Lerni gritted his teeth. His eyes rolled up, turning milk white, the pupils fluttering like loose balls in a broken machine before snapping back into the center of his corneas.
He let out a dry, rattling cough, the force spitting the blood from his mouth. The air around them suddenly had a strong, metallic tang.
Danto watched in bewilderment. It was one thing to learn the lesson, and a horrifyingly different thing to see it with his own two eyes.
A man who should be still, cold meat was hauling himself up from the asphalt, trying to stand like he was still human.
A thing that's supposed to be dead is rising, trying to act human.
"Ahh…" Lerni groaned, his nerve endings screaming from over-stimulation.
The deep, diagonal etch that spanned his torso began to pull itself shut. It zipped closed like a self-sealing wound, the trace of the cut vanishing as the tissue seamlessly knitted itself back together.
Very soon, the wound was gone, almost as if it was never there, save for the dark maroon that now painted his clothes.
"You thought that just that puny slash…" He slurred, momentarily staggering before his legs locked into place again.
"But boy!" He whooped, stretching his arms wide. "Did that sure hurt like hell!" He punctuated the statement by vigorously patting his torso.
Danto was speechless. The sword in his hand trembled as his eyes reflected the shock of seeing a corpse defy death---which, technically, was what he was witnessing.
Crap! Crap! Crap!
If he can just come back…
Then how do I kill him? He quivered in his boots.
And if so… what about the other one?
He darted a look at Michael.
The man was still dead, but Danto was no longer sure that he wouldn't just reassemble himself at any second.
"Let's begin, shall we? I really need to eat you now. You made me expend enough energy." Lerni patted the back of his own head.
Okay! Get your head in the game, Danto! The boy fiercely egged himself on inside his terrified mind.
You joined the Cabonari, it was your choice. You knew what you were going to see and do.
And don't forget why you actually joined. For her… For both you and her!
He squinted his eyes, as if physically trying to absorb the sheer motivational energy his mind was feeding him.
He took a single, slow breath.
Lerni stood, looking up at the night sky. The clouds seemed to be closing in, getting heavier.
It's going to rain soon.
He smirked.
Should finish this up. Maybe I can use the rain as cover to hunt for other meals.
He felt the familiar groaning sensation of his tissues shifting inside his torso---a feeling he had long grown accustomed to.
Lerni lowered his head, looking down at Danto before giving a dismissive twitch of his neck.
And he was off.
He moved at a speed even faster than before toward Danto, who was barely ready to receive him.
Lerni closed the distance, slashing away with one claw as an appetizer. Danto met the attack with a counter-slash of his own.
Lerni followed immediately with his other claw, and Danto's steel met it again.
The fight descended instantly into a blurring flurry of claw and steel, the sharp, echoing CLANG! sounds bouncing violently off the silent buildings.
Lerni raised one arm high and threw it back down with ferocious, inhuman might. Danto blocked with his blade. Still applying pressure, Lerni used his free hand to slash Danto's side.
Danto felt a spike of pain, but no scratch marked his skin, only the side of his jacket bearing the wound. The force, however, caused him to stagger momentarily, which was the opening Lerni needed.
Lerni seized Danto by the shoulders and bent him down violently. He began driving his knee into the boy's torso, each kick landing with more destructive might than the last.
"How are you liking this, boy? Gotta tenderize the meat for the flavor to really pop out," Lerni grunted, the blows relentless.
Thank the gods for Loyal Swarm.
This was the only thought anchoring Danto while the brute clobbered him from above.
His back produced repetitive BOM! BOM! BOM! sounds, like a drum being pounded to a brutal rhythm.
If not…
Danto recalled the sheer agony of Lerni's 'ordinary kick' from moments ago.
No, I don't wanna think about it.
He forced the memory away, focusing on a single, vital objective: I need to get out of this.
The pain was building, causing his vision to grow red at the edges, the color intensifying with every hit.
I need to put some distance between me and him.
Danto quickly rifled through his tactical knowledge.
I need to remember how to kill a Beast Art User!
He felt like every part of his body should just open up and bleed out the accumulating pain.
His mind cycled through his memories and the list of Bushi Arts he had learned.
That's it!
He grit his teeth.
The white aura that once cloaked his entire skin began to violently fluctuate. It pooled and rushed, flocking predominantly toward two specific areas: his back, where Lerni's fists were hammering, and his torso, where the kicks were landing.
Bushi Arts Number Eighteen (18): Concusi.
He spoke the name only within his mind.
The aura settled, spanning only his back and gut, while the rest of his body felt strangely naked by comparison.
Instantly, Lerni's blows and kicks didn't hurt as much as before, though a debilitating ache remained. To combat this residual pain, he whispered a second command internally: Bushi Arts Number Twelve (12): The Unmoving Mountain!
He said it with such power, with such singular purpose, that the same white aura began to form a thin shell inside his skull. It felt like tiny, cold jolts of electricity mixed with droplets of water randomly dancing on the surface of his brain.
This numbed the enduring pain he felt, complementing the mitigation from Concusi. Danto had successfully solved his pain and defense issues for the moment.
The next issue was escape.
Danto slowly raised his hands, pushing against the man's punches and kicks. Lerni saw the weak movement and simply applied more crushing pressure. Danto then slowly stretched out the hand that held the tachi---the one that could get closest to Lerni's body.
He extended his index and middle fingers, crossing them. The other fingers supported the blade's grip. A faint energy surged up his hand, swirling at the crossed tips.
Bushi Arts Number Two (2): Fierce Defender!
He screamed the name inside his mind. The energy at his fingertips burst outward a sudden, sharp, cone-shaped repulsive force, aimed directly at Lerni's face.
It slammed into the Beast Art User, sending him flying backward a considerable distance before he rolled and landed with a sickening skid on the asphalt.
Danto stood upright, though his shoulders still slumped, panting and heaving.
He immediately dispersed the concentrated aura from his back and gut back across the rest of his skin.
Lerni instantly hauled himself back up onto all fours, blood dripping from his nose. His entire silhouette, with his slightly raised hair, now resembled that of a panther low to the ground.
How dare he do this to me?! Delaying me from eating what's rightfully mine!
[HUNGER…]
Something clicked or shattered within him.
Lerni shook his head violently, trying to clear the fuzzy after-effect of the psychic force.
I need my food!
He groaned, panting, as strands of saliva drooled from his mouth onto the asphalt.
He pushed himself up and bolted straight for Danto, moving entirely on all fours, flicking off small pieces of black gravel in his wake.
---The End of Chapter 5---