The way he said it was... different. His whole body seemed different. He stood up straight, his eyes seem serious compared to Kai's natural tired look. He lifted his hand and some tendrils began slithering around with a wet slapping noise. He sighed, and the tendrils fell to the ground, digging into the ground and wrapping around my shoes.
"K-Kai!" I yelled, trying to crush the tendrils with my fist. "I... It's alright! You can be like Markus! You can help us!" I pleaded.
"It looks as though we've reached the end." Kai spoke, the tendrils climbing up my body, twisting and twirling around my legs.
There was a quick noise and a flash, and Markus was face to face with Kai, his blade drawn. Kai seemed to move faster, whipping Markus across his face with a whip-like tendril. Markus fell to the ground and became unresponsive.
"Markus!" I yelled, turning my attention away from the tendrils. "Kai! Stop this!" I yelled, my head beginning to burn and ache.
The pain grew and grew until I saw a flash of lightning pass through my vision and a large gust of wind began pushing Kai away, whipping him with streaks of lightning and heat. He remained serious, his expression hardly changing as he jumped back against a tree to avoid the heat.
I aimed my hand at Kai, my heart hurting. Seeing a great friend as a… enemy.
I shot a few finger bones, which actually hit him as he was stuck against the tree. He didn't even flinch as they pierced his chest and legs. He simply closed his eyes and the bullets shot back at me, just barely missing my head.
"He requests you. He requests to SEE you. Stop fighting and come with us, Calibrum Corvus. Now." Kai spoke, not even moving.
I ran forward, the wind passing away. I felt my arm eject the bone into a sword-like structure, and I began slicing at Kai. He attempted to dodge, but a few of my attacks went through, slicing into flesh. His skin produced small worms that stitched the skin back together, healing it quickly. I, however, continued my attack, feeling betrayed, but also prepared to kill. If he had killed innocent people in the camp... if that's how the bodies appeared... I must not allow him to live.
He flinched a few times but sliced back at me, slicing into my chest. It was probably the worst pain I'd ever felt.
"Calibrum... this doesn't need to happen, but if I must... I'll gladly take you out before bringing you to him. If I need to slap you awake, I will." He spoke, only fueling my anger. My skin began heating up. I could feel my back begin to spawn tendrils.
The tendrils swung and destroyed the tree behind Kai, he ducked just enough to keep his head, otherwise his head would have gone with the tree.
He swung back at me with his weapon, to which I countered his attack, we locked weapons and began pressing on each other with our weapons. His weapon connected with mine once more, and I used another tendril to swipe him aside. He landed nearby and quickly jumped up, throwing his blade into my shoulder. I screamed in agony and my tendrils wrapped around his weapon, yanking it out and throwing it far away. I flipped the bone blade around, it now looked like a regular sword. I jolted forward, wrapping my tendrils around him, using my blade to repeatable penetrate his flesh.
His expression changed to one of agony, but not for long. His body tightened, his flesh strengthened, breaking my bone blade into pieces, it rotted within seconds on the ground.
Kai's body contorted, and he produced small blades from his wrist, throwing them. I could only block a few with my tendrils before the amount was too overwhelming.
"This is over." I said, not feeling myself anymore. "You will die here."
He sighed and quickly continued with the blades. I caught a blade with a tendril and quickly returned fire, hitting him in the eye. He covered his eye and dodged backward, doing some quick somersaults and cartwheels. His speed was unmatched. I could not catch him, no matter how hard I tried. I was out of breath and my tendrils retreated into my body, pieces disintegrating into little red embers in the air. I breathed a quick breath, my body felt less hindered with the tendrils gone. My breath fogged in the air, rising up and vanishing.
"Winter..." I said, realizing what time it would soon be. Winter was when the Pathogens showed themselves less, and travel would be easier. Pathogens would rarely appear and if they did, they would be zombie-ishly slow. Their bodies not quite good in the cold. That of course meant my abilities would be hindered as well, noting how the cold would affect my Pathogenic Creature living in my body.
Markus sat up, holding his bloody head in pain. "Kai..." he whimpered out, wiping the blood, now on his hand, on the grass.
"Yeah... he's the traitor... or one of them at least." I said, standing up from my crouched position. "Let's go. We better tell Imode and Mako." I said, beginning to walk away.
"Is he... dead?" Markus asked, looking around, as if thinking he'd be around.
"No, but he'll wish he died here. I learned more things about my abilities. I'll tell you back at camp." I said, turning around and walking up to him to help him up. We both walked back slowly, he slowly healed, and I kept rubbing my bleeding shoulder and other various knife wounds. Some bone shards were stuck in my skin from when Kai's throwing knives untransformed.
The camp wasn't too far away from where Kai had led me to talk with me, so we found our way back. Stopping outside the gate of the camp... I began to realize how many people and things I take for granted. I looked to Markus, and he looked to me. He nodded and we both began toward the gate.