Chapter Fourteen: Enigma

A searing pain blooms forth from where Rashid had just hit me with his Aura clad fist, I stagger back as a flurry of images I can’t quite make sense of fly past right behind my eyes and into my mind.

I barely manage to feel Rashid enter my Aura as he tries to splinterify the back of my knees with a low, fast and brutal kick. I hop into the air at the last second and shift my torso forward so that I’m falling horizontally, and lash out with a kick at his head.

Rashid dodges with ease, grabs my outstretched leg and swings me around. My inside feeling like they’re swimming upside down in a hurricane. A half-second after he started he lets me go and I’m sent flying.

I let my body relax, and focus on my Aura to see what I’m flying towards, despite already knowing the answer, but it never hurt to double check. Yep, I’m flying towards a wall, and yep Rashid’s already there waiting with a fist reeled back.

I don’t wait to get there and I start close my body into a ball and begin to spin around in mid-air. My body builds, even more, momentum as I’m flying, and then just as I get there I rotate to the side and send an ax kick at Rashid’s fist as it comes flying at me.

We collide with air shaking power, as the power of youth and natural brute strength vs decades of experience and a body honed to weapons edge fight each other for dominance.

Experience wins out as I’m once again sent flying, haha this is really becoming a specialty of mine, I felt it at the last second before I was sent flying that Rashid had summoned part of his image to enhance his power and break the stalemate of out colliding power.

A loud messy smacking sound echoes through the room, the sound of flesh and bone hitting an unnaturally strong wall sounds, more importantly, it’s my flesh that just hit the wall, and It hurts a lot. I’m pretty sure I have a concussion and my ankle is broken from the exchange with Rashid.

“Haaaa.” I sigh, I’m pretty sure I’m out for the count right now, so I wave an imaginary white flag and Rashid does his bony little victory dance that I’ve so grown to hate as I pass out.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I’m sitting across from Rashid, who’s been staring at for the last couple minutes since I woke up. It’s pretty unnerving, since usually after I wake up from my afternoon concussion we’ll talk about what I can do to improve my Aura technique, and then he’ll send me to meditate on my image.

But he hasn’t said anything!

What could this old shit be planning…

Is finally going to kill me?! Drink my blood to take my youth and power?!

It must be that, how else could someone so old exist.

He must do this every couple years to maintain his power!

Take a talented, handsome youth, deep underground under the pretense of having them repaying a debt, only to have them pay their debt in blood!

Well, old man two can play this game!

I jump at him screaming “You won’t get my blood!”

He looks at me mystified and catches me one-handed “What?!”

I stare the old monster in the eyes and whisper “Ah, the power of the last generation must be wearing off… So his senility must be coming back… and his wrinkles!”

His brow crease and I feel my blood run cold. I try my best to struggle out of his grip, he tightens it to a bone cracking level, and he looks more bloodthirsty than I’ve ever seen him, and further proving my point.

He levels his dead dark eyes at and says “Boy what in the blazes are you saying?!”

I swing my fist at him, but he grabs it and I say “You want my blood, don’t you you old blood drinker?!”

He sighs and I swear he’s looking at my neck and licking his lips!

“Ah, great I hit him too hard. Or maybe he’s got cabin fever? How am I going to fix this?” The monster mutters! Then his face visibly brightens and I struggle more. “When in doubt go with the simplest solution!”

Ka-crack and splat, the sound of flesh and bone smashing against a wall.

Then everything goes dark again.

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“Two concussions in one day, what is it my birthday?” I ask looking at Rashid.

“No, ya just had a bit of the cave madness. Don’t worry about it nothing a good beating couldn’t take care of.” He responds nonchalantly.

“Ook.” I drawl. “But what were you thinking about earlier? Before you know the cave madness hit me.”

He chuckles, and says “Well this is going to sound funny, but I was wondering when the cave madness would hit one of us.” He laughs some more “Well now I know, well that and whether if we should it the city today.”

I pretend to ponder over it, and say “Yeah, we should probably go before the cave madness hit’s me again.”

He nods his head “Or me… Well anyway, I think I’ve taught you all you need to know to grow on your own.”

A wide grin splits my face “Good, just you wait and see in a year or two we’ll see who’s lying next to the broken wall with a concussion!”

He chuckles “Well that’s an odd way of saying thank, but you’re welcome.”

I roll my eyes “Yes, thank you old man for teaching me Aura. Come on, let's go before the cave madness hits again.”

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Following Rashid around the twisting, towering buildings in the city is not an easy task. If I looked away for a second I might lose him, and but with how sterile the air is it’s pretty easy to track him down but no less annoying. Anyway, it’s hard not to look at all the stuff here.

How the buildings contort and twist is fascinating, and how they seem to grow off each other.

The shadow’s dancing in between the mega buildings almost seems to demand my attention to watch their little shows.

But I could never focus too long, or I would lose Rashid, and he get’s angry. And you wouldn’t like him when he angry.

Rashid though walks through the city with ease seemingly jaded to the city. Almost on a warpath looking for something, not that I know what. But every so often he would disappear and reappear with something in hand to put in the cart. I would be lying If I said it didn’t freak me out.

Walking behind Rashid I couldn’t help but notice something now that we’ve been walking for a while. “Where are all the Defiled?” I couldn’t help but ask to the air, I’ve been looking forward to doing a little slaughtering since I got out of “Rashid’s Shack of Misery®”

Rashid paused for a moment “... I don’t know, it’s been bugging me too.”

Pulling the cart another question comes to mind “Where are we heading anyway?”

He rolls his shoulders, and says “Where else? We’re going to the library.”

I raise my eyebrow at no one, and say “Why the library?”

He stops abruptly and turns around seemingly stunned, opening and closing his mouth with nothing coming out.

I continue “I mean libraries are neat and all, but I would rather go to a movie or a museum maybe, Oh or maybe a gym can we go to a gym!”

Rashid’s hand blurs and hits my gut, and I double over.

“Are you an Idiot?! No wait of course you are! You don’t go to the library!”

I cough and say deathly serious “No, I’m an Idiot because people like you hit me and give me brain damage.”

He pauses for a second looking stunned and visibly ashamed.

Then I bust out laughing obxiously while pointing at him. “Pfft Haha, you should see your face, like I couldn’t recover from brain damage. Bwahaha!”

He just sighs and waits for me to stop.

Once I stop he says “Do I really need to explain why going to the library?”

I take a shot in the dark “Books and shit?”

Nodding his “Yep, so let’s get back to it.”

I smirk and say very high pitched “But dad, I want to go the museum! Why do we have to go to the stupid library!?”

He responds by saying very gruffly and annoyed “Shut up! You’re going to the museum and you’re going to like it!”

We stare at each other for a good half-second before breaking out in laughter.

“Bahahaa!”

“Hahaha!”

Rashid clears his eyes and says in his trademark dry voice “Alright enough joking let get going.”

Still laughing I just give a thumbs up.

It takes me a second to recover from laughing, but when I do I feel a shiver go up my spine like someone’s watching me. I release my Aura, and I turn in the direction I feel the presence. I look to see another shadowy alley, but I focus my eyes and I swear I see a hint of a steel-grey light. With an effort of will, I force Aura done the alley, as soon as I do the hint of light is gone. I take a step forward to the alley, then I hear Rashid shout “Boy, hurry up!”

I take another look down the alley, but still nothing. Rashid yells again and I go to catch up.

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Rashid suddenly stops and throws his arm out. “Stop! This is it.”

I look around but don’t seem to find anything, after a while all the buildings down here all start to look the same. “Where is it?”

“Right there.” He points to a pole in front of us, that barely comes up to my torso, with a square block on top of it.

I walk up to it, and prod it a little, testing it to see if it spit a book out or something, but it doesn’t do anything. I look back at Rashid “You sure this is it? I mean I don’t think this is what most people use to read. Maybe you are going senile..”

He pulls out a card like that would solve everything.

“Oh, now that I look at it..”

“Shut up, let me show you how it’s done.” He says angrily.

He walks up and shoves the card into the box, and suddenly the ground is shaking.

The ground pulsates and moves, shifting around as something rise behind the pole. Soon it shape becomes clear and box rises from the ground.

I gawk at it and Rashid chuckles before saying “Can’t get into the library without a library card.” He goes over to box and waves his card in front of it and the box opens up, revealing an elevator.

I walk over to it and get in bring the cart in too and is still spacious.

I look over to Rashid “So this doesn’t seem like a normal library?

“It’s not, and It took me a lot of work to find it in the first place. This library contains likely all recorded knowledge of the ancients.”

“Shouldn’t, you know this place have a ton of other people here studying it?”

“And let them steal my achievements?! I think not!”

I edge slightly away from Rashid.

“Just kidding boy, It’s just too dangerous for most people to come down here. But that doesn’t mean that others don’t-”

The elevator door opens.

"come down here."

Revealing two people standing in front of us, who I point at. “Like these two?” I ask.

He nods his head “Yes like these two-, wait who in Mab’s cooch are you two?!”