Complete darkness enveloped the forest.

Shadows kissed his hands and when they opened, two bright silver blades engulfed in whispers of night and ice formed in his hands as he charged at them with lightning speed.

As if their eyes were encased in darkness, the men were blinded, unable to see anything. Confused, they staggered back and raised their weapons, but instead of defending themselves against whatever prowled in the darkness, they screamed and collapsed to the floor one by one – their achilles tendons having been severed.

Clashing weapons rang in the forest and yet the sounds had seemed to go nowhere at the same time.

The leader, still standing, listened to his minions' screams in the darkness, and raised his sword as silence fell with the thud of bodies landing on the ground all around him. His breath shook with a cold shiver trailing down his spine.

The fear of death spun him around quickly enough to intercept a blade by his left ankle, but not before his right achilles tendon was cleaved, collapsing him onto one knee.

The man threw his head back and bellowed like a roaring beast. Tsugi swung his other dagger and severed the tendons in the man's elbow. Twisting the blade, the crunch and snap of his tendons rang through the deathly silent air. The man's grip loosened on the sword, dropping it onto the ground with a loud clang.

One by one, the man's tendons were slit, preventing any movement of his arms and legs. He laid helplessly on the cold ground, feeling the warmth of his blood pooling on his back.

Immobile and unable to see anything but darkness, he could feel his clothes being sliced off his body, exposing his bare skin. Soon he felt a cold knife approach his skin, but it burned cold to the touch.

The chill of the blade caresses his naval, going further and further south.

"W-w-what...a-are you d-d-d-doing? W-what do y-you want?! Why are you doing th-this?!"

Stuttering fool. Tsugi could hear his father say, his voice loud and clear in his head – right by his ear.

Whether the voice haunted him or not, he made no indication of it.

The man lying before him, the man that was so presumptuous before had been reduced to a stuttering fool. He lifted his head off the ground and gazed around the darkness. His eyes widened in dismay when they landed on Tsugi – Tsugi without his cloak, looking so slender and tiny like a girl – no, a child.

The fool was about to die in the hands of none other than a child.

"Torture." Tsugi said coldly, gazing upon the dagger in his hand, twisting and turning it. "Sexual assault. Murder." The man could see nothing else, not the trees above his head, nor the grass on his back, not even light from the fire that he could hear crackling by his feet, but Tsugi's small slender body was very clear. Tsugi's eyes were full of emptiness, no sense of malice, anger, fear, resentment – not even joy. They just seemed so – lifeless – inhuman.

He slowly lowered the dagger till it hovered over the man's bare stomach. The dagger burned the man's skin with the slightest touch freezing the tissue with glistening frost and slowly turned black as the cells began to die. He surgically peeled the skin from the man's penis with his razor sharp dagger.

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The man bellowed from the deep depths of his soul, slamming his own head onto the ground repeatedly as though he could make himself unconscious to not feel the pain as he winced and screamed in guttural agony. "What do you want from me? S-Stop! Anything! I will do anything! P-please stop!"

The cold burn would cauterize the bleeding, making it a slow painful process. A long precise incision was made starting from the tip to the base, circumcising him, and exposing the thin muscle tissue layer underneath.

"Where are they?" Tsugi said calmly, slowly ripping the skin off with his fingers – no more knife, no more cutting – but with his fingers, peeling ever so slowly. The connective tissues stretched and ripped with blood pooling and dripping to the ground.

"Wh-who?" The more the man screamed, the more blood pumped to his penis erecting and stretching it, making it even more painful than before.

Tsugi cut open the man's scrotum, first slicing through the dark skin on the left testicle. The outer skin moved apart as the blade slid along the wrinkled scrotum, allowing the thin connective tissues to opaquely popped out.

The man tensed, grunted, and screamed, forcing the testicle to pop out of the laceration with an almost audible “bloop”. It hung to the ground with the weight of gravity, twitching with every scream as it swung in and out of the dirt – pieces of grass hanging onto it with every dip.

He grabbed a testicle, each covered in pieces of dirt and grass. One by one he slowly pulled them up with a tension so hard that the man's body almost lifted off the ground, forcing the man to let out a cry through his tightly gritted teeth. If one would so much as pluck the connecting tendon, it could possibly even play a tune with how taut it was pulled.

Then with an elegant movement Tsugi sliced the vas deferens at the base, and tossed the testicles over his shoulder to the ground with a plop, before it slowly rolled and bounced away.

"M-Mitheryn Village." He cried. "In an abandoned hut...in the middle of the woods, north of the village. A days walk north of here!" He murmured, crying and groaning in pain. “Kill me…p-please…” He cried like he’s never cried before. “Please…just kill me.” Drool and snot streamed down his face as if he couldn’t remember how to swallow – as if he had reverted to that of a child – a toddler.

"Well," Tsugi sighed, "that was boring. I barely got started." He loomed over the man, staring at the man's red, teary, pleading eyes with a blank stare and brought the dagger swiftly down onto the man's neck.

The shadow slowly rescinded back to Tsugi.

The moonlight peaked through the waving leaves, the fire crackled and popped. Ruzo still lay calmly in the same spot staring intently at the men, who were now frozen with terror, sweat dripping off their chins, and legs trembling in horror.

The men gazed at each other in utter shock and confusion, they were still alive and there wasn't a single scratch on their bodies. They looked back towards the fire, Tsugi was still cloaked, sitting in the same spot slowly munching on his food as if nothing happened.

"L-let's go," one of them said. They stared at each other and slowly started backing up. They spun around and took off running, only to instantly drop to the ground – one by one – finding death the same way the luago did.

Before their brain ceased any thought, they would see Tsugi standing next to them with blood dripping off the dagger to the thirsty ground that soaked up each drop with glee.

"You're still able to move." Tsugi muttered. "Perhaps I killed you all too easily."

Tsugi slowly returned to his seat, wiping the blood off the dagger with his cloak. He strolled right past the leader, even brushing up against his arm not even acknowledging him like the man meant nothing.

The man couldn’t move, he could barely breathe as he just stood there, frozen in shock as Tsugi sat back down on the wooden log. His heart was pounding loudly: sweat dripped off his neck and rolled down his chest; his breath was shaky; and his mouth dry.

With a stiff neck the man slowly gazed at Tsugi, his eyes open wide in trepidation. His gut screaming to run, his head screaming to kill the boy now, but his body – his body did not respond.

Tsugi cocked his head to one side.

"Turosche."

And Ruzo – moved.