Fragile emotions

After 20 minutes of continuous walking, Ender finally reached the neighborhood.

He tripped many times along the way and seriously thought of taking a nap on the dirt, but it was a bad idea.

He appeared from the same alley he had run through before and was greeted by the helicopter sound he heard while returning and bright lights.

Once he got out of the alley, a floodlight pointed at him which made him stop walking he used his hand to block the light.

After that, Ender heard the sound of weapons cocking. He tried taking another step but,

"We have visual on the objective! I repeat, we have visual on the objective!"

"Drop the man, kid!"

After his eyes got used to the light, he met several people in reinforced armor. Every single one of them had a helmet with the BB logo and was holding a rifle. One of them in particular was walking toward him.

Ender raised his hand in surrender without letting go of the man.

"Don't you know how t-" Before Ender could finish, the soldier pushed him backward, making him fall against a wall while dropping the man.

Two soldiers grabbed the ex-officer and got him inside the helicopter. The soldier that was pointing at him took a device out and scanned him with it. After some seconds, the device beeped and he said,

"Not a client. Let's move everybody!"

The medical team waiting outside the helicopter went back inside along with the entire platoon and soon left the scene.

Ender kept sat in place as he watched the helicopter fly away toward the BB tower. He showed them the middle finger while trying to get up, which he did but quickly lost balance and started falling again.

"Woah- Hey!" A feminine voice shouted while somebody grabbed Ender's body.

He looked toward the person and saw Loren. She had a plastic full of blue liquid on her forehead and a patch on her neck, as well as some dried blood all over her hair and cheek.

Ender looked at her as he took his hair out of his sight and said,

"Hey... are yo-"

"Don't worry about me! Fucking hell... w-w-what happened to y-you?!" She hurriedly asked, "J-Jackie! Jackie come here and get the... t-that-... the blue thing, quickly!"

"Don't shout, please... I beg you..."

Ender looked to the side and saw Jackie running toward him with three plastics with blue liquid. He quickly put them where he had the most bruises, his chest, neck, and another one for the back.

"Damn kid... you got yourself a nice beating."

He stood up, this time being able to balance himself and not fall, though he felt that he was about to faint. He looked around and saw everybody gossiping and muttering about him.

He felt somewhat uncomfortable about this, but it wasn't the first time people talked behind his back. He felt a tap on his back and glanced to see who did it.

"Thank you so much for saving me, young boy... I'm too old to protect myself these days, it's nice to have someone as brave as you here."

Ender looked at the old lady who was bowing at him while thanking his actions. This was the first time something like this happened and had no idea how to react.

"T-There-"

He tried to say something but heard something else behind him,

"Well, you pulled a suicide mission and still got away with it. Not only that but you finally got rid of that out-of-his mind."

"If it wasn't for you, maybe our Loren would have been killed. She protected us from him before, several times, thanks for saving her."

The family who took care of Loren said as they smiled warmly at Ender. Once again, he had no idea how to reply to them.

"Yeah! You're incredible! You went there and, bam bam the bad guy!! And you got him far from home to keep us safe!" Their child said as he jumped in joy, "You are amazing! When I grow up I want to be like you!!"

Ender stared at the kid with widened eyes, speechless. People started complimenting Ender and his past actions while cheering for him. Even Jackie started doing so, putting a smile on his face.

[Emergency Task: Defend your new neighborhood from the psycho! (Completed)

Rewards:

- Unlocked Stat: Charisma

- 15,000 EXP (Host has leveled from 8 to 9)

- +10 Points to all stats

- Upgraded Skills: Dash (4x --> 4,5x), Appropriation (Common - Rare)]

'Finally... charisma.' After almost two months of waiting and trying, Ender has finally achieved Charisma. He thought that by hanging out with Alex he would get it, but seemed like he was wrong.

The relief he felt, the people cheering for him, and the wounds of his body still aching, was enough to make his last wisps of energy slowly disappear.

"Hey... Loren..."

"Huh? What's wrong?" She said while looking at him.

"... catch."

Ender's body lost all force and his legs succumbed to gravity, making him drop dead. Luckily, Loren was quick enough to grab him before he fell and called Jackie to aid her.

The last thing he remembers was Jackie carrying him like a princess and going inside his flat.

...

Ender woke up in a refreshing environment. His muscles felt as if they were being massaged by the gods themselves and his body temperature was the perfect warm he could ever as for.

He slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying inside a bath.

He looked around and with a single glance he knew this wasn't his apartment. Ender looked down and saw that he was bathing with his pants still on which brought some discomfort when he noticed it.

Tried getting up but felt too comfortable inside so he decided to lay inside for a little while. Sadly, he already made a splashing sound and footsteps could be heard outside the room. Whoever it was, was already close.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Loren muttered as she walked inside.

"I'm so fucking tired..." He said while cleaning his eyes, "I guess this is your apartment right?"

Loren nodded while getting a small stool and sitting on it.

"Since you fainted in the middle of the road, we decided to get you inside here and watch over you as you heal. Jackie already left though, so it was just me."

Ender stared at Loren for some seconds before muttering, "Alright..."

"Sorry for the question but, how did you manage to kill him? Literally, no one has been able and the fucking BB won't even intervene when he appeared... they even had the balls to leave you untreated."

"Same way they left you... unless you have their medical subscription or whatever that is. And it's expensive as fuck... Capitalism wins once again..."

Loren looked down as she scratched her neck.

"I just got lucky. Managed to get an impossible opening and used it to my advantage. But trust me, the word luck was shining on my forehead that moment." He chuckled along with Loren.

"I used to drive him off the neighborhood sometimes but seems like today was the real deal... he truly wanted to off me."

"Why though?"

"... I'll tell you one day, but not today." She said with a weak voice.

They both kept silent for some seconds before Ender asked,

"Are you ok? You got a nice bruise there."

"Oh, this? It hurt before but right now I'm alright. I wasn't expecting that amount of speed, really got me off guard." She said while touching the wound. It was red and swollen, but for tomorrow it'd be like new.

"So... Lighting, huh? Not going to lie, I expected Gravity or Water, even Fog. I know someone with similar hair to you who has Gravity Manipulation so yeah."

"At first I didn't really trust you so I didn't want to use my Element... but I guess that now that you saved me, well. No problem with confirming that you're right. Lighting Manipulation." She said before rubbing her hands together.

After some seconds of silence, he started getting up, then he said, "Can you bring me your spatial closet, I need these things dried off as soon as possible."

Loren hummed as he left the room and went toward her bedroom for her closet. Ender just stood there, sat on the edge of the bath trying not to wet everything.

If he used fire coating now he would burn his clothes and he didn't want that right now. After some seconds, Loren brought the closet inside the bathroom and closed the door.

Ender quickly took off his pants and underwear and put them inside. He instantly got them out, already dried off, then used coating for a split second over his body, drying it off, then putting the clothes back.

Sadly he did not have any shirt or anything so he got out of the bathroom just like that while holding the closet.

"Where do I put the closet?" He asked Loren, who was lying on the sofa while watching a series. 2:00 AM, and watching a series.

She turned to look at Ender and said, "Damn, you could challenge Alex to a who is more ripped competition...

Under the shelf, I'll get it back into my room later."

She got up from the sofa and accompanied Ender, who somewhat blushed, to the entrance door. She opened it for him and let him out of the apartment.

"If you need anything, I'm next door alright?" Loren said with a soft voice.

Ender's face instantly got rid of that tint of red as he looked at her, speechless. After a while, he shook his head and said, "Sure..."

Loren nodded and closed the door, leaving Ender alone in the corridor. He walked toward his apartment and got inside, greeted by Casper the very next second.

The black cat purred as it scratched his head with Ender's leg. He just patted him and dropped onto the bed.

He looked toward the ceiling with lost thoughts. They ranged from the fight against that psycho to the neighbors cheering for him to Loren taking care of him.

Taking care of...

'Did she really mean it...'

Ender felt as if his throat started hurting as he let little exhales escape from his lungs. He clutched onto the sheets while wrapping all of his body under them.

'She will leave...'

Ender started sobbing under the covers as he clutched his hair.

'She will leave like everybody else...'

He put his hand on his eyes, trying to not let the tears through but to no avail. His emotions, once again, were taking control of him. Ender chuckled as he thought about it.

'I hate this... they always win.'

He started weeping under the sheets as Casper lay next to him. Ender hugged him as he tried to contain the tears.

"I want to trust her... please let me..." He muttered

After some minutes of silently sobbing, Ender fell asleep.

...

He instantly appeared inside his consciousness after some seconds.

Ren lay on a mattress made of sand, still recovering from that incident five days ago. He would talk to Ender for some minutes before keeping silent again.

Ender stared at the nothingness for some minutes, until he decided to sit down.

He made a decoy out of the black sand, which he learned to do after some nights of learning, pointed a finger at it, and...

*BANG!*

A bullet made of wind came from his finger, completely obliterating the sand humanoid.

"As I expected... It really is destructive..."