Entropy

Chapter 1-The Hunter of the woman in the dark

Part 1

It was dusk. There was little light to show the path that the woman was taking, the many misshaped stone pillars surrounded her in an unnaturally lined up fashion. But what could clearly be seen were her eyes, they shone in the darkness and were as beautiful as diamonds of the purest kind. Her eyes were wavering around as if she was looking for someone, even though she was running as fast as her body could allow her. It was as if she was being chased for her life.

Fading into the darkness was a young man around the age of 19, even though he could pass for a 30-year-old. By the expression and burns marks on his face alone, anyone could tell that he had been though many hardships and experienced more than most adults today. He was high up, jumping from pillar to pillar. As he was closer to the moonlight you could make out the thick skin tight armour he wore, despite it being covered it in a dark blue cloak, which helped him fade into the shadows. What he was doing could not be described as chasing but only as hunting. Suddenly he stopped moving and prepared to leap like a wild animal. Instead of flying directly at his target he jumped as high as he physically could, aimed his left hand directly at the target whilst supporting it with his right. As he did this a great strain could be seen on his face as if he was in unimaginable pain. In his left hand, something red and hot began to form in a spiral and eventually took the form of an unstable ball of flames. It looked as though something was trapped inside, desperate to escape and sending flames in all directions. It was a mystery that his hand didn't burn off. When the ball of flames had stabilised the young man shouted with all his might "DIE ESPER" as it flew in the direction of the woman whose eyes shone in the darkness.

Part 2

The loosely held together ball of flames exploded 2 meter away from the woman, setting alight everything surrounding it. The force sent the woman flying in the direction she was running but she made sure not to lose control of her body. Surprisingly, she was able to land softly on her feet. No matter how you looked at it this was not possible for any ordinary human to achieve. It was as though she was hovering off the ground for 2 seconds before landing, this made every movement remarkably elegant for someone being hunted.

The young man had never seen such a graceful escape. As he slowly approached the ground, the light from the fire illuminated the woman's appearance. She wore a pure white and short yukata (a traditional Japanese dress) with a blue flowery pattern embroided into it. A pair of sandals with jeans covering her legs, along with her long black hair it could be assumed she was of Japanese origin. Although none of this should matter to the young man, he could not help but be confused by her choice of clothing. Realising that his own outfit wasn't the norm, he cast aside all thoughts. He drew his relatively modern looking knife around 40cm long, it had a straight edge and resembled a mini sword. He then prepared to strike on his descent toward the woman.

As soon as her feet touched the ground the woman began to run faster than before, as she was now aware that she was not being chased, but hunted. She ran and hid behind the nearest pillar and peered her head from behind it to look at her hunter. He was still descending towards her position; he was higher than the tallest pillar which was as high as a set of apartments. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to evade her in mid-air, she took advantage of the situation and decided to strike back. The woman took a deep breath, closed her eyes and calmed herself, then she jumped out from behind the pillar. She did it with dance like movements and a half cartwheel spin until she was in clear view of the hunter. Before touching the ground, she moved her hand diagonally in a way that seemed like she was cutting the very space in front of her in two. Nothing could be seen emitting from her hand, but something could be felt approaching the legs of the hunter who was closing in on her.

The young man could not help but be captivated by the dance like movements of the woman whose face was covered by her long black hair. This meant that he failed to notice the wave of distortion moving in the direction of his legs. As soon as the wave hit his legs they froze instantly into what acted as cuffs, restricting his movement. Not being able land on his feet he fell onto the rubble with a big puff of smoke, he was surrounded by burning dry patches of grass. The sound of glass smashing could be heard when he hit the ground. As the smoke cleared he was up and standing, below him was the ice that had smashed from his fall. His face was bruised and his clothes were torn from the impact. He started to slowly walk towards the woman, it was clear that the young man was not in perfect condition as his breathing was laboured and he walked with a very slight limp.