The streetwalker began to pace back and forth, probing Leo's reactions and determining the best attack vector. Leo skin was crawling and his mind numb. He was struggling to just stay alive against a mindless streetwalker, only barely managing to deal any significant damage to the monster.
Now he had to deal with an intelligent one? This was a joke, right?
So, this is how I die.
Leo pushed the thought aside as soon as it entered his mind. Now was not the time to think of such things. Doing so would only make his death inevitable; he needed to focus.
Focusing on the task at hand, Leo knew that the only way he was going to stand a chance at coming out of this victorious laid in the secret behind the pure mask's powers. What had he done to activate them, what had he been feeling when he did it?
These two questions burned a hole in Leo's mind, but he just couldn't figure it out. Leo took a fighting stance and braced himself for the coming battle.
The streetwalker took a small step forward and then exploded forwards, catching Leo completely by surprise. Leo cursed as he raised his arms to defend himself and backed away, only for the streetwalker to stop its movement. Then Leo realized why it stopped moving.
Its left foot was firmly planted on the ground, allowing its right foot to swing straight into Leo's unprotected side. The movement was so fast and so different than the previous means of engagement that the streetwalker had employed that Leo was unable to defend himself.
Taking the full brunt of the kick, Leo felt his ribs crack as he was sent flying through the air at the impact. Rolling on the ground Leo finally came to a halt as his momentum ceased. Leo coughed up blood and raised his head just in time to see the streetwalker bringing its foot down towards his face.
Panic consumed him, and he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the blow. After the roll, Leo felt an overwhelmingly heavy presence standing over him as he scrambled to stand. Recognizing that he can't stand up properly, Leo threw his body backwards.
As his head finally lifted, he saw the left-hand claw of the streetwalker tear through the air where his head was just a moment before. The violence continued as the streetwalker took another step towards Leo, and it sent a knee into his stomach. Leo felt his body float into the air.
Shortly after he crashed into the statue and bounced off of the top of it, rolling behind the statue. The second that being behind the statue gave Leo time to breathe, but his chest tightened as he continued to cough blood. Standing up, Leo quickly scanned for the streetwalker, finally finding it as it jumped down from the statue.
In just a few short seconds the entire balance of the fight had shifted in the streetwalker's favor. Whereas before Leo was able to just barely keep up, now he was being outclassed completely. Gritting his teeth Leo could have sworn he heard the streetwalker laughing at the situation.
Leo could feel the blood dripping from his mask, and the feeling of lightheadedness worsened as he continued to lose blood.
This can't continue, need to do something to shift this.
Leo thought about the situation as much as his fracturing mind could; to find some way he could combat the murderous streetwalker. The pure mask's constant whisperings slowly driving him mad, meanwhile it's promises of power left Leo feeling empty.
"Screw you." Leo said in defiance of the mask and the streetwalker.
The streetwalker's gaze was almost a force unto itself, bearing down on Leo's very being. Leo stared back and the two simply stood once more.
As Leo's body felt weaker and weaker from blood loss, the streetwalker seemed as though it was waiting for exactly that. It didn't need to attack Leo any further, Leo was simply going to die due to the injuries he had already suffered.
In fact, the streetwalker looked relaxed, its body language gave no indication that it even cared about what Leo did. Of course, Leo knew better, in reality it would immediately defend itself if Leo tried to attack it in any way.
Leo's vision blurred, and he focused less and less on the movements of the creature that stood before him. Instead, he tried to focus inward, trying to recapture that feeling from earlier.
The streetwalker recognized Leo stumble and decided now was a good time to finish the young man off. It took a simple step forward, slowly walking up to Leo, and as it expected, there was no response from his prey. Leo was simply too exhausted and weak from the fight.
It thrust its left hand forward towards the young man's head, aiming to decapitate him in one swift motion. Then the claw hit the pure mask, and a loud ding echoed throughout the courtyard. Leo collapsed to the ground, but the streetwalker was reeling in pain.
Looking at what happened, half delirious, half dead, Leo saw the claws of the streetwalker were crushed. A small glint of hope entered Leo's eyes as he struggled to stand. The feeling was slowly returning as his body began to shut down.
Every heartbeat, every muscle flex, every drop of blow flowing out from his mouth and leg. Then he noticed something. Leo could feel every drop of his blood. Not just the blood in his body, but also the blood dripping from his mouth. Then he noticed he could the blood that coated his pant leg.
Leo felt the blood that was pooling onto the ground, his blood that was covering the streetwalker's claws, his blood that was on the other side of the statue. He could feel it all.
Raising his hand, he could feel his blood reacting to the motion. Leo's eyes widened and a moment of clarity washed over him. Leo opened the palm of his hand and willed his blood to come.
Leo watched in amazement as the blood that had long ago left his body, obeyed the command, forming a ball of blood in his hand. Not a single drop dared disobey.
The streetwalker finally recovered from the damage from its attack rebounding off of the pure mask. It stood and began to move forward, no longer satisfied with just watch the young man die, it wanted Leo dead and wanted him dead now.
Leo almost missed the movement, as his eyes were focused on the strange ball of blood resting in his hand. Now that Leo had activated the pure masks unnatural power, he was confused. He had no idea on how to control the blood he gathered.
The streetwalker paced around Leo, judging how best to end his life. Meanwhile, Leo was desperately trying to give the blood commands. Yet nothing worked.
"Shield! Wall! Protect! Armor! Arrrgh why don't you do anything!" He screamed in frustration as the streetwalker dashed forward, taking care to aim directly at Leo's stomach.
Leo put his hand, and the ball of blood it carried, in front of the attack as he took a step back. The claw simply pierced the ball with no resistance and would have pierced his hand had he not retreated.
"The hell, you broke it's hand earlier and now you just let it pass through?!" Leo continued to verbalize his anger as he kept dodging attacks.
A scratch here and a close miss there, Leo was soon covered in wounds. His head pounding, struggling to maintain consciousness from the blood loss, a thought crossed Leo's mind as he became slowly used to the attacks of the streetwalker. He was going to die here.
But strangely, the blood didn't just drop to the ground from the fresh wounds, it instead gathered into the strange ball in his hand. At first, the ball was simply the size of Leo's fist, but now it was almost the size of his head. Yet, the thing just floated uselessly above his hand!
Leo wanted to scream at the damn thing how stupid and useless it was, but he felt himself rapidly losing strength. Then Leo was unable to dodge a kick that the streetwalker threw and was sent flying.
His body limply landed on the ground and rolled for a few seconds. Leo's vision constantly getting narrower and he felt nausea take hold. Turning his head to look at the streetwalker, he tried to stand back up to resume the fight. Then he found that he couldn't move anymore, his body was spent.
Any command he attempted to give it was blatantly ignored, and Leo realized this was the end. The streetwalker realizing that his prey was unable to fight back any longer, decided that it could relax once more as it slowly walked towards Leo to finish the job.
Leo looked at the creature, then he looked at that stupid ball that hovered uselessly above him, and how he wished he could just throw it into the stupid bastard's face. Then as if responding to the simple and childish thought that had crossed Leo's mind, he saw the blood ball move out of the corner of his reduced vision.
The ball shot forth like a bullet and struck the streetwalker square in the mask. Leo's eyes were incredibly heavy, and he was barely keeping them open. A spark ignited inside of Leo as he realized that the ball of blood had finally made a move. He wanted to see what would happen.
As he locked eyes with the streetwalker, a panic seemed to flash in its hate filled eyes. Then Leo saw the mask on the streetwalker's face shatter as the blood broke through. Its momentum carried it through the skull and in a fraction of a second later, the streetwalker was missing its head.
The streetwalker's body dropped to the ground without any theatrics or noise. Just a simple thud as it dropped onto the ground dead.
Leo was shocked, all of that suffering he went through, and it was over just like that? No, he was hallucinating right? Right?
Then he heard the mask whisper in his ear, much more clearly than before, a single word.
"Return"
Leo spoke the word unintentionally, and his eyes widened in amazement as the blood used to kill the streetwalker slowly flowed back to him.
The blood reentered his body from the numerous wounds that covered him. The feeling of having your blood forcefully placed back inside of his body spiked his nausea and he immediately vomited inside of the mask. Leo was still lightheaded, and his body while now accepting commands, was extremely battered.
Testing his limits, he tried to stand, only for his strength to leave him as he pushed up. Leo sighed and simply turned onto his side so that the vomit wouldn't pool in the mask, suffocating him. The thought of taking off the mask was appealing, but Leo's main concern was, if he took it off, wouldn't he just bleed out?
He already had lost enough blood during the fight that he almost passed out. If he took the mask off and the blood was able to flow freely once more, he would certainly die, there were just too many wounds that covered him.
Leo felt a headache coming on as he thought about what to do next. Really the only question that mattered now was, how the hell was he going to get out of here with the pure mask on...