The leader's beliefs weren't wrong. After more of his group joined in to assist him, Siraya began to feel some pressure. She determined that this group was probably trained to hunt a stronger single target, using group tactics. She had seen that there individual abilities weren't high for martial artists, but with their strict training and well founded trust, she was forced to endure the reopening of the injuries that had only healed recently.
The more pain Siraya received, the angrier she became. Her movements started to become sloppy, which made the group surrounding her ecstatic. They had obviously thought she was at the end of her strength, not realising this was simply a prelude to her losing control; just as she did in the palace that night.
They started to act more aggressively, new injuries continued to appear on the already wounded Siraya.
One, who was forced to lean against a nearby tree, due to her serious injuries, watched anxiously as the person she was ordered to protect suffered blow after blow.
The leader was about to deliver the final blow to the still figure in front of him, when a hand appeared right next to his face, grabbing the unlucky person that stood next to him in the formation.
The cracking of the man's skull could still be heard through his painful screams, directly forcing the rest of the group to return to their senses. The leader quickly ordered them to readjust the formation, and ignored the uneasiness he couldn't help feeling.
The group launched another, more severe attack on Siraya, but she still took it. The only difference was that at some point, she started to smile. This wasn't a normal smile, in the dim light, it seemed incredibly malicious.
She rushed at the formation carelessly, her speed getting faster as time went by. Her attacks were no longer focused on lethality, but more random. If she could catch a piece of one of the people in the group, she would tear it off without hesitation.
This new method had already frightened the group. They weren't like shadow guards, who were trained to die at their masters command. They were trained as martial artists, and subconsciously brought out the mentality of a martial artist.
They didn't mind retreating when they knew they couldn't best their opponent, and that's exactly what they tried to do.
However Siraya seemed to feel insulted by their actions. She didn't have a weapon on her, so she could only force herself into the group that was thinking of fleeing. Siraya attacked them ruthlessly, not sparing a single one.
The leader saw that she wasn't willing to let them go, and he wasn't someone who would just wait for death, so he chose to try and drag this monster down to hell with him. While Siraya was preoccupied with the last few people, he swung his sword down with all his strength, cutting straight down into her shoulder. However the blade did not cut through her like he thought it would, in fact it stopped no more than a few inches into her shoulder, not even managing to cut through her clavicle. Well, instead of saying it stopped, it's more fitting to say; it was stopped.
Siraya pinched the tip of the blade sticking out in front of her, with two fingers. The sword was rattling under the strength of the leader trying to continue to force it down. Unfortunately no matter how much strength he used, the sword wouldn't budge. Siraya quickly spun around, the cracks that littered the blade had already grown to large after the man's last ditch effort, and with little resistance, a snap was heard in the quiet forest.
The leader was forced to look eye to eye with the monster in front of him. At that moment, he regretted his arrogance. Remembering how he promised the other members of the sect that he would easily deal with the lone female general, now he looked into the eyes of this maniac, and he knelt down, pleading.
"Please, please spare my life. I swear I will never try to harm you again. I swear it on my life"
Siraya watched the man begging, with infinite malice swirling around in her mind.
"Killing him is too easy" a voice seemed to whisper in her mind.
"Why don't you make him truly fear you first?" another voice spoke.
Siraya knew these voices were hers, but also not her. They had appeared when she hid in the forest on the way to the capital, and again when she was in the palace. She knew from the bottom of her heart, that these voices were not there to help her. In fact they wanted to drag her further into the abyss, and although she wanted to fight them off, she just couldn't help but want to succumb to them.
Under the momentary hesitation of Siraya, the man that was originally pleading noticed her daze, and without a hint of remorse on his face, he thrust the broken blade towards her throat.
Siraya grabbed his hand and directly crushed it, not allowing the man to continue making noise, she used her other hand to rip out the man's heart. The shock on his face, as he looked at his still beating heart, remained even after his body fell lifelessly to the ground.
Siraya stood there, her arm still outstretched, holding the man's heart. Her adrenaline finally dissipated and all that was left to her, was pain. The pain was much more severe than last time, and she almost dropped to the ground, wishing to writhe, believing that could ease her suffering. But the voices spoke again.
"Our injuries are too serious. We need to recuperate" the voice tempted.
"Nutrients are vital to our survival. How else will we avenge our family?" the temptations continued unabated in her mind. Her eyes still held the last struggle, and unwillingness.
One, who was still trying to gain enough strength to stand up, could only watch in abject horror, as Siraya put the bleeding heart to her mouth, and began to tear chunks out of it.
A single tear fell from Siraya's eye. From that moment on, she had completely lost her humanity.