CHAPTER 9: THE Monster And The Shield
The silence in the carriage was deafening, broken only by the flickering of the overhead lights. The remaining hijackers stood frozen, their eyes darting between the crater in the floor and the boy in the blue scarf.
"Who... who is that guy?" one of the men whispered, his voice cracking with terror.
"Was there another Sorcerer on board this whole time?" another added, his survival instinct finally overriding his shock. He fumbled for the pistol at his waist, his hands shaking so violently the metal rattled. "Freeze! Don't you move a muscle, kid!"
He leveled the barrel at the boy's head. "I said freeze! I'll blow your..."
He never finished the sentence. Before the hijacker's finger could even tighten on the trigger, the boy was gone. To the human eye, it looked like he had simply evaporated into the air.
SNAP. THUD. CRACK.
In a blur of motion that lasted less than three seconds, the boy moved through the remaining gunmen. He used the momentum of his body. A palm to the chest here, a sweep of the leg there. One by one, the hijackers collapsed to the floor, their weapons sliding away across the linoleum.
"Hm. It looks like that's all of the small fry," Dawn said, his voice as calm as if he were discussing the weather. He turned his gaze back to the crater in the center of the floor. "That just leaves you. So, how much longer are you going to stay down there?"
A low, guttural chuckle rose from the shattered floorboards. The Curse User, whose face had been smashed into the steel, slowly began to push himself up. His neck snapped back into place with a sickening pop.
"Haha... I was really starting to get bored," the man said, wiping a mixture of blood and black bile from his lips. "Who would have thought someone as strong as you was hiding in the cheap seats all this time? It looks like I'll have to get serious too."
The air in the room began to vibrate. The dark energy that had previously been a shroud now began to condense, pulling inward toward the man's skin until he looked like a silhouette carved out of a nightmare.
"Curse Manipulation - Maximum: Body Transformation Technique."
The man's body began to warp. His bones cracked and elongated, his skin tearing open to allow jagged, obsidian-like spikes to erupt from his shoulders, elbows, and spine. His jaw unhinged, revealing rows of needle-like teeth, and his eyes merged into a single, glowing red slit. He was no longer a man; he was a walking fortress of thorns.
"To think I'd be forced to use my true technique on a brat like you... this is unexpected," the monster growled, his voice now a chorus of distorted screams. "But since we're here... let's get the party started!"
With a violent flex of his muscles, he fired a dozen spikes from his chest like armor-piercing rounds. Dawn didn't just dodge; he moved with a frantic, protective grace. He lunged toward a group of cowering civilians, gathering a mother and her child in his arms and leaping across the carriage just as the spikes tore through the seats where they had been sitting.
"Wow," the Curse User remarked, his voice echoing through the metal walls. "You took down all my men while I was still hitting the floor. You really are something special, aren't you?"
Dawn placed the civilians behind a reinforced luggage rack. He didn't answer. This form... he thought, his eyes narrowing as he analyzed the monster. This is the source of the rot I sensed earlier. He's completely merged with the Curse.
"Hey! I hope you know I'm not going to give you an easy death!" the monster roared.
In the back of the carriage, the passengers who had survived the hijacking began to murmur in a panic. The sight of the spiked creature was too much for their minds to handle. "What is that thing?" "Is it a demon?" "We're all going to die!"
"Shut up," Dawn said, his voice quiet but carrying a weight that silenced the room instantly. "Stay down and don't move."
The monster sighed, a sound like steam escaping a pipe. "I never thought I'd have to use this. It's been so long since I've had to go this far that I can't even remember how to control my own strength. I'm saying this now as a courtesy... you better get ready."
The Curse User vanished.
He didn't just run; he launched himself. He was a blur of black spikes and red light. He reappeared inches from Dawn, his right hand transformed into a massive, three-pronged lance of hardened Curse energy.
Dawn's mind raced. If I was alone, I could dodge this without a second thought. I could lead him into the next car. He looked back for a split second. The passengers were trapped behind him. If he moved, the lance would go through him and into the chest of the old man he had just saved.
He couldn't dodge. He had to anchor.
"Jinx Manipulation - Minimum: Shield!"
Dawn thrust his arms forward. A brilliant blue dome flared into existence, much denser and more vibrant than the one Alina had used. The spiked lance slammed into the shield with the force of a falling meteor.
SCREECH!
The sound of the Curse energy grinding against the Jinx shield was like nails on a chalkboard, only a thousand times louder. Sparks of blue and black flew everywhere, scorching the ceiling.
Before Dawn could even reset his footing, the monster swung his other arm a whip-like tail of spikes aiming directly for Dawn's head. Dawn shifted the shield's focus upward, the impact vibration traveling through his teeth and into his skull.
"Damn, you're good!" the monster laughed, the red slit of his eye glowing with manic joy. "I was really getting frustrated back there. Those other two cadets were too weak for my liking. They broke like twigs. But you... you're a real meal!"
Dawn gritted his teeth, his feet digging into the metal floor as he felt the shield start to hairline fracture under the sheer physical pressure.