The man is standing at 6'4, even if he's on the fatter side. Side by side he makes Vex's 5'10 standing height look puny. Vex's once blue eyes are now red. His stamina seeming infinite, his veins almost ready to pop out of his arms. A rage inducing aura filled his surrounding self. Of hatred. Pure. Hatred. And then Vex spoke breaking the silence between them
"Hate. I hate your damn kind. I'm going to gut you alive for killing Marren. Oh, but I don't know if you even deserve that."
The blessed stood there not phased on the outside but shocked on the inside, how could a mere human, a mortal. Say such a thing to a man that possesses a fraction of the power of a god. Yet he was at the same time impressed at what he said, making that up off the top of his head, it was impressive is his eyes.
"Loura. Loura Lu. Remember my name. That will be the name of the person you get killed by. And don't you dare forget it." He said in an awfully deep voice
Vex responded nonchalantly, "Vex Voru. One of us dies today, and it sure as hell won't be me."
My black cloak sways a little even though there's no wind in the concealed area. I pick up onto his antics.
"You have Wind powers."
Loura responded, "Why, isn't someone a quick learner. But you are correct. I am one of the strongest wind users in the world. You have no Mythran, you're just a nobody."
I think to myself, Mythran… at the moment I believe it's just another word for godly power. This fight… I'll wait for him to strike me first, then I'll evade and get a few hits in. Although all he has is an axe and wind abilities, okay strategize Vex. With an axe that big and heavy it'll take a long time to swing so I can evade easily but if I do get hit it's game over. But that's when his wind powers could come into play, he could easily blow me towards his swing with just one strong gust of wind. I'll have to figure out a way to dodge his wind, that'll be the hardest part about him… is there a way I could… cut through the wind…? It's artificial air so that idea is not completely me being insane…
All of the sudden, Loura jumped a few feet towards Vex swinging his Axe back charging up for a swing
I think fast and dodge to the right in perfect timing and get two stabs in by throwing my daggers at his back while he tries recovering himself. My chains rattle as I pull my daggers back from his back also making a gushing noise exiting his flesh.
"Taking two stabs in the back and not being phased, I'll give you credit for that. But you're still going to die, Godrat. You say you're one of the strongest wind users in the world? You're about to die to a damn 17 year old slave! Pathetic piece of garbage…"
While still looking away from Vex trying to recover he secretly swings back for another blow and lunges at Vex about to attack until Vex senses something. Wind. Wind coming from his right side.
Vex thought to himself, I get it. I dodged right last time and evaded his attack. He wanted me to think I'm safe evading him so easily like this to lure me into a false sense of security. I sense the air on the right since it's artificial, so it has a different feeling around it. He wants me to dodge right so I'll go left.
Vex dodges left successfully and stabs him twice again in the same way he did before except this time it was at the back of his neck and his right shoulder.
"Ra-Ah!! T-this stupid mortal… you saw past the trick… oh but still, that doesn't mean you'll win."
Vex thought, he's a mortal too… he's acting as if he's a god. The gods descended long ago. This man is not sane. He said he's one of the strongest wind users in the world, I doubt that.
Loura steadied himself, blood running from the twin wounds in his neck and shoulder. Each drop splattered onto the stone floor like the ticking of some grim clock counting down to one man's end. The wind around him began to spiral faster, pulling at the loose fabric of Vex's cloak.
"You think you've wounded me," Loura growled, his voice low and vibrating with barely restrained fury, "but you've only angered the storm."
The air thickened—no longer a simple breeze, but a crushing, suffocating force pressing in from every direction. Vex's lungs burned with each breath, the oxygen itself stripped from the air around him. His instincts screamed that if he stayed in one place, he'd be torn apart.
He tightened his grip on the daggers.
I can't overpower his wind. Not yet. But I can break his rhythm.
Vex darted forward, chains dragging like metal serpents across the ground, aiming low this time—not for flesh, but for Loura's footing. The chains wrapped around the handle of the hammer in a sudden, calculated snap, pulling it just enough to throw off Loura's balance.
Loura snarled, releasing a burst of compressed wind that cracked against Vex's ribs like a war drum. The blow sent him skidding back, boots scraping against stone.
Hurts… but I'm still here.
"You're clever," Loura admitted, straightening to his full towering height, "but cleverness without power is nothing. The gods will not remember your name."
Vex spat a thin line of blood onto the floor and smirked. "They will. And they'll speak it with fear."
The winds screamed louder now, coiling around Loura in a cyclone, distorting his form into a shifting blur. Dust and debris lifted off the ground, sucked into the spinning maelstrom.
If I can't cut the wind itself… I can cut the one commanding it.
Vex took one slow step forward, his chains rattling like a death knell. The wind surrounding him is getting thicker and making it harder to breathe, not only that but adding tons of pressure onto Vex's body from all angles.
"Do whatever the fuck you want, I'll adapt to it."
Loura was using 90% of his Mythran to create that harsh environment so he might not have enough to fight off Vex and stand his own against him.
You will die, now!
Loura raises his hand and charges his tornado toward Vex. Vex grips his daggers firmly and breathes deeply. He then all of the sudden ran to his right perfectly dodging his attack, he punched off the wall and grappled on top of him. He started stabbing him rapidly and tried to aim for the eyes as Loura spun around trying to get Vex off.
"GAHH!!! Get off of me, you god damn runt!!!! Bastard!"
Vex swings harder and harder with each stab seeming unphased
"Since you're gonna die I might as well point out your mistake. You're using too much of your Mythran to set this environment for me. Your kind thinks of us as slaves, nothing but a source of blood and power. Rah!"
I stab him in his right eye
"GAHH!!!"
"Let this loss of yours serve as a reminder. Your kind will never be better than us."
I stab him in the left eyes and then right after he drops his daggers, gets off of him and sprints towards him. He headbutte him so their heads are on the same level and he gouges out his eyeballs killing him right then and there.
Loura speaks his final words, "You… will never become great. Vex Voru…"
"I will. And you remembered my name. What a good little rat."
I look at the blood stain all over me and I look at my hands… I breathe heavily trying to catch my breath. I go upstairs and return to Dax and Tellen to see Tellen treating Dax's wounds.
Tellen speaks first, "Vex! Are you alright!? There's blood all over you!!"
I cough up blood and blood starts coming out of my ears as well. I was dying on the outside but didn't wanna show it on the outside.
Cough "I-I I'm fine" cough
I cough up more blood
Dax speaks, "I… I'm in bad condition but… you… you really need to rest Vex. You're going to die at this rate."
"He was weak!"
I say as blood spills from my mouth
"The only reason that bastard got me to this state was because of the environment. He made it so damn hard to breathe… and my eardrums too, they felt like they were gonna burst at any second, like I was thousands of feet in the air…"
Tellen responds quickly, "So you're gonna need some rest okay? If the conditions were really that harsh then you better rest or I'll make you!"
Vex responds, "mmm… ok…. Ok…."
I sit down on a bed nearby and lay down there. I look at the wooden architecture around me, the stairs leading up to the second floor that we are on. The stairs leading down to Loura's room, the basement.
Tellen speaks, breaking the silence, "Take off your clothes, I have warm water, I can wash the blood off of them."
Vex complies revealing a skinny and frail body. He now lies on the bed, no blanket in sight, not even a pillow. He watches as Tellen cleans his clothes for him.
"Dax…?" Vex says
"Yeah?"
"What now? We killed off one of the gangs. What now…?"
"Well I'm sure we can camp out here for a while. I don't think other gangs will be notified since this one wasn't exactly too friendly to other gangs anyways… so yeah I suppose we could just stay here till we figure out what to do."
"Do we have a stable source of water and food?"
"Yeah, they kept a lot of water in the basement and food downstairs, if we somehow run out there's lots of animals around."
I shift my gaze to Marren's body
Dax said, "He died as a hero. Don't dwell on it. He sacrificed himself… in the little time I've known Marren I know he would've chosen this is how he wanted to go out…"
I responded, "Yeah… I know…. It's hard to not dwell on it though. You know…? Also I have a question…"
"Yes?"
"Are you… my brother…? Like, my actual brother, by blood…?"
"I… I don't know…but even if I'm not, I'll still see you as my brother."
"Yeah, me too…"
I smile. Something I rarely do.
"Are you… I didn't know you could smile"
Tellen gets up with his warm clothes
Tellen says, "I didn't know either."
She chuckles a little
"S-shut up… give me my clothes"
I grab the clothes from her and put them on until I hear a loud thump from somewhere outside
"What!? I swear if there's one more…"
Dax gripped his sword tightly after saying that it was a giant black greatsword.
I look around me trying to find my daggers
"Damn it, I left my daggers in the basement!"
I try to get up before Tellen interrupts and fetches my daggers for me
"You're still injured so don't move!"
"Whatever. But if that thing is intending to harm us I'm not hesitating on killing it"
A man walks up the stairs but seems as if he has no intent on harming anyone. Standing at 6'4, white hair, a white cloak with a katana on his waist. He finished walking up the stairs and stood there observing the three.
He said, "Which one of you killed Loura Lu?"
I looked at him sitting up on the bed and Dax also shifted his gaze to the man while sitting on the wooden chair with slight blood from his wounds spilling a bit. Tellen stood beside me staring at the man with nervousness and a tiny bit of fear.
I spoke first to break the silence, "I did."
Both Tellen and Dax shifted their gaze towards me as well as the man. The man spoke.
"What is your name, young one?"
I hesitate a very tiny bit before answering, "Vex Voru."
"You have a broken ribcage, bursted eardrums, and a fractured shin. You're lucky you're alive right now."
"If you came here to tell me my injuries then I don't care. Leave."
"Now, is that really a way to treat your elders? Anyway, did any of you two help to kill Loura?"
The man's gaze shifted to Dax then Tellen
Dax responded, "No."
The Man responded, "Hmm. So it seems you two killed off all the Godrats while my man Vex killed the big deal… Am I right?"
Vex said, "Yeah… wait! Godrat…? You're not blessed?"
(Godrat along with other similar terms rudely refer to the blessed)
The man answered, "Nope! Oh, I never introduced myself did I. Where are my manners, my name is Draven Ryde! It's a pleasure to meet you three."
I don't think he's a foe… he might be an ally…
Draven spoke, "Have you tried to take his Mythran yet?"
Vex responded, "I… I don't think I have the tools to…"
Draven threw a syringe at Vex
"Use that. Make sure you take the blood out of his veins then insert the blood in your vein, it has to be around the same point where you extracted the blood though. Also, never put more than 20 milliliters inside of your body at once since your body needs time to have that new blood enter into your blood flow. If you do that, though, you'll either die from not being able to handle it all at once or probably die from some bloodborne disease."
Vex responded "Why are you helping me?"
Draven responded, "Because I can. And why wouldn't I? You are still a child after all and I would feel bad just leaving you here like this to rot away and die. Also, what did you even plan to do after killing Loura?"
Vex said, "I'll figure it out…"
"Ahh come on! You know what? Here, get Loura's blood and then I'll tell you what to do after that, actually…"
Draven went fast, basically teleported towards Vex, grabbed the syringe, teleported to the basement and got 19 milliliters of Loura's blood. After he teleported back to Vex.
"Hold out your arm Vex."
Vex did as he said knowing what he'd do. Draven carefully located one of his veins and inserted the blood.
Draven said as he finished inserting it in Vex "Do you want to come with me? In a safe haven…? Well… kind of like a safe haven."
Dax looks at me and says, "We have nothing else to do… and let's be real, we'll die after a couple of years trying to survive here…"
I responded, "I guess you're not wrong… but I doubt such a place exists, liar.
"Oh, but it does." Draven responded while finishing up inserting the blood
"And by the way, Vex. Don't get your hopes up too high. Since I've only met a few people that have been able to get the powers from a mythran user's blood."
"Hm" Vex responded
Draven said while looking at Dax then Tellen, "You two, come here."
They complied with his request and gathered in pretty much a circle around him. Then suddenly Draven put his left hand on Tellen's shoulder and his right hand on Dax's shoulder while looking at Vex.
"Řøx!"
They all suddenly teleport to a dimly lit room that looks all cozy with a furnace and candles lighting it all up. It all looks like a huge one story house. There's about 4 other people there, 2 men and 2 women, just standing there staring at Vex, Tellen, and Dax.
Breyer says, "You brought a godrat. You know that too."
My eyes shift to one of the two men standing far from me.
"Don't call him that, chump." I almost snap but keep my composure.
"I'm surprised you out of the three aren't all scared and terrified of Draven's teleportation power.." The woman said, directing it to Vex.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I respond with a slight anger behind my voice
The other woman said, "You know you're also defending a blessed right? He doesn't have a mark."
"Yeah of course I do chump."
Draven finally talked while leaning on the wooden architecture around them. On the wooden wall, a dark shade of brown.