XTRAVAGANZA

Chapter 9: Bloom

X collapsed onto his knees, the bodies of multiple officers lying before him. He breathing heavily, being dazed and tired.

In the corner of his eye he could see his mother approaching him. Turning his head, he watched as she stared in horror at the sights surrounding him.

He slowly got up, grabbing his gun as well. Slowly, he lifted it up, aiming it at her. She didn't try running or hide for cover, instead, she just looked into his eyes, crying.

X wa about to squeeze on the trigger but stopped himself. Quickly, he turned the gun back on himself, fully squeezing the trigger this time. Nothing happened however, the gun was empty.

X dropped the gun. He slowly raised his head, looking up at the sky before he just started yelling. He didn't know why he was yelling, maybe it was the torment he was feeling, or something else. All he knew was that it just felt right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

X suddenly reawakened from his little day dream, quickly getting out of the way as the tail from the giant serpent creature had slammed down where he was previously standing.

He quickly ran to where his car was, hiding behind the hood of the car. He breathed heavily, trying to come up with something to get out of this situation.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of another car. Peaking out from behind his hiding spot, he the car quickly pull up, shocked as Damian stepped out of it.

Instinctively, he called out Damian's name, drawing his attention to X, but also the serpents.

Damian, acting quickly, formed a shield of crystals around the two. The serpent slammed on the shield with its tail before opening up its jaws and starting to bite it, causing the shield to slowly crack under the pressure.

"Shit...come on." Damian said, trying to keep the shield together. Eventually, the shield shattered from the pressure. Hundreds of tiny little crystal shards went flying everywhere.

Damian quickly began manipulating the tiny fragments, sending them through the air and onto the serpent, with them sticking to its body like snowflakes.

"The hell is that gonna do for us?" X shouted, confused as to what Damian was trying to do. "Just watch." He replied.

He slowly brought his two hands together, closing his eyes briefly. At the same time, the serpent began lunging towards them, its jaw wide open.

Damian reopened his eyes quickly, before chanting a single word. "Bloom." In an instant, all of those tiny crystal fragments on the serpent turned into giant, twisting spikes, impaling  the serpent across its entire body. The serpent collapsed onto the ground, its body dragging across it, stopping only a few feet in front of the pair.

Damian suddenly collapsed onto his knees breathing heavily. "You ok?" X said, running up to him. "I'm fine...just used a lot of energy is all." He replied, breathing heavily. X glanced towards his right hand. Instead of seeing normal human skin, it looked like it was made of crystals, the same crystals that fractal is able to summon and control.

X was about to start asking questions but was interrupted by someone else's voice. He slowly got up, watching as the serpent disintegrated into smoke before his eyes. Eventually, when the smoke was clear enough, X could see Rion standing there.

"I must say, I'm impressed." Rion said, giving a small applause to the pair. X was suddenly refilled with anger and rage once more at seeing him. He slowly marched his way towards Rion, clutching his fists.

Rion had a cocky look in his eyes as he watched X approach. X through a punch at Rion's face. He expected Rion to turn that part of his body into that same Smokey substance like he did earlier, but he didn't this time for whatever reason.

Rion stumbled back a bit from the punch, gripping the left side of his face. "Shit...I must've expelled all my energy summoning Leviathan." He muttered to himself, unsheathing his blade.

X, with a new found confidence, charged at Rion who promptly swung his blade at him. X was able to grip the straight and dull edge of the blade, pushing it away from him as he pounced on top of Rion.

Just like last time, he began punching Rion over and over in the face. Rion tried pushing X off of him but he refused to let Rion go.

Eventually, X started causing Rions nose to bleed. Something about that was satisfying to him as a smile crept across his face. That cocky look Rion had was now replaced by fear. X started laughing as he reached out one of his hands, picking up a nearby rock.

X slowly lifted the rock behind his head, grinning. Rion began to plea with X, trying to squirm free, but X already made up his mind.

X smashed the rock against Rion's face repeatedly. Damian could hear Rion's screams in the distance, slowly, they got quieter and quieter, before ceasing all together. Damian slowly got up, walking towards X who was now just standing over Rion's body.

"Say...didn't you say you were gonna be on a date with someone tonight?" He asked, turning his head towards X.

X's eyes slowly widened as he began to run down the hill they were on, following the road that lead down it. Damian stood there, confused at first, before starting to after him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

X reached the bottom of the hill, frantically searching through the vegetation. "Care to tell me what the hell you're doing?" Damian asked.

Slowly, X stopped his search, staring down at a certain part of the ground, slowly lowering to his knees.

Damian walked over to X, looking down at a young woman's body. "W-who is that?" Damian asked, turning towards X.

"Yuki..." he replied. Slowly, he picked her up in his arms, and for the first time in a long time, he started crying. Tears poured down his face like an endless river. "I'm sorry Yuki..." he said in a muffled breath, bringing his face to hers.

He slowly raised his head to the sky before he just started yelling. He didn't know why he was yelling, maybe it was the torment he was feeling, or something else. All he knew was that it just felt right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A light in a wooden office slowly flicked. Behind the desk was a large figure, drowned in darkness.

The figure looked on a computer monitor that was showing footage of a security camera. The footage that played was a recording of X killing Riju.

The large figure slammed down on the desk in front of him, breaking it in two. As the figure slowly rose out of his chair, a grin formed on his face. "I suppose i'll need to take care of this pest myself."