Dosumn 301

 Samuel looked at Chiyo for some reassurance. She didn’t look particularly bothered about him dying. His only thought was, “Of course it had to be a gun again.”

“I would rather you don’t do that, but go ahead. Be my guest,” Chiyo didn’t even look at Samuel, which made her words sting even more. Thrricco laughed, snorting like a pig.

“Ye gettin’ tired too, ei? Sadly Chiyo, it was ye last oppo’tunity. I can’t have ye doin’ that an’more, aight?” He pointed his gun at her. Her expression changed, her coldness melting. Underneath was an expression Samuel was sadly too familiar with. Fear of death. Or something worse than it.

She took a step back before two of Thrricco’s men went to grab her arms. She punched the nose of the first, making him recoil and kicked the other one on the crotch. Another one took their place. Taller than even Azim and with the face of a bear. To Samuel, he looked like a grizzly in a suit. It wasn’t as funny as you think.

Chiyo struggled, of course she did. But it was in vain, the bearman easily pushed her closer to his boss. Samuel tried to stand up, he was pushed even harder against the ground, “Am dealin’ with ye in a bit, sit still!”

“And ye, sadly I can’t kill ye’. Yet. Won’t be long till that changes,” he pressed the barrel against her forehead. “But, it would be a shame to put a bullet on ye’r pretty face. So, wha’ you say? New deal? You jus’ need to giv’ this one to me. I’ll even let ye keep Azim like ye hav’een doin so far.”

“Azim! Azim, where is he? He could do something, right?” he scanned their surroundings, looking for the butler “Or is he a cow-” Unexpectedly, he found him standing between the purple ties to Chiyo’s left. Unlike them, he looked ready to murder someone. The others were laughing or celebrating their tactical victory. His eyes didn’t leave the boss, his breathing was rough. Irregular. Fists tightly pressed to his sides. Samuel could even see blood coming from his palms.

“No Azim then,” there had to be something he could do. Anything. He tried to stand up again, the boss slammed him even harder once more, “Stay. Put! Always goin’ for the stupid ones, ei?”

“Ability Tutorial: Dolokinesis,” Samuel heard a monotone artificial voice say in his head, “User: Samuel Corpacci. Effect: By concentrating his mana, the user can shift around the pain he and the people around him feel. Testing:”

All the pain he had received in those minutes disappeared. He could see a red blob leaving his finger tips. He looked up, twisting as far as he could, staring into his face. The blob jumped from him, attaching itself on the boss’ face.

“Gaaaaaah, w-who did that!? Me face!” the boss let out a blood chilling scream and took a step back, freeing Samuel. He jumped to his feet and kicked his chest, sending him stumbling backwards. He shot his weapon but it was crooked to the left. The one he hit? Azim.

The atmosphere in the place changed with the shot. Every laugh was silenced, every cheer quelled. All eyes were on Azim. He was smiling, blood coming from his shoulder. All the grunts around him grabbed their weapons.

“Finally. Finally! Thank you, Samuel! I-,” he held the two men closest to him by their heads, making them bump each other making a cracking noise so loud and sudden and loud Samuel winced, “am free!”

“Shit! Everyone, protect the boss! Kill the summoned, grab Shoda. We need to keep Azim from-” the man screaming was relatively close to him, but still had three to four men as protection. They were punched, kicked and head bumped in a matter of seconds. He himself received the butler’s knee to his chin which sent him flying above the railing.

Sadly, Samuel couldn’t enjoy Azim’s show for long. One of the grunts went to stab him and he barely dodged out of the way. He ended in the perfect position to counter with an elbow to his nose. He fell back and looked for Chiyo. She was being dragged by the bear man.

Another grunt came for Samuel from the right, digging a knife into his side. He didn’t feel the pain and could hear the boss behind him screaming even louder. That distracted the one stabbing him and the few that were coming after, so he grabbed his arm, squeezed it and landed a nasty right hook to his face. Then he pulled both knives and rushed past the grunts, who got an Azim to concern themselves with.

“Go, Samuel! Let me handle them,” he got between him and the grunts. As he ran after the bearman, he heard yelps and screams. Some begging, others to attack him.

The bearman was getting further and further away, using one of his arms to go faster. He didn’t see how he could get closer, it seemed impossible. “Ability: Dolokinesis. Target out of range.”

He squealed, feeling all the pain come back and tripped over himself. He extended his arm, pointing at the bearman, staring at his right leg. “Ability: Dolokinesis. Target selected.”

Chiyo fell off the bearman’s shoulders and ran towards Samuel. He stood up, waiting for her, “Come on! We have to get to Azim!” As he said that, the screaming behind him intensified.

“P-please, I swear I only joined cause I need the- AGGHH.” Azim’s laughter also got louder. He made a note to himself, to never make Azim angry.

Roaring and shaking himself, the bearman stood up. He began to rush after Chiyo and Samuel didn’t see another option than to run towards her too. The Dolokinesis red blob moved from limb to limb, to his head, to limb again. Attaching quickly to send a jolt of pain, slowing him down.

“What else can I do? Cure my wounds? That wouldn’t help right now, would it?” A golden light shined from his pocket for a second. Then the paper that he stole from Salazar, his “sheet”, floated up into the air and burned up. His sight went dim for a second, a headache on the top of his head made him almost throw up. But, in exchange, he could see the sheet as clear as day.

“Ey! Voice in my head! What does stat share do? Why does it say "others”?” The distance between him and Chiyo was almost completely gone and not too far behind the bearman was picking up speed. As a last resort, he sent all the pain to his heart, that stopped him for a second but Samuel almost shat his pants when his bloodshot eyes stared at him.

“Answer: Stat share fuses all of the user’s: Samuel Corpacci stats into one. Answer: User: Samuel Corpacci can mimic the stats of another user. Intelligence isn’t affected” Chiyo slid on the ground, taking a hundred and eighty degree turn. He offered her a knife, she gladly took it.

“Plan? Getting to Azim before he caught it is-” Chiyo, despite how dire their situation was, seemed confident. If not in Samuel, in herself. She flipped her knife and got into an offensive stance.

“Impossible, yes. Can you use that thing again? Or something similar? I will create an opening.” Without leaving her time to reply, he rushed towards the bearman. His hand was shaking so he tightened his grip on the knife. “How do I use it? Eh, stat share active?”

“Ability: Stat share. Target selected” A golden chain shot from his chest, digging into the bearman. Instantly, Samuel felt his body invigorated. He started to run faster, matching his foe’s speed to his surprise. And Chiyo’s.

“What is that idiot doing, he is going to get himself-” her eyes shot open. Samuel’s speed wasn’t normal. Not superhuman, or at least not incredibly so, but not anything he had displayed before. Her shock turned to determination, a smug smile appearing on her face as she flipped the knife, holding it from the blade. “Seems I have my fighter, then~"

The bearman raised himself, standing on his legs. His paw descended towards Samuel, who in the last second placed the Dolokinesis blob on his shoulder. That gave him time to evade the attack by sliding underneath his arm and to bury the knife to his side. The bearman kicked him on the chest, sending him flying backwards.

Samuel quickly stood up, a delighted smile on his face. “I haven’t felt this rush in years! Come on!” he stood defensively, both fists in front of him, “I’m going to wreck your shit, Winnie Pooh.”