I raise my hand and squeeze.
It's a small motion fingers tightening, a deliberate calculated motion and the illusion blooms from the pressure, fast and immediate. I don't try to spare his mind; I carve a single, private truth into Aravind's head and shove it in like it's his only memory.
For a heartbeat his face is a map of confusion, then something else crosses it. Color drains from his cheeks. His eyes go wide, pupils popping in horror. I watch satisfaction, clinical and cold, settle in my chest as the image I forced him to see his family butchered, the reality is forced upon on him and its trapped in a truth I have created for him. It matters not that its a lie. But i sense his fears as if they were written on his face and this is at the fore front of his being. The love of family. How honorable. I step forward with Lucian following a few feet behind, and we start walking toward the flag. My face is carved into a grin. Thank the gods they sent three for the diversion, I think. Fucking idiots. Perfect bait the others played. Sucks for Aravind that he'll die though but I cast that thought out as unnecessary he was an enemy.
But as we approach i see him blink. The normal expression of sadness and apprehension melts for a second. Something like grief, raw and immediate, flickers across his face. Then the flicker becomes fear, but It's not fear of death that I would expect. It's fear of something else. He staggers, like someone who's been hit in the stomach, and I pause watching him with my eyes narrowed. What the hell I hiss to lucain who shrugs.
Aravind's face twists, not with pain but with something that doesn't really seem to fit the situation its once of deep satisfaction. He cracks his neck. He swallows. When he speaks it's almost calm, layered over with a thread of giddy excitement "Oh wow well done, you two. You actually made him give up control to me." His voice has an odd flavor, like a guest speaking through a host. "It must be serious for him to give his body up."
What the hell? I frown.
Aravind laughs then, a short, humorless sound that curls into contempt. "Oh, don't worry about it I can see your confused but it wont concern you for much longer. But in thanks for allowing me the great Kali to take over this human's body, I will kill you both quickly." He smiles as if parting us with some great wisdom and kindness.
Kali? What? The voices inside laugh mockingly then surge back with contempt. I snort, the sound low and steady. "Split personality disorder, eh Aravind? How unbecoming."
The voices snap at the insult of him killing me, their anger is mine and I can feel myself losing control. They're irritated on my behalf, offended by the arrogance of it. I laugh because the claim is ridiculous.
Aravind's face doesn't change. His eyes gleam in amusement and he shrugs like a man shrugging off a coat. "Oh well, if that's all you have to say..." He smiles
And then he disappears.
Not a flicker, not an illusion of movement. He vanishes like somebody snatching thread from a tapestry. One heartbeat he's in front of me standing feet away, the next empty air is where he stood.
My breath catches in fear and shock.
I don't get to think a full sentence before I feel the blade.
Cold metal bites into my stomach with a precision that sings through my nerves. Pain flares hot, immediate then a second later my elbow drops, instinct taking over. I clamp around Aravind's wrist, feel the sword vibrate inside me. The world narrows to the electric shock of contact and the taste of bile in my mouth.
I don't pull back. I reverse the motion I used to trap the wrist into a strike of my own hard, driving my elbow into his face. Bone meets bone. Pain blooms on his cheek and he blinks, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes. Enough for me to shove back, but not enough to stop him.
He jerks, pulls the sword back, and in the same motion lashes out at Lucian. A sweep meant to punish his sudden surprise.
Lucian tries to counter he's got the reflexes but the blade skims his shoulder anyways, a red line blooms through the fabric. Lucian grunts and staggers back. Fucking hell.
My eyes narrow. And I take a deep breathe weighing our options. Time is not a luxury anymore. Aravind is not the slippery, theatrical boy we met a few heartbeats ago. He moves like something else. Someone else. He's much faster and strikes at us with a very real kill intent. He moves like a predator. Kill intent is not about strength. It's a posture. It's the way someone moves when they've decided you are their victim. The sensation radiates off Aravind like heat. My mind flashes back to Cain and what he told me during on of our training sessions. The mastery of combat eventually comes down to who can calculate faster, all of the different things that make up a battle. I know in my bones that I am better than the boy in front of me. Whoever wins becomes the killer and the other the killed, I spit out blood as i feel Lucians mark healing the stab wound that was just inflicted and I smile. He will become the killed.
"Thanks for that" I send to Lucian and he responds
"No problem but try not to die, if you die then i'm next and that's not going to be enjoyable."
"I laugh "I'll do my best"
Aravind laughs or Kali whatever fucking name he's going by. He wipes blood from his mouth "You should've let him be, Ayato," he says.
"Shut up freak," I snap.
He sighs, mock-sad. "You really don't get it. But I'm grateful, truly." His grin widens. "So I'll kill you both quickly just stay there okay no need to resist."
The voices anger at the threat surges through our merged collective in waves so strong that I could feel my grasp on self control start to fray.
"Decide then," he says, amused. "Which death do you want, Children?"