered his barrier.

"Dammit!"

He skidded backward on the impact, surprised that there was something else that would attack him aside from the trees. The moment his barrier shattered though, the trees took advantage of him, intertwining their flexible branches and roots around Ian's limbs.

Shhhk!!

"What?!"

Ian tried to thrash himself free, but the trees held him tighter the more he tried. He cursed at the assassin's attempt to let him fall into this trap.

"Let me go, you freak! Come out, who's there?!"

A figure separated from the shadow that weaved between the trees, his glasses and armor glinting in the dim light of the forest. In his right hand, he wielded a flaming sword made out of amethyst.