Alasla: The New Age

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Lost and Found

"As you wish."

Abhijar held out his hand, brandishing a silvery hammer. Ralph held his sword in a ready position, preparing for the attack.

But inches away from him, Abhijar suddenly changed direction. With the heavy hammer reaching in front of him, he swerved and shot toward Eve.

Eve, who had seen three seconds in advance, managed to dodge this attack. Using this power as an advantage, she successfully avoided all of Abhijar's strikes.

Stopping in his attacks for half a second, Abhijar tightened his grip on his hammer, then again shot towards Eve.

But his speed changed this time. His hammer landed squarely on Eve's back before she could see what was happening, blowing her backward into the swamps along with a splatter of scarlet blood.

"Eve!" Ralph hears himself hollering. Before Abhijar came hammering down at her again, he wrapped Rain in his flame, skidding to a stop in front of her just in time to block the blow so heavy that the aftershock of it travels through his sword, heavily bruising both of his front arms.

He's really hitting to kill this time, Ralph realizes in terror. Eve would've been dead within seconds if this had hit her.

Out of the shadow between the fold of Abhijar's collar, Cecilia suddenly emerged, arrow already strung and pointing down at his head.

Lifting the hammer off Ralph, Abhijar spun around to knock off her arrows. His hammer thrashed through the empty air seconds after Cecilia sank back into the shadows on the ground, reappearing in the canopies of brittle offshoots above, aiming an ax kick down for his head.

But Abhijar's hammer reached her leg first. With a scream of pain that tears through the dead, heavy swamp air, she disappeared into the shadows before Abhijar's second hammer reached her.

Not pausing for a mere second, Abhijar swirled around, making the hammer continue its way down toward Ralph and Eve. Glancing around at the bloodied, senseless Eve sprawled in the mud behind him, Ralph gritted his teeth, disregarding the throbbing pain of his bruised arms screaming in protest as he lifted his sword, bringing it into collision with the hammer.

He cannot bear the pain. He simply can't keep up the fight when his arm felt like they're literally breaking. Not just his arms, his torso, and all the organs within them. It was like a wave of pain that travels up his arm, beating between his breast, followed by a thick, spike-like pressure driving itself down his stomach. A steady rhythm of agony thudded through his whole body, the moment Abhijar pulled away, Ralph collapsed to the ground. Clutching the cold, slimy mud between his fingers he bent forward and spat out a mouthful of blood. Coughing, throwing up almost, he blindly reached for his sword, staggering up with the help of it.

He had one last resort to save themselves. He could only risk it now. He had promised Kanitha never to use this power unless on the last line of defense for the people he loves- He guesses that'd be now.

Closing his eyes, and shutting out the pain, he released his Cauchard at its maximum level- Midnight.

What little was left of the greeneries in the swamp instantly crippled and died under the impact of the aura. Abhijar dropped his hammer, Ralph heard it landing with a muddy splash. Opening his eyes, he sees Abhijar clutching his head, his knees locked and shivering beneath him, trying to block out the impact.

Pulling his sword out of the mud, Ralph trudged over to Abhijar at the fastest speed he could handle without falling back down, lifting his sword, which felt abnormally heavy, he tries to swing it down on him.

Except he didn't. Something stopped him. Enhanced in his own Cauchard, blinded by the pain, the familiar shape of his sword between his palms, a surge of familiar hatred fogs his mind.

Kill them. Just kill them. Why are you defending them? Why are you putting your life on the line for them?

"No," Ralph muttered, his metallic-scented breath drugging his mind in an even stronger dose. "It's not like this."

What have they done to deserve your life? They aren't really your friends... Just substitutes for Forrest, who is long dead. Don't you see what a clown you are?

"Just cut it out!" He cries, but another scream, louder and clearer than his, wakes him up.

When his eyes snapped open, Abhijar was gone from his sight. Instead, arms wide open, shielding him from Abhijar's attack was Eve, the right side of her head empty. In her ear's place was a bloody opening, plastered with her blood that had also been splattered across Ralph's face.

Tasting the warm blood mixed with his own that pooled within his mouth, he catches Eve in his arms, her mildly sweet aroma pressing into his nose as they collapse into the swamp.

It took a few moments, loosening his fingers tightly clutched around Eve's arms, she rolls off him lifelessly, sinking into the puddle of blood and mud beside him with a small plop.

"Never knew you'd have the Cauchard," Abhijar says light-heartedly as he looms before him. "But you shouldn't have gotten distracted while fighting with me. I'm one of the members of the Scars, after all. Did you not guess that I may have obtained the Cauchard too?"

Tracing the direction Ralph was staring at after receiving no reply, he glances at Eve for a brief second. Then huffing in disdain, he again pulls out his hammer.

"She tried to save you when I was going to kill you," Abhijar briefs. "As I said. You shouldn't have gotten distracted. If this is all the Five Descendants have got, I must say that I'm greatly disappointed."

Rising his hammer high above his head, he drives it down toward Ralph's skull.

It stopped inches before it reached its target, barely brushing Ralph's hair. Accompanied by an explosion of bright, crimson flame that blew Abhijar off his feet was a voice Ralph could never be more familiar with.

"Who says that?" Forrest roars. His dark, beady eyes were now wide open, blazing in the glow of his flame. "And who says you can hurt my friend?"