The School Life of The Other Demon

No Hesitation

He stares wide-eyed at the pool of blood forming below him, frozen in place. His hands grip his escrima sticks tightly. He looks around in confusion, seeing nothing but gray smoke. Looking back down at the bodies, he slowly backs away, running straight into the smoke; opposite from me.

I step out of the smoke, back to where the bodies are, watching as my feet sink into the puddle of blood. I stare at the little ripples in the liquid with each step, feeling nothing. Looking at the bodies around me, I begin to wonder, "who's next?"

Twirling the katana in my hand, I stare at my reflection, watching as the blood slowly dries. Bringing the katana to a halt, I begin to clean the blade with my sleeve, satisfied with the intimidating shine that it's releasing. Content with the outcome, I move once more, excited for what's next.

Running through the eye-blocking gas, I use my other senses to guide my way through. As I'm running, I would catch glimpses of assassins running through the smoke—once alive. Once detected, instantly dissected, leaving a trail of dead bodies. They begin to hit the ground as soft as a drizzle of rain, but as quick as flies. The blood continues to build on the ground and my body, the stench of death takes over the compound. Left and right, I move, stabbing and slicing without any sort of hesitation.

The sound of metal clashing begins to lessen, indicating the lack of assassins. Running through the falling bodies, I find another target—robots. They seem to all be huddling around four other figures—Batman, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Superboy. The robots begin to slowly approach the injured and breathless heroes.

As they approach them, the heroes grip their weapons, jaws clenched, a look of determination on their faces. Just before the robots can strike their first attack, my ears pick up quick footsteps coming from my left side, going towards where they all stand.

Running out of the gray smoke is an annoyed and angered Nightwing. He runs at the female robot, his escrima sticks suddenly exerts a blue electric charge. He jumps, sending a roundhouse to the robot, but is easily dodged with one movement. Landing on his feet, he snarls at the robots. "You killed them all," he growls.

The robots stare at him, emotionless.

"What do you mean?" the female robot responds, confused by his statement.

"All of the assassins. They're dead. Every single one of them. They were on your side, and yet you killed them." He runs at the female one last time. Three attacks in and he's taken down.

The robot slips past his right punch, grabbing his arm and throwing him over her shoulder, causing him to land on the ground with a hard thud. She takes her sword and puts it up to his neck, keeping him on the ground. "I don't know what you're talking about. But that wasn't caused by us." She raises the sword and glares at the younger male. "But this is."

My eyes widen along with the rest, knowing what the next moves are. My finger twitches at her words, tapping on the katana. I feel my body slowly tilting forward, and in an instant, out of the gray smoke and in the open. I sprint towards the robot, everything else begins to move in slow motion. Gripping the katana rightly, I run the blade smoothly through their neck, spewing oil everywhere. Her head falls towards the ground, the body following soon enough. Nightwing's eyes widen in horror, as does everyone else's.

I look up from the falling body, making eye contact with the speedster. His eyebrows furrow in distaste, glaring at me with hatred.

My response: a smirk. A challenge. An urge and temptation for him to try.

And try he did.

The red-suited robot runs towards me with immense speed, too fast for the human eye; fast enough for me. He runs up to me, reaching out to grab me but fails when I step to the side, preparing to swing my katana. Swinging my weapon, the speedster jumps over it, landing quickly on the ground.