I rush through the forest, the wind tearing against my hair, rapidly encroaching into the burning village.
If I were them I would probably be hiding… I squint my eyes at the pair of trees in front of me.
I quickly dig my feet into the ground, stopping my momentum almost instantaneously. As I suspected, there were two men hiding in an ambush. They miss their swing, and I immediately lunge for one of the men's wrists, where I'm able to control his sword arm for a split second, parrying the second swing that comes out.
I let go of his wrist the second he jerks his arm away, trying to shake my grip off, allowing me to use that momentum to create a safe distance between me and the two crooks.
They're so slow! I frustratingly think to myself. I could have just blitzed both of them with sheer speed if I wasn't injured, no need for any fancy stuff.
"Who the hell are you!? What do you want with us?" One of the men shouts aggressively as they slowly begin to circle around me, the woman had doubled back and had joined them as well. I slowly begin walking backwards as they do this, trying to maintain a positional advantage.
"I don't know; I would have never known about any of you morons had you left me alone. That old man... That nosy girl... that Shesuan... that Tetsudo... What the hell is so interesting about me?!?" I shout at them, projecting my frustrations onto them.
They look at me strangely and then shrug, probably writing me off as crazy. That's fine by me. It doesn’t matter what I say or do to them, because they’ll all be sleeping in the dirt soon.
I take a quick step to the side, charging directly into the woman trying to circle around me. As I do this, the two men instantly spring forward. Fortunately, my kidnappers hadn't bothered to take off my cloak, so I could use it to my advantage. I swing around rapidly and bend my knees to the ground, my cloak blooming out like a flower, obscuring their visions as they swing and miss. In the same motion I sweep the woman's legs as she draws her dagger, knocking her to the ground.
Man, I've dealt with this stupid cloak so much when fighting Rudeus that I basically knew every trick in the book at this point. I bring my arms back and step right outside the cloak's sleeves. I casually slip right in front of one of the men's faces as they lose track of me with their eyes, too distracted by the visual clutter of the fabric. His eyes widen in surprise right before I deliver an elbow to his teeth, knocking him to the ground instantly. I regrab the cloak from behind as it's falling and throw it up into the air once more. Just in time for another lunge from the other man's sword, I sidestep the thrust, cursing as it just barely nicks my chest, as the blade tears through the cloth, the cloak wraps around the man's arm and body as he pushes into it, obscuring his vision. This time I smash my foot into his crotch, taking him out as well.
"Pieces of shit." I mutter as I put the cloak back on. I delicately dab my chest and look at the blood smeared on my finger, can't get anything easy done around here.
"If you try running away, I will kill you." I say as I notice the woman trying to discreetly get up. I reach down and grab the man's sword off the ground. I slowly walk up to her as she's paralyzed with fear and sit down right beside her, thrusting the sword into the dirt ground beside her.
"If you don't give me at least 80 words of information in the next minute this sword goes into your neck." I say, a sadistic smile on my face.
"I.. I... Wha-"
"Tell me who you guys are, how many of you guys are still here, and why you are attacking and kidnapping people.
"I— I'm just doing this to feed my family! I know what I'm doing is wrong but I have to!"
"Justifications later, answer the question, I just took thirty seconds for going off topic."
"I am, I mean, we are from the Iquen organization from Oliviand, there were six of us around, including, and I was ordered to do this, I don't know why!"
"Seventy more words, ten seconds left." I simply say in response, although it's only been 5 seconds since I told her thirty seconds, and she’d clearly said more than ten words.
"Wait why! You said thirty seconds!" I stay silent, she begins panicking and starts blubbering out arbitrary words in hopes that I would count them.
”I didn’t mean to it’s I mean Iquen Ah help help I don’t want to die please.”
"Five..." She was beginning to cry, tears streaming out of her eyes. "Four.... Three..." Okay, I'm beginning to feel a little bad, I immediately smell a foul scent in the air and I already knew what she just did. "Two, one.” I quickly count the rest of the numbers down, a little embarrassed by the situation. “Ah, sorry about that, I’m not going to kill you.” I tap her head, as her mind shuts down from an overload of stress and she collapses. I then walk off towards the village, my mood just a bit better.
Two more people I need to beat up, I crouch down low and then try to sneak as closely to the shadows as I can. The village is deserted for the most part but... I hold my hand to the ground, amplifying my sense of touch thousand fold.
... No good, there are way too many vibrations right now to triangulate where it's all coming from.
Another woman's voice rings out, as I hold my palm against the ground. "Damn it, why haven't they returned yet? There's no way that boy should be giving Rog and Trome that much trouble right? Pretty sure Leyna is with the two of them as well. I'm going to go check on them, shout at me if the villagers start acting up!" And... Judging from the direction of that voice... Should be walking by this spot pretty soon.
I lean closely against the wall, waiting patiently to strike. As soon as I see her shadow approaching , I whip around the corner and lunge out, only to hit empty air as she quickly steps to the side. Almost as if she knew I was coming. She immediately grabs my outstretched arm by my forearm and upper arm then twists. Without panicking, as I've been put in this type of hold by Rudeus before, I go completely slack, my feet leaving the ground as I contort my entire body in the direction of my arm. Not allowing her to gain any control. I then whip my feet around in the direction of the twist and strike at her head with a sharp kick.
"Shit." She mutters as she's forced to let go of my arm to dodge the blow. I miss the kick but manage to land on my two feet as a result.
How the hell did she react that fast?!? Unless... Damn she baited me, must have known that I was behind this corner.
She then slowly draws her sword, not bothering to question me or start a conversation; I could see it in her eyes, she was fully focused.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
…
"Do you consider yourself a good or bad person?" I ask a question that had curiously popped into my mind.
"You'll learn sooner or later that very few people actually care about whether they're good or bad in desperate situations." The woman replies with.
"Interesting, well, doesn't matter to me anyways either." I slowly inch forward, my arm outstretched forwards. "You guys are annoying and that's all that matters."
The woman freezes up and looks at me surprised for a moment, before she starts laughing, a husky background in her voice indicating that she was quite aged. "Guess you do look quite young after all. I’m probably going to lose this fight, so if you keep that attitude up... One day, you are going to lose something dear to you, be it your life, or something even worse."
I crack a jagged smile in lieu of her taunt and open up the palm of my fist, inviting her to try to slash me. She begins to inch closer and closer.
Closer and closer and…
I tense up the instant she steps into a range where it’s possible for her to slash me, but then she takes another step forward, then another step.
I freeze up.
Three thoughts run through my head at the same time: What is she doing? I have to step back to avoid her slash, but I don't want to because that would injure my pride.
And with that single moment of indecision, she takes a vicious step forward and cuts straight horizontally, at my waist. The most difficult slash to avoid. Anku drains out of my eyes and ears as I raise the exposed palms of my hands to the blade, gathering all my Anku to the place of contact. I feel an explosion of pain as the blade buries itself into the bones of my hand, cutting through flesh and muscle.
As my vision returns to me, she immediately dislodges the sword and swings diagonally towards my neck with a frighteningly quick backhand swing.
I whip my head to the side as the very tip of my ear gets sliced off, blood gushing out like a fountain. Shit! Bad decision! I should have let it glance off my mask! I would have been able to counterattack that way!
As a thousand thoughts run through my mind, she doesn't let up her offense. Her diagonal slice upwards turns into an elbow slam downwards. Too distracted to notice, I take the blunt force of the slam straight into my face, the force reverberating straight through my mask. I lose my balance and fall to the ground, stunned from the blow. Without any chance of recovery, she steps straight on my legs as I fall and rests her sword on my chin.
"Oh, I guess I did win." The woman crookedly smiles as she has me pinned toward the ground. I lost?!
"Shouldn’t let your guard down even if your opponent is an old woman. Well, I'd prefer not to kill someone as young as you, but you're a danger to us, so-" She says before lifting her sword to the air. I stare at the sword dumbfounded as blood drips from my ear to the ground.
Oh yea, that's right, she's fighting for her life, and I'm fighting to have fun.
As she brings her sword down, the blood from my ear soaks deeper and deeper into the soil.
Heh.
Now that I think about it, why shouldn’t I be having a little bit of fun? I've already passed all the dreary stuff haven't I? If I can't accomplish things without a little bit of excitement then what's the point of it all?
The Anku infused blood, deep within the ground, grips the rocks and soil around it like a black tendril, oozing and gushing into every last crevice. The soil beneath my feet explodes into a cloud as rock and dirt flies everywhere destabilizing the ground, giving me free movement once again. I contort my body to the side, throwing her off balance while simultaneously avoiding the blade. I smile with a little bit of a crazy glint in my eyes as I then coil my legs around her feet and yoink furiously, throwing her to the ground.
I grab the sword, get up, and within a single instant I was the one in control.
"Based on my time in The Eye, you are two and a half times weaker than Polly, three times weaker than Rudeus, and five times weaker than Celestia; if they couldn't break my ego, then I'm afraid this world has nothing that can. You're right, I am a kid, and I don't gotta learn a damn thing."
Of course, I was probably in the same boat as her right now, but once I get to Oliviand and find a doctor, there's nothing stopping me from making this place my new playground.
I smack her forehead with the flat of my blade, instantly knocking her out. I then spring off the ground and begin running towards the square of the village in the direction of the largest fire lit, no longer caring about being stealthy or hiding my approach. One more person left. Gripping it one handed, the sword I stole drags behind my arm. I break into the central square, my sword and cloak trailing in the wind.
Bloodied men, woman, and children, some lying ominously still, littered the grounds, all of them been tied up, and standing there was a single man, Holding his ground against me. I wind up my arm, raising my sword over my head. The man immediately reacts and brings his sword to the left, ready to parry. Only to be met with a boot in his stomach as I feint the slash and drive a nasty kick forward. The man bounces back from the force of the blow and doesn't get back up.
I stand still, silhouetted black by the houses burning in the background. As I take a deep breath and wind down, the pain from my injuries finally catch up to me. I tear the mask off my face then throw up, stumbling dizzily towards the most important looking man I could find tied up, before undoing his restraints.
"I’ve defeated all the invaders. Please… Give me some…"
…What do I even need?
“Food.” I say spontaneously before crumbling to the ground, exhaustion quickly settling in from the side effects of the mask.
I close my eyes, surely a bit of rest wouldn't do me any harm would it?
My eyes shoot open instantly for one more moment. “Also, there’s a little girl hiding in the woods back there somewhere.” I point in the direction from which I came from. “Please get her somewhere safe fast.”
I open my eyes slowly, sunlight filtering through a window somewhere nearby. Couldn’t really tell where, my eyesight too poor to tell. “At least they didn’t kill me.” I mutter to myself. I slowly unroll myself out of the bed.
There was a pitcher of water and some bread next to me, I stuff half the roll into my mouth then wash it down with water, repeating the process with the other half, gulping the entire thing down in an instant. I turn and grab my cloak and mask off the counter, walking out the door into a small hallway. I look to the right as a young lady around my age runs across the hallway holding a bucket of water and a wet rag. I step back into my room allowing her to pass through, she gives me a small nod before running through. I walk back out my room and downstairs to a scene of disaster as all the furniture had been pushed to the walls, dozens of people were furiously scrambling around, trying to balance applying cold wet rags to the people with fevers, there was a steel rod plunged into a pit of fire to the side, taken out to cauterize wounds, I hear a agonizing scream to the side as a man bites down on a stick, a loud pop from his shoulder getting wrenched back into place.
A couple people acknowledge me but continue working, not wanting to be interrupted. I put on my mask, look down at the ground, and step carefully across the room. I open the door to the house and exit to the village square, my breath spiking the instant I see what was outside. Conflicted thoughts run through my head while I keep my expression as neutral as possible, before finally nodding and accepting the reality.
All the invaders had been strung up on poles, and all of their eyes were lifeless, because all of them were dead, most likely killed by the villagers I saved. I look away from that old lady I fought last night, it was like she was staring directly at me.
The same man I untied last night walks up to me. “First and foremost, we thank you for what you did last night. I’m sure all of us would have been in that caravan being shipped to slave away god knows where if it weren’t for you. But as you can see…” He gestures around him.
“We’re in the process of recovering, and there’s not much we can do for you right now.”
I close my eyes and remove my mask. “That’s fine, I just need the food and directions to get to Oliviand. I hope that won’t be too much.”
“Oh yea! yea! I can get that prepared for you right now, just wait here.”
As he scurries away, I look once again at the pikes before tearing my gaze away from the spectacle.
Nothing good comes from thinking too much, I should move on.