Seeing how Cain had run off, first chasing a butterfly for ‘my safety’, then simply doing whatever it was kids always did in parks, I took a seat at a nearby bench, and pulled out my phone. The misunderstanding with Etienne from earlier (or rather his ‘jumping to conclusions’ form earlier) had long been resolved, and we were chatting about all and nothing, as we usually did.

Suddenly I felt that familiar sensation in my eye. When I lifted my head, I saw an ethereal red ribbon directing me into the forest. I briefly considered my options. Last time I ignored it I got hit by an icicle, and I also couldn’t see any apparent dangers around me. But this didn’t mean that the skill was wrong. Just in case, I looked up to the sky, and saw dark clouds gathering at an alarming rate. Perhaps the skill was guarding me against the weather?

I got up from the bench, and somewhat hastily headed towards the trees. Their cover was closer to my current position than the park’s gate, but there was no way I’d be getting in deeper than I needed. With that thought, it started hailing.

At first, only a few grains of ice fell from the sky, but they quickly got more frequent and larger, and soon Cain and I, as well as other people were running towards the trees.

“Were you just going to leave me there?” Cain asked, once we finally took refuge under an ancient pine tree.

“What, in the middle of a park, less than two hundred meters away from me?” I joked.

He didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned around, and tried climbing onto a low branch.

“What, don’t you have any skills to help you with that?” I teased him, as I approached him and lifted him onto the branch.

He pushed my hands away, once he was on the branch, before saying:

“These clothes are impractical to move in.”

I didn’t respond, as I pushed myself up on an adjacent branch. By the time I had settled against the tree, with both my legs comfortably off the ground, Cain had already climbed up a few meters.

“Be careful not to fall down,” I distractedly warned him. I had said that more out of habit, rather than actual worry, as I was sure with his skills there would be no chances of him falling or hurting himself.

“If I do, I’ll make sure to aim for your head.” He said as he continued his ascent.

“Hey!”

“What?” He asked, in a genuinely surprised tone.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, ignoring his antics once more. Instead, I turned my focus to the forest around us. The canopy of the tree was so thick, that only the occasional chunk of ice tumbled down the branches. And even then, it had lost all its velocity by the time it reached the ground, and could thus not do much damage. But the almost literal wall of hail that separated me from the family who’d taken refuge, much like us, on the other side of the path, seemed alarming. I’d never seen this much hail in one spot in my entire life, and the fact that it only came through in the middle of the path, where even the tallest trees could not shelter the gravel path, only made it look more surreal.

“I meant ‘not to’.” A voice came from far above me.

I lifted my head, and took a second to spot the familiar green shorts and red shirt.

“What?” I called back.

A muttered answer came back down to me, and I decided to ignore it. At least he was having fun, and hopefully starting to trust me, which was the intent of this trip. Everything else, including his lack of manners with was only second to my own, wasn’t important.

As I returned my gaze to the hail-covered path, I was surprised to see that I could no longer see the other side of it. There was nothing but white on that side. I hopped off my branch, curious to see if the hail had truly become this dense, but I noticed that this wall of white wasn’t located just on the path, but rather all around the tree.

“Cain! – shit. Thebes!” I called out, as I glanced up, only to be met with a dark, non-defined, figure, looming up in the branches.

“Shit- shit- shit-” I swore, as I rushed back to my bag.

Carrying weapons in public was illegal unless you worked with the military or police, but that thankfully didn’t extend to pocket knives. A 15-centimetre foldable blade was by no means the ideal method of defence, but at least it was something.

The tingling sensation returned to my eye, as the familiar red ribbon told me to duck under a branch. I did as I was told, snagging my bag as I did so, as I nearly avoided the shadowy figure landing mere centimetres away from me.

Mind Stop

Effects of Confusion negated

Reaction time *3

Effects of Song of Anthemoessa negated

Reaction time *4

Effects of Soul Mirror negated

Reaction time*4

Mind Stop +

Before I had had the time to catch my breath, and wonder if my reaction time buffs stacked, a red ribbon on the ground told me to move. Following its guidance, I leaped over a branch, and under another. I heard a noise behind me. Someone else had landed on the ground, just where I stood, The ribbon vanished, and as I turned around I realised with fear that that person had been none other than Cain.

Even with all the reaction time buffs, I barely had the time to dodge out of the way as he launched at me in his half-human, half-wolf form. His eyes were void of any sort of emotion or recognition, as if he didn’t know who I was.

I dodged another of his claw attacks by ducking under a branch.

It was clear what had happened. That figure had been the one to make Cain do this. I needed to get to them, and knock them out. Hopefully then the skill would stop taking effect.

I stepped aside, trying to avoid another one of Cain’s attacks, but I had been distracted with coming up with a plan, and his claws brushed by my shoulder.

Luck - 28

I cried out in pain, as I grabbed the wounded area, dropping my bag. There was no blood, as the wound closed up the second he pulled his claws away, but it sure hurt like it hadn’t.

I ducked under another attack, as I grabbed my bag, pulled the knife out of it, and shoved it a few meters away.

Then, I stood up, and tried to leap over a branch, closer towards the figure. But Cain jumped from a branch, using the tree to run above me, and land mere centimetres away from me. I immediately leaped backwards, nearly avoiding a claw attack aimed at my chest.

It was then that I realised that from the start Cain wasn’t really attacking me, but rather cutting off my way to the one who orchestrated all of this. He was also likely going easy on me, and sparing his MP, to tire me out. Despite everything, I still managed to be surprised by this realisation, even if it was just for a split second. Cain was proving to be more of a strategist, and less of the brute I imagined him to be.

But, much like in the fight against Solomon, he wasn’t thinking though all the possibilities. As I continued to dodge his attacks, trying to avoid using my knife as much as possible to redirect his claws, as I was certain he would break it in one hit, I made my way around the tree.

Dodging the attacks, and moving around the branches proved to be quite the challenge. But, thankfully that figure hadn’t moved form their spot, no doubt needing to remain still to maintain all the skills active.

Mind stop partially deactivated

Reaction time increase in relation to Confusion negated.

“Shit.” I swore, as sharp claws sliced at my leg, just as I was leaping over a low branch.

Blackout

Radius 5 meters

Duration 2 minutes

MP - 1

I hoped to gain some time, but to my greatest disarray nothing happened.

Luck - 20

Cain’s hand brushed against my side. The only trace of him ever hitting me was a ripped shirt and a screaming pain in my side. I almost lost my balance, as tears pearled at the corner of my eyes.

I blocked the next attack with my knife, holding my hand behind the blade, in hopes of extra support.

Then, throwing all caution and common sense to the side, I dashed towards the figure.

My blade made contact with flesh. But it hadn’t been the cloud-like cloak that the figure wore. Instead, my knife pierced through two little arms, raised in a guard above Cain’s head.

I jumped back, horrified. If Cain was protecting this person, then I stood no chance of getting out of here. Unless I used my ‘Long Voyage’ skill; my options were suicide by stabbing myself, or suicide by Cain.

I couldn’t do either. I had worked too hard to get him to guard me, and if I were to leave him here, even gods wouldn’t be able to predict his fate.

But by some sort of miracle, the look in Cain’s eyes changed. It was as if life had returned to them. We locked eyes, and I raised my knife in a guard, unsure if I’d have to block his attack again. He looked at the knife, then at his hands, before suddenly turning around and launching at the figure behind him.

They had clearly not expected that, as they yelped out in pain.

Mind Stop Deactivated

Reaction time increase negated.

I couldn’t even track Cain’s attacks with my eyes. He was moving so fast that had he not been wearing such colourful clothes, it would have been impossible to track him at all. I didn’t have the time to let out a sigh of relief, as the figure fell to the ground, and slowly evaporated into thin air.

Cain turned towards me with a questioning expression that matched my own.

Could it be that this person had the same skill as me; teleporting and resurrecting upon death?

“Must have been a shadow puppet.” Cain broke the silence, as he kicked the ground where the figure had been. “Never seen one that can cast though. Mine sure can’t.” He added quietly.

I looked around. The wall of white surrounding the tree had vanished, and was replaced with an evening sky. There were hardly any people around, as the thick layer of hail, which was slowly melting under the summer sun, was discouraging most from continuing their walk. I quickly folded the knife, and hid it back in my bag.

“Are you alright?” I asked Cain.

“Yea.” He smiled, for what seemed to be the first time. “That was a weak target, an easy one to kill.”

I frowned at his word choice, making a mental note of having a conversation with him about killing, especially within city limits.

“I was talking about your arms. I did stab you afterall. Unintentionally, but still.”

“Oh, that? That was one of the weakest stabbings I’ve ever felt. Really, who taught you to fight?”

I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not based on his expression.

“I wasn’t talking about luck points.” I said, as I shook my head, before gesturing for him to follow me.

I checked my phone to see exactly what time it was, but the screen was black. That seemed strange, as I was pretty sure my battery was close to full when we left this afternoon. Then, the screen turned on, displaying ‘20:16’.

“Oh, damn.” I swore once I realised that my phone had been the only thing affected by the ‘blackout’ skill earlier.

“Aright, aright, I’m coming,” Cain said, as he caught up to me.

He was still looking at me with that questioning expression, which I returned with a smile.

“We get to live and see another day.” I joked.

That seemed to have been a good enough answer for him, as he happily followed me out of the park.

“So, who’s after you anyway?” He asked.

I slowed down my pace, trying to think of an answer.

“I don’t know.” I replied honestly. “It happened before as well, and I thought it was a random attack, but now, well coincidences don’t happen twice, do they? And in such a short amount of time as well.”

“Could be random.” Cain spoke.

I looked at him with a perplexed expression.

He looked up at me, and frowned.

“Isn’t that universal everywhere? Or did you just grow up sheltered? We are all born evil and have to fight our instincts or learn how to use them to our advantage, or else we will become like those men.”

“Who taught you that?!”

He looked at me, wide-eyed. ‘Isn’t that common knowledge?’ he seemed to be saying.

“That’s not how the world works,” I began, “yes, some people are bad, and other people struggle with instincts, and power, and sometimes those groups overlap, but they still remain a minority. People don’t go around randomly attacking one another. There is order, there is law, in a place like Paris especially-”

I stopped in my tracks, suddenly doubting the words coming out of my mouth. Was that really true? Was there really law and order in the world? Was that crazy man on the train an exception to the rule, or rather a prime example of Cain’s thesis?

“It’s a complex issue.” I concluded out loud.

The world wasn’t all evil, and perhaps one’s outlook on it heavily depended on the situation they were in. Either way, Cain wasn’t buying any of it.

“Thebes.” I corrected myself out loud.

“You can keep calling me Cain.” The boy said with a neutral tone. “Don’t know where you picked that name, but it fits me.”

“How do you know that?” I smirked.

“Well, you haven’t called anyone else that, so I presume it’s not just something you say when you can’t remember what someone’s name is.” He shrugged.

I tried thinking back to any instances I’ve called Cain by that name to his face. I couldn’t think of any off the top of my head, but it didn’t surprise me, considering I had been mentally referring to him as Cain, and only correcting myself to ‘Thebes’ when I remembered to do so.

“Well, all right then Cain.” I agreed. “Do you remember what my name is?” I added in a joking tone.

“Weak blond lady.” He smirked.

“It’s Laura! I have told you several times.”

He scratched his ear, pretending not to hear.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head in disapproval. But I couldn’t help but smile. This type of banter could only mean that he was getting to trust me, and that I should no longer worry about him running away.