She ran towards us. But as she gathered her speed up, she unexpectedly, threw her bomb at the wall. Making it hit it and just bounce it without breaking or cracking it. It flew high in the air and started falling down while spinning.

She had aimed at such an absurd spot for it to affect us.

The little glass bomb she carried also got covered with light metal armor that prevented it from crashing if it had an impact. So it made sense for her to just throw it.

But why did she do that? What can she do with it? I tried to think and figure it out as fast as I can, but heard shouting once more.

"Let your focus stay on her! She is trying to distract you with a weaker move!" The knight shouted as he saw my reaction.

But that wasn't helping. She had already used her moves carefully and got very close to me just enough.

She then whispered, with such a grin,

"Weaker move you say..."

After getting close enough to me, she jumped enough to reach a certain distance from the ground and managed to stay on top of me by wrapping her legs around my waist. She was extremely close to me. Clinging so hard, it created pressure and weight both on my upper and lower body, to move freely and counter-attack. I also had to stretch my arm out to hit her with the stick.

But the bomb she had dropped earlier landed in the palm of her hand.

"My move wasn't weak, it was just silence that it got loud."

With the remaining weapon she was carrying, she created a crack in the middle of the glass, broke it firmly, and through the hole formed in the middle, the poisonous gas began to come out extremely quickly.

Maybe I was barely able to maintain my mental balance, but it was too late for my body. It damaged me with so many poisons that if it exposed me to this gas for a few more seconds, I would die. The torture that lasted for seconds seemed like an eternity to me.

"Move towards the left! Create a way for me to hit her!"

But at that moment, the knight who was having trouble even lifting his arm took his sword off the ground and the very pure fury in his eyes became visible. He came flying towards to two of us and hit Poison with an incredible technique. It was so powerful it even made her spin in the air.

"We will not let this continue much further! We will start from now on!"

Just like she was driven mad before, the knight had reached his limit, and maybe the moment he was waiting for all along had come.

As we both attacked at the same time, He started throwing blows at her, but not normal ones. With the side of his sword, he started hitting her with pure metal. Hardly damaging her bones and a big part of her mask. He was furious and wasn't stopping for a second. Punches and kicks. They were all landing right on her.

Somehow, this did not stop him. The pain that was constantly hitting him was somewhat of a matter of forgetting. Maybe he remembered the way his friends would have thought of him.

Just like others, he couldn't give up.

After the moment he picked up his sword from the ground, he continued to attack me again. Again and again. And this time, it covered his sword in a dark color and aura. It seemed some type of magical power woke up in him.

Something fascinating.

He was faster, and his moves were sharper. We could reach the points we couldn't reach, even though we thought we couldn't. So many little moves that set the back setting, of defeating her much easier, we're adding to our advantage as the big moves we tried to take her down.

But none of them wasn't enough.

Even though there were two of us, she was responding to us easily. Her speed was accelerating along with the stressful and hasty attitude we were applying.

Of course, it was inevitable that she would increase the use of her power according to the experience she had and the state of the fight she was in. However, we didn't have much time too.

That's why we must have accelerated and worked more fluently as a team. We had to finish this before the poison completely spread to our bodies. And the knight was also completely aware of this.

So I quickly released my stick from the left to the elite soldier, and just as she blocked my stick as I thought, the knight aimed it at her head with his elbow.

While she was blocking the elbow blow, the knight threw his arm away a second time and hit her on the head with the straight part of his sword. This will have stunned her a little, we struck her exposed area as fast as we could at the same time.

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And when she stepped back, I swung my stick in her face from the left side. She was sober enough. She forced her eyes to open, and she stood back and escaped the blow. That is when I moved it once more and my stick went to the right side of her.

She tried holding on to the end of the stick, then gliding through the air, swung a flying kick towards the knight.

It was an impossible kick to block. So she shouted,

"Got you ri-"

"Not so fast."

Just afresh, when her foot almost touched his forehead, I hit her with my paw, and sent her flying back, and bouncing.

The elite soldier was becoming more and more astonished. She began to take every blow that was coming and lost the tip of the rope of the events. From left to right. From above and at the bottom. Every single point that she can get hurt, was occurring just after the other.

By adding speed to our pace, we had truly shown her what a real death stare meant. Just like she glared at us like prey, she was now desperate with her own fear.

As a last resort, when the Knight swung his sword, she tried a move to stab the knight with her Sai, leaning slightly herself. But as he protected me, I prevented it with my body and pushed her hard with my stomach.

I swung my stick, and she bent down so as not to eat the blow, but she received a knee blow from the knight, and with her regress, we managed to hold on to her mask.

Then, with such strong power, we pulled it out of her face and broke it.

We were now only one step ahead, and the knight had already caught her hand. Pointed the gas device right towards her face and pushed it towards her own face.

But the expression on her face, unluckily, told many things.

I didn't want to realize what was it, but I couldn't.

Little teardrops were falling out of her face. Unlike I expected, her lips were shaking, and she was....

She got scared.

My heart sank at that moment. Seeing some type of fear, even a little, from an enemy like her, was heartbreaking, and I felt sad. Maybe the woman in front of us was somebody who was dangerous, but seeing her like that made no difference than her actions.

I didn't know what to even feel or how to act.

But it was too late.

"It is time for you to taste your own toxin!"

As we both pushed her hand and pressed the little button lying on it, the gas came out rapidly once more. However, this time, she was the one who was taking it to her lungs. And the tears, her skin turning pale and shaking, were just another level compared to ours.

She was finally feeling pain.

And everything was over.

At least, so as we thought.

Shortly after, the elite soldier raised his head to us, and even though her lips were shaking, she looked at us grinning slightly on the floor. The poison was acting on her body at a very fast rate, and probably wouldn't stand it any longer.

However, she still seemed to have enough breath to speak for the last time.

Opening her mouth slightly, she started mumbling words. But as clearly as we could hear,

"Even if I am forced to defeat, that defeated expression on your face seems to count my existence as nothing."

As she slightly lifted her head, she added,

"What is up with that? Is my poisonous Sai finally affecting your body?"

Poisonous Sai? How could she-

-thump-

After I heard something hitting the floor, and turned around to see what was going on, I saw the knight falling, his sword slipping from his hands.

"Hey! Get yourself together!"

I tried to hold him tightly, connecting his arms to his chest. But how much I shook him, his eyes weren't opening more than it was. His body now had completely turned into a brighter color. It covered his chin with blood and didn't seem to have any energy to even stand up.

"You have to stand up again! Come on!"

He was turning into a ghost.

"Unfortunately. I do not have the specialty to measure my own time, but I know that my body will not allow this anymore. "

He then coughed twice and continued talking,

"At least, I would like to have the honor of knowing my companions- No, my friend's name before I pass away from this world."

The words were coming out of my mouth very hard. Even though I didn't know him much more than other people or even a little, I knew he was a good person that carried a kind heart within him. What he did for his kingdom was that he fought for his people. He rescued me. He had fought with countless people in blood and sweat and pain. Getting all the way through to the battlefield just to help us.

"Not long ago, when we found ourselves getting attacked, I watched my friends give their lives. I've lost them unwantedly. Just like you see your friends as family, they were my family. But when they left, it was just me. They made me forget about my loneliness. But I wasn't able to protect them. I couldn't protect them. Now I am very lonely."

I forced myself not to shed tears, but I was constantly biting my bottom lip. It was maybe a....

"Babu. My name is Babu. I'm your friend."

"Babu. What a significant name that you have. I'm Akihiko and I must say I'm pleased to meet you. Thanks to you, I have restored their souls to a little peace, Babu."

"Won't we leave here, huh? Can't we just walk away together?"

"You know that is impossible for the both of us, but I will tell you one thing before I go."

He lifted his sword once last time, from the rocky floor, and holding it from the handle, he talked.

"These items can only be taken with as a gift of granting. Otherwise, they'll just be a sword and useless piece of metal. And you're the only one I can trust to give it to."

He then pointed at me and said,

"As my father told me, I want to give you this sword. But in exchange for a promise..."

"What is it?"

"End the reign of the epics and keep the second kingdom safe. These people need the peace that you will provide."

"I'm counting on you." He added with a kind smile.

With just a big smile, His soul passed away as he said these words. I slowly confronted that very own experience. A friend of mine. An innocent soul, going away, far away from his loved ones, and losing its pureness. Becoming much purer than ever before.

He died in my arms with his eyes open before I could say anything. Just like the lives I lost and couldn't save with my people. Once again, someone died in my arms. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't bring back the lives I couldn't save. From then on, there was nothing I could do. And that was very painful. I didn't know how much longer I was going to taste this pain. But I didn't think I had the right to complain, either. With tears coming from my eyes, I closed Akihiko's eyes first, and then Poison's eyes, since there was a life she was carrying too.

I wouldn't have wanted to take her life. Lives are precious things that no human or creature being has the right to take. But in order to save more, this was a necessary thing that hurt me, mostly from the inside.

I just looked at her wet cheeks that were covered with tears, just like ours.

So on, I stood up and kept moving forward.

And what I witnessed was the heroism and demonstration of a knight.