Hitryel could faintly feel the Flow running through the bodies of both his opponents, but his vision was obstructed by the gas, which let most of their hits connect. Still, he fended off against their assault with the hand not holding the handle of the knife stabbed into the side of his stomach. The last thing he'd want would be to fight while his stomach…bled…out…
"Huh…?" Why was he feeling dizzy? The wound was still intact. He wasn't tired, so why did it suddenly feel like he needed to rest? Hitryel let out a grunt as one of the several punches struck him. He struck back immediately, but his arm was like cloth, wobbling to the men in front, who batted it aside effortlessly and continued their assault.
Hitryel went on the defensive as his head felt light, the men pushing him back. Not a single brawler in the entire ABC could make him lightheaded, so how did these…
He slid underneath a punch, removing the hand from the handle of the knife and shooting a straight fist to the blond man's gut. The man gasped for air as the fist pushed him back. Hitryel sliced with a low kick at the other man's legs, knocking him off balance.
He coughed, reaching for his mouth. The palm of the hand he used to cover his mouth got colored red. He slowly reached for the knife handle and again clung onto it firmly. Both of his opponents wore those gas masks for a reason. This gas was making Hitryel lightheaded.
"You think that's enough to take me down?" Hitryel smiled demonically. "TRY ME!"
The black-haired man's face discolored when he heard those words. He kept his eyes on Hitryel as he dragged his body away, just like an injured prey being unable to look away from its predator. "What the fluck are you?" he asked loudly. "I stabbed you! How're you still standing?"
The blond one's knees hit the ground. "Edden…" he said, huffing. "The healing thing. It's gone."
The black-haired man looked horrified when his eyes fell upon the bare forehead of his partner. "Is mine gone too?"
The blond man nodded silently.
"But it was supposed to stay until it fully healed us up to a certain state! Without it…" The black-haired man's words choked. He reached for his chest, as if air just got knocked out of it.
His partner stood. "But he's in a much worse condition than us. And there's two of us."
The black-haired one nodded, standing on unstable footing. "You're right. We can do this."
They met Hitryel's eyes. Through them, Hitryel could tell just how much shaken up they were. Still, he needed to finish this. If this went for too long—
He coughed out blood again—
"Now's our chance!" A yell came from up ahead.
"Take him down!" Another one.
The dizziness had got much severe. Hitryel was barely standing. Could he counter these two—?
"Try me…!" He forced it out of his mouth, holding loose fists to the front.
The blond one's punch was upon him, and so was the black-haired one's kick. Which one to stop first? Which one would do more damage? Which one would take him just one arm? Too many smoking questions! Just HIT—!
"Get away from Hit, you bastards!" a familiar voice shouted.
The two men to the front of Hitryel stopped as a menacing aura swept past them.
Hitryel glanced over his shoulder, but before his head fully turned, the black-haired boy with a scar on his nose jumped on the two men in front with legs extended forward, kicking them both down. It was Ryuzio. He had jumped into Hitryel's fight.
Hitryel fell onto his butt. 'Well…this is MY underhanded trick. Now we're even.' Hitryel gave himself this excuse as he lied down. He held in his exhale of relief because he was unsure of Ryuzio's strength. But the boy proved himself by knocking out both the cheap-trick-using opponents without much effort. Hitryel did weaken them to begin with, so he was convinced that Ryuzio was still behind him in terms of strength.
Ryuzio seemed pissed off even after beating up both those guys. "Are you dumb! Hit is my squadmate! What do you think you were doing?" He stopped, as if realizing something. "You're the guys who bullied Ben! What're you doing here after Baru scared you off?" Why was he asking them questions after knocking them out?
"Oy, Ryuzio," Hitryel said, his eyes thinning in pain.
Ryuzio turned away from the unconscious men, making his way to Hitryel. "They better not show up again," he was saying. "I don't like them. First they bully Ben and now this…" He trailed off, noticing the knife in Hitryel's stomach. "Hit, there's a knife in your gut! Where did you get it?"
"You're worried about the knife?" Hitryel said through gritted teeth.
Ryuzio nodded to himself. "You need help."
Hitryel sighed. "Regardless, listen up Ryuzio."
Ryuzio squatted beside him, cupping his ear. "What is it? Your dying wish—?"
"Don't you ever interfere in any of my fights again. Got it?"
"Heh?" Ryuzio picked his nose with a pinky. "No. Are you dumb? I can't let one of my squadmates die."
"Who's gonna kill me?" Hitryel grunted, back lifting off the ground. "Do you think there's anyone strong enough for that in this skyreacher, or in ANY of them for that matter?
"I'm the greatest warrior to ever breathe under these Skies! Do you think there's even a SINGLE who could match me in Highplexia!"
Ryuzio fixed his headband as he got up and looked at the stars of the night sky with a smile. "I don't know, Hit? I haven't even seen half of it."
Hitryel's lips formed a line and he let his back join the earth again, looking up as well. "True. Guess we'll both find that out someday."
"Why're you two just staring up?" a feminine voice asked. "Can't you see he's bleeding? We have to get him out of here. The skyguards can arrive any moment now."
Hitryel rolled his eyes to the speaker, finding a masked girl with pink hair. "Who's this, Ryuzio?"
Ryuzio smiled. "Our new squadmate."
She cocked her head in confusion. "NOW you want to be 'squadmates?' Back there you didn't even want us to talk. But now that you know I can heal your friend, you get all buddy-buddy, hm?" She awaited an answer, but the two were in a conversation of their own.
###
"Yeah, apparently they are called 'attention horns,'" Ryuzio said to Hitryel.
"Attention horns, huh?" Hitryel said. "I'll keep that in mind. If it happened to both of us then it has to mean something more."
"Did you even hear a word I just said?" the pink-haired girl shouted from the side.
Ryuzio plugged his ears, closing his eyes. "Hit, if you go to any hospital, do you think the skyguards will capture us?"
"No doubt."
Ryuzio folded his arms as he squatted. "Then how do we get you fixed?"
The pink-haired girl blinked rapidly, her brow twitching. "Are you flucking kidding me?"
Ryuzio softly pounded his right fist sideways onto his left palm. "Got it."
She sighed. "Finally. Okay so to heal him, I—"
"How about you give us some suggestion as our newest squadmate," Ryuzio said, pointing at her. "If we think about something together, we'll figure it out faster. But don't stress it. We can always carry Hit to the nearest hospital and fight off the skyguards that come for us—"
The pink-haired girl pulled on Ryuzio's cheek. "You think this is funny?"
"What?" Ryuzio asked, cheek stretched. "You can carry him by his arms or his legs. I don't care."
"We don't need to carry him anywhere!" she shouted. "Didn't you see me use my Etherskill on that one over there?" She pointed at the unconscious blond man. "I can heal your squadmate."
"Oh, yeah," Ryuzio said, thinning his eyes at her. "Then why aren't you doing it? Did you forget how to do it?"
"'Why?'" she said, confused. "You never asked me to!"
"You need an order to help a squadmate?" Ryuzio said, confused. "That makes no sense."
She fell quiet. "We're not…squadmates…" she finally said, softer. "I can never be squadmates with someone who doesn't even know basic stuff about how the world works."
Ryuzio laughed, looking at Hitryel. "She's funny."
"I think she meant it," Hitryel said from the ground, still holding onto the knife in his gut. "But can we speed it up? I need to go for a run…" He trailed off as sirens blared in a distance. The sound getting closer by the second.
"The skyguards have arrived!" the pink-haired girl said. "We need to get away from here."
Ryuzio nodded, understanding the urgency of the situation. He helped Hitryel off the ground, wrapping his squadmate's left arm around his shoulders. Ryuzio paused when he saw the hand offered to him.
"Let's make a deal," the masked girl said. "I'll heal up your squadmate and in return you have to help me in something dangerous." Her hand hung for many seconds, before…
Ryuzio walked past her, not accepting the hand.
"Hm?" she said, baffled, turning to him. "Don't you care about him?"
"Of course I do," Ryuzio said, brows furrowed, as he walked away from the approaching sirens. "I'm just confused."
"Confused?" The masked girl caught up, walking beside him. "About what exactly? I think I made the deal pretty clear. I know 'something dangerous' is vague, but I'll explain it fully to you two when we get to a safer place than…" She trailed off as Ryuzio glanced her way, meeting her eyes.
"Why do you want to make a deal?" he said clearly to her. "We're squadmates! Of course you're going to heal Hit and of course we'll help you in EVERYTHING dangerous. That's what squadmates are supposed to do—they have each other's back! Why are you making it sound like it's a one-time thing?"
Her eyes widened, not a word leaving her hidden lips, her pace slowing.
"Where do we have to go, Hit?" Ryuzio asked, looking at Hitryel's slumping head. He stopped when he got no reply. "Hit…?"
Hitryel's eyes were shut close, jaw loose.