Danto ran through the alley, his tachi held fast, its edge a cold line in the darkness. He blew through the far end, entering another empty street---a deliberate, foolhardy move he instantly regretted.
"Hey! You two!" He shouted, forcing his feet to find balance and his blade to point at the two figures.
Just what am I doing?
Sweat instantly slicked his forehead; the cold clarity confirmed he was acting like a desperate idiot.
Michael and Lerni's eyes snapped wide at the sound. Their ears twitched at the sudden, unexpected presence of another person.
Michael slowly looked over his shoulder, one brow sharply raised. Lerni's grin, however, became menacing, his tongue quickly licking his lips. His body dropped instantly, low and coiled, like a tiger ready to unleash a compressed spring.
"So there is someone here after all." Lerni flexed and wriggled his fingers, cracking the staleness from his joints.
"Wait." Michael placed a cautioning hand over Lerni's excitedly thrumming chest.
His eyes were dead fixed on Danto, rapidly running a hostile analysis.
"A long black coat… The shoulder brace with that 'iconic' yellow lion of the Bū-Lions… "--His eyes suddenly darkened as he continued on--"The dot and cross…"
"Shit!" Michael's muscles tightened into wire. He took a quick, involuntary step back.
"Fucking Cabonari! What are you doing here?! You don't patrol this district." He grit his teeth. "Thought no one was supposed to be here?!"
"Cabonari…" Lerni's grin grew wider, his neck twitching once from the faint scent of the boy. The raw hunger was a visible, feral pressure radiating off him.
"T-That's none of your business, you Beast Art User!" Danto shouted, the command fighting through the shiver that threatened to make him drop his blade.
"As a member of the Cabonari, the Spear Lion Division, I order you to just stand down! We can make this quick for both of us!" He tightened his grip on the hilt until his knuckles were white.
"Oh, I don't wanna make this quick." Lerni rudely shrugged off Michael's outstretched hand.
Crap.
"You have no idea how long I've been itching for a meal. And would the gods be grateful… one just walked right into my teeth." He smiled, stretching both hands outward and bending his knees slightly, entering his hunting stance.
"Stop! This is Cabonari we're talking about!" Michael's face crumpled with alarm. He grabbed Lerni's shoulder again.
"We came here to avoid them, not fight them! We're starving! Let's run---we don't know his rank or how many backup units are close by." Michael wailed, desperation coloring his voice.
Yes, please. Just run, and take Mugi with you.
Danto silently prayed.
"The more the merrier. You, yourself, can run away like a coward." Lerni scoffed.
Michael scoffed, sneering his head to the side as the vast, empty road behind him suddenly looking like a tunnel to salvation.
"It's because I'm hungry that I'm doing this! So… Butt out!" Lerni shouted, his patience dissolved.
Danto took two quick steps back and raised his tachi, adopting a tense, defensive position.
As he braced for the attack, Danto desperately forced his mind to retrieve a useful memory about Beast Art Users.
Remember! Remember!
Shit!
A fragmented memory finally surfaced: Beast Art Users are individuals who forsake their humanity, giving into their primal desires via a blood oath.
Like I'd ever do that.
He sneered.
How could they?
Knowing the cost?
His stomach lurched with cold disgust. He squinted his eyes in irritation.
But how does remembering all that help me fight this brute?!
He felt the weight of impending disaster hanging over him by a threadbare rope.
Lerni pranced around slowly, emitting a low, continuous growl from his throat as his fingers sharpened, their tips elongating into bone-white claws that looked capable of tearing steel.
Without a final warning, Lerni launched straight at Danto, his claws extended, aiming to sink directly into the soft meal beneath the coat.
Danto sidestepped, the vicious swipe passing close enough to suck the air from his lungs.
"Rrgnh!" Lerni grunted at the miss.
He regained his balance and threw his claws again, a rapid barrage Danto countered by dodging, twisting, and parrying the attacks with the flat of his blade.
All the while, Michael watched in silence, paralyzed and caught between running for his life and helping the volatile brute.
"Looks like this kid's got moves." Lerni's voice was high with excitement.
He took a step back, withdrawing his claws.
And the next thing:
BAM!
Lerni drove his knee directly into Danto's gut.
Danto's eyes stretched and reddened with a blinding, sinking pain. He lost all structure, the kick sending him airborne backward. He landed flat on his back on the cold asphalt, the force jolting the breath from his body.
He groaned, swinging side to side, desperately clutching his stomach to mitigate the agony.
"Just an ordinary kick made you collapse like this? Pfft! I thought you were Cabonari, man." Lerni shook his head in obvious disappointment.
Michael felt a sudden, profound surge of relief as he watched the fight. A terrible, wide smile then began to crawl across his lips as he watched on.
A-An ordinary kick? That was an ordinary kick?!
Danto's mind screamed.
Is he mad?
He thought before answering the question himself, considering who he was fighting.
He fought to stand, the pain a constant, grinding brake on every movement.
T-Then I need to protect myself more…
Why didn't I just do it from the start?
He wheezed, and a faint, sporadic white aura began to crawl across his skin.
Bushi Arts, Number One (1): Loyal Swarm.
He stood upright, the aura settling, covering the entire surface of his skin like a thicker, kinetic epidermis.
Let's try this again.
Danto pointed his blade at Lerni, the gesture now less taunt and more challenge.
"Oh? Ready for some more?" Lerni stretched, licking all around his lips, the hunger driving him past caution.
He dashed straight for Danto again. This time, his opening move was a clean kick aimed at the ribs, hoping to shatter bone in one blow.
Danto saw the impending attack, but he stood utterly still, lowering his head slightly.
"So long, Cabonari!" Lerni roared, now fully in the boy's breathing range.
He aimed right for Danto's ribcage, his leg connected with Danto's forearm instead---but Lerni didn't process the hit.
It'll all just crumble.
He thought, anticipating the sickening snap of bone.
Oh how tragically flawed his thinking was.
Instead of a broken, wailing boy, Danto just stood there, his face serious, his body unflinching. He was entirely unmoved.
Lerni froze, his kicking leg still pressed against Danto's armored forearm. His eyes, wide with feral shock, revealed an utter disconnect between expectation and reality.
That worked! It actually worked!
Danto breathed a short, triumphant sigh of relief, a smirk finally cracking across his lips.
Michael, the indecisive, passive bystander, watched the result of Lerni's kick. The shockwave of anti-climax hit him harder than the kick had hit Danto.
"Maybe I should've just hightailed it."He said to himself, the road to safety now screaming its siren call at him.
---The End of Chapter 3---