7 Bloody Resolution

The shot hooked between my bones.

The pain was felt in all of my body… it was like my insides, my structure itself, was being pulled out.

The weight of my body, the twigs that were striking me… how did he have such strenght?

Anyway, I managed to hold my sword. I need to stop this trip before he reach his partners or something!

I cut the rope and prepare myself for the fall.

I roll in the ground, but quickly get up, sword in hand.

With my left hand I manage to unhook his projectile from my body.

It didn´t hit deep into my chest, but did made bleed a lot.

I must hold my ground here! My best chance is to wait for Reynauld, then we will be able to attack him.

Another shot, from above. This time, I managed to dodge it.

How could he shoot at such a speed and strenght?

-"Well, it seems you ain´t falling for the same trick as before." The man jumped off from the darkness above, and landed somewhat far from me.

I coudn´t see him well, but his knife did shine in the dark.

-"Prepare to die scum! This will be the last time your knife spills the innocent blood!" I shout at him.

-"Muhahahahahaha! You said that, but I can see your hands trembling! Your blade is shaky because of that! Hahahahahahaha!"

My hands were indeed shaking, aswell as my legs.

I wanted to run, but I knew it would be pointless. The moment I gave my back to him, I would be done.

To run or to fight, the result would be the same. My only hope is to wait for Reynauld. Tsk, I can´t die before I have another duel with him. I also need to defeat my father at least one time in combat and get my revenge on Caroline for messing with me every single time!

He approached, with malign smile on his face.

Although I do know some sword techniques, I still can´t use them naturally. My father teached me, but most of the time I need to use my status screen to activate them.

After he reaches a certain distance, I activate it.

-"[Rising Approach]!"

I impulse my body only one time with my legs. In a matter of seconds I slide towards him and my uppercut connects with the movement.

He blocks it, almost repulsing my blow, but I slide my blade in the knife, gripping my sword with both hands and preparing for a lowercut.

Before my blade can reach his body, he disingages me and jump backwards.

I expected him to end me with his velocity, but instead he chooses to withdraw. I can´t let him escape, this technique will not work again on him.

-"[Rising Approach]!" This time, I do it naturally, since I coudn´t waste looking at the status screen insede my mind.

I follow him, connecting another uppercut.

He launches his knife, aiming for my chest, so I lower my blade to deflect it. This is a problem. His knife was the main source of position for me. Now I can only see a blurry figure in the darkness. If he is capable of seeing in the night, he must have noticed my eyes looking at his blade, and my cuts being based on the position of the knife.

I do not have any options than to proceed. I don´t have time to think.

I follow with a left cut. If I went for a thrust, and missed, I would give him opportunity to attack. My cut has more chance of being blocked or dodge, but at least gives me more distance to react if he decides to counter my attack.

I cut through the darkness. Nothing.

A kick to my stomach sends my body sliding backwards.

-"Ugh!"

It messes with my breathing.

-"Now, enough with the 'fair fight'. It´s time to end this in the proper way. With you screaming for help while I remove your organs one by one." I can see his smile in the dark.

He launches a series of knives in my direction.

I cover my head. The knives stuck into my arm and legs, but most of them were deflected by my armored chest.

-"Don´t you even dare to think that I forgot about your plate!" He said while running towards me.

I stumble and fall with my back to a tree.

Almost don´t have the time to look, he jumps and gives me a kick to the chest, making me go out of breath for a second.

He proceeds to punch me in the face.

-"Know that your friend is not coming to help you! One of my colleagues is taking care of him right now!"

Tsk! I didn´t think of that! If Reynauld doesn´t come to my rescue, then I´m screwed for sure.

He keeps punching me in the face. My body isn´t reacting to my commands properly.

-"Now! Let´s make you scream a little bit!"

He opens my right eye with his hand. I know that my face is already purple. But before he manages to push it out, red eyes appear in the distance.

The assassin stops, and launches another set of knives at it. The red figure blocks them all, and doesn´t slow down. The assassin jumps before the cut is made.

-"You bastard! You managed to the defeat her! I knew she wasn´t capable for the job, but!"

The red eyes were Reynauld. His face looked extremely pale, and appeared to be emitting a dizzy silver light. His black hair waved with the shallow wind of the forest. An aura of power surrounded him. He had blood all over his gambeson and neck.

The assassin landed far from us.

-"Are you ok?" Reynauld asked.

-"Yeah, just some minor injuries. I can still fight."

-"There is no need to. Just get up to defend yourself if he tries to attack you."

-"He likes to throw knives at people." He lended me his hand so I could get up.

Reynauld then charged at the assassin. This time he didn´t throw knives, but small balls to him. They didn´t seemed dangerous, but when he blocked it with his sword, the balls exploded and liberated a small quantity of a green gas on him.

-"Hahahahaha! Even if you win this battle, now you are doomed forever! This venom does not have a cure!"

It didn´t stop Reynauld though, who thrusted with his sword, but he easily dodged to the left. Reynauld´s face was covered with some kind of black dust from the explosion.

What the assassin didn´t expect though, was Reynauld´s left hand going after him. The assassin plunged a knife with one hand, and tried to stop it with the other, but Reynauld grabbed managed to grab his hood, wich the assassin had to abandon so as to escape from his attack.

-"Why didn´t you stop man, my knife went deep down on your arm." Said the assassin, now uncovered in the head. He had white hair and white eyes, but his face was like that of a 15 year´s old.

Reynauld didn´t respond, but approached him with a superior velocity than before, going for a lower cut. The assassin tried to block, but his knife went away with the force of the blow. He steped back and got another knife out of nowhere.

-"[Gentle Knife]!" Shouted the assassin, and his right arm distorted itself and moved like a shooting arrow towards Reynauld.

He, on the other hand, with his right hand still up, rotated his right wrist and moved the blade down, grabbing the tip of it with his left hand.

The moment the knife touched the sword, the right arm of the assassin unwrapped itself, rotating the knife into the sword, making a horrible matalic sound and some iron dust to leave the sword. Reynauld followed, releasing the grab of the sword and letting her rotate with the knife, putting his left index finger in the middle of the sword, the point where the knife was touching it, so as to not have her move in his direction, but only to spin in the air.

The moment the assassin´s special move ended, Reynauld immediately got hold of the sword again, and approaching the assassin who went flying from his own blow, managed to delive an uppercut to him, making the rags he was wearing in the chest to fall to the ground, revealing the line injury he just gave to him.

-"Ugggaaargh!"

His skin, now tainted with his own blood, was as white as Reynauld´s.

The men went flying into a tree, releasing a scream of pain.

-"Do you want to end him personally?" Reynauld stopped and asked me.

-"Of course." I responded.

I need to get my revenge on him.

Slowly approaching him with Reynauld by my side, he was still near the tree, looking unconscious.

I raised my sword as to thrust it in his heart.

While feeling vengeful for him beating me, when I took a closer look at the assassin´s face, he did really look like an 15 years old boy. His body also looked like so.

How did a man so young managed to become like this?

-"What are you waiting for?" Reynauld asked.

I couldn´t do it. He was too young. What honor would I have for killing him? He is just a kid.

-"I..."

-"You took too long. He´s already dead."

When I looked at him again, his breathing had stopped.

I lowered my sword and cleaned her in the grass before putting her in the sccabard.

A sad feeling permeated my heart.

Reynauld seemed to be unscathed from the fight.

-"You truly are a great warrior. You managed to fight him and another one of the assassins. If you had such power then we could go with the plan of taking then one by one."

-"Let´s not abuse your luck. More importantly, we should go search for the survivors before morning, otherwise we won´t have time to search for it before the other´s notice that two of their colleagues are missing."

-"You are right."

And so we went on to the place where the guards found the injured thief.