novelraw Chapter 76: Lost and Taken
Chapter 76: Lost and Taken
The Defender asked for a long metal wire to use his powers on the man huddled in front of him without touching him directly.
Stanley thought of leaving to go get what he asked for when he stopped. He realized that he already had what the man was asking for.
He took the staff in his left hand, and with his right hand, he pulled out the long, metal sword that was nearly twice as long as any normal sword, and even a bit thicker than most.
He pointed the sword that was a meter and a half long at the man and handed it over to the Defender.
Without even thinking, the Defender dropped his staff and swapped his sword to the other hand. With his free hand, he now took the larger sword.
The sword, quite unsurprisingly, was heavy. The Defender nearly let the tip hit the ground before he held it up. His wrist burned from the effort he had to put in to hold it up and he slowly moved it toward the man.
"No! Get that away from me," the man shouted. He had already heard he was going to be electrocuted, and he knew what that was as once in a while, people got stupid and ended up grabbing the wires that connected to the bulbs.
He knew most people died when that happened, so he was afraid. He didn’t want to die.
The Defender didn’t listen to him. He moved the giant sword closer to the man and got ready to give him a little shock, just enough to knock him out for some time.
The man moved sideways, sliding on the wall, but there wasn’t anywhere to go at all. The Defender asked him to stop moving, but just as the Defender hadn’t listened to him, the man didn’t listen to the Defender either. In desperation, he did what he thought he needed to survive.
He kicked the slow-moving sword aside and jumped toward the Defender. If he could touch him, he could constrict the Defender and make him immobile.
His powers worked on the human body too. He could shrink a human to about half their size, including everything they wore, assuming they didn’t have any metal on them. Although, unlike inanimate objects, a human reverted within a minute or two.
Still, that would be enough time for him to leave this place and make his escape. That was what the man had thought in desperation when he attacked.
What he had failed to consider in his desperation, was that the man in front of him could be spooked by his sudden lunge, which could cause him to act on instinct as well.
The Defender saw the man jumping at him and was immediately scared for his life. In his fear, he moved his left hand to stop the man, which unfortunately held his sword.
The man jumped directly onto the sword in his path and was stabbed directly through the chest. His eyes went wide in shock and confusion as he felt coldness take over his body.
The Defender couldn’t believe what had happened either. He pulled back the sword on instinct, increasing the man’s bleeding.
The man stumbled backward, onto the wall, where he coughed up blood while his chest bled out.
Stanley only understood what had happened a second later. He ran and grabbed the man, putting pressure on his chest so that he didn’t bleed out. However, even as he tried, there was another wound on his back, through which the man had already bled out.
His eyes dimmed with all hope lost as he died right there.
"No..." the man’s hands started to shake. "No..."
The swords clanged on the floor as the man dropped them. His fingers trembled as he couldn’t believe that he had just killed a man.
Stanley slowly moved away, his hands bloody. He felt awake for some reason after the man had died, which made the feelings he was feeling that much more clear.
What was this feeling? Sadness for a man who lost his life? Guilt and remorse for having been involved in the man’s death? Horror at seeing another person die in front of him?
Stanley knew that it wasn’t his fault this time around. Deep down, he always knew none of the deaths had been his fault.
Even so, the pain that came with a person’s death didn’t lessen for him.
"I didn’t want to kill him. He jumped in front of my blade," the Defender next to him was crouched on the floor with his head in his arms, murmuring to himself.
Stanley had felt terrible when he hadn’t been able to save people. He could only imagine what it was like to be responsible for it.
A lustrous life had been lost, and he had been the one that had taken it.
Stanley’s feelings held no importance here in front of the man that had just become a murderer by mistake.
"Brother," he quickly walked up to the Defender. "You should get away from here."
He put his sword back into his sheath and took the Defender’s sword before hauling the man onto his feet.
Stanley felt that his hands were trembling when holding the sword that had killed the man. He knew they were allowed to kill as a last resort, but he hadn’t thought was going to happen so soon.
He tightened his fist, drowning his feelings with sheer will, and took the Defender away.
The dead man would have to remain there, in the midst of the conflict, until everything was over. Nobody had the luxury to help move a corpse when so many living ones were causing trouble.
Stanley would have to return back after taking the Defender above. He had work to do and he was sane enough to do it. He had drowned his feeling, and his strength hadn’t even been used at all.
All he hoped was that when he returned, there weren’t any more corpses waiting for him.
His hopes shattered right then and there when he saw a Defender lying on the ground, dead with the side of his head completely destroyed wide open.