Monster King

Chapter 28 - My little brother

Cyrus's golen blade came in fast and aimed to slice my chest open. I just barely raised my Khopesh in time and blocked his strike. I stumbled back and had to catch my footing. For a freakin twelve year old he's powerful!

"You're leaving every part of you exposed." Cyrus said.

He changed his hand positioning and poked at me, which was extremely hard to block now. His sharp sword poked my chest, sliced my leg, and poked my arm. Clearly he was focused on proving a point.

"Come on, actually put up a fight!" Nick yelled.

"Shut up! I need to focus!" I complained.

Only to barely dodge a stab at the side of my neck. Cyrus was fast, unpredictable and calm. However, I could tell he was semi distracted. His eyes kept panning out toward the rest of the group. Like he was nervous about something. 

We went back and forth like this over and over again. My clothes got holes poked in all over them, and my legs had plenty of stinging scars. Right before he aimed to give my neck another cut, an alarm went off from his pocket. He came to an abrupt stop right next to my neck.

"U-ummm, you okay?" I asked.

He took a step back and glanced around the area again. 

"Would you mind? If we change sceneries a bit?" He mumbled.

I nodded.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever works best for you."

…

I followed behind Cyrus as we walked deeper into the woods. Slowly disappearing from everyone's sight. I was only slightly nervous, yeah we were brother's. But that doesn't mean he won't go chainsaw massacre on me. This time around Thomas decided to come. Happily resting himself on my shoulder.

As we walked, I watched Cyrus take a white pill bottle from his pocket. I quickened my pace and tried to sneak in a better look. However, the labels were completely torn off. Which only granted me more curiosity. He took a few pills and swallowed them. While his familiar happily bounced on his head. 

Maybe if I question him he'll tell me…

"So, umm, those pills. Is that something from the curse?" I asked.

He jumped a bit and nodded.

"Yeah." He replied.

"Do you mind me asking what it is?"

"I'd rather not talk about it." He said quickly.

I gave a nod and decided to drop the subject. It wasn't too long before we came out to an open area in the forest. There was an ordinary lake in the distance and a few purple flowers scattered about. He walked over to a tree and leaned back against it. Taking a heavy breath. 

"Don't handle people well?" I asked.

"Yeah, I have a bit of social anxiety." He replied.

Clearly he doesn't take meds for that then. Which sucks that he has that on top of something else.

"I see, that bites. I don't really have social anxiety or anything. But I seriously don't like people."

Cyrus nodded and walked over to me.

"Okay, so your swordsmanship is ummm."

"You can just say I'm just trash. I'll understand."

"Well.." he mumbled and looked away. "Not everyone is meant to be a swordsman. Hizuki took awhile to master her weapon of choice. She ended up liking machetes a lot more."No way my sister uses a machete as her weapon of choice. That's freaking awesome!"We can practice a lot more, but if it seems like it's just not for you. You may consider molding a different weapon."