9 I Canst Just Die (2/2)
The sound of the impact of Dani Zelu's body with a prairie reverberates loudly at the same time that Thorn stops flying.
Rose sees how all this happens without changing her expression, obviously, she had already deduced that something like this was going to happen.
Trembling, the startled Dani Zelu stands up slowly while thinking at full speed: (Damn, they have discovered my facade too fast! I don't have the time to think about how they did it! Right now I need to focus on searching a way out of this situation...!) At this moment he has discovered that Thorn is much stronger and much more cunning than himself, so he understands that his only chance to get out alive is by escaping, of course, conventional methods would not work. If it turns into a race, he would have no chance. If he tries to negotiate, the other party will not forgive him because he has lied to them before. (There are no other options now, I have to make a bet with my life!) Dani Zelu concludes with resolution.
”Tsk! He is still alive... It seems that I need training urgently, I am just too rusty...” Thorn says in a bad mood.
Dani Zelu raises his arms and points his palms towards Thorn, then very soon from his palms originates an immense column of fire that envelops Thorn and Rose in an instant! This technique is a combination of two Awakened Skills: The wind type and the fire type. It happens that the Dullahan's Racial Skill is the power to awake two skills!
While using all his Complex Energy to maintain the column of fire, Dani Zelu uses the ankle of his right leg to bring out a capsule from a compartment of his armor belt. The capsule rises slightly, and it then begins to fall, he takes a step back quickly and then gives a blow with his left knee to the capsule. This causes the capsule to travel a parabolic trajectory that ends up entering in Dani Zelu's throat.
Inside the burning column of fire, Thorn is squatted and has both of his palms in front of him, which are creating a complex barrier of air. Being crouched he reduces the area he has to protect, and the reason why he didn't decide to try to dodge the attack is because he knew that although he could easily achieve it, his opponent could simply change the trajectory of the fire column as easily as moving his palms. So he decided to concentrate on the defense.
Rose, who is holding herself on to Thorn's back and has her legs around Thorn's waist, looks around impressed. She is really impressed, after all, even though she is surrounded by bright and burning crimson flames, she isn't feeling excessively hot but actually, she feels a refreshing breeze passing through her skin. This breeze makes her red hair flutter faintly, hair that for instants seems fiercer than the flames themselves.
Almost half a minute after the fire column appeared, it begins to fade away little by little.
Thorn's slightly burned palms appear in Dani Zelu's field of vision, but those palms do not remain burned for a long time, presently they start to heal, and, in the blink of an eye, they return to their unharmed state. Dani Zelu has been surprised immensely twice in this short span of time, but this third surprise, the surprise he is getting when seeing the scene of Thorn's palms healing, is the biggest one: (He just use Mystical Energy to heal himself!!??)
While Dani Zelu is feeling the greatest shock he has ever felt in his life, Thorn, who deliberately had cured his palms at that moment to distract Dani Zelu, flies at a supersonic speed, and in a third of the time it takes to blink, he stops over Dani Zelu. Without wasting time Thorn fires another wind bullet into Dani Zelu's neck. This time, the bullet goes through Dani Zelu's heart.
*Punm*
The lifeless body of Dani Zelu falls to the ground, and without further surprises, blood begins to flow out from his neck.
Rose gets off from Thorn's back, she then lands on the prairie, and, clenching her head because she is feeling somewhat dizzy, she says: ”t-that abrupt movement just now has shaken my brain and my other organs really hard...”
”Ah… I'm so sorry… I got carried away by the heat of the moment.” Thorn apologizes blushing.
After a few seconds, Rose recovers from this bout of dizziness, and she says: ”well, don't worry, I think I'll be alright… Oh! Hehehehe…” She approaches Dani Zelu's dead body while having a big smile on her face and her eyes burning with desire, then without hesitation, she begins to take out his armor from his corpse. Of course, she is not into the necrophilia thing but she is picking up the spoils of war cheerfully because she needs a lot of money right now.
While she does that, she says: ”When you gave to us such a silly reason to show your strength, I presumed that you had noticed that Dani Zelu was lying and you wanted to ambush him at close range at the moment he were distracted thinking about the astonishing feat that is your understanding of the wind. But I didn't see you using your Racial Skill at any time, so... how did you realize that he was lying? It was easy for me to do it because I understand very well my mother's character... but you know nothing about my mother's personality nor you know how things work in the Clouds Cutter Castle... that's why I am curious about how you could have found out that Dani Zelu was an enemy even without using your Racial Skill…”
Thorn says as his blush becomes deeper: ”Yesterday when we were entering in Lurep Village, although it seemed that I was quite calm on the surface, actually, inside, I was very excited, so much that my eyes couldn't help but look around earnestly, and I carefully memorized all the details of what I saw. At that time, for just a moment, in the distance, I saw Dani Zelu. However he has said that he had arrived at Lurep Village today, so I assumed he wanted to hide the fact that he was following you.”
Thorn stops speaking for a moment, and continues with a serious look on his face: ”Besides, it's irrational for your mother to have asked him to protect you secretly and to hide from you the fact that he was doing so, after all, his behavior wasn't the behavior of someone who was protecting you from the shadows... but rather it was the behavior of someone watching you from afar, and just watching over you, not protecting you... I also took into consideration the fact that he waited until this moment to act. Then there's also the fact that he did not intend to kill you, rather he wanted to take you somewhere through deception.”
Thorn raises his right index finger as he smiles and says proudly: ”So I came to the conclusion that he was following and watching you find out whether or not you have someone protecting you from the shadows, and when he discovered that you haven't, he acted and tried to kidnap you! After all, you were a princess, so it would not be a surprise if a few criminals popped up to try to take advantage of the powerless you.”
When Thorn finishes his explanation, Rose also finishes collecting everything of value from Dani Zelu's body. Actually, she left his corpse with only his underwear. At that moment she says calmly: ”… Oh... yes, thanks for the long speech but… you just needed to tell me that yesterday you saw him, with that I would have understood everything…”
Thorn crosses his arms and grimaces angrily due to Rose's unmotivated response.
Seeing this, Rose recognizes that she has hurt his feelings, so, in a hurry, she raises her thumb and says smiling nervously: ”b-but you are really amazing! Your speed to think has left me completely impressed!” After a few moments, Rose realizes that what she has said just now could not be considered a good compliment, and exclaims shaking her hands: ”But! I mean, I'm not that impressed by it! After all, I already knew you're smart!”
With his mouth slightly opened, Thorn motionlessly looks at Rose while she is justifying herself, after some silence, he says: ”Yes, yes... let's just get out of here, okay?”
”No. Wait a moment! Don't you think that we should at least hide his corpse?” Rose asks while she points at Dani Zelu's body.
Shrugging, Thorn says: ”well, I suppose so.”
He then digs with his bare hands on the place where Dani Zelu had crashed when he fired his first wind bullet. Soon he creates a ten-meter deep hole, in which he buries the body of Dani Zelu. Afterward, Thorn flattens the floor with his feet.
”Very well, I doubt that someone could find his body easily...” Thorn says nodding and shaking off the dust from his hands.
”Mmm... if Dani Zelu has been sent by someone to kidnap me, when that someone finds out that Dani Zelu has disappeared, at that moment he or she will not have the guts to try to kidnap me again because he or she will assume that I actually have someone who is protecting me from the shadows...” Rose thinks out loud.
After Rose climbs on Thorn's back, they fly to Lurep Village with no further worries.
Currently, even though Dani Zelu is dead, his Third Level Full Awaken aura can be felt. This is because his Complex Energy body has not died, yet. Since he has not yet stepped on the Essence Metamorphosis stage, for his Complex Energy body to die, first his mental body has to die, and for his mental body to die, a certain period of time must have elapsed since his body of flesh has died. This period of time depends on the strength of the mental body, the weakest ones last only about five seconds, the strongest ones, on the other hand, last up to ten minutes.
It has been only six minutes since Dani Zelu's body of flesh has died when the capsule that he has swallowed starts to leak out some black liquid. It is a top-level medicine. The medicine runs through Dani Zelu's body as if it were alive, and in just a minute it manages to heal all his internal wounds, soon his heart begins to beat strongly. And finally, he awakens.
*fumm!*
Dani Zelu leaves the hole in which he had been buried, and he then murmurs emotionally: ”… I can't just die…”