The small village was surrounded by the snow covered trees. What do I even expect when the village is situated in the middle of a snow forest; even the ground was covered in snow. But the weather was not gloomy even if the sun was yet to rise.
The houses were small and made up of stones and rocks. The distribution of the houses were neither dense nor continuous. As if they made the houses in a rush or maybe without any planning at all.
The boundary, however was well made of woods; Not to mention hard and thorn bearing plants. I wonder why they came up with that idea, maybe for protection against the wild animals.
If you're living in a forest like this, protection comes first before eating. And if you're a Daiken user, you got the upper hand to protect yourself.
When we reach the entrance of the village, the armed soldiers were confused. They were, as if, preparing for war; waiting for the enemies to approach. Wait a minute, if they there this much prepared, what were they doing when Burner's team captured the women and children?
"Lady Sika, why are you back with the evacuated people? And where's the guards." One of the soldier asked her in a worrying manner.
"Niel, tell my father that the hunter's team has been defeated. They no longer posses threat."
"I'm confused, my lady."
'So am I dude. What the hell even is going on here.' I thought as I looked at Niel or what his name was.
"You said the hunter's team has been defeated. But how? And who are those humans standing there."
"Neil" with a commanding voice, "Don't ask questions, just do what I told you to. Fetch my father here at once. Uhh.. On a second thought, take me to where he is."
"As you wish my lady. Please follow this way." He marked.
"Samuel, please follow us. You as well, sorry I forgot your name, what was it?" she asked.
"Kosel, ma'am."
"Ah.. Kosel. You don't have to be so worry about it. We don't hold any grudge against you."
Sika's remark left Kosel speechless as we followed her. The escorted Iceborns followed us as well. Come to think of it, the village was small, so as the numbers of them. They were just ordinary humans. I don't get it, humans hunting humans just they posses something little different from them.
Truly, leave demons or monsters aside, human's greatest foe is humans themselves. Wherever they find little distinct, they forget the 'Equality' which they always desire. In one term, humans fight for equal rights. At same time, they refuse the inferior ones considering themselves as not equal to them. Leading them to bear discrimination among themselves.
At the end of the day, Equality and Discrimination are the two side of a same coin. No matter how many times, you try to toss it, probability of discrimination always dominates equality.
Anyway, the group of armed soldiers were confused to see Sika. Even, when her father saw her, he was stunned; unable to grasp the reality of the situation so as I.
The person who was discussing strategies with his men, was huge around seven feet tall. His entire body was filled with cut marks; probably of blades or knives. Even his one eye was covered in an eyepatch. The furious look, gave me a vibe of warrior. I think he's not the type of a person who'll abandon his people rather than fighting to death.
But I still don't get, why they were wasting their time in here while the others got captured.
"Sika, what's the meaning of this? Why are you back with the other?" He said with a angry face. The other soldiers were frizzed as he spoke.
'What do you even mean by that. Aren't you happy to see your people safe' I did wanted to ask him, but I was scared of his mad face. Kosel was even more afraid of him.
"Father, the decoy plan failed. While we were evacuating with the rest of the citizen, they got us. I couldn't do anything as they took the children as hostages. Forgive me." Sika kneeled. "But as you see we all are safe now."
"What? They weren't coming after the village. Did they knew that we were prepared to take them head on."
"I overheard them while we were captured. It appeared, attacking the village was not their plan to begin with. they kept a close eye on us and followed our every movement. When we left the village for evacuation, they followed us avoiding confrontation against our soldier."
As it turned out they made a plan to evacuate the women and children with Sika being their leader and with some guards while the rest of the Iceborns remained in the village hoping to fight the hunters without holding back. Apparently that plan failed. Burner's team went after the evacuated group rather than facing the fighters in the village. An wise choice if you ask me.
"Damn those hunters. They were a step ahead of us from the very beginning." He crackled his teeth. "By the way, who are they? Their outfit matches the description of the hunters. Are they part of them."
He stood and came towards me.
'Damn he's huge' I was not afraid though. Rather I was confidant. He might look strong and have much more fighting experience, but I could defeat him; might be hard but not impossible.
"Oh. Father, let me introduce to our saviour." She stood between us, "This man is Samuel who saved our lives. He killed all the hunters in an instant. And this is his companion Kosel."
'Good one Sika. You're smart.' I thought. If he were to find that Kosel was part of the hunters team, he might have reacted differently.
"This boy you say. He seems to be weak brat to me. How can he be the saviour." His words were offensive for me.
"You think that." A little dark devilish smile appeared on my face.
Seriously of all time I got to smile like this in here. Ever since I came to Zakara, my emotions and impressions are a little different. More like, my image on the mirror I used to see back in my world, was dominating my emotions. I hope I don't get at anyone's bad side for it.
"What's with the smile, brat." He pulled a daiken from its sheath.
The daiken was light blue in colour. But the blade was not made of any metal, rather it seemed ice. On first look, one can't tell if it's a daiken or not. But I could feel the Sere-Yonn infused with it. It's far greater than the daiken I have.
Maybe it felt greater because I don't have the ice powers in my daiken. Or there maybe something bigger fact to it.
Just as I expected. His Tsu-Yonn-liens perfectly synchronized with the Sere-Yonn, making it more firm.
"Wait father, what're you doing. He's not our enemy." Sika's words were ignored.
"Huh? You wanna fight?" my gaze turned cold.
"So what if I am." The coldness of his daiken increased. Even I could feel it. The white smoke started to emit as well.
"Then I suppose I don't have any other option left to choose." I pulled ASTRA from my back. Reacting to my emotion, it already started to emit sparkles of lightning.
'StormWrath? What's that. Name of an attack perhaps.' I thought as the name echoed through my mind.
The Iceborn soldiers were scared of my dreadful eyes. Sika, being afraid of her father, was unable to do anything. And Kosel, he was passed out and was on the snow. I didn't know when that happen though.
Sika's father took a stance, slightly leaning towards me, holding the daiken behind his back with two hand.
This time I used a different style; it was also taught by Haruki as well. It was simple. I left my entire body wide open to take hit from any direction and just needed to be sharp and fast.
If everything remained in my favour as I anticipated, I would be able to deflect his attack and use my 'StormWrath'. My daiken was ready as well; sparkling even more.
My anticipation came as I needed them to be. Sika's father, the leader, came with his daiken hoping to strike at my neck from my left side. I used my daiken to deflect it as I planned. His daiken passed above my head; leading him to loose the opportunity to attack me again.
But I was wrong, he's faster than I thought. His daiken swinging was impressive. The blade came from my right side this time.
'Change in tactics, I can't take him on like this.' I thought and dodged his attacks falling back a little. I got a split second before he attacked again.
'Now's my chance.' I raised my daiken above my head, the daiken was calm; no sparkles anymore. Must be the calmness before the strom.
"Storm…..Wra....."
"Waiiiiiiii....ttttttt, wait wait wait wait wait wait….waiiiiiiittttttt." something tiny spoke as it came in front of me.
But holding the launching attack was impossible for me. I, thus had no choice but to throw the attack into the sky.
The lightning thunder was far beyond my imagination. The massive yellow sparkled lightning blew up the sky; the snowy clouds shattered. Even I got to see the sun for a some second.
"Oopppss." I smiled as I looked at the stunned face of everyone in there. Their mouths were wide open.
Even the fairy looking tiny creature that prevented me from attacking Sika's father, was stunned. She was small about the size of my palm, with snowy wings on her back and white hair. Not to mention, even if she was stunned, her eyes had the impression of 'That was awesome'.