Chapter 67: Lessons

Chapter 67: Lessons

A hundred meters in the sky, was a girl suspended in the air by gray wings of skillfully manipulated energy. The talent it took to do so at such a young age was incredible. It was on par with the bloodline purity of an individual who was born into the main family of a major power. A person with such ability was supposed to be extremely rare, one in ten million. Yet, here was one such individual, about to literally fall from the skies.

Owing to the tendencies of a bird of prey, her eyes had long locked on to a lowly, skittering creature on the ground. In this case however, a slithering one. Eyes of instinctual fear looked up from above to see an angel of death readying her sword of judgment.

Gayle's wings flapped, and the stationary figure suddenly burst from the skies like a fired railgun. The surrounding air exploded from the force of her wings, and the sheer power left a ring of smoke from where she left.

Vera finally snapped out of her senses, madly commanding the surrounding sea of snakes to converge on her in a last ditch effort to leave her corpse intact. The snake vixen was hoping that they would serve to stop or at least obstruct the girl's seemingly unstoppable descent, but somewhere within her heart she knew that everything she was doing— anything she could do— was ultimately useless.

As the snake girl resigned herself to her fate, a trace of inspiration came down from the heavens, blessing her with a second chance at it all. The snake girl did the last thing that did have a chance of saving her life.

In a beg of mercy the young woman fell to her knees, the glistening lustrous skin of her naked body fell meekly and pathetically towards the dirty ground. The girl did not dare to look up at the sky anymore, and both her face and her breasts touched the red stone floor from her begging. Vera closed her eyes, trembling in fear and shame as she heard the whistling plummet of the owl.

BOOM!

She heard the thunderous sound of something powerful landing beside her, but she did not dare to raise her head.

A storm of cutting winds was released from the winged figure as soon as she descended upon the earth, and the slashing winds eviscerated the sea of snakes into sinews of flesh and mists of blood. Vera felt something sharp land gently on the back of her neck, and everyone else saw as the owl-eyed girl briefly contemplated on letting the sword pierce through her neck then and there.

"What're you doing, Vera?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean any of the things I said! Please! Let me go!"

The girl begged for her life, tears coming out of her eyes as she gasped for air. She started to cough and choke as saliva and dirt built up inside her throat from her incessant heaving.

"I'm sorry I treated you badly! I only ever did because I was jealous of you, I'm sorry!"

Gayle looked down on the snake girl with her emotionless, piercing eyes, but within herself…her heart was actually moved. Her mother could harden her heart by killing magical animals and mutated beasts, but there was nothing to prepare Gayle to end human lives. The few that she did take were those that she had to take, or else the result would have been her death instead.

Never did she have to face someone who begged with all their life to spare them, and never were they someone who she once knew. Killing was something she could do, but killing someone in cold blood like this…it wasn't in her heart.

"I was still your classmate and I still am! Please!"

Gayle sighed.

"Let me see your face."

Vera's menacing snake eyes long disappeared from her face, and what was left was the intentionally gigantic pupils of a docile creature. Tears were still running down her beautiful face, and the smudges of dirt on her cheeks served only to accentuate her pathetic conditions.

"Please! I was wrong! Mercy, please!"

Pity and compassion crept up within Gayle's heart despite her mother's constant lessons to push those emotions down during battle. She observed every detail of Vera's body. Her owl eyes zoomed in on the snot running down her nose, the cadence that her body trembled and shook— even the booming and erratic beating of her heart. All of it led to Gayle making the decision that decided her old classmate's fate.

"...Make sure this doesn't happen again." Gayle sighed.

A breath of air escaped Vera's lips, and her head fell down towards the ground again.

"...And put some clothes on."

The two forces saw the ending of their battle, and each of them sighed a breath of relief. Gayle's party because she had won, and Vera's party because she had lived.

"It's over…" Conrad said.

Gayle relaxed her senses and turned her back towards Vera, intending to walk back towards her group and resume discussions with the opposite party.

Vera's party turned their heads away from Gayle, and towards the naked and pathetic girl. She still had her head down, but contrary to everyone's beliefs, there wasn't an expression of relief or joy— not even anger or sadness. Her expression was just eerily…blank.

Far away from the scene, a red haired young man was smiling from ear to ear. Although Zan would have preferred to take the snake girl hostage(for benign reasons) he was still delighted that his friend had won her battle, and in such spectacular fashion too.

Hidden within the trees, an owl looked upon the same scene but was feeling a different set of emotions. As soon as Gayle turned her back towards Vera, all she felt was disapproval.

Vera…her expression changed. The trembling of her body stopped, the loud beating of her heart calmed down instantly, and the elliptical nature of her snake eyes returned. The empty expression she previously held was replaced with malice and madness.

The snake girl lunged at Gayle, and the owl could only respond once it was too late. Gayle swung her sword, but Vera already slipped into such a close distance that the range of the sword was rendered useless. Before Gayle could strike, Vera opened her mouth that stretched into a ridiculously, almost cartoonish size, and sunk her venomous fangs into the neck of the owl-eyed leader.

BANG!

The door of a carriage was annihilated, and a red blur came flying out. Likewise, the owl hidden within the trees launched itself off in a burst of extreme speed.

The venom spread fast and Gayle dropped her sword, yet in that same moment, the girl hid her right hand behind her back and signaled to her squad to attack. Everyone at the scene was too stunned at the sudden change of events, but that single signal Gayle gave to her squad led to one member successfully snapping herself into action.

WHOOSH!

BOOM!

The opposite party was just as stunned as Gayle's party was but the difference was that their leader ordered an attack before they could. Before they knew it, a phoenix made of flames flew its way towards them. The attack exploded into a fiery inferno, successfully turning two individuals into charred corpses and leaving another one heavily injured.

With her left hand, Gayle summoned all the strength inside her body and struck at the vampire sucking on her neck. All the frontliners of Gayle's party instantly rushed to her side, but ranged attacks from the enemy party were already heading towards her. Gayle staggered and stumbled, her body swung back and forth as if she was drunk. The highly concentrated and magical vision of her eyes quickly deteriorated, and all that was left in her vision were multiple blurry colors of fiery red.

…

Zan flew towards the scene like a bullet, intending to massacre the entire group into blobs of flesh and meat. Just because he chose not to kill didn't mean he wouldn't, and right now a murderous light filled his eyes. As he quickly made it halfway towards the group, something attacked him however.

BANG!

The boy flew into the stone floor of Eok, and created a hole five feet deep and fifteen feet wide. Something small had hit him, about the size of a crate, and the youth looked madly all around him to find what it was. The flapping of wings intentionally made its way into his ears and he looked up to see a white owl staring at him with those same eerie eyes.

Though, this time Zan did not have the energy to be creeped out.

"Why did you stop me, you little shit?"

"Do you wanna die!?"

"..."

"Why am I arguing with a fucking bird…"

Zan decided to ignore the little shit for later, and instead focus on making his way towards Gayle first. As the youth prepared to launch himself forward however, he was attacked once again.

The white owl exploded from the skies, making a ring of smoke similar to the one Gayle made when she descended upon Vera. The difference, was that there was a single ring of smoke left in the air by Gayle's descent, but there were three rings of smoke left in the air by the white owl's attack.

BOOM!

The owl's sharp talons tore a hole through Zan's human chest, obliterating all of the flesh and organs that were in the way at the moment of attack. The owl expected him to fall forward or faint backwards, but he simply stood there stoically.

'Is he still in shock?'

'Well, whatever. That should incapacitate him for a while…'

'I aimed for his human side, so it should take some time to heal.'

The owl leaped into the skies again, and started monologuing to itself.

'Gayle.'

'This is a lesson you must learn by yourself.'

'The decisions you make have consequences, and no one else but you has to handle them.'

'I told you to be vigilant, for the battle never ends unti—'

"Hey you little fucker."

The white owl turned its head a hundred and eighty degrees, and she saw as black blood spurted out of the boy's system and started to regenerate and even restructure his body. It was only for a moment, but she saw as his organs collapsed upon themselves to make new, black ones.

"I'm not gonna kill ya because you're her pet."

"But I'm gonna break your fucking legs."