CHAPTER 30 - I’m sorry III

CHAPTER 30 - I'm sorry III

I start running the moment I get the description to match.

All buildings blur past as I make my way to the eye of the storm, where the answers I have been looking for a while should be waiting for me.

I feel the intensity of the storm picking up and the pressure on the air rising. But as I get closer to the source, I notice it starts receding too, already getting closer to its climax and end.

Feeling the storm reach its peak, I take cover, not wanting to get sucked by the sheer power of its suction power. Seconds later, the pressure does a massive drop for a split second before a huge vacuum comes into place, trying to suck everything inside just the same as the last time.

I am ready for the phenomenon, so I don't get scared or taken by surprise, but it still makes me wonder just how much is the storm dependent on external help to come to life.

After the phenomenon, I wait a couple of seconds for the storm to lose strength and assure myself that no more waves of air will try to suck me in while I rush to the center.

I only need to cover a few hundred meters from where I am to reach the site.

A huge crater lies before me, with only a small pillar in the center standing strong in what probably was the eye of the storm, where that suspicious guy was probably performing moments ago whatever ritual he did the time before too.

I look around for clues, trying to see any hints of people being alive in the vicinity.

I slide inside the crater scouring for anything, but my logic tells me to go on top of the pillar in the middle that survived the onslaught of rubble and wind, so I climb it.

The moment I get on top of it, I realize that it is actually bigger than expected, probably a dozen meters in perimeter.

From it, I watch all over the cliffs that act as a perimeter of the crater, and I see him, the cloaked silhouette, walking away from the scene. The short silhouette walks away from the crime scene just as slowly as he probably came, without a care in the world, unperturbed by the result of its actions.

I think about chasing, but then I remember that even with that small frame, the individual is behind this huge destruction and crater I am currently at, so I clench my teeth and contain myself.

But I don't need to remind me twice. My gaze lands on the ground and one of the items I was looking for before comes into sight.

A bracelet.

One I remember my mom wearing.

The bracelet lies quietly on the floor in between a pile of ashes and a few more items, as if waiting for me to pick it up. Clear signs of the dead of all those prisoners as sacrifices for whatever bullshit that cloaked figure did to create that storm.

"..."

I take it and bring it closer to me to try to tell myself that I am wrong, that I just confuse it with a similar one, but there is no error. It is clearly the only one that could be worn by my parents.

As I look into the back side of the circular part of it I can still read the date and inscription.

Second place of the Muay Thai Fifth tournament on May 23

That must be the one and only tournament I signed for on my own when I was still hooked on my Muay Thai grinding. I was so fond of it at the time that I jumped straight into the competition even though it wasn't that long since I started practicing.

It was even before my family started making me sign up for various random tournaments that I wasn't really that interested in.

I have to say though, it really warms my heart to reminisce about it now. Year after year I started collecting all kinds of medals from various themes where I ended up first, be it sports, intellectual abilities, or something else.

Unfortunately, every single time I won first place, and each time, the title lost some of its meaning for me. There were some of the events in which I wasn't even trying my best and still won.

Sure, I wasn't the best at it in the grand scheme of things, but in those competitions against people… children my age. There was no competition at all. It lost most of its appeal to me the moment it looked as if I was the best in my age range without even trying.

Later on, I noticed that I was what you would call a genius, so all of those trophies lost the little amount of respect I still gave them.

That bracelet, however, is different. The medal that is welded onto it with a beautiful flower pattern is the one I won in that first tournament of Muay Thai. The first tournament I enjoyed to the fullest as well as the one where I was able to give my best and still lost.

My dad, realizing the importance it held for me in comparison to the other ones, decided to weld it to the bracelet he bought for my mom for one of her birthdays after asking for my permission.

I, who at the time thought it was a marvelous idea obviously agreed. I still think it was one of the best presents he could have given her at the time.

Sadly, as I look at the bracelet now, I can feel anything but rage. I knew I was weak from the start. All the martial arts and techniques I knew from before the invasion weren't enough to face off all the monsters that suddenly popped off from everywhere, so I tried to get stronger.

I tried my best to contact them, and I did. I should have gone where they were at the start of this mess to help them get out of there… but I chose to wait, I chose to get stronger before risking going there to help.

I know it was a good choice, I know it was probably a better decision than jumping at all these dangers without a clue at the time, but it still hurts, knowing that they are now dead, partly because of me. Of my inaction at the time when they needed me the most.

I stay still while I fondle the bracelet.

My whole life I was thinking about things, all while my real life was running in the background, never as my main focus. There were some instances that I took control over, just like that dreaded day in my childhood that shook my family, when I beat a kid at school and the adverse reaction of my parents made me craft that facade to the exterior.

Facade that I kept for years and still keep up some way or another. All my life not caring about anyone but my family, all of that, for what?

In the end, I left them on their own in the most important moment, where maybe I would actually make a difference between life or death.

'This pisses me off…'

The worst part is that I don't even feel that sad, I feel like the mask that I used to cover my face with all these years might have actually become part of me, making me not care about anything at all… and that is what really angers me, even more than the loss of my parents.

It's like their deaths are just glossed over in my head, running quietly in the background just as I've been living my whole life.

'I don't want this.'

'I don't want to lose my humanity or empathy because I refused to care… That's just… sad.'

I grab the bracelet with both hands and bring it close to my chest, where I bury it, trying to not think like that.

I stay a few minutes like that, but with every breath I take my anger vanishes more and more. By the time I wake up from my stupor, I don't feel any rage anymore.

Then it hits me.

Void.

Yeah, the void.

That's why the rage is gone, it all left when I realized there was no turning back.

I don't feel any kind of anger because I don't feel at all. There are no more warm memories filling me, I am now lost, forgotten by the whole world that I have been denying my whole life.

No, there is still something there. It may be small, it may be just a spark, only but a little spark in between the void, carrying the tiny amount of hope I still hold for the future.

'That's right, not everything is lost yet. I still don't know where my sister is.'

I close my eyes for a moment. I feel like crying, but at the same time, no tears come out. I am still living behind that mask that won't let me breathe, but I won't let it win.

This time around I am sure I will get there in time, anywhere it may be that my sister is, and help her.

I instinctively wipe my non-existent tears as I get back on my feet.

'I need to get back, there are still things I need to do for my plan to work…'

And I leave.

Making my way back to the battlefield I collect my thoughts, I try to recall the whole plan again to reassure myself that nothing is missing by this point.

I used myself as bait perfectly, brought all the herd of beasts to battle it out with both sides of orcs to buy time and then got my answers. I may not like them, but the fact still stands that I got what I wanted.

Now only my sister is missing, and the only place in the whole city that I have not searched before is the center of the center of the city, the area where the orcs found the child and were scared to enter.

I need to get rid of the orcs for once and all, and that was the plan from the start, that's why I brought the beast and threw them at the stronger side of the war only after bringing the weaker side chasing behind.

I was just putting everything into place for the three factions to battle it out and kill one another while I watched from the sidelines. That's what I am going to see now, I need to go back to the battlefield to assess the situation and choose how to act accordingly.

I get lost in my thoughts and by the time I arrive at the battlefield, the battle is already halfway through.

I scan the place and look at it from every perspective possible to decipher which side has the upper hand, but is hard.

Both orc factions fight it out while trying to avoid the hedgehog's focus. From an outsider's perspective, it seems as if the beast were a bulwark, parting both armies and making them go around them to fight.

All sides have lower numbers than at the start, but overall they keep more or less the same ratio, not helping at all while trying to figure out the outcome of the encounter.

I watch as each one of the stronger orcs takes on two or three of the weaker variants. Most of the fights in the middle are composed of orcs against the spiky beasts.

I end up tracking only the leaders of each army, which are probably the only ones that will decide the outcome of the fight.

All three of them are in the middle, exchanging blows. The leader of the beasts, a humongous hedgehog the size of no other has teamed up with the leader of the weaker orcs, the one who nearly killed me before in an ambush. The same guy who sliced everything on its way with his long blades.

Both of them are facing the leader of the other orcs, who to my surprise only has a couple of gauntlets over his hands to cover them and pack more of a punch, but that's it. I don't need much time to witness why they both teamed up and why they are still having it hard to deal any damage at all.

The orc they are facing really is a monster, with not more than his gauntlets and some clothes to cover his parts, he has the upper hand. His power is indisputable, but most of his advantage comes from his burning tattoos.

Just the same as with the female orc from his tribe I faced before at their base, he has ash drawings all over his body, in fact, I am sure the clothes he is wearing are only to cover some of them and leave to the imagination how much of the tattoos still lasts.

His immense raw power coupled with the sturdy gauntlets he is wearing transforms him into a deadly and resistant weapon of unending stamina. Each punch he lands sends ripples through the area they are fighting.

His contenders, while not that fierce or strong, have their own strengths and work around his scary attacks, each one taking advantage of their strengths over him. The other orc uses his speed to maneuver all around him, dodging most of the attacks and parrying with both his blades the ones he can't manage to avoid.

The beast, on the other hand, uses its enormous body to take the hits in the least lethal places, helping it tank a lot of hits that any other way would have sent it to the afterlife. Most of the punches aimed at its head though, are parried away by the other orc, who clearly knows that if not for it, he would have already died a long time ago.

The barrage of attacks from both of them helps them hold him just enough to keep up fighting. The moment they lose the momentum will be the moment they both get pummelled to death in a single bad exchange with their foe.

I watch from afar, trying to see how the tattoo's power work, trying to get some insight, but with not many results. I wait patiently for the fight to unfold, waiting for the best time to make my move.