Jinn BLADE
Chapter 63 | Kain The Coward

Chapter 63: Chapter 63 | Kain The Coward

The sound of his ragged breath echoed in his ears as he ran through the dense suffocating mist.

He coughed as each step he took crunched against twigs and grass beneath his boots.

The forest floor was uneven, the underbrush thick, but he didn’t slow down.

His eyes couldn’t see anything ahead, just walls of white mist that wrapped around him. Everything beyond a few meters was completely hidden and swallowed by the mist.

Still, he ran.

*Thump! *Thump! *Thump!

His heart pounded against his chest, more intense as every second passed—cold sweat of fear dripped down his skin, soaking his clothes.

*SHRIEK!!

From behind, a sharp and unnatural sound came.

It was unhuman shrieks that sent a chill down Kain’s spine.

They were high pitched, visceral, and deep.

Kain continued to run.

Yet the screams weren’t fading.

Instead...

They were getting closer.

"J-Jinn! Everyone! Where are you!?" Kain’s voice cracked as he shouted as he ran, eyes wide and trembling with fear.

Yet there was no response.

Only the silence of the forest, followed by the roars behind him.

Suddenly, his foot was caught on a vine.

*Crack!

He fell as his body slammed into the first with a heavy

*THUD!

The air was knocked from his lungs as his palms was scraping against the rocks on the ground.

The roars grew louder.

Closer.

Heavy footsteps pounded on the earth, Kain could feel it.

"H-Hick!" Kain gasped, a hiccup burst in panic from his throat as he stumbled to hide behind a nearby tree—his hands shaking as he pressed his back against the bark, hoping to not be discovered.

Then—nothing.

Just a brief silence.

Before the sound reached his ears—before the crunching of leaves and twigs within the mist.

*crunch... *crunch... *crack...!

Kain could sense it.

A chill swept over his spine.

He could hear it.

Something was near.

Kain’s eyes swept side to side, searching through the mist for signs of movement.

But he couldn’t see anything.

He raised both of his arms and began to press them firmly over his mouth in a desperate attempt to muffle the sound of his intense breathing.

His chest rose and lowered fast—he was hyperventilating.

"I-I can’t..." he muttered, arms trembling, knees going weak, as he clutched the tree behind him with his back.

Fear gripped him, like iron chains that wrapped around his body...wrapping around his heart and mind.

It wouldn’t let go

*thump...! *thump...! *Thump! *Thump! *THUMP! *THUMP!!!

His heartbeat thudded erratically, slamming on his chest with panic and fear.

Yet despite the fear crawling within his chest at that moment, another feeling stirred quietly beneath it.

Resentment.

Not towards his friends—Never.

But towards himself.

The feeling was always there.

Buried just beneath the surface of everything.

When his body froze, when his legs buckled and refused to move, when all he could do was watch others step forward to the fight while he stayed behind.

Even back then.

Everytime he buckled with fear, Everytime he let Jinn and the others handle the danger.

He felt it too.

Jealousy.

He envied their strength. Their courage. The very way they stood tall in the face of danger, without fear.

The way they seemed to move forward without hesitation.

But he didn’t hate them.

No, his love for them, his gratitude, and his loyalty—none of it ever faded.

In fact, it burned just as bright as the others, even Jinn.

What he hated... was himself.

He hated the way fear gripped his throat.

He hated the way it held him back when he wanted to step forward.

He HATED the weakness that chained him down, again and again and again.

In his mind, those very same chains held his friends back too.

Because of him.

Because he wasn’t enough.

He wasn’t as strong as Jinn or Orin.

Not as clever as Vox.

Not as sharp as Verhedyn.

Not as charismatic or confident like Ophelia and Hector.

He was just Kain.

The boy who had been abandoned at the orphanage steps before he could even speak.

The boy who only knew the world by the warmth of the friends who took him in, named him, fought beside him, and never ever let go.

To Kain, they were his everything.

And that’s why it hurt the most.

Because no matter how hard he tried...

He never felt worthy of them.

Then, he remembered.

Remembered the times when Jinn’s presence alone was enough to make him feel secured and safe. As he was always the one who stepped forward when someone picked a fight with them.

The one who always took the hits so no else had to—both the shield and sword.

Right beside him was Orin herself.

Hot headed, sharp tongued, but she was loyal to her core.

She always backed Jinn up, always stepping in beside him without hesitation.

If Jinn led the charge, Orin always followed through.

Then there was Verhedyn.

Always a step ahead, a sly grin on his face.

When they got into trouble with the headmistress, or anyone at all—it was Verhedyn’s quick thinking that saved them.

Some clever distraction or some made up excuse.

Then there was Ophelia.

The light.

Everytime they came home bloodied and bruised, she was always there—ready with bandages along with her soft hands, warm voice and no judgment at all.

She only cared.

Hector, meanwhile, was the eldest.

When tensions rose, when fists were about to fly, he stepped in.

He watched over them like an older brother who seemed to know that their world was cruel—trying to soften it up even by just a little.

Then there was Vox and Nevi.

The quiet ones, yet they were the thinkers.

Their arms were always full of books borrowed from the library nearby the orphanage. Always talking about stories, odd facts and idea.

For the group, they always made the world and universe bigger—bigger than the walls of the orphanage they lived in.

Then.

There was Kain.

The weak one.

The feeble one.

Kain the coward.

He flinched when things got loud.

Froze when danger came close.

Stood behind as the others stood ahead.

Yet...

They never ever made him feel small.

They laughed with him.

Still protected him.

Never called him words—except for Verhdeyn, which was banter.

Still called him a friend.

They treated him as one of them.

An equal.

Yet Kain knew this as he saw it in their eyes. There was no pity, no judgement, only care.

And that confused him the most.

Why?

Why would they treat him like he mattered when he had nothing to give?

Before he could even contemplate the meaning behind everything, a voice pierced through the mist.

A scream.

"A-Argh!"

A voice that he knew very well.

Kain flinched behind the tree, breath caught in his throat.

Then peeked around the edge of the trunk, slowly.

Then he froze.

His eyes widened.

Ophelia was on the ground, pinned beneath the massive claws of the beast.

"U-Urgh..." she grunted, her silver hair across the dirt as the creature’s weight began crushing her.

Then, the beast loomed above her like a giant, its serrated arm gleamed, ready to strike.

Kain watched, breathless, helpless.

He could see it coming, his eyes glowing with eidra.

The killing blow.

It’s coming!

The beast’s arm was already raised—then it swung down with force.

*CLANG!

But it didn’t reach Ophelia.

A metallic echo rang through the air.

The creature’s serrated arm slammed against hard iron.

Kain’s shield.

Kain’s hand trembled behind the metal, his heart and mind screaming towards him.

Run.

Run now.

YOU WILL DIE!

But something louder stirred deep within him.

Not his mind, nor his heart.

But his soul.

It spoke to him.

Move. Or she dies.

And so his body responded without thinking and without hesitation.

Kain’s feet moved behind the tree.

His arm reached from behind to grab the shield given to him by his mentor—the shield already glowing with eidra as it reacted to his will.

"YARGH!!!" He roared with everything he had, cutting through the air.

And with everything he had, he shoved the beast’s arm back—forcing it real away from Ophelia.

*SHRIEK!!!

Then, with his other hand, he drew the sword from his hip

*Shing!

Also a blade given to him by his mentor.

Then just as the beast stumbled back, Ophelia’s body dissolved into the mist around as if she had never been there in the first place.

But it was too late.

Kain had already revealed himself.

Already in front of the beast.

He looked briefly at the place where Ophelia had vanished, realizing it was just an illusion.

Then he turned his gaze towards the beast in front of him.

It’s menacing body twitching abnormally as it loomed in size over him.

But he didn’t step back.

Not this time.

Shield raised.

Sword steady.

Legs bent.

Fear pulsed inside him, but didn’t stop him.

His mind still begged him to flee. His body still trembling.

But his eidra, the essence of his soul, surged through him.

Fight.

Fight for them.

Fight for yourself.

Fight for your place in this cruel universe!

The surge of eidra burned through his veins. It roared through him like wildfire, igniting every limb with strength.

His fear indeed did not vanish, but it was drowned beneath something stronger.

Something burning.

Courage.

Then, he took a step forward—just one.

But for Kain,

It was everything.

His first step.

Not back nor away.

But towards the fight, towards the beast, towards the unknown.

Finally...

A step towards courage.