CHAPTER 47: ARE YOU THE CHILD EVERYONE IS AFRIAD OF?

Dust swelled in the air spiraling as the last light of the day pulled back behind the broken walls and twisted steel of collapsed buildings. Winds shot up, gashing across the deserted land, carrying the smell of dirt and rust, and slipping through the gaps in fallen walls and the hollow rooms that were once occupied by families.

On the streets, nothing moved, not even birds, only the slow settling of debris followed by rushed claws slamming heavily and digging the groud.

A piece of mirror shattered from a window, clinked, and rolled from the top of the building with a church bell hanging on it, as the ground trembled when the creatures moved beneath it.

Loud roars came in, deep and ragged, shaking loose fragments from the half-standing building closest to the road and all the dangling mirrors waiting to be let loose. They tumbled down, floating in the air and hitting the earth hard enough that it stirred more dust.

Near the corner of a collapsed grocery store, five men dressed in black suits with masks on their faces walked, patrolling the only building that seemed to be standing without shedding debris, and kicking stones from the ground, their eyes fixed on the direction the roars came from.

Two of the men of the same outfit stood in front of two men dressed in military uniforms, who were trembling as they continuously tried to pull themselves from the chains wrapped around their fists.

At the door of the building, a tall man gripping hard on the folded arms of a girl stood there smiling, while the girl trembled as she screamed and tried pulling herself from the man’s grip. When she finally did, two of the five men patrolling the building surged toward her, grabbed her by the arms and legs, then carried her to the man, and led the way when the man pointed a finger to the window on the fifth floor, and smiled.

...

Two of the dog-like creatures stopped around a junction leading an alley that had no light and turned when their ears shot up. In the darkness, two lights blinked, blue and red, and when both creatures moved toward it, the lights stopped.

After two minutes, only the dying whine of the creatures echoed, and when the whine stopped, two boots erupted from the darkness, followed by a fine-looking boy with hair roughly trimmed.

He tore his gaze toward the speeding creatures and grinned, then stretched his arms, letting the metallic sheen erupt as the moon’s rays fell on the blades of two daggers tied to his arms with a black cloth. And when the creatures neared him, he loosened the grip on the handles of the daggers, letting them dangle and spin in the air.

One arm at a time, he swung the cloth holding the daggers, letting them turn like a speeding wheel, then surged forward toward the creatures, cutting them into pieces from the head to the tip of the tail.

He turned, jumped, slipped, and ducked when some of the creatures threw their claws and tails at him, but none of their attacks left a scratch on him.

After a short while, all the creatures that had shadowed the road cried out their last growl and fell on the ground, dead. He swung the cloths again, letting the daggers spin once more, clearing the bloodstains from them and making the cloth spiral and tighten on his arms before continually moving into the shadows of the buildings ahead.

And one after another, he moved, killing and silencing the creatures that overflowed the way, the paths and the places he took until he stopped at an angle where he saw the chained men being slapped and toyed with by the men with masks.

...

"Look after them, I’m going to pee at that corner," one of the men with a mask on his face said, tapping the shoulder of the other man standing beside him. He walked far from where the others patrolled, opened the zip of his trousers, and pulled out his tin rod, peeing.

Immediately after the last drop of the liquid flowing from his rod touched the ground, he felt a sharp object fly by his neck. Slowly, he frowned, moved his hand to his neck, and felt a warm liquid snaking down his chest, but when he moved his hand and looked at it, the frown changed to sadness.

After thirty seconds of standing still and clutching his neck, his knees slammed the ground first, followed by his entire body, his face falling in the liquid he’d poured out of him.

...

"Why is he taking so long? We need to kill these two and go join the bosses inside the building. Go check what he’s doing," one of the men holding the metal fan with sharp edges said, tapping the two others standing beside him and letting them move toward the same direction the first one had taken.

After a short while, metal-to-metal crashing sounds echoed, followed by bodies crashing on the ground like bomb blasts. Then the one holding the metallic fan moved, signaling the other two men standing at the gate to look after the two men, then moved forward, tightening his grip on the handle of the fan.

When he reached the side of the building the first man had turned to, he stumbled back as he saw the head of one of the two men cut off and rolling on the ground like a ball.

Instantly, he pressed a dotted button on the handle of the fan in his hand, letting sharp blades erupt from it and shimmer under the moon’s light like mirrors, then began moving slowly, taking his steps one at a time.

After taking four steps forward, he saw the tip of a flying piece of metal coming for his head, but he blocked it as he spun the fan, letting the metal bounce off it and kicking it aside. Yet, instead of the metal falling to the ground, he saw it pulled back fast; then another one came, flying from the left side, which also got blocked with a swing of the fan.

"Come out if you’re a man... or stay in the shadows if you’re the monster they talked about!" he said, moving the spinning fan from his face and striking it hard into the ground, then folded his hands on his chest and grinned.

From the shadows, a boot erupted, followed by another; then it began moving one step after another, and when the person moved out of the shadows, the man laughed, wrapping his left hand around his stomach and his right arm tightly on the handle of the fan, now standing still like a tree in the ground.

"Are you the child everyone is afraid of?" he said, pulling the fan from the ground and placing it at his shoulder, then moved two steps forward and stretched his hands forward.

"Hand yourself over before I hand your dead body to them!" he said, adding his left hand on the handle of the fan, spun it, and let it float in the air.

Kai, who was now being faced by someone wanting to fight, tightened his grip on the handles of the daggers, closed his eyes, moved his right leg back, and sighed, grinning slightly.