Chapter 9 - Almost there

It was dark. On the road, shrouds patrolled back and forth, searching for anyone that dared to come down it. What was the point in being in the forest? There arent any humans there. But off in the forest, through the trees and bushes, there was a small fire. 2 boys sat around it, one looking up to the sky and the other one looking outwards towards the trees and flowers. The blonde one turned to the other.

"Why are you staring up at the sky?" asked Andrew.

"I never saw the stars like this! There are so many, I can't count them!" Fise looked at Andrew.

"Back at the orphanage, there were a lot fewer stars, I would sometimes count them at night."He turned to look back up. The fire crackled and embers rose.

"Fise?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you tired?"

"Now that I think about it, my body feels heavy."

"Drink some water and then go to sleep. We'll take turns at watching out. I go first, then you go."

"Why drink water?"

"Well, we need it."

"Yeah, but we drank like 2 hours ago."

"Well, Guarded need more water than normal humans do, we can go without food for months if we don't get injured, but the amount of days we can go without water is around the same if we don't get injured."

"Does healing really take that much?"

"No, actually it'll take much more to heal shattered organs, if you can heal at all, and to do it fast, it is really a winning situation."

"But how? How can auras just magically make things more efficient like that? How can they heal so fast? How do they work if, by what you are saying, they're doing something impossible?"

"Fise, you need to learn a lot about Guarded. One thing is that there is no point in asking how, or why. Because nobody knows how, and nobody knows why. We have theories, but theories are not always true. They're just that, theories."

Silence descended upon the little camp as the moon shone brightly. Andrew put a flower he found down and back into the ground before turning to Fise.

"How are you doing?"

"Fine, after the fight I was healed up nice and well."

Andrew poked Fise in the chest.Fise inhaled sharply.

"Yep, I knew it. After the damage caused to you, you couldn't have healed completely."

"So I'm healed up, as in I have no wounds but my skin and stuff are not back to normal hardness."

"That too, but also you are still wounded. Your organs are still getting used to working again as they healed back so quickly and the same for your blood vessels, they're all very tender right now. Also, your muscles would tear more easily now, so that means more pain."

"Wow, this healing thing is getting kind of complicated. And apparently, everything else that has to do with Guarded is too."

"Tomorrow we would slowly move closer to Incip. Since we will get pretty near it, going fast would be a problem, not that we could go fast with your post healing injuries."

"PHI?"

"What's 'fee'?"

"Post healing injuries, PHI."

"They're technically not really injuries, not yet. So how about post healing weaknesses?"

"PHW?"

"Don't say it like "fu". We are going to call them P.H.Ws"

"PHW sounds better."

"We are not calling it that."

"I am."Andrew threw a water bottle at Fise with little force, which Fise caught. He felt pain shoot up and down his arm and inhaled sharply.

"Oh, it's like muscle pain!"

"It is muscle pain."Fise drank from the bottle carefully while his arm was shaking.

"Well, now go to sleep. Don't forget to keep your aura on till you fall unconscious. It'll help."

"Thanks."Fise lay on the ground before closing his eyes.'We are almost at Incip. Once we get there we can meet with the... uhh... what was their name? Should I ask Andrew? No, there's no point, I'll just keep trying to go... to sleep.'

Fise aura deactivated as he fell unconscious. Andrew looked at the flower he planted as it shone under the firelight. He then sat up and walked out a little further from the fire, looking around he saw the same flower again. 'What was it called?' He thought as he picked it up, with the ground around it this time, and smelt it. 'I think it's called a golden-rayed lily. Blooms around this time, in September, and is native to Japan. But how did it get here, and specifically in this forest?.

'He placed it back into the ground and looked around. Something caught his eye on a tree. He walked up to it and saw it was a few wooden boards nailed to the tree, the remaining nails rusted and the wood rotten. He looked up and saw what was once a treehouse. He jumped up and landed in it. It creaked loudly. He lay prone to spread out his weight and went forwards. To the right of the treehouse, almost above where he was, he could see a bush of golden-ray lilies.'Some of the petals must have landed down below and sprouted those lilies from before, one travelled far, and the other just fell down.'He got closer to them as the wood cheeked and something caught his eye.

It reflected some starlight from inside the bush. Andrew put his hand in and pulled out a picture frame.Looking at it, he could see a girl smiling with someone who looked like her father, who was holding a hammer an nails, the half-made tree house visible in the background. The picture was taken from the middle of where they were camping. Andrew looked out of the side to the campfire before looking back the picture.'She must have had a loving family for them to build this treehouse.'

As he looked around he could see dates scraped into the walls, with some writing under them. A normal life before the Fall. He put the picture back into the flowers.'I wish my family was the same.'

.....

They ran past the forest, shooting up pebbles that were on the road. Forest on the right and the side of the hill on the left, full of trees. They have been running for 10 minutes straight and Fise was lagging behind a bit. Even when they are running slower than normal, he couldn't keep going like this. 'I need to keep going, faster! We need to reach Incip fast enough so that no more enemies intercept us. So we can get out of this faster. We can make it, we can do it.'

Fise started accelerating, catching up to Andrew. They looked at each other and Andrew nodded slightly. Fise kept accelerating, going faster than Andrew now, and began to think. 'This feeling, the feeling of the wind brushing against my face, it's amazing! I feel like throwing my hands up and shouting. We can do it!'However, before Fise could celebrate, his vision spiralled and he hit the road with the side of his head first, before tumbling and rolling another 10 metres before skidding to a stop.

As this happened, Andrew quickly began skidding to a halt, throwing his arm out. From his fingertips, black fire immediately began enveloping his hand, then arm and by the time he stopped his whole body was covered in it.[The Black Knight]

Fise lifted his head, feeling blood flow down his left temple. 'I must have tripped, but on what?' He saw blood in front of him, little spots of it on the road. 'Is that mine?' He reached for his head and felt something wet and sticky there. He took it away and looked at it. As he was doing this he thought: 'Did I hit the ground that hard?' He looked back and saw Andrew a few metres away, with black fire around him and ready for battle. He called out, "I'm Fine. I just tripped."

"Just tripped?" Andrew turns his head towards Fise and stares into his eyes. "Fise, stay calm."

"What?"

"Look at your leg."

"My leg?"

Fise looked down at his right leg. Everything was fine, it looked unhurt from the fall. Fise then turned to look at his other leg. From the knee down, there was only a bit of it left at the end. The rest was gone. Fise's breathing got hurried and his head got cloudy, he felt like he was in a bubble.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!" Fise screamed as tears flowed down his cheeks.

"Fise, calm down!"

"MY LEEEEEG! HOW CAN I BE CALM!?"

"Look next to you."

Fise looked to his left and saw it. His foot. It was intact up to just above the ankle.

"Fise, now grab it and hold it to your leg. It'll heal faster as it reattaches. Now, who cut your leg?"

Fise did as he was told without thinking. He pushed the two parts together and that's when he felt the pain. He just tried to keep doing that, bearing the pain before realising that they don't fit together. He looked at them through his tears and saw that his wound was a weird shape. It was like a ball smashed through his leg, as there was a curve on both wounds. 'Something else is also wrong., but what?' He looked at his leg and then back at his other leg. 'Wait...'

He looked at both legs while holding his foot up against the other one. 'It's... shorter?' Looking at them, he saw that his left leg was around 20 centimetres shorter than his right. 'This... Did Andrew say it was a cut? This is not a cut! Crap!

'"Andrew! This is not a cut! This is something el-"

Out of the corner of his eye, Fise sees some leaves move as if something brushed past them."ANDREW, FROM IN FRONT!"Andrew dodged to the left quickly, getting out of the way."Thanks, Fise, dodged that."

"Andrew..."

"Hmm?"

"Your left arm..." Fise pointed shakily.

Andrew looked at his left arm and saw it gone from the elbow. He looked down under him and on the floor, he saw his left hand, gone from above the wrist."And... your side!"Andrew looked at his left side and saw a small chunk gone. His eyes narrowed.

"The wounds... Andrew, they look like they were made by something round."

Fise said, vocalising Andrew's thoughts.

"Which way did they come from?"

"In front of you, to my left."

Andrew spun his right arm in a circle, creating black flames. They continued to spin around and create a round shield in front of him, blocking his view and protecting himself.

"Fise, tell me where they are coming from, okay? " Andrew said as he began stepping back until he reached the side of the road and leaned his back on a tree.

"Got it."

They both turned to face the other side of the road, waiting for something to happen.'I need to calm down, I can barely think straight!' Fise thought as he looked closely at the other side of the road. 'We need to figure out their ability. They seem to be able to shoot or throw something that... what does it do? It 'erased' my leg and Andrew's arm, leaving nothing behind, so it can erase, or delete space. Since we can see leaves moving before it reaches us, it must be either shot or thrown, it isn't an instant hit. Its speed is kind of high. It takes only a second for the thing to delete space after the leaves move. Since the road is around 6 metres, that means that it travels at around 6 metres a second. It cant be a bullet, it's too slow.'

Fise saw the leaves rustle and his pupils shrank.

"Andrew! To the left!"

Andrew reacted instantly, turning his shield to the left.'There could be another one. It came around 30 seconds later before, after I got attacked.' thought Fise, keeping an eye out.'How long has it been since the leaves moved?' he looked at Andrew and saw that he was fine.'It should have hit by now, were my calculations wrong-! THEY AIMED FOR ME! The way the leaves moved, I was sure it was heading towards Andrew but their real target was me! Damn it!'

[Time Stop]

Fise wildly punched in stopped time. To his left, then front and lastly right. That's when he felt his fist hit something. It felt like a blade.'I need to move out the way!'Time began to resume. Exactly as this happens, Fise had an epiphany.'Every time these things erased space was when they hit us, so if I hit it in stopped tim-'Blood shot out. Andrew moved his eyes on Fise and they widened. The blood came out from the right side of his head, along with some from his arm. Fise fell backwards on the ground, motionless.

"FISE!"

Andrew shouted, taking step towards Fise.'They hit his head! This isn't good. He wasn't... killed, was he?'Andrew had a look of worry and surprise on his face. That's when he saw it. A shape went through his shield, straight to his head. Andrew immediately snapped his head back and the shape passed by in front of his face. The black flames stuck to it and so, Andrew was able to tell what it was. 'A shuriken?!'

It zoomed past and then he saw it hit a tree. A hole 25cm wide immediately bore into the tree, erasing that area completely and making the tree start to fall forwards, on Andrew. He had a glint in his eye.'Figured it out. It seems that it cannot be remotely detonated, and only erases space when it impacts something. Also, the tree began falling towards me, so that means that the area erased isn't all erased at the same time.' Andrew looked closer at the erased space and realised something else.'No... All of it is erased at the same time, it's because the shuriken is the centre of it. The trunk seems to dip lower at the back and, therefore, when it falls that side touches first and tips the tree forward.'Andrew moved out of the way and let the tree fall, hearing it creak and groan before it smashed onto the concrete. Everything was silent.

Andrew kept the shield in front of him and narrowed his eyes. He then drew back his hand and punched through the shield, throwing out an aura punch and then more came after that before Andrew put his hand back by his side, ready to dodge at a moment's notice. The aura punches, because they went through his shield, were now covered in black fire and flew to the other side of the road. One hit a tree and smashed it's trunk, causing it to fall, then the others did the same a little deeper into the forest. Trees fell and dust rose as silence enveloped the road. Andrew breathed heavily and tore his shirt before quickly bandaging his bleeding stump. He lost a considerable amount of blood from his injuries. Andrew kept focused on his surroundings, but he only heard silence.

Suddenly, a sound echoed around the road. It was the sound of a slow clap. Andrew looked at the other side of the road and saw the leaves of the trees move aside before a figure appeared. It was a man, 180 cm tall and had brown hair. His aura burned a navy blue around his camouflaged trousers and vest. He smiled. "You are good at dodging, but I guess you'll have to keep working." He said, staring at what was left of Andrew's left arm. Andrew stayed quiet.

"You see, your ability is weak. Compared to my ability, its useless! My ability to erase space with my shurikens wouldn't lose to the likes of you, doesn't matter if I can only make 2."

"This guy... he's a moron; who would explain their ability to their enemy? This fight should be easy. Or it would have been if I had my arm. I am alone, Fise is incapacitated, so I should still be careful.'

"What? Cat got your tongue? Well, let me make you scream." The man put both his hands behind his back and stared at Andrew. Andrew tensed up and got ready. 2 seconds go by and the man suddenly throws something towards Andrew, who then runs forward. Andrew waves his hand in front of himself and creates a wave of black fire. It travels a bit before something penetrates it and Andrew dodges. The shuriken goes past his cheek and erases hole at the edge of a road.

The black fire then gets penetrated again.It's coming for Andrew's chest; he has to dodge. But he just accelerates. While doing so he stepped next to something on the road. A small rock. Andrew concentrated aura on his foot and turned it into a small tentacle. It got under the rock and threw it towards the shuriken enveloped in black fire. It hit it and the fire disappeared along with a strand of Andrew's hair. Andrew was now right in front of the man.

"How the-" a swift punch got the man in the cheek, making him turn to his left and scrunch up while holding it. Andrew then kicked up into his jaw, dazing him, before Andrew brought his leg back and kicked him in the head, making the man tumble on the ground for 3 meters before getting stopped by a tree, which cracked its trunk. Blood seeped down from his mouth and he held his head with his eyes closed. Suddenly his eyes opened and they sharply stared at Andrew.

"Damn you."

He said, withholding anger. The man stood and immediately threw shurikens at Andrew which were hidden in his hands behind his back. Andrew quickly dodged and, because of how hastily they were thrown, they missed. They erased a tree, 2 holes appearing in it. The man wanted to make 2 more but then the pain came.

"Uaagh!"

Black fire burned his skin, his hand and his head. The man fell on his knees and touched the ground with his forehead. He kept screaming. Andrew raised his hand and began bringing it down when suddenly the man looked up and threw something.'Crap.' Andrew stepped back and felt a small breeze brush past his face. The man ran to the right, trying to go back into the woods, but got stopped by black fire Andrew created with his left leg. The man quickly turned around and ran the other way.Andrew moved his hand upwards causing a wave of black fire to block him, but it was too slow and dissipated behind the man. He kept running. Andrew made a few aura punches head after him but they only hit a tree and the ground respectively, as the man went out of sight down the hill. 'How did he get the fire off himself?'

Andrew looked down and saw 2 small, round holes in the ground. 'Wait, can he use the shurikens on himself, and he won't get affected?' Andrew immediately went after him. He looked to the right and saw Fise laying on the ground, steam slowly starting to come out of the wounds on his head and arm. Andrew bit his lip and threw 2 aura punches at him. They pushed Fise off the road and into the bushes.Andrew turned to look forward again when he began to fall. He had tripped on a hole in the road, one made by an earlier shuriken, and couldn't balance because of his left arm. He began tumbling down the hill.

He protected himself with his right hand, all attempts to stop himself only making him bounce and shoot up dirt. He hit a tree that turned him so he was now rolling backwards. He tried twisting and he slowly started to roll on his side again when he got stopped by a tree, making him gasp out loud. He stood still a bit before leaning his back on the tree, dizzy from the tumble. He looked behind himself, down the hill, and saw he was only 10 metres from the base.

The man brushed branches aside and jumped over fallen trees. He had reached the base 10 seconds ago and was now running through the rest of the forest at the bottom. Suddenly he saw something in the distance, between the trees. He got closer and one of his eyebrows shot up. It was the wall of a house, rotten and old. The man went around and he stood in the middle of a street, the concrete broken and plants growing out of it. There were more houses down and up it, all with broken windows and doors, sunken roofs and foliage surrounding them. The man kept going forwards and entered more forest.

Andrew walked down the hill and kept going through the forest on high alert. He kept going forwards until he was met with a house wall. 'A house? Why is there a house here?' Andrew kept going forward and got on a derelict street. 'There's more than one? This must be an old town. One before the Fall. I need to stay ready, in an open place like this it'll be hard to tell where the shurikens are coming for. Therefore I'll have to find the man. I should look inside this hou-' In front of him, the sound of something heavy falling down echoed out. Andrew immediately ran into the woods.

He ran for 3 seconds before, through the foliage, he saw a fallen tree before a clearing. Inside of it, he saw the man. Andrew accelerated and jumped on the fallen tree. He put all the force into his legs and kicked backwards to fly at the man, but he only fell face-first onto the ground.

"What?"

The man suddenly turned around and laughed. He laughed uproariously. Andrew took his chance and launched 6 aura punches towards him. The man stopped laughing and easily dodged the punches. He began chuckling to himself."Hahaha, I told you, your ability cant beat mine. You can't beat me. You tried and. You. Failed. Don't you understand? Or I should say, 'don't you under- STAND?" He began laughing again as he took a look at Andrew's legs. Andrew widened his eyes and turned to look down at them. His feet were gone from just above the ankle.