“Oh? So you’re also going to join the tournament as well?”
“Yes, Dad won the tournament many years ago, as such I want to follow in his footstep to become stronger! You also join the tournament right, big sister?”
“That’s right. Since I am 18 years old right now, I am officially an adult, and as such I have to prove myself within this tournament, per the rule of the Victoris family: to perform a worthy achievement and proven yourself as a proper member of the royalty.”
“Eh...I think you’ve proven enough of yourself already, sis. Proven enough that everyone is afraid of you back home…”
“Nevertheless, it’s the rule that I must follow...Plus, like Martia, I’m also looking forward to fighing strong opponent, and becoming stronger in the process. Of course, that include you too, Martia.”
“I’m also looking forward to fight against you too, big sister! You’re already look like such a strong person already!”
“Well, I don’t think I am strong enough yet. My swordmanship isn’t even completed yet after all…”
“Sis...the strongest swordman in our kingdom, and our instructor would cry if he heard this. Not like he didn’t cry enough already back home when he see you…”
Sitting upon her lap, Martia and Violet is having a casual conversation with each other, with Mauve sitting in front of them, interjecting every now and then. In the mean times, the little dragon still sit on top of his head, peacefully sleeping.
If it weren’t for Terry, who’s frantically looking at his surrounding constantly with bloodshot eyes, is making a scene right now, they would look like just a normal group of travelers who was resting at the oasis for the night, instead of being on the run right now from group of thugs.
“...Terry, you should calm down a bit and sit down. You’re making a scene here.”
“How the fuck am I going to calm down! You said that we’re being followed by those thug!”
“All the more reason to calm down. We don’t want to look like we’re flustering in front of them, right?”
“How, The Hell, WOULD I NOT BE FLUSTERED! My life-All of our lifes is at stake here!”
“Relax, not like they come here yet-”
Calmly sipping her cup of tea, she tries to pacify him, who’s in the middle of a panic fit, before suddenly stopping her word. Putting her cup down, she put Martia, who is holding the dragon gently, to the side, and began to pick up her sword.
“My mistake, they’re here now.”
“See!?? What the fuck do I tell you!”
“Calm down, and stick to the plan we have devised earlier. I’m going to come out at the front as bait, while you guy go around and ambush them. Those guy want me alive, so I will able to keep them occupied long enough for you to clean this up.”
“Are you going to be okay though? As strong as you are, we don’t know what those guy are capable of…”
“I’ll be fine, I have the highest chance of survival upon direct contact anyway.”
“Still…!”
“Terry, it’s useless to convince sis at this point.”
As he was riling up, Mauve put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. Flaring up instead, he yelled at him, questioning his sanity.
“Mauve, it’s your sister we’re talking about! Don’t you feel any worry for her!?”
“Even if I did, it’s impossible trying to stop her. All I can do is to believe in her, and doing my part quickly.”
“Um! I believe in her as well, she is strong after all!”
“You...You guy are fucking nut…”
Seeing the resignation in Mauve’s eyes, and Martia’s great big smile of confident, he realize that it’s indeed useless to convince them otherwise. As such, Terry can only cursed inward.
“...Now, follow my signal. Once I send it, the plan’s commence.”
Meanwhile, putting her sword to the side, she glance as a dune from afar, before preparing herself.
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--Thug’s POV--
“...Look like there is some movement on the princess’s side.”
The leader talk, as he notice the glance of the princess over to the dune, through his binocular.
“Look like the princess notice us alas...or rather, pretend to do so, as if she doesn’t notice us already. This is still in lieu of the plan though…”
Retreating back behind the dune, he immediately take out his radio, and call back to his comrade.
“Is the preparation done?”
“All done on our end! We just need to wait for the signal.”
Confirming that the preparation is completed, he then turned to talk to his teammate.
“Okay boy, our main force have come, and right now they have successfully surrounded the princess and her escort. And fortunately, look like she only noticed us for now.”
Hearing such, his teammate nodded with a naughty smile on their face, confident that the job is completed already.
“Okay, now all we have to do is to come out to attract their attention. When they’re busy focusing on us, the main force will then bombard their surrounding, and while they’re distracted, we will swoop in and incapacitated them.”
With a determined eyes, the rookie grasp his rifle tightly, nervously holding himself upon hearing his word. Seeing such, the middle-age leader put his hand strongly on his shoulder, jolting him back.
“Relax, kid. With all of us here, no way they could do anything against our gang. We should be finishing it before sunrise, soon enough.”
With his assurance, the rookie finally relax, and loosen his hand a little, while focusing on the princess’s group, along with the rest of his team, who’s now all finished their preparation.
“Okay, on my signal. One, two-!??”
Suddenly, the light in the middle of the oasis abruptly blow off, leaving the oasis completely surrounded by darkness, in eerie silent.
“Shit! Did they purposefully put out the campfire to run away. Boy, put on your night vision!”
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Turning on the night vision on his binocular, he tries to look around the oasis, to see where they run to. Suddenly, he found a figure rapidly going toward them.
Within the darkness, their dress flutter against the winds, as each steps elegantly pushing them against the sand, with neither a sound or a splatter.
On their right side, a katana is revealed, as they ominously glint in the night. As they let their long hair flutter behind, a focused violet eyes of a princess aim straight toward them.
“Shit, she’s coming right toward us!”
“Why does she come alone against all of us!?”
“Because she can kill all of us in one fell swoop, you dumbass! Fire at will!”
In a panic, all of them take out the rifles behind them and firing out an indiscriminate hail of bullets against her. As if she can see all of them however, she skillfully side-step, jump over, dodge with her body, and even deflect it with her sword, as she slice against the bullet faster than the blink of an eye. As she steadily come toward them in constant rhythm, the determined gaze glint in the darkness put a rising terror in all of them, as they tries to swallow it down and held their trigger for dear life.
Finally, she make a final jump, and as she somersault in the air, dodging the bullet coming her way, she landed beside the leader and draw her sword against his neck, as all of them pointed their gun at her, frozen in place.
The presence was calm like still air, yet fierce.
For the first time in his life, the rookie feel shivers all over his body, as if a killing chill washed over him all at once.
It was as if a great beast firmly stood proudly on the ground, its emotionless eyes glancing at all of them one-by-one, never letting them escape its gaze, slowly baring it fangs.
Despite standing before them is an elegant, slender figure of a noble princess, they all felt like a giant figure stand before them, its claws slowly grabbing their body, tearing and crushing at their guts and bones. Barely standing their ground, they all come with a slow realization…
That if they press the trigger ever slightly, all of them will be shredded into paste.
‘Crapcrapcrapcrap...Is this the true terror of a pureblood Victoris...’
Shaking wildly, the tip of his rifle is shaking erratically, barely aiming his rifle toward her body. Barely preventing his gun from dropping off, he also can’s stop his finger shaking, trembling over the trigger, as each slight pull on the inward curve put him in even more dread.
“Oi, calm the fuck down, rookie! And wipe the drool out of your goddamn faces, you bunch of stupid butts, you’re in the presence of royalty here!”
Seeing the rookie barely keeping his consciousness and foaming at the mouth, the leader bite his tongue to keep himself awake, before yelling at him to shook him up from terror. Hearing his booming voice, others people of his team also shook awake as well, wiping the saliva off their mouth. Meanwhile, the princess watch over the tomfoolery without nary a change of her expression.
Ignoring the blade standing still on his neck, the leader boldly asking the princess, taking all of his courage to stand compose.
“To not killing us right on the spot...What’s your game here, princess?”
“Game? I just prefer not to kill people, if possible. All we want to do is to get out of this desert safely, without harm.”
Calmly speaking back, the princess clearly stated her demand with a clear, decisive voice.
“Hmph! Unfortunately, Boss told us to kidnap you, without letting a strand of hair dropped to the ground. For the sake of both of us, please come with us obediently.”
“Unfortunately, I am on a mission to bring honor to my family, so I can’t follow your demand.”
“...Kahaha! Then whatever shall we do. Not like we can just come back to Boss empty-handed…”
Smiling fearlessly, the leader continued to talk back-and-forth toward the emotionless princess, locking his eyes against her violet gaze, probing deep into his soul. Desperately keeping up his facade, he secretly reach his hand toward the radio, holding it firmly.
Suddenly, she shifted her gaze out of his, and instead looking over the horizon. As if she can see behind the endless dune, she slowly scan over each and everyone of them one by one, stopping at various certain dunes for a brief moment, before returning her eyes back at him, the same emotionless eyes gotten sharper.
“...Then I could start by stopping all of you.”
“!!!”
Seemingly feeling the blade across his neck just got even sharper and searing his skin, he spoke with cold sweat beneath his skin, still donning a fearless grin.
“Oh yeah? Then how are you going to do that?”
“By taking down each and every one of your 1000-strong army, of course...Don’t worry, I will keep my word, and use only the back of my blade.”
As such, she flip her blade, and touching his neck with the back of her katana, as promised. However, he can only feel the blade getting even sharper, as if his head will be lopped away at any moment.
“Of course, that’s only if you all resist...Please give up and let us go, or else I have to show you the true might of the Victoris’s royalty.”
With a threat made clear, the unfeeling face of the princess, now seems like that of the grim reaper. The presence that squeeze at them before, now felt like the oppressive force of death, forcing them to kneel.
“Hah...yeah right. Fire at will!”
Fighting against such overwhelming killing intent with an arrogant smile, he take out his gun and fire straight at her. At the same times, rousing up by his word, his men also fire their rifle at her, at point blank range.
Despite that, she swiftly dodge the bullets at breakneck speed. Leaving afterimages behind her as the bullets stream helplessly catching up to her, she aimed for the rookie, as he desperately firing at her while backing off. As she was closing in however, baring her blade, she suddenly took a step back, as a stream of bullet cut pass between her, quickly followed up with a swift bayonet charge, as one of the men came up screaming to cover the rookie.
“Speaking of which, why do you fire your gun at me then, if you don’t intend to harm me?”
“Hah! Like hell that work with you guy in the first place, evidently enough.”
As she calmly dodge the flurry of knife slash strapped onto the rifle, she suddenly asked the leader, wondering about something. Intensely looking back at her, the leader talking back at her with a veneer of calmness.
“Still, what if I got hurt then? Isn’t your boss apparently very scary?”
“Thank you for your useless concern, but Boss always said to prioritize our lives first. Beside, the bullet itself is just pepper rounds.”
“Is that so?”
Quickly dismantling the rifle with her sword, before knocking him out, she swipe the magazine from him in midair with her left hand, and check the bullets inside, which look like a normal rifle rounds, except the tip of the bullet is clear, and fill with some kind of red powder.
Suddenly, another stream of bullet come right at her, as the mohawk man shoot to cover for his teammate. Seeing such, as she calmly avoiding the bullets, she take out a bullet from the magazine with her thumb, and fling it toward the mohawk man at high speed, using her sword on her right hand. Upon impact however, the powder explode across his body, and the man collapse into a screaming mess as if his lung was burning, as endless tears and snots come out of his face, and his skin turn red as if it was scalding.
Seeing the result, she turn toward the leader, a surprise look can be seen even from her blank face.
“...Pepper powder?”
“Death pepper powder, which give excruciating pain, and made you feel as if you’re burning in hellfire for hours on end... What else can we even use for monster like you?”
“...My apology.”
Feeling sorry for “testing” on his man, she bow down to apologize, in a neat fashion befitting that of a princess. At the same times though, a line of rope just go past where her head should be, as the spiked hair man chuckle his tongue, failing to capture her. Taking advantage of that instead, she immediately pulled hard on the rope to pull him down, catching him by surprise, before coming over and knocking him unconscious with her handle.
As such, in a flash, only the newbie still left there standing. Without even a scratch on her dress, she slowly come forward on him, preparing to deal the final blow…
“Oi, aren’t you forgetting someone?”
With a scowling voice, the leader beckon her, drawing her attention to him. In respond, she turn to look at him
“I have not. After I quickly deal with the last remaining man, I will deal with you soon.”
“Feh, to think I have even less of a value than a rookie is an insult…”
“Is that all you want to said to me? If not then I will continue-”
“Hah, of course not...I think we have stalled you on enough.”
Immediately after that, multiple streak of light came up from beyond the horizon, as they illuminate the night sky. As they’re drawing an arc on the sky, the light itself aimed for the spot where they all stand.
Seeing such, she keep her cool, while steadily put her sword back into it scabbard and widening her stance.
“Second Sword…”
“Kid, don’t just sit there, duck down, take off your night vision and cover your ears!!”
“!!!”
Listening to his warning, the rookie done just that, throwing his night vision far away while ducking down beneath the sand, looking at the leader doing just the same. Not paying attention to them however…
“...The Line That Cut Heaven And Earth!”
Immediately, her sword is drawn, and instantly a curved line is drawn upon the sky, cutting through all of those bullet in a single slash.
What happen next is a terrible explosion of sound, as night briefly turn to blistering white.
As the wind pressing down on them, delivering the searing hot air from the explosion, both of them nevertheless brace themselves, as the assault of air, light and sound continued to attack on them, as if a sun suddenly appear and pour down on their body...
(Keep endure this! No way even she can withstand this-)
“I see… ’Morning Star’ Flashbang Suppression Round, isn’t it?”
...Despite that, even when everything is engulfed in light and booming sound, a clear voice can be heard.
“Essentially an illuminations round with 10000 times the brightness and 1000 times the sound, it deliver an instant assault of both sight and sound, capable of knocking down an entire civilian population of a dissenting town with just a single shot, as they suffer permanent sight and hearing damage.”
Engulfed by the searing light, a clear shadow can be seen, already standing over the lying body of the rookie, as if it was the specter of death itself.
“I thought I have it banned all across the kingdom myself because of it inhumane nature, and halted down it entire production as well as confiscating all the available rounds, but I guess some did slip away…”
The shadow then slowly crept over the sands, its size and terror grow with each silent steps.
“Then again, I thought I make sure to burn the production method itself as well...unless you guy managed to reverse-engineer it. It make sense, considering what I know about the Rolling Storm.”
(Impossible...just what kind of monster is she!?)
“...This need further investigation. Perhaps I need to directly ask you guy next time around.”
As the shadow of complete darkness loomed over him, it’s presence glazing all over him, he felt as if his entire existence is being questioned, his soul being judge in front of the abyss of hell itself.
“...As for now, sorry.”
...The last thing he remember, is a dull violet gaze towering over him, as it haunted him in the eternal darkness.
Later on, that cold, lifeless gaze of the princess, would be the thing that terrified them for the rest of their life. And as such, the moniker of “The Violet Terror” would be born among the thug within the Rolling Wind, bringing dread among all...but that’s a story for another time.
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(Hm...with me intentionally dragging the fight on, it seems they fully take the bait)
With the light fading away, she can feel many presence surrounding her, and closing in one by one. As she check herself, she feel slightly disoriented, as her eardrum is completely blow out, and a constant burning sensation on her eyeballs persists.
(...Look like both my hearing and my sight is taken out, guess that’s the price for intentionally putting my guard down, and even sealing my "senses". It’s horrible for the people within my kingdom, as expected.)
As she slowly walk over, she once again put her sword into the scabbard on her side, as she readied herself to face against the encroaching army with a determined look.
(...At least this serve as a good training sections for the upcoming tournament. You wouldn’t know whether you can have any of your five senses in battle, after all)
“...The first part of the plan is complete. I wish you all good luck.”
Talking through the radio comp she swipe from the knock-out body of the leader, she strapped it close to herself, before jumping into the fray.