KINETIC

Nila sat down on a chair that had been placed in the room while Leo sat across from her on the bed.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Leo asked. Nila looked Leo directly in the eyes "You're very different from other people our age. You act more mature and cool headed than most and I wanted to ask you why. How are you so different? The only reasonable explanation I could think of was that you lived a bad life until now, that's the most probable reason , so what happened to you?"

Leo's eyes widened in surprise as he pondered how he should answer. 'Should I just tell her? It's not a big deal if people know, I just don't want them to treat me differently. I could be more vague about it, just giving her a hint should be enough. Agh, I don't know.' Leo was flustered, he hadn't had anyone outright ask him about his past apart from when he was arrested.

"You're right, my life has been difficult. I'm sure you've seen the scars all of my body, those are the proof of it. I won't go into details, but I had to adapt to survive. Having the mind of a child wouldn't cut it, so it's seems I matured faster than I should have as a way to cope." Leo explained.

The truth is that Leo hadn't come up with any of that. Dreifus was the mastermind behind that explanation, explaining it from an outside perspective.

"I understand... You clearly don't want to talk about it so I'll leave it be with that answer. Thank you for indulging me." Nila stood up and walked over to the door. She waited for a moment when reaching it, but Leo didn't say anything so she opened the door and left.

'Thanks for the save Dreifus, I had no idea how to answer that without making her feel sorry for me or outright lying.' Leo let out a sigh of relief.

'Don't be too happy kid, she may have stopped asking but I think she still feels sorry for you anyways.' Dreifus responded.

Leo lay back on his bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering if he should have said something different. Suddenly his bed began to vibrate softly and Leo jumped to his feet.

"What the..." Leo stood still for over a minute, but nothing happened. 'Did I imagine it?' Leo sat back down on the bed but suddenly there was another vibration. This time the entire room was shaking and Leo knew he hadn't imagined it.

He got up and rushed to the door, he grabbed the handle and swung it open. Leo's eyes squinted from confusion and surprise at the figure standing at his door. The next moment a horizontal line of red energy slammed into Leo, sending him flying backwards and right through the wall.

His body continued moving as he fell from the third floor of the tavern, his body eventually crashing into the roof of a nearby house. The wood splintered and dented, but he didn't go through the roof entirely.

Nilas room was only a few doors away from Leo's and when she felt the vibrations she knew something was wrong. She entered the hallway just in time to see Leo getting hit with a horizontal line of red energy. The person who made the attack jumped forwards and followed after Leo.

Nila ran towards Leo's room door and looked at the hole in the wall that had been created.

'Should I help Leo or the others? I know he's strong but after receiving an attack that strong without being prepared for it... The others should be fine, I'll help Leo.' Nila decided what to do and took a step into the room. She intended to jumped out the hole and follow Leo and his attacker.

Before she could, a hand was seen swiping towards her from her side. Nila ducked down and jumped backwards, the hand grazed her cheek and a numbing pain spread across her face.

When looking up she could see two figures in front of her. The furthest one was wearing the usual cloak and mask of the Cult, but the other one didn't look human. It was a humanoid looking creature with four arms and a long tail. The most disturbing part was that this creature looked as though it were made out of shadows.

The shadow creature was the one who had attacked Nila, the Cultist was just standing in the back at a safe distance watching.

The shadow moved forwards toward Nila, but it was slower than she expected. It might have been faster than a regular person, but not Nila. It tried to swipe at her with its arms multiple times, but do to the difference in speed Nila managed to dodge each strike rather easily.

Nila backed away and stretched out her hand towards the shadow, a blast of red energy shot out of her hand.

The creature stood still, not even attempting to move out the way. 'That was easier than I expected.' Nila thought as she smirked.

She had used her strongest attack to ensure the shadow would die in one hit. As the attack hit the shadows body, the energy seemed to disperse through its entire body, making it glow a dull red for a moment. Then, to Nilas surprise, the creature pulled its arms back and the energy shot out of its chest, heading back towards Nila.

The shock of having her attack seemingly absorbed and thrown back at her made her body freeze. The energy collided with her leg and forced her leg back, making her body spin in the air as she was sent flying across the hallway.

She slammed into a wall and fell to the ground hard. When looking at her leg she could see it was blackened from the heat of the energy. The pain was immense, but Nila pushed through it and stood up.

The Cultist, who was still behind the shadow, started laughing maniacly. "You don't stand a chance little girl, these shadows aren't something a human can defeat. You should just give up and accept your death! I promise to make it quick if you do." He said with an amused tone of voice.

Nila looked up at him and smiled "Go fuck yourself!" She then shot an energy blast directly at the Cultist, ignoring the shadow.