Mirror Soul

Chapter Sixteen: Reflecting

Bruce felt something shatter inside of him as he watched Kai's eyes widen. He screamed in agony as he crumpled to the hard stone. The huge puddle of blood grew every second.

Layva dropped her bloodied sword and it vanished. "No." She whispered to herself. "No, no, no." Didrick looked at Kai's body and whistled. "Just another body to your pile, huh, sacrifice?"

Layva clutched her head in her hands and began shaking. "I didn't mean to! I promise! It was an accident!" She fell to her knees and stared at her hands, soaked with Kai's blood. 

Didrick laughed and picked up the revolver that Kai had knocked out of his hand. "I don't think the dead kid gives a shit if it was intentional or not." He aimed the gun at Layva's head. “But not to worry . You can just ask when you see him."

Upon seeing Kai getting stabbed Bruce had never felt more rage. Something had awoken inside of him, something that could never be ignored again. He was dimly aware that he was running, he knew he was screaming as he barreled toward his fallen friend. Didrick looked up in surprise, before turning the gun towards him and firing. Time seemed to slow down; as Bruce felt a foreign power rushing to his chest, despite feeling empty moments before.

The bullet was flying towards him. Bruce looked at Layva, kneeling next to Kai In terror.

A sword.

 He thought of all that the man had done to him.

Didrick fired again and again.

He thought of his best friend dying on the concrete.

"Just fucking die already!" Didrick yelled.

Bruce thought of Layva, his strong, stubborn, skilled teacher, trembling on the ground.

A sword!

Bruce felt his power channeling to his arm, and in a flash of white, so bright it seemed to light up the night, he was gripping something. The first bullet struck! 

But, it did not collide with flesh and bone, it was met with the clang of a blue saber. His body, as if moving on its own, bashed and deflected the other bullets that came quickly after. Bruce continued his mad dash, blade in hand.

Didrick took a step back, fear evident on his mutilated face. "S-stay away from me!" He shot three more times. Bruce blocked, sliced, and dodged. Didrick pulled the trigger but the empty gun only clicked before Bruce, with a savage cry, ran his sword through his chest.

…

Clover was panting as more and more animals surrounded her. Making my shots this non-lethal takes surprisingly more concentration than I thought. She took a deep breath and reformed her tommy gun, ready for another round. She heard screaming coming from Klevher's direction.

A few seconds later all of the snarling beast's glowing eyes returned to normal. The creatures looked around confused before they all scuttered off.

Clover leaned over and rested on her knees. She let out a breath of relief before looking towards the Lion's den.

"All right!" Nix ran over to Clover, battle axe still in hand, his forehead bleeding. "Layva took out the rogue user, took her long enough." Rolist joined the two of them and looked around. "Where are the others?" He looked fine. Besides his brow being a little damp there wasn't a hair out of place. 

"They're still by the Lion's den." She filled them in. Rolist resummoned his shield and started jogging that way. "Come on! Our jobs not over yet."

As Clover and Nix followed him she couldn't help but think of how that scream sounded. She would know it anywhere, it was the cry of loss.