Blood Moon: Awakening

Chapter Four

At the American base, everyone stood silent as they focused on the screen. Some were clenching their fists, some stood in awe of what they had been witnessing, and others were praying. Dr. Yu and Major Michael were in the main office as they watched the fight unfold.

"This isn't right. None of this makes any sense. The red source is two levels above green, yet he manages to hold out quite easily against James!" an irritated Michael queries as he bangs the table. Yu sat quietly for a while as he looked at the screen.

"Don't be so quick to judge Michael. It's probably all going according to James' plan. He is just like his mother in that regard. " Yu chuckles, then gives a light smile.

"Probably? Bold of you to be..." Michael stopped as he noticed Yu squeezing on to his chair while maintaining a light smile. He turned to the screen and didn't utter another word. "Let's hope you are right." He thought to himself.

AT THE SCHOOL's field, James and Edward were having a stare down as their energies rose and calmed gently around them.

"As a little warning, I won't be holding back. I'd rather die than have them use me as some lab rat. " Edward smirked as he pulled out his energy blade from his wrist.

"Hmph..." James muttered. He formed an energy sphere and morphed it into a sword. He closed his eyes, ran his fingers along the sword to the tip as he adjusted his stance, and took a deep breath in and then out. A gentle wind blew by, the air became still, and the surrounding became quiet. James opened his eyes, then launched himself at Edward thereby covering the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Edward reacted on instinct to block James' thrust, but the force pushed him back as his feet kept dragging across the ground. James kept pushing the sword as if to break through Edward's blade. Edward gathered energy in his left leg to halt his backward movement. He placed his left hand against his blade in order to push back against James. He grinned at James, who glared at him. The energy surrounding James made Edward feel like a mouse in the presence of an angry lion.

Edward roared as he called up more energy from his body and was able to push James backwards. James spun and landed in a crouched position. He spun the sword around his hand till he held it in a dagger like position with the tip facing the ground and the hilt slightly in front of his left hand. He ran quickly at Edward, who was now coming at him. As he got closer, he jumped, spun in the air, and struck down at Edward from Edward's left side. Edward blocked, but while suspended in the air, James struck thrice in quick successions, which Edward defended again, but with difficulty as he stepped backwards. James struck once more over Edward's head. Edward blocked it late, causing him to stagger. James landed behind him, turned and struck upwards attempting to split Edward in half, but Edward collected himself and struck downwards to meet James' sword in a clash. Their blades screeched against each other, releasing sparks in the process. James yelled as he pumped out his source energy and launched Edward into the air.

"His attacks are heavier, and his speed has increased. It's as though he is a totally different person. " Edward thought to himself as he was being launched.

James formed a second sword and charged both with source energy.

"Retribution," he mentioned as he released several waves of red, sharp, crescent-like attacks towards Edward. Edward gasped as he quickly dragged out a second energy blade and tried to create a barrier with both to block the attacks. But three tore through his barrier and sliced across his arms and below his chest. They penetrated his armor, but not so deeply. A bit of blood came out as he landed on his back. As he got up quickly, James launched several energy attacks at him.

"Don't get too cocky, you damned brat!" he fumed, his eyes bulging as he bit his lower lip till blood came out. He stood firm, dragged out energy and launched several blasts back at James, which collided with James' attack, creating a smoke screen. He held back one as he prepared for James to burst out of the smoke screen. James suddenly appeared behind him.

"What!" Edward quivered, and before he could turn, James spun and struck his left side with both swords.

They went in deep and dragged-out blood as Edward flung rightwards. He gawked in pain. He opened his eyes widely as he looked at the damage. He jammed his teeth together and focused his energy at the point to try to heal it. But barely a second later, he saw James in the air above him coming towards him. James merged the two swords together, making a larger one, and struck downwards. Edward only had time to block with the blade on his right hand as the contact against James' sword crashed them into the ground, dragging them for a few meters on Edward's back with James slightly suspended. He landed on his feet and the veins on his biceps and triceps began to bulge as he increased the pressure on Edward. The force pushed Edward's blade into his armor and into his body. He began to bleed. He gritted his teeth, and his eyes began to close slowly from the pain.

“Dd...dou...krrr...DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME BOY!" he roared as he stopped healing all injuries, retracted his left energy blade, thereby making the right energy blade grow bigger although cutting deeper into his body. He placed his left hand behind the blade and pushed against it as it dug into his hand. James tried to push back, but Edward began to lift the blade. Both burst out with their source energies, and the wild flow covered the surrounding area. Edward roared as he pushed his blade out of his body and a considerable distance away. He expanded it and struck upwards, tossing James' sword into the air, and slicing off a bit of his hair as James pulled his head backwards. Immediately after, James gathered energy in his right hand and punched deep into Edwards' guts. His hands flared upwards. The ground took two big depressions as red energy ran across the cracks and burst out at other sides of the field. Blood gushed upwards as his eyeballs seemed to almost rollback completely. He was losing consciousness when he pulled himself together. As his hands fell, he blasted James with an energy ball from his mouth, which James blocked with his left hand. James flew towards where his sword had landed. He spun himself in the air, touched and pressed down on the hilt. As he landed, the sword spun, separated into two, and he caught them. Edward staggered to his feet. He walked out of the depression and then fell to his knees, vomiting blood. His vision was blurry as he looked at James in anger.

"You can't be serious? Is this really the best you can do? " James smirked, looking down on Edward.

"Tch..." Edward scoffed as he tried to get to his feet. The armor on his stomach was completely shattered and had fallen off. He took a deep breath and brought out his energy blades as he released his breath.

"Oh? No more quips or smart talk? You’ve been unusually quiet. I am beginning to miss your small talk," James taunted.

"Don't assume for a moment that you have won. I'll definitely repay my debt to you. The one walking out of this alive... IS ME! " Edward roared, and his source energy beamed out of him.

"Don't kid yourself." James scoffed as he turned the swords back to energy spheres. He merged them together and doubled the size of the merged entity. Veins appeared over his left eye as the pupil became thin and glowed red. He lifted his arms upwards and released four swords as he separated his hands sideways and held down the farthest two.

Edward furrowed his eyebrows and launched at James. James stabbed the two blades in his hands into the ground and fired energy blasts at Edward. Edward dodged with quick footwork as he kept moving forward. James grabbed the two swords in the air, spun and shot them at Edward. He struck them both away and dashed closer to James. James held the two swords he stabbed into the ground, but before he could pull them out, Edward was directly in front of him.

"You are mine!" He roared. James' eyes widened. Edward glared. He pivoted his left leg firmly and twisted his body while gunning for James' neck. For a brief second, as he closed in, he saw James’ smirk just as the blade was about to touch his neck. James vanished and appeared at his back. A deep look of despair fell across Edward's face as he sliced the air, releasing a large wave of energy that travelled across the field and broke into the wall of the school's gym. It was a back-to-back situation. James had called for the two swords Edward had knocked away, and as he caught them, he sent them into Edward, piercing through his back and coming out through his guts. Edward coughed out blood and fell forward but caught himself. With a roar, he turned around and tried to strike James, but his face was met with a 360-degree kick from James, sending him spinning in the air and crashing on his head across the field.

"Dammit! I had no idea the power difference would be this great even without his full armor. " Edward, frustrated, face bloodied, bones aching, jaw cracked, banged the floor as adrenaline pumped through his body. He stood to his feet and faced James. James stretched his hands out and quickly brought them to an "X" position. In response, the swords stabbed at Edward dug through his armor and tore out his guts as they stabbed into the ground.

"Kaaaaaa!" Edward screamed in pain. James picked up the two swords on the ground in front of him and merged them together to form a larger one and shot it at Edward. Edward caught the sword with both palms, but the pressure pushed him in the air for a bit before he landed on the ground with his legs. He was dragged against the ground, his armor boots broke away, his legs began to tear till the muscles were exposed and blood was spilling out. He managed to hold back against the sword as it was still pushing against him. James ran towards him, picked up the blades that had pierced through Edward earlier, put his hands in an "X" position, dashed with incredible speed and sliced deep through Edward. Edward lost consciousness for a brief second and the sword pushing against him pierced through his chest, waking him up with much pain. He screamed till his eyes finally rolled back. James, who was now behind Edward in a crouched position, stood up, glanced at Edward, stabbed the sword in his right hand into the ground, then closed his right palm. The resulting effect was the large sword that had pierced through Edward turned into a large sphere, and as Edward's almost lifeless body was falling into the sphere, James flicked his fingers and the sphere exploded.

AT THE AMERICAN base, everyone was overjoyed! They jumped and hugged each other. They shook each other and screamed at the top of their lungs. Some of the operators even began to shed tears of joy. In the main office, Michael and Yu were overjoyed. They shook each other's hands and hugged each other. After a brief moment, they pushed each other away and tried to act dignified. Yu was calm as he sat on his chair with a smile. Michael immediately contacted James.

"Well-done, boy! You did it. I never had a shroud of doubt in you!"

"Thank you, sir! I am sorry I couldn't hold back against him. He's been completely blown to bits." James assured Michael

"Don't worry about it. The threat has been neutralized. That's what is important! " Michael boasted. He felt so proud, and so did Yu.

"You made me proud today, James! I am so glad you are..." Yu stopped as he could see traces of green energy gathering where Edward's body supposedly blew apart.

"Dad?"

"James, look out!" He yelled at the top of his voice!

James turned and dodged to the left. Edward's energy blade had extended, and it sliced James' cheek a bit. He jumped backwards to create distance. Everyone at the base was beyond shocked.

"You really did a number on me, you fucking brat!" Edward walked zombie-like out of the dust clearing. Half his body was already blown away, such that his spine and a few ribs were visible.

"How? There's... there's no way you could have survived that! " James' eyes beamed with confusion. He had no idea what more he needed to do to put Edward into the ground.

"Normally you'd be right, but did you all forget that I am a healing type "demon"? Well, I don't blame you for not remembering. After all, this man used my powers so efficiently that he never really needed to heal up much. "

"Holy shit! Healing types are extremely troublesome. Not only do they have high resilience, they can also heal from near-death states. So you'd have to wipe their cores out completely without a trace. How didn't anyone get this information on time? " In a fury, Michael smashed through the table.

"The higher ups!" Yu gritted his teeth in absolute anger and disgust.

"It can't be. But there is no way they would have such delicate information and refuse to release it! " Michael spoke with shock in his eyes.

"I have no idea. We'd figure that out later. James! Get out of there at once. We would be requesting the assistance of a full-fledged red source... NO, a white source here to take him out for good. return to the base at once. That's an order! " Yu roared at James.

"Leave now? When he's like this? If  I leave, he'd just escape again. We can't afford to leave him be especially with this new information. I am close, one more death blow and it will be over!"

"James, I understand, but please listen to me. This is not a time to think logically and be calculative. The best decision right now is to fall back! " Yu called out desperately to James.

"You should have fallen back while you had the chance. Now that I have regained a little of my energy, you aren't going anywhere. " Edward laughed while slowly trying to breathe. "

"Bold talk from you. What can you do in that situation? " James sneered as he picked up his second sword.

Edward dipped his hand into the left part of his body, which still had flesh, and pulled out a core. The moment James saw it, he remembered that earlier, they had seen Edward with an external demon core. He immediately took a defensive stance. Edward held the core in his hand and began to infuse it with energy.

"When a core is infused with external energy, it causes an anomalous expansion. This anomalous expansion is due to overlapping energies interacting from within and outside the core, which if it continues, the core will explode." Edward started explaining.

"So what of it? We all know that it's basically how demons commit suicide."

"Well calm down, I am giving those people back at the base some significant information as a reward for you basically winning two rounds on me and also letting me have a way to test my newfound strength. "

"Newfound strength? You mentioned that before."

"Yeah, so hush. This promises to be good. " Edward teased.

"Tch..."

"As I was saying, it's similar to how source soldiers are created. The difference being that you don't let the core explode. But what you don't know is that the core atomize rather than explodes. It just happens to release energy in the process. Once it does that, for a brief moment, it searches for a living host with an open or porous core before dissipating."

"What? You can't mean..."

"Your explosion left a hole in my core, hence the reason I cannot heal easily. It's not something I can do on my own, hence the need to fight someone or something strong enough to damage me to this level. I must thank you, James. You have helped me a lot. Once the two cores fuse, I will gain an unimaginable power boost. Even I don't know how strong I'll be. "

"I won't let you!"

"It's too late!" the core exploded, and the particles migrated into Edward. A large burst of green energy in all its shades, from light green to emerald, engulfed the entire field. Blue energy covered Edward alone, who was in the middle of the energy expansion. James had to close his eyes and stand his ground as the swirling energy was pushing him backwards. All the green energies that swirled around Edward suddenly dragged back into him before he released it all out with a roar. The energy spread around the school violently blowing James away as he bounced and rolled on the ground. Walls of the school cracked and began to crumble slowly.

AS AN INTENSE energy raged outside, a knocked-out Kris laid in the toilet. James had placed a red energy around him in order to prevent any unnecessary interference back when they met. He had initially planned to dissipate the energy when he left, but the entire situation with Edward made him forget. Kris, also being a tyrant in school, was left in the toilet by all those who passed him. It was known to be better to not disturb him if he was sleeping, no matter where he was. Edward's energy disturbed the energy placed on Kris, and the loud sound forced him to wake up.

"What the hell..." Kris staggered to his feet when suddenly he fell onto his knees in fear. His heart began to ache and he could see the source energies clashing around him clearly. It was a first for him. He got up trembling and started walking towards the direction where the energy was coming from.

BACK AT THE base, Yu had contacted the higher ups for permission to send a white source soldier to the scene of the battle.

"We can't authorize that. The White Source Soldiers are basically like national treasures. The process is too long and, frankly, not worth it. "

A member of the higher ups, Nathan Stones, uttered with little remorse.

"Not worth it, you say? If he escapes, he could cause unprecedented havoc in the country and world at large. " Yu challenged.

"Isn't that a bit of a stretch? He would have to have killed multiple red sources for him to be considered that big of a problem. Plus, there are other means of solving a crisis like this. You chose violence and this is what it escalated to. " Nathan queried

"You bastards! You know the type of demon he was! You hid that information from us. You caused the deaths of source soldiers! " Michael yelled while Yu tried to hold him down.

"Watch your tongue, Major Michael. That is a very bold accusation. You have no proof and you could be court-martialled for stirring up conspiracies. " Nathan smirked as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Calm down, Michael. I'll handle this. " Yu calmed Michael as he ushered him to sit.

"I finally see the point of this. No matter what decisions you take, the ones who will take the fall for it are us. You so-called higher up's have never supported the creation of an independent organisation that could run their agendas without your check, and you've pushed several motions to scrap our existence, which had failed. A screw up like this would prove your point. Isn't that right? " He smiled at the screen as he looked fiercely at Nathan.

"Hmph... You have got no proof of what you are saying. Hence, the same applies to you, Dr. Yu Lock. "

"Oh? What I am looking for is self-satisfaction to justify my next set of actions. You don't need to worry too much about me. The sudden appearance of a white source soldier without your prior authorization would lead to an investigation into the situation on ground, hence the reveal of the records of you guys hiding crucial information about this operation from us. You'd be regarded as incompetent, and you'd all be severely punished. Compared to what's coming, you'd wish you were court martial. "

"You can spew all your threats, but nothing is going to happen without the proper channels."

"I so happen to know a white source soldier that would rush to the scene with a ring from me. It so happens that her baby boy is the one facing this treat as of right now. "

It is impossible! You don't mean... " Nathan began to tremble.

"The commander of the entire Egyptian forces and my darling wife. Elizabeth Lock. " Yu smirked as he took his seat and crossed his legs.

" We will get the white source authorized immediately... just don't call her."

"If my son should die, death is by far the most merciful thing you'll receive by the time she's through with you... Now get off my screen! " Yu bellowed as he turned off the call.

"Why don't you just call her?" Michael inquired with a bit of urgency.

"It would take a couple of hours for her to get here. The last blood moon led to the damage of an important transport facility. And basically, the only one that can transport her easily due to the nature of her source type. They'd have to jump start multiples at a time to produce enough energy, and by the time it's done, it might be too late."

"Shit... it's still easier to call from elsewhere."

"Michael... in my life, this is the first time I have ever felt so useless. I can only hope and pray."

"He will be alright. I know it!" Michael uttered as he placed his hand on Yu's shoulder.

BACK AT THE field, everything went still. As the energies calmed, the scene became clear. Edward was in an emerald-coloured armor with blue linings and a blue diamond insignia on his chest plate. He had a staff with a drill mouth, also of the same colour variation. The presence and pressure he was giving off resembled that of a full fledged, full-armor red source soldier, if not slightly stronger.

"So James..." He uttered as he cracked his neck.

"Shall we..."