"How long were you watching" Ezekiel asked, it was obvious to him she knew he was fighting, showing up just as he had finished was too much of a coincidence.
"I saw the whole thing," She said without hesitation, no hint of guilt could be found
"Why didn't you help" he asked critically, his tone turning sharper than before, his eyes narrowing
"I was too far away, plus if you had died you wouldn't have been any help anyway" She seemed confident borderline arrogant with her words. Although she may be arrogant she didn't seem conceited to the point where she believed she was better than others so he didn't hate her attitude, it was much better than cryptic messages or backstabbing.
"Alright and why should I help you," Ezekiel asked still not convinced
"Don't think about it like you helping me, it's more of a mutual partnership, we are both in an unfavorable situation and we both want to survive. So let's help each other out" Claire said with a pleasant smile spread across her face
"And I should trust you why?"
"You don't have to but, that monkey you killed earlier usually travels in packs of 4 or 5 and I don't think you would survive that. Sooo it's either work with me or die, up to you"
After pondering it over for a couple of seconds Ezekiel realized she was right, he wouldn't survive alone, and 'It's not like I had much of a choice as to who I could work with' he thought while looking around only able to see trees.
Although it's not like he could see far anyway, a fog had descended not allowing anybody to see more than 10 meters in front of them.
"Very well, I won't complain about having a pretty lady accompany me, just don't die" Finally deciding to work with her Ezekiel adopted a friendlier tone.
"Why having some indecent thoughts already" She said with a mischievous smirk
As soon as Ezekiel heard those words he turned and began to walk toward the mountain once again
"Hey where are you going, I'm sorry, it won't happen again I swear" she yelled running to catch up
"Mountain, try to keep up," he said while pointing with a slight smirk when I noticed the shade of red covering her face.
***
Ezekiel and Clair had been walking for a solid hour and other than some introductions no words were spoken between them, Ezekiel really couldn't care, over the past hour, he had been trying to discover something about a certain ability
<Ariel>
~Heir of Darkness
-Darkness is immovable, but that's unacceptable that's why you can create your own darkness from within. You can shape your darkness into whatever you imagine, the only limit is your supply of darkness (involves Darkness Assimilation)
-Darkness needs a home, you can collect the darkness within the hearts of others turning it into your own power (Feeds the power of the Heir of Darkness)
Ezekiel could use this power as a Rebirth.
He had felt it, inside him where the darkness he absorb goes, it was different from vitality, a separate power.
Ezekiel started by sensing it and trying to grab it. His hand passed right through the darkness and at the same time I gained an odd look from Claire.
After an entire hour of practicing he managed to summon one tiny thread of darkness through constant failure.
Finally, after summoning it he quietly yelled out in excitement, which granted him another odd look from Claire. A couple of seconds after his exclamation Claire took it upon herself to start up a conversation
"Alright, we should probably get familiar with each other's powers right?" Clarissa asked annoyed by Ezekiel's lack of interest in her.
"Ummm sure why not, I'll start can hide in darkness, and at the moment I'm attempting to summon darkness, good at sword as well, you," he said without much enthusiasm, Ezekiel was much more interested in the little thread within his hands.
Ezekiel had turned the thread into a silk-like substance allowing him to bend it according to his will. It was only 6 inches in length and although he could bend it in any way due to its malleability he couldn't completely break it no matter what he did.
Even though he couldn't destroy the thread he could instantly send the thread back into his sea of darkness, refilling the darkness he extracted.
Measuring the amount of darkness that left his sea compared to the size of his thread, even though he had a 10x10 meter space of pure darkness within him it was reduced by a great degree when trying to extract it into the real world.
The darkness within him would only equal a basketball-sized circle.
"I'm sorry summon darkness?" A questioning voice snapped Ezekiel back into reality, forcing him to return to the sight of the leafless forest
"Yeah, look" Showing her the thread in his hand Ezekiel forced it to turn as sharp as a sword, Ezekiel was able to determine the qualities his darkness took. The more complex the more darkness required.
For example, Ezekiel could probably create a basketball with a bit more practice, but that was only because the basketball would be weak and simple.
But in order to create a dagger, he would have to enlarge his sea of Darkness due to the complexity and strength of the darkness required to create it.
"Wouldn't this take vitality?" Clarissa suddenly asked, attempting to grab the thread
"Ouch," she yelled as a cut appeared on her hand, the noise she created being far too loud for their current situation.
Ezekiel quickly looked around, instantly dismissing his thread while grabbing Clarissa's hand and spinning her towards him.
"God damnit" he silently cursed while looking directly into her eyes "Hurry up, tell me what your abilities are, quickly"
"Oh my god fine, my emotion is anger, I can use fire when I get injured fire naturally heals my body, and good at the spear, done happy?" she responded ticked off by Ezekiel's lack of etiquette
"Perfect, now here's the plan you distract them, I am going to go and kill them all, Bye" And with that he disappeared into the fog
***
"Wait, what" Claire yelled but it was too late, Ezekiel seemed to have just disappeared into thin air. While walking she noticed that she always had to keep checking to make sure he hadn't left me due to the fact he seemed to make absolutely no freaking sound when he walked.
And now that he was purposely trying to hide, she wouldn't be able to find him, and the fog wasn't helping.
As Claire was about to yell out to Ezekiel the sight of two red eyes within the fog made her go silent.
Slowly three more pairs of eyes began to appear, sweat began to trickle down her forehead rolling down her face
Claire wasn't confident in taking down one of these stupid Monkeys not to mention four of them.
And although she found Ezekiel interesting, she didn't know how much he could be trusted. He hadn't shown much emotion other than when he had killed that Blood Monkey.
'The entire walk he was absorbed in whatever he was doing, and barely talked to me. Most guys would sell their house for one-on-one time with me. I mean my dad's a Post-Mortal and one of the richest men in all of Longing and not trying to brag but I'm rather beautiful' Claire internally complained attempting to distract herself from her own fear
'I've already had countless proposals at the age of 17 and yet Ezekiel abandons me to a pack of Blood Monkeys' She internally screamed learning from her earlier mistake
Noticing the Monkeys getting more aggressive Claire quickly discarded her useless thoughts and summoned her spear
Suddenly one of the pairs of eyes disappeared with a loud thud, Claire didn't put too much importance on it and just refocused on the next three.
Finally, the first of the three stepped into her range of vision, as it was about to take another step, its foot was gone.
It stumbled allowing her to cleanly finish it off.
<You Have Defeated The Revulsed Rebirth Blood Monkey>
<Turning Hate into Vitality>
<Absorbing leftover Sadness before Blood Monkey's transformation>
Chalking up the disappearing foot to luck, she once again focused on the last two Blood Monkeys.
A couple of seconds passed before the last two monkeys suddenly appeared both diving towards her, nails as sharp as knives outstretched.
Claire's abilities with a spear may be good but they were limited, especially with the Blood Monkeys, being stronger and faster than her. But even with that disadvantage, Claire was managing to defend. It was a miracle she could keep up this long.
Small cuts began to appear on her hands and arms as her defense slowly began to crumble. Strikes came from all angles leaving no room for counterattacks. Noticing the dreadful situation Claire decided to jump back to create distance.
Miscalculating she ended up stuck in mid-air unable to escape. She could easily block one of the Blood Monkeys, but the other would be able to injure her gravely if not just outright kill her.
Looking up at the sun I silently cursed Ezekiel for abandoning me, and as she was about to accept her fate a silhouette appeared shielding her eyes from the sun. Claire began to laugh out loud, causing both the Blood Monkeys to narrow their eyes.
She was going to live, and she didn't know if it was the fear of death or the way the sun was shining but Ezekiel looked like an angel, his bright blue eyes seemed to shine through the fog as he floated above the two Blood Monkeys.
He had a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, and before either Monkey could react they were both dead.
Red blood sprayed across his face, he didn't blink once his blue eyes seemed to see everything, and his hair seemed to shine in the sun. He looked beautiful, it was the only way to describe the way he looked to Claire at that moment.
'And the way he killed those two monkeys so easily, they were both Revulsion-level creatures and he had killed a pact of them while using me as a dummy' Claire thought in disbelief
Most people would deem that impossible, especially not for Rebirths
Revulsed Blood Monkeys with their extreme strength, and ability to work together, are considered very dangerous when compared to other Revulsed creatures.
"You okay?" Ezekiel's ruff voice snapped Claire out of her thoughts and brought her back to reality, She hadn't noticed but she had fallen to one knee sustaining more injuries than she had believed.
She wanted to thank him, but her pride wouldn't let her
"Yeah, no thanks to you" she replied instead of a thanks
"Sorry about that, but there wasn't much time before those Monkeys descended on us" He apologized while wiping the blood off his face, and a light grin replaced the blood. Claire could tell Ezekiel had opened up a bit more.
'Fighting with my life on the line must've allowed me to gain more trust from him' she thought feeling the same way. 'If he wanted to betray me there wasn't going to be a better chance than that' she muttered to herself while smiling.
Thinking about the battle earlier the image of Ezekiel after killing those two blood monkeys entered her head along with a foreign warmth invading her face. After taking a couple of seconds to calm down and inspect her wounds Claire's body began to be engulfed in flames and her injuries slowly healed, it took a full minute, and then her body looked brand new.
Once she was finished a calm voice resounded from in front of her.
"Ready to go?"
