14 Killing

'I did not hear them coming,' the thought shot through Kai's mind.

A fist came hurtling at his back, but Kai dodged it easily, sliding his feet on the floor as if there was oil on the ground. It was a long corridor in front of him. Rows of doors were on either side and a single door at the end, blocking the path. In only 20 steps of distance, he would be cornered.

'They were already here when we had entered,' Kai reflected.

The man shouted behind him, frustrated by the missed punch. Kai could hear the second man walking leisurely towards their racing figures as if he had all the time in the world.

"Just die, idiot," the man said, catching his breath. "Balance must be restored." He was in his twenties, gaunt, but tall. His hands were long, his reach longer. There were greed and anger in his eyes, gleaming like two distinct lamps in a dark alley.

'A newbie.' Kai didn't take long to guess. Only a newbie would run at him with such greed and without weapons. Kai had noticed a hammer dangling by his waist, but the prospects of completing the Main Mission must have made him lose his rationality. And that made another fact pass by Kai's mind. 'He knows I am a newbie too.'

"Calm down, Robin," a heavy voice reached Kai and his attacker from afar. "The kid has nowhere to go."

Kai had reached the door at the end. He turned and put his back against it, touching the dry wood scratching his skin through the clothes. Robin had stopped. 'The second one isn't a newbie,' Kai thought with dismay. A loud noise of something breaking hard against a wall came down from the upper floors through the stairs.

The man laughed, his teeth yellow, and his eyes brown and sharp. There was a thick mustache and a thin beard on his face. The hair was all but gone, his scalp reflecting the little light lingering in the corridor.

A longsword appeared in his hand. An Item.

"Kyle," Robin said, glancing at the man's sword. "This is my kill. Don't interfere."

"Haha!" Kyle showed his yellow teeth again, his left hand tracing the sword length. "Don't worry, I am just here to watch the show."

'The sword will cut me like a hot knife through the butter,' Kai thought. His Agility was high, but Kai had never cared much about being agile. Defense had always been his priority, even in his previous world. Kai's way of fighting was peculiar, at the borderline of pure madness. Exchanging wounds, and snatching lives, that's how Kai used to fight.

How could he have killed dozens of people if he were to become tired or unable to fight after killing just two or three?

'My armor.' Kai remembered the redness. 'It's gone, though.'

Robin took out his hammer, shaking it fiercely left and right. Kai had no weapon on him, his dagger already hidden the moment he had heard the 'click'. Robin stepped forward, Kai was faster. The hammer wasn't big, just a little less than the size of a fist, but solid metal. When Robin brought it down, it didn't look like Kai would survive even a single blow.

It touched Kai's hair, then it passed down effortlessly, almost kissing his neck. The power behind the hammer was so great that it threw Robin off balance and hunched him forward.

Kai had taken out the dagger.

He threw his legs up, wrapping them around Robin's waist. Robin couldn't hold the weight anymore and fell.

Mind-numbing shrieks came out from the dark end of the corridor. A wet sound of something being ripped off, chewed, and spit out. Kyle stood there, like a statue of some old hero with that longsword of his. Whatever was happening in the dark, whatever he was seeing, must have frightened him to dare not approach.

The Item didn't give any strength if it had promised that to Kyle.

Kai stood up. Blood was on his lips, his clothes, and his dagger. There was a body between his legs. Of a man? None could tell, at least by not looking at its face.

There was a fist-sized hole in the corpse's ears as if someone had nailed screws from one end to another. A thick slimy juice mixed with blood was coming out of them. The body didn't have any lips, its tongue was gone, and its eyes were wide open. Horror, terror, and helplessness, nothing could describe that expression.

Kai charged. The sight of the corpse must have awakened Kyle's strength, for he brought the longsword up in defense.

'Saber,' Kai whispered. His dagger struck the longsword on its flat, Kyle skillfully parrying Kai's attack.

'A broken saber,' Kai told himself, thinking of his dagger.

He glided on the floor, his feet making no sound, and his eyes never leaving the sword. The longsword kept coming at him from left, right, top, and straight, trying to pierce a hole in him. Kai was just too slippery.

'Like a snake,' Kai remembered.

The sword eyed his shoulder. Kai gave up defending against it, and his leg went for Kyle's thick leg. Steel entered, cutting everything in its path, but not deep enough. Kai had already tripped the swordsman.

[Damage Taken: 50 Points]

And then Kai was upon him. The prey struggled, being bigger than what Kai could fit in his mouth. It took him time, the dagger doing its work, searching for holes all over his prey.

One time. Two times… A hundred times, it went in and out.

At some point, an eye appeared in Kai's hand, and his dagger was bent beyond repair. The pain hit, then.

His left hand fell, unable to lift itself. The eye rolled away towards the stairs.

Kai saw it stopping beside a pair of feet. It was the same hooded figure, just without the hood. Kai saw her. Sunken eyes, long black hairs, and pale skin. Too pale, as if someone had sucked out her life.

Kai gave the sword's hilt a quick pull, blood showering off his shoulder. He pointed it at her, his feet already moving. She pointed a wooden stick at him in reply.

A Wand!

Her voice entered his ears, grating and magical.

"Confringo."

**********

AN: The Blasting Curse (Confringo) was a curse that caused the target to explode.