The ground shook as I took a grip of my hand. My arms, stretched in opposite direction as I imbued the ground to open up and devour him. But his movements put shame to a lightning bolt. Before I knew it he was standing at my back, with his fangs out and his eyes burning like embers.
"You talk too much. Now I'm so hungry!", He snapped at my neck but I flickered out of him. A cloud of black smoke exploded in front of him as I shift space.
"Try this one", I sent him a tunnel of raging flames but he lounged at it with confidence and remorselessness.
"It's not the kind of ice that you can melt!", He snapped in front of me and grabbed me by my neck. He took a leap and lift me a few meters off the ground then smacked me with a thunderous head butt that almost ground my skull into pieces. I hissed at his strength. But magic is more sinister and malignant.
So flipped back and touched the ground once again. This time I imbued it with a Territorial Sense Magic so I can calculate and anticipate his next attack. He gave me a smirk from across the icy plane and tilted his head looking down at me.
"I'm impressed. But...", I heard his words. The last thing I knew was I, in my battle stead, suddenly splat blood through my mouth in an instant. Wounds suddenly opened like flowers in my skin as I screamed in pain and hurt.
"Gotcha", He let out a chilly smile as he looked down at me with his narrow eyes and dark impression.
To the fact that he actually halted the time around faster that I could even jump to the sequence of my thought is so impressive and horrifying at the same time. I didn't know that the moment I took a step on the ground he actually attacked me already without my consciousness and he just paused and play the moment. Now I have severe wounds with just in his signal and rested face.
"You wench!", I tried healing myself up but the wounds he caused is not something I can heal at all. I looked up to him once again with a messed up expression and he just flicked his brows at me.
But little he knew that I already anticipated him. One of a thousandth faster than he could ever make his move.
"Hah. Plot twist. I got you first", I snapped my finger and magic circles appeared all around him.
"Ille Deuz Gilgamesh!", I whispered and a storm of knives, swords, spears and blades cut him from different direction. Lancing him criss-cross for almost a minute, making his blood sprayed like a geyser in the freezing air. He screamed in pain as his flesh scattered all around the icy ground.
He went all fours as my spell washed off. He looked down exhausted and bloody to the ground next to him. But instead of weeping in pain he let out a chilling laughter which added coldness around us. He looked up to me with his burning crimson eye.
His stare was like pierced deep into my mind. As if he was taking a grip of my thoughts and commanding my senses and nerves to a sudden halt. I looked back at him stunned at his death glares. I felt his words crawling like mist into my mind.
An eerie vibe knocked me down on my knees as I felt like a paper crumpled down in fear and dread.
I looked down on my hands, unable to explain the feeling that's slowly driving me off the limits.
"Rip yourself off. Flesh and skin, blood and bones", His creepy voice took command with all my nerves and senses as I started stabbing and ripping myself. Blood started spraying insanely in the open air as I whimpered at the pain of hurting myself out of control.
But with pain, I remembered falling into the depths of my dark nature. With pain, I learned the art of dark magic and with so much pain that I have endured, I survived the risk of living in the open world. And with pain, I shall remove this creature in the face of earth.
I shut my eyes and bit my tongue so hard until I finally took a grip of my raging thoughts. Focused on the single shot of pain until everything started to falling in one point, it was at that moment that I broke the curse of compulsion from vampires.
With the littlest sanity that I managed to composed out of the manipulative words of a rampaging vampire, I concentrated all my energy in a single core. I opened my eyes and surge of energy ran down my nerves.
"Death Harvest", I whispered and a strong beat turned the world around us into a monochrome. I looked up to the dark sky with my bloody arms stretched on both side. I reaped everything that has life around us. Leaving the area grey with dead trees and wilted leaves. The beasts nearby fell lifeless on the ground.
That's when I felt an overwhelming amount of energy ripped out of my body.
But to my surprise, my opponent stood unbothered and well rested after all the natural defiance that I casted. My spell failed to reap his life.
"Which part of being immortal is hard to understand?", He tilted his head and looked down at me with malice and threat.
"I failed...", I whispered in between breath as I tried catching up with my breath.
I pulled my hands back and looked at my palms. After all the arts that I've learned I still hadn't wiped a single soul in a single battle. The feeling killed me with frustrations. Tears started falling down on my cheeks. I felt my body suddenly shrunk.
That moment I've learned that everytime I use a "Black Reaping" spell, I'll lost a part of me. The first time I harnessed it, I lost the memory of a love to my family which caused me to forget everything about them. Now for the second time, I lost my ability to grow old and instead turned into a child in his kinder stage, altered and partially nerfed of his abilities to repent his sins. But unlike an immortal who had defiled the laws of death, I was robbed out of my natural ability to age. But still vulnerable to death. It's like my magic is both a gift and a curse. Either way it is an absolute form a corrupting magic that takes the life and everything it touches and deteriorating a caster's life in exchange.
"Kill me now", I heard my little voice cracked as I weeped like a child I was in front of him.
My clothes covered half of my body when I shifted into a little kid after casting a nature defiant spell in exchange. I covered my face with both of my hands and cried loudly at my imminent death. My current state is like an open door for a total defeat.
But I was surprised by a touch of a warm hand in my shoulders.
"What's your name?", The scary guy in front me asked with his grey eyes looking into mine.
"Hubert Gibson Strikerealm", I answered shakily with my cracked up voice.
"My name is Darwin Alexander...call me Darwin Frost", He lifted me up like a small cat and carried me on his shoulder.
For a moment I thought he's gonna smash me hard on the ground until I spill my little brain out but he dashed like a lighting on top of a mountain and took us in the summit. The clouds behind us run across the land like waves in the ocean.
"From now on you'll be my apprentice. You'll fight with me and we'll protect each other. I took a peak of your mind and I saw how dark your past is. It is as dark as mine, but not beyond what I've been through. So I somehow found myself in you", His words, so clear until now.
I never thought that a dove can live inside a lion's body. So he spared my life and we've been together through the centuries. Not just as buddy like we are but as brothers. And forever be bonded with each other.
So that was my story and how we met.
The legend of two outcasts who found a place for acceptance with each other.",
Hubert waved his hands and the room return to its original form.
He looked at Stephen on his side with his jaws still dropped at the series of events flashed in front of him.
"That was actually sad and overwhelming at the same time", He blinked his eyes to clear his vision as he commented.
"I know. You ran out of words. And sorry for the image of naked Dada in front of you", Hubert teased him with a hint of laughter.
"Gosh, no. I didn't mind that", Stephen returned with a snug.
"Is that why you keep shifting forms? Like you know? From a kid to a teenage boy", He added.
"I was supposed to be a kid through eternity. But after all the years that I get live I learned the art of alter countering so I can relive my original form and abilities because why not. I learned quite a lot about magic and sorcery", Hubert bobbed his face.
"You are quite that powerful, huh", Stephen commended him once again.
"Somehow. But not against him. So instead, I stood as his support and helped him with his past troubles", Hubert let out a small chuckled as he tucked himself into the soft mattress next to him.
"Wait. I can't help but wonder. You two met a few centuries ago but why did you parted ways? I mean, It seemed that the moment you found me a few days ago is your recent reunion", Stephen dusted his pants off as he asked Hubert.
"That's a subject for another story. Gotta sleep now", Hubert yawned at his face and turned to his side.
Stephen just looked at him with a smile. He turned to Darwin and looked closely at him.He noticed his hair running shade of brown to silver and his complexion turning from pale to normal.
He brushed his hair falling messed up on his forehead and to his surprise he heard Darwin say the words that he never heard before.
"Stephen"
That was the first time he heard Darwin say his name.