The second before I run out of the forest and into the clearing, I quickly dig my feet into the ground stopping my momentum almost instantaneously. Two men hiding behind trees are caught unaware by my movement feint as they lash out with their swords and miss. I immediately lunge for one of the men's wrists, where I'm able to control his sword arm for a split second, parrying the second swing that comes out.
I let go of his wrist the second he jerks his arm away, trying to shake my grip off, allowing me to use that momentum to create a safe distance between me and the two crooks.
They're so slow! I frustratingly think to myself. I could have just blitzed both of them with sheer speed if I wasn't injured, no need for a feint.
"Who the hell are you!? What do you want with us?" One of the men shouts aggressively as they slowly begin to try to circling around me, the woman had doubled back and had joined them as well. I slowly begin walking backwards as they do this, trying to maintain a positional advantage.
"I don't know; I would have never known about any of you morons had you left me alone. That old man... That nosy girl... that Shesuan... that Tetsudo... What the hell is so interesting about me?!?" I shout at them, projecting my frustrations onto them.
They look at me strangely and then shrug, probably writing me off as crazy. That's fine, ordinarily I would avoid butting into situations like this but and acting all hero-y but...
I take a quick step to the side, charging directly into the woman trying to circle around me. As I do this, the two men instantly spring forward. Fortunately, my kidnappers hadn't bothered to take off my clothing, which means I still had my cloak with me. I swing around rapidly and bend my knees to the ground, my cloak blooms out like a flower, obscuring their visions as they swing and miss. In the same motion I sweep the woman's legs as she draws her dagger, knocking her to the ground.
Man, I've dealt with this stupid cloak so much when fighting Rudeus that I basically knew every trick in the book at this point. I bring my arms back and step right outside the cloak's sleeves. I casually slip right in front one of the men's face as they lose track of me with their eyes, too distracted by the visual clutter of the cloak. His eyes widen in surprise right before I deliver an elbow to his teeth, knocking him to the ground instantly, I regrab the cloak from behind as it's falling and throw it up into the air once more. Just in time for another lunge from the other man's sword, I sidestep the thrust, cursing as it just barely nicks my chest, as the blade tears through the cloth, the cloak wraps around the man's arm and body, covering his eyes. This time I smash my foot into his crotch, taking him out as well.
"Pieces of shit." I mutter as I put the cloak back on. I delicately dab my chest and look at the blood smeared on my finger, can't get anything easy done around here.
"If you try running away, I will kill you." I say as I notice the woman trying to discretely get up. I reach down and grab the man's sword off the ground. I slowly walk up to her as she's paralyzed with fear and sit down right beside her, thrusting the sword into the dirt ground beside her.
"If you don't say at least 80 words in the next minute this sword goes into your neck." I say, a sadistic smile on my face.
"I.. I... Wha-"
"Tell me who you guys are, how many of you guys are still here, and why you are attacking and kidnapping people.
"I— I'm just doing this to feed my family! I know what I'm doing is evil and wrong but I have to!"
"Justifications later, answer the question, just took off thirty seconds for going off topic."
"I am, I mean, we are from the Iquen organization from Oliviand, there are six of us total still around, and I was ordered to do this, I don't know why!"
"Fourty-eight more words, ten seconds left" I simply say in response, although it's only been 5 seconds since I told her thirty seconds.
"Wait why! You said thirty seconds!" I stay silent, she begins panicking and starts blubbering out arbitrary words in hopes that I would count them.
"Five..." She was beginning to cry, tears streaming out of her eyes. "Four.... Three..." Okay, I'm beginning to feel a little bad, I immediately smell a foul scent in the air and I already knew what she just did. "Two, one." I quickly count the rest of the numbers down. "Just kidding, I don't kill people." I tap her head, as her mind shuts down from an overload of stress and she collapses. I then walk off towards the village, my mood just a bit better.
Two more people to beat up, I crouch down low and then try to sneak as closely to the shadows as I can. The village is deserted for the most part but... I hold my hand to the ground, amplifying my sense of touch thousand fold.
... No good, there are way too many vibrations right now to triangulate where it's all coming from.
Another woman's voice rings out as I check the ground. "Damn it, why haven't they returned yet? There's no way that boy should be giving Rogier and Trome that much trouble right? Pretty sure Leyna is with the both of them as well. I'm going to go check on them, shout at me if the merchandise decide to give some trouble." And... Judging from the direction of that voice... Should be walking by this spot pretty soon.
I lean closely against the wall, waiting patiently to strike. As soon as I see her shadow approaching , I whip around the corner and lunge out, only to hit empty air as she quickly steps to the side. Almost as if she knew I was coming. She immediately grabs my outstretched arm by my forearm and upper arm then twists. Without panicking, as I've been put in this type of hold by Rudeus before, I go completely slack, my feet leaving the ground as I contort my entire body in the direction of my arm. Not allowing her to gain any control. I then whip my feet around in the direction of the twist and strike at her head with a sharp kick.
"Shit." She mutters as she's forced to let go of my arm to dodge the blow. I miss the kick but manage to land on my two feet as a result.
How the hell did she react that fast?!? Unless... Damn she baited me, must have known that I was behind this corner.
She then slowly draws her sword, not bothering to question me or start a conversation; I could see it in her eyes, she was fully focused.
"Do you consider yourself good or bad people?" I ask a question that had curiously popped into my mind.
"You'll learn sooner or later that very few people actually care about whether they're good or bad in desperate situations." The woman replies with.
"Interesting, well, doesn't matter to me anyways either." I slowly inch forward, my arm outstretched forwards. "You guys annoy me and that's all that matters."
The woman freezes up and looks at me surprised for a moment, before she starts laughing, a husky background in her voice indicating that she was quite aged. "Guess you do look quite young after all. I don't know if I'm going to beat you right now, but, if you kept that attitude up... One day, you are going to lose something dear to you, be it your life, or something even worse."
I crack a jagged smile in lieu of her taunt and open up the palm of my fist, inviting her to try to slash me. She begins to inch closer and closer. I tense up the instant she steps into her attack range with the sword, but she continues taking steps forward, not bothering to attack. With that single step I freeze up, three thoughts immediately running through my head: What is she doing, I need to step back if I want to avoid her slash, and I don't want to because that would injure my pride after being so cocky.
And with that single moment of indecision, she takes a vicious step forward and cuts straight horizontally, at my waist. The most difficult slash to avoid. I immediately go blind and deaf and raise both of my hands to the blade, gathering all my Anku to the place of contact. My palm explodes into pain as the blade buries itself into the bones of my hand, cutting through flesh and muscle.
As my vision returns to me, she immediately dislodges the sword and swings diagonally towards my neck with a frighteningly quick backhand swing.
I whip my head to the side as the very tip of my ear gets sliced off, blood gushing out like a fountain. Shit! Bad decision! I should have let her hit my mask! It wouldn't have gone through anyways, and I would have been able to counterattack.
As a thousand thoughts run through my mind, she doesn't let up her offense, as her diagonal slice upwards turns into an elbow slam downwards. Too distracted to notice, I take the blunt force of the slam straight into my face, the force reverberating straight through my mask. I lose my balance and fall to the ground, stunned from the blow. Without any chance of recovery, she steps straight on my legs as I fall and rests her sword on my chin.
"Oh, I guess I did win." The woman says as she has me pinned toward the ground. Wait did I lose? How...
"Well, I'd prefer not to kill someone as young as you, but you're a danger to us, so-" She says before lifting her sword to the air. I stare at the sword dumbfounded as blood drips from my ear to the ground.
Oh yea, that's right, she's fighting for her life, and I'm fighting to have fun.
As she brings her sword down, the blood from my ear soaks deeper and deeper into the soil.
Heh.
Now that I think about it, why should that stop me? I've already accepted my flaws haven't I? If I can't accomplish things while having a little fun in the meantime what's the point of it all?
The Anku infused blood, deep within the ground, grips the rocks and soil around it like a black tendril. The soil beneath my feet explodes into a sinkhole as rock and dirt fly everywhere, giving me free movement once again. I contort my body to the side, throwing her off balance while simultaneously avoiding the blade. I smile with a little bit of a crazy glint in my eyes as I then coil my legs around her feet and yoink furiously, throwing her to the ground.
I grab the sword, get up, and within a single instant I was the one in control.
"Based on my time in The Eye, you are two and a half times slower than Polly, three times slower than Rudeus, and five times slower than Celestia; if they couldn't break my ego, then I'm afraid this world has nothing that can. You're right, I am a kid, and I don't gotta learn a damn thing."
Of course, I was probably in the same boat as her right now, but hey, once I get to Oliviand and find a doctor, there's nothing stopping me from making this place my new playground.
I smack her forehead with the flat of my blade, instantly knocking her out. I then spring off her body and begin running towards the square of the village where there was a big fire lit, no longer caring about being stealthy or hiding my approach. One more person left. Gripping it one handed, the sword I stole drags behind my arm, as I break into the central square where I heard the voices in the first place, my sword and cloak trailing in the wind.
Bloodied men, woman, and children, some lying ominously still, littered the grounds, all of them been tied up, and standing there was a single man, Holding his ground against me. I wind up my arm, raising my sword over my head. The man immediately reacts and brings his sword to the left, ready to parry. Only to be met with a boot in his stomach as I feint the slash and drive a nasty kick forward. The man bounces back from the force of the blow and doesn't get back up.
I stand still, silhouetted black by the houses burning in the background. As I take a deep breath and wind down, the pain from my injuries finally catch up to me. I tear my mask off my face and throw up on the ground. I stumble dizzily towards the most important looking man I could find tied up, before undoing his restraints.
"Please give me some god damn food and directions. I've defeated all the invaders." I say before I crumble to the ground, exhaustion now setting in from the side effects of the mask. I close my eyes, surely a bit of rest wouldn't do me any harm would it?
My eyes shoot open instantly for one more moment. "Also, there's a little girl hiding in the woods back there somewhere." I point in the direction from which I came from. "Please get her to safety as soon as you can." Then I fall asleep.
I open my eyes slowly, sunlight filtering through a window somewhere nearby. Couldn't really tell you where, my eyesight was that bad. "Guess I played the hero role unintentionally huh." I talk to myself. I slowly unroll myself out the bed. There was a pitcher of water and some bread next to me, I stuff half the roll into my mouth then wash it down with water, repeating the process with the other half, gulping the entire thing down in an instant. I grab my cloak and mask off the counter and walk out the door into a small hallway. I look to the right as a young lady around my age runs across the hallway holding a bucket of water and a wet rag. I step back into my room allowing her to pass through, she gives me a small nod before running through. I walk back out my room and downstairs to a scene of disaster as all the furniture had been pushed to the walls, dozens of people were furiously scrambling around, trying to balance applying cold wet rags to the people with fevers, there was a steel rod plunged into a pit of fire to the side, taken out to cauterize wounds, I hear a agonizing scream to the side as a man bites down on a stick, a loud pop from his shoulder getting wrenched back into place.
A couple people acknowledge me but continue working on uninterrupted. I put on my mask, look down at the ground, and step carefully across the room. I open the door to the house and exit to the village square, my breath spiking the instant I see what was outside. Conflicted thoughts run through my head while I keep my expression as neutral as possible, before finally nodding and accepting the reality.
All the invaders had been strung up on poles, and all of their eyes were lifeless, because all of them were dead, most likely all killed by the villagers. I look away from that old lady I fought last night, her eyes staring directly at me.
The same man I untied last night walks up to me. "First and foremost, we thank you for what you did last night. I'm sure all of us would have been in that caravan being shipped to slave away in the mines if it weren't for you. But as you can see…" He gestures around him.
"We're in the process of recovering, and there's not much we can do for you right now."
I close my eyes and remove my mask. "That's fine, I just need the food and directions to get to Oliviand. I hope that won't be too much."
"Oh yea! yea! I can get that prepared for you right now, just wait here."
As he scurries away, I tear my gaze away from the wooden pikes in the center of the square.
I didn't want to think about it.