Book 1 – The Shades Beneath The City – Chapter 7 – Red Light Blood
Hearing the hissing sound, Franswift turned back to face the entrance. The sound came from a 3 meters wide and 12 meters tall green serpent with black stripes slithering toward him.
Just looking at the beast made Franswift laugh bitterly as fear struck his heart. So even this hell does not want me. He knew this serpent definitely did not originate from the perimeter of the forest, but somewhere deeper.
He took a deep breath as he regained his composure, gritted his teeth, and entered into focus. staring into the serpent's eyes, in a faint voice, he said, "I will live out of this, no matter what, I will live." Those sentences were to convince himself no matter what happens, whether it being bleed out, getting smashed to the ground, or losing his limbs, he will fight in mud and blood to get out.
He steadily held his shield in front of him while firmly holding the spear in the other hand. While he slowly began to move around the serpent, he said to Joe, “Joe, get your beads ready we have only two options. We blind its eyes and run, or we kill it. We will try our attacks first to see how much damage we can inflict on it.”
Joe seeing the dire situation, nodded and decided to follow Franswift lead.
While Franswift was moving, he used the badge's light to irritate the eyes of the giant serpent. It reacted as expected, springing forward to attack him.
What..!
Within an instant, the serpent was inches away from him.
He jumped sideways and redirected himself with the edge of the serpent's mouth that had stuck his shield. Yet still, the force of the attack sent him sliding.
“What was that?!”
Franswift was utterly baffled. You would think its giant body would hinder its speed, but contrary to that, he was barely able to react.
When he stopped, he quickly repositioned himself. As soon as he did that, the serpent faced Franswift and sprang forward, attacking again. He jumped and rolled sideways, completely dodging the attack this time.
Don’t mention attacking it; I am barely dodging it even when I am in focus. And I am running out of space to dodge. Franswift was utterly frustrated. This can’t continue.
While running in zig-zags, he rushed at full speed to the nearest wall before the serpent could attack. The moment he touched the wall, he did not have to look back to know the serpent had come after him again. He used the wall as leverage and pushed his legs against it, leaping backward. As he fell down, he felt the air splitting and then heard the sound of the serpent crashing into the wall.
When he touched the ground, he rolled forward and turned towards the serpent. He saw three explosions on the top of its head as the serpent hissed loudly. Unfortunately, none of them affected the eyes. They were closed, in addition to the beads landing far from them.
This is my chance to run now. Joe looked carefully for a gap to escape from. Facing this serpent, it was inevitable they would die. And honestly, he did not want to die fighting with Franswift for false hope.
“Joe, get away from there. We will use the rubble at the end of the cave as the wall and repeat t……” Franswift stopped in the middle of his sentence and shouted, “Throw another one now!”
Franswift sprinted at full speed towards Joe, who was standing at the end of the cave beside the rubble. Just now, he saw the serpent staring at Joe with fury and bloodshot eyes. While he was rushing back, he heard a couple of explosions and the serpent hissing again in a rage.
The moment he reached Joe and turned back, he saw it coming towards them through the explosions. Franswift held Joe with one arm and jumped sideways again. But this time, before the serpent hit the rubble, it slowed down and opened its mouth wide open to swallow them. They had dodged before it reached them, making them almost out of danger if not for Franswift other hand, which was holding the shield, getting stuck in the serpent's lower teeth.
Franswift let out a grunt as he felt shocks of pain pass through his left arm entangled between the lower teeth. Even more, his face paled when he found he could not move it. Seeing the serpent's mouth closing down, he gritted his teeth and prepared for the worst.
Yet, Joe, who he thought was powerless, flashed in blue light. His hand covered with a light blue luster threw a couple of beads inside the serpent’s mouth. And as he put his arm over him, his own arm began to have the same blue luster as Joe. He felt a pull taking his arm out when the beads started exploding inside the serpents’ mouth. He could feel a slight heat of the explosions when his arm was getting pulled out, but strangely it did not affect him.
Joe grimaced. What am I doing? Damn it! Did I not just want to escape? I just wasted the perfect opportunity.
Franswift had no time to think about what had happened when he saw the serpent hissing in pain. He could not let go of this chance. He took out a javelin and then jumped on Joes’ head, using it as a platform to jump and leaped backward. The serpent saw Franswift holding the javelin in the air. While it was still in pain, it tried to dodge to the side so it would mess his aim.
Franswift expected as such, which was why he leaped backward where the rubble was. Using it as leverage, he was able to leap even higher. The serpent below him was trying to stop its former movement, but it was too late. Franswift had already thrown the javelin. The javelin found its way and pierced one of the serpents' eyes.
Whilst falling, Franswift took out a pouch and tied it to the tip of another javelin.
“Throw me two beads!”
Joe quickly took out two beads and threw them to Franswift. As he threw the beads, he shouted, “You only have 10 seconds before they explode!”
Joe, concentrating on Franswift, did not notice the serpent rampaging in madness due to losing one of its eyes. And in a flash, it heavily struck Joe and sent him crashing into the rubble.
With the two exploding beads in his hand, Franswift had no time to worry about Joe. He immediately put the beads in the pouch attached to the tip of the javelin.
The moment he landed, he moved to the blindside of the serpent. And as it hissed in pain, he jumped into its mouth. When he landed in its mouth, he jumped again and threw the javelin to the upper part of the serpent's mouth, right below the head.
As he made sure the javelin was buried into the serpent's upper mouth, he positioned himself in the air to fall out of the serpent’s mouth.
Once his feet touched the ground, he instantly ran towards Joe. And just when he moved, he heard the muffled explosion inside the serpent’s mouth followed by a thud to the ground.
When Joe saw Franswift, he sighed a sigh of relief. He was worried about what had happened after silence had dawned the hole.
“How is it?”
“It’s dead.”
“Really? Hahaha, I thought we are dead the moment I saw you desperately attacking, not wanting to die in despair. But it’s actually dead, hahaha.”
Franswift stared in silence as Joe laughed in joy. He could not bring himself to laugh at what was Infront of him. Joe laid in the rubble, horribly injured. His legs were twisted, wholly crushed under the rubble, and there were traces on his shirt and sleeves of him coughing up blood.
“What’s with the grim face, don’t worry, I..…”
“Hey, what are you doing.” Joe was stunned, seeing Franswift carry him with one of his arms as the other was badly damaged and then proceeding to tie him on his back.
“Hold on tight.”
“I asked, what are you doing!”
“You know, you were right when you said I was fighting just not to die in despair. I thought I was going to die when the serpent was almost going to bite my arm. We were most certainly lucky that we fought the serpent in this hole. if it were to stand properly, we would not have even been able to reach its head nor its eyes." Franswift turned to face joe and said, "Nevertheless, we survived, and part of it was thanks to you, so I will not leave you. We will survive again, no matter what.”
Joe wanted to argue, but when he saw Franswift eyes burning with resolution staring at him, he felt his own desire to survive. Ultimately, He was unable to say a thing.
Franswift carried Joe and walked out of the hole while he ate the remaining level 2 and 3 portions of meat that he had and a couple of healing pills. He progressed to move to the alleys where he came from.
Joe asked, “Where are we going?”
As if knowing what was inside Joe’s head, Franswift answered, “With all the noise we made, some beast will definitely come looking here, so we need to leave. As for our direction, we will head to the area where I think there are the least beasts. The slum is roughly shaped like a triangle. When the beasts flooded it and decimated the wider area, they moved on to the buildings. While spreading forward, the majority will take the main streets, and few will take the alleys as it is much smaller. If they were to move accordingly, then after the first sub street, the building area beside the wall will have the least beasts.”
Joe heard the explanation of their action, their next move, and acknowledged it in silence.
As he moved, Franswift tried to avoid as many beasts as possible. If they ever got surrounded, Joe would throw a bead, and then they would rush out and lose the beasts.
At the same time, as Franswift walked, his heart got heavier and heavier. There were mountains of corpses wherever they went, blood became the color of the streets, and fire was the illumination of the night. The screams that had filled his ears became smaller and smaller as time flowed, passing on to the growling of beasts.
And just when he had hoped he would reach the safe area and his hope grew. It would only be snuffed out as the same as the fire of this hell would be snuffed out, with blood.
At the point where Franswift had almost reached the safe area, he heard a screech in the sky. He flinched and felt his mouth run dry as he saw a bunch of hawks roaming in circles in the sky above him.
He tried to lose them and dashed between the alleys trying to confuse them. Still, they easily followed. Taking the second option, Joe threw the beads, yet, they were able to agilely avoid them.
Franswift ran with all his might in the hope of losing them, but as he ran, the hawks began diving in, causing injuries to him and Joe. And injuries upon injuries began to pile upon them.
And to finish off their despair, they heard an ear-splitting buzz of bees coming, their dagger sized stingers dripping with venom.
“Franswift you s..”
“I will not hear anything you say.” Franswift refused to listen to any word Joe would say.
But Joe continued as he took out his necklace and put on Franswift “should leave me, I will jump off, and if yo...”
“No!”
“If you stay with me, know you would have wasted my death for nothing.”
“One final thought from me, the ghost guards were not responsible for this. It is not even within their full jurisdiction. Whoever did this is very high up with a lot of support from the council. I just have on final request, If you ever…..” Joe’s voice turned very malicious as he continued. "If you ever……. Find yourself in a position with power. Burn them, burn them all, burn them to ashes, just like they did to us.”
“I said …” as Franswift was running, he felt Joe falling on the ground. He looked back at Joe on the ground and wanted to stop but, it was as Joe said, if he stopped, then what was Joe doing now would be for naught.
He faced forwards, biting his lips till blood started flowing out. His face flushed with blood, with veins throbbing around his neck as he clenched his teeth. His eyes were filled with red veins, and tears were a push away from coming out. But regardless, he continued running without looking back anymore, afraid if he did, he would stop.
Joe, who watched the youth run away, smiled and turned away to watch the beasts coming. He threw two beads, one at the bees and one at the hawk that was almost upon him. The bead that was directed at the hawk exploded, killing the hawk and sending Joe flying backward.
As Joe sat up, he coughed up blood. He saw both the bees and the hawks who were beginning to split to chase Franswift, all face towards him, enraged at the death of their species.
“Are you angry little beasts? Well, come at me, hah *cough*,” Joe coughed as he tried to laugh whilst throwing more beads to ward off the beasts that came towards him.
When Joe saw the beasts fuming in fury and gathering to do a full-on attack at him, He thought to himself. The kid’s naivety is rubbing off on me. First, the serpent, and now this. He did not leave Franswift because he was chivalrous or something, nor was he wicked to the point of taking Franswift with him to death. He was a smuggler; he had done a lot of dirty and shady things, but that was it.
Before this point, he knew he and Franswift couldn't survive. It was when they had met the serpent. But the youth kept on fighting and abided by some verbal deal that held no power. In the end, he thought to himself, maybe if he died and lessened the youth burden, at least, perhaps the youth could survive.
But how he helped him with the serpent and provoked the beasts in order to ignore Franswift was out of his expectations. Well, maybe that kid did influence me somehow. Sometimes I forget he is only 12. At the end of his thoughts, he saw most of the beast had rushed to attack. He just smiled candidly and activated all the beads on him with his life.
Franswift heard the terrifying explosion at the back. He wanted to continue to move forward silently, but he saw some beasts on the ground blocking his path. When he saw these beasts trying to stop him and the corpses littered on the ground accompanied by the sound of the explosion, something inside him snapped. His anger at his weakness, his fury at the beasts, his madness against whoever made this death trap, and his despair at Joe’s death, all exploded at once.
His focus ability suddenly enhanced to an exaggerated degree. Everything around him stopped in place, the fire, the screams, the beasts, and the sound of the explosion behind him.
He noticed the change, but he did not care, nor did he want to think about it. He let loose to his fury and anger on every beast he saw on his way, killing everything he encountered. He could react to every beast that attacked, only ending it with a single pierce or a swipe to kill them.
When he reached the safe area, he didn’t remember how and when. He looked around and saw one of the black-armored guards standing atop a one-story building and quickly climbed that building. When he reached the roof and saw the guard didn’t stop him, he sat down on a corner. Just as his body touched the ground, his head was attacked with a sudden unbearable headache, together with unending pain unable to withstand any of this, he collapsed. All that remained on his mind was “Weak.”
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