Strange Island

~~A/N~~

Yes, this story's back. I stated it previously, however I seem to have extended it far longer than I anticipated. The reason this story has been on hiatus was that I wished to enjoy my summer break, choosing to take a break from writing altogether.

If any of you have seen my other works however, you'd know I have recently started on another story. As such, I feel it is time for me to once again start writing this one.

I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and welcome back to any readers who've been here since the start.

~~

~~A Little Before Current Time~~

It had become quickly apparent to Aoife and the girls that the island they had been dropped off on was nothing they had ever encountered before.

This could be seen not only from the multitude of creatures that populated the island, but also through the strange plant-life that existed here. After all, it's not everyday that one is walking through the forest only for a vine to seemingly lash out from nowhere and wrap around your leg, trying to pull you to the ground.

And so, it was with trepidation and excitement that the trio scanned the island, some choosing to walk the plant-littered grounds along their journey while others seemingly flitted from tree-to-tree.

~~

It took no time at all for the group to spot something, or rather, for Izzy to spot something.

From her position far up in the treetops came Izzy's voice that seemed to drip with a crazed excitement. "Aoife, you have to come up here and see what I found. I think we'll have a lot more fun on this island than we first anticipated.

Glancing up, Aoife looked around for anything to scale, giving a quick reply of "Coming." to the overly excited Izzy.

Before he launched himself upward however, he gave one last glance back to the feminine figure behind him. This figure was obviously Bridgette, and Aoife's glance toward her conveyed the simple message of, 'Are you sure you'll be okay alone?'

The reason behind this glance was apparent, as while Bridgette was by no means weak in the physical department, she was nowhere close to the pair of Izzy and Aoife.

Even Aoife being on the ground with her showcased this difference; after all, it would be a lot easier to scan the island with more eyes in the sky. However, Aoife had purposely stayed on the ground, keeping guard for anymore wayward plant-life that wished to attack the foreign invaders.

Even though Aoife had stayed on the ground to protect her, he had still managed to make the event easier for Bridgette to handle. To do this, Aoife had simply treated it as an opportunity to teach Bridgette something new.

As they had anticipated, plants would attack the duo at seemingly random points, there being little to no forewarning before each attack.

And yet, Aoife would respond to each and every attack with lightning quick accuracy, the branches seemingly never even coming close to touching the duo. And as he countered, Aoife would slowly explain how he had caught the signs of the impending attack.

Afterwards, Aoife would then have Bridgette look out for these signs as well, having her call out to him whenever she believed an attack to be imminent.

At first, Bridgette started out reacting rather slow to these attacks, and sometimes believing one to be about to occur when nothing would actually happen.

Yet, whenever Bridgette would begin to feel ashamed at her reactions, Aoife would quickly assure her that he didn't view her as any lesser because she couldn't easily do what he and Izzy did.

Instead, Aoife would calmly explain to her why her prediction was wrong, taking these times as an opportunity to further progress Bridgette's own skill.

This eventually started to show results, as while it was still slower than when Aoife would figure out an attack was coming, Bridgette eventually reached a point where she too could point out an incoming attack.

That was the only reason Aoife currently felt it okay for him to head up into the trees, feeling Bridgette could now spot an incoming attack before it would actually occur and could properly react to it.

As he glanced back however, all Aoife received was a confident nod from Bridgette. Giving her an assuring smile, Aoife raised his fist in a way as to tell her 'You can do it!'.

Still, Aoife felt a bit of regret at leaving the ground, as the presence of the plant-life gave him ample time to practice his reaction time.

With a shake of the head to get over his regretful emotions, Aoife jumped up to grab an incredibly large tree branch above him, his body swaying back and forth as he held onto it. Using this momentum, Aoife flung himself upward once more, latching on to another tree branch. This process would continue for a while before Aoife would finally fling himself once more, this time aiming higher than usual, his figure landing stably atop the tree branch Izzy currently resided on.

However, Izzy seemed to take no notice of his sudden presence, her eyes instead seeming to stay locked on whatever it was she was viewing before he had arrived here, the look on her face one of crazed excitement.

Deciding to figure out exactly what had Izzy in such an excited mood, Aoife glanced toward the distance, tracing along where Izzy's eyes had been facing.

What he found caused his body to freeze up, a manic expression of excitement appearing across his face as well, seeming even more crazed than even Izzy's. The reason for this was what they were staring at, that being a behemoth of a creature.

Where Izzy felt excited at the prospect of hunting it, Aoife's own excitement eclipsed hers. After all, Izzy was more of an Amazonian, a woman who loved to fight, while Aoife was a Hunter, someone who lived for the thrill of the hunt.

Izzy loved the idea of taking down the behemoth of a creature, feeling the adrenaline racing through her as she and it tried to kill one another.

Aoife, on the other hand, felt a thrill run up his spine at the prospect of outsmarting the creature, using tools he had created to bring the creature down.

However, no matter which of the two it was, the emotions they both felt was the same.

Looking toward each other at the same time, the words seemed to reach their lips at the same instant.

"We have to kill it!"

Two voices rang out at once, the manic excitement within them seeming to be further enhanced by the look in the others' eye.

Breaths coming out in ragged bursts, the pair wasted no time in starting what they had just stated.

Izzy took off, her figure quickly rushing from treetop-to-treetop in a rapid burst of speed. As she flew through the air, her loud laughter could be heard ringing out, her figure nothing but a blur of speed.

As Izzy took off however, Aoife wasn't idle. Whereas Izzy took off toward the creature, Aoife instead decided to push for an advantage.

Izzy had lost herself in the excitement pooling off the two, her brain no longer operating at full capacity. This led to her gaining the silly notion that she and Aoife could defeat the beast up close.

However, Aoife's reaction was different from Izzy's own, where Izzy's mind seemed to enter a crazed state in her excitement, Aoife's own seemed to reach a crescendo it had never been before.

This was caused by the difference in the two's mindset, where Izzy treated the beast as a challenge to overcome, Aoife treated it as a major hunt.

Looking at the massive beast however, Aoife's mind still spun with excitement, the crazed smile never once leaving it. He so desperately wished to rush forward, joining his beloved in fighting the beast head-on, spear in hand.

However, Aoife realized the truth of the matter, there was no way the two of them could single-handedly take on a beast as massive as this one. 'Well, not without an advantage.' Aoife corrected himself, a look of cunning flashing within his eyes.

Taking out one of the projects he'd been working on and kept on him since a little before they'd been sent to this island, Aoife took out a little wooden contraption.

Along with this, Aoife took out a spear from the basket resting on his back. While the group hadn't brought anything with them after they'd left, Aoife had still chosen to spend a bit of time to remake what he had chosen not to bring.

While he was a bit angry at Chris' clear hissy fit and had chosen to waste no time in leaving the island, there was still no way he was willing to put himself and the two girls in danger over his anger.

Placing the spear into the wooden contraption with the spearpoint facing outward, it became more apparent what the contraption truly was.

However, what further seemed to bring to light what was currently in Aoife's hand was when he leaned his upper body back, letting his balance rely on one leg as the other moved forward to help produce more force as his torso shot forward like an unwound bow, the spear within his hand sent careening forward.

As Aoife watched the spear whistle through the air, he felt a high degree of satisfaction as he watched it impact where he'd been aiming.

Slamming directly into the behemoth's left eye, Aoife watched on as the creature seemed to shoot backward at the impact, its mouth opening to let out a loud roar of pain.

~~Present Time~~

Aoife covered his ears in shock, the roar being loud enough that Aoife watched as soundwaves from it seemed to knock down trees in the immediate vicinity of the massive animal.

Wasting no time at this, Aoife launched forward from one tree to another, following in the footsteps of Izzy who had long since vanished in the direction of the colossal creature.

As he kept his eyes locked on the creature however, the grin of satisfaction stayed locked on his face. After all, not just anyone could claim they'd managed to take out the eye of a creature that was larger than an elephant.

Staring ahead, Aoife could see as Izzy finally reached the creature, her figure quickly flitting across the now barren land surrounding the creature. Seeming to react rather quickly to the sudden change of the situation, Izzy seemed to stray toward the left side of the creature, keeping out of its line of sight.

This caution seemed almost unnecessary however, as the creature continued to roar out as it raised its hand to hold its face where its eye once was, seeming to have no ability to react to the small figure of Izzy.

By this point, it was clear that Izzy had at least partially come back to her senses, her figure appearing to not directly attack the creature upon first reaching it.

Instead, Izzy gained a look of cunning as she scaled up the creature whose senses were currently overwhelmed with pain, not even feeling as the tiny little creature climbed up its monstrous form.

As she reached its shoulder, Izzy finally made her move, choosing to attack the side of its neck.

Spear thrusting out, Izzy laughed maniacally as it impacted the creatures neck. However, what left her stunned was that the spear seemed to show no impact to the creature, not even nicking the creatures skin.

If she were to be thinking purely logically, Izzy would've long realized the impossibility of a weapon made of wood being capable damaging the skin of the massive creature; however, in her haste, she hadn't even thought of the possibility.

Seeming to notice the feel of something poking at its neck, the creature seemed to regain the presence of mind to flick at its shoulder.

Watching the giant hand reach toward her at a speed that appeared slow but seemed to be deceptively fast, Izzy quickly jumped backward off of the creatures shoulder, dodging the incoming attack.

However, as a result, Izzy found herself in a new and unexpected situation. She was now falling through the air from around seven meters in the air. While this was a height Izzy would typically be capable of easily handling, her current positioning would be less than ideal for hitting the ground.

Nervousness growing, Izzy watched on as she reached around two meters from the ground, her eyes closing in preparation for the impact.

However, just as she prepared herself to implement damage control for her body once she impacted the ground, a figure shot out and grabbed her out the air, landing on the ground before allowing their body to enter a roll to cancel the impact.

This figure was none other than Aoife, who had arrived at the beasts' location just in time to catch the fast-falling figure of Izzy.

Deciding that now wasn't the appropriate time to scold Izzy for her reckless actions, Aoife instead chose to focus his ire toward the beast who had, by this point, regained its awareness.

Glancing up at it, Aoife's eyes locked with the beasts' own, a spark seeming to ignite between the two.

Giving off a savage grin that seemed to convey a message, the beast let out a roar of rage, clearly receiving said message in full.

That message was a simple, 'Yeah, I'm the one who took out your eye.'

With a roar, the palm of the beast slammed down, trying to crush the puny figure whom had caused it such agony.