Chapter 102 The Small Figure
Lee Seng quickly started to descend just as fast as he destroyed the sea of flesh and muscle in front of him. He spun around to look at the growing street below him. Lee Seng turned his hands to face each other. He felt the Dark Matter start to pour in the space between his hands. The ground grew closer and Lee Seng shut his eyes, pulling his hands in opposite directions. A huge bubble of gravity shot outwards in all directions.
The bubble connected with the ground and Lee Seng instantly came to a slow. When he could no longer feel the wind rushing against him, he slowly opened his eyes. The gravity bubble worked, but he was starting to feel the negatives take hold of his limbs. As he slowly fell back to the street, he watched as smoke lingered in the air.
"Please be dead. Please be dead. Please be dead." Lee Seng repeated. Lee Seng\'s ears twitched. He could hear something abnormal moving in the smoke. It was bubbling and splitting. It sounded... fleshy? Lee Seng started to lift both of his heavy arms up, when hundreds of fleshy tendrils flew out at him. The tendrils snatched Lee Seng and began to attach themselves onto him. The sea of flesh and muscle began to pull backwards and Lee Seng towards the smoke.
"I thought it would be dead after that!" Lee Seng shouted. "What the hell do I do?!?" Lee Seng whipped through the smoke and up a building. He slammed into the roof and continued to be pulled back to the way he came. Lee Seng quickly pulled straight down onto the familiar road towards the muscular zombie\'s expanded body.
\'Is it taking me back there?\' Lee Seng wondered. His arms and legs were bound. The rotten flesh had left a small opening for him to see where he was going. The rotten flesh felt squishy yet hard. Lee Seng\'s mind raced for answers as he was easily making back the distance towards the expanded muscular body. Lee Seng passed through the huge opening in the side of the house and was instantly released.
Lee Seng slid across the floor and came to a stop right before the wall where the muscular zombie would\'ve been. Lee Seng looked around.
\'What just happened?\' Lee Seng slowly stood up, pushing past the pain in his arms. He slowly brushed the dirt and muck off of him. Lee Seng turned to face the created exit of the muscular zombie. The orange and reds of the sun was gone. Everything was replaced with black and white.
"Did I just... move into Limbo, again?" Lee Seng whispered. He slowly exited the home, grabbing at his mask to check if he did have it on. He felt the odd warmth of the sun, but everything looked the same to him. "This place is as ruined as it can get..." Lee Seng decided he would go left from the home and turn right at the four-way intersection.
Lee Seng started down the street and the uncomfortable silence made him look behind him a couple of times. He wandered down the dilapidated street for, what seemed like, hours until something caught his eye when he looked back to check if anything was behind him. A small figure quickly moved back behind one of the houses.
\'What\'s that?\' Lee Seng wondered. His curiosity was pulling him towards it. He turned around and started to walk towards it. Lee Seng moved into a jog. He closed the distance and peeked through each opening on the left. When he eventually got to where he saw the small figure, he saw the figure peeking out at the other end. It pulled back when it saw Lee Seng and he continued to follow the thing.
He zoomed in between the houses and turned left. The small figure was six houses away from him. He moved into a sprint, easily clearing whatever obstacles in his way. He was reminded of the times he had to do this sort of thing. The bullies at his previous school would chase him, so he got crafty. He learned to parkour and traverse very sketchy things and now he was chasing after an unfamiliar small figure in Limbo.
Lee Seng closed the distance to two houses apart. He could see the small figure was wearing a cloak and seemed to have some sort of black material sticking above its head.
"Hey!" Lee Seng called out. He was closing in on the small figure when it ran straight into the side of a house, turning into a puff of black feathers. Lee Seng came to a stop and grabbed one of the feathers and twirled it. "It turned into feathers?" He raised the feather into the sky and caught an odd glimmer in the feathers.
The sound of something expanding behind Lee Seng caught his attention. Before he could even turn, someone threw him into the side of the house, watching him bounce back towards them. The small figure grabbed Lee Seng\'s arm and threw him onto the ground. Lee Seng felt the air escape him and a hard foot slammed into his chest.
Lee Seng watched as feathers fell around the small figure. A feathery masked person stood on top of him. Lee Seng began to raise his free right arm into the air when a feather pierced his arm and held him in place.
"Argh!" Lee Seng cried. Blood gushed and the feather felt sharp like metal. The feather-masked person kept quiet and stared at Lee Seng before raising a finger to where their mouth would be.
"They\'ll find us if you don\'t keep quiet!" A female voice hissed. The feather-masked woman looked up and around. She kept herself on Lee Seng and kept looking around for awhile. When she deemed it safe, which felt like forever, she moved off of Lee Seng and the metallic feather dissolved. Lee Seng instinctively grabbed his arm and watched as it started to close. The feather-masked woman hovered over Lee Seng and watched him. She nodded like she was satisfied with watching him heal and moved backwards to give him space.
"Why the hell did you do that?" Lee Seng asked. He held his arm close to his chest and looked at her. His tail whipped back and forth. He kept his guard up. This feather-masked woman was quick and knew how to fight.
"You stick out like a sore thumb with that tail," she pointed. "And you reek. Those things like shiny and smelly objects." She waved her hand in front of her mask like she was trying to air the stink away. Lee Seng scrambled onto his feet and took a stance. The masked lady scoffed and waved at him. "Fox, you don\'t need to be so aggressive. I\'m not hurting you unless you do something to me."
"Why did you stab me with your... feather?" Lee Seng pointed at her. The woman chuckled and brushed him off.
"You must be a new Realmwalker. I guess you didn\'t complete your task, yet. No wonder why you can\'t see." The feather-masked woman said.
"Task? See? What task and what can\'t I see?"
"I guess you\'ve just popped into Limbo then." The woman nodded. "Look, fox, if they catch me helping you, I\'ll be in for a helluva time. I don\'t need them on my ass."
"They? Who\'re you talking about? The Hat Man?" Lee Seng asked. The woman stopped at the mention of the Hat Man and tilted her head at him.
"So you\'ve met him already. And you don\'t know what you\'re supposed to be doing?" The woman asked.
"He told me to get out. That was it. And I did."
"And you did? Hmm, then you should be able to jump the realm whenever you want." She motioned. "So jump." Lee Seng jumped and she shook her head. "What the hell? You don\'t know how to, huh?" She leaned in closer and Lee Seng took a couple of steps back. Feathers materialized in her hand and she tossed them, blocking his way out. Lee Seng glanced behind him. The woman moved closer and shook her head.
"What are you exactly, fox?" She asked. Lee Seng turned to face her. She was really close and Lee Seng didn\'t know whether he should move or not. He took a gulp before he spoke.
"Well, I guess that\'s a good question." Lee Seng said. He took another gulp. "Both a Biohuman and a fox. Some would call me a kitsune, others a kumiho. Maybe even a huli jing." The woman took a step back and watched Lee Seng\'s tail swing nervously.
"A nine-tailed fox babe." She whispered. She stuck her hand out and looked at Lee Seng. "I guess I have no choice but to help you, child. You may call me Crow."
"I guess Fox will be fine here. I was told to not share my face so I guess I don\'t share my name." Lee Seng shook her head.
"Names and faces are powerful here. Its good you, at least, learned that from him."