Wolf's Hatred 3

K.J awakes, but his eyes are still closed. A pulsating pain afflicting his body— from the tips of the toes to the top of his head. Like a wildfire, a painful pulse runs through the young man's body.

CRACK!

CRACK!

Bones snap back into place, intrusively realigning themselves, with no care for what flesh they tore or what organ they hit to get back in place.

The sultry wet sound of flesh being ripped fills the inside with his mind, as the flesh sews itself together. A hatred that feeds the fire, the origin of the venom in his blood, makes the pain increase, spreading like venom, infecting the blood and making it boil.

The pain does not stop. Blood surges through his mouth, an after-effect of his bones intrusively fixing themselves. Faintly opens his eyes, his left hand is no longer like how it used to be, with long and sharp claws extending from his fingers.

His right hand is still holding the metal bat. The stinging burning pain still is there, making muscles ache and contract, forcing any and every movement to be a struggle. Despite the pain, K.J forces himself to move, to stand up. Ignoring the pain, and the claws in his left hand, the young man stands up.

Taking time to regain his bearings, the young man looked ahead. Before him a revolting sight. The goblins, dragging the girl he tried to help as if it was some sort of baggage or object— cracking up vile and malicious laughter, playing with their clubs and crude spears near the girl, threatening to hit her as tears of helplessness fall from her remaining eye.

One of them drives their spear close to her face, slashing her left cheek, and drawing blood. The poison in his blood goes wild at the sight, feeling like explosions ready to burst out of his veins. He can feel it, stirring below his skin, the searing heat of boiling blood.

The hate, hatred, the poison is not content with being inside him, no. It wants to burst out and reach outside. Not content with only the physical pain, it infects his mind like a parasite: clouding his vision in a coat of blood-red, nothing there besides stains, and the girl.

Like a dam breaking, the spite, the grudge blossoms out, a dense bloody fog of ashes, eating away all light it touches, the fires, the heat, even sunlight, all being devoured equally before this red haze.

The goblins stop messing around, to look at him, not that their attention matters in the slightest. K.J walks forwards, as the hateful fog accompanies him. Like an evil spirit, the fog notices the metal bat he refuses to drop— a suitable vessel much like him.

The fog latches onto the metal bat, infecting it, and spreading like a vile rust. The metal bat heats up, reaching unbearable temperatures, blackening its exterior under the heat, enough that anyone normal would've dropped it already, but K.J doesn't feel normal, not now.

Metal bends and twists into a new form, extending itself, and assuming new shapes. Part of it flattens and sharpens itself, becoming a straight one-edged blade, right below its base a guard like a wolf head bursts forth from inside the metal, biting onto the blade, holding it in place.

The metal under K.J's hand changed to become a "suitable" handle. With a job well done, the ash fog advances, devouring any light on its path. "Boss! Boss! The human! It's back! Something is wrong!"

One of those hateful things screams for the big one, daring to raise its disgusting voice. "Were they always able to talk? It doesn't matter." Rising the sword with his right hand, the young man advances like a rabid hound, seeing nothing on his path toward the girl but red silhouettes, and red obstacles.

Moving like a machine fueled by spite and anger, the blade is swung wildly, with no care for what is in its way, as long as it doesn't reach the girl. Akin to how a knife cuts through a honeycomb, the goblins offer no resistance to the sword's path, being cut and splatting away like flies while the fog expands itself, covering the goblin swarm in its dark mist.

There is no grace in his movements, only barely restrained anger. Some goblins duck or roll over the blade's path. "I won't let you flee." His left hand moves on its own, in a large claw swipe. With supernatural strength that wasn't the goblins on its direct path are maimed, while the others around the ones maimed are thrown around like dolls.

"Get outta the way!" One red freak screams towards another, trying to avoid him. They are not important. The only thing important: is the one closest to Lily. The one who hurt her cheek, and drew blood.

"Oh shit—" Its body is pierced by the sword's tip, and thrown around effortlessly. All the other goblins around Lily turn away and flee, leaving him and Lily alone. The young man's vision still is painted red, yet he can see her, clear as a crystal.

Tears falling from her eyes, her uniform ragged. "Mister!" The little girl jumps on him, holding him tight with her weak arms, loud sobs escaping her mouth, no effort to hold back her tears and cries, fear, despair, hope, and pain in her voice. A biting pain afflicts all of K.J's body, as if telling him his actions are somehow wrong. The hatred, instead of subduing, increases, almost clouding every ounce of consciousness still in his mind.

The young man raises his claw unconsciously, blinded by this poison. "You human is dangerous! How do you survive?" The hatred's grasp is broken, a familiar guttural voice calling. His eyes moved from Lily to the monster who wounded him. The sight of the creature starts to disperse the hatred spell upon him.

"He is one! He has to protect the little girl! Don't be dumb! If we attack all at once, we can kill him!" So annoying. He should've run. "So annoying. You are an eyesore." K.J sticks his sword in the ground. Taking off his hoodie, he puts it around Lily.

The hatred in his mind finally starts to clear, dispersing. Goblins try to cross the red mist, to reunite with their leader, who snorts loudly, preparing to charge. "This time… I'll protect you. Wait for a bit, okay?" The little girl doesn't answer with words, only holding him tight, as much as she can, her cries muffled against him.

"It would be bad for them to have a clear view of us." Reacting to his thoughts, the fog starts to expand and condense, increasing its size, and swallowing more light as it does. "Is it reacting to my thoughts?" An obvious answer, as seen by how it expanded.

Ignite it. A stray thought jumped, telling him to "ignite" the mist. A strange thing, an intrusive thought. "What if…" K.J opens the mist around himself and the girl, leaving an area without its touch. "Burn."

Like a spark in a flour cloud, the fog explodes in a sea of searing dark red flames, just barely avoiding hitting him and Lily, even its "heat" staying away from them, as if a force field is between them. Any scream of the goblins is drowned by the black fire, leaving only their bigger cousin to scream as fire eats them all.

Hearing the cries of the bigger "goblin", Lily looks up, staring him in the eye. "M-mister, what is happening?" Her voice was visibly shaken and hurt. "I am… making sure these monsters will never hurt someone again."

The flames spread, its dim light eating away the sunlight, weakening its grasp, shunning it away. The light weakens as the flames reach their zenith, burning like a giant bonfire fed by corpses and light.

As it appeared suddenly, the flames disappeared right after reaching their peak, without a grand show or finale. The sun above, now with its light dimmed, bathing the city below in orange, as if twilight had come earlier.

Despite the flames' power, the cries of the big goblin didn't stop. "Why won't you die?" Casting a stare at where the huge creature stood, now all that was there was a skinless beast, with the remnants of its skin and flesh melting off of its muscles.

Noticing him there, the creature screams: "Uuuumaaaaan!" Its eyes are almost completely white, burned by the black flames. Yet still enough to see him, what a troublesome monster. "Lily, let go. I still need to slay one more monster."

The little girl whines, but lets go of him, understanding the danger they are in. "Close your eyes— you don't need to see this monster." Taking his sword off the ground, K.J advances against the monster.

He swings the sword at the monster, hitting its chest. Instead of slicing through, the sword gets stuck. "Shit." With a roar, the monster delivers a punch to his gut. His ribs crack, but they do not make it. Air is blown out of his lungs, his body being pushed back, almost forcing him to drop the sword, but this time, he isn't thrown around.

This time, the enemy can be felled. Taking the sword in both hands, K.J rips it from the monster's chest, tearing it. The monster staggers back, blood jumping out of the wound made by the sword. "I don't know how to use a sword, but a thrust isn't that hard!"

Taking the chance, the young man plants his feet on the ground, aligning in parallel to his chest in a crude pose, but it should do the trick. Putting all his weight and strength behind the attack, K.J thrusts the sword forward.

With little to no resistance, the sword hits its mark, piercing through the flesh and bone without effort, with its blade exiting on the monster's back. The screams of the monster stop as its skinless body halts all movements. "Tough bastard."

Taking the sword out of the monster's chest, he sighs. Now, a more important question lingers in his head. "How did I get a sword…?" Looking at the sword, it is strange. The blade is more in line with a knife's edge, as well as the strange shape, looking nothing like an oriental sword despite a one-edged blade.

"Better not dwell too much on it." Turning away and putting the sword to rest on his shoulder, the young man walks towards Lily, seeing his hood full of blood stains, probably of the goblins. "Good grief—"

"Umman!" Out of the blue, a spark of life surges in the monster. Its fist raised once again and hit him straight in the back. Bones crack under the blow, sending him flying a few meters ahead.

As a silver lining, he flies forward, which allows him to put the bladed edge of the sword forward, making it hit the ground first instead of him, and avoiding a possible nasty accident in the process. Despite not rolling over and taking bruises and damage all over his body, his clothes get damaged as he falls face-first on the ground.

Once again, the air is blown out of his lungs, his back hurting, but not broken — he hopes — next time, he should double tap the monster to make sure he is dead. "Mister!" Lily calls his name. Rolling to the side, K.J gets a clear view of the orange-tinted sky. "Sundown? Already?"

Almost jumping on him, a worried little girl appears. With a red and teary eye, her face was full of sadness, anxiety, fear, and relief. "Mister K.J! Are you okay?"

No, that is what he wanted to say. " His back is aching and stinging like crazy because of the monster's punch, to be honest, if Lily wasn't there, and he didn't need to reach Blue Evening as soon as possible, Kyrie would be content to lie on the ground for a few more ours.

"Kind of. Need to rest a bit, then I'll take you to your school, okay?"

Yet a white lie left his mouth. Without regard to his situation, or position, Lily falls on him, holding him tight. "You are a hero, mister! Thank you for saving me!" K.J's back aches in response to the sudden impact, but ignoring the pain, he smiles.

"Playing the hero isn't that bad." However, Kyrie is no hero, and he knows it in his heart of hearts. He did what was necessary because there was no other alternative to save both himself and Lily.

A hero doesn't fail like he does or give up under the fears he has, nor accept death silently like he did. His "resurrection" is a miracle he can't yet understand, but he won't go and question God's decision right now. 

'Where I thought we would meet again soon, Nataly. Guess I have some more life in me before I can go to where you are and...' K.L closes his eyes, wandering in memory lane for a few minutes, even if he doesn't want to get up, he has to. "I can't slack off— not yet."