24. Chapter 9

Omen's POV

When I came to, I saw a dagger sticking a letter on the windowsill.

I have Mia. Come alone, Guardian. Meet at the place we last fought.

~~~~~

"I'm here."

I called out while cautiously looking around. The circus was located a few metres away from me but it was oddly devoid of activity.

"So, you have come."

As I turned around, Damon stood with a limp Mia in his arms. For a moment, I feared that he had killed her until I saw the rise and fall of her chest.

Damon threw her towards me, his eyes holding mirth. I caught her and glared at how he had mishandled her. Once I placed her on the ground, a black chain appeared in front of my eyes.

A poison ivy whip slapped the chain away.

"Cheap tricks!"

Envilia spat in disgust as she stepped beside me. The twins immediately moved Mia to a safe place.

"Ah... I keep forgetting that you have your clones." Damon drawled as he whipped the ground.

"We are not clones." Shiro declared as she stood on my other side. "But it's not like you understand who we are."

"Do enlighten me."

His fanged teeth showed through his smile as he struck again. I leapt back as Shiro and Envilia moved forward to intercept. Prior to our plan, we decided to do a pincer attack but with a little more help.

Blood bombs.

They were crudely made. When I suggested it to my mesias in the cottage, they all had a look of distaste. We all know from our lessons that a Guardian's blood was a nemesis to any being who was a follower of Dark Shadow or Shadows in general, so it would prove useful to this battle. Even if my instructors were alive, they would have agreed that this method was highly useful. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures.

I threw them in when they fought with him. He was distracted long enough for the bombs to land a hit. He wiped away blood that escaped from his mouth while he inspected the newfound wounds on his left shoulder and right midriff.

"Good job." He grinned.

"I'll have my mesias to thank for."

We exchanged hits while he defended his back from my mesias.

"Are the Guardians changing rules of fighting?" He sniggered. "I thought it was always about righteous fights with morals and dignity in place."

"You seem to be behind times, Damon. Who told you these things?"

His chain wrapped around Corvus, immobilising my movement. As I grunted to pull my sword free, Damon continued to fend off attacks from Yang with ease. There was a brief moment of tug-a-war between us. When our eyes met, he simply smiled from ear to ear at me.

Suddenly, the chain was retracted. Caught off guard, I fell backwards to the ground.

"Check your records. You should have someone called Zacharias Smith."

I scrunched my brows at the new information but also at his bizarre attitude. Undertaker was the same, giving off information even though we were supposed to be enemies.

On the spur of moment, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. On instinct, I raised Corvus to block the attack. The attacker was a Laughing Clown.

This time, it was a male.

However, he was built with the body of that of a hard-core bodybuilder with a revolting amount of excess muscles.

"Yuck! That's disgusting." Yang gave out a retching noise at the sight of the newcomer.

"A little help here?"

A barrel of water was sent over to knock the Clown off from me.

[Warning: You have 10 minutes 00 seconds left.]

Already?

As I faced the muscular Clown, I scrambled my brains to think of a way to take him down fast. Since those muscles were obviously a hindrance to his mobility, perhaps I should aim for a close proximity attack. I smiled when an idea popped into my mind.

"Yang, wet the ground."

Yang nodded and stabbed his spear deep into the ground. A makeshift puddle was made in an instant.

"Come on, big guy!"

I goaded the Clown who swallowed up the ground with big strides, swinging his arms around as though he was preparing to punch me into oblivion.

Like hell I would let him do that.

When he stepped into the puddle, I immediately froze his legs. He struggled and nearly succeeded from breaking free when a sword impaled his body, straight through the heart. The Clown's body twitched before falling limp.

"Brutal, aren't you?" Damon commented.

"Not as brutal as you guys." My eyes burned brighter. "These people aren't willing parties. Regardless of age, you used them as pawns."

I summoned water from the puddle to attack him. As I watched him dodged and spun out of the way, I motioned for the rest of my mesias to drop the bombs on him.

His eyes widened when they exploded around him.

When the smoke cleared, Damon stood there while holding onto his fallen right arm. The arm was no longer operational, so he threw it aside and let it dissolve into dust. With his missing right arm, bleeding left shoulder and right midriff, the injuries on him was more than enough to demand immediate medical attention.

"I didn't expect Guardian's blood to be so effective." He chuckled despite his battered state.

"A real demon sure has an insane amount of stamina."

"Of course! Your Guardian Demons are just an imitation of us after all." He stood up straighter when his wounds started to heal, a stump slowly forming on where his right arm was supposed to be "Alright, it's my loss."

I was confused by his words.

"But I didn't defeat you."

"Oh honey, I wish I could continue this fight but my work here is done. Besides," He winked at me. "I already got what I need."

In the corner of my eye, I spotted another portal under the dead Laughing Clown. It seemed he didn't want to leave any dead bodies behind.

"Omen!"

My mesias reached out to me. I was confused at their reactions when I realised, I couldn't move or even speak. I felt my neck started to bleed, slowly like a river thawing. I watched my mesias got seized by Damon's chain one by one, turning into dust when their body could not withstand the darkness.

I was alone.

No one could help me now.

Is this the end?

I thought in despair as I willed the magic within me to fight whatever was killing me from inside. But it was too strong and I was fighting a losing battle. I did not even know when Damon had placed something so frightening inside of me. Death was coming so soon for me as I choked on my blood.

I'm so sorry, Micheal.

"Don't lose hope. Fight it."

Suddenly, there was a deep voice. A voice that came from the Guardian ring. There was a screech in the air. A figure of a white-faced owl appeared in front of me. At the sudden appearance of the newcomer, Damon gave a tired sigh.

"What can you even do? She is already dying."

It narrowed its eyes before it swooped down to the corpse of the Laughing Clown, the body was still slowly disappearing into the portal. Its talons gripped the edge of the mask before quickly ripping it off. Damon widened his eyes in shock, then his face contorted to anger.

"Return that mask!"

"Or what?" The owl morphed into a man. Dressed handsomely in a monochrome black suit, his orange eyes held mirth in them as he held the mask to his lips. "Kill her? I remember you said that she is dying. But this?"

He waved the mask around. Slowly, he held it up under the blazing sun and tried to look through it. Damon panicked and moved a few steps forward, trying to take it back. I watched this exchange in confusion as I continued to choke on blood. Now it wasn't only flowing from my neck, it was also dripping from my mouth. It seemed that the mask held a secret that Dark Shadow wasn't planning to disclose yet.

"Nuh uh!"

The man took a few steps while shaking his finger at him, disapprovingly.

"Take off that curse or I will inspect what this mask is."

I had never felt satisfaction so great until the moment I saw Damon's troubled face. Knowing Dark Shadow from the stories my seniors had told me about in the Library, he was a hard man to please. Towards his enemies, he was cruel but towards his allies, he was crueller. Seeing that he was taking a while to decide, the mysterious man began to break the mask apart.

"W… Wait!"

He paused in his movements and looked up. Damon was sweating at his spot and staring intensely at the mask in his hands. A glint of triumph appeared in the owl shape-shifter's eyes.

"I will remove it. Just… just give that mask back to me."

He eyed Damon's outstretch hand warily.

"I prefer you to do it, then I give the mask back to you."

The demon gritted his teeth in annoyance. With a raise of his right hand, he snapped his fingers again. Instantly, I fell to ground. And I began to violently coughed.

Leeches.

Blood red leeches.

They came out from my mouth and ran to the portal behind Damon. When I had coughed the last one out, a little squealing leech which ran after his friends, my wounds began to close. Seeing that I was out of trouble, the man flicked the mask to him immediately.

Damon caught it and retreated into the portal with a glare.

"Count yourself lucky, Guardian. But you won't be so lucky next time."

As the portal closed up, I glared at what was left.

"We will see."

I turned my attention to the owl shape-shifter whose eyes twinkled.