Rook, I want you to loop around to the back of the village. If there are any stragglers, or anyone trying to send for reinforcements, you take care of them. It’s vital.
“Vital my….” I let the words die out before I finished them, lying in the sand so that there was no chance any would see me.
They took this commission because they trusted I was strong, yet I was sent to wait out of harm’s way.
I don’t get her game.
Was it because I had freaked them out too much in the slip dimension? Because I’d tried to explain that it was a one-off. I couldn’t display that level of power again, even with the cumulative summation of the rest of my life’s worth of mana.
So why?
I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to be doubting Veronika’s judgment. If she thought it was best I stay out of sight, then that’s what I would do-
What was that?
I squinted, doing my best to make out the village from here.
There!
I’d thought maybe I had imagined it at first, but no, I had seen movement. There, running away from the village as hard as they possibly could, was a little girl.
And she was being chased.
Could it be….?
No. We had been told the daughter had never even reached Kar’anza, so it was unlikely to be her.
But still.
It was a little girl, terrified and running for her life. I couldn’t just sit and watch.
Guess this counts as a reason they wanted me here.
I shot to my feet, sprinting toward the girl. Quickly reaching her, I saw a moment of hesitation and fear as I ran toward her. Still, a quick glance backward filled the girl with steely resolve as she redoubled her efforts, sprinting toward me.
But she wasn’t the only one who saw me. Her pursuers, two men, one short and one tall, were right on her heels. Surprised expressions were quickly replaced by what could only be described as excitement as they drew their weapons, reorienting themselves as they angled toward me.
Good.
By drawing attention away from the girl, I could better protect her. I continued sprinting forward until the young girl dove past me just as the sound of steel rang out.
I grit my teeth from the effort of intercepting the hooked blade of the raider. Without the added power gained from channeling ruptured body, I was still only a fifteen-year-old, nearly sixteen, but still, only a teenage boy trying to contest the physical strength of a grown man.
“Looks like we got a hero showing up.” The man licked his lips before turning to holler at his friend. “Guess our wish came true!”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out why men who chased little girls around would be excited at the prospect of fresh meat showing up.
Animals.
Maybe I couldn’t beat them in a straight-up clash of strength, but strength alone wasn’t all there was to swords.
First style it is.
The smirk on the man’s face was wiped clean as my sword, struggling to hold back his weapon, was suddenly pulled free before flashing forward like a steel viper.
And when that viper’s strike landed true, the raider was left with one less finger.
“Ack!” The man clenched his hand, now missing a finger, howling in pain. “I’ll gods damn pull your guts out!”
I had already danced past the man, advancing on his lackey. The shorter man scrambled to raise his own weapon, a crude carving knife, but it fell to the ground a moment later.
Along with the hand holding it.
“Damned piece of shit!” I heard the first man shout from behind me, and I quickly turned around to see where he was.
“This is what you get for playing stupid games.” His eyes bulged, spittle frothing from his mouth as he held the girl pinned next to him, his sword sweeping down toward her head.
Crap.
There was no time for thinking, no time for planning, no time for anything other than reacting.
The mana flowed instantly through me. Had I been focusing on it, I perhaps would have noticed it flowing steadier, faster, but my mind was solely on the girl about to lose her head.
I hurled my sword through the air, my body augmented by mana for a singular burst of speed and strength. One, two, three spins through the air before my sword stopped.
I grimaced for a moment, my sword lodged in the face of the raider, who staggered back before falling lifelessly to the ground.
I’d killed a man.
Did I really just kill someone?
A rush of bitter bile surged up my throat, but I forced it down, clenching my fist.
I’d killed a man, but I hadn’t had a choice.
A glance behind me showed the shorter raider grasping at his stump in pain, tying the end of his shirt around it. Figuring I had time, I walked up to the man’s corpse, who had been cursing me vilely just seconds ago. Standing over him, I grasped the hilt of my sword, pulling it free with a sickly squelch of sound, never looking directly at the wound as I calmly paced back to face the other man.
“Wha- wait! Please, don’t hurt me!” The wounded raider raised his good hand before his face, begging as tears streamed down his face. “I’m sorry!”
My sword slashed out, stopping a hair’s breadth from his face as he flinched.
“Leave,” I grunted, surprised at how hoarse my voice sounded; my throat burnt from the rush of bile.
“But I-” The man began, but my sword flicked to the side, clipping a sliver of flesh from his right ear.
“Leave,” I repeated.
The man nodded, tears streaming down his face, a noticeable stream of wetness down his pants as he hurried off and out into the dunes.
To where I didn’t know, nor did I care.
There. I mentally sagged inward. Only killed one.
I didn’t want to think about how I had just ended a life, so I finally turned my attention to the girl sitting on the ground, holding her knees to her chest as silent tears streamed through the sand and dust covering her face.
“Hey, you’re okay now.” I looked down at my bloody sword, which probably wasn’t helping my case. I hastily wiped it clean, inspecting it briefly, before sheathing it within my cloak. “You’re okay.”
“M-my sister.” The girl whispered.
“Your sister?”
The girl nodded, tears slowing down. “Did you come for my sister too?”
I shook my head in denial. “No, no. We came here to save you all.”
“We?” The girl asked, hope in her eyes.
“Yes, we.” I smiled as brightly as I could, forcing myself to seem confident. “We’re an adventuring party! We’re here to save the day!”
I was thrown off balance as the girl lunged forward, wrapping her arms around my legs as she began to bawl her eyes out.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” I awkwardly patted her head as the girl cried. The terror she had likely been living through was like a dark cloud only now showing signs of lifting.
“It’s going to be okay.” I gently soothed the girl as my gaze turned toward the village, watching the smoke from some of the buildings on fire roll away into the sky above. “One way or another.”
--------------
By the time I found the others, my body count had increased by another six. I’d encountered two small groups, five strong each. I’d hesitated with the first group, trying to find a way to dispatch them without killing them. Still, when push came to shove, my sword took their lives with little difficulty, my mind detaching itself from my actions.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
I’ll have to decide what that means later.
I’d managed to scare one away from the first group, but the other four had fallen as my sword reaped the life from them with almost painful ease.
After I’d finished cutting down two in quick succession, the rest simply tossed aside their weapons and ran.
I let them. I wasn’t heartless, and the thought of having killed people still made my bile surge. Plus, I was busy, more preoccupied with finding my comrades than slaughtering raiders. What felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, given how small the village was, I finally found them.
“Took you long enough.” Zet smiled tiredly from where he lay propped up against a nearby house.
“What happened?”
Nearby I saw a group of villagers, the sudden panic at seeing me fading as they heard how I conversed freely with Zet. Next to Zet, Tez was lying still, the only sign she was alive being the rise and fall of her chest.
“Raider had them hostage. One thing led to another, Tez got her bell rung, and my hamstring was cut. I freed the villagers if that counts for anything.”
The villagers in question raised their ‘bound’ hands, revealing that the ropes had been cut, made to look as if they were still captured, without impeding them should they need to flee suddenly.
“Why not have them escape already?” I questioned as I paced forward.
“Couldn’t, not without knowing how everything is going elsewhere. Otherwise, I could be sending them to the slaughter. But, since you’re here-”
“I took care of the raiders hanging out toward the back of the village.” I answered, choosing not to explain what ‘taking care of’ meant.
“Well, did more than us.” He shrugged his head toward the interior of the building he was propped against. When I peered through a curtain covering the open window, I noticed an unmoving body lying on the floor inside.
“I had them drag the body inside, so at least the raiders wouldn’t be able to see at a glance that one of their buddies was dead if they checked in over here,” Zet informed me.
“What about Veronika and Dayvin?”
Zet shrugged, glancing to the side as he did. “Dunno. I haven’t seen them, nor have I seen any other raiders, so your guess is as good as mine.”
Not exactly good news, but neither was it bad news.
“Excuse me.”
Both Zet and I looked over to where the villagers were gathered. A single man was standing up, looking about nervously.
“Yeah?” Zet inclined his head.
“Your friend there-”
“Rook,” I informed him.
“Your friend, Rook, mentioned coming from the back of the village. Is it okay if we….?”
“Yeah.” Zet nodded. “Go hide back there for now.”
“What about you?” The man looked at Zet’s bad leg with hesitation.
“Can’t move around much anyway. If one of you could drag my sister inside, I’ll stay with her.”
“And you?” The man who seemed to be the group’s voice turned toward me.
“I’m going to see what happened with the other two of our group.”
“Do you need anyone to accompany you?”
“Not like you’d be much help,” I mumbled.
“What was that?” The man leaned in, missing what I said.
“Nothing.” I shuffled awkwardly, suddenly feeling antsy to move on. “Just do what Zet tells you for now. I’ve got to, uh, go.”
Before anyone else could speak to me, I turned toward the front of the village, briskly jogging away as I kept an eye out for any potential raiders ready to assail me.
--------------------------
When I finally picked my way through what remained of the village, I’d encountered only three last raiders, none the wiser of what had befallen their comrades. They had been sifting through a house when I stumbled upon them, the three of them staring at me through the windowsill of the tiny house. Tired of killing, I slowed my pace, thinking my movements through until I found the opportune moment to crack them as hard as I could over the head with the blunt side of my blade.
As easy as taking candy from a baby, they crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
That, or they had suffered brain damage from the blunt force trauma. At the very least, I didn’t have to be outwardly presented with the reality of my actions as I did whenever my sword was painted red with blood.
Where are they?
I’d been searching but had not found any sign of Veronika or Dayvin.
After they were done out front, they said they would meet us inside the village. So, where are they?
My blood ran cold when I finally received my answer.
“Dayvin? Veronika?”
Laying in the sand were several bodies, most of which I thankfully didn’t recognize.
But only a short distance from them was two that I did recognize. One was a large man who had propped himself up, clearly in pain but alive.
Dayvin.
The other was in worse shape. From where I was standing, I could barely make out the rise and fall of her chest.
Veronika.
I bolted forward until I was crouched next to them.
“What happened?” I questioned, taking in their state more clearly. Dayvin had been cut up badly, but besides the obvious pain, he would be fine. His hands were covered in blood, but it was clear whose blood it was.
Veronika’s. Dayvin had been doing his best to staunch the blood flow from the ugly-looking stab wound that, by all rights, should have been fatal.
“Front-line fighting is made for the front lines,” Dayvin grunted, nodding toward the nearby corpses.
“But you’re adventurers! How could a few raiders have done this?” Panic began to flutter from within my chest. I’d never dealt with a situation like this; I wasn’t a doctor. I couldn’t do anything about-
“Relax, kid.” Dayvin laid a hand on my shoulder. “Breath.”
Realizing my chest was rising and falling too quickly, I did as he instructed, taking a deep breath and drawing in a fresh flow of mana to calm my scurrying thoughts and frantic emotions. Heart settling, I reexamined the scene.
With just the two of them, there had been nothing to prevent the raiders from circling around, attacking like a pack of starved jackals.
“We were just foot soldiers.” Dayvin leaned back in the sand, staring at the sky. “Humans. Maybe a bit more training than most get, but still normal people. Not even any sort of special forces. Just plain ole soldiers.”
I looked back toward Veronika and her freely bleeding wound.
“What can we do? Can we even do anything?”
“Stop the bleeding.” Dayvin coughed; his body, I noticed, was trembling. “I tried, but I got nothin’ on me past putting pressure on it. Couldn’t risk crawling into the village for help either, not without knowing what was goin’ in there.”
Bleeding. C’mon Rook. Surely you can figure out a way to stop a little bleeding.
I looked at Veronika’s wound again, the stab wound somehow looking even uglier as if mocking me.
If I had a needle, I could attempt to stitch it up.
You don’t know how to sew.
I could drag her into the village, find someone who could-
Idiot, she’ll die if she’s moved in this state.
I could try to find someone to bring to her and-
And if you don’t find someone as soon as possible, she might die while you’re away.
My options were limited. Something had to be done, and it had to be done now, or she would die without a doubt.
Think.
I looked down at the wound once more. I couldn’t sew it up, bring her to anyone, or risk searching for someone. I needed something fast, something to stop the bleeding.
I could always cauterize it.
I grimaced at the idea. It would be dangerous. Cauterizing a wound wasn’t just as simple as burning it and hoping for the best.
Or, in this case, it would be precisely that which was part of the problem. Cauterizing the wound would come with potential risks, but time was of the essence.
The other issue was that I had nothing to cauterize the gaping stab wound.
Or almost nothing.
The answer always comes back to mana.
I drew my sword and saw as Dayvin eyed me for a moment before shutting them again, his message clear.
Trust.
I pressed two fingers to the width of the sword just below the tip. I closed my eyes, concentrating on the mana I knew was around me.
Quickly. Quickly.
I felt the familiar rush as my perception of the world grew deeper, able to sense the mana within the surrounding vicinity. I had no time to delay, rushing to draw as much mana as possible.
Quickly. Quickly.
It was a similar process to when I tried to work on forming my foundation ring, except instead of drawing mana to just below my wrist, I pulled it toward where my fingers touched my sword.
Faster.
The silver lining was that, at least within a desert, there was no shortage of hot, fire-like mana.
More.
I imagined myself desperately pulling the floating particles of mana to my sword, like the kindling needed to start a blaze.
Finally satisfied with the amount of mana, I opened my eyes to my next problem.
The mana itself wasn’t enough. Sure, it had the potential to make fire and heat, but it was still nothing more than untapped conceptual energy in its current state.
I needed to be the one to give it purpose and form.
Please, I silently prayed in my mind, work.
“Scorz,” I whispered.
Not once, not even since I’d been under the tutelage of my master, had I managed to manifest external magic. The closest I’d ever gotten to such a feat, I’d been in some strange dimension literally made of mana.
What I had to do now was draw from my own mana, an ignition source. My entire life, I’d been unable to form even the tiniest sparks, the failed son of a renowned witch.
So when a single lazy ember floated from my finger and sank within the blade, I could hardly think, my breath freezing in its place.
I did it.
My first usage of external magic.
I’d done it.
My moment of celebration was short-lived as I yanked my finger away from the blade’s tip, suddenly scorching hot. Considering the amount of mana I’d condensed within the edge, it’d stay hot for several seconds, but I only needed several seconds. Lowering the blade, I pressed the red-hot metal to Veronika’s stab wound, the ugly wound a mocking belittlement of her life, threatening to steal her last breath.
Not today. Please.
I grit my teeth, blocking the sound of sizzling flesh and the acrid smell.
Bare it.
I held the blade still, waiting until the hissing subsided. When it finally did, I looked down, afraid of what my eyes might see.
Where the freely bleeding stab wound had been now laid an ugly scarred mat of mangled and burnt flesh. With an injury like that, I doubted Veronika could ever swing a sword again, much less continue her days as an adventurer.
But, at the very least, the bleeding had stopped.
I sank back on my butt, staring at the dark sky; the sun had begun its slow trek across the horizon. With some effort, I saw Dayvin prop himself up, inspecting the wound before lying down with his eyes closed.
“Will she live?” I asked him, still watching the sky.
“Maybe. Only time will tell.” Dayvin huffed. “She wanted to keep you from getting blood on your hands, the twins as well.”
“They’ve never killed anyone?” I questioned.
“No. You’ve heard it before, but adventurers of our calibers don’t take on rescue missions for villages under siege by raiders. We deal with one-off monsters or act as liaisons. But this?” Dayvin chuckled painfully, head resting in the sand. “This isn’t work made out for regular folk, and that’s what Veronika and I are.”
“What about the twins?”
“They can decide for themselves. But after this, me and Veronika, we’re done. Carrion Gulch, The Rebellion of Oxent, and now this? Call me superstitious, but they say you get three freebies. After that, your fate is up to you. Normal people like us? Nah. We’re done.”
I nodded; at the very least, I could understand the man and his choice. I knew nothing about this ‘Carrion Gulch’ nor the Rebellion of Oxent. Still, from how he phrased it, they could’ve only been memories better left buried.
“What about the commission?”
“Me and ‘Ronika, we’re out. We’ll need some time to recover, and Veronika probably won’t be able to be an adventurer after this anyway, assuming she lives. I take it you met up with the twins?”
I nodded.
“Good, then they’re okay. Zet may not always act like it, but he had the makings of a party leader. Defer to his decision.”
When Dayvin stopped talking, fear began to bud from within once again.
“Dayvin? Dayvin?”
He had stopped moving, but I saw his chest rise and fall before I could give him a shake.
Oh. He just fell asleep.
I stood up, looking between the village and my two temporary comrades. Part of me wanted to stay with them, but at this point, what could be done had been done. The best I could do for them was relay the message; from there, our fate, or more specifically, the future of an unknown girl, would be decided.
Zet. I began making my way back into the village.
I hope Dayvin is right about you.