The Lionheart Chronicles, Book One: Salvation

Hesitation

"A moments hesitation can mean the difference between life, and death."

Kira hurled herself at me, her fangs bared. I simply stepped out of the way, letting her hit the wall. I grinned. "Really? You wanna fight me? Alr-" As I was speaking, I heard a gun go off behind me. Not a second later sharp pain shot through my chest, making me fall to one knee. I simply laughed, "Y'know, I did feel bad for you two before, but now..." I swept my hand back, blasting huge winds. I heard a a couple of cracks, like bones were being broken, and stood back up. The hole in my chest was slowing vanishing. "Now, as I was saying..."

Kira was already standing back up as I looked at her, preparing to launch herself at me again. I tsked. "Y'know, spamming attacks isn't really appreciated by many." I said, grinning. She simply hissed and lunged at me, much closer this time. I yawned as I barely got out of the way. Looking down, she ripped my clothes. The bitch. "Ooo, Ms. scary vampire thinks she can hurt me by jumping. Sooo scary."

"Oh, you want scary? Alright." She said with an evil tone to her voice. Standing up straight, she reached into a pocket, which I'm pretty sure wasn't there before, and took out a pen.

"A pen? Really? A pen is scary?" I said, laughing. She simply grinned and pressed down on the button. Instead of a point coming out of the tip, I heard something that sounded like the mix of a rabbit dying and a lions roar. As it did, the pillars at the door fell, and my war hammer vanished.

And I felt completely drained.

"The hell did you just do, Kira...?" I said, trying to re-summon my war hammer and failing.

"Well, since it seems that you can't do much right now, I'll give you the long version." She said. "You see, when you break down a human, you'll see flesh, blood, bones, and all those delicious substances. Nothing more, nothing less. What does this tell us?" She paused. I didn't respond. "That's right, it tells us every human is the same. There's no difference between one human and next. So, who's to say that it isn't the same with other species?"

"You didn't..."

"Oh, but I did. We managed to capture a mutant without severely injuring it, and took a worthless villager from his family."

"Kira!" I snapped. "We had a deal with the Dark Figures! We don't touch their mutants, they don't touch our villagers!"

"Yes, yes, Gale, I know. But this was for scientific purposes!"

"Scientific purposes my ass! This could cause some serious shit between...Well, everyone!"

She put a finger to her lips. For some reason, it was strangely...Sexual. I shook my head to get that thought out of my mind. "Hush, Gale. You're interrupting story time. Anyways, we brought them down to the chambers and tied them up in the same cell. After letting them sit for a while, I simply came into the chamber, took out a knife, and cut them open. After study the insides of both for a short period, I came to a conclusion. Mutants, no matter what rumors pass around, are the same as humans. Flesh, blood, bones."

"That's an idiotic conclusion, Kira. That's like saying a vampire and a werewolf are the same thing."

"Oh, but they are..." She said, slowly walking towards me. As she did, I felt a surge of hatred run through me. "Yes, different on the outside, but the same nonetheless. Which means, whatever medications should work on a human, should work on a mutant, a vampire, a werewolf, a Dark Figure..." She grinned as she stopped not a foot away from me. "...And yes, even a man who is a cross between two different races, an elemental and an Almighty."

She walked even closer, running her fingers along my neck. "As you might have already guessed, we managed to release a gas into the air. Me and a few others that were in range of the gas took a pill to minimize the effects on ourselves. That gas is what knocked you out. This pen, if that's what you wanna call it, is the same thing, except on a smaller scale. It released a sound, which you most likely heard, to distract you from the gas being released." As she spoke, I felt the hatred start transforming itself into power. Power into energy. Energy into elements.

"Heh...Nice plan, Kira..." I shook my head and grinned. "But there is one slight thing you overlooked. That gas might've worked on someone else, but me, I'm built from the strongest two races I know of. So all that gas did..." I shoved my hand forward, into her stomach, and sent her flying. She hit the wall with a thud. "...Was set me back a bit." 

Almost instantly, she started getting back up. I cursed and reached out my elemental senses, extending a message for help. Not a moment later, I felt warmth start flooding into the building. Kira seemed to have noticed it too. "You're not..." She mumbled warily. I just nodded and braced myself for what was next.

It happened all at once. Flame surrounded me like a tornado, and blew out the roof of the building from the sound of it. I laughed crazily and held out the same hand I used to summon my war hammer as an object was being constructed by the flame. Thought the process seemed long to me, it couldn't have taken more than 2 seconds in Kira's eyes. As the object started to complete, I recognized the shape of a blade. And, what do you know, the fire that made it died away and it turned out to be a long, glowing silver blade, had to be at least 3 feet, with a hilt of pure black. Oh, and it was surrounded by fire. There was that too. I took it as it drifted in my hand and felt something enter my mind. The fiery tornado died down, leaving an angry looking Kira. 'Hello, Gale.' A voice in my head said. 

'Hey there, Flame.' I responded to the voice. In my head, of course. 'Long time no see.'

'Yes, too long in fact. I've been itching for a fight.'

'Well, you see that vampire over there?

'Yeah?'

'She deserves to be cut up into little bits, and I think that the two of us can accomplish that, right?'

'Are you questioning if I can chop something up? We've gotta get back in touch.'

'Agreed, but there'll be time to catch up later. Right now we've got some killing to do.'

'Right. Let's do it.'

'Let's.' I smiled at that and, as Kira looked like she was gonna pounce, I made the first move and ran at her, adding some wind power so that I was in front of her in the blink of an eye, and sliced her right across the chest. Then the stomach. Then once more in the chest, all in the space of another few seconds. Kira fell to one knee almost instantly. I raised Flame as high as I could and prepared to bring it down onto her head...

...And I paused for a moment, and I have no clue why. But that's when I felt something stab me from behind, and everything went black.