Plague (2)

Olive lost her balance and fell into Natsuo's arms. She lowered her gaze and saw a white arrow stuck in her waist.

“Olive!” Natsuo exclaimed with a broken voice.

The girl glanced at him. Her vision was blurry because of the acute pain, but she still saw his worried expression.

“I’m fine” she said. “Because, as long as you are with me, I know you won’t let me go.” She smiled.

Natsuo felt a pang in his heart. Olive trusted him, she put her life into his hands. He couldn’t let her down.

“It will hurt a little” he warned her.

Natsuo unstuck the arrow from her waist, laid her on the ground and used his skill SPEAKERS. A healing song started playing from them, healing Olive’s wound.

Natsuo got up and faced the white knight. By now, the steam had completely disappeared, so he could see him properly. The boy’s expression was furious.

“Don’t you dare hurt Olive again” he said menacingly.

Plague stretched the stringbow, unbothered, and shot another arrow against Natsuo.

The speed of his arrows was increasing, so the boy wasn’t able to parry them with his scythe. The white arrow hit his arm.

Despite the pain, Natsuo ran toward the knight and slashed with his scythe.

Plague dodged the blow moving to one side.

Natsuo smirked. “I knew you would do that.”

He placed his scythe on the ground and leaned on it to kick the knight.

Plague was pushed away, startled by the unexpected strength of the attack.

“I’m sorry, Gregory, I stole your move” commented Natsuo.

The knight didn’t come closer to him again, fearing his strong attacks up close, and prepared to shoot arrows.

Natsuo smirked. “This time it won’t work.”

Processing new attribute…

New attribute created: SPEED.

He quickly ordered the system to apply the attribute to the songs that were still empty and create a new playlist, then played it on the speakers.

Plague trembled when the new song played at full volume. His horse took flight and the knight shot a rain of arrows from above.

Natsuo swung the scythe and, this time, his body moved faster than he could even imagine. He released bursts of sound waves that blocked the arrows.

Plague lowered his head slightly, in what seemed a confused gesture: how could the boy increase his movement speed in such a short time.

Out of the corner of his eye, Natsuo saw Olive getting up and running away. At least, she would be safe.

Plague noticed her too and charged an arrow, but Natsuo launched a vibration and destroyed his bow.

The knight turned to him, annoyed. He stretched his arm and a new bow appeared in his hand. He quickly shot a volley of arrows toward the boy.

Natsuo ran between the rain of arrows, dodging all of them, and jumped to reach Plague in the air, but without STRENGTH he couldn’t get that high.

Plague took the chance and flashed away from him.

Natsuo added the strength attribute to all of the songs in the new playlist and sprinted after the knight.

Plague turned to his back and tried to hit him with his arrows, but Natsuo dodged all of them and was at his heels.

Natsuo jumped toward the knight, this time he could reach him. He raised his scythe, ready to hit him.

The knight’s horse reared up abruptly and galloped backwards, upside down, passing over Natsuo. When it was right above the boy, Plague shot an arrow that stuck in his back.

The knight unsheathed his sword and flashed next to Natsuo toward the ground, slashing the boy's side, then went back up on the other side and wounded him again. The blood gushed out from the boy’s body in mid-air.

After the last blow, Plague’s horse kicked Natsuo on his back, pushing him toward the soil.

Natsuo hit the ground violently and spat blood. He tried to reach the arrow stuck in his back in vain.

His body was weak and his vision was getting blurry.

In the end, he didn’t accomplish anything. He thought that with his Rockstar System, he could have a chance, but he was wrong.

He wasn’t strong enough. Everybody thought that he could be the change, but he wasn’t even able to step up and fight against his own weakness.

He sighed. He was just a nobody. If it was Alice in his place, she would have already beaten up that white knight; if it was Gregory, he would have found a way to keep up with him; if it was anyone else, they would have succeeded in the end.

And he was there, dying for the second time in his lifespan of twenty years… He laughed at his own patheticness.

Natsuo heard the noise of Plague’s stringbow tighten to shoot the last blow. He closed his eyes, ready to accept his death.

At that moment, Olive’s worried expression came to his mind. He remembered her words: “I don’t want to lose you.”

He thought about her genuine happiness the first time they performed together, her soft laughs at his stupid jokes, her smiles that put him in a good mood everytime…

He couldn’t die. If he did, he would have hurt her. And he would have disappointed all of the people that believed in him.

He thought about Gregory’s happiness when he accepted to join Rockstar Isekai. What kind of group leader would he have been, leaving them after all those beautiful words?

Olive and Gregory trusted him, and not only them. The Anti-Silence Unit members placed their trust in him and all of the Blossomhyl region needed his help.

He had to be strong.

He clenched his fist and put at maximum volume the hardest song he had in his archive.

Plague was startled by the sudden change of song and trembled, missing the aim.

Natsuo unstuck the arrow in his back, put on a healing song and got up.

“And now, to us.” He smirked.