0044 Insanity and Savagery

"Miss Sarah! Sorry for my arrogance, but... Uolz!

But why are you with these church people?".

"Long story sir! Please help us...

... Help us and then we will clarify everything!".

"Right Miss! We are already helping!".

Slipping, rolling and falling, it was impossible to maintain balance as the ground sank or plummeted for almost nothing.

From the arm of some of the Werehyenas, a lump appeared, and a white spike tore their skins from the inside out, these spikes were very similar to the spike that had pierced Lucius' shoulder just moments ago.

"Bone Thorn!". "Bone Thorn!!!!". "Bone Thorn!!".

Raising their arm forward, they fired the Bone Thorns that hit the ground, close to their friends, who in turn, they grabbed the Bone Thorns and used them to try to slow down the fall by digging the spines into the ground.

With everyone helping each other, the fall became smoother, within minutes there was no one else rolling or toppling between the earth and rocks, but a terrible growl resounded and everyone looked down.

In the darkness that only the Werehyenas could see things, the white light, the bluish green light and the gray light illuminated tens of meters below them, between all the earth and the falling rocks.

"Shit! It's two Rank B Angels! Father Alberto did this?".

"What? Rank B Angels?".

"There's a giant Skull Hyena fighting them!".

"That's the Little Bone! He is a Rank A Skull Hyena of the Gray Path! Don't worry about the Angels!".

The battle below caught everyone's attention, they were surprised to hear Father Alcione's comment about the two Rank B Angels, but when they saw Little Bone in battle, it was Father Alcione's turn to be surprised to know the Hyena's Rank.

^"In fact, these Skull Hyenas love to play with prey to death! If the strongest had joined against us from the start... I dare not even think what would have happened..."^.

The intense battle kept going on, they watched as the fight continued to destroy the caves of lower levels, making the fall endless, a series of explosions shook everything, the Skull Hyena spat out a wave of powerful spells, and one of the Angels was nearly destroyed.

Managing to slow down the speed of their fall, they gradually began to distance themselves from the intense battle below them, but still, they couldn't stop completely, each time one of them managed to stop on solid ground, the ground succumbed and the person fell back down.

"But what the fuck did they do to make these caves as fragile as thin wood bark?".

"It was the Angel's Punishment! It has a range of several hundred meters and makes everything fragile! I just don't know why it was used towards the ground...".

"And who had the brilliant idea to use this inside a cave?".

"I don't know...".

The eldest of the Werehyenas was outraged by the situation, Alcione tried to explain what had happened, but another of the men questioned the intelligence of the person who used such a magical ability inside the caves.

Alcione knew that the Angel was responsible for this, but he had doubts about who was responsible for invoking the Angels, for him, only Father Alberto could do that.

^"Father Alberto wouldn't be so careless as to do that... Would he?"^.

In the midst of it all, Sara and Janany were impressed with the battle taking place, Sara was more relieved now, as the arrival of the allies could change the course of everything, and Jenany was excited, she's finally living the adventures she's been looking for for years.

The reddish orange light illuminated the place, and soon the temperature started to rise, they saw the new drop that awaited them below, a free fall of a few hundred meters, and with that, everyone's hearts gave a great leap.

**************************************************

"Shit!"

Maycon tried to get close to the crater that formed with all the landslide, but the ground gave way and when he fell, Jeffrey pulled him back, along with him, the young Skull Hyena bit the collar of his clothes and pulled him away from the hole.

"Thanks Jeffrey...".

"Hey, thank him too!".

"Thanks...".

"Hihihihi!".

Thanking Jeffrey, Maycon looked awkwardly at the Hyena who sat next to the two of them as if waiting for her share of thanks as well, and as soon as Maycon thanked him, the Hyena shook her head up and down while laughing.

"And now, Maycon, do you still want to come back?".

"I would like to, but now it seems impossible... Let's split up, you go to the castle, and I stay here trying to find them...".

"No, if you get lost here, it will be another headache, we don't even know what happened...".

Clearly, the two had differing ideas about what to do, and the time lost in the discussion only made them more anxious.

"Hyena, can you call your friends to help us here?".

Maycon directed the conversation to the Hyena who was still waiting for the two, and the Hyena turned her head to the right and then turned her head to the left, without taking her eyes off Maycon, her reaction was as if she said: 'Human, I'm just a Hyena, I don't understand what you're saying, how can I answer you?'.

"Forget it, Maycon, this isn't going to work, come on!".

Giving up on convincing him, Jeffrey walked with the Hyena who got up and started running in front of him following a direction, but soon the Hyena stopped running, as she realized that Jeffrey had stopped too, she looked back and saw Jeffrey looking at Maycon.

"Moron! How I would return alone in the middle of the dark! I've barely walked ten steps and I can't see anything else! Do you want me to die here? That's it?".

Maycon, who was still reluctant to leave, looked at the fire in his hands and quickly realized that it was impossible for the two to part, even with the help of the Skull Hyena, it was impossible for Jeffrey to leave without him all the way inside the mountain in the dark.

"Shit! Shit! Let's go!".

Sighing, Maycon ran to Jeffrey, who was smiling at his worried friend, and they both went after the Skull Hyena who also seemed to be smiling as she saw the two friends together behind her.

"Maycon, I think we should give him a name... I feel like it's kind of rude to call him Hyena... Are you a boy or a girl?".

"Hihihihi hihi hihi!".

**************************************************

"Oscar, are you sure it's church people?".

"That's what those two told me, but I thought it was a joke...".

"No, Oscar! These people are no joke! I need to know what's going on, and you should come back for help!".

"Aaah, let me heal you at least... You're all bruised...".

Thomas was agitated, and even though he was in pain, he hadn't stopped to analyze and observe the condition of his own body yet, as soon as Oscar commented on his injuries, he started checking the small cuts and puncture in his shoulder.

"What the shit weird outfit is this?".

"Stop moving! We're almost getting close to my body, wait a little longer...".

Oscar was sulking at Thomas' orders, and Thomas was extremely confused as he noticed the many strange objects hidden in his clothes that he couldn't recognize, objects that Lucius had discreetly hidden.

In a few more minutes, Oscar released Thomas near the tree his real body was sitting on, and as soon as his body of smoke cleared, he opened his eyes and walked towards Thomas.

"Something is definitely not right... Look at these things...".

Thomas threw five pieces of rebar on the floor, each piece was a little smaller than his forearm, then there was still a shirt tied below his left arm like a bag, where two glass bottles with black liquid were, between the two claws, one was broken, smearing the rest of his clothes and body in black.

Also, he saw the jacket pocket with a lighter, the cell phone and a small knife, Thomas was throwing all the objects on the floor, but in the end, he decided to take off the jacket that was already torn on the shoulder and had several other cuts.

The shirt underneath was smeared with diesel fuel and the smell was unbearable for Thomas, he continued taking off his clothes leaving only his pants on, while Oscar watched him closely.

"Shit... It started to bleed even more...".

"It's because you don't stop fidgeting... Let's get this over with, I want to go play...".

Thomas stopped to look into little Oscar's sad eyes, he sighed and tried to calm down a bit, things felt strange and urgent, but he couldn't treat Oscar anyway, he endured the pain in his shoulder and sat on the floor trying to look patient and confident.

"Sorry Oscar, I always promise I'll play with you, but in the end something always happens or I need to go do something...

... I know you can't go out of town and there are no other kids here to play with you...

... But just this once, things seem to be serious, I need to solve whatever it is, what's going on around here...".

Oscar looked at Thomas and forced himself not to cry, trying not to look like a crybaby, he didn't respond and quickly used his magical abilities to heal all the wounds spread across Thomas' body, and then he noticed that Thomas was frowning several times.

"Still hurting somewhere?".

"Just the head, the headache still hasn't gone away...".

"I will try to help you...

... Strange, the energy in your head is flowing in two different ways, maybe that's what's causing your headache...".

"What do you mean flowing in two different ways?".

"I can't say, I haven't studied about it yet, I can try to make the two fluctuations flow in the same way, but I don't know if it will work, or if it will help stop the headache...".

The two looked at each other a little and Thomas smiled at him, he used one hand to rub Oscar's hair and then nodded.

"Okay, if the headache goes away I'll be able to think better of what to do... You can try...".

With Thomas' approval, Oscar smiled, he was happy to be sharing a moment with Thomas, meanwhile, he placed his hands on his head and the gray fire burned gently.

**************************************************

"Fuck! Why won't you leave me alone!".

Maddened, Lucius screamed looking up as he fought the many hands around him.

His face, his arms, his chest, and his back were covered in bruises and scratches where his blood flowed.

In the darkness it was impossible to know how much time had passed, Lucius' sense of time was fickle and indeterminate, but the reality is that he had no rest to think about anything else but feeling hate for these hands and letting all his inner rage flow.

More blood flowed from his mouth after he bit one of his hands and tried to use his fingernails to pierce one of his eyes, he bit the hand with all his might, and with his teeth, he managed to split the hand in half, splattering blood and flesh, making his appearance even more wild and maddened.

After punching another hand that passed him, he noticed that the dark space seemed to rip apart with some more colored parts, and that paralyzed him for a moment.

Letting one hand reach for her neck, the hand dug her nails into her skin and went down scratching and tearing her skin from her neck to mid-chest, and her blood flowed even more.

**************************************************

"I can't get the two energy fluctuations to flow in the same way...

... I'll try to change the position of the two...".

Thomas didn't say anything, he kept his eyes closed waiting for Oscar to finish using his magical abilities.

Suddenly, Thomas' eyes widened and his irises glowed like violet neon, Oscar saw this and was surprised, but Thomas got up off the ground quickly and knocked him backwards.

*"Hey, Thomas!"*.

"Fuuuuckk!".

Thomas was looking up as he screamed like a madman, scaring Oscar with such a sight, but what truly horrified him was when he noticed the emergence of several bruises on Thomas' body, and even worse, several cuts opened up from his skin, exposing raw flesh as blood splattered all over the place.

*"Sorry Thomas! I didn't mean to hurt you! I'm sorry!"*.

Oscar started crying and felt guilty, he got up off the floor quickly and kept apologizing trying to get close to Thomas, but Thomas wouldn't stop screaming and he was scared to get close to him.

"Fuuucck! Motherfucker! I will destroy everything!".

Oscar didn't understand the language Thomas was using but he realized he was furious about something as he shouted and looking up he tried to look for what Thomas was seeing but he didn't see anything.

*"Sorry Thomas! I didn't mean to make you crazy!

I should have listened to Uncle when he said I wasn't supposed to use magic on other people's heads just yet... I blew the Thomas!"*.

The scene was surreal, Thomas screaming as he looked up at the sky punching the air, while Oscar ran around him crying and apologizing.

But Oscar stopped running when he noticed another anomaly happening.

Tens of small violet vortices appeared from all sides, several human hands took shape in the air and flew towards the two.

It was impossible to know if, at the moment, Lucius noticed that he had returned, he still saw the hands that tormented him floating around him in an illusory way, and when he started to calm down, the hands materialized in the air, causing him to scream again.

This time he didn't wait for the attack of the hands, he stepped forward and kicked a hand that was floating close to the ground.

Oscar was extremely confused, a hand came flying towards his face, he walked backwards, but another hand passed scratching his leg and he ended up falling to the ground.

*"Aahg! Hey! It was not cool! It's scaring me!

Thomas, make it stop please! I promise to stop asking you to play with me all the time!"*.

He healed the nail cuts left on his leg and dodged another hand flying, but it was obvious to him that the main target of the hands was Thomas, as Thomas was surrounded by dozens of hands.

Lucius kept kicking, punching and biting each and every one of the hands that flew close to him trying to hurt him, he couldn't dodge them all, so several more bruises and cuts started to accumulate on his skin.

Turning his face to avoid a pair of hands trying to grab his head, he noticed some rebar on the floor, smiling, he ignored the hands and took two of the rebars, one for each hand.

"Come on you motherfuckers!".

He ran out of the hand encirclement, moving away from the place and going near the old and dry trees, using them as cover, he started beating the hands that were already surrounding him again.

A blow from the rebar made of steel is much more violent than ordinary punches and kicks, in a short time, blood, flesh, pieces of hands and fingers were scattered all over the place.

During all of Thomas' madness and savagery, Oscar decided to stay well away from the insane battle going on.

*"Use your fire magic!"*.

^"Magic? Fire?"^.

Oscar didn't know about Lucius, but he knew the fire spells that Thomas knew how to use, the bloody battle was too scary for him, not that he'd never seen anything like it, but this was Thomas, a serious and friendly young man, kind and a little boring, according to his thoughts.

The scary thing was seeing Thomas like this, in a way he had never seen him before.

^"Magic? How is the magic? How does it act physically, chemically or biologically? I don't know anything about magic...

... But fire... What is the fire?"^.

For the first time Lucius stopped, the savagery and brutality gone, he let those hands hurt him as he sank deep into his own thoughts and ideas.

The seconds passed, and Thomas' body turned red from so much blood running from all sides, his eyes still glowed violet, and watching all this, Oscar started to get worried.

^"I can say that fire is the result of a chemical reaction of combustion... That is, an irreversible reorganization of atoms...

... Yes, but fire needs three ingredients to exist...

... An oxidizer, like the oxygen around me...

... A fuel, like the material that will suffer from the exchange of atomic energy with the oxidizer...

... And heat, or rather molecular agitation, agitation enough to break chemical bonds releasing atoms and energy...

... I don't need fire, I need molecular agitation, vibrate atoms at high speed, produce an electromagnetic wave capable of accelerating atoms to a speed capable of breaking any chemical bond...

... That way, even if there's no oxidizer, anything can just fall apart... Explode..."^.

Lucius' thoughts didn't last more than 10 seconds, at the moment, he felt a strange connection with all the space around him, as if the space was part of his body, or was his own body.

He swung his right hand from side to side slowly, and after completing the movement, he smiled as he turned his body to the side when a hand flew past, leaving two nail cuts on his left cheek.

^"By moving the arm, I collide with atoms in the atmosphere... If I accelerate those atoms, I create a chain reaction... Yes I can make everything vibrate... I feel it..."^.

Oscar felt a shiver as he saw Thomas' wild smile, he watched the movement Thomas had made and then he felt the local temperature rise a little.

Suddenly a strange sight happened, the air seemed to have vibrated, like on a very hot day when the heat wave distorts the images, and then Thomas opened his arms as if to embrace the world and looked up, at the dozens of hands flying.

*"Burn, motherfuckers..."*.

Brrrrouhmmm!!!

Space shook as the air vibrated and a great explosion of fire burned and destroyed everything around Lucius.