Life's light

As her mother's head slid slowly off its home on her neck more of the killer's face came into view, it was a middle-aged man with snow-white hair that looked like it would fit more on a woman of status than an assassin.

She was hoping that he hadn't seen her in the corner where she was currently hiding, if he had she felt that there was little to nothing that she could do if he also went after her.

Nausea had also overtaken her, while in her previous life, she had been a soldier she had never seen any sort of combat so the sight of someone dying in front of her was completely new.

*Tck*

A knife found its way comfortably into the wall behind Victoria, the soft noise seeming as loud as the bang from a gun in the quiet house.

`Gotta run, gotta run, where, where, where, where?`

As she thought about what to do her brain suffered a critical meltdown, it wasn't used to any sort of high-level stress.

Her eyes were erratically dancing all over seemingly useful in trying to escape but in actuality they were darting around without a goal or purpose, her head spinning incapable of any kind of thought.

As she suffered in the corner, the white-haired male started walking forward with feet that barely gave off even a whimper of sound, his hand holding a large sword that came to be as tall as Victoria but its thinness was like that of a sheet of paper, barely visible to the naked eye.

Yet Victoria could not move one inch, not even one cell in her body would listen to her, all being affected by the mental shutdown that had overtaken her very being.

By now the man was standing just in front of the corner where she was hiding, his shadow casting itself over any light that would have otherwise shown her the sword being raised to cut her down like her mother.

*fwip*

"Argh"

Seemingly from nowhere an arrow came flying through the air, planting itself directly in the man's abdomen, causing him to stagger back to assess the threat that had appeared.

Victoria had completely blacked out by this point, her body shutting itself down in the face of certain death.

The man looked back at her and then at the attacker debating who he should deal with first, the reason it was difficult was that he wanted to leave there alive and he had a feeling that whoever had attacked him would kill him as soon as he appeared from the corner after finishing the job.

*Fwoosh* *Tck*

Another arrow came flying at him but this time he was able to react to its threat and dodged out of the way, the arrow lodged itself into the wall behind with such force as to nearly take a chunk out of it.

Sweat had formed on his head by now, this wasn't what he had been told when he accepted the job but it didn't matter, he was in too deep now.

He took every moment slowly, examining the room he was in thoroughly attempting to take note of everything that could be used as rudimentary cover.

*Tck* *Tck* *Tck*

Arrows continued to be fired from the darkness outside, `That's odd I thought it was the mid-afternoon` His calm demeanor had carried itself to his thoughts as well despite the alarming nature of his lack of vision outside the house.

Clearly whatever was currently firing at him had also set up some sort of spell to restrict his vision, `No matter, sight is merely a tool just like everything else, just as master told you`.

His master had been a scraggly old man who only had his wits and short height going for him but he had turned those two weapons into one of the greatest success stories on the continent, and he was not going to let that man's teachings be disrespected by his loss.

Hiding was no option either, that was a sign of cowardice and cowardice was a death sentence for any self-respecting warrior such as himself.

Meanwhile, Victoria was struggling to regain consciousness, the scenery of a dark void seemingly all too familiar.

`Did I die again, JUST WHEN THINGS WERE FINALLY LOOKING UP!` If she could have cried she would have, and in the real world she did, but she could neither see nor feel the cold drops of water trickling down her face.

"You're not dead yet, but there is little you can do so just sit still for now" For once she was happy to see the bright light that acted as the goddess' avatar.

"Is there nothing that I can do?" There was no need to think her responses, no one would be able to hear her here other than the goddess herself.

"No, but you will not suffer any more harm I will make sure of that, and whoever has broken the rules will hopefully be punished severely" She sounded full to the brim with rage.

"Do you have any idea of who it was?" Victoria was curious to know the bastard's name who had caused her mother to be killed in such a manner, she would call it brutal, but it was hard to do so when it was so cruelly beautiful in its execution.

"I have an inkling, but it will take some time to figure it out one hundred percent, and when I do it will be hard to get any sort of harsh punishment but I will get the harshest terms I can"

"Saying that, how are you going to ensure I stay safe in all of this?" While she wasn't as scared as she could be, she still wasn't completely assured of her safety.

"I have already done so, your father was given a vision by me and was strongly influenced to come to your rescue with a small squad of men, including Alex and your brothers, something the killer doesn't know since I have also stolen his sight outside of the house"

"Wow you've gone to great lengths to make this as one-sided as possible" Victoria was half-happy at the news and half-scared at the ability of the goddess to restrict people's vision "Wait why didn't you just steal all his vision?"

"Because that would go against our role as overseers, while I may blind him partially I am certainly not allowed to blind him fully and thus make the fight completely unfair" She sounded annoyed at the rules that she was forced to follow in this instance.

"Why are you forced to follow the rules if someone else has broken them?" It was a thought that had been bouncing around Victoria's head for a while now "Because there's no evidence that it was perpetrated by one of the players, LIKE THAT CHANGES MUCH AHAHA!"

The goddess had seemingly gone insane, scaring the hell out of Victoria before she seemingly calmed down, it was hard to tell with the goddess being a floating orb of light.

Back in the house things were not going well for the silver-haired man.

While he had been able to dodge most of the arrows that had come from the darkness, some had managed to find their targets causing his blood to streak down forming puddles at his feet.

Luckily they had not hit anything too vital, a shot or two in his arms was not going to stop him from swinging his sword nor would an arrow in his knee stop him from adventuring.

But he was starting to get increasingly irritated at the cowards that would hide behind the spell that they had cast, in his eyes they held no honour and when he got his hands on them he would make them suffer.

Yet for now he was stuck inside with no way of leaving safely to deal with the threats, he could also hear shuffling all around the house which had begun not too long ago and had only gotten louder over time.

`At this rate, I'll be made a pincushion before I can even catch a glimpse of whose firing all these arrows at me, wait, if I go after the girl they will have to come inside to try and save her`

As he thought this a wicked smile made its way across his face, a smile many would say came from the devil himself if they were to see it.

"He he, hehe" To ordinary observers, it would appear that he had gone insane but that could not be further from the truth in his mind, he was as sane as he ever had been and was laughing at his earlier stupidity of not focusing on the girl.

*Thk Thk Thk*

He wasn't even phased by the arrow shots that barely missed him anymore, his sole goal was guiding him toward the unconscious girl in the corner.

But as he was about to reach her a large figure with shoulders as broad as a wooden cart made his way inside, his eyes completely devoid of anything but rage, his hands that were wrapped around the doorway caused massive cracks to form on both sides just from grabbing them.

`Finally, a worthy opponent`