White Rabbit

Chapter 44: Shattering the Glass

ESSENCE

Reece grimaces as he glances over at the street where his great sword is laying as we hide in the alleyway from the hail of gunfire. He glances between me and his sword a few times and I go to grab his arm when I notice what he's contemplating as he goes to launch himself forwards on his heels.

"Reece, don't," I frown, "it's too dangerous."

Reece clenches his jaw and glances away to meet Daemon's gaze, whose eyes wander down to Reece's sword before flickering back up to meet Reece's eyes again. Daemon nods and leans around the corner of the car while checking to see if he's covered.

"Rai!" Daemon calls out to gain her attention.

"Yeah?" Rai shouts back.

"Speed bolt!" Daemon shouts and Rai nods.

Rai leans around the corner of the telephone pole and twists her hand around sharply, which sends several rays of electricity that Daemon uses to run behind as it forms a temporary wall as he runs along with it, picking up Reece's sword and tossing it to him, before rolling into the alleyway with us as the lightning crashes into the wall of the building.

Daemon reloads his pistol, shell casings dropping on to the ground as he leans around the corner of the wall and fires towards the nearest sniper in a parking garage.

"It's no use," Daemon scoffs as he leans back around the corner and his back hits the wall, his eyes flickering between the two of us, "I can't reach them from here with this."

Meanwhile, Rai creates cover for us with her storm clouds as it begins to rain and fog begins to swarm the streets, lightning occasionally striking the buildings that the snipers are hiding in, and thunder rumbling throughout the darkened sky.

"Rai could create a tsunami," Daemon shouts over the loud noise, "but it would endanger the surrounding areas!"

"As would a violent storm..." Reece mutters as he contemplates what our next move is, "is Rai able to create a field of electricity around her?"

"Yeah," Daemon nods, "she can create a field bubble of electricity around her and speed forwards, seemingly almost teleporting to her intended target because she travels so fast and defies gravity, but in this situation, there are too many snipers that if she were to go after one and pause for even just a second, she'd be shot."

"Come on," A familiar voice rings out, "how hard could it be? Take them down already! Geesh. Or do I have to do everything myself, because, I certainly would like to."

"Aether," Reece growls as he leans around the corner and locks eyes on him, "of course."

I inhale sharply and I watch Reece, feeling somewhat breathless at the situation.

"Aether Gallaghan," Kazuki spits as he walks through the gunfire towards Aether, trading his daggers out for a pair of pickaxe weapons made of ice that glow with frost and he twirls them around once.

"What are you doing?! Get back!" Rai shouts at Kazuki, who simply ignores her.

"You cost me many business deals, you know that?" Kazuki glares at Aether.

"Well, isn't that a pity?" Aether muses as he twirls his gun around in his hand boredly and in an at ease manner, "however, it seems that my trap worked well after all. After all, it lured you here. This'll be fun. I'll get heavily rewarded for taking in shit like you."

Kazuki glares once more at Aether as Aether begins to shoot at him and pulls out a second pistol in the process, twirling it around before shooting them simultaneously as Kazuki reflects them with his weapons. Kazuki manages to run up to Aether, moving side to side as Aether reloads and starts shooting again. Kazuki's soft, blond hair turns white while his silver eyes turn icy blue as he throws one of his ice pickaxes at Aether, twirling as he does so, and his better wing shoots out shards of ice in the form of blades in the process.