Destiny (Anime Style)

Chapter 13: Trauma

Ravi and Leah stepped outside and put on their head-size helmets in order to face the malicious Hive. Though there was someone who still had something to say regarding the bluenette's idea.

"Hey! Are you sure this is the best call?" Cybel asked Ravi with worry.

"You and Wire said it, right?" this last one replied, very determined. "The warmind and its arrays are important... and we need to protect them, specially since they can be useful in the future"

At that moment, lots of the creatures that chased down both trainees back at the dark basement from earlier jumped from the ship and rushed to attack them while shrieking like monsters.

"HIVE THRALLS!" Wire yelled at that moment. Thralls were basically a type of Hive which attacked like beasts just charging towards the enemy.

"LET'S GO!" Ravi claimed in return.

And so, both he and Leah jumped into the battle immediately. There were dozens of grotesque thralls, ready to kill them, but ironically, those monsters were actually pretty weak and fragile. They were only dangerous in the darkness since no one could see them coming. But in plain light, they ended up being quite easy to defeat.

However, thralls weren't the only problem. There were also other kinds of Hive wielding guns like the ones that attacked Ravi and Leah back at the basement. The trainees had to worry about them the most since they could shot from the distance.

The battle was tough, and they managed to defeat lots of Hive without breaking a sweat. But whenever a group was defeated, another one appeared. There seemed to be no end to the many Hive forces. 'We are not doing anything unless those ships fall' Ravi thought while still struggling, after which he had an idea and propelled himself with his own fire in order to reach the tombships. "Oh, crap!" The boy ended up hanging from the ship, and this last one was moving like crazy towards every direction in an attempt to shake him off.

"RAVI! HANG ON!" Leah yelled while running and beating any hive near her.

"STAY THERE! I HAVE AN IDEA!" Ravi moved to one side of the ship and began pulling it closer towards the other one with his fire.

"No way... Are you really gonna..." Before Leah could finish, both hive ships collided against each... and slowly began falling down.

Ravi finally let the ship and fell to the floor, successfully taking down the ships despite how tired he was. Still, he didn't have time to rest, because many of the remaining Hive that lied all around immediately rushed towards him.

Luckily for him, Leah intervened at that exact moment and saved her dear friend with a powerful lightning bolt. "Are you ok?" she then asked while helping him stand up.

"Yeah, but there are still some left. Let's go!"

They kept battling the Hive, until suddenly, one last creature, completely different than the others and clearly a lot more powerful, jumped out of one of the crashed Hive ships. It was a really big Hive knight wielding a giant sword surrounded by some kind of green aura.

"Oh no"

The knight rushed to Ravi immediately and sent him flying to the inside of the building again.

"RAVI!" Leah yelled, desperately.

The knight stayed outside fighting Leah who was clearly at a disadvantage, while on the other hand, the remaining thralls went straight for Ravi in order to finish him off.

'Ggh... This is bad' Leah thought while dodging the knight's attacks. 'Ravi is alone with all those monsters, I have to beat this one here fast!' Just then, one of the knight's arm swings reached her and tossed her towards one side. "AAH!" the girl groaned as she hit the floor and began bleeding a little from her head.

Her clothes were slightly dirty, and her helmet disappeared due to the heavy hit she received. She was being overpowered by that monster.

Meanwhile, a more than desperate and concerned Ravi was trying hard to defeat the remaining thralls inside the building and go help his friend as soon as possible.

At any rate, Leah raised her head while still laying on the floor and noticed a scary green glow coming from the knight's 3 eyes. A disturbing glow which unfortunately, had to do with the young girl's trauma from the past. "Ggh... uhh... that... that glow" she muttered nervously and with fear. "I've seen... that g-green glow before"

She began panicking again.

"LEAH! FOCUS!" Cybel yelled at her. "LISTEN TO ME! THIS IS NOT THE TIME! YOU GOTTA MOVE! MOVE NOW!"

Leah was paralyzed from fear, she wasn't even listening to Cybel anymore. The terrified girl just stared in complete shock as the monster in front of her was about to cut her in half with its giant sword. But then, when the knight did its final swing, the sword didn't hit Leah at all. When she momentarily snapped out of her fear, she realized what had actually happened.

Ravi was in front of her. He looked more than exhausted and had his helmet gone just like her. What is more, he managed to catch and stop the knight's giant sword with both of his hands before it got to reach Leah.

"Ra... Ravi" the young girl muttered with her eyes wide open. "But... how? Wh-what about the thralls?"

"They... are done" the blue-haired boy replied while breathing heavily, after which Leah looked all around her and inside the building only to notice how every single t****l was defeated at last. "Get up, Leah. You must... escape" Ravi added while still trying to resist the knight's strength. But then, this last one punched him very hard and tossed him towards one side. "GAH!" Ravi groaned as he hit the ground in pain.

Then, the knight disposed itself to attack Leah once again, only to be interrupted by the bluenette mere moments later.

"HEY, YOU BIG BUG!" Ravi yelled while getting up with difficulty. "I'M STILL STANDING! THAT PUNCH WAS NOTHING!" He was trying to act tough, but the truth was that he was barely holding on given that he forced his body in order to defeat all the thralls as fast as possible. "Come on you stupid cockroach! You think you look strong with that big sword?! YOU ARE JUST A THREE-EYED i***t!"

The knight's gaze turned to Ravi and rushed towards him immediately... However, Leah still couldn't move from how terrified she was. She just watched with fear and concern as her dear friend was being brutally beaten up by the giant monster.

"AGH!" the blue-haired boy groaned after falling to the floor for the fifth time. He was coughing a bit of blood and wasn't gonna be able to resist much longer. If the fight continued, he really was gonna die.

...

...

...

And yet... Leah couldn't move...

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...

...

"LEAH! LEAH!..." Cybel yelled desperately, but the panicking girl didn't hear.

Leah's mind was a mess at that point. And she also began thinking back at the incident. At the moment in which her life changed completely. At how her dear family crumbled and lost someone they cared deeply about...

Nonetheless, just as the young girl was getting more scared every second, she happened to remember what her precious ghost told her some time earlier...

...

"You needed something more than a droid... Someone capable of making you happy again... and you now have it!"

...

Leah stared directly at Ravi... who couldn't fight anymore and was about to be slashed by the knight's sword.

...

"It's right there!"

...

At that moment, the huntress finally came to her senses, and without a second thought, she ran straight towards the knight and jumped over it, only to then stuck her daggers into its neck, almost like a rider trying to tame a wild beast.

"YOU, STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" the young huntress yelled with rage as she began moving her daggers around, forcing the knight to back up from the blue-haired boy. "I WON'T LET YOU HURT HIM! YOU HEAR ME!"

"Le-Leah" Ravi muttered while in pain.

"Ravi! Are you ok?" Wire asked.

"Yes, but... Leah. I gotta help her"

"I... I don't think that's necessary"

At that precise moment, Leah focused her lightning at both of her daggers and created a huge electric current that traveled all around the knight's body, damaging it gravely on the way. The huge creature began screaming in pain while trying in vain to shake the girl off.

"AHHHH!" Leah screamed with anger while electrocuting the monster until finally, it exploded. She was sent flying and hit the ground very hard.

"LEAH! LEAH!" Ravi yelled as the huntress couldn't help but to pass out, turning everything around her into a dark void...

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...

Everything was dark, and it remained like that for a very long time. But then, something, or rather someone, finally appeared. Someone that ironically, had nothing to do with the previous situation...

It was Leah... or to be more precise... a young Leah Polgaze of only 5 years old who woke up in her bed in the middle of the night. She seemed to have had some kind of bad dream, because she was breathing heavily.

"What's wrong?" A childish male voice that was right next to her, in another bed, asked. It was her brother. Her brother of 8 years old with whom she shared the same room as kids.

"I... I had a nightmare" the girl muttered while crying a bit.

"Oh, come on. There's nothing to fear little sister" the brother replied while standing up and approaching her. "I'm right here" He smiled at her, and she immediately felt better.

"Thanks, big brother. But don't you ever have nightmares?"

"Of course I have them. Everyone does"

"Then, why don't you get scared? I've never seen you cry or scream of fear"

"Of course I'm scared... of many things. But I just overcome them. After all, I'm gonna be a guardian when I grow up!" the brother finally claimed while standing all proud.

"Woah! Amazing big brother! You are gonna be the best guardian! I'm sure of that!"

"Teehee..."

Leah's brother was called John Polgaze, and he was much more than just a friend or a relative. He was a role model for her. She looked up to him so much that she wanted to be like him when she grew up.

Whenever she was scared, he was the one to comfort her. Whenever she was sad, he did his best to make her smile. He was the one she spent the most time with as a child. And he was also the one who inspired her to become a guardian in the future.

That night, both siblings went back to sleep without the slightest clue that... a dark and gloomy future was waiting for them...