OneFallLeaf
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Chapter 17
🕑 Added 2025-03-18 00:12:32 +0000 UTC“The children should still be alive, protect them please.”
A simple request, the only one her cute drinking partner had given before blowing a hole into the side of a warehouse and then cutting down the first man he saw.
Under normal circumstances she’d be a bit wary at the lack of mercy. But as she stepped into the warehouse proper, Elric’s information rang sorrowfully true and for a heartbeat she wanted nothing more than to draw her own blade and just end this mess.
“Alright, but if it’s possible, do you mind if I take the lead?”
Dragging tense fingers off of Fomoire-tan, she sighed.
“By her grace-!” Was all the second man managed to get out before her fellow captain’s blade cut straight through the greataxe haft the man had leveraged in his defense, cutting off his head before he could even get the thing the right way round.
She tuned out the rest of their screams.
The other men in the warehouse responded faster than their fallen; a group of level ones by the looks of them springing to their feet and arming themselves. Tables overturned in their rush and drinks that were wasted on scum like this spilled.
She’d said she would let Elric take the lead, and while the contents of the warehouse were severely testing that resolution, she saw something else in him that firmly stayed her hand.
When adventurers reach a certain point, their progress slows to a crawl and the only way to break through is to overcome one’s limits. To get into fights that are beyond them and then just win anyway. Hephaestus had called it ‘overcoming your limits and reforging yourself anew’, she’d looked really cool while saying it too.
And -despite how impossible it should be- Elric was ready for his. She could see it in his movement, in his blade; he was well past the point where many of her minions had leveled up and then just quit the dungeon.
Of course they were suckers who only cared about getting their blacksmithing developmental ability as fast as possible, but well, you still don’t get to that point on your first month on the job, let alone leave it in the dust. But she’d known about this hadn’t she? Told that he’d saved one of her own on a floor he had no right to be on that early in his career, and when she’d asked him:
“Complicated, are you sure you want the answer?”
It was kinda touching that her junior had been willing to just up and tell her this a week ago, this kind of thing… well, it was stupidly impossible and that was all but guaranteed to bring out the vultures. Gods loved achievements, the shinier the better, and Elric was unfortunately looking real shiny right now. Her familia wouldn’t do anything to her friend, she’d make sure of that, but…
She sighed again. Past her definitely had the right idea in not bothering with this shit.
Clear notes of singing metal rang out as she followed Elric’s request and stepped in front of where they were keeping the children. Leaving them in the room they were locked in didn’t really sit right with her, but as the fight picked up steam and sparks and rubble started to fly, it was probably the safest place for them.
She settled in to watch, partly to be ready in case he needed her to step in and partly because she was actually curious despite herself; what made her drinking partner tick?
He was like a little whirlwind, twin blades lashing out in a fury, opening up guards and sparking off attacks that would have slew most level ones she knew. Of the eight men who originally managed to meet Elric’s charge, only six of them remained- no, five, as Elric’s boot pulped the ribcage of one who got too close and blew him into a wall.
Watching him fight, she realised just how badly she’d gauged him at first. When he’d stepped into her domain with his Goddess she’d thought he was interesting of course. His sword skill and smithing were weird, and he was one of the few in their position who was actually good for a laugh... but that was it.
Here and now though? She could see how much she’d missed, hidden beneath a nice smile and dry humour.
“I’m a bit of a battle junkie.”
If she wasn’t standing in front of a room full of kidnapped children, she would have snorted at the insane understatement. She could feel his intent from here, bathing the room in the heady scent of edged steel and a desire for a never ending fight; the kind of will that practically taunted his opponents to keep fighting him until the end.
It should be impossible for anyone at that level to exude that kind of intent, let alone one so new. And yet there it was, biting into the air around her like a finely honed blade.
So she kept watching, studying the new captain as he cut down the remainders one by one, resolving herself not to intervene even as she felt the earth tremble under steps that could only be from a level two.
-
After taking the little rabbit girl back to a Hestia who was beside herself in worry, I’d come back that same night and snuck into the warehouse under the cover of darkness while it was empty. It was about what you’d expect from mad science types, lots of notes that had been utterly destroyed in my fight with these freaks and a bunch of experiments that I was trying real hard not to look at.
Hell, even Tsubaki seemed to avert her eyes from some of the things just left out on display.
The malnourished children shoved in cages was a particularly nasty touch that was pulling a certain savagery out of me, like dragging my dagger through a man’s guts and leaving him to die slowly. Cold anger steadying me.
“Do you have any idea how much we’ve sacrificed for this!?” Another slammed into my sword, screaming and hollering like they all were. They were angry, like they even had the right to human emotions. “HOW MANY HAVE DIED FOR THIS!?”
His sword, poor quality nosteel from the looks of it, has already weathered the bite of my blade one too many times. A deep enough grove that with a sliding twist, the blade bent and just snapped.
The man’s face didn’t even do me the decency of realising his impending death. His maddened expression still twisting and spitting even as my blade split his neck and twisted up to meet the next one’s assault.
Almost gently deflecting aside his greatsword, I began picking him apart even as his friends desperately tried to cover for his sloppy form. These people, they weren’t fighters despite all the shit they’d done, they’d likely left everything to Glasses and his boys. They were amateurish in both execution and martial talent.
That really shouldn’t have mattered to me, these people’s crimes were so far beyond the pale that them being cowards on top of everything shouldn’t have moved the needle, buried as it was. But somehow, someway I’d found that my opinion of people could sink even lower than ‘murder immediately’.
These fuckers were actually making me appreciate Glasses.
…I’d have to piss on his grave later to atone for that thought.
“We’re saving the world, you monster!” The girl on my left screamed, desperately diving at me with her sword held high.
I spun my dagger around, brushing off her wide slash with my bracer before bringing the knife back around and burying it in her lung. Almost negligently I batted aside her friend’s screaming retaliation only to realise that he had no one left to cover for him; greatsword man having pulled out to recover.
I put him down and found myself left with only one, which is of course when I heard it. Slight,shaking steps just beyond the range of normal people’s hearing, reverberating out before the side door to the warehouse was pushed open.
A man the size of a bear with a giant hammer strapped to his back stepped into the room with surprising caution and quickly closed the door behind him. Probably a worthless precaution given all the noise and the fact that Tsubaki was chilling behind me, but I guess habits die hard.
“Boss!” The last one left of the original group turned and shouted in relief, like a fucking idiot. I didn’t even spare him a glance as I stuck my dagger in his spine; if someone wants to insult me then there are easier ways than turning their backs to me in combat. ‘The Boss’ didn’t even react to his subordinates death, his eyes never leaving me as he sized me up.
Striding forward I sized up my rather large opponent in turn, and realised pretty quick that my rather thin blades probably weren’t the best tool for this particular job. And especially this particularly massive hammer.
“...Do you realise what you’ve done?” He asked me in a quiet, rumbling voice.
“Enlighten me.” I requested. I wanted to match his tense, yet calm approach, but I couldn’t completely hide the disdain in my voice. All I needed was a name.
The man let out a huff as he pushed up far too small glasses on his wide, hard-edged face. “Of course you don’t.” He rumbled, unslinging the mass of metal from his back. “A barbarian never touched by the wonders of knowledge obviously cannot appreciate them.”
“Upset that I ruined your little drawings?”
“LITTLE DRAWINGS!?” He suddenly roared before, with a heaving breath, he calmed. Which was good because I thought I’d lost him for a second there, I’d been hoping for a slightly different angry reaction there. “We worked for years on those little drawings! You have no idea the kind of sacrifices that have been made in the pursuit of that knowledge!”
“I have a pretty good idea.” I cast my eyes about the room. “What I don’t understand is why any of you think you’re justified in this.”
“Justified?” He whispered disdainfully, and I almost groaned as this vector proved a dud and he started rambling about the death rates of various diseases.
Would it kill people to just say nice and easy, ‘I’m doing this because of my Goddess Athena’.
That would be great.
“-our work will save thousands, nay millions!” He roared, clearly already doing a victory lap in his mind. “...What are the lives of a few children in comparison to that?”
“And your Goddess approves of this?” I decide to go for broke, not really willing or able to put up with any more arguments in favour of child killing. I was getting flashbacks to my old world and some of the hypotheticals raised in political debate streams.
If you ever reach the point where someone talks you into advocating for a down’s-syndrome genocide on a moon colony, perhaps just quit. And just like that streamer, this man too needs to stop existing.
“My-” The man’s rumbling voice cut off. “...You think you’re clever,child?”
“I already know you’re one of Athena’s.” I bluff, absolute confidence worked into my casual tone. Behind me I can hear Tsubaki shift. “I just want to know what kind of a monster she is.”
“Monster…?” He hissed, rage etching into every line of his face. “My Goddess is the sole light in this dark world! The bringer of Hope and the only being generous enough to elevate wretched little things like you!”
Now he could be lying, but if he was then that was a performance that even I’d struggle to match. Besides I’m not likely to get anything more concrete than that out of him. No, I had my answer, now was the time to put this child murderer in the ground.
“I’ll be sure to thank her for that when I bring her your head and tell her everything you’ve done.” I speak, letting my dex slow the world around me as I spun my blades and confirmed that the agility boost from my skill was still running.
For a split second fear runs through the man in front of me, fear not of me but my words, before it’s gone and rage is roaring to the surface. The ground explodes as he thunders across the warehouse, a wordless yell filling the air as his giant mallet spins into me, intent on pulping me across the warehouse’s walls.
Stepping back, I almost miss his boot lashing out as the momentum of his hammer pulls him into a spin. I let it skim off my chest plate, though even that glancing hit was enough to push me back.
His spin didn’t end and I realised I was on the receiving end of one of those hyper impractical fighting styles that really shouldn’t work, but did anyway because superhuman strength and speed were a fucking trip.
Hopping out of range of this giant blunt bayblade, I was not expecting him to spin on his axis and bring his hammer down head over heels with all its accumulated momentum. I was out of range, but the sheer force it generated as it exploded into the warehouse floor hit me like a physical thing, sending me skidding back.
Instead of just squinting through the raining debris and waiting like an idiot, I was already ready to fling myself back as the hammerhead tore through the dust and the place where I was just standing. An exploratory graze with my sword told me what I already knew; my sword was too light and springy to even hope to deflect something like this, which left me in a bit of a situation.
“Stand still you little shit!” The man roared and I think that was what did it; his intent spiked, his desire to kill me only making my blood race more. Clarity came suddenly as I danced out the way of another strike that would end me and a smile threatened to break out on my face.
Ducking beneath his next swing, my blade struck low hoping to take his legs. He jumped, hammer spinning him around almost like a living thing and then collapsing on me like a mountain.
I barely escaped, hand springing out of yet another debris cloud and then ducking his followup, a grand blow that demolished an entire section of the warehouse’s outer wall.
He was prepared for my retaliatory probing stab, but not the knife I tossed after it. He roared something I didn’t bother to understand as it left a shallow gash on his cheek.
As we continued to play the world’s most dangerous and athletic game of chicken, I felt exactly what I’d been looking for nearly two weeks now. That beautiful, freeing sensation of being yourself. Or rather, being the truest version of yourself.
I’d be happy enough with that state at the best of times, but right now it was particularly important. Because that’s exactly what magic is. A reflection of yourself, the light of your soul.
And this? This was me. The combat, the rush of it all, the dance on the edge of a knife.
I was a pretty simple guy beneath it all, I liked what I liked and I was happy to spend all my waking hours in that pursuit. Which was both fortuitous and also kinda fucky given that it was both what got me into this situation in the first place and what made the solution possible.
Truly, both my greatest problem and greatest solution was violence.
So I took my state of focus and instead of pouring onto the very real fight to death I was in, I used it to search my sense of self. In the stories I’d read about this kind of thing, when someone does this it normally leads to some grand realisation about themselves, or some inherent contradiction that they have to come to terms with. But I knew who I was, I knew where to look, the answer was right there. I just needed to be in this state to reach out and grasp it.
It was a fiery thing, of licking flames edged like steel.
It felt protective and almost beyond my ability to comprehend.
Hestia’s influence on my soul?
I suppose I should feel more annoyed about that, having the very expression of my soul changed like that but… well it wasn’t bad. The flames were warm and comforting, like hearthflame in the dead of winter, it was the exact same feeling I felt when I first stepped into Hestia’s basement. It soothed and warded off the cold night, protective and dangerous.
No, I didn’t mind such a thing at all.
And I certainly didn’t mind it as the flames trailed down my metaphorical grasp, dancing to the tune of my heartbeat. The knowledge given to me spoke of how hard it was to grab onto your spark, that half of finding your path was simply learning how to shepherd your magic as it slipped from grasp like water. Instead my magic was like Hestia in her best moods, incredibly affectionate and eager, clinging to me and trying to drag me somewhere.
So I let it and then I blinked as I was suddenly back in the real world and there was a giant hammer swinging straight at me.
Ah, whoops.
In a single moment that seemed to drag on for ages, I saw Tsubaki halfway to me ready to save me and well, I couldn’t have that!
Golden light bloomed as I used my inventory for the first time in front of others, my dagger swapping for the meatiest shield I was capable of making. Tsubaki froze and I winked at her, just before the world slammed into me and suddenly I was spinning ass over keel.
I didn’t so much as feel the warehouse explode as I saw it in my blurring vision, the pain two steps away as I hung in the air for one long beautiful moment.
The sky was pretty blue today huh?
I barely felt it as I crashed through a nice red tiled roof and landed in someone’s attic, my body was too busy screaming at me in pain. I told it to shut the fuck up as I tried to drink a potion, only to realise my shield arm was completely fucked and my shield was gone.
Shit.
Ditching my sword, my right arm had better luck and with two more potions even my left arm shut up. Lifting it into the warm light of the sun I couldn’t help but praise my potions, they really were great. That much blood really should not be able to come out of a single arm.
“ELRIC!” And suddenly Tsubaki was there, her lone eye wide with a heartwarming amount of concern.
“Hey!” I answered cheekily, coughing as I extracted myself from the rubble before giving myself a once over. Most of the armour on my left arm was a write off, so I sent that back into my inventory; Tsubaki had already seen it, so fuck it.
I’d write it off as a skill later.
Breastplate was a little dinged but it had held up well; no idea where my shield went, but it’d served its purpose anyway. My sleeve was looking a bit red, so I ripped that off before anyone else could freak out over my welfare tonight, leaving bare and only slightly red ran skin. Tsubaki sucked in a cold breath at the sight, and I could tell we’d have to have a talk about this later.
That was fine, I was more willing to sell them potions than I was the Loki familia. But for now I had a fight to finish. Grabbing my sword, I flexed my empty hand and with a flash my dagger was back in my hand.
“W-What?” Tsubaki, the absolutely unflappable woman who I’d never known to so much as start in surprise, looked completely baffled. So I just gave her a roguish smile and stepped around her.
Hammer man was staring up at us from the ruins of the warehouse looking incredibly wary -not of me- but rather Tsubaki, his eyes locked onto her.
“Your opponent is me, old man.” I proclaimed, much to the sudden fear of the crowd that was warily gathering around to see what all the hubbub was about. An explosion was dangerous enough, but an adventurer slugfest was just about the last thing any normal person wanted to be around.
The man wrenched his eyes away from Tsubaki and I could see it in them; he’d recognised her when she came running to save me and was only now realising just how fucked he was. For a second he hesitated, looking like he wanted to run before promptly discarding that thought. Anyone who knew anything about level fives knew that there was nowhere to run.
My drinking partner could topple countries, what could he possibly do against someone like that?
Well, my words provided the answer, and he was a smart, if delusional man. There was no way in which this could end without him dying, so why not try and take me down with him? I could see it in his eyes as the realisation came to him, the sudden burst of resolve, the uncertain intent that had been waning coming back to life.
I smiled at the man who was suddenly willing to fight me to the death.
“Then you’ll die against this Gregory Phaust.” He intoned.
“Elric Carne.” I answered him, stepping off the edge and falling three floors only to land with barely a flex of the knees. “I’ll end you for what you’ve done.”
He sneered, tensing, but this time I didn’t allow him the first move. Instead I darted forward, my sword sparked off his hammer ineffectually.
The man laughed dismissively. “I’m at the peak of level two boy!” He yelled, as every strike of mine was countered near effortlessly.
He swung back, but it was slower than his spinning from before, much slower; he didn’t have time to build up momentum. So I dove in as it passed, my sword tearing another cut open on his cheek as he leaned back. His balance disrupted, his hammer didn’t spin right and he staggered back into his guard position.
His eyes really were quite expressive, the shock, the rage as he realised what I’d just done all shone through clearly. And then there was that little touch of doubt, it was dismissed almost immediately of course, but it had been there.
Roaring, he swung back in, trying to reenter his spiny funtimes style and again I didn’t let him. A boot slamming into the earth with all my force behind it disrupted his footwork, the shockwaves carrying across the street. I wasn’t exactly the strongest level one around given my proclivity towards the finer forms of combat, but I wasn’t too shabby. And for footwork this delicate? It was enough.
My searching blades scored another line of red on the man’s form, then a second as he desperately slunk out of the way. He was faster than me despite my skill’s boost, so landing a proper hit was a little annoying, but I was nothing if not creative.
A certain lull came over the road as we circled each other looking for openings, before his anger overcame him again and he leapt at me. I was almost disappointed that he didn’t do the obvious and try to get out of my range to start up his rotation again; I had a dagger ready with his name on it.
Questing thrusts sparked off and furrows tore in the road as the man reverted to his simpler defensive style, using his hammer more like a shield as I hounded him, pressing him from different angles and trying to find some kind of opening. He tried to push back once or twice, but his movements like this were incredibly predictable and his massive hammer needed time to pick up momentum.
Dodging it was a breeze for someone like me.
A fact which left us at something of a stalemate… and the perfect time to try out what I’d sacrificed my shield for. I didn’t know any spells, spell matrixes were rather complicated and while the knowledge was in my head, it had been locked behind the drip feed of information my skill was giving me. What I could do however was take that gentle spark in my grasp and guide it.
My soul was one of violence and protection, of edged flames and a welcoming warmth that tugged me forward, it was me and that meant there was only one place it could go without complaint. My sword warmed in my grasp, a comforting heat that my opponent didn’t even notice until it properly took shape.
Until my blade stopped sparking off his hammer and started gently cutting through.
Warm, orange flames lapped at my sword’s edge, looking for all the world to be too gentle to do much of anything and yet… the hardened metal of my opponent’s hammer parted before it like butter.
That touch of doubt that had taken root in the man’s eyes nearly exploded as bit by bit my blade tore away his last layer of defence. It grew too much and all of a sudden he made a rather grave mistake; he leapt away to do exactly what I guessed he would. It would be so easy to disrupt him with a knife or two and charge in to finish the job, but…
An easy confidence stayed my hand.
I had already beaten my opponent this way, rubbed his face in the dirt of his flaws; now I would meet him at his strongest and defeat him like that as well.
A wordless roar rang out as the human bayblade spun towards me, before leaping into the air and trying that overhead smash once again, only with a lot more momentum and speed this time. But I’d seen his style enough times now, there was speed and weight to it true, but it was also inherently predictable.
It was almost easy to guide my sword to where his neck would be.
Fortunately he wouldn’t be an opponent that could press me if he couldn’t react to that, adjusting his spin so his hammer shaft would meet my blade. Unfortunately, the flames that licked my blade cut through, the hammer head and the man’s head flying off as I stepped to the side.
I sheathed my blades with a satisfying flourish as the warehouse behind me exploded.
Comments
darkhero67
God I hope those kids got out okay
Bob
I really like your portrait of the Protagonist with lighter grey moral, i hope you can keep this story going to the end
