Grimoire - Vol 1. Revelation of Rakshas

6 - A Hero By Mistake

I ran towards the monster who still hadn't noticed me. I jumped with my fists balled up and arm stretched back. My rational mind knew that would have no effect. A grain of sand wasn't lethal enough to hurt an elephant. I knew that.

But you know what? Just one grain of sand in the eye can make even the calmest elephant lose its mind and stability.

If you can't beat someone, you can atleast be a major pain in their ass, right?

Carrying that mindset, I ran towards the monster...only for a twist of faith to occur in front of me.

With the monster barely ten steps away, something...happened.

For a moment, everything felt like it was set still...like paused in time. Freeze frame.

For a moment, everything was clear to me. Bright. As if the saturation level of all the colours were dialled up to the max. Heck, it felt like I could see the light.

And for just that moment, it felt like all the light was being sucked in towards my fist, covering it and hardening around it. As if a gauntlet made of invisible light.

And then, I made my hit.

And I missed it.

Or so I thought.

Perhaps I jumped too soon or swung my fist too early but I for sure knew that nothing had made contact with my fist. Except the light gauntlet wrapped around my fist shot off from my arm and hit the monster hard enough to rip off the arm that was holding Ritu.

Shocked, I stumbled down on the ground and fell on my ass.

Was that...me?

Did I do that?

I looked behind me and saw nobody standing there. No magician, no angel, no superhero. Just me, the girl and the monster.

But if nobody was standing behind me...then that can only mean that I—I did that.

Whatever that was.

But how?

Ritu fell down too—now free from the monster's clutches—and I just barely managed to catch her. "Hey, you okay?" I asked a stupid question but my non-stupid side of the brain was too exhausted to function properly. Ritu gave no reply. She simply held onto my shirt and cried.

She cried.

Like a human. Like a living human.

How could I be so selfish? Did I really try to justify letting her die?

"I'm sorry," I whispered, though she probably didn't know why. Or maybe she knew but just didn't care enough for now.

For now, she was safe.

Or perhaps I spoke too soon.

The monster got back up, black liquid—I assume blood—leaked from its wound and stained the fresh grass below it. It had an arm missing now—an arm that seemed to have disappeared somewhere. Strange.

Well, to be fair, everything that happened since my encounter with the black-clad magicians in the park has been strange.

Heh, black-clad magicians. Sounds like a rock band.

Anyways, the question was, what to do now?

It's not like I can just put Ritu down nor can I run too. Like, despite being already dead, Ritu still had the weight of an actual human and while it was still light, it would slow me down and have me get caught by the Octo-guy—or should he be Quadro-guy since he has only four tentacles?—who, I assume, was extremely pissed at me.