Threads of the Soul

'Mistakes have been made.'

As Seth stared down the titanic tortoise as it barreled towards him in a fit of rage, he couldn't help but reminisce on the decisions throughout his life and how it all in some way led up to this incredibly ridiculous moment.

He wondered that, if he had simply ordered a bagel for lunch one day instead of a donut, would he be in this situation? Maybe not… Or maybe he still would and the only thing that would be different is that he was wishing he had a donut that one day instead of a stupid bagel.

Life is funny that way.

He was vaguely aware of the movement in the corner of his eye and of the soft rhythmic splashing of puddles being tread through by thick, leather boots. Those were common in Scotland, puddles. With the weather always being a choice between raining or overcast and about to rain, it was something that you quickly began to tune out and place into the background.

He had no idea why he was thinking about puddles right now, with his death looming ever closer, but it was nothing more than a passing thought made to wile away the seconds.

Because, as much as it might seem from his demeanour, Seth was not frozen in fear. He was scared, sure. He was not ashamed by its presence, in fact he welcomed it. Feeling fear meant that he hadn't gone completely insane or lost his mind under some delusion of grandeur and power. Only an idiot wouldn't have some level of fear facing down a monster like this. After all, Bravery was not the absence of fear but the will to overcome it, and currently Seth's will was burning bright. But despite its natural presence within his body he was not frozen with it, instead he was waiting.

Like a matador facing down a charging bull, Seth was exercising the virtue of patience. Unlike the matadors however, he had no red cape to flap about, but he did have something much more useful. A flying dagger completely under his control, that was currently hovering over his shoulder.

All he had to do was wait for it to get close enough, stab at its eye with his knife and blind it for just long enough to get between its legs. All he had to worry about was the tail, but since Corvus was standing nearby, he could always be temporarily returned to his initial purpose of fateful meatshield.

It was a brilliant plan, if he did say so himself. It avoided him dodging too soon and having the beast simply turn in its charge and trample him anyways. The only true flaw in this otherwise perfect plan, aside from being accidentally stepped on or thagomized, was that he never informed Fox of it.

It was a mistake he only fully understood when he felt the elder man's arms wrapping around his waist and his body tilting to the side. Clearly, the grey haired fox thought that Seth was just a deer in the headlights and needed to be tackled to safety.

Gritting his teeth, Seth sent out the dagger anyways, blasting it directly towards the eyes of the Repmera. He was able to see it close its eyes in defense, temporarily blinding itself just as planned, before everything in the world turned upside down. The world around him blurred, or perhaps it was just his mind giving up as his stomach flipped so many times it could start its own Cirque du Soleil act.

With his mind focusing so much on not vomiting, he only had a small fraction of concentration left. Just enough to instruct Corvus to dive forward underneath the titans legs as it continued to blindly charge.

He could always feel his dagger in relative position to himself, rather than perceiving the world through it like his other puppets. So when those senses rapidly changed his relative distance and direction in the span of an instant, it was a safe bet that whatever Fox did was some kind of teleportation ability.

Thus, when Seth finally regained his senses and found himself surrounded by a completely new and foreign environment, he wasn't taken completely off guard.

"Where are we exactly?"

Pushing back the urge to vomit for one last time, Seth stood up slowly and managed to ask the obvious and pertinent question. Knowing his relative direction and distance was nice and all, but details were always better.

"It's a flat that was close by. You'll be safe here until everything is over, then I'll come back for you."

"Wait a minute, you can't just-... Aaaand He's gone. Perfect."

Glancing around at the now empty room, he suddenly felt a deep well of sympathy for the people Batman often interacted with. His ego wasn't exactly pleased at the fact that he was seen as such a burden that he had been shunted to the bench, but the rational part of his mind was able to calm him down before he did something stupid.

That was the role he was meant to be playing, after all, the feeble one armed serf of the gracious ravengarbed saviour. Corvus was the one meant to get all the attention and limelight, while he was meant to fade into the background.

An unsuspecting dagger dipped in deadly poison and a puppet master manipulating the battle from the side lines.

There would be many more performances of this in the future, so he simply had to deal with the blows to his ego and play his role well. Plus, one day in the future he could always dramatically unmask himself and shock those around him. Yes, that sounded nice. The thought of that comforted his bruised ego and put a soft smile on his face as he looked at his surroundings.

The specific room he had been so unceremoniously dumped in was a bathroom, a rather dank and disgusting one at that. It was clear that whomever lived here previously was not one for a routine bathroom cleaning, that's for sure. They even left a floater in the toilet. Ugh, disgusting.

Shielding his nose from the truly offensive smell, Seth quickly exited the bathroom and stepped into an unexpected paradise. Shelves upon shelves of video game cases, figurines and other assorted memorabilia. A variety of collectable swords from countless franchises lining the walls, as well as the classic decorative katana. An entire wall dedicated to a TV and games consoles.

He was in Nerd Heaven. The ultimate shut-in hovel.

As he took in his surroundings with a faint hint of jealousy, he didn't fail to notice the other presences in the room. Bob was sitting on the couch, his back completely straight like a rod as he stared at the blank TV, whilst the injured man was sprawled across the other half of the couch still slipping in and out of consciousness. He should really get around to finding out his name.

Gentle chips and high pitched barks drew his eye to the two little menaces on the floor, Omelette and the ice dog, play fighting and simply enjoying life without a care.

'At least someone gets to have fun here.'

"Fa-Seth. You are here. I was just watching the battle."

Sparing a curious glance at the blank TV that was only showing a reflection of the room, Seth nodded softly as he strode across the room. His threads weaving themselves through the air as they obeyed his mental commands.

"Yes, And I'd like to get back to it, is there a balcony or something that overlooks the area?"

"There is."

Following Bob's finger, Seth strode towards the balcony and quickly slid open the doors before stepping onto the short, concrete balcony.

It wasn't much to work with, barely enough to comfortably stand on nevermind fight. But such a thing didn't concern Seth's fighting styles.

He shuffled to the side, making sure the doorway was clear, before leaning on the railing and observing the situation. Although he wasn't too far away from the fight, about 5 floors up in a block of flats, it was enough to give him a full vantage of the ongoing battle. They really did look like ants compared to that thing.

Streaks of light cut through the air, quickly followed by thunderous cracks and the smell of ozone.

Every few seconds there was a glint of steel near the beast before a tiny figure darted away and disappeared before the creature could retaliate. That didn't stop it from trying, but it's spike covered tail simply slammed into the ground a second too late every time.

Then, of course, there was a final distant figure darting around the colossal creature, throwing feathers to distract it while taking daring attempts to slash at it whenever they could. This was naturally Corvus.

Despite being teleported away, Seth had never lost sight of the battle. He could always see it through Corvus' eyes as well as his own.

It's why he was fine taking a ranged role or being on the side lines. Beyond his performance, it was simply best for everyone.

An eye in the sky and a warrior in the midst of the fray. Not many could claim they could do the same.

But even at this distance, Seth was not contempt to act as a mere passive observer.

Another glint of steel appeared in the air before him, but it was not from the teleporting swordsman. Instead it was the light reflecting off the blade of a flying dagger as it soared through the air under its masters orders.

It flipped over itself as it rapidly slowed down, pointing back towards the scuffle, eventually coming to a halt as it hovered silently above its masters shoulder.

Hanging in the air, suspended by ethereal threads, alongside a swarm of other blades that were gathering in the air around Seth as he retrieved the swords from the flat.

Just as he was about to send his new swarm forward to sting it's prey, that was the same moment that the pet store decided to explode.