Reunion

The atmosphere in the room was tense; they both had an offensive position; at any moment, they were ready to fight in what seemed to be their final battle.

The room was quiet, very quiet, the only sound that could be heard was the drops of water falling from a destroyed pipe on the floor.

Zeke was prepared to confront the Hals. Besides that, due to the pressure that Zeke was putting on his calf, it was so tight that it could explode at any moment.

It was extremely quiet. Even the drops of water began to fall more slowly...until the very final drop of water fell on the floor...announcing the start of the final battle.

Because of the speed he had at the time when he let the pressure in his calf do its work, Zeke left as if he were a rocket with propulsion. Even the ground where Zeke was standing cracked because of the speed with which he left.

Both of them moved so fast that you couldn't see them with your naked eye.

The impact caused by the collision of Zeke's sword and Hals' claws caused such a strong wave around them that some walls that were already slapped have begun to crack, and the mall's outer windows were completely destroyed, causing even more agitation in the crowd.

"Luis, what is happening?!" shouted Amber scared.

"I wish I could tell you..." he replied half-mouth.

"Luis...do you think there's any chance that Zeke escaped from the back exit...?" she than replied trembling.

"I wish this is the case..."

Amber than grabbed his hand and ask him "Luis, can we talk for a bit between four eyes?" at which he replied with a simple "Y…yeah…sure"

The two moved away from the crowd to have a more private discussion.

"Luis...I don't know if it's the right time to ask you this but...aside from Zeke's situation, is there anything else bothering you?" she asked, but Luis remained silent for a couple of seconds.

"It...Is something...." he replied.

"You can tell me about it if you do not mind, "she said catching his hand. "You don't have to restrain Luis... I'm in the same boat as you in this situation...we both saw that creature...and there was nothing we could do but run... Zeke, on the other hand...he appears to be different from the two of us.

He stepped forward on his own to distract the creature, as all those present in the room could run away. He didn't think twice about it. While we were frozen by fear, he already acted without any hesitation.

However, you do not have to feel bad about it! You've seen that beast... It was horrifying... but you don't have to feel bad for choosing to live!" she continued to say, while small tears began to drain from her eyes. "That's why at times like this, the only thing we can do is stay together and not panic too much" she said while trembling.

"Amber...I..."

"I don't want Zeke to die either!" she screamed in pain "I know how important is Zeke for you...and after all he saved my life today...so I wish he gets out of this situation safely...to thank him properly..." she said covering her tear-filled face with her hands.

"He will not die, calm down" a foreign voice said from behind.

"Huh?" asked Amber confused. A figure of a girl whose face could not be seen because of the sunlight beating behind her appeared in front of the two. "Who are you" Amber asked.

But at that moment Luis realized something "Wait...I know you...YOU'RE..." he continued, being interrupted by this stranger.

"Let's leave the introduction for later, shall we? We have more important things to solve now, is he still inside?"

"Yes, he is, but what do you plan to do?"

"This does not concern you Luis, you just have to stay here, until we come out"

The stranger walked away from the two, infiltrating through the crowd, and coming out in the forefront.

"Luis? Who was her?"

"Amber...I don't know why...but she gave me goosebumps"

"Why do you say that?"

"To be honest with you, I can't tell you why. Is that what hope looks like?" he replied with a big smile on his face "Let's go too, we need to know exactly what's going on!"

Luis took Amber's hand and they also slipped through the crowd, making their way to the front row, close to that stranger.

"What's this?" that stranger asked.

"It's a barricade; this location was attacked a few hours ago by an unknown creature, and the police had to intervene"

The stranger sighed, seeming pissed off "How pointless...move I need to go inside" she said.

"Huh? Wait are you crazy?" asked Luis, but the stranger seemed to ignore him, she was approaching the barrier when she was stopped by a big cop.

"Where do you think you're going, miss?" he asked in a strange manner "Don't you see that this barrier is placed here for a reason?"

The stranger did not seem to be moved by the words of the policeman, she answered with a simple "Move, you're staying in my way"

"Huh? Take a look, miss. I'm not sure what's going on, but all these people that are waiting after the barricade are there for a reason, and I'm urging you not to force your luck and harm that lovely face of yours, and you'd best let us, the justices, do our job."

Cop's words seemed to piss off her even more "I'll tell you one more time, don't get in my way, not while he's inside" she replied, this time looking annoyed.

"'He'? Oh, I get it, he must be your boyfriend, well I'm sorry to inform you miss but your ex-boyfriend is most probably dead now, so why don't you let me get you on a date to feel better and forget about that lo...?"

The policeman's disgusting speech was cut short by the foreigner's powerful kick, which left him lying unconscious on the floor.

"I said, don't get in my way, and if you dare to talk about him like this again, next time you will end up in a much worse state"

The foreigner passed through the barrier and continued on her way to the mall's entrance when she was stopped by several police officers who surrounded her with weapons.

"Miss, we will have to detain you for violence against a member of the police department because we cannot tolerate such behavior" said one cop to the stranger, but again she didn't seemed impressed by his words.

She got closer and closer to that policeman until she came face to face with him. The look she had was different from what you saw in any other human, in her red eyes you could not read any empathy, it felt like looking at yourself in a mirror when you looked at them.

That was until a moment when everything took a 180 degree turn. The stranger's gaze changed, now in her eyes one could read frustration.

By the time that policeman realized, she already had his pistol pointed at him.

"Huh? WHAT!?"

All of the cops surrounding the stranger began to panic, because none of them understood what had happened.

"Did you saw what just happened?"

"I couldn't, it all happened too fast"

They were all really worried, but as she spoke to them, they calmed down and realized what was going on.

"Hmph...And you still call yourself 'lifesavers', pathetic, even if you wish you couldn't beat me in a ten on one fight, you should know your place, now move! Don't you get in my way either" she replied dropping the gun in front of the cop "It's clear that this situation is beyond your powers, just stay back and don't let anyone in" she said walking inside the mall.

"Well...that was our job from the start..." one cop replied.

From behind, Luis and Amber were still watching the scene, both very confused and amazed.

"Luis...what exactly just happened?"

"I don't know Amber...but she just passed thought them"

"Luis...you seemed to know her, who is that girl?"

"It's a long story, but to cut it short, she's is reason why we came here today"

"Wait! Do you mean, she was...?"

Meanwhile inside the mall, the things between Zeke and the Hals began to escalate at a very fast pace. The two were still exchanging strong blows between them.

The Hals uses his claws to attack Zeke, but he was able to block them with his sword.

"It's good, things have changed a lot, and my chances of winning have increased exponentially"

Zeke attacked the Hals, however, it launch a counterattack on him, but that was the defining moment, when Zeke seemed to be in advantage. He managed to dodge the attack and cut off Hals' hand with a sword blow.

"Did you really think you could beat me with such a weak technique, creature? Well that will cost you your life!" he screamed with such enthusiasm and passion.

Zeke attacked Hals again, ready to behead it, however, something happened at that moment. The Hals let a roar out, but something about that roar was weird, the roar seemed to be transmitted in several waves, and when Zeke was ready to behead the Hals, this semitransparent waves blocked his attack.

"Huh?! What is this? Why did my sword just blocked mid-air?" he wondered, but in short time he realized what happened "Don't tell me! It's the same technique as that time" so he withdrew from the creature's attack range.

"I see...so, just like that Hals, this one can apply magic to his own roar, and make turn it into an attack..." he thought as he tried to come up with a strategy to defeat the creature "Stay! Don't tell me that...!" however the Hals was already one step ahead of him.

The creature let out a roar over which magic was applied, so strong that the walls of the mall began to crack one by one, and even the earth around it began to crumble, it felt as if Hals was an earthquake alive.

This attack was so strong that Zeke fell to the ground, covering his ears and screaming in pain.

"Not this thing again! The same as last time! This same attack caught me off guard! I have to do something! I can't throw off the chance that I just got!"

With difficulty, Zeke managed to get up from the ground, still covering his ears.

"I hope this will work! I managed to do it only once, and even then by mistake, but it's worth a try"

Zeke had taken his hands from his ears and grabbed his sword, raising it above his head, preparing to attack.

"Please work!"

Zeke swung his sword in front of him, cutting into the void and creating a purple wave that attacked the Hals from a distance, cutting one of its two mouths, and thus stopping its roar.

"Yes! I did it! I really did it...." said Zeke falling to the ground, screaming in pain "What is this...what this sharp sound that does not stop is?"

The sound didn't seem to stop no matter how much Zeke covered his ears. Zeke lay on the ground, with his hands covering his ears in an attempt to reduce the volume of the noise.

"What is this sound?! And why does it seem to come from within, rather than from without? Is that the price I have to pay because I let my guard down...?"

Zeke's ears were in excruciating pain. Blood started to flow from within them, and the sounds around Zeke became increasingly faint.

"You stupid creature...now you really pissed me off" he said rising his head to see the Hals "Huh?! No! Don't tell me..." but it was gone.

Zeke rose from the ground in a split second "It's impossible! A second ago it was here! Where could it have disappear...?" he wondered, but his monologue was interrupted by a full-blown Hals tail, which knocked him into one of the walls next to him.

Multiple bricks and pieces of wall fell on Zeke, covering him under rubble. Hardly had he managed to crawl out from under it. The attack caused quite a few injuries to Zeke, scratches and wounds on his hands and face, blood dripping from his head, and a strong feeling of dizziness. Worse was that when he looked around, there was no sign of Hals.

"Was that your intention from the start, creature? To deafen me and then attack from all sides? You're a real pain in the..." he said as he summoned his weapon "Huh?! This doesn't feel right, I feel like the sword is heavier than before, that's not good...I'm already at the end of my powers...that's not a good sign at all..."

Zeke did a 360-degree turn to see if he could find any traces of the Hals, but in vain, it seemed to have vanished.

"Don't try to play this game with me creature, I know you're here!" he then rotated 90 degree and blocked with his sword the incoming attack "I knew you would be here! Even if I can't hear anything, your murderous intent can be felt by anyone!"

Zeke managed to repel the attack and was ready to attack the Hals, however as he was ready to do it he fell to the ground breathing very hard.

"Wha...what...NO...! Why...why now!?"

The Hals took advantage of this opportunity while his enemy was on the ground, and attacked him with all that was left.

"Why...why...why...why do I have to run out of power right now ?! Why am I so weak?!" he screamed in agony, when he heard a voice. Despite not being able to hear anything, he could heard that voice, and it was a very familiar voice, telling him "DON'T GIVE UP! NOW IS THE TIME"

When he raised his head from the ground, he saw what appeared to be small purple lightning bolts around the Hals, which kept it immobilized.

Zeke didn't hesitate; he grabbed his fallen sword, no matter how heavy it felt at the time, and stabbed Hals in the middle of the head, right in its eye, witch seemed to be his weak point.

The Hals screamed in agony, but it was pointless, it couldn't move at all, and so after a fierce battle in which many people were killed, Zeke took advantage of this moment, and beheaded the creature, successfully ending the battle.

Everything around Zeke was destroyed and on the verge of collapsing, and when the creature's body fell to the ground, it created a large cloud of dust.

Zeke also collapsed to his knees, barely breathing, his ears bleeding, and numerous wounds on his body, fortunately none were fatal.

Eventually his vision became blurred, and he was at the point of collapsing. At that moment a figure began to appear from the dust cloud. When this figure appeared outside the cloud of dust, the identity of the mysterious person was revealed...it was Yuki.

Even if he was at the point of collapsing, Zeke was able to recognize her, even though he couldn't believe what he just saw.

"Yuki..." he said half mouthed.

At that moment, he saw that she started to talk to him, but he wasn't able to hear anything. He tried to get up, but couldn't do it, that's when she comes to help him.

He looked at her, unable to hear anything from her, but even without words, Zeke was able to read the expression on her face, that expression of great relief.

"Yuki I can't hear anything that you say, because my ears were badly injured in this fight, but I wanted to say one thing from the moment you left..." he said, as he grabbed her arm "Yuki, I'm sorry...I'm truly sorry for being this weak..."

As he said this, Yuki's facial expression started to change, her eyes had become bigger and some tears began to appear from them.

"But look!" he then continued "I did it Yuki...I did it...I summoned...my weapon...I'm not as weak anymore...you don't have to worry from now...on...I..dit...it...." he said, in the end collapsing due to his injuries.

"Zeke...you dummy...you've made me worry even more this time..." she said hugging him "You did a very great job Zeke, and I'm also sorry for leaving you behind"