Pls read the author note at the end of the chapter.
***
A man flaw through the air.
No, to be more precise, he fell from the air.
BAAM CRASH
CRACKLE
Debris fell down from the rooftop of a warehouse that started caving in due to a man shaped hole that went from the roof to its floor.
Then suddenly a hand shot out from the hole before it found purchase on the ground and started pushing on it, from the hole a brown haired man with a goatee and wearing an armor rose covered in dust.
"Tch. I wish I could turn into spiritual form." The man, or rather Hector, grumbled under his breath as he rose to his feet and idly swung his sword to push to clean it from the dust. He briefly looked to his left and right for a moment before crouching and taking a leap from the floor through the hole he made when he fell.
"Now, let's see..." Now standing on the roof he rubbed his goatee as he observed his surroundings. 'I cannot sense Rider but I'm sure I haven't killed her, the light from her chariot was so blinding I'm not quite sure about what happened at the end to be honest, so she must either be hiding around here or she was flung away somewhere a bit further than here.'
'For now though…' Hector turned to look toward his right direction. 'I need to reunite with my Master.'
'I'm coming over right now. How are things on your end?' He tried sending a telepathic message to Yvette.
[...] However he received no response.
'...That's not a good sign.' Lancer leaped from his position and leaped continuously using the walls of various buildings without going at too high an altitude to avoid what could possibly turn into another aerial combat with Rider, it could be lethal after all.
'I think that the strange cloak she wore is masking her presence so I have to treat this situation almost like I was facing an Assassin class servant.' Hector clicked his tongue.
He continued parkouring between buildings' walls and keeping an eye on his back but he couldn't find any traces of Rider anywhere, which only unnerved him more.
For a moment he wondered if he should just pick up the pace further and be done with it, his Master's silence still worrying him but decided against it.
FWUSH
"!" Just then however his senses gave him a bad premonition. He felt another Servant's presence coming from the distance, his ears picking up the sound of displaced air in the distance and in the same instant he felt an overwhelming sense of danger, almost like he had a beast's fang closing on his neck.
Instinct took over and as he turned around Hector readied his sword, he could see something flying like a red comet engulfed in flames barrel for his head at astounding speed, in the same motion he swung his own weapon to intercept the projectile.
CLAAANGG
Durindana's blade intercepted the object but the power behind it was simply far too overwhelming, Hector was pushed back against the wall of the building right beside him and he broke through a flight of stairs before breaking out from the other side and pushed towards the ground below.
Thankfully no one was on the streets for whatever strange reason.
SKKKKKKRRRRRR
BAAAAAM
His feet soon found purchase on the asphalt as he used his leg to leverage more power and send what he now recognized as a red flaming sword with an extremely long handle aside.
"You caught that just right. Very good." With a whistle a voice spoke from the rooftop of the building he just came out of, it was his attacker. Which Hector could have expected as he was just ambushed but there was another little problem.
'You gotta be kidding me. Who is this guy?' The person who just attacked him was not the one he was expecting.
It was a slightly tanned, tall man with blonde hair and scars visible on his face. He wore an open leather jacket with a white shirt underneath and a pair of blue jeans. His bearings and expression, one that was smiling ferally, gave off the vibes of a wild animal and a seasoned warrior all at once.
CRUK CRUK
"That means you must be quite strong." The man finished his words as he cracked his neck on both sides loudly.
'This guy really gives me the types of vibes I hate the most.' Hector thought as he looked at the man who was eyeing him like a dessert.
"Hey, wait up." Lancer raised one hand to catch the newcomer's attention.
"Hm? What's wrong, buddy?" The blonde man just tilted his head curiously as he addressed him with familiarity like they were friends or something, his hands still inside the jacket's pockets. At least he seemed open to hear him out.
"There is another Servant I was fighting before, they aren't dead yet and are still probably hiding in the surroundings. If we started fighting like this they would probably take the chance to strike us when we are at our weakest. How about we postpone this and form a temporary alliance to get rid of them first?" Hector had no intention of just starting another fight right now; thus he bet on his most outstanding capability to avoid the conflict at the moment, that is negotiating.
His personal skill, Proof of Friendship, wasn't just for decoration after all.
It was a pity though…
"I see." The man on his part rubbed his chin nodding as if agreeing.
'Thankfully he has some common–' Hector was heaving a sigh of relief internally but was unfortunately interrupted.
"Then let 'em come! If they try to sneak attack me it's fine, it just makes things more interesting." The man just laughed out loud as he spread his arms wide open before he slapped his chest with his right hand balled in a fist.
'–you cannot be for real...'
…After all, he just met a mad man of all people.
"We spoke enough. Now brace yourself. For I am Berserker!" A long black mace formed in his hand from particles of light before the man jumped off the rooftop screaming.
BOOM
Backstepping from his position, Hector avoided the blow entirely and kept his distance from the man who identified himself as Berserker who rose a cloud of smoke from the impact of his blow.
FWUSH
He quickly dashed out of the smoke charging straight towards Hector, swinging his mace horizontally with both his hands.
CLANG
Hector this time chose to respond directly, he swung his sword to intercept the blow, he surprisingly managed to chip the club with his blade, which assured him he at least had an advantage in the quality of their weapons but the difference in power behind the attacks forced Hector back.
SKKKRRRRRRRR
His boots screeched against the asphalt as he was pushed back several meters, his arms even trembling slightly from the impact.
'This guy's strength is no joke.' Hector grimaced. This didn't look good at all, two powerful enemies twice in a row and one immediately after the other too at that when he had yet to recover entirely from his previous fight.
"HAHAHAHA. Hm?" Berserker laughed as he rested his mace on his shoulder before he turned to look at his left. "Oh! My sword."
He walked toward the sword struck on the asphalt and grabbed its handle to pull it out.
CLANG
In the same moment as Hector saw Berserker looking away from him he thrust his sword to the back of his neck in his blind spot, but almost like he had eyes behind the back of his head the man used his shoulder as a leverage for the club resting on it and turned it slightly to cover the back of his head.
Durindana stabbed into the mace halfway through but couldn't pierce further immediately. Hector could have tried to risk it and push the sword further but the thought that it might have been a trap set up by his enemy forced him to step back immediately.
"Now that I think of it…" Meanwhile Berserker drew the sword from the ground, its blade still red and emanating flames that were scalding hot even from a distance, the sword somehow smelled a lot like blood.
"I forgot to ask who you were, mind telling me?" The man turned around, now holding both weapons, the mace on his right and the sword to his left.
"And you ask that now? Heh… Can't you see my sword? It should be obvious, I'm definitely Saber." Hector decided to humor him as he still kept an eye out for Rider.
"Saber?" Berserker raised one of his eyebrows questioningly before smiling once again with a toothy grin. "How strange… well, better for me I guess, I hope you are as strong as the other one."
'The other one, huh…' Hector scoffed internally realizing the implication of the man's comment but it mattered not right now.
"Then how about we found out about that?" Hector taunted, beckoning him with his free hand, he didn't care if his bluff were to be called out at this moment, he would just fake it till he made it to his objective. He already had an idea of what kind of fighter Berserker was, all he had to do now was just turn this situation into one he could make use of that attitude to his advantage.
"Actually, nevermind that, I will just show you directly." He crouched low, his expression as cold as ice. One hand touching the ground and the other holding his sword horizontally.
Berserker could feel the tension building up from his enemy's intent, one clearly displaying that he was about to turn serious and as he rose his weapons clearly anticipating his next move Hector–
FWUSH
"Bye, loser." Run away at full speed.
***
Meanwhile
SKRRRRTTT
SQUELCH SPUUURT
Guts and blood marred the air and whatever damaged furniture still remained as well as the wall in deep red as a metallic smell pervaded the surroundings. Four corpses strangely cleaved in half were the cause.
Looking at this scene where a man with hair was laughing like a maniac Yvette stood still like a deer in a flashlight for a second.
"Th-thanks for the save gu–" She quickly tried to regain her composure and show her non belligerance but alas it was not gonna happen.
BANG
A body collapsed lifelessly on the ground. Pink hair dropped messily around her visage as some blood flowed out from her head.
"You missed one." The boy lightly commented from behind the white haired man in the passenger seat of the scooter, one hand hanging on the driver and the other holding onto a gun that looked pitch black due to the outside being somewhat charred.
He was the one that had just shot the bullet. He looked listlessly at the rather surprising result of his shot.
He hit the girl on the first try.
And straight in the head at that too.
'At least I didn't waste bullets, that was really lucky.'
"You are actually right. Well, we can just call it a spare then." The man nodded thoughtfully as he got up from the wrecked Vespa, it could now rest in peace, its work here was done. 'Damn, this kid is cold. Shooting surrendered enemies is a war crime… but meh we are magi anyway and who is gonna prove that it was one if I shut up?'
"Thanks for the assist there." Haldor gave his little companion a thumb up, his other hand removing the helmet on top of his head. As the helmet was thrown to the floor the impact made it shatter like glass before completely disappearing.
'So fragile, they really were just for show like he said.' The boy removed his own helmet as well, he also thought that at that point he should have just not even bothered wearing one but he didn't voice it out loud as it wasn't really that important now that they already did the stunt.
In reality even when so fragile the helmet still did their job as intended. After all, by breaking they would have still absorbed the impact in place of the wearer, which was why Haldor still bothered to make them instead of letting his beautiful hair flair in the wind; but the boy was unaware of how helmet actually worked, so had an accident happened he wouldn't have thought them to be useless.
"What do we do now?" The boy asked the man as he took out the baton hanging from his belt.
Haldor didn't answer, instead he took his revolver out from his holster under his armpit with a twirl and aimed it at the empty door that came from the other pair stairways in the building opposite to the one they broke in front of to run over the four people.
The inside of the barrel lit up and emitted a red light aimed for the center of the door.
BANG
The moment he shot the door swung open revealing a fifth person dressed in a black suit, a woman, holding a gun ready to shoot as well, but she was already far too late.
TUNG
The red bullet hit her weapon before she even had the chance to pull the trigger and disarmed her. It was such a precise display of gunmanship that it might as well have come out from a cowboy western classic.
The woman stilled for a second from shock but as she quickly recovered she realized who the man before her was and also knew that his famous mystic code couldn't shoot repetitively. If she just took the chance to–
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
"Ahh!" Four more gunshots rang, in actuality only two of those really hit her but the problem was that they both hit her chest, one in a lung and the other hitting her heart. Turning to look at the origin of the sound she saw a child awkwardly holding a gun in a way that clearly showed his obvious cluelessness in how to actually operate the firearm as the kickback sent his arm pointing at the ceiling. It was a wonder how he even managed to hit her twice.
Those were her last thoughts.
TWUAK SPUURT
A knife pierced her in the center of her forehead, Haldor had already prepared to throw it as soon as he shot his bullet to pressure her in case she tried to take cover or charge him but thanks to the boy he took her out more easily than he actually accounted for.
Seeing the woman drop dead on the floor the boy just looked back at his partner in crime and asked again.
"Now, what?"
Haldor stopped for a second considering his option but couldn't really find the right words, they literally just finished everyone out already so they had probably nothing left to do in there.
'Now that I do think about it though, this ambush did really go way too smoothly… shit.' Haldor went from tapping his chin to slapping his face by himself making a low groaning sound. 'Tomorrow I'm definitely gonna be so unlucky for this, I'm sure. Wait, I'm getting side tracked. Pierre, what's the situation?'
'PEEP' The bird majestic chirping echoed in Haldor's mind telling him what he needed to know
"We go search for the others, kid." Haldor pointed with his index finger toward the floor. "There are another two dudes from the underground floor coming up."
"Then let's go kill them too." Impassive as ever the boy turned around to walk towards the four mangled corpses on the floor. He threw away his charred gun and picked up two guns from what remained of their arms which still held onto the weapons due to muscle memory. He pulled the safe of one of them and shoved it inside his pants and kept the other in his right hand.
"What a bloodthirsty little monster…" Haldor gave a low laugh as he led the way downstairs.
The room descended into silence as they left, only the distant sound of something burning from upstairs could barely be heard like a sort of continuous white noise.
However there was still something in the room the two missed before going away.
Laying on her side with a bullet which pierced inside her head from the eye made of gemstone Yvette laid completely still without even breathing.
'T-t-that was really close, the child shot me without a shred of hesitation. Thankfully they didn't check my body.' Yvette was really grateful to whatever lucky star just helped her survive like this.
She was faking her death and somehow they didn't notice, which was strange but she was never gonna complain about this. She remained like that for a little while longer in case they still lingered, she could stay a few more minutes like this anyway, she had already shut down most of her organs and body function in favor of saving what little oxygen was still in her circulation.
She had give or take another three minutes she could stay like that and just in the off chance she was gonna remain like that for all those three minutes.
And luckily she did.
"..."
Unaware of the fact that it just saved her life once again, her act helped her go undetected by a certain something.
"..." Without making a single sound something, or rather someone, passed right by her corpse and lingered for a single instant before going for the stairs as well.
Yvette had no idea just how lucky she was at this moment.
***
Elsewhere
"So that guy also decided to show up." Julius was hiding inside the abandoned room of an apartment building, lying comfortably in someone's bed with his legs crossed one over the other with his shoes still on, his head resting on two pillows stacked on top of each other. From that position he was using a pair of military binoculars to peer outside the window to overlook the office high rise building from a safe distance to avoid being made into an accidental casualty and didn't miss the entrance of the white haired obnoxious mercenary.
He also caught the shadow of something flying between the buildings besides that which he supposed must have been Berserker searching for the other two Servants.
He also didn't miss that he appeared to have company.
'Who was that with him? A child?' Julius didn't recall anyone who corresponded to his profile but decided to drop the matter for the moment but not before memorizing his passing figure from what he briefly saw from the distance. It wasn't thanks to any sort of mystical aid, he simply had a monstrously good photographic memory, so even if just for an instant that he saw that child his brain already remembered his features.
Anyway he had more important matters to settle.
"Alpha Three, fire as soon as you have a clear view on the target, aim for Haldor." Julius called out to the sniper who was also overlooking the building from a safe distance just like him but from another position posted on top of a rooftop.
[...]
No response came back however.
Julius's eyes narrowed in suspicion, he already had an idea of what might have happened.
"Alpha Three!" Julius echoed once again, this time stronger.
[...]
But this time as well only silence answered him.
"I see." That's all Julius said in response before sitting up from his laying position and fetching a suitcase he had at his feet. Unfolding it revealed that the inside contained a great number of cylinders of various sizes.
Picking them up one by one Julius slowly fiddled with them before assembling them together, in a few seconds he was done. In his hands now he held a massive sniper rifle. He rested the long rifle against his shoulder as he slowly walked outside the bedroom he was resting in, and went through the short hallway to the living room where he took a set of stairs led upward.
The house had another floor but Julius ignored it and continued going up the stairs until he reached the house's attic which could be accessed from there. He spotted the window he was searching for, rested his rifle on the windowsill and removed the cover on the scope.
"I guess I should have expected a few more hiccups the moment we slipped up the first time." He muttered to himself in clear dissatisfaction, his position wasn't ideal in the first place but he could still manage from here.
One chance.
All he needed was just one single chance.
'Last time Berserker stopped the bullet for you but he is not with you this time.'
***
"Etchù." Sneezing loudly Haldor took the attention of the two men they were about to ambush.
They were in a floor with multiple offices with wide walls made of concrete, probably for sound proofing, and multiple cross section corridors. They were now using these segments to hide behind one of the walls in a position where they couldn't be seen and their plan was to use it to them from their blind spot as they leaned out from their hiding point behind a wall.
But Haldor just ruined it at the last moment.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
Quickly reacting to the sound from their backs the two men in black turned around and shooted their guns without hesitation.
"Damn, someone must be cursing me really loudly." The two luckily managed to quickly pull themselves back in the cover of the wall as Haldor laughed, giving his nose a rub despite their plan failing.
"Is that actually a thing?" The boy hiding beside him also seemed unbothered by the cascading sound of gunshoots raining besides them as he asked him with a serious expression.
"Hell yeah it is. Trust me." Haldor nodded fervently in answer, taking the question he was posed with matching seriousness. "One time for example I was tasked to hunt this one guy who liked to eat the desiccated corpses of elderly men and women, after I killed he screamed about how he would have cursed me. You know what happened afterward?"
"How could I know if you don't tell me?" The boy answered, tilting his head.
"Try and guess then." Haldor shrugged his shoulders as if disappointed the boy didn't immediately try to guess. In the meanwhile he threw a small white pebble sized sphere to his right toward the middle of the cross section.
POOOF
"Then… Did he put a curse on you?" The boy tried guessing following the logic of the conversation.
"No, but I had one hell of a diarrhea attack the next morning."
BANG
Haldor shook his head as he leaned from the wall and used his Red Striker to shoot one of the men straight between his eyebrows as soon as he leaned from his own hiding spot as well.
The boy heard the sound of something falling but didn't see it with his own eyes due to the smokescreen and inwardly wondered how he could see through that well enough to shoot but he put it in the back of his head as there was a more pressing matter at hand right now.
"...Then why tell me this story if he didn't even curse you?"
Meanwhile the other man traced the origin of the sound of the gunshoot accurately thanks to a spell he cast on his ears to capture sounds better and aimed his gun.
BANG
"Because his bad feelings definitely influenced my stomach's mood, why else?" Haldor took cover as a bullet hit the corner of the wall he was using as a shield while rumbling loudly as his hands dug into his jacket's inner pockets and retrieving a short black staff that was about twenty centimeters long.
On the other hand the man just walked as stealthy as he could while staying glued to the wall, with a hand holding his dead comrade as a shield and the other with his gun pointing toward the corner Haldor and the boy were hiding, he could clearly hear their discussion even when he wasn't amplifying his hearing as they weren't even trying to whisper to each other and just talked normally.
"I can't make any sense of what you are saying." The boy admitted, not much of an answer but he was wholly unsure of what else to say other than that.
"They tell me that a lot." Haldor nodded proudly with a smile before making a sign by pointing at the boy's stolen baton and gesturing for him to hold it right now using his own staff as an example. The boy nodded, clicked the gun's safe and grabbed the baton with his two hands as he put the gun inside his pants with the other one.
WHIP
Haldor whipped his arm around the corner and the staff in his hand elongated into a black spike like object, it precisely hit the man's gun making it fly from his hand. Haldor then grabbed the meat shield he was using with his free hand and pulled him towards himself.
The enemy reacted quickly and simply let go of the corpse and took one step back trying to unholster the gun he had picked up from his comrade's corpse beforehand.
However as he took the gun with his attention focused on Haldor he missed the boy who sprinted in a low crouch and thrusted his baton towards his nether region.
THWAACCKK CRACK
TANG
At the same time not missing a beat Haldor threw the spike in his hand and hit the man's hand disarming him of his weapon as he was a bit too late to react due to wincing from pain.
TWAKKKK
"Uataaa." Then Haldor making a childish sound Haldor proceeded to jab in the chin with his right fist. Making the man fall from the impact. But it wasn't over yet.
TWUUUKK
As the enemy fell to the ground the boy swung his baton hitting the man in the crotch once again. The man looked like he wanted to scream but no voice came out of his throat.
THUMP
Haldor also followed up by stomping on his other uninjured and broke three fingers in one stomp.
"Don't stop now, we gotta strike the hardest when they are down. This way we will make sure they stay down forever."
THWAAK CRACK
Said Haldor as he kicked the guy's jaw, probably dislocating it.
On his part the boy nodded in clear understanding.
TWUUXK
He gave one last hit to his groin before he stopped focusing on the man's lower part and joined Haldor in maiming the man's face.
TWAAAXK TWUCCKK TWHAACK THUNNK
TWHAKKK THUNK TWACKK THWUCK
They rained blows by alternating kicks and baton strikes giving them one at a time each one immediately after the other.
TWAAAXK TWUCCKK TWHAACK THUNNK
As they continued their beating the boy couldn't help but reach a sort of new understanding in his mind right this moment as he thought back to the purple haired girl he fought this morning.
'I think I see it now, beating someone with the number advantage is definitely much easier than fighting without it.' Realizing the convenience of the tactical advantage of having someone to fight by your side he briefly thought that if he had this kind of help back then it would have been much easier to kill the girl for sure.
'That must also be why these people formed such a large group. Killing is easier with people helping you.' The boy noted that apart from the one girl he shot everyone else wore the same style of clothing, more or less but they were all centered around black colors, that must have meant that the seven people they faced dressed like that must have been on the same side, eight if we counted that one person who was thrown out of a window before they bursted in.
Of course during this self reflection he never stopped swinging his arms in tandem with his temporary ally.
Had Haldor known what the literal child besides him was thinking he wouldn't be smiling as he was right now while kicking that man down.
At one point the man stopped responding or even just twitching from their assault.
"Ok, I think he's dead." Haldor finally stopped kicking the man as he spoke to his little partner in crime.
"I see…" Nodding, the boy hung his baton on his belt once again and reached for one of his guns.
BANG
And used it to shoot the mangled man's forehead.
"Ehm, why did you shoot him?" Haldor couldn't help but tilt his head. The guy had such a twisted jawline and blood coming out of so many parts already that he was clearly dead, he often made sure of his enemy's death himself but he couldn't see the point of wasting a bullet on that.
"You said you thought he was dead." The answered matter of factly with perfect composure.
"…And?" Staying silent for a moment Haldor couldn't get what he meant by that and asked back.
"Now you are sure he's dead." The boy said as if he was stating the obvious by pointing at the hole in the man's forehead oozing with his gray matter and blood.
Haldor's lips pursed as his brows rose and his eyes widened while he gave the kid the most shocked side eye he had ever made in his life. Was this a child or a violence machine in the making?
"Were you raised by devils?" Haldor blurted out a bit incredulously. 'Who the fuck raised this bloodthirsty monster?'
"No, I don't think so."
"Yeah, I'm gonna doubt that." Haldor shrugged his shoulders with a chuckle as he started walking towards the stairs, the boy following right behind him. "And here I thought my parents were bad."
"Were they devils? Actually, are devils real?" The boy asked as he followed after him, he realized halfway through his question that the concept he thought of only as fictitious might actually be real so he had to confirm that too and asked about it as well.
"Well to answer the second question first I would say it depends but let's just say yes for simplicity. As for your first one, not in the sense that you meant, my pops was a cool dude, my mother on the other hand…" Haldor trailed off on his words as a shiver ran through his body for a moment as he rubbed his arms as if to shake away the cold. "She was a goddamn monster, I think a devil from hell and a dead apostle fused together would be kinder than that freak."
Amidst the man's hissing on his mother the boy caught onto the unfamiliar term and decided to ask about it. "What's a dead apostle?'
Haldor raised his eyebrows but didn't really question it and simply rolled his eyes. While the fact that a dead apostle should be a well known subject to a magus Haldor didn't take the boy as a fully formed magus yet.
The kid was barely eleven and he looked even younger than his age to Haldor who had no idea about his actual one thanks to his build, to him this kid probably didn't even finish his basic formation and while he had a few theories as to why he was participating in this war he didn't voice any of them.
"A dead apostle is a vampire. You know, those guys with sharp long canines living in the night and sucking people's blood to feed themselves." Haldor made a gesture of baring his teeth as he curled his hands before him.
The boy nodded in understanding, he had heard of them before. Namely one called Count Dracula, he recalled one teacher mentioning him when they were doing some school project about how he was inspired to a real life king of a country once called Wallachia that was now Romania.
He also recalled asking the teacher why the monster was a Count when he was inspired by a King but he never got an answer to that.
He also forgot that king's name to be honest.
The conversation died down as the boy didn't follow on Haldor's previous comment as he wasn't interested in his mother and he already told him that vampires existed.
As they descended the stairs Haldor clicked his tongue while shaking his head. 'Forced to pick up on some parents' slacking in teachings about general knowledge. Look what I have to do to keep things civil with a kid like this. I'm really way too good and caring for this world.'
Looking at the boy beside him Haldor just sighed, putting both his hands in his pockets but he was actually deep in his thoughts, something has been bothering him ever since he met this child.
'I know I thought of this before but this kid really feels kinda creepy. It's almost like it literally surrounds him. I swear I saw something kind of like this before but I cannot quite place where.'
'It's not a spell, of that I'm fairly certain. It feels more like it's something stuck to his skin or something coming out of his very pores like sweat… kind of like a c–!' Cutting his train of thoughts Haldor felt a shiver run down the back of his neck.
He shot forward with a dash and turned around to look behind his back.
He couldn't feel or see anything suspicious in his surroundings but he felt like something really bad was about to happen.
Then the sensation disappeared like it was nothing but a lie.
'What was that?' Cold sweat ran down Haldor's forehead, he couldn't comprehend what originated this sudden sense of urgency.
Then he met eyes with the confused gaze of his new partner who tilted his head clearly wondering what was wrong with him, Haldor usually would have just smiled in this situation and said something nonsensical but he couldn't bring himself to right now.
Because from behind the boy's shoulder a hand peeked out, one with a long black sleeve and glove approaching his neck. Nothing visible stood behind the kid and the arm looked like it sprouted out of nowhere but that couldn't be, especially because the clothing clearly mismatched the boy's.
The kid was still looking at Haldor confused, totally unaware of the thing looming right behind him.
'Shit.' In that split second Haldor realized why he felt such a bad premonition before and understood that the cause of it didn't disappear but changed its target. And he acted immediately in response.
"Look out!" Haldor bursted forward trying to save him but he already knew one thing.
He wouldn't make it in time. The hand was already holding his neck by the base.
CRACK
"Ah." A feeble sound came out from the kid's mouth. Before Haldor's eyes the boy's neck was twisted unnaturally to the right by ninety degrees. His body went completely limp.
'Fuck.' Haldor cursed.
"As expected from a mercenary of your renown, I wanted to take you out first but you avoided my ambush. Unfortunately for you though, your teammate wasn't as lucky." From behind his back a humongous man so bulky he might have been a body builder came out as if out of thin air, still holding on the child's neck.
He was an incredibly muscular man with short slicked back brown hair wearing a black sweater with a high neck and cargo pants, he wore a pair of gloves over his hand and a pair of sunglasses over his eyes.
Haldor whipped out his revolver with incredible speed but as soon as he did the unknown man held the child's body like a shield before the barrel's trajectory.
"You think I won't shoot a corpse?" Haldor smiled while cold sweat still marred his face, the barrel of the gun starting to heat up and preparing to shoot.
"I can assure he is not dead yet, I am a professional. He is simply gonna be debilitated from the neck down for the rest of his life." The attacker responded in a flat yet cordial tone but the confidence he emanated was clear to Haldor.
"Sick bastard. You might have as well just killed him at that point." Haldor gave a sarcastic smile as he tried to think of a way to save the kid from the man without making him snap what little remained of his neck. He might not have liked the kid for hitting his jewels but he wasn't gonna let his death be so lightly on his conscience if he could.
"..." The man didn't deign to give any answer to that.
Haldor was about to open his mouth to taunt his enemy again but involuntarily stopped himself. That's because the sight before him was simply too stunning.
CRACK
The kid's body suddenly tensed and a worrying sound loudly came from his neck then–
SNAP
–his neck realigned itself in its natural position in a single forceful movement.
'What the heck?! Were you actually a demon for real?'
Needless to say, Haldor was shocked. His eyes were literally about to pop out of their sockets.
***
Hello, before the important part I hope the chapter was good, let me know ur thoughts on it pls and sorry again for the delay.
Now, first to everyone's information this night is gonna be over in another chapter or two at the very most but it's definitely about to end and I won't drag any longer than that.
Secondly, I am busy as hell, so I will realistically not be able to write for most of that time and I wouldn't use my little free time I have from that ONLY for writing, so in practice it's unlikely there would be any new chapter for the next 2 or 3 weeks for sure. Might be longer but I think I can manage at least one chapter in that time span, if I can I will even try to directly make the next chapter just a super long one so I can end it all in one chapter and not leave anything to another cliffhanger.
And that is all, thank you for listening(or reading).
And thirdly, BLEAP, thank god you made a new mc who is not a bum man.
Now I'm done for real. Bye.