[Flashback, at the karaoke bar]
It might not have been the best choice, but it was a choice he was willing to live with.
Walking in with everything at the start... But leaving with nothing in the end.
But maybe it was better that he had nothing, and that nothingness was a choice.
[Traits: Selfish + emotional unstable + unknown]
Feeling hollow once more his eyes became dull, he threw away his humanity once again and the strong part of him that cared as a human ceased to exist. It left him feeling hollow, but as he walked away, a strange [unknow] started seeping in and slowly devouring that nothingness.
[half-human: 35%]
What he had done before wasn't to make his elder sister suffer, that's the last thing he wanted. But it might have actually been the first as this was him getting even from the start of today's afternoon when Connor her ex-boyfriend first appeared back in her life, but not for her, or even to apologize to her, but instead for her little brother.
But I'm not talking about that, his fear ability, he did it to her to use her as a distraction. She was bound to pursue and if she left, she was bound to cause everyone else to follow along as an effect, which he didn't need. There was a reason for why the ones that came with him, came.
But then again, right now he could care less about any and all of them. Even Remi, the one who was still a piece of his humanity even after everything that happened, and the one he couldn't bear to get rid of... Was currently null.
He felt nothing towards her as a result of using this ability, and as he walked away, nothing and no one other than himself was in any means important to him.
....
[N-PoV change]
With the door closing behind them 4, Zarifall spoke as he instantly began walking down the hallway.
"Why'd you do that to her, I get the both of you have some sort of sibling fude, especially after what had happened last night with her and that girl and what they had done to us, but you're taking this too far Hiro-" Zarifall
But turning to her he stopped and looked her in the eyes with his eyes back to brown, but dulled, and she could see it.
"I'm not taking anything too far, I'm just proving that I can do better. . .Way better" He bitterly smiled.
Not allowing her to speak, he turned around and looked down the hallway,
"Let's move, Zarifall make 2 water swords, Marcilina make sure no one follows us outside, and Connor, I suggest you leave this to me and Zarifall, stay out our way if you don't want to get hurt, but do keep an eye out for others" Hiro
"I understand" Connor
"Sure?" Marcilina
Not knowing what's going on, Zarifall at him strangely, and he felt her gaze at him with such confusion.
"Connor she's a sorcerer, and the one next to me is an Allie" Hiro
"HIRO!!!" Zarifall
Shouting his name as he just revealed her greatest secret, he spoke again,
"He already knows I'm a sorcerer, so don't react like that, it would have been much harder for you to fight if you have to hold back"
Stopping dead in her tracks, she looked to him,
"Fight? Fight what? What the hells so important that you had to tell some rando what I am? what we are"
Turning back around,
"I was contacted by a friend not so long ago that some strong-looking monsters are nearby. No, right now there near to our location and heading this way, so we need to hurry and exterminate them before they get here and probably attack all of us, including the drunk people we were just with. Plus the one watching them has no battle experience, and I have no intentions of letting him get hurt, so hurry up and let's get going"
"Then why didn't you say that from the start?!" she exclaimed and her face got red along with it as she was tipsy.
Exclaiming that to him, he had a vague smile form as he didn't know how to answer back, actually, that was a good question, he was just not thinking about it at the time.
"My fault, I guess you could say the amount of alcohol I drank has me a bit drunk, hahaha" Hiro
"Bro you gave me all your alcohol and took Levi's water, you shouldn't be drunk?" Connor
"Don't worry about such trivial things, haha, let's just go, also can you still make those 2 water blades zary" Hiro
"Do it yourself!" Zarifall
"I don't have a water affinity tho?" Hiro
"Make a fire sword you damn fire-breathing Lizard!" Zarifall
"Can't" Hiro
"And why not!" Zarifall
"You know how we use energy and something aren't ment to be... Well, my Base cultivation hasn't reached rank 3 yet. . ." Hiro
"Stop lying! We all know if anyone here, you've reached rank 4 by now! After all, you've probably even reached-"
[Magic power: Released]
[Phyric Energy: Released]
Revealing not just his magical strength/natural aura, but moreover his Phyric energy's power, it was small, and I mean really fucking small.
She was taken back as she could barely feel it, it was so weak that if she hasn't used [energy sense] this entire time which was an advanced version of [magic sense] because she didn't trust Levi of Isabell, she wouldn't have caught sight of how he hadn't been hiding his true strength.
"Why the hell are you so weak! The last time I remember you were a Mid-Rank 3! But that was back when we were 15 and you were always stronger than me! So you should be about a low-high or even a Mid-Rank 4!!"
Not batting an eye towards her words, Marcilina meddled in.
"Oh yea, I think I remember you being that? But wasn't that before you started throwing up mouthfuls of blood for a month and after you came back to Nefumia after disappearing from the unknowns for a strait 4 months not in this realm?"
"Wait what did she say?" Connor and Zarifall
That's correct, but I don't recall it happening for a straight month, it was before I was given the mission to travel to Kantaku that I stopped throwing up blood and or feeling super icky. But I have to admit even when I was heading there, I felt super weakened, in both terms of magic and physical capabilities?" this was just him not giving a fuck or bothering to ask questions on how she knew this or how she mentioned him not being in this current realm which he didn't even realize she said it.
"You threw up blood for a month" the both of them generally worrying, but the other 2 weren't paying attention to them as they walked down the hallway together.
"You think it could have been caused by impartial soul collapsment?" Marcilina
"I don't know what that means? But besides feeling weak on both ends, I feel super good, plus I even naturally picked up a thing or 2 afterwords, like if I focus on this unusual energy like feeling above my navel and also in my chest, I can embody a power I couldn't have before, it also just randomly happens occasionally. Like when I'm distressed or angry, and I can even see the difference in shadows?" Hiro
"Really? How so?" Marcilina
"Okay so I've been experimenting in my free time and when I cast a spell, I can see this strange haze around my shadow which might actually be that saying that magic is involved, so theoretically I might be able to tell by someone's shadow if they're using Magic or not?" Hiro
"What about marital skills? Or skills in general that have no concept of Magic consumption, like even how you witches use energy instead of mana" Marcilina
"First of all were not witches, were sorcerers, there a huge difference" Hiro
"No there's not" Marcilina
"And I have no clue about the others, but I do know it's only magic, or at least magic without any elements added in, probably?" Hiro
"Hm interesting, want me to help you research it with you" Marcilina
"You really want to help me comprehend it" Hiro
"Don't get me wrong, I have my own interests in you learning this, plus remember what I said before, I only have you in mind for people I "care" about, so why not" Marcilina
"You're intending on using me huh?" Hiro
"No" Marcilina
"I just want more freedom" Marcilina
"But you already have it" Hiro
Telepathic Message "this is embarrassing so I'm going to say it once... I'm like a dog on a leash, I can't stray away from you and even with your permission, I can only be in the same building as you, and without permission, I can only stray away 30 feet" Marcilina
'ha, she just compared herself a dog*'
"Ah, so I'm like your master? You're prohibited from doing anything freely and from how your acting, there seems to be some sort of condition for your limited actions to be extended" Hiro
"Like hell you are! I'm a God! There's no way a punk Demon like you could ever imagine to have any authority over me" Marcilina
"I see... So I really am Your master" not blind, or foolish right now, his sense of reasoning was at its peeks and so that bond between them was actually a master servent pact.
With her fuming and the both of them completely ignoring the other 2 behind them who tried getting to them, they reached the door and Hiro turned to Zarifall, now voiding Marcilina who was ranting about the pact/bond,
"Make the sword yet?"
"No! Hiro why are you avoiding what we're asking you!" Zarifall
"Because it's irrelevant... I smell blood?" Hiro
Swiftly twisting, he looked into the darkness of nightfall, and as he could see everything in the range of 30 feet like the sun was out, he didn't see anything.
"I like to keep in mind the most important parts of my phyric ranking so I don't forget. Like how rank 1 is unrelentless destruction, rank 2 is magic and phyric conversion which strengthens all my fire spells, and then rank 3, creation and control, which I don't have and you do, so you mind making me a water sword before I set the naborhood on fire" Hiro
Not even bothering to look behind him and keeping an eye on the darkness, his exhale outward was encased in smoke like if he was a fire dragon.
"Fine I get it, but why do I have to use a sword, when I can just-" Zarifall
"Ever heard of a pressure washer, I'd like for us to not cause as much damage as possible" Hiro
"I agree with Hiro on this one, if we were to stir up a loud ruckus, it would cause people to get hurt. Not by us, but because the monsters would attack them or use them against us, especially if they have mind attacks or mind control" Connor
Clicking her tounge the water vapor in the air condensed thanks to a surge of energy from out of her hands, and 2 swords made of water formed.
She then threw one over to Hiro and as he caught it she was vexed,
"I don't know how to fight with a sword, so you better not fuck me over because of this or I'll torment you from the grave" Zarifall
"If you die I'll feed your corpse to Oliver, so have no worries" Hiro
"???" Zarifall
Walking out into the darkness, he saw that the streets were empty, but then he heard "Meow" and looking to his right he saw Oliver who he let roam around when they got there, and Oliver then ran over to an alleyway which he then stopped before running around the corner and into it.
"Good job, Ollie"
Following Oliver's path, the others called out to him, but as he gripped into that solid feeling water sword, he pointed the one-sided blade forward and as he ran forward, he moved to his side to position an easy thrust motion.
Turning corners his blade immediately touched something and without even needing to look, he trusted the blade into someone's flesh,
"Hey, wait up!" the others ran behind him, but Zarifall stayed to their rear as she felt uneasy about this, something was going to happen and she didn't like it.
.....
Thrusting his blade into what felt like soft decayed flesh, it was as if time stopped as blood came raining down from all around, red and blue, down from what he stabbed but furthermore behind and aside him as he was slashed on both sides by 4 fastened blades, forcing him to move his arm quickly to his mouth as he screamed into it.
Glaring up to the face of what he had stabbed he saw dried skin, corpse-like, and a pair of glowing blue necrotic eyes of a tall 7ft monster, but it wasn't just any monster, it was an undead.
Standing before him was a Deathlock and as his sense of rationality broke and he was bleeding from both sides of his torso. Aeeing this undead warlock was before him, he let go of the water sword and shot his hand at the face of the Deathlock, letting his phryic energy surge as his hand hadn't even touched the undead, but when it did he surely had re-killed it as he could taste its strong necrotic energy trying to corrode him.
Standing before him he heard mocking laughter and as he felt his sense of everything fucking crumble before him thanks to whatever had just crawled inside him(energy wise).
His teeth turned beastly and fanged like nothing seen before, and as he snapped his head toward them, a bloodish-black energy seemly raged out of him, and the entire alleyway was stormed by abyssal energy.
Looking behind, his raging flame shot out of his hand as he was still cuffing the Deathlock's face in his hand.
He looked at 4 medium-sized creatures who's moreover humanoid form and bulky concrete-like flesh came tight and came across its almost visible bone. They were completely hairless and mocked all with flesh as they had carnivorously sharp teeth and jagged claws, their eyes could burn deep into the memory of their victims souls and as their eyes were like hot coal in their shrunken eye sockets they seemed I'm dangerous and stromger than you, Plus they were all equipped with a single Piandao Sword.
Looking at the big bro race of the ghoul called a ghast, he threw the Deathlock aside and as it fell back he grabbed the now blue-blooded water sword and he got in the 8 sword dance's 1st stance which had helped null the pain from their attack and he immediately dashed at them.
He felt his sides burning in agony from being slashed.
Not giving a fuck about his uncanny health situation which made him bleed faster, he didn't use any more phyric energy as he slashed horizontally at them and they all jumped out of the way, hitting the wall with their feet and kicking off of it and landing in front of the Deathlock.
"Arms of Hadar" a necrotic and echoey voice span from all directions, increasingly confusing its target/Hiro.
[arms of Hadar]
Hearing an unknown spell being behested, he increased his guard and looked forward at the 4 ghasts who were grinning at him, he then looked behind them something rose higher than them and it was the very Deathlock that he had killed, or so he thought he killed.
Seeing his enemy he took a step forward to dash at them, but as a drop of his blood hit the ground, the ground cracked and tendrils of dark energy sprung out of the ground, wrapping around his torso and limbs and just grabbing ahold of him.
He was going to release a mass of phyic energy into a burst around him, but he felt something wrong... He was too weak to do something of the 3rd rank which required immense energy control.
The tendrils lifted him up and as he tried resisting, they suddenly bashed him against the walls, making him collide with both walls and then hitting him against the ground and repeating in multiple actions, destroying the water blade and turning it into a puddle of water with highly coppered blood which was blue and even his phone which was thrown out of his pocket has broken apart from the collisions.
Before then, it threw him out of the alleyway and into the empty street in which Zarifall was fighting 2 ghasts on her own and fairing good against them.
"Hiro!"
A male voice was heard from on a roof above them and looking up there was a mousy boy with fox ears and a devastated face.
The monsters heard him and as the abyssal energy was brought out into the open, it started affecting zarifall and the other 2 in a nasty way,
Feeling something of darkness origins, they all quivered and even the 2 weaker ghasts felt it striking them Chaoticlly like a lesion whip.
Turning to look at the bloody creature that had been thrown out of the alleyway, they saw something and it was a black spike-tailed creature covered in its own blood and curled up in agony in the middle of the street.
"It's a Demonoid?" they said in an elvish tounge before blinking and seeing the material world where they could now see a severely injured human, but that abyssal energy was mostly forced out of their system but they could still feel some sort of effect.
But this destruction was their biggest mistake as their vision curved and the both of them saw a line of water come out in front of them and from where under their head could have been.
Their heads fell off and as Zarifall was panting, she saw Hiro but then looked to where she heard chuckling and she threw what seemed to be a water ball at Hiro and as it hit him he was them covered in a swirling bubble of water which she then saw a green necrotic blast come out like a zap and hit the water bubble destroying it but not hurting Hiro.
"Damn it!"
She then rushed forward and along with her Marcilina saw this and instead of taking advantage of this situation to finally free herself, she bit her tounge and chose to be selfless as she used what magic she had gained from her time playing around with the men at the karaoke bar, and a wall of tentacles appeared before Hiro and whatever the hell was in the alleyway,
But these tentacles were like the plant monsters from battle kid, because they had mouths and sharpened purple teeth. Which held no effects.
"Thanks girl! I got the rest!"
"You can thank me later, go kick some butt before I have to out lass you witch!"
Agreeing on something she got in the way of the alleyway and as she could see what seemed like only eyes of what was in there. She could tell there were 4 ghasts and something unknown which made her keep her guard up, especially since she could barely see shit and it was dark, plus that blackish energy fog all around made her even wearier as she didn't know where it came from, but it seemed more troublesome than those undead.
"Sorry Hiro! But I think doing things my way is alot better than dieing!"
Yelling to behind her, her sword turned into a balk of water, and as she saw the burning coal eyes coming close and something of dark energy emerging from where they were, the vapor in the air condensed and joined in her water ball expanding it and making it swirl around.
5 seconds they were 23 feet away.
10 seconds if charging her attack they were 11 feet away,
Without a full 30 seconds to fully complete her attack, she pulled a final flash and as she used an incomplete attack she raised it above her head as it was a raging swirl of glowing aqua blue water, and as she used the full potential of her aquatic energy, she bashed her hands down onto the ground and stomping her foot forward she throwing her hands in their direction of her enemies and a powerful 12x16 blast of water shot at them at 400 knots per minute which grew and raged as it launched at them in a raging beam.
Engulfing all of them in her powerful attack which was of the 4th rank, she tried holding back a lot, but she ended up destroying 3 large reinforced but empty buildings as it shot them throughout the buildings and also fucked everything in its path.
Turning around after canceling her attack, she looked to Marcilina and then Connor,
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! We need to get the hell out of here asap!"
"What the hell did you do! This wasn't apart of the plan!"
"Fuck the plan, one sorcerer is down and there was like a dozen rotten flesh heads! Now grab Hiro and run!"
But as she said that, she saw they would have taken too long, and running past the tentacles that had returned to the earth, she threw her comrades over her shoulder and told the others to run back to the karaoke bar before they were caught. Also, the mousy fox boy had seemed to disappear as well.
***
Returning to the karaoke bar and heading into an empty room close by where the others were, Connor went to check up on the others, and 2 staff members who saw them come in like this, all complete messes with a bloody boy over some girl's shoulder who's sleeves were sore off by the blast, the 2 staff members helped them into an empty room and brung the first aid the both of them knew the bloodied up Hiro, and that he was a slayer too.
***
[PoV change]
After bandaging Hiro and even Zarifall's arms as that improper blast caused a whiplash effect and hurt her, Connor came back.
"The others aren't even awake and the ones who are, are just Iclit, Isabell, Remi, Sanibel, and Jose, but they barely even noticed the earthquake aka you due to their intoxication" Connor
"Um... What's that smell?" Connor
Looking at the 5 of them, he saw that the room was flourished with flowery herbs that smelled weird and made him feel sickly, but at the same time dizzy.
"Oh sorry, hold on for one second" Gwen a staff member said as she reached her arm out and a plant slithered down the wall, stretching and getting close to him, spewing a green power in his face and making him cough.
"What is this? cough cough cough" Connor
"My plants are strongly hallucinated and have a deranging effect on people who come in contact with their odors, so I just sprayed you with an antidote that also works as an antibiotic that helps clear the uneasiness of its effects and most importantly its spell" Gwen
"Got it, wait who were you again" Connor
"Oh, sorry I never introduced myself, sorry about that sir" Gwen
"My name is Gwen Iyashi a fellow sorcerer whose clan specializes in healing, I owe my life to Mr.Hiro here as he saved my life a few years back when undead riders attacked my hometown in the western village of Lenngao outside the walls of Nefumia"
"Hello I'm Hanzo Moa, I'm not a soccer-like you guy 5, but I'm a pagling slayer who had also been saved by a duo of sword wielders, it was in fact Sir Hiro and some man in white armor, who everyone called the mysterious paladin, came to my rescue 6 years ago"
'Hiro's dad? I've only heard a single story about that guy from Mari, she didn't like speaking about him tho?'
"No worries man, I'm not a sorcerer either~"
"Really? Then what were you doing out there, you could have been seriously hurt?" he said poking around him and Connor laughed.
He then flicked his arm and grinned,
"I'm not a powerful sorcerer like those 3 but I could be considered a brawler mage as it was Hiro who taught me to utilize the mana I never knew I had and learn to use magic attacks"
"Awsome, wait doesn't that mean you're able to strengthen your punches with the help of magic"
Connor nodded his head and Hanzo looked at him amazed.
Hanzo put his hand out and in a moment of awe, they fist-bumped which confused his friend who knew he was weird, but tried not to question it.
"I don't know about the both of you, but he's severely hurt and needs lots of rest, so keep whatever this is down low on the volume, got it"
She said as her flowers were under him and glowing green light as strange particles were soaking into him.
"Sorry Ma'am," he said but the both of them immediately went onto something else as they moved away from the others, meanwhile Marcilina layed on her back and kept her eyes closed as she found herself waiting for him to recover, but she wasn't worried at all, she was just waiting.
Also, she was going to ignore the man talking to Connor as she blew him earlier along with another staff guy to gain some power back, but it wasn't enough, she needed something stronger and more potent, so probably an Orc? or even a Demon who's she's still trying to seduce but hasn't gotten anywhere.
-
-
A hand slammed down and as Marcilina caught wind of it, she looked at Hiro and as the plants under him were scorched in his flames and as he slowly sat up, further opening back up the deep wounds in his side, as his head twisted and turned like he was merely cracking his neck,
It came to a stopping point and as he looked towards the 4 others in the room, *Roar!* a ferocious and beastly howl came out from him and as his teeth were sharply fanged and his eyes layed a daggered bloody scarlet, he startled everyone in there.
As they turned to them their sight was blocked by tentacles and as they were set in a panic, as Gwen groaned in agony from her plants being destroyed, the tentacles went back into ground and turned back into roots and they all saw Marcilina on her knees and panting as blood rushed down from her arm and Hiro was unconscious.
"Fucking hell that hurt like a bitch!"
***
Several hours had passed in that night and as Hiro woke up again, Marcilina drop kicked him but she then found out it was truly him again and she had given the decently good-willed Hiro a bloody nose.
The 2 offered the others a place to stay the night but they and mostly Hiro body rejected and they thanked and bit them a Farwell as they all left.
Groggy and tired Tina and Levi left with Hiro, and they all crashed at Tina's place.
Zarifall who was fucked if she didn't leave, grabbed Peter and Mari and took them back home so she could have alibis encase she was questioned.
The others slept there and or went home only if they lived close by,
And Connor... Well, we're not going to talk about him as he hooked up with Jose for a single night in an empty karaoke room. He took a W and gave Jose a well-deserved D♡.
As for Remi, when they went to the room she was already gone but her boyfriend was still there.
[Present time]
"I'll suffocate you again if you toy with my dreams!"
He was confused and barely even awake as she woke him up.