Chapter Twenty-Four
LAST STRIKE
"Abraham!"
"I know!"
She'd slipped by him. She slipped by him at such a speed that he hadn't even noticed until he heard slashes, shortly followed by the sound of blood flowing out of bodies.
'I'm the one meant to take the hits, so why . . .?'
Abraham was doubting himself so much so that he was genuinely considering just withering up and dying, but he knew thoughts such as that one had no place on the battlefield. Even if he wanted to die, he didn't want to do it at the cost of everyone else's life.
"I'M RIGHT HERE!"
BASH
When he finally identified the woman, he saw that she was moving through the crowd of people, cutting them down like wheat on a farm. This only served to deepen his self-doubt, but he willed himself to rush at her, which led to the shield bash that had, from her perspective, come rather abruptly.
She bent her body at a nearly perfect right angle, as if she was playing limbo, where one would have to go as low as possible to go under an object. Unprepared for what was to come next, all that Abraham could do was trust in his sense and aim his shield below himself while jumping back.
THUMP
He jumped back, but he saw that she was nowhere to be seen. He hadn't had his eyes on her after she bent her back at such an angle, disappearing below him. He assumed that she would've been in front of him, yet she wasn't.
"Abraham, behind you!"
'What?'
KHISH
There was something inside his right shoulder. It was a foreign object that most certainly didn't belong, and it was extremely cold. In fact, it felt like a large majority of his right arm was cold.
"How?!"
He dropped the sword he had in his right hand to the ground, unable to force his hand to carry it.
"Get off him!"
Right now, the situation was that the unit had formed a circle around Abraham and the woman, the idea being that they'd force her into a position where there was no escape. They thought that Abraham would be able to handle it, so when they saw the current scene, around half of the unit had their eyes nearly bulging.
Someone rushed the lady with a warhammer in both his hands, all while winding it up. The lady left the curved scimitar she had pierced Abraham with in his shoulder, almost as if she was saying she could beat them without it.
"Tch, damn it . . ."
Someone pulled the blade out of his shoulder for him, and although it stung, he was grateful to whoever that person was, because he himself didn't have the guts to do it.
Remembering that he was still the commander of this unit, Abraham steeled himself for what was to come.
"Everyone, try to rush ahead! The more people that make it, the better!"
He was ready to sacrifice himself for the cause. He had, in his mind, been unprepared when he first confronted the lady. Now, he was ready to put everything before him to fight what could, possibly, be his last fight.
"Yes sir!"
"We got it!"
"Leave it to us, man!"
He heard the screams of many of his men. Many of them carried an audible will that screamed, or at least Abraham interpreted it as so, to somehow make it out of this alive.
Of course, Abraham was ready to die fighting this lady, but it wasn't as if he'd just throw his life at her.
QUAKE
The large number of people rushing the palace courtyard quickly overwhelmed the woman, who was desperately trying to cut down as many people as she could before they entered the courtyard. However, it could easily be seen by anyone that was looking.
Abraham could see a person slipping into the courtyard every now and then, and a small smile appeared on his face.
'Yeah, that's what we resolved ourselves to do.'
"COME AT ME, WOMAN!"
He wasn't actually holding his shield in his left hand, but instead had it attached to his wrist. For that reason, he was able to pick up the sword that he had been holding in his right hand, all while rushing at her.
". . . !"
Even with all the people here, the dual wielding woman still quickly determined that Abraham was the biggest threat here. Whether or not his right arm was put out of commission didn't matter to the man, as he was clearly expressing the intent to go forward with their battle.
"Tch!"
SLASH
SLASH
SLASH
GUSH
GUSH
GUSH
She cut down all the people in front of her, and quickly rushed at Abraham. She knew that she wouldn't be able to stop them from proceeding while he was here, so the goal was to put him down as quickly as possible.
With a flow that was comparable to that of a heavy river going by the two, Abraham and the white-haired beauty clashed. Abraham immediately tried to bash his shield into her side, but she easily turned her body around, all while slashing at him.
"Woah!"
The curved sword was swung vertically, and Abraham had ended up dodging it by maneuvering to the side. Obviously, it wouldn't be a good thing to take any more blows like the previous one that had easily put his right arm out of commission, so he put more effort into defense than offense.
The scary part was what came next. After her vertical slash failed to hit Abraham, it still didn't stop. It kept going, and it seemed as if she was about to slash at the ground with it.
'This is my chance!'
He thought that she had slipped up, that now would be his chance, possibly the only one, to get a mortal wound in on her. Abraham stabbed at her with his sword, aiming to pierce her chest in one fluid motion. He imagined someone poking their finger into honey, believing that it would be that easy to pierce through her skin, which was concealed by clothes that a dancer would wear.
The fight wouldn't last even ten more seconds after this point.
"Hmm?!"
After her hand reached the ground, she threw the curved scimitar into the sky, allowing her to perform a roll of sorts. Abraham's sword tip hit nothing but one of his own, quickly putting them out of commission once the sword poked through where their stomach would be.
'What did I just do?!'
Abraham flinched, but continued on the offensive.
Or, at least he tried.
SLISH
From down below, he felt like something was missing. When he tried to apply force on his left foot, he instead ended up falling over.
'Oh crap, my foot's gone.'
A rather abrupt calm set down over Abraham. He knew he was in a precarious situation, one that could possibly be the one to show him his demise, yet he felt calmer than any other point during this invasion.
It only took a few more moments to realize what had happened.
The woman had rolled to his right, and her scimitar had been thrown in exactly the right position. She quickly grabbed it, and before she stood up . . .
Well, the blood gushing out from his little stub spoke volumes of what had just happened.
The reason that he was calm didn't lie in that explanation though, but instead lied in the conclusion that he had come to.
'I'm going to die right here, right now.'
It was the only thought that he had in his mind as he saw the woman do a round-off, scimitar in hand, aimed right at his throat.
GUSH
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
"Unit three, compose yourselves!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Unlike the other two units, unit three was actually full of many calm demeanored people. They were certainly running towards their entrance to the courtyard, but they were actually in formation. They were divided into three segments, and there was space between each one. This was meant to make it so that if any type of attack did come at them, they wouldn't all be clustered together.
"Ma'am, the entrance to the courtyard is unblocked, we can proceed freely."
Using their cool-headed minds, unit three was full of people who had more intellectual prowess than physical, allowing them to acknowledge many things that got the first two units into trouble.
Of course, all they could hear was fighting in the background, they weren't witnesses to any of the trouble.
"Alright, proceed ahead."
The leader of the third unit was a woman that went by the name of Aphrodite. In terms of looks, she was actually above average, but not much more. However, her set of skills, combined with her mentality, made her a force to be reckoned with, even if she didn't have a unit to back her up.
Being the one at the front of the unit, with the rest of it falling in order behind her, her life was at most risk. Yet, she understood that if the leader willingly positioned themselves at the front in a battle, the soldiers would feel more confident within themselves.
"There's the first and second units!" someone yelled out from behind.
Indeed, from where they were positioned, which was somewhat into the courtyard, they could see the first and second units being held up. The first unit, which was supposed to be entering from the front entrance, was being held up by either a demon or a red-headed man, while the third unit's reason for being held up wasn't actually visible.
Although, Aphrodite could very clearly see the fact that the third unit was making a mad dash for the windows and stairs, all of which led into the actual palace itself. Indeed, once they snuck into this monstrously large palace, they could simply wait until the king fell asleep to get him.
'If they're making a mad dash, and there is what seems to be two people in the background fighting, it's most likely that Abraham's holding someone up.'
Before the operation commenced, she took time to understand the behavior patterns of her fellow comrades. While some may view this as a manipulative trait to someone, she was in fact only willing to learn all of this information because she wanted to understand all the factors that could play into the operation.
"Before we proceed into the palace, we'll have one segment of our unit go and help the first unit, while another one will help the second unit. As for the third one, stick with me. Sort it out between yourselves, who'll go and help the others or rush into the palace."
Allowing the segments to make their own decisions would certainly slow their pace, but it, once again, allowed people to sort themselves into situations that they were most comfortable with. It wouldn't help to just rush into, swords clanging, the palace, only to get decimated because they were missing motivation.
"We'll go help unit one!"
"We're gonna stay with you, ma'am!"
"To unit two, now!"
She had individual leaders assigned to each and every single segment, and all of them took the lead in this scenario. She had spent many nights comparing different contenders to one another, to see who would be the leaders.
In the end, the deciding factor that she resided upon was who was the most decisive of them all. Clearly, it worked out for her in the end.
"Alright, move out!"
QUAKE
QUAKE
All three of them headed in different directions, but that wasn't what mattered anymore.
'Now then, as for the palace . . .'
It was within her sights. Forget breaking in through the windows, there wasn't even anyone who was guarding the stairs. If they wanted to, they could rush in from the front.
". . . No, that wouldn't do. Lieutenant, take three people and break in through one of the windows. If we fail this operation, I want you four to end the royal lineage in their sleep, understood?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
The lieutenant quickly took three people out of the remains of the unit and quickly climbed through one of the windows. They were closed shut, but for some reason, not locked. Because of that, they were easily able to infiltrate the palace without leaving any marks.
"Now then,"
"FORWARD!"