Chapter 14: Everybody's Watching Pt. 2

The sound of the horn echoed across the arena evoking a response from the spectators who peered forward in their seats, watching intently as Sebastian and Corniellia stepped off toward each other at full speed. While running, Sebastian had pulled two knives out of his pouches that were strapped to his hips, holding one in each hand and carefully spinning them both in his fingers, clasping them only when both blades were pointing downwards. Keeping his eyes locked on Corniellia, he held his hands up to his chest, and spun on his heels, releasing each knife, allowing the momentum of his movements to add extra force that he'd send them off with.

Confident his knives would hit, after the second one has left his hand, he brought himself to a halt with the intent to simply watch as they hit their mark, however, upon glancing in the general direction he sent them off to, neither Corniellia nor the knives were visible to him anymore.

"What the-" he muttered to himself just before Corniellia had appeared above him, both knives in hand with their blades pointed outwards as she spun on her way down.

Luckily, responding on pure instinct, Sebastian was capable of avoiding her attempt at an attack by pushing himself off a few steps backwards, having her crash into the floor with the knife in her right hand scraping against the marble floor upon impact.

"It's not a fair fight if you use your abilities now is it?" Sebastian groaned, getting himself in a fighting stance, readying himself once more for a possible attempt of engagement on her end.

"No one said this was going to be a fair fight. I'm not human... So why should I fight like one?" Corniellia asked, disappearing from where she stood.

Sebastian held his stance, trying his best to reason with himself and strategize based on where he thinks she'll pop out from. Responding once more to his instincts and thoughts, he held his right hand upwards to block a possible aerial strike, however, Corniellia appeared by his left leg, slashing at it with one of his knives before disappearing once more. Sebastian winced and grabbed for the bruise at his leg, but before he could take hold of where he was injured, Corniellia appeared at the location he previously blocked with an aerial strike. She slashed down at his right arm that was still held in the air before disappearing once more, leaving Sebastian wincing in pain once more.

The excitement from the audience has dulled out at this point, with a wave of silence carrying itself all around the spectators' area as Corniellia continuously blinked around Sebastian's body, slashing him at different parts of his body over and over again.

"Don't you think this is a bit... One-sided?" muttered one of the audience members to another.

"Yeah... Thought he'd put up more of a fight, to be honest..."

Hearing the two members of the audience speak to each other in what wasn't much of a 'hush' tone, despite it having the nature of such, Lucas, who stood at one of the several entrances to the stands scoffed to himself and smiled, crossing his arms as he looked down on Sebastian.

"Once a loser, always a loser," he chuckled, his eyes lighting up with pure excitement upon seeing Sebastian in such a desperate state.

On the other end of the stands, however, sat Nana Moe and Dr. Ai, the former of them bearing a worried expression on her face.

"You think it was a good thing to throw him into a match like this as soon as he began to recover?" she asked, biting down on her lower lip as she watched the fight unfold.

"He's part vampire now, his recovery was complete the moment he woke up in the hospital a few days back," Ai responded, his thumb under his chin as he thought to himself for a bit, "This is less of testing his fighting capabilities and more of to see if... anything else would rear its ugly head. So, it should be fine. If it gets too serious, the fight will be stopped as always, so there's no need to worry."

"You don't think he's gained a vampiric ability do you?"

"It's a reasonable assumption. If there are enough black blood cells in his body to accelerate his regeneration, there should be enough to allow him to tap into chaos one way or the other," Ai hummed to himself for a short bit, resting his hands on his thighs and leaning forward as he stared down at the fight between Sebastian and Corniellia, "Yeah... It's more than reasonable. The cells themselves bring a natural connection to Chaos, albeit, the presence of white blood cells in his body could possibly be suppressing the vampiric traits that the foreign cells might bring, the fact that they're still there should be enough for... Something to happen."

"You say this as if something like this has happened before," Moe sighed.

"Look, I understand that you're worried for the boy... But it's best if we determine what exactly the side effects are now... Rather than later."

"I guess you're right."

Random patterns of blood stained the floor as Sebastian staggered on his feet, struggling to predict or respond to a majority of Corniellia's attacks. The clothes he wore were ripped in several areas and he hosted several wounds across his body from his legs to his face. Corniellia's attacks came to a halt, having her stand right before him, dropping the knives to the floor as she panted heavily.

"This is the end of the line," she said with a smug smile on her face, "Just say you give up so we can both go about our days normally," she wiped the sweat from her forehead and leant forward, hands on her knees as she looked up at Sebastian to see his answer to her statement.

Instead of responding to her with words, Sebastian spat blood onto the floor beside him and smirked, holding up both hands and fixed himself in a fighting position once more despite his inability to properly keep his balance. He took a deep breath in and slowly moved forward, resisting the urge to turn over with every step.

"You're embarrassing yourself!" exclaimed a voice that sounded all too familiar to Sebastian. He stopped himself in his tracks, not even bothering to look around for where it came from because he knew it originated from within him. He panted, blowing the bits of blood from his lips as he looked over to Corniellia, his vision blurred as she stood upright once more, hands on her hips as she took a deep breath before holding up her hands to fight him once more.

"As stubborn as always," she groaned, "I'm sorry Sebby, I'm gonna have to put you down here."

That was the last thing he recalled hearing before it all went black. Suddenly, once again, he was standing in a room of pure darkness where no one else seemed to exist but him... At least that's what he thought.

Out of the shadows, came another version of him, except he didn't seem as battered and bruised as the actual Sebastian was. He wore a disappointed gaze on his face as he came to a stop approximately 10 meters away from where Sebastian stood.

"Why are you so hellbent on embarrassing us?" he asked, his hands in his pockets as he looked over to Sebastian, his gaze seeming to pierce into his soul.

"I want to win... I'm going to win... And prove myself as a hunter," Sebastian responded almost instantly despite having no initial intention of doing so.

"Ah, I forgot that was your goal for a bit," his reflection responded, lightly pinching his nose as he looked over to his more pitiful self, "How about this... I'll win this fight for you."

"What?"

"You heard me. I'll win the fight for you and you can do whatever and be a hunter, I really don't care. It just hurts me too much to see you this desperate."

"Why does it bother you?"

"Because I'm you, you dumbass... Just better," he chuckled before reaching out a hand, "Just gimme control for a little bit, and afterwards, you can even forget I was there in the first place."

Hesitantly, Sebastian reached his hand out toward this alternate version of himself, slowly taking hold of it, going into a state of shock the second they made contact.

"You felt that didn't you?" his alternate form asked, a large smile on his face.

"Yeah... What did you do?" Sebastian responded, confused as he felt a new form of energy surge throw his body.

"Simple, I activated what would've stayed dormant in your body without my intervention... You can thank me later."

After that, the darkness faded, and once again, Sebastian was on the battlefield, facing Corniellia who had taken a large step back from him.

"What... Happened?" she asked, incredible amounts of confusion clouding her brain, "Why do I suddenly feel... In danger?"

Sebastian chuckled as all his wounds rapidly regenerated, his hands in his pockets while he gently stepped forward, cracking his neck on both sides before holding both arms outwards and wearing a greedy smile on his face.

"I think it's about time we stop playing around... Don't you?"

<Chapter 14: End>