“So that’s it?!” yells a teenage girl with bright orange hair, and sharp, blazing red eyes. She’s wearing a sleeveless top with red and black accents, black sweatpants that cut off just below her knees, and leather boots with the same coloration as her vest. “You’re just running away?!” She accuses, small flames flickering across her toned arms.
“I’m not running,” The boy retorts, whipping around, revealing his face. Taurise’s face. This younger version of the warrior is clean shaven, and his outfit is less ragged.
“Then what do you call this!” Her sharp eyes pierce Taurise’s. “You aren’t even telling Kyna! You haven’t told anyone! You wouldn’t have told anyone if I hadn’t caught you!” She wipes tears from her eyes, her glare never fading. “We know how you feel! We have gone through the same pain! Toyo, Luco, and I all know your pain!” She pleads, her glare turning to a sorrowful expression. “Please let us help you!”
“You don’t understand anything!” Taurise stomps his foot, creating a shockwave. “It’s my fault this is all happening!” Tears begin flowing from his face. “It’s my fault he’s dead! It’s my fault the gods are going to destroy everything!”
“Then help us fix it!” The girl yells at him. “We can beat the gods! We can help you!”
“No! It’s my problem!” Taurise yells, his body shaking with energy. “And no matter what; I’m going to fix it!”
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Taurise leaps from building to building with ease. It has been a few months since I fought a cursed, He thinks while taking another leap. When I arrived here in Tehram, I was practically on deaths door. He shudders, recalling the experience, landing on a small two-story building.
“The cursed is just around here,” Taurise declares. Luckily, Spectral Sight doesn’t need to be active once I’ve tracked a cursed, He jumps down from the building into an alleyway. Taurise pulls up a manhole cover, tossing it to the side like a frisbee. “I’ll send that bastard back to his master in a body bag,” Taurise states, clenching his teeth, his glaring eyes burning, and a bead of sweat dripping down his face. He descends, jumping blindly into the dark sewer.
As he descends, an arrow flies at him from below. “Tch, you just don’t know when to give up!” Taurise boldly declares. “Form 2!” He thrusts his right hand out, firing a shot in the direction of the arrow.
The arrow jerks to the side, and Taurise barely has time to raise his arms as the arrow collides with him. Despite its small size, the arrow knocks Taurise into the wall of the sewer, where he falls to the hard pavement below.
“Damn…” Taurise breathes heavily, holding his bleeding left wrist with his right hand. “I was too slow!” he berates himself, before refocusing. “I can barely see, but…” Taurise squints, barely making out the path ahead. “My attacker seems to be only about 30- no 35 meters from here,” He estimates, expertly wrapping a handkerchief around his bleeding wrist.
“I won’t let him get away!” Taurise yells, throwing his arms to his side. “Overdriver: Form 1!” His muscles bulge with energy, and he lunges forward, his hair whipping back in the air. He jumps over the water with ease, crossing the channel. He lands on his right foot and pushes off it to continue running forward. He turns the corner, going to the left, balancing his weight on his right leg, and pushing off.
At that moment, and arrow flies up from the water. Taurise halts himself, leaning back to avoid getting pierced by the shadowy attack. “Try again bastard!” Taurise snarls, smashing his fist against the arrow as it turned sharply towards him. “Keep on trying, until I’ve broken you!” His bloodshot eyes fixate on the source of the arrows, stepping out from the shadows.
“Well then, try and break me!” He laughs, shadows washing off his figure like water, revealing a pale man with long, pitch black hair and eyes filled with an endless darkness, with no light to be seen in the orbs. “If you can, Taurise Aniren; Fist of Justice!” He narrows his eyes, grinning sadistically from ear to ear. The shadows flow to his left hand, forming a bow. In his right hand, three arrows form.
“Don’t be so sure of yourself!” Taurise hissed, clenching his teeth. “I’ve killed plenty of your kind before, Serian Alder, Bow of Shadow.” He stares, his eyes wide and focused dead on the cursed standing across from him.
“Ah so you know me! To be expected of course!” Serian stretches out his arms. “Yes! I am the hunter for my dear master! My bow is his third arm, by which his foes are slain!” He raises his arms to his side, throwing his head back while showering himself in praise. “And my master has requested your life next!” He tilts his head forward slowly, focusing his long, narrow eyes on his prey.
“So, your master’s found me?” Taurise probes, ignoring the crazed hunter’s gaze. “Or did you track me on your own?”
“Only a hunter of my caliber could have tracked someone so perfectly, so exquisitely!” Serian writhes, clawing at his forearms. “I do it out of my devotion, no, love for my dear master!” He points his bow at Taurise, his forearms now full of shallow cuts.
“Disgusting!” Taurise mutters, raising his arms and lowering his head, and putting his left leg forward, ready for combat. “I’ll make sure to not leave a trace of you when this is over!” Taurise declares. “Overdriver: Form 4!”
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Energy explodes from Taurise, filling his body with energy the same way as form 1, as well as creating a barrier of pure force around him, much like form three.
The force from Taurise’s pushes Serian back. The archer digs his heels into the pavement, using his arm to shield his face from the wind. “What power!” He grins in delight. “No wonder my master wishes for your soul!”
“Please just shut up…” Taurise yells, leaping forward, pushing off his right leg, the barrier of force trailing off him. “…And just die!” He brings his left leg back and whips it forward in a roundhouse kick aimed for Serian’s head.
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Until a moment ago, Amira was tapping her foot impatiently in the shop, waiting for Taurise to return to the shop. Now, she was bolting towards the sound of an explosion underneath the city.
I know Taurise told me to stay safe but… Amira narrows her eyes. Taurise needs help! She closes her eyes. I can see Taurise fighting… What is this power? She wonders, focusing on the great deal of power below the city. I can’t seem to get it into focus though, Amira turns the corner, almost losing her balance.
“C’mon Amira!” She chastises herself, stabilizing and getting back into a sprint, pumping her arms and she sprints, leaning forward. The market and the streets around it are deserted. Everyone is hiding from the cursed. Amira notes.
I was born with this power for a reason! Amira glares. This is my chance to prove I can use this power for some good! She smirks at the prospect. Then I’ll finally be a hero! A flash of energy causes Amira to grind to a halt. “They’re just below me.” She states, her eyes closed. “Time to shine!”
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“Quite aggressive, now are we?” Serian taunts, firing off a shot of his bow towards Taurise’s head as the hunter’s body melts into darkness. This arrow is thicker and longer than the arrows that Taurise had been intercepting earlier. The warrior drops to the ground, rolling over the arrow, which passes overhead, flying out of sight without a sign of changing direction. Taurise watches the arrow, which collides with a wall perpendicular to the channel, before walking over to where the hunter once stood, scanning his surroundings.
“You can’t hide from me!” Taurise shouts, aiming his hands towards the water. “Form 2! Barrage!” Taurise fires off multiple blasts into the sewer canal, which burst at the bottom of the channel, causing the water to fire upwards “Come here and face me! I know you’re down there!” He demands, firing off more blasts, covering the channel with small explosions of water. “Come out!”
“If you insist!” Serian hisses, his voice reverbing through the tunnel, his voice coming from all angles. An arrow shoots up from behind Taurise, this one larger, like the last arrow Serian shot.
The warrior blocks the arrow with his left arm, shattering the dark power into nothingness. “Got you!” He fires a volley of blasts into the water. He shouldn’t be able to move if he’s channeling his conscience into the arrows, Taurise notes. But he’s been dodging my attacks while arrows are still active. Does he have different types of arrows?
A shadow bubbles on the ceiling of the sewers, and the upper part of Serian’s body appears out of the shadow, arrow drawn back. Without looking, Taurise fires a blast back at the archer. “Quite perceptive!” Serian praises Taurise, firing the shot hastily. The arrow misses Taurise, colliding with the ground at Taurise’s feet, creating a puddle of shadow. Serian attempts to melt back into the shadows, but Taurise leaps up, grabbing his neck violently and pulling him out of the shadows.
“You’re mine!” Taurise yells, throwing Serian at the ground. The cursed hits the concrete with a loud thud. Taurise falls towards the hunter aiming his foot at Serian’s gut.
“Dark arrow: Lingering Hands!” Serian yells, thrusting his hand outwards. A dark hand, about the size of Taurise, stretches out from the puddle of shadow made by the arrow, reaching out and grabbing the overextended Taurise.
“Hgh!” Taurise struggles against the shadowy hand’s tight grip.
“Now! To the finishing act of this epic hunt!” Serian gloats, nocking 3 arrows, his bow held horizontally. “Goodbye Taurise Aniren!” Serian fires the arrows, headed squarely for Taurise’s chest. Serian grins as he melts into the endless shadows of the sewer system.
Taurise grunts as the hand tightens its hold around him. "Form 3!" a shield of pure force appears around him, breaking the hand’s grip, and shattering one of the arrows that was about to pierce him square in the chest. The other two arrows go wide, one hitting the wall, the other hitting the ceiling.
Taurise lands on the ground, panting. “Kgh!” He grunts, holding his right shoulder. I forgot about my injury. What a rookie mistake! He scans the area, watching out for any spikes in Serian’s energy usage. What’s more worrying right now is that my body heat is getting pretty high. I’m going to start slowing down if I can’t wrap this up soon!
Serian shakes his fists for a moment, “The Overdriver is quite amazing… alas us cursed have no power like it!” Serian pouts, firing an arrow from behind Taurise.
Taurise leaps above it. “Don’t mock me!" Serian fires another arrow, aiming in the path of Taurise’s jump arc. The warrior pivots, kicking off the wall to quickly land, narrowly dodging Serian’s well placed arrow.
Serian extends and outstretched hand, closing it into a fist like he was crushing an apple. “Lingering Hands!” Shadowy hands extend from where the last two shots landed, rushing for Taurise.
The hands enclose on Taurise, surrounding him. “Damnit” Taurise curses, now facing threats on all sides, with the shadowy hands looking for an opening. Serian lingers on the flank, nocking another arrow. “I need some more time to let my body cooldown…” Taurise laments firing off a blast of energy at each shadow hand. Each blast blows a chunk of the shadow off, landing on the ground and dissolving. Serian fires an arrow at Taurise from the flank, but the warrior rolls between the reforming hands, dodging Serian’s shot and putting all threats on one side of him.
The shadow hands reform themselves, the damaged parts being refilled like a liquid gel, oozing out from the shadows of the sewer. “Very good! Very good!” Serian claps, his bow dissipating into the shadows. “Handling three opponents while not using the full extend of your power! What a show!” He praises Taurise. “But…” Serian glares, his harrowing, pitch black eyes meeting Taurise's. “You should really take me more seriously!”
“So it’s you!” A new voice accuses.
Taurise freezes. “No…” His eyes widen, his arms shaking. “I told you to…” He slowly turns around towards the new voice. “I told you to stay back…” He bites his lip, his pupils shrinking.
“Don’t worry Taurise! I’m here to back you up!” Amira smirks, electricity running down her arm as she walks forward towards the wide-eyed man. “Now that I’m here, this battle is over!”