Somewhere else, in another alleyway, there seems to be another creep of crime ensuing upon the unlucky victim.
She tries to push away from the criminal, but in turn, she herself was pushed against a wall as the thug grasped both of her hands with earth elemental abilities onto them.
The thug chuckles, “hah! nowhere to run bitch! Let me see what you got…”
He drew in closer, which made the girl scream even louder out of desperation.
“AHHH! Someone, HELP!”
But there was no one. Nobody came to rescue her. No hero to stop the criminal from getting their way. It only makes him smile.
“Quit whining, trust me this wouldn’t hurt, I promise you.”
His words would make the victim cry out even more but to no avail. She is about to lose herself and the hoodlum gets what he wants.
Everything was coming together, the criminal thought, he got the money and the babe without any repercussions.
Unless something is to stop him from it, there was no chance as no one was near them.
…But there was.
A sudden feeling of air tickles his discomfort. He tries to ignore it, but it does not go away.
Even the girl stopped screaming, crying, or hyperventilating at her own peril. She could feel something is wrong as well.
Pitter, patter. The splish and splashing of puddles grew more pronounced. It can be heard deep into the darkly lit passage. The two were not near the entryway but enough to not have any eyes observing the atrocity. Yet, there was someone with them.
“S-Shit!” He exclaims while creating an earth-stoned club out of nothing but the conjuration from his hand. “Show yourself, now!” The anxious thug says and readies it for a beating.
His answer was heard and a strange figure appeared out of the darkness. This being was clothed in a ragged cloak and nothing else can be viewed by the two. It just stops there, in a creepy distance.
“Heh, just a homeless bum.” The criminal walks towards the stranger while waving the club in an intimidating standard. “Since you ruined the moment, you’re gonna pay, WITH THIS PIECE OF CRAP RIGHT TO YOUR-”
Just as the swing of the club comes close to the head. This bum grabs out of mid-swing and the thug gets a closer look with sweat falling out of his forehead, but not the reason of the guy blocking the attack, the appearance of the stranger’s hand.
The hand or more precisely, five-fingered claws was a translucent substance of starry essence within an ever-flowing source of glow that could be out of such reality. It can be described as alien, but for some reason, it does not feel like it.
In this world, knowledge of the existence of monsters were but fairy tales and myths, but carry some importance to their history. Not someone like the thug would even recognize such knowledge. But upon closer look toward the facial area, he can see it smiling.
Before fear had flown through his brain, the being’s other hand lunged at the torso, making him fly away past the victim, who shrieked out of confusion about what just happened.
In her eyes, she might have seen a blast of unknown energy swiftly take down the criminal in one go.
“W-what?!” that is all the thug could say before this thing glitched from the distance and stood right in front of him. Without even pausing, the stranger aggressively grabs him by the neck, and something abnormal begins, which the girl horrifically watches.
The hand of this Glitched-fiend begins to glow immensely of clear glitchy mixture of emerald and sapphire that envelops around the poor hoodlum as he screams to his body becoming small particles of glowing orbs, which the orbs get absorbed by the fiend.
“Wait! Agh! It hurts, it hurts! AH FUCK PLEASE NOOO!!!”
Even if he did scream, there was no sound, no trace of his being as the only thing right under the Glitched-fiend was pieces of clothing the criminal had worn.
The earth cuffs that were holding the victim disappear and she drops to the floor out of a mixture of confusion and fear possessing her thoughts.
The Glitched-fiend stands up and turns towards the poor soul with a crooked smile as if it were the jaws of a jack-o-lantern.
Slowly, but delightfully walks over to her while she tries to crawl on her back away from it, but to no avail.
Close enough for her to see the horror of being right in front of her, she could only say these words.
“W-what are you?!”
The Glitched-fiend who was still smiling delightfully answers.
“...The one that will become a god.”
Like the thug, no sound of her scream could be heard as this Glitched-fiend took the prey of their hunt. The entire essence that proves she exists ceases from the moment of absorption.
It looks at the hand that took the two and only thinks of when the next prey will be revealed.
Not too long a great source of mana the Glitched-fiend could sense is coming toward the direction of a shopping district. It pulls out its tongue at the sight of this massive disbursement of power and tries to savor it. But alas the Glitched-fiend could only taste the air of such a disgusting atmosphere.
“...More to devour I see,” It says as the body of starry essence becomes more of an ethereal enigmatic body. “I wonder what it could be…”
With a huge leap to the sky, this abomination beams towards the next unlucky souls.
As such no one ever bats an eye on such atrocities, these things that are not supposed to exist. These abnormalities that the world ignores and focus on the pointlessness of heroes and villains and not the kinds of things that interfere with such natures of the world.
The Glitched-fiend becomes invisible and none the wiser as anyone could see it.
Or at least it thought no one did…
<><><>
(Alder’s POV)
The whip sounds a crack as I continuously parry the edge of that sharp tip of her weapon. The intensity of the impact makes it difficult to have a stable stance as the spy keeps swinging and twirling her body with momentum.
Another attempt of a lash I counter, in a crouching position, Seraphina without any signal or warning uses me as a trampoline and leaps to the air.
Three flaming arrows appear the moment she drags her hand from the grip to nock from the string. In thin air, she aims it at her and releases the string.
The two from the sides began to curve inward while the middle went straight towards her target. Like a three-clawed-crane, it fails to pincer the agile spy, which she easily jumps backward from the fiery shots.
There’s my chance!
Although, I don’t use it regularly as it is hard to control the amount that I wanted to boost. It would just become an instant dash without having the knack of stopping the momentum. I would most likely crash into people or any obstacle in front of me if I used it with incorrect positions.
I thought to myself to dash while using the wind to push me toward her with a spear thrust, which hopefully would knock her out with the force I had gone. But that didn’t go as planned.
“
Instead, another 3 arrows nearly miss above my head and luckily the
The spy uses this opportunity to gain even more distance from me.
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“What the hell was that?!” I turn my attention to the Seraphina who lands in a pose that a superhero would make with one hand to the ground.
She stands up with a frustrating look on her face.
“Such insufferable… I was about to fire more shots until you just started to rush on to her!”
“She would have dodged them without a sweat. Besides, I almost had her if you didn’t fire those arrows right in front of me!”
She gets up close to my face, shouting.
“How dare you!”
I feel the pressure of air heading right towards us.
“Whoa!”
I pushed Seraphina away from me and narrowly dodged the upcoming object. While being surprised by my push, she tumbles against the wall.
A cracking sound of the tip swipes between us and retracts back to the spy in a circular wrap.
“Awww, almost had you guys. I mean you could keep bickering, please continue…”
I tighten my grip on the spear with two hands and point at the sharp part of it, while being cautious of this spy’s next move.
Seraphina aims her bow and readies a single arrow.
“You know, it’s two against one, we’ll offer you to surrender.”
“It is quite tempting from the heiress of the great bow… but I think taking you both out is a far better proposition, especially for you miss.”
I can’t believe that she would be this determined to kill us. But then again she is a spy for a terrorist organization that is against the system of the world. It wouldn’t hurt to try getting out of this situation.
“C’mon we don’t have to do this. Look, we could just go and pretend to forget this ever happened.”
“Alder, are you nuts?! Do you think that they would just let us go?! Especially as this criminal who infiltrated into the academy.”
“Well, to think I assume the students in the academy have at least some amount of brain cells. But it seems most of them just relied on their nepotism, luck, and wealth.”
“What?” Seraphina reacts in a serious tone with the utter content of the spy’s response.
It was not outright anger but something that seems off. That an arrow has pierced the heart with a shot of shock. A stare she made, it was not heated, but cold. Very cold…
“Hmm, it seems I struck a nerve. The Feuers are one of the top 3 families of Unica City that use their privileges to enroll their children into those academies. Specifically the ones that support their Mana-adept beliefs. Quite strangely you’re attending an academy that is very neutral to all adepts, actually, the very school that mana-adept oriented institutions see inferior-”
“Shut up!
.”
A large bolt of inferno goes in high velocity striking a fading apparition. The enemy resurfaces between us from the shadows below our feet, which she takes the initiative of back kicking me against the wall away from the two of them and prepares to strike Seraphina.
In reaction, Seraphina uses the blades on the tips of her bow and swings at the spy, but not as quick enough to land a hit.
The spy weaves her head to the left, and with swift motion, uses the momentum to grapple her and kicks her from behind toward me, which I had no choice but to catch her fall.
Still recovering from getting smacked on a wall, it didn’t help to experience it for the second time. This time it hurts so bad that I collapse upon laying on the ground, the spy readies her shadowy whip as it retracts from the circular knot.
She swings it towards the two unfortunate fools as the sharp tip end reaches to us.
“
But luckily enough, I made the air around me to push myself away from the whipping, while also holding Seraphina.
“Damn, that was close,” I look at the spy who is about to make another preemptive strike. But this time she conjures multiple dark eminent shards behind herself, too much to count, and she effortlessly tosses them all at once, “
“You got to be kidding!
No time to make an action but to use myself with a boost of wind twirling away any shard and keeping Seraphina from the onslaught of the shadow blades with my back covering her.
Too fast to move or dodge as the blades headed past us, scraping and cutting me in the process but not enough thanks to making the air from my push to deflect some of them.
“ArrgH!” But still I could feel it, the sharp intensity of something went into my back. It hurts so much that that quick scream released from my mouth.
Is this what it feels like, god… my back…
“Alder!”
I feel like I was laying on Seraphina as she looks very displeasing, or is it a worry? I can’t really tell…
I grimaced while the shards penetrated my back and began to turn my beige coat drenched in red…
“Dammit, hey stay with me, you’re gonna be okay, alright?” Seraphina is definitely worried about me.
“I…” I tried to get up, but for some reason I don’t feel anything, I can’t even wiggle a finger. “...Why… can’t… I… move?”
“The shadow blades have an effect when it hits a target, it temporarily paralyzes you for a bit, but also weakens you.” The spy creeps towards us while spawning more small darkened blades around her hands. “Now, stay right there obediently and lay there while I take care of your feisty companion.”
“Tsk,” Seraphina aims her bow with rapid speed, and fires a huge flaming arrow. “You bastard, I’ll take you down!” The blades on the bow enlarge with flames into fiery wings. With a thrust of her fist with the bow in hand, the wings boost her into a rushing charge directly towards the spy and the arrow. She and the huge flamed arrow collided into a fireball rushing upon the unfortunate individual in front. “
, hraaahhh!”
It plunges the spy, leaving a huge explosion of fire and smoke with a burnt trail left from the rushing tackle. Unfortunately the spy that was hit by it dissipates into nothing. Knowing what’s gonna happen, Seraphina grabbing the handle of the bow with both hands began to swing behind, with a fading hint of dark particles becoming more transparent and taking the form of the spy.
In quick time, the spy reacts fast as she jumps backwards away from the potential slashing. “Heh, clever girl” She pulls out her whip and flings it at Seraphina.
She side-dashes away from it and prepares two arrows as it flies from both sides horizontally. The spy runs towards the projectiles and slides under them, which leaves the two of them as close as each other’s throats.
“Shit, c’mon!” I tried to move but no dime to pay. “Damn it! I need to get up now! Urrrgh! Please, move!” It was hopeless, there was no way I would move a muscle while in this state.
For this entire day has just been getting worse by every minute of my existence. I don’t even know why this is happening to me, why am I being punished with this crap?! Instead of a normal school day with meeting nice people and maybe talking to a girl I might have interest in. What I get is a girl that hates my guts, having an asshole for my first friend in the school, almost getting myself into a fight with the girl that hates me over something of that friend tried to instigate, and then above all, of the bullshit that is happening around from before and now! At this rate I might die or get kidnapped by a powerful terrorist who would do worse things than killing me. I wonder, how worse my days can become at this point?
I don’t even know what's happening anymore, this doesn’t even make sense which-
A sudden shiver down my spine, it's not the usual feeling of a presence like the ambusher or the spy, but something more, something down right, wrong…
“What the hell? Don’t tell me, please do it for the love of gods, don't you dare do this to me!” I still can’t move, but I want to run away as far from this as possible. This feeling of chaos that came into my life. But all I could do was watch.
Seraphina keeps swinging her bow at the spy while the spy dodges and weaves away while trying to strike her with kicks or getting behind her with a small blade of darkness. They were both equally matched in both prowess and agility as none of them could land a hit.
The spy, getting sick of doing close combat, backflips away and leaves a couple shards flying above Seraphina.
Seraphina blocks a few of them with her bow and jumps away the rest.
Both distanced enough to use their weapons in their most efficient capacity, and equal in their ability.
“Well then, this is getting real tiresome, how about I finish this right now,” the spy’s body is enveloped in a shadowy aura, as the shadows from the buildings and even our shadows slowly get absorbed by the aura.
“What are you plotting?” Seraphina says while cautiously steps back a bit and readies herself.
“You don’t have to worry, it won’t kill you, even though it can.”
The aura becomes more large and spreads the spy’s entire body, with an appearance of something devilish.
Seraphina’s entire body reacts weirdly, her hands shiver, her breath becoming more transparent. But her eyes know what is going on and still readies her bow with a flaming arrow.
“Time to end this!”
All the darkness, the shadows that were accumulated with her aura and enveloping her entire being…
It disappeared with a great evaporation of all the darkness within a blink of an eye.
Confused, Seraphina and I were looking at her with bewilderment as the spy proclaimed she would attack us with her greatest move, so great that she claims it would end this conflict. But nothing happened.
“U-ughhh!” She is floating above mid air with her back stretched backward like she was raised. Actually there is something raising her…
It is unnoticeable, but sprinkles of light and particles of some form of energy behind the agonized spy floats in the air.
“What the hell is this, is this part of your move?” Seraphina responds while still confused at the scene she is seeing.
“A-ah, I-I — ”
A silhouette appearance of seven feet with a claw protruding the spy’s chest. There is no blood or wounds from her but the way she is moaning in agony is something to be concerned about, even if she is our enemy. With an entity behind her raising her like a trident impaling a victim and lifting upward.
“Ugh, aaaa-AAAAAHHH” a strange aura of violet is siphoned in great intensity as she wails out of her mouth. The violet energy is transformed into orbs of light that are then absorbed inside the now opaque hand or claw. She continues to scream as her body twitches with her nerves seemingly calling out the pain.
“What in god's name is this?!” Seraphina mutters with the look of shock as she sees it in front of her.
I also looked in horror that this thing will be the one that will kill us. The spy attacked us, threatened us, and even tried to kill us… but…
“Seraphina!” I yelled back.
“H-huh?” Seraphina turns her head back toward me.
“Save her!” I yell at her back.
“What?! Are you serious? You know she tried to kidnap us right?”
Even though she is someone that we find as a threat, a person that was trying to hurt us. But… “I know what I am saying is stupid, but that ‘thing’ we got to stop that ‘Thing’!”
Seraphina looks back at the unfortunate spy and then back to me with frustration upon her expression. It appears that her hand grips the weapon too tightly by the idea of what she should not do. But no matter what…
“DAMN IT ALL!” She readies the bow. “This is a bad idea,” she stretches the string a little bit further. “But it’s even more bad if that thing is eating her and possibly gets stronger!”
The arrow of burning justice bolts through and rips the arm of the entity, stopping the meal the Glitched-fiend was savoring for.
The spy falls next to a pile of trash bins, but seems to still twitch a little, probably still alive, but most likely fallen unconscious.
“Take that you foul demon!” Seraphina taunts and points her finger towards the Glitched-fiend.
It looks at the delimbed arm, but quickly regenerates anew. It smiles.
“Well, you could have ran away and let me have my meal, but it seems that I should be lucky.” It readies the with the left hand/claw and then the other that was regenerated, a… a starry blade hand?!!!!
“Alright then,” The Glitched-fiend removes the ragged cloak.
What I see is beyond my own perceptions of what is real and not real, this thing is only not a human, nor demon. But a monstrosity of what anyone would consider it as humanoid. No clothing, just an essence of starry-glitches floating away from its body with hues of pastel aqua. The eyes without pupils glows ominously yellow, staring at us makes it hard to feel any sense of hope. The shark-like jaw making a crescent smile with wicked intentions. Above the forehead flames on, but abnormally into fading pixels. The claws slicked back the flaming pixels with annoyance and licking around its teeth-like lips as it gazed at us with hunger.
It continues to say with that smile,“I guess you guys will have to do...”
I said to myself that it couldn’t get worse, but now it just did get worse…