Once at the top of everything, Schram looked down to the odd trio.

The air, thinner and fresher than before filled his nostrils with pine, lavender, and sweet sap. Standing up there, he was able to hear both the night mammals hunting in the dark and the day ones sleeping in their nests. He was able to hear the water flowing underground, and the air quivering the leaves in every tree’s branch.

Once more, he thought, he was where he belonged, able to feel the world among the rest of the living and not-so-alive beings. It was like coming back home, but in another place, like watching the sun come down, or watching the moon full on its own, feeling from the distance. To live that way, was why he had come to be in the first place.

— You certainly don’t know this, but y'all going to meet death in this field tonight —

Looking down at them, he said.

— Wie arm ist denn, wer sein Leben erhalten will, weil der wird’s verlieren… —

Then he let himself fall, like pulled by invisible strings to the ground, even further, ejecting himself from behind as an object surfing a wave.

When he reached the ground, the floor collapsed under his feet, the dust flooded the air, and the trees unroot themself from their place. When Schram inside the chaos was able to reach Oliver with his right arm, a sensation of raw power filled his jaws.

It was Kiki, that had landed another blow from his right side.

— You sneaky little…! —

Cursed the creature firmly holding Oliver through his hoodie, before taking another blow from the opposite direction. It was Park, that ran through its guard to land a blow in the side of its elongated torse, that made him sweep through the ground, still holding the blond.

— Let me go! —

A third blow and a shockwave came out of Oliver’s right arm, barely strong enough to brush the fuzz of his air.

— Hah —

Schram laughed, right before throwing Oliver against the ground, still holding him.

— You… —

A step further, Park kicked the ground, making a thousand particles rain over the creature, like hot steel splinters. Kiki leaped again then, and was able to use that as a distraction to land another blow on Shcram’s side, this time, the creature held up her katana with his bare hand, leaving her hanging in the air.

— I think your good luck has… —

Then he realized he had started to fade away, so while still holding Oliver, he threw aside Kiki’s sword.

— What…? —

It was Park who had gotten a hold of something inside his body, somehow hiding in the splinters from before, Schram caught it, and along a stream of blood, rocks as big as marbles came out of his mouth. Right there, another blow struck him somewhere throughout his ribs, one that he was unable to foresee.

— Enough! —

He said, taking hold of one of Oliver's arms, attempting to split it in half. Even then, another blow hit him in the back of his head, and another, and another, as Kiki’s legs enrolled around his neck.

— Let him go! —

She screamed as Oliver’s marks shone, strengthening his body. One last blow, and he let him escape from his grip. This time, it was Schram, who had foreseen Park's next movement, coming from his blindspot, carrying a stick Hexed into a spear, now gripped between the creature’s hooves. A rough shake and Kiki fell from his back.

— You think you’re smart, well I’m clever —

He said, watching oddly how a smile drew itself on Park’s face

— I was hoping that was the case —

Park said, right in time for Oliver to charge into Schram, gripping its oddly elongated silhouette in between his arms. But right when Park was about to land his fist over the creature’s chest, the creature growled, deploying an energy wave so strong that it blew them away, so strong that it spread them all across the woods, as if they were mere leaves in the air.

Having crawled over his back to si himself, Oliver, covered in leaves, dirt, and splinters, cursed into the air.

— Crap —

He had already lost count of the times he had been thrown into the ground, the whole thing seemed useless at that point. Like pushing a rock through a hill, only to see it fall again.

— Oliver?! —

He heard through the darkness, again under the umbrella of trees, covered in darkness, he recognized the voice before even his sharpened senses came to see it. It was Kiki.

— Where are you? —

— Here —

He answered, raising a listless hand up in the air.

— Are you all right? —

She asked, hardly running over one of her legs. He knew it instantly.

— I’m ok, just a little dizzy, but… what happened to you? —

— I… —

Her tongue stumbled.

— I landed the wrong way —

She was out of the fight.

— Oh… you think you can…? —

— I won’t give up —

She gave him a fierce look, she wasn’t lying at all, something that made him worry even more.

— Cool —

He lied, giving her an awkward smile, he stopped for a second a looked at her, as she breathed heavily, making her chest bump under the white shirt from the effort.

— What? —

She asked, feeling his eyes over her.

— Nothing —

He answered, she wiped the sweat dripping from her mouth. Oliver didn’t take his sight out of her.

— You still need to explain to me what that allure-thing you talked about before is —

— Ah —

She seemed distracted.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

— Park also knows about it, and is better explaining it —

— … —

— We need a new plan —

Oliver rested his arms on the ground, and strengthening his body, he managed to stand over his feet again.

— I have an id… —

And right before he was able to end his phrase, his body got thrown into the ground again, this time it was Kiki, who saw Schram's blow coming.

— Move! —

She voiced pushing him down, as Schram passed over their heads howling, trying to pierce their bodies with his horns.

Heavy he landed on the ground, sliding through the floor with his darkened hooves. He fixed his shining eyes on them, and his mouth twisted itself in a disturbing way.

— Enough playing —

He said in a guttural voice. Oliver stood out, supporting Kiki on his shoulder, the girl raised her hand, wielding her katana again. Different this time, Oliver stepped in front.

— Let me go first this time —

The girl looked at him wide-eyed.

— I have an idea —

It was risky, but at that point, every decision he had made since he had started Nightwalking till that very moment seemed to be the same. In the worst-case scenario, he would hold the creature till Park found them, wherever he had ended up after the shockwave. So stepping front, Oliver raised his hand oddly, like a street fighter would do, and gave the creature a look.

— Huh, you finally man up —

Spoke Schram.

— Let’s finish this once and for all —

Oliver answered.

Squaring his horns upfront like before, Schram leaped his body from the ground, possessed by force and speed enough to pierce a wall, and charged against Oliver. When he reached the boy, Oliver, who had seen that pattern already so many times, put himself out of the way with his footplay. The creature, having also gone through that exchange so many times, had stopped in the middle of his run, right in time to turn around and push the blond aside, making good use of the impulse of his body. Oliver interposed his hands, rejecting the creature only strong enough to nullify any harm, and both figures got thrown in opposite directions.

Barely a couple meters from each other sharpened thanks to the effects of the Sympathy enabled in their bodies, they looked at each other with resentment.

— You’ve grown —

Said the creature, in an uncomfortable familiar tone.

— And you have become uglier —

Answered Oliver, spitting aside.

The exchange began again with Oliver’s movement, right as Schram had done before, he leaped from his place so strong, and so fast, that he had been able to go through a wall. Charging against the creature, his body hit it by surprise, throwing both to the ground.

He had a reason, thought Oliver, as he watched the Schram spat from his belly a stream of gastric juices, eyes wide open, filled with blood. The creature hadn’t been able to foresee it, instead, he had received the blow fully and rolled over the leaves with the blood. That was one of the flaws of inhabiting a mortal body, having to deal with its feebleness.

— Hah, hah, you… —

Scarcely laughed Schram between gags.

— Ready to give up? —

Said Oliver, reincorporating himself quickly.

— Oh, I’ll give you something else… —

At four legs like an animal, Schram leaped again, faster than he had done before, so fast that Oliver couldn’t see it. Both started then rolling through the ground, as Oliver reinforced his body to hold the effort, one blow after another. First, Schram pierced him by the shoulder in an interchange that lasted over a minute, a minute in which Oliver struck once, again, and again the creature's ribs. Both split for a second, and after Schram had thrown a wave that allowed Oliver to return it, burying him in the ground, both engaged again in a fist-claw-horn fight that tithed the wood around them.

By the moment they split a third time, the wound accumulated from the moment Schram had crossed the roof of the house back there, through the backyard, and the wood against them tree, had left his body sore and battered. Oliver was seated on his right knee, with a blind eye and a stream of ghostly blood flowing from his shoulder. It was then that Kiki stood in front of him.

— Where…where is he? —

— I don’t know… I can’t… feel him anymore —

Kiki argued, worried.

— We’re by ourselves now —

Said holding tight to her sword, knowing he had gone past his capacity long ago.

— Your leg —

He said

— You —

She answered. A silence filled the void for a moment, a three-part silence, filled only by the breathing of the three, and the air winding through the branches.

— It’s over —

Stated Schram, stepping front with his goatly legs.

He threw himself one time, and Kiki intercepted him with the side of her sword, resenting her leg. He did it again, leaping this time with his whole body, and the impulse was so strong that throwing away her sword, ripped Kiki’s feet from the ground, making her do a whole lap over her axis. The creature did it one more time, and both teenagers got thrown a few meters forward, while Oliver tried to shield Kiki. When both were done, Schram took Oliver’s aimless body and held it high in front of his horns.

— I told you I was going to kill you —

Familiar, though strangely obnoxious, the seventeen-year-old boy felt the warmth from his body, goatly changed into whatever that creature was, holding him by the neck. That was the closest he had been to taking his body back ever. Dizzed, numbed, and light-headed, Oliver tried to say something, making instead a snarl that woke up Kiki.

The girl, wretched and woeful, wept an unheard request that drew a stained-teeth smile on the creature's face. Then, bathing under the stars' light, he stretched his body and claimed in a wrecked old German.

— …aber, wer aber sein Leben verliert um meinetwillen, der wird’s finden —

His head, without noticing, fell severed into the ground.