Tale Of A Knight 29 Volume 2: Chapter 19: Escape Part 1

In fact, for typical male, this would have been an ultimate fantasy.

Unfortunately, Bakit was not typical male, nor was he in heaven, it was more like a very soft version of h.e.l.l that he desperately wanted to escape.

Jansulu kept hugging him in her sleep, with her treating him like a gigantic body pillow was not a pleasant experience at all.

'This is messed up. How did it end up like this? This entire family is full of crazy people…I need to escape. But what if one of them catches me? If the family members are just as strong as her… then I am dead meat. Defeat her in a duel? Are they crazy? Only Master Zen can do something like that and I am nowhere near his level!'

'I waited for three hours for her to fall into deep sleep, now it's a perfect chance for me to get the h.e.l.l out of this crazy place!'

Bakit moved Jansulu's mighty arm aside, allowing himself to climb off the bed.

He managed to sneak out of the room, but then he entered the corridor, hearing footsteps, he quickly hid himself inside in another room, which happened to be empty.

"Is it always like this for you?"

Bakit heard a voice within his head.

"More often than not…" Bakit ended up answering out of instinct, then he put his hand on his mouth, he could not risk waking Jansulu up, she may be in another room, but he could never be sure how good her hearing was.

'Who is there?'

Bakit looked around, but there was none there.

'Maybe I am just imagining things…'

"Nope, it's definitely real"

The sound was not audible to his ears, but it was as if it was echoing within his head.

'Where are you?'

Bakit was not sure his sanity was not slipping.

"With you, like always…"

Hesitating a little, Bakit proceeded to remove the glove and the gauntlet on the stump of his right hand.

He was desperately hoping he was wrong about this.

What he saw underneath it made him gasp.

It was a hand…but not a normal hand, not even close.

Made entirely out of see-through blue crystal, the hand was made with great detail, almost as if it was crafted by an artisan.

The hand itself was stone cold to the touch.

"Now you see me"

'Your voice, how can I hear you? How is this even possible? I don't understand…'

"Well, since you are my host, I might as well explain. Crystal shards generated by crystal elementals have limited sentience, which stay alive as long as they absorb mana. When a crystal shard makes contact with a body full of mana, the crystal shard absorbs the mana into itself, growing fast, killing the target in the process."

"Usually, after that, the crystal dies after it runs out of mana…But in our case, something different happened"

'What do you mean something different?'

"Your body has ridiculously low mana reserves, even absorbing all of it wouldn't be enough for me to grow an inch."

"Simply put, your low mana reserves allowed you to survive and made it impossible for me to grow fast, but they did allow me to stay alive and incubate. Over time, I gained a sense of consciousness and awareness; I even learned to absorb mana in the atmosphere, little by little, allowing me to grow enough to take the form of your right hand. So, how do you like it? It took me a while to make it"

'Thanks….But are you saying I have a leech on my arm that feeds off of my mana?'

"I would like to think of this as a mutually beneficial partners.h.i.+p. You keep me alive, and I help you stay alive. I am sure you missed using this…" Bakit's crystal hand moved its fingers in response.

"So, do we have a deal?"

The crystal parasite seemed eager enough to help Bakit survive.

'How can I trust you?'

"We are sharing the same body for goodness sake! There isn't a reason for you not to trust me. Besides, if you die, I die as well, so it is for my own benefit as well."

'In that case, I want control of my right hand, right now!'

"Consider it done"

Bakit now gazed at his right hand, flexing its crystal fingers at his command, but he still could not feel the fingers.

Still, referring to the this creature as his hand was not going to cut it, so Bakit thought.

'But I suppose you will need a name…so how about Sky-Blue? You know, because of your color?'

"Can I use your sight to see myself?"

'Go ahead' Bakit agreed.

Now he felt his right eye grow dark as the creature residing within his body took over.

"Hmm, I look rather bluish…but sky-blue sounds weird, how about Blue, just Blue?"

'Sounds fine by me, I will be working together with you from now on, Blue'

"Glad to be on board, Bakit"

Bakit's vision suddenly returned to normal.

He proceeded to put the gauntlet and the glove on his right hand.

Before, he used them to conceal him lacking a hand, but now he had to conceal that he had a rather scandalous looking, blue crystal hand.

Now that he knew it was a two in one situation, Bakit felt a little nervous, he would need to visit Rolgo about it, but right now was not the time to worry about such things…

… Now was time to flee