Spirit

The Attack

The attackers targeted the diner first. Then it went on full battle scale. Every spirit that was freely unleashed was now growling or roaring, threatening and attacking.

"'Hakem'?" I asked Maddie.

"Who else?" She replied, as her spirit left her body and joined the fight. Before she went to action as well, I grabbed her and kissed her.

"Please, be safe." I whispered.

"You too."

And the last thing I saw from her were her sparkling eyes, full of dread as if she was expecting this moment any time.

I ran outside and saw the small battles going on here and there. The Dragon came out of the diner, looking as calm as ever. I didn't wait for her to attack, so I dived into action.

My fox left my body and immediatly started recognizing enemy spirits and planted his fangs in them, trying to kill them one at a time. He was doing a better job than me. I ran behind him, concentrating on my energy balls, and throwing them at what I thought were our enemies. That's when I felt stupid. Our enemies weren't Asian. Well most of them. So I waited for people to come and attack me, then I would either throw a good pair of energy balls at them, or hit them with a strong gust of wind, sending them flying fifty feet back.

Everything turned to a blur of color and destruction. I would sometimes fight next to Rob, who would knock over the enemy with his bare hands, then he'd disappear to be suddenly replaced by Jack, dodging the enemy's attack with his ghost abilities (lucky bastard), then Roy would fry out several people at once, tendrils of electricity flying out in his control. Oliver finally showed his ability (well at least to me), turned out he could turn his body unbreakable, no wound appeared on his body as attackers threw all sorts of things at him, and Leena teleported so fast knocking people on the base of their necks it was impossible not to be impressed. But Maddie impressed me the most, playing mind games with 'Hakem' followers, confusion falling upon them, just enough time for someone from Chinatown to finish them off.

When the battle seemed to go our way, a certain cry made its way towards my ears, momentarily making me lose focus. I turned to search for the source of the cry, and I wished right then and there I didn't find out.

A huge python made its way towards the crowd, snapping and poisoning every spirit in sight. I couldn't locate the caster of this specific spirit.

Memories suddenly came flushing back to my mind, and my feet stuck to the ground. This was the spirit that caused every ounce of misery in my life. Anger and fear boiled inside me, and my whole body started shaking.

I wanted to order my spirit to rip that fucker's head off, but my plan got ruined by something even scarier, and more majestic.

A dragon, larger than any spirit I've seen so far, snake-like body with a large lion-y kind of head, floated over me. Imagine the dragons they put in festivals in China, the ones that have people inside them, and you'll get the right image.

Anyways, it opened its huge mouth, and a jet of blue flames shot out off it, hitting the python straight in the face. The snake recoiled and hissed loudly, but it shook the flames out of itself, and attacked again. He sprayed poison on the dragon, but she dodged it easily, so the attack hit people down below, 'Hakem' followers or not.

They yelled and trashed in pain, but then stopped as the poison ate right through their flesh deep into internal organs, and let me tell you, the sight isn't pretty.

The battle raged on for what seemed like hours. My feet felt like lead, and my focus was getting too bad I accidentally hit Mariko once. Thank God my energy balls were starting to get weakened as well, or not? If I wanted to thank God for anything, it would be for my fox, who was saving me at last moments, biting enemies away and growling at spirits, and also for my wind powers, which were a lot more comfortable than energy balls. But even those would run out of fuel, and I could feel them getting weaker by the minute.

Why the fuck are they here? The can't know about the scroll. I thought while I was still fighting. Or maybe they have a spy in Chinatown. But even if they have, why did they wait for us to take the parchment?

I knew something was off. I made sure the scroll was still with me. I felt it against my pocket, and a sigh of relief came out of me unwillingly. They weren't after it. Then what were they after?

Also, another word caught my attention. A spy. But I didn't have the time to think about that right then, because 'Hakem' was retreating.

As surprised as I was, I found the Dragon by my side, calling her spirit back inside her body.

"They're leaving." She muttered to herself. "What did they accomplish by attacking us?". Abruptly, she turned towards me. "The parchment! Is it-"

"Don't worry." I cut in, showing it to her. "Still here."

She exhaled, then, when the last of the enemy limped away, she told me to check the injured.

I felt sorry to think that I didn't care about the injured, I just wanted to find my friends.

"Maddie? Jack? Roy?" I called on the microphone. But I knew the thing had to be busted from all the attacks the others and I received. So, walking through what once was a beautiful city, I started searching for my friends, while trying as much as possible, to help every injured person I saw.

Mariko called me from a corner, and came towards me with a slight limp.

Before I could ask her anything, she told me: "This is not what I foresaw."

I looked at her, surprised. "What do you mean."

"The chaos you are supposed to bring. That's not it Luke."

Considering what I just saw, I couldn't imagine any worse than this.

"What am I capable of doing? What's more chaotic than this Mariko?"

But our conversation was interrupted by Jack and Oliver, who were blindly searching for us, I presumed. I called them and we continued our search quietly. Roy joined us later after closing someone's eyes.

"Dead." He murmured.

Then I heard sobbing. That's never good. I stepped up a bit more to the echoing sound, only to find Rob's arm around Leena. She was crying her eyes out, and when she unmistakably looked at me, her cries got more intense.

I didn't dare ask.

"What's wrong, Leena?" Jack asked, a quiver in his voice.

She wouldn't answer at first, but then Rob whispered some words into her ear, all I could catch from them were "... for her... strong..."

She raised her head from her hands, her eyes were puffy. "I'm s-s-sorry Luke. I couldn't do any-y-ything."

"Leena, what are you talking about?" I asked, dreading to hear any answer.

She took a few breaths, and gave a great sniff before answering me.

"Maddie. She's dead!"