"Heal the boy and take him away" Tharros shouted commands at some of the men, they were still too stunned to speak but Kayden dragged himself up, blood dripping from his nose.
"I'm good sir" he forced himself to say, but Tharros had already left, locked in battle with the thing that was Guts but wasn't him, Kayden struggled to get himself to his feet, he wondered why nobody had come to his aide, 'Did they not care about me that much', he thought to himself as he dug up an elixir from his bag, finishing the entire potion in one go.
He turned around feeling refreshed only to see the reason why no one had come to him, they were surrounded, by humans, or things that seemed like humans, they were exactly like Guts.
Kayden immediately drew his saber taking a stance he had mastered for years on end, this was his first real experience with things that weren't human, looking around him he observed as much as he could
A warrior fell as spikes of blood shot through his skull, the sight gave him pause, unsure of what to do or who to help, he looked out searching for Thane.
Thane was locked in battle with one of them, he fought as hard as he could implementing elemental attacks, trying his best to evade and not get hit by their bloody spikes, Kayden stepped forward, confident he could do something about it.
Before he took a step, Tharros crashed into the ground in front of him, there was a gaping sword wound at his thigh, and blood dripping from his lips.
"T... Tharros"
Kayden couldn't believe it, Tharros had fallen, he looked back to see where Tharros was engaged in battle, and he noticed that the thing that was Gut had lost an arm and leg with multiple injuries on its body, yet it stood as if immune to pain.
There was nothing in the books he had read about things like this, he ran towards Tharros giving him an elixir, Tharros took it immediately from his hand and then clutched Kayden's shirt tightly.
"Protect me for three minutes, just three boy," he said then popped the cork of the elixir, drank it, and began meditating, Kayden looked around after he heard a sound, swinging his saber wildly in the air.
Kayden couldn't see the other warriors, they were either dead or had run away, it was just him and Tharros stranded here, the things that had fought the other warriors slowly approached him.
Their steps were light, they made no marks on the snow as they moved toward him, to make matters even worse the one that had fought Tharros had somehow healed itself and it was coming toward him.
Kayden looked at the thing as it approached, and so did the others, Kayden swung his sword wildly in a half-circle
"Stay away"
"Get out of here" he screamed, they paid no attention, they walked towards them, not all together but one by one, Kayden knew he couldn't just sit here and do nothing, he had to protect Tharros, he was his only chance of escaping this thing.
He felt at his core, drawing power from within, A blue aura surrounded him with sparks of lightning flowing around him, it wasn't much and this was all he could manage.
Extending his aura, he pushed it into his weapon, metals were very conductive, as an outsource that wasn't his body, he held the blade in a horizontal line with his other hand touching the tip of his blade, although he wished the saber was a bit lighter, he couldn't complain about it now.
By forcefully sending the lightning in and out of his body, using the blade as a medium, his aura got more intense, much more visible, and deadly, his clothes began to burn up as he rotated his essence numerous times, and he eventually took as stance as soon as one of them got close enough.
He bolted, fast as lightning, slicing off both legs and fell to the ground, he looked at the others slowly approaching, they began regarding him in his new form, he looked at himself and the blood that splattered on his earlier, the blood tried moving around but immediately hit dried up in seconds.
The one he had just cut down screamed as it shot a blood spike toward Kayden from behind, with lightning reflexes he dodged the attack, bringing down his saber on its neck.
The blood that poured out was thick and black, it moved as if searching for a new source of life, Kayden stuck its neck with the tip of the sword and shot a bold of lightning through it, seconds later the burnt up headless corpse fell to the ground.
Kayden breathed heavily, he had never expended so much essence in his life, he was almost half his power and he had killed only one, he looked back at Tharros as he meditated, unsure of how much time had passed.
Kayden swung his sword to his shoulder, the saber heavy on his hand but he didn't mind, it was his weapon for now, he shot toward them as if expecting him, and they all shot blood spikes toward him, he evaded as many as he could, one scratched his lower left hip then the black blood dried up almost immediately, the damage, however, was done.
It slowed him down but not enough, he managed to slice off the head of the one that attacked him, then turned around with fast reflexes to dodge the attack that came from behind, there were three on him now while the thing that was Guts simply stood and watched.
The three of them all took angular positions around me, it was more than a pincer attack, it was an angular block, and he had nowhere to go, he tried slashing at one of them but they blocked it with a thick block of blood.
He understood they could manipulate the black blood however they wished, they just lacked the intelligence to do so, the tendons in his right leg were slashed, making him fall to the ground, and the black blood dried as quickly as it had cut his skin but his blood didn't
He fell to one knee unable to do anything, at this point he couldn't be bothered about Tharros anymore, the man had probably left him to escape, and he wouldn't blame him either, Kayden would probably do the same if the situation came to that.
His protective aura slowly died out, he was very low on soul essence and couldn't keep his form for long, he looked at his saber as he heard thunder rolling in the sky, the aura from his blade completely vanished and so did the one surrounding him.
The things surrounding him made cackling sounds of laughter, their faces bending at weird inhuman angles, he heard the thunder rolling even more fiercely.
"I did my best," Kayden said to himself, there was nothing else he could do except...
A huge bolt of lightning, bigger than anything Kayden had ever seen struck where he sat, its range and power were so wide and destructive that it covered at least a ten-meter radius as it melted the rocks that surrounded it.
"Haaaarrr, are you still alive boy" Tharros threw his head back in laughter as he watched the numerous bodies of things that weren't human fall to the ground as parts of their bodies broke apart.