2.7

Īnfirmus

It was almost surreal, seeing Suiren squaring off against herself. But Hiro wasn’t really much occupied about that. He was more concerned about being an absolute waste of space in this very situation.

With the monster, at least it was clumsy enough for him to dodge in between the buildings. But with these guy, jumping in meant that he would only hinder the actual fighters and not to mention, probably parting his head from its original position. So, there was only one thing left to do.

“Go! You can do it!” That’s right, cheering them on like it was sport day.

That actually helped Willow to be more spirited. But it didn’t change the fact that she was hopelessly outmatched. Her opponent, a savage looking man, was surprisingly careful.

Hunching down with his shield in front. The round shield seemed so small compared to his huge frame and yet she couldn’t get a single hit in. She even had to extinguished her own flame which only blocked her vision in this case.

‘There must be a way to crack this guy open’

Willow thought to herself. Taunting, distraction or even intimidation tactic had no effect on this mindless killing machine. Her Herald had tried all of those already to no avail.

‘Then I must best him with my own skill!’

The girl remembered her father, the greatest swordsman of the whole continent. Unlike many of her sisters which chose different vocations, Willow picked up a longsword. She was trained directly under him, the great Gottfried von Brandt, losing here would just mean tainting his name.

And so Willow continued to push forward, determined to break through her opponent’s defence.

‘There it is!’

In an effort to guard his sword arm, the man in red had left his shoulder rather open. Attacking now would be foolish, however, and so Willow raised the sword up high and cut down at the man right shoulder.

It was a feint, however, and he had fallen for it. Seeing that, Willow decided to use her trump card, one she wanted to save.

While her use of the arcane primitive, she could concentrate the mana within her own body, turning it to pure liquid energy. That was then transferred through her blood, making her veins glowed red.

As the surge of power ran to her brain, Willow could see the world around slow to nearly a crawl. The girl deliberately missed her swing and immediately strike upward to the stomach with inhuman speed. Her arms felt like tearing itself apart but Willow committed to the swing, knowing that there was no way the man could swing his shield fast enough to block it.

Or so she thought…

The man in red dodged to the side while swinging his round shield down at the same time. It allowed him to react in time to the devastating strike.

Furthermore, while Willow strength was greatly amplified at this moment her swing was still from an awkward angle which weakened the slash considerably. Knowing this, the defensive man finally made his first offensive move.

He smashed the shield against Willow’s blade, parrying the blow. All the while his axe was swung for the first time straight to the girl soft neck.

Willow messed up and she could do nothing but see the deadly blow being delivered toward her. She would die, on her first real combat experience.

But fate would not allow it, or more like her Herald wouldn’t stand for it.

Willow could feel Hiro’s arms around her as he pulled her back while shield the girl with his own flesh. The axe dug through his left arm, nearly severing it. The instant pain was almost unbearable but the young man was already expecting it.

With a thud, Hiro fell to the ground, still holding onto a stunned Willow.

The man in red immediately leapt at them, even before Hiro’s backside touched the ground. The young man looked up to see a sight most surreal.

The man was stopped, a blade going through his throat suspending him mid-air.

Blood spurted out of his lethal wound, spilling onto Willow and Hiro’s arms which were still wrapped around her.

The man body was moved to the side to reveal Suiren holding him up with her naginata. The woman threw him to side like discarding a toy, still gurgling and struggling. He held onto his wound, but it was no use. Convulsing for the last time, the man in red lied there, his life forfeited.

Behind Suiren was the other her, missing one arm. The lovely komon stained with red blood.

Even with a limb missing, the aide still charged forward, swinging her naginata. Suiren duck to avoid it effortlessly, striking back with her own polearm. A brutal slash parting the aide of her own right leg right under the knee.

The aide fell to her knees, well only her left knee to be precise. She leaned on her naginata, trying to stand back up again. The woman stopped, however, as a blade was placed right under her chin.

Suiren motioned the defenceless woman’s head up to face her for a few moments. She then cut deep into aide’s lovely neck, slowly inch by inch. #2 fell to the ground, she tried to hold onto the wound but Suiren stabbed her hand with the naginata, pinning it to the ground. The aide bled out on the ground after a great deal of struggling.

Hiro: {…} Momo-chan: […]

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Even in his mind, Hiro was speechless. In front of him there was no trace of the gentle Suiren he had come to know.

Suspending that man mid-air, slitting the other her throat like that. All of them were unnecessary and all of them were executed with a strange delay. It was as if to savour the wound, to see her opponents struggling.

The Suiren here and now still moved about gracefully, that was ingrained in her. But underneath all that grace was a level of sadism Hiro had only seen once before.

But second was still second, and this time he was not on the receiving end of such brutality. The young man was mostly shocked because it was Suiren who did it. Nevertheless, he recovered much faster than Momo-chan.

Willow, on the other hand, was completely out of breath. Not only did she just escape a near dead situation the girl was immediately confronted by such a scene.

‘No, I must not be fazed. I am a soldier, a knight, I must not be fazed by this’

She tried to reassure herself but her erratic breathing still showed no sign of calming down. Suddenly, the bloodstained Suiren turned around and walked straight toward her. The cracked white mask and bright soft skin contrast greatly with the garish red.

Willow panicked, she wanted to run away but can’t, something was holding her back.

“No no no no no….”

The girl mumbled as Suiren kneeled right in front of her. The woman reached out and Willow closed her eyes shut, waiting for something she didn’t even know. But that never came.

The girl looked again to see the woman holding onto a nearly severed arm wrapped around her. The blood from that gaping wound stained her leather jacket, Willow could even see bones jutting out. Yet, there was no pain, the limb was also unarmoured.

It took the girl a while to realise who did that arm belong to.

“Hiro! Your… you’re arm…”

The young man placed his right hand on her head.

“It’s alright, I will be fine”

“But… but…”

Willow couldn’t even mutter a single word. What was she doing, letting the Herald protecting her like that. Such a ghastly wound, meanwhile, the great Willow von Brandt was still unscathed. The girl couldn’t even move, she channelled too much mana so now her body was a wreck. She was rendered useless before even landing a single attack.

Anger, sadness, regret, frustration, Willow could feel her tears welling up.

“I… in the end… I couldn’t do anything…”

Hiro patted the crying girl “There, there” That’s all he could think of to say.

Meanwhile, Suiren seemed to be trying to find a way to bandage his wound. She considered ripping part of her shirt but it was drenched with blood and sweat. Suddenly, the woman could see a man coming up behind Hiro. She immediately pointed her weapon at his throat.

“Woah, calm down, miss. I am just here to help”

It was Malcolm, holding onto a roll of clean bandage. Suiren reached out to take it but the youth retracted his hand.

“Nah, let me handle this. You go worry about that big guy over there”

His line fell flat, however, as Suiren didn’t register any of his words at all. In the end, Hiro had to tell her again. She turned around to look at the Legionnaire, still standing there watching them.

Malcolm st down next to Hiro.

“Come on, you can stop copping for a feel now”

The young man looked down to see that his left arm had been resting upon Willow’s chest for quite a while now. Of course, with all that pain and her hard leather jacket, there wasn’t much to feel. Still, Hiro tried to remove his arm in embarrassment.

“Ah, sorry”

Willow didn’t reply though, at least she had stopped crying. Malcolm turned to her next.

“You should at least be able to remove yourself from this gentleman here or is that too hard”

“Oi, that was unnecessary!”

Hiro instantly replied to her defence. Willow herself tried to sit to the side without much complain. What that guy said hit her hard and she could do nothing but swallow that. The girl could barely move properly, she couldn’t even help to bandage her dear Herald.

Malcolm also brought some alcohol to pour over the wound. He then proceeded to bandage it carefully.

Hiro: {He has… as surprisingly soft touch…}

Momo-chan: [And that wrapping is too neat!]

Hiro: {Just like a girl…}[Just like a girl]

The youth seemed to sense what Hiro was thinking about. After he finished with the bandaging, he slapped it once.

“All done”

That hurt! Hiro thought to himself, it was a bit sudden but at least he managed to keep his cool. With his wound secured, the young man focused his attention to their final masked assailant.

The masked man looked over them once again before approaching with a brisk pace. He gave them… a very slow clap.

___

Now that was quite a display, especially from the old #2. It was a shame he didn’t get to see her against #1. On the other hand, she completely decimated her replacement. Not wearing that idiotic dress was probably one of the reason.

Just one though.

While she still hadn’t regained the ability to think a certain level of agency had returned. But more than that, she could now express herself to a certain degree just like a captain.

An aide couldn’t have any sort of emotion at all and that was useful. They were focused, couldn’t be distracted but it also meant none of them had any drive. All of their actions boiled down to pure technical and fighting wasn’t all that.

#2 always moved with grace but there was no intention. The corrupted her now showed such care, such gentleness but also such violence. The later even the Legionnaire didn’t expect.

But now that he was aware of that, facing her somehow felt even more thrilling. The captain drew his gladius, readied for combat. In front of him, the corrupted #2 held up her naginata in return.

Something was missing though.

He was somehow not satisfied about this arrangement; the Legionnaire looked up to think for a bit. A thought popped to his mind but he dismissed it.

‘No, I have nothing to prove’

He told himself but once again, that thought returned. In him was a strange feeling of dissatisfaction… with himself. From his memory wasn’t he a great centurion, his skill unmatched, his strategic skill sublime.

And yet that feeling still lingered.

‘Fine, I will humour you’

___

Hiro saw the masked man suddenly stopped in his track to look at the sky. What was he doing the young man didn’t understand.

It lasted only a few moments; the man looked at them and held his sword up. Suiren remained still, ready for any incoming attack. Malcolm was now standing, hunching, ready to react. Hiro was also on his knees, prepared to shield Willow if necessary.

The Legionnaire kept his sword in the air a bit for effect. He then swung down with all his might, throwing the gladius straight to ground.

With that done, he approached Suiren, crackling his knuckles.

“What the…”

Before Hiro could say anything else, the captain charged with supernatural speed. He threw out a flurry of punches, all of which Suiren back dodged with ease. She of course threw out a few counter stabs of her own. All of her attack was rather reserved, however, seeing that he could potentially grab the polearm.

“This is bad. Maybe I should just have bolted after all” Commented Malcolm.

“What are you talking about?”

“I expect you can at least recall the night the monster attacked”

“Um… yes” Of course Hiro still remembered, but for Malcolm to mention that.

“That masked guy, he was the one who threw that spear”

Hearing that made Hiro heart drops. He turned to Suiren who was being pushed back. He had to help her, somehow. The young man was held back by Malcolm before he could do anything reckless.

“Let me go, she needs help!”

“And you are going to contribute how, jumping into his punch?”

Hiro was easily overpowered despite Malcolm being his junior. He could only watch as the Legionnaire eventually managed to grab onto Suiren’s naginata. What happened next played out in just a span of seconds.

The captain yanked the polearm toward him before smashing the bottom against the woman right thigh. With a dry crack, Suiren’s leg folded slightly in the wrong direction.

The Legionnaire then swung the weapon up, its blade still pointed toward him. The wooden pole clashed with the woman’s chest and there was another dry crack as she was sent flying through the air. He spun the naginata around and threw it with thunderous strength.

It pierced through the air, digging through Suiren, sending her through an entire wall of a building before pinning her to the one behind it.