Chapter 22: Airi Vs The Zierel

As it begins to clear I can see the two of their blades against one another.

But Airi backs up and the two of them begin to clash repeatedly, sending gusts of wind past me with each clash. It isn’t the easiest to watch since the speed isn’t human in the slightest.

CLANG!

Her sword keeps managing to just barely hit the edge of his scythe as they continue to fight. Watching the man a bit closer I begin to realize that he has some sort of black shadows following behind him.

It’s hard to make out what it is exactly, but I do know he’s a Zierel.

I wonder if I’ll ever be able to become fast like Airi… this kind of speed is incredible. She is definitely quite strong and I am looking forward to learning from her.

Slash!!

Barely I notice her swing her sword towards him, just barely grazing his chest.

A bit of blood spills onto the floor from her blade as she steps back a few feet; Looking kind of exhausted. The Zierel also appears to be a bit tired himself which is surprising.

“I haven’t been cut in quite some time so this is definitely a surprise,” He says with a bit of excitement.

“Honestly I expected you to be a lot more serious than this,” Airi replies before yawning.

Fwoosh!

Once again they begin to clash as the air around me starts to feel rough to breathe in, almost like their is this pressure in the entire room.

Each clash is more intense than the last with both of them pushing themselves more and more.

The pain in my arm is only getting worse.

I don’t know if it is the fear of death or if it is the inability to do anything.

Clang!!

Shatter!!!

Something seems to break as they clash once again, like pieces of metal beginning to fall onto the floor.

Quickly I wipe my eyes to try to get rid of my blurry vision; after doing so I can see the two of them standing before one another.

The man’s scythe is on the ground while Airi’s sword is through his stomach. Blood is spilling out onto the floor but it definitely looks a lot different.

His blood is black… something I didn’t notice when she first cut him.

Zierel have black blood? I thought it was red like ours when I killed the previous one. This is definitely making me think about them quite a bit.

I did kill a Zierel, right?

“The human way of thinking is quite interesting,” the voice speaks up.

I’m not some mindless killer… of course I’d think about what I did. Monster or not… It used to be someone.

The man spits up a bit of blood as Airi pulls the sword out from his stomach. She doesn’t look bothered in the slightest.

“I really thought I dodged that attack…” He says weakly.

“Telling you my tricks would ruin the fun,” Airi replies with a calm tone.

I watch as the man stumbles back a couple of feet, blood dripping with each step he takes. Airi isn’t finishing him off, that is something that I also don’t understand.

He picks up his scythe and it immediately disappears into his arm.

“I’ll take this as my lucky day, but I’m sure we’ll see each other again,” He says while opening up the door.

Airi doesn’t say anything as she watches him leave the cathedral.

Silence is all that lingers within the building as I slowly stand up, keeping my attention towards the front. Airi doesn’t seem to be paying attention to me now.

Are fights always that quick? I feel like that isn’t going to be the case with every fight but that one felt fast. Airi really must be on another level to end a fight that quick without a single scratch.

At least I don’t think she got any hits on her during that battle. Light bearers are a lot stronger than I expected.

I mean it makes sense that she’d be strong but I didn’t really know what to expect with them. My knowledge is very little since the academy wasn’t something I wanted to waste time on.

It didn’t really strike me as the best place to spend my time.

“Human like zierel are quite special. I have a lot of stuff to go over with you so that you understand the risks going forward,” Airi speaks loud enough for me to hear.

“I didn’t think any zierel could take a human like appearance,” I reply with some shock in my voice.

“Strong ones can. Most do it because the human form allows for a bit more freedom than they are used to,” Airi says calmly.

“That is definitely good to know,” I reply with a bit of concern in my voice.

She turns to face me the moment I finish my sentence.

“Don’t let it worry you, I’ll be here by your side,” Airi says with a smile.

Does she have any fears… Doesn’t she get scared of what could happen if she isn’t careful? I don’t want someone else to die on my behalf.

At least that’s what I keep telling myself with each day that passes by. She is definitely way stronger than me so I shouldn’t be thinking about it too much.

Pat. Pat.

“Seriously, don’t trouble yourself with it so much,” She speaks calmly.

“Right, I’ll try not to,” I reply while looking back towards my arm.

Killing the zierel is all I really want to do but I need to get stronger if I want to be able to accomplish that goal. Becoming the strongest isn’t going to be easy.

I also was supposed to do it alone but I’m kind of glad I didn’t.

I spent the rest of the day helping clean up the blood so that we could relax for the night.

Wriggle. Wriggle. Wriggle.

The more I clean the blood; the more this thing moves around.

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