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“Get that fucking cross-shot to the front of the line, elf!”

“You idiot! Smell those gases you-“ As one soldier protested the use of the firearm, an explosion followed by a monstrous shake of the infrastructure where Blu and the other survivors lived cut him off. Right call, bad timing. The group ahead of the barricade was now, unfortunately, quite dead. If the explosion hadn’t killed them, the beast would surely enjoy picking off those who so unluckily survived the blast.

Blu bit the inside of his cheek and held his hand over his shoulder, grasping the nasty gash the wicked women left him off with. His undershirt, once an unwashed white, now glimmered with freshly bled red, “She got me good.” he mumbled as he limped towards the dying girl. “Ah, shit... that’s... witch...”

Catching his balance had no avail as Blu’s legs gave out once more and he fell over, landing hard on his back. His vision was getting fuzzy. A clear sign he was losing too much blood. He didn’t have the time to just die here; it was simply out of the question. He had to get back to her. He needed to finish what he started. To die here would be a waste. But maybe for just a few moments, he’d close his eyes and rest. His age was catching up with him. He was no longer the spry young marine he once was. If he were ten years younger, maybe that fight would have ended differently. But alas, he got the shit kicked out of him. As if he were a small puppy and the beast was a heavy set animal abuser, nothing good nor fair came from that fight. He would need to rethink his strategy if he was going to bring down this walking natural disaster.

“We need to keep our distance, she’s tearing through our armor like its parchment. Did anyone even see a blade in her hand?”

“Fuck no, she just started swiping at us like a bloody snowcat. I’ve seen nothing like it, foreman. Not even goblins have that ability at their fingertips.”

“Wake the fuck up, bounty hunter!” A soldier kicked Blu in the gut and frowned. Blu slowly opened his eyes and blinked with that of pure annoyance painting his fatigued face. The soldier standing above him was missing a part of his hand and was covered in gouges. Not deep enough to put him in the same state as Blu, but here the young man was still fighting. Blu didn’t have an excuse, it seemed. If a boy soldier could take that punishment and still mustered the ability to get his shit together, then so be it.

Getting himself right back up, he shoved the soldier out of the way and sighed. This shtick was getting old. No dying today. No. After this job sure, but for now he had to gather himself and go after that monster before she found her way to the last of the survivors or even worse escape the mine and set her sights on Solis. With that much destruction in her eager little hands, she would cause problems far larger than she was causing for sure. Hell to Blu this was an understatement. She went one on one with a marine and won, something few could do by themselves.

“All arms!” Blu’s military experience took control as he attempted to adjust his shoulder, forcing it to let out a vulgar crack. Broken, probably. But he only needed one good arm. “You are not heroes! Humanity, Elven, shit that dwarf over there with the fancy beard! We got something in common, don’t we?! We like living. We like our drink and we sure as hell love fucking! So, if you want to go home to your men and women for a nice drink and a night in one another’s arms then take what shit you can and go!”. Reaching down he upholstered his sidearm and pulled back the hammer, “Or you can stay here and burn with me! Either way, I’m killing the devil today! Send my regards to Soma and the rest of your noble masters!”

Blu marched to the barricaded door after his brave words and launched a kick at it with all of his might. Like a dead tree falling in the forest in mid-winter, the chamber door slammed to the ground. Most of the servicemen gathered their things and prepared to make a run for it, while a few others gathered their courage and stayed at Blu’s side to hold off the monster.

“You crazy bastard. Alright!” One of the three surviving commanding officers clapped his hands together, “You heard the sea dog we’re leaving! If ya crazy assholes somehow make it out of this, the first round is on me! Shit, I’ll buy the whole damn Inn if needed just make it back with that woman’s head in a bag!” He nodded to Blu and shouldered the dying witch while another man grabbed stood behind them to secure her body safely.

The escape group shifted off and detached from Blu’s attack force, quickly vanishing into the only known pathway that’d lead them to sunlight. Blu thought to himself how cliché that officer was just now. Had he ever read a book? When people say stuff like that, it means everyone is about to die. If there were wood in this mine, he’d be knocking on every piece he could find.

“Get her home. Get her back to Rosetta where she belongs.” Blu turned around and descended the dark hall once the silhouettes of the retreating force disappeared into the darkness. Once filled with the commotions of battle and slaughter, now replaced with dreadful silence and the groans of the dying, the mine felt still. Erie, even.

Several soldiers followed behind Blu, gripping their weapons with shaking anxiety. Most of them were young men and women who volunteered their lives to the military just to keep their families fed. Blu was wrong. His respect for the Solis Guard and the hundreds of thousands that served it immensely increased this day. That many just sacrificed themselves to keep her away from the wounded was one thing. But to witness all that and go back for round two, well, he had a thing or two to learn from this new generation of warriors.

* * * * *

Black smiled as her chin rested on her knees, “Go on. You can do it.” she teased as a man nearly torn in two desperately tried to reach for his service rifle. “That’s it! There ya go! Get that boomstick and show me who’s boss!” She cheerfully exclaimed as his hands finally wrapped around it. With all of his might, the man turned around on his back and slowly lifted the weapon, pointing it at the demon wearing human flesh.

“May the gods send you to burn for all eternity, beast.” As he pulled the trigger a depressing ‘click’ replaced what should have been a gunshot followed by exploding gas. She just continued to smile at him as he pulled the trigger again and again until he finally broke down. He sobbed as his grip let go of it and his head fell back to the ground, the sinking realization that he was going to die now in full effect.

“Shame.” She frowned and hopped up. “Weird how only moments ago I looked like something out of a scary bedtime story? But?” Her ruby eyes sparkled as she watched the cuts on her arms and hands heal at an unnatural speed. “Ya know, it’s sorta funny how things turned out. Here I was going around massacring you people for shits and giggles.”

Now standing above him, she dusted herself off, reenlisting her smile to her lips, “But now I see. I’ve been doing it all wrong.” Her foot stomped on the man’s chest, making him spit up blood. “Oh, hush, I’m not done yet.” Another giggle escaped her lips as she reached down and picked up a small dagger. One of the same ones the cultists used to gut her alive. “I’ve always wanted to try something so hold still, kay? Just gonna be a second!”

“Hey there.” Black was launched into the darkness by the sheer brutality of eastern might. A young woman’s form engulfed the dying soldier’s eyes as he smiled happily. So graceful was she. True beauty in the darkness saw him out of this world. Any dying man would be lucky to witness this sight, he thought. It was okay to let go now. He did his job well in service to Solis and all of her people.

“A... An Angel?” His eyes shut for the very last time.

* * * * *

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“Bounty Hunter? What exactly happened here? They told us we were on cleanup and arrests. Not this. I just lost a lot of good friends to whatever these cultists unleashed.” One soldier, a girl no older than eighteen, spoke to Blu with sadness hanging on her tongue. A soldier’s life in Solis was simple. Peaceful, even.

There was a lot of policing to be done, sure, but never had she experienced something like this. Months of training were wasted because of one woman. Her unit was famous for taking down ogres with nearly no causalities every time. When they weren’t doing that, they were policing the countryside and fending off the occasional attack from raiders or cultists. This was all so terrifying if not embarrassing to the men and women of the Solis Military. But could you blame them? These were peace times. Even Solis Knights or the famous Ocean Stalkers of the Northern Marines, a branch of the North’s Navy Blu knew very well, would have trouble in this scenario.

Blu glared down at her with his icy gaze and continued to walk. Be it he didn’t hear her or just didn’t know how to reply. It was very obvious a million things were racing through the man’s head. Only an hour ago he was happily exchanging stories with his new companions and now. Well, he was here. Wounded and exhausted while one girl was on the brink of death and the other was nowhere to be found. Where exactly had the eastern fighter gone? She didn’t seem like the type to just up and run, especially after watching a friend die right in front of her. Blu just hoped wherever Haru was that she was safe. No one else needed to die today. No innocents, at least.

“Wonderful talk.” She lowered her head in disappointment as she slowed her pace to join her comrades behind them.

“Sorry, dear. I’m not even sure where the rest of my party is. The only thing I know is the target I was tracking was involved in this. Soma dispatched us with that idea and wouldn’t you know it, the little turtle was right. Not that a scenario like this ran through his balding head. Who could have expected such an exciting turn of events?”

“That target the same one that just killed half of my unit?” A taller soldier balancing a battle-ax on his shoulder chimed in, most likely another officer judging by the gold stripes on the breastplate of his armor. Well, that’s what he could make out. That shiny armor was now scratched to all hell and stained with the blood of the ones it was supposed to protect.

“That’d be the one, yes.” It had to be her. No names were traded, but her appearance and the ordeal he faced told him that much. As if a murderer wasn’t bad enough, she now had abilities, not from the world of Terrace. Or if they were, they were lost long ago in time because despite the many history books Blu had read about the wars of Terrace, not one mentioned someone taking a dagger to the throat and shrugging it off only a moment later like it was a bee sting.

Blu had seen many men and women walk away from a fight with missing limbs and near-death injuries. But that? That was a new one for the history books he so much enjoyed reading. Then again, he was an advent reader in that of fiction too, and would even consider himself a little obsessed with that genre. So there was that. Still, he was unprepared and taken back because a girl of her size could take punishment like that. If blowing her to the underworld along with himself wouldn’t do it, then nothing would. By now he was kicking himself in the ass for not writing out a testament. His belongings would most likely be seized by the bank and distributed to the nobles, as that’s what happens in most deaths without probable inherency. Just one more reason to make it out of this alive, he supposed. Be it with his plan, it wouldn’t be in one piece. But no way in hell was that turtle creature, Soma, going to get his life savings. If that happened, he’d haunt Solis himself.

“Bounty Hunter, twelve o’clock!”

Blu snapped out of it and stopped his walking. His eyes met with the grace of surprise. Haru stood before them with fists clenched at her side. In front of her was a massive crater in the wall with a pair of mangled legs sticking out of its mouth. Her breathes heavy, sweat beading her face, Haru straightened her posture and cracked her neck. “Bitch.”

“Hey, Haru.” Blu slowly waved. “What’s that behind you?”

As the group observed their surroundings, it became very clear Haru and whoever was launched into the surrounding stone had a very nasty falling out. One soldier cheered as the rest soon followed. Haru had won the good fight it seemed and slain the monster that killed so many of their friends. But she wasn’t fazed by them, nor by Blu’s greeting. She just glared at the hole in the wall, expecting survival from the one she just collided with. To let her guard down now would be idiotic.

“That was not only rude, but a highly unenjoyable experience. From one Easterner to another; go fuck yourself.” Crunching bones and the twisting of limbs followed the insult. Her bloody hands shot out of the darkness of the crater and gripped the shattered stone, red eyes peering with sickening delight at the group. Haru was right not to let up and prepared herself for a counterattack.

Raising her fists once more, “Come right back out so I can do it again.”, she replied eagerly waiting to take out her anger on the murderer. “You hurt my friend and so there is a debt to be paid.”

“Pleasure!” Black shouted.

“Wait, Haru!” Before Blu could tend to her aid Black had escaped her basin, Haru shot back to avoid ending up as another piece of sliced-up meat. Maniacal giggling came with the sight of the monstrous woman who was now on all fours gazing up at the people who finished her. Like a wild animal she hissed and with that, a cloud of black smoke began engulfing her body. What came from the smoke was ebony and a hue of a bright red slit painting where the eyes once were. A suit of armor grew where skin once was, a cat-like bucket on its head with a single red ribbon dangling from the top and stretching down to its back.

Its black clawed fingertips arched out and in their grace a blade of shadows appeared, its hilt matching the armor while its blade was a crimson only comparable to the blood the woman had shed mere moments ago. Now Blu had seen everything. That was a pretty neat trick in his book, as he thought of how useful an ability to muster armor out of thin air during the heat of battle would have saved a lot of his friends’ lives. Still, the group had never seen something like this, and a few of them turned and ran. But as they did so, Black launched her body forward and blocked the pathway where they had entered from.

“Oh, no no no no! You don’t get to do that!” She said with glee as she flipped the blade backwards and decapitated one soldier sending his head into the air and catching it with her free hand. She raised the head upward and stared at it with a tilt, “Whoops. Don’t know my strength it seems.” She shrugged.

“Sergeant!” A soldier shouted as he swung his sword at the woman, only for her to shift her body to the side playfully.

Haru screamed with rage and jumped over the group, landing on Black and sending her to the ground. Punch after punch, the two bodies sunk into the ground by the force of Haru’s power. This gave Blu a grim reminder never to piss this woman off. Ever. Black laughed and kicked upward, sending Haru into the air, and as she did so she sprung up and kicked her downward. Haru’s body spun and skid across the floor right to Blu’s boots. As he reached for her, she winced and turned her head to look at the ground. She was nearing her limit, and even if she was winning before; she was certainly not now. Blu grabbed a sword with his left hand while aiming his gun at Black with the other. She paused and raised her hands, “Wait! Don’t shoot!”

Blu groaned, “What?! Do you surrender or something? Give me a break!”

Black shook her head like a wet dog and adjusted her helmet, “Okay carry on I couldn’t breathe for a moment! This thing is really neat but boy oh boy is it uncomfortable! Also, if you’re willing to dance with hellfire, go for it. The last guy that shot me is currently all over the walls. Seriously. No one saw that when walking in? If it weren’t for the situation, one of you guys would have laughed, I swear!”

“Oh, shut up, you crazy whore!” Haru growled as she picked herself up and joined Blu’s side. As did the remaining six soldiers. “Do you realize how many people you just killed? There’s nothing funny about this!”

“Really because I think it’s hilarious?” Black tapped the back of her helmet and looked upward, making it appear as if she was thinking on the matter. But just as she did, so the soldiers charged at her. “Ah okay, then here we go, I guess.”

The bloodied hand she used to carry the decapitated head of the soldier twitched and just like the sword she wielded another weapon appeared through thick black smoke. Blu or Haru couldn’t see a thing. Screams and the sound of flesh being sliced filled the air as all the soldiers paused in place with wide eyes and looks of terror on their faces. Just like that, their bodies split in two and wet smacks echoed throughout the room. When the smoke cleared, there only stood one among a small mountain of corpses. Holding a massive steel-black ring in hand, far too large for the small woman, she now posed on her knees after making a great swing. One hand holding the weapon upwards while the other gripped its hilt on the side.

The chakram, a weapon of the east and a rare one at that, was the only thing that could have been. She had produced this weapon the same way she did the other and used it to cut down the soldiers with a single swipe. Blu had only come in contact with a weapon of that stature once during his tour. A Pirate Warlord by the name of One-Eyed Logan favored it for executions and he had seen an acceptable amount of his comrades cut down by might bladed ring. A weapon not of skill, but sheer strength and destruction. But Black held it with such elegance as if it were a simple feather that she had been training with since the day she was born. She spun it around her body and stepped through it, letting it rest on the ground behind her as she silently watched Blu and Haru.

“We gonna do something about that, Morgan?”

“I was hoping you had an idea.”

“Nope.”

“Wonderful. Plan B it is.” Blu took a step forward, as did Haru. Sadness and regret filled Morgan Blu’s being as he observed the bodies of the fallen soldiers that so eagerly joined him on his mission. He should have rejected their help and sent them with the others. They were just kids. Lives senselessly wasted in just a few seconds. He could only think of their families and loved one’s back home, and this alone fueled him to do the unthinkable. Blu looked down to his firearm, then to his female companion. Haru smiled and nodded. Blu smirked and pulled the trigger, “Kaboom.”.