APRIL AND LUCIA AT PURLI

The beautiful morning light shone through the dark clouds and when April thought the clouds would scatter, they hid the sun again. The dark ominous clouds and loud rumbles of thunder portrayed the rage and vengeance in April’s eyes. 

‘It might rain today’ April warned.

‘I don’t want to be caught in the rain so let’s make it quick and go back home.’

They had been tracking a group of men since the wee hours who plundered a village of Hokane 2 days ago. This village is one of the four villages built after the invasion by the survivors who fled Abalon. They made it out of the woods into a clearing. Further ahead were scattered houses of the village of Purli. This is one of the many settlements of Onisia in the region of Abalon. They now call the occupied region the district of Masia. The men of this village plundered gold, silver, artifacts, jewelry, corn, barley, grain and wheat. The abalonians have been living under threats of constant raids from the Onisians since the invasion and each year the raids got more frequent and more violent leaving them with barely nothing to survive on.

This mission required three shinobi mages but there was no third shinobi as they were all on missions.  April insisted on going with Lucia alone. The elders tried to talk her out of it but it was futile as she was enraged and incensed with anger and hatred. She had spent the last six years training to put Onisians in their place. She was not sure where their place was as they live in the abalonian lands but this was the perfect opportunity to take out the rage that had been building up for years. 

April strode ahead of Lucia visibly infuriated and vengeful. You could tell she was ready to spill the toxin out of their blood. She was elegant and alluring even when she was enraged. Perhaps more beautiful. She was seventeen with curly blonde hair, jade eyes, ruddy cheeks, nicely proportioned facial features and a slim supple body. She was dressed in a purple blouse, a short black cloak and gray baggy pants with a light sky blue hilt katana hanging in the brown leather belt around her slim waist.  She had fierce eyes that matched her temper. Lucia was April’s cousin. She was also a ravishingly beautiful girl. She was a sixteen year old cheerful and conscientious girl with up-turned eyes and definitely defined lips. She was wearing mid-length shorts and a chestnut colored cinched waist top which perfectly complimented her copper hair and golden eyes.

As they were striding they heard a grumpy voice in a distance.

‘Hello girls, where are you headed? My house is not that way.’ 

The man said and the group of men with him burst into irrational guffaws that would make you think it was the best joke they have ever heard. Perhaps it was the brewed beer they were drinking that made the joke even more funnier. A scrawny looking man stood up like a crawling baby trying to stand for the first time. The girls were very surprised that he didn’t fall face down. He swayed towards the girls trying to find his balance. The jug in his hand was the only thing that was stable. Not even a drop from the jug fell to the ground. Whatever was inside was so valuable that even if he fell, the jug would not tip over.  He was wearing a grubby coat of what looked like leather. It was so worn out that it looked like it was rergugitated, swallowed again and pooped out. His facial hairs were like of a sheep that was never sheared, not even a day in its life.  He was dirty like an animal after a mud bath. You would not really differentiate between him and an actual animal. As he was inching closer Lucia noticed he was wearing a gold necklace, the last thing you’d expect such a scruffy man to be wearing.

‘Where did you get that?’ Lucia asked promptly.

‘You mean this.’ the man replied with a grating voice as he was flaunting the necklace. A deformed grin of missing teeth spread across his bushy face.

‘You women sure love beautiful, flashy things huh.’ 

‘Lucky for you I have a house full of gold and silver jewelry and I too, I’m the most handsome in all of Masia, even at Memphis and at Onis, I’m all in one.’

‘I told you were lost going that way, now let’s go to my house.’ the man clamored as he was trying to hold Lucia’s hand. The group of men roared with laughter, more hysterical than the first. 

Already flared up, April pushed the man away from Lucia.

‘Where is your leader?’ She asked furiously.

‘My leader? I have as much gold as him and unlike him I don’t have many girls to share it with. I’m also a leader. Don’t you see my men there.’ The man replied with yet another deformed smile.’

‘You took my breath away when I glanced at your lovely face.’ he added as he was taking a gulp of beer and wiped his mouth and shaggy beard with the back of his dry hand.

As soon as the words reached April’s ears she covered the man with an invisible veil of magic that deprives the target of oxygen. The man couldn’t breath, she literally took his breath away. He struggled on the ground choking and his friends, alarmed by what was happening, dashed to his aid. The man rolled on the ground as April kicked his abdomen. His friends closed in and Lucia’s left eye pupil glowed yellow and vanished quickly as it appeared. She squatted down and touched the ground with her right palm. Immediately the ground shook violently that some of the men halted. 

The rest, I guess it was the brewed beer that couldn’t sense the danger ahead. Chunks of rocks unearthed from the ground and suspended in the air. Lucia stretched her arm towards the charging men. A yellow light shimmered around her palm and as soon as the light disappeared, a wave blasted out from her palm and chunks of rocks hefted towards the men.

‘Let’s see how you going to dodge this attack.’ Lucia thought as the rocks were wafting in the air like an arrow in calm and still air. The man at the frontline was lucky he tripped and fell.

‘Oh that can work.’ Lucia thought after seeing the rocks miss the guy who tripped. His friends however were not so fortunate.

They were overwhelmed by the sheer number and the speed of the rocks that they couldn’t dodge them. Teeth, blood mixed with saliva and mucus flew in the air as the men were clobbered by the rocks. Their knees buckling on impact. The least injured had four broken teeth, a fractured rib cage and a dislocated shoulder.

Lucia’s carbon magic enabled her to manipulate anything that consists of a certain degree of carbon except the carbon inside the human body. The men were groaning in anguish while others laid motionless on the ground. About four had crushed jaws and another had a gaping hole in his left eye and a few more injuries. About six more had multiple fractured bones and dented skulls. Four men died on the spot. Lucia didn’t mean to kill them though. The last time she used this technique was about a year ago training at the mountain cabin. She had grown stronger since then. There wasn’t much power behind the rocks. She just wanted to knock them out unconscious but due to her drastic increase in power in the last few months, the little power she injected was a lot stronger than she anticipated. The men who halted earlier were trembling with fear. Their eye balls looked like they were about to escape from their two eye sockets. They were also thinking the same thing, to escape the wrath of the two girls. Before they could, April choked them with her air composition veil magic together with the man who tripped. She released the veil just as they were about to pass out. All panting heavily.

‘Where is you leader?’ April asked vehemently 

They all pointed wildly at a house that towered well above all the other houses. Nothing audible came out of their breathy voices. April ripped the necklace out of the man’s neck and strode briskly towards the house with eyes full of rage. Lucia walked closely behind her. Draxon the leader of Purli heard a commotion outside as he was still resting. He looked out the window and saw April and Lucia almost at his door. He stumped out of the house with footsteps louder that the wooden door as it creaked open. His legs were rather thin to make such heavy footsteps. He had ungroomed auburn hair, and a braided beard going all the way to his chest. He was clothed in under clothes as he was just waking up, exposing his huge tummy, big enough to fit a pig. His sullen glare didn’t make him a little more pleasing to look at. 

Before he could say anything, April greeted him with a left uppercut. His neck outstretched as he was hefted in the air.  Lucia looked up as Draxon was sent flying and thought, ‘ who said ostriches can’t fly?’. He had thin legs and he was big as an ostrich and his outstretched neck looked eerily similar to the bird. April jumped up swiftly and appeared above the airborne ostrich. She kicked it back down and he crashed through his three story house all the way to the basement. A loud thud resonated in the village and before he could rise from the rubble, men surrounded April and Lucia. April landed softly on the ground near Lucia. More men kept coming and encircled the crash site. Some on the ground and some on the rooftops. They all looked aghasted and dazed about this defiance. 

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‘Did they take out Draxon?’ A distressed man asked in the crowd

Immediately a green light beamed inside the house and the door was kicked open so violent that the hinges gave way and it flew out into the street. The men ducked and it hit another house and broke to piece. He walked out of the cloud of dust, his green eyes glinting with rage. The green glowing ring around his body was supposed to look intimidating but April and Lucia seemed to not be fazed by an ostrich king and his hundred chicks that encircled them. 

‘He must be green ranked.’ Lucia muttered.

‘I’m already getting bored.’

‘Let’s see how he can pair out with upper yellow’  April bawled as she was lunging towards him at blistering speed. Two yellow rings appeared in her leaf eye pupil.

A yellow flash shimmered and the next thing Draxon’s knees were buckling down. His jaws mawled by a high knee to the face. None of the men were able to track April’s speed and unlike earlier she clasped the back of Draxon’s head so he won’t go learning to fly. She held him up and clobbered his face with another knee. Blood poured out of his nose and mouth covering his face like a ravenous animal after eating a fresh kill. But he was the prey. The village men jumped in to help their master who by this point was laying lifeless on the ground, his green rings no longer visible.

Lucia whirled up and the ground violently shook below her. Rocks made their way out of the earth and suspended in the air. She stretched her hands to the sides and raised her palms as if to stop someone. The charging men should have taken the sign and stopped but to their regret, they didn’t. A yellowish green shining light appeared in Lucia’s palms and the rocks hefted through the air in all directions except at April. Those who were quick enough to evade them where met by Lucia’s swift power punches, jabs, uppercuts and overhead kicks which were more damaging than the rocks. She didn’t have to strike twice, just one good shot was enough to make a grown man go to sleep.

Behind her, April had already unsheathed her katana. It was light as a feather and sharper than a tongue of a conniving witch. There were yellow lights luminating around April. The hilt too had changed yellow and the whole blade was covered with a wisp of yellow smoke. She pushed her legs on the ground and the earth gave way. Her feet plunged deep in the ground and she leaped up so swiftly that it looked as if she had disappeared. A ball of violet flames narrowly missed her and hit a nearby wooden house, engulfing it in flames. When the village men saw April above the houses, they too jumped up to fight her. About forty of them. All charged up in their spectra. 

Her rage took the better of her. She had never used the black slash technique since she learnt it.

‘I will repay them for what they have been doing to our country men and our families.’ She thought to herself. 

She charged to meet them and slashed the first one before he could even sense any danger. Black blood gushed out of the men as she chopped and sliced them one after the other.

She thrust the blade into another men’s guts and they spilled out in the air. They couldn’t register her movements and she didn’t have to parry or riposte as they were too sluggish for her. The attack was so fast that she landed on the ground before the blood of the first men she spilled dropped to the ground. Soon as she landed, black blood rained on the ground and the forty bodies dropped behind her. The slashes from her swords are infused with her anti-oxygen magic that kills red blood cells. The black in their blood is the colour of dead red blood cells. She did not know there were forty men who fell by the black slash. This slaying was a spiritual representation that meant the forty years of slavery and oppression was over.

She glared at the men who were waiting for an opportunity to join in the fight but now it seemed they didn’t want to get involved. Her sullen glare was more than enough for them to make a run for it. The only men who did not run were the drunkards from earlier who were a good distance away, right were April had left them. And it didn’t look like they wanted to help either. 

Lucia’s fight had dragged away from April and she found herself cornered in a hall by 8 men. She had killed as many as 30 so far. 

‘I can’t use any carbon magic here as there are nothing consisting large amounts of carbon’, she thought.

‘I don’t want to use my sword either.’

‘I have two choices, close combat or to try to manipulate the carbon inside their bodies.’ 

‘Lets try the inner carbon magic.’ She thought.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them 5 yellow half rings covered her left eye pupil. And the men’s bones melted  to the ground. She jumped in excitement, ecstatic about the feat she had achieved. A shy grin spreading across her pretty face, punching the air in exhilaration. The celebration was cut short as she suddenly caught an aura of someone. Her grin immediately turned into indignation. Her eyes wandered around, alert for the danger lurking in the shadows until she heard a familiar chuckle. 

‘What are you doing here you stupid little boy!!’ Lucia admonished.

‘I-I thought you might need some back up.’ the little boy replied humbly.

‘Back up?! You think we need back up? Let alone from a kid?’ Lucia yelled 

‘I didn’t follow you, I followed my sister, so save your admonition for your brother Joel.’

‘And I think we both know why you mad at me. Don’t tell me you thought you melted their bones.’ they boy mocked Lucia.

He possesses skeletal magic. He can manipulate bones, even melting them. He once toughened his bones as steel and won against Nathan, the toughest of the seven swords of Yoshino in an arm wrestling fight. Lucia has the magic to melt bones too but I guess she has a lot to learn before she masters the art. They both went outside the hall, walking carefully to not step on the remains of the eight men.

Outside there was no one standing, they were either lifeless on the ground or groaning in anguish. As they were scanning the area, their eyes met with April as she was coming out of what remained of Draxon’s palace with a leather bag full of gold and silver.  As soon as she laid eyes on the boy, her already sullen face turned more hostile that you’d think she resented the boy more than the men of Purli and Onisians.

‘Ethan! how many times have I told you not to follow me.’ she yelled.

‘ I-I wanted to be useful.’ Ethan replied, looking down like a puppy recognizing it’s wrong doings.

‘How is coming here helpful? Are you crazy?’

‘Do you know how much danger you put yourself in going this far from home? All alone?’

‘What if something happened to you? Why don’t you ever think?’ April bellowed.

‘I’m sorry but I wasn’t really in any danger because no one can sense me unless I want my presence known.’ He replied glancing at Lucia. 

‘Search all the houses and bring back anything of value you can find.’ Lucia commanded irritably.

Ethan quickly searched house to house and ruin to ruin. As Lucia and April were also searching the bodies of the men they had just defeated, a leave less, thin branch looking lightning lit up among the dark clouds and a loud rumble of thunder roared. 

‘Let’s quickly search the last bodies and burn down this village before rain comes.’ April said in a thin voice.

They regrouped with Ethan and they set the village on fire.  A dark cloud of smoke rose from the city to meet the dark clouds in the sky. They then pelted to the village of hokane which is south east of Purli. Along the way, rain caught up with them. April was fuming as she hates a cold. She covered herself with a ring of magic that kept the drops from soaking her clothes. When they reached Hokane the rain had already stopped. They went to house of Aoi, the leader of Hokane and presented the things that were plundered from them. A large crowd gathered and chanted loudly.

 ‘Our saviors have come

Forty years have passed

Our saviors have come

We will take back what’s rightfully ours

For our saviors have come.’

The crowd whooped euphorically, their eyes glinting with jubilation.

The people of the village realized that April and her team brought back more than what was plundered from them so they insisted that April take some of the plunder to Yoshino but she declined.

‘Everything we have taken from them belongs to you. We won’t take anything for ourselves.’  April said bowing before the leader and the chants grew louder and louder. Praising them for their generosity and bravery. They had triple the amount of gold and silver that was plundered from them. As April and Lucia were still talking with the village elders, two girls approached Ethan.

‘Where is Uriel? ‘ a girl asked blushing.

‘We have heard tales about his recent exploits and how great a shinobi mage he is.’ She added.

‘He is the child of prophecy.’ The other girl interjected.

‘I want him to marry me.’ she added while looking up like she was picturing a white wedding.

‘No he is mine.’ The other protested.

‘He is so handsome and so strong, I want him to be my boyfriend.’ She said shyly.

‘Where did you say he is at? I wished to see his handsome face.’

‘He is somewhere in the district of Masia.’ Ethan replied with disinterest and sidled away.