The small town, The large forest
Akio looked down at the club as it started to burn up his carpet, the flames quickly rose up to knee level and that's when he decided to try and run. His knee brace was locking his leg in place for the calf to heal, but that would need to wait. he broke the brace on the side of the table and ran out the back door. The sky above him was black, couldn't see a bird, even if it was only 100 feet up. The screams of his nearby neighbors could be heard vividly as he climbed over his small fence with great effort. he looked to the right and saw the street, filled with knights grabbing a hold of the children and women trying to run while apprehending the men and putting them in some sort of magic cuff. he decided to run around them and try and find his parents, which were nowhere to be seen. The fire had spread all around the town and it was now taking the lives of some knights and villagers. he was about to hop over the next fence when he saw Nell in a snotty mess as she was yanked from a tall man who seemed to be her father, the man yelled in a fit of rage and tackled the knight yelling at Nell to run. Akio looked at the man who was at a disadvantage, a 2 v 1. He ran over to the knight beside Nell and incited his only spell.
'Flare'
Once again he felt his whole body freeze and his teeth shiver, the knight saw this and scoffed while trying to defend with his sword. The blue flame encaged the knight in an instant and a small scream could be heard before it was abruptly stopped and multiple bright blue orbs floated around the mass, which had instantly dissolved into a pile of white ashes. He looked up at Nell and grabbed her hand and looked at the man. Who was looking at him in shock while his face was distorted with rage. The man gave him a small nod and Akio knew he wanted them to run. Nell was trying to pull her way towards the knight while screaming profanities that shouldn't be coming from such a small child. Akio picked Nell up and started to slowly run behind the fences and towards the forest, But he was slow. He turned into the small alley and set Nell down.
"Nell, NELL. LOOK AT ME" Akio yelled at the girl who was writhing in his grasp to try and push the knight who was having a handful with the lad. Nell looked at him with a scared expression planted on her.
"I need you to run towards that forest over there so I can try and save your father, okay?" He said to her while looking sideways at the knight. the knight was getting visibly angry as he had decided to pull out his sword.
"GO NOW" He pushed her towards the forest and ran towards the man on the ground, The knight had given up on capturing him and had decided that killing him was a lot easier. The blade was towering above him and the man gave off an laugh.
"You're going to die for that you PEST." the tall knight slammed down his blade towards his head Akio was just too late, the blade was swift and with a spurt, the man's head was lobbed off.
Akio heard a loud high pitched scream and it made his heart crack as he ran towards the man, ignoring all pain as he was mentally exhausted. Akio tackled the guard making him drop his sword, a loud CLANG was present as it made its way down and he used his tail to guide it towards the pinned guard and picked it up. Akio removed both of his hands from the knight and proceeded to cut off his left hand. causing the man to recoil and push Akio off, Akio had expected this sudden movement and regained his footing fast. as he charged at the knight and swung at his neck the knight let out a small whimper. The blade connected with the neck and with a loud SPLURT, his head was gone. Akio threw up instantly, the feeling of cutting organs, stringy and tight muscles was new to him. But he had to move, if he was caught he would be killed.
He looked at the forest and saw Nell, who was on the edge of the forest with a dead face, pale and void of any and all light. The situation which had felt like a dream was now settling in and Akio started to cry, he was infuriated. Why did they attack us, where are my parents, why did Nell a bright child who was just LITERALLY BOUNCING AND CHEERING HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS. Akio felt himself becoming insane, he looked forward down the street and saw another kid. a boy who was running away from a knight with a spear. The knight grabbed the boy's tail and yanked him backward, the child screamed. Akio looked at this in rage and in disbelief. Just past him were countless dead bodies, villagers, kids, merchants, and even a couple of knights were sprawled across the street. bodies burning, heads missing, the same children who were playing in the street had there legs and ears cut off and some lost their heads. The smell of cooked death was imminent, making Akio want to throw up once more. Akio charged at the knight who was holding the boy and cut his foot off, Akio realized that he had a large amount of strength. almost on par with these men. The knight swung his spear at Akio and it landed sideways on his bruised leg. His whole body gave out for a moment as his leg was struck, sending vibrations threw out his body.
"GAH, DANM YOU" Akio stood up and swung at the man clumsily, he had no prior sword training after all. his attack was parried and he was thrown away effortlessly as if he was just a sack of dirt. Akio thrust his sword forward while on his butt leaning in to try and penetrate the chain-link gaps in the iron armor. The sword bounced off with a spark and Akio redirected it towards the man's face. The knight did not expect this as he was already thrusting at Akio, His sword was deflected by armor, why would you push forward with no momentum, it was unheard of. The sword was a lot shorter than a spear, but due to Akios sudden action; caused the knight to miss his aim and stab Akios leg, but Akios sword didn't miss and penetrated through the man's cheek and out the back of his head, killing him.
His whole body spasmed as he vomited all over the man's legs, this whole thing was horrible. The pain was striding through his leg as he yanked the spear from his leg causing it to make a huge mess. The knight's body slumped downwards and revealed the sight in front of him. No one was there, there were only bodies. no movement, no noise besides the crackling of the fires. the young boy he had saved ran away to god knows where. Which was a good thing, at least he was safe. The knights had left earlier, just taking a few of the small kids.
*Hack*
he looked ahead of him to see an adult woman laying there coughing up an absurd amount of blood, she could barely stand. but neither could he. He crawled over towards the woman and as she looked up at him Akio saw that she probably hid inside a burning house and inhaled an absurd amount of smoke. The woman couldn't be older than 30, maybe in her younger 20's. A nearby house collapsed, they needed to get out of here. they both used each other as crouches as Akio led her towards where he last saw Nell. The fires had slowed down dramatically as the houses were reduced to ashes, the town was ransacked. left with nothing, the sky was grey, and a light pink shown through. the night sky was visible on the open edge of town where a light purple could be seen creeping upwards. The grass was dry, a miracle it wasn't burnt yet as the fire was making its way down the house.
Nell saw the wounded woman with Akio and just looked at them with no emotion present, The woman walking next to him saw Nell as well and they walked towards the forest. The tree line was almost 100 meters away from the nearest house, which wasn't on fire yet. they all entered the forest line and they all collapsed. Akio felt his tears which haven't stopped in over half an hour start drenching the ground below him. He couldn't scream or yell for the fear of monsters or more knights. The three of them started silently crying as they sat there looking at what their town used to be, the smoke was picking up as it hit the outer ring of houses. The forest behind them was the direction they needed to go. but they didn't, they couldn't. If they did it was like leaving behind everything that had happened and letting it just go. Akio clenched his sword and started stabbing the ground. They had sat there through the night, not moving or sleeping as they watched the fires go out. The knights from before had seemed to have left mid-fight with nothing, This wasn't talking of a village nor a hunt for slaves. This was an extermination, he looked at Nell who wore a machine-like expression, and felt a stir inside of him. These men weren't here because they were forced to, they WANTED to. This lit something inside of him and he then looked towards the forest and started limping forwards
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Mission completed: 3/2
Calculating reward.
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