District 42-Chapter 126: Similars part 2

Alfar raised from the ground slowly, his breathing was still unsteady, and his mind was going groggy because of the lack of oxygen. His hands were trembling as well, and he couldn’t bring himself to think of something other than the need for breathing he had.

It was an excruciating situation. He knew inside that it would be just a matter of seconds before he could breathe again, but still, his mind wouldn’t let him get rid of the anxiety of not being able to do so immediately. It was a natural response of defense that the body had, after all.

He stood on his feet, although his legs weren’t so steady. They were shaking and weak. He stared at Anton, who was looking back at him for a while without moving an inch.

"This guy... what the hell is he doing? He is supposed to try to finish me, isn’t he?" The Dark elf needed some time to process what the old man had said to him when he was still agonizing in the ground.

"What do you want from me!?" He asked, gasping and stuttering. His trunk was so stiff and hurting so much that he couldn’t speak properly.

Anton answered as long as he finished questioning as if he already knew what he wanted to ask.

"I am teaching you, only. And what I want for you is that you achieve the same conclusion I had years ago. If you do it, maybe you can bring Casper to think in the same way."

After his explanation, Alfar’s trunk got relaxed again, and he could control properly his breath. His mind wasn’t so dizzy anymore, as it was receiving oxygen back.

When Alfar recovered, he didn’t wait for the old man to keep talking with him. He wanted to take advantage of his apparent distraction to land even if a single blow on him. But it didn’t happen. As long as he advanced swiftly towards Anton and drew a line in the air with his fist, aiming at his face, the old man stepped to the side, avoiding the powerful blow easily, and not looking scared by all that strength at all.

Alfar followed with one, two, three more blows, but each of them just hit the air. The Dark elf noticed that he was running out of gas faster than usual. His punches were still with great strength behind them, but there was something wrong with his stamina.

In that battle, Alfar learned that missing blows that reached nothing were especially tiring, and that was why Anton was prioritizing dodge them than defend with his arms or parry.

For the second time, when Alfar thought that he was about to reach the middle-aged man, he felt that pressure from before, landing surgically at the same place as the previous one. This time, his abdomen contracted so hard that it felt like exploding at any time. He barely couldn’t prevent himself to throw away everything he had in his stomach.

This time, Anton didn’t stay at the same place. He walked towards the fallen Dark elf, stopping beside him, and then hitting him hard again with a strong kick that sent his body slipping through the ground.

The kick landed in the stomach, even though Alfar was sure that his hands were covering all his belly, but as he was so groggy he wasn’t sure.

His eyes filled with water, and his mouth as well. After so much pain his belly started to tingle. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Anton crouched beside him. The look in his face was the one of a severe teacher, not of a villain at all.

Alfar was striving against his own mind, fighting with Deamhan, preventing him to take control. Even though he was in a critical situation, he could not afford the Dark elf to dominate him.

"Are you feeling this, Alfar? The frustration of having this incredible power, but not being able to use it? The frustration of being strong, and not being at the same time?" Anton stared at Alfar’s painful watered eyes, squinting. "I can hear that he is yelling inside your mind. I can notice how much you need to struggle every single day to keep him hidden from the outside world. I can see it inside your consciousness...

"You know what, Alfar? We are really the same. Even in these two aspects, we are quite similar. We are attached to a strong, but useless power. In your case, because you don’t want to hurt others. In my case, because I can’t use it, I am handcuffed since I was born, not for these masks, but my own being. And there is the issue of the second personality as well... It’s like a mirror."

Alfar was clearly hearing what he had to say, and his mind was registering everything. It was even strange that he could do such a thing even in that state.

He tried to recover as quickly as possible breathing in and out slowly and using all strength he had in his diaphragm and lungs, but it was not so easy, the muscles weren’t working as they should.

"But, there is something we aren’t similars, Alfar. There is a special thing that they allowed you to have that I cannot have for the rest of my life. That’s why I am saying this to you. That’s why I looked up to you before I did it with Casper."

For a moment Deamhan took control, and Alfar’s hand moved with incredible agility towards the middle-aged man, nearly hitting his face.

That speed was high enough for Anton to need to strive to dodge his blows. His mind would easily register the attack coming, but even his trained body had difficulties avoiding it.

"Don’t let him take control yet, Alfar! Don’t be the monster they always tell that you are! Listen to me and fight me being Alfar, not the Dark elf!"

Alfar roared while raising from the ground, with his body still needing oxygen, his breath was still recovering. He leaped towards Anton, going wildly against him.

"Stop. Reading. My. Mind!" First, he punched as many times as he could, then, when his nails were already big enough, he tried to use them.

Anton saw nearly in slow motion his movements, being able to tell its trajectory, speed, the weight of the force of the blow, and the time for it to hit him.

With incredible footwork, and without doing any noise, he dodged everything again, just to land another punch at Alfar’s solar plexus.

"You are starting to go wild, man... Don’t do it."

Alfar’s hand raised all of a sudden, pointing the gun in his hand towards Anton. It was explicit that the Dark elf was trembling hard. Anton knew very well that Alfar wouldn’t pull the trigger. He could see inside his mind that his intentions weren’t like that.

"I know you don’t want to hurt people, Alfar, but think well on this: until now, I’ve been saying that you don’t have to push yourself, that your mistakes don’t matter, that you can’t let your evil side dominate you...

"However, look, if you want to save all the prisoners, you can’t afford yourself to fail here. If I kill you, I will do the same with every single prisoner here. No exceptions, even the White warrior."

Anton approached him even more looking at his face with serious eyes. The Dark elf shivered. It seemed that the middle-aged man was looking directly to his soul. It was uncomfortable, strange, that feeling.

"If you want to change something, you need to be willing to sacrifice a lot of things and bear the consequences. You sacrificed nothing until now, but, to save Halden, you need to go ahead and do it. So, never let the monster you have inside of you be completely jailed. Learn how to live with it, not take it off."

He stood again, taking distance from Alfar and then making a fighting stance.

The Dark elf tried one time to raise from the ground himself, but couldn’t. He struggled a second, but his legs weren’t answering him anymore. With that state, he would not be capable of it, no matter how much effort he put.

"As I said, Alfar, I will kill you. And then, I will do the same with every single prisoner here. The only way to prevent this is killing me, accepting this side of yours, and using it to help, not to hurt. Please, understand what I am saying. Change Halden. Do what I couldn’t do for all these years."

"Why?" Alfar questioned himself. "Why is he saying all these things to me? You are not making a little bit of sense! You were the one betraying us before? Why should I hear a thing that you say to me!?" He wanted to say those things, but he couldn’t waste oxygen talking more.

"If that’s how it is... If I need to choose between become a monster to save people or fight against it and lose everything, then I don’t want any of those! I will find a way around to do what I need to do!"

Reading his mind, Anton got amazed by those words, by the emotion he put on them.

"Very well. Then, prove it!" He shouted.