Zero No Tsukaima Fan Fiction ❯ Zero no Tsukaima The Holy Knights ❯ Chapter 25

Shiroko's Game

 

Seth slowly opens his eyes and finds himself covered in bandages and slings lying on a stiff bed in a dark room. He tries to sit up but his back is too tight from being on such a hard surface for so long.

The door opens and the light from the hall fills the room slightly as Rain walks in. She makes her way over to the window and pulls open the curtain making Seth practically scream as a headache quickly presents itself to him.

Rain spins towards the rather pathetic sound that she just heard and finds Seth with his eyes closed tight, “You're finally awake.”

Seth squints at her, “Yea, how long have I been asleep?”

She puts her hand on her hip as she turns to look at the calendar on the wall, “Hmmmm,” she shrugs and turns back to him, “Long enough to call it a coma, you woke up before Airo.”

“Is he okay?”

She sits at the edge of his rock hard bed, “As far as Zion can tell he just exhausted every part of his body, every muscle was push to their very limit.”

Seth takes a deep sigh, “I guess having him super charge himself with lightning was a bad idea huh?”

“I wouldn't ask him to do it again, I don't think you should've asked him to do that in the first place.” Her words make him feel more guilty than he already did, “But I'm sure he won't hold it against you, doesn't seem like he'd hold a grudge against anyone.”

Seth reaches towards her with his right hand, “Rain, I can't sit up could you help me?” She stands up and takes his wrist with both her hands and slowly pulls him up. Now that he is sitting up his whole body begins to tingle like his body had fallen asleep.

Zion walks into the room, “Good to see you're finally awake. I hope that you don't plan on doing that again.”

Seth cringes as he stands up the cold floor making his tingling feet feel like he is stepping on needles, “And what, might I ask is this thing that I shouldn't do anymore?” Seth looks down at his body and all the things on him that are of a medical nature, “Oh this?” He smiles making Zion shake his head.

“What you did was reckless and you could've gotten yourself killed. If you would have waiting just a few more seconds you could have avoided all those injuries and I still would have killed them with my magic.”

Seth starts removing the bandages, “I'm sorry that I didn't notice how the situation was completely under control.”

Zion just walks out of the room since it has become obvious to him that Seth won't admit anything he doesn't want to.

Rain watches as Seth gently remove his shirt so that he can get at the sling latch holding his left arm up, “He's just worried.”

Seth looks up from messing with the latch, “I know, but I'm not from here, we all know that, I can't think like someone from here, I'm not as smart as Zion or as cunning as Airo, I'm just me.”

“I know.” She walks over to him and takes his hand. He stops messing with the sling and looks at her. They share a tender moment as he places a kiss on his lips and then undoes the sling.

His arm falls free but he collapses and clutches at his left arm. He puts his forehead against the floor and starts to breath heavily, “Rain, my arm.” Seth sits back against the bed, “It hurts just to put pressure on it.”

Rain gently rests her hand on his arm and he wince a little bit, “Do you think it is from that attack you used?”

Seth thinks about the blast he fired off against Kuro's wind sphere. He emptied everything he had into that attack. After he fired it he wasn't sure if he stopped the wind spheres or if his attack had blown up in his face. Everything was just so unclear at that very point, the only thing for sure is that he had nothing left to give. Seth looks at his arm and notices the burn marks on his wrist and hands.

A loud scream echoes up the steps from the first floor, followed by laughter. Seth and Rain rush out of the room and down the steps. The woman is being held by the throat a good two feet off the ground by a man carrying a huge axe. The man drops the limp body of the woman and turns to the group as Airo, Zion, and Hina all come into the building from outside.

“Are you Rain Strine?”

Seth steps in front of Rain and glares at the clearing unbalanced man, “Who are you?”

The man lunges forward and slams the back of the axe into Seth launching him backwards into Zion and Airo knocking all three of them through the wall and outside. Rain turns to run but the man grabs her by the hair and yanks her down onto the ground and traps her neck to the ground by stabbing the axe into the floor trapping her neck between the blade and the handle. Hina points her wand at the man and release a blast of condensed air but the man lifts his hand and the blast slams into his palm. He doesn't even flinch as the air tears open his skin and blood begins to fall to the ground. He steps forward and connects with a kick to her gut the sends her flying out of the building and lands a few feet past Airo who is still trying to stand. The man removes his axe from the ground and takes Rain's ankles and swings her up and down on his shoulder driving the wind out of her.

He walks out of the building and inspects his handy work before releasing a maniacal laugh and steps on Seth's left arm. Seth screams out in agony as all of his arm feels like someone set it on fire, “Stop screaming and listen to me!” Seth tries but he can only hold it in for a few moments, “I will be waiting for you with my master, he sent me to kill you all but as you are you aren't worth my time.” He gets off of Seth's arm and turns a little, “We will be waiting north of this location, there is a three level temple, if you want her back then come when you are stronger.” He kicks Seth in the gut and walks away, leaving the four of them completely helpless on the ground.

The sound of laughing is the last thing Seth hears before he blacks out again.