Chapter 44: Are We Enemies? (1)
A crash reverberated into the night.
The rumble of stone, the bent of metal, and the shatter of glass announced themselves in the area. And as if to be entertained by such noise, the sky had peeled more of its layers to give its constellations a glimpse below at the scene.
For the first few moments, Hope was able to read the Awakened's actions. It was easy to predict how he would react placed in the situation Hope was in; He'd ducked aside from the first blow, a side-step from a shoulder grab, and parried the third.
And that was where his luck ended. If he had much anyway...
Because that parry cost him more strength than he'd expected.
The Awakened hit him like an explosion and Hope, braced with his shield in time, was thrown sideways into a window. The shattering multiplied. Glints of fragments flew around as he too soared further into the darkness of the room. Pain spiked as he hit and rolled, knocking over metal carts and whatever items piled on top before he came to a stop. The random smell of dry dirt filled his nose.
Hope groaned, reaching his arms out to find any support.
Ah. A counter.
Though his body ached, he forced himself to stand and move, holding his abdomen.
'That's...certainly an Awakened's power...' Hope grunted as he made the steps forward.
But at the bottom of his vision, he caught a glimpse of what he landed on. Which was a broken pile of...pots...? Huh. Some sort of garden room. Although, not at all like Mave's lair where magic grew and blossomed in petals or lit pollen. All the potted plants were dead, withered to dried leaves or limp stems.