Tsugi and Ruzo pushed off their feet, heading straight into the forest on this dark, cloudy, moonless night. It was so dark they could only use their other senses to dodge trees and obstacles as they zoomed by.
Even with moving so fast, their feet were light, barely making a ripple in the air, nor the leaves making not a single crunch. But Tsugi’s heart thrummed in his chest where trepidation loomed, feeling like they were louder than the drums of war.
Hurry. His heart seemed to say.
The shadows caressed his fingers and crawled up his neck as if whispering to him, begging him to call them forth like they knew what lied beyond.
Faster. The voices hissed.
He had to get there. He had to make it. He must make it.
And then there in the darkness, a little light, peeking through the cracks of an old wooden hut.
His feet slowed, stopping right before the door and pushed it open, so very wary of what lies on the other side.
Two candles sat on opposite sides of the dimly lit room. A light breeze flew in from behind Tsugi, flickering the candle light, casting dancing shadows upon the old wooden walls.
Tsugi stood frozen with his eyes wide in dismay, his heart picked up pace as his breathing quickened. Two young women were naked, covered in bruises, scrapes, blood red streaks, and a few fresh open wounds. They were gagged with their wrists bound upright in shackles.
Three young girls and two young boys were in the same state as they lie on the hardwood floors bound to the wall on the right. Streaks of blood were smeared across the floor like someone had been dragged through the room.
Loud thumping and muffled cries could be heard from down the hall. Tsugi set the bag down by the door and made his way down the dark corridor. He followed that noise, that thump like a voice calling his name.
Blood rushed past his ears and fury flickered in his eyes, but he had to stay calm – he needed to stay calm. He controlled his breath, trying to conceal his blood lust that was so hard to contain as it oozed out ever so slowly. It seemed to crawl through the corridor, creeping up the walls as if searching – searching for blood to sate its thirst.
He needed to be calm – needed to have a clear mind.
Breathe.
Death follows those who can't stay calm.
His fingers flexed and extended with each step, trying to reign in his wrath. The shadows swirled around his fingers, kissing his palm, urging him to call them forth.
He slowly pushed the door open, and his eyes flared with rage as he scanned the room. He clenched his fists and tightened his jaw so hard a vein popped out on his temple, ready to burst right where he stood.
A small girl lay crucified on the table to the left, her naked body covered in streaks of blood, and bruises. Her chest cut open, her organs poured over onto the table – heart missing. Her intestines strung off the table to the ground, drops of blood still dripped off the corner of the table to the pool of coagulated blood below.
A little boy swung back and forth to the pounding of the table against the wall. The boy was hanging from the joist on the ceiling in the middle of the room, his stomach sliced open, intestines and organs hanging from his body to the ground, looping back up to the joist above then back down where it wrapped around his neck.
A bald lean man, oblivious of Tsugi standing behind him, was still thrusting himself into the young woman on the table in front of him as it banged into the wall. He held onto the hilt of a knife, the blade sheathed into the woman's collarbone, crunching with each thrust and twist.
Ruzo let out a murderous growl, sinking his teeth into someone behind them.
Only then did Tsugi snap out of his shock just in time to block his right side from a huge blow. The attack knocked him into the wooden wall, breaking it open as he flew across the grass, bouncing off the ground like a rock skipping on water.
The giant man grabbed the scruff of Ruzo's neck and yanked him off of the man's arm, chucking Ruzo out the hole in the wall, right into Tsugi where they were both swallowed into the shadows of the forest.
"Qu! Pull your fucking dick out, and do what you are supposed to be doing!" The big guy bellowed angrily.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"I was doing what I was supposed to do!" The bald guy screamed. "I even stripped them all so if they escape from their chains they are less likely to run if they're naked."
"Then how the hell did this kid get in here without you noticing huh? Enjoying the product when you are supposed to be keeping watch is not part of the job!"
"Sorry Ko." Qu pouted like a lost child, pulling up his trousers.
"You couldn't even keep watch long enough for me to finish taking a shit! Now hurry up and help me get rid of this kid before everyone else gets back!"
But little did they know – no one is coming back.
Tsugi got up off the ground and summoned his daggers, fury raging behind those dark eyes that peered toward the hole in the hut. Ruzo stood next to him eyeing the two men emerging from that hole, bits of wood chunks swinging to and fro. Qu held a long silver tipped spear in one hand while Ko hoisted a giant red hammer on his shoulder like it was crafted from the very blood that gathered upon those floors.
Tsugi threw one of his daggers straight toward Qu, but his quick reflex swung his spear and knocked the dagger to the ground.
“Did you really think-” But Qu was cut off short, barely dodging on time, catching the tip of the dagger to his cheek.
Ruzo’s murderous growl rang through the dark forest, his teeth snapping as he tried to go for Ko.
Tsugi's quick movements allowed him to pick up his dagger from the ground in mid-fight and continued to fight with elegance. His dance was of pure elegance and hard earned practice, moving swiftly and with agileness.
Compared to the energy he had to muster for an illusion, this was nothing.
Tsugi bent backwards so far that his head almost touched the ground, nearly missing the sharp spear as it grazed his hair, slicing off a few strands right in front of his eyes.
Ruzo latches onto Qu’s arm, yanking it away from his master.
Ko neared to finish Ruzo while he had the chance, only he dropped onto one knee, the blade of Tsugi’s dagger having found the space between his knee cap.
At the loud whimper, Tsugi glanced over toward Ruzo and felt a hard smack to his chest, sending him flying into the trees, where Ruzo now stood with a gash in his shoulder.
Tsugi stood back up and coughed up a little blood, trying to catch his breath. Ruzo bared his teeth, his maw dripping of blood where Qu’s arm now hung shredded at his side.
Breathing heavily, Tsugi held both his daggers and touched the ends of the hilts together, pulling them apart, a chain formed from the darkness and shadows, connecting both the daggers together. He dropped the daggers and started swinging it around by the chain in an elegant dance. The blades whooshed through the air, slicing the leaves that seemed to take flight into the path of the whirling weapons. Then faster than the blink of an eye, Tsugi launched one of the daggers straight at Qu.
He swung his spear to block it, but Tsugi tugged on the chain, making the dagger spin around the spear, gripping it tight. Another pull from Tsugi and the spear flew out of Qu's hands sending it high into the air like a bird taking flight.
Qu looked up, reaching for the spear but stopped, his hand still raised, he felt an odd sharp sensation across his belly. He looked down and saw steam rising from his stomach.
His knees buckled and he dropped to his knees, his entrails plopped onto the ground between them. His mouth gaped and his eyes flared as he reached down, attempting to pick back up his guts and stuff them back into the giant crimson stained gash, but they continued to slip out of his hands like giant worms covered in mucus.
Wobbling side to side, he looked up at the night sky as if saying a final prayer – at his spear that appeared to be falling so very slowly. He came to realize that disarming him was a distraction, as the other dagger had swung around to disembowel him.
His eyes were still fixed on that spear that came barreling down, the tip of the silver spear glinting a little light, like the flickering stars in the far beyond. He felt a sharp pain in his neck as gurgling sounds and popping bubbles rang in his ear. His head tilted back and mouth gaped open wide, gasping for air that never reached his lungs.
His spear came hurling down, impaling him straight from his mouth, through his body, out of his anus, and plunged into the earth. His body and hands still twitched until his brain finally stopped producing signals, and he dropped his arms to his sides, held erect only by his own spear.
"NO!" Ko roared angrily, veins popping out from his neck all the way up to the top of his head. "You killed my brother! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to rip you to pieces! I'm going to enjoy the pleasure of torturing and murdering everyone you know while you watch!
I will fuck them and disembowel them in front of you! Even after you beg me to kill you I will chop off your arms and legs and force you to watch over and over again!" He cried, swinging his hammer in a frenzy.
Ruzo took a hit to his side and disappeared beyond the dark shadows of the trees. "You will regret this! I will m-" Tsugi's chain had wrapped around Ko's neck and strung him up from the branch of the tree.
Ko kicked and struggled but to no avail. With one swing of the free dagger, Tsugi splits Ko's penis in half vertically, just for that comment he deserved it. The blood pooled, running down his legs. Tsugi flicked the chain again and the dagger separated Ko's lower jaw from his skull, he then proceeded to rip Ko's tongue out with his bare hands.
"You talk too much." Tsugi tossed the long bloody tongue onto the ground and flung the blood from his hand, drawing a fine blood splattered line onto the grass and dead leaves that covered the ground. Tsugi finally dropped Ko to the ground after decapitating him – just for good measure – or so he told himself.
Tsugi dropped to his knees panting heavily. His daggers along with the metal chain turned into black smoke and returned to the shadows from whence they came.
Tsugi's eyes widened, "Ruzo!"