It was a dark and moonless night. The black clouds ominously hovered over the bleak townscape. The wind violently blew, sending scraps of torn paper flying into the air. Raindrops frequently fell from the sky onto the tiled rooftops. The town was usually bustling with activity and excitement, the streets were often flooded with people, the marketplaces were crowded with traders and merchants, and the pubs were hubs for large gatherings and parties. On this particular night, the town was devoid of any signs of humans; it was as if the town suddenly became a ghost town. It was absolutely silent apart from the pattering sounds of the raindrops as they collided with the ground or a roof, except for the sound of a few sets of muted footsteps, splashing as they traversed the bleary landscape of the town.
“You traitors! Why are you hunting me?! Have you already forgotten your promise to me?!” A girl with long black hair furiously asked as she continued to run through the empty town, trying to escape from a group of people wearing large black cloaks and masks covering their faces.
“If you kept being the puppet that we wanted you to be, we would have no reason to do this. Our promise to you only applied when you were following our orders.” The frontmost person threateningly answered while chasing after the girl. “We have no choice but to kill you now before you can spread the secrets of our organization unless you want to join us again and willingly become our puppet.”
“There is no way on Earth that I am rejoining you, scoundrels, again! I would much rather die than affiliate myself with you again!” The girl scathingly rejected the proposal of the cloaked people before turning into a dark alley, hoping to lose them.
“You were one of the best puppets we have ever had… Oh well, you leave us no choice then…” The leader of the group slowly responded, changing their voice from sympathetic to venomous. The group followed after the girl into the alley and were quickly gaining on the girl. The girl, seeing this, scowled before reaching down to her thigh and stealthily pulling out two sharp knives from the belt hidden beneath the girl’s skirt. She threw both knives at the approaching group. The knives traveled with such a fast speed that a normal person’s eye would not be able to keep track of them. Despite this, the group of masked people bent down to dodge the knives.
One of the knives completely missed the group, but the other one grazed the stomach of one of the members who was slow to duck down. Fresh blood spilled from the wound and a hollow gasp of pain was heard. The girl smiled, seeing that her attack had worked, and quickly turned around before sprinting away. Not minding the injury sustained by one of their members, the group ran after the girl, leaving the injured member to writhe on the cold and wet ground.
The girl nimbly jumped from wall to wall off of whatever footholds she could find until she landed on the roofs. Once there, she started running across the roofs, jumping from one to another whenever necessary.
“Those that can reach the roofs, quickly go up and follow after her, everyone else, continue to chase her on the ground in case she ever decides to jump down from the roofs.” The leader commanded before climbing onto a roof. The rest of the group nodded and started to either climb up after their leader or run off in the direction they had last seen the girl.
The girl continued to jump across roofs until she saw the group climb onto one of the roofs. She smirked before turning to face the 3 people who had made it onto the roof. She held out her arm and began to point it slightly in front of the people chasing her. A small sound echoed from the girl’s wrist before a low whistling sound appeared. The group heard the whistling sound and quickly scattered, but they were not quick enough. A mere second after the whistling sound first appeared, a crossbow bolt embedded itself into the abdomen of one of the masked people.
“*Sigh* I was planning on this being training for a few of the newbies, but I guess this mission was too hard for them. I didn’t want to use this, but I have no choice now. No wonder this person was regarded as a prodigy in their field.” The leader regretfully said while drawing his treasured gun from its holster. They shot a few bullets at the girl who dodged each of them with a multitude of acrobatic movements. She rolled under a few of the bullets, twisted her body out of the paths of a few, and flipped over the rest.
The girl while still dodging the bullets fired by the leader reached for another two knives before quickly throwing them at the remaining member on the roofs other than the leader. After throwing the knives, the girl quickly turned back around and started running again with a smile on her face, as though she knew the knives were guaranteed to hit their target. The masked man tried to dodge the two knives, but could not dodge it completely. One of them struck his spine, immobilizing and paralyzing him.
“You leave me with no choice then… It’s time to end this for good.” The leader had an unpleasant expression under his mask as he began to charge toward the girl while placing his gun back into its holder and instead unsheathing a large sword from its scabbard.
The girl stopped running again before turning toward the leader, her arm already aiming a crossbow toward their head. She shot the crossbow, but it did not hit its mark. The leader had sliced the bolt midair with a single slash of their sword, even though the bolt traveled with a near supersonic speed. The girl frowned seeing this and instead threw two knives at the leader instead. Both knives were deflected with a simple flick of the sword and the leader continued to charge straight at the girl.
Stolen novel; please report.
Drawing closer to the girl, the leader prepared to strike a decimating blow. In response, the girl’s frown deepened and she unsheathed a pair of Saxe Knives from a double scabbard tied around her waist. She held a knife in both hands and quickly crossed them with the blunt ends facing upwards to defend against the incoming sword strike.
Sparks flashed as the sword of the leader clashed with the pair of Saxe Knives. The girl was putting all her strength into blocking the attack, but she quickly found herself getting pushed back by the leader of the group. In response, she quickly flipped backward creating a bit of space between her and her opponent. She threw a pair of larger knives from the double scabbard at the leader whose sword was in a position that would usually prevent the user from being able to guard an attack; however, the leader effortlessly returned the sword to a guarding stance and deflected the two knives.
Realizing that she couldn’t win against her opponent, she tried retreating, but in a few seconds, she instinctively felt danger behind her and quickly twisted out of the way of an incoming sword swing. Looking back, she saw the leader standing a few inches from her and preparing yet another attack. Without any other choice, the girl rushed toward her opponent with her knives drawn and ready to inflict fatal damage. She rushed behind the leader before unleashing a devastating double slash at the leader’s spine.
The leader quickly turned around before guarding both strikes with their sword. After guarding, the leader then unleashed a flurry of swings with their swing chaining one swing after another by starting the next swing from the position where the last had ended. The girl ducked under the first swing, rolled to her left to dodge the second one, jumped up to avoid the third, and slid under their legs to avoid the fourth one. Now behind the leader, she tried a faint. She made it look like she was going for the spine again like before, but just as the leader turned around guarding with their sword, she did a backflip and threw another two knives aimed at the leader’s legs.
They were not fazed by the faint and quickly jumped over the two knives causing them to clutter harmlessly onto the roof. They then responded by swinging their sword downward at the girl with enough force to crack even the strongest diamond. In an awkward stance after the backflip, the girl was forced to guard against the attack by crossing her knives in front of her; however, the instant before the swing collided with the knives, the leader changed the trajectory of their swing to instead target the girl’s unprotected leg.
Noticing this, the girl quickly tried to roll out of the way, but she was already tired from the nonstop chase. She had not slept in more than four days because she had to constantly run from her pursuers. As a result, she was not able to completely dodge out of the way in time, causing the slice to graze her thigh and leaving a large gash. The girl kneeled to the ground in pain and a few tears dropped from her eyes.
The leader then slowly started to walk toward the girl. In a last-ditch effort, she unleashed everything she had left in her arsenal, throwing knife after knife and shooting bolt after bolt until she ran out. The leader effortlessly dodged all of them while still slowly walking toward her. Once they were close enough, they put their sword against the girl’s neck.
“What made you leave us?” The leader asked while starting to slowly drive the blade into her neck.
“Why wouldn’t I after what you have made me do?! Do you not feel any sympathy for everything that you have done?!” The girl answered, face growing red with anger.
“It’s too late to appeal to me emotionally, for I have already sold my soul to the organization. Sympathy is unnecessary, emotions are worthless, and as long as everything goes according to plan, I am content. You were just a simple pawn in the grand scheme. A disobedient and traitorous pawn whose existence matters little to us.” The leader responded in a scathing tone.
“Me? A traitor?! No way, you are the traitors! What happened to everything you said to me in the past?!” The girl furiously argued.
“Us? Traitors? Impossible. What do a few invaluable lives mean in the grand scheme of things? Nothing, that’s what. Simple words are not enough to restrain our glorious actions. All will be well if our plan comes to fruition…” The leader droned off in a fanatical voice.
“You are all maniacs! There is no way your plan will ever succeed!” The girl screamed, her voice rising as her anger grew.
“Who’s going to stop us? The government? Many of them already owe us for helping them in the war.” The leader drove the blade deeper into the girl’s neck causing a stream of fresh blood to emerge from the wound.
The girl opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She promptly closed her mouth and showed a defiant face to the leader.
“Any final words?” The leader drove the blade ever deeper into the girl’s neck. “Oh wait, I forgot, you can’t right now.” The leader removed their mask, revealing the face of a beautiful girl in her late twenties. She had a massive grin on her face. “You had a lot of potential, but you decided to betray the organization. Now you are just an insignificant spec who will be one of the tens of thousands of victims who fell victim to my blade, Goodbye Aiyana.” She reaped the girl Aiyana’s life and withdrew her sword. Immediately afterward, the girl’s body fell lifelessly to the hard tiles of the roof, her blood staining the roof before being washed off by the torrential rain.
“Mission complete.” The leader emotionally said before walking away from the girl’s lifeless body.
The rain started falling at a faster rate as if mourning the death of the girl. More dark clouds gathered around the area, casting a faint shadow over the corpse of the girl. The winds intensified and gathered around the area of the girl’s body before creating an updraft that lifted the girl’s body into the air. The winds persisted and created a sort of platform in the air where the girl’s body could levitate. Suddenly, a hole opened in the clouds, and a beam of moonlight, even though it was a moonless night, shone through the hole and directly onto the girl’s corpse. The area was absolutely silent, no sounds of human beings, no sounds of animals, no sounds from rustling papers or leaves, absolutely nothing. Out of nowhere, the booming sound of thunder resounded across the area, and mere milliseconds later, a bright thunderbolt appeared from the clouds directly striking the girl’s body. The thunderbolt stayed for around 15 minutes, and when it disappeared, the girl’s body was gone…