Shadow parasite

Gorn said that he had some urgent business, but he wasn’t in any particular hurry. While some things needed to be done faster, forcing the issue could lead to the opposite effect. 'How interesting…' Walking from one place to another, Gorn took a tour of the enormous tree. There were a few hundred people who now called this place home.

Some of them also had the same idea as him, and built themselves a few rooms inside the body of the tree. That, however, wasn’t the case for everyone. It wasn’t very hard to find a more protected area on such a huge tree. The existence of countless branches, offered quite the variety of places.

‘I still prefer the hand made rooms,’ thought Gorn, imagining what would happen during a harsh storm. ‘Luckily, storms are not that common around here.’ Not common did not mean that there weren’t such occurrences.

There were people of all ages, but for the most part the big group consisted of middle-aged folks. Some were cooking food, some were talking among themselves, while some just sat there with a blank face. Gorn felt like being in some kind of refugee camp. All the negative feelings seemed to be drastically diminished by the beautiful scenery, and the good weather.

‘I’m glad that there are people that still value greatly their freedom,’ thought Gorn whilst sitting down in what looked to be a good spot. Munching a wild apple, he observed the nearby people, analyzing their status here and there for any interesting skills. Most of them did not have a single skill, nor anything of great interest.

After some time, Gorn noticed Elena looking at him. ‘What does she want?’ Her appearance was quite eye-catching, but few dared to look at her for a prolonged period of time. 'Well, she is stronger than most of these people, so their behavior is justified.'

Elena came towards him. In but a few moments, she was only a meter or so away from him. Looking at her from a seated position made her look even taller. She just sat there looking at him weirdly. “Do you want something?” asked Gorn, feeling a little uncomfortable.

“My brother thinks that you are one of the strongest people here,” said Elena with a poker face.

“And?” asked Gorn, seeing that she stopped talking.

Elena smirked: “I think that he is just talking nonsense. Speaking of which, weren’t you in a hurry? Looking at you now, that doesn’t appear to be the case.”

Gorn was now in a dilemma. She was blatantly provoking him. ‘Should I ignore her, or should I beat her up?’ Giving her a beating seemed a little inappropriate, considering that she was Sebastian’s sister, and he was on good terms with him. “If I ask you nicely, will you leave me alone?”

Hearing his words, Elena laughed with great pleasure: “That’s more like it. This is how weaklings should behave.”

“Do you have a problem with weak people?” Gorn was curious about the motives behind her actions.

Elena grabbed Gorn by the chest, and lifted him up, close to her face. Because of their height difference, his feet weren’t touching the ground. “Of course, I have a problem with them. I simply don’t like weak people. Power is everything! If you don’t have power, then you are nothing.”

He was only a few inches away from Elena’s face. Her deep blue eyes were full of passion while talking about power. She was the type of person to put great value on one’s capabilities. “Fair enough. So what then? What do you do when meeting weak people?” asked Gorn.

Elena looked him in the eyes: “I do whatever I want with them.”

Gorn made a weird face. “What about morals? What about right and wrong?”

“I don’t care about that.”

“Understandable… So, what do you want to do with me then?”

Elena made a more serious face: “Your mug makes me want to punch you in the face.” His calm expression irritated her. Looking at his composed face, she got a creepy idea. Grinning, Elena moved from her place. Her slow steps became faster with each passing second.

‘What is she thinking?’ Gorn was still being held tightly by the chest. Observing calmly what was happening, he was very interested on how things were going to develop.

Elena started to climb the tree higher, and higher. After some time, she reached the top. Going to a side, she extended her arm that was holding Gorn, over the edge. Gorn looked down, and feigned some fear. If that had been the first time being in such a situation, he would genuinely be very afraid of falling, and dying.

Seeing his calm face changing to a frightened one brought a wave of satisfaction over Elena. “Now beg me to spare your life.” Her face distorted more and more with each moment.

Gorn made a terrified face: “Please… Please spare my life…”

The change in temperament was huge. The man, who was calm until the very end, was now begging for his life. Elena’s body started to tremble, and her face contorted in pleasure. “That’s it! More! Beg me more!” Demanded Elena, while bending her head backwards.

Gorn was a little shocked by the turn of events. Activating his fire ability, he secretly burned his leather armor, making it look like it had been ripped from his weight, and from the strong grip.

“Nooo!” screamed Gorn while falling towards the ground.

It took her a moment to realize what just happened. She made an incredulous face, and panic started to replace her previous facial expression. ‘Shit! What did I do?’ Seeing Gorn’s body falling, Elena felt an extremely uncomfortable feeling growing inside her chest.

Taking a few steps back, she fell on her ass. ‘Did I just kill someone?’ Her objective was only to scare him, and nothing more. Even though she pretended to be bad, the truth was that she didn’t kill anyone before. The tyrant image that she usually expressed was only a form of defense, and nothing more. The pain from her chest was so intense that she started to cry in anguish.

Gorn was now only a dozen meters above her, carefully observing her behavior. She had no idea that he was there, after all, his ‘blink’ ability was silent. He waited for some time, making sure she had enough time to ponder over what she did.

“Why are you crying?” asked Gorn in a loud voice.

Elena was startled by his sudden voice. Looking up, she froze. The man she just killed was now floating in the air, a few meters above her, perfectly fine. She did not know what to make out of the situation.

Seeing her just staring at him with no reaction, Gorn descended. He was walking on air, like he was walking on some imaginary stairs. In a few moments, he was in front of her. “Are you surprised that I am alive?”

“You… I saw you falling…” Her words were coming out with difficulty.

“That’s right. I did fall, but you see… I have a few special abilities that allow me to survive such situations,” said Gorn, his prior calmness once again plastered across his face.

Elena was still in a daze. It took her a few minutes to piece everything together. “You… You pretended to be weak…” Looking at his leather armor, it wasn’t so hard to notice that those were not the marks of ripped clothes.

“Oh? This?” Gorn used his fire ability, and cut another piece of his clothes. He didn’t even have to use his hands.

Elena was flabbergasted: “You fell on purpose…?”

Gorn laughed briefly: “You should have believed in your brother.” Taking Elena by the hand, he started to spin in place, then threw her high in the air. The force was great, and sent her body a good distance away. Jumping on air, Gorn swiftly arrived by her side, and caught her by the hand again. Using his blink ability, he teleported a few times upwards.

“Do you like the view from up here?” asked Gorn slowly. At this point, it was crystal clear to Elena just who was the weakling between them two.