"This smell..." I sniffed the air, my expression curled up in disgust smelling a familiar stench.
'Blood.'
My expression tensed realizing the scent was flowing from the strange wooden building, the smell of blood lingered throughout the entire air here, but the building itself had a special feeling to it. An extreme bloodlust.
I walked up to the door and twisted a small knob on it, I covered my nose out of pure disgust.
"Ugh." I groaned twisting the nob.
'The doors jammed...'
I laid my palm on the door, exerting a small bit of pressure the door cracked open. The moment I got a glimpse of the inside of the room I felt nauseous. Laying eyes on the scene before me I nearly stumbled over and threw up.
'W-what the hell?'
Mangled corpses were littered throughout the shack, all of them were humans... Probably, I couldn't tell for some of them.
I became far more alert seeing this, I quieted my footsteps and moved slowly. I still wasn't in peak condition and couldn't fight a strong demon, but those thoughts didn't worry me much considering I already knew the person in here was a human.
Swallowing and covering my nose I looked up at a wall, an aura was outlining a person in it, the reason I was even here in the first place.
'Did they do this... No, no the mana surrounding them isn't corrupted... And it's extremely pure, insanely pure...'
Crouching down next to a corpse I observed it closely, it was mutilated and missing a leg and arm. The corpse seemed to have belonged to a young man, perhaps a knight who wanted to gain some contribution and came here.
I grit my teeth and stood up, and walked towards the door to the wall blocking me from whoever was in this building. This time I walked without concealing myself, to observe the person's reaction through the wall.
'As I expected.'
The moment my footsteps rang out the person shot up from the seated position they were in, and moved across the room, perhaps in a spot to ambush me.
'Guilty as charged...'
Feigning ignorance I called out:
"Is someone in there?"
Arriving at the door I turned and creaked it open, the room was empty and there was no sign anybody had been in it.
'They're good.' I thought while walking in.
A small closet was on the left wall of the room, mana concentrated around a figure inside.
"What a cliche hiding spot." I smiled looking at the closet. "Go ahead and come out."
A few moments passed.
There was no movement at all, but finally, after a few minutes, the person finally emerged from the closet.
The person finally emerged from the closet. My heart began pounding, my breathing became unsteady. I was completely stunned.
"...Dawn?"
"I don't believe we're on the basis for you to casually call me by my first name. Blade Demon."
Dawn stood facing me, her appearance frightened me and I stared at her suppressing any of my feelings and opinions.
Her black hair was loose and covered in blood, in fact, her entire body was mostly covered in blood, giving her a somewhat insidious look. She stared at me with her cold eyes, her expression indifferent as usual but had a slight bit of anger in them... But what surprised me the most was one of her eyes was completely purple, and the unnatural bloodlust emitting from her.
"What happened to those people..." I hesitantly said.
"I found them like this." Dawn stared at me and slowly walked towards me.
I grit my teeth and took a deep breath to calm down from the initial surprise of the surprising murderer. 'She must have had... Some type of motive.'
My thoughts were jumbled in my head, and the sight of the mangled corpses was still fresh in my mind... I was sure nothing could explain it.
Before I realized Dawn was standing in front of me, she was much taller now which slightly surprised me.
"We both know that's not true," I said.
Dawn simply sighed.
I tilted my head and noticed the mana surrounding her begin to turn from its usual bright colorful appearance to a dark ominous purple.
'This isn't mana corruption... This is something else.'
"Are you planning to attack me?" I looked down at her with a condescending expression.
Dawn stood silent, and her mana continued to fluctuate to the dark purplish color.
'What kind of creature did she come in contact with to receive these powers?'
At a time like this, I truly could have used Althieus to support me with her wisdom.
Tensing myself I looked down at her, before taking a few steps back.
"Will you respond?"
"Prepare yourself," Dawn replied to me drawing Excalibur from her cloak.
The Holy Sword looked more like a tool of murder currently, covered in blood and grime.
'Will I be able to beat her? Should I reveal myself?'
My thoughts seemed worthless. I wasn't sure the Dawn I was facing right now was the same one from seven years ago anymore.
I drew a bland iron sword from my sub-space and gripped it with two hands.
'I will subdue her! With my swordsmanship.'
Dawn charged at me at incredible speeds I could hardly perceive her, but her bloodlust gave away her intentions.
'Neck!'
I swung my sword parrying a blow that would have killed me, even though I probably can't survive beheading. Immediately after my parry, I sent a devastating powerful kick into her side. Shockwaves flew throughout the room and the floor cracked. Dawn stood, unphased.
"What the hel-"
Without letting me finish my sentence a swift blade thrust at me between my eyes.
'I can't dodge that!'
Panicking I dived under the blade into a danger zone, just as I would expect a kick flew into my face, followed by a powerful elbow sending me into the ground under her. Immediately after I rolled over to the side avoiding a blade sent down that would have decapitated me in an instant.
Rolling over I jumped back up to my feet and took a few deep breaths looking at Dawn who stared at me with bloodlust.
"What kind of power is that?" I asked while breathing hard.
"One that will be your undoing," Dawn replied and shards of ice began condensing into the air.
'Looks like she's planning to settle this quickly... If I want to defeat her without using Draconic Force... I just need to grasp a new level of swordsmanship!'
Taking a deep breath I got into posture and prepared for Dawn's assault, I knew she had better speed, power, and durability than me. If my body wasn't in a malnourished weakened state I would be able to put up much more of a fight, but never does anything go the way you want it to.
To cross our gap I need to read ahead and enhance my instincts, I gazed at the shards of ice that were shooting toward me. I read the path of every single shard. I predicted every possible attack that Dawn could throw at me and went with the most plausible choice.
I swung my sword deflecting all the shards that flew at me, Dawn herself vanished from her spot. My expression twisted into a smile, and I stomped on the ground, the floor shook and Dawn jumped into the air.
'Just as planned!'
She dove down, with her blade carrying enough power to flatten me and destroy the mundane iron sword I carry. If I was any average swordsman that is. I held my sword at an angle diverting all the pressure from her attack.
Dawn's sword collided with mine, her expression was one full surprise. I reached up and grabbed her thigh crushing through the armor surrounding it, squeezing my grip even tighter I heard the bones snap and she dropped to the ground.
I immediately held my sword up to her neck and took a few deep breaths.
"Looks like you didn't cause my undoing princess."
Dawn's eye twitched slightly. Her face was indifferent but carried a sense of anger and bloodlust.
"Is that so?" She said looking up at me.
"You're quite nonchalant... Tell me what happened to those people."
"You're not going to kill me," Dawn said.
"What makes you think I won't?"
Dawn scoffed and lifted her finger up to the blade.
She then smiled and said:
"You would have already done it."
Immediately after her words a tendril made of blood wrapped around my right hand restraining it, Dawn instantly shot up and sliced my right hand clean off, disarming me and leaving me helpless in an instant.
I raised my hand to deliver and swift chop to her neck, Dawn quickly reacted by deflecting my chop. I was swept off my feet in an instant, and her hand wrapped around my neck slammed into the ground.
"You're relentless," I said looking up at Dawn.
She restrained me on the ground and held her sword up to me.
Dawn's deep purple right eye flickered and an unhinged expression appeared on her face.
"It was a good battle Blade Demon."
She positioned her blade in a position to slit my throat.
"W-wait!" I said with a smile.
Dawn looked at me with confusion.
"Why are you smiling in this situation."
"Could you take my hood off?"
"Last-second tricks won't save you Blade Demon."
"I'm not actually cursed that was just an excuse! I just prefer not to die with my hood on if that makes any sense."
"What difference does it make." Dawn gripped her sword and slid it slightly closer to my throat causing blood to drip out.
"Uhh, there's no difference but aren't you curious?"
"Not really."
I swallowed feeling the blade continue to get deeper into my skin.
"Okay! Okay... I'm someone who attended the same school as you, in fact, I was in the same class!"
"There were no elves in my class." Dawn's expression grew colder.
"Errr. I lied about being an elf."
"What about your elongated ears?" Dawn squinted her eyes.
"The hood has a spell making them look elongated," I said while trying my best to keep a friendly and straight expression.
Dawn sighed and looked down into my eyes.
"Don't try anything foolish." She commented while moving one of her hands from my neck to my hood.
The hood fell from my face giving Dawn no resistance, upon seeing my face she froze and looked at me.
"Rei?" She said looking at me with a defeated expression.
Taking my chances I circulated as much Draconic Force as I could to my fist and burrowed my fist into the stunned Dawn's stomach knocking her unconscious immediately.
I didn't really need to continue fighting her at this point, but I decided it would be better to let her formally calm down and I also needed to prepare myself, I didn't know the reason for her heinous slaughter of her comrades and her attempt to kill me, but I knew it was something sinister.
'It's been a while since a living person called me Rei.' I thought while picking up Dawn and leaning her against the wall.
I chuckled a little seeing the harmless expression on the sleeping Dawn's face, she was still covered in blood and such but it was nice to know that she probably wouldn't attack me again. Probably.
I was much more curious about the insidious purple aura she emits.
Letting out a long sigh I sat down and began circulating my Draconic Force, my current plan was just to wait until she woke up and hopefully have a civil conversation.