Chapter 45: Serious

Krista was breathing hard, extremely hard. So much so that she was reminded of her early days training with the Guardians. She just wasn’t sure why, Krista had spent more than a decade conditioning her body, so she felt that she shouldn’t feel this way. She then thought back to what Dante had said before, avoid the cuts because of poi…

“You were trying to warn me about Raven’s poisoned fingernails, weren’t you?” lamented Krista.

Dante shrugged his shoulders, “The past is in the past, let’s just try to get through this.”

Raven grabbed at his cloak and threw it off. Underneath, Krista saw why he only attacked with one arm. She had always presumed as much but seeing was believing. His left arm missing from partway through the shoulder. A large scar showed that he had not been born without it, rather Raven had lost it at some point in his life.

Under his heavy coat, Raven wore no shirt, just a pair of long black pants and dark brown boots. Contrary to the way Raven looked while under his heavy coat, he was also well muscled and extremely defined. Only years of extreme conditioning could produce a body like this, yet he hid it away. Possibly to trick opponents into underestimating his physical capabilities.

Raven put himself low to the floor with his hand touching the ground and his lower half slightly higher up. His legs and arm bent, as most like a spring. With one foot in front of the other, and his head pointed directly at them, Krista could only be reminded of a predator, ready to pounce on its prey. She brought the spear to her free hand. Something about this situation made Krista think she’d need it.

Krista also almost jumped when she felt Dante’s hand on her shoulder again, “You should really say something before you do that. Pretty tense right now, might accidently end up putting one of these through you.”

That was supposed to be a sort of joke to add some levity to their situation, but Dante’s face was sunken, a legitimate look of fear permeated throughout it, and he held tightly to his whip.

“Krista, switch places with me. I’ll take the front, and you watch my back. Amelia, Dmitri, try pulling Damien a bit further back. I’m sorry, but we’re definitely going to need your healing in the future. Actually, Matilda! You have a life affinity, right? Would you assist please Amelia?”

Matilda was watching the whole fight closely, focused intently on her note taking. Not a fighter my ass, Krista bet that she just wanted to do some research on the fighting of anomalous wattiez users. When Matilda didn’t respond, Krista struck her on the head with the flat of the black blade.

“Help!” shrieked Krista.

Krista probably left a bruise, but it worked. Matilda nodded quickly and went to assist Amelia. Matilda is a professor at the College of New Dawn, even with her personality, Krista knew that she should be a great help to them.

Dante made sure to clearly warn Krista this time, “Listen, Rave’s getting really serious. I can understand why he’s so intent on taking Damien’s life but even when he truly believes I’m wrong, he’d still listen to me and follow my orders, especially when it seems like he wouldn’t. I thought that if I stayed firm and by your side, he’d eventually stop after making a few points. Looks like I was wrong, he’s serious about this. Now, I do think he’ll stop if Damien wakes up, but that’s a big if.”

“We could really use more help then…” Krista thought about who that person could be. “What about Animus or Melody? Animus seemed pretty tough, or Melody might be able to calm him down.”

A sharp cord from Melody’s tune showed her decision on the matter, and Dante’s momentary silence wasn’t reassuring, “I couldn’t ask Ani to do that. Rave’s not really trying to hurt me, but Dante did. Just like Shix, she’s it’s probably taking a lot out of her , if not more because she was there, to just stay quiet right now.”

Krista made a mental note to break one of Damien’s fingers when this was all over. He deserved at least that for all the stress he’d put her through. She started to move back to take the middle position like Dante suggested but found herself falling to her knees. Attempts to stand were shaky at best as she found her knees shaking under her own weight.

“Oh, good!” Dante said as he watched Krista barely stand. “It’s nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.”

“Not as bad…” Krista started, “I can hardly feel my legs!”

“I at least know which of his fingers he’s using,” argued Dante.

“You say that like it means something,” sighed Krista.

Raven pounced at him, but he moved slower and more deliberately than he did with Krista, allowing Dante to explain his point, “Each of his fingers are coated with a poison with a specific desired effect. You’re feeling the effects of the purple, that numbness, and Damien got pink. I was worried he was tagging you with the red.”

“Why?” Krista asked as she repeatedly tossed her blade at Raven to support Dante, “What do the rest do?”

“To many cuts from red and you’d be in immense pain, and blue is an antidote for black?” he answered.

“Do I even need to ask what black does?” even though she asked, Krista already had a good idea.

Dante shook his head, “Both the pink and black fingers need prolonged touch for you to even feel the effects, while the red and purple will lose their effects pretty shortly. You probably are already regaining your balance.” Krista could hardly feel the shakiness in her knees, so she reasoned that Dante was right, or it could have just been the extra healing from Amelia and Matilda. “Either way, I’m ninety… eight percent sure that wouldn’t use the black finger.”

“Can this even be called fair when the assassin has an instant death attack?” protested Krista.

“Well, apparently, you can make your weapon appear out of thin air, and Dante can see a bit into the future,” Shix responded. “All in all, I say it’s about fair. I’ll allow it!”

Krista sighed in exasperation, but when she turned back, she saw that Raven was gone, “He disappeared!”

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“Pay attention!” Dante shouted angrily at Krista, “No, he’s just hiding, be awar-” Raven shot from behind a nearby rock and placed a large cut on the back of Dante’s neck. “Gah! Guess I deserved that.”

Raven had appeared without making a single sound, whether that was due to the soft sand beneath him or pure skill, it didn’t matter. Just has fast as he appeared, Raven proceeded to disappear once more, kicking up some dust that obscured their sight of him.

From our little crowd, Cleo was indignant, roaring out, “Don’t you dare harm my Dante, Raven! If you so much as lay a finger on him again, I’ll break all your ‘personal’ statues of him! Mmh!”

Raven was behind Cleo, a hand over her mouth, and his pink finger protruding into her neck, “I’ve wanted to do that for quite some time,” In short order, Cleo slumped over and Raven ran back into the darkness.

Krista jumped right over to Damien. With the speed Raven was moving in, she figured maintaining a small distance between the two would actually be a bad idea now. Slowly, she circled around her two friends and Dmitri, ready to parry off any attacks from Raven.

“Don’t try to react to him!” Dante’s shirt was a bit torn open, barely noticeable but it was visible. “That’s what he wants. In order for one of us to stop him, we’d need a deciding blow, but for him simply a few good cuts will do.”

Krista wasn’t altogether convinced, “What do you suggest then? Standing around?”

Dante’s next words came as a shock to her, “Actually, yes! Keep your eyes out, all of you. When he’s like this, Raven won’t attack when you can see him.”

Almost as if to prove his point, Krista saw a dark figure from the corner of her eye that quickly vanished from sight, “If he wants to go for a non-frontal attack that’s better for us, right?”

“You’re not a very large person, so Raven probably only has to hit you maybe three times before the poison fully circulates in you again,” Dante clarified. “I have five, maybe four more attacks. I’m not entirely sure, he’s never used his poisons on me before. Instead of trying to fight him for another five minutes we can just- 8 o’clock!”

A small turn of her head showed Raven closing in from behind, but as soon as she saw him, he went to disappear from their sight again. Unfortunately, Fierce and Amelia laid on the floor, unable to move. Matilda, instead, was asleep was a bruise on her neck. Dmitri just stared frightened.

“A little late there Dante!” Krista raged. “Dmitri, get those three away from here. Shix! Raven cheated, he hurt Amelia!”

“Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Amelia isn’t in any pain,” Shix retorted. “She’s just feeling a bit numb.”

“Don’t worry, the poison will pass from them in less than an hour,” Dante reasoned as he walked to be back-to-back with Krista over Damien. “He’s going to use your sight and the darkness against you. It may seem impossible put you have to look everywhere at once or he will get us. With Amelia, Matilda, and Fierce out of commission, protecting Damien’s life is up to just you and me.”

“Just him and me?” thought Krista. Damien and Amelia were the only people to have her back for nearly a year now, so it felt somewhat strange for Krista to have someone else to take their place. “Alright Dante, if you have my back, then I have yours!”

She could feel his back relaxed a bit, “These are going to be the last few times I can use my ability, okay? To make sure it counts, I won’t be giving any verbal commands that he could hear, so I’m really going to need you to trust me.”

Krista didn’t have much of a choice, but she didn’t feel out of place when she gave her response, “You got it.”

“Werry am… I” Damien was regaining consciousness, albeit slowly. Arousing from his slumber, he could barely form any words.

“Damien!” Krista shouted in surprise. “Hurry up and say-”

She barely got to finish her sentence before Dante lifted her leg. A shimmer phased in and out of her perception. She was pretty sure as to what it could be, considering only one other person has shown abilities like this, but Krista was fairly certain that Raven was supposed to be untethered.

“Are we sure he doesn’t have an affinity,” Krista complained. “He’s really pushing the limits of what an untethered person should be able to do.”

“He really is putting out all the stops,” Dante sighed. “Raven is wearing some experimental equipment Dmitri thought up. He got the idea from Animus, so it’s made up of that red, spongy stuff on her body. It lets him pretty much go invisible, not so useful when I’m on the other side of it.”

Krista didn’t like what she was hearing, “Anything else I should know?! Kind of getting tired about all the dangerous things after they’re used on me!”

“No,” Dante said decidedly. “Well, nothing I can think of... Actually-”

Dante groaned in pain, just a moment of inattentiveness, and Raven was already upon him. Before Dante could even react, he placed two large gashes on his chest. Dante but rather than leave, Raven jumped past him to Krista.

Expecting him to appear out of nowhere, Krista wasn’t all together surprised to see Raven appear from above. For the first time, fingernail met blade. Whether it was due to a lucky shit or a planned attack, Krista knocked Raven off balance, who lunged backwards to avoid both the blade hitting him and breaking his nails.

“Hurry up and say hooray, Damien!” ordered Krista.

“Who?” Damien groggily asked. “Who am I asking who too?”

Raven tried to regain his balance, but Krista pressed her advantage and swung her blade at his leg. “ Even him out ,” she thought. Krista had expected Raven to try and dodge her attack, it wouldn’t have been the first time, so her strike was merely a feint in preparation for her next real attack. Raven was not so simple to understand. It could have been because he saw through the faint or maybe due to his lack of time, but Raven’s attack had his full weight behind his, and the nail pointed towards her was colored black.

Krista knew that she had to dodge this attack, knew that if she was hit that was it, but there was no space. No time for her to either block or avoid him. Krista could feel a strange sense of peace. This was it; her death was unavoidable but that was fine. She would go out protecting her friend, no, the man she loved. It wasn’t quite her dream, but what better way to die for the hero she aspired to be. Dante could take care of the rest, though Krista did think that she still had some regrets.

Raven’s nail pierced flesh, “Dante!”

There Dante stood, using his own body as a protective cover over Krista. A weak smile on his face, Dante stumbled onto the floor clutching onto the shoulder Raven had stabbed. Raven stood there with no expression as he stared at his fallen friend.

“You really go too far sometimes Raven,” strained Dante as the black in his eyes went away.