Aaron nearly brought his shadow out, to attack whoever it was that attacked him from behind, with a slow, big bump of fist on his back.
But he was mistaken.
“I said that I’m doing as best as I could… but to be honest… it’s not really good…”
He could tell that Harry was holding his tears and keeping his voice steady, as best as he could, but it still sounded shaking nevertheless.
“Mom’s a bitch… has been a bitch, his new boyfriend’s no better… I always say that I’m fine, that I don’t care about her at all, and… and that’s probably true — partly true… but… but, when they finally kicked me out, you know… that’s when I felt so relieved…”
Of course… the truth is, he’s always been keeping it inside him… thought Aaron to himself.
“Finally I’m free, doing whatever I want for myself… that’s what I thought… but that’s all there is…” continued Harry, behind him. “I’m just relieved… just live and survive everyday, doing jobs and eating and sleeping and having light talks with other people, but I didn’t know what was missing… until I saw you again…”
He could tell himself that his body became a bit tense as Harry said that. A part of him wanted to push him away and ran away as fast as possible, leaving him all by himself. But in the end, all he could do, and all he did was simply tensing a bit and staying still, not replying and not even moving.
“I miss the old days… I want to go back to those days… where it’s only the three of us… watching sunsets, riding bikes, going to plazas, anything we used to do together…” Harry’s voice shook even more. “I know that it’s probably selfish of me… I don’t know what you’ve been through, although you won’t tell me, but I know that it… it must hurt you so badly… but at this point… I — I couldn’t care less… even if you’re a curse… please… please don’t leave me anymore…”
Shut the fuck up! How long are you going to be fucking clingy like this?! You’re about nineteen years old — nearly twenty years old, and you’ve been well enough all by yourself. And you want me to parent you like before?! How fucking selfish do you want to be, for fuck’s sake?! What about me?! First, I lost my parents, and then I lost her, and then I became the very thing I hate! I have to constantly do all kinds of nasty things and deal with horrible people, I end up having to look over my shoulder all the time! Now I have to take care of you?! Go fuck yourself…
… was what he wanted to say.
But it was stuck in his heart.
Aaron just realized that Harry apparently wrapped him around his hands from behind. So he moved his hand, about to hold his hands, his mouth about to open, ready to say something entirely else…
Except that something blasted behind him.
Part 2
BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…!!!
The impact was powerful, desolating almost everything around it, although it wasn’t damaging for Aaron’s body. Regardless, he summoned his shadow, and wrapped himself with it. The real problem was Harry, who actually received the impact head-on. He immediately wrapped him as well with his shadow, and checked his condition. As far as he saw, Harry was unconscious.
But a rusty broken car on the street, along with other cars, previously behind him, was thrown away by the impact, and although it didn’t hit him at all, he saw that the rusty broken car was flattened quite badly.
That was when he realized that Harry was quite likely dying.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck… Harry… Harry…?” Aaron slapped his cheek twice, as gently as he could. It was hard, because his hand was shaking, and he felt that, if he didn’t hold himself, he could actually punch him in the face, if it would wake him up by force. He didn’t wake up, however, even though Aaron could tell that he was still breathing. Oh, fuck… a blast that powerful from behind… broken ribs, punctured lungs, head injuries… what else could it be…?
No! Right now, I need to get him to a hospital…!
“HEY!”
Before he left, he heard the sound of an adult male, a bit of a bass sound; it was sudden and obviously full of fury. What surprised him was the fact that it was a familiar sound.
“DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE, YOU FUCKING CURSE!”
He turned back, and saw a single person, carrying what appeared to be a big cannon on his right arm. It wasn’t clear who the person was, because he stood too far. By the time he finished assessing the rough situation, the person already fired another ammo toward him.
This time, he was ready. He rode the shadow and dodge the cannon, flashing toward the cannon holder right away. He wrapped himself, and Harry, to shield themselves against any incoming attacks and obstacles. The distance between him and the attacker was hundreds of meters, but he covered it in less than a minute. And with that big ass cannon, you can’t really run… thought Aaron. Moron.
Up closer, he saw that the cannon was energized with the user’s own magic energy, because there didn’t seem to be any slow for the ammo. The firing rate of the cannon was surprisingly fast; even as Aaron approached, the attacker had fired more than twenty shots by his count, all of which was fairly accurate, if not because of his skillful maneuver.
To him, since he had done it so many times, it felt as if the shots themselves slowed down as it approached him, allowing him to dodge it without a single doubt. Wind and raindrops hit his face quite harshly, due to his movement speed, but it didn’t bother him at all.
He shouted, as he was close enough, “You REALLY think you can harm him UNSCHATHED?!”
With a single straight upper swing of his right hand, the shadow burst out from the ground into a paper-thin, long and tall wave, cleanly slicing the attacker, as well as everything else in the way, into halves, in a single go. His other hand was holding on Harry, who was still unconscious. Blood fatigue hit him right away, although he was still enough to continue. He thought that the next move of his would be going straight to the hospital.
But when there was nothing ahead of him, another person popped out of thin air.
It was a man. But from a single glance of his face, there was lots of information to process, all of them were actually terrifying.
He was probably about fifty years old, but he appeared to be midway in swinging his leg for a roundhouse kick quite well, aimed straight to his head. Instead of ordinary shoes, he was wearing the kind of shoes with a knife attached to it. It was sudden, but just at the right time when he had his hands and mind preoccupied to control his magic, and he could tell that he would most likely die right away if it actually hit him. The most surprising and shocking information he received was the eyes of the man.
Silver eyes with purple pupils.
FFUUC — Just in the nick of time, he managed to dodge the kick, by leaning backwards, all while holding Harry and his right hand still above his head. By the time he turned back and was about to attack the newcomer, the man already disappeared, nowhere to be seen.
Teleporter… that’s a pain in the ass…! Thought Aaron. He decided to completely wrap himself with his shadow, leaving only a bit of gaps to look around him. “Where the fuck are you?! Come out and show your face!”
“Ngh…”
A weak grunt of Harry’s on his arm was the one thing that made him realize that Aaron had been holding him. “Harry…?” called Aaron, thinking that he was awake, but what he saw instead was his face, still unconscious and in pain.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake… I need to take him to the hospital…!” said Aaron. He was about to ride his shadow, flashing away from the battlefield.
“Not happening.”
After the man spoke, another explosion happened. Because he was on the thought of escaping, he didn’t see what caused it or where it exactly came from, or even if the bomb itself was teleported right in front of him. The one thing that he knew was that the explosion was particularly powerful, his shadow barrier was weakened by the attack, although it wasn’t enough to actually destroy it.
“What the — the fuck you mean — ” screamed Aaron, frustrated, but because he still realized that Harry was still unconscious and gravely wounded, he snapped, “Oh, fuck it, leave me alone!” and fled, this time, into an abandoned building next to him.
Let’s see how well you teleport inside a dark building you’ve never been into… thought Aaron.
In a glance, it appeared to be the remains of a hotel. He entered a big lobby with all the decorative chandeliers, statues, and fountains, as well as wide reception tables ahead of him. The light of the night from outside didn’t reach the interior of the building, so with normal eyes, it was pitch black. With his yellow eyes, however, he could see well enough in the dark, as if he was using night goggles.
As far as I know, only some of the blessed can see in the dark… thought Aaron, as he spread his shadow to darken the dark side of the hotel. And there’s no telling of how his teleportation works in the first place… what a pain in the ass.
He picked up his phone from his pocket, and made a call, after hiding in the dark to a corner of the lobby. He shouldn't have slept yet at this hour… thought Aaron, as he looked at his surroundings.
A man, certainly the same teleporter, landed in front of the hotel from thin air. This time, he had zombie swords on both of his hands — by his first glance, it appeared to be high-frequency ones — while the knives on his shoes were still there. He simply stood in front of the hotel, looking at the building, before shifting his silver eyes with purple pupils into the interior. He could tell that he was scanning for any movement inside the hotel.
He knew that I could ambush him inside this hotel. Smart. Thought Aaron. It appears that he can’t teleport to places he has never been to… he must be relying on his sight.
“What…?”
The phone call was answered, so Aaron spoke, keeping his voice low, “Gary, where are you…?”
“The bar, as usual — no, I haven’t…”
“I’m under ambush right now. And by one of the blessings, of all. Come and help me right now.” cut Aaron. “I’m in Rusty Streets, inside Hotel… Hotel Ambrossia, or something like that…” he recalled the name of the hotel as he entered it. “”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, what did you do…?”
“Later. Just get here, quickly, right fucking now.” said Aaron, before hanging up the call.
“This is ironic,” said the teleporter suddenly. His voice confirmed that he was at least above forty years old. “You had never cared about innocent people’s death, be it your own doing or someone else’s, until it’s someone you apparently care about.”
It felt like a stab on his heart.
Nevertheless, he replied, with a loud voice, “Yeah, call me a hypocrite or whatever! I don’t fucking care!”
“Then you shouldn’t mind if I don’t fucking care about the one on your wrap, should you? I’d like to make it as painfully and slowly as I can.”
Calm down, calm the fuck down… he’s trying to rage-bait me… Aaron thought to himself, biting his lips, “Ha-ha-ha… as if you can do that…!”
“So I take it that you have never actually dealt with a blessing? That would mean that you’re relatively a new curse.” said the teleporter. “The real experienced curses wouldn’t underestimate the blessings.”
“Bla, bla, bla. All talk, no…”
BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…!!!
The one thing he knew, before realizing that the hotel was bombarded from outside, was that the hotel shook greatly, before eventually falling and crumbling down, squishing whoever inside the building, in a matter of seconds. In a normal situation, he could shield himself from all the rubble, but with Harry still unconscious on his arm, he couldn’t afford being buried by the whole building itself. So he instinctively burst out of the building amidst the rubble and the chaos that followed.
As he got out of the building, he saw that the entire building was indeed blasted to bits. It appeared to be blasted from outside, rather than from inside, aimed only at the pillars of the building. How the fuck could he destroy the entire building…?! That’s raw power, and the one capable of doing that…
“What did I say?”
The voice came from below, so he looked down; apparently there was a big hole in the middle of the abandoned city, tearing the drainage system wide open.
Below him, the teleporter was carrying another man on his back, who happened to have a big cannon attached onto his right arm. It looked similar to the very cannon, as well as the very same person that he sliced previously, completely alive and breathing, as if he had never been sliced up into halves. Up close, its diameter was about half a meter, while its length could reach up to two meters. Inside the muzzle was complete darkness, because he didn’t bother to look into it anyway, and he was right in front of the muzzle, just less than a meter away.
By reflex, because he knew that he wouldn't be able to shield himself and Harry from the attack, he decided to dodge it. He latched his shadow onto anything concrete and solid enough around him, including the cannon’s muzzle itself and the hole’s cliff, and pushed him away from his aiming line.
And it was just in the nick of time. He had to tear off the wrapping shield, while keeping bits to protect Harry, and dodge the burst of energy, in the form of a big launched ammunition. Even as it nearly grazed him, he could feel the energy, somehow making his body somewhat slightly electrocuted and singed, but he knew that it would be death for him if he ever got in contact with it.
And only out of adrenaline, he blocked the piercing attack of the teleporter, straight from above — he summoned a bit of his shadow to be a sword attached to his arm, fortunately strong enough to block his sword. It was exactly after he managed to dodge the cannon attack, somewhat as if he had expected what would happen.
Up close, he could see that the man was indeed at least older than forty years old. Unlike the emotional cannon holder, he looked calm, if not almost expressionless. But Aaron, having seen it so often, was well aware that the man was actually enraged. His silver eyes, with purple pupils, looked straight and deep at the yellow eyes with red pupils, it made him wonder if the rage itself was actually aimed toward Aaron, not just all the curses.
He then swung his leg to kick him in the head, before he thought further about it. It was abnormally fast and strong, it was only possible for a man in his forties, because he was a blessing. Although he could shield his own head from the kick, he was pushed away by it.
“You’re trapped now!” shouted the cannon person, alive and well. That was when he realized that he intended to push him back to the cannon’s aiming line all along. The kick itself was strong, and with the element of surprise, he returned to the cannon’s aim all along.
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