[Teminé] Is that you?

As dark sparked the light of sky, silence and chaos weren’t on opposite sides.
Evilness-the word-evaporated in the air. After all, normal wasn’t something people liked to discuss and to compare with. In this place, one thing was sure, innocence meant death. And the place was surely Anhydre. now stood.
#
Facing a narrow alley leading to next black area, Anhydre. breathed deeply. She only could hear someone talking in a low voice but the figures were replaced by darkness.
Since she came to this city, she had got used to it, not wanted but being forced. After seeing many bloody scenes, she felt the scent of blood suffusing her and even in her breath.
No need to look up toward the sky, she knew how it looked like. It’s always the same, shaped by the high wall of street. No need to stare at the road, she knew how it looked like. It’s always the same, decorated by dead bodies or animals.
She had no any idea why wind brought her to this damn place after telling it with a word, isolation. She was afraid of dying here, in such gruesome place. More scaring to her was the influence this city had on her, the vileness. However, it paid to go through, if then she could find an isolated place to stay.
Anhydre. wrapped herself with the cloak and was ready for escape at any time. She walked fast, and dare not meet gaze with others. In spite of little people there, their stances gave her spine enough cold shiver. Now, she would rather they shouted or even fought, than spoke in secret like calm before the storm.
Near the intersection of alleys, a tall man with half-faced black mask leaned on the wall as if he were waiting for someone. Anhydre. pulled her cloak tight and held the breath, thinking after that intersection, she could choose a brighter road, at least with few streetlight, she kept going.
“You’re the perfect one.”
Anhydre. ignored the man’s words. More precisely, she thought he was talking to others or to himself. She sped up.
“Kill it. You’re the perfect one.”
This time, the tone was lower, clearer, firmer and more vicious. She could feel the man walking right behind her. A sound of hasty steps stopped her.
Anhydre. turned back and faced him. Were it not for his eyes, all black suit, black mask and black hair had made him invisible in dimness. His bloodshot eyes were on her face and the disgustful bloody smell, alike raw meat, made her sick.

What the hell! Is it called isolation?

“Wh-”
Not waiting for her question, the man grabbed her arms, which was beyond her expectation. She should have been able to escape his capture. Unexpectedly, his sticky hand held her tightly.
He lowered himself, close to her ear and whispered:
“Tonight, see you there.”
And then he stroked a sign on her left upper-arm with his index finger. Slightly as he drew, every stroke like flint rubbing and burning her skin.
“Ahhhhhhh…….”
It was hell hurt that she shut her eyes.
#
“Ahhhhhhh…….”
Anhydre. shook her head and opened eyes immediately. Silence was thrown back to the room. She found herself lying in a wooden chamber. No alley, no walls, no sky, no pain. Hopefully, it’s a dream.
However, it was so real as if she had experienced.
But, where am I now?
To prove it was simply a dream, she carefully rolled up sleeves to see her upper-arm. Nervousness and fear nearly drove her nuts.
Ø
A dark blown burn was stamped on her arm as she had predicted. Touching along the lines, she still could feel its burning sting.
“Damn it, fuck off!”
She stood up and was about to leave it alone. At that time, a drop of something dripped to her head. A thought of death flashed across her mind.

Am I doomed to die here?

She waited herself to faint or stop breathing; whereas, nothing happened. During her waiting, more and more drops dripped down. She looked to the ceiling and found the wooden color got darker, soaked in some sort of unknown liquid.

Anhydre. was stunned. This was another discovery. She decided to get to the bottom of this so she flied to the upper floor, directly above the chamber.

Daaaaamn!

She couldn’t help letting out a scream in her brain once she found a bloody mark on the room door.
Ø

Leave! Hurry!

About to sneak out-
A sickly voice came from the other side of the door, suddenly,
“Welcome in.”



Ps. Welcome to join in. Anhydre. still needs a partner, a powerful killer, who was also kidnapped by the man.  It's better if you have something to do with Béhékine. If no, it's okay, we still can have fun.
or other roles you've come up with!!

Cruor was not Behekine's favourite town. Far from it.
Too much dichotomy between poor and rich for his tastes. Too much despair, too many crimes and so little sparks of fun to be had in here.
But since the major portals were all there, the old demon was forced to pass through it. Still, a shortcut was in order, to make it the fastest possible.
So the "panther-man" was walking through the poor district - a shantytown, more like - with his hood on, trying not to attract the looks of the souls surviving in here. At least he tried to keep a low profile, but he knew that his inhuman face was clearly visible in the dim light of the evening and his feline tail was even a greater giveaway concerning his strangeness. More often than not, he felt the surprised looks of the inhabitants on him.
No hostiles ones, for now, but that could change fast.

His walking staff was hitting the ground with audible "thwack" at each step. That attracted even more attention on him, but Behekine didn't want to change his gait or attire, thinking that his garb of "traveling ermit" was perfect to make him look harmless.
He crossed an alley, and saw movements from the corner of his eyes. Rapid steps coming, bad breath smelling of alcohol, the sound of a weapon unsheating. A mob ? He saw it coming from a mile away, and when the man aggressively grabbed his arm from behind, he was ready to strike first.

With a growl, he turned around swiftly before the man could put his dagger on his back to threaten him, threw a punch in the man's gut, baring his fangs in the process. He then brought the small carved stone he grabbed from his bag. He whispered a word of power and the stone exploded in a bright flash of light, making his aggrssor cry out and close his eyes in pain, both from the punch and his now overstimulated eyes.
Behekine slipped away from the man's grip and flung his staff around, the first move getting rid of the dagger, the second hitting the man right on his head, sending him to the ground. Just stunned or unconscious, Behekine didn't care really.

The panther-man felt the looks of witnesses around him and he made a show of himself, taking his time to brush his clothes and turning around to go just like that. He knew people would leave him be now.
Well, except for that guy with a black mask covering his face.
Who just stood there, right in front of him.
With the way this man was looking at him, with a threatening intensity, Behekine instantly disliked the guy. The old demon took one second to look him over, then casually smiled and kept on walking, passing by the man after a few seconds. If he wanted to "play", the panther-man was more than ready.
The man grabbed his arm.
And there was a spell in this grab, trying to get into his skin ! Thankfully, Behekine was already under a spell. A more powerful one, that controlled his very purpose in life, and that could not be replaced easily. His "slave marks" on his wrists sent electric surges in his arms and to the hand that grabbed him, defending itself against the intruder.
The man let him go and Behekine instantly turned to confront him, his face and eyes showing the very definition of rage. To be the target of such a vicious magical attack ! That wouldn't go unpunished !

Without hesitation, the man turned his back and ran, the demon on his heels.
The little streets were not ideal to pursue someone this way, but Behekine made a valliant try to get his claws on the one he always saw turning on the next corner. It was a silent run, as he was too enraged to use words to curse his foe and he had no time to cast any spell that could end it.
Finally, he saw the man disappear through a wooden door, slamming it shut right behind him. Like a raging bull, the old Demon forced it open with one shoulder - that would hurt him afterwards, but he did not care at the moment - and found himself in a near empty room, without any other exit in sight, nor any sign of the masked man.
Still growling, he turned around and stopped.

The door was closed, and there was an ominous sign painted on it.
Ø

A cold anger was replacing his first rage and the old Demon walked closer to inspect the only entrance and exit.
Like he thought, there was a complex spell on the frame that wouldn't budge.
He got lured in and trapped...
That was unfortunate... for the masked man.
No man that caged him did it for very long and lived long enough to tell the tale.
Behekine stepped back, and cast a spell of his own. His eyes glowed blue and he scanned the room, but he could not sense anything past the walls as if isolated from the world. The spell on the door was a complex one, one that would take time to decipher and destroy... well, if the masked man would not come to explain himself, time was all he had...

Behekine walked to the opposite wall, sat cross-legged and started to study the door's spell, his glowing eyes not leaving the sign painted on it.

A great throb. Anhydre. stopped.
The heartbeat echoed inside her body while the sickly voice swung over the hallway. She looked back to the only entrance where light came through. Running toward it would end all? Clearly, she was controlled but not unbending mind. Don’t open the door, ignored the voice, picked up the paces and everything would be alright, she told herself.
Run!
Suddenly, a black circularity of smoke came up and ran around her. The faster it circulated, the dense it became. Anhydre. wanted to use her sand power to stop it but the fast speed messed up the current, and caused the sand to run with it.
Damn!
“Save your energy to it. And think about what have water done to you, Anhydre.”
The voice was so unpleasant. It’s not like talking, more of (thinking). The frequency was much lower than the normal voice.
Gosh, he knew my name!
“What do you want?” a furious shout like a wolf howling in the lonely night.
“I think you are clear than anyone. Water, the powerful enemy, can kill you with a drop, can dizzy your thought and even use up all your energy and dump you on the roof and now I guess it’s time to return your lost memory and fight it back.”
A click.
/Don’t say you don’t believe it’s his work/ Yeah by words, not spell/ panther-man/ non-wind room/ a fireball/
In her brain, she could sense a memory was inserted in. The timeline had been changed a bit. By digging out that episode, she realized it’s the fragment of memory she totally forgot and didn’t come back after healing. Even though a long time had passed, it still hurt, in a betrayed way.
“A pile of sand lost on the eaves and I was the one who picked it up. It’s really innocent for you to think sand could be killed by water normally. No blame on you. But the truth is sand CAN absorb the water. Sand shouldn’t be afraid of water. Kill it, you can regain the freedom. It’s not revenge, but get what you’ve lost back. Just like this memory!”
“So you want me-”
“No, don’t get me wrong. Not panther-man. It’s Behekine. Echo du silence, Larme des Étoiles, Ame Minérale. It’s he that dominates the operation of elements.”
What the hell, how did he know I called that mixed creature panther-man!
Anhydre. was quite shocked that water actually should be controlled by sand but she didn’t want to win against whom. She just wanted a safe and quiet life but the matter of water really annoyed and threatened her a lot. If a fight could give her a long after peaceful life, it would be worth it.
“But-”
“I know.”
The black smoke distributed at once, a clear sight retuning back. Anhydre. saw a black attire folded on the ground. She looked at her hands and wondered whether she could pick them up.
“No need to pick. Just think."
She closed her eyes and everything about water-attack repeated playing and went fast through her mind. Afraid, scare, fear, horror…
All of a sudden, a strong clench.
The whole body felt like being bitten by the clothes, which tightened her up and the sand inside was re-arranged. It’s a strange and fresh feeling, like getting a brand-new body, and all became lightening. However, not so pleasant with the eyes, stinging would be the most proper description as if thousands of bees were stinging on it.
“Done.” A satisfied voice popped out.
Anhydre. opened her eyes, to her surprise, there was nothing she recognized herself. All changed. Everything turned into black, longer black hair, black suit, black pants, black shoes, no more barefoot. There was an eye-patch on her left eyes but she couldn’t remove it. Fortunately, the vision from the right one was clear enough. She felt lightness in herself and had a quick action than ever, more flexible.
“Open the door.” The man said.
She hesitated.
The door reminded her of panther-man but she stopped herself thinking immediately and said to herself, her emotion mustn’t be dragged by the memory, nothing doing good especially for the fight. It’s all in the past anyway. Plucking up her courage, she held doorknob and pressed it down. Surprisingly, her hand didn’t pass through it but firmly held it well. It’s the first time feeling so realistic.
Into the room, a mask-covered man, the same one following her in the alley, stood in front of her. He stared at her in delight.
“One thing to catch your attention, Coi is someone -… God damn! Too fast!” The tone made a sudden turn.
He turned his sight back to the window as if there were a signal. Anhydre. could feel something went wrong. The man rushed to the window, looking down the street, and rushed to the door, before taking his leaving, he said:
“Clean and leave. After two to lock.”
Then, he ran away, leaving Anhydre. alone in the room. It’s too late to stop him for asking what it meant. She had no any idea about everything, whom, where, how and when. Only a name, Behekine. In a fuss, she wandered around and digested his words over again.

Clean and leave. After two to lock.
So I’d better leaving here, but to where and what’s the two mean? Time or number? And lock?

Anyway, leave was what she was sure of. She stretched out her hand, out of subconscious mind and wiped through the air. Miraculously, everything in the direction her hands had gone through all vanished. After empting the room, she walked out to the hallway…
Down the stairs, below the only entrance, she heard a messy sound, or an attack sound. Someone was rushing near. Only one way to go but an attack in front…
Gosh!
As she didn’t know where she should go, a hand of someone from her back suddenly covered her mouth and vigorously dragged her back in a fast speed to the next door board. At the same time, two men were running up and gave the ground a heavy shake. One running front was the mask-covered man while the other behind was with hood on that couldn’t see him clear. Until then, Anhydre. knew what’s going on. She shoved back hard to escape the covering and waited behind the wall. As soon as the second man had chased in, she plucked her hairline and blew, roped the door and then slamming it, followed by a whisper of…

Spell.

In horror, he found hope. In fear, he found will to fight.
In the city of horror and fear, he saw someone waiting for his coming.
Name, the demon of mist, had been written on the eggshell for over thirteen years and he believed, Cruor will lead him closer to the sea.
A mission, he came for. A scheme, he held. A girl comrade, named Anhydre., he was warned, by the black-masked man:
“She is easily out of control.”
Kill wasn’t a noun but a verb. Water wasn’t an element but two lives.
-
On the edge of wall, he walked his shrewd eyes, searching for the target.
The longer it took, the less chances he had. Miss was the worst thing, meant never. For the surprise, a second would be enough. However, five hours had passed-
Suddenly, he stopped walking and overlook the whole scene…Complicated streets buried his clear mind while the SHORTCUT shouted his stupidity.
REDO IT!
This time, in order not to miss anyone, he had major portals first.
As he expected, not took him a long time did he find a “man”, looked like a traveler with hood on and his “package”. It made his eyes widen at sight but on the other hand if he didn’t take action in time, the hooded man soon would leave this place.
Seize the timing and inform the masked man. He dotted a red light spot in the air and sent it to the place he stayed.
Here, he, himself should handle it first.
A man with dagger in hand, Coi drew rapidly for emergency and sent it down. By giving a puff, the man was in a running speed. Grab- A sudden turn…
A heavy punch lunched on his guts and the explosion of a light-stone giving him a painful yelling. A series of brutal action let Coi see how powerful and cruel his enemy was and later he would be in the same situation, but totally NOT like that way.
Under the second strike, his “puppy” was given the last breath.
Time’s up, the black-masked man had arrived and his goal was achieved. Everything was under control.
The red light spot coming back, he saw it in the air. Does something go wrong in his place? Or is his comrade…? Looked down the fighting scene, he’d better hurry to masked-man’s place before their arrival.
A skateboard, he drew. Gliding skateboard made him freely circle the curved wall faster, giving a light jump to the other side. Coming to the window in the next door of masked-man’s place, he snapped his finger to broken the window and threw himself in.
Two figure’s shadow appeared on his sight at the last second before his entering, which meant they were arriving at the same time. Standing up after several rolling, He heard the running steps but failed to find his comrade. In the plan, she should have been here, in the next room of masked man’s place.
To catch the time before they got to this floor, he rushed to the hallway.
A girl, his comrade stood there, without knowing why.
Three seconds left. Being seen would ruin all.
Regardless of her thought, he covered her mouth and dragged her back in a strong force to the door board behind.
Losing balance at the last step plus a hard shovel from the girl, he fell back on the ground.
A thousand wishes to the girl not to rush out. It’s good that she locked the door with spell instead. According to the plan, the masked-man would vanish and Behekine, the “man”, was in the next room alone.
She or himself or both of them, who should deliver an attack first? And from where, door or window? And when, now or later? Should they have a plan first?
Many questions waiting him to think through but once giving a look at Anhydre. and the scene he saw earlier, he knew the answer at once. No plan.
The girl looked at him in doubt. Just a temporary comrade, there was no harm in not knowing him, anyway.
He gave a nod, instead of a word. Throw a yo-yo from back to her, run to the window and hint her to come up.
 
Along the window of the room Behekine was trapped in, they looked inside,
A snap of finger-
 
Caught unprepared, Coi found Anhydre. had smashed the window and jumped in.

Looking behind, Anhydre. saw a boy.
Coi?
It reminded her of the masked man’s unfinished words. Coi is someone… from his savage saving, she thought maybe, he was the servant of masked man and now should protect her. 
The boy looked at her in ignorance. No words but a slightly nod. In his eyes, no any breath of color and spirit but she could feel his own aura, coldness. A yo-yo, he threw to her all of a sudden and hint her to catch up.
It’s time for the fight.
＊
Looking into the room from the window, she saw nothing but an empty room.

Where were those TWO men? Is it possible for them to escape?

Impatient with the guess, Anhydre. struck a blow at the window, spring to her feet and leaped in. All-in-one action. However, she knew something got wrong… her first step wasn’t on the ground but a man’s head, in passing, she jumped herself and rolled to the opposite wall. Falling on a knees and facing at the man, she cast out the yo-yo hard and fast. A long and flexible string, sword-like sharpness, flew toward his waist. A finger flick at the string, the blaze spurted out along it at a great speed…..
 
Now, the fight kicked off.

Entirely focused with his study on the door's sigil, Behekine was pretty much oblivious to the world.
With the spell he got on his eyes, the symbol on the exit was appearing like it really was, and he couldn't deny that it was a marvel to look at. How the magic operated within layers of wood, intricacy of runes supporting each other to bring magic power to the spell within, the flow changing randomly every few seconds to prevent easy dispell without knowing the "key" to the sequence...
This spell was a real gem ! The rune protected the door from probably any attack, physical or magical, and sealed it in the process, acting like a  vault's lock.
A shame he had to destroy it to get out, and kill the man behind its crafting. But eh, he was a man of his words.
Still, he couldn't figure out where was the spell's source of power, and that annoyed him a bit. Usually, a spell of this nature needed a permanent afflux of magic to even operate, the wood not living enough to produce the quantity of magic it required. Here, he saw nothing...
He saw nothing yet, that is.

The Demon was so focused on his study that he almost didn't hear the sound of glass breaking behind him.
The foot hitting his head was enough to make him lose his focus, though. He growled, more annoyed than in real pain, looking at the form who jumped accross the room after using his skull like a trampoline. Before he could see who or what it was, the intruder moved its hand and a weird object flew towards him, a thin thread still connected to the hand.
Behekine didn't want to wait to see what it was or what it could do to him, especially when he heard a sizzling sound and smelled magic at work.

The Demon summoned mist from his body, and a thin cloud shot out of him like a snake, grabbed the object and threw it to the side, as far away from him as possible.
Mist started to surround his whole body now,

The first attack out of the way, Behekine was ready to craft an attack of his own to instill some respect into this new aggressor, when he remembered the sound he faintly heard before he got hit on the head by a flying foot.
Breaking glass...
But last time he checked, there was no windows or mirrors in the entire room. The only entrance and exit was sealed by the sigil, the rest was pure wood and stone...
Keeping an eye on his aggressor, he made a show of himself by rubbing the top of his head, smiling and casually saying :

- Ow... that hurts...

He turned slightly to look behind him.
There was broken shards of glass on the ground, near the wall, but no window visible.
Only wood.
And then, he understood.

- An illusion... of course...

If there was an illusion on all the walls, hiding other exits, he would lose all of his time and energy on the door to try and unlock it.
The sigil was here to force the focus on the door. Now the random shift of runes made more sense ; the key to decipher it was probably hidden within an illusion too... same with the spell's source of power.
Now Behekine eyes were shining more brightly, already looking for signs of deception's spells in the room. If he could find one, he would be able to dispell them one after another.
Or he could also force his way out by going through the window broken by the intruder...
Which brought his focus back on track with the person still in front of him.

He gave the guy a look, then a second one, more insistent. A girl, with black hair and clothings, an eyepatch but there was something familiar about her...
Wait a minute...

- Sand-girl ? Is that you ?

The surprised look on his face was genuine.

Clash…
Seeing a body of impulsive temperament intruded in without any fear and no asking, Coi quickly gave out another spell to adjust original one for keeping illusion existing. The girl seemed to jump on something.
Behekine, he knew at once.
However, it’s too late for him to warn her that she’d better think twice before she gave out any attack at this cruel creature, such a blood- thirsty man. Impulsion would be the least choice, unless you couldn’t come up with any strategy. A yo-yo stricken out and the blaze bursting from her hand, Coi was blinked at this sudden aggression.

Didn’t she know her enemy was made of water?

Both timing and distance put Anhydre. at a disadvantage.
Either a strike… or a fist…, the girl would…
In a short time, a spell Coi was almost speaking out to stop Behekine’s movement was stopped by the reaction of that man. Rather charging the girl straightly and killing her or beating her like the fight on the road, he used MIST.

A MIST HAND!

In his surprise, Behekine didn’t launch any attack to that girl after throwing the yo-yo aside. Instead, he surrounded himself with more and more mist. Danger often occurred in the senseless condition and Coi believed Anhydre. didn’t discover she was caught in a danger. She would have no chances to escape when the room was full of mist and he’d better tackling it before it’s too late.
Coi stepped backward and closed his eyes. With two hands putting on the window, he could feel rings and rings of complicated magical currents flowing around the room up and down, by a snap of finger, he stopped one of streams, which run through the whole room in the shape of spider web for controlling the airflow.
Imagining how the electricity worked, he drew out the circuit and gave a puff. A thread of microwave was put into the stream. In order not to let people notice where the origin was from, he started it after he had set everything, including the electromagnetic field. Then he sped it, faster than original one. The whole process didn’t take him 2 minutes and he predicted it would be operated in less than 1 minute.
If his memory served him right, the attire Anhydre. wore was electric-proof and if she wasn’t fool enough to take off her clothes now, she would be safe. Coi would like to see how his experiment worked, microwaving Behekine until he was evaporated by himself or boomed out due to overheating. Even if it didn’t work in full capacity, Behekine’s mind would have tangled together and not be able to think because of strong electomagnetic force.
To make sure everything went well, he checked the magical current again. Nothing wrong with his magic but his ear:
“Sand-girl? Is that you?”
A shock.
He snapped at those words immediately and blew them away before they went to Anhydre.’s ear. The masked man had told him it would go down the drain if Anhydre. knew who she was really against. Surely, he knew the reason and clearly knew how serious the consequence would be if that really happened. However, be honest, Behekine’s ability of facial detection surprised him a lot.
 
Then, a sound of buzz enveloped the whole chamber.
Coi opened the eyes and snickered in satisfaction.

Mist…
Mist of what? Gosh… what do I see?
A strip-shaped mist appeared and hit the yo-yo out to the corner with a strong force. Fire soon was taken back by a whispery blow. The string was cut off because of a pulling force, leaving a short line segment on her fingertips. Through the string, she could feel the man’s magical aura. It’s very old and deeply rooted from the ancient world. Something hard to comprehend but a bit familiar.
Anhydre. stared at him… feeling this scene she had ever had before, which made her stop thinking the next movement. Déjà vu! The panther-man she called had used the mist hand picked up the wine glass before and now this man named Behekine threw the ball with his…

Father or brother?

No time for her to think what their relationship was.
“Ow… that hurts.”
The voice reminded her of mission.
She had to say the man’s acting was really awful, an anger of being insult bumped in her mind. It’s time to get on the track and she would never let the past ruined the whole mission.
Looking around, Anhydre. saw through the wall and tried to find something she could put to use. Through the window behind the wall, she found Coi was working on a busy matter but didn’t really know what he was doing. Back to the man, a surprised look was thrown in front of her eyes and the man seemed to say something but couldn’t hear his words.
From his mouthing…

Sand-girl?....
What am I fucking GUESSING? 
Get out of my mind, panther-man! God help my stupid brain. 

Anhydre. looked him seriously, instead.
It must be a spell.
The fog around the man got denser.
She narrowed her eyes. In the air, she saw streams and streams of airflow turning in a spider web shape. The magnetic power distributed through the air circulating. The circuit was intensive running on the ceiling area of the man’s head. Now she knew, the circuit would pile the mist up and what she needed to do was…
 
Touching the ground with her index finger, pressing the line hard like sticking the paper on the table, then she pulled it up in a rapid speed. The string lifted a solid wall of sand from the floor, splitting into two sides and forming a whirl around the man. A little area left for him and plus the radical microwave, water finally couldn’t afford it, Anhydre. believed. Even if microwaving method failed, the sand could absorb the rest of water.
 
Anhydre. drew out a sand sword from her left hand palm and walked forward to the man’s direction,
If the masked man were right,
Sand really could kill water…
Then,
She could kill that man.

She showed no real reaction when he spoke, aside from narrowing her eyes.
Was it really the sand-girl ? They did look alike, but her aura seemed different. Still, what was the odd of crossing paths with a second girl-shaped sand-elemental in the same continent ? Most unlikely, that was. She had to be the same one that barged inside his room a few weeks ago - just like she barged inside this room, to think about it - and that he had feared got killed, or at least hurt, when she got hit by a fireball by accident.
But if it was her that just attacked him right now, why would she not recognize him ?
He had his hood on, but the room was perfectly lit, and he had not changed since their first meeting...

The air started to buzz around him at this very instant, putting his thoughts back to the present.
The spell on his eyes was still active, and he saw the ripple of energy going through the floor and the ceiling. He instantly focused his gaze on these ripples, his vision piercing for a few seconds the illusions surrrounding every corner to see the magic coursing through, connecting the illusions, the sigil on the door with something far above them... for a brief moment, Behekine found the source of power behind every spell installed in the room, before the ripples subsided and the illusions went back to hiding the reality.
The atmosphere was now producing static electricity at an increasing rate and intensity, increasing the temperature by the second.
The panther-man felt his fur raise from the static, making him look all puffed. Annoyed by this feeling and this cowardly attack, he removed his hood, feeling better just by removing some friction with the clothing.

Was it the girl behind these modifications ? He heard a snicker behind him, and got his answer : someone else was working with her to attack him, someone well-versed in spell workings and enchantments.
This second opponent was probably just behind the illusion hiding the window from the inside...
Just what was he thinking ? That some electricity and microwaves could hurt him ? That he didn't know that water and mist was vulnerable to heat and electric current ?
Even when he was a ghost forced to move mist around to exist, he had enough time in his almost one thousand years of life to create a protective spell against electricity. Now that he had a physical body, he was no more vulnerable to that than any passerby.
He was also a cat, and liked the heat.

The level of static and microwaves was becoming dangerous for anyone, though, so he incanted in his head his protective spell. An easy task, really, after all those years using the same spell and his boost in magic power thanks to this new body. A few seconds later, the buzz in his ears almost disappeared. The static was still mssing with his fur, and thee heat was still there, but he could live with that.
Suddenly, the girl moved, crouching down and using what was left of her string to conjure a small tornado of sand that encircled him, furthermore drying up the heated air.
Seriously, he just went through the Phobos Desert and was still smelling the dust from this sandy place in his fur !

Really, these two had some outdated informations about him.
This was plain rude !
As a ghost in the Mist, he would be rendered vulnerable by this sandstorm, the earth energy posing a threat to his Essence, even diluted by the wind energy carrying it. Now, the sand was just annoying and itchy.
Through the wall of sand, Behekine saw the outline of the girl slowly approaching, something thin forming in her hand.
His two aggressors were apparently serious about trying to hurt him, even if their method were ineffective for now.
The girl was just a child to him, but Behekine had no reason to let himself get hurt without fighting back ! After the events of the evening, his patience was really going thin.
Sand-girl or not, she should know better than to corner a cat !
Before doing anything though, he had to remove the second aggressor from his safe spot outside. The party was going to be inside, after all...

Behekine had lived like an ermit for centuries, and the ones that knew how he used magic were few, and mostly dead by now. But there were hints there and there.
Demon of Mist. Silence's Echo. Tear of the Stars. Mist Blade. Mineral Soul.
To summon him was to call his very being, to define him.
He was the Silence's Echo.
The one that could divide his thoughts into echoes to sustain multiple spells at once.
A multicaster.

Behekine lifted his arm in front of him, his face severe, and touched the sand tornado with the tip of his staff.
Instantly, the sand caught fire and in a few seconds, the whirlwind turned into a blazing hellfire, the flames growing hot in the dried up air thanks to the static and microwaves. The sand turned into glass, and the flame's roar was like the one of an angry lion, or panther.
The Demon disappeared from view, but he was not finished.
He moved his free hand to his back, pointing in the direction of the eluded window, and closed his fist, releasing a second spell.

Inside the room, right in front of where he knew was the window and probably the mage was hidden, a depression in the air formed, like a pocket of void.
Behekine looked up, releasing a third spell. Like a magic scalpel, he cut through the seams of energy that were creating illusion on the wall, getting rid of said illusion and revealing the open window, broken by the girl.
The air pressure between inside and outside was now completely unbalanced thanks to the pocket of void he created, and the exterior air rushed in to try and balance everything up again. A vortex formed, sucking everything that was outside to the inside, with a screeching force.
Behekine lifted his head higher, as if looking to the ceiling, and released a fourth spell in one strong breath. A huge amount of his magic went right into the spell creating those statics and microwaves, overcharching it and breaking it out of control.
Electricity in the air augmented ten folds, sparks started to appear on metallic objects, threatening to turn into real bolts if someone unprotected approached them.

The room was now pure chaos. A firestorm in the middle, a vortex sucking the exterior air near the window, crackling electricity all around and heat increasing erratically. Flames roared, wind howled, static buzzed... and in the middle of it all, hidden behind a wall of fire, the old Demon was laughing.

Everything was far out of his control. Everything changed as if they “should be” like that, THUNDER on the ceiling, FIRE in the middle and WIND beside the window. Helpless watching Behekine turning every challenge into his odd, Coi felt a sudden fury. He couldn’t and wouldn’t let himself be at this creature’s disposal; however, what could he do? Electric was water’s formidable rival and he could sure magnetism he put was powerful enough to converse day and night but to the man, it was like worthless rag.
Everyone had their own weakness, no exception for a millennium creature, he believed. It made sense the man was proficient in magical. Born in such an ancient time, maybe, he was old enough to be the founder of supernatural stuff. Therefore, his Achilles heel wouldn’t be something that could be healed by time and usually, under such invulnerable body and mind, the frailty could be very petty. Just at the half way of thinking…
The window dong-dong-dong, Coi could feel, it was unable to stand for longer time and was about to crush because of the strong wind vortex; that way, also he would be sucked in… But before that, one thing he must do, if it was not too late…..
Since Behekine wanted to play in such fierce way, why didn’t he, Coi, help to fulfill this creature’s wishes, and even make a bigger one? He touched the window again and sent a ball in the wall to let it roll up the space lock, which could change the scene where they were at but in reality, they were still in the same space, a concept of VR -virtual reality.
Not until the ball reached the lock did the window broke. Thanks to the latch opened at a good timing, the room was replaced by savanna with the thunder on the sky and fire ring in the middle. Distance was all stretched out miles away. Still, the pocket of void created the hush wind and devoured air. Whereas, he must not let himself get into it. As soon as the baseball-sized pill was formed, Coi threw it to the eye of vortex before he was swallowed. In a second, the void stopped and then rotated itself in counterclockwise, which spouted him into the sky.
The push was so strong that Coi could almost reach to the top point of “sky”. There, sparks flashed. He drew a steel pipe and aimed it at the vortex place. In next spark, the electric straightly went through it. Bomb… the device exploded. Then, he controlled the wind to direct himself toward the middle of the fire ring. In next moment, he dived sharply with the signal closed, which isolated him from outside and accelerated the speed, in order not to let Behekine sense out his coming.
While swooping down, he found Anhydre. at the ring of fire…and abruptly, the hot blaze disappeared without the reason. Putting out flame would definitely put her in a disadvantage. To overtake their timing of reaction, he sped up.

Provoke or fight?

As Coi got near, facing the back of Behekine, he flipped himself, landing at bevel angel and spooned the man up with his fast sliding.
A savage grab with acute and toxic nipper… 
Clutching inside the Panther fur and flesh!
 
PROVOKE.

It was hard to see anything past the flaming storm circling him, but the outline of the person that got sucked in the room by the vortex was enough to be identified, and to surprise him :
it was a kid ! A damn kid attacked him ! The Sand-girl, and now this boy ? What was wrong with childrens in this side of the world ?
To think there was such talent in the arcane arts in this kid, and to see that he was using it to attack strangers in the back...
Behekine never did any harm to any kids in his long long life, and he did not want to start today ! The spells he crafted until now were him putting his foot down, so to speak, and were not designed to hurt his agressors.

Through the whirling flame surrounding him, Behekine saw - and heard - the vortex being destroyed, the void dissipating itself in a small blast of upwind. The boy flew, and Behekine was going to try and keep his eyes on him - not really trusting him right now - but the change in the scenery stole his focus.
The room was now a savannah, the illusary grass moving back and forth in the chaotic air, the ceiling replaced  with a stormy cloud. It was a modification of the existing illusions of the room. Why would this kid do that ?

Behekine tried to find the boy with all his senses but again, something happened that make him loose his focus : the storm around him dissipated, the sand returning to the ground, the fire going off in the process. He was standing by himself in the middle of the room, the sand-girl standing in front of him. He had no doubt now, that she was the same one he met before. The fact she showed still no signs of recognising him, the fierce look in her eye and the sword made of sand she was holding... all of that made him feel a bit disappointed.
She was really here to fight, and nothing else. Not knowing why was upsetting, to say the least...

Suddenly, something hit him on the back of his feet, making him lose his balance.
He tried to find his footings but something stabbed him in the thigh, drawing blood and digging deeply in his flesh.
He yelled in pain, and fell flat on his back. Instead of hitting the ground, he found himself hitting something much softer, and yelled some more when his fall made him push himself into what was already piercing his leg.
Behekine struggled to get rid of what was causing this much pain, and he felt his elbows hitting flesh that wasn't his own several times.

Suddenly, the hood was removed. A “human” look from that man seemed to be annoyed by the buzzing air. Tall and sturdy figure behind the sand wall made him clearer.
A hairy human, no wrong!
His gaze took off her and turned to the window place in a suspected expression as if he had sensed someone was there. Still, that gave her heart a thrill quiver. How could he be so sure the person was right outside the window? by sound? Anyway, whether he had found out it’s Coi that operated the whole microwaving system or not, she was here to kill him. One step left, the man would lose every chance to live and it was no time for her to waste.
Just when she got on her next step, a storm of sand wall was turned into a hell flame, like starving monsters, surrounding the man. Anhydre backward a few steps, afraid of being screwed in. The firing moat was nearly occupied the whole room. Burning light pierced in her eyes, which caused her hardly to see the man.

FIRE, once she was closer to it than now.
That time, fire was in her palm.
That time, panther-man was behind the fire.

The line of thought was guided back to the reality by the appearing window. In correct, the window was got rid of illusion vision and Coi was struggle to against the void made by the man. Obviously, fighting face to face was the man’s purpose. Anhydre. lost on the half way of solution, what could she do now? Seeing the sword on her hand and fire before her blanked her mind. Another change came as a sudden lightening. The magnetic fields on the ceiling sparked, which infuriated the fire. The room was devoured under the man’s magic.
Fire, Lightening and Wind.
Quick as a wink, a sound of click… the transform of the room. The lock in the wall was switched on. Walls were faded away and the ceiling rose up as high as the sky with lightening and gray clouds. The distance stretched out. Dry grass and a few trees appeared on the ground.
Savanna!
Coi was out of the sight but the fire ring was still before her eyes about two meters far. Gazing at the fire, she knew, according to reason, the man’s attention was turned to Coi for finding where he was. And now it’s the best moment to fight it back. She gave a deep breath and held her sword tight in her hand. She didn’t know what would happen if she forced to jump into the fire. In essence, the fire was spelled but…looked at her sword…
She spurred forward to the blaze. Red light sharpened in her eyeballs. The thundered explosion didn’t slow her speed down but brought the smile on her face. As she was to immerse herself into the mouth of beast, she chopped at the fire with her sword. To her surprise, the fire died and returned to the ground silently while the sword was still in the good shape. What a queer scene!
Is it because the spell that man put was too weak or it’s because the sand was from her own and it’s just an act of reduction?
Without the answer, Anhydre looked at the man in hostility. Wasting so much time on afraid of the man’s fire, since now it was solved, especially in such easy way, she saw no reason not to give him the last breath.
All of a sudden, a figure rushing down from the sky, gave the man a hard kick from behind.

It’s Coi!

Thanks to the boot, the man was sent near to her. But-
“NOOOOOOOOOO….”
The man jumped a bit and Coi had no time to get away. The man’s weight, at least 100 Kg., fell flat on Coi’s body directly. Coi was nearly to spurt out the blood from his body and cringing himself a bit but still he couldn’t move an inch. His hands pounced at the man’s thigh while the man seemed to be hard to do away with Coi’s stab. The blood dripped on the ground, dying the soil into a shape of island. Now she realized, in Coi’s hand, there was a poison liquid that made the man so ache and unmovable. To get rid of Coi, The man hit him several times on the waist, head, belly, everywhere he could reach with his elbow. Unable to move, Coi could only stand the hard shovels without any defend.
At this rate, Coi might be hit to death by the man.
Anhydre. soon hooked the man’s hood with her sword, like eating spaghetti with fork, rolled it and then pulled up the man hard to herself. It needed a great strength; however, as the masked man had said, sand could absorb the water. Because of water attached, it eased the weight a lot.
In the following event: A fist coming across right to her face, Anhydre. dodged it fast. However, another boxing from the other side punched on her face with full force and hit her to the ground. Dizzy as she was, seizing the chance to give a mean shovel with her right side elbow, mixed with her fury, toward the man’s kneels. With reflex action, he dropped to his knees. Just for an instant, she shook her left fist and gave him a chin punch, a hard SAND punch.

At the same time, she saw Coi crawled at his last gasp and stabbed at the man’s back again with roaring and a savage look.

The man fell..
His toxic nipper waited.
Whereas, he didn’t take the height that Behekine would be risen up into consideration. He knew it’s was too late. The time for him to escape from his falling was too short. Seeing the man was going to floor him, he only could spread his hands and-
……
BUMP!
Hardly breathe…
Coi could hear the sound of ribs broken and organs were like volcano exploded inside his body. Bloody taste was full of his mouth and the skin got pale.
AHHHHHHHHHH….
ACHE-ACHE-ACHE
The anger didn’t fade away with the pain but surged over his vessel, which flew out more toxic liquid as his fury growing. His hand deeply clenched Behekine’s thigh. The toxic had soon spread all over his body. Behekine consistently shoveled and hit him as much as he could. His waist hurt the most, like being snapped into two lengths. Seeing blood dripped on the ground, he had no idea it belong to whom. Eager to take out his hand to protect himself, however, Coi couldn’t move because of the heavy weight on him and wounds in everywhere. The more the man struggled, the deeper the pierce stabbed. Just before he was going to faint out…
The weight was taken off. He swallowed a big breath.
Barely see Anhydre. but he knew it’s she that pulled Behekine up. But what was she doing? A sound of punch and a girl’s shouting… followed by the man’s yelling…
He forced himself to prop up but the waist was too painful that he couldn’t sit up. Cr-aw-ling…cr-aw-l…every movement cost him a thousand Newton. Since born, he hadn’t suffered so much pain before.
Finally, he managed to extend his hand out. Then, using out all his energy in a roar, driving his nippers into Behekin’s back straightly without any hesitate and wrung inside his flesh again.

Meanwhile, he saw a chin punch to the man launched by Anhydre.

A hard SAND punch.

Amidst the pain and feeling of incomprehension in front of all this violence brought upon him, a peculiar thought sparkled into Behekine's mind : they were like mere beasts, all three of them, fighting without knowing why, knowing only pain, and anger.
This idea made him want to laugh so much ! They were so stupid !
Then pain and the stench of blood - his own blood - brought him back to the present, the yelling, the fight for his own survival.

Something caught on his hood and lifted him up towards the sand-girl, freeing his thigh with another painful jolt from the claws of the boy. He could feel the blood trickling down his leg, matting his fur in red, but the muscles there felt numb, even if pain was still vivid. When the numbness started to expand both upwards and downwards, he somewhat guessed there was probably more to it than just a regular wound. He could stand, for now, barely even.
But he had more important things to think about, or to act upon, for that matter : the sand-girl was now at arms reach, and he threw his punches at her, not wanting to wait and see if she really was here to kill him like the boy. She dodged the first punch, but the second one connected, sending her down.

He almost felt bad for hitting a children like that, but her next move quickly prove him wrong : she hit the back of his knee and he fell down, his hurt leg unable to support his weight alone. He saw the sand-girl punch coming from a mile away, and knew it was going to hurt.
Oh boy was he not disappointed. She hit him like a brick wall, right on his chin, and almost knocked him out. His skin instantly burned from the contact with such focused Earth elemental energy, leaving a reddish wound on his face.
He growled and shook his head to focus his vision and regain his senses...
Hearing an enraged scream, he felt the boy claw on his back, stabbing him deeply and cruelly.

The Demon let out a yowl, the pain turning him more beast than man, before bringing his arm to his back to grab and remove the intruder from his flesh. Not letting go of the arm he grabbed, he used all was left of his strength to drag the boy around him.
When he brought him in front of the sand-girl, he let go, before unleashing a wave of magic - he was too tired to really cast any spell, it was more of a pure blast of undefined energy - that blasted the two away from him.
The wound on his back was serious, but he needed time to take care of it.

Using his multicast ability, Behekine started to use spells to heal and stop the blood from spilling out of those nasty wounds. Healing magic was not his specialty, and it would cost him a lot of energy to properly recover, especially if there was some kind of poison in his wounds he had to get rid of.
If his two aggressors decided to attack now, they could very well kill him...
He grabbed his staff that was lying on the ground and using it as support, he got up before slowly walking to the other side of the room. He couldn't put much weight on his hurt leg, but his wounds were already starting to close up, bloodflow reduced to a few droplets matting the illusary grass. The savannah illusion was still active, the storm raging above them, electricity in the air.
With a grunt of discomfort, Behekine removed his coat and jacket, leaving him shirtless. They were ruined from the fight and the blood after all, and he felt a little better just by discarding them.

He knew the boy got hurt when he fell on him, but to be sure that the most vindicative of his aggressors would leave him be for now, he casted a second spell, an odd one.
Hacking through the circuits of runes and magics coursing through every wall and illusions in the room, he removed the connections between the spells and their permanent powersource, replacing these by a part of his own, designating the boy as the new powersource for all the magic in the room. Sigil on the door, illusions on the walls, the storm spell raging above their heads, all of that now took their power from the boy own body's magic.
It was a really peculiar trick, for sure, first created for magic duels, built to exhaust rapidly any adversary by having them deal with more spells they could handle at the same time.

Reaching the far wall, close to the damn window from which the two childs came from, Behekine let his back lean against the illusion, making it ripple before forming a tree to cover itself. He felt tired, the fight and the healing process seriously taking its toll even on him. And the fatigue could really be heard when he asked the sand-girl :

- It doesn't matter much anymore but... Why are you trying to kill me, sand-girl ? Is it because of what happened with the fire ? You do know it was an accident, right ? I tried to warn you, but you were running too fast to the chinmey...

He sighed, before adding with a saddened smile :

- Just like you said, we should be enemies. So let's do just that then.
What is enslaving me is now forcing me to defend myself, anyway...

An air of anger, a yowl of throe…
A sudden silence fell on their final strikes.
Pain!
The man growled in a beastly way, bringing his arm back to drag Coi from behind. Seeing Coi place himself unreservedly in the man’s power, Anhydre. was dying to give the man another punch. Surely, the man wasn’t someone could be taken lightly. Despite of the wounds, swelling hurts and blooding legs or back, he signed himself over at the last strength. By swinging Coi half a round, he then let go him right in front of Anhydre, which caught her off guard completely. Hit on her face straightly-
That was not enough….
A blast burst out.
A blustered wind explosively “puffed” both of them out. Due to the brunt, they fled in different directions. The speed was fast enough to sever the flesh and bone but she was safe due to the clothes she wore. Still, the clothes failed to escape the piercing by the long stem of grass.
What about Coi? A crashed body.
She soon released her hold on the sword and used her own strength to fling it. Under so messy airflow and to against the wind, she almost used all her energy up for sending it in order. If she didn’t get wrong, the sand sword would turn into a pile of sand, like a bed, catching Coi in front. To follow his force of speed, it would be a slope.
Suddenly, too focus on-

B
AN
G!

A hard wall caught her back without mercy, even though she was “among” the wildness. The velocity stopped in less than one second. Suffering from total shock, Anhydre. could clearly feel the sand inside her was all upset. The counter force to her was much more painful than the punch made by the man.
Wall!
Now, she got it. They were in the room and it’s the illusion of savanna. In other words, three of them were still in the same space.
If this was the room, then… where is the man?
She looked down at her black suit…pierced holes like several eyes watching her. Without any idea to mend it, she shook her head and stood up.
About to search the man-
A familiar voice…

"It doesn't matter much anymore but... Why are you trying to kill me, sand-girl? Is it because of what happened with fire? You do know it was an accident, right? I tried to warn you , but you were running to fast to the chinmey...
Just like you said, we should be enemies. So let's do just that then. What is enslaving me is now forcing me to defening myself anyway..."

“P..panther-man? I..Is that you?” she frowned and paused
Please don’t tell me whom I do harm to from start to the end is you! The punch, the attack and blood…
 
Anhydre. stopped and couldn’t believe what she heard. Whom she was to kill was the panther-man? But no, Behekine wasn’t the panther-man, the masked man had sworn to her.
No way! He is not panther-man, is hairy man!
Why didn’t he recognize me until now? If earlier..
How could that be!

However, unfortunately, it got proved once he said the fire incident-
She could feel her heart dropped into the depth of despair.
Yeah, accident at the start but following was….Gosh, I still couldn’t ignore that feeling!

“Did I hear you wrong? You called it an accident? The one who blocked the wind, made the sand into fire and changed the magnetic field into lightening, said he can’t summon the spell he put back and called it an accident, could you believe it? Where were you when I was fighting the fire? Thanks to your accident, I used up all the energy and was dumped on the roof, finding the therapy in Minos and lost my memories and voice, afraid of being dead every day. That horror, that fear, that BETRAYED feeling, do you know that? You should have been my enemy, I knew it all along but I really didn’t care…because I thought you’re different..am I wrong or too foolish to think in that way? Warm, honest and funny, aren’t you? But what have you done to me?”

She knew now she have no qualification to criticize his behavior anymore. She had done much more savage things to him.
In her voice, in spite of no tears or choke with sobs, sorrow and regret could be heard clearly. The agitated sound fast her speed but suddenly, she slowed down and said-

“Anyway, Sorry…I..I didn’t recognize you earlier that I could make up my mind killing you. Sorry…I..I didn’t know Behekine is you that you are the one I was going to kill.
 
Thank you to let me know not killing you could make me feel so much …painful!”
 
At the last words, she clenched her fist and said in strange anger, quite like a roaring beast-
“NOW, GET OUT OF HERE!”
Nothing could be torturous than being regretful like now and it’s so true.
 
What she didn’t say out was:
I am so sorry for all I had done to you.

He listened to her tantrum. The fact she tried to kill him without any warnings whatsoever and did not give him any good reasons for it... it was making it difficult to sympathize.
He still thought an explanation was in order though.
The panther-man let a few long seconds pass in order for her to calm down a bit, before saying, his serious gaze never leaving her own :

- You can believe me or not, but it was an accident, and I did what I could to help you get rid of that fireball... unfortunately, you disappeared before it worked. I thought you were gone, got afraid you might be dead even ! I tried to look after you, but found nothing, so I ended up leaving.
And I know how it feels, to lose an incarnation. You'll get used to it, after a while. You'll never learn to like it, though. The side-effects becomes more manageable with time. But I digress...

He couldn't ignore the fact that she used his name, his real name. That was dangerous, both for him and for her.
Something really wrong was going on here, and those two childs were probably just a small part of it...
Behekine stopped leaning on the wall and stood as straight as possible, considering his wounds :

- Anyway, I won't forgive you for what happened tonight, just like I don't expect you to forgive me for what happened to you back when we met. I just can't overlook the fact you tried to murder someone you knew nothing about, except the name.
Which brings me to the next question : who gave you my name ?
Answer me, and I'll leave.

His face was still burning where she punched him, the fur and the skin underneath sizzled, as if hit by acid. He did not want to heal that part yet. The pain and the mark would be a good memento for what happened this night.

GO, Get out of here!
Tangled emotions nearly choked her. Anhydre. hardly knew what she would do next to the panther-man, if he insisted on staying there. Surely, the reason why she came here was not for revenge, but for her SAND right. However, the destiny played a big trick on her, connecting two points with one circle, rather than a simple line.
The question was: if she knew whom she needed to kill for her right was the panther-man at start, would she accept it? Of course not…. But now, she was not so sure. Regret was to what she had done to him but to be honest, she wasn’t regretful for WHAT brought her here at all.
Sand can overcome the attack from water, another kind of revolution was around the corner and it's going to be a last-minute fight, she believed. 
Another question popped out. if the masked man was right, the panther-man should be the operator of four elements. Then, why did he change the nature of SAND?
 
Go, Leave now!
 
Silent seconds cooled her down much but she was still in the fist of annoyed mood, wishing the panther-man could leave under his free will, instead of being beaten off. Unfortunately, the voice coming across proved her hope fail. Following the sound where it from, she walked…
An explanation of fire event, she listened to in care. Everything he told was quite reasonable and matched the things happened to her. In all, he wasn’t like making up a story.
But still, she’d like to keep it in doubt. After all, he was a mist. It’s really hard to drop the guard.
Staring at the tree far from her, she had a hunch that he was around it.
 
“….murder someone you knew nothing about, except the name…Answer me, and I’ll leave.”
 
Instead of talking in fury like few minutes ago, Anhydre. spoke in a cold way-
 
“If killing could help me get what I want, does it matter whom I kill?”
 
Suddenly, a sound sent from her right side…far away, she saw a dark figure standing up…

Blending flesh and blood, nippers dipped into the taste of madness. Pain, soon was eased by letting out the last roar but not bottomless fear. Chaotic flows inside Behekine’s body mixed up the sensational detection. Anger and blank. He knew clearly, his roar eventually would be covered up by Behekine’s hand.
As expected, followed by a sudden grab, the powerful strength jerking out his hand and giving a quick swing, the smashed body gave him no energy to feel heaviness against the air. Thanks to the half-round turn, a pile of bones was settled at the bottom of belly. So broken!
That’s not enough, Behekine let go him in half way. With inertia, he was carried to Anhydre’s front and a hit in direct on her face. No any second missed, a blast of wind shot off them straightforward. The impulsive wind power drove right toward the chest, flushing his consciousness down to the pitch-black faintness.
-
A seam of flash sparked. The sound of silence fell. A weak spirit wobbled on the string of wakening. Coi made an effort to balance his sense. Once he got a bit, subsequent heaviness from nowhere nearly flatted him out. A storm of ache twisted his brain ferociously. Excluded the possibility of physical attack, there was only one way that could make him so uncontrollable painful-MAGIC. The masked man had warned him countless time not to change the construction of inner spell but he did it and now he got to pay for it, he guessed so.
Even though it was his first time encountering this kind of weird feeling, through every image of magical piece: savanna, storm and even sigil on the door, his could feel his body had connections with each of them. In other words, their operations came from his own power, just like a power plant offering working factories electricity, which would soon drain out his energy or decrease his impact on the magic he put.
This magic had been banned for million years for violating the morality of magic using. However, this creature just-

Stop playing so dirty tricks, Behekine!

As he wanted to sit up and think how to deal with it, the pain rooted so deeply inside his bone that could make his yell breakthrough the lightening sky. To alleviate the ache, he clenched the ground. Until now, he found he was lying on the SAND.
SAND! Anhydre.?!
Were it not for this pile of sand, he probably had died on the wall far behind. Sand gave him a quick thought- cactus. Since his scars and all sort of hurts deprived him of crafting magic power, he now only could make a practical thing with a bit of super nature, rather than a pure magical stuff. By drawing cactus, including the remedy for his crushed body and pain, he waited them in formed.
At the same time, Behekine’s fatigue voice ringing in his ear. Sand-girl! One more time! He knew, this time, he only could listen and watch. But he was fully prepared for what was coming after their true identity revealed. The worst situation was Anhydre. fought with Behekine over him. Before coming here, he had thought over what he would do if that unfortunately really happened.
“P…panther-man? I..is that you?”
The suspicious tone gave him Goosebumps. The sand beneath him became unstable. Under the sparks, he could see the pines of cactus grow clear. Suddenly, the temperature of sand skyrocketed, nearly reaching the burning point. A series of question shooting toward Behekine like stings attacked his ear with the sand heating his back. Illogical way of speaking was something he couldn’t tolerate. Without knowing the cause-effect, he had no idea whether she would give up fighting or not. Just as the last five words- NOW, GET OUT OF HERE- let out, cactus was in its shape.
Instead of peeling it, putting his hand on its pines lightly without being pierced, Coi could feel the compound nutrition pouring into his body. It helped reduce inflammation, served as painkillers and also active his blood circulation, which renovated organs development. However, due to the limited energy, fracture was a thorny problem. In temporary, he glued the bones with its pectin.
What perked his ear was the asking from Behekine: Who gave you my name?
Name!
Ummmm… Interesting!
He sped up his recovery process. Now it’s an emergent moment. Anhydre.’s answer could make a drastic change. Name gave him another thought…
“If killing could help me get what I want, does it matter whom I kill?”
Her answer brought a smile on Coi’s face. Now, he knew, Anhydre. had made up her mind fighting with Behekine to death. He tried his best to stand up. Thanks to cactus, his heath condition got on the track in time.
 
Staring at the sigil on the door, the relative place supposed to be in savanna, he said and slowed down at the end words on purpose:
“Demon of Mist. Silence’s Echo. Tear of the Stars. Mist Blade. Mineral Soul. In--name-of Be-he-kine.”
 
Next moment-
Ø
A ring of light burned the sigil red, so do that on Coi’s and Anhydre.’s arm.
Coi drew the sand and cactus in his sigil.
 
He continued:
“Clear enough? Behekine?”

Again, she didn't answer.
Instead, she said something that Behekine feared to hear.
She would kill a stranger for personal gain. The Demon was not a parangon of virtue, far from it, but he couldn't stand the company of someone who did not value the life of others. He had killed people in the past, but always in self-defense.
He first hoped for the sand-girl to not be like that, but the hope faded away as he sighed :

- I see...

He felt old, to see that childrens were trying to kill him.
Words were unecessary now, there was no point in trying to discuss. Their mind was visibly set up on having his head...

The boy got up at this instant, brandishing a cactus.
Behekine's eyebrow perked up : where did he hide that plant ? In his pants ? That was no place for so many needles !

Then he spoke, and what he said tore away the bemused thoughts from the demon's mind. They were the words to call him forth and, with the proper preparations, to try and bind him, to enslave him. He was already bound by a Pact right now, so he couldn't be summoned again, nor bound that way, but the fact that a mere boy knew the words and used them to mock him was enough to make the old Demon snap.
The boy's words also did a weird thing on him ; they triggered the Pact that was written in the flesh of his wrists, activating the part that concerned his ability to defend himself against any attack. Magic was weird sometimes, and could act up on its own, especially with Rituals of old like the Pact.
Apparently, his Pact took the boy's words as an agression, a menace that needed to be taken care of.

His slave marks on his wrists glowed white for a second, and Behekine felt his fatigue disappear, his wounds closing up and all the pain in his body fading away. Even his face healed, the sizzled flsh and fur growing back to normal.
When conditions were met, the Pact gave him access to a much greater quantity of magic power than his body could produce on his own.
As good as new, he saw the boy copy the sigil on both he and the sand-girl. Would they gain the sigil's properties from that ? Probably...

That meant he needed even more power to compete at one against two.
Behekine lifted his arm above his head, clenched his fist as if trying to grab something in direction of the thunderstorm still raging above them. With gritted teeth and a growl in his throat, he said :

- All clear. You want a demon ? You'll... get... one !

With every hammered words, he pulled his fist back, harder each time. A series of loud noises could be heard and, with a mighty crack, a part of the ceiling shattered - the illusion trying to cover it up after a few seconds - sending wood everywhere.
Through the rain of wood bits, Behekine suddenly grabbed something and smashed it into his two hands.
For a split second, he saw what it was : a gem smaller than any coin, red in color and with an irregular shape, that was so full of magic it was dangerous to just hold it. The first powersource, the one that could operate powerful spells in the room on its own...
Object like that were rare in this world. Really rare...
So rare it had taken him two years to find a few of them, in order to build a new body. How this gem found itself as a battery for this trapped room he didn't know, but he would do everyone a favor if he decided to destroy it.
Without any second thoughts, Behekine channeled his strength and crushed the fragile gem between his hands, absorbing the magic it contained directly into his own flesh.

He instantly knew two things :
First, he now felt more powerful than he ever did, even if his body was still processing the excess magic and working on converting it into its own.
Secondly, that excess of magic was starting to make him feel really sick, his muscles aching from the pressure.
Maybe he shouldn't have done that, after all.
Wobbly on his legs, he growled and almost lost his balance when trying to move an inch, side-stepped like a drunken man...
His knee hit the wall, he moved his hands to try and hold into the wall for support, but found nothing and toppled over.
And just like that, he fell from the open window hidden behind the illusions, tearing a part of the spell in the process like a curtain that envelopped him in a shiny robe made of shimmering lights.

He fell headfirst, which actually helped him feel better. Just when he thought about a way to avoid hitting the ground too hard, he felt something peculiar reaching his mind. A question without words, inquisitive, a feeling of readiness and expectations, a bit bored. He felt something similar before, during the Ritual to make his body...
Magic was reaching out for him, asking in a peculiar way what he wanted from it. There was too much of it, it acted like a living being. Such a strange feeling and yet, so natural...
Or maybe it was just his imagination playing tricks on him.
Anyway, it meant he had to find an answer fast, for he was still falling and leaving pure magic energy in such quantities in his body could kill him.
The Demon needed something to be able to fight those two childs, something they wouldn't be able to take from him. He had his share of fights in the past, when he was a mere spirit forced to shape Mist to act upon the world. In these fights, he usually liked to shape himself as a fearsome creature, one that could...
Magic started to diffuse in his whole body.

Realizing his mistake, Behekine tried to stop what was about to happen, but it was too late as magic was already hard at work.
Pain exploded in his nerves as bones shifted, muscles forced to grow and adapt on the new articulations's shape and structures, his organs moving around, making him feel nauseus. He grew in size, tearing apart what was left of his clothes in the process, and when he hit the ground, he was heavy enough to cause a small tremor.
The transformation was going faster now, pain hitting him like thunder in specific places when two horns erupted from his head, or when his hands and feet deformed heavily to make rooms for large claws tearing out of them.
Pain and confusion clouded his mind and his senses. He released a lot of mist around him ; an old reflex to take back control over a situation.

Finally the pain subsided and, with a last pop, his shoulder went into place at a weird angle. Behekine growled, and he didn't register this low and powerful sound as his own at first.
The Demon opened his eyes, and got up to inspect himself. To be more precise, he got on his feet, all four of them, since he was now quadrupedal.

Spoiler:

- Crap... I did it again.

Just as he feared, he was a feral and monstruous version of his self : a beast standing nearly two meters at the shoulders and more than six meters from his head to the tip of his thorny tail. His weight was probably off the charts too, and could only be measured in metric tons. So much for his diet...
His fur was pretty much the same, even if he lost the almost invisible blotchs he used to like. The huge claws were weird to move around with, and would make it impossible to use any small objects.
The fall didn't hurt him at all, at least, and he now felt that all the magic he absorbed was now his to command, thanks to this body size.
So, he was now a big monster, a demon alright, the kind mothers could really talk about to make unruly childrens behave.
Speaking of childrens...

He looked up, to the window he fell through, pondering his next move.
Mist was still circling around him, partially hiding him from onlookers.

After the summon magic, an apparent change of ambience could be sensed. The lightening sparked unsightly white as if Thor’s thunder was coming up and going to blast Elysion out. Fickleness was installed in every item and every person’s nature. Coi looking at the sigil on the upper arm, a token burning like fire, a sinister smile curved on his face. It worked. He could feel the power of mightiness flowing into his body that could bring him an unimaginable painting and magic-crafting ability and now he should be very cautious for every stroke his finger across in the air, no mistake allowed. Also, it helped his bone connect. Thanks to pectin, he now was pretty much a gymnast, flexible at any physical angle.
Suddenly, a big cracked sound… Behekine hit the ceiling! Even though the illusion healed itself automatically, the wooden board couldn’t afford his savage punches that kept felling scatters. From the wall, he smelt something burnt… The wires… Somewhere must be broken so the electricity from lightening leaked out and burned the wires. Seeing through it, he found the electric wave was throbbing. Once he looked at what Behekine was doing, he knew what’s going ON!
A gem.
He took the gem away and… CRASH it?! The gem was not only for powersource, but also for conduction. Now, the ceiling lost something to conduct, which meant the electricity was running through the whole room. In spite of the thick and nanometer-built wall that would prevent the power from getting out, after all, it’s no way of good. Then, he turned his gaze toward Anhydre. Every coin has two sides! He learned it now.
He touched the sigil and think without any sound. If he wasn’t mistaken, through the sigil, they could communicate. It was in speed of light and ultrasonic signal, which was impossible to be detected.

*Coi. Call. Shhh.. Don’t be shocked. You can do it by touching the sigil and think. Remember, don’t say it out, just think! Now, I got an emergence. Behekine had changed the powersource and put it inside of me, which would tire my energy and decrease the magical power but don’t worry, everything will go well, if I am in full power. However, you might have to be my battery charger through sigil…*

Abrupt falling sound that was loud enough to boom down the building, interrupt his thought. The window, Behekine? Suicide? If he wanted to create a crime scene by dropping himself and expected polices to arrest them as murders, he was in a wrong way. No police here. Back to the serious side, the torn illusion sparked like a circuit. He browsed the whole room. It was cluttered. Before having his next action, he had to finish his thinking.
*Coi. Call. Anhydre. To test, please go and against the wall, also touch the sigil”*

Until now, he found she was beside the window and looked down. On her face, he knew something was very not right. However, soon, Anhydre. turned back and gave a nod, against the wall with back in doubt. Suddenly, a realization revealed on her face. It worked. Through the “message” sent from her, he could clearly feel the power! Thanks to the lightening, a stream of electricity has changed into mighty energy for human by going through Anhydre’s clothes. Ten seconds was enough for him to rise up the whole sky. Still, he had to find the origin and got back his own energy.

*Anhydre. Call. The panther-…oh no it's Behekine. He had transformed.*
*Got it.*

He just knew Behekine was not so that easy to deal with. Suicide was simply a joke.
Since the illusion was power-consumed and so dilapidated, he intended to close savanna. But he, himself, was not a person easy to deal with too. He wouldn’t let Behekine, that beast, treated them as fools. At each four corner of the room, he installed the silver pellets that could focus the electric power. Then, he attached a transparent drape to the broken window, which would activate the four pellets whoever across it and the illusion of savanna would be closed in a second, returning back to the room the masked man was at.
In other words:
If Behekine was really shameless to came back, he would be shot by very concentrated electric power from lightening, millions wattage in four directions-right upper, right down, left upper, left down- waiting for his coming. Then, three of them would fight in a mere room with a stormy ceiling.

*Time to fight.*

If killing could help me get what I want, does it matter whom I kill?
Again, what she didn’t say was:
If that killing is for your safety, wouldn’t you kill, panther-man?
Or to say, it’s destiny to bring us as enemy. Water and the Sand.

Anhydre. felt sudden depression, like a big stone pressing on her chest, even though she tried not to let people heard her shaking emotion. Mixed feeling or so-called the sense of guilty still couldn’t be removed in her mind by saying something reasonable, something she thought right, something was TRUE.
Far there, a figure stood up. Coi. She was pretty surprised at his efficiency in the recovery. Soaked in the past, she nearly forgot his existence.
“I see…”
A sigh dragged her back to the other side. The wave of disappointment almost drowned panther-man’s voice. His reply was so simple but she thought he would ask her: what do you want? And apparently, she was wrong. Just wanting to add-
Familiar words came from Coi’s mouth- Demon of Mist. Silence’s Echo. Tear of the Stars. Mist Blade. Mineral Soul. In name of Behekine.
Gosh!
The same words as the masked man had said to her. At that time, in the hallway, in the black whirl, he assured her the panther-man didn’t call Behekine, and now it proved it was. As he spoke out those letters, which DAMN her the most was, He emitted the first line-Demon of Mist- in order not to arouse her suspicion, he deleted it deliberately!
Now, she realized from start to the end, she was all in control. Looking at Coi, she didn’t know whether he also suffered from the same fate or he was one of CONTROLS to her. Her attention was caught by a burning feel. On her arm, the sigil burned into bloody red after the summon magic. Like a code, Coi had just activated it.
A stinging feel. Something was put inside her “mind”. A cactus. Analyzing it in her brain, she found it’s a sort of remedy that made sense to Coi’s recovery. A realization flushed her thinking- Through Sigil, Coi and she could share the same place, a bit like Google Drive. Anhydre. was very unpleasant at this function. A sense of private-violation made her more annoyed. She knew, it’s another trick made by HIM. It glowing her “skin” as well as her “anger”, she, Anhydre. wouldn’t tolerate this cunning game played on her! NO MORE GAMES!
Sigil, a powerful energy spirited her. This magical reaction was expressed on the sand and attire. By rubbing each other, Sand was turned into fine and subtle particles, which was able to enter into the vessel and stocked the blood by permeating through skin. Also, her attire was upgraded to Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer. It was high temperature-sustained, lightness and high hardness. With these two equipments, don’t blame her on striking the masked man out to the outer space while seeing back, they two, Coi and Behekine, suddenly blurred the line of enemy and company.

One thing I got to sure!

"All clear. You want a demon? You’ll… get… one.”
The sound of heavy punches suddenly fell on her occupied mind. Too focus on her discovery, Anhydre didn’t catch up what’s going on. Once returning by shocks, she found panther-man was hitting the ceiling!
What the hell!
He is not a boxer anyway!
Like a “little” boy nagging for a car toy, he kept bashing it, launching his fist harder and harder. The wood couldn’t stand such savage hit, nor steel, she thought. She had never see rain before, probably, just like now. Scattered woods. Her gaze followed every punch to the top. Anhydre. seeing through wooden rain, panther-man had caught something red in his hand and CRUSH it brutally. However, what caught her sight was-
A slave mark! On his wrists.
Need a savior?
It reminded her of their first meeting. In that closed room, at that innocent moment, she once asked a stupid question-Need a savior? Ironically, a savior now was a killer. A sad smile gave her a chuckle.
As her glance moved toward Coi, she found he had been staring at her for a while and in his eyes, something hidden there. Anhydre. pretended not to take note of him… but she could sense out… HE…. Suddenly-
*Coi. Call.*
“SHIT.” Anhydre. was startled by his sound but more by his unmoved lips. He was not talking so the sound was from his thought?
*Don’t be shocked…just think…..*
Damn! Who the hell are you talking to!
Meanwhile, from her corner of eyes, a big article like a drunken man, wobbled beside the window, his hand waved to the air, wanting to hold the wall but hardly did he know half of his body was already out of the room. Just a tlit, he could get himself on the ground floor. And.. not for a second, he was out of sight.
Strangely, Anhydre. felt pity for him.
*…..battery charger….*
Not giving much attention on Coi, she rushed to the window to see the panther-man. Even though they were enemy, she didn’t want them to win like that- killed by an accident. To her surprise, in the mist of cloud, she saw faintly, he was under lots of pain coming from his hardy figure… something was going to born. TRANSFORMATION.

All of a sudden, a cold sound popped out-
*Coi. Call…….. against the wall…..*
Controller!
She looked back at him. A strong urge to roll her eyes at him and regarded his thought as fart sprang in her mind. At this moment, she was pretty sure her guessing was right. He was in one of masked man’s plans. But she knew she’d better deal with him wisely. To wait for… a good timing and…

Now, everything was hidden beneath her DOUBT looks.

Anhydre. followed his command and went the wall. Due to her clothes, the carbon fabric material had good electrical conductivity. Until she was against it, she realized the sand body protected her from having electric shock and the clothes she wore could save the electricity. In other words, through charging Coi, by the way, she could save 9/10 power and simply give him only 1/10 of power. What’s more, everywhere was full of electric power. Throbbing electricity gave her an idea…

A satisfied smile came on her face.

One thing she was almost forgot. In order not to rise up his suspicion of her “little” care to the panther-man, she touched the sigil and thought to tell him what she saw. Also, she could know how it worked.
*Anhydre. Call. The panther -..oh no it’s Behekine. He had transformed.*
It’s really hard to change the state of mind. Through this awful function, she was nearly to push herself into fire pit, if she didn’t change her wording…
INCREDIABLE!
*Got it*

This time, she didn’t do any preparation for the panther-man’s coming.
Face a controller and a brutal beast on each side, the best way to do was:
Be HERSELF.

*Time to fight*

And also you, Coi.
In my list.

His eyes never left the window. He didn't move a muscle, but tension was visible in his posture, the subtle movements in the tip of his tail, the mist circling around him in speed-changing waves. Behekine looked like a stalking predator, a beast, waiting for his prey to reappear at the window, but the sand-girl did not show up again.
She had showed up during a second, but had retreated back inside almost immediatly.

Seconds passed.
He knew the two were already preparing their next attack, and Behekine did not want to stay on the defensive. Not anymore.
With this new form though, he couldn't enter the room using the window.
Not knowing what they were doing inside was annoying, so he casted again his vision spell. His eyes shone in blue and he inspected the walls, trying to pierce through the spells intricated in the walls to see what was happening within. Every part of the room was so full of sparkling magical energy it was like looking directly at the sun.
He vaguely recognized the aura of the sand-girl, just near the wall, but the boy was lost behind all this energy. Right before removing his vision spell, he saw a ripple on the window...
The illusion was repairing itself ? Or was it something else ? Knowing the boy's habits of using dirty tactics, he somewhat expected a trap, and that probability became more plausible the more he thought about it.

Again, It wasn't like he could just get back inside via the window. It would be quite the nightmarish sight if he tried though ; a beast struggling to get through a small window, and enter an even smaller room to attack and maul the ones within...
But the idea of getting stuck was not appealing t all, especially if it meant running into a trap.
No, there was a better solution to that problem.
Harnessing his powers, he breathed in - the air smelled of ozone, of magic - and breathed out, exhaling a small blue flame that soon floated in front of him, coaxed by the mist and every other breathing he took. Usually, Behekine liked more to use his hands to cast this spell but, with this feral body, he had to improvise.
The flame grew in size and intensity by the second and, like a blooming flower, it turned around in the air and deployed itself.

Surprised, Behekine forgot what he was doing for a second.
An humanoid spirit, made of blue flame and black ash, was now floating in front of him, waiting for his command. That was new ! The fire elemental this spell created normally had a jellyfish shape, not this human one ! And a very feminine one with that !
What the hell happened ? Did he accidentally used more magic than usual for conjuring it ?
Shaking himself, Behekine lifted a paw to touch the heart of the elemental with the tip of one claw, giving it his purpose : to go inside the room through the window and attack who was inside.
It was a pseudo-elemental, mindless without a mission, but absolutely relentless once given a mission to accomplish. Behekine liked to use these to find someone lost, or to assist him in simple ways.

The fire creature took off into the air, flying up to the window and disappearing inside.
It instantly stopped in his tracks, when the traps were activated and huge electric arcs connected with it from all sides. Huge cracks could be heard as the air ionised with the current, blinding lights making the scene hard to look at.
From the back alley, Behekine saw all that, feeling a little bad for his summon - even if it was lifeless - and expecting it to blow up any second now, disappearing in a blue fire explosion that would cause minor damages to the room and destroy the traps, hopefully shaking the boy and the sand-girl in the process.
Seconds passed...
The fire elemental didn't blow up. Instead, the heat kept increasing, the electric bolts ionising the fire, turning it into...
A white and ever-moving visquous mass, that started to grow inside the elemental.
Plasma.

In a flash, Behekine saw himself, a few months prior in Hangman Forest, when he tried to mix together the fire and thunder elements during a training session. He had accidentally created a new element, plasma, that had blown up instantly and almost killed him, creating a huge crater in the process.
Fear froze him like ice-cold water ; if this much plasma exploded here, the result would be cataclysmic !
Just as he thought this, he felt his connexion with the fire elemental disappear, which meant it was losing its integrity and was about to explode !

Hoping to have enough time, Behekine forced all the mist to condense in front of the window, to try and contain the blast that would destroy and kill all the inhabitants in a probably very large radius around the masked-man's house.
And then, the Elemental exploded.

Hiss…
Thinking it would be a beast, a panther beast, breaking into the room and crushing everything in a barbarian way, Anhydre was shocked as she found a blue luminous helmeted creature, furring itself by flame, appeared and got inside without hesitation, without attention, without conscious, a zombie-like genie. Dark behind, it’s hard to see it straightly.
Is she smiling?
A big open mouth made she want to laugh. But not now-
Forgot to stand in the right place, Anhydre squatted down very fast to avoid the silver pellets activated by its coming. The pellet from the left down, shot across her head, carrying a huge electric power. In an inch, she would be the bull’s eyes. At the same time, the room was squeezing-
It, a feminine figure, floated to the center of room and was about to emit–The four pellets shot in its body at the same time. Directly. The four tips pointed at one spot. Then-
BANG!
The huge volt power exploded, liberating from the metal cover by giving out dazzling white spark. The whole room burnish like the flash light. Losing the eyesight, Anhydre was punched to the wall. Attaching to it, she could feel the wall cracking and tensing itself with the explosion. Due to no pratical flesh to blow up, the power had been fully released. She knew Coi was at the other side of room, suffering from the same disaster.
Trying to adjust the sight, to catch her focus, Anhydre kneeled down. A mighty power loaded on her body, she feeling herself like a charged particle. Looking at the front, their gaze met each other, hers and its. To her surprise, it didn’t boom in the air but get bigger. The flame was on its perkiness. Then, the genie stretched out its hand toward her…Plasma lighted in its core body, throbbing like cranial nerve. In it, tentacles danced, which formed a ball shape.
What does she want?
Anhydre. suddenly sensed herself was moving forward, which meant she was getting closer to it, even though in a s-l-o-w way. Were it not for her constitution, SAND, keeping resisting, dragging her back, she had dashed to it and was devoured by it. Apparently, elementals were fighting each other. FIRE and SAND. However, her attire, made by carbon-fiber, was attracted by the plasma in its body. Magnetic force. In short, sand was fighting against the fire, plasma and the carbon fiber. It’s really a torture when the body forced in opposite direction. Anhydre. nearly thought she was going to be torn up.
No!… I mustn’t get…in…
Whereas, her feet betrayed her mind…

*Coi. Call. Take off your attire right now. It included iron pieces, which made you moving forward. You are doomed to die once you touched it!*

An inch and an inch.
Plasma drew bigger and bigger.
Anhydre. didn’t take his words into consideration because she knew if now she took off the clothes, she would bang herself to the wall again; maybe this time, she would broken the wall and fly to the sky because of the back force from the sand power. Another sort of suicide. She couldn’t die herself before killing panther-man, especially in this kind of fool way. BUT—she couldn’t see herself walking to the death, the hell, without any action neither!
One step left.
All of a sudden, fire ceased. The genie was swallowed by plasma ball and Anhydre was pushed over but in the next moment, EXPLOSION.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM !

The stormy explosion boomed out, as if the monster opened its claw and flared up, dying Crour in orange hue. The house disintegrated, split the steels and bricks, dissolving the spell and illusion. The thunderous sound shook up the whole world. Deep frequency roared down the whole building. To the bottom, it spread like disease in a circling way, running like waves, stunning up to the sky, down to the underground, breaking down the constructions along it. Fountain fell. Heavy smoke collected into black mushroom clouds, boiling up to the heaven. Followed by the heavy earth quake, which nearly swept over the city, all erections went down like dominos, in a chain reaction. It came as swift as a clap of thunder.
If there were any survivor…
Much like a jet, Anhydre. was boomed out through the wall. She couldn’t react to such sudden blast as the fire power gone but thanks to it, she was able to catch ahead of the explosive smoke, which included so much toxic chemical substance.
By spurting out the sand back, she moved. However, the force of thrust and wall-hitting nearly made her faint out. Unclear sight brought her lots of hit and slowed down the speed, which had her use more energy to maintain the leading stage.

*Anhydre. what are you doing! Find the hole on the ground and get down, quick. Two’o clock position.*

Ignored him, again.
Soon she came up with an idea: with one hand, she still shot the sand out to prop back for pushing herself forward with the force of explosion, while the other drew the sand ring, circled by three strings around her, and then she curled herself up to form a ball shape and run itself. It whirled fast enough to go before the black smoke and also help her hit off the obstacles. But it’s not a forever solution, one day she would hit to the board of Cruor and stop breathing.

*Enough, Anhydre. it’s not a kid games. Get down, hurry.*

Instead, Anhydre. turned herself back and stepped on the one of sand string as the effect of break to stop its spin. To settle her sand ball at the ground, she gave it a fast speed counterclockwise to against the current and pushed it downward. Before the smoke chocked her, she had a forward roll. In success, she ran in conversed direction. Below the smoke, she breathed in the clean air as much as she could. Anhydre. intened to go back to the original place… If she could make it.

*Back? Anhydre.*
*How far to get to the same place?*
*Two hundred meter, but wait….*

Anhydre. jumped herself as she felt it’s almost near. It’s really disastrous for her to rise up from the bottom of chaos air. A parabola, She flew. To her stun, the air here were much clean and no any trace of black smoke. Far there, she saw Panther-man…oh no, it’s….
“Damn.”
A true beast.
Still in the air, Anhydre. soon massed the sand and was going to throw it at him like a dunk shot from his head with huge eletric power for free. She believed even though he hindered the sand, the full force from the sky could flat him. But-

*Anhydre. DON’T.*

A little red light spot caught her attention and-
A snap.
Anhydre. fail to give out her sand weapon. She knew it’s Coi….
Landing on the ground, she stared at him furiously.
“What are you fucking doing! STOP CONTROLLING ME!”
“Don’t forget whom is your real enemy.”

Just when Coi raised his hand to wave up something,
“I know!”
Anhydre. sent a hard punch to him.
“Yeah, and you just stop me…”
“What about you? ”
“Unless your SAVE was called ATTACK! I am helping us.. and you are fighting for him. You want SAND right, don’t you?”
How did he know that.
“But it doesn’t mean I should listen to you and you can control me!”
“Really? So you think you could fight it alone under your lamentable friendship. If you don’t want your right, that's okay BUT, I want my identity! So, Stop being stumbling block!”

“So you were in that room then, right?”
Anhydre. pointed the red light spot in the air. It was the same one.

Coi fixed his gaze on the broken window. Only one thought- A beast, a savage beast. No matter how large or fierce his build was, a little kitten he would end up being after the powerful electric explosion. Everything possibly happening had gone through his mind. Nothing would be out of control, unless it’s not himself.
Hiss….a burning sound.
Suddenly, a feminine figure with shiny blue light popped out, which pierced his eyes directly. Seeing at the first sight, he knew it’s a humanoid spirit made of fire. Hollow mind showed out its purpose easily- go inside the room and attack who was inside. -and this was totally not in the plan!
It charging in without any conscious, activation showed itself on the devices. Time didn’t wait him to react. The four pellets were launched automatically and fast enough to be invisible while the room squeezing itself. Knowing what would happen next, Coi lay down flat on the ground straightly, like a warm, sliding down from the wall and closed the eyes immediately. Even so, a white harsh light could be felt under the eyelids. The thundering sound deafened his thinking. A big bump from Anhydre. cracked the room.
After a while, Coi sit up and saw IT was still there and its glance was on Anhydre. Apparently, it’s attracted by her crush sound.
But, how could it not be bombed?
Instead, it grew bigger. Something must be its nutrition. The answer wasn’t hard to find as he found the counterbalance of illusion and the impact of explosion reflected on his headache, which was god damn killing hurt. The illusion should be retaken to return to normal size after the explosion, but now, it stopped because the electric power was kept and was expending the room. Electric power must be ITS food. Magic and Electric. Fire and Electric. Seeing what was in its chest… he knew Behekine was playing another dirty trick.Plasma. He had no idea what exactly was, only knew it’s a rare magical stuff but it’s not now for him to think as he saw… Anhydre was moving….
Magnetic!
Give a thought call but Anhydre. ignored him.
No more energy to spend on action or movement, Coi was under the depth of hell. Brain was about to wring out. Faint out again was not a dream. Before losing the last energy for conscious, he made a shield with a fan… EXPOLSION….

BooooooooooooooooooooooooooooM!
The world was going to end!

The thundering boom freed itself by breaking down everything it could reach. The spell was reset to zero and dissolve by the high electric temperature. The breaking diverged magical constructions and sent them to the burning ash.
However, A coin has two sides. Once the spell broken, the loads and ache were gone. His mental mind suddenly got released and thanks to his flash of wit, the shield not only protected him from being flushed with explosion, but the fan kept him not falling down. Nevertheless, among the toxic air, finally, he would die. Now, he had to go for a risk. As he stopped the fan, he fell down immediately. Tearing down the fan off and let go the shield. Then, Coi gave a turn with one hand to the floor... the fan was stuck to the ground and started up right away. A tornado-like whirl sent him up to the sky… passing through the chaotic pollution. He was flying!
 
*Coi- Dragile! Mind Anhydre. Don’t let me see her out of control like now again. Otherwise, I would End her.*
 
Originally, he wanted to attack Behekine from the sky and see him busy for protecting himself and running around but the masked man’s word changed his mind..
Above the black smoke and disaster area, Coi tried his best to find where Anhydre. was. She was near the board and running before the smoke? He knew what the masked man meant… He’d better stop her and.. silent her now. Find a good place for her to hide from the smoke behind her!

*Anydre. What are you doing! Find the hole on the ground and get down. Quick. Two’o clock position.*
 
She ignored him again….
Damnnnnnn…
She didn’t know what she was doing. She was killing herself!
This time, a sand ball appeared. She was running inside the ball?

*Enough. Anhydre. It’s not a kids game. Get down. Hurry.*
Ignored him trigain….
Instead, she disappeared..running below the smoke?
 
Nearly out of patience, Coi decided to get down and fix Behekine on his own. Toxic air blurred his sight. It was still in the high temperature. He gave a snap to weaken the chemical and electric substance. Not for a long while, he “landed”. He knew Behekine was not far from him…The distance didn’t change. Only the difference was they were now on the same floor.
Last step of cleaning the air… Coi raised up his hands. A half of arch he drew in the air. Suddenly, the air once he snapped at was all disappeared from the sight, going down to the underground.
Now, Behekine, a true beast was standing in front of him. To his surprise, he was changed beyond recognition. Brutal and savage. Without any sign of human… Coi turned his fingertip toward the ground, a circle stopped at Behekine’s direction.
Far there, he sensed someone was rushing but only smoke did he see…
 
*Back? Anhydre.*
*How far to get to the same place?*
*Two hundred meter, but wait, don’t come. Don’t let Behekine move an inch. I got to let him taste something special.*
 
Unfinished thinking, Coi ha saw Anhydre. jump herself high and the sand around her was turned into a ball on her hand. Obviously, she wanted to give Behekine a dunk shot. Obviously, she didn’t listen to his thought. However, it would all ruin if now Behekine moved….
To distract her attention-
A red light spot.
Then a snap-
The sand ball dropped to the ground and Anhydre landed right away, where was an arm length away from him.
 
From her red eyes, he knew she was angry.
“What are you fucking doing! STOP CONTROLLING ME!”
“Don’t forget whom is your enemy.”
Not saying out doesn’t mean he didn’t know at all. Coi had found since she knew it’s panther-man, her behavior and determination changed a lot. Easily out of control. Easily absent-minded.

But if now he was able to give Behekine a powerful attack, he could talk to her later. A wave of air power from the ground would be as killing as air bomb and it aimed at the center chest of Behekine.
He waved up his hands-
A hit came on his cheek without expectation, which stopped him. Now, also him, was in a rage-

His first quarrel was in full swing, 
but stopped at the question he was very surprised at.
 
“So you were in that room then, right?”
 
Yes, I was.

Then, the Fire elemental exploded.
Plasma deflagrations were a sight to behold : scorching blue flames expanding in a heated cloud of gas at the speed of sound, full of sparks caused by friction with the normal air and the charged particles within the plasma itself. Toxic fumes were right behind the first conflagration, even limpid air turning deadly after such ionised heat brewing it.
Seeing the building disappear like an exploding pressure cooker, Behekine thought if he had survived an explosion like this before, it was due to sheer luck only.
The detonation made his mammoth-sized bones clatter and painfully bend, the tremor turning the ground under his feet into a large wave that looked like water. Both of these events - detonation and tremor - put down the nearest buildings as if stone was paper. Thankfully, they grew weaker as they kept going, and the damages they did also became less important.

But the wall of flames was right behind, and after that came the toxic fumes...
In the fragment of time Behekine saw the fire coming to engulf him, he thought not of his own safety, but of all the inhabitants that would loose their life because of this. Thinking and acting faster than he thought he could, the Demon mobilised his powers and bent all his will.
A wall of mist appeared all around the blazing plasma inferno, surrounding the building that was the epicentre of everything. The mist was two story high and - even if it wasn't enough to fully contain the plasma - it forced the fire and the fumes to go in one direction only ; right up, into the sky.
Mist balooned when fire hit it, but it held, thanks to Behekine's power.

The Demon was still on the front line, and took most of the explosion's force directly, right before the fire went upward to the sky.
He closed his eyes, enduring the pain, the wood and stone shrapnels from the building hitting him like incandescent pellets. His body proved to be extremely resilient, built by magic and bound together by it, but the pain was still agonizing !
He endured, knowing that, by standing his ground, he could avoid the death of dozens, if not hundreds of people in the shantytown.
How weird it was, that of all people, it was him that would choose to risk his life to protect others. Him, the Demon of Mist, the ermit, the man turned beast...

After what felt an eternity - but was really only a few seconds - the cataclysm stopped, the roar of the explosion replaced by a distant rumble. The dark returned as the fire above the city disappeared. The toxic cloud, still buzzing with electricity, kept going up and up until it was only a cloud like any other.
Behekine breathed out, relaxing, and the wall of mist soon went down, melting to envelop the part of the city that was nearly in ruins.
He felt drained, the tension he had put in his muscles and mind making him all stiff. Weirdly enough, he only had small cuts there and there, caused by shrapnels, and even these were already closing up. A plasma explosion to the face, and no burns to prove it happened for real !
Magic hummed from within his beast body, and Behekine wondered what he turned himself into by absorbing this gem...

Instead of the masked-man's building, there now was a huge crater, with only a small and burnt stone wall to prove there was once a house here. The silence felt unnatural, after all this, but was not here to stay.
Soon, he heard the first yell of inhabitants, woken up in the night by the explosion, the hurt calling for help, the unharmed coming out of their house looking to help, to run. to see and understand what happened. Poor as they were, citizens of the cruel Cruor as they were, solidarity was the first to manifest, like by instinct. Later, once the first shock passed, pillage could occur, and angry mobs coming to find and punish the responsible for the explosion.
Mist served him as camouflage, for now, but even that wouldn't last long.

Looking down at his paws, he saw that his claws had pierced through the stone ground, leaving huge claw marks. He also saw the ripple of magic in the ground, smelled it going in a circle around him...
Then, a snap of a finger, and he heard sand hitting the ground not far from him.
He looked up, to discover the sand-girl that just punched the boy in the face, fury actions keeping company to even more furious words. Reproach were told between the two, and Behekine listened to all of it with a bemused stare. Kids...

Still, the fact they were unscathed after the explosion spoke volumes on how dangerous the two truly were, and seeing that the first thing they did afterwards was trying to attack him again...
Behekine sighed. The explosion doused his anger, but now it was coming back full force !
If he understood correctly, the boy was the one behind the red dot... he remembered seeing something like this when he met with the sand-girl, right before the accident. So the sand-girl was reproaching the boy for controling her ? Maybe he had controled her for longer than this evening...
How he did it was interesting too. Behekine had noticed the finger snapping several times during the night, each time followed by something going array in the magic department. A spell disrupter ? The idea was surprising, but not new. The method was pure novelty, though.
He had to test the theory !

Keeping a straight face - not difficult now that he was pure beast - the Demon tipped his claw into the ground, sending a bit of magic to analyse what he suspected.
A landmine, with wind as the propelling force. Clever boy... that could seriously hurt or kill someone if the upwind hit the right spot !
Another spark of magic disarmed it, removing just enough of the spell to make it look like bad luck.

Somewhere on his left, he heard a baby wailing, soon followed by the cry of a man calling for someone.
He instantly knew what to do.
Behekine cleared his throat to attract the attention of the two quarrelling kids :

- Tell me when you're done fighting, and i'll join the fray. We have people to help for now.
And, boy ; I noticed.

He flashed a toothy smile and released a spell, conjuring a landmine just like the one the boy tried to use on him, one that flashed blue right under the boy's feet.
If he moved, the trap would activate, giving him a compressed air uppercut like only boxer's champion could deliver. Th boy would probably snap his finger again to free himself, and would prove to the Demon how his magic worked.
With that, he turned around and leapt into the mist, jumping to the source of the baby's cries.
Many houses were just rubbles now after the explosion. This close to the epicentre, nearly all of them.
Behekine felt rsponsible for what happened tonight. Had he not sent the fire elemental through the window... of course it had not been intentional, but the deed was done, and he now had to deal with the consequences. First step was to help the victims, starting by the most fragile of them all...

It was also a test. A hope, of sort.
He wanted to see what his two aggressors would do in this situation. Would they run after him to try and attack again, ignoring the people hurts around them ? Would they call a truce, and help too ? After all, they too were responsible. All three of them, were reponsible.
Whatever their choices would be, he would know. Thanks to the mist, envelopping the city in a cotonous curtain now, he could sense where they were.

He jumped above a small wall, landed in a smaller garden and stopped. A man was there, covered from head to toe in white dust, one arm broken and useless. He was trying to lift heavy debris with his only arm left, to make an opening to the renmants of what was probably his house, all the while calling a woman's name. The building had two floors, and the second one had fallen down with half of the roof and the front wall. The baby's wails were coming from somewhere under all the rubbles in the house.
The man turned around when he heard Behekine's not-so-soft landing, and his face went to pale from livid, eyes open in panick.

Without a word, Behekine nodded and with calm and method, went to work, using claws and jaws to put aside large debris.
The man first reaction was to try and stop him, but the calm demeanor of the Demon soon let him watch him do the work, bewildered, just standing there.