Chapter 38 : A Tale Of Fury And Sound (2/?)

"Fuck off." Ajel coldly said to the warm embrace on his shoulders, as he could feel the presence of it fade with a bout of childish laughter.

The thorn spear was deadly and sharp.

But it was taxing on him. He felt like his body was burning every time he moved it around.

Ajel saw the man flash towards him, his dagger at his side.

Ajel clicked his tongue as he moved below.

"You can't run forever, little lamb!"

Ajel eventually was more centralised in the room, as Ajel saw the man flash towards him again.

The dagger was a fast weapon, and since the man in front of him was trained in the body technique, he couldn't run away forever.

He could escape... but he didn't want to.

The corpse in the corner was all he needed to know.

Seeing the dagger rapidly approaches his face, Ajel raised the rose thorn spear to block it, only to find that the knife that he saw just a moment ago disappeared in front of his face

where?

"Pinwheel technique, no.7"

Ajel could sense a presence behind him, as he invoked the power that the Tattoo gave him.

A massive shield made out of rose vines appeared at his back, blocking the dagger.

"How?" The man raised his eyebrow with questioning, before retreating further.

The rose thorn's made it so that he couldn't get a proper grasp of the boy in front of him.

"You're rusty," Ajel muttered, his eyes focused on the figure in front of him to make sure that he doesn't get busted by the man's sudden speed and die in an instant

"It was his fault." The man looked at his son's corpse in the corner with disdain. "Now, there isn't much time left, come and play with me, little lamb." The expression of the man was filled with raw madness, which made Ajel's upper lip curl.

He had gone completely insane.

Ajel saw his defensive power and knew it wasn't long until his defensive form breaks under the onslaught of attacks.

The art of daggers is that they are fast and unpredictable, like a snake.

The man had to keep going and attacking the upper half of his body, which meant that the man was doing something incredibly foolish in this situation.

He's trying to show that he had some honour left, by not going for his legs.

No, this man should realise killing his son was the last straw.

Oh.

He's playing with me.

But when he realizes his time is running out, he won't be so playful.

Ajel trusted his spear forward, as the man in front of him moved around the spear and traced his dagger up his spear, resulting in the dagger coming inches near Ajel's voice

"You're just a little lamb. You don't know how to use a spear, it's not just a tool you can just swing around and hope for results~" The playfulness of the man sent shivers down Ajel's spine.

"It's worked so far." Ajel groaned back, dodging backwards before looking at the dimension of the room.

"But not with me, little lamb~"

"So tell me, why did you kill your son?" Ajel asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Stalling for time won't help you little lamb~"

Ajel closed his eyes, before circumventing all of the mana in his body into his Tattoo that greedily indulged it.

"Tell me, have you ever heard the famous saying?"

The man stayed silent, his eyes showing a rationality Ajel recognized.

"Enlighten me."

"All children deserve parents, but not all parents deserve children." Ajel spat out. "You are the embodiment of this saying. You and only YOU are this. It's your fault, not your child's."

A loud sound filled the room, one that filled Ajel with a feeling he had never felt so strongly before.

Laughter. Sickly laughter.

"You see, i-" The man closed his eyes and started the monologue

The man suddenly moved out of the way, as a bullet went straight into his arm.

The man's eyes raised, as he looked towards Ajel.

One, two, three.

Several green bullets appeared around Ajel, as the latter looked towards the man and lowered his hand.

"Die."

these words rang in the man's mind, as he laughed.

"Come!"

An orange aura appeared around the man, as his speed and his strength dramatically increased.

The man's crystal knife absorbed the orange aura, its brilliance becoming stronger and stronger.

Several green bullets appeared next to the man's face, and a wicked smile appeared on his face, one that he had when he slaughtered his son in cold blood.

A simple swipe of the knife blocked all of the bullets.

"Hm?" The man looked down, before seeing that a bullet hit his other arm.

It was no matter, as the orange aura around the man instantly healed the wound around his arm.

"DON'T RUN AWAY FROM ME LITTLE LAMB!"

Ajel laughed when he saw that.

Ajel raised his fingers.

The man briefly stopped.

What was it? another round of bullets?

*Click.*

"He...clicked?" The man thought as a surge of paralytic pain appeared in his left and right arm.

"ARGHH!" The man grabbed at his arms, as he ripped the flesh out of his arms.

"IT HURTS! IT HURTS!" The man screamed while desperately attempting to claw the pain out of his arm.

Ajel watched, no emotion in his eyes as the man before him kneeled on the floor out of pure pain.

"What did you do to me?" The man cried out, as he looked down at his arms.

The bloody flesh that remained was replaced by a beautiful rose vine that seeped out of his arms.

The sensation of the rose thorns digging out of his skin, growing and expanding around his body.

"Make it stop!"

Ajel saw the orange aura fade around the man's body, as Ajel walked up to the man.

"Crimson glory, my sister's favourite rose." Ajel smiled, as he looked towards the pitiful state of the man ahead of him.

"Fuck...you..." The man said. "I shouldn't have looked down on you, little lamb."

"Oh no, I am not a lamb, I am the wolf." Ajel's wholesome smile caused the man to feel fear that overwhelmed the pain.

"What...what is happening to me?"

"The roses are incubating in your blood, and then they are going to bloom out of your body, revealing a shell of true beauty, unless your vulgar inside and you're pitiful outside. You should thank me. For me to give you a beautiful death that somebody like you shouldn't even dream of."

"You're..... you're The Virtuoso! you're the sicko who makes art out of dead bodies, you the one who committed countless crimes in Ionia!"

"Who?" Ajel muttered

"The Virtuoso-"

Ajel's iron leg smashed against the man's face, which made a revolting coughing sound.

"I have no idea of who that is."

Ajel activated his mage vision, before checking his mana pool.

"It seems I have to finish this up," Ajel muttered, as he grabbed his rose spear and held it to the man's head.

"Any last words?"

"You are not a wolf, but a meer puppy that does not know the chain of life-"

A head went rolling.

Ajel brandished his spear, before watching the spear absorb the blood.

Falling to his knees, a horrible sensation rose through his mouth as he threw up a large pool of black blood.

"All power comes at a cost, brother~" His sister's voice reverberated in his mind.

"What-did-you-do.."

He did not get a response as he felt a burning sensation come from the Tattoo.

What was the price he need to pay?