The waitress was the first to stand. There were scratches all over her body and twig marks on her skin. Her hair was now swinging free, just as her work uniform was quite unrecognizable. She ran the back of her hand over the corner of her mouth, tasting the strange taste of blood. Then she found the boy still on the ground.

“Are you all right?” she asked in a genuine voice.

Damian was on his knees, his appearance crumpled. He was also breathing with difficulty.

“No, I'm not all right. I…” He stopped to swallow. “What is all this? Why is this happening to me? Why is that thing trying to kill me? There's my brother too, and you…”

The waitress looked him over completely, blinking a frown. Again, she approached him, crouching down.

“First, you need to control your emotions and realize the situation. Why don't you just deal with what is happening at the moment? For example, he's marked you.”

“Damian turned his chin to where the girl pointed, noticing a mark on his neck. It was shaped like a hand.

“What the hell?!”

“It means you can't run away from him anymore. He will find you wherever you go. Now he needs to be killed.” she let out, simplistically. Damian heard her paralyzed. “Of course this wouldn't have happened if you had run away when I spoke.”

“What did you expect? I can't think straight!”

“You'd better start thinking straight and feel the weight of your life! Whining while you should have run away didn't help!” she raised her voice, but softened her expression soon after. “For now, don't be so desperate. He won't kill you. I won't let him.”

Damian looked straight into her eyes.

“Are you thinking of facing him alone? That thing killed two men just now! An axe flew out and hit them full in the face! They died without even…”

“Yeah, I saw it.” Her face contorted in sorrow. “I can take him on. I'm only at a disadvantage, but it's something I can reverse in a short time.”

“Waitress, can you hear yourself?” Damian asked incredulously. The girl finally stood up hopefully. The two of them heard the hybrid's voice approaching from where they were standing. The rain that had been hinting at his appearance, came with everything this time.

“There is one thing I know about the Halvinas, the hybrid beings. They need time to regenerate; it is laborious to kill, but not impossible. Stay behind me, okay? Try to stay out of his sight.”

“That won't work, we'll die.” Damian moved his mouth in despair. The hybrid came humming through the trees. The waitress removed the vest from her uniform and threw it away.

“Is this your way of rooting for me?”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Just wait. See the moment and find an opening. I need to catch him off guard.”

Damian stepped away, using the dimness as a hiding place. He couldn't tell if the rainwater was helping or hindering. He watched as the girl turned her single spear into a two-handed weapon.

Did she break it in half?

“It's no use trying to hide it from me! I know very well where he is!” The voice that would be in Damian's ears for a long time was heard.

“I'm not trying to hide him, I just want him to avoid looking at you. Your appearance is frightening.” The waitress let out a cheeky voice.

“Who do you think you are?!” The girl managed to irritate him, causing him to emerge from the shadows in a direct attack.

“You don't want to know.” she replied, watching the creature come toward her.

The sound of the two blades meeting irritated Damian's eardrums. The hybrid now attacked angrily, without direction. The girl was more accepting of the blows than receiving them. The spear, broken in two, was now much more effective against the axe than before. The boy hiding behind the trees was impressed with her movements. She could take all the pressure from the hybrid, who appeared to be stronger all the time. However, it was as if the waitress was different. Something about her was out of the ordinary, the way she acted, the confidence she carried, everything leaned towards the girl's side.

Still, the other carried a murderous and evil instinct, willing to use any trick to win. This was worrying, Damian feared more for the girl than for himself. After all, she was defending him, wasn't she? What would become of him if something happened to the waitress?

Damian barely blinked and his thoughts were brought back to reality. The axe cut her, the skin on her belly showed. The bruise disturbed her to the point that she was picked up again by the hybrid. The waitress used one of the spears to receive the blow, but still her opponent hit her with a kick to the already bruised stomach.

Damian clutched the bark of the tree moved by the scene. Damn, now what?

The hybrid continued, as the girl fell to her knees on the wet ground. But it wasn't enough to stop her. Even on the ground, beneath the rain, she still held his axes, crossing the blades over each other. The waitress gasped, Damian figured that if she had a plan, she should introduce it at that very moment or all would be lost.

Just wait. He remembered her words as he watched her on the floor. See the moment.

What exactly should I do?? He would surely die if he tried to fight. Nothing could assure him. However, he had only the girl to help him. As he watched her being pushed against the ground, he realized the danger. If something happened, and it was about to, there would be no way out.

Damian came out of the darkness, roaring against the wind.

“It's me you want, isn't it! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?”

The waitress's eyes widened, and the Hybrid seemed to like that.

“Just a second, I'll be right with you.”

“Wait…” the girl on the floor lost consciousness as she faltered. The hybrid didn't use the axe, but his closed fist.

Stolen novel; please report.

Damian lost even more the sparkle in his eyes when he saw the creature that had ruined his afternoon walking towards him.

“I wonder…" it said sadistically as it grabbed Damian by the neck with one arm. The boy jerked his feet in the air. “What will be his reaction when he finds out that I ripped his little brother's head off?

Damian's eyes glowed vividly, bathed in water from the sky.

“My brother?! Is he alive?” the boy spoke between small breaths.

“What a magnificent night it will be tonight!” he exasperated, full of thirst, using the axe with the other hand. He took aim at the boy's throat.

Damian closed his eyes, without praying this time, and then dropped to the ground. When he opened his eyes again, he found a broken forearm.

His stomach wracked as he saw that a puddle of green blood was forming on the ground. The hybrid faced the right side of his armless body, ungodly.

“Go!” Damian's heart relaxed as he heard the girl's voice. He promptly obeyed her.

The creature also reacted. It screamed, seized with rage. The boy ran away, fearing that the hybrid would use the axe again. However, the creature didn't say what it thought. The chain on the enemy's belt, acting on its own, flew straight into Damian's leg. The boy was caught feeling a weight on his ankle and went to the ground. The chain coiled around his shin like a long snake.

The hybrid sent his own axe flying toward the girl meters away from him. Still on the ground, she dodged it, almost losing something important, her head. The insane creature, acting smart, looked for the half of the spear still fallen, the half responsible for tearing off her right arm. As he tried to pick it up from the ground, he felt an unexpected pressure. The spear half repulsed him, setting his hand on fire.

He let it go, disappointed, turning his head back to the girl:

“A blood oath?!”

“I have my tricks too," she said, listening to the boy struggle against the living current.

Damian could see his leg beginning to fade. Not that one, he thought desperately.

The waitress called back the other half of the spear, bringing them together again. The axe couldn't return in time, for she stuck her powerful weapon into the wet earth, and created a stealthy barrier that prevented the weapon from returning to its owner.

“No, you damn girl!” The hybrid advanced armless, she spun her body next to the spear in a sharp dance, encompassing the creature. She didn't hesitate for seconds, giving him no chance for defense. She made him topple over and fall on his belly, gasping for air.

“Let him go! Call the chain!” he shouted at the hybrid, with the pointed spear at his neck.

“Do you really think you can do anything?” The hybrid shouted.

“I'm disappearing!” Damian's voice came out in agony.

Acting without much conscience, he split his weapon again.

“Take it!” she ordered the boy, throwing half the spear into the air. The weapon went over the barrier with ease, falling close to the boy. Damian crawled to the weapon, taking it in his hand.

Feeling the different weight of it, he struck the chain without much else to do. There were sparks, and the support rings beat a retreat, like fleeing rats. The hybrid, from where he stood, wanted to act enraged, but was stopped by the girl, who shot him.

The enemy then gave her his full attention.

“Why is a Halvina like you here? What do you want with him?”

“You'll pay for this! I'll tear you apart, damn you!” he promised in between, causing her to press the jagged edge even tighter against his chest.

“What do you want here?!”

“Don't think this is the end of it. You can't kill me! You're nobody, you're not one of them!”

As he finished speaking, the hybrid bit his tongue. His body gradually began to rot from the inside out. The waitress blinked several times, observing the scene. She saw him disappear before her eyes, the rest of his body dissolved into dust and washed away by the rainwater. The tip of the spear touched the ground, without a target.

“Yeah, I'm not…” he murmured softly, answering the vanished enemy.

Damian, who had watched the whole thing lying on the ground, limped up.

“What happened? Did you kill him?”

“No.”

“No?! Where did he go then?” He approached stunned.

“He sacrificed his own body in order to save himself. He must be regenerating, hiding in a corner somewhere.” Damian's face returned to the way it was before. Concerned. “It was my fault, I faltered. I let his arm slip.”

“What? His arm? Where is it? It was here a while ago…” The boy searched for the missing limb, turning his head in various directions.

“I told you, didn't I? Hybrids are hard to kill, precisely because they can regenerate themselves from any part of the body.”

“Why did you cut off his arm?”

She stared at him.

“Why did you let yourself be strangled?”

Damian blinked.

“What does that mean? And now what? What's going to happen now?”

The girl straightened, taking the other half of the spear from Damian and putting them back together. She leaned on the weapon and the two looked at each other.

“That means we still have a few hours of peace before he comes after you. Maybe even tomorrow.”

He squeezed his eyes shut.

“You've got to be kidding me!” he exasperated. “But what if you're wrong? Maybe he could be dying in a corner somewhere.”

The waitress sighed, shifting her body weight.

“I wish I could agree with you, but you still have the mark of his hand on your neck. The mark will only disappear when he's dead.”

Damian's face gradually lost its color, seeing that there was still the shape of a hand on his neck.

“How do you know all this?” the boy asked, but she didn't answer. “And what do we do in the meantime?”

“Well, you can try to understand why this is happening to you.” she said, as she started to walk. Damian followed her and the sirens were heard by both of them. “I really need some time to get back into the fight with him.”

“Are you going to fight him again?” he asked, lacing his fingers together.

The waitress turned to the boy.

“There's no one else who can do this, is there?” she said as if hiding something. Damian wondered at the girl's dark eyes. “You better not want to know why I'm helping you. Don't make me see that I'm not getting anything out of this, that I'm only risking my life for a boy I don't know and who was even very rude when he met me.”

The boy swallowed hard.

“I'm sorry about that.” he said.

“Your brother had already apologized for you anyway.” she concluded. The two walked back, one beside the other. The boy thought quickly about Elio. “By the way, who exactly is your brother? He was full of Refulgent Energy in his head.”

“Refulgent Energy? What is it?” Damian asked interested and she gave him a puzzled look in response.

“Your question only proves that you really don't know anything about his life, don't you?”

Damian stomped hard to the ground, running a hand over the back of his head, half lost. What did he have to know about his brother? What was Elio hiding? Was he all right?

There's something else I want to know, but it's about you, he thought.

“I don't know your name.” The boy said. That made her think for a moment.

“It's Autumn.”

“Just Autumn?”

“Yes, just Autumn.”

“Well, my name is…”

“Dante, I know. I heard it from your brother.”

“Actually, it's Damian. Damian Montgomery. Only my brother calls me Dante.”

She blinked at what she heard, raising her eyebrows.

“Okay.” she said, walking back. “Aren't you coming, Dante?”

He blinked, walking away.

“Just Damian, please.” he corrected her. “Where are we going again?”

“To my house.”

“Why to your house?”

“Because that's where I'm going now, and if you want me to protect you, you'll come after me.”

Damian shook his head, unable to deny it.

“Is it far?”

“Yes.”

“I don't have money for a cab.”

“Neither do I, Dante.”