Anelka lowers his head and closes his eyes. He needs know what would happen next, but all he can see is darkness and he can only concentrate on the throbbing in his chest.
He sighs and slumps his hands down. His heart is too strained for his powers to work, and the strain is extending to the rest of his body. A spear whooshes from above and passes through his right hand into the ground. He clenches his teeth as pain resonates through his hand. 2 arrows also fly towards him in quick succession and hit his right collarbone and his left thigh.
His jaw clenches and he squirms around held in place by the spear. His heart is squeezing furiously and his blood is blood is boiling as a side effect of the arrows. This is a familiar reaction in his body, though more painful than ever before.
"That's enough." A deep voice sounds from the left and a hooded figure with a muscular build comes down with a heavy thump from the top the building.
Anelka groans reaching for his collarbone. He pulls out the arrow after some effort letting blood gush out freely, then throws the arrow away.
"I was making sure." A small voice comes from the right and the small figure of a person jumps down from a roof. The person has a quiver of arrows on their back, and is holding on to a well crafted bow.
Another hooded figure flips from down from the building on a building on the left. The figure takes off the hood, revealing the face of a young man. He is lean, and the exposed part of his arm reveals a tatoo connected circles
"I think you over did it." The man picks up the arrow and uses his cloak to wipe the blood off the arrow's tip revealing its colored green. "one of these is enough to kill an elephant."
"I heard he was immune." The owner of the small voice pulls down her hood revealing her scarred face. She then slings the bow around her shoulder
"We were asked to bring him alive." The muscular man takes down his own hood showing his strong chiseled jaw line. Anelka recognizes this man as the commander of the king's guard, and deduces he must be the one in charge.
"IF we could try." She glances at Anelka who is now breathing heavily. "Well he's not dead, is he?"
"I don't think for much longer." The commander is examining Anelka's wounds, the cuts from the arrow don't seem to be closing.
"I though he could heal himself." the young man asks from behind
"He could, but someone thought it would be a good idea to poison him."
"I was making sure he stayed till. I didn't think he would fall so fast. His predictions are no joke."
"seriously." The lean man crouches to take a closer look. "I thought the great 'Anelka the seer' was invincible."
"He is, so we should be grateful we found a weakness." The commander says. "who could ever think it's his emotions that trigger the effect."
'My emotions?' Anelka is shocked at the revelation. He made Marie promise never to tell anyone else about the effect of his emotional state on his heart. Could she have betrayed him? No, he doesn't think so, but did she tell someone else? He doesn't think so either. So how do they know?
"I don't follow sir." The man looks up at the commander looking confused.
"We always knew he had an internal cursed effect. And the Kezafs finally exposed it was his heart. We could never find out because it only triggers when he is very emotional."
The gears of Anelka's brain turn faster. 'The Kezafs? Did Marie tell her family? Why would she? I thought she didn't trust them?' questions keeps flooding into mind. Can the woman he would die protecting be the cause of his current situation?
"I see." The man stands and places a foot on Anelka's hand, then violently yanks the spear off. Anelka feels a slight tinge and groans lightly. His breathing is not heavy and raspy, and all the pain from his perforated hand is numbed by his burning chest and boiling blood.
"What do we do with him now?" the man asks. He tries to return the spear to the general, but the general declines.
The woman scoffs. "Let's leave him, he's as good as dead."
"We'll take him back." The commander says. He crouches to examine the hole in Anelka's hand, and the arrow wounds that don't seem to be healing. "Did u seriously have to use that much?"
The man and the woman then start arguing about the dosage, but Anelka's mind is still reeling from the thought of his betrayal. He has concluded that Marie would never sell him out, but he needs to know how her family found out.
"H…h…how…" his breathing is getting shallow. The arrow wounds and the puncture in his hand have stopped healing. He can feel his body slowly shutting down. His heart was too strained the clean out the poison.
"He wants to say something." The commander raises a hand to silence them, and is about to lean in closer but a red line sweeps across his wrist, and a thin line following the same path scratches on the wall in front of him. His hand is instantly pushed away by the fountain of blood that erupts from there. A shout escapes his mouth, and he squeezes the wrist with the other hand.
"I thought they would stay away!" In what felt like less than a second to Anelka, the woman took her bow out, spun around, got into a crouching position, and drew an arrow in the bow.
"I knew we couldn't trust them!" the man has equally turned around and is holding his spear in a combat stance. Anelka looks past the screaming commander and sees the figure of a small boy charging towards them. He smiles internally at the sight. Maria and Gigi should be safe.
"We are getting out of here!" the general says though gritted teeth.
"its just one boy I think…"
"Shit." The woman returns her bow and arrow to their resting places. "He's not 'just a boy' you idiot." She turns and helps the general to his feet. "You need more time in actual combat Mr instructor."
She guides the commander towards the door of the building and smashes it open. "Come on you fool." Before the man responds to the command, the top of the spear falls down, cleanly cut off from the bottom as it by a sword, and the front of his cloak and shirt rips open in a clean line. He drops the remainder of the spear in shock and sprints through the door after the commander and the woman. After he passes, thin lines scratch on the wall and across the door frame in random zig zag paterns.
The boy approaches the area panting. He looks down at Anelka, then up at the door. His gaze lingers there for a while before he moves to Anelka.
Anelka watches as the boys eyes roam over his body. The boy's eyes start to water and he gets on his knees
"Uncle Nel… I'm sorry I… I heard the… the explosions and…" the boy bursts into tears. "I'm too… too late…"
Other footsteps run up from behind, and Anelka looks up to see Marie also panting heavily. She quickly gets down on the other side and cups his face in her hands, then turns his head towards her
"Nel, Nel, can you hear me." Tears start to roll down her own face. "You can heal this, you'll be fine, just try to… try to b…" she places her forehead on his and tries to steady her shaking breath. "try to… breath, ok. You'll be just f… just fine."
Could this weeping woman really have betrayed him?
'She would never.' Seeing her cry now, Anelka completely dismisses the idea. But something is wrong. She is so close, yet he cannot feel her presence. On further inspection even the pain is gone, and he cannot feel any part of his body.
"I…" he coughs out blood as he tries to speak. "I don't… care."
Marie draws her tear stained face back. " It's fine, you're fine, just don't say anything, try heal yourself first." No, it's over for him, and he knows it, but befor he dies, he wants to confess his love for her one last time.
"Don't care if… you … told them…" 'I still love you.' He hasn't finished his sentence, but everything has gone dark. Marie is probably saying something, but he's not sure what. His end has come, and he only blames himself for thinking the kingdoms would accept his peace offers so easily. He wonders what will happen next, but has no doubt his people would be fine. But what about Marie? What about Gigi?
He is tired of all the thinking. It's time for him to finally rest. In his next life, he wishes God at least gives him a better body.