Scarlet 32

Scarlet 32

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Commissioned by Sivantic

Wordcount: 2500

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From my past life, I had an experience contending with beings far stronger than myself, however the same couldn’t be said for my two compatriots.

Yuuto was shivering as he ran and his eyes were wide with fear.

Quarta was incredibly distracted and hyper-focused to the point that she could barely run.

They both felt terror and didn’t have experience drawing out the courage they needed to fight.

But I had some experience getting people scared out of their wits to do what I wanted.

It started with simple commands that they could latch onto, which was easy enough, but those commands needed to be constant so that they couldn’t think. Here and now, in this dangerous situation, what mattered was their training and reflexes. I needed them to leverage all the blood, sweat, and tears they poured into themselves, so that they did more than just die against our pursuer.

So, I spoke.

“Move! Get up! Run!” I brought up the rear and covered for the two of them, as the manhole cover we entered broke apart. “Right! Go Right! Hug the walls!”

Both my companions followed my instructions and followed my directions.

And, they did so just in the nick of time.

Spears of light surged down the tunnel's path. They were similar to what I faced before against the Grigori that tried to seduce me, at least on the outside. However, just having them pass me by felt like I’d spent a day beneath the afternoon sun, and Yuuto outright recoiled when the bunch passed him by.

We barely turned the corner as the spears started tracing our path and began hitting the wall behind us.

But there was no time to be relieved, let alone launch a counter.

“Left! We’re going left now! There’s an intersection ahead and we’re splitting up! Yuuto, you’re going to fly and go right to get help! Quarta you’re with me!” Once, I just had to think and my allies would do what I said. As I coordinated my two companions, I felt like I was missing a limb without that power. I didn’t know what they were thinking, feeling, sensing, or doing. I had to trust them to do what I said. I didn’t like it. “DO you understand!?”

“Yes!”

“Got it!”

They both yelled, as our legs took us towards our target… and then the wall to our right ballooned and exploded. Cement and rebar showered us like shrapnel, but behind it were the chosen weapons of our target in the dozens.

I didn’t hesitate and threw myself at my Yuuto to drag him down.

I was struck, chunks of concrete and rebar collided with me strong enough to make bruise, but it was nothing compared to the searing pain as a spear of light struck my back and over my skin and muscle. My flesh and skin burned, my armor doing nothing to withstand it in the slightest, and I had to stop myself from screaming out or biting down so hard that my teeth cracked under the strain of my jaw.

It hurt.

But it was better than Yuuto getting hit by it, and Quarta was farther ahead and not particularly weak to the element.

For a moment, as I bulldozed through the pain, I thought that Quarta would abandon us… but instead she ducked low beneath the stream of spears of light and came to our aid with a grunt.

Using her great strength, she pulled us both forward and lunged forward after us and hoisted us to our feet.

I mustered my voice through the pain.

“Keep going! The plan’s the same.” My back screamed at me. Every move I made drew attention to the scorched wound that went across my back. I never knew that running drew so much from my back, until every step I took sent a lightning shock of pain right up my spine and into my skull. It felt like it was still burning. “Yuuto, get away as fast as possible! Quarta, if you can protect us in any way, do it now!”

“Right!”

“Got it!”

Both spoke more quickly and with more confidence this time. Yuuto hesitated for a moment, especially after nearly dying, but he refocused as soon as the odds became that much clearer and lost himself to his training. Quarta was the same, especially as we were farther from our foe, and she drew her sword and focused on doing her best to blunt the attacks sent our way.

I had to grit my teeth through every step, but I still kept surging forward… when the attacks suddenly stopped coming… and the palpable power of our foe slammed into us again.

But this time, it was accompanied by laughter.

“Run all you want, you pests! I’ll crush you no matter where you go!” A maniac’s voice came our way and I couldn’t help but grimace. Whoever it was sounded like they were enjoying what was happening. Logically, that gave us better chances if our pursuer wanted to play around, but the thought of being treated like a toy… made me growl. “I smell your burning flesh, human! It’s a sweet smell and I’ll make sure to slowly savor burning you portion by portion!”

That almost shook both Quarta and Yuuto’s resolve, but I intervened.

“Keep going. Don’t listen.” I pressed onward with a grunt. The pain was slowly fading away, but I was feeling a drain on my reserves. Ddraig was fixing me up, but even with my power enhanced by my Sacred Gear, it was a gambit. He wasn’t healing me. He was transforming and converting the lost portions into dragon’s flesh. “Quarta, I have traps set up in the tunnel we’re heading into. We need to make use of it all, if we’re going to survive. Yuuto, you’re our only hope of getting out of this alive.”

They were both shaken by the words and the return of the creature’s presence, but their shoulders squared and they both nodded and focused.

No words, just action, and my hope that they’ll do everything right.

That was all that I could do.

…

Propane tanks in secret locations.

Jars filled with nails, gasoline, and ready to be lit.

Knives, hammers, and even some smoke grenades made some basic chemistry supplies.

Quarta and I ran through the tunnels, using everything we had out our disposal, after Yuuto departed.

Even with everything we had, even when I reached my limit with the Sacred Gear I had at my disposal, we couldn’t do anything more than desperately survive as we were pursued relentless by a manic, excited foe.

“Yes, struggle! Struggle for your lives! If you struggle well enough and entertain me, then I’ll grant you the mercy of a swift demise!” Our foe was faster, stronger, and more experienced than I ever thought possible. My plans to launch an assault on him on my own had been practically suicide. I thought that the creature I’d face would be as strong as Rias, as she was a high-ranking Devil herself, but I was wrong. This creature might have the same amount of power, but its skill, experience, and training made that power far more effective. “Show me more, pitiful humans! Show me more!”

Quarta was breathing heavily now and she had small scratches and cuts around her frame. Blood flowed from them, even though the earliest cuts she’d gained were clotted and healing.

Since that first blow, she’d protected me stalwartly, and even interposed her body between attacks and myself as I used everything I had prepared within the tunnels. The spears of light hurt her far less than it did me, and she grew better under the pressure of adversity. However, in the end, this was a battle of attrition that we couldn’t win.

She was losing steam, while I was running out of tricks, while our opponent was toying with us and happily pushing us to the limit.

If he wanted us dead, then we’d already be dead.

But, I did my best to ignore that fact, because the more I thought about it the more I found it difficult not to give into rage and dive at my foe.

That would get me killed… but it was the only way to make him pay.

A dragon is not prey. You and I both know that. This creature deserves nothing but death for what it's done to us. Ddraig spoke to me with whispers. Unlike all the other times we spoke together, his power felt alien and immense in the back of my mind. I could feel him trying to restrain himself, trying to stop from drowning me with his power, and barely succeeding in doing so. But, if I give you this power, you’ll completely lose your humanity. I’ll give it to you only if you’re truly about to die.

I know.

The choice between dying a human or having a chance at living by becoming something else was an easy choice for me. I’ve already died once. There was no guarantee that the same thing was going to happen if I died once again. This life I had now, in the world that I lived in with the people I’ve met, was worth taking Ddraig’s power to its fullest extent. Before I realized how dangerous this world was, before all I’ve done in the last few months, I would’ve hesitated. But, even if it meant having to deal with a whole new body, with whole new emotions, and an inhuman nature, I was going to do everything that I could to survive.

Because, I wasn’t going to allow anyone or anything to take what I had away.

Ddraig receded into the back of my mind, allowing me to refocus on the situation at hand, and I could only grimace as I took stock.

“We’re almost at my last trap. It’s the most dangerous one, and it’s likely to kill us.” I spoke to Quarta as we once again ran. The attacks of our pursuer were sadistic. He aimed for spots on our bodies that weren’t vital, and wouldn’t debilitate us on hit. Between bursts of spears of light, there would be tiny slivers of the same power that were easy to miss, and razor-sharp. He could easily kill us by filling the tunnel with them, and he reminded us of that fact constantly while in the closing shadows. “I have a chance at surviving setting it off, and you don’t, so you’ll need to run.”

“I will not flee from a monster like this.” Quarta growled my way, and I hesitated to continue trying to convince her. Having her around increased my chances of survival significantly. But, if I had to do what I needed to do, then it was better that she was away. “I will kill this monster.”

“You can… later. After you’ve been healed and rested.” I argued simply and continued running forward. Quarta looked my way and glared at me as I gave her no directions. The path ahead split into three ways… and I held my last smoke bomb in my hand. It two glass jars, one smaller within the other containing the separate ingredients and components, and she knew what it can do. “This is where we part ways. Go straight up… or risk dying on your own and getting nothing done.”

Lisa would laugh at my attempt to manipulate. She could probably get this sort of thing done with ease. I was sure both Rias and Sona could do the same, too. However, in the end, I was more about action than words.

“Bastard.” Quarta cursed and looked ahead, before furtively looking at me as we neared it. A part of her thought that I would break, that I would hesitate, but I met her gaze with my own. Her face reddened with anger and her teeth grit, as she spoke again. “You utter bastard!”

I stayed silent as we neared it and I threw the cloud-making bomb at our feet, while dodging her attempt to take hold of me.

In a split second, she had to choose between three different paths or go straight up for a sure chance at killing whatever was chasing us.

She chose the right answer with a roar of rage and I was left alone with our pursuer.

Laughter followed me into the tunnels, as I surged towards my final trap within the sewers, for one last chance.

“How sickeningly brave. A human male sacrificing his life for a female. This would only be better if she were some simpering damsel instead of one of the Church’s pathetic attempts to recreate legends.” The voice was closer than it ever was before. He was closer now, as he could’ve always been, and a second after he spoke ai felt a sharp pain from my back the surged out of my abdomen. A hole the size of a penny went through me. “Well, at the very least, it doesn’t stain the flavor of the occasion too much. A little bitterness makes the rest of the meal sweeter.”

In quick succession, there were four more strikes against me that I couldn’t stop.

Suddenly, my left arm fell limp at my side and I was having difficulty breathing, as I rounded the final bend.

“One lung and one arm. You still have both legs and your right, so you should be able to entertain me a bit more with whatever last, useless trap you have here… oh… oh my… wonderful.” My pursuer laughed again as we both entered the tunnel I stored my last trap within. Suddenly, I felt two piercing blows at my ankles and I fell forward onto the water of the sewer tunnels. I didn’t hesitate to crawl towards my last attempt. “I commend you, human. If you lured someone other than myself here, I believe that you would’ve succeeded in trading your life for one of your betters.”

Gas and propane containers lined the tunnel’s sides. Glass and metal scrap was duct-taped to their sides. The detonator was electric and fed into several propane tanks. They reached all the way to the roof. Within the confines of the sewers, the explosion would be magnified, as would the flames, and the shrapnel would bounce in an enclosed area.

It was my best and last gambit in Kuoh after years of work and effort.

The creature pursing me rushed past me and appeared before me the first time.

Black-wings filled my vision, along with a male figure shrouded in shadow, until simple discs of light appeared all around him and cut apart all the wiring to my explosives in an instant.

His face was lit up by his attack, and a cruel smile played on his face, but whatever he said was lost as I placed my palm on the nearest propane tank… and created a spark within it, while covering myself entirely in my Sacred Gear’s Scale Mail.

All this time, I’ve been putting my enhanced strength and speed to use.

It was time to put my improved durability and defense to the test.