C39: A Familiar Spear

'That... Must've done it.' Claire slowly floated down to the ground, her wild blaze, finally calming down. But, there was one problem.

Blood dripped from her stomach like flowing water. One of Elijah's swords was still stuck to Claire's stomach.

'Aghh...' she struggled just to keep her body balanced while she stood. She was down in the streets, right next to the building where the Fox crashed into.

Surrounding her, was a sea of people, gazing at her with wide eyes.

"Wha — she... it's a woman. How did she become so powerful?"

"One of the Midnight is a woman?"

She looked around to see the people staring at her with dumbfounded expressions. But getting her identity revealed wasn't the main problem here. It was finishing off Captain Leaf.

"Getaway... People. That there is a murderer of a thousand royal knights. She's a monster!"

Just as Claire said this, the crowd moved away from the place where the unconscious Elijah was, making a gap between her and Claire.

Claire's flame was out, yet, she had a poisoned knife in her pocket. She had to make sure that the Captain had died.

With bitter steps, she walked to the unconscious Fox, pulling out her poisoned knife from the belt under her half-torn cloak.

Gasp! Suddenly, the crowd gasped upon seeing something. Claire didn't like the feeling of that gasp, or the immense power she felt from behind.

She gazed up, and saw a figure, crouching at the edge of the roof of the building, right in front of her.

The same cloak as Captain Leaf wore. She instantly knew that it was a Fox. But somehow, he was damaged.

"You bloody monster... Guards! Seize him!" Claire, the warrior of the Midnight ordered the guards around her to seize the man.

But... Owl didn't hesitate. He just chuckled.

"Monster? Hmm... I've had enough of this misunderstanding for today..." he said, standing up.

Swoosh! With a dash fast like a shadow hound itself, Owl leaped towards the woman. She tried to step back, but his movements were faster.

BAM! With his right hand, he punched the woman's stomach, instantly making her cough out a handful of blood.

The crowd rushed back upon seeing this. But this time, the guards didn't wait around. They rushed towards him too, because Owl wasn't giving off a considerable mana power.

As soon as Claire fell to her knees, she activated a boost to escape him. Her instinct was good, she knew that she was no match against that Golden Arm.

'Activate Boost!'

[Activating Boost!]

Her feet blasted a flame and it was enough to launch her through the crowd and away from the bloodthirsty Fox.

Owl didn't bother to go after her.

He calmly walked to the place where Elijah's body was.

She was lying there, in a pile of rubble, with a spear still sticking out of her stomach. Blood was slowly pouring out, but the spear was blocking the heavy blood outage.

Owl winced upon seeing this, and leaned down, reaching inside her cloak to put his hand on her pocket.

He took out a small blue stone, and only he knew that it was there.

The guards were only meters away, and this was the time to escape or die.

"I'm sorry Elijah. I should've put you first, not that bloody royal bitch of a mother." Owl held her up with both his arms, lifting her.

Then, he tightened his left grip and the bluestone within his grasp got crushed. He imagined Elijah's room back in the inn, and a bright blue spark occurred.

[Teleporting... Success.]

The next moment he opened his eyes, he was in front of her bed.

A tear ran down as her blood wetted his hands. He placed the girl on the bed, helplessly. He had no mana to save her, but the team did.

"LUCY!!! ELIJAH'S HURT!!!"

***

Thankfully, not only Lucy but the other two were also there.

Owl sat beside Elijah's bed, impatiently waiting for her to wake up. However, the damage done to Elijah wasn't immense. It was healable.

"The hell happened, Owl? Why didn't you take any of us with you?" Lucy asked from him, as she kept her hand on Elijah's stomach, joining the broken veins from the inside to heal her.

Owl closed his eyes in regret. "Sigh... Elijah said that we should take care of it, alone. But... Things got out of hand when the Legends had two shadow hounds bound to them, each."

Riza patted Owl on the back. And Luke... His attention was seized from the spear that was lying beside the bed. Somehow, it was giving off a familiar feeling.

Owl saw this, and he didn't know what to say. But, he knew that this wasn't a good time to make up his mind and tell Luke that he was the one who killed the entire Dalahad family.

"Hmm... Luke. Please exterminate that spear. I don't even like to look at that thing which almost killed Elijah." Riza asked Luke to get rid of it.

Luke didn't hold back, and said, "On it!"

After some time, Lucy pulled her hand away from Elijah's stomach, and the wound was entirely cleared.

There was no scar even, and her fair skin was restored to its beautiful form once more. Slowly caressing the place where her wound was before, Lucy pulled her hand away and turned to Owl.

"There... She's fine."

Although, Owl wasn't satisfied yet. "When is she waking up?"

Placing her hand on Owl's shoulder, she answered, "In an hour... Chill out, man!"

Owl chuckled after hearing this. But, truly, the pain he was feeling was too unbearable. Elijah was the only person he could tell everything to, the only person he trusted from his heart.

***

"You impudent little elf... Can you do anything other than running? Just like a fox you are. Betraying the lion, the king of the forest, just to see an illusion of a better world."

"No! I —"

"Die!"

Gasp! Her conscience came back to her as the nightmare ended. Owl jumped up, upon seeing her gasp.

"Elijah! Finally...." he sighed in relief, smiling after a long time.

Elijah took a deep breath and calmed down. But the moment he saw Owl next to her, she was calmed.

"Hmm? Did we get what we wanted?" Elijah asked him.

"Yeah... I fixed the track bug on her. But... I'm never doing that again. If I weren't fast enough... She could've taken your life." Owl squeezed his hands.

Even thinking about her death was too much for him. Elijah chuckled and her hand grasped Owl's.

Owl's eyes went to Elijah, and both their eyes met. With both her hands, she grasped Owl's hand tightly, smiling at him.

"Thank you, for saving me Owl. I owe you —" before Elijah could finish it, Owl hugged her tightly, slightly weeping.

Elijah's heart raised as her chest touched Owl's. But his warm embrace was more than she could ask for. Her cheeks slightly reddened, and her hands wrapped around Owl by instinct.

Caressing the back of Owl's hair, she whispered something to Owl.

"Thank you..." that was all she said, and a second later, Elijah's lips met Owl's face, kissing him on the cheek.