Chapter 50 – A Night To Remember #2

Bobple

Content Warning - More Bloody than normal (I don't think it's too bad, I don't go into detail with it, but it is definitely more than this story has had before)

Everything was blown back, and Anlesa collapsed onto the ground. Her mana supplies seemed dangerously low, but a small portion stayed stored within her blood, which began spreading throughout her body to maintain herself.

None of the attackers died from the outburst; however, houses were flipped and people knocked over, with some parts of buildings now completely out of place.  

“Sigh, why wasn’t a child with multiple attributes reported? I felt at least three within that outburst. We send people to do a job they can’t even do right.” The man dodged the burst and watched as Anlesa collapsed to the ground. “Four, kill her once Six patches your wounds, this is your mess. She has had an attribute outburst, so I doubt you will screw this up again.” 

Sounds of screams and bloody murder echoed throughout the night. The music of the sparks and flames began to overtake everything though, as the fires were started on every house.

“Once we are back at camp, I want a detailed report on why this operation wasn’t kept silent.”

The figures nodded in understanding.

Anna’s eyes tried to stay open as they looked towards where their parents should’ve been.

They found nothing.

[Are they alive…?] (Eva)

[...] (Luna)

[...] (Syrus)

[Are they alive…?!?!] (Eva)

[Argh!] (Eva)

They didn’t know what happened. They could be dead, missing, or whatever. The only thing that they were sure of was that they were gone. Which was something none of them wanted to experience.

Her eyes kept frantically searching, but she still couldn’t find anything, and before long, the individual that Syrus stabbed in the gut came walking over with his sword.

[Luna… they are from the church, aren’t they?] A seething anger was exploding within Syrus.

A cold ferocity responded, [Yes… I’m sure of it.]

Luna was unsure, scared, angry, and shocked while she faced the clues she received from the group's actions and motions.

Confusion was first. She hated the Aurora Church, but even during her time there, she never expected they would do something like this. While she understood she wasn’t told anything, she understood they were pieces of shit that would murder their own saints, directly harming innocent civilians. She believed the church would always take advantage of any situation that came their way, but getting their own hands dirty?

Attacking villagers? Innocent people? Why? What for? She was internally screaming, What goddamn forsaken purpose were they attacking her family for?!

None of it mattered.

The only thing that did matter was that they took her family away from her again.

Anna watched as everything went up in flames.

[Good…] Syrus said with anger filling her mind, [We know who our enemy is once this is over.]

There was a saying among mercenaries where Syrus was from, that yesterday’s enemy was tomorrow’s friend. A popular saying that lasted over two hundred years and helped foster a positive working environment. But with the war that took her life, she learned that sometimes you couldn’t let bygones be bygones

The man silently prayed before he readied himself to swing his sword down.

Syrus quickly crushed the man’s throat, and he couldn’t talk. He was still sadly alive, but Syrus couldn’t waste another millisecond on him. She had grabbed the sword and was already after her main target, who wasn’t looking in this direction–their attackers' leader.

With a sword in hand, she leapt through the air. The child’s eyes flashed a hostile amber, red, and grey. 

The man in charge quickly turned around, noticing a disturbance, but wasn’t fast enough as a surprise sword was lodged into his chest. In retaliation, he sent a speedy kick right into Anna’s gut, causing her to be sent flying.

Poof, poof, boom.

Anlesa’s body bounced across the ground, with Syrus having enough wheel power to roll with the impact to mitigate damage.

“Damn, persistent kid.” The man didn’t pay attention to the child’s roll, and instead was infuriated at his men. “How did you manage to screw that up?” He turned to Four, who was still on the ground, clenching his neck, “Get over here, Six, and Four, you return to camp. I don’t want to see you mess up one more thing.”

Four nodded, and he got up and began quickly walking out of the village back to camp to get himself properly healed before the damage lasted.

The man set a hand signal for Six, which ordered him to run towards the child.

Then, when he neared the child, the leader, cloaked in spiralling mana, flashed and appeared next to the child, and Six started healing him with a green-coated mana.

With one hand gripped on the sword in his chest–ready to pull it out once he felt the healing process had done enough–his second hand held his dagger.

He kicked the child over, which Syrus allowed, to lower his guard.

Looking over the kid, he only saw one emotion in their eyes–.

[Hate]

–And Lilly recognised the emotions in his eyes.

Pity, disdain, and scorn.

She had seen those emotions so many times. By teachers, classmates, and friends. Those emotions appeared at different times, sometimes for different reasons at differing levels, but they always appeared. The only eyes that never showed those colours to her were those of her parents. 

No matter what life, no matter what mistakes or failings she made, they never looked at her that way. She thought she didn’t deserve parents like these, but she finally understood that nothing was deserving or undeserving about it. They were simply parents, and they just happened to be parents who loved her.

They deserved to live a long, happy life, but now… they could be gone forever. 

[[[HATE]]] 

A single emotion resonated between them in rhythm, pushing them past the limit, and into a single beat.

The man readied his knife hand for a quick clean blow, just like how he liked it.

Like a feral animal, Anna just leapt off the ground and spun through the air.

Six and the leader were shocked that she somehow still had energy. Six hurriedly tried to grab the sword on his hip, and the leader flipped the dagger in his hand and made a jab towards the child.

But the knife hit a solid white light protection. Simultaneously with his failed attempt, the child sent a full-powered kick with her bloody and longer right leg into the sword in his stomach.

“Ergh!” The man groaned, and he dropped his knife, but the pain wasn’t enough to stop his speed. Mana swirled around his arms, and he caught the child by the neck.

He lifted the child up, applying enough pressure that it would be hard for her to breathe.

"Oh, I wish the reports were correct, you would’ve been useful, much more backbone than my current subordinates.” Anlesa couldn’t tell whether he was being serious or was just using the opportunity to vent. "But, oh well, poor management leads to great losses. They really should have learned that by now. They lost some who not only had a Fire attribute but even a light-based one. They could’ve easily marketed you as blessed by a divine phoenix serving god.”

During his rant, he felt a tingle of the skin in his grip, and blood began to fall out from the child’s neck and eyes. While she still continued to stare into his soul.

In an unintended action fuelled by disgust, he lobbed the child hard, and she smashed into the ground.

He took the sword out of his stomach and ordered Six to heal him faster. Six agreed, but there was a limit to his abilities.

The child’s eye shone a bloody amber.

“What the fuck..?” The man couldn’t help but swear at what he was looking at.

The child’s body cracked and tore, and blood poured out of the wounds. The blood hardened like armour and spread in patches.

Finally, the child screamed, “ARGHH!” 

The man wanted to swoop in and end her, but he was afraid. Even facing demons and monsters didn’t give him this dread. 

Mana poured off the girl, as in perfect rhyme with her heartbeat, she somehow was recovering it rapidly. Which should’ve been impossible. The only time one would gain mana was when an attribute properly awakened, and even then, that was only because the body had sealed off a portion of the user's mana with each attribute. 

But the leader had felt the child’s mana and saw her attributes. She had more of both than the average person. So it was ludicrous to think that she would have another attribute on top of the three she showed. 

The answer wasn’t simple. It was the combination of multiple factors and a stupid decision that could tear down their body. 

One of the grunts ran towards her, ready to end this creature.

However, once he got close, Anlesa snapped towards him; her elongated arm grabbed him and threw him to the ground. Her hair rapidly grew, darkened, and lightened with reds and whites.

The man started to struggle, but then her hand grew while it gripped his face, and he became terrified.  

The leader finally ordered, “Stop everything; focus fire on the girl.” 

The individuals who were still pillaging and those who were sorting through the loot they stole stood up and ran to the commander. Those who weren’t paying attention earlier were shocked at what they saw. 

Three started casting magic. Two users of Fire and one user of Water began to summon one to three spears of their element around them.

However, before they could do anything. Fire erupted around Anlesa and the grunt; blocking the two from view. 

One down.

The fire vanished, and the girl was no longer in sight. They panically looked around but they couldn’t see her.

“She’s up there!” However, one of the leader's subordinates looked up and noticed the girl. 

Anlesa was standing on top of one of the large totems, untying two sets of rope.

The leader was shocked to see her up there, as it would’ve taken a great leap of strength to do that.

He had speed with his moments, and with that, he could create additional power. However, the rare strength that this girl showed could potentially outmatch him, so he understood that this power required a physical-based attribute of her own.

Then there was the issue with her appearance; before, she looked like a child somewhere between the ages of seven to ten. Now she had the appearance of a girl in her early teens. Her clothes had torn in some areas, but layers of solid blood covered her body.  

“Fire, a Light, Blood, and another unknown one…” The man shook his head as the healing process was finally getting rid of the pain in his stomach, “What a crazy night.” He decided he might not even reprimand Four once this was done.

Anlesa yanked and tore the rope off the connecting totems. Then she tied a rope to the handle of the sword and the other to the dagger she stole from the first corpse. 

“Now… What are you doing?! Hurry up and fire!” The man ordered.

They finally did, and elemental magic spears fired towards Anlesa. However, she jumped off the totem onto a burning house. The collapsing roof could barely support her, and she leapt down and immediately threw the sword and the dagger at two of the attackers. 

The targets were able to dodge, and the leader turned to make an attempt to grab the rope. Expecting that she would attempt to yank them back.

However, the blades turned around midair and flew into two of his subordinates' backs who didn’t look behind them.

Three down.

The man cried, “Manipulation!” 

Combat Manipulation was rare, but due to how famous the non-combat use was, people in his position were taught to be careful not to be caught off guard.

With this new revelation, he had an ominous thought. He paused and focused his other power on the surrounding mana… and he noticed it all flowed into one place.

“.....You're insane…” He could only mutter, “God will never forgive you for such actions.” 

He felt it. The mana in the surrounding area was being dragged into her. Not only would that be painful and normally not even worth that effort. However, she was also dragging in the mana that was slowly being converted into environmental mana… from all the corpses.

Such an action was considered not only heretical but also fictional. Cause how could one just take mana from a fresh corpse? After a day, the mana would be gone, but while it was there, it still possessed the same properties the individual had when they were alive. Yes, a barrier that was the soul gone; that made the action theoretically possible. But the mana would be fully dyed in that person's attribute, so theoretically only a person with the exact same attribute could even pull the technique off. The issue kept going; you couldn’t surpass your normal limit, the pain was greatly increased, and willingly bringing in mana of the wrong attribute could destroy one’s body that not even healing magic could help–they were only the surface issues.

There were so many problems with using it with any remote success that it was considered fictional, and that only fairytale demons or necromancers could do it.

It hadn't been filtered; if that was even possible, no, it was just all going into her. Her bloody amber eyes glowed as one brightened and the other darkened. The leader even had the thought that even if they just ran; she would be dead by tomorrow. He did know there might’ve been one attribute that could make the act possible, but this girl clearly didn’t have it.

However, wasting time on hypotheticals was costing lives. The leader speedily grabbed the ropes and pulled the swords off them. Anlesa let go of the ropes to not be pulled along.

Anlesa grabbed a sword off the ground from another corpse, and flames engulfed it. She took up Syrus's combat stance, where the blade was ready to slice horizontally, and dashed towards the Water attribute attacker–

Four down.

–where he was unable to defend himself as she sliced him in half.

The leader watched as his men were overwhelmed. In his mind, his hesitation to not use his attribute to its full potential was costing his men's lives.

Anlesa slid by, grabbed one of the ropes, and poured her Manipulation mana into it. The rope filled with her mana as it whacked the leader.

An individual who carried two swords covered in lightning jumped in Anlesa's path, and his two blades fell towards her.

Stab. Tuff.

But his two blades only landed in the dirt, and above in purple light was a woman with a flaming sword aimed at his head.

Five down.

The leader could only question, “What are you?”

She vanished once more and appeared next to two more of his men.

They were able to feel the mana pulse beforehand and were able to react. The two sides clashed swords, parrying blows, and going in for killing strikes. However, sometimes this child was much better experienced at fighting human enemies than the leader’s men.

Seven down.

Suddenly, a sword fell towards Anlesa. 

“You must be stopped.” Mana had fully swirled around the leader, but his wound from earlier hadn’t fully healed. It was a mistake on his part that was costing him greatly. His main attribute, while powerful, greatly worsened any physical injuries his body was dealing with.  

Being up close with the girl again, he noticed she had grown slightly taller. 

Anlesa's body had kept growing throughout the fight; just now it was at a more steady, even pace. However, now the blood flow had finally stopped, and she seemed to have stopped physically growing. But a small horn on the left side of her head started growing.

“How many attributes do you bloody have, you inhuman vermin?” 

The two exchanged blows, with Anlesa’s attempt to run away proving futile. The team leader would appear at any angle at any time. 

Anlesa’s great reaction speed allowed her to counter, but the assault was still overwhelming.

Slice.

Skin was torn off Anlesa’s arms and shoulders, as the blocks and deflections were starting to lead to opportunities for the leader to attack. 

The leader was pushing himself, even past his normal limits, just to put an end to this girl. Anlesa was being worn out, the mana in the surrounding area had been drained of useful mana, and it got progressively harder for her to absorb mana from the corpses. Her mana supplies had dropped considerably low again, and the full-powered assault on her part, especially with the teleportions, drained her tank.

However, there was enough.

Anlesa pushed back with an explosion of fire, threw her sword, and then went to pummel the leader right in the face. The attack caught him off guard, but he was able to defend himself; however, the attack was only meant to be a distraction.

The man named Six, who had tried to stay by the commander's side to heal, was taken down.

Eight down.

“No…!” The leader growled at the monster in front of him, “You think you can get away with this?” He used his second attribute to feel the mana remaining in her. The man taunted her, “You don’t even have your weapon anymore!” Keeping the fact that he knew her mana reserves a secret to himself.

Anlesa turned to face him, and he appeared behind her with his sword raised, his swirling mana flowing at full ferocity, but Anlesa expected that. She always expected that.

Then Anlesa faced him and spoke for the first time in exactly Luna’s first life’s old, cold, refined voice. “Well, Sir Septurna. I did say I wouldn’t forgive anyone who tried taking from me again.”

The man completely froze. Hearing a voice that should be dead. 

And with a combination of Manipulation and Moonlight, a diamond prism of light stabbed through Septurna’s stomach.

The spiralling mana stopped.

“How… what… taboos did you touch?” He fell to his knees, with his eyes looking up, terrified.

Anlesa spoke in her normal voice. An in-between Jen’s and George’s voice in tone, but deeper than both. “None. I was just born this way.”

Septurna couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing, and with that, the wounds on his body, and the strain he put it through finally caught up to him, and he passed away.

Nine killed.

Flames had engulfed the forest and the village, but there was no one around to celebrate the vanquishment of their foes.

With Septurna dead, all that was left within the village was Anna. As her mind began to split.

Bobple

Chapter 50 done! Wow can't believe we got to 50 so soon. (Just checked when the first chapter released), August really? Could've sworn I started this in October. Well, I had the first 21 chapters basically done before I started posting, so in a way my memory is slightly correct? Anyway, 50 chapters and I have left you all on this... 

Also yep... this chapter is longer than usual... that took a lot out of me. And so, due to me so very tired (I will be passing out once I schedule this), expect next chapter to have the long author's note where I go over my feelings and such of writing this story so far.

If there is any Grammar issue you noticed, please let me know, this is a long chapter, and I didn't have a lot of time for editing. 

Also, if you have any tag suggestions based on what you have seen so far. Feel free to suggestion then, it is probably best if I add more to reach the 25 total.

Also, next week's chapter/this weeks chapter. Will come out a little early. You guys won't be left on a cliff for too long.