Date: September 10
Place: unOrdinary Locations
[Rei]
As we were running towards the barn, my peripheral vision caught something. And I was shocked to see another unOrdinary near the barn, continuously punching it. Then when I looked up, I saw Noel hanging by the roof.
"You don't have to explain, just go," Cedrick said when he also took notice of the situation with Noel. With his consent, I slid past the unOrdinary's legs, that we were supposed to kill together, leaving Cedrick alone on the battlefield.
"Noel, can you still hold on?" I asked. "How long?" I changed my question when I only heard a grunt from him.
"A few minutes," he could only give short replies.
"I'll be right up there," I reassured him, throwing one of my knives at the unOrdinary. And it only stuck to its arm which also caused a brief pause of punching. "Whaー" I couldn't properly process my thoughts when all I did was just dodge its every punch. "Can you try and pull yourself up?" I say to him when I got the unOrdinary busy with me.
"Sorry," he said. "I'll try," I can hear him panting as he attempts.
I backed away from the barn to a tree. And my plan worked, which is to get one of its hands stuck on a tree. And by doing so I can take back the knife I threw and examine how strong are its punches. But after I pulled it out of its arm, its other arm came flying to my stomach. And in just a nick of time, I managed to put my knives in a cross and shielded my stomach to reduce the damage.
Coughing, I fell a few meters away from it and while I was holding my stomach, I had no choice but to stand back up when I saw it coming for another punch.
"Need some help?" I hear Cedrick offer while I was still dodging its attacks.
"How many do you still have?" I gave a mocking chuckle when I remembered he had seven opponents while I only have one.
"I've taken down two, so five," he answered as I hear the growls and claws swinging to the air from his side of the field.
"I'll join you after I finish this," I announced and didn't expect a reply from him anymore so I just focused on what was in front of me. Then an idea came to mind.
I decided to climb up a tree to try out my plan, but it was too risky so I changed my mind. And while it was continuously punching the tree I was up on, I loaded my gun and equipped a silencer to reduce some unwanted attention and tried shooting at it. But it doesn't work.
And so, I proceeded to a new idea that just popped up.
"Cedrick, you have my antidote, right?" I was referring to the chemical that could calm me down once I went berserk.
"Don't tell me you're going toーwoah!" I think he almost got caught as I hear him huffing and puffing.
"You know it's the only way," I paused when I noticed that I have no bullets left. "So I need you to go up, then shoot me as soon as you helped him out," I instructed as I threw my pistol away. Then I tied my backpack to the tree, leaving all my things with it such as my transmitter and knives.
"Cedrick!" I shouted for him to hear and saw him immediately run in my direction.
[Cedrick]
I am so tired that I could probably collapse right now. And I almost tripped as I was running towards her.
"Rei," I whispered to myself when I saw Rei jump down from the tree with all the black fog surrounding her. The first thing she took notice of was not me, but the unOrdinary that was already swarming her. So I took no breather and continued to climb up the ladder to help him out.
[Noel]
"Rei, I don't think I can hold on any longer," I say when my hands were about to give in. And when they did give up, in just a nick of time, I felt some sweaty hands grabbing me and pulling me back up.
"Why are you so heavy," I heard Cedrick comment.
Once I got up, I took a quick rest and massaged my hands and arms. I thought everything was over because Cedrick came to save me. But I still saw him shoot and finally took a deep sigh after that one shot. And when I peeked at what he shot at, he said not to.
"You might fall again," he said and prevented me from taking a look. But I'm not sure if he said that because he's worried or he just wanted to mock me.
I didn't reply to him and just shoved him out of the way to look and this time, he didn't resist.
But all I saw was Rei, lying on the cold floor with unOrdinary laying dead around her, headless. Along with a pool of green puddles scattered everywhere. And a few meters away from her was Cedrick's unusable sword.
"Woah," is what came out of my mouth, instantly.
"She's not the leader if she couldn't handle that much," he complimented while climbing down the ladder and I just followed her.
"We need a time out," Cedrick said as he carries Rei, princess style, and walks inside the barn.
"You guys can sleep, I'll take guard," I say, considering that they're not just exhausted, they're sleepless, and hungry too. "Don't worry, I'll wake you up if something happens," I say to reassure Cedrick after he gave me a questioning glare.
"Suit yourself," he said, laying beside Rei on a stack of hay that they improvised as a bed.
[Cedrick]
I thought he put two and two together already. Because I know that he has seen her berserk form. Or is he just playing dumb?
I couldn't think straight anymore so I just accepted his offer and closed my eyes. Then I slowly drift off to sleep.
~~
[Rei]
Once again, I was in a vast space with everything around me pitch dark. But this time, I just sat and waited for this to end. I have no tool to tell how much time has passed still, I kept waiting in the same spot.
Until I heard a cold and grumpy voice out of nowhere.
"Are you just going to sit there and wait?" I couldn't see who said that but I ignored it and just kept my stance. "Avoiding me, are you?" as those echoed, the surrounding suddenly goes white. Then, a black fog appeared right in front of me.
"What are you?" I stood up and dusted myself.
"Do you not remember me?" the voice was a horse one and sounds like a man who's going to die any moment. I just raised my eyebrow as an answer. "He also didn't remember me," he mumbled, and now, he sounds disappointed and sad. "People refer to me as a monster or demon," it commented and swirls around me. "Either one is fine," it chuckled.
"What do you want from me?" I asked again.
"You're body, duh?" he sounded so childish with that but that didn't change my cloud of judgment toward him.
"Why is that?" I'm actually on the winning side here because I get to question him as much as I want and he answers me.
"Because I want to venture the outside too," I don't get his mood swings. One second he was happy and childish but he returned to being like a hopeless and sad entity. "You used to be so nice to me, we were practically best friends," there he goes again being sarcastic.
"You mean I was friends with a demon?" I rolled my eyes and sat again as I was weary from standing.
"That is so mean," if he had a face, he was probably pouting from his intonation.
"Funny, coming from someone who wanted to kill all my comrades when you had a chance to possess my body," I impulsively say.
"That wasー" he stuttered as he whispers to himself.
"Just leave me alone, will you?" I say, turning my back on him.
"If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have survived earlier, did you?" I was speechless for a moment when it grabbed my hand. And when I turned to him, I thought he was all but a black fog. However, I was proved wrong when he was in a human form. He had pale skin, a few inches taller than me, he has long black hair but it was messy and his pure black eyes were staring directly at my eyes. He looks so young that I even imagine.
"Do you want me to say 'thank you' or something?" I say after he turned into the fog again when I tried to punch him.
"I guess," he answered. "You always use me as you please, then inject me with a weird liquid to suppress me," he sounded angry this time.
"Was I wrong to take advantage of a demon?" I asked, crossing my hands.
"Of course no, I mean yes! You are wrong, we're friends. And you taught me toー" I cut him because I couldn't stand this nonsense.
"Well, did you even consider that my friends are your friends too?" I shouted which made it flinch. "For your information, I don't even think I need you!" I sound so merciless.
"I only tried to defend you because I thought they were to harm my master," he shouted back.
"Master?" I mumbled.
"You felt so much pain when you were electrocuted, you would've passed out if I didn't share the pain with you," he suddenly started to vent that I was confused by all the information that he started to blurt out one by one. "And I thought you told me that it was because of that boy, Noel. Because of him, the plan collapsed!" I started to draw a few steps back as he was genuinely being scary as he shouts.
"WaitーNoel?" I mumbled.
"I was only trying to take revenge on him for you but you just had to stop my hands from cutting his throat. I was so close!" he continued and didn't leave me any second to speak back. "Forget it! You aren't my friend, you aren't my master no more. So I'll make you my enemy!" he started to morph into his humane form. But this time, he was wearing a long hooded robe and had a skull as his mask. He looks exactly like a grim reaper. "Remember that I will never help you again!" he then swung his scythe that came out from his black fog to my neck.
"Rei," I saw Noel's worried face. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," I probably looked like I had a bad nightmare in front of him as I was feeling my neck while I was gasping for air when I woke up. I almost forgot that I was dreaming, no. I'm certain it wasn't a dream. My subconsciousness?
I was shaking my head to clear my mind when I saw Cedrick sleeping beside me. And when I asked Noel what had happened, he explained it in so much detail.
"Stay here, I'm going to check something out," I whispered and he nodded.
I went outside and climbed the tree to get my things. After that, I counted the unOrdinary that were laying dead on the ground. And just as I suspected, the unOrdinary that was exceptional at punching was nowhere to be found. It was probably one of the 'buffed unOrdinary' that they were talking about. It crossed my mind that I could give it to the research team to experiment on as a bonus. But I guess that's impossible now.
Things just get messier and more complicated as times pass by.