Chapter 15:

Finishing The Fight (2)

MiracleBound


I stared into Trigger Happy’s eyes, and he into mine.

This is gonna be… well, fun isn’t the right word for it.

I got into the stance for Swift Counter as my body tried to remind me that I was injured. I pushed the feelings away and focused on the task in front of me.

While I was still thinking of what my next move should be, he spoke first.

“What are you doing?”

I tried to respond, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. Plus, it hurts just to breathe right now… My body’s so sore…

“Why are you protecting her? She was just trying to kill you.”

“I won’t… let anyone die…” I responded to him the same way I did to her.

“Don’t be foolish, don’t you realize how dangerous she is?” he said. “Look… It might sound hypocritical for me to be saying this since you saved me back there, but this is completely reckless.”

“Reck… less…?”

“What are you planning to do when she wakes up anyway? I take it you have some sort of super strength but that’s not gonna help you restrain her for long. Lofty ideals like being able to save everyone won’t get you very far!”

Lofty ideals aren’t the only thing keeping me here. I have a duty to protect her whether I want to or not. A duty on which rests my very soul.

It kinda sounds too noble when you say it like that.

“Are you even listening? You know her power don’t you?” Trigger Happy continued. “It’s Demonic Fury. Don’t you know what’ll happen if she goes on a rampage and unlocks her kaiju form!? It’ll just be a repeat of Bellum’s reign of terror!”

“How do you know for sure that’s what’s going to happen?” I asked.

“It’s just history repeating itself. Look, I get that you don’t like killing, if you’re anything like me it’s probably because something terrible happened in your past…” he said with a solemn tone. “But right now you have to choose between her and the rest of the world.”

How has this become such a big thing? Or was it always like this?

People are honestly afraid that Marion will start a reign of terror. I don’t really know her that well, but she always seemed like she was too nice… until this evening at least. But the only thing I can really do about that is wait until she wakes up and see what happens.

I also need to find out more about this Bellum guy. I think Lizz mentioned him back when I was in the throne room.

“Putting her down is just the lesser of two evils,” Trigger Happy said, disrupting my thoughts.

“The lesser of two evils…” I repeated.

“Yeah. Sometimes, that’s just how-” he started, but I interrupted him.

“Don’t tell me to pick between the lesser of two evils when there’s an obvious good right in front of me!”

“Huh?”

“I’m going to protect Marion,” I said.

“Why?! Didn’t you listen to what I said-?!”

“I did, but the truth is, even if I agreed with you I’d still have to oppose you,” I said. “You probably don’t know why because you were unconscious when I first got here, so I’ll keep my explanation short and sweet. I am contracted to keep her safe, so killing her or letting her die is out of the question for me.

“I don’t know the details of why you guys were fighting, but I find it hard to believe she would’ve started it. When she wakes up again, if it turns out I’m wrong and she’s just a monster, then I’ll deal with that then, but I won’t let her die no matter what.

“But if you insist on killing her, I’ll have to fight you.”

“I see…” Trigger Happy said. “In that case, I guess we won’t be seeing eye to eye on this.”

“I guess not.”

We both stood there staring at each other. His good hand holding a gun, my hands on my sword.

“I’ll make sure not to hurt you too bad since you saved my life earlier,” Trigger Happy said.

“And I’ll do my best not to hurt you too bad,” I responded in turn.

The only life at stake with our commencing battle would be Marion’s.

I’ll have to be extra careful since he can make the bullets bounce if I deflect them.

Bang!

I activated Bullet Time and watched as the bullet became slow enough for me to follow. I deflected the bullet with the brunt end of the blade so that it wouldn’t be able to bounce towards Marion after I hit it. Although what surprised me was that the bullet went straight down.

Why did it bounce towards the ground? Wait, I just noticed that it’s glowing, is that connected to how he’s bouncing it?

The bullet hit the ground next to me and shot at a ninety degree angle towards Marion, only now it’s not glowing.

I cut the bullet before it could get very far, although I’m starting to notice that I never got to cool down from when I used Accelerate earlier or from the fire style arts I used.

I need to end this quickly, I don’t know how many more bullets I can deflect before reaching my limit with this power.

I grabbed a small stone from the ground and tossed it up before activating Miracle in my hand. As the stone slowly came back down I lined up my shot and then-

Miracle Flick!

Thwack!

The stone flew through the air and smashed into Trigger Happy’s forehead, instantly knocking him out while leaving a nasty bruise. I think I accidentally used a bit too much power there.

What I hadn’t noticed was that the moment I had called out my attack he had shot his gun.

The bullet bounced off a nearby tree and, because of the position I was in, went through both of my hands before continuing through my shoulder.

Damn it! That wasn’t a fair trade off at all!

But if it went through me that means the bullet isn’t bouncing anymore, meaning it wasn’t any danger to Marion. That’s what mattered right now.

But does this mean today is finally over? What if Marion’s still acting crazy when she wakes up?

I should probably get her out of here just to be safe.

I began walking towards Marion to pick her up, but then I realized I was in no condition to be doing that.

My head began pounding as the adrenaline wore off. My body forced me to acknowledge the condition I was in. My knees became weak and started to shake as though they were going to buckle under my weight.

Shit. I think I’m gonna black out. How much damage did I take during all of this?

I fell down, an arm’s reach away from Marion.

It just dawned on me… I think I have the least likely chance of waking up first.

That’s… not good. I can’t let myself lose consciousness here. I have no idea what’s going to happen if I do. So I have to… get… up…!

But my body wasn’t on the same page as me. I had done enough, more than enough. I had recklessly pushed through my limits on nothing more than pure adrenaline.

Everything hurt, especially my right arm, and on top of that it felt like I had been shoved into a furnace. I could feel my eyelids forcing themselves to close, ignoring my will.

“Okay… maybe just a little bit of rest,” I thought aloud. “But, I need to wake up quickly… or else…”

I never got to finish that sentence. I was out.

\\\ Marion ///

Ugh… I feel so groggy right now. I don’t want to wake up.

What does groggy even mean anyway?

Well whatever it means, my head feels groggy, like it’s trying to remember something. What am I trying to remember?

I opened my eyes, the only thing I could see was the sky. It looks like the sun’s about to go away, giving way for the night.

I sat up and brought a hand up to my face to prop up my forehead, before I realized there was blood on it.

I suddenly remembered what happened.

I lost control of my power, of my anger, and violently lashed out. I got so angry that I tried to kill that bounty hunter, and then when Oliver stopped me I tried to kill him too.

I looked around and saw Oliver and Trigger Happy. Both were wounded and unconscious on the ground, Trigger Happy on his back and Oliver face down.

I really am a monster, aren’t I?

He was just trying to help me and I did this to him. He tried to reason with me and I just ignored him so I could satiate my bloodlust by killing that guy because he hurt me.

But I can wallow in shame later, right now I have to make sure Oliver’s alright.

I crawled over to him and turned him on his back. He looks like he’s in pain… his breathing is strained.

I pulled out a small dagger I had, a parting gift from my father. I cut open my hand, it hurt, but it’s fine. I then administered my blood to his wounds and watched as they healed.

Now that he’s okay, I need to wake him up and apologize, but… I don’t know if I can face him. I was the one who was just trying to kill him after all… but, I… I have to…

“Oliver…” I said quietly as I started to gently shake him awake. He started to groan, I guess he’s a light sleeper.

His eyes slowly began to open and he looked directly at me. We wordlessly stared into each other’s eyes for just a moment, but I looked away in shame.

He sat up and checked where his injuries used to be before speaking.

“You woke up first, right?” he asked.

I couldn’t form any words, so I nodded in reply.

“Did you kill him before I woke up?”

“N-no.”

“Good.”

I then noticed Oliver remove his hand from the hilt of his sword.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“No, I should be the one apologizing, not you,” I said. “I lost control of my anger and I almost killed someone, and then I tried to kill you for stopping me. And the things I said-”

“It’s fine, we’ll talk about it later,” Oliver interrupted as he began to stand up. “We should get out of here before he wakes up.”

I turned my gaze over to where the bounty hunter Trigger Happy lay.

I got up and walked over to him, cutting open my hand once more.

“Are you sure about healing him?” Oliver asked. “He tried to kill you.”

“No, I’m not sure,” I replied as I began to heal his wounds. “But it’d be wrong to just leave him here like this… Especially since I did it to him…”

“Alright,” Oliver said as he came and stood next to me.

After I finished healing Trigger Happy, I began to wake him up. As I did so I heard Oliver tense up as his breathing suddenly became more focused.

Trigger Happy slowly began to wake up at first, but then his eyes shot open in shock before he moved back, putting distance between us before realizing something. He looked at his right hand in surprise.

“How did…?”

“Despite my warnings, Marion decided to heal your wounds,” Oliver interrupted. “Even though you tried to kill her.”

“She tried to kill me too-” Trigger Happy started, only to be interrupted by Oliver again.

“I already told you I don’t know all the details, but from what I’ve pieced together you shot her before she started attacking you.”

Trigger Happy paused for a moment, before grumbling, “Well, in my line of work taking chances is usually what gets you killed… But I-”

“I’m sorry!” I quickly interrupted. “I got so angry that I lost control of my power, and I brutalized you… I didn’t need to go that far… I’m sorry.”

Trigger Happy grunted as he looked away for a moment.

“I’m done,” he said as he stood up. “I’m out of bullets anyway, so even if I wanted to fight, I couldn’t do much.”

After saying that obvious lie about being out of ammo, he turned away and said, “I admire the devotion kid, just don’t get yourself killed. And remember not to lose your head so easily, because there’s plenty of people stronger than I am.”

That first part was meant for Oliver, but I feel like that last part was directed to me. And me alone.

We watched as he began to walk away, and he disappeared with the last rays of the sun. It was now nighttime.

Me and Oliver stood there for a moment, as the blood from the battle slowly sank into the field.