A Fight with your Life on the Line Part 1
A permeating stench of blood and saltrick acid filled the room. For the briefest moment, the Cafeteria was silent. Not a single sound, be it the rough breathing of those in pain, or the callous laugh of the madman that caused all that pain, could be heard. It was a transient silence as fragile as a sheet of glass, yet as sturdy as a diamond.
Of course, that singular moment only lasted for less than a fraction of a second before time flowed once more.
“Be careful, Cher.”
Hina’s voice called out from behind a certain red-headed girl’s body.
Cold sweat dripped down from her brow as she stared directly past a pair of narrow shoulders with vigilant eyes. The bloodstained man who stood no more than 10 meters in front of them, sauntered over, his gaunt and demeanor portraying a carefree attitude, while a look of murder and killing intent masked his grinning face.
His steps were light, and painfully slow. The tension rose with each step he took, and the look of pale caution on everybody else's face reflected that.
“Y-yeah, I know. Don’t worry, I-I’ll definitely protect you.” A shaky voice affirmed from in front of Hina.
It was Cher. Contrary to her rather reassuring words, her shivering frame, cracking voice, and the flowing cold sweat that soaked her back gave away her real emotions.
Cher’s grip on her two shields tightened while her half-buckling legs parted slightly into a pseudo-horse stance. As the acting vanguard, it was Cher’s responsibility to defend and block. Whatever attacks and dangers the opponent had, Cher would be the first one to confront it. In other words, in a world filled with danger and fatal blows as numerous as the stars in the sky, she was the one closest to death.
Despite that, she had played this role numerous times. Rather, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this type of thing her speciality by this point. Unfortunately, the current situation was different. Her enemy, her mindset, even the fear she currently felt was different.
It wasn’t the instinctual fear of death, nor the primal fear of monsters. It was something different. Something much more human. A fear that grew and festered with time. It was the type of fear that was learned. The type of fear that was acquired from experience.
It was the fear of knowing she would be confronting the man who had tormented and oppressed her all those times before.
Despite hiding behind the protection of her two shields, they did very little to comfort the growing anxiety in her mind.
Noticing that Cher had no intention of attacking, Satou’s brow furrowed as he abruptly stopped his march forward.
“What’s this? What’s wrong, Cher? Aren’t you going to attack? Even though you’ve only got shields, it’s not like you can’t hit someone with those, you know?” He taunted while haphazardly swinging around his sword. The feeling of absolute confidence was painfully obvious on his smirking face.
He would have continued too, after all, berating and laughing at others had long become his favorite past time since the apocalypse started, if not for a certain sudden interruption.
In the middle of Satou’s provocation, a sudden ball of flame surged forward, flying past Cher's unaware figure, and directly towards the taunting man. In response, Satou’s eyes narrowed while his smirking face momentarily shifted into a grimace. He leapt to the side, barely avoiding the searing congregation of heat.
“Concentrate Cher.” Hina’s voice called out sternly. “Don’t think about who you’re fighting. Just imagine a monster. Like always, like what we've been fighting these past two weeks. A simple monster... No, rather, that man over there can’t even be called a human any more. It is just a monster.”
She hadn’t heard Satou’s early remarks regarding his fall from humanity (i.e. Cannibalism, addiction), but rather, she had an instinctual gut feeling. Looking into those bloodshot eyes, eyes devoid of life or compassion, she felt her first impression of the man had not been wrong.
Satou, the youth with unkempt hair going down past his shoulders, the man who wore a perpetual smile, the man with bloodshot eyes, had long stopped being human.
Cher nodded nervously to Hina’s words, but Hina had neither the focus nor attention to reciprocate. Her concentration had already moved on. Instead, she once again focused back on Satou’s wary figure. She willed the previous flying ball to shift directions with [Pyrokinesis], and aimed it squarely for the men's open back.
Satou glared coldly at Hina’s concentrating figure before he shifted his focus and casted a glance behind him. Like he had experienced earlier, the fireball was once again flying directly towards him. With each inch it zoomed closer, he could feel the subsequent increase in heat it provided.
He pondered briefly for a moment, noticing the sudden surge of irritation he felt from the heat. Once again, he glanced at the approaching flame, before he came to a decision.
His smile widened as he began to move.
Instead of confronting the fireball, Satou dashed forward, heading directly towards Cher’s shell shocked figure. The cold grin on his face never once left as he made short work of the 10 meter distance, the obsidian sword in his hand dangling lightly by his side.
Through the slits in her shield, she watched nervously as Satou approached. The familiar face of carnage that had once tormented her all those weeks past caused her mind to blank out briefly while her shoulders uncontrollably trembled.This state of being would have persisted if it weren’t for her body, which, driven by practice and experience, moved automatically into action.
Her knees briefly bent, before she erupted forth and lept forward. Her larger shield glowed faintly, as the skill, [Shield Bash], activated.
Satou, who had anticipated this- or rather, who had hoped for this, flashed his growing smile once again.
At less than half a meter away from Cher’s rushing figure, his body suddenly turned and bolted to the left. Hina, who could not react in time, could do nothing as the mass of congregated heat and the front of Cher’s approaching shield collided. The magic flame instantly exploded, and wisps of fire spread out upon impact. The brunt of the force was absorbed by the waiting shield, causing the overall piece of equipment to heat- both inside and out. Unfortunately, a few lines of fire subsequently scraped and scratched Cher’s exposed legs and face, shaving off a fraction of her HP.
Cher, who did not expect the sudden impact, grimaced slightly. She had taken numerous hits from Hina’s magic plenty of times in the past, but this was the first time she had been hit so squarely with that much amount of force. The impact alone pushed her a couple of steps back, but luckily her stance did not crumble.
Barely recovering, through the slit of her squinting eyes, she glared daggers at Satou. Once again, the man had changed directions mid sprint. This time, his aim was the newly created gap between the other girls and Cher.
Cher would not make it in time. She knew this, but still, she sprinted after him.
As Satou approached, his smile only grew wider. Reflected only in his eyes was Hina’s exposed figure. In his mad frenzy, he did not even register the other two girls besides her. Unfortunately for him, this was a fatal mistake.
Intercepting Satou’s approach, someone else stepped forward. It was neither a fireball nor magic, instead, it was a poorly crafted wooden sword that suddenly swung forward.
The former library committee- Emiko’s strike aimed directly at Satou’s exposed neck. In other words, it was a strike with the full intention of murder.
The wooden sword briefly flashed before Satou’s eyes just as another micro-emotion of annoyance flashed across his face.
“DON’T GET IN MY WAY!”
A sudden yell sprouted from his throat. His feet came to a sliding stop, just as he twisted his body to the side, forcing the once dangling sword by his waist into action. It sliced cleanly through the dark night before forcibly colliding with the approaching boken.
“Guh-”
A groan of pain followed the numbing sensation in Emiko’s arms just as her figure was blown back by about 5 meters in distance. As she staggered to get her bearings, it would only be after some time that she realized that the attack just now had completely severed the base of her wooden sword.
From where it had hit, melted wood and the smell of saltric acid wafted forth. Seeing this, Emiko’s face paled as she unconsciously imagined herself being at the brunt end of that slash.
“Damn, woman,” Satou growled in a low voice as he fixed his bent posture. “You think a crap toy like that can withstand my intermediate level skill?”
He mockingly questioned, just a he turned his attention once more to his original prey. Unfortunately for him though, the brief distraction caused by Emiko’s interference was more than enough for the other girls.
A torrent of attacks. Tactics and formations forged through weeks’ worth of practice and perseverance all aimed towards Satou’s unaware and exposed figure.
The first was a torrent of magic- a wall of darkness that surged towards him. He could do little but cover his arms in a vain attempt to block. His eyes widened slightly as the force from the pseudo-water swept him off his feet and pushed him back a good meter or two towards Cher’s rushing figure.
Cher, who by this point, was cloaked in a thin layer of [Blue Gemini], rushed towards Satou. Satou casted a brief sideways glance towards her, but could do little in the face of the dark matter that covered his entire body. Cher once again activated [Shield Bash], and with no hesitation whatsoever, dove directly into the darkness, and impacted Satou squarely in his chest.
The onset of [Dark Gemini] was canceled out by the thin layer of [Blue Gemini] cloaking Cher’s figure. It lasted long enough for Cher to push herself out from the other side of the wall of black gelatinous fluid. As a result though, the [Blue Gemini] that previously cloaked her body had all but evaporated, canceled out by its dark counterpart.
On the receiving end of her attack, Satou’s figure was hurled once more into the air. He flew a good 6 meters or so, before he came tumbling to a stop by the feet of a fellow underling.
The annoyed grimace on his face from previously had full on morphed into one of seething rage and absolute blood lust, but before he could redirect all this aggression, another attack flew towards him.
A familiar ball of fire. Satou desperately rolled to the left, but the fire, like previously, changed directions and chased him like a homing missile. He continued to haphazardly dodge while rolling on the floor. He did not even have the moment’s luxury of standing up.
He fared fairly well for a few seconds, weaving in and out of harm’s way with overactive movements, before another ball of fire flew towards him. Then another. and another. In total, 6 fireballs pursued him with utmost accuracy.
The magic flew at him from all sides, seemingly trapping him in place. He was only able to escape by rolling behind a nearby underling and using his drooly mouthed figure as a meat shield.
The six balls of heat all hit the man at the same time. Instantaneously, several 3rd degree burns scarred themselves onto his pale skin. Those red shot, vague and lifeless eyes momentarily squinted, as his diminutive mind barely registered what just happened. Without so much a scream of pain or an agonized grimace, the cannibal limply fell to the floor, leaving behind a resounding thud which filled the room deafeningly.
Of course the man wasn’t dead. Although his situation was indeed critical, with numerous life threatening burns all over his body, the cannibal had somehow managed to retain his life, albeit painfully. Whether this was due to pure chance or by the grace of the caster, that remains to be seen.
Satou coldly looked down at the half dead man before his instantly sword blurred. In an instant, the man’s head rolled helplessly on the floor, while an absentminded mutter escaped from Satou’s throat.
“... I can’t just let the experience fly away now, can I?”
Seeing this gruesome sight, the girls recoiled backwards in disgust and a slight sense of fear. Hina once again reaffirmed her original thought that Satou had long since stopped being human while Cher was reminded of what she had narrowly escaped from.
In contrast to the other two’s expressions, Cielle’s face was masked in slight confusion. Her mind had been caught on a particular instant from a few moment’s prior. A scene that kept replaying in her mind over and over again. A scene she had previously believed to be impossible.
She could not wait any longer, and, spurred by curiosity, she shot a ball of [Black Gemini] towards Satou once again.
The attack came so suddenly, and so quickly, that Satou could not even put up his hands in weak resistance, let alone dodge. The ball of gelatinous darkness hit him squarely in the face, reflexively causing him to shut his eyes in surprise.
“...”
“....”
After a few seconds of silence, Satou cautiously opened his previously shut eyes. He glared questioningly at the source of the sudden attack before saying, “What the hell was that?”
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Glancing over at Satou’s unharmed figure, Cielle let loose a bitter frown as she confirmed her previous theory. Somehow or the other, [Black Gemini] did not work on the mad man.
Satou himself shrugged nonchalantly as he once again began to saunter over. His mouth was still curved into a slight frown, as he could not help but ask, “That previous attack… it kind of irritated, but what the hell was it supposed to do?”
Cielle did not bother asking, instead she exchanged a glance with Hina and Cher, who both fully understood the implications of what just took place.
Unbeknownst to the three of them, the poisonous effects of long exposure from the Elite Wisp had long since deteriorated Satou’s sense of pain. In addition to that, such things as hearing, eyesight, as well as taste were now well below the average person’s capacity.
For the current Satou, even if he were to survive this night, a life of numb sensation and repressed emotion was all that awaited him.
Hina and Cher corrected their posture once again, their eyes never once leaving Satou. Cielle did the same, although this time, she stood considerably away from the other two, and was now slightly closer to the President and his group’s half conscious figures.
Satou, who's had already began marching forward was still hell bent on attacking. Although unfortunately, he had learned his lesson, and with an authoritative voice, yelled,
“Oi! You Bastards!” He was not screaming at the girls in front of him, but rather at the remaining underlings behind him, who, up until now, had merely stood there, with half comatose expressions on their faces.
“Stop standing around and attack!”
At first, the bloodshot men and women did not react to his words. Seeing this, Satou let loose an irritated sigh, before restating, “I’ll give whoever does the best a wiff of the or-”
“““OOOOOOOHHHHH!”””
Without even being able to finish his remark, the people behind him instantly roared into life. Those once lifeless eyes flashed with unnatural desire as their bodies flew forward. Satou, in response flashed a bloodthirsty smirk as he waited calmly behind the suddenly attacking 6 underlings. He even had the leisure to let loose a carefree remark such as, “Don’t kill them though~ I still want the experience…”
Upon the sight of rushing bodies, Cher was the first to pale. She was fairly confident that she could block one, two, maybe three half crazed cannibals, but against a total of six, the job was considerably more difficult. Although those ghoul like expressions did not indicate it, the six people before her still had a semblance of human intellect, making the upcoming fight much more difficult than dealing with a herd of monsters.
It would be an easy enough thing for three to four of them to keep her occupied while the remaining enemies slipt passed her and rushed onto Hina and Cielle behind.
She gulped tensely, before Cher received the closest Cannibal with the brunt of her shield. She pushed the pale faced man with a thrust of her large shield, just in time as another bloodshot cannibal replaced him.
Cher slightly eased on the grip on her shield, momentarily pulling the buckle closer to her body, before she immediately pushed back. The sudden action caused the receiving cannibal to fly off a good meter or so, hitting two of the remaining Cannibals behind.
She took a shaky breathe to reassess her situation, just as a barrage of fireballs flew from behind her and rushed the horde of people. 12 balls of searing heat, aimed and hit the 6 Cannibals. The subsequent impact alone was enough to blow most of them another 3 meters back.
Cher watched this with nervous eyes. Although the scene of a dozen balls of light and heat flying in the sky was both majestic and terrifying, she was one of the people most familiar with Hina’s limit.
At Hina’s current level, she could conjure up a total of 50 fireballs. Due to her constant usage of [Pyrokinesis], that amount is considerably reduced. Probably around 25 to 30 were Hina’s current limit, and so far, she had already launched 20 fireballs.
The constant concern for her ally’s remaining mana filled Cher’s mind even as she watched the state of carnage before her. But just as suddenly as this thought popped presented itself, it quickly vanished at the sight of the six charred bodies rising up to their feet as if nothing had happened.
Six pairs of bloodthirsty eyes glowed menacingly at her as the began to march over once more. Their bodies so dry and covered with burns that their was not enough liquid in their bodies to drool, still continued moving. A few of them limped, scraping a blood knee or roasted foot across the Cafeteria floor, while the others had skins as dark as the night sky.
They looked to be dead, but as expected, they were not dead. Even during such a situation, Hina had still hesitated to kill, leaving behind critical injuries that would normally require months of medical treatment.
Nevertheless, ignoring their levels of injury, the obsessed men and women kept moving forward. Only a singular desire filled their thoughts, and that was to further spur on their growing addiction.
From behind those roasted bodies, Satou coldly grinned. His hands entered his pocket to feel the cold surface of the long desired addiction while he watched on as his subordinates mindlessly began their attack once more.
From the spot reserved only for the commander of a battle, he surveyed the battlefield with a nonchalant expression on his face. Cher, the surprisingly resilient girl, was holding back the zombie-like pieces of charcoal, while the other girl- the one who conjured fire, had been constantly moving backwards, increasing the total distance between her and the Cannibals. Occasionally, she would shoot out another ball of fire, as both a warning and retaliation.
Satou counted a total of four. She had fired off four more of her special magic since that dozen ball attack from previously.
As Satou continued to survey the scene, he noticed that the other girl, the one who controlled the rather useless magic was gone. Somehow, she had slipt away from the other two in the middle of the confusion.
While her sudden disappearance did cause him to worry slightly, that worry just as quickly dissipated as he remembered her previous display of magic. It was useless. A completely useless attack that did absolutely nothing to him.
The last one too, the President’s underling, was out of sight as well. Considering how weak she had been when they exchanged blows, he did not worry in the slightest. To him, he did not even acknowledge the girl’s existence.
Satou had half convinced himself that the other girls- the ones who disappeared from the battlefield- were not a threat as he turned his attention back onto the battlefield.
He saw Cher’s figure being overrun by a mob of 4. The sight of her pale and panicked face brought delight to Satou. It was at this time that he decided to take action.
He placed a hand in a pocket- a different pocket than the one that held the Elite Wisp- as he began to sprint forward.
His words parted softly to wordlessly spell out the phrase, “Magic Clad”, while his figure weaved in between the mess of charcoaled limbs and desperate drooling faces. His grip on whatever he had in his pocket tightened, as he reached the front of the battle in no time.
“Yo!” He suddenly yelled loudly from in front of Cher’s large shield.
Cher jumped slightly at the unexpected noise. Her eyes paled at the sight of him, just as Satou’s sword blurred and came crashing down at the base of her shield.
The sword skimmed the surface of the shield, leaving behind an indention, which quickly began to boil and fester as Satou’s magic instantly began to activate.
Satou smirked inwardly upon seeing the familiar sight. The skill that had been his constant companion throughout the mess had once again shown its prowess.The familiar smell of saltric acid filled his nose, just as he prepared to strike again. With one hand still in his pocket, and the other still fiercely gripping his sword handle, he slashed out once more.
The similar indentation produced by the 2nd slash was already boiling and festering, causing Cher’s expression to instantly darken. Seeing its effects, she was wrought with indecision as to whether to abandon her shield or not.
Satou’s smirk only continued to grow wider as he began to rain down blow after blow of acidic slashes.
[Magic Clad: Acid].
This was the name of the skill that Satou treasured the most. As it name implies, the skill envelopes his weapon in a magical layer of acid, producing the dangerous and deadly effect of corrosion. Satou, who had risen the skill level to intermediate level 3 held a weapon that could destroy almost anything with a single strike. To this day, he had not met anything that he could not corrode with his acid, and he once again reaffirmed that sense of superiority during this current exchange.
“HAhahAhaHa!” He cackled maniacally in between his strikes. “Oi, oi, What’s wrong Cher? You can’t possibly be done with just this much! Struggle some more! Fight back! Laugh! Cry! SCREAM!”
He pulled his sword behind his body, before unleashing another strike, this one was filled with the energy of his rotating hips and funnelled by the power of centrifugal force.
The strike slashed out from the bottom and curved upwards, shaving off the top half of Cher’s already badly damaged shield, and exposing Cher’s frightened expression and tear struck eyes, much to Satou’s delight.
He once again slashed out, this time, fully aiming at Cher’s exposed neck.
Luckily, Cher was able to dodge, jumping back immediately the moment a part of her shield had been slashed off.
She panted heavily, as she glanced fearfully at the sauntering man. The pack of Cannibals, that had been barely distracted with Hina’s use of [Pyrokinesis] were slowly, but surely approaching.
Cher’s face was contorted into a despair filled grimace as her eyes darted briefly behind her. In her pale eyes, Hina’s equally as vexed expression seared themselves into her retina, before she turned back around to face Satou.
For the briefest moment, she hesitated.
She thought about giving up. About groveling at his feet and surrendering. About asking for mercy, begging for her life. She thought about throwing away her pride, just like in the past.
[If it’s to survive, then I can do anything]
That type of thought filled her head, but was quickly replaced by another, more gruesome picture. The image of her dying at the hands of Satou’s skill.
This image prompted the thought of suicide. Killing herself before the man could get her hands on her. Dying painlessly rather than dying a cruel and pain filled death at the hands of slow corrosive acid. Self inflicted death would surely be more pleasant than death throw melting flesh, she reasoned.
She thought about all these things, but the sudden flash of a certain person’s face across her panicked mind instantly brought her back from her growing despair.
She breathed out a frightened, but determined sigh, before she threw the corroding shield at her feet. At this point, that wooden piece of defense had long become riddled with holes and its durability reaching near zero. Using it any further would only risk contaminating herself with the acid.
Bringing her remaining shield in front of her, she felt more exposed than ever. What made it even worse was that her remaining shield- Edge Shield, was one designed for attack. It was light and small, and in the face of Satou’s sword and skill combo, it would not last long.
Cher assessed her situation, which instantly brought her determination back down near depression.
The approaching Cannibals, Satou’s slow gaunt, and the defenseless Hina behind her.
Suffice to say, the situation was not good. Rather, it was near impossible.
Just as Cher’s mind risked falling into despair once more, a sudden development occurred. From the side, a figure suddenly came dashing forward.
Swoosh!
With a singular strike, a Cannibal was instantly killed. The hollow faced man’s HP drained immediately to zero, leaving behind a set of hollow eyes and a newly formed sword wound.
The sudden interruption brought a brief lull in Satou’s overflowing bloodlust, causing the madman to turn slightly to face the new intruder.
“Satou! You Bastard!” A rough and growling voice resonated from the figure’s throat, just as he sent Satou a look of murder.
The new figure, panting and wielding an obsidian sword as black as the night approached, killing intent practically surging out from him with every step he took. An expression of determination and finality. A look that conveyed his everybit of intention in killing the man he so desperately wanted to kill.
That man’s identity was Kaibara Hokusei. The student council president.
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Author's Note: If you liked this chapter, or this story in general, please rate or review. I appreciate it.