Medio: First loss

“If you refuse to do anything with it, how can you call yourself worthy of it?”

Atalan’s words bounced again in Ases’s head. He didn’t need him to verbalize it, all he did was put a voice for a question that he himself had quite often. When the beasts first invaded he thought it was a call from destiny to act, but soon enough he fell back into the same answer he always did.

I do not want this power. I never did, I never will, and I’ll never call myself worthy of it.

A strength like no other for someone who does not know how to fight. The ability to come back from death, for someone who is profoundly afraid of it. The title of hero, one who legends are built around, for someone who could not even decide what to do with himself. It was as if the world had played the most cruel prank possible for him, one that he would never be able to run away from.

But that same prank, that joke his life was now, was barreling towards a multitude of people who would die if he didn’t stop in that moment. But how could he? In his back, he could almost feel the breath of the enormous beast that was hellbent on killing him.

He would have to die again, wouldn’t he?

He was running at full speed towards the wall, and before reaching the people who were now scrambling in all directions, trying to get away, he jumped. He had jumped the entire city wall before, but this time, he crashed right into it, just below the ledge, grabbing it with his hands.

The beast was going too fast to stop, blindsided by rage, it also jumped to catch Ases in the wall, passing over the few remaining people that were still running away. He extended his hands to grab the fleeing man and tear him apart, but before he reached the wall, he disappeared. Someone from the top of the wall had pulled him out of the way just the moment before and all the beast could see was the wall he went through headfirst.

Herm and Ases didn’t even have time to take a breath before the entire wall was collapsing under them. At the same time, a black shockwave was shot in all directions, reaching every single person in the vicinity.

Ases grabbed Herm and hugged him, trying to shield him from the fall. When the shockwave hit, it felt as if all the organs in his body had stopped for a second before suddenly quick-starting back in motion.

They hit the ground, and immediately, Ases opened up his arms to look at his brother. He looked at him, apparently hurt, but still alive.

Then another shockwave hit, a white one. Every single person, even outside the city, even the giant telchine, hit the ground at once. Ten whole seconds went by, and people started waking up. Some of them were still in a daze, resuming their dance, unaware of their surroundings. Some of them needed a moment to realize what was going on and keep escaping, but some of them simply did not wake up.

And Herm was one of those that didn't open his eyes again.

“Herm, Herm!”

Ases shook him, but to no avail. He put his head to his chest, desperate to confirm that he was alive, and for his immense relief, a weak, but present, heartbeat resonated in Herm’s chest.

He had fallen asleep.

Thinking quickly Ases took Herm, carried him in his back and looked around. At his left, the gigantic telchine was getting back up after ramming the wall headfirst, at his right, the priest had now reached them. The priest no longer had his mask on, so Ases had to look to the ground, knowing what would happen if he looked at his eyes again.

“It’s unwise to run, herald of death. We are trying to be reasonable about asking for your help here, we don’t want to escalate this further, do we?” Said the priest, going over the ruins of the wall.

Looking at the ground, Ases felt as if he was starting to hyperventilate, but he could not. Herm was in his back, completely defenseless. If there was a time where he could not allow himself to falter, it was now.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was not aware that you had family in the city. You should have started by saying that!” Said the priest, stepping closer to Ases, looking at the man in his back.

Ases did not respond.

“I didn’t want to be unpolite nor commit any kind of discourtesy you see? If we knew, we would have invited them to the mansion with all the pomp and ceremony that a relative of yours deserves. Yes… they deserve that kind of celebration, how blind I was, to not see that there was someone so deserving of my love in this city, don’t you agree.”

Standing still like a statue, like he had shut the world out, Ases still did not respond.

“Surely they, just like you, would be able to appreciate it. After all, didn’t you feel my overwhelming love when you saw my face, just a moment ago?”

Ases raised his leg and hit the ground, doing an enormous stomp. The dirt soil cracked in several stones of many sizes. Ases’s feet had sunk a bit in the ground, hiding the fact that he had twisted his own ankle when exerting that kind of strength. A feat no one would now know, as his blessing quickly healed him.

The three of them stayed in a standstill. Waiting for whatever would be Ases response. At the end, it arrived not in words, but in his own actions. A determination that he reached when hearing the fate that the priest desired for his dear brother.

‘There is nothing I can say that will stop this disaster. That beast does not deserve even for me to deign his blabbering with a response. There is a single thing I can do, if I want to find Raz, and to keep Herm safe.’

Ases pulled his leg out of the ground, and without a word kicked the biggest of the rocks that had been cracked towards the priest. The robed telchine saw it coming and ducked down, but by the time he looked up again, Ases was already up in his face.

This was the third time Ases tried to attack him, and this time he could not even use his hands, as he was still carrying his unconscious brother in his back. But even then, even when the enormous telchine had now launched again to try and protect his master, he managed to reach the priest and finally headbutted his face in.

For the priest, it was as if the mythical beast that he only heard stories of, the boar created by a God, had come down and attacked him. The hide, rough like no other, did nothing to soften the blow he received, while one of the indestructible tusks of the beast grazed his face on the side, almost reaching his eye.

The priest flew back, hitting the ruins of the wall and losing consciousness.

Using the impulse he had gotten, Ases did not stop his run after hitting the priest. Running over him, he entered back into the city through the hole in the wall and immediately dodged to the right when he was in. Behind him, missing him by the skin of its teeth, the gigantic telchine had followed him.

At that moment, there was probably no place on the planet more dangerous than that city. But unlike before, escaping was no longer even a possibility in Ases’s mind now. He was going to finish off that beast, right there, on that same night.