Chapter 2

“Leo what’s going on?” I asked as I struggled to contain him. He was moving around trying to break free of my grip. I held onto him, but it was getting hard to hold on.

I felt his tiny fangs dig into my finger. I screamed out and dropped him. He immediately dashed towards the direction Sue had gone. I quickly fused the ripped skin back together and raced off after Leo. I saw him nearing Sue. I have to stop him. He’s acting strange. I gulped. I had no choice, but to use alchemy. If Sue turned around while I was using it I would be in trouble.

I looked around. There weren’t any other people. I placed my hands on the ground. I sighed and concentrated. I let some of my energy run into the ground. I steered it towards Leo. It caught up with him. I transmuted the ground under him so it jutted upwards. I quickly twisted the ground around so it created a cage around Leo. You won’t be going anywhere.

Leo started to thrash around, but to no avail. He growled fiercely and started to tackle the stone cage’s bars with his horn he had unveiled. Sue froze in her steps. She started to turn around. Crap! This is bad!

I quickly blew up the ground in front of Leo’s cage. Debris and dust was sent flying into the air. With this smokescreen I can escape. I sent the cage back into the ground and grabbed Leo. I ran away from the scene as I turned the corner. Leo started to struggle in my arms again.

He suddenly transformed into his full Lioner form. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse! Of course I couldn’t grab on to him and he ran back towards Sue.

“Leo, come back!” I called out as I chased after him. Leo turned the corner that I had just escaped with him from.

Suddenly a scream pierced the air.

“Sue!” I shouted as I turned the corner. I froze. I stared out in awe. I thought she had seen Leo, but I was totally off.

Sue was on the ground staring out at a giant hole in the ground in front of her. It was pure white and had white light beaming out from it. The light shot upwards never leaving the boundaries of the hole. Blue mist swirled around the hole. Suddenly a figure slowly rose out of the hole. It was a human. He stepped out of the hole. He stared at Sue and then directed his attention to Leo and finally me. His eyes. They were two pools of ice water.

“I see. The girl has some energy, but you seem to have it pouring out of you. You aren’t a normal human. You must be the son of the infamous Alchemist.” He smiled. I suddenly felt like I could trust him. He reached into the folds of his Dark Enigmatic. My father had duplicated his knowledge and transferred it to me when he was still alive. I could name any monster I saw although I had not seen any yet and name armors or weapons.

I looked up. On his head was something that made my skin crawl. A Bone Helm. The remain of the head of whatever creature had had killed. It had a red slash that went from its left horn diagonally all the way down through its eye. I raised my guard up and got ready to use my alchemy.

“Too slow.” He whispered. He pulled his hand of his robe quickly. Too quick. All I saw was a blur. Suddenly a bolt of lightning rained from the sky and hit me. I screamed out in pain and collapsed to the ground.

“Hmm… Thought you would have more in you. I was hoping I could have some fun with you before killing you.” He snickered. He had an Angel Wing grasped in his hand. So he’s an Ice/Lightning Mage. By the look of his clothes he already had third job skills. I slowly tried to get up.

“So you can still fight, but using my powers would be no fun. Here try taking these guys on.” He snapped his fingers. Around one hundred figures jumped out of the portal. It closed up after they came through. A body with a cap that had spikes in it. No doubt they were Horny Mushrooms.

“Leo, protect Sue!” I commanded as I slapped my hands onto the ground. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Leo jump in front of Sue. Good. Now I can concentrate on the fight.

I sent my energy plunging into the ground. I made a giant wall in front of me as the Horny Mushrooms shot forward. They broke through the wall and tackled me down with their spikes. Pain clenched my mind. I quickly placed my hand on one of them that had his spikes lodged in my body. I forced my energy into its body and released it making it explode. Its blood sprayed over me as the body started to fade away. Monsters in the other world were barely held together by their living spirits. The moment they died their bodies disintegrated.

I landed on my feet somehow. I was drenched in blood. I pulled out the spikes out of my body. The rest of the Horny Mushrooms looked furious. They charged at me all at once. I quickly created giant spikes from the ground. I controlled them so they kept growing and stabbed through the monsters. One by one they were skewered and as their blood slid down the spikes their bodies disappeared. Soon all the Horny Mushrooms were dead. I dropped to my knees. It was getting harder to breathe. I heard clapping coming from the guy who had stepped out of the portal.

“Didn’t know you had it in you. Anyway I’ll let the girl go for now, but next time I will kill her…….and the rest.” He grinned. “Better guard her well or she’ll disappear before you know it.” He reached into his robe. It was a small, blue crystal. He held it out in front of him. Suddenly a portal like the one before appeared. He stepped into it.

“Wait!” I shouted out. “What do you want with her?!” He looked at me. He raised his finger and raised it to his lips.

“It is a S-E-C-R-E-T, secret. By the way, I was supposed to capture the girl, but since it didn’t work out and since I can’t let her know of our world I’ll tell you a secret. You can heal their minds. Since you’re an Alchemist you can do that I suppose. Humans from their world aren’t supposed to know about our world. Memories of our world don’t belong in them, just like poison and viruses. You can just heal them and memories of our world are gone. Do me this favor, won’t cha?” he winked as he descended into the portal.

“Wait…” I whispered as I reached out towards where he was, but the portal was already gone. My hand went limp. I felt cold and numb. I could hear Sue crying and shaking me, but it seemed distant as if I was watching the scene from down the street. It seemed as if the sun burned out as darkness overtook me.

I felt my body jerk a little bit. I slowly opened my eyes. Cool night air was brushing past my skin. I tried getting up, but something was on top of me. I looked down. It was Sue. Leo was next to her in his Jr. Lioner form. She’s okay, but where am I?

“You’re kind of heavy.” I chuckled. She looked up. Her eyes were red and puffy. She had been crying. She looked as if she was about to start again.

“Max!” she cried out as she put her arms around me. “I was so worried!” She started to squeeze me in a hug. Tears were falling onto my face. Sue…..

“Umm….Sue…You’re crushing me.” I coughed as I felt my lungs being restricted. She suddenly pulled back.

“Sorry.” She whispered. Her face started to turn red in embarrassment. I started to laugh and she joined me shortly. Suddenly my body jerked again. I looked around. I realized we were in the backseat of a car.

“Where am I?” I asked as I sat upright.

“In my car.” May’s voice came from the driver’s seat. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I noticed my chest and stomach were bandaged up. I could see my blood was starting to bleed through. I placed my hands on it and tried to seal up my wounds. My head started to throb violently. I cried out in pain as I clutched my head. My breathing was irregular and sharp.

“Careful. You used up too much energy. You’ll overwork yourself.” May suggested as she drove on.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I sat back on the seat.

“To the hospital. You need emergency treatment and those bandages won’t hold for long.” May explained.

“Wait. Don’t. I can’t go to the hospital. They’ll figure out I’m not a normal human.” I argued, but I could feel my strength fading. May remained quiet, but after a while slammed on the brakes. I was thrown off my seat and fell on top of Sue. Our eyes met for an instance, but felt like an eternity. We broke eye contact and I quickly got off her as May cracked another joke about us being lovers.

“I assume you have a plan?” May sighed as she looked back on us. I bit my lip and tried to come up with a good one. After thinking for a minute an idea hit me. It might work.

“Yeah, but we need somewhere light can’t be seen by people that might happen to come by during it.” I explained.

“Our basement will do. What are you going to do?” May asked as she started to drive.

“I plan to convert Leo’s electricity into energy. In theory it should work, but maybe not. I’m not sure if I even have enough energy to convert it, but if I work slowly it should work.” I explained. The car grew silent. I took the silence as them not understanding what I was talking about. I explained about how energy worked in our world.

“You can contain a limited amount of energy. You can never completely use up your energy. Even if it’s miniscule, you still have some. That energy over time can grow and your energy replenishes. The more energy you have left over the faster your energy can revive. When you reach the maximum amount of energy you hold, that’s it. The energy stops reviving. Through training you can increase your energy capacity.” I explained. “If I convert enough of Leo’s electricity into energy with the little energy I have I can then recover enough energy to heal myself.”

“Leo will you help me out?” I asked extending a hand. He licked it and I took it as a yes.

May screeched the car to a stop in front of their house. I stepped out of the car, but my legs immediately crumbled. Luckily Sue caught me and helped me into the house. We went to the basement and moved some furniture aside to make some room.

I stood in the middle of the space as Leo walked over. He transformed into his Lioner form and got ready.

“You guys stand back. It might get dangerous.” I warned Sue and May. I started to cough violently. I could taste blood in my mouth. I nodded my head signaling for Leo to start.

From his horn he released a tiny spark of lightning. He started to release more and more until he was releasing a steady amount of electricity. I placed my hand a few inches from the sparks. I concentrated hard and converted some electricity into energy. I felt a little stronger. I continued this cycle. Minutes stretched into hours as we continued. Suddenly a sharp pain occurred in my side. I stopped the alchemy and grasped my side. I turned to Sue and May and gave them a look showing I wanted them to stay away. Sue and May seemed a little worried, but stayed away.

“Leo lower your output by a little.” I commanded. I don’t have enough energy to heal all my wounds, but if I delay any longer it’ll become worse. I’ll just have to multitask.

I used one hand to convert Leo’s electricity into energy while I healed myself with the other. I felt my wounds slowly heal. Slowly. Very slowly. As my wounds finished I dropped to the ground. Sue and May rushed up to me, but I was already losing consciousness. My body was fixed so I they wouldn’t take me to the hospital. I’ll leave my body with you guys. Take care of it. Darkness over took me for the second time that day.

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A little shorter than the last one. Hope you guys enjoyed it.

~Paper Hand,