Everything seemed to move in slow motion yet also so fast that I could barely keep up. One second I was enjoying the stars and beautiful night sky with Thalia. She had been smiling, a smile that rivaled any of the stars in the sky. Nearly as bright as my friend that is so far away right now. It had given me hope, yet now the night was missing one star. That smile was replaced with confusion and shock, those deep eyes growing dimmer and wide. Her breathing softened, her body growing weaker and paler, and the source of all of this pain. Was an arrow that was sticking from her chest.
And all I could do was scream.
I screamed so loud and so long that my throat burned. My eyes blurred from the tears. I couldn't stop from falling. Olive was the first to come standing in front of me, just as confused and worried as I was. Dr. Drakos’s was next pushing me away from his granddaughter to hold her barely breathing body. Violent calling for the one that had probably ordered the shot. “HELENA!”
I was pushed again by Olive as another barrage of arrows came flying towards us like pink shooting stars. Things were going so fast, yet moving so slow for me, it was my world stopped spinning. While Olive protected us with her three sectioned staff. Thalia was taken away by her grandfather who shared in this newfound rage and anger that was building in my chest like a storm. I heard Olive try to tell me that the other ship was coming, that we have to get away and escape. Yet at that moment I didn’t move, no matter how strong she was she would not drag me from this spot. My eyes narrowed on that ship, there someone had hurt my new friend and it was time to cause them as much pain as I could.
No one else would get hurt. I would keep one or all of them busy.
Even if it cost me my life.
“Let them come.” I replied darkly as I summoned my curve hilted blade to my side. My grip on the handle was strong enough that I wondered if I could shatter it. My vision was red, my eyes stung, my throat ragged from screaming for help. This was my fault, if I hadn’t been sitting down here then Thalia wouldn’t have come down here. She would be fine, probably laughing at me but fine. Just like all those years ago, it was always my fault that someone got hurt! It should have been me, in pain.
It should have been me.
Now it was time for me to hurt someone, it was time for me to get revenge for what those people do. They take and destroy, conquer and keep, they kill whoever gets in their way. I heard Olivia race back up the small staircase to probably warn everyone else. I would stay down here with my blade out and get ready for a fight. I didn’t need to wait long, as a boy dropped from the sky like he was a superhero. He landed silently, his long white hair flowing behind him like a cape, a few strands spilled over his eyes. Asher Blackthorn had come to face me after all. His pale skin seemed to shine in the darkness, the halfmoon was our spotlight for the battle that was to come. I heard a bit more yelling and a heavier thud, the larger man probably had arrived as well.
I didn’t care about him. “Why…” that was all I could breathe out.
Asher looked up at me, his white eyes almost looking like voids. I could hear a rattle going off from the snake around his shoulders. Asher held his hand out and his spirit animal slithered off him, it was around five feet long, it’s tail shaking like crazy. He had a rattlesnake spirit. “I had nothing to do with your friend being shot, blame my sister for that.”
“I will kill you for her sins.”
Asher raised an eyebrow at me and then jumped back nearly to the edge of this platform as I thrusted my blade forward towards his head. “Not even gonna let me summon my weapon? Don’t you want a fair-” I didn’t let him finish as I raced forward, my blade slashing and cutting through the air with ease. He jumped backward, his feet sliding a bit as he stopped himself from falling over the side of this boat. We didn’t have much room on this slight platform on the back of the boat. It was an oval-shape, an area that let divers have a better spot to climb on and it also helped others climb onto the jet skies that were tied just to the side of our boat. There were only ten stairs that led back to the second floor and backside, from there another staircase that would take you to the top deck.
I was back on this boy like a moth drawn to a flame. I would not allow him to summon his netrix weapon, this was not gonna be a fair fight. They didn’t deserve a fair fight. So I kept him on the back foot, reading his movements and seeing what foot he liked to move off of first, where he shifted his weight to when he dodged. What his dominant hand, how fast he was at putting his protection aura up. I was blessed when it came to combat, it came naturally. Each tail that my nine tail fox had, was knowledge information on nine fighting styles and nine different blades that I could summon. My curved hilted blade was arguably my strongest style, depending on where I held the hilt I could slip though other weapons, I could change where I was gonna strike, how far it could go, the angle of attack.
I grasped as the boy twisted around my next attack and kicked me hard in my back. He moved like a serpent I couldn’t pin him down or get close enough to truly land a blow on him. I ignore the pain focusing all of my aura into amplification, I didn’t care about protection aura. I would keep attacking, I would force this body to heal if it was damaged. He slipped under one of my thrusts and in a flash grabbed my wrist under his arm and forced it to the right, making me drop my blade. He then kicked it over the side of the boat before tossing me over his shoulder and onto the hard base of this platform. My air escaped my lungs but I wasted little time in flipping back up to my feet. I lifted my leg just in time to block his incoming kick, I grunted as a sharp pain filled my shin and ran through my body.
He pushed back and we both slid a few feet backwards. “You are good, I will admit that.” He settled back into a stance, he didn’t summon his netrix weapon but the veins in his arms glowed a white color as if his blood was white. He was amplifying his aura with jepei and I followed suit. I unsummoned my netrix weapon and brought in another one, the smallest of all my weapons, a curved dagger. His eyes shifted into violent slits of a snake. However, right as we were about to go for round two, the boy’s proper stance shifted as from out of nowhere. Victoria, Olive’s animal spirit, jumped onto his back. Her arms wrapping around his neck and her angry cries so loud that they stung my ears. He twisted around trying to drag the monkey off his back, however this gave me an opening that I needed. I was on him in a second, my aim true and I slammed my blade down towards Asher. He growled as my blade sunk maybe an inch into his shoulder, he had switched from amplification to protection in a moment stopping my blade from causing more damage.
He kicked me in the chest to knock me away and then grabbed Victoria the back of the neck and threw her towards me. I caught the small ape in my arms, but somehow in that moment he had summoned his extremely long and thin blade and thrusted it forward towards me. My eyes went wide as once again my world moved in slow motion as that blade came towards me. I gasped as Victoria kicked me in the chest knocking me on my back and then I heard a cry explode into the air. That blade had cut into Victoria’s side slicing through the shirt of jepei she was so fond of wearing, and deep into her side. Her form shuddered for a moment but she stayed strong and then leapt over behind me.
“Thank you,” I whispered towards her. “Where is Olive?”
“Fighting.” She answered.
“Flame,” I thought to myself. “Where are you?!” I had not seen him since this fight had started.
I heard his voice a moment later. “I’m chasing after this stupid snake, he is trying to get something we found.”
“Destroy him,” I ordered standing up and instead of my small dagger. I held my hand and a single edged katana appeared in my hand. A few heavy breaths escaped me as I was running low on jepei. I had used a lot of it to keep me awake already, and it took a lot of our jepei to even create our netrix weapons and I had made three of them already, however that didn’t matter right now. I settled into the simple stance of a samurai and let out a slow breath. I had to relax, especially with such a long weapon like his looking down at me. “I will destroy his master.”
Our battle couldn’t have lasted more than one or two minutes at most. The platform we were standing on was filled with slashed. The air was snowing a mix of red and white jepei from each and every clash of our of our blades. His extremely long needle-like blade was giving him the clear advantage in our battles. He had held more reach now, he moved this long weapon around like it was weightless. Even when I did manage to block his attack, he would keep thrusting forward finding places to cut slash me. I was covered with small thin cuts that were dripping with bright red blood. My arms, legs, and torso, my shirt was ribbons at this point, however despite that I was still standing, and I refused to fall, I refused to let this pain take over me.
I took a step back ducking underneath his next powerful slash. My eyes were locked onto him with a fury that would not be put out. I didn’t care what this fight might cost me, not right now at least. So as he thrusted his blade forward, I didn’t care as it cut deep into my cheek and though my cheek bone. I let out a roar of pain and rage as I went all the way down this blade until finally I reached a stunned looking Asher. I didn’t care about the warm river of blood that spilled from this wound as I lifted my sword high and slashed him across the chest sending shards of white jepei flying into the air as well as the sickening sound of blood splattering on the ground. His eyes widened in what looked to be surprise in fear, as he attempted to leap back.
“No!” I snapped, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him back over to me. In the same motion I slammed my forehead into his nose shattering it on impact. He lifted his head up and a pained grunt escaped his lips. He stumbled back a bit, holding his nose with one hand and swinging his long blade around wildly. I slid underneath his blade and behind him, twisting my blade backwards and another loud scream filled the air as I slammed my blade right through his leg. I felt it hit the blood, I heard more blood splatter on the ground. I was back on my feet in an instant and one last kick sent him falling down onto his slide. His blade clattering to the deck as he held his leg letting out curses of pain.
Ignoring the heavy fatigue that was starting to run through my body. I walked after Asher who was now crawling on the ground towards the edge of the ship. He screamed again as I stomped down onto his bloody leg. “No!” I repeated as I lifted my blade up high above my head. “You don’t get to run away!” I snapped.
“You get to die!”
Before I could deliver the final blow. Victoria slammed into me tackling me to the ground. “What are you doing!” I demanded as I threw the small ape off me, just in time to see a flicker of pink and Asher was gone. A large osprey spirit wrapped its long talons around his shoulders and lifted him into the air. Being closely followed by that pink haired bitch of a girl, Abigail I think her name was.
I had him dead to rights. I spun on Victoria who had let my prey escape from me! “Why!” I snapped as I struck Victoria across her face, knocking her to the ground. “Why did you do that!”
Before she could answer I turned my anger back onto the flying animal and let out a scream one more time not caring about my sore throat. “Cowards!” I screamed out, “you damn cowards, come and fight me!” I didn’t stop screaming until finally Olive grabbed me by the shoulder.
My eyes followed her own as Xaiver was lifted to the surface. He was dripping both water and blood from two heavy wounds, and as we rushed to get him to safety. It was then that I noticed what Vicky had done. Right behind me starting to fade away into pink shards of jepei, where my head was probably once was, where four long arrows, probably from four arrows.
The little monkey that I had stupidly slapped, had tackled me out of the way of that. She kept my useless ass alive, and what did I give her in return.
I looked back at Victoria who looked at me and faded back into Olive’s gemstone.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
And I truly was.
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I didn’t mean to do what I did. My mind was so focused on trying to get to Thalia that I probably was being a jerk to the nurses that were trying to stop me. Even more of a dick to the five security guards that held me on the ground. If Olive hadn’t come when she did then I probably was about to be teased and arrested. “Don't start!” She scolded firmly as I made a weak attempt to free myself of her grasp. She pulled me down into a nearby chair before adding. “You are just gonna make this all worse!”
As she said that, all I could do was hang my head for a moment, and I whispered in a voice so quiet that not even I could really hear it. “I-I know,” I leaned my head against the girl’s shoulder, finally letting my pain and sadness fall in the form of large salty tears. “I know,” I whispered again as I clung onto her shirt. “Why do I ruin everything?” I raised my voice again and added. “Why do they take everything from me?”
I was grateful that Olive wrapped one of her strong arms around me and held me close. She was warmer than I thought, or maybe my skin was just so cold. I couldn’t stop shaking, the tears felt endless. All she could do was shush me, “It’s okay, everything is gonna be okay.” I wanted to believe her words, I really did, but nothing was ever okay for me. Everything I cared about was being ruined, I thought I had two lights in my life but now I was probably back to having one. I thought this was gonna be a fun adventure but now it’s not. It was somehow all my fault and I truly hated myself for that fact.
I somehow ran out of tears and all I could do was sit in these horribly stiff hospital chairs as we waited for some kind of news. Olive eventually stood up to get us something to eat from the cafeteria, probably was gonna force me to at least take a few bites. I had my jacket over my head so I could rest my eyes for a moment but I knew I would not sleep. We were far away from those members of the dark order but even then I didn’t feel safe. When I finally took my jacket off my eyes, guilt filled my chest as I saw a very small monkey spirit looking my way. Victoria was hiding behind a nearby wall, her large brown eyes just looking at me, honestly in those jepei made clothes of hers she looked like a small child.
A small child that I had struck like a damn fool.
I held my hand up to her but then held it back down, and looked at the tiled floor of this hospital. I always ended up hurting people when I was stuck in my own head, and I had a feeling that nothing I said could truly fix this. A moment passed and I felt something tap my thigh. I looked up and found Vicky’s long tall was tapping my thigh. She looked up at me with a scared but strong smile on her face. “Are you, okay?”
I gave her a small nod. “Are you?”
“Yeah,” Vicky climbed up into the chair beside me. Her hands playing with her long brown fingers, her legs kicking with a brisk pace. Her entire body matched Olive’s jepei aura, all except for the engraved vest and pants she was wearing of a lighter brown shade.. “Momma doesn’t know I am out here.”
“She doesn’t?”
The ape shook her head. “And she doesn’t know what you accidently did. I won’t tell her.” Her changing it so that it was an accident, somehow made me feel even more guilty.
“I am so sorry.” I whispered. I felt a need to cry once more but I was out of tears. “You saved my worthless life, and I didn’t even say thank you yet.” I held my hands together in a tight grasp. I felt my long nails digging into my palms as I did. “I won’t ask you to forgive me, but I promise you. It will never happen again. You have my word, as much as it could be valued.”
A moment passed before Victoria placed her hand on top of mine and I let her pull my fingers apart. “It’s okay,” she answered. She motioned for me to bring my head lower and I gasped as she pressed my cheeks together with her hands and gave them a rub. “That is for hitting me.” She then smiled before pressing her lips to my temple. “And that is for protecting me.”
“What do you mean?” I was confused.
She took her hands away. “During the fight, you kept me safe the whole time.” It took a moment for me to process it but then I did start to remember it. “Everytime, that boy came at me or wanted to hurt me, you always stepped in, you kept him away from me.” I barely remember it, but I did remember jumping into a few of his strikes. A few directed at the small monkey spirit that had been fighting by my side. She couldn’t do much but she always found a few openings to hit him or make him focus on her for just a moment so I could slash off parts of his protective coating.
“I am sorry, I couldn’t help more.” She added.
“No,” I said, reaching out with a gentleness I didn’t think I had and rubbed her head. Enjoying the feeling my fingers running through the light jepei aura that a top of her head like hair. “You helped me and saved my life… thank you for that Victoria.”
She beamed up at me but she did become stern for a bit. “If you do hit me without reason again. I am gonna tell my momma, and she will kick your butt.”
My lips lifted just a bit as relief filled my body. “I understand, and I will take it from her and you.” Victoria smiled once more before fading away into dark brown jepei and flew towards a corner. Probably to go and rest with Olive for a bit.
At least for the first time since all that mess started. I did feel a bit happier now, maybe I had one more thing to protect.
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When I left Thalia’s hospital room. It didn’t make me feel much better than before. She looked so weak, so delicate that even an ant could break her like she was made of glass. She was breathing with the help of a machine. I was told that she was gonna be okay, especially once this blood donor came. She had lost a lot of blood, the arrow had missed her heart by inches but it hit something important. The problem with jepei arrows was that they could be unsummoned by the user, and once that happened. The blood would leak out, normally if shot with an arrow you can’t pull it out or you risk very bad blood loss. With jepei arrows you were at the mercy of the person who shot it.
I walked by Dr. Drakos who was nursing his own wounds from the battle. He had pretty tightly wrapped ribs and his nose was tapped up but other than that he seemed okay. “This is not your fault young man.” I stopped beside him but I didn’t turn to look at him, I couldn't bring myself to do so. “What happened was not your fault, but the fault of a mad woman and her damned family.”
“If I wasn’t sitting there, then she wouldn’t have come to check on me.” I replied sadly.
“That shot could have come from anywhere at any time, it was just unluckily that it happened while you were sitting there.” He placed a large hand on my shoulder patting it twice. “Do not beat yourself up over all of this, understand me. Your friends need you strong right now, cause I am sure your journey is gonna be a long one. What you three are looking for is more important than I think we all thought.”
“Yes sir.”
He gave me one last pat on the shoulder before heading back into his granddaughter’s room. “One more thing.” He said in a firm voice. “I let it slide once, but if you come visit and I find you in a tent alone with my granddaughter. I will rip you limb from limb.” My cheeks flushed slightly as I looked back at the Greek man who gave me a mix of a stern look and a smile. “I will see you later, Daniel.” He walked into the room and closed the door behind him.
“Now you have two people to worry about,” Flame noted as he stood up to follow beside me. “Cause between Olive and Mr. Drakos’s, who would rather take your chances at?”
“I will choose neither.”
When I entered Xaiver’s room. I was glad to see that the boy was at least sitting up under his own power. I couldn’t see Olive anywhere, so I guess it was only gonna be us for a while. “Hey man,” I greeted with a small wave. “How are you doing?”
He gave me a gentle smile. “Well I am alive, my wounds aren’t killing me anymore, and I feel like a bit of a loser for getting my ass kicked.”
“At least you are alive.”
“Yeah.”
I sat down in a chair next to his bed. “Where is Olive?”
“She went to get me something to bite onto.” He answered. “We don’t have a lot of time to waste, so I am gonna speed this healing process up a bit with amplification.” He looked at me for a moment. “Any tips to ignore the pain?”
Using the amplification technique to speed up healing, was a dangerous game. You had to be very careful or you might do it wrong, and it didn’t help that speeding up healing used a good portion if not all of your jepei to do so. It also hurt like hell. “You get used to it, when you have done it as much as I have. What are our next steps?”
“We are gonna need to hit the books and figure out what was taken. Olive said she saw Abigail leave with a single scroll. We have to figure out what it is, and try to beat them there. I have a feeling that these people aren’t just after the wreckage of a tower long since destroyed. There is something there that they want and if it is worth doing all of this stuff, then it has to be kinda special.”
I noticed that the boy’s hand was shaking a bit as he said that. “Are you scared?”
“I’m not scared… well yeah I am scared at the idea of facing the dark order.” He lifted his hand up a bit. “But I am not really that scared, no I am pissed. There are a lot of things I need to tell you, but to make a long story short for now. Helena is a relative of the woman that had Rhea killed, and I am ninety percent sure she is the one that hurt Sarah so much.” My eyes widened slightly at that. “And if I am not wrong, she might be still looking for my little friend. And I will be damned to hell if I let that happen.”
I understood his anger more than anything in the world. And I was all for it. “I owe them some payback of my own, now for two things they did to me. Well three.”
“What’s the third one?”
“They hurt my annoying co-worker.” That got the boy to smile as he held out a fist to me.
“Well let’s do our best as friends to get back at them. I need a friend to trust, not a co-worker. You with me Daniel?”
I bumped my fist against his as well. “I am with you.”
That was a promise.
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