On the Sidelines

We rushed toward the wave of negative mana we felt. Each step sent a jolt through my chest. It was pathetic, honestly. I was trembling. My fingers wouldn’t hold still, and my heart wouldn’t slow down.

What’s wrong with me? I normally never get scared.

But then Akiko flashed through my mind—her body collapsing, limp… his hand impaled through her. The memory hit me like a truck. That was it. I wasn’t scared for myself. I was scared because I already failed once, and I couldn’t handle failing again. If I couldn’t even protect her from those people, what chance did I have against someone like Vaelthorian?

But I knew that I needed to push this fear away; we had a fight to deal with. We reached the source of the negative energy. It was just a park on campus. It was my first time being here. Wide grass field, scattered trees, no one around. It was quiet. Suddenly, we hear someone laughing.

I turned to Akiko. “That sounds like Yuno.”

A blast of mana flew past our faces, close enough to burn.

“Missed me!” Yuno yelled.

There he was, jumping around like a circus clown while being attacked. I looked toward the direction of the blast and found a man in a familiar cloak. The same cultist outfit from last time.

“You’re gonna have to do better than that!” Yuno mocked.

“Yuno!” I yelled. “You didn’t notify us when you found him!”

He turned mid-jump to grin at me. “Oh, hey, man! Look at him, I finally found one!”

“Finally?”

Another blast came our way, and we split, dodging in three different directions.

“You know,” Yuno screamed out, “Your aim really sucks!”

Is he provoking the Demon Worshipper right now?

I split-stepped next to Akiko. “You ready to attack?”

“Yeah!”

We took one step forward before Yuno suddenly appeared in front of us, hand raised.

“Stop it.” his joyous mood was no longer with us. Now, it sounded grim, unwelcoming, angry.

“What, why?”

He grinned to himself. “This is my target. Help me when I’m a puddle of blood. And if you get in my way before then, I’ll kill you myself.” The look he gave me made my stomach sink. He meant it.

But I knew that it was stupid to fight this alone. As I was about to step forward anyway, Akiko raised an arm in front of me. “He said he wants to do this alone. Let him.”

“What? This is dangerous! We can’t let him fight this guy by himself.”

“If he wants to do it alone, then let him.”

“So you just want to watch them fight?”

“No,” she said firmly. “We observe. Watch how he fights. What spells does he use? Whether he’s using negative mana. And if this guy has backup like before. If three more show up, we can’t afford to be tied down to one person.”

I clenched my fist, but I knew that Akiko was right. In this moment, we really couldn’t intervene. If we did, then we would risk losing valuable information and exposing ourselves to an external threat. Not to mention that Yuno could turn on us mid-fight. Our best bet was to wait and watch, something that is not one of my specialties.

The fight began. Neither of them used spells at first, just pure hand-to-hand combat. Each blow sent them stumbling back slightly.

“That was a good warm-up,” Yuno said cheerfully. “Now let’s get serious. And don’t hold out on me, okay?”

“Don’t toy with me, child!” the man roared. Yuno’s words were really getting to him. I mean, who wouldn’t be annoyed by that psycho?

Yuno unleashed a barrage of illusions. The man immediately fell for the bait, firing a blast of mana at them. Basic mana attack, nothing fancy. It phased through the clones, as expected. Yuno slammed his fist into the man’s face the next moment. That was the same strategy he used on me on our first encounter. As the man staggered, Yuno followed up instantly with another illusion clone, swinging hard. The illusion punched the man, and it made contact. Then it followed up with an explosion.

Another bait? Shouldn’t he use this opening in an attack?

As the illusion punched the man, a huge explosion occurred.

What the hell, the illusions can do damage?

Yuno then summoned a horde of illusory clones that wrapped around the man’s body, which blew up again and again and again. He didn’t let up. Not even for a breath. The constant explosions made it look like a firework show, but the only difference is that one body is flailing around between each explosion. As this happened, Yuno was manically laughing.

This continued for a solid ten minutes. Finally, Yuno stopped. He turned to us with a big grin and a thumbs-up. “The enemy has been defeated!”

“You picked up on anything?” I asked Akiko.

“The only thing was the fact that this man was incredibly weak.”

“Yeah.”

We split-stepped to him to take a closer look at the man. “Did you kill him?” AKiko asked.

“No, I can still sense his life force,” Yuno replied.

“Mmmm…” the man groaned.

“What? You’re going to have to speak up.” Yuno said.

“P-please don’t do this.”

“Do what? Kill you?”

“Please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this, please don’t do this—”

“Ugh, guys,” Yuno turned over to us, “I don’t think he’s talking to me.”

Then the man’s body began glowing a familiar purple.

“No! Nooooooo1”

His body erupted into an explosion. I stepped in front of Yuno and fired a blast of mana at the explosion. I hoped my regular mana could cancel it out. For a moment, it seemed to work, but the explosion grew larger. There was no stopping it.

As I braced myself, I wondered if it would stop. I looked back and noticed that Akiko was holding the explosion back with her ability.

“I can’t hold it for long,” she said through gritted teeth. “Get out of here.”

“What about you?”

“Just go!’

“Yes, ma’am!” Yuno said, immediately disappearing.

That rat!

I turned over to Akiko and ran towards her, grabbing her with both of my arms, then I split-stepped away. This broke her concentration, so the explosion released, but I just kept running and split-stepping, as fast as I could. Split step after split step. The blast came close, but I was barely able to avoid it.

“Phew… that was close,” I breathed.

“Yeah, it was… You know you can let go of me now, right?”

“Uh, yeah, sorry about that.”

“No, it’s fine, you were just trying to save me.”

I immediately thought back to what Akiko did. “And what was that?! You could’ve died if that explosion had hit you. I had a higher chance of tanking the explosion compared to you, so you should’ve been the one to run away.”

“You’re yelling at me for wanting to help you?! I just did what I thought was right.”

“I get that, but you shouldn’t be so reckless.”

Yuno suddenly appeared between us. “Guys, guys! No need to argue. We defeated the villain!”

I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. No one got seriously hurt, and the worshipper was taken down.

I looked at Akiko and sighed. “Sorry for yelling at you like that. I was just worried.”

“I’m not as weak as you think I am.”

“I know, but it’s just that I don’t want to see someone close to me get hurt. That’s why…”

A silence hung between the two of us for a moment.

“Aw, how sweet,” Yuno chimed in.

“And you!” I snapped, turning to him.

“Me?” He pointed to himself like he wasn’t sure.

“How could you just leave like that? What if I couldn't get us out in time? You should’ve taken Akiko with you since my abilities are slower now!”

“It didn’t look slow that time.”

“You—”

He was right. Somehow, without realizing it, I split-stepped at full speed. I guess when it counted, my body knew exactly what to do, even without me thinking much about it.

“And besides,” Yuno added, stepping closer, “if you’re not strong enough or fast enough to survive a blast like that… maybe you don’t deserve to live.”

“What?!” I glared at him.

“You heard me.” His eyes hardened. “A weakling who can’t protect himself doesn’t deserve to live. Don’t be one of them. I have a certain disdain for those who are weak.” Then he leaned back, smiled, and said, “Well. See you.”

Then he vanished.

Akikoa nd I went back to the explosion to see if there was any trace of him left, but we had nothing. We just had to call it a night and go back to our dorms. I had a big day, so I needed all the rest I could get. But when I got into my bed, something kept me up. The final words of that man it wasn’t like the first four at all. He didn’t want to die. He was pleading, even begging to be spared. Looks like not everyone is willing to die for this cause.

The more I thought about it, the more confused I got. I just ended up dropping it, worrying about that wasn’t going to do me much, at least not in my current situation. I just need some rest for my duel tomorrow.

Mom, Dad, I promise I won’t lose to him again. I won’t fail you guys a second time.