Valeo stood above Rogmir's corpse glaring holes into it, unknowingly increasing his essence output, excluding the violent rushing of Valeo's essence the area became deathly silent.
"The fuck is he doing here?"
The zombie man said quickly glancing at his skeleton partner, the skeleton was about to answer until Valeo began walking to Anastasia, a line of roofs from buildings in the distant exploded making the crowd surrounding the center scream in fear, catching his gunbai mid-air
Valeo stopped in front of slightly trembling female panther.
She hissed at Valeo but her attempts to scare him fell on deaf ears, he'd seen worse in the arena, in a blink of an eye Valeo's right foot met the panther's abdomen sending her into a wall. a sickening crack reverberated.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
The scream from the panther seems to spur the posse out of their funk and they began to charge at Valeo, the skeleton conjured doorknobs on their finger tips and launched it at Valeo who effortlessly deflect them.
The zombie now brandishing a sword swung at Valeo his essence violently reacted by blowing the zombie of his feet and flung him backwards crashing into his skeleton partner.
"HEY!"
Miki's scream got everyones attention, a cloaked figure stood in front of the fox who appeared to be floating mid air against her will.
"You'll do.....perfectly."
Valeo's eyes blazed with fury, the same cloaked figure from that day, the reason why Laylana was murdered.
"YOOOUU!"
In a blur of motion Valeo appeared next to the figure, his gunbai readied to bisect it's mid-section.
"Oh?"
The figure stopped the Gunbai with the tip of its bone claw, not matter how much Valeo pushed it didn't budge, Valeo's essence evaporating.
"Wait.....ooooooohhhh."
The figure let go but Valeo stood in place, infact, he tried to move but couldn't.
"What the?"
The figure walked around the frozen Valeo, the hums of intrigue confusing him.
"You have it too....the power....but yet....you're still new."
The figure walked to the struggling Miki.
"PUT HER DOWN!"
The rhino charged at the figure attempting to shoulder check it.
"Really?"
The figure slightly turned its head in the direction of the charging Ani-folk, something invisible pressed down on the cranium of the mammal.
"RICSHO!"
The posse screamed in unison before the rhino turned into red mist.
"What th- the fuck?"
Anastasia stuttered her eyes wide, no one could look away, not even the crowd of humans that grew in number.
"Well that was, disappointing."
The figure said, his tone mocking making the posse of snarl.
They all charged at the figure, not using essence or roles, and just like the rhino they ended up a red mist in the wind.
"You simply cannot put bandits and intelligence in the same sentence."
The figure shook its head.
"YOU MONSTER!"
Miki screamed, her essence webbing towards the prisoners.
Anastasia whistle a quick tone summoning a tiny fish to block the tendril of essence aiming for her head.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
Anastasia screamed seeing the prisoners now charging at the figure.
"This is blood on your hands."
The figure said looking to Miki, the fox girl looking horrified.
"N-no I d-didn't mean to."
The figure lifted its left arm, open palm faced towards the approaching posse.
"Crush."
All the members violently collapsed into themselves turning into flesh spheres or dust, the sick thud of each flesh ball made Valeo cringe in inside.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
The crowd screamed, some puked and others fainted.
"Hm, how did forget these cretins."
The figure floated in the air dragging Miki with it, with a swipe of its arm a wave of destruction hit the buildings and crowd.
"NNNNNNNN!"
Valeo's body still refused to move, tears running down his face.
Anastasia managed to stand and Jog to the frozen Valeo.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
Anastasia screamed over the chaos, the figure still swiping it arm causing more destruction, it seem to not notice her or it didn't care either way she was glad.
"NNNN NNNN!"
Valeo grunted trying to tell her his current situation, Anastasia grabbed his bicep and pulled, failing to move the raven hair a inch.
The chaos stopped so Anastasia stopped to look, the figure disappeared with Miki but left with a devastating gift.
Plumes of debris covered the sky making the once vibrant Bale lake town into warzone.
"By the code..."
Anastasia whispered but Valeo caught on to it and stored that question for later.
Valeo fell to his knees, panting.
He slowly rose his head, observing the destruction around him, the smell of some and blood heavy in the air.
Loud bells rang catching the attention of the duo.
"Crap, we need to go."
Anastasia hissed, and started to run, Valeo followed her shortly after he was done taking the chaos in, his eyes vacant of any emotion.
* * *
Anastasia had her hands on her knees panting.
"My stomach ugh, is killing me. Is fucked up of me say I'm glad that panther got what she deserved."
Valeo slowly walked next to her, his eyes staring at nothing.
"We don't know."
Anastasia looked at Valeo, her eyebrow quirked.
"That was rhetorical question."
Anastasia said her breathing back to normal, the duo went silent, Valeo in his own mind and Anastasia not knowing what to say.
"So...uh thank you, for saving me....again."
Anastasia cracked her neck not looking at Valeo.
"Uh, yeah."
Valeo said the only thing he could think of at the moment.
"Heh you do-AHHHHHHH!"
Bolts of electricity ran down her form, when it finally stopped Valeo was next to her.
"ARE YOU OKAY?"
"DOES IT, UGH, LOOK LIKE IT?"
Anastasia glared at Valeo who was currently panicking, his gunbai dropped next to him.
"The c-collar."
Anastasia pointed at the device around her neck.
"If I'm not near the remote, it activates randoml-AHHHHH!"
More bolts shot through her.
"N-nee-ugh, need k-kim, he's the only one I kn-know who can get this off of me, please, help me."
Anastasia pointed to the West of her.
"Kim's h-home is that way, please.
Tears began to build in her eyes.
"I don't wanna d-die like th-this."
Her eyes closed, passing out from the pain.
Valeo saw her breathing become shallow, his eyes full with concern.
"She tried to kill us, leave her."
Valeo spun around trying to find the voice but saw nothing but trees, looking back at Anastasia and picked her up, With conviction in his eye Valeo started to run as fast as he can in the direction Anastasia pointed.
"Hang in there, Anastasia."
* * *
Valeo felt his legs go numb after the third hour, or was it forth?, he didn't know. The sun was slowly setting and he did not want have another running with the lost so he doubled his efforts, his legs be damned.
First it was the tiles he saw, then the wooden walls of a cabin. Sighing in relief Valeo started to run slower.
"NNNNGHHHH!"
Bolts of electricity shot through him and Anastasia resulting him into crashing into a tree.
"Damnit...why now?"
Valeo tried to get up but exhaustion slammed into making his eye lids heavy.
"NO...No....no."
Valeo passed out reaching for Anastasia, what he didn't see was two figures rushing to him and her.
* * *
"Why didn't you save me?"
Laylana said, her neck broken in multiple places making her head fall limp to the side, Valeo wrapped in chains stared at her in horror.
"Laylana we tri-"
"WHY!?"
Laylana lunged at Valeo, her mouth opening beyond regular standards.
Valeo shot up in a bed, his face drenched in sweat, his breathing ragged.
"Had a good rest?"
An rough feminine voice jolted him out of his trance, turning his head Valeo saw a mature woman with salt and pepper hair wearing an attire for a smith, apron and all.
The room he occupied was void of decorations, the smell of wood and tea gave it a warm feeling.
Valeo nodded making woman smile, but something was wrong with Valeo realize.
"Good."
A double barrel pressed against Valeo chin tilting his head up.
"Now give me a good damn reason I shouldn't blow you head clean off... Tyrant."
Valeo eyes widen, he didn't know if his mitosis would replace his head and quite frankly he didn't want to find out.
"Calm down mama cho cho, he's with me."
The strained voice of Anastasia made both turn their heads to the door frame where Anastasia leaned on, her smirk forced, her attire of casual clothes hiding the marks developing on her skin from the constant voltage.
"Anastasia, I told you to rest."
"I know mama cho cho but you would've gave him a permanent make over if I didn't interrupt."
Valeo paled a little when cho cho did a gesture in agreement.
"Okay but doesn't explain your with the most wanted person in the Vile Lands and have a slave collar on your neck."
Cho cho turned Valeo with a glare.
"It's not looking good for you."
Valeo paled even more until Anastasia intervened again.
"It wasn't him it was Rogmir."
Cho cho almost gave herself whiplash when she spun her head to Anastasia.
"ROGMIR!, oh when I get my hammer ill-"
Anastasia held her hand up to stop the irate woman.
"Don't bother, he-"
She pointed at Valeo.
"Already did that, snapped his neck."
Cho cho turned to Valeo was staring at the end of the barrel visibly sweating.
"*Whistle* to shape his neck, must have on heck of a grip."
She lowered the shotgun making Valeo let out a sigh in relief, the moment was cut short when the collar activated again sending Anastasia to the floor.
"ANA!"
"ANASTASIA!"
Both Cho cho and Valeo rushed to her side.
"M-mama, where's Kim."
"He's....gone."