The Foolhardies 12 Never Back Down

"Dean~~n!" Aura screamed my name.

I could hear her voice even through the ringing in my ears, drowning out my own scream, and moving past the pain to something primal hidden in the depths of my addled brain. Only an inappropriate teenage brain would think of not wanting to look uncool in front of the girl he fancied, but it was because of this really superficial thought that clarity returned to me, and I didn't fail to take advantage of my return to consciousness.

My scream cut out as I gritted my teeth. With my left hand, I grasped Azuma's spear tip, which was only about half an inch deep into me, by the charred blade. Immediately, my fingers felt a cold numbness creep into their tips. Blood dripped down my palm where the blade cut into me but I refused to let go.

Azuma's slanted eyes widened in momentary surprise, but before he could push the spear tip further in, my free hand reached for the falchion's sword hilt which was dangling from his left side and pulled the blade out with the last of my dwindling strength. The blade slinked out, and it was Azuma's turn to scream.

It was nice to know that he still felt pain despite being some kind of unkillable soldier, which I think was the worst cheat in the history of fairy gifts.

Nevertheless, Azuma's discomfort was my gain because while the pain distracted him, I pushed the half-inch of the spear tip that pierced me out and away. Then I stepped away as quickly as I could, almost stumbling in my haste despite my own wound causing painful tremors inside me.

Seeing me escape his clutches would have sent anyone else in a fury but Azuma remained calm. He took a moment to cover his wound with his right palm while his left hand laid the steel spear over his shoulder. He sighed heavily like a teenager forced into a thankless chore. Then, quick as a snake, he whipped the spear out in a wide arc and straight for my exposed neck.

I jumped back to dodge it. I stumbled. Then I fell into the wet mud butt first.

A Firebolt from Aura's staff streaked past me but all Azuma had to do to destroy it was slice it in half with his shadowblade spear tip. He'd done it with an inhumanly quick sweep of his spear with just his left hand.

Blood continued to pour down from the hole in my vest. It soaked the ground and mixed with the puddle of water beside me.

Azuma stepped forward. This put me within his attack range.

He thrust his spear at me, but my hand had no strength left to parry it with my falchion.

Or so I believed.

Out of nowhere, power surged into my right hand like a jolt of electricity. This energy traveled up my arm, giving it a much needed boost like a shot of caffeine during endless homework season.

I gripped my sword hilt and reflexively lifted the falchion to parry the spear tip heading for me. I forced the blade's momentum with the flat of my own blade to the side where it harmlessly skewered the dirt.

As I couldn't get up to run, I barrelled away instead like a pig rolling in the mud. That's how desperate I was to escape. When I was a good ten feet away from him, I rolled onto one knee with my blade pointed in Azuma's direction.
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There was a glint of amusement in the crinkle of his eyes. A smile forming on the dry lips.

"It's been a while since I've fought a soldier too stubborn to die," he said, and his voice sounded less tired.

Shit, just how unlucky was I that Azuma was much more interested in killing me now? I wondered this while the rest of my mind raced through the possible ending scenarios of another confrontation. Every single one of them led to my death—shit.

While I thought about how hopeless the situation was, I noticed the glow coming from my hand, and when I glanced down, I found Aura's bracelet flickering with a soft golden light.

My eyes swiveled to where I'd last seen her, and my heart warmed to find that she was still there.

Aura was kneeling on the ground with her eyes half closed. She was whispering under her breath while her hands grasped the locket I gave her. From where I was, it seemed the locket was glowing too.

I lifted Aura's bracelet to eye-level and saw the golden light surrounding it flickering like a heartbeat.

"Interesting... that she-elf must be your contractor," Azuma gave Aura a curious look. "You share a life bond?"

"W-what?" I asked, confused. It was the first time I'd ever heard of this life bond.

Azuma lifted his spear as if the fight had gone out of him. "Fairies who form a contract with a visere can create a life bond with them so that they can share each other's strengths with one another."

Azuma's gaze fell on my stomach.

His eyes narrowed slightly. "How's your pain?"

I glanced down at the hole in my stomach. The bleeding had stopped. Newly formed scar tissue covered the wound. The pain was also much lesser—an insistent whimper compared to the raging roar of earlier.

"A life bond even allows a fairy to share her life force with her visere at the cost of her own health," Azuma revealed.

At his words, my head swiveled to Aura whose chest, I now noticed, was heaving heavily like she was running a marathon.

"Curious... most fairies would never attempt this as they don't really value human lives more than their own," Azuma's voice was contemplative. Then he asked a question that made me blush from my toes all the way to the pores of my cheeks. "Is the she-elf your woman? Have you had sex yet?"

I looked at Azuma with growing shock on my face. "O-of course not! We're partners. That's all..."

"Partners, huh," he shook his head. "You must have a screw loose in your head, boy... Fairies and humans can't be partners. They take advantage of us the same way we take advantage of them."

The guy with his own room at a mental ward back on Mudgard was telling me I had a screw loose for believing in Aura who was trying to save my life by sharing her life force with me. The outrage I'd felt after Luca's disappearance was back. Azuma had no clue what Aura and I had been through.

"Shut up! You know nothing, dude," I snapped.

I tried to get up, but my body was still too weak. Whatever Aura was doing wasn't enough to put me back to a hundred percent. I stumbled back to one knee.

"It doesn't matter. She'll be dead soon..." Azuma nodded his head toward Aura. "Then we can begin round two..."

I followed his line of sight and was horrified to find that Aura, with her eyes still half-closed, hadn't noticed the human soldier in grey-tinted leather armor looming over her.

"Shit, Aura, get up!" Again, I tried to stand, and again I fell onto my knee. It was like my legs were jelly.

She hadn't heard me.

"Aura! Open your eyes!" I screamed. "Get out of there!"

I reached behind me for the dagger I'd hidden in my belt but I found that the handle wasn't there.

My eyes glanced left and right. There. My dagger hilt was lying on the mud by Azuma's feet. It must have fallen during our earlier scuffle.

"Shit," I hissed.

I gripped my falchion and prepared to throw it at the bastard who was threatening Aura. There was no time for Fool's Insight, I realized. I would have to eyeball it. But could I hit the target from where I was? Maybe if I was Luca. Doubt filled my thoughts. But then the warm feeling from Aura's bracelet made me remember that I couldn't let her die because her death meant I would fail and Luca would never escape the Fayne.

This was not the time for doubt. It was a time for action.

I hurled my falchion at the Magesong soldier who was threatening Aura. It was a distance of ten yards, a doable distance. However, as I watched the downward angle of my twirling blade, I worried it would be a miss. But I really should have believed in myself more. It was a definite hit although it wasn't a bullseye. Instead of piercing the enemy's chest which is where I aimed, the sword hilt struck his thigh. This was another miscalculation, but I figured even a sword hilt would hurt.

The loud yelp of pain that came from the enemy's mouth justified this belief.

My attack caused him to lose his foot in that crucial moment when he swung his sword down on Aura. Obviously, he missed, and it was all my doing. My shot. Yey.

However, I certainly wasn't responsible for the soldier losing his entire upper body in a shower of blood and guts. My throwing arm wasn't that amazing. No, this deathblow resulted from Edo's timely arrival combined with his incredible power to cut a man in two with a single swing of his glaive.

Edo looked livid. You could see it in the way his nostrils flared and in the way his eyes cast a murderous gaze over everything that wasn't Aura. This included me.

I understood why. In the time he was slaughtering enemy soldiers on the southern hillside at my insistence, the clan princess he swore to protect had nearly died. I was pretty certain he would blame me for this and hoped he'd seen my successful attempt to save Aura before he thought of beating me up later.

It was right after Edo covered her in the blood of her ambusher that Aura's eyes opened. She glanced at her clothes once and then sighed. Aura looked up disbelievingly at Edo who shrugged back at her.

She looked exhausted, yet she rose to her feet by leaning on Edo's arm. When her gaze found me, the relief in them mirrored mine. After all, we'd both survived in time for the cavalry to arrive.

"How long are you going to just lie there, Dean?" Luca asked.

He was finally here. Standing over me with a judge-y look. I sometimes suspect that he forgets that I'm the big brother. Not the other way around.

I looked at him from where I sat in the mud. "What took you so long? Did you stop for drive-thru?"

Luca rolled his eyes before he offered me his hand. "Hilarious..."

He pulled me up after I took it. Thankfully, my body had recovered enough that I didn't need him to hold me up afterward.

"So... I suppose you have another foolhardy strategy to deal with the guy glaring at us?" Luca nodded toward the man who was standing just a few feet away and was obviously waiting for us to finish catching up.

Azuma cracked his neck. "Well, shall we begin round two, boys?"

"Hey, Luca," I raised my hand for a high-five. "How do you feel about a team-up?"

"Sure," Luca smacked it back a little harder than I would have liked. "As long as your reckless plan doesn't get us killed."

"I think that's the only kind that will work on this guy," I reasoned.

Luca sighed. "I knew you'd say that."

I had a genuine grin plastered on my face now. The Dapper brothers were together again. It was time to kick butt. "Follow my lead, little brother."

Chapter end