Chương 76: The Unbreakable Poise! Issue 013!

Matthew Schneider had grown up scared of many things: rooms with people in them, rooms big enough to have people he couldn't see in them, people, wide open spaces, being outside, talking to people, telling the girl he liked he really liked her, playing music where people outside of his band could see… Look, he was scared of a lot of things, that was no secret. However, one of the things he'd never been scared of was horror movie monsters.

Whether it was Asian ghost girls with stringy hair, slow-walking serial killers, aliens made of rubber suits, werewolves, haunted houses, invisible demons, deformed midgets, mama's boys, unkillable monster things, haunted STDs, or whatever allegory for depression the movie was using, such things had never inspired fear in him. Why would they? They weren't real, not like having someone in front of him looking at him and listening to what he said and judging him—! No, breathe, breathe.

Good air in, scream air out, good air in, scream air out… It was one of the few things about him that seemed to impress his friends, even if he didn't understand why. Whenever they decided to watch a horror movie—and he never understood why they'd choose to do that when they said it scared them, because if something scared you, don't go near it if you had a choice— while everyone was screaming or looking away of swearing, Matthew just sat there.

He did his best to try to appreciate the story, found himself exasperated by the characters doing stupid things, was occasionally impressed at the costuming and practical effects, and once or twice even thought the writing was actually pretty good. Well, the parts of the writing that didn't involve the characters doing things they outright say is stupid or that they don't want to do. Fear, terror and horror filled Matthew utterly as he hid inside the metal armor of Poise.

The magic plates of metal left nothing exposed, each piece fitting seamlessly into those around it, the helmet completely hiding his face. It also muffled his voice, which meant his terrified panicked screaming reverberated such that it sounded like a low, metallic growl as he ran, feet moving faster than humanly possible, each step making him feel like he was flying from the sensation of his body hurtling forward.

In one of those 'yes, this is his life now' moments, the local newspaper had run a story about a dead body being found with… well, unusual wounds. Wounds like bite marks at the neck and strange burns on their and body that looked like handprints. Beyond that, the police had no leads. The bite marks had implied it was some kind of people-eating monster. The burn marks said it was a Flame-type wizard. He'd hoped it was the former. He knew how to deal with gravehearts and ashhearts, even if he didn't like it.

Poise should have known it would be both. The monster had looked aggressively ordinary. Well-worn sports shoes that were looking a little sad but still seemed in good repair, plain jeans, and a stained hoody. The stains hadn't looked like blood, even though it had run down the front of the hoody as if their wearer was a messy eater. It just looked like something had spilled on the front and dried. None of that had made it look like a monster.

The man they had in their grip and screaming in pain as he was pushed to the ground, that made them look like a monster. As always, the fearful thought crossed Poise's mind that he should probably leave, that if he got involved he would just embarrass himself and make things worse. It gnawed at him, made him want to turn around, to just not make this any of his business. He wanted to go home, crawl under his blankets, sleep, and not get out until it was time for lunch the next day.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Letting out sobs that echoed inside his armor until it sounded like a gravel rolling inside a steel bucket, Poise ran. He blew passed the two struggling men, one sabaton-covered foot gently kicking the attacker in the wrist, already preemptively cringing at the thought of miscalculating again and breaking someone's arm, even if they were some criminal.

He was already a violent vigilante, but he didn't want anyone rubbing it in where he could hear! As he had feared, there was a sound like a dry tree branch shattering, and one arm being and curving in ways arms aren't supposed to, especially not at that angle. The victim screamed even louder, and Poise couldn't help but join them, the sound emerging from his armor as a roar. The person who's arm he'd just broken didn't scream, which was a bad sign no matter how you looked at it.

However, the broken arm had weakened their grip on their victim, giving Poise the chance to throw them in a fireman's carry over his shoulder and run them to safety, one armored hand flailing wildly to force the other arm to let go. Poise ran two blocks towards the nearest police station before putting their passenger down as gently as he could. The man was still shaken, looking around wildly as if wondering where their attacker had gone.

Poise raised a hand to point stiffly, and the motion drew the man's gaze towards them. Closing his eyes—because if he looked away his helmet would move to give him away—so he wouldn't have to talk to them directly, Poise said, "T-the p-police station is in that direction." They scrambled to their feet, turning to run in that direction, and a terrified Poise wished he could join them. Then he turned and ran back towards the attacker, because they had a broken arm and that meant he needed to get them to a hospital.

Yet when he arrived back at the spot, the attacker was gone. Poise couldn't let out a sigh of relief—the terror allowed no room for relief—the fear inside him taking a new tinge of panic as he looked around wildly. Oh no! Someone he'd hurt had vanished if a serious injury! They could have internal bleeding or their muscles could be seriously damaged by bone shards, and it was all his fault—!

Movement out of the corner of his eye, and Poise dodge, terrified of being hurt as a hand gripping a knife sliced through where his neck had been. The knife immediately changed direction, still going for what looked like a gap at the neck of his armor, and Poise kept dodging, moving away from the blade.

Now that he could see it, it was clearly a well-worn kitchen knife, the point of the blade snapped off to leave a flat tip Under the shadow of the hoodie, the man's face was gaunt, looking like they'd lost all their facial fat while also extremely dehydrated. Something dark stained the area under their mouth almost all the way to their throat, and when the man snarled, Poise saw jagged, broken-off pieces of teeth sprouting from gums that looked cracked and dry.

The air around them was cold, a dry frost already forming on the knife blade their hands as thy made a spirited effort too stab Poise to death.

"Stand still so I can hit you!" the man rasped, his free arm—the one Poise was absolutely terrified that he'd broken—grabbing at Poise' wrist. Poise avoided the movements easily, yet it was clear that the man—whatever he was—could keep up as he kept trying to close the distance with them, knife still seeking joints in the armor.

"I will not die to some… some cosplayer with delusions of ritter! I will devour your heart and soul!" It was only much later that Poise learned this was a vampire, one of those wizards whose soul was trapped within their own corpse, devouring heat and their own body voraciously to try and keep the flame of the now-cursed soul burning, sustaining their cursed parody of life by using warm blood as a conduit to devour the body heat of their victims.

In the moment, as new panic filled his mind, Poise came to an important conclusion. He was a fool! He was an idiot! Why hadn't he realized before now? Horror movie monsters were people too! That meant they were scary! In real life, they could still judge him, think he was stupid and pathetic, mock him for being a useless human being, think his music sucked, boo the members of his band after they played a set, or talk to him! In fact, that was happening right now! It was horrible!

Poise screamed, his armor vibrating as echoes inside the metal made it sound like a roar, his arms flailing wildly as he tried to get the person who was talking to him to shut up! He didn't want to talk to anyone right now! -! -! -! Especially not a monster!