23: Eyes
He sighed, not because he was relieved, there was no reason.
He made sure his blood didn't get on him by returning his shadow to normal, which was stupid considering the frenzy he unleashed on Eheron's motionless, torn body and and the wounds that long ago soaked his clothes.
He fell to the ground, sitting up, shaken, tired. He gritted his teeth, didn't believe what he had done.
If his teachers saw him, if Arkgas looked at him... he would be disappointed.
He laughed a little out of breath, each one of his joints ached —he supposed a couple of bones were broken —and began to swell everywhere, also didn't doubt that under his clothes he would have more bruises than he can count.
How could...? Why did he allow himself to get so hurt?
He cursed silently, he should have finished with that damned much faster.
"I… I have to stop acting like this…" he murmured with tears in his eyes from the burning. "Whatever…"
He swallowed the urge to scream and used his shadow again to get up. He felt several shocks to his legs and torso, but he clenched his fists —and his nerves made him suffer for that too —determined to overcome that discomfort.
"How pathetic…" When he finished getting up he deactivated his shadow and struggled to stay on his feet. "How bad I was..."
It was difficult for him to raise his arms, his legs were shaking a little and his face was pressing against his face with swelling. Anyway, he started to move little by little in the direction the others left, at the very least he was going to make sure he took responsibility for his blunder and go save those three.
Because no matter how many cracks his body has, he will use his soul to squeeze out every drop of vitality that it possesses.
"That Brat doesn't die without telling me that I am the Chosen One", he stated, leaning against the first tree within his reach.
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"Who the heck are you?" Garyon looked extremely irritated, indeed the pests are multiplying.
"Oh, come on." Andra moved fearlessly in Garyon's direction. "That is no way to treat Reon's disciples."
None of those present reacted to that name, which was particularly disappointing for Andra upon seeing Garyon. She clenched her fists and taking a fighting stance began her part of her plan.
As if she didn't know; Or rather, as if she had all the information possible and didn't give a damn, she ran straight to Garyon with the obvious intention of kicking him.
Garyon frowned. He was lazy to have to deal with cocky teenagers because once he applied the resonance, was over.
"Stop of/" Garyon took no stance, instead, the tiny, reasonable, functional adult portion of his being floated out to rub his fingers a hundred and try to converse instead of starting another absurd and easy fight, until…
One eye was closed.
...something surprised him.
He believed that a debris got into his eye, however, instantly he found out what had happened to him. In the eyes of Natsume, Echsos and Airys Garyon froze in amazement with his hand in front of his face, flushed with concern for one second and then relieved the next.
"It doesn't matter, my resonance will stop her" he thought and exerted his pressure on the giant who was approaching him.
But instead of falling to the ground like the useless Layd, she stamped her foot on his cheek.
"Now" thought Maryon focused on fulfilling the part of his plan. "We're counting on you, Erena." He took advantage of the surprise that attack was and, before Natsume or Airys could notice it, he used her boomerang to appear next to Layd and Airys and place a dagger on her neck.
"See this?" he asked her as Airys was sweating nervously. "I don't want to kill /"
Like a gust of wind Natsume moved closer until she was in the air behind Maryon. That second was intense. Maryon didn't quite understand how she did it, but that didn't stop him from acting on reflexes and setting up the dagger to assassinate Airys. Natsume prepared to finish him off with a powerful kick to the back of the neck. And Airys had only one very stupid idea.
One eye was closed.
Natsume's kick was blocked by a mirror image of herself hitting shins with her in a thunderous manner. She hurt a ton, however, what caused her panic was the belief that she was going to lose them.
To her surprise the dagger had been caught between the blue haired girl's teeth. Airys opened her mouth wide as she pulled it back and then closed it as hard as she could, and while she ended up with injuries to the edges of her mouth from the edge, she was able to avoid dying immediately.
Maryon slid the dagger, ripping Airys's cheeks even further, so that he could get away from there as soon as possible, grateful to have been saved by Erena's resonance.
About forty meters from the scene of the conflict, covered by bushes, Erena sat with her eyes wide open. The beautiful amber color of her iris —like the rest of her eyes —had been replaced by a dull black, and an aberrant dark eye opened on her forehead.
It was terrifying for them to realize it.
In the trees, on the ground, even on the leaf Airys was holding, amber eyes sprang up and stared at them like in Layd's worst of most surreal dreams.
The plan was in motion.
Airys resisted the urge to scream in pain, covered her mouth with her hand and stood up. Natsume saw the intentions of Maryon to launch that boomerang to where Echsos was and wanted to go to prevent it, however ...
One eye was closed.
Suddenly, his vision blurred and her depth perception grew smaller than an ant. She felt that if she took a step she would end up crashing into one of the trees in the background because of the exaggerated distance that her eyes transmitted to her.
One eye was closed.
"Move Echsos!" She screamed desperately at her stepbrother and that fear multiplied when she, with her incomplete vision, understood that Echsos also had that effect applied to his eyes... and even worse.
Echsos, in addition to the cloudy vision, suffered an extreme headache because what his right eye saw was exchanged with his left. He put his hands to his face and squeezed his eyelids with the intention of escaping from that suffering and began to move to the place from which Natsume screamed.
It was obvious that he would be an easy target for Maryon, in fact, he didn't even need to use his resonance, a good blow to the neck and it was all over.
Natsume gritted her teeth and started to cut off her stepbrother for cover. With the help of her resonance, she left a trace of that silver breath and traveled the distance between them just in time to stop that boomerang… if she had gone the right way.
It was worse than she imagined, the depth seemed irrelevant compared to the new visual defect that she discovered: Everything was a little more to the right.
Although she measured the distance well, she completely missed the angle. Echsos was two and half meters from her, out of her field of vision, consequently blind and vulnerable as an infant, with no escape.
The boomerang was about to hit Echsos' neck if it hadn't been for that surprise gale that deflected it just enough to save him. Airys summoned Hojita again just in time and the fairy sensing the intense desire of her friend appeared causing that elemental phenomenon.
Maryon transported himself to catch his boomerang and once he had done that, threw it in such a way that its trajectory was a parable to the left of Echsos and he didn't hesitate to start running on the other side with the dagger in hand.
Neither Airys nor Hojita thought, they could not afford that luxury with the little time slipping from their fingers. Hojita prepared another attack of air to interfere with the projectile and Airys ran to catch up with Echsos before Maryon. A perfect synchrony of trust. They were going to make it.
But…
One eye was closed.
Airys experienced firsthand what it was like to see the world upside down, inadvertently she stopped and lost her momentum. Maybe it was because of the adrenaline, she wasn't sure, the only solution that came to mind was to imitate Echsos and move blindly, a stupid thing that would never ever work if it weren't for the resonance of Echsos and the immense stress of Airys.
Airys squealed like a little girl, and Echsos, understanding the meaning of that, joined in the din to at least have a slight chance of locating himself.
Natsume turned and struggled to determine what the correct distance was once more, she didn't see the boomerang, nor Hojita; she supposed that the blue spot was Airys and that her brother was the weird thing that was going towards it thanks to his scream. What caught her attention was that other silhouette that went straight to them, so opted for a 50/50. She repeated the action from before, this time aiming at the middle of Echsos and Maryon, it doesn't matter who, reaching one of them serves her well.
One eye was closed.
For an instant, Maryon was able to look beyond her human limit and thus know Natsume's intentions, so he resorted to his last resort and threw the dagger at Echsos.
The next thing that happened was the culmination of that chain of actions.
Hojita successfully deflected the boomerang.
Airys and Echsos collided head-on.
Natsume caught Maryon.
And the dagger dug into Echsos's shoulder.
Maryon gritted his teeth. "Why the hell hadn't Erena protected him from the greenhead?" He wondered knowing that the answer was for sure because of the speed and because she was forced to support Andra's insane fight.
Still… shouldn't he be the priority?
His boomerang was going away because of that hideous little fairy.
Echsos sobbed in pain and gripped the hand of Airys who was straining to see.
He has used his resonance many times, if he goes blank, the plan falls apart. Without him, they will not be able to take Echsos life, the possibility of escape will banish and if Andra does not defeat Garyon they will be more than dead.
His limit is close, too.
"But I guess it doesn't give a shit." He ended those seconds of reasoning with that thought and ran to his last resort.
Echsos, unable to open his eyes and distressed to the point of crying, gained information from his resonance that stopped his tears and forced him to warn Airys.
"Here it comes!"
Airys assumed the worst, she opened her eyes wide although they overwhelmed her and processed that message with every neuron in her brain and concentrated her soul to cover her left fist with that white glow to attack him when what she predicted happens.
And indeed she was right.
The struggle between Natsume and Maryon that she was winning ended foresight and the only thing that made it worse that Echsos had that dagger stuck happened:
Maryon teleported to the side of the dagger.