Chapter XII
"What ... what's that?", Gray whispered next to me, completely stunned, while I stared as if spellbound at the man opposite us.
"Come on, my little one.", the man shouted now and put his hands on his hips, "How long are you going to play hide and seek? You're out of age, are not you?". I clenched my teeth and forced myself to breathe calmly. What the hell was he doing here? Why was he, of all people, this Ripper?
"How did he discover us so fast?", I heard Erza whisper beside Gray, scowling at my face. Well, knowing it was him, it did not really surprise me that he had already tracked us down. He had always had a sense of ambushes and hiding places, and at the same time, I blamed myself for not providing better camouflage. But how could I have expected that exactly the man who had taught me to submerge perfectly would be here today?
"Who is that, Levi?", Wendy asked in a thin voice behind me but I did not answer. My thoughts were racing wildly because I was trying to work out which approach would be the smartest. This man was not to be underestimated. I was sure that he would surely kill all my fellow comrades here, because many years ago I had witnessed this approach myself with my own eyes. And even though we had some capable magicians among us, he was still a very dangerous and serious adversary. As I thought this through, I finally made a decision.
"You stay here. This man is too dangerous. With luck, he may not know exactly how many we are. I will talk to him and distract him. Meanwhile, you try to escape undetected.", I whispered to the others, who immediately gave me dumbfounded glances.
"Are you crazy?", Natsu whispered behind Wendy, "We will not leave you alone with this guy.". Briefly, I looked into his fiery eyes and for the first time had the feeling that he was serious about what I said.
"Then plan an ambush for me as soon as you get away. But if you all stay here, it is too dangerous for you. This man there has already killed people with his own hands!", I muttered, glaring at them. They should escape from here! Why did not they just do what I told them? If they faced him, they would be in mortal danger and for no price in the world would I lose more of my comrades!
"Alright.", Erza whispered suddenly in agreement and looked at me seriously. She seemed to understand that I wanted them all out of the line of fire and gratefully I nodded curtly to her.
"But ...", Wendy protested softly, but Erza put a hand on her shoulder, which made her instantly silent. Slowly I got up and left our hiding place in a crouched position, feeling the girl's gaze on my back.
A dirty, faint laugh escaped the man when he discovered I was recognizing myself and drilled his cold gaze directly into mine. Every muscle in my body was tense, always ready to go into battle.
Slowly, I walked up to him and listened to my hasty breath. I was not allowed to make a mistake now. A mistake and this would all end in disaster.
It was almost eerily quiet when I finally stopped at a safe distance from him. In the distance you could hear a little owl, whose sound mingled gently with the soft sound of the ocean waves. This soothing soundscape did not really suit the current atmosphere, which was so full of excitement and mistrust.
Then he slowly raised his hand and pushed his broad hat off his face a bit to grin at me. His thin face was now riddled with a few wrinkles that made him unable to deny his age, but his dark brown hair still seemed to have a healthy, strong color. A thin beard graced his chin, and from his gray eyes, which were so much like mine, he looked at me piercingly.
"Huh?", he suddenly broke the silence and scratched his head, " You have not grown up since then. Are you already a man?". Inwardly I was seething with anger and wanted to beat his stupid grin off his face, but I forced myself to stand still. He wanted to provoke me and lure me out of reserve, but I would not do him a favor.
"And you got fatter. And old, on top of that.", I growled back and he shook his head, laughing.
"Still so cheeky and sassy, Levi? Did you forget what happens when you act like that to me?", he grunted and his grin died away. Defiantly, I snorted.
"As if you've ever taken care of a shit on how I behave.", I replied snotty and stared at him stubbornly. It was strange to meet him again after all this time and I did not know exactly what to feel. Joy? Anger? Relief? Contempt? Probably a little bit of everything. And though I had not seen him for so long, apart from the wrinkles, he still looked just like my memories, as if hardly a day had passed since then. Sometimes I had wondered if I should look for him after he had disappeared so suddenly from my life, but had always pushed that thought away from me. And now he was suddenly in in front of me, as my enemy, to whom everything was daring. I had learned early on that he cared very little about who his opponent was. If someone blocked his path to his aim, he had to be eliminated. At that time it was almost everyday for me and only later I did start to think more about it.
"Well, well, is that the rebellious urchin in you again?", he said now with a serious expression and folded his arms, "But actually I knew that you would still be the same as before.".
"What do you want here?", I asked with a threatening voice, "Why are you doing all this?". I just could not figure out why he was behind all these abductions. That was atypical for him and the meaning behind his actions simply did not catch my eye.
He laughed again, grunting briefly. "Oh my little Levi. Are you asking me that seriously?", he grumbled, loosening his crossed arms, " But you and your little friends came here because of me, right?".
I tried skillfully to ignore that he had made fun of my height again and forced me to continue to breathe. Damn, he had noticed the others after all. The question now was whether he had noticed that they were trying to sneak off. Anyway, it would be pointless if I now tried to deny the presence of my comrades.
"I have to admit, I was quite surprised when I found out that you belong to this Mage Guild, that was put on me.", he said in an almost casual chitchat, "Actually, you were never the guy who got on well with people. A property that connects us both.".
"Do you want to become sentimental now?", I growled and soon could not stand this situation anymore. This tense mood was scratching my nerves too much and all sorts of thoughts circled through my mind as to what he could do and what would be the best strategy against him.
He laughed again, humming briefly. "I don't think so. But like you, I gave up being a loner.", he said now, staring at him in astonishment.
"What?", I asked, confused, looking at him with eyes narrowed together. What exactly is this all about?
"I've found my place in this world, kid. And this place is in a guild.", he answered and as he spoke, a gentle gust of wind passed through his dark hair, which reached up to his shoulder, and blew it boldly backwards.
"You are a monster. As if only any guild would be willing to accept you.", I mocked and he began to grin slowly and nasty.
"I could say the same about you, and yet you are now a member of these fairies.", he muttered and his grin turned to a diabolical grimace, "I am sure that the guild Wrath of Kelpie tells you something?".
In fact, I knew the name of this guild, as I had heard Master Makarov speak about them once or twice, always with a great deal of concern in her voice. For Wrath of Kelpie was one of the dark guilds. So he joined a dark guild? Actually, this circumstance should not have surprised me, I thought slightly cynical. It was almost as if this meeting had been predetermined. A reunion after a long time, a fight between two former allies, a fight between fairy and Kelpie.
But if he himself was a member of a guild, did not that mean that he, too, had been hired by someone to commit these kidnappings? Although he was a member of a dark guild, he finally had no reason to kidnap people just for fun and especially so targeted. And finally, it made sense to me why he was behind the kidnapping, because he too was just a middleman, an exporter. There had to be another person who had commissioned him.
"But I think that's pretty fitting.", he said in a threatening voice, "Fairies are such small and delicate creatures. That fits you.". I suppressed an angry growl. That miserable bastard! How long did he want to joke like that? What was he doing with it? When he saw my dogged expression, he grinned slightly hilariously.
"And you sure know what happens to little fairies who fall between the hooves of a kelpie?", he said now and I saw him forming his hands inconspicuously into fists. I hoped that the others had come to a safe distance, because it was obvious that he was tired of chatting. Grimly, I pulled my eyebrows together and did the same, clenching my hands into fists as well.
Never take the first step in combat, it haunted my mind. He had personally taught me these words over and over again. I never thought I would think so when I faced him in battle. But exactly because we both followed this motto, it made things a bit complicated. Neither of us would give in and take the first step, that was certain. So there was probably only one solution.
"Blade incantation!", we both shouted at the same time and exactly at the same time two big axes formed in his hands as I conjured two long and narrow swords. A nasty grin crossed his face as he looked at me with my blades and it was almost as if I saw a spark of pride in those dark and foul eyes. This would not be a normal fight, I thought, looking at him with a mixture of hate and sadness, that was a life-and-death struggle.
"Ice Make. Hammer!", Gray's voice suddenly cut the charged atmosphere and immediately a huge hammer of ice shot down at the man in front of me. He jumped in a fluid movement underneath and could avoid the attack thus.
So you were still here? Honestly, I had not expected that they would really plan an ambush and cold fear rose in me. I was not allowed to let even one of my comrades get killed, because I had sworn that to myself!
"Yay! Now it's going to be interesting here!", the man exclaimed with a dirty laugh and whirled around to Gray, who now showed himself behind him.
"Blade incantation!", he shouted again, but instead of his axes disappearing, two thin and sharp throwing knives formed obliquely above his head. Damn it! He had perfected this ability over the years, it shot through my head alarmed, as I stormed already. In a fraction of a second, he let the throwing knives move to Gray, who probably could not even sense the deadly danger bedause of the darkness.
"Gray!", I yelled and his head flew to me, "Get out!". I could almost see the throwing knives flying straight to his head, but at the last moment, thanks to my scream, Gray actually jumped a bit to the side so that he only escaped death. Unfortunately, he was not fast enough to completely avoid the throwing knives and I was horrified to see one of the knives piercing his shoulder with a disgusting fleshy sound. His painful scream filled the dark night and I stopped abruptly in my run to stare in horror at Gray. He pressed a hand on his wounded shoulder, on the already ran down the dark blood and dripped onto the dry soil.
"Oh crap. I'm a bit rusty.", it now came from the man who stood between Gray and me. Only a few meters separated us from each other and yet he seemed quite cool and relaxed. He hurt him, raced it through my head, he tried to kill him! You miserable bastard! Cold rage boiled up inside me as I gripped my two swords even tighter. An unusual coolness and serenity spread throughout my body as I tensed each of my muscles and it was as if my senses were becoming more and more intense. I will not let you hurt anyone, you filthy bastard!
With that in mind, I stormed toward him again, filled only with rage. Just before I reached him, I yanked up my two swords to catch up to a big punch. All the rage, the anger, and the disappointment of the years he'd abandoned me after he'd just gone that way, now boiled up inside me. Exactly those feelings spoke to me, as I almost hovered over him and angrily shouted his name with cold eyes: "Kenny!".
