CHAPTER 10:

  Forgotten was the cigar in his mouth until he realized it, so he tossed it aside

  “.....”

  The atmosphere was almost palpable with silence, with the moonlight cast down over the lake gently as the wind blew by smoothly

  The figure leaped into the air towards Haru, landing on both his feet

  The light revealed who he was, a boy around his age, with a royal white suit, it was definitely classy, paired up with brown hair and hazel eyes

  “Speak of the devil, you must be Garcia Avierra, right?”

  Without so much as flinching Garcia kept his palm rested on the hilt of his sword, it hand loosely on the white leather belt

  “That'd be correct, and you're that famous new holy being that everyone has been talking about”

  “Bingo, you didn't hear anything that I said with Matthew, right?”

  “I don't even know who that is”

  “How did you know that I was gonna be here? Especially since it is the middle of nowhere”

  “You really are a rook huh? I know the city like the back of my hand and even better, so I'd know if someone is out of place or not, and there is the random factor, that I just happen come across you”

  “Really? You know this city like the back of your palm you say? And how does one have such time in their hands?”

  The gentle steps of Garcia distilled the quiet atmosphere between them, he was headed for the strange boy

  “I was raised to be the very epitome of grace, there wasn't a single thing that I shouldn't know according to my parents, I had it good, with the ambassadors and the sponsorships and other stuff”

  ‘I see, so I'm fighting the rich boy, I have to put you in place as well”

  “A fight? To think a rookie would want to fight, very well, since you're stepping foot on my soil, we might as well”

  Wasting more time in idle chit chat wasn't the Spaniards style

  Winds riled up when he dashed into the air, drawing his sword mid leap

  Which seemed like a conquistador sword, more specifically an espada ropera

  With a swift motion of his elbow the sword almost grazed Haru's skin

  Instinctively Haru raised both his arms up, the blade narrowly missed him

  “Thump!”

  With a soft thump the Spaniards landed behind him, knees slightly bent as he got up

  “You're a fast one. This isn't your first time I take it?”

  Haru, whilst not even looking at him, responded

  “This isn't my first dance, I have plenty of awareness, but nice move there trying to catch me off guard. Also, your handling was impeccable”

  “Why thank you, I didn't expect you to be a kind person really, however a battle has commenced, oh what a shame”

  In a few seconds the boy's legs bent and his hips stiffened, he couldn't anticipate his opponent's next attack though he could get into position

  On the other hand Garcia could tell by the stance, it meant that now he anticipated throwing

  So shifting to short range was best

  There wasn't a more to spare as Garcia accelerated, head up and back straight while he ran

  Now at a short distance his right side moved on its own, a projected pierce on the back

  Without even looking the boy jumped into the air as the Spaniards followed through with the attack

  Landing on top of the straight blade

  “Nice one, rich boy”

  Lightly pushing the blade downward like Haru delivered a heel kick to the nose

  Eyes widened as the kick connected, the Spaniard stumbled backward

  With a ragged breath he managed to catch his sword, it cut his fingertips, causing blood to spill on the blade

  “It's gonna take a lot more than a single scratch to take me down. I got to say, your swordsmanship is good”

  Winded from the kick Garcia inadvertently gasped

  “Not bad for yourself, I haven't felt that kind of pain in a long time”

  Perhaps Haru would do the same thing twice, so he switched his position

  An opening would be valuable here yet Haru's feet dragged across the concrete to sidestep

  “Tch, would you face me like a real man?”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “How about no?”

  Just to salten the wound Haru gut punch him mid motion

  “Guh!”

  Saliva spouted from his lips, his hand clenching around the grip

  In mad range he tried to stab at the chest with reverse grip

  Unfortunately for the Spaniards it seemed that Haru let his palm get stabbed instead

  Fogged breath and now shaky limbs followed by Garcia

  “You're holding up good on your end”

  “Right back at you”

  In a sudden motion Garcia wiggled his blade out of the palm now stepping back and turning around

  As blood tickled down his palm Haru was momentarily distracted

  It only took a couple of seconds for Garcia to notice the opening

  And only a few more seconds for him to run his sword through Haru's stomach clean in one movement

  The sword fully poking from the other side

  The cold steel felt strange when it touched his inner muscles as the thin blade was now covered in his blood

  (I finally got you sucker…)

  “Ghhh!”

  With a strangled motion Haru grabbed the dull round blade, forcefully pulling it out of his stomach

  The bleeding only increased

  “How?!”

  As Garcia lost his balance, Haru headbutted him as hard as he could

  Their foreheads clashing wildly, skulls bashed, making their brains rattle

  “THUD!”

  In a forward motion Garcia fell backwards, his back hitting the ground and the sword fell as well

  Bouncing off the ground before going down

  It was not that he didn't expect something like that but more like the sheer shock of seeing Haru perform like that was too much to comprehend

  “You have truly defeated me, bravo kid. You're catching on very quickly”

  Blood had trickled down from Haru's forehead, he couldn't help but fall on the asphalt

  “Man, what a fight. It's the first time where I actually saw myself winning”

  “I was trying at like 75 percent but you were really fast, like real fast. I don't know if it's talent or not”

  “Like I know either. I've never thought about that anyway”

  “Not only that but it seems that you have developed some kind of resistance to pain. It's the only logical explanation”

  Even though he tried standing up Garcia would fail, a quiet scoff filled the moment of peace as he looked across at the sword

  “You have been training your whole life, haven't you? This level of swordsmanship takes sincere dedication”

  “Indeed, when I obtained the Hebrew scrolls I gained a vast amount of knowledge, my family unknowing of my status, forced me into being a swordsman, having the scrolls also helped me see into every past of a blade there ever was”

  “So that's what it does…the scrolls contain every past, I wonder, how did you recognize me from the rumors and not the scrolls?”

  A quiet hum escaped Garcia's lips as he thought

  (Good question)

  “It's because the scrolls didn't contain anything about you”

  “How can that be? Don't the scrolls contain any past information ever?”

  “That is correct, I guess you're an exception to the rule”

  Harus's mind wandered for a bit before standing up

  (I wish it was only that rule…)

  The soft sound of his shoes could be heard as the boy made his way over

  “Huh?”

  Quietly he knelt down, extending a hand

  Albeit it reluctantly the Spaniards took his hand, grabbing the sword as well, he placed the sword back in its sheath, around the belt

  “We can discuss as to why that(the exception) is later. For now, I have a question…would you like to join my team?”

  “I gotta give it to you man, you're one of the toughest people I ever had to face in my life so yeah sure, lead the way, wait a second, what kind of team is it?”

  “Uhh, so I was tasked with teaming up with all of the holy beings in order to stop the prophecy”

  A smaller but genuine smile tugged at Garcia's lips, truly, he was very curious in all where all of this was going

  “So…is that a yes or a no?”

  “It's a yes, honestly, I'm sold, this is gonna be one of my best adventures in a while, probably ”

  “So that's how you see a world ending prophecy? As an adventure?”

  “It is what it is. Some people need to make light of their situations in order to cope”

  “...”

  “Do you want to have a second duel there?”

  “Another duel? I thought I already won”

  “I'm not saying that you didn't win, I'm saying that we should do a rematch”

  “Right now? You're sure that you're not tired or anything like that?”

  “I'm still in pain, but that doesn't matter”

  Even Haru couldn't believe this dude, he truly had met his match, someone who wouldn't back down so easily

  “Alright, fine, since you're so eager about it”

  So they both headed down the hill by the river side…

  While there

  They both of them prepared mentally and physically for a rematch stretching and relaxing

  This time, he let Haru do the first attack and so it did happen

  As Haru dashed at him head on, rapidly Garcia placed his feet back up with the sword in his right arm

  The sword cut through his knuckles instead

  “What the-”

  A soft tapping motion could be briefly heard before Garcia moved to knock him on the head with the hilt

  Hard enough for the boy to stumble

  It was enough to submit him after pointing the sword with its tip at his neck, barely grazing him

  A quiet laugh echoed from Haru's mouth, was he happy?

  “You won this time, fair and square, can't believe this”

  “Don't doubt yourself”

  The blade that was grazing his neck lifted

  “Now that I notice, you don't even have a weapon. What's up with that?”

  Caught off guard by the question he drifted his eyes to the side

  “I don't know, it could be helpful, well yeah most likely”

  Hesitantly Garcia extended out his fist to Haru for a fist bump

  “Well talk about that later. It's so late at night that I've been feeling sleepy. Just tell me where to go”

  With a smile Haru bumped the extended fist

  “Our headquarters are in Greece, I'll have Sylvia contact you”

  “Who is Sylvia?”

  “Right, you don't know her yet. She's my mentor”

  “Well, you're lucky to have a mentor. She's clearly been doing a good job with you”

  “True, but mostly in the mental part, you'll see for yourself what I mean, I think you should really get going by now, by the way”

  “Yeah, alright, see you at the HQ”

  Just about when Garcia started to teleport he felt a tugged on his shirt

  “Hm?”

  “Wait up, I almost forgot to heal you”

  “You can heal too? Good to know”

  In a grabbing motion Haru put his hand on the shoulder, focusing his energy on him, and then

  Suddenly Garcia's fatigue and all the pain was washed away simply by his touch

  “I've read about the imaginary codex before, I had forgotten that it had the ability to do that”

  “It's really nifty when it comes down to it”

  With nothing else left to be said Garcia teleported away

  Quickly Haru opened his smartwatch and quickly sent a message to Sylvia

  Explaining the situation to her briefly, the message read as followed

  “Yeah, we battled 2 times and I won and lost, oh and he is coming your way”

  Now he was left behind, yet again but he didn't mind staying for a bit

  Especially now at night, it was unlike anything he had ever seen before

  Not even the documentaries could capture this cities beauty in all its essence

  After a few minutes, he sighed to himself and pulled out a rune card out of the blackjack box, teleporting back to HQ…

  From a very far distance, two people were watching

  That being Kuse and Shirou senkawa, the parents of Haru

  “The boy's got immense potential, even greater potential than what I had”

  “Shirou, you know we can't keep hiding this forever from him, right? He's not a kid anymore, he deserves to know”

  “You're being too soft with him. Besides, what difference is it going to make for us?”

  “Of course you would say that, you've always been this cold-hearted when it comes to your family”

  Both Kuse and Shirou could sense a sudden shift in the air that felt rather ominous

  “Did you feel that?”

  “Most definitely, it was also a huge spike”

  Both of them turned around, and to their suspicions, they were correct, a bat transformed into a vampire before their eyes

  They weren't surprised, just agitated…

  It was safe to assume that the vampire wouldn't give one shit about them, so death was the only option in this situation

  Kuse and Shirou communicated with head signs walking away from each other

  The vampire stood there, not even moving an inch

  “...”

  It waited to see if it should counterattack or not

  Kuse pulled out a mini shotgun from her jacket that she had while pointing it at him under her arm

  “BAM!”

  The bullet pierced the grimy skin and dispersed

  “Ghhhhhhh!”

  The vampire wailed in agony

  Shirou followed that through with appearing behind the vampire

  A wooden stick was driven through its chest, turning and twisting

  The heart was impaled on the stick, it exploded like a balloon, blood splattering on the floor

  Kuse calmly walked over to the corpse, kneeling beside it

  “This one feels fresh, almost too young”

  “After all vampires have 2 growth sprouts”

  Kuse licked on the blood of the vampire with her finger, this one was more mature and civilized than a war stricken vampire

  “Do you seriously want to send Haru out there to fight instead? It could have been us out there”

  “The kids gonna be fine, I don't know about his psyche, though. Unfortunately, that's a real thing he has to deal with”

  Shirou wrapped a hand around Kuse protectively when she stood up

  Of course, he didn't want to lose his son under no circumstances, he always tried his best to be a father to Haru… at least, as far as he knew

  The urge was strong, no one could deny motherly instincts, it ached her soul

  She wanted to pull him back and erase everything that had happened from Haru's memory but she couldn't do that

  Yet it wasn't her choice to make

  “That I know, still, our poor boy, he has grown up so quickly”

  “And the worst thing is that he has to face a lot worse enemies than this”

  That sent a run-down kuse’s spine, it only helped to fuel her despair

  The vampire's body, after being killed, slowly withered away into the air, it turned into ash bit by bit

  With her hand Kuse wiped her tears, with a sigh she composed herself

  In a soft manner Shirou let go of her

  “So you finally get it, it's better late than never”

  “If we're serious about sending him through all that, then we can at least try to protect him”

  “That goes without saying, unfortunately our job is a lot harder because the church is still a bitch”

  Shirou’s words made Kuse giggle, her lips pressed in a thin line

  “On a serious note, do you think that they will all band together?”

  The boundless sky of Madrid was enticing to Shirou all of a sudden, that was a question that he could not answer with all honesty

  “That I don't know for sure, there's a pretty good chance that they will”

  A soft smile twitched her lips, unexpectedly she buried her face into his chest

  “You're saying that because of Haru, although that's pride, it's a compelling argument”

  Although he didn't want to show it Shirou wrapped his arm around her waist, deep down he missed having Kuse like this, acting like a married couple again…

  “Maybe, maybe not, we just have to hope that everything will turn out alright”

  A big softie he washed, kissing her on top of the head

  Kuse pushed him back playfully, memories of their youth together with him came flooding in…