Capítulo 90: - The Fallen we are Few
Kara didn't know what words were said between them, between Lia and the man, but she knew better than to take it lightly. Keeping to her instincts, she drew a small, curved dagger from her belt, hidden behind the cloth of her shirt that now hung loosely around her torso.
The aura lingering in the air was like that of a weight bearing its full pressure on her, as Kara looked between her summons and the man, wondering, secretly, in the back of her mind…
'...which would win?'
It was only for a moment, but Kara couldn't get the lingering memory of the thought out of her mind. Her summons, ever steady and waiting, sensed her displeasure. However, he had mistaken it for her anger towards Lia and the man, and thus, didn't hesitate in drawing his own dagger.
From the shadows that made up his body from the mask down, a pale and silver glowing object, long and thin, detached itself from somewhere within the space of shadows. He held the dagger at his side, before drawing out three small throwing stars from his cloak of darkness, then positioned himself beside his master, ready for battle.
Kara, seeing this, smiled to herself, her confidence in her summons having been regained. Taking her eyes off the Shinobi, she turned to meet Lia's eyes, which were brimming with tears.
With one swift motion, Kara pointed to the man beside Lia, one word hanging on her tongue.
"Go."
Instantly her assassin shot off from his position, Cain's words holding true as the color of his mask was easily lost in his speed, wisps of shadows from his cloak being left behind.
Kal didn't move, keeping his eyes trained on the spot the demon faced summons once stood on, his body loose and free, as if a gust of wind alone was all that was needed to push him over. He reached to his side where Lia stood, a few feet behind him and gestured her away, as if telling her to get clear.
Nodding her head, Lia understood Kal's intention and quickly turned heel and ran back to the rest of the group. Ken was in the process of helping Lukali stand, while the cloaked man she had summoned was helping Rian lay down, propping him against a piece of stone.
Kara, when she saw this, couldn't help but laugh out loud, her mind lost from the battle at hand.
"What's the matter girl?"
She turned her attention to Kal, who stood motionless in the center of the street, head tilted listening to something she couldn't.
"Are you scared? Afraid your friend over here won't last long? Hahaha!"
Kara began letting out another burst of her insane maniacal laughter, not knowing where it had come from, though she didn't much care.
"Ha-Haha-haha! You're pathetic! You turn tail and run like a scared little child?! Do you think you'll get far?"
She pointed a lone finger at Kal, who had drawn a knife from his belt, one of many she could see glinting in the night from the moon's light.
"My summons will find you - he'll catch you before you even make it out of the street! He'll finish with your little friend here - "
Kara didn't get a chance to finish, the last words handing on the tip of her tongue as something else caught her attention. The air between her and the unknown man had changed, twisting and turning, morphing into a strange shape before taking the form of a man dressed in a cloak of living shadows.
It was only for a split second, but thanks to the shared skill between her and her Shinobi, she was able to see the bare basics - the air parting ways for his dagger.
Kara smiled, knowing the end for that unknown man was close, secretly scrutinizing herself from being so afraid before. She had dug too deep into something that, at the end of the day, was exactly as it seemed.
"You're weak, weak, WEAK friend?! He dies- ah?"
The air parted ways again, and in that split second, due to the shared senses that had let her see her summons arrive before Kal, his daggers drawn and ready, something she did not expect to see happened.
Or rather, something she had expected to see did not come. Instead, something she couldn't see had taken its place.
-Clank!
The sound of steel on steel smashing into each other resonated through the open air, disturbing the silence that had once been filled by Kara's taunts. The force of the attack having been disrupted sent her Shinobi stumbling backwards, his cloak parting to reveal a slim body covered in black cloth and - like Kal - covered in weapons.
Kara's words halted immediately, the sight of her summons being thrown back burned into her mind like a hot iron brand.
"Wha…what?"
If the sight of her summons, someone moving at speeds she could hardly track had been thrown back by normal means she wouldn't have been surprised. A bit shocked, but still, it was just that. A fluke.
But…
The image of Kal's dagger, still positioned in front of his left cheek where her Shinobi's dagger would have found itself had he not defended from it, was what shocked her.
'He…he was faster?'
Kara stared daggers into Kal's body, not out of anger or fear, but pure and utter shock. She just stood there, watching, waiting, as if something even more surprising and awe striking would appear.
Her Shinobi, having regained his footing, also seems quite shocked by the sudden defense Kal had thrown up out of nowhere. The very same defense that had kept his dagger from piercing Kal's flesh and sent him back several feet was so fast, that even he had a hard time tracking it.
He turned to his master, eyes wide and questioning behind his mask. He needed to know if something had gone wrong, if something - anything had happened to her - then it would explain his failure.
But there Kara stood, completely unharmed and eyes wide with the same shock and questioning gaze that he had.
At this point, both Kara and her summons were looking for any reason to explain what had just happened, no matter how strange it sounded.
A change in the wind? A loose foothold on the street - there were many cracks. Maybe even a slight hiccup in the Shinobi's attack? Anything?
However, even as her summons was looking to her for his orders on how to proceed, Kara couldn't take her eyes off Kal. Even as he reached down behind him, drawing out what looked to be a thick leather mask and adorned it on his face, Kara continued to look on with wide eyes.
Finally, as Kal drew his short sword from its sheath at his left side, Kara snapped out of her trace of fear and shock and abruptly turned to her summons, orders already on her tongue.
"What are you waiting for? Kill him!"
The Shinobi abruptly turned back to Kal, his eyes glaring with rage, his feet pushing off the hard ground, sending him into a burst of speed.
Lia couldn't even keep up with his blurred image as he disappeared and reappeared in random places around the street, seeming to encircle Kal's figure, who stood there motionless where he had been before.
Finally, after several seconds of Lia's failed attempts at tracking the image of Kara's summons, he appeared. However, shockingly, instead of one Shinobi, there were five.
Five different Shinobi's all positioned around Kal coming from different directions, welding the same weapon but in different forms, sent fear coursing through her veins.
"Kal, look out!"
She cried out to Kal, attempting to warn him of the imposing danger and the trick the Shinobi was trying to pull. But, nonetheless, Kal remained motionless as if he was just waiting for the attack to come.
Then, it happened.
It came in a flash, then two, then three. Suddenly the air before Lia was being blown back against her hair, the sound of dozens upon dozens of blades clashing against each other filled the air, drawing out the sound of her own breath.
Where Kal stood, encircling him, thousands of flashes created a wall of sparks and steel, a wall that Lia soon realized to her relief, and Kara's dismay, was in fact the after images of two bits of steel slamming into each other.
Sparks were flying, steel was crashing against steel, and all at an incredible speed - a speed that neither Lia nor Kara could track. The Shinobi and Kal were locking blades against each other, and no matter which side the assassin came from, Kal blocked each with little to no effort.
However, what was even more frightening on its own was not the wall of steel and sparks around them, nor the speed in which their summons were moving. Instead, what sent fear flooding Kara's emotions was the fact that Kal stood motionless as he had always been in the center of the circle, his eyes never once having left Kara.
To be able to have enough speed to defend against the Shinobi, block all his attacks, and still stand there watching her…
Kara didn't know what to think any longer. Her mind was too flooded with the fear of Kal's image burning in her mind.
He just stood there, watching her behind his face mask, menacingly like the world around him was nothing in his eyes.
He was calm, composed, and above all, unafraid.
That scared her more than daggers flying through the air at her head.
The battle had just begun, and yet Kara had this undeniable sense that she was losing. Her summons were lost.
No…he wasn't losing. The battle had just started, and he was getting his ass handed to him on a silver platter.
Stumbling back, Kara tried to put distance between her and Kal, never once taking her eyes off him. She was afraid that if she did, his image would disappear and reappear beside her - a fate she wanted to - no - needed to avoid.
"St-Stay away! Stay away from me!"
Kara made the mistake of succumbing to her fear, and despite the constant reminder she was giving herself, she turned her back to him.
The sounds of steel crashing against steel did not stop, much to her relief, and when she climbed high enough on a large pile of rubble that had once been the tavern, she finally turned back to the battle, believing enough distance had been placed between them.
"Use your shurikens!"
She called out to her summons, giving out an order from afar.
Instantly after she said that, the sound of steel agansist steel halted. Replacing it was the sound of air splitting as five throwing stars shot out from different directions around the street.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Kal moved. Taking small steps in different directions to avoid the flying stars of steel, he dodged each one with the precision of an assassin, bending his body in different ways.
The five shurikens crashed against the streets and the rubble surrounding it, the attack having failed to damage Kal in any way. However, they were only the start of them.
Appearing before Kara, situated between her and Kal, the Shinobi drew out a dozen more throwing stars from his cloak, before hurling them towards Kal. Now a total of three dozen were flying towards him at unbelievable speeds.
Instead of moving however, Kal raised his weapons to his chest, eyeing the stars as they parted the air, flying quickly in his direction.
His arms flashed in a blur of motion, the sound of metal crashing against metal, as the individual stars fell to the floor. The speed of his blocking was unimaginable, even to Kara, who seems to sink further in her fear.
Once all the stars had been knocked out of the air, the blurring speed of his attacks stopped, seemingly returning to normal. Lia was instantly able to recognize the speed and style of the attacks as [Drifting Winds] the skill Cain had given to her.
Now she knew where it came from.
Kal raised his head to lock eyes with Kara, who seems to be practically at the state of begging for this all to end.
The battle had just begun no more than a few minutes ago and yet, Kal had managed to beat her summons in almost every aspect of its existence.
Assassins were speed yet, Kal was faster. Much, much faster.
In a last ditch effort, Kara turned to her summons and shouted out one final order.
"Use it damn it! Just use it!"
The summons nodded, turned to Kal with eyes red with fury, and screamed.
This scream wasn't like that of a little girl, nor was it like that of a grown man. No. It was that of a demon. The scream filled the air with an ear piercing wail.
It was so loud and unappealing that the onlookers in Lia's group had to cover their ears in pain from the sound.
But when they tried to take their hands away from their ears, the sound fading back into the depths of where it had crawled up from, they found they couldn't move.
"...!"
Or speak, which Lia soon found out as her huddled form tried to call out to Kal in warning.
From the end of the street, Lia could hear the sounds of Kara's maniacal laughing. She was just barely visible from the corner of her eye.
"Ha-hahaha! Ha! You may be fast you f*cker, but this skill…"
She took a breath then reared back to scream out.
"...IS YOUR ACHILLES HEEL! Hahaha! HAHAHA!"
Kara clutched her stomach in pain from laughing too hard, taking several large gulps of breath between her speech.
"This skill…it doesn't just…freeze you in..p-place…It slows you down….ha…permanently. All your speed - gone! It slows down all living creatures by 99% of this true speed. Even at your best you couldn't resist this!"
Kara began laughing again, seeing the people who had, at one moment instilled fear in her very soul, frozen in place, succumbing to the power of her summons.
Her power.
"Now…"
She pointed to Kal, gesturing for her summons to heed her call.
"...Kill."
The shinobi didn't need anything else. He immediately shot off from where he stood, his after image flying across the street like a blur, covering the distance between him and Kal in seconds.
"Mphhh! MPHHH!"
Lia tried to make her tongue work, tried and failed to form words, to warn Kal. But no matter what she tried, she failed in doing anything, as she was forced to watch as Kal stood helplessly in place, the shinobi speeding off towards him.
However, in the silence that came the seconds before the shinobi reached Kal, Lia heard a voice.
This voice was much different from Cain's, his being deep and bellowing, while this voice was calm and resonating. An almost angelic tune, if she had to detail it.
One word.
"Mirage."
The shinobi closed the distance between him and Kal soon after Lia heard that word resonating in her ears, she was forced to watch as the assassin brought down his blade across Kal's chest.
But as Lia tried to turn her eyes away from the inevitable scene that would take place, something caught her eye.
Kara's figure stood behind the shinobi atop the pile of rubble she had climbed up during the fight. Her face was anything and everything that gave meaning to the words 'glee.' She was happy, more than happy. But she was also frowning.
'Why…why is she…?'
It was then that it hit Lia, like the ramming of a hammer on a nail.
'She heard it too…but then-'
Lia's eyes focused back on Kal and the shinobi, only this time, the shinobi was alone.
On either side of the assassin, stood two blurred out images of Kal. Behind those two stood three. Behind those three stood four and so on. Lia could only guess, but she believed that there must have been more.
And she was right.
From Kara's perspective, she was looking at a once empty street, filled with the blurred images of Kal, all surrounding the shinobi, who had dropped his weapon out of pure fear.
A slight humming sound filled the air, and Kara finally understood that each and every one of these 'Kal's' was in fact an after image of him moving around.
"But…but how?"
She wondered aloud, her voice shaking as she fell to her knees, dagger dropping to the ground.
"That skill…it reduces all speed by 99%. You…you shouldn't even be able to move!"
Yet, there they stood. Dozens and dozens of after images, all taking the form of Kal's imposing glare.
All directed straight at Kara.
She blinked, and then it happened.
The humming stopped, the sounds of steel on flesh filling her ears, and for a second she thought Kal had cut her in that split second moment.
But, as she turned to face the open street, she saw the images of Kal all snapping into one, one body, one form that stood behind her shinobi, leaning forward, arm outstretched, with a dagger in one palm.
The sound that came after was ear splitting. It sounded as though the very sky was breaking apart, as the last afterimage of Kal slammed into his real body, joining with him at last. The shinobi, who had taken the blunt and frontal assault from hundreds of Kal's (all by the same hand however) split apart in a burst of a bright white light that stole the light from the surroundings.
The cut Kal had made burst with a brilliant light, the pieces of the shinobi's body turned black from the blinding light, breaking apart into thoughts of pieces, before disappearing into dust.
A summons had just been killed.
And it looked as though a star had exploded in the night sky.
Kara didn't say anything, as she slowly turned to look down, locking eyes with Kal and his menacing figure.
His eyes had never once left her, and while it had brought her some fear, this was different.
It was as if he was telling her something. Something she read just as easily from that pair of eyes as if she was reading from a piece of paper.
She was next.
That wasn't a threat.
It was a guarantee.
Without even thinking, Kara turned tail, and ran.
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A/N: In case any of you were wondering, Kal's skill [Mirage] isn't a cloning skill. It is a skill that condenses all his speed into a one minute span. That 1% of speed he had left, he amplified by condensing all his speed into a split second moment.
And no, Lia will never get that skill. Too powerful and Kal would kill Cain because it's specific to Kal only.
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