Just You

Pride was running as fast as he could. It's been more than an hour since he left his village. He could still arrive at Atestari city before the Orcs even if he walked but he kept running.

'I am hopeless. In the end it still ends like this'

He was feeling depressed and ashamed. He wanted to follow his own path in this short mortal life he was given. He wanted to achieve something grand and bask in glory. In the end this led him to abandon his family and village at their most perilous moment.

That wasn't the reason for his sorrow though.

The worst wasn't that he left. Both his father and Helene, pushed to him go. Instead of being angry at his selfishness, they both said their farewells with a smile.

'In the end I am a traitor once again...' he pictured the Demon Lord's and Envy's faces.

'If I just end up dying this time too, then I really will become nothing more than a traitor.'

At that moment...

'What the hell is that?' he could feel a strong magic power a few dozens meters in front of him, past the forest.

Pride immediately stopped in his tracks and stared at the forest, trying to measure the beings power.

'A dragon...? How many times stronger than mine is this magic power? Ten times? Twenty?' he could not calculate the difference between them.

The beings with the strongest magic power were the dragons. Those with stronger magic power were very few among the other races, such as the Human heroes and the Seven Deadly Sins. For a being such as that to be at this place...

Pride felt a chill done his spine. His instincts told him he should hide his presence and run the opposite direction.

'I can't just go back. So... can I beat it?' he racked his brain for a way.

He stared at his sword for a moment and then shook his head.

'Even with Shroud, my weapon is going to break the moment it hits a dragon's scales. I should check what it is before deciding.'

A Dragon was a rare sight. They normally stayed in dungeons or abandoned cities, sleeping on top of other's wealth. Pride couldn't think of a reason a Dragon would come here. The only thing around this area was a small inn used mainly by Militia and travelers.

'It isn't flying, so maybe it's not a Dragon after all?' Pride thought while making his way through the forest.

Cold sweat was pouring down his forehead. He tried masking his magic power to blend with the his surroundings. If the creature was as good as him at sensing magic power, suppressing his magic power would immediately alert it to his position. It was too late for that. Now his only choice was to blend in with his surroundings and hope.

His breathing was battered and he throat was dry. He could see the end of the forest.

He stood behind a tree and peaked down the small cliff.

The inn was destroyed. He could see a giant armor standing next to it, with a double axe in hand.

Pride let out a sigh out. He stopped hiding himself and jumped from his hiding place and made his way down to the giant armor.

"To think I had my guard up... I really lost my touch haven't I? It's just you." he told the giant.

"A browned haired kid?"a woman's voice muttered inside the armor.

"Do I know you? Actually never mind. Kid, can you tell me the way to Atestari? It seems I am lost..." she sounded friendly enough.

"Sure" Pride responded, with a cheerful voice. "It's to about a day that direction." he said pointing to the South-West.

"Do you want me to show you the way, sister?"

"Sister? I think you have the wrong person, kid. You are not my little brother, nor I am familiar enough with you to call me that. Anyway, I have some urgent business at Atestari so I am in a hurry." the giant armor said and turned it's back to Pride.

CLANK!

The sound of blade meeting armor rang.

The moment the woman turned around, Pride leaped and swung his blade, hitting the helmet with all his strength. He already used Haste to give him a speed boost but couldn't even make a dent to the dark purple helmet.

"Who said I am your little brother?" he sounded angry. "Man, I know I am different but you could at least remember me..." he said.

"Who the hell are you? What are you doing you shitty kid?" the giant turned around and pointed her axe towards Pride. Her usual angry and loud voice put a smile in Pride's face.

"I should be the one asking that. What are you doing here? Did someone piss you off and you destroyed the inn, Wrath?" Pride asked his little sister, as if scolding her.

Wrath heart skipped a beat. She was in full armor and didn't let any of her magic power materialize, so how did the person in front of her know she was a Demon.

'No, have I seen this kid somewhere? His hair colour is different but he seems pretty similar to him, especially his eyes. Maybe a descendant from when he was still human?" Wrath thought when seeing the human in front of her.

Pride didn't give her time to think though. He continued attacking.

"You really breaking my heart Wrath. Well, I guess it's fine this way too." he said while thrusting his sword to her head.

Wrath was getting angry. She tried her best to not materialize any magic power and give out that she was a Demon, even though her instincts were screaming for her to use all her Skills to defeat her opponent.

She grabbed the sword that was going for her head with her gloves and stopped it at it's tracks.

"I see, so that's how it is. Did I kill your parents or something, kid? I don't remember but you are pretty dumb to fight me alone if you know who I am. You should have just played nice after showing me the way. Now that your ambush has failed, you are as good as dead." she said and raised her axe, preparing to cleave Pride in half.

In order to use Shroud, Pride had to be still. He could have used it before he entered combat, but the Skills time limit was still too short. That's why he let Wrath grab his sword.

"Heaven's Path: Shroud" he howled.

A white light enveloped his blade. He then pulled with all his strength, cutting Wrath's hand and then jumped back to avoid the axe.

The axe came crushing down to were Pride was standing just a moment ago and with a loud noise, made a small ditch.

"Hrmm" Wrath groaned with dissatisfaction, closing and opening the fingers on her left hand that were scratched.

'I thought I would take her arm with that. She is a bit more dangerous than I thought.' Pride had miscalculated his own power. Right now, if Wrath wanted to, she could kill him ten times over. The fact that she didn't release any magic power in her attacks and defense, showed him the difference clearly.

'But, I am not done yet.' he grabbed his sword with both hands and held it close to his face. Even though Wrath had him beat in pretty much everything else, he still had the upper hand in technique and speed.

"My parents are alive, don't worry about it too much. Just die and become my stepping stone." he shouted at her from a distance.

Wrath realized that something was coming and held her axe in front of her, prepared to take his attacks.

Then Pride suddenly disappeared. He moved at speeds that the human eye could not comprehend. When he tried to use this kind of speed when practicing he would always crash into things and miss his target entirely. But it did allow him to leave the opponents field of vision and take distance.

He run behind her. Wrath heard his feet stopping and turned around but he was already gone. Pride was running around her in circles, showing of his speed.

"So you have tricks like these. And? Are you too scared to attack?" Wrath shouted with a smile.

'What is that? Trying to taunt me? I already know you are pissed off, idiot.' he ridiculed her in his mind.

'I guess I should attack though' he stopped behind her once again and quickly picked up a rock before she turned around.

Pride kept running in circles and after a while stopped a few meters behind her.

"DIE!" he screamed and threw the rock just short of Wrath's feet. When the rock touched the ground...

"THERE!" Wrath swung her axe horizontally, but cut only air. He stared at Pride who was smiling at her a few meters back.

While she was trying to pull her axe back to defend, he already was right on front of her.

"You fell for a kids bluff, you still are trash as always, Wrath." he told her mockingly.

He kicked Wrath's jaw as hard as he could and her helmet flew to the sky. He immediately took some distance once again and looked at her with a triumphant smile.

Wrath glared at him and spit a mouthful of blood.

"You shitty brat. I am going to tear you to shreds" she shouted.