Chapter 12; Fear Me

Stay low, Kyungsoo thinks over and over again, his gaze often finding its way to Su Min, whose arms are crossed as she stands some ways off. Stay far away. His opponent, Zitao, is a tall Chinese kid with incredible strength and agility. Everything he does is on target, he rarely misses, but his height makes lunging and defending his legs difficult. Kyungsoo glances over at Xiumin who’s twitching nervously. What if he gets attacked first?

The three circle around, sizing each other up. The odds are in Zitao’s favor, and he’s well aware of that, but he can’t help but feel nervous about battling Divine Forces. If he kills them, is it considered a sin? Can they even die? What if they use their powers? The fight is full of tension and questions on both sides. But sensing the urgency of his own trainer, Zitao makes the first move, ing out with the wooden stick he holds in his hand.

Kyungsoo ducks away from it, the stick splitting the air right above his head. Sighing, Zitao narrows his eyes and suppresses a growl. They must have been trained, or at least, one of them was. Turning his attention to the other Force, he sets him as his first real target. He’s obviously the weaker of the two; he looks nervous, he’s shorter, and he’s frailer. Stepping forward, he moves to knock Xiumin’s feet out from under him.

Instead, his own breath his knocked out of him. He’s thrown several feet into the air and slammed to the ground with a thud. Struggling to bring air into his lungs, he watches as his vision blurs. The sky above him is dotted with blaring white stars. The feeling of being tossed like a toy doll is like no other. In fact, it almost feels as if he’s someone else looking at his own flailing body. A weight rests upon him and he feels his face being smashed into with something as hard as a rock. Wrong. It’s Kyungsoo’s fist. Flipping over, he knocks the small male off of him and glances around for his stick. It’s far-off, whereas Kyungsoo is already back on his feet, getting ready to barrel into him.

Lifting a long leg, he kicks him in the chest, sending Kyungsoo flying backwards helplessly. The girl from earlier lets out a low grunt as she stares on in distaste, but Zitao ignores her as he strides towards the second of the Forces. Xiumin skips around nervously, his short legs barely carrying him farther than Zitao. Finally, Zitao lets out an annoyed grunt and leaps forward, tackling Xiumin to the ground.

Lifting a fist, he prepares to hurtle it into the smaller males rib cage. But his fist is caught in the air by a cold force, something otherworldly, and as he stares at it, he realizes why. His fists is engulfed in a ball of ice, and for some reason, the ice prohibits him from even moving his arm.

Xiumin kicks the younger male off of him and stands up, brushing off his clothes quickly before turning to Zitao. He stares in fear at the seemingly weak boy that stands above him. If he is to explode this ice, Zitao’s fist would be shattered and rendered useless. But, instead, the ice all falls off as the boy suddenly collapses.

Xiumin gurgles slightly, his body twitching as he threatens to foam at the mouth. Su Min materializes by his side, her eyes wide as she stares down at her companion. “What did you do to him!?” she screams, barreling towards Zitao and knocking him backwards onto the ground. This Su Min is foreign compared to the vulnerable looking girl he had saw in the forest earlier. This one is like savage, whereas, the girl from before had soft eyes filled with pity.

Her fists pound into him with surprising ferocity, and his ribs threaten to break under her assault. But Lieutenant Lee appears behind her and drags her by the hem of her robe off of Zitao, flinging her to the ground in one solid move. Su Min rolls quickly and stands back up, as if she wasn’t just flung like a rag doll. She turns to him, her eyes ablaze and she ruthlessly kicks him in the gut. Su Min continues to pound  on him, her fists and feet flying as she ruthlessly attacks Lieutenant Lee. He’s weak, compared to her. He can’t even compare to her strength. For once, Zitao isn’t afraid of him.

He has someone new to fear.

Military guards pile onto the field, their black robes swishing and their feet pounding on the hard ground as they run to stop Su Min. She’s grabbed by two of them, each taking one of her arms and lifting her off the ground with surprising ease. “Let me go, you fools!” she screams, her face red as she kicks the open air. “LET ME GO! HE DESERVES TO DIE!” Her voice rings through the night, sounding distant and yet so close and oppressive.

The night cascades over him, bathing him in darkness and serenity as the stars lull him to sleep and the cicadas chirp. Sleeping outside isn’t safe--he knows that. The night isn’t safe, he knows that as well. What he didn’t know is that a girl half his size could torment him and his trainer like a little devil. But, really, who could’ve known?

That girl, Su Min, simply isn’t normal.

- - -

“Hey, look here,” a moderately toned voice calls. The sound, although rather soft, pounds against his ear drums ruthlessly. “Do you plan on getting up or sleeping all day?” the voice asks, now sounding a bit annoyed and restless. Zitao reluctantly flicks his eyes open, finding himself staring up at the yellowed ceiling of the town’s physician center. Beside him, the two Forces he had fought yesterday stand. In this light, they don’t look intimidating or powerful--they look like any other boys their age.

Rubbing his eyes with the back of his bruised hand, he glances around quickly before propping himself up on his elbows and looking at them. “You are?” he asks, despite the fact that he is well aware of their ‘statistics’ if you will. The shorter of the two smiles, revealing a set of tiny teeth and making his wide cheeks more robust. Zitao blinks and wonders why neither of them have spoken.

“I’m Xiumin,” the one boy says in semi-broken Mandarin. “And this is Kyungsoo.” He gestures towards the boy beside him, who, if he remembers correctly, is the one that mauled him like a bear. Both of the boys are pretty beaten up; their hair disheveled, their faces and bodies bruised, and their lips dry, cracked, and bloody. “You gave us quite the beating.” Xiumin chuckles, obviously not embarrassed in the least bit. Or mad, for that matter.

Kyungsoo, who had been examining Zitao quietly for the past minute or so finally speaks up. “Who are you?” he demands crudely.

“Well,” he starts, this time in Korean. “I’m Zitao, but...Please just call me Tao.”

Much to his surprise, Kyungsoo smiles, his lips forming a heart. “You’re like Xiumin. His real name is Mins--” he begins but is cut off as Xiumin slaps a hand over his mouth and shoots him a glare. Tao chuckles and uses the little bit of spirit to lift himself out of bed and into a standing position. “You’re tall.” Kyungsoo exclaims, his voice muffled by Xiumin’s hand. Tao smiles once again, his panda-like eyes curving endearingly.

“Ew, Kyungsoo-ah! You my hand,” Xiumin groans and rubs the now sticky hand on his robes. Clucking his tongue he raises a fist to hit the younger male, but quickly puts it down, instead sending him an annoyed glance. “Well, we’re on our way to see Su Min. She’s that really scary girl, by the way. The evil-looking one...Yeah, well, we decided to drop by because we wanted to make sure you weren’t too hurt.” Xiumin rambles, casting the boy a cheeky smile. Obviously they know little about battle--you’re not supposed to care about your opponent. No matter what.

Tao raises an eyebrow at the mention of the girl from last night. “Why, where is she?” he prods, tilting his head to the side. Despite his rather masculine and cold looks, Tao has the demeanor of a small child. He honestly doesn’t look all that intimidating when he’s not about to kill you. Kyungsoo lets out a chortle and then proceeds to smile.

“Rotting in jail, of course.”

Author's Note;

► Once again, I apoligize for the super late update. I've been doing stuff and life is just bleh. At first, I didn't like this chapter all thatmuch, but its grown on me. Kyungsoo is always the funny one, I've noticed. AND OMG ALL MY TAO FEELS. Speaking of our little Kung Fu Panda, I recently finished a story centered around him. More or less. It's actually pretty much all in the POV of a female of OC but he's the othe rmain character. Anyways, I apologize for my advertising, I couldn't help it. Well, anyways, I hope you enjoyed this update and remember to comment, subscribe, and upvote as well!

► Peyton

-Dat wushu do-