Half-Bloods R • 1: Fallen World

C • 23 : Crush the Bone, Slit the Skin

He glided through the streets, above the cars and pedestrians who all stood and watched as smoke rose from the hospital. He shifted, rebalancing Anna between his wings, and shifting Christopher so that he could be held more comfortably.

To them, it's nothing more than a disaster, maybe even a terrorist attack. In fact, that's exactly what it is, just from their own government. How cruel. Now then, where to take these two, the hotel maybe?

"Vaelan, what the hell is going on out there?" Gwindolyn's voice stung his head.

"Gwindolyn, how-?"

"You'd be surprised, now give me an update," she roughly ordered.

"The hospital was attacked, explosives went off, it's unknown if any are remaining, while I was there, there were at least three high-level agents. Me and Demi defeated one, and I left Demi to defeat another, the third seems to be teleporting wherever she pleases, I suspect she isn't too strong based on that fact alone," he flapped his wings and raised his elevation, once again shifting Anna.

"You let Agents get away?" Gwindolyn growled.

"I can't exactly damage an Agent that's been ported away," he said, Christopher shifted in his arms.

I should hurry.

"Look, Gwindolyn, we'll discuss this and your gross distrust of the world later, right now, I have to get Chris and Anna to-" Christopher pushed away and fell through the air, a powerful whiff of salt slammed into Vaelan's nose.

That's not good.

Massive grey wings made of hands tore from Christopher's body and flapped, keeping his still unconscious body afloat in the air as, to Vaelan's surprise, grey clouds formed and swirled above them. An orange liquid poured from the gaps in his machinery, sparks jumped off of his body, and black mana spiraled around his arms. A drop of blood separated from its trail and fell from Christopher's nose, he slowly turned his head and looked at Vaelan with a bloodied eye. Christopher, slathered in malice and blood, became wrapped in bonds of ink and half-formed hands.

He kept his exposed eye trained on Vaelan as he kept level in the air, slowly grabbing her arms with a second pair of arms. He left himself with only a single pair to fight.

He's up to something, Vaelan studied the Fallen Angel and nearly sent too much mana into his arms when Christopher twitched.

The half-archdevil lifted himself toward the city top, and the Fallen Angel mirrored him. He paused for a moment, and then took off, speeding toward the rooftops, but he was forced to stop when Christopher intercepted. He spun around and flew to a different skyscraper but quickly flew back when Christopher shot his wires into the concrete. Vaelan forced himself to fly as fast as he could but was quickly intercepted again as Christopher rushed up to him and gripped his left clawed wire into Vaelan's side. He roared and tore the claw out as the other one stabbed into his leg, he tore the second one off and kicked Christopher away.

Demi's not gonna like those! Damn it! He's not letting me land!

Black wires shot from Christopher's legs and stuck into the skyscraper directly behind him while Vaelan grabbed Anna's hands again and gripped tightly, hoping that it would comfort her even though she couldn't feel it.

"Anna," he said to the girl, her thin blue eyes shining as she quietly listened, "I'm going to do something incredibly stupid, and I need you to trust me? Can you do that?"

"What're you gonna do?" She asked, the machinery in her arms clicking.

He let himself fall for a split second, pushing mana into his wings and doubling their size before thrusting them down and launching upwards. As he streaked into the sky, he called back to Anna, wind loudly smashing past their ears.