Chapter 16. The Demon is Back

“First, let’s talk about your strengths…” Seunghyun clapped his hands, pacing in front of Seungri with a serious frown on his face, his back straight and all in all looking intimidating. They were standing in the middle of a broad field, surrounded by pine trees and dense foliage. The air felt crispy, charged with tension and nervousness. At the edge, under the shadow of one tree was SooJoo cheering him up, next to Layl and a terrified Daesung.

Minzy and Aigiel were standing each at each side of Seunghyun, dressed in their vests and holding their swords.

“You have small wings, so that is a disadvantage when we talk about speed”, Seunghyun explained, edging closer towards him and looking at Seungri’s wings almost analytically. Seungri simply gulped and nodded, fluttering uncomfortable his wings when the memories of how he had been chased and caught by the extremist angel before came rushing back to him.

“But it is an advantage if you know how to use the size on your side. Your wings are light, so it is easier for you to maneuver through the air, you can be agiler, zig zag and plummet down and raise up faster than any of us with big wings,” Aigiel interrupted Seunghyun, who turned and looked at the demon approvingly.

“Next time, don’t try to outrun your enemy,” Aigiel kept talking, “I saw you with the extremist angel a few days ago. Try to tire them, or to make them lose balance. Make them stumble in the air, lose control.”

“Easier said than done,” Seungri muttered, extending his wings behind him, feeling still some streaks of pain when he moved them at a certain angle. Although they were now stronger, healthier after a week of constant treatment and being forced to be cautious with them.

Minzy smiled at him and placed one hand over his shoulder as if sensing his wariness, “It is actually easy. Just let the air guide you through the air. You’ll know by instinct what to do.”

Seunghyun placed his sword on the floor and got rid of his vest, “We will start with chasing,” he said, spreading his big wings and turning his eyes to Aigiel, “We thought it will be easier if we start with one-to-one chasing and we can move in a few days to three-to-one…”, although his forehead wrinkled at that as if he still was uncertain about it “… it depends on how you do,” he finished with a dismissive hand gesture.

Seungri looked at the three of them and swallowed, feeling his wings tingle with anticipation. He darted his gaze to where SooJoo was pumping his fist in the air, cheering for him. He caught her eyes and nodded slowly, mouthing a thank you before turning to look at Seunghyun. Then he found the enough courage to ask with a quivering voice, “Ok… How do we do this?”

“I’ll chase you first,” Seunghyun said, “You have to avoid getting caught by me,” then he pointed at Aigiel, who was also getting rid of his vest and sword, “We will see how you do with me, and then you will try with Aigiel.”

Aigiel looked up from where he was settling safely his sword and nodded, “Angels and Demons have different flying techniques. Tricks, if you want to call them that way. We think you should know how to defend yourself from both.”

Seungri nodded, his cheeks feeling the rush of adrenaline climbing up through his body. His stomach churned when he placed himself a few meters in front of Seunghyun.

“At the count of three, you fly away,” Seunghyun shouted, “I’ll give you five seconds of advantage, use them wisely.”

Seungri crunched down and signaled with his hand he was ready, spreading his wings to a flying position.

“One…”

Seungri swallowed and looked at the blue sky above him, then at the treetops around them, standing proudly on the horizon and finally at the passageway at his right that he knew lead to the open canyon.

“Two…”

His eyes darted around trying to find the safest route to take, anxiety crept through him when he found himself unable to find any.

“Plummet down”, Seungri muttered at the same time Seunghyun shouted “Three!” behind him.

With all the strength he could gather he forced himself up, trying to reach a vertical direction as fast as possible. His plan? Going as far up as possible in the five seconds he was given. Soon he heard the flapping of strong winds pursuing behind him. He looked down and noticed he was already a few miles up from the ground, Seunghyun was half a mile away behind him. He turned around and plummeted down, trying to gain the fastest speed as possible, praying he would be fast enough to dodge Seunghyun and not crash face to face with him. They got closer and closer, Seunghyun with a determined gaze, Seungri almost biting his tongue in concentration.

“Now,” Seungri screamed and tilted his wings to the right, grazing with his outer feathers one side of Seunghyun, dodging him by a few centimeters. Seunghyun stopped surprised, unable to halt immediately do to his weight, which gave Seungri a few seconds spare to fly to his left and through the treetops to lose Seunghyun inside the forest.

He zigzagged through the forest, feeling the flapping of wings getting closer and closer. He turned to his right and went up once again, Seunghyun appeared from behind him, right next to one of the pines, a smirk plastered on his face before he extended one of his arms and increased his speed to reach Seungri’s legs. Seungri looked around and under him, where Seunghyun was just a few centimeters away from catching him. He turned his wings upside and halted midways violently, one of his legs found his way to Seunghyun’s face, and kicked the Alpha hard when once again Seunghyun wasn’t agile enough to stop his speed on time. He heard Seunghyun curse out loud and stumble through the air, trying to get control of his wings. Seungri smiled, feeling more confident. He then went down and inside the forest once again, flying as low as possible to the ground, trying to get lost among the foliage. His mistake was not to pay attention to where exactly Seunghyun had gone, because when he turned back to see how far Seunghyun was from him, he only felt a pair of strong wings appear in front of him, and a pair of wings surrounded him and dragged him down to the ground. Seungri crashed on the floor while his left side flamed in pain. Seunghyun stood above him, pinning him to the ground.

“Never lose sight of your enemy,” Seunghyun exclaimed, flashing his eyes and standing up, releasing Seungri from his weight, “Remember that I am faster than you. Your mistake was standing below me. I could see where you were going, I overran you from above and caught you by surprise in front of you, where you were not expecting me.”

“I thought you wouldn’t see me through the foliage,” Seungri whispered, caressing his left arm, who now was covered in red blotches and scratches.

“I couldn’t see you, but I could see the movement of the trees whenever you passed next to them, your wings create an airwave that moves the foliage in a particular way. Remember that we know how to track enemies. There are many ways to locate an enemy.”

“So, what should I do then?” Seungri asked frustrated while letting out a heavy sigh and slumping down his wings in defeat.

“Easy,” Aigiel surprised him, appearing from above one of the trees, “First lesson: For you is always best to be above your enemy, never below. That way you have control of the chase.”

“Second lesson,” he said, raising two fingers in the air, “Try to always keep the fight in the open air. Never let yourself be in a position where you don’t have sight of your enemy. That’s when you lose control of the chase.”

Seunghyun grunted in agreement and added the last advice, “Third lesson: your zigzagging technique is good, but try to do it with things that do not cover your sight of what is above you, and especially when they give up your flying route. Deep foliage is usually a bad place to try a zigzagging strategy. Canyons or houses, on the other hand, are things you can attempt for your enemy to crash against.”

“But you can plummet down and up the deep foliage to confuse your enemy. But never stay inside or attempt to continue the chase inside,” Aigiel added with a smile, clapping him on the back, “You did good tho, that kick was awesome.”

Seungri let out a shy smile and looked at Seunghyun’s right eye, that was now sporting a blue bruise around it.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” Seunghyun muttered, his ears turning red, “pure beginner's luck…” he coughed, walking away.

Aigiel threw his head back in laughter and winked at Seungri. They walked back to the field, where SooJoo was now standing up and raising her thumbs up. Even Daesung looked more relaxed when he smiled at him, proudly.

“Now it’s Aigiel’s turn,” Seunghyun said, “Minzy is looking at your technique, so we can improve whatever needs to be improved.”

And that was how Seungri spent the whole day, being chased by both an Alpha angel and a demon and getting pinned down to the floor. With Aigiel he had learned the hard way that demons used to be trickier than angels. They tended to confuse you because their flight patterns weren’t as predictable as an angel’s.

“They play dirty,” was Seunghyun’s way of explaining it although Minzy had slapped his head as an answer and Aigiel had frowned, insulted.

“I beg to differ. We are only smarter,” Aigiel had answered with all the sassiness he could muster.  And then he had nothing but purposely shook his wings right in front of Seunghyun’s face, his feathers slapped the Alpha’s nose and eyes and made him break in a fit of violent sneezes.

When they returned to their camp Seungri was in a good mood, his muscles were relaxed and his chest no longer felt oppressed by a sense of uneasiness. He had found a new confidence in his abilities, in his power of survival. Back at the camp, Maeum had already started a fire and was cooking something that smelled delicious to Seungri’s hungry and exhausted body. Judging by the approving grunts of the rest he was not the only one.

Aigiel and Seunghyun sat down to chatter, a sight that was no longer surprising to Seungri. During the few weeks, they had been together all of them had turned into something akin to a family. Somehow it was now difficult to separate them into separate races. All of them fit together in a way that had been initially disturbing, but now it was as if all this time this should have been the way Shinshi should be. A place without divisions or differences. He sat next to SooJoo who had a knowing smile on her face, and who immediately captured him with one of her wings with tenderness. That’s how he suddenly found himself asleep, face resting on SooJoo’s shoulder, his exhaustion getting the best of him, hunger forgotten.

After a few minutes, or maybe hours, he didn’t know, Seungri woke up by the sound of steps coming closer. He opened his eyes at the view of Youngbae and Jiyong walking together, back from tracking around the area. Jiyong was frowning, listening intently to whatever Youngbae was saying when he caught Seungri’s eyes, and all his stance softened. Somehow the tension on his face vanished and turned into a cautious, soft smile. Seungri felt his face blush at the way Jiyong was looking at him, almost with adoration. That until his eyes roamed down his body and reached to the scratches and blood on his left arm. Then his face turned stony and worried.

“Oh dear, here it comes,” he listened to SooJoo whisper and saw her roll her eyes.

“Aigiel! What the hell happened?” Jiyong almost roared to Aigiel, who was caught off guard and in his fright, had almost dropped to the ground the sword he was sharpening