[Come, Giant Centipede, Omukade!]

Though Ozai couldn’t speak, Mark could hear those words clearly inside his mind.

The ground started to rumble and shake.

An Earthquake? Mark thought.

He had difficulty stabilising himself as the ground beneath him shook violently. The rumbling got stronger and more intense, as though the Earth was giving birth. Then, to Mark’s surprise, a huge creature burst out from the ground in front of Ozai. Mark’s mind couldn’t figure out what exactly he was witnessing.

Emerging from the ground was a metallic emerald green head with what appears to be two long feelers and two sharp pincers attached to it. It looked like it was covered in armour, but as more segments of the creature emerged, Mark realised it was an exoskeleton. This was indeed a giant centipede.

The centipede’s segments crawled out of the ground slowly with the help of its long spider-like legs attached to each segment. The centipede didn’t need to emerge fully from the ground before being able to reach the spirit. Like a homing projectile, the centipede’s body arched and sunk its pincers into the spirit’s body, piercing it.

Mark stood there in awe, witnessing the odd dynamic of a centipede biting a crow.

The bitten crow spirit made a loud jarring noise, opening its mouth as it screeched in pain, showing its jagged teeth. The centipede wiggled its body as it tried to sink its pincers deeper.

Ozai mouthed the words [Return!] as he releases the hand sign.

The giant centipede simply faded away, leaving behind small amounts of spiritual energy. The crow gained a small moment of reprieve. But Ozai clapped his hands again, forming the sign for his centipede shikigami.

[Come!]

The centipede reappeared, but this time instead of rising from the ground, it appeared from behind, part of its body seemingly emerging through a portal in the air. The centipede aimed for the back of the crow’s neck, piercing through it cleanly. This time, the crow didn’t scream. It began flapping its wings faster and faster, rising into the air, taking the centipede with it.

…

Daiyu sat in her car observing the fight. While the barrier would normally make any spiritual activity invisible to the eyes of normal humans, any well-trained exorcist could still see through the barrier, especially an exorcist like Daiyu.

“Ma’am, is that what I think it is?” The elderly driver next to Daiyu asked if he, too, was observing the fight.

“Indeed Charles… That’s Omukade, the famous Giant Man-eating Centipede Yokai. It appears as if Ozai is a spirit user.” Daiyu noted, smiling as the battle unfolded.

“I seem to recall Omukade being way larger than that… it could be that he’s only summoning a copy of Omukade… that he can manipulate to fit the situation he’s in…” Daiyu started to think out loud, analysing Ozai’s ability.

“But, summoning and recalling his ability in such a short timeframe, why do that?” Charles asked.

“Interesting indeed… it would seem that Ozai isn’t a vessel for the full Omukade… it could be the reason why he doesn’t just release the full centipede and have it roam and attack the crow… It could be that he’s only contracted with a portion of Omukade… and so Omukade cannot move as freely as Ozai wants it to. I also suspect Ozai isn’t used to summoning Omukade efficiently…”

The centipede held on tightly, more and more segments coming through the portal.

Charles understood what Daiyu meant. After all, greater spirits like Omukade were hard to contract fully. “Which means… after a certain number of segments…”

“The centipede will hit its limit…” Daiyu replied as she counted the number of segments as the centipede left the portal.

True enough, at a certain point, the centipede let go, retreating into the portal.

…

Ozai released his hand sign and placed his hands on his knees as he began gasping and heaving.

“Ozai! That…that was insane… are you okay?” Mark yelled as he ran to Ozai, checking up on him.

Mark concluded that Ozai’s ability must’ve taken a lot out of him. He looked up and saw how the crow, despite getting stabbed in the chest and the neck, was still flying. There was no sign of blood or anything. Instead, Mark could spot two pairs of holes in the chest and neck, holes that allowed him to see through the crow.

“EEEEAHHH!! I Don’T LiKe YOU!” The crow screamed out of its human mouth.

The crow spirit continued flapping its wings but this time, blade-like feathers shot out at Mark and Ozai.

Shit

Mark wanted to react, but Ozai was faster and pushed Mark to the ground. Mark instinctively rolled to the side. The sound of blades whizzing past him and hitting the ground with a distinct ‘shink’ was too close for comfort. Mark stared at the blades embedded in the ground beside them, slightly mortified.

Mark was still stunned but he didn’t have time to rest. Another barrage of feather daggers was launched at them. Ozai saw that they didn’t have time to dodge out of the way and so he clapped his hands and formed the sign once more.

The centipede’s body appeared just above them, shielding them from the blades. The blades bounced off the centipede’s hard exterior with a clang.

Ozai continued to maintain the centipede summon as more and more feather blades were launched.

“How many feathers does this crow have?” Mark yelled in frustration, he saw that Ozai was struggling to maintain the form of his shikigami.

There was a slight pause in the barrage of daggers, it was the perfect opportunity for a counterattack. Ozai caught wind of this and released his shikigami.

He breathed in deep and clapped his hands. This time, after forming the sign with both his hands, he split them.

[Come! Double Centipede!]

Two smaller variations of Omukade appeared on both sides of the crow, piercing and holding on to its wings.

The crow screeched as it struggled to break itself free. The screeching sound was louder and more disorientating this time. Mark covered his ears but Ozai had to maintain the hand sign. Soon enough, Ozai’s ears began to bleed.

Ozai grit his teeth as he fought through the pain, his hands were now in a claw shape, with the index finger still representing a feeler but now the thumb and the remaining three fingers representing a pincer. His hands were pulling in opposite directions, commanding the two centipedes to rip the wings off the bird. Ozai struggled immensely, the pain of the screeching was overwhelming and the crow was putting up a lot of resistance. Ozai let out a final burst of energy, pulling his arms to extreme ends before releasing the sign.

The two centipede shikigami managed to rip out a chunk from each wing, causing the crow to continue screeching in pain. The crow descended, no longer being able to fly higher.

But it was still airborne.

“YOu’LL ReGRET THAT!” The crow’s mouth spoke as it once again began launching a series of daggers at them.

This time, there were fewer daggers than before.

Ozai quickly summoned his shikigami once again, shielding them from the next wave of daggers. Mark could tell he was exhausted.

Mark racked his brain, if he wanted to stop running, to stop sitting on the sidelines, this was the time to actually do something.

Okay, the crow needs time to recharge its dagger barrage. If we chip away at its wings each time it recharges…the barrage will get weaker and weaker until we can finally finish it off… Ozai can’t keep doing this on his own… I need to help him out somehow…

The thing was, Mark had no idea what he could do. He thought back to how Mai managed to activate her spirit contract in the white room.

If I called out to Ruby… would that work?

“Come on… Um… Ruby… I need your help right now… Come out!” Mark shouted at himself.

Nothing happened.

Mark glanced at Ozai, struggling as blood began to trickle out of his nose. He didn’t have much time.

“Come on… come on… Do something! Ruby… I need some help here…” Mark struggled to feel anything.

Ozai dropped to his knees, his arms trembling as he maintained the sign. Mark started to panic for real, fear seeping into his body.

Why? What’s wrong?

Mark's sense of helplessness was interrupted by a scream.

Mark turned to his right and his eyes widened as he saw a man and a woman embracing each other, kneeling on the ground as they stared at the crow spirit in absolute horror, their faces distorted with fear.

“Wait… how… how did they get inside the barrier?” Mark asked, his voice laced with trepidation.

The crow spirit stopped attacking Mark and Ozai, turning its attention to the couple.

“Somebody! Help us!!” The lady screamed as she buried her face in the man’s chest.

“It’s okay, I got you, I got you… “ The man comforted the lady, embracing her tighter, using his body as a shield between her and the crow spirit. The man remained petrified, tears streaming down his face, his facial features paralysed with fear.

“WHYY CAn’t I be HApPY Like EVERYone ELSE!??” The crow screeched, looking directly at the couple, who were still embracing each other but bodies visibly trembling.

Mark realised what was about to happen. He knew he should do something and thought about simply running over to them. He could make it if he went right now. But he hesitated.

“Fuck! Ozai, can you still use your centipede thingy? The crow’s going to attack the couple over there!” Mark asked Ozai who had just released the sign, causing the centipede shikigami to disappear. Ozai shook his head, his spiritual energy was at a low.

Mark had no time to think, he saw the crow bring its wings back, like how it did when it first attacked them. But this time, the crow was aiming for the couple.

At that moment, Mark recalled Daiyu’s advice. “Remember why you entered into the contract in the first place.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to run away anymore. I didn’t want anyone else to die right in front of me.” Mark spoke to himself as he nervously stood up, his eyes staring straight at the couple.

I’m seriously the worst… I can’t believe it takes someone powerless to be in danger for me to stop hesitating and just run forward and do something… fuck… here goes!

Mark resolved himself and made a dash for the couple, reaching his hand out, hoping to reach them in time as the crow launched a barrage of feather daggers at them.

…

Daiyu watched with a smile as the crow turned towards the couple.

“Ma’am, how did those two slip by us?” Charles asked, concern showing clearly on his face.

“You know, when I first heard of a random high school boy being able to form a contract with a seemingly random spirit, I was intrigued.

“Naturally, I did a thorough background check on him in the short time he’s been under our custody. The kid’s been through a lot of loss, his mother, his father, his only friend, and even his favourite sport. And he blames himself for all that. His display of recklessness back in that car park, trying to save Shen, why do you think he did that?” Daiyu paused, observing Charles for a moment.

“My personal opinion is that because he blames himself for the loss he faces, he’s developed a bit of a death wish.”

Charles raised his eyebrow, unsure of where Daiyu was leading to.

“He might believe that as long as he can save others, it’s okay that he dies. After all his losses, he might believe that it's okay to die for some grand cause. Even if that grand cause is simply saving two innocent souls. And that’s why those two civilians might be beneficial to unlocking Mark’s spiritual abilities…” Daiyu spoke, her eyes reverted to the scene unfolding outside the car window.

…

It was as if everything happened in slow motion. Mark felt like he could sense everything around him all at once. He could feel it, the energy within him and the energy around him.

So this is spiritual energy…

Mark was certain he was going to save them.

I won’t let them die… I won’t

Mark’s gaze remained focused on the couple, particularly on the man’s face. The man had turned his face to Mark as he noticed him approaching. His face was struck with fear, his eyebrows were furrowed, eyes widened, mouth clenched. But the moment he saw Mark, a slight sense of relief appeared in his eyes. They weren’t alone, someone came.

But then the dagger entered the man’s body.

It was as if everything happened in slow motion. The dagger piercing the man’s body caused his back to arch as the blade entered him. Fear in his eyes was replaced with shock as his mouth opened, about to let out a yell. All the while, the man was staring at Mark.

The feeling of hope Mark felt dissipated on cue with the impact of the blade against the man’s flesh. The blade passed cleanly through the man and stabbed the woman as well. Her eyes showed shock but remained focused on the eyes of the man protecting her.

The feeling of time slowing down disappeared.

Now, to Mark, it was as if time had sped up. A barrage of daggers rained down, stabbing the man’s back repeatedly, his body shook and spasmed with every impact. A few daggers had punctured the woman as well. Every blade that pierced them also stained the ground red with blood.

Blood leaked from the man’s mouth as he collapsed onto the woman, who had lost consciousness as well. Both bodies collided onto the grassy ground with a loud thud. Their heads remained facing Mark, this time, their eyes were dull and lifeless.

Mark stumbled onto the ground, his eyes never leaving the sight of the couple, their bodies bloodied and laying on the floor motionless. At that moment his heart sank as if it was weighed down by a thousand stones. His mouth opened as he heaved and panted, his chest felt tight, his body trembling as tears welled up in his eyes. He wanted to puke.

This was his failure.

This was his fault.

If only he wasn’t so weak- if only he didn’t wait. He could have done something to prevent this.

Mark slammed the ground as he let out a deafening yell from the bottom of his heavy heart.