"Lily! Get down!" A voice sounded from behind her and she immediately moved opening way for a bright red flame that shot directly at the shade exploding it instantly. Lily was so shocked at the turn of events and looked back with disbelief at the figure behind her.
Leo stood a few meters away from the scene. In his hand was the athame that was covered in red flames. Leo's stance looked like that of a warrior as he peered deeply into the scattering shade, his aura slightly still lingering in the atmosphere.
Lily's utter disbelief could not be put down in words. Leo approached her with a serious look that gave out both a worried and protective feel to it. He looked way more different from the usual Leo that Lily was accustomed to seeing.
As Leo approached her, Lily tried to put everything together because they were not making sense at all to her at the moment. She was certain that her eyes did not decieve her. How could she not have known? Lily wondered amidst a million thoughts that kept flooding her brain.
Leo walked towards Lily carefully studying her to see if at all she had been attacked or possessed by the shade. This was so since Leo could actually sense the darkness from something or someone. This however he could not do since in this case Lily's darkness was being protected by the pendant.
When he was finally just a few steps in front of Lily, he decided to put away the athame. "Are you alright?" Leo inquired with a worried face. As if startled back to life, Lily blinked repeatedly not removing her gaze from Leo.
Lily nodded her head in agreement, still in shock at what she just witnessed. Leo studied Lily the moment he was close enough to her. He was so worried and pissed at what just happened. Leo regretted the fact that he was unable to take care of this matter soon enough before it got out of hand.
Earlier when he hurriedly left the town square, he was actually rushing back to the ocean since he was more than sure that whatever he sensed wasn't nothing. He was determined to find the source of that darkness and get rid of it as quick as he could before it infiltrated the town.
For that reason, Leo tapped into his energy. This way, it would lead him to the source of the darkness. And to his surprise, he easily managed to trace the source of the darkness near a few rocks almost where they were earlier with Lily.
Leo immediately realized that his instincts were right all along and as he carefully approached the area, he took out his atheme. Leo at this point did not want to release his aura since he believed that whatever that creature was, it was quite dumb.
The fact that it was still on the same exact spot where he felt it before he left the area, proved to him that the creature must be a very dumb one. The rocks led a few meters into a cave-like place. The further Leo went the darker it became. Just as Leo was about to take another step, he felt a slight breeze that was accompanied by whispers.
Leo hastily activated the flame on the atheme and stood lifting up his free hand in the air. What was revealed next were flames of red from his palm shooting directly in front of him. The aftermath of this action was a loud shriek followed by total silence.
Was that it? Did he kill it just like that? When Leo was still wondering, he saw weak reflections of what seemed to be a blue light. Wherever this light was coming from seemed like it was quite a big area.
Leo decided to follow slowly towards the direction from which the light was glowing.
Before he could go any further, Leo was startled and inhaled sharply as his eyes turned total white. His head swiftly shooting up as he looked straight about his head.
At this very spot, was the shade shadowing the rocks above his head in the cave. This action was purely involuntary as Leo did not do it by his instincts. It was as though he was possessed by something.
The shade sensing danger from Leo, readied itself for an attack and it was clinging on after feeling the kind of power Leo possessed. Through the flames that was shot by Leo, the shade could not help but feel the destructive power of it.
In this case, the shade was prepared to try and block the attack he sensed was about to come from Leo. It was however shocked to see that Leo was not attacking just yet. Afraid of waiting for a big attack that it felt that Leo was mobilizing, the shade fled the place in terror.
Leo however was not prepared to attack. The moment he gasped looking above him, his eyes met with the shade and before he could react, he was still and immobile. This was when his eyes turned devilishly white.
The next thing Leo set his eyes on was the town square that he left behind, the townspeople who were gathering and suddenly, Lily who was staring at the circus team without interest. There seemed to be so much noise coming from that place but once again whatever he saw was muffled.
Then there it was, the dark humanoid figure he just saw above him in the caves. Leo saw the black figure grip a man's neck holding him up in the air as the man kicked his legs and struggled to release himself from the grip.
The man however realized he was unsuccessful as the black hand that he wanted to hold tightly and push from his neck was all but black smoke and his hand went right through it. After a little struggle, the figure released the now unconscious man and his lifeless body dropped onto the ground with a little thud.
After a few seconds, the man that had dropped onto the ground began spasming and suddenly started twitching like a zombie. The man forced his eyes open revealing blood red eyes that looked horroish.
The man stood up and opened his mouth chattering his teeth that looked rotten. The man's skin had suddenly turned pale gray in color. He then turned around as if he was a puppet and walked out of the tent to the cheering crowd outside.
The crowd upon seeing this, they cheered and clapped for the man that just stepped outside the tent. To them, this man was dressed in character that was supposed to be part of the play. People were shocked at the flawless application and transformation of the character, they thought it was very authentic, and to that they cheered even more.
The next thing that followed were screams that rang sharply in the air as the man approached one of the circus team members that he was supposed to perform alongside. What sent people screaming in horror was the sight of the man opening his mouth so wide that it revealed another set of teeth in a different row of his jaw.
It was like the man now had four rows of teeth, rotten sharp teeth. The man bit the circus team members on the neck and stuck on his neck for seconds before it withdrew, bitting off a huge chunk of meat from the man's neck.
Blood spewed all over as the now bleeding man's veins and arteries on the neck were bursted open leaving his neck hanging slightly on his body almost falling off. The stage was covered in blood and scattered human flesh. The man's body fell on the ground still pulsing as a result of adrenaline.
The man that just devoured his teammate stepped into the crowd and wailed with some of the flesh and blood in his mouth releasing a ghostly shriek. He began running around chasing after the people that were now scattering all over.
The man on the groud who had just been bitten laid on the ground not moving at all. Then his body suddenly twitched. The blood that was spilled all over suddenly began trailing back to his body as if time was being rewinded.
Everything of the man that was scattered around trailed back and reconnected to his body that had already began turning grey. The man that had been recently bitten had a darker shade on his neck as he had just undergone a more ugly transformation.
The new puppet stepped down and also began running along chasing the people who were now fleeing in fear. Leo could not see the shade anymore and he could not trace where it was hiding. Among the people running trying to flee, Leo saw Lily further away from the crowd staring back at the almost clear square, it looked like she did not get a hang of what was happening.
Leo suddenly gasped for air as he opened his eyes to the sight of rocks around him. "Shit!" Leo cursed as he looked around trying to locate the shade that was lurking in the darkness within the caves. Leo no longer wanted to follow the glow in the cave as whatever was about to happen demanded more of his attention, this was a crisis.
Leo realizing that he had just been shown a vision, he had to try his best to not let it escalate to the point it seemed to be in when he saw it. He was aware of what he had to do. He had to go and stop the shade.
Leo hurriedly sped back to the town square and before he could get close enough, he heard screams. He immediately realized that the vision he just had might have already began occuring. This however was not so since the moment Leo turned around to go back to the town square, that was already a slight change of events.
Leo's energy had managed to seep through the air and interrupt the first puppet's transformation. This turn of events led to the man spasming and moving his body outside the tent for everyone to witness. This was the event that made everyone scream and scatter in terror as whatever they were witnessing was evidently not scripted.
A lady then ran towards the tents and ran back outside after having a glimpse of the shade. This was the same lady that ran past Lily afterwards. Leo decided to follow the puppet that had transformed and lead it away from the crowd.
And that is how he managed to kill it and later on tracked the shade to the woods where he was shocked to find Lily almost being attacked by it.