'Scarlet Strings Of Destiny.'
Night Twenty One...
The Mare let out a small growl as its missing arm began to bubble up and a new limb grew out of it. The hand flexed a few times and the wolf like monster showed its fangs before its nose twitched for a moment. A small grin came onto its face.
"This scent..." Its eyes lingered on Fate. "I know it... You're a Steel Blood." It growled. "One of the kids who grew up in Paradise. Its been so long since I've tasted one of your kind."
"Fate..." Brave said with wide eyes. "You're a Steel Blood?"
Fate didn't say anything staring at the Mare with a look of shame and anger.
"Uh... Whats a Steel Blood?" Kenji asked sheepishly.
"S... Seriously!" Brave said falling back. "Well it's a... Well um... I uh... Fate whats a Steel Blood..."
The Mare let out a chuckle. "My, my... You kids don't know... Well allow me to tell you just what your friend was hiding... You see... There are three types of Steel Bloods... Gen 1, Gen 2, and Gen 3... Gen 1s were made to combat the Mares when we first popped up. I was around during that time." The beast growled. "I had the inconvenient timing of running into Harrison Black, a Gen 1, Steel Blood. He placed me here for children to fight! Gen 1s are typically mad and battle hungry. As such Gen 2s were meant to be better than them. This girl before you is a Gen 2. Her kind are fairly new... They taste so lovely and are quite skilled... But really... Really it's the third kind we care about the most! The Gen 3s! They taste so good! The Gen 3s are rare! So rare I've never even had one! There were only ten ever made... They had something said to mimic God... Eyes of the False Lord... When their eyes would become a beautiful and delicate Red. People killed to even get a glimpse at such a thing and the woman who made them was executed by fire, the last Gen 3 being birthed by her."
"Birthed? I thought they were made?" Brave frowned.
"We are..." Fate sighed. "Gen 1s and 2s are grown in artificial wombs and created... Gen 3s however... Those 10 Steel Bloods were born through human women. Lilith was a renown scientist who used her Affinity and what was said to be a sample of a Bright, and Umbra, Clan member too create artificial DNA given life. She then injected that into 9 women and those 9 women gave Birth to the Steel Bloods. However this act was treason to the Government and sparked another world war... Before they could destroy all her research she injected herself and gave birth to the 10th Steel Blood in the middle of her execution."
"S... Seriously..." Kenji said shuddering. "A... And Fate... You're one of those things? A Gen 2?"
Fate didn't say anything once again looking a bit ashamed.
"Do you see now what kind of Monsters these Steel Bloods are!" The Mare hissed out his jaw clicking together. "Their kind if gross and disgusting, abominations on the world, but they make up for it by being so tasty. Tell you what kids! The Mare laughed firing forward. If you hold her down and let me eat her I might consider letting both of you New Bloods go-" The Mare went to take a swipe at Fate but its hand was deflected into the air by Brave who now stood in front of Fate her knife drawn, a single swipe having severed the Mares hand sending it flying into the air. It let out a hiss and jumped away. "Fine then... I tried to warn you both. I'll just eat all three of you!"
"Brave-"
Fate was cut off as Brave gave a cheeky smile. "You saved me so it's the least I can do right? Besides... I didn't exactly have a normal upbringing myself. I think you're a good person even if you didn't have the best of life and a terrible hand dealt to you. So here and now let's fight this thing and pass this test!"
"Come on now!" Kenji announced jumping next to the two girls and drawing his dent up and broken bat. "Don't think I'm gonna sit by and let ya'll have all the fun."
"N... Neither of you care about me being a Steel Blood?"
"Again. What the hell even is a Steel Blood? Like is your blood metal or-"
"I think what our baseball friend is saying is, let's kick this Mares ass!" Brave announced pointing her knife at he beast.
"You two stay behind me then." Fate stated twirling her knife. "This Mare is a Viscount... Maybe even an Earl... Far stronger than any first year."
"Then wouldn't it be stronger than you too?" Brave asked.
"Oh um yeah well uh... Hey it's coming." Fate said shaking her head as The Mare let out a powerful roar. It jumped past Kenji and Brave its eyes focused only on Fate as it sliced out with its many limbs trying to grab ahold of the agile girl. The thing was so big and powerful it was likely a single strike was all it would need to kill any of them if they didn't have their aura set to its max defense. That said Fate proved to be just too skilled for it easily dodging its many strikes with grace that made Brave, and even Kenji, jealous. She twirled and ducked with ease, looking as if she was actually dancing as she made another powerful upward slice with her knife severing the Mares arms as they flew high into the air. "And without your arms you're-"
Fate never got a chance to finish as the Mares wolf like snout twisted into a grin and it activated its special power. Its entire head seemed to split apart snapping open sideways as a massive muscle bound red arm rose up faster then anyone could react. Maybe if Fate had been expecting it she could have dodged it but the attack took her by total shock. The hand was so big it easily wrapped around her entire body and squeezed down making Fate scream out in pain as several cracks could be heard.
"Fate!" Brave yelled horrified by what happened.
Brave didn't have time to move or process anything though as Kenji jumped forward and slammed his bat into the wrist of the Mare making it drop Fate as the wrist snapped. Before Fate could hit the ground Brave jumped up and grabbed her catching the girl. The Mare's body quickly healed its wrist regrowing and its other arms forming back as its limbs stuck out but none of them reached Brave or Fate as Kenji jumped in front of the two girls and held his bat out in front of him like some kind of shield gritting his teeth as he held the entire beast back the entire ground shattering.
"H... How's she doing." He growled out being pushed back.
"Fate. Are you okay?" Brave asked sitting her down.
"Y... Yeah... Well... Actually no." Fate slowly pushed herself back to her feet but collapsed to her knees grabbing at her stomach. "D... Damn it." She cried out. "My ribs are definitely broken."
Brave held her knife with one hand, and then picked up Fate's holding both knives now as she stared at the Mare. "Honestly... I've never really fought a Mare... I was wanting to avoid it as much as possible. I'm sort of a coward at heart." She chuckled. "Any tips I should know about."
"I... It's head... It's head has to be cut off for it to die."
"Got it..."
Brave crouched down taking a deep breath and fired forward her white aura exploding around her. At that moment everything White and Black had taught her coursed through her mind. White had taught her so much on how to mange her aura and its many forms and Black had drilled into her so many moves and yelled at her when she got something wrong. Brave flipped into the air and landed on Kenji's shoulders slicing out with the two knives and slicing several chunks of meat out of the Mare.
Large bloody chunks of flesh and bone spilled out as the beast howled its back splitting open as even more limbs came spilling out and it slammed a fist into Brave but the brown haired girl raised both her arms up and focused all her effort into defense. The punch was still strong enough to send her sliding off of Kenji as she crashed down next to Fate and flipped back to her feet.
"Wow... You weren't killing about the head being the only way too kill him. I sliced him up so much but that seemed to only annoy him... And he keeps growing so many limbs." Brave said pretty banged up from getting hit once by this beast.
"I'll devour you!" The Mare roared out letting out a scream so loud it knocked several of the trees down and made Kenji and Brave yell out in pain. The Mare slammed the rest of its way into Kenji throwing the poor boy back and sending him through several rows of trees where he crashed down unmoving. With him out of the way it set its eyes on Brave and Fate, blasting towards them its hand growing a massive mouth on it as it swiped at them. "Out of my way New Blood!" It hissed out slapping its arm out and slamming it into Brave who attempted to block the strike.
Brave was sent flying through the islands grass more images of her life going through her mind as she remembered her siblings.
Fate let out another hiss looking up as the Mare's entire hand out began to wrap around her and it got ready to devour her whole. 'No choice...' She thought her grey aura flashing up around her. 'I'll have to use my Affinity other wise it'll kill us all... Sorry father... You'll have to find someone else to do the mission... Please forgive me Mother...' Fate clasped her hands together. "Sh-"
Before she could even activate her power thousands of lines appeared all over the Mares body and in a flash from the neck down its entire body exploded into a hail of gore as Brave stood behind it twirling her knives. "Wanna know why I kept running away from all those Mares." Brave asked her smirk growing as the Mares eyes went wide its body blowing to bits. "It wasn't because I couldn't win the fight. I'm not as strong as you physically speaking. You'd have to be a freak of nature to be as strong as a monster. So instead I just worked on my speed and tried to get it to its max. You let your guard when you slapped me away and didn't even bother trying to defend yourself. You were so sure you could take us all out."
She said this all before the head even hit the floor.
The Mares head crashed into the forest floor rolling across it as its eyes were filled with rage glaring at Brave. Its ears split open as a pair of tiny arms reached out and it began to run away making Brave and Fate stare in shock.
"Damn you girls! I'll get away! It'll take a few days but I'll heal and when I do I swear I'll-" The Mare felt itself crash into something as it looked up. "Who got in my way-" It went dead silent when it saw Kenji was staring down at it a devilish smirk on the boys lips. Slowly the Mares head turned to look at the glowing bat in Kenji's hands. "...Oh no-"
Kenji picked up the Mare and threw it high into the air as he raised his bat up. "Batter up!" He yelled out stomping his foot into the ground and swinging with all his might pouring his full power into the attack.
The head exploded on impact its body fading away into smoke and ash as Kenji blew it to pieces with a swing.
"And thats game!"
"Alright!" Brave announced throwing her hands up. "Go team!"
Fate let out a small sigh before a smile came onto her lips. "Well... I guess we aren't dead after all..."