Taste Of Blood (2)

As soon as the buzzer sounded, Azure made his first attempt in murdering someone. He charged at blondie who retaliated the action. Their swords clashed barely two seconds later.

Azure was confused. He'd scanned Joshua's body and he didn't find any form of a weapon on him. Where did the sword come from. Joshua saw the shock of Azure's face but didn't bother to feign him an explanation, instead his lips curled upwards to form a smile.

The two parties didn't try to parry each other's weapon away, instead they briefly pulled away from each other and swung their sword again, although this time blondie seemed to be the defensive person.

"I've heard a lot about you, you know". Blondie said as he pulled away from Azure. He massaged the hilt of his sword with his grip. "You and that other kid".

Azure seemed fairly surprised that there was someone that knew him from his early days. He looked at the face presented in front of him and his head felt as if there was something tugging at it.

"Joshua". Azure muttered.

"Nice to see I'm well remembered". Joshua said while pointing his sword at Azure in a motion that suggested he would attack soon.

Azure imitated the action. "You aren't". He said dryly. "I honestly completely forgot about you".

Joshua swung his sword at Azure who dodged and initiated a counter attack blocked easily by Josh. Azure stuck out his leg and connected it with Joshua's mid section.

Joshua staggered a few feet backwards and smiled at Azure. "The rumors are true, you have gotten more fun". Joshua steadied himself. "Unfortunately, so have I".

"For the wages of sin is death!"

Azure groaned internally. He felt like slapping anyone who used that verse. He had heard it so many times that he felt close to vomiting when he heard it escape Joshua's lips.

Joshua discarded the sword. Two tendrils shot out of his arms and latched onto Azure's body, swinging him a bit before tossing him into the floor.

Azure's body skidded on the ground for a bit before coming to a halt at the feet of a tree. He stood up mildly annoyed.

"Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!"

A blue mist like substances taking the same irregularity in shape as flames outlined Azure's body. The flame shaped mist spread from his body to the hilt of his sword, and then to the blade of his sword.

Azure smiled faintly when he looked at Joshua's somewhat surprised expression. The latter must've decided that a cool looking spell meant nothing because seconds later, two tendrils lunged towards Azure.

Azure's figure blinked and he appeared five feet away from his original position. His figure blinked and he appeared quite close to Joshua's figure. He swung his sword towards Joshua's neck, aiming for a one hit kill.

Joshua was mildly startled when he saw Azure suddenly appear in front of him. The shock only lasted barely half a second, he jumped backwards almost immediately.

As a result of his movement, the tip of Azure's sword only grazed his neck a bit leaving a shallow cut on his neck.

Joshua immediately clutched where the sword grazed and stared at Azure, wariness settling into his gaze. It was obvious that he had made the mistake of underestimating the person in front of him.

Azure didn't care though, he ran towards Joshua and swung his sword at him. Joshua's upper body made a full ninety degrees bend backwards, allowing his neck to avoid the grunt of Azure's attack.

That wasn't enough though. As soon as his neck bent backwards, Azure's figure flashed and he appeared behind Joshua. His swung his sword downwards, disconnecting the upper part of Joshua's body from the lower part.

Azure stared at the body on the floor. He felt a vague familiarity to this feeling, stemmed from the nightmares that he had in his last life. The only difference was that while he just had dreams in his past life, this was real, as much as it was a simulation, to him.

He wanted to move towards the blood, to inhale the familiar yet unfamiliar scent of blood. To feel the thick texture of the blood as it soaked his fingers, his body.

Azure shook his head, pulling him out of his reverie of thoughts. He stared at the body on the floor, then at the traces of blood left in his sword and walked away. Well, tried to walk away. At that moment, he didn't realize that he was in a simulation so he wounded up at the same spot.

"Azure wins!" A deep voice said in the background. It was that voice that brought him back to reality. It was that voice that made him realize that even though he killed the person in front of him for the sake of a competition, he had enjoyed every second of it. He had loved it so much.

He had loved to kill!