Major Ena and Yuri ran at full speed at each other, their swords raised high, giving a loud battle cry right before they clashed and went past each other in the blink of an eye, causing blood to spring forth from both sides.
"Damn it!" Major Ena swore in frustration as her opponent, Yuri, fell to the ground behind her.
They had both taken injuries from the clash, but Yuri's injury was too severe, as he bled the most after the attack.
She looked back at him, and even though she had won the fight, she was frustrated to see her opponent lying dead in a pool of his blood.
She was also wounded, as Yuri had managed to cut through her gut with his sword, making it a lot harder for her to stand erect.
But it felt like nothing to her, as she had survived worse ordeals than this in the past.
.....
Meanwhile, inside the carriage, watching the fighting spectacle between Ena and Yuri was the Major's subordinate, the female Lieutenant Mira.
She was not happy to see Major Ena all bloodied and weak, as she could have joined the fight to make the battle easier for her superior, but was strictly warned not to do so, as the Major wanted to enjoy the fight to its fullest.
Major Ena couldn't blame her superior; after all, she couldn't help it. As a woman who was raised in a clan whose population was heavily involved in military affairs, fighting was basically what she was raised to do.
Even though her fighting skills and achievements earned her a high rank in the Empire's military, they drove her into making reckless decisions—decisions that would have cost the Major her life time and time again if not for the Lieutenant's continuous and timely interventions.
It was at times like these, when the Major would be so reckless to the point of being just minutes away from facing the consequences, that the Lieutenant would intervene to prevent it, whether or not she was ordered not to do so.
This felt like one of those times, as the Major was clearly putting herself in mortal danger by holding back while fighting a Fableman, and now she was mortally wounded but moving about as nothing happened.
The lieutenant couldn't take it anymore; she had to do something or her superior would get herself killed by her own hands.
So immediately, she came down from the carriage to intervene against the major's orders.
....
"Is this it?" Major Ena asked out loud as she walked over to where Yuri's corpse was.
"Is this all General Senju was positive would be the Empire's most powerful force of conquest?" she asked, disappointed. She expected more from this battle, but her expectations had just fallen short of fulfillment, and it frustrated her.
It frustrated her to the point that she persistently stabbed the body of her dead opponent angrily with the sword.
"Get up, boy! "We are not finished yet!" she said as she angrily cut his body into pieces with each stab.
Yuri's body was no longer as durable as it was, perhaps because the fabled spirit of the Umihebi (Sea Serpent) seemed to have died with him, which now made his body as weak as anybody else's.
Mira ran immediately to stop Major Ena, as what she was doing only fuelled her frustration further than she intended.
"Major Ena, stop!" She said, "It's over."
Ena turned to look at her.
"You were supposed to stay in the carriage until I summoned you!"
Mira ignored what she said and instead pleaded,
"You have destroyed him; it's over." "Put your sword back in its place, please. You're hurting yourself."
Ena sighed, looking down at the severed body of the enforcer, before calming herself.
"I'm going to punish you one of these days for always disobeying my orders at times like this," she warned Mira.
Mira bowed with a smile. She was used to getting threatened this way.
"I'll be looking forward to it, Major Ena," she replied sarcastically.
"Nevertheless, Mira, you are wrong," said Ena, to Mira's surprise, "it's not over—not yet at least." "There are three others of the Fable-Bastards close by, and I can't tell if they have been captured yet."
.....
"If you thought the General would give you godlike abilities without a means of putting you under control at a time like this, then think again!" said the soldier that had brought Tobirama to the ground, crying out in pain as he looked at his disembodied arm.
The soldier looked at Tobirama, who was now getting weaker and numb from the excessive loss of blood, and raised his sword.
"Now to put you out of your misery," the soldier said as he brought it down, decapitating Tobirama in one fell swoop.
Then the soldier removed his helmet, wanting to take it all in with his bare eyes, revealing himself to be the young and famous Captain Manzo, known for his several achievements that made him rise above the ranks at a young age, and from the way he looked, he was delighted because of this achievement.
He had just single-handedly defeated a Fableman, and he believed this achievement alone would surely guarantee him a major promotion from Squad Captain to at least 3rd Lieutenant.
But now, trying not to let this little achievement get to his head, he instead focused on the unfinished mission at hand, so the squad captain turned back to the others behind him.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" "Go catch up with the others ahead to get the rest of them; I'll be right behind you!" he commanded.
"Yes, sir," they all chorused as they resumed sprinting.
Immediately after they had all left, the young captain bowed his head to Tobirama's corpse respectfully.
"Rest in peace," he said with his hands together.
Then he put his helmet back on and sprinted off to catch up with the others to kill the rest of the Enforcers (Enji and Genta).
[Author's Note: Hello everyone! Thank you all so much for coming this far into the project; it means a lot to me. I heartily wish to announce to you all that my work will be going premium from the next chapter onwards. I'm sorry if this would hinder you from enjoying my work like you used to, but given the circumstances, this is the only way I can thrive as an author on the platform. So I'd love it if you'd keep supporting my work by reading further, as any form of interest goes a long way. I promise to keep making good content for everyone to enjoy... and will endeavor to do better from now onwards. Thank you all for your understanding. I love you all...