BON-BON
“What the fuck is a Wyvern?” I asked with a hiss. “Literally the elites of the Gray Scales. Not too skilled as a Behemoth, but they have a nasty habit of grouping up on strong warriors.”
Well. At least I know they can’t hurt me.
“Where is the Hero?” I asked as I was using my Descry ability.
I couldn’t detect him at all. This was beginning to become problematic. Scanning at the limits of my vision, I couldn’t see anything. Not even one mana signature. “Shit.” The word slipped out of my lips.
Summoning my staff, I was about to move, Reizha jerking my arm. She was already trying to find a way around this. I was analyzing the situation, the two knights already climbing the wall.
I have never felt this bottled-up fear. But the other emotion I felt, it was making my body moving by itself. The speed my body was reaching was shocking. As I reach one of the knights, I slammed their body onto the icy ground.
I didn’t hear a snap, but I felt it. The neck I was gripping was loose. It made the head move inhumanly. I held my bile in my throat, the sensation being as if I drank way too much soju.
As I heard a sword unsheathing, I whipped my body back, in which I didn’t intentionally tried to attack the knight. The cracking of the sword echoed and by instinct, I summoned ice and made it into a thin pole. The pole went straight through the knight and left a hole the size of basketball.
The body fell and as I was about to lift myself, I heard a swoosh passing by and with my reflexes, I stopped an arrow that was going straight to my face.
Huh. So, this is what it feels like to be badass.
Snapping the arrow, I tried to view my surroundings. As I was about to turn my left, I felt a sudden shot of crimson lightning. My body slammed against the closed gates. Coughing, I felt how my lungs tried to take in air.
Gasping, I let out a sigh. “Coward.” I said with gritted teeth. Steps sounded on the side, in which a man in green-emerald armor approached. His serpentine glowing eyes scanned every inch of me. It made me shiver.
He turned to look at the two knights dead and motionless. “You are quite fast. But not fast enough to avoid my attack.”
His hair, tied to in single long tail behind his head, his bangs covering most of his face, messy with a greenish tinge. He stood still and turned his view back to me. “I was told to bring you alive. But that your traveling companion will die by my hands.”
I felt how my heart felt hollow; the simple words were enough to make me want to break down. His voice told me he wasn’t asking.
“What makes you think I would just go with you?” I asked. He didn’t smile. He didn’t laugh, he just stood in silence and with a frown of disappointment.
“It’s such a shame I have to beat you; it would’ve helped to avoid in making your face purple.”
Before I could move, I was slammed once more with the gates. This time, the gates didn’t hold the energy, breaking as I fell with it. The snow turned into a white mist as I used my ice to push the piece of metal that had my arm pinned.
No time was wasted as he appeared in front of me, his eyes showing his glee. “Still want it the hard way?” He said mockingly. Shrugging, I used my staff to push his body back, but it only made the pressure push the soldiers who follow him back to the road.
“Fucking bitch.” He said as blood dripped from his mouth. Taking another step, he appeared eye to eye and grabbed my throat.
I was no match for him; I already knew that. But how the hell will I stall for time. He slammed me to the ground, the pebbles and snow blinding me. The flash and dizziness made it difficult to regain my vision.
Before I could speak, I was slammed once more, this time accompanied by an electric shock. The crimson tendrils crept around my body, my muscles tightening, my heart barely pumping.
Not thinking twice, I used my finger to create an icicle, snapping towards his stomach. He stopped the lightning and dropped me.
Coughing and taking deep breaths, I didn’t let the Hero have a moment of peace. Summoning my staff, I created a sharp thin piece of ice and sliced his knees.
He held in his cussing and slammed his leg on the ground, breaking as I backed out from where he stood. He stared at his wound, and with a single pull, he glared at the icicle with a disgusted expression.
“Ice? How is that possible?” He looked at me with a different set of eyes. This time, I knew he wasn’t going to play around. As if teleporting, I felt how a punch slam against my stomach, my body unable to take the impact.
I couldn’t feel my body. Then, a sudden swoosh interrupted my dizziness. Pushing myself, I flipped in the air, my heart pounding way too fast. My reflexes made everything slow, except for the Hero.
His hand launched and with a thunderous clap, the wall behind me was pulverized. I was not going to beat him by facing him directly. Just as I thought this, Reizha appeared, her sword stained in blood of what may be the Gray Scales.
Her hand began to spark, and she whispered a few words before launching a strong fireball that shined yellow. As it touched the back of the Hero, he looked annoyed. The simple attack was already useless as he was a Hero, to which he snapped his arm, a crimson lightning crackling towards her.
I didn’t know why my body was moving on its own again, but I did feel the desire to save her. Reizha was moving slow, her hand barely lifting as I reached her. I knew that if I held her, the lightning would just go through both of us.
Pushing her and creating snow, I was struck by the attack while Reizha fell onto a small hill of snow. I gasped, the air not entering my lungs. My arms and legs twitched and my fingers barely being able to straighten.
Coughing and wheezing, I knew I wasn’t going to last against him. He already had experience in war, in a fight. This was going to take forever.
The Hero lifted a hand, slamming it to the ground and breaking it, a sudden shot of green fire came hurdling towards me, but Reizha pushed me away with her.
My body couldn’t stop twitching; it was already dangerous how weak I was. But now Reizha stood next to me, making it more difficult to face him.
“You can’t face him head on; you’ll need to use tricks.” She whispered. “Yeah, well, I’m thinking of something.”
As I said this, Reizha pushed me, the sudden attack of the Hero barely touching us. Reizha turned but was pushed far from where we stood. Her grunt was all I heard before getting grabbed by my arm.
He stared at Reizha with annoyance, then turned them to look at me. “How unfortunate for you, the desire to protect will not last long.” I chuckled.
“That’s what you might believe.” Grabbing his arm, I began to freeze it. I might lack knowledge of my power and not have much experience in fighting. But I don’t need to beat him, only need to keep him distracted.
He felt the cold as his hand trembled and let go of me. For that single second, my hands began to create a frost so cold it made my body temperature drop. With the spell forming and the mana turning into ice, I shot it towards his torso, the sudden blast making him fall to his knees.
My hands twitched, trying to recover the movement of my fingers. “No wonder that element is rare.” He coughed blood, with it, his lips began to turn purple. The blast was freezing him from the inside, the mana in his body creating frostbite.
There was no chance it would last. My powers had no chance in beating a superior Hero. From his speed and strength, he might be a Phase 6 at most. Three levels higher than me.
The ice began to calm down on my hands, the numbness of my fingers fading. Just like that, I turned to the Hero, his eyes glowing with hate.
Taking in a deep breath, I began to conjure a new spell. The spell began to form gusts and with that, sharp thin blades of wind turned and shot towards the Hero.
The winds slammed against him, but I lost all color from my face. His body, it was healing, the gusts didn’t do any damage at all. His eyes turned to me, filled with ecstasy.
“Is that all you got, Seoul Hero?” I groaned in my throat, the sudden alert in my System warning me that the Hero was already moving to hurt me badly.
Taking a shift in mana, I fused my body with it to take the hit, but it never came. Out of nowhere, the Hero appeared next to me, his hand placed firmly on my ribs, and with it a strong pulse of mana came to blow.
It was instant, the numbness made my body drop like a sack, the snow covering half my vision from the ground.
His foot almost crushed my head as I pulled my body to the side as I sunk my fingers onto the ground. Lifting my body, I made a full spin backwards, the speed of my kick making his lip spill blood.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” He shouted as he turned and stood with his hands opened. A single fist came quick, then a hook. His hands infused with mana; this told me he wasn’t as strong as Juno physically.
Even if Heroes can injure their own kind, Heroes showed to have different stats and capabilities that made each one unique. By the looks of it, he wasn’t the physical type, but the fast one. His punches and kicks came too fast for my body to follow.
Even if my body couldn’t keep up the pace, my eyes could follow them perfectly. He was getting excited, maybe because he has been sloppy at his task in taking me.
The bruises on my body healed almost the same time I received more. He was getting faster, the energy in each hit being precise on my muscles and joints. He was trying to push my body to its limit. His smile creeped with each combo of hits.
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“Don’t lose that spirit, girly.” He said as one kick landed on my ribs. Coughing, I tried to look for a pattern, yet this guy was not fighting in anyway, no martial arts and no fighting style. He was beating me as if this were a street fight. Before I could grab his kicking leg, he lifted up midair and slammed his knee into my face.
A sudden flash of light blind my vision, a hot liquid pouring from my nose and side of my cheek. Blood. His knee came too hard, his hit strong enough to make me lose my vision. My healing wasn’t working as fast as before.
Shit. I’m going to pass out.
My System began to alert me, but I couldn’t give it much attention, my thoughts only focused on surviving this fight. Through the entrance, I could see how soldiers began to march in, the Gray Scales of the Hero Empire began to launch fireballs and shots at the buildings.
This made something inside me get filled with a rage I never knew I had. Lifting my hand, I shot a condensed explosion of ice, which made the first lines of the marching soldiers freeze. They were dead, and with that, the soldiers needed to break through layers of thick ice.
Getting slammed onto the ground again; the Hero looked at the many soldiers he just lost.
Whistling, his face didn’t show a man who lost a brother in arms, instead he was impressed, his eyes filled with surprise and hype. He wasn’t a sane man, I know now why they are dangerous. Not because they rebelled, not because they are strong. They were mentally lost, their action now making sense.
These people only wanted chaos. They needed it to have excitement. It’s as if they didn’t know anything else.
As I was lifted, my eyes locked with his. “For a mere amateur, you’re quite smart. Did you really not know I was coming, or are you that talented?”
“Sir! We have formed a circle around the kingdom, awaiting orders!” A soldier shouted to the Hero.
“Begin invasion, kill as many as you can. The elves must be extinguished for the source of Great One.”
“Motherfuc—!” I tried to shout at him, but he grabbed with both hands my neck and with a great strength, he began to tighten his grip, and with it my conscious.
The sight began to fail, and the image of my mother came to me. She was crying, her tears falling down on my cheeks. Her honey brown eyes grew wary, her tears making my eyes begin to water.
I can’t be taken. I still have a family to return to back on Earth. I reject the idea of being a prisoner. This Hero won’t take me.
My body felt cold, this temperature being enough to freeze even the air. The Hero noticed the lowering of the temperature wasn’t normal.
As he tried to breathe, blood spilled from his coughing. “Fucking shit!” He shouted before letting go of my throat.
Air began to return to my lungs, and long gasp came to me. The coughing of the Hero didn’t stop, but what came was a sudden punch that slammed where my head would have been if I didn’t move.
Taking a second to breathe, I lifted my hand, the cold breeze turning to snow. I was not going to give up easily.
From the distance we had, I began to calculate the total ice projectiles I was going to shoot. But an idea came quickly, and I began to use the air particles to freeze, creating ice spikes the same size as me.
They surrounded the Hero, and with that, I shot them with the help of wind magic. They slammed onto the ground, and many pierced him.
Ice magic was truly scary, that is because of my emotions and empathy along other factors that made me human began to fade with more time I kept on using it. My fear was leaving and with it, a desire to kill him only grew more and more.
This wasn’t me, or I have always been someone like that inside. No, it was the element. Magic is something that helps people but needs something in return, for ice, it’s to take the warmth of the user. That includes even the emotions and feelings that make me a person.
Sliding my legs and pressing down on the ground, I shot a ball of mana inside the body of the Hero, this time doing damage to him.
His wheezing grew more agitated, his lungs whistling from his breathing. He was injured. But I knew he would begin healing that moment.
I enhanced my body with mana. That like that, I began to punch and kick him. Picturing how Noctis moved, I threw a knee, his ribs bending by the impact. That hurt even if I was enhanced.
The seconds passed and I began to feel numbness on my knuckles and legs. The sudden tiredness came, and with it, the Hero began healing.
“Dammit!” I cursed as I tried to land another hit. He broke the spike that pierced his right arm and punch me on my face. I flew a few meters before landing on the ground.
“March in! Take out as many as you can!” He shouted as he shot my ice spike at the entrance. Breaking the wall, Gray Scales began to enter.
Barely lifting a hand, I shot ice mana at the soldiers entering, the Hero managed to stop it from reaching them.
He smiled as he showed his left hand healing. “You truly are skilled. Almost had me if my pride blinded me.” He launched at me, the sudden shine of metal coming to view.
A sword. The thin katana like blade got closer to my face, but I was able to dodge it by falling backwards. He was surprised as the wall behind me was obliterated.
I felt a sudden chill, looking back at the Hero, he was going to slice me in half. Rolling to my right, I was pushed by the shockwave of the hit to the ground.
This wasn’t going well; I was being pushed around. Spitting a bit of my blood, I snarled at the Hero.
The sensation of mana warping inside my Cosmo, a tingling making my heart begin to race. Anxiety? No.
I gripped my chest, that was a sign that the Hero noticed. His smiles faded as he knew something I didn’t.
As I tried to move, a rush of adrenaline made my body burn up, the ice melting and my sudden reaction making the Hero try to kill me faster.
The tingling began to burn, my chest heating up and my body reacting as if I was dying. Having a few seconds, I pulled myself to the shattered wall, where I took a deep breath.
Was I having a Supernova? If that was true, that would explain the reaction of the Hero. He didn’t realize we were of the same race and let his arrogance win, such cocky behavior. Now that he knows I’m reaching a new Phase, he must have gotten serious.
His blade reached once more, the sharp edge cutting towards my collarbone.
Groaning, I tried to move, my skin clearly opened to the muscle. I felt scared, the pain unbearable. The sensation in my arm being jolts of agony every time I moved it.
As the healing process took more time, I tried to push my mana into my working arm. The sword came for my chest, luckily with my mana augmented arm, I pushed it to the ground.
From my inexperience, I could not know that the Hero could pull his sword, cutting my knuckles.
This time, I let out a howl of pain as I kneeled. I was not healing fast enough. Taking an ice spike as a sword, I stopped the incoming slash. Being pushed and slammed towards the wall, I fell outside of the kingdom.
Coughing blood, I tried to move, but my body just had enough. If that Hero wanted me dead, I would have been dead already. The simple fact that he is holding back in order to take me back.
Why do they want me? This was the question that made me feel fear and anxiety as they could know something about us.
I lifted my body, but the Hero was already launching towards me. I wasn’t able to move, the sword slamming right into my hip. I gasped, my mouth agape.
I tried to scream but it was stuck in my throat, my healing hand tried to pull my body away from the sword.
I couldn’t. It was too painful, my mind was fading, then o felt how my heart stopped a second. My chest burned with an ecstasy of mana.
I laughed at what I was feeling. “Oh man. This is why you tried to knock me unconscious. Motherfucker!” I shouted as my System read:
Taking a deep breath, I slammed my head with his. Blood spilling from his nose and his eyes dyeing red from the blood.
The sensation of my body healing beyond my normal state was insane. My hand was already in one piece, no scars were shown and my collarbone cracked back together. Stretching as I moved from where I stood.
My feet made a movement I have never done before. Taking two single leaps, I twirled and locked my legs around his neck. The single lock with turning my body to one side was enough to slam him into the ground.
He wheezed as he tried to move. Getting atop him, I enhanced my hands with mana and ice. The first hit made his skin turn into glass and his cheek muscles revealed red tissue. His teeth exposed.
Each hit was enough to make his face into ice and with each strike, more of his skull was shown. The veins and tissue exposed, and his eyes had no eyelids.
I didn’t stop until he stopped moving. The System had given me a timer, which was the time all the power I was using that was excess would be fused into my Cosmo, I only had two minutes.
Once my two minutes were up, I knew it would be running and hiding again. I needed to take full advantage of this opportunity; I needed to leave him in a state where he would need much more time to heal. I felt as if I was going to lose myself in hurting him.
The thoughts that came into my head, they weren’t pleasant, they felt like a different person. A strange emotion crept into my heart, and with that, I opened my palm and began to create a small sphere of pure ice mana. The mana compressed as it turned into dry ice. It creeped along the streams of air and blasted it on his face. The entirety of his head was frozen, a smoke seething from it. As I lifted my body, I grabbed his arms and began to freeze them.
I did the same with his legs and then created water then froze it all around him. Freezing and sticking him to the ground, I felt how the energy boost I had began to fade.
If he was going to heal, this will make him take his time. I held my breath and stared down at the Hero.
“This will keep you busy for a while.” I said as I enhanced my legs and leaped back into the kingdom.
II
As I looked around, all I saw was chaos. Soldiers were trying to break in the buildings, soldiers of Prynia facing off those who held shields and force fields to push them back.
I cracked my hands and lifting them, I began to chant. This was enough for the Gray Scales to turn to look at me. One snarled and lifted his sword.
Clenching my eyelids shut, all I felt was a force coming from my body and snapping something. The metallic sound of the sword falling onto the ground into hundreds of tiny pieces echoed in the streets.
“Shit! A Hero?!!” One of them shouted. But that’s all I heard as I pointed my ten fingers and launched small balls of snow towards them. With that, they all became ice statues.
One of the civilians that couldn’t get inside gasped and moved away from the one who was reaching for her, his frozen figure left with a horrified expression.
Taking a few steps towards the ice statues, I began to run further inside the city, the screams and shouts of people suddenly stopping made my blood turn cold.
At the speed I was running, it was only seconds before I could see a woman having her arm cut off and faint. That single image broke my calmness. I gritted my teeth and with a strength I didn’t know I had, ripped the head off the Gray Scale that had done that.
Blood was warm, the smell of copper came, and the metallic taste reached my nostrils and tongue. Spitting, I felt disgust, but my anger overrode the nausea.
As this happened, a sword broke on my back, what was left was a soldier crying and praying in his mother tongue. My eyes beamed lavender and I punched the soldier, his head bending at a weird angle.
The Gray Scales came and one by one, were slain by me. My hands were dyed in red, the blood of many of the soldiers staining my clothes.
I began to feel the weight of those killed by me, the single teardrop leaving my eye.
But as it was harsh, I turned only for my ears to hear screams around the kingdom. I have only taken down 70 soldiers. That was too much already for me alone.
The sudden drifting of my thoughts made me understand that not all humans could be warriors. But this was I was brought into.
Looking towards the direction of the Gray Scales, I only held my breath as one-by-one saw how their weapons shattered on contact with me.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with more people in my conscience. I didn’t enhance my body this time, and with a small portion of my strength, I gave jabs and swings enough to leave them unconscious.
The first few soldiers had some broken bones, but they were breathing. Taking a look around, soldiers of the Prynia kingdom mobilized and began to push the enemies.
Some of the soldiers were injured, the people who have stayed outside were already moving into buildings near them to be safe inside.
Reizha was probably still outside, but one thing was for sure. This wasn’t going to plan at all.
The Hero was still alive and would come find me eventually. The soldiers of Prynia are all scattered unable to form formations to fight back. The plans were pointless at that point.
Then it clicked. Noctis was somewhere in the kingdom, if he is, the fact this fight can turn back to our favor made me hold on to my hope. Taking a moment to use my Descry ability, I pinpointed the rest of the Gray Scales. They weren’t many, but each had a mana signature that supplied more than one element or magic.
The closest ones were close, dashing with my speed, I noticed how a building was breached. The white and blue building appeared to be a refuge that held a small group of civilians.
Two of them were dead, in which I slammed my foot into the ground, the cracking being felt as the single force was enough to make the Gray Scales to stumble. As they did, my hand slapped and punched each one with enough force to knock them out.
Having done that, I stared at the two civilians who didn’t survive, my mind burning the image of the two elves. My eyes turned to see nine more Gray Scales approaching.
“Well fuck.”
Lifting my hands, I slowly began to view their movements, each one similar to the other. They were all trained in the same manner.
III
J
He was already tapping the tip of his boot on the floor. Then, a sudden jolt of fear ran down my spine. His eyes glowed that unnatural blue. The pupils burned with eagerness.
Lifting slowly from his chair, Esther just stepped aside and bowed slightly. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the ground, her face whiter from the same fear I felt from his presence.
“I’ll be going now.” He said deadpan. He took off the black jacket he was wearing, revealing a plain long sleeve shirt with gloves that reached above his elbows.
“You’re going unarmed?” I asked him. He turned, his smirk getting on my nerves. “I don’t need a weapon.”
He left. Esther stared at where Noctis left, her face filled with a mix of worry, fear and sadness. “What’s wrong?” I asked her while putting down Gabe. She looked at me and lowered her gaze. “I didn’t expect him to be so broken. Such a kind soul shouldn’t stain his hands. That path, if he continues, it’s only going to lead to more death.”
I stood, knowing that her words crept into my mind. “If you go, you’ll only have more nightmares.” I sighed.
“If that’s the case, then I guess I’ll be sleeping less. He is my friend, and I’m not going to let him do this alone.” She smiled.
“If he has people like you around him, he won’t feel alone.”
Leaving the room, I began to sense a strange thrill coming to me, the sensation of adrenaline and caution. Was it anxiety? Or was it the thrill to go back to work?
The outside of the building was noisy. Some people held their devices, the strange notification that was sent almost the same time I came outside read: ALERT! To all citizens of Joyce, Prynia is under attack. To those who remain outside, find somewhere to hide until further notice.
Then came the notification that made me hold my breath.
ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! A Hero has been spotted. Please leave the surface of Prynia. A Tokyo Hero has attacked the kingdom!
Noctis was already pushing aside people to the noise that came from where we had tea. The shouts and screams were clear. The wails before dying came and went. From the feeling of his mana, I could tell that an emotion spiked his desire to fight.
Noctis reached the place first, but the wails of men made my ears want to shut themselves closed. The haunting screams stopped eventually, but the smell of iron and guts was fresh. Noctis, the friend I have met for a long time, his gloves glowed into a blade, dark blue sparks lit around his elbow down. As my eyes lowered to the floor, I saw the Gray Scales.
What remained of them, their expressions told me they didn’t die quickly. Noctis turned to look at me, his eyes glowing that unnatural pale blue with draconic pupils. His eyes never looked so empty, that color wasn’t something I was worried about the first time I saw them. But his presence —that desire to hunt down the Empire— it became an addiction.
Noctis took one more look, disappearing from my line of sight, almost as if he was a single blink of light. The sound of meat and bone being sliced made me realize there were still more Gray Scales.
“Over here! Kill the bastard!”
“He’s a monster!”
“A Hero!”
They barely could say anything before getting mauled by Noctis. The path became bloody, the odor of the dead overwhelming.
Noctis had no light to his eyes, those eyes were only known to Heroes when they needed to kill. It’s as if it was a mode to keep them cool or calm when taking the life of another.
His face was cold, each attack precise and quick, the looks of the Gray Scales were left frozen in fear and paralyzed by the sight of a Hero. Their last image was of a Hero with black hair and dead blue eyes.
Taking the last life, Noctis slashed the air, the blood that covered his leather glove getting cleaned. The blood smeared in a splatter on the ground. As he did, I turned to look around the small inns. Destroyed, some even burned down. Just like there were dead Gray Scales, many women and men were scattered around. Some barely alive and others not even a hint of life seen in their horrified eyes.
Taking my line of vision back to Noctis, he walked around, his eyes directing at those who were killed by the Gray Scales. Even if I couldn’t see a reaction, his mana shot quickly for a millisecond, enough to make me feel a chill run down my spine.
“They are just a small group from the real force, and the Hero is already here.” I said as I closed the eyes of a girl whose face was paralyzed in fear.
War was never fun for me, the stench of death was engrained in me, the thoughts and memories came like flashes of light, but Noctis brought me back as he patted my shoulder.
“We should move, if I stay here, Bon-Bon will not last against that bastard.” His words were not cold or calm, they had a hint of worry, something even I didn’t expect to notice.