Ambush 2

"Who are you if I may ask..." Zero asked, still using a polite tone despite all the screams around him which made the woman frown. She didn't attack him immediately, looking even more cautious than before.

"Why do you care when you are about to die, huh?!" She replied before quickly closing the distance between them, starting the barrage of attacks, however, Zero calmly parried and dodged every single attack of hers.

"I am but a simple man, if I am to die at hands of a beauty, I would at least like to know her name." Zero said while tilting his head to the side to dodge the dagger before giving his enemy a little wink. His words only managed to make the woman frown even further but she didn't show any other reaction to his words.

'Why does he make me feel so uneasy...is it because he still hasn't attacked me?' The woman thought and decided to stop wasting her energy by mindlessly attacking him. She wanted to provoke him into offense to find any gaps between his defense but as long as he would keep on the defensive side, it would be hard for her to kill him no matter how reluctant she was to admit it.

"Why aren't you attacking, your allies are getting slowly slaughtered? You stand a better chance while you still aren't surrounded." The woman asked in an irritated tone.

"AGH! Sav-!"

Hearing a scream of most likely his ally right after hearing her words made Zero put his index finger into his ear as if to clean it, acting as if he hasn't heard any scream. On the other hand, the woman only coldly smiled hearing the scream.

"Not fair, you asked me a question despite ignoring my own question." Zero said before attacking her for the first time by performing the same vertical slash as she when she first attacked him. This caught her a bit off guard since she thought he was just looking for a chance to quickly end the fight but right now she was left feeling confused by his actions. Still, she managed to dodge his attack with ease but a dagger suddenly appeared in Zero's other hand and he attacked tried to pierce her stomach.

*Clang* She parried his attack with her own dagger but after the next 2 of his attacks made her narrow her eyes before urging him to stop with her hand.

"We are Tengu mercenaries, what the hell are you playing at?" The woman finally answered Zero's first question. The reason for her question was the fact that Zero attacked her the exact same way she attacked him. He performed the same moves as her which completely irritated her since she could finally see that he wasn't taking her seriously at all.

"Finally...thank you for answering my question. As for your previous question-" Zero said but before he finished his question, he glanced around him to see that most of the soldiers were already dead and the only reason no one was interfering with their fight was that most of the mercenaries were already injured or exhausted. He also noticed that some distance away, the second officer was lying on the ground together with 4 other people around him.

'Did they kill each other? Well, it looks like none of my allies are around to see me except for that paralyzed coward who is squirming on the ground, trying to sneak off.

"-I frankly don't care. Still, thank you for your information." Zero changed his laid-back tone to an indifferent one before he slashed his dagger at her neck.

She was slightly surprised since he didn't decide to replicate her previous attacks but she still intended to block his attack before attacking with her own saber.

*Clang!* "Wha-?!" Unfortunately for her, she didn't expect Zero's strength to increase by at least two folds and she was thrown off her balance, leaving her completely open.

"Wait-!" The woman wanted to presumably plead for her life but with a cold glint in his black eyes, Zero cleanly sliced her head off her shoulders without waiting for her words.

The other mercenaries watched with a shocked expression as their leader's head fell off wearing the same expression as them.

Zero slowly turned at them with half of his face being stained by blood.

"So...who is the next" Zero asked the shocked mercenaries with a "cheery" smile while wiping the blood off his face with his hand.

"...You, son of a bit-" One of the mercenaries finally recovered from the shock and darted towards Zero with their sword, however when Zero heard what he was about to say, his cheery smile completely disappeared and before the mercenary could finish it, his head went flying with Zero appearing behind him.

"I don't like those words" Zero said with a dark expression and his move just now made the others realize it wasn't just a fluke and knew they couldn't match his speed. They had an urge to retreat but they still haven't completed their mission and they already lost too many people to back down now.

"Let's all attack him together!"

Zero watched as everyone started running towards him with the drawn weapons which made his lips unconsciously curl up.

"I will use your lives to appease the souls of my fallen allies." Zero closed his eyes and said, not necessarily aimed at them.

"Shut up and die already so you can appease them yourself!" A man with a spear jumped into the air and thrust his spear towards Zero's head.