Chapter 19

Trauma part 3

Tick...Tock...Tick...Tock…

Accompanied by the sound of a clock one lone girl is sitting with a book open. Her hand never stops writing and her eyes never dart anywhere else. Her only goal is to finish whatever she is doing.

Tick…

Why am I here? Staring at this girl? Huh? Am I talking to myself? Whatever.

Tock...

The girl's room is dull. There is nothing here except books. One bookshelf, two bookshelves. At this point, this room can be its own library. But there is one thing in particular that stands out from this dull room.

Tick…

A doll. A simple teddy bear. It was worn out from many years of use. Its once bright brown color is now more black from the accumulated dust, its eye got sewed back in a weird shape, and it has many sewing spots on its body.

Tock…

But why? Why do I feel familiar with this doll? Why does this thing catch my attention? As I walked toward it the girl suddenly spoke up.

Tick…

"Don't touch it." Her clear voice is full of tiredness."It's mine, and it's mine alone." Her hand is full of callous slowly reaching the doll and grabbing it into a hug.

Tock…

"Not even you can take it away from me." Her face...is dull. Her eyes reflect nothing and the bag under her eye is making her feel more creepy than anything.

Tick…

Everything seems to stop the moment I look into her eyes. I knew those eyes. It was full of tiredness. Frankly staring into it makes me uncomfortable. I finally understood something. The only thing that holds the girl together.

Tock…

Found you~

The voice of a young girl is speaking behind me. I turn around only to find...myself staring into my eyes. Her smile is nothing but full of madness and her eyes reflect how she found the situation amusing to her.

She slowly walked toward me. At that moment all my instincts screamed at me to get away from her. But my legs never move. It stayed still till she finally reached me. Her arm slowly rose up to my chest.

Adapt well~ my lovely body.

With that as her last word her hand pierced my chest. And nothing happened. I feel nothing. No pain or anything. But the girl's smile is still showing. The moment she pulled her hand out it finally settled in.

The pain. It was unbearable. It hurt so much that I felt like dying was the better option. But I never scream even once. No...it's more like every muscle in my body never moves.

The pain is getting worse by the second and everything in this room is slowly crumbling away. Until the only thing that remains is me and me alone.

Tick...Tock...tick…to….

…

"Guh…! Ahg….! Fuck!" Holy shit, holy shit holy shit! It fucking hurt! My chest fucking hurt! It's hard to breathe! My consciousness is barely here! I feel like dropping dead at any moment!

What the fuck was that dream! Is that my old life!? Why the hell do I see things from a 3rd point of view!? "Gah!" God! This hurt so much that I don't even want to think about it!

Oh god, it feels like getting hit constantly by a needle! Not just one but thousands of them constantly hit me in the heart!

Did I dream about me? Did I dream about me trying to kill me?! I fucking kill me!

Oh god, what with this weird sense of humor? I really started to go crazy from the pain.

"Cy!.. Lucy!" R...rudy? His voice is not really reaching me right now. Right...I just saved him and what happened? Yeah, I got pierced by a sword through my chest!

Okay...slowly use the healing magic… oh god it makes it worse!

"D-don't use...healing magic…" god just speaking like this hurts! My chest is in so much pain! God! This sucks! Why do I have to be conscious of a moment like this!

"Cough! Shit…" I even cough out blood now. My throat is tight and I can't breathe! Creating a puff of air on my hand I choke it down my throat with all my might.

Good! Now I have more time to suffer! Why did I do that!? Rudy is very panicked right now. He didn't know what to do. Hell, I didn't even know what to do either.

Rudy's eyes dart around until he stops at my wound. He tries to heal it but remembers my warning before he stops.

My chest is starting to hurt more and more. At this late I would lose my consciousness again. But at least...I want to wake up in the bed…

"OW! Fuck!" It hurrttt…I can't even fall asleep like this! Fine! If it's going to be like this, so be it!

"Grr…ARG!" Gritting my teeth I hold my sword as a cane to help me get up. Frankly? not the best feeling I ever feel. God, it feels like everything in my body just started to break all of a sudden, and then decided to glue it back with hot glue and then rip itself apart!

Yeah? sound painful? BECAUSE IT IS! Damn it! I talk inside my head again! Anyway, It seems that I finally stand up. As for the wound in my chest? fuck it! I am having a rather painful conversation with my chest pain that is not from the wound right now.

Let's see, Rudy is looking at me with a very confused and relieved expression, The lady seems to wake up now. Probably from my scream. She slowly got up and looked around and found me. Hm…? She was the same girl I met at that time. This time she did not scream in fear and run away. Instead, she looks shocked and stays at her place. Looking at me? no behind me…

"OH SHIT!" Twist my body at the fastest speed I could muster. I barely deflect the knives thrown at me. "Ok…What the hell is your guys' problem? I have been facing 4 people today and now we got 2 more? What do you guys even want to go this far?" I said to the two more people that just got behind me.

They don't seem to want to have a little talk with me. Well, I deal with enough shit today. What more can they do to me? Gripping my sword as tightly as possible I slowly raise it up. I should use magic. But to be honest? I am almost all out of it. Using magic to make a spell that has a Magic Circle on it is quite draining. Just that ice dome is taking out more than 70% of my mana. Plus the Touki I use have quite a lot of mana on them too.

So to summarize the situation. I'm fuck. My arm is almost useless, my mana is out of stock. Not the best shape to fight but certainly not the worst. The worst is being a baby and not being able to do anything. At least I can make a run for it. I just need a good distraction. Ghislaine…Why is she so slow? She should have been here more than 3 minutes ago!

Well, it seems like they give me enough time. the two of them decide to rush in at the same time. I hold my sword ready for my last strike. Let's go out with a bang then! holding my other arm up I focus all my mana on my hand. The ice slowly forms into the shape of Lance.

I can feel it. I am smiling right now. Even though it is a life-and-death situation. I feel like I can do it. I can survive and fight more another day. With my last bit of mana inside the spell. I shoot it out without hesitation. It was nothing fancy. Just one Ice lance.

The two of them quickly cut it down but the moment they touched it. It explodes. The explosion caused the two of them to blow away by the sheer force of it.

"Ha…Ha…That…Was for…my trouble…Oh…There goes my stre-"

Thub…

…

Rudeus POV

Absurd…The only word I have is that everything is crazy. Lucy, who should not be able to stand up just stands and even blows those two up. Although she collapses afterward. Wait what Am I doing?! I need to help her right now! She got a hole in her chest damn it!

Quickly rushing toward her, the thing I saw astonished me. Her wound is healing itself. And at a fast rate too. So fast that I can see her muscle regenerating. Anyway, let's fasten it with healing magic!

"Oh merciful mother of gods, please heal this one's wounds, and let him recover with a healthy body. X-Healing"

Nice…The wound is healing faster.

Ramble….

Eh? Looking at where the sound is. I saw the two assassins getting up. HOW?! How are they still alive? That explosion should be able to blow them to bits! Shit no time to think they are already on the move!

The two of them are fast! Focus my magic on my hand I shoot out 3 Fireballs at them. This time they don't dare to cut it apart considering that the last one blew them up.

I created mud on their feet and one of them got caught up in it. I fire an Earth bullet at him. He deflects it but it blows up. into a cloud of thick smoke. I quickly pick Lucy up in my arms and start to run with Eris who just woke up in my hand.

But to my utter dumbness. I FORGOT THIS WAS A DEAD END!

Stopping in my tracks I turn around to see the glee in the face of the assassin. Well…I'm screwed. Wow…I feel like I got a flashback from the past. Is this what they call life flash before death? Everything seems so slow.

The blade slowly closed in on my throat. Ah…I really didn't try as hard as I wanted to…It seems that I will die.

Sorry for showing you something scary…

Huh? I wonder why…That was the last word I heard from Lucy before she collapsed. Why is it the thing that rang in my head?

Rudy, It's OK to be afraid.

This time it is Zenith's voice. Woah...This flash-before-death thing…

Remember Rudy. The strong need to protect the weak.

Now it's Paul...God...damn it! I don't want to die! I want to live!

Boom!

Air exploded from my hand. It sent the assassin back for a few meters. But that still didn't help with the situation.

I need to think of something! Right now! Think Rudy! Think what you can do-

That it! If I can't run then just defense! Yosh I can do this! I will make sure all of us survive and see tomorrow!

Taking my hand away from Eris I put Lucy's unconscious body down too. Then with all of my mana, I create a wall of Earth.

I just need it to be strong. Strong enough that it will stall us till Ghislaine comes! Putting all my mana into it the Earth wall slowly forms around us.

The assassin, seeing what I was doing, lunged at me but got blocked by the dome. He began to chip away at it. And Holy shit he is actually cracking it!? Shit gotta Put more mana in!

The wall forms again but the man still continuously cracks and breaks everything that appears. Holy! How strong is he!?

We continued this exchange for more than a minute. I create more walls and he breaks them. Each new wall is stronger and stronger.

But why? Why did I feel like I missed something?

Fwish!

Just as he broke another wall a knife was thrown at my face. I dodged it in time but that was pure luck. Focus Rudy! Lost it for a second and you're dead!

Stall for enough time! here he comes again! Creating more walls he prepare to break it down again. Just as his sword is about to hit the wall I create an earth lance from the wall itself. It almost pierced him in the stomach but he managed to avoid it.

But with this, he will have to ponder more about how he will attack me. Please come already Ghislaine! Or anyone in fact! I don't know how long I can hold this!

Damn, he already prepares for another attack!

Shlink…

My ears heard something like a ringing sound. Everything seems to stop.

Boom!

SHIT! The shock wave is blowing me away! But someone catches me…It Ghislaine? Her body is covered in blood and a lot of scratches and slash wounds can be seen on her body.

"Sorry. There was a lot more than I thought so it taking a bit of my time," she said. "Now then, Is that all of them?"

I just nod at her. trying not to think about all the gore that I just witnessed. It's not important right now. I just need to not think about it.

Ghislaine nods at me and walks toward Eris checking if she is safe. Lucy is still unconscious. So I did the only thing I could think of. Picking her up and let's me tell you. She is heavier than she seems. Even though I train every day she is still heavy…

Wow…I still can joke around in such a situation.