Ignoring the goblins whisper, Sora took a step forward and asked with confidence “Is there anything else that you would like to show me?”

For each step Sora took forward, Toketsu unconsciously took a step backwards. The fear was deeply rooted within him now. He lacked the earlier confidence he had displayed. The questions swarming in Toketsu’s mind changed from ‘how should I kill him’ to ‘will he let me live’?

“Ice Shards!” Toketsu cried out in panic.

Tiny flakes of snow began falling above Sora. The snow on its own did nothing – however this was a two-step attack; as it was more powerful it required preparation.

Sora continued walking towards the frightened vampire – completely ignoring the snow falling on him.

“Ice Shard second stage! Ice Execution!” Toketsu cried out, the blue aura engulfing Toketsu burned brighter for a second before dimming after the spell was cast. There was panic spreading; his body was visibly trembling.

The tiny flakes of ice on Sora burst into massive snow spikes…however those spike which were meant to impale Sora simply melted. They melted not because of heat but because of the power oozing out of Sora.

Sora continued walking towards Toketsu. Sora resembled the shinigami, slowly walking towards its victim as if death is an absolute certainty and inevitability. By taking on the attacks from Toketsu head on, Sora dealt massive moral / confidence damage to Toketsu. It could be said that Sora was like a predator that enjoyed playing with its kill before dealing the actual finishing blow.

The goblins were shuddering in fear as they watched Sora’s every movement. This was really too cruel – to the extent they felt pity for Toketsu. What kind of sick twisted monster / person would enjoy torturing their victims before killing them? What Sora was doing was planting the seeds of fear in Toketsu’s mind. He certainly could not want a weakling like Toketsu for a servant. So for what reason did he need to play with Toketsu? Why not just kill him?

The goblins were indeed scared – the stories they heard were scary but Sora was scarier. His actions were scarring the goblins and vampire for life.

Toketsu rambled on with spells after spells.

However, none of them were able to stop Sora, who ignored them completely. Just like how Sora behaved in the last few seconds as Toketsu froze him, Sora was now taking the same pleasure to return ten folds the fear to Toketsu.

“Ice dagger!” Toketsu shouted – his voice was high pitched; clearly very frightened.

A massive icicle grew out from the wall behind Sora and raced towards the back of his skull.

Sora stopped moving. The light in his eyes dimmed and then slowly died out. Toketsu stood still. Did it work? Did it pierce his skull? One second passed by…then another…Toketsu breathing steadied…maybe he did it….he killed it…

Toketsu was going crazy in happiness, the tension in his stiffened shoulders dropped….

“Just kidding!” Sora shouted out with excitement as the light in his eyes flashed back on.

Toketsu’s dead heart leaped in fright. What the hell was that? Even for the dead, what Sora did was extremely scary. One moment Toketsu had a flicker of hope and then the next moment Sora stomped all over it. Or may be it could be described as giving a candy to a baby then snatching it back and laughing.

The goblins who witnessed everything from behind knew that the ice needle never pierced Sora’s skull. It stopped just short of penetrating the skull – almost as if the ice refused to obey the command. What Sora did appeared to be some sort of sick twisted joke – even monsters had principles and standards. This was sick. Sora was making a complete mockery of Toketsu.

“Ice … dagger…” Toketsu cried out again. Why wasn’t it working? Why wasn’t the ice pushing ahead any further? Could it be that the skeleton had a greater command over the ice spirits than him? What kind of monster was this skeleton? In all legend and lore, Toketsu never heard of a winged skeleton with magical abilities. Then again there were thousands of monsters and there was never any way of knowing whether you knew them all.

“You…you what are you?” Toketsu asked as he gathered his strength.

Sora ignored the question and continued walking towards Toketsu who was backed up against the wall.

“You can’t kill me!” Toketsu declared as he realized the wall behind him belonged to the inner spire of the fifth floor.

“…”

“The rules say you cannot kill me!” Toketsu squealed.

“…” Sora was about two feet away from Toketsu now.

“She will kill you if you kill me! Those are her rules!” Toketsu argued back – he had now been reduced to reasoning. Ironical, how their roles reversed.

“Rules don’t apply to me.” Sora calmly replied.

“You…you what are you?” Toketsu asked one last time.

“The question is not what am I but rather who am I?” Sora corrected Toketsu’s question. His voice was menacingly cold. It were as if a cold blade cut through Toketsu's heart.

Toketsu took a step sideways – moving alongside the wall, his eyes glanced sideways – he was looking to flee than fight this monster!

“Then, who are you…” Toketsu asked. He was simply buying time while readying to escape.

“Sora. SoraChan – your bloodline’s greatest nemesis.” The skeleton said.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Author's note:

2. Thank you for reading and commenting!