Death Won't Stop Me

PHARAOH

Guardians are spiritual pets that ghosts could manifest when they reach level two. Guardians have many different types. They range from normal looking house pets to mythical creatures with different shapes and sizes. But their strengths are not proportioned to their type. But the owners' potential and speed of growth can be determined based on these types. These pets grow stronger with their master. When called upon, they can fight with almost the same power as their owner or they can use their unique skills to either support or boost their masters. But not all ghosts manage to manifest these pets when they reach level two. Some manifests at level ten, while some don't manifest at all till the souls mutate. 

Soul guides value these "pets" as an invaluable partner that can help them in dire times.

***

Today was a weekend. Jon decided to splurge on food today, so he took Ana out to eat. He let her pick the place this once. After lunch, he asked her if they could forgo the training for the day and just have fun. She readily agreed and Jon took her to an amusement park. 

At first, she was skeptical of the rides if they really were scary, so he took her to all the scariest rides in the park. By the time they finished the last ride, Ana's legs were shaking so strongly that she couldn't even walk properly without holding onto Jon's arms. So she had to take back her words towards Jon.

By dinner, Jon took her to a buffet restaurant which almost made Ana cry tears of joy. The waiters were shaking in their boots as the watched a beauty eat so much in such a short time and still had room for seconds. Their faces looked like they were thinking : "Where does she put all the food?" while the manager felt like crying.

After dinner, Jon took her to see a movie. She knew about these theaters that the mortals had, but this was her first time being inside and watching. It was another happy experience for her. Jon was a little bit embarrassed by Ana's shouting inside the cinema. He had to drag her to the door as soon as the credits started so as not to be seen as the one shouting throughout the movie.

"That was fun!" Ana was walking beside Jon with her hands on her back as they were on their way home.

"Yeah, see? Relaxing sometimes isn't that bad, right?" He replied as he smiled.

"We should do that more often." She looked at Jon with an inquiring look.

"As if! We're just barely able to get by as it is with just my salary." He replied to her, a little annoyed when he saw her inquiring face.

"Well, ask for a raise or get a new job." She said.

"Easy for you to say. Freeloader." Jon mumbled.

"What was that?" She asked as she smiled that was not a smile.

"Nothing. I said rice cooker. We're gonna need a new rice cooker. What we use right now can't cook enough for us." He hurried to make up some stuff.

"Oh.. I see. I thought you said freeloader." She said solemnly.

"Ehe." He was sweating a little.

She squinted her eyes as she looked at him. A spine tingling sensation run through his back. He felt like Ana could suddenly see his soul. "So, I'm not a freeloader?"

"No! O-of course not!" He stuttered his answer.

"But before I came, your rice cooker was enough for you right?" She smiled sweetly.

"Right." He replied, not thinking clearly. He did not know what Ana was implying right away. "s**t!" He shouted in his mind right after he answered, he figured out what was wrong with his answer. So he started to sweat buckets.

"So, you're saying I'm a glutton?!" Her sweet smiling face suddenly turned into a very scary, Asura like face. Her aura suddenly exploded.

He reflexively ducked to the side while putting his right arm towards his face and held the back of his head. His left arm covered his right side while his hand was wide open. Then his right knee went up to his chest in a defensive manner. "I'M SORRY!!"

"Pfft! Hahaha!" Her laugh was suddenly heard as he was waiting for the expected smackdown. She then inhaled to calm her laughter. "Anyway, we should start looking for those guys. I think you have trained enough." She changed the topic.

"But where do we start though?" He asked as he relaxed his body, feeling like he just escaped a calamity.

"Let's think about it tomorrow." She said.

"Okay."

***

The shortest route to take to Jon's apartment by walking was to go through a recently demolished mall. It was planned to be made into a townhouse. So this place is pretty much abandoned right now. 

Ana, being a soul guide and have recently evolved to level six, and Jon, who's power she recently verified to have a power equal to a level four, it was not scary to walk in this area at all. In fact, Jon really liked the quietness. There were no interruptions nor distractions, they were able to talk with each other a lot.

Midway in the area, Ana was laughing at some of Jon's jokes while they were walking.

"Hm?!" As he was laughing with Ana, he suddenly saw something glinted right at the back of Ana' head. He instinctively reached out his hand towards her head and pulled it to his chest as his other hand grabbed her back tightly then jumped back.

A split second after they jumped back, a cold looking sickle appeared out of the darkness and slashed right on the place where Ana's neck would have been. He felt the hair on the back of his head stand up while looking at that sickle. It was way too close, if he hadn't see that glint from before it happened, Ana's head would have been rolling on the ground by now.

"What the heck are you doing!" She pushed herself away from Jon. Her face was blushing like a ripe tomato. She was bewildered at what he suddenly did.

"Wooo~" A whistle was heard right after she shouted, followed by slow clapping sounds.

"To be able to dodge Pharaoh.. You have been training hard!" Eddie appeared, walking slowly towards them from a street obscured by the night.

"Eddie!" Jon and Ana shouted, a little shocked.

"That's right, sugar lips. So are you ready?" Eddie clasped his hands behind his back as he replied to them then tilted his head and smiled mysteriously at them.

Jon and Ana immediately put on their gloves, looked at each other and nodded. They got ready for a fight. They did not know how strong Eddie has become, but to come to them on his own, they knew he is confident that he could kill them just by himself.

The sickle from earlier turned into a black mist and returned to Eddie. It hovered around him and the mist near his face materialized into a black wolf's head.

"You ready too?" Eddie looked at his companion and asked with a smile. A low growl was it's reply as it bared it's teeth to them.

"Nugget!" Ana called her dragon and a golden light flashed from her arm then the dragon materialized on her side while cautiously looking at Eddie and his companion. She then whispered to Jon. "Go."

Jon dashed towards Eddie as he threw a punch. His glove flashed and a gigantic fist, the size of a human's torso was emitted from Jon's fist. But he was not done, After the energy fist rushed towards Eddie, Jon forcefully stopped his dash and jumped to his left side and made another dash towards Eddie with another punch, but this time, he did not let his energy emitted from the punch. He gathered his energy towards his that was coming towards Eddie. 

Ana dashed to the right as soon as Jon made a move. When she got exactly on Eddie's right, She rained down a lot of fist emissions. But it's size were very different, they were compact, as if looking at a normal girl's fist. She shot out a total of ten towards Eddie as support for Jon.

This was what they practiced, to be able to suppress Eddie as soon as he showed up. They did not believe that Eddie would be able to overpower them both if they were working together.

To their dismay, Eddie just released his aura outside his body, and the fists just dispersed like wind. At the same time, Jon's other fist arrived. Eddie lifted his hand in a non hurried manner and received Jon's fist with his hand.

A muffled boom sounded as the air blew away from them with the contact as the middle. "Is this all you got?" Eddie smirked at Jon then looked at Ana and said "Go." 

The wolf howled as it suddenly rushed away from Eddie and headed towards Ana. It was so fast that in just a second it turned into a sickle again and shot toward her face. "Nugget" She cried out hastily. The little dragon coiled and became a shield to block the sickle.

A loud ding noise erupted and the coiled dragon was pushed back and Ana was unable to hold the blood coming up from her throat and spat some blood. She was a little bit injured from the backlash of the dragon blocking the sickle. The little guy then rushed back towards it as if the dragon was not afraid of the wolf's current strength to give Ana time to fight Eddie without interruptions from it.

It shocked her that Eddie has grown way too strong in just a few weeks. Before, they were able to harm him considerably by teaming up, but right now, it doesn't even feel that they could not even match up to him despite teaming up.

"Hahaha! Give up! And resign to your fates. You can't win. Hahaha." Eddie was laughing egotistically as he punched with his other hand towards Jon.

Luckily, Jon was fast enough to raise his other hand to block the punch, then sent his feet to kick the side where Eddie was holding his other hand so it was not protected. Eddie was startled when he felt the aching pain on his side and was sent reeling towards the street's wall. He did not expect that even though he was way stronger than Jon, he was still able to go toe to toe with him. He had underestimated the guy.

Throbbing pain could be felt on Jon's left arm from just a simple punch. He waved his arm a little to relieve the pain. Then he looked at Ana and shouted. "Like training!"

Ana was jolted from her daze when she heard Jon's shout. It relieved her of some of her fears and hesitation to fight Eddie. She knew what Jon meant, treat it like training and don't think about life and death! That was how they were training in the weeks that they were together. They deemed it upon themselves to train as if there were no life and death and went all out despite the pain and suffering afterwards. They kept pushing themselves every training session since with their levels, they were able to get back in shape after a night of meditation.

"Okay." Ana took a deep breath, looked at Jon then smiled. Jon nodded at her and they dashed together towards Eddie as he slowly got up.

Eddie was getting more pissed by the second at his setback as he was slowly getting up. When he saw the both of them rushing towards him again. A nerve in his forehead twitched in his rage and his blood was boiling up as he roared towards them then shot towards Jon.

Jon was startled at Eddie's current speed. Almost a second after he roared, he was already about an arm's reach from him. He then reflexively guarded with his left arm as a punch suddenly went barreling towards his face. When he felt the contact, in a split second, he tilted his arm a little so that the majority of the punch's force erupted in the air then he pulled his arm down so he could hold Eddie's arm with his left hand then countered with his right fist to his stomach.

Ana saw that Eddie went towards Jon so she adjusted her dash to that when he reached Jon, she was already on Eddie's left and sent an enhanced punch to his shoulder. 

"Argh!" Eddie grunted at the pain from both his stomach and shoulder as he stumbled a few steps back. The punch to his shoulder especially, it was perfectly aimed at the weakness of his shoulder's joint. As soon as he managed to stop staggering, his left arm slumped down. It was dislocated.

He was incensed, this was not how this was supposed to be happening! He was way stronger than when they first fought, he should be dominating them, not the other way around!

"I'm gonna tear you both to pieces!" He roared towards the heavens and punched his left shoulder to jolt the joint back in. "Argh!!! PHARAOH!"

The wolf disengaged with the little dragon and dashed towards Eddie. It didn't stop to hover around him but instead merged with him. Eddie's body let out a blinding purple light with traces of darkness.

Ana and Jon's eyes hurt a little from the flash and covered them with their arms. Instantly, they felt a surge of aura, three folds than what Eddie let out before. "Let's see how you clowns jump around now!" Eddie's sinister cackle was suddenly heard inside the light.