Chapter 27: Bitterbridge Part VIII
Damian runs across the rooftops of Bitterbridge at full speed dodging obstacles in his way and jumping over the gaps between buildings almost effortlessly. His agility and speed make him look more like a leopard moving through the treetops in search of his next prey instead of a teenager.
This agility and dexterity are the results of more than half a decade of hard training. The rooftops of Bitterbridge are not the forests of Greenwood but jumping from one tree branch to another, and jumping from one building to another is not so different; in fact it is easier. When he was free running through the treetops in the forests of his home Damian had to be much more careful because the branches of the trees are much smaller and more fragile, a wrong move and the branch would break under his weight. Bitterbridge's buildings are more than strong enough to support the weight of a teenager and that allows him to move faster than usual.
But this has its disadvantage: by moving faster he is spending more energy. His resistance is something that he trained very conscientiously but he still has the limitations of his physical age, they put a limit to his training. No matter how much he trains his body will always be limited by his physical age, there is a limit to how fast, strong or resilient he can be. Those limits can only be exceeded over time, something that he cannot control in the slightest.
While his speed allows him to move like a predator in the middle of a hunt, that same speed is draining him of energy at a very rapid rate. In other circumstances he would be very aware of his limits and plan accordingly, but not today.
Today Damian is possessed by the ghost of his greatest regret and reason is forgotten. His body moves automatically following a single guideline: Save Alysanne.
"I will not fail!"
"Not again!"
"I will not fail!"
In his mind the images of Marian of Greenwood and Alysanne overlap each other and are stirring up a storm in the depths of his being. Then the image of a small girl appears in his mind.
"NOT AGAIN!"
He is a man on a mission, a machine programmed for one task. Reason can no longer stop him, words can no longer reach him.
His increasingly heavy breathing and the heaviness of his legs don't even register in his brain, it's as if anything that isn't his goal is completely ignored.
Damian looks for the dark-haired girl every time he jumps the gap between two buildings, he looks to the streets below him and looks for her with his eyes growing cloudy.
He doesn't see her.
So he keeps running, jumps more buildings, crosses more distance and keeps looking for her.
Deep inside, in the depths of his cracked heart, a small voice is telling him that it's his fault, that he was the one who decided not to get involved, and that if he can't save Alysanne then he'll be even worse than those monsters.
(The most vile of men are those who ignore evil acts for their own benefit.)
(True evil is born when good men do nothing.)
A roar of anger ripped from his throat and Damian gritted his teeth so hard they began to grate. The sounds are lost in the wind and no one hears his anger and frustration, the mere look in his eyes would be enough to scare most but there is currently no one around him.
The cornflower blue eyes have an ominous electric glow, like lightning caught in a sphere ready to explode and engulf everything with its electric glow.
His heightened senses hear a scream and he stops dead, his boots skidding off the roof and he nearly falls off the side of the building. He turns his body and jumps over the gap that separates two buildings towards the origin of the scream.
In less than a minute he stops at the edge of a building and sees a narrow, almost deserted street.
`Alysanne!`
A few meters below him, his friend is lying on the ground with a man sitting on top of her, two other men are lying on the ground and he can see three others relatively close to them. On the other end of the street there are two other men but they are not an immediate threat.
Under normal circumstances Damian would have taken a few seconds to analyze the threats and develop a plan of action, but currently he is more beast than man.
Damian locates the man standing closest to his friend and he becomes his target. He jumps from the building towards him, the distance that separates them is about ten meters and he crosses it in just a few seconds. The unsuspecting man doesn't see the redhead coming and crashes to the ground under the teen's weight with a gasp.
Several cracks sound as several of the man's bones snap under the sudden weight, before he can cry out in pain a dagger stabs him multiple times. The stabbings are sloppy and only target the upper part of the man, something not typical of the adolescent who tends to calculate each blow with precision.
Damian's electrified eyes lock on the man who has his friend pinned against the ground and darken as he sees parts of Alysanne's dress torn off. A bestial growl escapes his throat and Damian lunges at the man, before he can reach him someone lunges at him from the side.
Another of Alec's men lunged at him and threw him against a wall, Damian hit the man who knocked him to the ground in the head, he stuck his fingers in his eyes and pressed until he felt two pops. The man began to scream in pain and jerked away from Damian, covering his bleeding eye sockets with his hands.
Damian, again did something very out of character for him, instead of finishing the wounded enemy he grabbed one of his hidden knives and jumped towards the man sitting on top of Alysanne. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a man with a drawn sword heading towards him, his body automatically dodging the blow and throwing the knife towards his target.
He misses so he throws another of his throwing knives and this time hits him in the neck, piercing through his throat.
Seeing that man fall like a dead weight on top of Alysanne, he feels his muscles relax a bit and in that moment the other man directs his sword at him again, Damian dodges the cut but tripped over the legs of the man whom he blinded and crashed against the ground. The man he blinded started kicking him, roaring in anger and pain.
"Alysanne!" Damian grunted and rolled to the side. His ribs and his shoulder ache, his head throbs and his vision starts to blur but he doesn't plan on giving up.
"Got you!" The swordsman raises his sword to stab him and Damian looks at him through the mist covering his eyes, the mist changed from red to pink to pinkish white over the course of the last hour.
`I have to get up.` Damian begins to regain control over his body at the worst possible moment as he is exhausted, injured and at the mercy of several enemies. `I have to get up!`
The swordsman drops his hands to his sides and his sword bounces to the ground before coming to rest. Damian blinks twice and sees the tip of a sword protruding from his chest, that sword disappears and blood begins to flow like water from a spring. The swordsman falls to his knees and the man behind him chops off his head with a clean slash before swinging his sword at the blinded man.
Benton barely gives him a look before going for the other men.
Damian stops trying to get up off the ground and watches in shock and disbelief as Benton is slaughtering these men with ease. The guard's movements are fast and precise, he does not waste energy with unnecessary movements and aims to kill with each hit.
The redhead comes out of his stupor and crawls towards Alysanne, with a lot of effort he manages to push the corpse off the girl and places his fingers on her neck. Feeling the pulse of his friend he lets out a sigh.
"What the fuck did just happen?" He mutters as he sits up, his ribs protesting and he grimaces in pain. Damian bites his lip and begins to check on his friend's status. When he's done he places Alysanne's head in his lap and waits for Benton to finish off the rest of Alec's men.
`Why do I have so much blood on my clothes, and my face and hair- and everywhere?` Damian does not feel the pain of any stabbing and after feeling his body he does not find any cuts so the blood that covers him from head to feet is not his.
His eyes go to the man who broke his fall and he sees his dagger a few meters away, the memories of stabbing him are vague as if he were seeing them through a fog and they feel alien as if they were not his.
`I lost it did I? Just like that day.`
Damian remembers the talk he had with his uncle about his catatonic state when his mother was kidnapped. He still doesn't remember much of that day but his vague memories of the sensations of that day coincide with what happened today.
`It wasn't a one time thing, is- a trigger of sorts. And it has happened before, more than one.` Damian begins to remember scenes similar to these but those memories are very distant because they belong to his past life. `My biggest fears and failures turn me in a sort of machine-`
"Damian, are you hurt?" Benton's voice snaps him out of his thoughts and he looks up at the guard. Benton sheaths his sword and looks at them with concern.
"I am fine, mostly. Alysanne has a broken wrist and some bruises. She may have some other broken bones but I am not sure, nothing else seems broken."
"I have to get you out of this town. These cunts worked for the Merchant Guild, if we stay behind these walls we will be in more danger." Benton says crouching next to them. "Can you get up?"
Damian winces as he forces himself to his feet, he staggers for a moment and Benton steadies him.
"Yes. Yes, I can walk." He answers after a moment. Damian suppresses the urge to vomit and takes a deep breath to ease his nausea.
"You're sure?"
Damian nods and walks slowly to where his dagger is on the ground, with a lot of effort he bends down and puts it back in his sheath.
"Here, these are yours, right?" Benton handed over his two throwing knives, one covered in blood. "Put this on too, blood draws too much attention." He hands over his cloak and Damian accepts it with a grateful look.
"Come on, we have to go." Benton picks up Alysanne in his arms.
"Wait-" Damian clears his throat and tells him about Jeremy.
Benton lets out a sigh of relief.
"I'll send someone to bring him to the caravan, I'll also make sure you're rewarded for your bravery." Damian notices the respect hidden behind the concern in Benton's eyes.
`Again he is speaking as a general and not a mercenary.`
"No no." He shakes his head. "Nobody was looking for me, I only found myself in this situation because I heard someone talk about-" He waves a hand around. "Better no-"
"Not get involved?" Benton huffs. "Sorry Damian, but it's too late for that." He looks at him from head to toe pointing to the blood that covers him.
"Yes, yes. But my horses are still at the inn."
Benton sighs and after giving him another concerned look he nods.
"Sure you can walk over there?"
"Yes."
"Be careful."
***
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During the last week I did not write anything, not due to a lack of time or because of a writer's block but because I was ill. After going a decade without having any problems with my ears last year I started having a thousand problems with them. Things that most people only have to deal with once or twice in a decade began to happen to me constantly: clogged ears, infections,...
Just yesterday I had my last appointment with my doctor and my nurse looked at my chart and said, word for word:
"Again? But you were here in February for the same thing! And in December before that." I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying a few very rude and very biting things to her. As much as my health issues are an inconvenience to her, it doesn't compare to how much they bother me! More than a week without being able to do anything while I was recovering... It was a shity week. And I know I'll have to deal with this again in a few months... My life sucks.
Rant over. I am back. Sorry for the wait.
Tomorrow I will update Prince of Desert and possibly another story.
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