Watching the spear thrust forward, I knew I wouldn't be saving that girl.
However, as I was poised to shoot the horseman, the little girl of whom I — and I'm sure the horsemen as well — thought would most certainly die, suddenly jumped to the side out of the way of the spear.
Stunned that the girl was capable of performing such a feat, the horseman was momentarily stunned, until she lunged at him, knocking him off his horse.
Uncovering a black knife hidden in her sleeves, she repeatedly stabbed the downed horseman, until he drew his last breath. By that time, the little girl stood up from his corpse, covered in a layer of scarlet blood. She seemed to emanate a presence that spooked the other horsemen, keeping them in place, holding their breaths, as if in an attempt to be unnoticed by the demon before them.
What the hell am I witnessing?
I watched this whole ordeal in shock. I thought I would need to shoot a man for killing children today.
The world is quite mysterious, isn't it?
The girl wore shabby clothes, stained with soot and blood, as her blood red eyes coldly glared at the horsemen, not to mention the frenzied demonic vibe she gave off.
Okay, now I'm sceptical of which side to pick. But using the basis of who has the moral high ground, it would have to be the little girl, wouldn't it? I mean, she was attacked first, so for all intents and purposes, the horsemen are the perpetrators behind this incident. Plus, you always side with children, no buts around it.
I can see this statement biting my arse in the future…
Despite the brief lapse in judgment, I decided to follow through with his original plan. Being, to beat the crap out of the horsemen, after all, they were trying to harm an innocent, not so defenceless young girl.
Hopping across the debris of this little town, I manage to reach the horsemen just as they recover from their horror and organize themselves in a defensive position with their spears raised against the girl.
It was quite a pitiful scene seeing four cavalrymen cower against a little girl. Like surely you have some pride as cavalrymen under a noble banner. Surely!
You're disgraces!
I only have four bolts left, so I'm not wasting them on these guys when I can just shank them.
Jogging up to the side of the formation I slash horizontally, twisting my torso as I do so, to hopefully get a twofer.
*Slash!*
"M-my arm! My aRM!"
I get one but the other guy abruptly turns around angling his body so that only his arm was cut, though I did startle his horse, causing him to get bucked off.
Of course, I made sure not to harm the noble steeds. They were, after all, just innocent bystanders in this conflict, and my intuition also told me to at least try not to hurt them.
"You dumbass! Can't you see! That's not a girl, it's a demon!" Immediately, one of the other horsemen tried to mediate with me, completely forgetting what they were previously doing in the village just seconds ago.
Not that this would work to sway my mind.
"Screw off, prick! I ain't gonna watch you stab some children!"
Stepping on the dismounted horsemen's chest, I apply pressure down as he pleads to me, begging for his life.
"P-please man. I g-got, I got a wife and kids…"
I find that hard to believe. So I call cap on this one bub. After a moment his chest collapses as a sickening wet crunch resounds from the mess of broken bones and flesh beneath my feet.
"Y-you you, c-cultist?" As if having an epiphany at the current situation the other two horsemen back away from me, leaving their flank wide open.
Pouncing on another horseman she knocks him to the ground, unable to fight back the horseman flails his spear around in vain, as he is violently shanked to death. What was with people and long weapons? Spears weren't gonna be that useful when someone was right up at you, so why even come so close in the beginning?
Are you trying to compensate for something else?
Seeing the situation falling apart, with his last comrade being murdered in front of his eyes, the horsemen resolved himself. It was the same look Savage had. The look of a man who was going to take an action that he knew he would regret. But in such a situation, he would do as all men would…
He started fleeing.
Fair play. I mean, I sure as hell would do the same.
After all, it was completely natural for one to flee from a demon, and the girl was literally spewing out chaos energy, or demonic essence as referred to by most. And for humans like us, it was natural we would be averted and threatened by the presence of demonic life forms.
But, as Fate would have it, this horseman wouldn't be leaving here today.
"Gah!?" Holding his throat, he seemed to be in disbelief to find copious amounts of blood pouring out. As he choked on his blood, he fell off his horse writhing around as he smeared blood across the ground.
Looking smug, Lily circled around her quarry, she could be useful at times.
Anyway, everyone has already been dealt with. Looking now, it seemed that those horsemen were aiming to kill any survivors, meaning that they were in league with the bastards that razed this village.
"What scum," I spit. No mercy, even for children. That wasn't how protectors of the state should act.
Turning around, I look toward the girl at the centre of this bloodshed. She stood still amongst the wreckage of fallen buildings as she stared at me tentatively, still on guard.
Which was again, fair play. I apparently looked extremely suspicious, and it was always alright to enforce stranger danger, despite how low I felt because she wasn't going to trust me.
No, I'm not feeling down at all. Totally fine.
Getting a closer look at this girl, judging by her height of around two and half meters, she seemed to be twelve years old, alongside a rather odd black hair as a lingering medicinal scent of herbs and thyme.
How surprising. Black hair was oftentimes associated with demons and fallen races, and although I also had black hair, I am undoubtedly human. Not that I could unreservedly say the same about the girl.
Her glowing red eyes and demonic aura disproved this. She was a demon. Or a daemon? I'm not too sure.
Though judging by how her essence feels I'm inclined to say she's a demon.
For the term 'demon,' they were separated into two categories. One is demonic spawn, which is merely creatures possessing chaotic energy, which can be as a result of any number of factors, such as a mad mage's experiments or when a beast's life essence malforms, transforming into chaos energy similar to a cell malfunction turning into a cancer. In which case, they tend to be mindless and frenzied.
These are the kinds of demons I've encountered before. I remember quite a few subjugation missions for these things. They're tough, though they tend to wear themselves out rather quickly due to their reckless behaviour.
However, on the other hand, are the Demons. Of which they have descent from devils of the Hell Realm, or have evolved from demonic spawn into intelligent beings. Basically, the fine line between the two was that one were mindless beasts, whilst the other were intelligent, capable of making thought out decisions and could be communicated with.
Examining the girl, her essence didn't seem to be especially berserk, judging by her fixed form and her clear eyes lacking the usual traces of insanity a demonic spawn would have. Rather it seemed that she has the bloodline of demons, which is extremely rare to find in the Corrupt Realm, as most demons here are typically unintelligent beasts that are incapable of reproduction or any other action for that matter.
Meaning that there was a high likelihood that she is most likely descended from Hell, but ignoring her origin for a minute, I need to focus on the situation at hand. It seemed I was pondering again.
A bad habit if I dare say.
"Who… are you?" She croaked out a hoarse voice likely due to all the soot and ash flying about, but there were still tones of innocence and youthfulness in it.
Ha, what a simple question.
"I'm a city guard," At this, the girl seemed to tense up, seemingly bewildered at my identification.
Oh, wait, I'm not a guard anymore, am I?
No, don't gimme that look! YoU CAn tRUsT mE!
Sigh, of course, I had to blurt something like that out.