The Discarded

Alone Chapter 8 - 4

Anastasia stepped away, leveling a hot glare at him. United in their anger, the group formed a furious front. Stepping away from them, he walked back to the table. "I have a plan."

Kali gave a bark of bitter laughter behind him. "You have a plan to fight against a creature that kills by its very presence? What plan is that? Because if you're thinking explosives, you should think again, they know their weaknesses as well as anyone. Since birth, the Onibi trained to be as slippery as an eel."

Shrugging on his duffel, he faced their worried faces, Kali's eyes steady on his. "They're almost immune to energy, Cesare. What they aren't immune too, there trained to dodge and escape. I've fought the Death Walkers. It was a battle that lasted for hours as I skirted the edge of its aura and he ducked my flame." She stopped, carefully choosing her next words. "You're stronger than ever, but you're not a long range fighter."

He'd gone over the file until it was seared the lobe of his brain. The Onibi was the worst match up he could have gotten. Even getting within fifty feet of the thing would put him in its aura of un-life. That aura would flay his body, stripping it of life until he was nothing more than a wasted corpse. Inverting the aura, its touch became lethal at the briefest touch.

It was a nightmare for a long range fighter, but an impossible opponent for someone like Cesare. Trained by the elders of its race in the arts of killing, it would be a nightmare to trap in an explosion at the best of times. In an open field, the chances of catching it with a wide attack was a chumps bet. Projectiles might work, if he had years to get good enough to overcome training that started at birth.

That wasn't what kept him up at night. This was his first fight, he got one chance to make an impression. It didn't matter if he won, if he didn't do it with style, this was as much about marketing as it was winning. He knew it and so did the women. They were worried he'd lose, no, they knew he'd lose. He was their little dog, and they wanted to protect him from the big bad world.

Titans of heinous power, each was a force of nature, equaled only by the few that had achieved their heights of monstrous strength. Revered as a living goddess, living embodiment of elder powers, a prodigy that went toe to toe with a legend and held him, and a myth in the making, they were beyond extraordinary. But not a one of them mattered. The only person who could protect Cesare was Cesare, the only one that wanted the best for him was himself. Wedded to their agenda's, ambitions riding their souls, they'd cut him loose if it left them ahead.

"It's my fight." The simple words set the women onto their back feet in anger. "I know you want to help, but I don't need it."

There was a part of him that didn't want help from anyone, for anything. He'd rather fail than owe his success to someone. It was a torturous contradiction, wanting help, needing people, and unable to open gates locked in blood and hate. He couldn't let them in, not totally. The closer people got, the more you depended on them, the deeper the wound when they left. The lesson was carved in scars across his body, lesions bleeding spite along the landscape of his soul.

They left Raven's Rest wrapped in private thoughts. Tomorrow they'd prove the Furies were strong enough to slaughter trained killers, a force with flesh to back up words, lethal creatures to fear, or they'd die in the shit stained sewer of failure. They were betting their dreams on one toss of the dice. Failure meant being alone again, the people that walked by him today would scatter to the wind. They had time for mangy dog as long as he brought glory. No one had time for failures.

Kali snagged Cesare's jacket as they reached the campus. "Will you escort me tonight?"

Primrose would host the Hyakki Yagyo and their elite team the Hitokiri at a ball tonight. They'd agreed they needed to network with the powers that would show up. Anastasia would lead the effort, but the rest had to be there to show they were one.