Forsaken

Chapter Sixteen

"I always wanted to try something like this once." I too went into running. Rivera got her sword in position to take me down. We were now in close proximity with each other. I made Zento into a chain to get hold of her wrist. She saw what I was going to do and made a series of sharp cuts at the Zento chain, but it was to no avail. She clicked her tongue and tried to land a kick at me. I blocked it with my free hand. We were now in the process of being entangled in the Zento chains. As hard as I could, I dragged the chain, pulling in Rivera into my grasp. But before, she angled her blade, so that it would pierce my left shoulder. I could not block it, so it the sword went through my shoulder like butter. I hissed in pain, but at least I caught Rivera.

"Urgh! You bastard! Let me go!" She was moving erratically in the space within the chains. I looked over at Poppy, Sunset and the wind siblings. They were wide eye at the situation I was in. I shouted at them to not lose focus on the task at hand,"Go after the Snizard! I will try to stop her!"

They all nodded and went after the Snizard, who was hiding in its shadow. It was easy to tell in what shadow it was in, because it makes a very low hissing sound before it strikes. Now back to her. The Zento chain was wrapped around Rivera and I. she was literally strapped to me. We had no choice but to face each other and it wasn't going well for me, since I had a sword embedded into my shoulder. Rivera's face showed a mixture of anger, embarrassment and disappointment. "Let me go! If you do that, I'll promise you I'll end you faster!"

I sighed, "Listen, I don't know why you are so angry, so I'm not going to sugar-coat my words. From how you have displayed your behaviour, I don't like you. You're focused on the wrong topic. When we fought for the first time, you won, and I thought that would please you, but you are here fighting me again while putting your sister in danger. I'm not saying she's weak, but you have an responsibility as the older sibling.

She laughed, "I like how you're saying all this and you haven't lived like how we lived. We've been through more crap than you! I had to live a strict life for so long, but this adventuring gives me a bundle of fresh air. I love being strong, but you want to hurry up and take that fresh air from me! I won't have tha-"

Rivera suddenly stopped what she was saying and was at a loss of words. Even I myself was frightened at what I did, but I had to do it. I hugged her, even with the sword still in my shoulder. "You're very stressed out about something, and you wanted to find an outlet for your anger, but we have to work together to stop that monster and many more that are waiting. So try taking your anger out on them for now."

She was silent for a second, then she started to whimper. And then whimpering became audible sobs.

I patted her head, "Its okay, let it all out."

Since when did I became a therapist?

She slowly eased up with the crying," I can't believe that I'm saying this. Thank you for hearing me out. My problem still persists me to this day, but at least I feel better." She wiped away the tears using my good shoulder," Now if you wouldn't mind letting me go."

"Oh! Yeah, sorry." I commanded Zento to revert back into a orb. Rivera now free, pulled out the sword from my shoulder. I stumbled, but I was still on my feet." Alright let's go help them out."

We made our way to the main fight. Sunset and Poppy were trying their best to repel and counterattack the Snizard, while the wind siblings were buffing. It was a hit or miss at times. Sometimes the combined attacks were successful, sometimes they weren't. The Snizard seemingly sensed me and directed its attack at me. Zento divided into two pieces; one transformed into a combat boomerang while the other piece transformed into one of my favourites, the kusarigama. The Snizard fired it unlimited dark arrows. I threw my boomerang which broke through the arrow rain. The Snizard hid back in its shadow.