"!" Lerni gritted his teeth, staggering back three strained steps.
Danto also retreated, covering twice the distance.
M-My leg…
Lerni tried to plant his foot, but a sharp, white-hot sting rocketed up his shin.
"Looks like this won't be as easy as I thought." Lerni whisked his mouth, but the predatory grin never faded.
Stupid bastard!
Michael clenched his fist.
I should step in.
His foot shuddered mid-air, halting the step. Maximize our chances before more of them show up.
He slammed his foot down and advanced.
Once there's one Cabonari, others are bound to come.
Michael extended his hands; his fingers instantly elongated and hardened into savage, bone-white claws.
"Don't you dare come any closer!" Lerni barked, slowly groaning his neck to look over his shoulder, his eyes darkening with threat.
"But…" Michael tried to speak.
"I'll kill him, and we can split the meat. But if you interfere…" Lerni stretched his neck, the joints popping.
"Then it seems like I'll have two separate dinners tonight." He lowered his body again, glaring at Danto, ready to attack.
Michael couldn't help but scoff, clenching his fists and stepping back like a chastised dog told to stay put.
I swear… If we make it through this… I'm going to tell the boss to change my partner! Michael thought, his hatred a low, simmering heat.
Here he comes.
Danto prepared his body, feeling the Loyal Swarm aura hovering over his skin like a block of cold, kinetic ice.
Lerni dashed forward, heading straight for Danto, who was braced to tank the claws and finally land a counter-attack of his own.
But instead of rushing Danto, Lerni veered violently toward a parked sedan. He dug his claws deep into its aluminum side with a short, wrenching metallic groan.
Michael watched, the reality of the lunatic's plan dawning on him.
"?!" Danto blinked. His brain briefly refused the transmission of what it was seeing.
The car was slowly lifted off the ground with terrifyingly little effort by the monster in human skin. Bits of grime and dirt crumbled onto Lerni's shoulder as half his torso was overshadowed by the vehicle.
"Let's see whether you can take this!" He roared, hurling the sedan like a fast-pitch baseball.
"Keep it down! The noise you'll make---" Michael started to shout, but it was already too late.
Crap!
Danto watched the car's massive shadow consume his face.
Without wasting a breath, he clasped his hands together, his sword still held, making a sharp, physical clap. He then snapped the words: "Bushi Arts Number Three (3): Elliptic Barrier!"
A circular, thin, glass-like construct shimmered into existence immediately in front of Danto. It was as tall as his body but thinner than a sheet of paper.
Hope this will hold! Cause Loyal Swarm for sure won't.
Danto scrambled backward as a contingency.
WHAM!
The car struck the construct. The barrier didn't break. Instead, the entire front of the sedan crushed inward on itself, its windshield shattering into a thousand shards.
The car's alarm system activated, whining like an annoying, terrified baby into the oppressive night sky, the vast emptiness amplifying the noise into a scream.
Michael just lowered his head, utterly at a loss for words.
Yes!
Danto turned back and held his ground.
But where is he…
!
Lerni appeared right behind the boy, slashing Danto's back with one hand while hitting his head with the other.
The blow sent Danto staggering a few inches, but he immediately regained his balance.
Nngh! I just can't keep taking hits!
He felt a deep pain in his back, but no signs of an actual injury---only five jagged, non-penetrating lines where he was sliced, a testament to the Loyal Swarm's kinetic shell.
He dug his feet firmly into the ground.
…Time to put what Zan has been drilling into me to the test!
He tightened his grip on his tachi, then sheathed the blade in the same white aura that covered his skin.
He lunged to meet Lerni.
His sudden burst of speed blindsided the Beast Art User, catching him completely unaware. Danto fluidly transitioned from a running position into a low, precise, sword-drawing stance.
SCRIHLK!
He slashed his blade straight down the side of Lerni's chest, leaving a trail of blood---wet, visceral, and dark in its wake.
"Gah!" Lerni groaned, spitting out a mouthful of blood and collapsing instantly to his knees, his eyes glazed over in momentary shock.
Got one!
Danto was momentarily elated at the clean strike.
Now… Time for the next one!
He snapped his neck to look backward at Michael.
Shit!
Michael saw his comrade on the ground.
Without needing any further instruction, he hightailed it out of there, raw panic evident in his panting and his eyes.
Oh no, you don't.
Danto dropped into another stance, pointing his blood-covered tachi downwards by his side.
Bushi Arts Number Twenty-Nine (29)…
White aura sparked at the top of his hilt as he raised the blade with intense, coiled force.
…The Bleeding Blade!
He slashed forward in a single, fluid, devastating motion, releasing a crescent-shaped wave of kinetic energy.
The slash sliced effortlessly through the dead air, quickly catching up to the fleeing Michael, who made the fatal mistake of looking back.
SCHLICK!
The energy cut through the entirety of Michael's shoulder and arm, severing it cleanly from his body.
"Ahhh!" He gurgled in immense pain, losing all feeling in his feet.
Michael fell with a sickening, wet thud, collapsing into an ever-increasing crimson pool. He thrashed and gargled for several seconds before his movements slowly and unnervingly, stopped.
The now quiet street held two motionless men and a totalled, whining car.
Danto flicked the blood off his tachi in one clean swipe before placing it back in his sheath with a slow, deliberate click.
Woah.
He let out a long, careful sigh of relief.
Who knew it would be that easy?
Danto was surprised.
The whole fight didn't last long.
It was too easy.
An unsettling, cold churn began in his gut.
Upon everything I heard about Beast Art Users… They fell like this?
He wondered, the ease of the victory suddenly feeling profoundly wrong.
"Remember Danto…" He forced his brain to retrieve the lesson.
***
The memory flickered to life, grainy and distorted. A long-haired man with a sparse beard sat in an empty classroom.
"You see… Beast Art Users are vile people who give up their humanity in pursuit of power," the long-haired man said, his expression as gloomy as the lesson.
The younger Danto slightly raised his head, his hands clasped, his face giving away his fatigue---not from the lesson, but from something else entirely.
Noticing this, the long-haired man paused. "Am I… boring you?" He stared directly at Danto.
"Pfft. No," Danto said, rude and defensive.
"Then what is it?" The man's voice sharpened, the evening light reflecting off his glasses.
Danto lowered his head, but frustration boiled over. He scoffed and nodded. "It's just that why am I here learning about beast users when I can be learning how to fight!"
"How would any of this be useful to me… to help me find that man… to make him pay for what he did!" His voice cracked, the pain a raw, physical sound.
The older man sighed and stood, walking toward the ranting young boy with an indifferent look.
And then---
SLAP!
His hand struck Danto's cheek, the force almost sending him sprawling.
"I know you're a kid," the older man spat.
"But even some kids aren't this stupid. Trying to throw your life away when you've learned absolutely nothing?"
"Fine. I won't stop you." A subtle anger filled his pupils. "Let's see how you'll fare out there against the other art users and the wildlings, let alone the Beast Art Users." He turned his back to sit on his wooden chair.
Danto faced the other direction, gently massaging his cheek, which felt as red as a tomato.
"That's what I thought…" The man sneered. He glared at the boy for a minute before giving an exasperated sigh.
"Now back to what I was saying about beast users…" He began. "They forsake their humanity to gain power by taking what's been now called the blood oath."
"They then become vile creatures with a more primal kind of strength…" The man's voice slowly faded, blending with the fog of Danto's painful past.
***
Back in the present, Danto slowly touched the area on his cheek where he was slapped, feeling a sharp phantom pain.
Hm… I actually did need that.
He tightened his fist and allowed a short smirk to touch his lips.
"Yeah, that Beast Art Users have enhanced speed, strength, and senses…" He repeated what he remembered.
"But there was another thing about them…"
Uhh…
The memory slowly struggled to form, like oil coagulating in the cold.
!
Danto's mind clicked.
The memory suddenly became terrifyingly whole.
His eyes immediately darted to the men's motionless corpses. A wave of relief washed over him as the men's eyes remained still and dead.
But the relief was cut violently short.
Lerni's eyes began to twitch.
In an instant, Danto's hand blurred, unsheathing his blade, but it was already too late. What he saw confirmed the rest of the lesson.
"…and regeneration."
---The End of Chapter 4---