My eyes opened halfway, my vision slightly blurred. My head felt clouded, my memory hazy. This air around me felt familiar. Where was I? What was I doing before I got here? Why was I only in my boxers?
As my eyes fully opened I saw a man standing near me- his back faced towards me. He looked about six inches shorter than myself. I recognized him.
“Chato” I said slowly, short on breath.
Chato turned around with a stern look on his face and began to walk towards me. He was holding my clothes- a dark red, almost burgundy trench coat, a plain black t-shirt, and black pants along with a black and red arm and knee guard. “I had Kara wash these. They were covered in blood. Be sure to thank her the next time you see her.”
I attempted to sit up, but felt too lethargic. My body was heavy, my will was weak. Just a little longer. Just a little more rest. Chato sat the clothes beside me on the bed.
As I realized how comfortable I felt, I realized where I was lying- the tribe’s infirmary. The beds here were cloth sacks filled with sheep wool. They were much more comfortable than the beds in residency which were filled with hay. Why was I here?
“Inarashi.” Chato continued, “Even though your clothes were covered in blood, your body doesn’t have a single scratch on it. Revell brought you back to the village before departing to the Jasah tribe to assist our warriors. Apparently my suspicions were correct and they have declared war against us. Revell told me that while your gift was fully manifesting Jasah’s elementalists attacked him with the Warchief’s son. He didn’t give me the details, but apparently all he could do was hold them off while he awaited you to finish. A while after them forcing each other into a stalemate a scout from Jasah came running and tipped them off about our people approaching their village. Revell rushed into the Watcher’s facility to see dozens of Watchers massacred and you lying in a pool of blood with bodies around you. All the doors usually securely shut, were open.”
Chato took a deep breath, sighed, and began to speak again. “Just what happened? This is most certainly an ill omen, and of all times. What sort of taboo infected that holy place. I fear we have angered the Greater Spirits somehow to be strung with such luck. We will need your manifestation to prove that you are the son of Silva to come out of this alive, I’m sure. So what of it? What has your gift come to be? Why does your arm have that creature attached to it?”
“Creatu-?” A vivid slew of memories now flooded my brain. I began to choke on the air around me and felt suffocated. I had to force the words out from my core. It was painful, but I managed to let out, “Run! Please... Get everyone away!”
“Nonsense! Inarashi! Explain yourself at once,” Chato shouted, anger showing itself immensely on his face.
“My gift... Argh... I can’t... I can’t control it! I killed them all! Please get away from me,” I pleaded in agony.
“I, Chato of Ardent, will not run! I have lived these past 75 years and fought in every war on the front lines surviving. I will quell the beast your gift has manifested into until you can control it. Do not worry, Inarashi!”
I felt pain, despair, suffering. So many negative emotions, but they weren’t mine. I didn’t know where they were coming from or what was happening. My heart felt so heavy. Confused, my mind was scattered. Suddenly all thoughts focused on my vision. I had lost sight in my left eye. I tried to speak, “whrh oz houpplsg” is all that came out. I had no control over my body but I could see clearly through my one eye. I was afraid I was going to lose myself completely.
Chato ran outside to the center of the village shouting, “Everyone! People of Ardent! Inside at once! This is an emergency!”
I ran after Chato keeping up with his speed. We both stood in the center of Ardent. Chato stared intently at my body, readied in a defensive pose. I was a bit relieved that he was cautious. It meant he was taking this serious. A mark of a true warrior, unwilling to underestimate any opponent. Although a bit relieved though, I was still more at unease. I had no idea what this was inside of me, all I could do was hope Chato really could stop me.
My body pushed off my right leg and leaped toward Chato at an incredible speed. Just before reaching him, my left arm swung up and dived towards the head of Chato. Chato reacted in time to lift his arms in an ex to guard his face.
Chato‘s arms were now covered in stone. This was his gift, called ‘Stoneskin’. He has honed the endurance of his gift all his life, and this was the fruit of his effort. Rumor has it that after passing the age of 40 he has never been injured in a battle. His Stoneskin was said to be indestructible and it was proving worthy of legend.
The impact from the cutlass clashing with the stone blew aside the two of us and the two adobes closest to us crumbled. I could hear the cry of a tribesman come from under one of the rubble, “Ahhhh! My leg! Somebody! Please help!”
Chato looked to the right towards the screams. He pushed off his left foot and darted towards it. My body followed. In one swift motion Chato punched the air and the force removed all rubble from around the man; however, my right arm shoved Chato sending him back in the distance while my left arm simultaneously shoved my cutlass into the man.
He was a farmer of the village, Elijah. The man who was partly responsible for feeding our village. For providing the necessary supplies for our bedding and clothing. He was one of the reasons we could all live comfortably. I had no ill memories with him, I thought positively of him, and my own blade struck him down. Why?
“Souls...” I heard the ominous voice inside my head growl. Souls? Was he answering my question? Just what is this voice? Leave me, please. “I cannot.”
Chato rushed back with a flurry of attacks. A jab to the chest, a kick to my right knee, an uppercut, a knee to the chest, a right hook to the face. My body staggered with every hit but I felt no pain.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
I dropped my cutlass and as it hit the floor it dematerialized. My left arm swung up and grabbed Chato by the face then plunged him into the earth. The cursed gauntlet enveloped his entire face, the eye on it staring directly into the eye I was looking out of while it happened. The deepness of the red and the situation at hand- I got lost in the sight of it: lost in fear.
A huge crater was dug around him from the force of the smash. Chato now turned his entire body to stone and kept it this way. “I guess, I must use my full force. I was holding back in regards for my grandson’s life. But now I realize what I just do. The priority of this situation is the lives of the villagers.”
Chato then stood up and stood still. Waiting in a defensive stance. I approached him in the same manner as my first strike. The way I fought, it was mindless, brute force seemingly. The thought of it gave me a little hope that the experienced Chato would actually win, even if it meant my life as the cost. I wouldn’t mind.
As my arm swung down for the strike Chato punched upward towards the arm with the gauntlet. A huge stone appeared closely towards the southwest of me. My body staggered and Chato threw another punch to my right arm. A stone to the southeast. A punch to my left leg. A stone to the northwest. Right leg, northeast.
Almost instantly after the last stone appeared they all came crushing together. At this point my eye couldn’t keep up with what had happened. Somehow I was watching the stones crush together from behind Chato as I felt my left arm lift and push back. My eye then looked on the ground to see Chato, no longer covered in stone. The cutlass was impaled through his left eye.
“Your eyes... The only thing not stone.” The ominous voice spoke, this time aloud, through my mouth.
“Your eye... one is,” Chato coughed up blood and finished, “purple... I think... it is not you Inarashi. I’m sorry. That speed...” Chato’s eyes were then unresponsive. His body would not move again.
I then heard rustling and muddled foot steps from all around. The villagers began running out of their houses in hopes to escape, and I knew exactly how this would end. These were all daily work civilians, not warriors. Chato had to have been twenty times faster than any of them. There was no hope. I could only beg. Please. Please don’t do this. Spare their lives, why are you killing? What for?
My pleas were all in vain. My body began to respond. The second farmer, Jakob was thrown into the ground. His skull cracked. The butcher, Alfred, had his throat slit and was left to bleed to his death. The pottery craftsman, Hana, was held by the gauntlet as Chato was at one point, but her head was squeezed until blood rushed from every escapable route in it. The weaver, Racheal was stabbed in the heart. The blacksmith, Raul, picked up a sword hoping to fight back, but was outmatched in one quick strike.
The next victim was the jack of all trades, Kara. Kara washed everyone’s garments and armor as well as the pottery. In her free time she would help all others in the working class to relieve any stress. She was truly a hard worker and tried her best to comfort those in need. She was the farthest away, being one of the three left alive. She had gotten about 100 meters away. As my body ran towards her I felt especially disheartened.
Kara was four years older than me. She had short, beautiful, brown hair which ended just above her shoulders. We always knew each other being close in age, but only got closely acquainted three years ago. We first met after she received her gift. She was crying in the farmlands to the east of the village so no one would see her.
Me being there was purely coincidence. I was attempting to memorize a village patrol route for an upcoming exam so I was retracing the steps of it when I heard sobbing. Corn was in season and had already grown high so it was difficult to find her, but I was worried. I followed the sound of her sobbing until eventually locating her at the source.
I pushed through the final stock of corn and called out, “Kara? Is everything okay? Get off of her!” I yelled as I smacked an armyworm off of her. “Aren’t you afraid? Most young girls are afraid of the corn field because of all the insects?”
Kara looked at me with her big, green eyes full of tears and laughed subtlety while wiping them. “Inarashi, I’m not a young girl anymore. I’m four years older than you, you know?”
“Oh sorry,” I replied. “I forgot. Might be because of the tears. Warriors never cry, Kara.” I kneeled down and put my hand on her shoulder while smiling.
“That’s the thing, Inarashi...” she paused. She was more composed and not sobbing anymore, but more tears began to stream down her face. “Today was my gift manifestation, but my gift is not fit for that of the warrior. The path I’d hoped for I will not receive.”
I put my arm around her and she rested her head on my shoulder soaking my sleeve. We would stay the entire night like that. I hadn’t the words to give her, but I just felt like she needed someone there so I stayed. I never realized how fragile she was, she was always so strong. I was worried about such a strong spirit being crushed; however, the next day I saw her she came up to me and thanked me with a smile on her face. Never again did I even see her frown. We would talk often and she would always bare a smile. Her smile was beautiful, possibly the most beautiful I had ever seen. No matter how I was feeling her smile alone could brighten up the day and lighten my heart. This time however; it would not.
She must have felt me coming. She turned around from running and just stood still- staring at me- watching me coming. Her eyes were filled with tears just as the day we first met, but her face forced a smile. Even forced, it was the same smile I’d always known. How could she still smile that bright in a dark time like this?
My blade sliced through her neck, cutting it cleanly off. I couldn’t feel my facial expression change at all, but just in my right eye, tears began to crash down. I killed Kara.
The last two alive in the village did not run. One was sobbing on the floor holding Chato’s dead body, the other was standing in front of her, staring down at the most unfortunate sight. My body began to walk towards them, in no hurry since they appeared not to be running. Somehow, this made it much worse. The man standing, my brother Angelo, must have heard my footsteps as I got closer because he turned around. I tried so hard to tell. Run! Run! Angelo! What is your gift? Stop me! Why are you two letting this happen? Kill me please, I don’t want to kill you two! Angelo, please, use your gift! Please you’ll die if you don’t! I beg of you! I beg of you! Only distorted grunting came out of my mouth. Angelo would never hear my words again. I would never be able to tell him anything ever again. What were my last words to him? Did they even hold any significance? I love you brother. I’m sorry.
As my blade ran through his heart I heard him ask softly, “Why? Inarashi? Weren’t we family?” Blood sprayed from his mouth as he spoke. I pulled my blade out and he fell to the ground. My grandmother, Emilia, didn’t turn around. She didn’t say anything. She only sobbed staring at her husband. I stabbed my blade through her back and to her heart. As I pulled the blade out she fell atop of Chato. Together they would lie for eternity. Because of death by their own grandson. I loved every member of Ardent. We were all family. I wanted to use my gift to protect this tribe, not massacre them.
Afterwards the cutlass vanished. My left arm took to the sky. I stared at it, and the eye on the gauntlet stared back. Suddenly I saw very light, transparent orbs flow through the dusk sky. They all seemed to swarm the gauntlet until they disappeared. What is going on? What is that thing doing?
“Souls” I heard the demonic voice say within me. Souls? What of them? Were those...? I suddenly felt extremely dizzy. My eyes blackened, and once again I fell to the ground.