Gleaming eyes, filled with anger and pain, Daniel wanted to end this. Wulf changed into the illuminating sword, followed by its three blades. Running outside, the young man could see the tall bony monstrosity, two metres high, its arms longer than Dan's body. He fought two battles at once, the skeleton before him and the nerve wrecking voices inside his head. He was sick of the pain, letting out war howls, he engaged his enemy. With a swift swing the blades jolted towards the demon, trying to buy time to close the distance. The blades were parried by the large arms, which in turn cut forward with its claws of bone. As the blades returned to the sword, Wulf activated their second trait. The blades aligned, forming a shield before the brown haired man. The glowing aura coming from it acted as a barrier, reflecting the claws, allowing Daniel to attack the opening. Underneath the lifted arm, he tried to cut the shoulder. His feelings clouded in anger, as his mouth shaped into a smile, the hope of silence kept him going but the blade merely bounced off. Falling onto the wet road, the souls screamed in pain, as if the sword had actually hurt them.

Getting back on his legs, he ran further away from where the other people were, out onto the wet road. The Skeleton followed him and he continued to strike with his massive claws. Whenever Dan dodged a jab, either the road or the buildings would receive major damage from the impact of the bone claw. It pierced through anything, no matter how thick or strong.

"You're pretty nimble for a human, I don't think Skull like that," the skeleton spoke.

"Skull?" Dan thought loudly.

"Me Skull, Skull crush you!" with a loud roar he began flailing his arms at the human before him, however the attacks were reflected by the barrier of blades.

Wulf was able to listen, even when he was in the form of the regalia, and was surprised that the demon was able to communicate through the host with a proper voice.

Daniel began to feel exhausted, running around, dodging, jumping, swinging a sword. This and the mental stress he suffered from, got to him. Despite this, he kept fighting, knowing that if he gave up, his friends and innocent people would get hurt, or even killed. He hated the being before him, he truly despised it, and let his emotions show through the fight. Swinging his sword with anger in his face, frowned eyes and screams of hatred, the piled up terror inside him was released. Slowly but surely though, he became sloppy, getting struck several times, covered in wounds all over his body.

The sword he wielded, once glowing, has now dimmed down, black spots had formed on it, unseen by Daniel, who kneed on the road. Before him Skull, who as clearly winning the battle, due to the advantage of endless stamina, and not having to fight with his mind. If only the blade could cut the bones, it would actually give him a chance.

Skull raised his arm up into the sky, angled it, grinned, and went to crush the human. Suddenly a fl of light brightened up the road, pushing back the demon. Daniel looked what happened, and saw a man with short black hair, rather spiky, stand before him. His grey jacket, soaked in water, almost seemed black. On his arms and knees were metallic armour braces, glowing just as brightly as the sword.

"Are you alright, idiot?" the man said, turning his head around to look down at the broken man below him.

Daniel could merely nod at the sight, being drained of his strength and will.

"Well, let's get this over with," the shine of his braces increased, repulsing air around him. He jumped at high speed towards the skeleton, punching against its cross armed defence. Shattering the right, front, arm he followed up with a kick towards the stomach area, which consisted of merely a rib cage, knocking him back several meters.

The demon let out noises of pain, and as did the souls, again torturing the young man on the road. However, the man continued, stepped forward to break several ribs with a few more punches before the demon backed off.

"Damn you! Too fast! Too fast! Skull won't be beaten by you, Skull will return and then you will wish you never did this," he said, climbing up a building before jumping and running away.

Turning around, the man saw the young brown haired man, sitting on the road with his nearly black sword, crying due to his headache. He walked up to him, and shouted, "Hare!" A shining, orange creature, similar to a bunny, appeared. At the same time, Wulf deactivated the regalia, to stand before the bunny.

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"So you have a guardian angel, and yet you are still being such a fool? Tsk, what a disgrace," the man hissed.

"I just tried to protect my friends but he was... he was too strong," Daniel cried into his hands.

"It's not that he was too strong you prick! You just had to cripple your regalia!" he shouted.

Shocked, Daniel looked at the man, who seems to be not much older than him.

"That's right, Hare already told me about you, you might be able to listen to their voices, but you don't even accept this gift. You actually just hate it don't you?" stomping on the ground, he shouted even louder, intimidating Dan.

"You hate listening to their voices, you want them to shut up. That is why you fight, isn't that right?"

"No!" the young man, sitting on the wet, cold ground screamed, while Wulf was watching him. "It's not like that, it just hurts... it hurts... I never asked for this, so why do I have to live with this curse?"

"You really have to make me mad, don't you? You possess a gift but you deny it and free souls only for your own sake. You have no respect for the dead, do you?"

"That's not true!" his thoughts were dwelling deep within him, unable to actually speak out.

"You know, it's a real pity. Your guardian seems to care so much for you, that he even suffers for your sake, not even telling you about your mistake," the man pointed at Wulf, causing Daniel to turn his eyes to his canine partner beside him.

"What do you mean?" Dan asked, worried about his partner.

"By wielding a regalia, your aura and his become bonded. That means that if you fight with darkness in your heart, said darkness will spread towards the regalia and finally your guardian. You are killing him!"

These words opened his eyes, realizing that he wasn't the only one suffering, he was shoving his own problems at Wulf as well.

"Is that true Wulf?"

He sat on the road, curled up, head on his paws. Lifting his head, he showed the blackened, dark, paws to his partner, "It's true. We angels suffer from the humans we serve if his dark emotions, such as anger and hatred, are connected with us. We begin to blight, darken, slowly swallowed by shadow. Once we are completely blighted, we cease to exist."

Daniel's fist smacked the ground beneath him, badly bruising his hand. He was angry, with himself and with Wulf, for not knowing, for having caused trouble for his partner. Meanwhile the others back at the garden centre noticed that the fighting was over and came over, with Leo rushing to his side.

"Mark, we should go after that demon before it makes a mess somewhere else, we should finish the fight we started," the glowing Hare said.

"Tsk. Fine. Well, I will be off then mutt, I hope your master will take better care of you now, although I have no idea why you choose to stay with him," he tauntingly said as he turned around. "Hare!"

His glowing partner formed into its regalia, armour for the arms and legs.

"You know young man, while I cannot argue with you, I must have you know about one thing. Be it blessing or curse, as long as you haven't actually encountered it yourself, you have no right to judge him," Wulf growled.

The man, who was called Mark earlier turned his head in despise before jumping off into the distance, toward the skeleton demon, leaving a gust of wind behind him.

Daniel was lost, he couldn't tell good from bad anymore. He believed all he had to do is free the souls, but he knew, deep within him, that he only did it for one reason. Freeing his mind. He wanted to silence them and thus his selfish actions blighted the angel, who vowed to protect him as his guardian.

The group of people, which came from the garden centre, talked among themselves, mumbling about how they would need to build better defences to fend off the demons. Leo had told them about the details of Dan's abilities throughout the fight, now they were tapping on the man's shoulder. Blessing him, making him out to be their hero, their saviour, relying on him, while angering Leo.

Daniel stood up, knowing about his duties, he knew that they depended on him, knew that without him they might die eventually. Thus he talked without thinking again, "You are right, all I can do... all I am good for is fighting."

His breath pushed out of his lungs, like bellows being pushed together, his neck was suddenly pulled up, "Damn it Daniel! Stop being a jerk already," Leo held him by his collar, tightly and upset.

"I understand that you are going through a lot of crap, but stop making us feel like that too, especially me! Think about the others for a second, those who can't fight, or rather not effectively. We can stop the bodies but not the demons, all we would do is hurt you. So we leave the fighting to you, unable to do anything. We know we are useless but you somehow make me feel even more useless. Again you fought, getting hurt, seeing Wulf hurt, and getting yelled at by some stranger. All that and I still can't help you. Get it in your head already!" Leo yelled, struggling with breathing, before pushing him back and sucker punching him in the face, causing his friend to land flat on the road. He felt bad for having hurt his friend, but he didn't feel he was wrong, especially since Wulf didn't try to stop him.

"I just want you to know, you aren't the only one here, so share some of that burden, which lies on your shoulders, please Dan," he said with watery eyes, helping his friend back on his feet.

Stumbling forward, he lost the will to stand. Not knowing anything, having been blind to the feelings, and well-being of those around him, he was disgusted by himself, "I am sorry Leo, I... I didn't know."