Descendants of Gibbous
Chapter 45: Betrayal

Chapter 45: Betrayal

Ahara rushed past the group of parents heading into the grounds toward their kids, weaving among them like the troubled sister she was, with Kingston following right behind her.

"They don’t have weapons," old man Twiller had said, making it sound like the kids would just run around the stadium and tag each other out.

The young lady felt stupid for believing his words.

She too once went through Gibforge’s selection process damnit—there was always bound to be a showcase of skills or agility somewhere in the trials. She should have known when the commentator said nothing about the children fighting or the shifters being allowed to use their abilities. Of course, they were going to use some kind of force to tag their opponents out.

This is Gibbous!

’That speed he was moving at wasn’t normal at all. What if he cracked his bones again? Or overused his muscle and ends up crippled for life?’ The thoughts hybridized in her mind as the images of her brother lying lifelessly on her lap that night three weeks ago played in her head nonstop, giving her a fleeting PTSD case.

’No. I can’t let the dark thoughts overpower me. First, I need to find Dam—there he is!’

Ahara’s worried expression relaxed a little when she noticed how her brother wasn’t groaning or crying like the other kids despite Princess Eden shaking his shoulders like he was a doll. However, he still had blood on his lips, an image that made her blood pressure escalate from its momentary relaxation.

"Damien!" She cried, drawing the attention of the two mothers she was passing by who were attending to their disqualified children.

At her calling, Damien immediately made his way towards her. Much to Ahara’s relief, he wasn’t limping or holding on to any of his body parts. However, his exhaustion was evident, a rather normal thing considering the speed at which he moved earlier.

Everyone in the VIP chamber had witnessed it.

He had moved just like an S-rank hero for a few good minutes before he tagged the other kids out, shocking the royals and a few X-rank heroes except for Twiller. The old man kept mumbling something unintelligible under his breath during the game, his eyes glued on the oblong screen.

No one except for Ahara had heard him because they were either focused on her brother’s movements or on their kids—the Wizard lord being the loudest among them. What annoyed Ahara the most was how his grumbles were directed toward his son’s weakness even though he had almost landed a perfect score—that is before Damien tagged him.

Even now when other parents were soothing their sobbing children or celebrating with the winners, the Wizard lord’s corner looked a bit more on the gloomy side with his son looking at the ground submissively.

’I’d pay him to take my parenting classes,’ Ahara thought to herself, finally reaching her brother.

As if to show the others how it’s done, she held Damien’s shoulders and pulled him close, checking him all over like he was some middle-grade schooler who just fell whilst running. Once she was done with her checkup, she produced wipers from the lunch bags and began wiping off the blood from his mouth.

"Do you hurt anywhere?"

Damien shook his head, tipping his chin at Ahara’s tug.

"Are you sure? Don’t hide anything from me because it’ll hurt more later once you leave it untreated."

"I’m fine, Ahara," Damien sighed, glancing at the other students who were snickering at him being treated like a kid by his sister. "Besides, the senior students are performing first aid on us so don’t worry."

"How can I not worry when you’re bleeding you idiot? I’m your sister, of course I’ll worry if you come from a fight," a momentary pause followed as she stepped back to assess Damien’s body before she added:

"Wanna just quit this and go home? I can train you myself and you won’t have to fight anyone and get bloodied up—"

"Ahara please!" Damien cut her, sighing dramatically and wishing he had some kind of power that would allow him to portal himself away from the prying eyes and laughs.

He understood the intention behind Ahara’s worry, but her execution was literally an advertisement of his weakness to the students surrounding them.

Ahara paused in her speech, ogling at her brother like he had just cursed at her.

"What? Did I say something you don’t like?"

"You’re embarrassing me," Damien whined half covering his face.

The sister placed her hand on her mouth, glancing at Kingston, a crushed expression on her face. This would be the first time that Damien expressed embarrassment after receiving affection from her in public.

"I know you care for me and I’m grateful, but please, tone it down a little."

"Damien, I..."Ahara trailed off.

She wasn’t sure what triggered her brother to suddenly say such hurtful words. He had no idea how much she had suffered watching him get hit nonstop during the battle, and despite his win—she was still aching. As if to show him how hurt she was, tears suddenly welled in her eyes, cascading down her cheeks like tiny waterfalls the next moment.

’Ugh, why am I crying now of all times? I hate crying, it’s burdensome.’

Before she knew it, Ahara was charging in the opposite direction from Damien, wiping her eyes furiously.

"Oh no, Ahara wait!" Kingston followed after her, leaving Damien to blink to himself as the realization of what just happened hit him.

In his fifteen and half years of living, he had never seen Ahara cry before. Yes, he had seen her on the verge of tears, but not once did she ever shed them in his presence. This would be a first for him, and what made it worse was the reason she was crying.

Him.

Not pausing to think of any solution, he too charged after Ahara, guilt already eating his heart like a virus on the loose.

’Damien you fucking idiot. What have you done?’

*****

By the time the two siblings were alone somewhere in the stadium seats after Kingston had given them some space, Ahara was calm. The only thing left to show that she had been crying was the constant sniffing and the puffy eyes. Other than that, it was Damien’s uncomfortable fidgeting and silence as he sat beside her that spoke volumes of the current feud between the two.

He didn’t waste time apologizing to her.

"Umm, I didn’t mean to make you sad. I just..." Damien trailed off, struggling to find the words he wanted to say and failing miserably.

Ever since he could remember, the two of them only ever fought over menial things—but never did they ever stretch the fights until one of them cried because of the other.

"I just...ugh, where do the words go when we want to say important stuff?"

Luckily for Damien, his small remark managed to tickle Ahara’s funny bone. His sister burst out laughing, the sound filling the corner of the stadium they were sitting in with a delightful melody that calmed the boy’s nerves. He smiled, watching as the corners of Ahara’s mouth widened, revealing her pearly white teeth.

Waiting until she was done laughing to continue, Damien rummaged his brain for any possible words that could fit what he was trying to say.

’I didn’t mean to make you cry but I wanted to tell you I’m strong? Nah, too stupid. How about: sorry, I just wanted to express my suppressed feelings over you treating me like a kid? Nope! Too ungrateful. Man, what should I say?’

"You don’t have to think so hard about what you want to tell me you know? Makes me look like an uptight guardian who doesn’t allow you freedom of speech," Ahara finally spoke, glancing affectionately at her brother.

Damien’s heart squeezed when he noticed her red eyes.

’She cried that hard?’

"I didn’t mean to make you cry, sis," he found himself blurting out in the middle of his heartbreak.

"I know. I was just surprised."

Damien blinked at her, his forehead puckering in curious confusion. "Surprised?"

"Hmm. You’ve never been repulsed by my affection before."

First kill!

"I’m still not!" Damien announced loudly.

"But you said I was being too much."

Double kill!

"I meant in front of other kids."

"You never seemed to care back in the human world though," Ahara shrugged, rubbing her eyes.

Triple kill!

Damien could feel painful jabs from inside every time she made a point and reminded him that he had been a jerk to her a while ago.

"I felt betrayed. You don’t know how much I was struggling watching you getting hit by the other students," Ahara added, delivering a quad kill that made her brother hold his chest and dramatically flop on her knees.

"I’m sorry sis. I really didn’t mean to say such hurtful staff," he pleaded, not able to look her in the eyes.

The soft impact of her hand landing on his face as she began to stroke his hair made Damien know he had been forgiven, but it wasn’t enough to kill the guilt eating him from what he was about to say next.

"But I meant everything I said. I love getting tons of affection from you, and believe me when I say, I get depressed when you’re mad at me. But I also want you to acknowledge that I’m growing up and that I can’t keep depending on you for all eternity."

Ahara froze, her pose rigid enough to be felt by the boy resting on her lap. Deciding this was the time to finally look her in the eyes, Damien slowly raised himself, continuing his speech just in case Ahara’s expression was sad enough to make him stop explaining his worries to her at one glance.

"I’m no longer the weak boy you raised in the human world. I’m stronger now, and I don’t know what it’ll take for you to finally acknowledge that, but I want you to try either way."

Finally, he was sitting upright and facing Ahara. However, unlike the expression he was expecting to see from her, she was calm. So he continued his speech:

"What I’m trying to say is that I want to become stronger, but I can’t do that with you blocking every risk that I have to take to achieve my goal. That’s why I’m asking you to please lay low for a while and watch me take the risks. Watch me fight the world by myself. Winning or losing, I’ll take it all. As long as you’re backing me up, I’ll be fine."

Silence.

Then Ahara sniffed. "You really know how to make me sad don’t you?"

Damien winced thinking she was about to cry, but no—she just smiled bitterly at him. After another wave of momentary silence where every sniff made Damien wince and glance at her worriedly, she finally nodded.

"Okay. I’ll respect your wishes, but only under one condition—you take care of yourself the same way I would, and definitely, most definitely, you keep in touch with me."

"You bet I will...but why do you sound like I’m going somewhere," Damien asked with furrowed brows.

Another bitter laugh came from Ahara. "You see, Gibforge is a boarding school—" she stopped when the commentator cut her.

"May all the teams that qualified for the second selection process come to the center of the stadium," he announced, repeating the statement two more times.

"That’ll be you and your friends," Ahara notified her brother, already standing. "Let’s go, we’ll talk later."

"Hmm."

Damien stood from the concrete seats, following his sister as they descended the stairs.

’I wonder what the next game is going to be,’ he thought as they reached one of the many ground entrances where he and Ahara had to separate.

It was then that it happened—a loud booming sound coming from the middle of the stadium that made the ground shake for a split second.

’What the—’

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