Chapter 20: The one that got away
Her gaze focused on Xou, she kept track of his every movement until she realised that he was heading straight for Hajime.
As Xou was almost close to grabbing Hajime, in that split second, she vanished from the position where she was and reappeared in front of Xou with a death glare on her face while readying an attack with her fist as her punch started to glow a silver color.
Xou grabbed Hajime by his hand as he turned his head to look at Rose with her glowing punch, while his dark smoke started to disperse from his body and covered Hajime’s hand, and some of it started to form a humanoid figure. Rose’s punch reached Xou, but the moment it did, Xou broke it using his bare hands as he let go of Hajime.
"Uww!" Hajime uttered.
He fell as he slowly turned his head to grasp the situation, but the moment he was able to fully turn, he was no longer with Rose and Xou; he found himself standing in the middle of the forest with no one around, but the dark smoke still clung to his hand while some of it still had the humanoid shape.
He scanned the area while not noticing the smoke on his hand.
"What happened?" He asked while still scanning the area.
Not long after, the dark smoke turned into Xou. His breath seemed to have been depleted from running away with Hajime. His smoke seemed not to have fully cleared yet as it swelled around his body.
Meanwhile, blood was spilling from where Rose was standing. In front of her, Xou was bleeding so badly that half his face was up to the point beyond recognition. His lower body had been sliced in half, and his arms and legs were torn apart.