4. The Samurai
439 3 15
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

As the two of them stood over-top the dead men, Eika started to gag. "Eika has seen death before, but this different..." V nodded. Although he could not remember the details, he knew he had seen and caused death in his previous life, but this was just brutal. The first man's head looked as if it slowly crushed, like a watermelon between a vice. At this range, he was also able to tell that both of his arms had been dislocated. The second man's body was no better. "O" had slowly pushed her foot through the man. It was not a clean hole. Eika turned away, breathing heavily and bent over. "So, what did you want us to recover?" Weakly Eika responded "Uh, they should have an identification card somewhere."

In other circumstances he would loot them. The one without a head had a usable leather chest piece, the one with the hole in his midriff had a short sword that appeared unharmed. However, if he was intending to report the dead bodies to the town, he couldn't very well show up with their belongings, could he? As he searched them for their cards, attempting to avoid the gore. After a time, he found the headless man's card in a small pouch on the front of his armor. "Uh, Eika. I found one, but if the other guy had his in the same place, its either crushed to dust or... you know, inside of him." V handed her the card he had found, she nodded weakly, a bit pale. "This should be good enough, they can figure out the rest later..." She hurriedly moved away from the bodies, toward the outskirts of the town, V following. After a comfortable distance had been placed between them and the bodies, Eika dropped back behind V, following him.

As they approached the town proper, V was able to gather a better measure of it. Certainly not a city, no walls, no castle, and not large enough, but not small enough for a village. Town really was the best descriptor he could think of. He could not see anyone yet, but that probably had something to do with it now being nighttime proper. "We should return me to the guild before much longer. I might get in trouble if I’m gone longer than a day." Eika had recovered from the unfortunate scene they had left behind. V nodded "Just point me in the right direction." Before he could take another step, a voice called out from behind him. "Ah, so it was rabbit I was smelling! The fear of a prey animal is always stronger than others..."

V froze and closed his eyes for a moment, gathering himself. Great. To be honest, V had thought they got lucky and evaded her. Although based on how things have been going for him so far, he should have known better, pointless to regret now however. He turned around, Eika had fallen over, terrified. A few yards away stood the woman V least wanted to see. O stood there; her physical form even more imposing than it appeared from afar. She laughed at the small rabbitkin's terror. "At-least run, I heard your kind are quick. It’s boring if you just lay there."

V realized that, for the moment, O's attention was entirely focused on Eika. He could probably make a break for it. He doubted she would follow him into the town, and the first house was only about fifty yards away. As he considered the viability of running, O took a single step forward. Eika scrabbled backward on the ground, before grabbing V's legs in terror. Great. O looked at V for the first time "Oh? You think he can save you?" O appraised him, gauging his strength. "Ya, he’s not going to be able to do much, little girl. Looks nice though, maybe I will have fun with him before he dies." A wild expression grew over O's face.

Can't outfight her, can’t reason with her. He might have been willing to abandon Eika, but kicking the girl off of him was a bridge too far, so running was out of the question. At the moment, all he could do was buy time, while trying to find a way out of this. "Are you quite certain? I'm not like the elf you pulverized, not all of us are so weak." V dropped into what he figured approximated a "fighting stance," shaking Eika off of him as he stared O down. The wild woman looked even more interested "Oh? Someone who might put up a fight? What a good ending to the day..." she looked at Eika, who was crawling backwards as fast as she could manage, in clear terror. "But first, let’s remove the distraction!" Even if V could get to Eika in time, it’s not like he could save her. "Sorry Eika, ill pour one out if I survive this." His thoughts grim, he watched as O rushed the small girl, intent on stomping her into dust.

At the final moment, as the woman's foot was inches from Eika's head, she was suddenly thrown backward. Blood spraying from a sudden wound along her right leg. As if out of thin air, a woman stood next to Eika. Long flowing hair, intense violet eyes, the woman stood with utmost confidence. She was tall, not as tall as O, but tall and beautiful enough to be a model in his old world, thought V. Her sword was drawn, dripping fresh blood, V believed it might have been a Katana, he had seen one in his boss’s office once.

——————
Name: L
Age: 21
Class: Divine Samurai Lv 2
——————

For some reason, the woman had only hidden part of her information, a clear player in the God's game. "Son of a bitch!" O growled angrily "I should have killed you the first time we met!" L scoffed, "Isn't this what you wanted? To fight the strong? Don't go crying now that you have been scratched, or is your mind so weak that a wound like that will stop you?" As she spoke, she placed herself between Eika and O. V thought it was a bit of an obvious taunt to distract O from the small girl, but it seemed to be working. O rubbed her hand in the blood flowing down her thigh, and smeared it on her own face, making her look even more wild. "Of course not! I live for blood! Yours, mine, it makes no difference to me!" For the first time, O's voice contained something other than wild aggression. "Are you sure you don't wish to join me? I know you crave battle as I do. I can see it in your eyes, I smell the desire for battle upon you. Together, think of the massacre we could achieve!"

L shook her head "You know the answer, it has not changed since the last time we spoke" She readied her weapon as O responded "I suppose I will have to beat you until you surrender! It would be a waste to kill you." O charged toward L. Eika had moved far enough away by this point that she should be safe for the time being. L barely managed to dodge the crushing blow aimed at her left shoulder, as she jumped back, she attempted to slash O. Her sword connected, but it only barely penetrated the massive woman’s skin. "Not good enough!" O roared and she grabbed L's blade, bare handed. "I figured out how you are so strong, but that does not make your weapons any stronger, does it?" A strange, extremely faint metallic taste filled the air, at the same time a red hue crept into O's eyes. She brought her free arm crashing down into the flat edge of the blade. Her fist shattering the weapon. As pieces of metal flew everywhere, L retreated, the expression on her face was of the utmost surprise. She clearly had not accounted for this level of power.

O laughed, the laugh of a wild animal. Her eyes slowly returned to their original brown color as she advanced on L. As the two of them fought, it was clear to V that without her weapon, there was no actual way for L to deal any damage. L was doing a fair job of using the six inches of her blade that still remained attached to the hilt, but it was not going to be enough. He had to do something, or after L was dead or broken, he would certainly be next. He wrapped part of his shirt around his right hand as he searched for the largest shard of L's sword.

O taunted as she pressed her advantage "Tools are so cumbersome, and they always fail when you need them. My body will never fail me! Join me, I’ll teach you to use your fists, so the next time your little toy breaks, you are not so useless!" She laughed and her right fist lightly connected with L's shoulder. Even as glancing blow, it did enough damage to make L stumble backwards. Seeing her chance, O rushed forward, grabbing L by the neck, lifting her up into the air. L struggled against her grip, but it was as hopeless as a fly in a flytrap. "Are you sure this is where you wish to die? There are so many more battles to be had. So many more people to kill, don't give it up simply because you do not like me!" L, determined to fight to the end, used all of her strength to drive the six inches of her sword as deep as she could into the O's chest. "Ah well, you were not that strong anyway..." O began to strangle the life out of the woman, who still struggled in her grip.

Then, O froze. She felt the cold edge of a small blade upon the back of her neck. She had forgotten about the other man. She realized too late, that it might have been a mistake. V pushed the fragment of L's sword against the back of O's neck as hard as he could. He did not expect it to penetrate, but he never had any ideas of actually being able to hurt her in the first place. Even through his wrapped hand, he was pushing hard enough for the metal to bite into his own hand. "If you want to get of out this situation, put the lady down." O, aggravated with herself allowing herself to be caught like this, growled lowly "Why would I? I doubt you can harm me with the small blade you have there, maybe a small cut at best. If you think to drive it into my spine, I doubt you could do so, even if you hammered it into my neck." The fact that O had not simply turned around and turned V's head into paste meant that his plan was going as he intended. "You know why right? Its why you have not killed me yet. You don't know my class, or anything about me. You can’t take the risk. That is smart, smarter than I thought you would be able to manage" Any fear V might be feeling was nothing in comparison to the time he had to inform his old boss that he uh, lost his daughter, the fact that fear had been driven out of him years ago was really serving him well. O implied she could smell fear after all. "In-fact, my class is that of an Assassin. I do not need to kill you with this blade, the slightest of cuts will fill even your body with enough poison that you will not live long" O shifted slightly "Long enough to kill you though, im still not sure why you think I would put the girl down." Perfect, she bought it. Realizing that he had won, he smiled "You wish to die in such a pathetic way? You certainly will kill us, but then you will find yourself crawling away as your body betrays you. You might almost make it to borders of the town before the darkness takes you. Not even your own blood to comfort you, just a cold death under the night sky."

O, moving slowly, placed L back on the ground. "That does sound awful, fine, I’ve put the girl down, now what?" This was the part that V was still a little concerned about. "That is a good question. It would be nice if you would just leave, but I’m not stupid enough to trust a wild animal." O grinned "Smart, they will tear you apart before you even know it..." They stood there for a few moments before O spoke again "That girl is not going to be of any help to you either. I suppose we simply stand here until one of us get tired." V was under no illusions that this woman would tire before him. "Yes, I suppose we could..." If he could stand here all night, when morning came its probable that as the town awoke, the scene would be noticed and he could acquire some help. However, L seemed to be doing poorly, if he wanted to save her, this would have to end well before morning. Although, that was not his main concern, he did not know the woman that well, it was a factor. O sighed "What a pathetic end to this battle, I would be impressed with you as well, but I am not a fan of this type of trickery." Better to keep her talking while he attempted to find a way out of the current situation. "I do not care about that sort of thing. I’m not in it for the battle, or the thrill. I'm certainly also not in it for the honor. Just for victory. I will do whatever I have to if it means I win." O sighed "What a sad viewpoint." After roughly four minutes had passed, V realized that pushing the blade against her so hard, was not something he could keep up for much longer. As he started to grow concerned once again, he was delivered from the situation.

"Over there! They are over there!" He heard Eika's shouting. Eika was running toward them, with 4 armored guards in tow. This was his only chance, "Even you can’t fight 4 armed guards while your leg is bleeding out, and what is left a sword stuck into your chest. I also can promise you, that even if those four only take you a few seconds to crush, my knife will find its way to your skin. Let us just end this." O considered for a time. She did not want to give up. The guards did not concern her, but this man at her back did. "Fine, but I promise you, you will not leave this town alive." V nodded "Ill remove my knife right before they are close enough that I’m confident you will not simply turn and strike me" After a few tense seconds, he released her. For a moment time seemed to freeze for V. Would she kill him? Or had his acting been enough to make her fear the unknown? Luckily, she sped off, back toward the forests edge. V let out a massive sigh. He might not have been terrified, but he was certainly tense. As he dropped the fragment of the knife, he went over to Eika and ruffled her hair between her ears. "Thanks, that would have been a real problem if you had not gotten help." Tears fell from Eika's eyes as she responded "I was so scared! Eika is sorry it took so long to bring help! They did not believe me at first, and I was crying so much it was hard to explain it to them..." Eika clung to V as she sniffled. One of the guards stepped forward "Sorry we were so slow, to be honest, we did not think the girl could have escaped that horrible woman. She has been terrorizing the town and nearby forest for about a week."

One of guards tended to L, "Sir!" she reported to the one speaking with V, "It’s the Samurai, she took a bad blow to the shoulder, and her neck is bruised. We should take her to the church, see if they can fix her." Clearly, this situation was more involved than V had initially thought. The guard recognized L, and O had been here for a week? He did not expect that. He took a deep breath and looked up at the night sky. The moon had crested over the horizon at some point during his standoff. A green moon. That was new. As he examined the strangely colored moon, Eika pointed at it and exclaimed "Its green! Eika never thought it would be green in her lifetime!" The guards looked up at the moon as well. All wearing looks of awe and wonder. "The green moon.... may the gods bless us," the leader of the guards whispered as he made what could only be described as a religious gesture, bowing his head with hands clasped.

15