A new sensation

After spending hours sitting outside the tent, finally Nina, Lisa's mother came back from her daily chores and stubbled upon Lisa laying across Ghouls legs looking quite comfy. For Lisa who was raised in the camp she never had any friends her own age and so Ghoul was the closest thing she had to a best friend even in the short amount of time they knew each other. Ghoul looked up at Nina and was about the get up but Nina instead waved for him not to with a gentle smile.

She sat on a chair beside Ghoul and watched the two children sit peacefully. Ghoul had not held much conversation with anyone other than Carl, Dez and Lisa, This was mostly due to his lack of ability to communicate. He had constantly felt the pitiful gaze of those around him including Lisa and Nina, at which he could only feel frustration and occasionally anger. After a few more minutes Carl exited the tent and Nina lifted up Lisa freeing Ghouls legs. He followed after Carl who had a more serious expression than usual. The two reached the tent that they had been staying in and as soon as they entered Carl turned and said with a cold expression "The day has finally come, but are you willing to fight for the ones who you once fought so hard against?" Upon hearing this Ghoul understood immediately and nodded determinately. Carl smiled back for the first time since first seeing Ghoul enter the camp he had always detested the sight seeing him as just another useless mouth to feed, but now that rotten corpse was now growing into a fine warrior. 'If only he could use Ki' Carl thought before staring blankly at Ghoul and smirking slightly. "Ghoul, do you truly wish to follow the way of the swordsman?" he said with an even bigger grin. As Ghoul nodded Carl said with a proud voice "Make it back in one piece and I'll give you a precious gift to help you take the first step." Ghoul's expression was brighter than it had ever been since his death.

A few days passed and the mercenaries said their goodbyes to the camp followers and headed towards their first battle of the campaign, their morale at it's peak and their spirits as fierce as it could get. Ghoul stood alongside the soldiers on the frontline eager and more ready than ever, he glanced around at the Castiffon soldiers emotionlessly feeling neither malice nor fear, it was not the enemy that betrayed him, that had forsaken him and used his life to further their futile objective. The stares he received from them however did rub him the wrong way, however the stares that the mercenaries gave back to those who dared gaze at him were much more threatening and soon warded off all looks that Ghoul had incurred. "Don't let 'em bother you runt, just focus on killing those bastards ahead." One of the mercenaries encouraged as he pointed at the Helios army approaching from ahead. As the battle drew to an opening both sides sent in their first wave, this time Helios sent out soldiers clearly learning from their mistakes. The mercenaries were dispatched to break through the first wave and apply pressure on the second, which they did enthusiastically. As they reached the first wave many blurred attacks were sent by the novice martial warriors on both sides, however the Helios Kingdom had always lacked martial warriors due to their strict laws on learning Ki techniques, this gave the Castiffon army as well as the mercenaries the advantage. Although Ghoul couldn't use Ki he had still been trained by a veteran warrior and using his small, light physique slipped past the line of soldiers and proceeded to slash away, although it looked like mindless slashing and due to his small appearance he was greatly underestimated by the soldiers leading to him successfully landing an array of well directed cuts, slashing the arteries of those soldiers who were to arrogant to fully block his attacks.

Ghoul stopped for a moment watching the blood pour endlessly from the soldiers who now lay in agony on the ground, at the sight he could only smile as he felt that his efforts were paying off, however to the onlooking warriors they all felt a chilling sensation as the smile from within the mummified warrior struck fear in their hearts. After regaining composure Ghoul rushed again throwing another barrage of light but fatal attacks, still catching some of the warriors off guard who hadn't witnessed his fiendish display. Where he lacked in strength he made up for in his speed, agility and accuracy, all he could think about was the gift that was promised from Carl and the joy he began to feel from overwhelming opponents stronger than him was now on full display. As more and more soldiers began to retreat and fall from his attacks they began to take him much more seriously and were now much more on guard. This didn't stop his bloody rampage and Ghoul now drenched in blood searched for more enemies to overwhelm, however he was soon stopped in his tracks by a trio of what looked to be much older and experienced soldiers. "Damn monster!" one of them shouted "Your fun ends here brat!" another shouted as he swung his great sword towards Ghoul, narrowly dodging and stumbling his heart began to race but before he could balance himself again he was dodging the enraged soldier. After a few more near misses he found himself surrounded, having completely fallen for their trap, his heart raced even more as the two other men swung their spears at him from afar. 'This sensation, strange that I had come to miss it.' As Ghoul was slashed and barely managed to evade the attacks he began panting however still the smile that plastered his battered figure remained and gave off a chilling feeling.

Despite how happy he felt Ghoul knew that he was hanging on by a thread and begun to try to close the distance between him and one of the spearmen but failed each time being pushed back. 'Damn it, It can't end like this.'

"End this useless struggle you freak!" the man with the great sword had finally had enough and began to charge swinging his hefty sword cleaving some of Ghoul's chest open, the cavernous gash left much of his flesh tore apart and exposed. Ghoul grit his teeth as he barely managed to stay conscious, as the spearman behind him was about to pierce his back Ghoul heard the voice of one of the mercenaries charging from behind. "Move you weak pricks!" A group of warriors had followed the path created by Ghoul and cleared the remaining soldiers, the veterans who had surrounded Ghoul looked with faces of frustration and anger, the spearmen retreated feeling the intense aura emitting from the martial warriors however the swordsman blinded by rage and frustrated by the interference charged again at Ghoul, who at this point was kneeling on the ground clutching his wound. Before he could even raise his sword once more his hands had been severed along with his head, the difference between martial warriors and warriors so great that even an experience swordsman had no hope against even the novice Ki users.

"Good job clearing a path, rest for now and let us take care of the rest." The warrior looked at Ghouls wound and patted him on the head as he passed out from exhaustion. "Send him back and notify the Captain that were now pushing the second wave back." The warrior looked towards a member of the group behind him and ordered as the rest quickly pushed forward.