SHADOW || The Catalysts Series, #2

XXII || Voodoo

A desensitised, numb feeling usually follows after pain. During which, you lose not only your senses but your bearings of the mind.

Blood blooms in the place where Caelus' thigh throbs, and he cannot bring himself to believe this predicament. Such a vile ability, this is, and yet it exists, working on him as they speak as living proof.

But his mind races, ignoring Azrael's call of his name and the laughter from that crazy man who calls himself Cyanide.

He needs to know how the ability works. That's how he will find a loophole, then defeat him. The questions are swarming in his head, and Caelus need only to test several scenarios out to be certain.

It takes Caelus a great few seconds to regain his footing, and his sense of surroundings. It takes longer for him to enter the state of mind he usually works with. He wonders what sort of expression he is showing right now—he wonders if he is masking his insecurities as well as people describe him as a mask of mysteries.

His mind is working to fast, summarising all the possibilities of how this ability works when the next unexpected jab occurs—same spot, but deeper. It lingers, then twists. It hurts doubly. The sudden pain takes him to the ground, and Caelus has to look toward a point before him to focus, and force his sight from wavering. Adrenaline kicks in; his head is pounding with rushing blood.

It is unclear what propels him forward, but it must be those vigorous trainings from Arcane Academy. Caelus somehow finds himself standing and conjuring once again an atmosphere, his eyes locked on Cyanide.

The man, trapped under the debris Azrael created, is still laughing with no sense of urgency even as Caelus applies pressure on him. But Caelus doesn't aim for Cyanide; he goes straight for the dagger in the man's hand. With a strong force of gust he pushes it to pry the weapon off from Cyanide. The sharp dagger, the edge now drenched in blood, clatters to the ground. Azrael kicks it out of sight.

A silence befalls, as the echoing clang of the dagger falling to the ground and coming to a stop rings through the dark underground. The moment it goes silent, Cyanide stops laughing too.

"You're no fun," he comments, his voice sharp and cool, unlike the hysterical tone he was carrying a minute ago. Even without the darkness, his face still is unreadable from the messy bangs over most of his face. The only expression visible is his now dour lips.

Caelus isn't sure how to make of this. If anything, it's better this guy doesn't move. If they are somehow linked through some ability of his that is nowhere scientific but somewhat of a sorcery, he doesn't want to be mirrored into his condition. He flips his wrist, firing the device attached. It produces a light, automatically scanning the area and reading its data. It locks the coordinates.

"Azrael," Caelus begins, "We've wasted enough time here, let's just—"

Caelus reacts before he hears it. Sharp bullet-like attacks come into contact with his conjured atmosphere, the velocity fast enough to nearly pierce through. Three red darts intercept his barrier, and he sends another two deflecting away from Azrael, who narrowly dodges. The projectiles fly past the elder man, coming to a stop at the end of the tunnel, where Cyanide still lies amongst the debris. The villain tilts his head slightly to avoid direct contact with the first one heading for him, but it scrapes his left cheek before landing on the destroyed surface of the underground; the other, he catches with the hand he used to bring out the dagger earlier, and blood flows from the palm of his hand.

"Rushing, again," Cyanide comments as he flings whatever he's caught to the ground, the blood trailing down his arm as he raises it, dripping at the end of his elbow. He lifts his head and looks directly at Caelus, whose cheek is now equivalently scrapped at the spot where Cyanide is grazed. "Fast reflexes, but it doesn't matter, now does it?"