Cardinal Sin (1) : Rebirth of the Fullmetal Alchemist

13 - Struggle for the philosopher's stone

"And that's how you do it," Ed said, arms crossed, smirking as he stared down the unconscious Herman. 

Nearby, Frederick was watching with wide eyes. Phil had fainted a while ago and was now lying on the floor, completely forgotten. 

"I can't believe you took them both out," Frederick said quietly. "That was violent."

"Could have been less if either of you bothered to help me out."

"We're not like you. Phil and I aren't state alchemists material. We don't like to fight or would we be any good at it. I—I'm sorry. We're pretty useless, huh?"

Ed shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Here, help me tie them up so we can question them later. We should probably call the authorities and a doct—"

It seemed that Herman was not as unconscious as he'd thought.

All of a sudden, he'd sprung into action, making a quick, sharp blow to Elric's chest, causing the latter to lose his breath momentarily. As soon as he'd recovered, Edward yelled, "How the hell?! You took my automail to the face and you're still conscious?!"

A smile appeared on the enemy's blood-drenched face. Herman hissed, "Your automail must not be as good as you thought, runt." At these words, the man shed his wooden gloves, his hands shooting through the bits of woods exploding into the air and grasping Ed by the neck. He started to squeeze.

The pain was greater than Ed had expected; Herman's strength was increasingly great. His breaths fell short as no air could travel in or out of his lungs, and Herman's thumbs felt out a tube Fullmetal thought was named the larynx and applied pressure onto it from both sides. He could feel his face colour, but most certainly not from embarrassment or from the blood of his broken nose.

"Damn you, little vermin," Herman spat. "Your dumbass wrecked my face. I have a nice face you know? I don't appreciate getting kicked in it by—your automail leg, right?"

He was in great pain, nevertheless, Ed found the nerve to croak, "Yeah, you public nuisance. I can do it again if you like. That ugly face of yours needed fixing anyway."

"Little shit," grumbled the man.

Unable to scream like he usually did when someone implied that he was short, even though he was now of regular height, he just said, "Stop calling me little, whould'ya? I'm pretty sure we've both broken each other's noses, so I'd say we're pretty equal."

"Equal, huh?" Herman removed a hand from Edward's neck and drew another sheet of paper with a transmutation circle drawn on in, only, this time, he placed it one the counter rather then on the floor.

'No,' Ed thought, his eyes widening. 'This sick bastard!'

The counter moulded into a new glove of stone around Herman's right fist. He drove it deep into Ed's stomach mercilessly while still hanging on tight to his neck.

Blood spilled out of Ed's mouth, adding to the sheer amount already poured all over his chin. His vision became spotted with growing and retracting black dots, his head woozy and confused. He knew he'd been cast aside, thrown to the ground like a growing child discarding its old toy as its interests went elsewhere. 

Someone was shaking him, shouting his name—Frederick in the most likely case. He was telling Ed to get up...

But why should he bother to do that? His stomach felt like it had been bulldozed.

Then, there was Herman speaking, and, somehow, it was his enemy's voice he heard clearly rather than that of his friend's. "I'll go get the philosopher's stone and then the boss will commit the ultimate sacrifice, just like the ruins in the desert said..."