Yo I'm back, sorry for the wait but I've been busy, but I promise I haven't lost interest in this story and I will continue until I finish. Please enjoy this chapter!
Yuri and Serena had been running for about half an hour now, watching the smoke of the village on the horizon behind them just through the clearing. They had gotten away, but at what cause? They knew Crow and Dennis were skilled but they didn't know if they had gotten away...and what about the other civilians that were caught in the crossfire.
This was hitting Yuri specifically hard. It was sending him right back into his childhood when his brothers died because of his carelessness...and it seemed history had repeated itself. But he couldn't focus on that now, he had to make sure Serena was ok and make sure they got to real safety, while the town was long behind them, soldiers may not be.
"Serena? Are you alright?" Yuri bent down to a now crouching Serena, but something wasn't right. She was unresponsive and shaking, it didn't seem like anything Yuri was doing was getting through to her. Then he realised what was wrong, it was something he was quite familiar with.
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She was having a panic attack.
Yuri could sympathise with, especially his young self, but now was not the time. He knew it wasn't her fault but she seemed fine when they were leaving the town...it must have just hit her or at least fully taken its toll. But as he said before having a panic attack during a borderline chase with the royal guard in the middle of a forest was a bad time to be lost in your head. He had to calm her down, somehow.
"Serena!? Serena, you have to snap out of it! Please, you need to calm down" Yuri tried to calm her down but kept his stern voice, indicating the situation was serious, he hoped that she would realise what was happening and the potential consequences if they just stayed there. One of the best ways to get through a panic attack was to keep distracted, though he knew full well this was not the best... way to do so.
Don't have a panic attack Serena, we could die if we stay but that's good because it will distract you. Yeah, that would go well, Yuri was pretty sure if he said that Serena would be too distracted killing him. But he had to do the best he could, that was his only option.
"Hey Serena, please just take a deep breath, in and out, I know it's hard but you need to calm down, freaking out won't do us any good" Serena listened to Yuri and followed his instructions. She breathed in and out and to her surprise, it helped, she was calming down. Once she had gotten her breathing steady she managed to stop shaking and look up at Yuri.
"I'm...I'm calm now, don't worry...thanks though, your advice really helped" Yuri nodded and help Serena up, leading her away from the direction of the town, continuing the direction they were going, they were still on the run after all.
"Don't worry about it, panic attacks aren't exactly new to me so I've learnt how to deal with it" Yuri said offhandedly as if he was saying a joke. Serena hummed in agreement and continued walking, glancing behind her every once and a while, watching as the smoke disbursed into the air, Yuri noticed this.
"By the way, why did you freak out so much...I know it was a terrible thing to see but you've seen worse...so why this time" Yuri trailed off while speaking, remembering how he had gone on a massacre right in front of her. How was the town fire any worse? Not that it wasn't bad, Yuri wasn't saying that he hated fire but...the fire just didn't seem as confronting, in his opinion anyway.
He waited for Serena to answer, who hesitated but didn't slow her walking pace.
"I..don't know? I just saw the fire and all the people and freaked, though I think it took a moment to truly register" Serena answered, "I just don't know why it hurt so personally to me". Serena was at a loss, why had the town fire hurt so much? She had seen much worse within her lifetime and yet that got to her? She was soon snapped out of her thoughts by Yuri's voice.
"I can't really help you there unfortunately but it's normal to be upset, so don't blame yourself or anything" Yuri tried his best to cheer her up but seemed to be doing terribly, at least in his mind.
"And your welcome for before, I'm glad I could help princess" Yuri smirked and flipped his hair playing up his actions I hopes that they would cheer her up more than his words and it worked, Serena laughed and punched Yuri in the arm and sped up ahead of him.
"Congratulations Lily now let's go"
"Not so fast" they stopped and Yuri narrowly escaped as a knife flew past his face just missing it, but leaving a cold metallic feeling on Yuri's cheek. That had been too close...and they didn't think they missed on purpose. They both twisted their bodies towards the voice and to their surprise, they were met by not one person but three. All of them wore cloaks much like Yuri, they seemed so familiar but neither of them could place it.
"Ma'am you are going to have to come with us, if you do we can let your friend go and tell the king we couldn't find him" one of the other voices spoke up, seemingly the youngest from the tone and pitch of their voice. Serena was honestly surprised, they didn't seem to be aggressive but they worked directly for the king? But why?
"I don't think so, who the hell are you?" Serena yelled reaching for her knife, just because they didn't seem aggressive didn't mean that couldn't change, especially if they didn't follow their demands. Both Yuri and Serena noticed as they dropped their heads and avoid eye contact with one another, seemingly ashamed of their identity.
"Well...we don't really have names anymore or at least we don't deserve them, now we are more commonly know as the demon knights" This couldn't be happening, how had they tracked them down... the demon knights so to speak where the king's right-hand guard, sent only on the kings direct orders for his most important tasks. This wasn't good if they had been set in them.
"Wait you guys started that fire?! They, the townspeople did nothing to harm any of you or defy the king, they were innocent!" Yuri cried hoping to get an answer out of them, he may have a little place you talk about right and wrong but he would have never done this, he would have never gone after so many innocent lives like that, especially with a fire...
"That wasn't our intention!" The two stepped back in surprise at the final boy's outbursts. What did he mean it wasn't their intention?
"We never wanted that to happen but all we are doing is following orders, which was to find the girl and bring her back unharmed, we had never wanted the town to get involved that was the other patrol teams who were sent as backup"
"Then why follow the king's orders!? It's obvious you don't like nor agree with him and you had your current title, then why not leave?" They were all once again silent, leaving only the sound of the forest to interrupt it.
"Because we have no choice" the younger one broke the silence, though with a meek quiet voice, leaving Yuri and Serena very confused and slightly sympathetic. Perhaps the king had something against them? But they could always be lying, anyone that close to the king could be trusted after all.
"What do you mean you have no choice? Explain that for us" Yuri demanded, they needed answers and it didn't seem they could just run away so...
"We-.." one of the knights was cut off when another large and monstrous figure ran up behind them, crying loudly as if to scare them, which in all honesty was kind of working. After the large beast-like man showed up the boy's eyes all started to glow and they started to convulse, holding their heads in pain.
"ARRRGG" they all cried out in pain, leaving Serena and Yuri too stunned to even move, something was keeping them in place...especially Yuri. For some reason, their cries were cutting into his heart and he was powerless to stop any of it.
All of a sudden the three fell silent and their bodies snapped back into a straight standing position, they stopped convulsing but their eyes continued to glow their respective colours. They finally spoke up, their voices raspier and more threatening than before, something had changed. They no longer held the same aura or humane presence, they felt more...emotionless? Possessed? That was it...?
"Beattie beast now, but leave the girl" At the sound of the monotone voice the beastly man, battle beast as they called it charged in their direction, targeting Yuri specifically. Thankfully while he seemed strong his speed was nothing in comparison to Yuri and Serena's, giving them ample time to move and dodge his attack. Now that they had snapped back to their sense they started running, Yuri started forming a wall of vines behind them to slow down their attackers.
This unfortunately didn't work, at least in slowing down the demon knights who were still on their heels. Serena could see a flash of colour in vision and realised that it wasn't just a blur, it was one of the knights who had bolted in front of them cutting them off the initial path.
"No fucking way, he has magic?!" Yuri whined and whipped the incoming knight with a vine, momentarily stunning him and reducing his speed.
"It appears so, please say the others don't have magic! For the love of god!" Yuri yelled.
The two had now been cornered and chased along the side of a rapid river, there was no escape into the river, and no escape back into the forest. They had to fight.
"Well, I think we're done running" Serena ran at the closest knight which was the speed demon as she was going to call him and attacked her with a punch a blue fire. Yuri noticed this, this must have been one of the new powers she learned and kept from him, an azure flame, it would defiantly make her attacks more effective.
Yuri followed suit and started swiping his knives at his opponents while trying to grip them over with his vines. The battle continued and seemed to be an even fight until they were all startled by battle beast bursting into the scene in an outraged state, something was wrong. Battle beast charged at the closest target which was Serena shocking everyone.
"No don't attack the girl, brother stop him!" By the time this warning was received, it was too late, the battle beast had just swung back his arm, hitting her and sending her flying through the trees, her screams piecing their ears.
"SERENA!" Yuri tried to run over but was stopped by her attacker, he didn't have time to deal with this and this was an emergency, Serena would forgive him for this. He ran at him, throwing about three knives into his arm and torso, all of which were coated in the poisonous toxins, the deadly ones he promised only to use when absolutely necessary.
Expecting the man to instantly fall to the group, Yuri was caught off guard when the beast grabbed him in a suffocating grip, the hood of his cloak falling off in the struggle, leaving his face exposed...not like it mattered now anyway.
He was going to die, strangled by this monster who had presumably been manipulated by the king and Serena was going to be in the clutches of the king by nightfall...if she survives that is. He highly doubted she was still conscious from that attack and she could only heal herself when she was awake. For all he knew she was dying only a few feet away from him and he couldn't do anything. He had failed her once again just in a different way.
Yuri would barely breathe now and was feeling the grip on unconsciousness taking over him, he knew that this battle beast could end him slowly but he was being toyed with, this was all a source of entertainment to him and all he could do was accept it. All he could do now was whisper one small thing, accepting death.
"I'm...sorry..ser ena"
"NO!"
Yuri no longer felt the suffocating grip of the battle beast and fell to the ground as the battle beast was flung across the bank, opposite side from Serena. Yuri was still struggling to breathe and was struggling even more as to why he was still alive, why did he save him?
He looked back at the battle beast, who was running at him after regaining his surroundings but Yuri couldn't move, he was still in shock. He was about to grab out another one of his knives in an attempt to even slow him down, the three knights ran from behind him and blocked his attack, pulling him back away from Yuri.
"Yuri run! Grab and girl and run!" Yuri looked up at the knights, noticing their fallen hoods.
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It couldn't be...they?..no
"Yuya? Yugo? Yuto? It can be? Why?" Yuri was...he didn't know what he was, his brother couldn't be alive, they died, didn't they?
The knights, or Yuri's brothers continued pushing the battle beast back with what looked like a magic barrier made from their combined magic power, struggling with his strength.
"We are sorry but we can't explain right now, just take the girl and run...NOW!" Yuto cried as once again, as his eyes, as well as his brothers, started to flicker. Yuri didn't know what to do...save Serena or his brothers?
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Yuri gulped and sprinted towards Serena, he made a promise and he wasn't going to break it...his brothers would understand. He picked up Serena, who was thankfully still breathing and sprinted towards the river, unfortunately as his brothers ran out of power and fell to the ground, the battle beast was once again after them.
"Oh crap oh crap oh crap!" Yuri with Serena on his back was once again running along the bank of the river, still unable to safely run into the forest, he couldn't even use his magic, being too weak from his altercation with his pursuer. What could he do? Serena was unconscious with an unknown condition and he was running out of stamina, he was running out of time.
"What can in do" Serena disturbed for a moment and mumbles words Yuri could barely hear.
"Leave me...just go...please" Yuri hummed and continued running.
"You know I'm not going to do that so don't even"
"But-"
"Shut up I'm not doing it" Serena went silent, whether it be from acceptance or passing out he didn't know but either way he mixed emotions. Battle beast was now about ten meters away, one missed step and they were dead, he wasn't even after Serena anymore from what he could tell, he was out for the kill.
Yuri looked one more time for an escape and noticed one thing, one small thing that could save them...but it could also them but it was better than this.
Jumping into a fucking waterfall!
"What the hell I guess, sorry Serena but wish us luck!" So he jumped, holding Serena close to him as they fell. He knew the battle beast wouldn't follow them but it was all up to fate now.
That was all that had
"I'm sorry...brothers"
I AM SO SORRY, I didn't update in ages, I've been busy and uninspired to write, not really knowing what to do, but I'm not finished yet and will continue with this story and this chapter isn't even that long. Please forgive me, guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter though have a great day guys!
~Luna