The trip so far had been an easy breeze, with the nights going by smoothly as well as the roads being relatively quiet and somewhat lonesome, yet for some reason, something didn't feel right about today. I looked around for a few seconds to double-check the area, but I couldn't see anything unusual other than some usual morning fog.
The air around us soon became thick, and the ambiance changed ever so slightly, slowly turning from a beautiful, bright day into a more grim, foggy day. Yet the fog didn't strike me as strange; it was a usual occurrence since we were traveling alongside a river path.
I take another look around us, still not letting go of that awful gut feeling of mine since my gut had never been wrong about detecting danger before. It was just that I couldn't pinpoint why I was feeling in danger in the first place, only raising my blood pressure to extreme heights.
{Something is wrong - Yugo kanno}
The air suddenly became slightly colder than before, but again, this doesn't strike me as unusual. I simply react to the cold weather by zipping my jacket close. Yet even then, I couldn't stop looking around us and around the forest, which was increasingly becoming harder and harder to see more than a couple of meters forward.
The fog was suddenly becoming too thick for my liking, and the cold air outside was also becoming a little too unbearable, almost as if someone was trying to get me to get down to ground level to camp out in this weather instead of moving forward even more than it clicked.
I looked around us for a little bit longer, this time finally noticing something strange about the sounds of the forest. All those songbirds and other small animals had suddenly become too quiet, which couldn't mean anything, but bad news: animals usually don't quiet down like that unless there's a predator nearby.
My gut yells danger at me more than ever, finally provoking me to grab my claymore from the resting area and place it right next to me, ready to be swung at a moment's notice. I still couldn't tell if it was just my imagination or an illusion, but I could swear I could see little glimpses of moving light between the bushes.
I once again take another look at my surroundings, this time trying to pay attention to the trees and the bushes around them, finally noticing strange little cuts in some of the branches, almost like they were cut down by some sort of precise tool or instrument, which then reveals itself when I get caught by surprise with a surprise attack.
My hand is suddenly braced by some sort of small thing that manages to cut deep into my index finger and also cut off a large chunk of my jacket from the right side of my abdomen. Blood gushed out of my finger almost immediately, but that was not all, as the horse before me got its head chopped off out of nowhere by some sort of thin air blade.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"Pista! Stay inside the carriage and hide!" I yelled as loudly as possible at the sleeping beauty inside the carriage, who probably didn't even listen to me since she was still snoring like a little kid without worries. Pista's nonreaction was honestly for the better, as she would be safe as long as she remained inside and asleep.
The carriage soon halts entirely once the horse pulling it dies, thanks to losing its head, which was only great. I would have more work once I was done with the pieces of shit that were trying to kill off my client. Honestly, if the guys end up living, I will make them pull the carriage to the next town because I'm not doing that for free!
{Shosh}
Yet the enemies soon kill off any medical act I was trying to keep up as they cut off the rest of my jacket with such precision I can't even comprehend it until it's too late. The situation was severe, and the act of destroying my jacket was intentional; whoever was controlling those blades was sending a clear message, 'surrender or die a horrible death.'
"Alright, you clearly have the advantage here. Just say what you want." I soon get down from the carriage, still holding my sword. Still, this time on my back to try and signal to the people trying to kill me that I was willing to negotiate some sort of deal or to hear them out, but I don't hear a thing; instead, I receive a severe punishment as my feet touch the floor I feel a deep cold air that freezes my sandals in place.
Seeing how my sandals become blocks of ice within seconds of touching the floor, I jump back over the carriage and leave my shoes on the floor, standing at the top of the carriage barefoot and holding my claymore with both hands, looking in all directions, but I couldn't see a thing other than fog and past the fog even more fog!
{Tensione - Yugo kanno}
"Fine then! You want a fight!? Alright, let's do this, then! SUPER STACKED SUPER STRENGHT!" I immediately activated my fighting skill, which summoned the first stack of the Oni's fury mask behind my back while scanning my surroundings for signs of the enemy. Yet, I still couldn't see anything other than the cold air slowly rising from my sandal level to now being dangerously close to the carriage door level.
The fact that the cold air seemed thick and colder than the fog could only mean that someone was definitely behind it all, as nature doesn't randomly throw events like these just because. That was not how the world worked, and in any case, if the cold reached the sleeping beauty, she would for sure freeze to death, which left me with no other option than to break the carriage roof to pull her out of there.
"Uh? Toshiro, what the hell?" The sleeping beauty smacks me on the head as soon as I pull her up from her sleep, probably angry at me for waking her up in the first place, but I don't mind it as much as I keep on trying to think of how I would get her majesty out of this little mess without both of us dying.
{Minute 1:00}
My gut begins to warn me about impending danger more than ever. I listen to it by pulling my sword up just above my neckline, barely saving my life as my claymore clashes with some invisible wire that makes awful noises once it crashes against my blade.
"What the!?" My claymore manages to break the little wire thing, but as soon as that one breaks, my hairline receives another surprise by losing a couple of inches off the top. "Get down, Pista! Someone wants us dead!" I tell her as I lower my body so that my blade can cover me entirely while scanning my surroundings again, but I see nothing but fog.