Awakening

23: Outcome

Protect her. Protect the town. His vision had gone completely black but those two thoughts echoed and pounded in his mind. He thought he'd dropped unconscious. But suddenly he felt the pain in his body once again and he could feel his vision returning, allowing him to finally process his surroundings.

He stood directly over June? Blake's legs trembled violently but he would not allow them to collapse beneath him. Slowly, he turned his head around and looked behind him.

Puter was there, standing in front of him. Barely, however. Blake's eye widened with shock as he realized his attacker was missing an entire arm, and a massive gash stretched from a shoulder to his opposite side. Puter himself glared at Blake with a look of dismay. Oddly, there was no indication in his face, body language, or voice that he was in any pain. Not only that, but it seemed he did not bleed either.

The man straightened a little and calmly reached for the stub where his arm was, and stared. Blake could not believe his eyes. This awful injury garnered no reaction at all other than a simple glare?

Furthermore...had Blake done that to him? How? Something was very wrong here. Just what the hell was Puter?

"You filthy insect."

The moment Puter's eyes met Blake's, the latter froze without a second thought. He couldnt move a single muscle, nor would his body dare relax enough to collapse. His heart pounded harder than ever as a true terror and dread settled over his head. He thought he might stop breathing after seconds of unbroken eye contact.

Puter finally lowered his chin and stumbled back a bit. Blake gasped with horror and disbelief as air finally rushed into his lungs again.

"This will require time to regenerate. Unthinkable." Puter again hatred at Blake, though not as intensely as before. "I am left with no choice but to retreat. Pathetic for the both of us it seems."

For him, too? Hadn't Blake won though?

"No matter. Your beloved home will still perish in due time. Those residing in the very sanctuary below is will not survive long. Relish your victory today; you have still lost."

Puter turned around, though not completely, and slowly walked towards the nearest ledge. He climbed atop, and simply dropped off with no hesitation, before Blake could even call out. After staring wide-eyed into the bland and empty scenery for sometime, Blake eventually snapped and looked around in utter shock. The sky was painted this horrid yellow color, and rain may or may not have been on the way. The wind whistled an eerie tune, and all was silent.

In a moment of panic Blake looked downwards. June's chest still rose and fell; it wasn't very slow, but it didn't appear normal either. Although...did she have a little more color and a little less tension in her face than before?

All the imminent threats seemed to he gone now, he realized. Soon as he did Blake's legs crumpled beneath him, and he could not cushion himself as he fell right next to June. One side of his face plastered into the ground, causing him to unleash a rather loud and unpleasant groan. He saw June facing upward, and her eyes still had not opened.

Blake's body went completely numb as the shock and adrenaline very slowly began wearing off. The panic also subsided, but was replaced by waves of pain coursing through every inch of his body, even his head. Most notably, the aches felt strongest in his side, shoulders, and one of his hands. He wheezed so hard he thought his lungs might fail right then and there.

But...June was safe. She breathed slowly, but it was stronger than when he first saw her on the rooftop. Her face was no longer contorted in pain, and if not for her thin appearance she could have been mistaken as just a heavy sleeper.