A Cynical Shadow's Return

Chapter 8

     Red, an innocent little cub who was loved deeply by anyone that got to know him, and was especially loved by his father. Twice now, he has been targeted to be killed, and Agnus could never understand why when Red has never done anything to hurt anyone. At his current state of mind, nothing else mattered to him except for the fact that Red, his bundle of joy, suffered a very painful death and there was nothing he could do to stop it. This made Agnus even angrier, and his eyes leaked bloody tears as he stared down at the monster responsible of the murder. Chordon chuckled at Agnus’ misery, and soon wish he hadn’t since Agnus had grabbed Chordon by his face and aggressively threw him far from the area. In the process, Chordon crashed through a vast number of trees until a giant boulder stopped him from going anywhere else. Agnus was not about to stop there, for his brutal onslaught was just beginning, so he chased after Chordon.
        “Come on guys,” Rai yelled before transforming into his hawk form. Elias helped Kinsa get on top of Rai’s back while Sitha was awestruck. Never has she ever seen Agnus this way, nor did she like what has happened to him. He was not the same Agnus she knew and loved. Kinsa called for her to get her attention, and when she snapped out of it, she hurried and got on Rai’s back. The shadow watched as Rai flapped his wings and flew after Agnus and Chordon. He considered trying to gain control of Agnus, but knew it would be a pointless effort.
        “Damn it!” The shadow shouted, clenching his fists. “What was I thinking? Had I known that my original plan would have failed, I would have come up with a second plan! By dealing with Reko and keeping his brat asleep, I’ve already used up more stamina than I should have! I better think of something fast before that moron kills Chordon!”

     Chordon raised up from the ground, and took a look around, seeing that Agnus had launched him in the plateau region of Tasaloo. He stood up on his feet and started walking back to where everyone else was, but abruptly paused when he saw Agnus charging directly at him. Chordon growled as he made clones of himself again and sent them off to attack Agnus, but they were no match for the enraged man as he bulldozed right through them. Thinking on his feet, Chordon transformed into his snake form and begun retreating, but was grabbed by the tail by Agnus. Chordon found himself helpless as Agnus brought him closer and closer to him. Once he was within reach, Agnus proceeded to continuously punch Chordon in his face with one powerful punch after the other. Even when there was blood coming out of Chordon, Agnus did not stop punching him until the anger welled up in his heart made him punch Chordon one final time, which sent him falling down into the canyon beneath them. Chordon was forced to turn back to his human self with his face a bloody mess, and he was panting heavily. Agnus walked to the edge of the cliff, staring down at Chordon and not taking his eyes off of him for a single moment. Chordon grew weary of being Agnus’ punching bag, and jumped out of the canyon, ready to attack. He made the mistake of throwing a punch at Agnus, which ended up with his arm being caught by Agnus. Agnus growled as he began to crush Chordon’s arm, which made Chordon scream in pain. Amongst his screaming, the sounds of his bones breaking bit by bit were loud and clear, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy Agnus. Rai had finally made it to the scene with Kinsa, Sitha, and Elias on his back. Rai stayed in the air as to not get in the way of the two, and watched in awe as Agnus made Chordon scream in agonizing pain.
        “That confirms it for me,” Elias said as he watched. “Agnus is completely terrifying. Why won’t he just kill that guy now when he could easily do it?”
        “It’s simple,” Kinsa answered. “Agnus wants him to suffer just as much as Red did before going for the kill, even though, it’s not his style. Yeah, no doubt, we’re dealing with a totally different Agnus now.” Chordon struggled to get free from Agnus, but nothing he could do would get him away from the furious Tasoolian. Agnus lifted the powerless snake demon by his crushed arm up to his eye level, and Chordon was angrily growling at him, he punched Chordon in the stomach hard enough to make blood spew from his mouth. Even when the blood splashed onto Agnus’ face, his facial expression remained unchanged, since the blood did not bother him at all. Chordon tried catching his breath, but every time he tried to breathe, the pain only intensified which made him cringe in pain even more. He found himself being slammed on the ground, then thrown through a pillar. Agnus was now walking towards Chordon and letting out demonic growls as red static lightning formed around his right fist. Whatever he had intentions on doing, Chordon would have been too injured to evade or counter it. Chordon was up on his hands and knees, still trying to catch his breath when he saw Agnus’ feet in front of him but did not dare to get up let alone look up. Agnus bared his teeth angrily and stomped on Chordon’s back, forcing the contused demon down into the ground. The burning rage within Agnus’ heart raised more and more as more bloody tears came from his demonic eyes. He clenched his right fist as even more static formed around it, and he threw a powerful punch to Chordon that caused a very large explosion, and all of Tasaloo quivered from the force of the fierce strike. The shockwave from the explosion begun to blow Rai and the others away, but Rai fought against it while dodging the debris that flew at them.
        “This is all starting to get a little too crazy!” Elias yelled.
        “I don’t think that even Captain Reko could have survived that!” Kinsa added as everything was beginning to settle down. There was a large cloud of dusty smoke that was thick enough to conceal both Agnus and Chordon as well as multiple large cracks in the ground that was on the verge of splitting apart. Rai flew down and landed on the ground, letting everyone off of him as the smoke began to dissipate. Rai turned back to his human self with the same shocked expression as everyone else, for what came into view was a very large crater in the ground. At the very middle of the crater stood Agnus, but Chordon was nowhere to be found. Perhaps Chordon had been vaporized, they all wondered, but Agnus knew that it wasn’t over, since he still remained unsatisfied. Agnus looked up ahead of him where he saw the shadow looking down at him and Chordon sitting on the ground beside him, trying to recover from the beating he had received.
        “Alright you big oaf,” the shadow exclaimed. “You’ve had your fun, but now it’s time I put you in your place!” Agnus growled and began walking out of the crater, and towards the two demons. He had no interest in the shadow but would show no mercy to anyone who’d get in his way. The shadow grabbed ahold of Chordon and made a run for the canyons where he had hopes of attacking Agnus from his blind spots, but once out of the crater, Agnus stood still. Sitha had hoped that he would be turning back to his normal self by now, while the others were curious as to what would happen next. She did not like this side of Agnus, but at the same time, she could understand the pain and rage he was feeling. She was also worried if there would be a chance that Agnus can be turned back into his lovable self, but her own fear kept her from confronting Agnus and trying to change him back. The shadow realized that Agnus was not chasing him and Chordon, so he stopped in his tracks and looked back at him, seeing him simply standing there. Chordon let out a pained grunt as he stood on his feet.
        “It’sss about time you took control of him, boy,” Chordon said impatiently.
        “I haven’t tried taking control of him,” the shadow responded, “but if he finally came to his senses, then he can start by killing his friends just as I had planned from the start,” Chordon growled and prepared himself for another round as he noticed that the same static lightning from before had come back on Agnus, but instead of being only around his hand, it formed around his entire body. Agnus began growling demonically with a scowling look in his eyes as his rage was reaching its breaking point. When his rage finally broke, he let out a loud and angry demonic roar that sent out a humongous shockwave, making the wind blow violently. Chordon and the shadow instantly covered themselves from the debris and dust that the wind carried, and Kinsa and the others did the same as the wind’s strength pushed them all. Being as injured as he was, Kinsa did not have the strength to fight back the winds, which caused him to be blown away. Luckily for him, Elias caught him just in time. 
     A few seconds later, the winds stopped blowing, and there was a cloud of smoke surrounding Agnus. Everyone unshielded their eyes, and the shadow and Chordon were both in awe. Th-This is absolute madness, the shadow thought to himself as he started sweating nervously. Even if he is that angry, there’s no way that he should be able to give the both of us this much trouble! He’s just a mortal! N-No, he’s more than that. He’s a monster; anyone’s worst nightmare! The smoke vanished, revealing Agnus in his bear form; his eyes furious with a glowing red hue and fixated on Chordon; his teeth bared angrily; the black markings still surrounding his body; and his fur painted with a glowing purple. No more tears were in Agnus’ furious eyes, but instead the burning and deadly rage that races through his broken heart. The ground beneath his paws caved in as he bursts into a sprint, charging at Chordon and the shadow, and before either could react, Agnus had smacked the shadow to a pillar that broke on impact. Agnus then turned his sights to Chordon, who was in the midst of throwing a punch to him, but Agnus had something else in mind for the snake demon. He bit into Chordon’s good arm and snatched it off, making Chordon scream in pain as blood sprayed out of where his arm used to be and then threw his arm back at him with tremendous force. Chordon stumbled back to the edge of the cliff they were standing on when his arm hit him in the face. Agnus growled and bit into Chordon’s shirt, and threw him over towards the crater. The shadow raised up from the pile of rocks and felt a stinging pain in his left leg which kept him from standing. He looked down at his leg to find that it was bleeding and knew from there that his leg was badly broken. Without his help, he knew that Chordon was sure to die. Chordon struggled to stand up for his loss of blood made him only weaker and more exhausted. Agnus was growling loudly as he was now ready to go in for the kill, and there was not a thing Chordon could do about it.
        “Killing me won’t bring that brat of yoursss back to life, bear,” Chordon stated then chuckled weakly. “If I am to die here, then ssso be it. We demonsss are expendable.”
        “Chordon,” the shadow yelled, “don’t be an idiot! Get out of there! If you die as a demon, then you won’t exist anymore!”
        “I wasss dessstined to die the moment I agreed to thisss. My usssefulnesss hasss been usssed up. What are you waiting for, bear? Kill--” Agnus pounced on top of Chordon, pinning him down to the ground, and began mauling him to death. He bit into Chordon’s head, crushing his skull into tiny bits; split his body in half with his razor-sharp claws, and finally threw his lifeless body into the crater. Red’s death had been avenged, but there was still an empty feeling inside of Agnus that he would never be able to fill. Finally, Agnus began to calm down; the black markings on his body dissipated; the purpleness of his fur vanished back to his normal brown color, and his eyes turned back to normal. Agnus was now panting of extreme exhaustion from the amount of stamina the Gift consumed, and his vision began to blur. He was a bloody mess; stained with blood from Chordon, and his own blood from his wounds. The shadow growled as he used the largest rock near him to help push himself up on his right leg. He grinned, then began chuckling when he saw Agnus collapse to the ground, thinking that now was the opportune moment to kill him. Sitha rushed to Agnus’ side when she saw him collapse while the shadow was limping towards him, ignoring the pain in his left leg.
        “Well well well,” the shadow said as he grew closer, “look at who’s helpless now. Now that the after-effects of the Gift have taken place, he’s nothing but a bear caught in the maw of a bear trap.” Sitha nudged and shook Agnus to wake him up, but it was no use.
        “Agnus,” she cried. “Agnus please get up!” She then looked behind her to see the shadow making his way towards them, and growled.
        “I’d much rather save you for last,” the shadow said with a deranged grin, “but if you want to die with Agnus, and be with Reko and that brat, Red, then I’ll gladly kill you where you stand.” Sitha gasped in shock when she heard about Reko being dead, and before the shadow could get any closer, Elias, Kinsa, and Rai stood in the midst of them. They were ready to take on the shadow if it were to come down to a battle, but the shadow did not challenge them for he had stopped in his tracks, knowing that he did not have the strength to face all three of them.
        “Here’s a joke for you,” Rai said with a goofy grin.
        “No!” The shadow yelled. “Don’t you dare!”
        “Are you ready for it?”
        “I told you--”
        “What’s the best way to get rid of a demon? You make him EXORCISE!” The shadow blankly stared at Rai as he was the only one laughing at his own joke, and then started limping away from the group without saying a word. When he vanished before their eyes, Kinsa and Elias glared at Rai for telling such a horrible joke at a terrible time.
        “Not the time,” Kinsa said sternly, “nor the place!”
        “Guys,” Sitha said with tears in her eyes, and holding Agnus close to her, “wh-what are we going to do?” They all looked down at her, and Elias knelt down to her, giving her a soft hug as she began crying.
        “Sitha,” Kinsa said, kneeling down to her as well, “what’s wrong? We’re all okay now.” Sitha glared at Kinsa as more tears dripped down her face.
        “Don’t you get it!?” She yelled. “Red’s dead, Reko’s dead, and now Agnus and Igneous are going to die! Don’t you understand, Kinsa? We’re all going to die and there’s nothing we can do about it!” Kinsa looked away for a moment, then sighed and stood up, knowing that she was telling the truth about their helpless situation. They were defenseless, left out in the open with nowhere to run. Fighting back would be pointless since they’d all be dead in the end. Kinsa shook his head, fighting back the doubts he had in his mind, and made a fist.
        “No,” he said, “there’s never anything we can’t do when we put our minds to it. Agnus, Captain Reko, and Igneous have never given up when things got tough. They’ve always put their lives on the line for us, and all we’ve done was get in their way. When are we going to stop being so helpless? While Agnus was getting beaten to a bloody pulp, and while Red was crying for help, again and again, we didn’t do anything to try to help. We sat there and watched because we were afraid that we’d get killed, but neither one of them would have thought twice to rush in and help. We owe it to them to stay strong and not give up when things seem scary and impossible.” Rai looked down at Agnus, then sighed while Sitha wiped her tears. Elias stood up and looked over at Kinsa.
        “We’re all that’s left,” he said, including himself with the group. “We could gather up some other capable Tasoolians so we won’t be as helpless.”
        “Are you kidding,” Kinsa responded in offense, shooting a glare at Elias. “Do you really think that we’d replace them like they weren’t worth anything from the start!?”
        “I...I just thought that--”
        “If it weren’t for them, none of us would be standing where we are today! Heck, Zubelon would still be alive if it weren’t for them! You can’t--” Rai put his hand over Kinsa’s mouth, and took him away from the scene to calm him down. Sitha stayed close to Agnus with her head laying on his chest, refusing to leave him. As her mind replayed Agnus struggling against Chordon, the waterfall of tears returned to her eyes, and she started to cry again. If only I tried to help him, she kept thinking to herself while the sounds of Agnus begging and pleading for Red’s life replayed over and over like the wings of a bird in flight. She wished she could start it all over again, and save Red from being killed, so Agnus would not have had to go through that monstrous state. Kinsa was right, she held herself back because she was afraid of being killed in the process. She gripped Agnus’ shirt as her tears dropped down onto him.
        “I’m sorry,” she said quietly, and as she hugged him tightly, she continued crying even more.