Elder Care

"Getting tired already, old man?" I asked as I slashed, stabbed, and struck with a ferocity that matched the intensity I was being given.

You could also hear my katana sing from the melody being manifested with the rhythm I was in.

"Tired? I'm barely getting started, masked man," he responded as he caught me by the wrist as he was weaving.

He was about to slash at my abdomen but I pulled my wrist downwards and since he refused to let go, his body also swung along.

His wrinkly nose smashed into my knee and he stumbled backward, releasing me from his grasp.

Blood began to pour from his broken nose.

"You're starting to look like your friends behind me," I said as I pulled down my sleeve and looked at the mark he left on my wrist.

"Friends? Those are just colleagues," he corrected me as he plugged one nostril with his thumb. He blew hard and a ball of blood and saliva shot out.

He did the same for the other nostril.

"That's nasty," I commented.

He leaned downwards and began pounding on his left knee with his clenched fists.

"Bad knees," he said. "Been a while since they've been used for this long. Time to end this as soon as possible so that I can rest these bad boys."

"What a coincidence. I was also thinking the same thing."

Time turned into a blur and our blood began to join the rain of blood which had become a decorative piece of the battle we were engaged in.

With every slash of my katana, every strike I received, every clashing sound that rang, my connection with the weapon in my hand was growing stronger.

At this point, I knew everything about the katana when it became to its physical prowess. I knew the balance, the weight, the weak points, where it was sharpest, and the best angle to slash it in.

'This is good training before I face off against the baron,' I thought to myself.

His attacks continued to rage on like a storm and I was carefully navigating through all the thunder and lightning strikes aiming for my neck.

Holding my ground, I kept my stance unyielding to his barrage as I continued to deflect his blows and counter them with my own.

He mixed in a few rock magic every now and then but I stuck to using nothing but my blade because this was a test to see how far I've come with my physical strength alone.

Taller than me, I was using my smaller frame to my advantage and even aimed for his legs a few times which knocked him out of his already unbalanced rhythm.

Slowly, I began to do some damage to his joints and the injuries began to pile up.

As time was passing, more and more of the baron's men reached the top floor for reinforcement but were unable to enter the battle because the old man warned them that if they attempted to interrupt, "I'll kill you myself!"

Exhaustion was beginning to gnaw at both of our limbs, more him than me; I pushed back against the tiredness with a reminder that this was nothing compared to what I was expected to face later on in the future.

With a final surge of energy, I launched myself into the air, my katana gleaming with the brilliance of a star.

It was like in that moment, everything became clear, time stopped for a split second, and with a primal instinct that I had trained my body into having, I brought the katana down in a fast but powerful arc.

A rainbow was being formed from the blood that flew off the surface of the blade.

The old man raised his sword to block my attack but the impact was like massive fireworks being lit.

The collision of forces bent the air, a roar of a loud, "Clang!" echoed throughout the hallway, down the stairs, and even in the deepest part of my soul.

The old man's posture began to lower, his arms quivered, the cracks in his blade grew, and eventually, it shattered.

My arc didn't stop forming and the katana continued moving forward, slicing straight down the middle.

"I guess I am a little tired. Maybe it's time to rest," he said in a softened voice.

When I pulled the katana back to my side, the old man had begun to separate into two equal parts, his organs began to spill out. The fragments of his blade crashed onto the ground.

I stood there, a little wounded from the battle, breathing a little heavy.

"Zero," I finished the countdown I had started earlier.

The glow of the blade in my hand slowly dimmed, its melody returning to its dormant state.

The rain of blood from the old man continued to fall, splashing all over me, and I waited for it to be over before opening my mouth.

"What was his name?" I asked, facing the crowd of people in front of me who were a little scared after seeing what I had done to someone who I presumed to be the right-hand man of the baron.

Since everyone in the manor was basically one-shotted by the main character who was overpowered by the time he arrived here, there wasn't really any time to learn about anyone who wasn't the baron.

The crowd was a little scared but their loyalty to the person who they deemed to be a deity kept them moving forward towards me with their weapon tightly in their hands.

"His name was G-Man," said the one in front who had his head immediately cut off as he reached my range.

"G-Man, why do you guys call him that? Or is that his real name?" I asked as my next swing killed five at the same time.

"We don't know his real name," responded someone in the back with a voice that was trembling.

'Why are they answering my questions so willingly?' I chuckled internally as I began counting down to zero once again.

As I reached the stairs, I sheathed my katana.

Letting out a heavy exhale, I began to recover a little bit of the mana that I had lost during the continuous battle I had been engaged in.

Behind me was at least a hundred dead bodies piled up in the hallway.

I began walking down the stairs and like a scene straight out of an action movie, there were a bunch of goons running up the staircase trying to reach me.

"How many people are there?" I wondered out loud as I jumped down the empty space that allowed me to reach the first floor directly.

As if a conveyor belt was flipped in the other direction, everyone who was heading up the stairs began heading back down.

"Get him!"

"Kill that fucker!"

"How dare he come here!"

"I'm going to eat him then his kids!"

"Knock knock motherfucker!"

They all began yelling at the same time and it sounded like a loud incomprehensible gibberish.

To save time, I ignored them and began running to the basement where I knew the baron was since he never left the room around this time of the day regardless of what plans he had because he had extended his life for so long that he needed one dose of human life or else he wasn't satisfied.

He was quite literally addicted to his twisted ritual, the taste of blood and heart, just like how Diana was addicted to drinking my blood.

If I was correct with my timing then by now, Maya must've realized once she was in the room I guided her to that she would need a keycard to access this vault.

Where else would you find a keycard but on the person?

So she must've headed towards where the baron was in an attempt to steal it.

Opening the door to the basement, I closed and locked it before any of the goons could reach me.

It would be able to hold them off for a few minutes at most.

I rushed down the stairs and took my first step on the basement floor; I call it a basement, but it's more like a dungeon.

Everywhere around me were cages with a variety of people in them but there was a demographic that dominated.

Just like Apple's mother, there were a bunch of young ladies in their 20s and 30s who were in these cages.

Just by observing them, you could begin to separate all of the caged people into three groups. Those who clearly had been recently caged and were still in their right mind.

The second ground was for those that were a little disconnected from the real world but was still capable of speaking and understanding their surroundings.

The last group was those that had completely been disconnected from the real world. They were like zombies without rotting flesh.

The one thing that everyone did have in common was that all of them smelled the same.

I knew immediately that the smell was the smell of the concoction that the baron made Apple's mother drink as well as all of the people who were here in this dungeon.

"Please let me out," said a young child who was still in his right mind. He grabbed onto the bars and looked at me with these pleading eyes.

A few others joined in and soon, a ruckus was made.

I didn't mind because I was expecting this to happen. I wanted to announce my presence to the baron regardless so I responded, "After I kill the baron, don't worry, all of you will be freed."

Giving them a sense of hope, the commotion got even louder as people began to cry, finding a hint of light after they'd been in the darkness for so long.

The dungeon was large and it wasn't a single cubic room.

When you first step down into it, there's the initial room then you look forward and see a hallway that connects the room to three other rooms. One for each cardinal direction.

One of the other rooms was where the baron brought his victims to consume them.

Another room was where the baron took the ladies who were still somewhat still connected to the real world and he had his way with their body.

Even as a monster that consumed human flesh and blood, he still had the same sexual desires after all this time.

The final room which was directly in front of the room of cages, was the room where the baron experimented on himself, transforming his body and making himself stronger.

"What's all this noise?" said an eerie voice from the shadow.

Emerging from the room on the left hallway which was the consumption room, the baron announced his presence to me.

"There's a second rat in my home?" he asked.

I didn't see his face or his body at first. What I saw appearing before me were two tentacles that twisted around the arms of Maya who had been captured.

'Just as planned,' I thought to myself.