"What's going on over there?" A booming voice resonated through the mall.
"Shit!" Ashley whispered. "The guard's coming."
[And whose fault is that?]
Ashley opened his mouth, but didn't reply.
[Besides, look on the dark side,] Calcifer pumped his fist, though Ashley didn't see him, or else he would have laughed his brains out. [You get to have your first fight. Now you can show them the difference between a weak human and a human contracted to me.] He proudly grinned.
"How am I supposed to do that?" Ashley asked, perturbed.
[Well, you've been into street fights, so you should know the basics.]
"I was always beaten up!" Ashley retorted.
"I said what's going on there." The booming voice drew closer.
"What am I going to do?" Ashley paced, looking between his overstacked cart and the dessert fridge.
Ashley had always loved desserts, especially ice cream, ever since he was a kid, well, he's still a kid.
But passing up the opportunity to eat one again after so many years was something he couldn't resist.
"Now look what that got me into," he hissed.
Calcifer chuckled. [Moments ago, you were all like "I'm going to cause mass destruction," and now you're all "How am I going to escape being beaten?"]
"Shut up!" Ashley clenched his fist. "It's not like that."
[It's not like what, huh?] Calcifer frowned.[You told me that we were going to use each other to get rid of the ones we hate the most, and now you're backing away from a common guard? How many beings are you going to face in the future, and now you get all wimpy for a weakling?] Calcifer spat disappointedly.
Ashley remained silent.
[If this was how it was going to be, then you should've just free-]
"I get it," Ashley's eyes narrowed, staring at his hands. "One time I say something, the other time I don't follow it because I was weak."
He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth, his clenched fist turning white.
"I couldn't save mom because I was weak… but now," his eyes shot open, a purple flame dancing in their depths. "I have the power to change things with my own hands."
"So why don't I stop being a wimp and deal with my problems?" Ashley grinned, determination washing off fear from his face.
[Took you long enough to say that, you runt!] Calcifer snorted.
"Tch… just had to ruin my hero speech."
[Blah, blah, blah,] Calcifer cut him off. [Can we just get to the part where you mop the floor with the weakling? Or are you not up to the task?]
Ashley pumped his fist, not minding his annoying contract. "Now, how about we kick some-"
"I said, what's going on here?"
A guard stepped out from the corner. His body was covered in a white top tucked into white tank trousers, with a golden trim running down its sides. A golden crest of an angel with a crown was embroidered on the shirt's front and back.
"An Imperial guard," Ashley muttered, noticing the crest.
The guard's eyes momentarily widened in shock, "Oh, I remember you," then it narrowed, a wicked smile playing on his face. "You're that kid who took a dessert sometime ago, ate it without paying, then wanted to drop it back because it wasn't to your taste."
Ashley shifted uncomfortably, then a certain memory played back. 'Shit, not this guy again.'
"Trying to steal from the Celestials, eh, outskirt rat," the Imperial guard said.
"What of you, licking the boots of your messed-up leaders?" Ashley shot back.
"Look, we could do this the easy way," the guard said, his wicked appearance not dropping one bit. "You could surrender yourself to the House of Imperial, I'm sure they would make good use of you, or…"
The guard licked his lips. "... The hard way, where I could just deal with you here, personally."
Ashley shuddered, not from fear but from the cringe feeling he was getting from the guard.
'Bastard must be into young boys,' he thought in disgust.
"So what is it going to be?" the guard asked again.
"It's not going to be like before," Ashley murmured.
"Huh?"
Ashley flexed his fingers, then dashed towards the guard, his right arm wide in a clawing motion.
He jumped towards his face just when he was a few meters away and swung his arm in a diagonal manner.
"I choose my way, beating your bastard as—"
Thwack!
Ashley flew through the air, bounced off the spotless tiled floor of the Imperial Celestial, before coming to a forced stop by a large shelf.
Blood slowly trickled down his mouth, a red palm imprint on his face.
"It's just like that last time," the Imperial guard smiled mockingly. "Only this time you won't be escaping."
The guard kicked off, closing the distance between himself and Ashley.
"Dammit… I didn't see him move."
[You got swatted by a weak—]
"Don't say it!" Ashley cut him off.
CRASH!
Ashley rolled before the guard's leg could connect with his head. He punched out at the guard's leg, hoping it would do some damage, and yet…
'What's this guy's leg made of? Steel?' He winced.
The Imperial guard moved his outstretched leg to the right, sending Ashley skidding across the floor.
"You should have just gone with the easy way, pretty boy," the guard smiled, casually walking towards him. "Though I wouldn't have preferred it that way."
"Not what I was expecting in my first fight after becoming contracted." Ashley groaned as he rose his body from the floor.
[There's something called Battle IQ, and unfortunately, you don't have it.] Calcifer shook his head in fake pity.
Ashley slowly got up from the floor. "Hey, now would be a good time to tell me how to activate Dark Mana," he said, suddenly remembering the topic.
[Excuse me?] Calcifer asked.
"You know what I mean, just spit it out, I'm running out of time," Ashley hastily said, monitoring every movement of the Imperial guard.
[So you truly weren't listening, huh? Well, figure it out yourself, damn runt!]
"When did you ever—" Ashley's sentence was cut short as he dodged a kick from the night guard. "I might be weak, but it doesn't mean I can't fight."
Grabbing the outstretched leg, Ashley twisted and turned, throwing the guard off balance.
The guard, momentarily shocked, didn't react in time as he received a kick to the groin.
Ashley, wearing a satisfied smile, swung his leg, causing the man to crash face-first into the ground.
"That should do it," Ashley whispered, waiting for the expected groan — that never came.
"An unorthodox way of fighting, pretty boy," the Imperial guard said.
"Shit!"
Ashley's eyes frantically darted around him, looking for objects to use as weapons. His gaze landed on a mop racket. "That could work."
Ashley ran towards the racket, quickly grabbing a mop before turning to see the guard getting up from the floor.
He dashed towards the guard, kicking him on his rear end, to put him back down to the ground, which surprisingly worked.
'No time to be amused.'
Ashley held the mop like a katana, raising it high above his head. He looked just like a Japanese executioner about to decapitate a criminal, just that — he was using a mop instead, and the "criminal" was just an ordinary guard. Well, not totally ordinary.
Dark purple veins glinted briefly across his skin, with his eyes briefly but dimly glowing purple.
"Just die, you bastard!" Ashley screamed as he swiftly brought the mopstick down on the guard's neck with full force.
The mop stick broke on impact, but that wasn't what Ashley was waiting for.
The Imperial guard went limp and fell onto the cold floor, his body twitching before going still.
Ashley impatiently waited for some sort of reaction from the guard, but none came.
He was not satisfied.
To confirm his kill, he stomped hard on the exact spot on his neck.
A sickening, cracking sound resonated in the mall.
Then, after some moments, blood began to flow from the Imperial guard's mouth, his eyes lifeless.
Staring silently at the corpse, Ashley coughed.
"I killed him?" He asked no one, still in shock at the outcome. "I actually killed the bastard!" He jubilated.
Not the kind of reaction a normal person who just killed another for the first time should have.
But yet again, Ashley wasn't normal.
No word could describe his mentality!
[A precise strike to the neck added with brute force… not bad.] Calcifer commented.
Ashley heaved a sigh of relief and without giving second thoughts to his injuries — which were surprisingly healing on their own albiet very slow — made way to the dessert area to get himself a special celebration treat.
But his little victory celebration was cut short.