Chapter 4

Kazal

A crushing sensation which was enveloping Kazal’s entire body woke the dog merchant up, successfully rendering him into a state of shock as he found himself unable to breathe and blind at the same time. The muscles on his legs contracted a bit when they were unable to move, and found no land to step on.

Overwhelmed by the several troubles that came crashing upon him all at once, Kazal was frantic. His body was about to hyperventilate, however, there was no air for circulation. And he was about to move, but the crushing sensation kept his limbs from doing so.

In the midst of confusion, the first thing that came into mind was gaining air to breathe. Kazal had only two option; one, is to encapsulate himself and compress any existing oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air and circulate it inside the capsule so he could breathe. Or two, shut down his respiratory system temporarily and function his body solely with Mana.

Option one seemed too far-fetched, as Kazal was well informed from a reliable source that there is no molecular oxygen in space. The dog merchant’s gaze was fixed towards a huge spherical globe, the colour green, blue, and white dominates its surface. That huge sphere isn’t what strengthen his belief that he was indeed in space, but the stars around it was what did.

Kazal decided to use option two. While he shut down his respiratory system, he maintained the shape of his lungs and the entirety of the respiratory system with Mana as to prevent its collapse. Then he let the Mana, which was attained from his Mana reserve located at his abdomen, to flow along his blood vessels as a form of nourishment to replace the use of oxygen. Kazal had a limited time when he chose to use option two; as it depends solely on how much Mana he had left. But he was able to break free from the crushing sensation and was able to function like normal again.

Kazal blinked his eyes and this time, calmly surveyed his surroundings. He eyed the huge globe once again, and inspected the myriad of stars around him. He was indeed in space, but how was it possible?

“What the… You are still alive?”

Kazal heard an echo from behind him. His train if thoughts stopped immediately as he shifted his floating body behind him, only to see a presence of what seemed to be a huge bullet magic.

Kazal assumed a defensive stance, bending his body slightly to the front and crossed both of his forearms as a shield. He managed to parry that magic, which turned out to be a slashing attack given its intensity, and the degree of pain he felt in both of his forearm. The dog merchant didn’t have any time to think, as the next attack came as soon as the last one perished.

This time’s attack came off smaller than the first one, and because of that, Kazal was able to catch the presence of the being who was attacking him.

He couldn’t confirm the literal form of the aggressor, but by its size, was it a child that attacked him?

“This is annoying… Just die already!!”

The being shouted. Kazal felt a slight compression in his surroundings, before he saw a bullet magic, one that is bigger than the first attack, speeding up towards him.

Kazal had an inkling that he won’t survive that attack. And as if to make matters worse, his Mana reserve is almost empty, save the fact that he used them the most back when he was protecting the people from the dragons. He might be able to muster all his Mana just to parry that one last attack, but what would become of him after that? He might really die after that due to oxygen depletion. But even if he didn’t do anything and take the bullet magic head on, he would also die. Both options presented the same outcome, just what could Kazal do at this moment?

Out of nowhere, a faint glow of orange light engulfed Kazal’s body, before it gradually brightened up into a blinding light, striking enough to obtain a screeching scream from the aggressor. Kazal covered his eyes to at least lessen the amount of bright light into his eyes, before once again, the surroundings went dark.

***

Shawn

At the moment, all Shawn could think about was what he could do to shake off his pursuers. The young werewolf was panting and groaning in pain, as he grasped the side of his abdomen, three apparent claw marks managed to tear his thick dark blue coat and cut through his muscles to show his rib cage. Shawn needed an immediate medical treatment, but where could he go when there were more than dozens of pursuers looking for him to reap his life?

Shawn continued his strides to go to other location when he heard someone nearing the back alley he was hiding in. Even moving his legs felt so taxing. Shawn had to fight off his state of anaemia as he had bled off too much from his injury. Despite being in so much pain that most of his body was numb, Shawn was adamant in running away.

It was better running away than to give up and became the prey for his enemies. Shawn knew full well that his pursuers wanted him dead, just like how they wanted all Azul clan people dead. Though, the funny thing was, they still hadn’t given up despite the fall of his clan almost a year ago.

Just how much they wanted him to suffer?

Shawn’s trudging came to a halt when he found a dead end. He was pretty confident in his ways around the neighbourhood as it was near his home, but the light-headedness managed to consume his sense of reason, rendering him to lose his ways.

Suddenly the young boy chuckled.

“…Is this… the end?” His tone was a mix of sadness and lethargy.

Just before he lost his consciousness, he heard the sound of people nearing his location, which sunk his heart a bit, but at the same time, a slight wonder flashed in his mind upon seeing a figure of a soft-coloured being appearing not too far in front of him.

Shawn then fell unconscious.