If the pain didn't wake Roanna up, or the water and buzz of insects, birds, and amphibians, then her Janarn sense of survival did. Her eyes shot opened and, with a gasp, she shot up, or tried to. Instead, her arms gave away under her and she just barely caught herself before she hit the ground.

After a bit of catching her breath, Roanna looked around. She remembers falling off the cliff, as well as being attacked. The rest...was all fuzzy. Thinking back on it, she was glad it was. She doesn't want to remember falling off a cliff, less it scars her in a mental way as well.

She knew she was still in the swamp but she has only seen the swamp a couple of times, and always from cobbled roads. Where she was, she couldn't see any sign of a road, nor any sign of people. The white trees and small bodies of water was all that she sees. Well, that and the undergrowth. With a slight frown on her face, Roanna decided to look up to try and see if she can spot the cliff she fell off of.

Through the leaves of the trees, she could just barely make out the top of the cliff. Straining her eyes, she looked harder and spotted something off. Focusing in on it, she realized with horror that it was a edge of the cliff that was covered in blood...

....her blood.

 

Trying her best to not throw up, Roanna quickly looked away and covered her mouth with her hands, using her elbows to support herself. Once she felt the urge die down, she carefully tried to pick herself up again. Luckily, her arms didn't give up on her. Unfortunately, her broken foot, bent the wrong way and stuck in the mud, and her bleeding ankles, legs and wound in her hip, did. With a cry of pain, Roanna fell down, this time failing to catch herself. It took her a while to recover and, when she did, the pain only died down a little.

Cursing, Roanna waited a bit more before trying to free her broken bent foot, which was trapped in the mud, only to fail in the exact same way she did before. This repeated itself two more times until, finally, she managed to crawl a couple of inches forward, getting some of her foot out. Even if she knew the result was pitiful, Roanna had a smile on her face.

'Not a Janarn, ehh? I'll show them!' Roanna thought, recalling the few times she was bullied when she was much younger.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to stand up and, after a yell of pain and determination, got her foot free and, wasting no time, pushed herself off the ground. Using her right arm, she hugged a tree and quickly scrambled to her feet, or one good right foot. After a quick look at herself, assessing the damage, her strained smile faded, replaced by a hopeless scowl. That wound on her hip was more of a gaping hole, and part of the arrow was still inside her right hand. She also had burn marks on her chest, visible through her tattered garbs.

The people of Janarn may be tough, but for someone like Roanna, who has yet to experience combat and train for it, her body isn't tough enough to survive these wounds for long, especially in the swamp where the amount of bacteria would eventually wear down her highly tough immune system, infecting her wounds and making her chances even lower. 

Roanna felt like crying but, despite the few tears that were in her eyes from the pain and despair, she refused. She was a Janarn, and a noble at that. She will not be pathetic. No! She will try with all her might to survive, no matter how hopeless the situation is.

Clenching her left hand into a fist, Roanna smiled, a determined, shaky, and somewhat not sane smile, but a smile nonetheless. That changed when a familiar black arrow hit her on her cheek and bounced off due to it not having enough force behind it.

Roanna took once glance at it then quickly shot back and caught a more normal-looking arrow with her left hand, her right hand still holding the tree. After taking one look at the arrow, Roanna dropped it and took off running. Almost immediately, she fell, but quickly recovered herself and kept going.

Her "run" was more of a wobble since she could only use one foot but that was enough for her. Her body and mind quickly adapted to her stressful situation, using her hands to catch herself when she falls and using them to push herself forward. If one were to describe her running style, it would be a mix between an exotic animal known as a monkey and a three-legged dog.

It was around forty seconds of running did Roanna trip. As she got ready to catch herself, she looked down and saw that there was no ground beneath her. Instead, there was another smaller cliff. Roanna didn't have time to even open her mouth when her left hand hit a rock at an awkward angle, breaking the rock but snapping her wrist in the process. 

She screamed as she went down. When she stopped, she could barely move Curled up in a ball, Roanna tried her best to stop crying. It didn't take long before she felt the same feeling she felt before back on the cliff. Kicking out with her feet and ignoring the sharp pain she got in the process, Roanna kicked the rocky wall in front of her, pushing herself out of the way just in the nick of time to avoid an arrow. 

That got her up and running. After stumbling for a bit, she managed to get up and start her run again. This time, she only lasted twenty seconds before she slowed down and had to take a rest against a tree. Her breathing was slightly ragged but her legs and arms were so full of pain that she couldn't feel them anymore. 

She only got four seconds of resting when she heard footsteps ahead of her. Peeking out from the tree, deciding she'd rather see the face of her killer, she was taken back by what she saw. 

In front of her, wearing modified getas made for farming and fishing, and light grey robes as well as a straw hat that covers part of their face, was a young woman. Her skin was just a shade paler than her own, and her eyes were a light pale green color, like somehow the sun had managed to alter two pieces of jade. And, just like her unusual yet pretty eyes, her hair was a whitish silver color, or silverish white. It was messy and went down to her hips, but that only added to her overall charm and beauty. 

She looked like a farmer, even having a piece of wheat in her mouth, but the two high-grade sheaths on her left hip suggest otherwise, or she saved up and managed to buy the two swords. Even if she was a farmer, Ronna couldn't help but stare at her. She is the most beautiful person she has ever seen, and for some reason, that is causing her cheeks to go run and her heart to start beating faster.

A couple of minutes flew by, or at least that's what it felt like to Roanna, until the woman spoke.

 

"Say, are you okay? By the looks of it, you've most definitely seen better days," The woman asked, a somewhat smug smile forming on her face.

 

"Ahh...um....N-no, I'm not alright," Roanna answered, actually surprising herself. She thought she wouldn't be able to talk after all she's been through during the last twenty or so minutes.

"Oh! Is that so?" The woman asked, her eye twitching slightly as if she was surprised by something, "Well, are ya being chased?"

The more the stranger talked, the more Roanna realized she had a weird accent that she couldn't place. The closest she could place it at would be a south western accent that only a very few have. She herself has only heard it spoken once, and it was from a little girl who, after speaking, was instantly scolded by her mother for some reason. It happened a long time ago so she doesn't know fully what happened.

"Y-yes, I am being chased," Roanna admitted, reaching up the scratch the back of her head only to wince and stop upon experiencing a jolt of pain, "and I don't know why either."

"Could be because yer a daughter of a Lord," The stranger pointed out, "If I know one thing, it's that the backwater of the Clans are always hungry for work."

Roanna tilted her head at that.

"Backwater?" She asked, inciting a small giggle from the stranger.

"Yes, backwater," The stranger said again before continuing, "It is the place where many people who can fight but lack the loyalties too do things for money, and often being told to do these things by the Clans lesser Lords of the Clans to try and earn more power."

"Lesser Lords? Like Elcer?" Roanna asked, remembering how Lord Elcer has the smallest house compared to the other Lords she has met.

"Elcer, huh? Does his manor have a golden crest with a rising sun on it?" 

"Yeah, h-his house does, but so do about seven other Lords I know, only their houses are much larger."

The stranger nodded at that, seemingly satisfied with the answer, though the flash in her eyes that disappeared as quickly as it came suggested otherwise. 

"I see...Say, you don't happen to be-" The stranger began but was cut off when the sound of rustling hit her ears.

In one quick motion, she spun around and pulled out her two swords, the one in her right hand being a katana and the one in her left hand being a wakizashi. Both of the handles of the blades was black with white diamonds going down the center of each hilt. 

A couple of seconds later and a man wearing a white torn kamino and a mainly bald head, with the only hair on his head being tied back into a ponytail. His eyes were trained on Roanna and, with a yell, he lunged forward, the katana in his hand flashing forward...

....and his arm was chopped off and his blade deflected even faster than he swung. 

The man blinked, confused, before he turned his head and saw the woman who gave him a cold look before simply and lazily thrusting her wakizashi forward, impaling him through his lower jaw and neck, watching the life drain from his eyes. 

 

She was no longer smiling.

 

As she drew her arm back, getting ready to finish him off with her katana, she stopped and darted back, avoiding a arrow with a black arrow head. Two more arrows came from the bushes. One of them was blocked by her wakizashi while the other one went past and nicked her right hand which she hadn't moved since she thought the arrow was going to miss.

Letting out a small sigh, the woman turned and avoided a katana swung right at her. Two more men erupted from the bushes, both dressed similarly to the other one. Not wasting any time, the woman slashed the man who swung at her in his chest with her swords before spinning around and stood on one foot, building up, The man saw this and attempted to block the strike but only succeeded in blocking one. The wakizashi broke through his defense and sliced him across his throat, causing him to jump back to recover. It was at this point that the other man moved in.

He got ready to strike but the woman was faster and relentless. She spun around, scoring her swords across his chest like she did to the first one. Only, this time, instead of striking again, she flipped her swords around and shoved the hilts into his chest while using the blade end of her swords to hold his arms in place, breaking his guard. 

Now wide open, the man could do nothing to prevent the woman from stabbing both swords into his upper chest and ripping them out. Once they were out, she flipped them again, the blades catching the underside of the man's arms. Unlike before, her flip set the blades right back to where they were instead of holding them with the blades facing behind her, allowing her to spin around and slash his chest upwards, causing him to stagger, where she swiftly kicked him and darted to her right, avoiding a sword swing from the other man.

When she darted, or dodged, she moved so fast that she disappeared. She quickly reappeared to the man's right, behind him and still moving, which meant she didn't use magic to teleport but just really moved that fast. 

The gust of wind alerted the man to where she appeared and he quickly spun around while darting back, hoping to place distance between the two. While he succeeded, he didn't account for the woman to spin around and casually throw her wakizashi at him. The sword flew in the air and impaled him in the chest, tipping him off balance and causing him, in his struggle to maintain his balance, fall to his knees. 

The woman was on him in an instant, lunging forward and impaling him through his chest with her katana. The man stumbled up only to kneel when she kneed him in his stomach and, to finish him off, elbowed his neck, bringing him to all fours, and impaled the man through his head with her katana, shoving it so hard that it went all the way through and into the ground.

Seeing that the woman had disarmed herself, the last remaining man lunged forward, though his steps were wobbly from his heavy and nearly fatal wounds. The woman, however, was not as defenseless as she looks and darted to the right, once again disappearing from sight. The man swung his katana in a wide ark, hoping to catch him. His blade did hit her, only it was more of she hit the blade, stepping on it with her foot. The man only had time to look up before her fist connected with his face, sending him flying a couple of feet back. To his credit, though, he managed to hold onto his blade.

Freed up, the woman perked up, seemingly on alert for something, before she walked over to the man from before and, with a twist of her body, ripped her katana out of the body and, with her left hand, pulled her second sword nearly out of the body by grabbing the blade. With a kick, she succeeded in pulling her wakizashi out by the blade and, after flicking it clean, turned her attention back towards the last remaining man, or now two since another one joined him.

This man wore a dark blue non-tattered kamino and seemed to be the older brother of the first man he killed going off his appearance. He was much taller than the other two she killed and, likewise, his katana was thirty-one inches long, being the longest a standard katana can be. One his chest was even a golden emblem, showing that he once was a Sergeant. 

Upon seeing this, Roanna scowled. Up to this point she has been smiling, enjoying watching the beautiful woman move and fight. She wasn't even disgusted all that much by the gore being so close to her. Yet, seeing that emblem meant only one thing. This man was a Rōnin, the filth of the world. 

Everyone, know matter who they are, are taught at an extremely young age that Rōnin are never to be treated nicely, with respect, or trusted. That they are dishonorable nobodies who have to cling to the Gods and pray for their own forgiveness. That, in order for one to become a Rōnin, they don't have the might and honor to kill themselves for failing their duty to the point where no one will give them another chance. 

This look did not go unnoticed by the woman, who took it in with only a glance before she darted forward. Her first target was the Rōnin, After closing the gap, she reached out with her katana before shifting and planting her feet on the ground, swerving around to kick him in the chest. Unfortunately, the Rōnin already saw this coming by seeing the slight rustle in her robes and, going along with her feint attack, pretended to guard to his left only to switch back and shove the hilt of his weapon down, planning to knock her leg down to the ground. 

Both plans worked and failed at the same time. The Rōnin predicted the woman's move but, even though he hit her left shin with the hilt of his weapon, her kick still went through, kicking the man nearly nine to ten feet away where he slid on the muddy ground and hit his head against a tree, cracking it.

Ignoring the pain in her leg, the woman spun around to face her previous target and lunged forward, spinning around and catching the man in his chest again with her two swords despite the man jumping back. Following her blow up, she twirled forward, showing her skill in footwork, and sliced the man's right arm with her katana, causing him to fall to his shins. Once there, she spun up and plunged both her swords into his shoulder blades, causing him to scream out in pain. Ignoring it, the woman ripped out her katana and spun around, ready to cut his head off.

Instead, she saw through the briefest reflection of her blade as she ripped it out and spun, the Rōnin pulling out a magically silenced Crossbow*. She has sensed the magic on him but, by constantly using it, he could do something like this without alerting the woman to a shift in the magic. 

She spun around and disappeared only to reappear right in front of him, slicing him six times, her third strike damaging the crossbow, her fifth destroying it, and her sixth one bringing the man to his knees. As she went to cut his head off, he surprised her by bringing up his sword to block the blow while summoning a magic ball over his head. Instead of continuing her advance, she leaped back and spun around, darting to her right before darting to her left, swinging her katana at the other man. He put his hand up, whether to beg for mercy or to try and defend himself not clear, but that did little to prevent his death. Her katana cut off the top of two of his fingers before finding its home in his neck. It was thanks to his fingers that his head wasn't cut clean off, but that was an easy fix. The woman just simply adjusted her grip and pushed, cutting his head clean off as her katana met the blade of her wakizashi. With his head rolling on the ground, the woman paused, once again on alert, before she spun around and threw her katana at the Rōnin. 

Her katana slipped through his defense and impaled him in his right hip but the Rōnin simply pulled it out, twirled both swords, and ran at the woman. The woman was still for two seconds before she nodded in approval and pulled out her wakizashi, switching it to her right hand, and ran to meet him.

The two met in the middle of the clearing, head on, but the outcome was clear. The woman ducked under his strike, stabbed him deeply in his stomach, ripped her sword free and deflected a blow from her own katana and kicked the hilt of the other one, and impaled the man again, this time in his heart. Then, ripping it out, she stabbed him once more in the center of his chest, breaking his ribcage, before ripping it out and spinning around behind the man where she stabbed him once more in the center of his back...and directly through his spin.

The Rōnin fell to his knees which allowed the woman to pluck her katana out of his hand, which she then used to cut the Rōnin's spine twice above her wakizashi, before stepping forward, following the man as he fell on all fours, pulling her wakizashi out in the process, and thrusted it down in the back of his head, killing him.

Pulling her sword free, she flicked both of them clean of most of the blood that was on them before she turned back to face Roanna, who had some blood on the lower part of her tattered outfit.

"Sorry...It seems I'm a little rusty and failed to keep you clean," The woman spoke, startling Roanna before she realized what she just said.

"O-oh, this?" Roanna asked, pointing weakly at her ruined outfit, "D-don't worry about i-it. Th-this is nothing."

'During that whole fight, she was trying not to get any blood on me? Just how cool is she!?' Roanna thought, hiding her face behind the tree she was still using as support to stand up.

The woman was silent for a while, staring at Roanna, before she grew a smile. Roanna was instantly taken back by the smile. It not only was a sadistic and somewhat scornful smile, like she was looking at trash, but she was showing some of her teeth, which could only be described as razor sharp fangs.

"Tell me, daughter of the Prime Minister," The woman said, taking a step forward while Roanna tried to figure out how she knew who she was, "how does it feel to know that you were saved by the kind you all loath?"

The end of the question caught her totally off guard and, for a long couple of seconds, she could only stare, confused.

 

"Tell me," The woman continued, readjusting her hat as her smile grew, "how does it feel to be saved by a Rōnin?"

 

Roanna, this time, clearly understood the question and stared blankly at her, her jaw open.

"You're a Rōnin?" She finally got out, pointing at the woman with a blank expression still on her face.

"Indeed. I've been a Rōnin for a very long time," The woman answered, raising an eyebrow as she waited for the reaction she knew was going to happen.

It took a couple of seconds but Roanna's eyes slowly narrowed and a bit of disgust appeared in it. Yet, much to the Rōnin's surprise, Roanna simply shrugged.

"Pretty awesome if I do say so myself," Roanna admitted, her eyes nearly forming stars, "I-I mean, d-do you know how amazing your footwork-"

 

THUNK

 

The Rōnin's eyes narrowed as she watched Roanna fall to the ground face-first, an arrow sticking out the back of her head. She had sensed the archer coming but too late realized that he wasn't running away but going in for the kill. 

The archer didn't try to run away, instead stepping out of his hiding place and approaching her. His outfit was black and was more akin to what a shinobi in training would wear than what an archer or bandit would. He was also the man who was firing the black-tipped arrows.

"Do you know how hard it is to sneak around you without you sensing me?" The man asked, his voice rough and low, "Very hard."

The Rōnin didn't answer him, instead giving Roanna's dead body a look of confusion before she went back to giving the man a blank, if not a bit annoyed, expression.

"Get it in your head, Sovanna, that there is no place for people like them with people like us. If you wanted a toy, you should have went to a slum."

With that, the man, another Rōnin like her, disappeared into the undergrowth, leaving her alone surrounded by bodies of the slain.

 

 

Crossbow: A small bow-like gadget that goes on someone's arm. Used by assassins, shinobi, or some rich warriors in a pinch.