"Why is there smoke coming from where my town should be at?" Chimaru suddenly asks me this while we are still nowhere even close to the next city, only making it clear that I never had a shot at beating them to it. I assumed it would take them a couple of days to get there, but it only took them around half a day, and now that they probably know I am not there, they will be on my heels in the blink of an eye!
"Goddammit, I assume they don't believe the people of Maple. They probably think you all know about my existence and demand to know where I am." Chimaru drops his things, and without even thinking about it, he starts running back, but I stop him by catching his arm.
"I have to go back! Grandma and Papa need me!" Chimaru exclaims while I try to think of a way for him not to die since I didn't want to get another soul count on me, not when I knew there was nothing he could do for them. "If you go back, you'll just be another casualty; there is nothing you can do to"
"I don't care! If I go back, I will at least die a hero!" What do you do in a scenario like this? Chimaru clearly wants to go back and die with his family, but am I about to let a stupid kid like him make that decision? If I force him to follow me, he will always blame me for his parent's deaths, but if I let him go, he will just get killed.
Unluckily for him and for me, fate wouldn't give us much of a resting period either, as the same division that caught up to me once finally caught up to me again, that being the calvary in moose. "Stop right there, criminal scum!" A man screams while I let go of Chimaru to start bailing on foot. I forget about the kid. Now, it was all about my skin.
I was still nowhere near strong enough to take all of them down not while I also had to take care of a useless powerless kid who would just get me into more trouble than he was worth. "Get her! HYAAH!" My speed was slightly faster than always due to the blood I had gotten from the bear, but the moose was quickly catching up to me anyway, despite running at top speed already.
To make things worse, the men did not only have swords, just like last time, but they also carried a bunch of bows and arrows with them, which they quickly used to try and shoot me down from around a football field away while I mindlessly ran through the forest leaving everything and everyone behind only thinking of myself.
You may call it selfish, but as I said before, what the hell could I even do? I lost my bow and arrows, and I barely had time to recover well before being able to hunt for myself again. Even then, I had to flee immediately because these guys were always hot on my toes.
Assuming the imperial troops would think I died was a complete mistake. Why would I believe some crazy lunatics entirely at the service and command of that bat-shit crazy emperor would ever leave me alone!? Just because I crossed some border!
As if to make matters worse, my plan to try and slow down the moose by going into the thicker parts of the forest soon backfires as I am the one starting to struggle to navigate the landscape while the men in moose continue to easily follow me, albeit now they stop shooting because their rides are a little bumpier.
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I couldn't see where I was going, and to be honest, I didn't really think about where I could run or where I was going to end up. All I had going through my mind was the word 'survive.' Keep running, and don't look back. Just keep running ahead without a plan; however, things don't go as smoothly as expected.
While I might've been faster and stronger compared to most other girls, I was still no match for men with armor weapons and a giant beast who soon all catch up to me at the edge of the river that suddenly turns into a cliff leading to a high waterfall on the very edge of the mountain.
{ Look On Down From The Bridge - Mazzy Star }
With the men now in close range, it doesn't take long for the spears and arrows to start landing on me, critically, slowing me down even further as I finally reach the river, slowly trying to keep running across it, which proves hard with a large spear right across my chest.
"I got her good boss! AHAHA!" The man who managed to hit me with the spear happily exclaims his hit while I slowly fall into the water near the river, followed by a grunt of pain once another spear hits me right into my abdomen, only accelerating the bleeding, which soon begins to cover the river bed.
Why was this happening to me? I thought the reincarnation goddess had finally gotten these guys away from me. I assumed she was now on my side, goddammit. Why did I place my trust in a god? There is no god in this world of brutes and barbarians. The only decent people in this world all die while the evil always wins, so what's the point?
My strenght vanishes quite fast with two long spears into my body. Still, I suppose just to make sure, another man launches another spear that pierces me on my left shoulder, only making my downfall faster, which starts by going into my knees inside the river after not giving up.
"Alright, that's it. Did you guys record all of that with the magic ball? She is already dying. This footage should be enough to prove her death. Let's just watch her die now. The emperor wanted her to have a painful death." I can barely hear them now as my body quickly deteriorates once I fall into the water face entirely down.
Did I do well enough on my second chance? Could I've done better? I was just set up for failure again. I learned a lot on such short notice, but now it seemed like all my efforts were going to be washed away for nothing. I accomplished nothing more than countless deaths on my path; I got so many killed.
"Sir, can I be the one to cut her head off!?" I hear in the background men arguing as to who would be the one to land the final blow just to make sure I am dead, which suddenly gives me the energy and motivation to spite them even in my last moments of life.
If they wanted to cut my head off them, they would have to climb down the goddamn waterfall or take the long route down or jump along with me either way, I would leave with no regrets. "Hey! Stop her! Someone stop her! Don't let them! Wait, no!" I could hear the desperation in their voices while they all quickly ran back into the water, it being just a little too late to stop me from slipping down the waterfall.
"I'll see you all in hell." Those are what I assume are my last words in this vampire body, which served me well, but I now used to flip the middle finger to all of them while it was in freefall, quickly reaching the bottom of the drop and landing hard against the water, followed by a couple of rock collisions. Everything soon goes black. As soon as I hit the water, I accepted it by letting go of everything.