The Dream Shifter

Chapter 12

The chakram shattered the frozen snow into shards of ice leaving nothing behind of the assassin as the pieces fell down to the snow. A trail of blood sprayed through the air. Yuki and Saki blinded in surprise not certain what had happened, but Ayumi was injured somehow. Behind Ayumi was the assassin standing with his sword dripping lightly with blood. 

She spun around bringing her chakram back with the chain wrapping around the sword's blade and the chakram spiraling around his arm slicing it up like a screw to the shoulder. Ayumi faced the assassin with her right arm covered by a shield with her sword missing.

"A shield? Ayumi! What happened? " Saki said confused by the strange events that had somehow transpired in front of the unknown. She looked at Yuki who held equal confusion trying to understand what had happened.

'He's more persistent than I expected.' 

Ayumi pulled the chain as it tightened its grip on the blade and the entire arm squeezing it drawing more blood from the wound. The assassin winced in pain unable to move. 

'The lance was only a distraction…' 

Her mind went back through the moments visualizing what had occurred in the few seconds.

The chakram had just left her hands when the assassin had released his sword. At the same moment, he summoned up his lance letting it go from his left hand just after Ayumi had made her strike. She had been able to see the attack, but there was not enough time for her to evade and keep her full concentration. Doing the only thing she had left, she converted her sword into a shield to deflect the lance. 

However, she had lost only a partial concentration on the snow cage on the assassin that it was enough that he was able to assert field dominance long enough to break free and make an attempt with his sword. She did not see the attack coming until it was too late to do anything but moved enough to make the wound less deep than it would have been.

"It's over now." 

Ayumi pulled up her sword and tugged on the chain positioning the man right so that she had a clear shot. He struggled against his arm trying to break free but only made the bleeding worse. She stood in front of him holding him place and using the snow as well to prevent any sort of escape. 

The sword ran through his chest exposing the tip out the back to Saki and Yuki's surprise. The assassin coughed up blood from the wound spraying Ayumi's face. A short few moments faded as the surprise horror of one of their own classmates killing someone began to sink in. 

All around the assassin his sand field and weapons disappeared in an instant leaving only Ayumi's snow. She quickly released her field as well letting him drop to the school's ground dripping blood across the grass.

Saki looked on in disbelief that the new student had just killed a man in cold blood and seemed completely unaffected. Ayumi turned her eyes up at the two of them with a dark expression serious and cold covered in the blood of the one she had just killed. When she began to approach them Saki pulled Yuki back becoming frightened of what happened. 

"A-Ayumi…stay back!"

Ayumi stopped in her step as her clothes evaporated into the air returning her back to her school uniform. She was back to the way she had been, but there was still blood on her. It was no longer the same person that they knew. 

"You don't need to be afraid of me. I'm here to protect him."

"Don't come any closer! Y-You killed someone! Y-You didn't-"

"If I hadn't he would have come back to try to kill Yuki again. This is beyond anything you understand. Only I can protect him."

"NO!" 

Saki was shaking profusely holding Yuki. She did not know how long she could keep herself together. 

'I have to be strong. I have to be strong for him.' 

The ground started to rotate slightly in front of Saki forcing her to catch her breath holding back the heavily panicked breathing.

 "I-I will. I will p-protect him. I-I will…"

Ayumi pulled one side of her lips up in annoyance of the frightened school girl. "You're barely holding yourself up in front of me. What you expect to do against the next assassin that comes for him?" She started walking forward again toward them.

It did not matter to her that she looked unarmed and like any other girl at her school. Saki knew differently from what she saw that there was more underneath the girl than just weird fantastic powers. The expression she had was something that had seen death before, far too many times. Saki could tell that she was not like them in any way. She could not trust Yuki in her care no matter what. 

"I-I said stay away from us!"

'She's going to fall apart any minute. But I…' 

Ayumi ignored the demands of Saki pressing on towards them. Saki pulled back more until she had run herself against the shed of the sports equipment. Yuki's pale face grunted going unnoticed by both girls. 

"You can't get away from me with him. And you saw what I can do."

"Now you're threatening us. What do you want with him? Who are you?"

"I already told him. He's the only one that needs to know."

"How you expect us to trust you?"

"I'm not looking for your trust. I don't need you. I need him." 

Ayumi closed the distance between them quickly and holding Yuki there was nothing that Saki could do to prevent it. She took Saki's arm to prevent her from going anywhere. 

"Leave him to me. You're no longer required."

"I already told you. NO!" 

Saki shifted Yuki to her right that was being held down by Ayumi to free up her left hand. She quickly tightened her fist and ran it through Ayumi's face connecting to her surprise in her chin and mouth. It was enough to break her free from the hold and pull Yuki away to a safer distance.

Ayumi brushed the back of her hand against her lip to wipe away the blood. 

"I see you're stronger than you look. But that's not enough."

'So I can hurt her. Is it because she doesn't have her powers?' 

Saki continued to back away slowly making her way further from the school and into the track grounds. She watched Ayumi cautiously not certain if she would use her powers to take Yuki from her now that she saw that it was not going to be so easy.

"You're serious huh? Well if you are…" Ayumi began to shift her body but was stopped in mid-motion by an unexpected voice.

Yuki coughed from Saki's arm spilling some blood from his lips alerting the two of them. 

"I-I think…I'm bleeding…" 

He suddenly went limp in Saki's arm losing consciousness dropping to the ground. His blood slowly dripped onto the grass.

Ayumi rushed over to him with Saki kneeling down panic covering her face thickly. 

"Yuki? Yuki!"

"Yuki!" 

Saki screamed as she lost hold of him to the ground. She had been so caught up with Ayumi and what had been happening with the assassin that she had completed forgotten how injured Yuki truly was. The mistake was hers thinking that this was just another bully looking to hurt and push Yuki into the ground. 

This was much worse than that. It was a life and death struggle between them and Yuki had lost, but against the fantastic powers, Saki had seen it did not seem like he even stood a chance.

Yuki was lying on the ground bleeding out into the grass faster now than before as though something had been holding him back before. Saki dropped to the ground next to him panicking quickly over all of the different injures that he had not sure where she should begin. 

'He's bleeding too fast and too much. I don't know what to do. I need to do something, but what? What do I do?' She grabbed his tattered uniform in her arms leaning over him starting to cry a little. 

"Yuki! What do I do? I was…I was…"