NoGift

Argent felt like her lungs was burning.  Her vision was starting to get spotty.  These were signs that she"s close to suffocating.  When that happened, she might faint due to lack of oxygen.  Something that she should definitely avoid at this moment.

So, she made a choice.

Kazumi felt that the strength of the teenager was slowly weakening.  He just became more excited.  He couldn"t wait to stab him and see if he would really explode or not.  He"d rather he wouldn"t.  Because that would prove that his Gift didn"t work on him.  If it didn"t, then was it only his Gift or all Gifts?  Then if so, could Luce have known about it?  Could that be the reason why Luce consider Argent Blackbourne as special?

Then the duke"s sword broke suddenly.  Kazumi"s smile became wider.  Without the hindrance of the sword, he could now easily stab the duke.  And so he did.  Of course, he didn"t forget to input as much Mana as he could into the kunai.  He burried it on the teenager"s shoulder as deeply as he could.

As expected, no explosion happened.  But before he could feel elated, he suddenly felt a faint pain on his chest.  He frowned and looked down.  Argent was holding the other half of the broken sword and its sharp end was now burried on his chest.  His eyes widened slightly.  Knowing that he"d been stabbed, the faint pain he felt suddenly became sharper.  

"Y-you--"

Kazumi coughed up blood.  With this sudden turn of events, he reluctantly let go of Argent"s neck.  The blade was pulled out of his chest and he uncontrollably stepped back.  

With her neck being freed, Argent coughed and finally breathed that much needed air.  She put the two broken parts together and it connected to become a whole sword again.  She removed the kunai on her shoulder and walked towards the man with a fox mask.  

She kicked him, causing him to stumble and fall on the ground.  Then she pressed her foot on the stab wound on his chest.  

Despite the situation, Kazumi still couldn"t help but laugh, coughing up more blood in the process.  "are you going to kill me?"

Argent smiled darkly.  "Why don"t you guess?"

She raised her sword and stabbed it down.  But before it could reach the man, she suddenly felt a swirling of Mana beside her.  Then Harlequin appeared and pushed her away.

"I"m sorry, as much as I wanted for this guy to suffer, I can"t let him die here," he said.

Argent was quite surprised by Harlequin"s sudden appearance that she didn"t manage to react immediately.  Because she really thought that he was already dead.  After all, Viper pumped him with that much poison.  But who would have thought that he was not only alive, he seemed scot-free as well.

Harlequin bent down.  His whole body still hurt like h.e.l.l.  If Ripley didn"t come in time, he might be already dead by now.  And when Ripley finally healed him, that explosion happened.  He wanted to ignore it and just rest somewhere but Ripley forced him to go and check it.  Because of the possibility that Kazumi was involved with it.  

Personally, he really didn"t give a s.h.i.+t whether Kazumi blew himself up or not.  But sadly, the crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d still had his use.  It would be a big lost to the Pope if he died here accidentally.  So, he dragged his hurt body and teleported here.  He didn"t expect that he would really see Kazumi almost pushed into a corner by the NoGift duke.

He hated to admit it, but he could feel a reluctant admiration for the guy.

Harlequin just shook his head, touched Kazumi, and teleported out of there.

Argent didn"t have any time to stop them.  When she saw that they were already gone, she turned her sword back into a bracelet and then took a deep breathe.  Now that the enemy was gone, the pain from her wounds just became much more intense.  Especially the one on her shoulder.

She could feel her own breathing starting to get harder.  She ignored that and just planned to walk out of the forest.  Hopefully, Lynx had already brought her mother to a much safer place.  It"s best if they met up with her sister.  But the moment she took a step, she felt her surrounding spinning.  

She was sure she would definitely fall, face-first, on the ground.  But before that could happen, she suddenly heard a slightly loud swis.h.i.+ng of wind.  Then a strong arm clamped her waist and she was pulled back.  Her back collided with something hard.  

She looked up and felt like everything just stopped when her gaze collided with a pair of obsidian black eyes.

"Are you alright?" Lei Feng asked, his voice full of worry.

When Lei Feng arrived at this area, all he saw was the figure of Argent.  The moment he saw her about to fall, his body just moved on its own.  He immediately flew down and caught her.

It had been a month since Argent last saw Lei Feng.  When he called her earlier, she was a bit surprised but at the same time, a bit glad to hear from him again.  But now that she saw him, she kind of didn"t know what to feel.  There"s a strange, awkward feeling inside her that she didn"t really know how to describe.  But because of that, her dizziness suddenly disappeared.

"Let go of me first," she said.

Because of what Argent said, Lei Feng only realized then that he was still holding her.  Feeling her slim waist, he immediately let go.  The tips of his ears turning red.  "Sorry."  He stepped back.  That"s when he noticed Argent"s current state.  There was a wound on her shoulder.  He could also see blood seeping through her calf.  "You"re hurt!"

"It"s nothing."

"How could it be nothing?"

He took out a bandage from his s.p.a.ce ring and started putting a temporary bandage on Argent"s shoulder without waiting for her to protest.  

Argent looked at Lei Feng"s face full of concentration while bandaging her shoulder.  "You always carry a bandage with you?"   

"Occupational habit," he answered.  "Who did this to you?" he asked in a cold voice, his eyes brewing with dark emotions.

"Some masked person who"s most probably an Apostle."

Those Apostles again.  He prevented himself from clenching his fists because he might hurt Argent.  He then kneeled down to bandage her bleeding calf.  "Where are they now?"

"Gone.  They ran off after receiving a beating from me."

Lei Feng looked up.  "You beat them up?"

Argent looked down.  Seeing Lei Feng looking up at her with that kneeling posture, it felt like she was looking at some big black dog.  She looked away before she started laughing.  If he knew what she was thinking, Lei Feng might just punch her.  "Of course I did," she just said.

Lei Feng stood up.  "That"s good."  His anger was abated by just a tad bit because of that.  "We should go and look for a Healer that could heal your wounds."

Hearing that, Argent suddenly remembered that Lei Feng didn"t know that Gifts didn"t work on her and thus couldn"t be healed by Mana.  "No need.  Let"s just go and leave this place."

Lei Feng wanted to argue about not looking for a Healer, but then he suddenly heard a very familiar and irritating voice calling Argent.

"Argent!"

The two turned towards the direction of the voice and saw Viper running towards them.

"Are you alright?" Viper asked when he reached them, he didn"t even notice Lei Feng standing beside Argent.  He was all he could see.  Then he saw the bandaged wounds on him.  "Who hurt you?"

Argent was about to answer when she saw the deep wound on Viper"s stomach.  Blood was continuously dripping down.  She looked at the direction where he ran from and saw a trail of blood.  She returned her gaze back at Viper.  How the h.e.l.l was this guy still standing?  "You"re bleeding."

Viper"s face suddenly brightened.  "Are you worried about me?"

Was that really the point?  "You need a Healer," she just said.

"I knew it.  You must be really, r-really, wo- wor... ried... ab--"

Viper didn"t manage to finish what he"s saying because he suddenly fainted and fell back to the ground.  It was most probably due to extreme blood lost.

Argent turned to Lei Feng who was currently expressionless.  "Could you bring him along with us?  I know you don"t like him but I"m probably the reason he"s hurt right now."  After all, he was left alone to fight with the Pope while she, her mother, and Lynx escaped.  "Please?"

Lei Feng sighed, there"s no way he could refuse her.  "Okay.  But would his poisonous skin be a problem?"

"No."  Argent kneeled beside the unconcious Viper and turned on the limiter bracelet she gave him.  She stood up then turned to Lei Feng.  "Could you bandage him too?  Please?"

Lei Feng almost smiled.  Because she said that last "please" as if she just remembered to say it.  It was kind of cute.  So even if he"s reluctant to bandage the snake, he still willingly did it.

Once done, he put Viper behind his back and then held Argent"s waist using one hand.  "This way, you won"t be hurt while we"re flying," he said, in case Argent refused to be held this way.

Argent stared at his red ear tips.  She looked down and just nodded.

Then Lei Feng flew and the three of them left the forest.