Zack instinctively blocked the strike on his back but was not fast enough to neutralize the ones on his side and knee.
Sora’s assaults were like lashings from a whip. Zack fended off blows to most of his vital spots but the other shots were affecting him. Zack seemed to be in a one sided fight.
But suddenly, he blocked Sora’s strike with his bare hand and caught his sword. Sora was caught at close range and had no hope of dodging Zack’s heavy smash.
Despite using his other sword to block it, Sora felt a piercing pain on his shoulder. He flew on contact and scrapped against the well-mowed lawn.
Sora slowly staggered to his feet and glanced at his bamboo sword, or what was left of it. The upper portion had been ripped off due to the power behind Zack’s strike.
The attack had never seemed to strike him, but the power was causing his right arm to vibrate. His shoulder still felt a little sore.
“That’s enough, guys. Let’s wrap it up with that.”
Jake walked to them, applauding. “That was quite a show. But I think we should stop here before it becomes a serious battle.”
Zack winced as he got to his feet. Sora was a little sore in the shoulder but it was nothing serious. He helped Zack and said, “If that strike had hit me, I would’ve been dying.”
Zack remarked with a grin, “I gave up looking for you with my normal eyes after a few seconds.”
Jake said, “Yeah. You would have to be a freak if you could see Sora’s movements without your X vision.”
“Good morning, boys. What have you been doing?”
Mrs. Titania was walking towards them. Only a few seconds later did she realize that both Zack and Sora were injured and bleeding.
She asked in a shocked tone, “My god! Have you been fighting?”
“Err… no. We were just sparring,” said Sora, as Mrs. Titania ran up to him with a handkerchief.
“Boys! Why do they always seem to enjoy beating each other up? I just can’t understand.”
She started jabbing the bruise on Sora’s shoulder with her handkerchief. Sora said, a little taken aback, “Mrs. Titania! Please, it’s just a scratch! I’m all right.”
Zack said in an annoyed voice, “Mother. Don’t fuss. We were just sparring. It was nothing serious.”
Sora got to his feet and tried to convince her that he was not hurt. He was not used to such concern over such a trivial injury and could not understand the reason for her anxiety. But as he watched her fret about Zack’s wounds, he felt a strange feeling of affection and warmth that he had never experienced before.
A maid arrived, informing them that breakfast was ready. The boys left for their rooms to wash up and arrived at the table, this time, without getting lost.
As they had their breakfast, Sora’s G watch suddenly began beeping. He touched the screen and read the alert he had just received. He finished reading it and suddenly started wolfing down his food.
Zack asked him, “What’s going on?”
Jake said, “That was the beep for a personal mission. It’s for missions that can be done best by specific contractors due to their powers.”
Sora swallowed his food and emptied his glass of water and said, “Some hikers in the Northern Godak mountain ranges are stranded on an inaccessible part of a steep peak they were hiking. Rescue choppers couldn’t get close because of the jutting rocks around them and the weather conditions. The hikers are too injured to get out on their own, so we’ve been requested to help, seeing as we are the closest to the Godak range.”
Jake asked, “What does that have to do with you being asked specifically?”
Sora got to his feet and took out his sky surfer. Jake said, “That sky surfer can’t carry more than one person. You can’t use that.”
Sora smiled and handed the sky surfer to Jake, saying, “I never said I’m going to use it.”
Zack looked strangely at Sora and said, “I don’t get it. What do you think you’re doing?”
Sora said coolly, “Let’s just say I learnt a few tricks while perfecting my split step, shall we?”
Jake asked mockingly, “What? You’re able to fly or something?”
Sora said nothing. Instead, he walked out through the door still grinning.
Hundreds of kilometres away, the N-2 struggled to fly against the icy winds and snow of the Godak region. Sora was clutching tightly to his thick jacket. As he pulled on a pair of gloves, he glanced out into the frosty environment outside and said to Roy, “It’s funny, isn’t it? Gildartz city isn’t all that far from the Godak ranges, but we’re being cooked alive there while it’s freezing here.”
Roy said, “It has something to do with the air currents and stuff. I don’t really get it either. It’s twenty degrees Celsius below zero right now.”
“Then I certainly need these,” said Sora as he tucked his ear into his earmuffs along with a wireless headset for communication.
Roy looked at the radar in front of him and said, “We’re arriving at the rescue site. You ready?”
Sora said, “Hell yeah. Let’s do this!”
Roy landed the N-2 next to some tents put up by rescue operators. The door slid open and a blast of cold air struck Sora. His breath became heavy as his lungs began to fill up with frosty air.
It took a few seconds for Sora to get used to it. He noticed that his protective clothes were doing their job of not letting him freeze.
Three men walked out of the biggest tent and approached Sora. They too were heavily clothed and their faces could not be properly registered.
Sora flashed his badge and said, “The name is Sora, Lucifer’s Fall contractor.”
One of the men stretched out his hand and shouted over the roaring wind, “The name’s Tom, Tom Lone. I’m the head of this rescue operation.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Lone. Now, what’s the situation on the hostages?”
Lone directed Sora through the snow into the tent through the blizzard and revealed a room full of computer monitors, radio transceivers and hot chocolate dispensers.
He pointed at one of the monitors and said, “We managed to fly a small robot over there to give us video feeds of the hikers’ situation. There are six people in total. Two of them have fractured limbs and some have first degree frost bite. A few are showing signs of hypothermia as well.”
Sora stared at the screen and nodded. Then he asked, “Is that bad?”
Lone glared at Sora and said, “Yes. Hypothermia occurs when the core body temperature falls. It will result in the brain and body function to slow down and eventually cause the organs to fail, leading to death. They’ve already been exposed to the cold air for a couple of hours, seeing as they started their climb early in the morning for some reason. So if we don’t save them soon, it’ll be too late to treat them.”
Sora nodded and said, “Then take me to the place where they are stranded.”
They exited the tent and approached a tall mountain nearby. Sora could see a helicopter hovering far above him. Lone handed him a pair of binoculars for him to spot the hikers.
He couldn’t see all of them because of the jutting rocks around the ledge they were in, but he noticed one lifeless body near the edge. The chopper could not get any nearer, as the blades of the propeller would strike against the haphazard rocks of the slope.
Sora said, “Okay. It looks like I have to go there and carry each and every one of them into the chopper on my own. Simple enough.”
Lone was annoyed at this. “Look here. If we could have done that, we would have. No matter how skilled a contractor you are, you can’t climb this mountain. You’d have to be an expert hiker to do that. And even if you were and you did reach the ledge, how could you carry them into a chopper, which is around ten meters away? Plus, thanks to the weather, no hover pad or sky surfer could fly through there and it couldn’t handle the weight of more than one person anyway!”
Sora tinkered with his headset and said, “Mr. Lone. I suggest that you watch instead of list
ing out why those hikers cannot be rescued. I’ll keep in touch through the radio. I just changed my frequency to yours.”
Lone blurted out, “What the hell are you going to do?”
Sora summoned the Wind Fangs and held them facing down. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes to concentrate. Lone noticed the air around Sora change.
The wind started swirling around him slowly. The snow was blown away, blinding the rescue operators for a few seconds. When they opened their eyes, they noticed that Sora was floating above the ground, with wind swirling at his feet.
Lone stared at him in disbelief. He didn’t know what to say, but the words, which escaped his mouth were, “You’re… you’re flying. I don’t believe it!”
Sora chuckled at the reaction and said, “Mr. Lone, could you hand me a couple of securing straps?”
Lone seemed to come out of a trance. He nodded and then staggered as he ran towards the tent to retrieve the securing straps.
Sora attached it to the buckles on his jacket and said, “I’ll strap the hikers one by one and drop them off inside the chopper. So tell them to be ready with blankets and hot water or whatever they need.”
Lone hurriedly spoke into his transceiver as Sora gradually rose up into the air. He reached the ledge with ease to find six hikers curled up together. Most of them seemed to have lost consciousness. But two of them, a man and a woman, stood up when he approached them.
The man stuttered, “You… how did you get here?”
The woman burst into tears and said, “Thank God! Somebody came at last!”
Sora said in a comforting voice, “Don’t worry. I’m here to help all of you.”
The man scowled and said, “What can you do? You’re just a kid! You’d be as useless as those guys on the helicopter who’re planning to abandon us.”
Sora said, “No one is planning to abandon you, sir. I’m a Lucifer’s Fall contractor. I’m going to take you to the chopper, which is waiting for you a few feet away. Now, which of these guys have fractures?”
The woman pointed at two men clutching their arm and leg. Sora said, “Okay, I’ll be taking these guys first.” He gently used the straps to secure one of them tightly to him.
As he approached them, the man said, “Hey, what are you going to do?”
He was dumbfounded when Sora started flying right in front of him with the Wind Fangs. The woman was also shocked, but then said, “No… don’t leave us!”
Sora said, “I’ll be right back after I drop this man into the chopper.”
Sora spoke into his radio, “Okay, I’m bringing in the first hiker. He has a broken leg.”
He received a reply, “~Roger. Medical team on standby~”
Sora flew into the blizzard and noticed the silhouette of the chopper in front of him with a red light at the door. Sora approached the light to find two men waiting at the door, ready to take them in.
Within a few minutes, the man and the woman were the only ones left. As he landed next to the woman to take her across, the man said, “Hey kid! Why aren’t you taking me across yet?”
Sora said as he buckled the lady up, “I just thought it should be ladies first. Please wait for me to come back.”
But just as Sora left the ledge, he heard a shout behind him and suddenly, the man had jumped on his back.
Sora was not used to carrying more than one person, so he gave a violent jerk while trying to gain his balance. The jerk knocked the man’s moist grip and he fell to the earth.
“NO!” shouted Sora, as he flew at top speed towards the man. He finally got to him, but his hands were full already. The ground was not too far away now.
Out of desperation, Sora managed to lock his legs under the man’s shoulder and pull himself up just in time.
They landed safely next to the tent, where Lone and his men ran to meet them.
“ARE YOU MAD?” was the first thing Sora said to the man after he had released the lady, who had lost consciousness.
“Did you really think you would be left there to rot?” he demanded angrily.
The man was unable to say anything. He just stared and gaped.
Sora almost slapped him when Lone said, “Stop. This happens to some people when they are under psychological stress. They start having delusions like what this guy did. It’s pretty common in operations in high altitudes such as this one.
Sora clenched his fist and withdrew his hand. He walked back slowly to the tent.
Lone asked, “Where are you going?”
Sora said, “Getting a cup of hot chocolate. Chocolate always calms me down.”
As he walked into the tent, Lone muttered, “Good job, kid.”
Lone then went and gave the man a sharp blow on the back of his head and shouted out, “Hey, bring some medics here. This guy just collapsed.”
Sora headed back to the guild with Roy on the N-2. The chocolate had done its work and Sora was as cheerful as a schoolboy promised a bag of sweets.
As he collected his fat reward from the lounge, he met Jake and Zack in the cafeteria again. They had just heard about his new skill from Kai and were badgering him about it.
Sora said, “The concept was simple enough actually. To learn the split step properly, I had to enhance my ki control. So after I started getting a hang of it, I thought of ways to mold my ki through the Wind Fangs so that it could be used for different purposes as well. I also took Zack’s Flame Whip into consideration, seeing that he had done a number on me with it. So after a lot of trial and error, I ended up with a few pretty cool moves, flying being the most attractive out of them.”
Zack and Jake gaped in awe. Zack said, “You dolt, you’d happen to be the first contractor to ever learn to fly!”
Jake said, “But I think it’s better if you don’t go publicizing it to those outside the guild.”
“Why?” Sora asked.
Jake said, “Well, if word got out that there’s a guy who can fly using a weapon class contract, it would certainly attract the attention of researchers of the nobles, who’d plan on using you as some kind of test subject and would finally find out that the Wind Fangs is a fake name.”
Zack was dumbstruck when he heard this. “Fake name? What do you mean? You gave it another name?”
Sora said wearily, “Yeah. The original name was a bit long. So I named it Wind Fangs instead. And Jake, it is rude to read someone’s mind without his permission.”
Jake said, “Alright, I’m sorry. So what is your contract’s original name? I never managed to read that.”
Sora said simply, “It’s the Twin Blades of the Wind. Long, right?”
The reaction was something Sora would never forget the rest of his life. Maybe, it was just because of the stupid expression on their faces. Or most likely, it was only then that he knew the true gravity of the situation he had been forced into seven years ago.
“Guys, what’s wrong?”
Jake muttered in a shaky tone, “Sora, forget about not telling those outside the guild that you can fly. Instead, don’t you ever tell your contract’s true name to ANYONE!”
Sora was taken aback. “Guys, you’re scaring me. What is going on?”
Zack asked desperately, “Who else knows about your contract?”
Sora said, “Kai does. And I think the S ranks do as well. Look guys, why are you so flustered about it? I know it is a legendary contract. But–”
Jake beckoned Sora to come closer. Then, he and Zack explained to him in hushed voices. Sora’s eyes went wide as he heard more and more.
“You understand?” Jake asked. “In truth, only nobles are meant to know about it. But some researchers published books relating to the matter. That’s how I found out.”
Sora was shaken. This was far beyond anything he could comprehend. Zack said, “But truthfully, even nobles don’t know the complete story. We don’t know the true importance of the Twin Blades of the Wind.”
Sora leaned back and analyzed everything he had heard. He then said, “
So that’s why Kai and Steve were so bent on training me. It’s starting to make sense now. They knew that there’d be people after the Wind Fangs so they wanted me to be able to defend myself.”
There was a long silence, which Jake broke. “So… what are you going to do about it?”
Sora shrugged and said, “What do you expect me to do about it? Learning about this has just thrown a light on a few things I didn’t know before. There’s nothing that’ll change because of that.”
Sora suddenly felt a little lightheaded. Jake noticed it and said, “That’s probably because of the sudden change in weather from earlier this morning and now. Maybe you should take a break.”
Sora said, “Nah. I’ll just finish off my lunch and take a walk in the city to kill time.”
And he did just that. With his stomach more content than his mind, Sora set off into the city. But just as he was about to leave the guild headquarters, Rita, the lady from the lobby, called out to him.
“Sora. I almost forgot to tell you. This morning, some kid came and asked for you. He seemed to know who you were. He said it was important.”
Sora asked, “Did that kid give a name?”
Rita nodded. “He said that his name was Conner Wake.”
Sora said, “Conner Wake? That does ring a bell.” He scratched his head trying to recollect where he had heard the name.
“He was a sandy-haired, skinny boy.”
“Oh, him! Yeah, I know the kid. Ran into him a couple of months ago. He’s a student from Angle High School. What did he want?”
Rita shrugged and said, “He wanted to talk to you about something. He gave me his cellular phone number and asked you to contact him through it.”
She handed him the number, which was scribbled on a piece of paper. Sora updated it into his G watch and said, “Thanks, Ms. Rita.”
He walked out into the city. With his headset connected to his G watch, he dialed the number. The phone rang twice and was picked up by a boy, who asked, “~Hello? Is this Sora? ~”
“Hey Conner. Been a while, hasn’t it? How’ve you been?”
Contractor: The Legendary Contract of Vento Page 18
