48 Desperation (1/2)

Taku and Maka sprinted away from the city at the fastest speed possible. At first Maka thought that she would either have to slow down because of Taku's low cultivation level. Worst case scenario she would have to carry the guy. But her surprised when she was using about 70 percent of her speed Taku was still able to keep up.

Taku at the moment only had some smoke covering his legs. He was pushing himself to the limit. He knew that he could not keep this up for long since he had fought for a while before they met this screwed up situation.

Taku could slowly feel himself lose control with every passing second. He was cussing at himself for not coming up with a better plan. If he was to lose control now...

Taku subconsciously took a glance at Maka who was beside him. He was afraid that he would do something that he would regret for the rest of his life. He knew that if he lost control then in his eyes every person is an enemy. Maka felt Taku's gaze and turned to face him whilst maintaining their speed. She looked at Taku's bloodshot eyes and knew that something was amiss. ”How long do you think you have?”

When she asked this question she couldn't help but think of that incident from way back then. Even though it wasn't her first time seeing something so gruesome, it was her first time seeing a ten year old kill with such ruthlessness. She replayed that fight every night. Taku on the other hand had nightmares about that day.

Taku sighed. ”A couple of minutes at best. I don't really know to be honest. I am just afraid...”

”Don't worry.” Maka cut him off. ”I will knock you out before you can cause any trouble. Besides, even if you go crazy it won't be hard to put u down.”

Hearing this Taku actually frowned a little. Not because her words were hurtful or anything but he actually felt his heart racing when he heard that. What the heck! Am I turning into a masochist because of this girl.

Taku made a note to stay as far away from this girl until his current self grew older and learnt how to control his emotions. He shook his head and continued running in silence with Maka. After about five minutes or so Taku finally felt as if he was losing control.

He quickly came to a stop and sat down to meditate. Maka also stopped. ”You have about half an hour before those things catch up, so if you can be ready in 15 minutes then it would save us a lot of trouble.”

Taku did not even open his eyes as he nodded. Exactly fifteen minutes later Taku got up and the two began running again. Due to the momentary stop a the two beasts had almost caught up. After running for another hour Taku began feeling like he was losing control again. He threw a helpless glance towards Maka as he stopped again.

”I am sorr-”

”Don't waste your breath.” With that Maka went and grabbed Taku and placed him on her back. ”Just meditate and leave the running to me. Even though this will reduce my speed a bit it will still be enough to shake those two off.”

Before Taku could even reply Maka took off. Maka was moving at the same speed that they were moving at before. Was she slowing herself down on purpose so that I won't be left behind...?

For the first time ever in his life Taku felt like a burden. He was silent for the following two hours as Maka ran. And after these two hours Taku could clearly tell that Maka was getting tired. She would have been able to run faster and lose less energy if she was alone. Maka was in the Kusakura level,thus she could achieve incredible speeds. Speed was actually her weakest attribute but if she moved at full speed Taku would not be able to survive the force generated, not to mention it could make him go haywire.

Taku knew that this was not the time nor place to be belittling himself so he quickly got off her back and then reversed their roles.

Maka was now on Taku's back. Taku had been resting for the last two hours so he was close to his peak condition. In the blink of an eye smoke covered his whole body as he exploded forward at full power. Maka was a bit shocked by the speed that Taku had unleashed. They ran for another hour and Taku was starting to pant heavily.

It was at this moment that they both felt a chill run down their spine as a grave sense of danger overwhelmed them. Taku quickly leapt of the ground and just as he left the ground, the place where he had jumped from caved in.

Taku looked down and saw a 30 meter long worm like creature that was starting straight at them as if it was looking at its dinner. Whilst in the air Maka tightened her grip on Taku as she began flying away. She had not flown before because it took consumed too much energy. There was no other choice in the matter now. They had to escape not only from the Mastiff and Gorilla, but now there was a new edition to the chasing party.

The giant worm like creature charged underground and occasionally came back up to check it's progress. Taku noticed that no matter which direction They flew in, the worm was still able to follow them.