Memento Mori Chapter 3: Eyes of murderers

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Robert’s very own Guardian Boot Camp!” Robert yells out as he waits for applause from the others, but gets none. Awkwardly, he applauded for himself. “Yaaayyyy” He says in a bored tone before holding out a hand towards us. “Come on, guys, couldn’t you have at least faked it?” He exclaims, putting his hands on his hips. Unfortunately no one was paying attention. I was busy realizing I would be hanging out more with Adrian, Pudding was eating a cracker I bought her before we got here, Adrian was giving herself a fortune reading however only getting the priestess card everytime, and Matt wasn’t even here! Apparently Robert trusted him enough to go on his own to talk to whoever that person that’ll supply us medical supplies is. Pudding then raised her hands upwards as Robert pointed at her. “Yes?”
“Why did we go all this way for some training?(ᗒᗣᗕ)՞” She asked with her mouthful. We traveled a good two hours just to get into this dingy gym looking area.
“Oh come on, be grateful for this, will ya? This is the only place I could rent out from Jowl and he said he’d have to take a week out of my vacation days.” He sighs as he gets a whiteboard out. “Alright, let's talk about affinities.” He says pointing at a poorly drawn chart. “Each guardian has a type and at least one affinity. Mine is a physical electric one, and that's the only example I can give.” He says proudly. “I have no idea what the hell is going on with any of yours. Anyways…” He grabs a marker points at the chart. “The typings are physical, ranged, situational, or support. Physical is kinda like mine and Zach’s guardian, where they have to get up close in order to attack them. Ranged makes it so you’re able to attack farther away. Situational falls in none of those categories and it’s kinda just weird… Supports are basically useless in combat but they can help from afar… Welp time to move onto affinities-” Suddenly his watch starts blaring as he checks his wrist. “Oh coffee break. I’ll be right back, you three just stay put.” Robert says as he exits the building. It was just the three of us now… I could use this as my chance… maybe I could finally say my feelings for Adrian-
“Hey Zach?”
“Yeswhatisit?!” I say almost immediately in response to hearing her voice. She seems a bit on the edge.
“Is this Robert guy even strong…? From what I remember, you did most of the damage to my shadow… and he doesn’t seem like he’d have a very strong power.”

“Yeah! Cappy is kinda lame!(づ ◕‿◕ )づ” Pudding yells while doing sit ups and failing. I get up and try to explain.
“Trust me, he’s incredibly powerful at what he does. I’m gonna go get a soda, everyone stay put.” I exit the gym and try to navigate the weird hallways… Geez why couldn’t he rent out a place that was a lot less confusing… I finally found a (working) vending machine and got out my wallet… lets see… A3 for a cola… Alright just press a couple things and, voila! Soda obtained. I crack it open and… huh… it’s warm… actually no, it’s hot? I suddenly drop the soda as the metal can start glowing bright red due to the heat until it combusts into flames. From the flames, a weird shadowy figure emerges and stands in front of me as I hear a voice from behind.
“Call them off” …I recognize that voice. I turned around and there he was. The red haired baseball player himself, Hero. “They’ll listen to you, right? Call them off.”
“So you’re one of them…?” I say quickly jumping away from the Guardian that erupted my soda, however both Hero and the guardian seem to be on standby.
“Well… by one of them, I’m assuming you mean the knights… but yeah. I’m one of them, unfortunately for us…” He says, looking ashamed of even being here, before shaking his head and looking up. “But seriously! Call off beating the king! None of you stand a chance and-”
“You’re speaking too much, Harris.” an older voice from behind says. Hero’s eyes widen in fear as he desummons his guardian. From the darkness, four figures walk towards us. One of them was a man wearing a thorn crown, the second was a man with some weird glasses, the third was a young girl holding a ripped stuffed animal, and the fourth was a man who was holding a book… huh… Everyone except for the guy with the crown all had collars similar to Hero’s… The man with the thorn crown went up to me with a calm smile… however just from one look I could tell he was bad news. “Greetings. So you’re the one who took down Owen…” Who? Oh that guy that roughed up Matt a couple days ago.
“Whats it to you? You looking for revenge?” I say, summoning Street Prince, ready to defend myself when needed. But the man just laughed as the young girl held Hero’s hand.”I’m simply here to ask why? Why would you decide to only knock him unconscious and incarcerate him instead of simply killing him? Wouldn’t that just be so much easier? And he wouldn’t mind anyways.” Wait… did that guy just said it was okay to kill his teammate?

“I see you’re confused! Well then, let me enlighten you… You see, death is merely an endless slumber… and Owen has fought hard enough… shouldn’t a warrior be well rested?” He says with a smirk on his face. “Ah, where are my manners? My name is Claudius, the leader of the Royal Knights… My subordinates here are Hero, Castor, Poe, and Alice… To put why we’re here short, we’ve been sent by the king directly just to kill you… Lucky you!” I tried to attack him but I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my legs and fell onto my knees. I looked down and my legs were riddled with bullet holes… What the hell happened? “Excellent work, Castor” Claudius said, nodding to the glasses guy. He then reaches to his side and takes out a gun tucked into his pants and aims it straight at me. “Why don’t you just close your eyes and go to sleep…”
“Claudius, look out!” The girl, who I'm assuming is Alice, yells as an arrow barely misses his head. The knights turn around to see Adrian and Pudding, who had their guardians out already. Claudius applauds them and yells from across the hallway,
“Good show, little girl. I can tell that being a guardian will be troublesome… Therefore Poe will deal with you personally.” He snaps his fingers as Poe takes out a book and starts walking up to them.
“Once upon a time…” He started, to Adrian and Pudding's confusion. “There was a beautiful princess, trapped in a tower by a ferocious dragon. The king sent many heroes after the princess, but only for the dragon to eat them whole. Eventually, the dragon had enough of the heroes, and flew alllll the way to the kingdom, destroying homes, separating families, and tearing down the king and queen until nothing was left… the princess wept, for she knew deep down that her family was murdered… and so she jumped out a window from the tower, no longer being imprisoned by the dragon, and ending her own life…” He says as he presses a button on his collar and opens the book. “And that's how the story goes…” Suddenly the wind blows out of the book as a red dragon flies out and dashes at Adrian, but Pudding, getting in the way, uses Lavenza to block the attack. The dragon flies next to Poe as he explains. “Lancelot… This is my Guardian. At least, one of its forms…” He turns to Castor, who is holding onto his goggle thingies. “Specs. What's Virtual Insanity picking up from these two?”

“Well…” Castor said, fidgeting with his hands. “The green haired one has a ranged guardian, while the other girl looks like she has an incomplete physical one! No power to even go with it too, just punching! How lame is that?”
“Incomplete…?” Pudding whispers to herself… Poe just motions for him to continue.
“Alright what's their affinities?” he says impatiently as Castor yells back
“Hey don’t rush me! It takes time! Do you want me to fire at you too?!”
“Calm down you two, there’s a child here.” Hero says, trying to defuse the situation, but Claudius snaps his fingers in front of him, making him shut up. Adrian quickly summons some more arrows and tries to shoot them at Castor, but the dragon quickly dashes in front of them, grabbing the arrows, and throwing them back. The dragon then zoomed towards them and shot scales off its body as it started homing towards the two. Pudding sends a barrage of punches to defend them but the scales stick to them as Poe writes down something on the paper.
“...And… Zap.” Suddenly, Pudding got Electrecuted from the scales attached to her as she fell to the ground. I quickly got up and dashed at Poe from behind but my leg was suddenly cut and I fell down. I turn around and see Alice holding that toy rabbit and cutting the leg with a small knife, letting stuffing fall out of it, staring directly at me.
“Alice… could you please not cut me? Claudius didn’t even tell you to.” Hang on, did that stuffed animal just… talk?! Claudius speaks up like this is a normal occurrence.
“Oh it’s quite alright, 4. She can jump in if she wants to. She is new after all.” He says with a tone of arrogance. Alice, with a wicked smile, starts stabbing the back of the leg as blood shoots out of my leg in tandem. Adrian quickly rushes over to me to try and get me out of there, but Alice turns and cuts the arm off the doll as Adrian’s arm comes clean off, with wood shavings falling out of her hand… so thats how it works…
“Woah! That girl isn’t human?!” Hero yells out in shock but smiles afterwards. “Thats pretty cool actually! They could… I don’t know… take off their arm and throw it at someone-” He suddenly gets punched by Claudius mid sentence.
“Stop giving the enemy ideas… I swear you’re just a pain in the ass.” He says annoyed as he snaps his fingers. “Finish them off.” Poe and Alice get ready to kill Adrian and Pudding as they struggle to get up… Alive grabs the knife and puts it directly on the doll's neck… Not on my watch!

I quickly grab some of the blood leaking out of my wounds and throw it into her eyes, blinding her. The girl screamed and dropped the doll onto the floor. As long as she can’t directly see her target, she can’t harm them. I run for them and quickly tackle Adrian before Poe can use his guardian to slash me. Once I looked up, Castor's eyes suddenly lit up.
“Oh I got it!” He yells out before turning to Poe. “The green haired one's weakness is Ice, while the deer girl? Well everything is weak against her! How lame!” He says laughing to himself.
“Lame…?” Pudding repeats as she looks downwards… However before she could react, that dragon thing swoops down and attacks her. I quickly rush in and use Street Prince to punch the dragon straight in the face, doing damage to Poe in tandem.
“H-He’s fast! What's his weakness?!” He cries out as Lancelot swipes its claws at me trying to break my guard. Castor is gripping onto his goggles almost tight enough to break it.
“I’m on it, I'm on it! I haven't analyzed him yet!” He says with his face drenched in sweat. Alice had already wiped the blood out of her eyes but before she could stab that toy again, Hero put a hand on her shoulder and silently shook her head. In response, she nodded and backed off to Claudius’s disappointment. “Alright while I do that, just focus on the two girls- hey wait… where are they?!” He says confused and looking around. On the floor, they were completely gone but… “The radar says they’re close to the boy though! How is this-”
“Hey!” I yell out holding up two marbles. “Watch the birdie.” I say with a smile before turning around and throwing them across the room. The marbles make it across the hallway and hit the ground with a thud, cracking them open, making Adrian and Pudding pop out of it. Once they get back up, I suddenly get struck to the head with the book Poe was using to summon Lancelot.
“You little piece of-” He stops himself mid sentence before sending Lancelot to shoot scales at me. Once they were attached to me, he wrote something in the book and suddenly… I can’t move my body! Come on joints! Move! From across the hallway, Adrian yells,
“Zach! Hang on I’m coming!-”

“No!” I respond as I try to move my joints little by little. “I told you if things go south to run away and save yourself! You promised this!” I summon Street Prince to send a barrage of punches at Lancelot, but it quickly weaves and dodges out of the way, scratching my face up. I fall to the ground as I face Adrian who looks conflicted as Pudding stands there, confused and scared. “Damn it, run away and leave!” I yell… and all of the sudden, her eyes narrow. Her face contorts into an angered expression as a fire in her eyes awakens. She starts walking slowly towards us and calmly speaks.
“After everything you've done for me… Save me, Comfort me, Risk your life for me… you think I’m just going to walk away and forget about you…? No. I’m going to be there for you. Whether you like it or not!” She says now full on sprinting towards us with a determined expression. Pudding stood back in fear and not wanting to be hurt. Poe looked up and quickly changed targets, sending scales at Adrian, however she lifted one finger up and arrows shot out from the ground, stabbing him in the feet. Poe falls backwards, leaving a window of opportunity to punch him off the ground with Street Prince. She pulls me back up to my feet as Poe struggles to recover. I crush a marble to take out my desk and slam it over him, but suddenly Lancelot comes back and curls its wings to shield his user. In a fit of rage, Poe points at the two of us and starts to cough.
“You… You two… You’ve done it now!” He says writing a word in the book in his hand that makes the dragon start to charge up… Ice- no Fire? Wait wind? No wait, it's everything! “This is my strongest attack… it’s able to destroy this entire building, no… this entire city!” He yells out before coughing some more. The other members of the knights exchange worried glances. I go in front of Adrian, ready to shield the attack but…
“Your attention, please!” A carefree voice yells out as Poe suddenly gets grabbed by the clown detective himself. He waves his gun in the air, pointing upwards with a cheeky smile. “Ladies and gents, this is how you defeat a guardian user!” Robert says as he kicks Poe slightly with Trent appearing from above and zooming downwards and slicing the book that fell from his hands. Once destroyed, Lancelot disappeared in Poe’s disbelief.

“No! My friend!” He cried out as he started coughing even more. Alice tugged onto Hero’s shirt and asked him something as he checked his watch. The color from his face turns pale as he taps Claudious’s shoulder as he rolls his eyes.
“I know I know… Let's get him out of here.” He says before quickly grabbing Poe by the back of his shirt and running. “We’ll meet again… I promise you that!” He yells as the rest of the knights follow behind him… except one. Hero just stood there confused at me.
“...Why? Why did she run back to help you? And why would you protect her?” He says with genuine curiosity. “I don’t get it… Death doesn’t have a meaning anymore. Why do you still try to avoid it? …I just don’t get it.” He says turning around and walking off. He pauses and turns back to me and Adrian… and then continues off. Robert looked at me with amusement in his eyes as he asks,
"Who was that? You guys know each other? Nah just kidding, I don't care" He says with a mix of laughter. Adrian sighs and lends a hand for me to get back up. Flustered, I took the hand and stood myself up. “Anyways from the looks of it, we have some enemies. Which is exactly why you need to study your abilities more! Now come on! Back to the gym!” He said with a smile on his face and left us behind. I looked at Adrian, who had a faint red tint on her face.
“Hey uh… Sorry about that. I just… didn’t want you to die.” She says, ashamed of herself.
“No no it’s fine!” I responded back to her. She perks up, staring directly at me as I continue. “You looked really cool back there! What was with that eye thing anyways?”
“Huh? What eye thing?” …huh I assumed it was a part of her guardian, but I guess not… I decided to drop the topic entirely and went to the gym… in the entrance, I saw Pudding staring down at her hands with a slight tremble. Once she sees me she puts her hands behind her back and smiles.
“Big bro! You did amazing (ᗒᗨᗕ)!” She says with a sweet smile. I patted her on the head and noticed that her eyes weren't facing me. Something was clearly on her mind…

“Hey uh… Pudding… are you okay? You seem a bit down.” her smiles fades into a neutral expression as she looks down, her hair covering her eyes as she speaks with a flat, mature tone, juxtapositioning her crazy eccentric voice from before,
“...I’m fine, Zach. Don’t worry about me.” I stood there silently and removed my hand from her head. Pushing it further wouldn’t do any good so I decided to leave it like that. Welp, time to head back to training… I wonder how Matt is doing…

imgflip.com/i/a593kw

Nice story let's see where the li- OH I CANT READ THAT NOW

I'm gonna be fr with you gng

I can't read allat

At least not right now