Damned Desire

Chapter 3: Struggle

Dark spikes shot towards Vox at a frightening speed, intending to skewer him. His eyes followed them as he swung his claws.

Cla-clang!

He evaded any spikes that he could avoid and deflected those that he couldn't with his claws. His eyes moved busily as he judged the closest path to reach Novus. Without wasting any time, he charged ahead through a gap between the hail of projectiles.

After passing through the dark spikes, there was nothing else between Vox and Novus. His eyes burned with hatred as he stared at Novus, who stood idly without any concern while looking at Vox. A grin plastered on his face, unbothered by the threat rapidly approaching him.

Before Vox could wipe that grin off his face, he heard a shout from Mysta.

"Vox, duck!"

He immediately followed it without thinking, just before several dark spikes whizzed right above him. Vox looked behind him in surprise, the dark spikes that he ran past previously were now chasing after him from behind.

"Weren't you going to shut my mouth? Where did all that fervor go?"

Novus mocked Vox once more, but he wasn't in a position to retort. Vox began deflecting and destroying as much of the dark spikes as he could, but it was too much to handle by himself. A dark spike slipped past his guard and shot toward his back.

Smash!

Before the dark spike could reach Vox's back, Luca punched it into smithereens in the nick of time.

"Milord, are you okay?!" Luca asked worriedly as he began punching the dark spikes surrounding them.

"I'm alright! Thanks for the save, Luca!" Vox responded in the midst of defending himself.

The situation was now more manageable with the two of them, but they were stuck in a deadlock. The destroyed spikes simply reconstructed themselves and rejoined the hail of projectiles, and they were too busy defending themselves to change the situation. If this continues, they will eventually tire themselves out and be caught in a barrage of attacks.

"Damn it, what do we do now?" asked Luca, his breathing started to feel labored. He racked his mind, but it was too preoccupied with dodging the attacks coming towards him.

"Guys! Hey, listen to me!" Mysta's shout can be heard from a distance.

Luca and Vox glimpsed towards his voice to see Mysta and Shu bunkered under a purple barrier that fended off the dark spikes, presumably conjured by Shu.

"Vox, I need you to stop all the spikes around you and Luca! Luca, run towards that bastard and give him a good punch! We'll take care of the rest, all you need to do is run!" Mysta ordered loudly.

"The pen! Get that fountain pen off his hand! That's the source of the curse!" Shu yelled out as well.

Their eyes shot towards the black fountain pen being held by Novus. It had conjured the dark spikes that're currently attacking them. If they took it off his hand, perhaps everything would end, and Ike would return to them. It was their only chance to make it out of here.

"Luca, get ready to run like your life depends on it," Vox muttered. Luca only nodded in response; his eyes glinted towards his target.

With veins bulging on his neck, Vox bellowed as hard as he could.

"HALT!"

Boom!

A resounding boom soared from Vox as his command halted the world. The dark spikes that were eager to tear them into pieces froze on the spot, unable to refuse his order.