Identified as official Swords-men, Zen and Ryuzu were authorized to investigate the village to their will, and were provided a shelter to spend days in till their mission is complete. Swords-men in service are usually supported by the villagers and provided with a shelter in the least.
"The Village's Head is a good guy for being kind to us strangers, most might not even trust us as Swords-men right?" Zen started a conversation with Ryuzu as they walked around the now-barren village.
"You're right, just how traumatized these villagers are by the monstrous acts of the Rakshas, they should have been more suspicious of us." Ryuzu replied,
"I guess the Village Head is a very experienced and calm person."
Zen and Ryuzu visited houses of people who have had a member of the house as a victim, or the incident happened in the building itself. Upon further and constant investigation, they have found claws on walls, some big some small. They were big scratches of a monster, more intense than a wild bear.
People have had less children in the fear of loosing them instantly because of the Rakshas's appetite of infants.
After a long day of investigation, Zen and Ryuzu had returned to their own shelter and laid down for resting. They've only gathered huge claw marks on surfaces and walls as clues, and sometimes a lot of dried up blood in the corridors of some houses.
"The Village Head is hella' rich, I'll take that." Zen commented as he looked around the shelter they've received.
"It's an old building, come on. And there are others living in this house too." Ryuzu crushed Zen's dreams.
"It's nice we got the top floor, nice room."
It's already very dark and the are still both laying down.
"Are you sure you're not afraid of the Demon which yearns your blood under the fall of a bloodthirsty moon's light?" Zen scared Ryuzu with his poetic lines.
"Where'd that creativity come from? It makes me more flabbergasted than scared. Also I'll kick you for doing that again." Ryuzu threatened him for just a joke.
"Haha," Zen lets out a laugh. "You're still a scaredy cat as ever."
"Oh really? You'd find a spider and jump around all the house calling it your Star Burst or something." Ryuzu and Zen had a little laugh.
Between their laughs and chatters, a mischievous wave in the air slithers through the humid waves like liquid, flowing in front Zen's area of vision all of a sudden. He stopped all of a sudden with the happy little chat, as his eyes widened and he sits back up immediately.
"Huh? Zen? Is something wrong?--"
"Wait, Ryuzu. I've got a strange feeling."
"What's this aura all of a sudden... It's leaking out of the floor, means something is happening downstairs."
He instantly gets up and gets out of the room as he investigates around the house in a rush, with the aura getting more and more evil, Zen can confirm the presence of a Rakshas in the same building. Flowing through every part of the walls... He starts to rush open each door and find the creature hiding.
Ryuzu catches up to Zen as she realizes the hitch of the situation. People say that the Rakshas usually appears out of nowhere into people's home. And this is the exact case here.
"Be alert, Ryuzu!" Zen screamed from the other part of the building.
"Damn you slithery Rakshas, you're fast in hiding yourself continuously, huh?"
Zen runs through the hallway as he hears a loud thud from the side, as he puts a brakes to his feet and dashes into the direction of the noise. He enters a room as he senses the aura coming directly from above. Zen instantly jumps high with a lot of power as he breaks through the ceiling and gets into another room on the floor above.
"Is everything okay?--"
Lightning flashes and thunder claps as Zen slices the hands of a wild creature which threw his body towards a maid in the house. He instantly directs his sword's edge towards the Rakshas, as he puts his hand in front of the maid to let her stay back.
"Aaaah!" The maid screamed,
"Stand behind me."
"There you are, filthy Rakshas."
"Eyahahahaha! This is gonna be fun! Another one here to steal my prey tonight?" The Rakshas spoke,
Zen's cool mode instantly broke as soon as he realizes the Rakshas considered him a Rakshas too which is here to steal his food.
"I'm here to slay you! Not eat the human, dim wit."
"Lady, Maid, Mam, stay behind and find an escape, I'll deal with this monster."
The Rakshas's veins popped off and he bites his lips as blood drips down his face, in anger as soon as he recognizes Zen as a Swords-man.
"I see, then you're a disgusting swords-man." The Rakshas said with gritting teeth. He tried to make out a slash attack towards Zen with his sharp claws but instantly gets parried.
Zen pushes him back with the force of his sword.
"If such a clean and disciplined looking lad like me looks disgusting, then how is a cut off limb with overflowing blood a gorgeous sight to you?"
The Creature hones his wild claws, whetting against each other as his stare calls out for an intense battle. He instantly charges out towards Zen as they engage in a combat of sharpened blades, while Ryuzu runs around the building to find the other victims and people, also trying to find Zen.
As the Rakshas finds an opening to slash Zen's guts open, he throws his hands towards our swords-man's abdomen, as Zen immediately parries it, he gets pushed back due to the fierce strength.
"Tch!"
Meanwhile in Ryuzu's side, she was rushing across the corridor as she encounters a wild Rakshas, maybe two as another one creeps up from the behind.
"That's a one pretty... meal..." The disgusting creature looked upon Ryuzu.
Ryuzu clutched her blade, each shine shimmering with a hint of ominous poison. She knew that danger lurked in the shadows, and her instincts were sharp as the blade she wielded.
With a flick of her wrist, Ryuzu's sword ignited with a noxious purple aura, its blade twilight a deadly poison as she raised it, ready for the fight ahead.
"Shall we fight, then?" Ryuzu calmly asked.
The Rakshas lunged at her with haste, it's razor sharp claws aiming for her throat. Ryuzu parried the attack, the poisoned sword meeting Rakshas' claws as he lets out a sickening hiss.
Ryuzu pushes back the Rakshas into the wall while the other approaches at her with great speed. As the battle unfolded, she engaged in a battle with two to three Rakshas which kept adding more in a cramped corridor. With each strike and parry sent toxic fumes into the air, creating an eerie and purple mist that swirled around the sword.
"Argh... you're getting annoying now." Ryuzu hissed.
"Poison Arts, First Stage."
Ryuzu's blade flowed with corrosive purple poison smoke as she flowed her sword into the air, as she dashed towards the creatures and aimed only for cutting this time. Her movements were swift and precise, her poison-infused sword dancing through the bodies of the Rakshas like a deadly serpent, seeing her opportunities as she sliced through each time.
"What... was that about...? Bitch." The Rakshas laughed.
"Aren't... you too cocky? Showing your back to us."
"You think I'm scared of that? I'd rather say you're the one cocky here." Ryuzu confidently spoke as she looked back over her shoulder. "Perhaps I've trained enough to be able to deal with you."
She had reached the end of the corridor with blood flowing through the bodies of Rakshas, injured with shallow slashes of Ryuzu's sword, the Rakshas instantly regenerate as they let out a laugh. They instantly headed towards Ryuzu, right when--
The creature's head hit the ground, a final, blood-curdling scream echoed through the building as the others disintegrated themselves.
"Corrosive Breath..."
She swung her sword around her fingers as she spun it smoothly like a staff, with style, Ryuzu sheathes back her sword and gives off a smile to the dead corpses behind.
"Piece of cake, heh."
"I've gotta find Zen now!"
After finishing her little battle, Ryuzu hears a loud thud from upstairs as she runs directly to the floor above and opens the door, to notice Zen standing in the room and a Rakshas's head on the ground, its disintegrating.
"Zen! Are you alright!?" Ryuzu asked Zen in a worried state.
She notices a decapitated body standing a distance away from Zen as it's head had been cut off by him, on the ground.
"Ryuzu!" Zen replied without turning back from his direction.
Zen turned back to gaze at Ryuzu, his eyes widening in alarm. He felt paralyzed, unable to move an inch closer to her.
"Ryuzu--?" he began, but before he could finish his sentence, the situation escalated. His hair was caught in the sudden gusts of the cold night wind, and the breeze grew stronger and more forceful. The force of the wind tugged at his clothes, causing them to ripple, and his grip on his surroundings began to slip.
"H-Huh!?" Zen exclaimed as his eyes noticed an aura even more stronger than any of the Rakshas' in the building till now.
His eyes slowly widened.
Ryuzu tried to reach out for Zen as soon as she noticed this.
Suddenly, as if an invisible hand had grabbed him, Zen was propelled out of the building to a distance away far away with the gusts of the wind. The immense air pressure fling him through the air, as he crashed with other structures along the way.
With a series of bone-breaking impacts, he eventually came to rest within another building.
Ryuzu's face turned pale.
"Z-Zen--"
A Rakshas, cunning and malevolent, emerged from the spaces of the walls, his laughter carrying an eerie and mischievous tone. His eyes fixated on Ryuzu, and when she realized his presence, a chill ran down her spine.
Ryuzu gripped back her focus and clenched her sword's handle, as the Rakshas strolled right beside her, their eyes locking in a chilling gaze.
"A-Another Rakshas?!"
"Hyahahaha," The Rakshas' face bore a disturbing, twisted expression as he taunted,
"This is gonna be fun, right?"
A wicked smirk played on his lips as he snapped his fingers. In an instant, another Rakshas materialized behind him, mirroring his sinister grin. The Rakshas set his footing deep in the flooring as it charged for a long shot.
"Take care of this lady, I'm in for more fun." He spoke fluently as he smirked.
Ryuzu determined her sword to stop the menace from escaping, as she dashed towards the Rakshas who was about to fly away. However, the summoned one had interrupted her path with a swift reflex, as he attempts to attack Ryuzu.
With his sinister grin, he soared into the night, leaving Ryuzu behind and grappling to the buildings forward. The sense of immaculate danger pulsed through the darkness...