Chapter 36

He surveyed the area and the looked to the tree that had some sort of grey dust on its stem.

He looked from left to right and started to feel trepidatious. With that his fingers started to glow red.

He drew a radiation check spell in the air. However there was no radiation picked up from the air because the spell just died down.

He subconsciously made his eyes turn red.With the help of this, started to look around again and then he saw a vision of Reed. Despite everything being in red and its different shades, Adrian would never fail to recognize Reed. If only the feeling was mutual.

Reed had exited the waterfall and landed on the bank just like Adrain.

He stood there and fastened his clothes .

As he did that , a shadow slithered on the water and erupted into a woman who launched for Reed . The red-eyed beauty was caught off guard which explains why he backed away. Who would blame him?It was like watching a motion picture while being in the same set.

As she jumped out of the water she waved her hand and Reed s sword set its self out of its case and went over to her. She backflipped in the air and targeted the space in front of Reed

She reached her destination in the blink of an eye.Consequently as her feet touched the ground she began attacking Reed with the blade .

She aimed the blade to this neck and he dodged it , swerving to the side and punching her on the way then grabbing her arm to simultaneously throwing her forward back to the water

Because of this, she once again summersaulted in the air and set back to Reed who kicked her chin launching her backwards to the water .The sword fell out of her grasp and Reed found the chance to reach for it but as he did that the woman had already aimed for Reed s neck with her claw of a hand. She was ready to pull out Reed's oesophagus but he managed to counteract that by steeping backwards and lowering his body under her

He grabbed her and span before throwing her onto the floor

She got angry and she propelled herself forward but Reed wanted her to do that , because when she was close to him once more , he introduced his iron fist to her face sending her to the sky

He jumped up with her at the same time and sped to be high above her. When she saw him do that her eyes protruded but he welcomed that expression by exerting all the force in his body into his foot and gifting it to the woman s chest

The monstrous woman fell from the sky with unrealistic acceleration. And when she impacted the floor eight seconds later, it's no exaggeration that her internal frame-work was now a joke.

She coughed blood when she saw Reed s boots land softly on the ground, half a meter away.

The woman raised her trembling hand towards Reed's boots who responded by kicking her onto the tree right behind her, commanding her body to form an S to the shape of the tree s trunk.

As she got kicked onto the trunk, she must have got stuck and was discomfortable because now she was struggling to move and she appeared like she was being bitten by many tiny ants

Reed summoned his sword which obeyed instantly.

He caught it by the handle and prepared to attack the woman but he foregoed that when he noticed that she was behaving strangely.

The more she tried the more her veins were changing colours to black and her eyes were following in sync..

He got shocked as to what is happening to her and at that instant he immediately aimed his sword at her but that motion was complimented by the head of the woman suddenly hanging to the side.

Reed steeped back and stared at her. He then reached for his pocket and withdrew a pulse strip that was soon befriended by the air. Bizarrely enough the HanZi bickered .

That's not right..

The spell either glows or it extinguishes not flickers..

As he was still in awe, the woman slowly detached from the tree and consecutively fell to the ground like a huge stump..

At the same time that happened the flickering HanZi died down..

What on earth is this..

With that thought he decided to head back home as this can not be a good thing or that they could more of such people.

But he can't leave her like this, creatures in this forest might mutilate her body so he has to preserve her

He removed one of those strips that allow to conceal a body and then he squatted and threw it to her forehead.

Reed then progressively stood up and he looked to the waterfall.

Adrain who was standing back watching the epic fight scene , was bewildered by seeing Reed staring at the waterfall

He slowly walked over to Reed and stood to his side .His feet proceeded to formulate a way for Adrian to stand directly infront of Reed .

He doesn't know what Reed feels when he looked at that waterfall but by god he knows that whatever it was so captivating, so beautiful and so unfeigned.

The caring, the concern , the appreciation, all of that resonated in a single glare

The gut-punching twist was suddenly invented in his intensines and it felt like a tsunami of scorpions

In spite of this afternoon air being so fresh and relaxing, for Adrian it felt like his eyes were taking a walk through a desert. No matter how much the chirping of birds felt like a fresh sip of water from an oasis, for Adrian it sounded like devil was mocking his fate. All because of the way Reed looks at that waterfall.

Though he doesn't know when but it felt like a thousand thunderbolts were having a banquet in his head

Adrian felt the warm pool of piercing tears welling up, the guilt in his heart pilling and agony in his soul igniting

It gnawed every piece of him not to be able to tell Reed the truth but it hurt even more to imagine his reaction.

It hurts to look at a someone s shadow and be able to the pain irregardlessly. But it's worse still knowing it's your fault. And far worse when you don't do anything about it and keep adding more pain despite them being the only ones who authentically care.

He stared at him until he felt his cheeks get drenched in his tears.He raised his hand and brought it close to Reed s face. He wanted to touch him, to reassure him that one day , when all this is over, they will share a bowl of wine.

But because this is not real, Adrian bringing his hand near Reed s face made the whole scene disappear almst like he had been talking to dust silhouettes and they got carried away

Adrian began to sob pitifully. Why is it that the one who cares so much about him is the one he has to hurt so much?

His hand remained mid-air just as it had touched Reed s face.

His heart heart so much and it is like he had placed boulders on his chest. There was just too much pressure , too much force , too much to bare.

" I am sorry. I am really sorry", he spoke heart-ripped..

As he was still standing there, the HanZi tattoo on his hand started to glow,

He turned his red eyes to the hand and as he arised the hand, he was suddenly pulled off in the direction of the city.

As he hovered into the air , the tears in his eyes dried up quickly. Two minutes later he was hundred meters in the air and above the city border.

He could see the disorder above the city and was shocked to how much damage had occured.

What on earth could be so malicious and what for.

He looked down and he saw four black cloak figures standing boldly on the roof.

One figure looked to him and waved sarcastically before slowly melting in the through the roof . Where they stood, was replaced by their cloths

Similarly all the others did the same.

Now more than ever he needs to alert Reed ..

He let the HanZi transport him to wherever Reed could be.

He paced the palace and he went over to the furthest side of the place.

What could Reed be doing there?

He saw a group of soldiers standing outside the place.

He brushed over the tattoo without looking at it and when he was lowered to the ground. Just three metres above the floor , he landed whilst pirouetting

Immediately he ran to the corner of the place to avoid being seen by the imperial guards

Adrian sized the opportunity to distract them by making his genius windstorm by the gate..

He swirled his wrist and the windstorm was germinated. The more he swirled his hand, the more the dust misbehaved.

The guards covered thier noses and cursed before dispersing. The dust still hung in the air baking a cloud.

He pulled his hat to his face and he covered his nose with his elbow. The blanket of dust helped to conceal his tracks and thus he managed to slide into the yard

The second he stepped inside, he turned and closed the doors and he just let his arms rest on the wooden doors. He blinked sevaral times to readjust his focus. But as he was doing that his forearm began to burn. He looked to it but was interrupted by a question

" Who are you?", the wolf sitting on the stoop spoke boldly

Adrian rotated his body to locate the ower of the hoarse ,raspy voice.

A group of wolves sat scattered all over the place and he saw some imperial guards but his attention was solely pinned on the man-beasts.

The burning in his arm was accelerating so much his skin was beginning to bruise.

Adrian lowered his eyes to the arm which he had raised to inspect.

He blinked but not all the way as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. His head started to feel compressed like his cranium was turning inside out

His brain seemed to be failing its function because there was so much pressure in his veins ,like his blood was pumping in reverse

He could sense that his carotid artery was thumping so much it felt too close to his trachea and thus stopped the air from reaching his lungs, making it feel like his alveoli were being branded

The presence of physical pain without a physical cause was like a catalyst for instructing a stampede to reign in his cardia. His heart muscles struggled to keep up to the aggression of his blood, simulating the possibility of it leaping from his cage onto the ground and then shattering.

He parted his lips that were already so dry to try and call in the air but instead he probably chanted a mantra for feeling that his mortality was his being pulled out of him .

His legs had gained paralysis because he was sure that the earth had born roots that had chained him to the ground,all the way to his waist. How else would the certainty of feeling like he is standing on quick sand be explained.

As flesh on his eyes began to feel like they were hugging the nest of hornets. They were so red and plump.

He raised his eyes to the wooden door.Each drop was a perfect representation of the scars in his soul , the bottomless pits that had been awarded a rebirth.

Crystal drops descended their coven and trickled down his already pale cheek.

"Brother...", he whispered