Descendants of Gibbous-Chapter 28: Rematch

Arrive at the palace on time they did, because Damien had managed to clear the twenty kilometers in only forty minutes. By the time he returned home, however, Ahara had already bathed and applied her makeup, ready to leave for the palace.

And now here they were, facing the track behind the palace, with Lord Clement and the boy stretching themselves on the circular pavement whilst Eden, Ahara, and a few guards watched.

"I see you've been training him very well," the Vampire King commented Ahara, whose eyes were darting back and forth between the palace and the racers.

Damien smiled at himself when she stilled at the King's question, realizing she was looking back to see if the Queen would show up anytime soon.

"Ah, yes. He's been quite determined to race against you, my lord."

"Is it?" Lord Clement grinned at Damien. "Well, I suppose you can now sprint ten kilometers in an hour then?"

"Make it fifteen minutes," Damien stood and began to jump, flexing his hands to his sides. "I can do it in fifteen minutes."

He could feel the eyes of everyone behind him boring into his back, from Eden's direction especially. When Damien turned his body around as he jumped, he wasn't surprised to see her usually squinted eyes wider than saucers now.

"Y-you think you can sprint ten kilometers in fifteen minutes?"

"Hmm," Damien responded, his voice shaky from jumping.

"Are you insane? Only C-ranked Gibbits can run at such speeds! Hey, try knocking some sense into him, he'll exhaust his body before the enrollment on Tuesday," Eden pleaded with Ahara, but she only smiled at the girl, the gray hues of her eyes glinting proudly at her brother.

"Let him be. He knows what he's doing. Besides, isn't two days long enough for a Gibbit with aura to heal?"

Upon hearing his sister side with him, Damien grinned at Eden.

"Don't worry. I'm not the same boy I was when you met me at the hospital. I'm stronger now, and I think we can both enroll at Gibforge without any problems thanks to your Dad's and my sister's training."

Eden immediately relaxed her expression and nodded, but the hint of doubt was still in her eyes. "Okay, if you say so. But remember not to overuse your body. Your aura will deflate once its owner is weak, which could affect your results at the enrollment."

"I know," Damien responded to her, before flipping himself to look at her father. "I think I'm done with my warm-up now, sir."

"Good. I was beginning to think you were bluffing."

SNAP!

Two guards immediately appeared behind Damien and Clement when he clicked his fingers.

"Start the timer for us. Fifteen minutes like he said and he gets his wish, thirty, and he gets the recommendation. How about that young Amaris?"

"You couldn't have said it any better," Damien responded, closing his eyes to concentrate.

Just as Ahara had told him to do, he focused all his aura on his legs.

"You know that feeling when you drink hot water on a cold day and the heat tingles around your body? Concentrate on yourself until you feel your aura do that inside your body. Then imagine all of it flowing down to your legs and see what magic will unfold the moment you stretch your legs to run."

Soon, Damien felt the beautiful sensation masking his legs. His body immediately felt lighter, as if its weight had vanished into thin air. And when he bent himself in the track's direction, he could already feel the momentum driving him forward as the track pulled him.

"The race begins in three, two, one—"

TOOT!

Once the whistle reached his ears, Damien sprinted into the track. He snapped his head to look behind him, smirking when he noticed Clement now but a dot in the far distance, standing in a rather shocked pose.

'Serves him right for underestimating me,' Damien thought, snapping his head back to the track as his legs glided on the ground, invisible to even their owner's eyes.

The trees were now but a blur in his vision. So was the wind. It sounded exactly like how he imagined hurricanes would, a violent whoosh in his ears as he easily covered the five kilometers Lord Clement had given him.

'Ah, this feels nostalgic,' Damien thought to himself, remembering how his body had moved during the bloody fight three weeks ago.

However, he was still lacking something. Back then, he had defied a lot of odds. Even time seemed to pause when he moved. Everyone he fought was too slow, and their movements were rather boring. Like a movie played in the lowest motion ever.

"Too slow," came a voice next to him.

Damien turned his head to look at who said it, but the person whooshed past him like a flash of light. They left a trail of dust, and before he could even realize what was happening, another dust cloud began building in the direction he was headed. Then it stopped as a figure suddenly jumped into the sky.

Damien recognized him in an instant. It was Clement.

He landed skillfully right in front of Damien and immediately began sprinting in reverse, keeping up with the boy's speed somehow.

"You weren't kidding when you said you could run the marathon in fifteen minutes. Hell, at the speed you're going, you could even cover it in ten. But in Gibbous that's still laughable for a guy your age, although, for those with aura like yours, your speed is very scary."

Before Damien could respond to him, Clement flipped himself around and landed gracefully beside him shouting:

"I'll see you in a second!"

Then he vanished.

'What the fuck!'

Surprise was an understatement. Damien was flabbergasted.

He blinked twice, increasing his pace as he tried to forget what he just witnessed. Soon, the guards standing on the five-kilometer mark came into view and he grinned. But before he could even cover the small distance between him and them, another flash came to his left and he flinched.

It was Clement again.

He whooshed past Damien, rounded a guard standing on the mark, and sprinted back to the palace. Damien watched in envy as the man passed by him in a flash, leaving another dust trail for him to breathe in.

"You're slowing down, Amaris!" He called out, his voice echoing in the distance.

'But I'm keeping the same pace,' Damien protested in his head.

His body was beginning to feel a bit heavy, and so were his legs. They were starting to feel itchy and sore.

Running around one of the two guards standing by the mark, he almost cursed loudly when yet another cloud of dust came headed in his direction.

'He's back already?'

But it was Ahara, her speed matching the King's in every aspect. Like him, she passed by Damien in a flash, but when she noticed her brother, her speed decreased once she rounded the mark.

"You're slowing down, Damien."

"But I'm keeping the same pace," Damien repeated the phrase, louder this time.

"No, you're not! You're getting discouraged by the Vampire lord's speed and it's disturbing your flow state. Focus! Or you won't make it back in fifteen minutes like you promised."

With another flash, she disappeared into the track and left him breathing in her dust, just when Lord Clement appeared in front of him again for yet another lap.

"Decided to quit didn't you?" He mocked in a distance, grinning from ear to ear.

Damien gritted his teeth. Ahara was right. He was focusing too much of his energy on the man and his taunts and it was disturbing his flow state. Ignoring Clement's saucy spin as he passed by the boy, Damien focused on the track.

'Like hot tea on a cold day. Like hot tea on a cold day. Like hot tea on a cold day—'

Sure enough, the light sensation he had lost returned to his upper body, and his legs stopped itching in an instant. However, that wasn't the only development. Every time he lifted his foot and moved it ahead to sprint, a sensation akin to that of floating would overtake his body, sending him flying a few meters more with each dash than he had a little while ago.

The sound of Clement's feet slapping quickly on the ground echoed behind Damien. But he cut the noise out of his head, focusing on his current mission:

Getting to the palace in fifteen minutes.

Before he knew it, he was picking up speed. The blurry images of trees intensified, and so did the loud whooshing sound of the wind. He couldn't tell how fast he was going, but the track he was running on became much clearer than before.

Even Clement's noise was nothing but a background scratch in his ears.

The palace soon came into view, and so did everyone. Ahara, Eden, and the guards were all standing on the circular concrete slab with the pointed pillar in the middle, waving their hands at him.

"Smoke his ass!" Ahara yelled, and as if fueled by some possessive spirit, Damien's speed increased.

However, the finish line was closer than he had calculated, and in mere seconds, it zoomed in on him.

"Stop, Damien!"

"Reduce your speed!"

"He's about to crash into the timer!" freёwebnoѵel.com

"Save him!"

The voices were but background noise in Damien's ears. He tried to decrease his speed, but he couldn't. His legs wouldn't stop sprinting.

'Fuck.'

With a loud thud, his body smacked into the pointed gem face first and he grabbed it, groaning in pain.

The world suddenly came into focus. It wasn't a blur anymore, nor were the sounds muffled by the wind in his ears. Although, Damien now felt sick.

"Are you okay?" Came Ahara's voice as she rushed to grab him.

Eden too. She was assisting Ahara to help him stand, but them jerking him back and forth only made him feel worse.

"I'm...gonna...vomit."

"No, no, no—"

But the girls were too late in removing themselves. Damien opened his mouth and jerked forward, his stomach immediately releasing all the beans he had eaten this morning for breakfast.