The Tower - Part 2

While his brother continued to fall below, Reyes continued his battle…

After deflecting another strike from his enemy, he could tell that he was in a bad situation.

The thin cut on his face he received earlier felt like lava had been poured on it. He suspected his wound could have been poisoned but he didn't have time to worry about that right now.

His main focus was on surviving at the moment.

Even if he were poisoned, there were remedies that could be applied later. Dying a slow death definitely outweighed being sliced to pieces and dying in an instant.

Whoever he was fighting used the darkness of the stairs to attack in a true guerrilla warfare hit and run style. He couldn't track their movements no matter how hard he tried.

As he was conjuring up a counter-strategy, his body began to feel weaker. In his peripheral vision, he could see a tendril of energy leaking from the cut on his face. Snapping back into focus, he spotted another incoming attack and backflipped off the wall of the staircase.

A loud clang rung through the air as the dagger struck against the wall instead of flesh.

Using his aura as platforms, he jumped upward through the air while dodging attacks until he reached the entrance room if the tower. He ducked hard and rolling forward after landing, dodging the dagger that threatened to slice open back of his neck and turning around just in time to see a figure with a mask phasing into a shadow, disappearing from sight.

"So that's how you fight? Like a pussy? Instead of vanishing into these shadows, why don't you come out and fight me straight up?"

Reyes cast his eyes around staring at every shadow near him, anticipating the next attack.

"You are naive boy! I'm here to kill you, not sit here and talk!"

His enemy shouted to him as they shot out of a shadow on the wall with speed like a bullet.

Reyes leaned his body to the side, smoothly dodging the dagger again. He immediately reached a hand out, grabbing hold of his enemy with his free hand as they sailed past him. In one movement, he twisted his hand toward himself and swung his sword at the same time.

Thinking his sword was going to connect, he watched in shock as it phased clean through the person's body as if they were a ghost. His fingers, that once held clothing, were now clutching nothing but air.

Racking his brain to figure out what had transpired, Reyes somersaulted backward on one hand and avoided another slash. It was at that moment he realized the weapon he had thought was a dagger turned out to be a weapon unlike anything he had seen before.

The enemy was attacking him the whole time with a twin pair of Jambiyas that had handles made of bone and thin curved silver blades. Drops of strange orange substance were oozing from its blade, which glistened in the fire light.

Judging from how his enemy fought, he thought of a plan that was more like a gamble to him.

He felt his body growing weaker by the second. Knowing he might not be able to keep effectively dodging, he made the decision to go for it.

Jumping into the air again, he created a platform with his aura near the ceiling for him to stand on which placed him directly underneath the bright fire. As he did this, his enemy shot out from his shadow that was cast on the floor below him.

Reyes placed another aura platform a few feet above himself and as his enemy drew closer, he jumped high into a backflip, letting go of his sword at the same time.

Avoiding yet another attack and completing his backflip though the air, he positioned himself upside down with his feet pressed against the platform that he placed above him.

Launching himself from the platform toward the next shadow his enemy was headed toward, he snatched his spinning sword out of the air in one clean movement and swung it.

Splat!

Blood splattered onto the wall as metal struck stomach flesh.

Half of the person's body was still outside the shadow so this time his strike connected. Had his enemy been just a bit faster, Reyes's sword would have missed, cutting into the rock and stone instead.

Gripping the person's leg before they could fall completely into the shadow, Reyes ripped the person out of it and tossed them onto the floor in front of him.

Walking over, he grabbed the person's mask and tore it off. A scowl transformed his face in complete dissatisfaction. In silence, he just stared at the person laying in front of him who actually turned out to be a little girl.

She looked like a smaller version of Rachel, just with shorter hair, brown eyes and a less developed body.

It took him a good while to find any words to say.

"Aren't you that bartender's little sister? That bitch sent you to kill me? Oh, i am going to have a nice ass chat with her when i get back!"

He exclaimed, cracking his knuckles as anger swept through his veins.

"This little girl you see before you is nothing more than a pawn i decided to use at my disposal. Now that you have stained the summoning tower with the blood of an innocent, i shall take my leave. If i were you, i would quickly take my own life, hahahaha!"

Laughing maniacally, the little girl looked up at Reyes.

In her pupils was a symbol shaped like a skull, but as Reyes took note of it, it vanished without a trace.

Suddenly, a scream pierced the air as the little girl in front of him writhed in agony, her intestines almost spilling out onto the floor. Reaching into his coat pocket, Reyes pulled out a small vial filled with blue liquid and let a few drops of it fall into the open wound on her stomach. To his relief, her wound began to heal up and close.

Footsteps echoed through the room as Leezy made his way up the staircase to Reyes.

"Aww hell nah, a little ass girl was giving you problems? Or perhaps you have taken a liking to little girls now! Am i going to have to beat your ass?"

"Shut up, the girl was possessed by someone. They left her body before i could ask any questions."

Putting the vial back in his pocket, Reyes flipped his brother off with his middle finger.

After the girl's wound had closed they both looked at each other for a moment, then back at the little girl who laid across the floor unconscious.

Picking the little girl up and throwing her over his shoulder, Reyes gazed at the blood that had splattered on the wall while playing back the words that were spoken to him earlier in his mind.

The blood had started made its way up the wall with a life of its own, headed toward the bright flame that was flickering near the ceiling.

As blood touched flame, the flame turned green and the entire tower began to shake violently. Both Leezy and Reyes decided not to sit around any longer as a bad feeling sent chills down their spine.

They both ran to the castle gate, but a black dome shaped barrier now stretched around the outside of the castle, preventing them from going any further.

Turning back around, they quickly jumped back down to the bottom of the spiral staircase, grabbed a torch and ran through the hole in the wall caused by Leezy's fight. Scouring the room, they looked for a possible exit.

The room he crashed into turned out to have been the castle's armory and was filled with rows of rusty spears, swords and shields.

Torchlight revealed a door to their right that had a large painting above it along with some words that read…

"Tower of Azel."

The painting depicted a large red dragon spewing forth a geyser of green flame. Standing in front of the dragon was a dark silhouette of a someone, but the wall was too faded to see any of its features.

Kicking open the door, Leezy beckoned Reyes to follow.

They bolted through the door as a loud roar resonated through the tower causing the ceiling to cave in behind them, sealing off any hope of returning from where they came…