I ran towards the monster who still hadn't noticed me. I jumped with my fists balled up and arm stretched back. My rational mind knew that would have no effect. A grain of sand wasn't lethal enough to hurt an elephant. I knew that.
But you know what? Just one grain of sand in the eye can make even the calmest elephant lose its mind and stability.
If you can't beat someone, you can atleast be a major pain in their ass, right?
Carrying that mindset, I ran towards the monster...only for a twist of faith to occur in front of me.
With the monster barely ten steps away, something...happened.
For a moment, everything felt like it was set still...like paused in time. Freeze frame.
For a moment, everything was clear to me. Bright. As if the saturation level of all the colours were dialled up to the max. Heck, it felt like I could see the light.
And for just that moment, it felt like all the light was being sucked in towards my fist, covering it and hardening around it. As if a gauntlet made of invisible light.
And then, I made my hit.
And I missed it.
Or so I thought.
Perhaps I jumped too soon or swung my fist too early but I for sure knew that nothing had made contact with my fist. Except the light gauntlet wrapped around my fist shot off from my arm and hit the monster hard enough to rip off the arm that was holding Ritu.
Shocked, I stumbled down on the ground and fell on my ass.
Was that...me?
Did I do that?
I looked behind me and saw nobody standing there. No magician, no angel, no superhero. Just me, the girl and the monster.
But if nobody was standing behind me...then that can only mean that I—I did that.
Whatever that was.
But how?
Ritu fell down too—now free from the monster's clutches—and I just barely managed to catch her. "Hey, you okay?" I asked a stupid question but my non-stupid side of the brain was too exhausted to function properly. Ritu gave no reply. She simply held onto my shirt and cried.
She cried.
Like a human. Like a living human.
How could I be so selfish? Did I really try to justify letting her die?
"I'm sorry," I whispered, though she probably didn't know why. Or maybe she knew but just didn't care enough for now.
For now, she was safe.
Or perhaps I spoke too soon.
The monster got back up, black liquid—I assume blood—leaked from its wound and stained the fresh grass below it. It had an arm missing now—an arm that seemed to have disappeared somewhere. Strange.
Well, to be fair, everything that happened since my encounter with the black-clad magicians in the park has been strange.
Heh, black-clad magicians. Sounds like a rock band.
Anyways, the question was, what to do now?
It's not like I can just put Ritu down nor can I run too. Like, despite being already dead, Ritu still had the weight of an actual human and while it was still light, it would slow me down and have me get caught by the Octo-guy—or should he be Quadro-guy since he has only four tentacles?—who, I assume, was extremely pissed at me.
I mean, it looked pissed at me.
And say what you will about rage, it does make for a great nitro boost in strength.
Then again, so does fear, which I had plenty of in my stock.
But then another insane thought wormed its way into my mind.
I could fight it.
I'm not sure where I got that confidence from suddenly. I swear, one fluke and I think I'm superman. But maybe, just maybe, if I can manage to accomplish another fluke...
Ofcourse, Quadro—I'm sticking with that—had no intention to just let me think and plan out my next move.
If before it had a crazed expression of hunger, now it had a crazed expression of anger...and hunger too, still. (Hey, that rhymed, did you all notice that? Wait, it didn't...my bad.)
Ah~ if only I had that bar of chocolate now to give it to him...No! Do not make weird jokes like that. Sorry, back to serious mode.
Thankfully Ritu was a little kid and not a grown woman or dodging while carrying her would have been extremely difficult.
The forest was still empty and thankfully open enough for me to move around freely. While I did have a lot of almost near-death experiences, I suppose the hangry monster could be too riled up to not make mistakes.
Seeing another open chance, I leapt off of the ground and tried to reimagine the sensation from before.
And, guess what? It worked!
This time though the light formed around my feet and hardened around it. And just like before, I kicked in the air and let the light shoot off in the direction of the hit, tearing through the monster's two tentacles that it used to block the attack.
It worked.
It really worked!
It wasn't a fluke then. It was something I could apparently do easily whenever I wanted to. How though? Like, what is it that I even did? And why was I able to do it now?
There's the possibility that it was fear of death.
The hangry monster now looked only angry and jumped at me. But since my huge surge of confidence in my skills, the fear ingrained in my body seemed to have drained out. I felt like I could move faster, think faster, and see things more clearly. Like a heavy veil blocking all my senses was suddenly lifted away.
So I prepared myself for another kick.
I jumped, visualised and let the light cover my legs until I shot it out.
But it didn't happen.
The light did not shoot off.
Or rather, once it left the embrace of my leg, it dispersed in the air, like a mist that soon became invisible.
And perhaps seeing my shocked face and failed attempt, Quadro stared back with a wide disgusting smile, nay, grin on its demonic marbled face.
And the veil was brought back up to block my senses.
Taking its chance, Quadro brought down its huge tentacle to take hold of us.
Knowing she won't get hurt a lot, I threw Ritu away from me and let Quadro catch me.
Guess I ended up making the choice of placing Ritu down anyways. Hopefully, she starts running away.
I still tried to resist though.
I tried visualising the light forming in the air like an arrow and shooting off at the monster, I tried imagining it covering my head—since all my limbs are restrained—but nothing worked. Worse, now I couldn't even see that light.
Dammit! I was too overconfident. I got too smug. One taste of power and I start thinking like I'm the big man—strong and indestructible. But I forgot who I truly was. Who I am and will always be.
A weak and selfish coward.
"You," Quadro spoke, its voice reverberating in the air, "are not one of them." It took a deep smell of me through its...nose? I don't know, there were just these 4 slits on its face so I assume that's some form of the nose. "Not a Grimmer. No, you're still a human. Completely too, no trace of corruption in you. Are you a rishi, hmm? No, you are loved by Ruh but not like a rishi...What are you?"
What the fuck is he going on about? "The guy who's about to whip your ass!" I said, jerking my head forward in the hopes that the light had covered it and shot forward. But alas, it had not.
I imagined its head getting blown off or something. It would've been cool if it had worked.
Was it really a fluke then?
"Guess it doesn't matter. All I know is that I will have a very tasty meal. Maybe enough to make me an Asur." A cracking voice filled the air as Quadro opened its jaw wide.
All I could do was stare at it.
Stare at its bright yellow eye, its puffed-up nose slits, the giant black crystal on its forehead that I hadn't noticed before.
But most of all, I stared at the darkness within that mouth.
It was as if a pit of well that sucked in every shade of light to corrupt and disintegrate it to nothingness.
I wanted to close my eyes and not see my end but the body, as usual, betrayed me. Why does it never listen to my mind? Why does it not do what I want it to do?
"Spell no. 35, binding vines of Ruh."