"Master!"
Felix tried pulling his hand back, feeling something resist his strength and grab his shoulder. Whatever he was grappling with had begun to use force, spinning the both of them around as Felix would try to adjust his footing. He held his breath, his ears picking up the rapid beating of this individuals heart despite being unable to see him at all. To him and everyone else in the room, Felix was struggling with nothing at all. It was like he was playing pretend and fighting with some imaginary figure in his head. His foot stumbled and squeaked as he lost his balance, falling on his side and pulling this invisible figure with him.
KuliKuli felt her protective instincts kicking in, ignoring the flaring emotional panic that she was experiencing as she ran in to help. She gasped when she felt someone grab for her arms, a masculine voice grunted behind her as she spun her head around and saw nothing was there. Her pupils widened and she felt someone weight pushing her down, kicking her leg and forcing her to crash onto her knees.
Janette shrieked and covered her mouth, witnessing her two friends be attacked seemingly by ghosts or apparitions. She pushed her back against the door frame, fell on the ground and hugged her legs, inadvertently ripping the curtain off as it fell over her.
Felix found himself rolling over the floor, feeling and hearing the crunch and snap of peanuts bursting on his back as he pulled his assailant with him. Things were happening too fast for him to properly consider his actions and strategize, as being in a fight is a much different experience in the heat of the moment as opposed to strategizing. It was easy to plan out how you would attack or counterattack when you have the time and safety to do so, but in the heat of a calamity where you abruptly find yourself in a struggle, it's not so easy to think before you act without the right experience. Felix did not have such experience, he was no fighter and he knew that. But he has survived through enough to know that he wouldn't give up easily either, the many scars marked around his body was proof of that. He was thankful that he had no scars on his face to keep him presentable, and he hoped to keep it that way. His fists were bound shut in a state of panic, unable to soften his grip even if he wanted to. But he knew his assailant hadn't predicted this reaction either based on how frantic his breathing pattern had become.
As for KuliKuli, she bared her teeth and hissed back, twisted her body around in an attempt to free herself. But she could feel his body weight pinning her down as something hard pressed her paws onto her back and rendered her immobile. She was effectively trapped, fearing that if she transformed into her cat form to slip away, that this person wouldn't push and their weight would be enough to crush her fragile feline spine in half. Janette pulled her feet closer to her when someone plucked the curtains off of her. In a moment, the weight pushing KuliKuli down began to pull back, but it wasn't enough for her to free her arms. From the corner of her eye, she could see Reta had wrapped the curtain around the ghosts head and neck, pulling it back and tying a knot behind them. Reta flinched and pulled back hard, placing her foot where she hoped their back would be and pulling her weight back as hard as she could. The man was coughing hard, reaching back and digger their fingers into Reta's arms. She grunted in pain when she spotted bruises and scratches carving into her wrists, pushing through and refusing to let go. With the curtain wrapped tightly around his face, Reta could detect his shape and facial structure despite his transparent camouflage, seeing how his mouth was wide open and gasping for air behind the red fabric. She reached out and dug her fingers where his upper jaw was and pulled back, succeeding in freeing her friend only to find this figure collapse on top of her.
KuliKuli did not hesitate once she could move, turning on all fours and pouncing on her attacker before striking him with a flurry of swings from her paws. Left and right, back and forth, she unleashed a high pitched cry and squeezed her eyes shut while feeling the impact of her paws crashing on his face and chest. At some point in her attacks, her sleeves began to tear through the blows and her hair became a silver wave messily flying around, the hem of her skirt had slipped up to her thighs as her tails wrapped themselves around each leg of his to keep him from kicking. She was driven by a haunting blend of panic, fright, and anger. Images of a man dressed in white began to flash in her mind, her own screams echoing in a dark lit room while numerous men covered in shiny metal would bind her limbs into a device before feeling something burn into the skin of her neck. She could hear someone's words demanding that they repeat the process again regardless of someone's warning that the experiment would not work. The anger that shot through her fueled her with a strength that she hadn't recognized in herself before. By that time she had stopped, her arms felt like noodles and her muscles ached all around while she herself panted heavily while sat upon the waist of the attacker. Reta was staring up to her in awe, her hands hadn't let go of the curtain over his face, and the assailant had stopped struggling.
The Nekomata turned sharply when she heard Felix lose his breath with a blow to his stomach, followed by a punch in the face. At some point he had lost the man and stood on his feet before falling victim to his attacks from thin air. It was near impossible to fight someone you can't see, and Felix was learning that the hard way. He picked up on something swinging in the air before it crashed into his right temple, feeling another punch to his face as he fell back against the glass wall. His leg gave out and he fell to one knee, his attacker taking advantage and kneeing him in the face. Felix hung his head, feeling his face was on fire while something was pouring out of his nose.
"Boss says he wants ye t'stay, ye ain't leavin'." The man said to him, sounding out of breath.
Felix raised his head and swung his arm out, hearing him chuckle before feeling another hit to the gut which forced him to double over.
"Ye don't get it boy, ye can't see me. Just let it go and you can come nice an' easy."
Felix groaned in pain and closed his eyes, concentrating on the sound of the man's beating heart. He couldn't tell if his breathing was as sharp as KuliKuli's, but it was evident that their parent gave him a new advantage to work with through his mutation. He raised his head and spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the stranger's face as he recoiled in disgust. The splatter of fluids was enough to mark his presence, better yet it became apparent that some of it fell on the strangers eye as they turned their head and tried to wipe it off. Felix reached in and grabbed something, anything he could get his hands onto, before pulling this man and slamming his weight into the glass wall behind him. His head bounced off with an apparent blow to the side, leaving him dazed and granting Felix the opportunity to lunge below and grab his waist, holding him back. He felt several strikes on his back and bared through, grunting furiously and keeping his feet pinned.
The man slammed his hands down on Felix, frantically trying to free himself when Reta pressed her palm under his chin and forced her arm up, crashing his head back on the glass. She was breathing hard through clenched teeth, finding the strength to slam his head again and again until Felix felt the attacker's strength had waned and his body gave out. When he released him and stepped back, they saw the blood stained face slide against the glass as they collapsed in an unconscious state. He turned to see KuliKuli had spun the other man around with Janette struggling to tie up his hands under shaky hands using a torn piece of red cloth. Felix pressed under his lip with his tongue, tasting the metal of his blood and feeling a throbbing pain pulsating around his face and chest. Looking at Reta, she was struggling to control her breathing as she stood up to him and scanned him up and down, tilting his head left and right. Instinctively, she grabbed her sleeve and tore the silk fabric off, using it to wipe his noise and mouth. She reached down as her fingers gently lifted his hand, and it was then that Felix noticed his knuckles were bleeding. She calmly wrapped it around his palm before pulling it tight, securing the bandage and looked up as the two locked eyes.
KuliKuli stepped up to them as well, lowering her face out of shame as she hid her paws behind her. Both Felix and Reta placed their hands on her shoulders and waited patiently for her to show her arms to them. The dress had torn on the shoulders and were a red-stained mess past the forearms, with small bits of cloth hanging loosely around her exposed paws. There was no way of hiding them anymore after the attack they had survived. They turned around when they heard their friend yelp and fall on her butt, kicking her feet and pushing herself against the wall. Apparently, whatever kept these two men invisible had lost its effect as the man on the ground had started to appear. First, as a pile of organs and a beating heart with a pair of lungs expanding like balloons, along with the mans skeletal system forming beneath them. The way the invisibility disappeared gave the illusion that this human was regenerating from thin air, as his muscles formed soon after, following his skin and hair and lastly his clothes. He was a grown man in his middle age judging by the bags under his swollen eyes and the wrinkles on his forehead. The other attacker followed the same way, with his bones and organs appearing first until he was completely unveiled, this time revealing a drow with bluish skin and gray hair.
Umeko was behind his body, scratching at the blood stain left on the glass wall. Hidden behind the blood was a crack, tiny but not insignificant as it meant that their was hope in the possibility of freeing her. She spoke softly to them in a calming manner, her voice echoing through the silence that was felt in the air.
"You all did well, but they have found you. It is best you retreat and leave me be, save your own skin."
"What!" Reta barked back, slamming her fist on the display wall. "We just got ambushed and managed to beat these two and you're giving up now?"
Umeko looked at her with sadness in her eyes, sighing and shaking her head slowly. "Mizuki, I don't want to fight my way out. It is too risky."
"Fuzakeru na! I don't want to hear it, I'm getting you out one way or another."
"Mizuki..." Umeko dropped her gaze, pressing her forehead forward. "It's not just me trapped in here."
"Nani?" Reta asked, looking around Umeko before noticing her palm on her stomach. Her voice cracked as she looked at her friends eyes who simply nodded in silence. She turned around when Felix reached for her arm, pulling her away. "No~"
"We need to go." He stated, with KuliKuli helping Janette on her feet. "Won't be long until more people notice."
"Felix..." Reta kept her eyes on Umeko while she was being dragged away, watching her friend smile back.
"I'm sorry." Felix muttered back, looking at Umeko before the four of them slipped out of the exit.
There was a sudden transition when they left the entrance, because suddenly the circus was crowded once more with people exploring the place from both sides. KuliKuli was helping push Reta through, her other arm pulling Janette with her. Felix led the way forward, pulling everyone down the hall.
"Master!"
Felix tried pulling his hand back, feeling something resist his strength and grab his shoulder. Whatever he was grappling with had begun to use force, spinning the both of them around as Felix would try to adjust his footing. He held his breath, his ears picking up the rapid beating of this individuals heart despite being unable to see him at all. To him and everyone else in the room, Felix was struggling with nothing at all. It was like he was playing pretend and fighting with some imaginary figure in his head. His foot stumbled and squeaked as he lost his balance, falling on his side and pulling this invisible figure with him.
KuliKuli felt her protective instincts kicking in, ignoring the flaring emotional panic that she was experiencing as she ran in to help. She gasped when she felt someone grab for her arms, a masculine voice grunted behind her as she spun her head around and saw nothing was there. Her pupils widened and she felt someone weight pushing her down, kicking her leg and forcing her to crash onto her knees.
Janette shrieked and covered her mouth, witnessing her two friends be attacked seemingly by ghosts or apparitions. She pushed her back against the door frame, fell on the ground and hugged her legs, inadvertently ripping the curtain off as it fell over her.
Felix found himself rolling over the floor, feeling and hearing the crunch and snap of peanuts bursting on his back as he pulled his assailant with him. Things were happening too fast for him to properly consider his actions and strategize, as being in a fight is a much different experience in the heat of the moment as opposed to strategizing. It was easy to plan out how you would attack or counterattack when you have the time and safety to do so, but in the heat of a calamity where you abruptly find yourself in a struggle, it's not so easy to think before you act without the right experience. Felix did not have such experience, he was no fighter and he knew that. But he has survived through enough to know that he wouldn't give up easily either, the many scars marked around his body was proof of that. He was thankful that he had no scars on his face to keep him presentable, and he hoped to keep it that way. His fists were bound shut in a state of panic, unable to soften his grip even if he wanted to. But he knew his assailant hadn't predicted this reaction either based on how frantic his breathing pattern had become.
As for KuliKuli, she bared her teeth and hissed back, twisted her body around in an attempt to free herself. But she could feel his body weight pinning her down as something hard pressed her paws onto her back and rendered her immobile. She was effectively trapped, fearing that if she transformed into her cat form to slip away, that this person wouldn't push and their weight would be enough to crush her fragile feline spine in half. Janette pulled her feet closer to her when someone plucked the curtains off of her. In a moment, the weight pushing KuliKuli down began to pull back, but it wasn't enough for her to free her arms. From the corner of her eye, she could see Reta had wrapped the curtain around the ghosts head and neck, pulling it back and tying a knot behind them. Reta flinched and pulled back hard, placing her foot where she hoped their back would be and pulling her weight back as hard as she could. The man was coughing hard, reaching back and digger their fingers into Reta's arms. She grunted in pain when she spotted bruises and scratches carving into her wrists, pushing through and refusing to let go. With the curtain wrapped tightly around his face, Reta could detect his shape and facial structure despite his transparent camouflage, seeing how his mouth was wide open and gasping for air behind the red fabric. She reached out and dug her fingers where his upper jaw was and pulled back, succeeding in freeing her friend only to find this figure collapse on top of her.
KuliKuli did not hesitate once she could move, turning on all fours and pouncing on her attacker before striking him with a flurry of swings from her paws. Left and right, back and forth, she unleashed a high pitched cry and squeezed her eyes shut while feeling the impact of her paws crashing on his face and chest. At some point in her attacks, her sleeves began to tear through the blows and her hair became a silver wave messily flying around, the hem of her skirt had slipped up to her thighs as her tails wrapped themselves around each leg of his to keep him from kicking. She was driven by a haunting blend of panic, fright, and anger. Images of a man dressed in white began to flash in her mind, her own screams echoing in a dark lit room while numerous men covered in shiny metal would bind her limbs into a device before feeling something burn into the skin of her neck. She could hear someone's words demanding that they repeat the process again regardless of someone's warning that the experiment would not work. The anger that shot through her fueled her with a strength that she hadn't recognized in herself before. By that time she had stopped, her arms felt like noodles and her muscles ached all around while she herself panted heavily while sat upon the waist of the attacker. Reta was staring up to her in awe, her hands hadn't let go of the curtain over his face, and the assailant had stopped struggling.
The Nekomata turned sharply when she heard Felix lose his breath with a blow to his stomach, followed by a punch in the face. At some point he had lost the man and stood on his feet before falling victim to his attacks from thin air. It was near impossible to fight someone you can't see, and Felix was learning that the hard way. He picked up on something swinging in the air before it crashed into his right temple, feeling another punch to his face as he fell back against the glass wall. His leg gave out and he fell to one knee, his attacker taking advantage and kneeing him in the face. Felix hung his head, feeling his face was on fire while something was pouring out of his nose.
"Boss says he wants ye t'stay, ye ain't leavin'." The man said to him, sounding out of breath.
Felix raised his head and swung his arm out, hearing him chuckle before feeling another hit to the gut which forced him to double over.
"Ye don't get it boy, ye can't see me. Just let it go and you can come nice an' easy."
Felix groaned in pain and closed his eyes, concentrating on the sound of the man's beating heart. He couldn't tell if his breathing was as sharp as KuliKuli's, but it was evident that their parent gave him a new advantage to work with through his mutation. He raised his head and spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the stranger's face as he recoiled in disgust. The splatter of fluids was enough to mark his presence, better yet it became apparent that some of it fell on the strangers eye as they turned their head and tried to wipe it off. Felix reached in and grabbed something, anything he could get his hands onto, before pulling this man and slamming his weight into the glass wall behind him. His head bounced off with an apparent blow to the side, leaving him dazed and granting Felix the opportunity to lunge below and grab his waist, holding him back. He felt several strikes on his back and bared through, grunting furiously and keeping his feet pinned.
The man slammed his hands down on Felix, frantically trying to free himself when Reta pressed her palm under his chin and forced her arm up, crashing his head back on the glass. She was breathing hard through clenched teeth, finding the strength to slam his head again and again until Felix felt the attacker's strength had waned and his body gave out. When he released him and stepped back, they saw the blood stained face slide against the glass as they collapsed in an unconscious state. He turned to see KuliKuli had spun the other man around with Janette struggling to tie up his hands under shaky hands using a torn piece of red cloth. Felix pressed under his lip with his tongue, tasting the metal of his blood and feeling a throbbing pain pulsating around his face and chest. Looking at Reta, she was struggling to control her breathing as she stood up to him and scanned him up and down, tilting his head left and right. Instinctively, she grabbed her sleeve and tore the silk fabric off, using it to wipe his noise and mouth. She reached down as her fingers gently lifted his hand, and it was then that Felix noticed his knuckles were bleeding. She calmly wrapped it around his palm before pulling it tight, securing the bandage and looked up as the two locked eyes.
KuliKuli stepped up to them as well, lowering her face out of shame as she hid her paws behind her. Both Felix and Reta placed their hands on her shoulders and waited patiently for her to show her arms to them. The dress had torn on the shoulders and were a red-stained mess past the forearms, with small bits of cloth hanging loosely around her exposed paws. There was no way of hiding them anymore after the attack they had survived. They turned around when they heard their friend yelp and fall on her butt, kicking her feet and pushing herself against the wall. Apparently, whatever kept these two men invisible had lost its effect as the man on the ground had started to appear. First, as a pile of organs and a beating heart with a pair of lungs expanding like balloons, along with the mans skeletal system forming beneath them. The way the invisibility disappeared gave the illusion that this human was regenerating from thin air, as his muscles formed soon after, following his skin and hair and lastly his clothes. He was a grown man in his middle age judging by the bags under his swollen eyes and the wrinkles on his forehead. The other attacker followed the same way, with his bones and organs appearing first until he was completely unveiled, this time revealing a drow with bluish skin and gray hair.
Umeko was behind his body, scratching at the blood stain left on the glass wall. Hidden behind the blood was a crack, tiny but not insignificant as it meant that their was hope in the possibility of freeing her. She spoke softly to them in a calming manner, her voice echoing through the silence that was felt in the air.
"You all did well, but they have found you. It is best you retreat and leave me be, save your own skin."
"What!" Reta barked back, slamming her fist on the display wall. "We just got ambushed and managed to beat these two and you're giving up now?"
Umeko looked at her with sadness in her eyes, sighing and shaking her head slowly. "Mizuki, I don't want to fight my way out. It is too risky."
"Fuzakeru na! I don't want to hear it, I'm getting you out one way or another."
"Mizuki..." Umeko dropped her gaze, pressing her forehead forward. "It's not just me trapped in here."
"Nani?" Reta asked, looking around Umeko before noticing her palm on her stomach. Her voice cracked as she looked at her friends eyes who simply nodded in silence. She turned around when Felix reached for her arm, pulling her away. "No~"
"We need to go." He stated, with KuliKuli helping Janette on her feet. "Won't be long until more people notice."
"Felix..." Reta kept her eyes on Umeko while she was being dragged away, watching her friend smile back.
"I'm sorry." Felix muttered back, looking at Umeko before the four of them slipped out of the exit.
There was a sudden transition when they left the entrance, because suddenly the circus was crowded once more with people exploring the place from both sides. KuliKuli was helping push Reta through, her other arm pulling Janette with her. Felix led the way forward, pulling everyone down the hall.
