Chapter 146: Danse Macabre, Part 2

The Hat Man would be pushed back, feeling such a hole made and the blood being spilt from its opening, with Harvard's eyes still staring at him like an animal, a predator that finally crippled its prey. His hair still flowed beautifully, like a wave crashing along the shore, as the child would take a spell to create the potion once more, using it to remove the shards of glass still stuck onto his body and patching it with the vial's contents, healing his injuries almost immediately. Publiq would recognize the glass and piece together exactly how he was capable of faking his death, recalling the spell he used to clash with the likes of his arrow. The vial's contents must've been coating the arrow, as well as the glass stabbing in him. A makeshift acupuncture technique, though with a high risk of death if it were to hit his vitals. As for the arrow, he'd theorize that since it hit his head and pierced through it, the potion took effect almost immediately and healed the wound mid-shot. It was impossible, and yet, before his eyes, the child did it with no hesitation. "What.....parents raised you? How are you raised like this....? What psychological warfare have you done on yourself....to make up these types of decisions...?" The Hat Man would ask weakly, trying to use his memory magic to patch up the wound with his memories of how the human body works.

The boy merely smiled and rolled his arms around, spell prepared in hand, the two dragons towering above them, ready to strike once more. "Nothing! Just lots....and LOTS of books to read. Adventure books, mainly! Always love hearing a cool adventure when bedtime comes. Why'd you ask?" He would state, his confidence oozing out of his body.

The Hat Man looked dumbfounded, staring blankly at the boy. "....That was it? That's all??"

"Yyyyyep! That's all!"

"That.....that can't be right...." He'd look up at the sky, watching it be a still black, with only the sun and moon being near meters away, staring down at the Hat Man in malice. "But.....the bloodshed. The Anger....the Vitriol....The literal equivalent of Leonidas, facing off against 300 Persians because he could....There has to be a better reason for that, right?"

Harvard merely shrugged, watching the hole being made into a separate arm. "It's just that simple. I just really like stories, and I wanna be just like them! What's so hard to understand than that?" He'd finish, before closing in on the Hat Man, casting a barrage of knives to pierce through his body again.

The Hat Man merely gave a wide grin and laughed to himself again as he heard such words. "Truly.....the Human Mind is a wonderous, yet mysterious gift." He'd react accordingly by having the appendage be spread out, his Memory of the house taking shape, transforming the arm into a wider object, spawning doors and concrete walls to block the knives. The Dragons merely fought back in an array of blasts, some from Inti to strike from his left, while Quilla blast hers from her right, the blast being a condensed pillar to increase the gravity further, warping the land to try and trap the Hat Man into a hole, leaving little time to escape. The Hat Man merely waved his arms up and had himself imagine more of the house, creating more walls and glass to block it, wincing in pain as the attacks being dealt still held his vital nerves. He'd spin himself around and used the walls as a makeshift battering ram to push them off, slamming them into the barrier, using their bodies as means to try and break open the shield that bars him down from the rest of the people outside. Harvard, however, warped once more, being right behind Publiq, setting up a spell to create another barrier, overlapping Solomon's with his own, condensing the size slightly as means to ensure such escape is impossible. He'd then cast another spell in the form of chains, wrapping it around the Hat Man, choking his life out and forcing him to move the walls away, providing a clean hit, scorching his body alive once more. What Harvard noticed, however, as his body was being burnt, was that his very skin felt stiff. Like rock, it was sturdy, causing the boy to be curious and shake the chains, trying to dig it deeper. Doing so resulted in the skin chaffing, watching bits and pieces crumble in the chain as if it was dead.

The Card Magician's eyes widened upon such a discovery. This was an artificial layer of skin made on himself, dyed in a heavy matte black. "What the..." was all Harvard was able to say, watching his scab-like muscles be present under the amount of paint and false epidermis

A. N. Noh would try to use his magic once more, creating more silhouettes of himself to grab the child's chains and break them apart, hoping it would apply enough force to rip it in half. When the Sun took notice and intervened by shining its light down, hoping to dissipate the shadows, the next step would be to have the Silhouettes instead attack the Card Magician's wrists. Clawing. Scratching. Biting. All of such moves in an effort to release the boy and keep the binds from snuffing out his very life, yet the child still kept going. He'd desperately cling onto them, even dragging them up to make it act as a noose, yet inevitably, A. N. Noh wouldn't allow such damages to continue further.

SHIKK!!

Off came the boy's wrists, bleeding profusely all over the green and brown grass, forcing Harvard to be thrown off. His hands were severed in a clean swipe, and yet, He'd still keep going. He'd have himself make a run for his own hands, allowing the dragons to act as a cover and an extra appendage to grab ahold of the vial being casted, healing them with its contents once more, feeling his hands once again. The Fire that was once burning around the edges started to grow more and more, feeding off of the lands further and further. The two began to sweat from the heat, struggling to keep themselves up from the low amount of oxygen. The both, however, still stood, staring down at one another like a standoff, waiting for the next strike to happen. "What.....the heck.....even are you....?" Harvard would ask.

A. N. Noh merely took a deep breath, coughing profusely amidst the rising smoke, before clearing his throat and stating once more. "I am Annoh Publiq. A. N. N. O. H. The A and N are titles of mine. It is my task to study people. To take as much information as I can. To take as much traits and personalities before me and report them to the King. You could say I'm somewhat a psychiatrist in that department, studying your behaviors in such a manner...."

"That is who I am....and That is what I do..."