Chapter 7 : Rescue
Shiro and Eris reached the east gate. It was a huge gate with wooden doors wide open. The gate had a tolling system and it had a small guard post next to it. Shiro tied the horse leash to a fence to let the horse rest a bit and gave it water to drink. And Eris was talking with the guard on the gate.
"Did you see any cart go through yesterday night?" asked Eris.
The guard scratched his head. "I'm sorry miss but no I didn't. I wasn't here last night."
"Oh." disappointed Eris.
Eris looked at Shiro and Shiro looked back at Eris. Eris shook her head left and right.
Shiro sighed.
Suddenly a shopkeeper called Eris. Eris went to the shopkeeper.
"Are you saying the cart that passed through this gate last night?" asked the shopkeeper.
"Yes! Did you see it perhaps?" asked Eris.
"Yeah I saw it. It was loading some kind of baggage to it."
Eris looked at Shiro and indicated him to come. Shiro ran to them.
"May you please tell me more about it?" asked Shiro.
"I don't know man. You know the world is not so kind." said the shopkeeper as he was rubbing his pointer finger with his thumb of his right hand indicating that he wants something in return.
Shiro grabbed a pouch of coins in it and gave it to the shopkeepr.
The shopkeeper opened the pouch and to his surprise, it was filled with not bronze or silver but gold coins. The shopkeeper's jaw was wide open.
"A-Are these real?" asked the surprised shopkeeper.
"100%" said Shiro.
"So now mind telling what happened that night?" asked Shiro.
"Okay so... I was closing my shop in the middle of the night while I saw a carriage parked across the street."
-Flashback-
It was late midnight. I was a bit sleepy. As I was closing my shop, I saw a carriage in front of the East gate. The carriage was a normal wagon. It was empty. But then 4 people came. They all had hoods over their heads. Because of the darkness, their faces wasn't visible. But one of the guy who looked bigger than the other 3 was carrying a sack. The sack wasn't that big.
He threw the sack on top of the wagon.
After throwing the sack, he was talking with the other 3 guys.
Then he and one other got on the carriage with the sack while the other 2 went to drive. They rushed through the gate ignoring the guard as the guard of that shift was asleep.
-Flashback end-
"I see... Thanks for your information." said Eris.
Shiro and Eris quickly got on top of the horse and started riding
.
They crossed the gate and soon entered the forest. The forest was filled with many types of trees. As they were crossing through the forest, many animals like dears, tigers and many more caught the attention of the horse's steps.
"Do you know where they might have gone?" asked Eris while she was holding Shiro by his waist.
Shiro nodded, "There is a small hut in the middle of the forest. We are almost there."
The horse was charging through the forest. Suddenly Shiro saw a shiny line through the forest. Shiro pulled the horse's lead as hard as he could. The horse groaned and stood up on it's hind legs.
"What's wrong?" asked Eris as she was holding on to Shiro for her dear life.
"We are here. We will go by foot here."
Eris nodded while gulping saliva down her throat.
Shiro and Eris quickly got down from the horse. Shiro went to the shiny line. And he saw a string tied to the trees next to it. "It's a trap." said Shiro.
"So they are here."
"Be careful Eris. You may want to stay here as it will be dangerous ahead."
Eris shaked her head, "No I will go with you."
"But..." sighed Shiro. "Okay. But you will stay with me the entire time."
Eris nodded.
They carefully crossed the strings.
As they were walking through the forest, Shiro stopped Eris.
"What's wrong?" asked Eris.
"Stay back." said Shiro.
As Shiro said that, Eris saw that a person came out of the woods. Eris went back a few steps.
The person had a hood over his head.
Shiro prepared for battle. He took his sword out of the sheath and posed himself by taking his left leg a bit behind and bent a little.
The person also brought out his sword. He then rushed to Shiro without notice.
He brought his sword up his body and swinged at Shiro on targeting his head.
Shiro quickly dodged the attack easily. Shiro swept his sword from his right side knocking the sword from the opponent's hand.
The man backed away. But then Shiro charged at him at insane speed which was almost as if he teleported behind his opponent.
The man's neck sliced a clean cut and the head fell on the ground.
Eris observed all of this.
She was surprised as she thought how fast Shiro was.
Shiro sheathed his sword back in. He was so fast that no blood was able to stay on the sword.
Eris ran to Shiro. "Wow that was so fast!"
"Haha." laughed Shiro.
"Lets go!" said Eris.
But Shiro stopped her and pointed at the dead body and said, "Take the sword from that guy. It will help you."
Eris nodded and took the sword.
They started walking towards the direction where the kidnapper came from.
After walking straight for 5 to 10 minutes, they encountered a small wooden house.
Shiro got on one of his knees toward Eris.
"Stay here. I will bring Arthur back."
Eris nodded, "Be careful."
Shiro nodded back at Eris.
Shiro got up with his sword out. He entered the house.
It was pitch black in the house.
Shiro was walking through the house in pitch dark. Suddenly he felt a presence.
Shiro quickly brought his sword to his face.
*Bang*
Shiro blocked an attack from a sword. But suddenly someone kicked Shiro on his stomach.
Shiro went back flying breaking the house's wall and going outside.
Eris saw Shiro and she ran towards him.
Shiro raised his hand, "Don't come here!"
Eris stopped.
Out of the hole of the house, 15 men came out wearing hoods. They all were average height except one.
"Are you the boss here?" said Shiro while looking at the huge man.
"Hahahahahaha!" the huge man laughed.
He also added while laughing, "As expected of the strongest magician in the world. You guessed right. I'm the boss here."
Shiro looked behind the huge man and saw someone tied. That someone is Arthur. His mouth is tied with a clothe and hands are tied with a rope behind his back. He is kneeled on the ground with 2 people holding him down.
"Arthur!" screamed Eris.
"Mmph!" muffled Arthur.
Shiro stood up, "Don't worry Arthur. We will save you."
"Mmph!" muffled Arthur again. But this time relief is shown in his expression.
Shiro again looked at the huge man.
"What is your name?" asked Shiro with his sword pointed towards the huge enemy.
The huge man took of his hood. He was a middle aged man with a light brown beard and moustache. His hair was also light brown combed back.
"Antony, Antony Magelan." said the huge man.
Shiro took a combat position by lowering his body closer to the ground with his sword almost the same height as his face.
"I acknowledge you as my enemy, Antony Magelan." said Shiro as he dashed towards William.
Shiro closed the gap within a split second. Shiro's sword reached Antony's face and was almost about to slice.
Antony noticed the sword coming. He bent backwards barely missing the cut but still his beard got a trim.
Antony jumped back.
"Hoho. You almost got me there." said Antony while strocking his cutted beard.
Shiro looked at Antony. "You are good. Looks like I have to be a little bit serious. Bring all your men to attack me otherwise you won't be able to kill me."
Hearing this, Antony got fraustated. He lost his mind. "What are you doing you rascals?! He's asking for a fight. Attack him!"
"Raargh!" screamed all the men as they rushed towards Shiro.
"I will kill you all with just my sword techniques." said Shiro as he again lowered his upper body and widened his legs.
Shiro quietly said, "Thousand Slashes."
*Swish* *Swish*
Shiro did a thousand slashes on all the enemies who were close to him. All the enemies close to him fell down as blood splattered all over the ground. All the 14 men died.
Seeing this, Antony gulped his saliva down his throat. "N... No way... In a single move? He..."
Sweats started to drop down his forehead.
Antony threw his hands towards Shiro as if he was about to do a spell.
"Fire ball!" shouted Antony as he attacked Shiro.
A fiery ball came out of Antony's arm and it rushed towards Shiro.
Shiro glanced at the attack. The fire ball landed where Shiro is standing.
"Shiro!" screamed Eris.
"Mmph!!!" muffled Arthur loudly.
*Boom*
A large explosion happened where Shiro was standing. Smokes filled up the area around the hit mark. Birds started to chirp and fly away hearing all the noises.
As smoke started to clear, William showed relief in his expression.
The smoke cleared and Shiro was nowhere to be seen.
"Wh... What?" confused Antony.
"That was a really good attack." Suddenly said Shiro.
Antony looked behind and saw Shiro standing behind him.
Before Antony could react, Shiro unsheathed his sword.
*Swish*
To be continued...