Noah jumped aside as the ghost girl came flying at him. She crashed into the lake with a great splash the next moment.
He first glanced down at his legs and then at the water. They were both ridiculously quick, but she moved in an unnatural way, almost like she was flying.
The previous strike to his back caught him off guard, but it didn't do much damage. They were both ghosts, but it seemed he was faster and stronger.
Or so he thought.
The ghost girl suddenly appeared in front of him, her pale palm slamming into his belly with more force than a car.
He felt his breath seize, and he couldn't even breathe.
The force from her palm sent him flying, slamming through a tree with a thunderous crack. He closed his eyes, trying to assess the internal damage.
But he felt fine. Pain faded like a distant dream, and he tore his way out of the collapsed tree without much effort.
The strange thing, though, was that he felt a bit hungrier now.
"How did she move so fast?" The ghost girl had basically just teleported in front of him.
He took off into the forest, running erratically to avoid those types of attacks. There had to be a way to combat instant movement like that.
While he was thinking, the ghost girl appeared behind him and disappeared the next moment. He only caught a glimpse of her but immediately understood.
She was becoming intangible and therefore invisible. It wasn't that she suddenly got faster; rather, it was that he didn't see her coming.
So he decided to try the trick himself and held his breath, becoming intangible. But unfortunately, he was still a rookie.
He sank through the earth and fell uncontrollably through the darkness underground for a short time. It was always silent here. No air or resistance, just darkness
He released his breath, returning to a solid form, and the earth shot him back out like a bad meal. He was cast high above the park for a moment, seeing it entirely before he started falling back to earth.
This is going to hurt.
Thankfully he crashed into the lake, which would kill a human because at certain heights crashing into water made it harder than concrete. But ghosts are better at staying alive than people.
At the edge of the small lake, he crawled out with a smile. He was soaked to the bone, but that was kind of fun in a thank-god-I'm-not-dead kind of way.
He looked up just in time to see a fist sailing towards his head and rolled out of the way.
The ghost girl's punch hit the lake like a cannonball and sent a plume of water rising into the air. He jumped away and tried intangibility again, controlling the feeling of weightlessness travelling through his body.
He tightened his feet and tried to focus on keeping them grounded. Then he held his breath. The brown-haired menace stopped as he disappeared in front of her. But then she looked down at his legs, and Noah rolled his eyes.
My legs are still visible.
She grabbed his invisible chest and tossed him. But he wasn't going easily, grabbing her collar as she sent him flying, dragging her into the air with him.
He tightened his grip and swung his feet to change position midair; then he flung her towards the ground.
Her tiny body flickered through the air but didn't split the ground when she landed, instead passing through it.
Intangibility?
"That's a neat trick," he said, staring as he fell to the ground. Then the girl shot out of the ground, right back at him. "You have so much to teach—"
She blasted the words from his mouth as her tiny fist drilled into his belly. Thankfully she hit him at an angle, so he soared westward, towards the ground. He kept his eyes open, waiting till he got near the earth before holding his breath.
His body passed through the earth, but the moment things went dark, he released his breath and got out of the ground with much less force. The deeper you went, the more force you'd come out with.
His powers spat in the face of the laws of physics and took its lunch money. But as long as they had some consistency, he could work with it.
He landed softly on his feet and grinned. Coming out here was definitely a good idea. He was already learning a lot about his powers; Like how his clothes could dry quickly if he phased through the water.
The ghost reappeared, her tiny fist reaching for his skull, but he was ready this time. He knew she would come from the west and just dodged.
"Senior, please teach me the secrets to being a proper ghost," he pleaded.
But the ghost girl just kept attacking him, mouth opened in a perpetual yet silent scream, pale face covered in what looked like painful scratches. Her clothes looked kind of like his, like she was dragged from bed.
Did the fact that she was wearing pyjamas say anything about how she must have died?
He watched her wrist and body, studying it for the details of her death, and a heavy feeling choked him as he tried to swallow. He stopped moving and caught her hand. A shock wave exploded around them, shaking the trees.
"Show me where you're buried," Noah commanded. He had no way of knowing if she'd listen, but he just hoped he could get through to her.
She continued to fight, though, voice stifled in a silent cry, tears falling from her puffy eyes. Noah had already resolved not to hit her too much before, but now he didn't even fight back, simply using this as a chance to train his use of intangibility.
He needed to understand why other ghosts could go fully intangible without falling through the earth, but the trick of letting himself pass through the floor to avoid fall damage was very useful.
But suddenly the ghost girl stopped fighting. She looked around her like she was scared, then simply disappeared, leaving her student confused.
"Hey, I thought we were getting close," Noah murmured offhandedly, carefully watching his surroundings and also choosing to become invisible. His feet were the only things that were still visible.
But he hid them in the bushes. Whatever scared that ghost girl enough to hide had to be a problem. He waited and watched; running without knowing what the danger was coming would be rash.
After a few moments, he heard someone's footsteps break the silence of the forest. A figure was illuminated by the moonlight, a girl in all black with a wrapped up staff strapped to her back.
Her black hair shone under the night. Her face was round and pretty, but it looked like she just woke up. Yet her amber eyes scanned the environment with precision.
Would she notice his feet through the bush?
He could just leave, but what he didn't understand yet was why the ghost was scared of this girl. What was so dangerous about her?
The girl stopped and studied the carnage left in the forest by his battle with the ghost.
"Why would they tear up the place like this? Phantasms really like making things unnecessarily difficult."
Phantasms? Is that what people in this world call ghosts?
It didn't make much sense, though, because from his memories of this world, ghosts were still just myths and props for horror movies.
The girl closed her eyes, her brows furrowed with confusion.
"You're still here?"