Aces: Ace of Clubs

Chapter 5: Guilty Pleasure (Part 2)

Hmm? Where am I? Oh, I remember I fainted during the battle...fainted? Oh my, then that means.

"Huh," Nicholas noticed. "Took you long enough, I thought you're already dead."

"You took me here in the infirmary?" I questioned.

"Who else? A ghost, maybe?"

This guy sure pisses me off. So RUDE! But still for a demon like him, he helped me that time so...

"Thank you, Nicholas." I thanked and smiled at him.

He turned away awkwardly. "W-well you better, I thought you would never say that."

"But I did say it, right? And I guess, you won in our rematch."

"No one won." He snapped. "I say that battle was a piece of crap. Consider it a null!"

"Pardon? You asked for a rematch, so I just gave you one."

"I told you, it's a piece of crap! It's not a battle, that's only a small warm-up. Those are just my basic moves, I haven't even summoned my demonic pets yet."

I sighed. "Then-"

"We'll have another rematch! Isn't that great? I'll get to defeat you again. So better rest up because by tomorrow we'll do the rematch." Then, he walked away.

"So typical of you. But wait-!" But Nicholas has already zoomed out of the room.

~*~*~*~

I sighed.

"My, my, what's wrong?" Eliot asked me. "How many sigh's was it today? Let me see...ten in all?"

"I'm sorry, it's just that I have so many problems."

"Oh well, don't wanna ask about that. Here, have a cup of jasmine tea."

"Thanks." I took a drink of Eliot's tea.

"Oh yeah, we have a battle practice today."

"Okay then, Eliot just go with the others. I'll catch up later."

"Okay."

"Ha~so relaxing." I took another sip.

"YO!!!"

"Wha!" I choked. "Urg...you..." I coughed.

"Hahaha!" Nicholas teased.

I kept coughing. "Why...why are you here? Get out! I don't want a rematch!"

"Knew you'd say that."

This guy...arg! I'm starting to hate him! And before I can escape from him again, he suddenly bit his forefinger and blood slowly dripped from it. I thought it was nothing, but then my body just froze, and now I can't move.

Nicholas started to chant once his blood touched the cold marble floor. Hot red air surrounded him and in front of him was a dark shadow. It slowly formed into a creature I couldn't distinguish. When the reddish air started to vanish, in a blink of an eye, something just grabbed my arm. It was like a black rope that tied itself around my arm, yet a bit different because of the aura it releases. And then when the air completely faded...

"What's this?" I asked. "What are you doing, Nicholas?"

"Hehe, this way you won't escape. I won't release you until we have a proper rematch." He said.

"I'm sorry about this. Are you Miss Kathleen?" The creature asked me kindly.

"This here is Shackle." Nicholas introduced. "With his name, you can already see what his specialty is."