Coming up from the opposite direction of where he needs to go. The most obvious choice to take, is to run to where he needs to go, and keep his course. The logical choice, yet, could he abandon someone to die? What are the chances of them screaming because of a goblin? Could he even help?
"I don't want this weight on my conscience." Despite his better judgment, he turns on his heels and runs towards the source of the screaming. He shouldn't be doing it, and here he is, running straight towards danger. Just a few meters ahead, a daunting visage presents itself. A child, no older than a twelve-year-old, surrounded by the five green creatures.
"You punks!" K.J calls for them, luring their rancid attention to himself. They are slower than an adult if the one he killed is anything to go by. Before the first can react, the metal bat in his hands bashes its head, downing the creature in one hit. One of its comrades advances, swinging its wooden club wildly.
With a calm breath, the young man pushes the metal bat forward with all of his strength, hitting the creature in the chest, its ribs cracking under the pressure of the attack, the creature falls to the ground, clutching its chest and dropping its club. The other three advance at the same time, not waiting to have the fate of their comrades.
Three against one is cheap, but there isn't much to do. Seeing the dropped club, he runs and kicks it towards one of the green monsters, hitting it straight on its chin. The creature staggers as the other two pause for a few seconds to register the damage done to their comrade. Time is more than enough for K.J to finish them.
With two well-placed hits on the top of their heads, two of the monsters fall down, their eyes rolling to the back of their heads. The last one tries to get its bearings. "No way!" Before getting its head bashed by the metal bat. Four down.
Taking a breath, K.J looks around, trying to see if there are more "goblins" nearby. Not even one in sight. Looking forward, a girl is there, with her hands over a bandage on her right eye. Her body is shaking with dread, and her left eye is filled to the brim with fear. Maybe fear of him, most certainly fear of the monsters.
For some reason, she is wearing a school uniform. Why— "Emergency shelters. They must be evacuating people there." Leaning forward, to appear less threatening, and to get a better look at the girl's bandaged eye, K.J tries his best to attempt at a calming and reassuring tone.
"A-are you okay?" Despite his best effort to speak in a clear tone, a few hiccups and stutters worm their way into his speech. "I… thought I wasn't so bad?"
Overestimating himself and his state. With hesitation, the little girl answers him, swallowing her fears. "No… Sir. My eye hurt, the monsters hurt my eye, but my friend helped me… did you see my friend?
He said he would lure the monsters away…" That "friend" of hers is obvious who is. Shit… "Aaah. W-why are you in your uniform, young miss? It is dangerous out there."
"Mom and Dad aren't home. They called and said for me to go to school. They are evacuating us to someplace. My friend's parents also weren't home…"
Good thinking of her parents. Go to school in your uniform, so you get priority. Simple but clever. "I see. Is your school far away from here? I can protect you."
For a few moments, the girl takes her time to think, trying her best to keep the pain from showing on her face. "I have to get here to that school as soon as possible. This wound on her eye can become dangerous." A twist in his path, but one he is willing to take. "Mom and Dad said to never trust a stranger… What is your name, sir?"
The face of the little girl, full of fear but yet, a faint spark of hope in her little eyes, trying her best to trust him… "My name is Kyrie, Kyrie Jensen, miss. My friends call me K.J. You can call me that too. Do you know the way to your school"
Despite his efforts, a hint of fear and insecurity sweeps in his tone. Fear of the future, and insecurity in the present, of failing and dying, or failing and getting her killed.
Albeit hints of doubt and suspicion show in her remaining eyes, the young girl still decides to trust him, answering with a faint and weak voice. "Yes, Mister Kyrie. My name is Liliana Lake." With a nod, the young man straightened himself and took a deep breath.
"Okay. You show me the way, I'll keep any monster at bay, okay?" With a short and relatively slow pace, Liliana walks forward.
He knows where her friend is, but he doesn't want to see his body again, nor let a child have the memory of murder in her mind. "I still killed those goblins, though." Looking at their corpses, not him, or Liliana are bothered with it. He as a person can use the excuse of doing a good action but what about the girl? Why isn't she bothered by their corpses?
Maybe because they tried to kill her? He doesn't know, and won't dive into this issue either. "Let's walk this way— there may be monsters if we go straight ahead." Taking a detour to avoid her friend's corpse, they start to go in the direction of her school. With a glance, he can tell she plans to run away immediately if he shows any sign of danger. A good instinct…
Maybe he should've run away immediately… Yet what would happen to the young girl? She would've been left to the wolves." Despite not being the most logical choice, in his heart, he chose the right one.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, but we should walk a little bit faster. If you can't, I will carry you." One never knows when danger will come their way, especially when monsters are appearing from nowhere, and a dragon in the sky.
"I will try my best, Mister." She doesn't nod, barely moving her head. A bitter taste spreads in K.J's mouth. "That eye must be hurting like hell."
Running would only make things worse, too. "Don't push yourself too much, okay, Liliana?" the little girl whispers something he can't hear.
"If I call you K.J… can you call me Lily? Only my mum and dad call me Liliana." An unexpected request, but one he doesn't mind too much.
"Okay, if it will make you feel better." Again, the girl whispers something he can't hear. "Better not dwell on what a kid is whispering. It can't be anything important."
They start walking. Contrary to expectations, the streets they pass through are surprisingly "empty", as well as hot. It was not because the heat wave came in earlier, no, looking around would reveal why: melting and burning cars, with superheated sludge upon them, and a crater of a fire blast.
"The dragon must've passed here." The trail of destruction is obvious, more so the cause. People must've abandoned this place as soon as the fire blast fell from the skies.
Once again, trepidation crawls over his body. What if the dragon returns to bring more destruction? What if it just vomits another fireball? "Lily… do you think it is really safe here? This destruction is alarming."
"The dragon is not here… and this place is cold enough for us to walk through, Mister K.J." A little frown threatens to appear. How could this child know the dragon is away? Most importantly, how could she be so sure of the temperature? While bearable, there is no way for a normal person, let alone a child, to know how hot the place is with just a glance.
As if reading his mind, Lily speaks up in an annoyed tone: "I know this path is safe and now the shortest one to my school." She still is trying to keep her pain from showing, yet for the short time of her speech, a tone of resolution he didn't see even in adults' voices was there. How could she be so sure? A question for later.
"Okay, but be careful, we don't know when a monster can appear." As if feeling the same worry as him, the girl steps back, a little closer to him. A little more jumpy than she already is. "... I should keep my mouth shut."
Tugging on his sleeve, the young girl stares into his eyes. "Mister… if any monster appears, you will protect me, right?" K.J bites his lip. "I wish to…" his mind wanted to say, doubting itself.
"Yes, I will." His heart let out a lie, knowing himself and his own coward rays when pushed too far into the blink, he is not reliable for this type of thing, the best he can do is... try. Try to fulfill the lie his heart let out.
"Thank you, mister." They continue their walk, towards her school. The eerie sensation grew stronger and stronger as if something was wrong about the path ahead… yet there was little they could do. One shan't look at the gifted horse's teeth.