Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

No movement from the other side and no movement from this side. Hitori stood still, and so did Tengoku, but not Reon.

She glanced at Hitori, then at his bare toe. She pulled her lips in and raised the gun she was holding in her left hand.

When Hitori's eyes fell on the gun, not he recognized it, but he felt his heart jump. It was Kamiya's Sig Sauer P220, the one under the bed, stuck to the upper side.

"So that was your plan…" he muttered, barely audible to himself.

Reon grabbed the front and pulled it, making the sweet sound of activating the mechanism. Hitori expected Tengoku to attack after hearing the sound, and he thought Reon knew it too, but when she walked past Hitori and stopped right around the corner– he knew he was wrong.

Between her and Tengoku stood just a nine inches block of wood. Hitori wondered if she could hear him breathing, or if he could hear Reon's irrational breathing.

Hitori looked at her, his eyes fell on her chest which was not heaving up and down as it should if she was nervous or scared, which she should have been, but was not.

He looked at her. "Are you—"

She glared at him and shook her head, mouthing a 'no' for him. Hitori closed his mouth. She was taking the charge when he should have. "Just watch me," she whispered.

Although he could not help much, he knew how to help enough to keep Reon alive. She leaned forward and lowered the gun away from her chin.

Hitori still stood against the wall. He swung his wand and created a shield, then waited for Reon's final action.

p She moved back. More and more away from the wall and the corner. Slowly, she raised the gun with both hands holding it. She gave a sign by shaking her head: Tengoku was not visible yet.

Hitori slid closer to the turn. He saw the dark woods on his left– he was hating this Guardian already. He kept the shield steady as he turned to face the woods.

Reon took another step, then suddenly slipped inside. Their eyes met and she did not even have to say it– now the fear had conquered her eyes.

Was her chest heaving like it should? No way to tell because the way was holding the gun had tightened the muscles around her shoulder, which prevented her chest movement.

Hitori clenched the gun in his hands. Why was he even using it? Was his style changed, did he prefer guns over wands now? He always preferred katana over a wand, but things were different back then.

He could not use magic properly before– or he hated using magic more than anything else. Why? Even he does not know. Maybe because of magic's existence.

If it did not exist, maybe the power discrimination would not have existed. Maybe he would have never been bullied. Maybe his parents would be alive today.

But the magic did not exist… would he have met Kamiya? What about Reon? What about the 'family' he has now? What about the power you feel when you cast a badass spell?

Without magic, maybe things would have been simple. But many things would not have been as amazing as they are.

Removing his fingers from the grip, Hitori released the gun. He watched it as it landed on the leaves and mud with a 'plop' sound.

He could feel Reon's stare at him, but he did not care right now. Hitori flicked a thumb at her as he left the cover and stood out in the open.

As soon as he showed himself, Tengoku fired five bullets without stopping. Reon had to squat and fire two bullets without knowing where they were headed.

Hitori enlarged the shield, covering his body from top to bottom and a foot extra on the side. "I want you to fire at him! How could you—" Reon stopped when Hitori lifted his hand.

It went for the left side, where the T-Rex wand rested in the loop. She opened her mouth but could not say anything.

"Is it not wrong," Hitori said, defending the bullets, "for only you to respect him? I found that gun, you know."

Hitori grabbed the wand, clenched its base, and drew it. He stepped forward as he brought the wand down. "Electrify!"

He sent a charge of electricity, Tengoku saw it coming, so he dropped the gun and rolled to the side.

The bolt struck the leaves and sparked a fire. Hitori swung the wand again and fired two more bolts.

Tengoku went for his katana, but even he realized it was useless. Reon stood up with a grin on her face. "Great one, Hitori," she said as he walked to him.

"I need cover!" Tengoku shouted and the colors from both of their faces faded.

"Quick," Hitori shouted, "end it!"

"Electrify!" it went past him but landed right where Hitori wanted it to– on his foot.

Tengoku shrieked, then frowned at them. "Damn you." He grabbed the katana's grip.

Hitori saw Reon walking past him. Hitori bent and stepped back to watch Reon as she removed the hand from under the gun and stretched the one holding the gun.

Her jawline looked sharp for the first time for some reason. He never thought a girl's jawline could be this… hot? No, amazing.

Her eyes flinched with every bullet she fired. The gun was rusted, well, it had not been serviced for like a year or so. Yet she fired the shots non-stop.

Tengoku raised his katana and blocked the bullets till one– one bullet scraped his shoulder.

Hitori rose, Reon was in front of him without any cover. "Koros!"

His wand came down and ejected the beam of the color of death– a blackish brown beam.

He heard some noise behind. Who appeared were three of his men. The two grabbed Tengoku and pulled him back while the third took the curse.

Even the men could not stop Reon. She pressed the button, the magazine dropped, then she forced another magazine.

She had aimed for Tengoku's head but hit the men on the right in the eye.

While the only man was pulling Tengoku away with his rifle dangling on the side and Tengoku's katana hanging from his hands, Reon pulled the trigger again.

This time, they heard Tengoku shriek. It was a clean shot in the shoulder, around the collar bone, or just above the chest. They could not see it in the dark.

Hitori wanted to celebrate the little victory when the bitter reality hit him– the man was taking Tengoku away.