Chapter 7 - Phantom on the Sea

Melodi swung down wildly. And Dashan sidestepped her sword with ease. She kept on chasing him, swinging blow after blow, but none of them connected. And the grin on Dashan’s face slowly began to disappear.

As the two fought, rain began to fall down. Lightning began to strike. The floorboards became slippery, and Melodi lost her balance during the assault. She fell onto the deck and lay there. She was heavily breathing, partly from fatigue and partly from panic. Dashan looked down on her with a cold look on his face. The look of enjoyment on his face from the beginning of the fight had completely disappeared.

“Tch.” He clicked his tongue. “What a waste of time.” He glared at Melodi. “You… you’re no disciple of Melos.”

When Melodi heard those words, she clenched her teeth. “Shut up!” She yelled as she rose to her feet. But before she could swing her sword, Dashan moved.

He raised his claymore into the air, towering over her. And then, everything began to fall down. Dashan swung his sword. The ship was flooded with a flash of lightning. Melodi threw herself out of the way. She heard a crunch from the floor breaking apart from Dashan’s blow. And then she heard a deafening roar of thunder.

And then Dashan moved again. He moved towards Melodi, dragging his sword through the floor. Her legs began to shake. She raised her sword to defend herself, but it was a pitiful sight. It looked as if she was to fight with a toothpick compared to Dashan’s sword.

Dashan slapped Melodi’s sword away with a free hand. Melodi’s shaky grip couldn’t hold on and her sword went flying. She didn’t even notice. She was looking up at the face of her own death.

“I can’t believe that Melos is wasting his time with trash like you.” Dashan shook his head. “You’re not worthy of my blade.” And then he turned his back on Melodi, walking back towards the cabins.

But suddenly, he felt something hit him from below. He looked and saw a foot in between his legs. “You little wench!” Dashan roared. He spun around and smacked Melodi. She went flying and slid across the deck. When she came to a stop, she struggled but slowly came up to her feet.

“... don’t call me trash.” She raised her head and looked Dashan in the eyes. “You don’t know anything about me!”

Dashan didn’t register her words. His mood was incomparably bad. This fight was already a waste of his time. And the girl had the gall to kick him between the legs. He was pissed. Wordlessly, he marched towards Melodi. He raised his sword into the air once more.

Melodi’s eyes flashed white as lightning struck once more. And then she waited for Dashan to strike. But it never came. After the thunder came and her eyes recovered from the flash, she looked up at Dashan. He had turned around, his back facing her. She didn’t really care about why he had turned around. Her attention was focused on the blade piercing through his back.

* * *

Dashan was a swordsman. And he had a teacher. One day, his teacher met another swordsman. His teacher lost and died. Dashan, in rage, took his sword to fight. The swordsman easily beat Dashan, but he left him alive. The swordsman also left Dashan a gift, a slash across his right eye.

Dashan never forgot that swordsman. His name was Melos. And Dashan had been tracking him down for more than ten years. For the first time ever since his teacher had been killed, Dashan spotted Melos. He found him in the city of Quiroso, playing around with a girl. Dashan came to the realization that this girl was Melos’ apprentice. Dashan was very happy on that day. Not only had he found his nemesis, he had found a way to take revenge. He would kill Melos’ apprentice.

But today had soured Dashan’s mood. The girl in front of him was not Melos’ apprentice. Just some ordinary girl who didn’t know how to use a sword. So he didn’t want to waste anymore time with her. He just wanted to find Melos and kill him. So he made haste. He raised his sword and prepared to crush Melodi.

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But he had erred. In his haste, he dropped his guard. He forgot to check his surroundings. To be fair, even if he had been on alert, he still probably wouldn’t have noticed.

During the entire fight, Melodi and Dashan had a spectator. A boy watching from the shadows. He didn’t breathe. He didn’t move. He didn’t think. It was as if he wasn’t there. Melodi and Dashan both didn’t notice him.

When Dashan smacked Melodi’s sword out of her hand, the boy made his first movement. He walked towards the sword and picked it up. Despite him standing out in the open, he was still unnoticed. And when Dashan raised his sword to end Melodi’s life, the boy walked up to Dashan, standing right behind him. A warrior like Dashan should have noticed an attacker behind him like that. But the boy was devoid of emotion and thought. There was no killing intent. There was no presence. There was no anything.

Lightning struck. And so did Kuren.

Kuren stabbed the sword towards Dashan. Dashan heard the wind move behind him, and for the first time, he realized that Kuren was behind him. He turned his body and saw the sword rushing towards him. Dashan didn’t have much time left. His sword was raised high in the air, and he couldn’t move it fast enough to defend himself. So he made an instinctual move. With his free hand, he swung and batted away the incoming sword. And when the sword was away, Dashan would swing down and crush the boy.

But when his hand met Kuren’s sword, his plan fell apart. Dashan’s eyes widened as his hand passed straight through Kuren’s sword. His heart dropped as Kuren’s sword began to fade and disappear. He suddenly coughed up blood. With a grim look on his face, he looked down at his stomach. And sure enough, Kuren had stabbed his sword straight through Dashan’s body.

Dashan kicked Kuren away. He fell down to his knee and gripped his stomach. He looked towards Kuren.

“What’s your name, boy?” Dashan spoke calmly. The anger that taken him before had disappeared.

The boy looked back towards Dashan. A sneer crept onto Melodi’s face. As if the boy would answer. Melodi opened her mouth to answer for him.

But then she heard something unexpected.

“Kuren.”

It was a childish, boyish voice.

Dashan nodded. “That technique you used… that was Phantom Slash. You must be Melos’ student.” Dashan shook his head. “To think that I’ve ignored you this whole time, I have truly lost today.”

Melodi looked at Dashan and Kuren. She began to feel an uncomfortable sensation in her chest.

Dashan lowered his sword. And then he lowered his head. He grabbed the sword in his stomach and slid it out quickly. Before the blood could start flowing, Dashan wrapped his stomach in cloth.

“There’s no way I can fight Melos like this. I will return another day.” Dashan turned and walked away. Kuren watched his back. And Melodi watched too, with a strange look on her face.

“What makes you think you can walk away?” A soft voice suddenly spoke out. Dashan’s face instantly paled when he heard it. He turned around and looked for the owner of that voice.

It was Melos. He had a grin on his face as he looked at Dashan. And he was walking straight towards Dashan.

“Melos. We meet again.” Dashan had a grim look on his face.

Melos scratched his chin. “I’m sorry.” He squinted at Dashan. “But do I know you?”

“You bastard!” Dashan roared. “Have you forgotten how you killed my master Jiushan?”

“Jiushan?” Melos shrugged his shoulders. “You think I remember the name of every single person I’ve killed?”

Dashan clenched his teeth in anger. “My name is Dashan. You killed my master and I’ve come to take revenge.”

Melos looked at him coolly. “You plan on fighting with that wound?”

Dashan clicked his tongue. “Tch. Not today. I’ve already said I’ll come back another day.” He turned his back and began to walk away. But before he could move any further, Melos spoke.

“Didn’t I say this already? What makes you think you can walk away?”

Dashan paled. He whipped around and raised his sword. It was the right move. Melos’ sword clanged against Dashan’s. Dashan’s sword was easily twice the size of Melos’ blade, yet Dashan still was forced back.

“M-Melos! Stop this! I let your disciple live, didn’t I?” Dashan pointed at Kuren. Melodi glanced towards Kuren, her heart growing a little heavier.

Melos smiled. “You think I care? I’ve been in hiding for ten years, and now that you’ve found me, I can’t leave you alive.” And then he swung again.

Dashan raised his sword to block and he was forced back again. With a roar, he raised his sword and swung it at Melos. But his sword didn’t come down the way he expected it to. It fell down onto the floor with a clatter. He looked at it and he saw his severed hand still gripping onto the hilt. And then he looked at his right arm, missing a hand.

And then he turned his head to look at Melos, but it was too late. Melos’ sword had already struck. Dashan’s head fell to the floor, rolling away on the slick ground. Without missing a beat, Melos kicked the head off the ship into the sea.

“And there he goes!” Melos yelled, smiling to himself. He looked back towards Dashan’s headless body. He grabbed Dashan’s clothes and began to drag him towards the railings. And then he dumped the body overboard.

An unceremonious end to the warrior named Dashan. There were no tears and there was no one close to him to witness his end.

Melos turned back towards the ship. “Well, that takes care of that!” And then he looked at Kuren.

“Well, aren’t you just a surprise?” He smiled, but his eyes didn’t reflect it. “How the hell did you manage to learn my Phantom Slash...” He turned towards Melodi. “Maybe he could be my student instead of you, Melodi!” Melos started laughing.

But Melodi wasn’t laughing.

“Come on now.” Melos grabbed Kuren’s arm. “Let’s head back to our room.” And as he walked away, Melodi stared at his back.

She felt a strange feeling as she watched Kuren being led away.