Kealen did not hesitate this time; the sound that came from Farouk moments ago was not just an ordinary shout, but a call charged with imminent danger a tone that made Kealen's body move by survival instinct before his mind could even process what was happening. He dashed toward the wooden house, his footsteps striking the ground with force, and as soon as he entered, he slammed the door shut with a violence that shook the wooden walls. He stood behind the barred door, his chest heaving in turmoil, his breath heavy as if the air molecules around him had turned into lead filling his lungs.
He moved with cautious steps, as if fearing he might wake a sleeping monster beneath the floorboards, until he reached the window overlooking the forest. He crouched down, gripping the two pistols Farouk had gifted him; their coldness in his palms gave him a false reassurance a hollow sense of security in the middle of a storm he couldn't yet see. Outside, the scene was nightmarish; thick black smoke crawled from deep within the trees, coiling around the trunks in suspicious spiral movements, like a living entity watching the house in silence. The stillness was absolute, but it wasn't the silence of peace; it was that heavy, suffocating quiet that precedes the roar of a great explosion.
Kealen tightened his grip further, feeling a strange chill creeping from his toes up to the marrow of his skull. His instinct was screaming at him, and just as he began to doubt his fears, he glimpsed something on the window glass. A faint reflection at first, then it began to clarify. He didn't dare turn around immediately; instead, he stared at the reflection, then raised his eyes very slowly, as if every cell in his body was commanding him to stop before he saw the truth.
And the blood froze in his veins.
There was a face pressed against the glass from the outside, so close that Kealen could see the vapor escaping the creature's nose. The features were slightly distorted by the pressure against the glass, but the smile was unmistakable an unnaturally wide grin stretching from ear to ear, revealing rows of shiny golden teeth that reflected the pale daylight with a cold, sickening glint. His eyes were fixed, unblinking, filled with a lust for killing and a sick pleasure. Beneath his right eye, a tattoo of a gazelle was clearly visible, as if the tattoo itself shared that malicious grin.
Kealen was paralyzed; fear had fused his body to the spot. Suddenly, that smile moved, widening even further until it seemed it would tear the face of its owner. And in the next moment... everything collapsed.
The glass shattered into thousands of shards flying violently inward. Before Kealen could even raise the muzzle of his pistol, a hand lunged through the debris and clamped onto his neck like a vice. Kealen was lifted off the ground with ease, as if he were a weightless feather. The stranger's face drew closer, until Kealen could see the reflection of his own terrified eye in the shine of the golden teeth.
The mysterious figure spoke in a cold, calm voice, saturated with biting sarcasm:
"Found you."
Without any warning, the storm began. They weren't ordinary punches; they were heavy strikes like sledgehammers, fast as cannon fire, relentless and successive. A blow to the jaw, followed by another to the temple, then a third that shattered his nose. Kealen's head whipped violently with every impact; his vision began to fade behind a red haze, and the salty taste of blood began to flow into his mouth. He tried to raise his arms, to use the pistols, but his grip remained tightened in a state of total helplessness.
Suddenly, the "Gazelle" stopped, and with an abrupt movement, he threw him!
Kealen's body launched like a human projectile through the wall of the house, smashing through wood and stone in his path, only to crash into the outside yard with extreme violence, sending dust and pebbles flying into the air. He slid across the dirt until he came to a stop, his chest struggling to inhale a single atom of oxygen amidst a dry cough mixed with blood. Pain was no longer just a feeling; it had become an entity living in his body heavy, deep, and tearing.
Then, the sound of footsteps reached his ears.
A light, slow, and rhythmic tapping upon the gravel.
The mysterious person emerged from the dust clouds, his attire undisturbed, and his golden smile never leaving his provocative face. He stood over the prostrate Kealen, looking down at him with a condescending gaze, as if Kealen were not an opponent, but merely a toy for amusement.
The stranger spoke with a calmness carrying a terrifying certainty:
"Commit this name well to your remaining memory... I am the Gazelle, and I am the man who will end the chapters of your life here in this forest."
Kealen fueled his remaining pride, gritted his shattered teeth, and lifted himself with a trembling body. He gripped the pistols tightly and pumped his copper aura into them until the energy began to condense into devastating spirit bullets. He fixed his gaze on that mocking face and fired!
The bullets launched with immense speed, piercing through the air, but the Gazelle moved with a lightness that did not belong to humans. His body tilted at sharp, impossible angles, as if the bones of his body did not obey the laws of physics, letting the bullets pass by without touching him. Kealen fired again, and at that moment, the "Threads" activated in his vision those fine lines that draw the path of the coming attack. He began to move according to them, dodging and changing his position, firing from blind angles.
A perfect bullet approached the Gazelle's leg, but the latter struck the ground with his foot at the last second. Suddenly, the soil beneath his feet turned into a flexible, rubbery surface, absorbing the bullet's force and stopping its momentum completely before it bounced back harmlessly. The Gazelle let out a light laugh dripping with mockery:
"Is this all you learned from that old man? Disappointing."
The Gazelle suddenly vanished from his spot.
The threads flashed red in front of Kealen, so he lunged aside immediately, avoiding a kick that would have crushed his head completely. Kealen spun around and fired a bullet directly toward the Gazelle's chest. The strike was precise and perfect, but the Gazelle stripped off his coat with lightning speed and waved it; the fabric transformed in an instant into a solid rubber shield. The bullet hit it and ricocheted away to pierce a distant tree.
The Gazelle gave him no chance to catch his breath.
He lunged toward him with even greater speed, and a series of lightning strikes began. Kealen dodged thanks to the threads ducking, moving away but the difference in speed was overwhelming. One blow hit Kealen's shoulder, shoving him back, followed by a punch to his stomach that made him hunch over in pain, then a third strike from above that knocked him to the ground, sinking into the dirt.
He tried to stand, but his body began to feel heavy as if made of lead. His breathing became a staggered rattle, and his vision began to darken from the edges. Despite all this, he raised his pistol again and aimed it at the Gazelle.
The Gazelle's smile widened further, and he spoke in a tone dripping with disdain:
"Interesting you still possess that spark in your eyes. But you, little boy, do not understand the bitter truth..."
The Gazelle stopped, tilted his head slightly to the right, and continued quietly:
"I am not fighting you now... I am only playing with you, exactly as a cat plays with a half-dead mouse."
In the next moment, the Gazelle lunged toward Kealen with a lightning-fast speed that didn't even give the latter time to see the Thread.