CHAPTER 12:
With Preston leaning over his shoulder Haru stepped in the base
At first glance Garcia and Matthew were playing chess
Utter bewilderment from the boy. He cleared his throat to make his presence noticed
Both Matthew and Garcia looked up from the chess board, stopping their game
“Help me out here”
The both of them looked at each other momentarily in silence, deciding who was gonna help Haru
(Move)
(No, you move)
Reluctantly got up from his seat to help, walking over to them
Helping Haru to get him to lay Preston on the couch
Coming out of the kitchen, Sylvia lazily rubbed her eyes, seeing the three of them near or at the couch
With a huffed Haru averted his gaze towards Sylvia
“You certainly calmed down”
“Shut it, I have my moments when I'm angry”
“Also, mind explaining who that guy is on the couch?”
“That's Preston, the holy being that I met and battled with in England”
From the corner Garcia sat back down, opposite Matthew
“He's an odd dude, but everyone here is odd anyways”
Albeit it reluctantly Sylvia nodded at Garcia' s words, almost finding them amusing
“And why does he look so beat up”
“Because of mental fatigue, or something, also where is Annabelle?”
“She is in the kitchen, she dragged me to there to cheer me up, she really loves cooking”
“She loves cooking? That's hard to believe actually”
“Why so? It's her hobby, she can do whatever she wants with it”
Matthew intercepted, giving his own opinion
From the couch Preston slowly regained his vitals, now sitting on the couch
“Careful there, dude. I think you need a few more minutes to fully recover”
“Don't worry about me, I feel fine, nothing too serious”
While humming Annabelle came out of the kitchen with a spoon in her hand
“Haru, you've returned. How was your venture to England”
“It was definitely gloomy, but besides that, it seems that you have a hobby that I didn't know about”
His eyes turned soft as he spoke
At the mention of her hobby Annabelle's cheeks turned a pink hue
“Oh, uhh, you mean my cooking, well it's one of my favorite things to do”
That was surprising. She was actually human(on a spiritual level) and not a total ice queen
After all he was used to her being an infuriating ice queen, so this changed surprised him
“Hello? Earth calls to Haru”
Sylvia waved her hand in front of Haru's face
He snapped out of his thoughts as Sylvia called him, blinking profusely
More than anything he wanted to change the subject before Sylvia could question him about what he was thinking
“So uhh I assume that I'm going 3/3 in a day?”
“Absolutely not, 2 holy beings are enough for you in one day”
Although she picked up on the quick change of subject from Haru, she didn't say anything about it
A sweat comically dripped down the side of Haru's face. After all, he knew that there was no debating with Sylvia when she was serious
“And where do you suppose that I sleep?”
“On my bed, the couches are all full now. When we started out, I didn't think about that problem”
“Then why don't you renovate the place?”
As Sylvia was about to say something, but she closed her mouth midway, Haru was actually making a good point
“That's, actually a good idea, huh, a broken clock is right twice a day”
“I don't want to banter with you unless it's necessary”
But a slight sense of confidence stirred inside her
Almost bored Matthew tilted his head a bit with his chin resting on his hand
“You two are unbelievable”
The both(Haru and Sylvia) of them huffed in annoyance, but neither of them would say anything
Slowly Haru stood up from the couch and headed towards Sylvia's room, closing the door behind him
A visible bulge(of anger) could be seen on Sylvia's head
“The nerve of this kid”
All the other holy beings in the house could only look at her with slight fear in a cartoonish way
Then he slumped down on the bed and let his eyes close. The bed felt like a rock to him at first so he couldn't sleep, eventually getting around to it
Sweating all night was inevitable, it made him twist in bed frantically all night, presumably a nightmare
When the morning came, he was still sleeping at like 10 pm, so they all collectively agreed upon waking him up
Discreetly Mattnew opened the door of the room to look around and with the corner of his eyes, seeing him on the bed sleeping
With his hand behind his back taking out the bottle of water that he had with him, he opened it and deciding to splash it on Haru to wake him up
Immediately Haru awoke, his body jerking in random directions, now standing with his elbows on the bed sweating and now soaking wet
“You idiot! What the hell are you thinking?!”
He yelled out in cartoonish frustration,
it was like steam blowing off the top of his head
Yet again Matthew was bored. It was too early in the morning for shit like this, even for him
“Don't take it personally. We all agreed to wake you up, but no one ever specified the method, so”
“You little!”
The boy huffed, barely managing his composure
Without a word Matthew rolled his eyes and walked back towards the living room…
“That prick”
Begrudgingly Haru got up from bed
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
As usual he went through a normal daily routine, stumbling his way into the living room, fixing his socks
The rest looked up from their lunch
“You do sleep like a rock”
Whilst munching on cereal Sylvia said
At her choice of breakfast the boy raised both eyebrows
“I didn't expect an elf to eat cereal of all things”
“Oh shut up”
Followed by a deep sigh
“So anyways, it's safe to say that I'm going to Russia today?”
Wordlessly Slvia nodded and pointed towards Annabelle
Scratching his head Haru looked at her, with a big exclamation mark above it(the head)
Golden hair fell down when Annabelle loosened her hair tie
“She means that I'm going with you today”
Hastily H shifted his gaze to Annabelle, a bit surprised that she straightened her hair but ignored it for now
“I don't think that's necessary”
“There's no room for discussion”
“If you're so certain about this, then how strong is my next opponent? I mean our next opponent, going to be?”
Sleepily Hooked up from his bowl of Ramen, having stayed super all night to help Sylvia with the data
“She's a great model of Russia, their pride and joy actually, and their bigger ambassador, her name is Sasha dostoevsky”
“They say that she's the ice queen of Russia, don't know what that means though”
A mental note of sorts popped up in his head, immediately recognizing her last name in the process, which was that a descent of a great author
Now standing beside him, Annabelle nudged him
“Have you even eaten yet?”
“I'll do it later, don't worry about it”
Was that a concern? No it can't be
This once Haru wandered outloud
Unintentionally Preston quirked an eyebrow
“Oh come on, you seem like a kicked puppy”
Without another warning, Annabelle grabbed his arm and teleported to Russia, specifically in its most iconic site, the Kremlin
The suddenness of the teleportation made Haru almost fall at landing
In one move Annabelle caught him by the waist and tried to stabilize him
“Are you ok?”
“I'm ok, thanks”
Her cheeks burned up slightly as she averted her gaze, pretending like nothing even happened
At the sight of it Hqru shifted his gaze upwards, the Kremlin, the snow that fell slowly pelted everything that it fell down upon the streets, buildings, and whatnot
Because of the snow the streetlights were off and the snowstorm didn't help
They could hardly see anything there which made it even more obvious
He couldn't help but marble at the kremlin from afar
A short while after Annabelle let go of his waist
They both walked a bit on the street of the red square before stopping for a bit
Then Annabelle turned to Haru once again
“You can feel that too, right?”
Looking straight into the distance Haru nodded, he couldn't exactly place it, but he could feel a strong presence
In mere moments Annabelle was ready, whereas Haru was not as ready
Out of the blue, a skeleton arm emerged from the ground, wrapping around Haru's leg
Acted quickly Annabelle impaled it and broke its arm with her spear, in anger she stomped on its head
“Just as I feared, the army of the undead and the rings of solomon”
Wearily Annabelle said
Disgusted Haru kicked the bones off his feet, now more ready
A silhouette in the distance started walking towards them admit the snow
Sasha then spoke up, looking directly at them
“What are you two punks doing on my soil?”
Looking back at her it was clear what type of person she is, just from her first sentence
(Figures, he did say ice queen after all…)
Brazingly she walked through the snow towards them, snow became thicker by the second around her
“I've been stepping other people's turfs for a while now, I'm used to it”
Said Haru sarcastically
The grip on Annabelle's smeared tightened, a lot
“That's just called insolence, you brat”
“Call it what you want. I don't care, but I'm here to recruit you, like it or not”
At the mere thought of it Sasha scoffed, having never before been subjected by anybody before
“How utterly amusing, I suppose I should let my powers speak for themselves”
An army of skeletons arose from the ground up and surrounded her, all with swords in their hands and crazed expressions, with a green glow coming out of their hollow eye sockets
Feeling a tingling sense in his bones Haru tensed up, now getting into an offensive position
Absent mindedly Sasha played a bit with the rings of Solomon, who she wore on the fingers of her right arm, golden and shining in the light but not at the moment due to the snow
“What are you fools waiting for? Attack those other fools”
The skeletons all at once charged forwards not even thinking about it twice. Least to say they were completely under her control
With lightning fast pace Annabelle stepped forward, her feet dragging under the snow, creating a tunnel
While Haru was fast enough to counter, stepping back, clearly startled
Using her elbow Annabelle aimed at their head with her spear, taking multiple hits just to kill one as she swung the spear around
“Are you hanging in there?”
Over the field Haru yelled out at her
“I'm just fine!”
While pushing one half skeleton off with her arm
Watching the fight Sasha stood there chuckling to herself, thoroughly amused
The skeletons were primarily targeting them with their swords
They were aiming at their chest or neck primarily
But that was with no technique other than plain forward slashing, so it was easy to take them out
At blinding speeds the spear of Longinus flew by, piercing 5 skulls at once, and immediately returning to her
A few bloody bruises appeared on the boys cheeks, from the ice cold fingers grabbing at him
“Get your hands off him already!”
Said an angry Annabelle as she hurled the spear right past his head
“CRAAASH!”
A very loud shattering sound erupted as the skeletons around Haru were hit
“Thank you, you didn't have to…”
“Don't mind it, keep your head up for now”
The two of them were separated although not by that much
When some of them cleared out, Annabelle's and Haru's back touched as they were both locked in the battle
“Not only are they many of them, but they are also very durable”
“And even if we break them down, she just keeps summoning more and more of them. It's like she has an endless supply of the undead”
Swiftly Annabelle pushed her back against his to get off, then the battle continued
Unconsciously of her, she had left her right side wide open for an attack, and one of the skeletons caught wind of it
Stabbing her to the side
Blood dripped down the skeletons sword as Annabelle gasped and grunted in pain, a bit of blood also spilling from her mouth
In her rage, she pierced its head and twisted the spear inside the skull so that the skull broke in half
Not from afar Haru heard her voice, which was in pain, and turned around seeing the situation, quickly rushing to her side to heal her wound
“Thanks”
Huffing and puffing Annabelle gave him a quick glance as her eyes softened slightly
“Don't mention it, you gotta stay on your feet, you shouldn't let any opening, seems like these things are also aware for their surroundings”
Her back now straightening thanks to the healing
As the battle raged on, it also remained stagnated as it was a repeat
They were once again slightly separated, however they held their own surprisingly well
Heads scattered left and right, landing in the snow, flesh and blood spilled on the snow as well
Even if Haru and Annabelle would kill off the skeletons just for Sasha to summon even more
However they didn't want to be separated, it just happened that they were encircled due to the opponents sheer number
The snow was painted by Annabelle's blood as Haru kept healing her. Even she, as an experienced fighter, couldn't do much against a swarm
Eventually, Sasha got bored of the ordeal and decided to take matters into her own hands
(This is taking too long and I haven't played yet, my turn)
It was so easy to her that it almost seemed like a play. In fact this was all her battles up until now
Everything seemed like child's play to her because of her holy relics ability
She dashed forward, passing through her skeleton army, and landed in front of them
Both Annabelle and Haru remained silent and stationary, absent mindedly he was holding her shoulder for support
“Bravo, you two have done a fantastic job against my army of the undead, I applaud as I have not seen even a single person stand up against my army”
Yet Haru's voice in response came off a bit breathy
He had learned across his adventures to better control his breathing and how staying calm greatly benefits him
“Earlier, the skeletons could observe and then react. That's an indication that they were once really dead, correct?”
“Correct, in a sense, you see they've been dead for a long time, the rings of solomon just puts dummy souls in them to reanimate them”
Before Haru or Annabelle could react, Sasha spoke up
“I'm tired of this nonsense, I should end this quickly”
Finishing her sentence, she snapped her fingers, and all of the skeletons disappeared, broken down again to mere bones instead
Sensing the danger Annabelle teleported Haru and herself to the roof of a nearby building
That would quickly fail as Sasha tracked them down pretty easily and teleported to that same roof
Before Annabelle had even initiated to teleport away, Sasha had clearly sensed something, a gut feeling
Looking straight at them with a pissed off look on her face
“Running off like that? Don't tell me you two are actually scaredy cats”
“I don't exactly fill my pockets with riches because of royalties, but I am still famous, so I think you should know a thing or two about how I treat scums like you”
With one hard raised Annabelle stepped in front of him, ready to defend him, despite the risk, fully aware of it
“You're all bark and no bite”
Amused Sasha chuckled and dashed towards Annabelle head on
Sensing the imminent danger Annabelle grabbed her spear with two hands, holding it in front of the head chest
Sasha then used a flash bomb spell mid-air to distract them so she could get a clean hit on Annabelle
Meanwhile Haru had to cover his ears as the loud sound reached his ear while Annabelle closed her eyes and endured
With a loud cracking noise, Sasha reached Annabelle and kicked the spear out of her hands
When Annabelle opened her eyes Sasha was right in front of her
She didn't have any time to react before Sasha stuck her arm right into her stomach, the arm poking through the other side with blood on it
In utter agony Annebelle screamed, which caused Haru to look up forcefully, his face dropping when he saw Annabelle injured
Abruptly Sasha removed her hand from Annabelle's stomach while smiling, stepping back a bit to let Annabelle drop to the cold floor
Frozen to where he was, Haru tried to move but seeing her this greatly injured shook him to the core
“Hahahaha!-”
Her eyes gleaming and her voice almost, joyous?
“That was too easy. All it took was a bit of spellcasting”
“You're not so tough are you, hero?”
The boy couldn't even respond to her in the state that he was in, his mouth, and touched twitching but not moving
When he looked down, Annabelle was on the floor, and he couldn't move
His heart dropped. Would his journey end here? He had to find the strength in him to move on, but he just couldn't
As Sasha took another step, the most unexpected would happen
The twins, charybdi, and scylla would teleport in front of Sasha
“Your crossing a huge line there”
Scylla said in her usual ice-cold tone
In mild surprise Lana raised both her eyebrows
“Well this in an unconventional deus ex machina, what are you two little girls doing here?”
“You better shut your mouth, princess! This kid may piss me off to no ends but ha also deserves my respect”
Charybdi pointed her finger to Sasha angrily as she spoke
That made Haru snap out of his stillness, glancing down at Annabelle before glancing back up at the twins
“He walked through our flames, he lived to tell the tale without complaining”
Scylla cut in, her eyes remaining stagnant despite the snow falling on her eyelids
“...”
On the other hand, Sasha didn't seem to be pleased with this involvement, casting a spell that aggravated the snow with a simple movement of her arm
Most likely reciting the spell from within as she did with the flash bomb spell
The abdomen rooftop was littered with trash after all such as cigarettes and papers
Most likely one of those caught fire from the sparks, but it didn't matter now
Haru, Charybdi, and Scylla brushed themselves from the snow while shielding their eyes from it
The wind seemed to have riled up along the snow, which made Haru even more worried about Annabelle
“Listen Haru, we will join your team, but only because we want to get revenge on you!”
Charybdi yelled out, struggling to find her footing
On the other hand Scylla didn't say anything, gently nodding from the side instead
“I don't know what to say. Thank you, guys. Anyway, hey, Scylla, mind getting Annabelle out of there for me?”
“Piece of cake”
Scylla said before she turned around and walked towards Annabelle, leaning down next to her on the floor
Hurriedly Haru contacted Sylvia on the smartwatch and informed her about Scylla and Charybdi
“On it, don't worry, they will be safe and sound”
Through the smartwatch Sylvia's voice came out rough
Then she began typing on the computer, establishing a link(signal) towards Harus locations and the base
“Thank you, Sylvia”
Quickly Haru closed the call on the smartwatch and let his arm fall to his side
As the link was established, Haru's smartwatch rang out the bases coordinates(voice message)
As Scylla heard it, she grabbed Annabelle and teleported there, leaving Charybdi and Haru behind
Mockingly Sasha scoffed at them
“Now you're on, princess!”
Charybdi grinned widely as she adjusted her position, her voice sounding exhilarated by the thought of a fight
“Much obliged kiddo”
On cue Scylla didn't waste any second
Using the power of the stone tablets(commandments) to cast a fire so great the it engulfed the entire building, melting the snow instantly and blocking the wind
Unfazed by the fire Sasha pressed on, walking slowly
Just about when Sasha was going to say something. Haru interrupted
“That's enough, Charybdi. I'm gonna need you to head to base too”
“But Haru-”
“I said that's enough. It's too great of a risk to let you fight her”
His voice sounded like that of a general, leaving no argument to be made from Charybdis's part
She sighed and reluctantly teleported away, although with some resentment on her face before she left
Sasha and Haru's gazes met yet again, now utterly engulfed by the fire that Charybdi had caused
“How cute, trying to play all tough on me, what? Getting tired of hiding behind girl's skirts”
“I am not hiding behind anybody, I can handle myself”
“Then why don't you save yourself or the people here? If you're so oh great, then be the hero”
“Problem is that you don't realize that this building is abandoned”
From arrogant and cocky to slight shock Sasha's face twisted
“How is that possible?”
“Although I don't know what's going on in Annabelle's mind, I can only assume that she chose this building because it was abandoned”
She couldn't believe it. She was being tactically outplayed. She had hoped to trap Haru in a dilemma to see him break down, but now that was to waste
“Tell me, Sasha, who are you as a person?”
For a moment she paused before answering his odd question, in the middle of a fight no less…
“I'm a celebrity, and icon, people come up to challenge me because they think they can claim fame for themselves, but all they do is make themselves seem like a bunch of clowns”
“I see, so kinda like Russian top dog”
“You're infuriating for that, but anyways”
Even though Sasha wanted to continue the fight, but he fire reached Haru and engulfed him in seconds
Instead of screaming or panicking, Haru just tapped his foot on the ground really hard, which extinguished the flames before they could seriously damage him or his clothes
At the action Sasha was completely taken aback by his actions, until now she saw him as a coward, one who hid behind others to save his skin but now she saw that was far from the truth
Anyone else she had met before would have run away insulted or tried to kill her, Haru had done none of that
She had spent her entire life thinking that all men were pigs, cowards, and savages. Now, she was being proven wrong
For a moment, she froze in place, her limbs quaking
Meanwhile Haru tucked her close, slightly taking in her stunned expression. Before he had time to properly process it, the flames had almost reached Sasha
Instinctively, he dashed forward and grabbed Sasha, holding her in his arms just before the fire could catch her and moved her out of the way
He looked around, noticing that soon enough, everything would be burned to a crisp, and the building would collapse
He could already hear the police sirens and fire trucks coming, so he did what he thought was best
Reaching out to his blackjack box and pulling out a rune card, teleporting the both of them to the base
The suddenness of the situation dazed Sasha
When she regained her focus , he first thing she saw was Haru holding her, now in a completely different place
In her shock she didn't quite understand what just happened, it was like a blur to her, she could still tell though that there was a fire very close to her and that Haru saved her from it
For the first time in her life , she saw a man in a different light, with admiration in her eyes
It was also the first time she was ever saved by a man and held like this
She had forgotten her ice cold persona while being caught up in the moment for once…
