The shed door closed with a deafening bang, separating Wanda and her father.
Victor, his eyes wide with surprise, ran towards the door. With his dense muscles, he raised his fists and slammed the door hard. However, the wood was strangely hard, as if it had been turned into solid steel. He punched repeatedly, but the door remained immovable, resistant to his brute force.
Meanwhile, inside the shed, Wanda was momentarily paralyzed by the sight of a figure stepping out of the shadows and, in the next instant, a glow crossed the space between the Rank-S Hunter and the darkness. Wanda was surprised, but that didn't stop her from dodging a small curved sword that flew towards her. She managed to move her head a little to the right when the tip of the blade was already close to the skin on her left cheek, earning only a scratch.
Then the mysterious figure revealed itself to be a woman with black hair and intense eyes, dressed in dark clothes and holding another curved sword in her right hand. The woman's footsteps on the ground echoed loudly, and she approached slowly. Her piercing eyes met Wanda's, and a soulless smile curved her lips.
"'Arara~... You managed to dodge." said the woman, her soft voice contrasting with the tense atmosphere. "Blonde hair and long ears, that means you're exactly who I was looking for."
Wanda, recovering from the initial shock, clenched her jaw with determination, and placed her hand on the pommel of her sword, ready to draw it. "Who are you? You're the one who did this to Robe?!"
The woman raised one eyebrow as if appreciating Wanda's valor. "My name is Sable. And when you say 'Robe', do you mean that weak man I killed? Well, I had nothing to do, so I got a bit distracted by him while I was waiting for you to arrive."
The confession of Robe's murder caused anger to flare in Wanda's eyes.
Sable let out a soft laugh. "What can I do, little girl? That's my job."
Wanda clenched her fists. The urge to confront Sable was pulsing through her veins, but Victor's teachings had taught her that there are right times to draw a sword.
"What do you want?" Wanda asked, taking a deep breath.
The black-haired woman took a step forward. "Isn't it clear? I'm here to kill you, it's obvious."
Confusion mixed with anger in Wanda's eyes and then a subtle smile formed on her lips. "Kill me? You can try."
Wanda then tried to pull the sword out of its sheath, but a strange sensation ran through her body. Her muscles didn't respond to her command, and she realized, with growing horror, that she was somehow paralyzed. All she could move were a few of her fingertips, but the rest of her body was as hard as stone. Her eyes widened in despair and she began to struggle against the total immobility that enveloped her.
Sable watched Wanda's reaction with satisfaction, her lips curving into a triumphant smile. She began to slowly approach once more.
"You see~" said Sable, her melodic voice cutting through the tense silence of the shed, "I'm not a fool. I knew that killing a Rank-S Hunter wouldn't be an easy job. So, I lured your dear father to this town and then killed Robe with as much ruthlessness as I needed to shake you up, hoping that all this would lower your guard so that I'd have a one in ten thousand chance of catching you off guard." Sable raised the right-hand sword in her hand and showed a yellow liquid oozing out. "Paralysing poison, and on the other sword that cut your cheek too. I used enough to put an Ogre to sleep for days."
The revelation made Wanda's heart freeze. Anger bubbled up inside her. Wanda looked towards the door, where Victor was still pounding frantically in vain, trying to free her.
"Why are you doing this?" Wanda asked, her voice trembling slightly with the mixture of emotions that assailed her.
Sable shrugged nonchalantly. "For money, of course. But don't think that means I don't enjoy the chance to have a bit of fun while doing my job."
Wanda's face contorted again into an expression of impotent fury. She wanted to scream, to fight, to do anything to free herself from the paralysis that was keeping her immobile, but even her throat was beginning to stiffen, and it was no use trying, her body wouldn't respond.
Sable stepped closer, her eyes fixed on Wanda's with a disturbing focus. She lifted one of the curved swords, studying the blade with an appraising gaze.
"You're a monster," Wanda whispered in disgust.
Sable sighed and then smiled, as if she were being ironic. "Perhaps. But a very well-paid monster~"
Then Sable extended her left arm forwards, and the sword she had thrown returned to her possession.
"A pity you won't be able to scream while I'm having fun, Wanda Stillwind, I'd love to know what a desperate Rank-S sounds like~" said Sable, her tone hissing like that of a snake about to strike, "because the fun is about to begin."
However, before the assassin's blade could touch Wanda again, a thunderous roar echoed through the shed. Both women's eyes turned towards the door, where Victor, with an expression of rage, was lifting the heavy shed door with an impressive effort. He snorted and gasped at the same time, like a very, very angry buffalo.
" LEAVE MY DAUGHTER!"
Victor didn't even hesitate, he threw the door towards Sable with one hand and drew his sword with the other.
The assassin, in her turn, combined her two curved swords into one weapon, to cut through the thick door, but when the door split, Victor applied a downward strike with his sword, surprising Sable. She still managed to put her swords in front of her, momentarily stopping his attack. The clash of swords echoed throughout the darkened hall, and Sable tried to break free of this contest of strength, only to find that Victor's vigor was pressing her down, almost bringing her to her knees.
"RARRRGHH!!!" Victor roared with the fury of a Berserker.
'Who is this man exactly? I thought he was just a stupid country tavern keeper, but he has the strength of ten warriors!' thought Sable, startled as she was pressed down, only to see an excited smile at the corner of her mouth.
Whilst Victor's strength was a surprise to the assassin, fighting someone capable of resisting brute force was also a shock to him. Victor wasn't expecting to fight so soon, he hadn't prepared for it and, due to his age, he was rusty. So just when the contest of strength looked like it would end favorably for Victor, a vertebra in his spine creaked and snapped, causing intense pain.
Victor bit down hard, clenching his own teeth together, trying to resist the pain, but trying to maintain his sword posture and strength with so much pain afflicting him was like trying to stay dry during a storm.
Obviously, Sable realized Victor's momentary weakness and smiled cruelly, like a predator spotting its weakened prey. She drove her swords into Victor's, throwing him backward with all her strength and managing to escape the pressure. With a sudden twist, Sable channeled all her strength into one devastating move. The air buzzed around her and she struck with both swords still together, as if they were a single great sword.
Victor gathered all his strength and launched himself backward, dodging Sable's killing blow for a split second.
The air crackled as the blade passed, the high-pitched sound echoing like a wail in the ears of everyone present.
Sable clucked her tongue in frustration as she realized that her move had failed to find its target.
However, before she could react, Victor launched himself forward with his own blade slicing through the air in a determined arc. Thus, at the height of the battle, Victor made his first big mistake.
The moment he took the initiative, he left a gaping hole in his defense.
Sable, like a thundercloud, charged forwards, slightly tilted and with her swords hidden by her posture. Her move was lightning fast, fluid, and relentless, cutting everything in its path with the precision of a butcher.
A silent, muffled scream tore through the air, an agonizing sound that echoed through the shed like a dark echo. However, the scream was not Victor's, but Wanda's, who, paralyzed, had to watch helplessly.
Victor staggered forwards, his serious expressions like a mask of pain and despair, and then his back fell forwards alone, while his legs fell backward.
The hard, icy floor hugged his face, as comfortable as a stone pillow.
"I don't like it."
His body wouldn't move, no matter how desperately he tried. He didn't have the strength to lift even a single finger. Despite this, he felt a cozy sensation, like a warm, warm and suffocating embrace.
"Urgh... too strong."
With the tightness that was enveloping him, he had the impression that his mind was going to blank out. Little did he know that this sensation was being caused by his own throat, which was contracting as much as it could to stop any more blood escaping from his mouth.
In his blurred vision, he could see the ground completely covered in a vast red liquid. It took him a few moments to realize what it was.
"All this is mine...?"
He was talking about his blood, which soaked the white tiles. The sensation of seeing so much of himself in this way gave the illusion that all his organs had overflowed. He ran his trembling right hand down his back, groping as far as he could without reaching his legs. With effort, he turned his face a little and saw not only his legs, but his waist completely separated from his body. He realized what had happened. A violent cut had split him in half.
No wonder his body felt hot, after all, he was probably confusing "heat" with "pain".
In other words, he was facing the "game over" of his life. The moment he realized this, he felt like he was going to lose consciousness forever. However, just as his eyes were about to close, he heard a groan.
"Da...d?"
He heard a voice that sounded soft and melodic. The fact that he heard this voice, that he could still hear it, was a tremendous relief to him.
"Urhh..."
A groan was heard, this time indecipherable and accompanied by the sound of cutting flesh. Finally, he looked to his right, with strength that was no longer his.
The body of a girl with pointed ears, blonde hair, and a curved sword stuck in her back was right next to him, and there was her arm outstretched as if trying to reach him. He crawled over and lightly grasped that inert hand with his own bloodstained hand and felt Wanda's fingers move slightly.
"Wait..." he said, trying to stay conscious to say one last thing to this girl. "The hut... I want to live with you there again, so I promise I'll save you, my child..."
In the next instant, he, Victor Shieldman, lost his life.