Chapter 26: Young and Gold

13 1 0
                                    

Lu threw a feather aimed at the attacker's head out of instinct, and she dodged it by the skin of her teeth, dashing away.

Her hair is black and the manablade gold, indicating that she was an aurum.

Lu caught Autumn before her body hit the floor. He felt much of her blood pool below her, and all he could look at was the mysterious girl for her next move.

"She's the one...that killed my brother" Autumn explains.

"Stop talking. You'll feel worse" Lu tells her.

"Hey you felt bad so I thought I would wake...WHAT HAPPENED!?" Esther exclaimed after a quick observation.

"Sorry, but can you tend to Autumn for a while?" Lu said, carefully watching the aurum for sudden moves, not taking his eyes off her for a millisecond.

"Yes but I can help for a while. I can't save her myself. I can only create, not repair. Can you shout out for healers?" Esther said.

Lu did it immediately and asked for help while watching the aurum. However, when some civilians came they turned tail as soon as the aurum fired a gold feather near their feet as warning shots.

"What are you doing? We can't let her live" The masked aurum said.

"What is wrong with you!" Lu angrily shouted at her.

"The question is, what is wrong with you? We have to take her soul now or she will hatch soon" The aurum casually flicked her golden scissor manablade to take the blood off of it.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I can't let you lay another finger on her without any explanation"

"We don't have time for that, Lu. She can hatch any moment, and we wouldn't want that, so give her to me or you can take her yourself, I don't care, really" she tilted her head and put her free hand on her waist.

Lu knew then that he had to at least chase her away before he could get help for Autumn, since running away seemed more dangerous than fighting head on and hoping Autumn can hold on until then.

Lu sees that he has to end the fight with the aurum quickly.

"Go away, or I will end you instead", Lu threatened, fully knowing that the threat would not make her move an inch. However, he would do anything to get help for Autumn now.

"I was about to say 'move or die' or something, but I guess we both know where this is going" she sighed, titling her head and mounting the scissors on her shoulder.

Lu uses his last smoke screen and was surprised that the girl was instantly right in front of him even though she was at a distance just half a second ago.

He dodged her swing and carried Autumn away.

A few feathers tracked him, and luckily only one of them hit and caused only a minor cut on Lu's arm. He then shot at a nearby metal rim that was the only thing keeping the nearby tall building from collapsing. The debris created a wall between them which Lu used to buy time before she could catch up.

Lu hid Autumn's body just beside one of the few standing buildings, then whispered to Esther to stay with her while he crept to a different direction silently.

He heard footsteps quickly approaching and sent feathers flying to the direction. Clashing of metal was heard after, and it was likely that she had blocked his attack.

Lu felt that she might be able to blink to close the gap so he retreated and kept distance from her.

The small figure finally showed itself, and Lu estimated she was about fourty meters away.

Project: iasekiWhere stories live. Discover now