User blog:Ikoter/Seeing Red

SEEING RED

Darkness engulfed and hid the bloodied landscape, only ever being pushed back by gruesome fires and small lid torches scattered every here and there, but the battle field was large. So few campfires and abandoned lit sticks could never possibly have revealed it fully in the midst of night.

The previous day, a caravan of merchandise driven by Oni's was on its way to a coastal monster dominated town. Originally, this caravan was supposed to have arrived there by yesterday, but some of the merchants had slowed it down with the excessive ammounts of liquor they drank. As such, the caravan was forced to stop until the ones who suffered from drinking fatigue got better.

In the middle of the night, the caravan came under attack. Several assailants fully dressed in black disguises sneaked in with the cover of darkness and began to slash the throats of sleeping merchants.

Those who were responsible for the protection of the caravan were quickly allerted to the situation at hand and counter attacked, causing a fight to break out.

One of the assailants began waving a torch around, causing the landscape behind the caravan to come to life under the form of countless more torches raised by men in shiny armors.

Order knights.

Quite clearly, the caravan was doomed.

But not quite.

Pushing the curtains of the back of the carriages aside, there revealed itself another of the Oni's. Her skin was red, she was unnaturally tall and she carried three swords of varying sizes, one of which was blue, another red, and the last one white.

Her armor, if it could be called so, were mere black platings strapped to her shoulders, just above a pair of gauntlets protecting her arms. Her right leg had mettalic protection beneath the knee cap, which stopped above the foot. Her feet stepped into tall wooden sandals. Her chest and abdomen were mostly exposed as the only clothing she wore were white bikinis.

As soon as the Oni stepped off and came in full view of the assailants, the attackers stopped in place as if recognising who she was. She was quite clearly a dangerous foe.

"Do not stop, attack!" The commanding officer amongst the knights had shouted, causing the rest of his men to obey.

The fight leaned heavily in favor of Order troops because of their overwhelming numbers and the caliber of equipment they packed. When compared to the very light clothing of the Oni merchants, whom weren't even fighters, and the moderate amound of armor of actual battle dedicted Onis, it was clear who would win in a straight up fight.

But it was not so.

The monsters had two powerful aides along this trip. They were hired to protect the caravan throughtout its journey through the main continent, which was under Order control.

The first of these two aides was the red Oni whom had just exited the back caravan. The second one...

... caused a boulder of ice to fall onto the advancing knights, squashing a good ten of them.

The next second, blue light emanated from within the ice rock caused it to explode, throwing its bits and pieces in all directions, forcing nearby knights to duck behind their tower shields.

The second asset came into view: a young human male who wore a long sleeved blue top and hood, brown trousers and shoes.

With a spell caster amidst their group, the group of monsters gained confidence while that of the Order knights plummeted.

The group that originally infiltrated and assaulted the caravan, ninjas of the black clan, attempted a swift assassination of the young blue mage. But all their thrown daggers had bounced off the sorcerer due to an invisible shield protecting him.

As the knights approached, the Oni mercenary drew a red hilted katana and charged with the rest of the Oni brutes. They were outnumbered ten to one, and were sure to lose, but their only purpose was to be a distraction whilst the sorcerer annihilated the assailants.

Spell after spell had decimated the bulked up groups of knights, now lowering their numbers to nearly half. That would have been good and all, except for the fact that half the Onis whom served as a distraction were also on the ground.

The knights clearly had an advantage in melee due to their armor and better weaponry, which meant that the sorcerer had to step up his game. Dispite him being constantly assaulted by several ninjas, their attacks being deflected by his barrier, he began channeling magic into the palm of his hands, for a spell of massive destructive proportions.

The female red Oni, realising that trust had been put into her, swung her blade with expertise towards the goal of buying more time. To acomplish this, she activated her blade's hidden potential: a crimson barrier composed of the blood of those who'd fallen to the wielder in the past twenty four hours.

Seeing this protective omen, many of the knights's first thoughts were to flee, expecialy more so now that icecycles were no longer being lobbed at them, drastically increasing their chances of escape.

The red Oni quickly lunged forward with terrifying speed, not allowing her adversaries a moment to think. Under the protection of the barrier, she aimed for many necks, slashing heads appart from bodies in a gruesome sight, further fortifying the knight's foundation of fleeing.

Her target had been their necks not beacause such a zone is ussualy good to target but because the lowest ammount of protection on a knights body, in the current situation, was at the neck joint. Something like the arms, feet, chest, or even head had rediculously more armor around surrounding them than the neck joint.

A katana is by no means a weapon meant for piercing armor. A katana is designed with the purpose of dominating light to no armor individuals, cutting through flesh with ease.

But agaisnt a fully armored knight, a weapon like a katana is but a minor inconvenience to the layers of fortifications surrounding their body. Only a skilled swordsman like her could use a weapon as ineffective as that to kill such a heavily armored opponents.

Funny thing was that the Oni mercenary was also the only one there to use a katana. All her companions were wielding hammer like weaponry made of either wood or iron. That was exactly the kind of weapon she should have been using against such a mob of heavily armored infantry.

But the second funny thing was, that she wasn't strong. She wasn't! Strong! She was agile and dextrous, something completely unexpected of an Oni, whom are cathegorised as strength based monsters.

With the last of the unprotected Onis falling, the sorcerer interrupted his channeling, bringing out the full effect of his spell.

A wall of ice exploded from his barrier, engulfing and killing the assailants of the black clan. Then, he pushed his hands forward and released a torrent of ice in a straight line, busting through the Order knights with brute force rather than a cutting edge. He then expanded his hands and pushed them in opposite directions, causing his line of ice to explode in a whirling blizzard that had caught all of the knights in its radious.

The red Oni had bursted out of the newly formed tornado of ice, her crimson shielding gone, and she looked back at the sorcerer. He had been exhausted due to sudden large mana consumption, and was gasping for air.

At least he could do it without the pressure of being put under blade if he were to fail. Staying mentally focused on both keeping his mana barrier up and charging a massive spell was a tiny bit too restraining on the mind, and sometimes body too.

Having believed the threat of knights was vanquished, the red Oni approached the sorcerer, intent on grabbing and dragging him into the caravan to rest. She would afterwords need to survey the surroundings, to ensure no threats existed.

The Oni was immensely surprised when a crackle through the wind revealed that the sorcerer was pinned to the caravan via an arrow to the head. She turned around towards the battle field and raised her guard.

One great disatvantage besieged her: the fact that the darkness severely limited her vision. As such, she kept as quiet as possible to attempt to hear the incoming arrows.

She heard one.

Dazzling through the air with a swift 'woosh'. One split second revealed it traveling near a pile of burning bodies ten meters away. She was only fast enough, and lucky enough, to position her sword as to block the shot.

Even the red Oni herself was amaised at this.

A few seconds of awkward silence later, footsteps revealed the attacker to have arrived near the burning pile of knights.

This attacker was dressed in blue Zipangu wargear, wearing samurai like armor. His helmet was adorned with two great horns. His chest plate had the clear symbol of Zipangu on it. The arms and legs were protected by metal plating, and there was some kinda skirt surrounding the waistlet all the way down to the knees.

But... Why? This warrior was from Zipangu? Did a close relative, or perhaps some stranger from her home island want the red Oni dead? But to think someone would go even this far...

In his right hand could be spotted a crude white double bladed axe, big enough to require both arms to be used effectively. The warrior's left hand grasped onto a crossbow which he held up, possibly to obscure the fact that no arrow was actually loaded onto it. As far as the red Oni could see, there was no quiver on the man's equipment.

Adopting a fighting stance, she drew her red hilted blade close to her face and held it with both hands. From that position, she bursted into a straight line, intending on fighting this newly discovered adversary.

He immediatly brought the crossbow down, opening fire on the advancing adversary. All of her emotions jumped into full attention at the sudden realisation of colliding with an arrow, and drove her body left with all her speed. She got out of the projectile's path, but in turn, twisted her feet so much so that she'd ended up falling down to a complete stop.

Seizing this opportunity, the warrior dropped his crossbow and grabbed hold of his mighty axe, rushing to strike the downed opponent.

She did her best to escape the falling blade, and succeded. She'd managed to jump back to her original position of when the fight first started. The Oni had sheathed her red hilted blade and had taken out the blue hilted one, it being a bit longer, and once more adopted a fighting stance.

This warrior too waited, for whatever reason. This fact in itself led her to believe that he was over weighted by either his armor or his weapon. His axe was truly not someonething a human should wield. But she'd learned not to speculate about her current adversary, as it might lead to her downfall. This warrior definetely hid well all his tricks.

One other problem revealed itself to her: where exactly should she strike to pierce the man's armor? Her adversary looked just as encased in armor as the Order knights, as such, it should be common that the neck joint should be the weakness. But considering that the armor he and them are wearing are from two different cultures, this possible weakness might not exist, and instead, another undiscovered weakness existed.

The Oni began stepping left, distancing herself from the caravan and attempting to reach the darkness of the terrain in that general path. The warrior complimented her by moving in the opposite direction, a circle pattern, keeping his distance from her.

The moment his foot colided with that of a frostbitten body was when her reflexes kicked in, marking the point in her strategy which led her to charge at a disadvantaged enemy.

How exactly was it a disadvantage to have one's foot slightly colide with a cadavre? Because of the risk of tripping on that cadavre and leaving himself exposed to a killing blow, in other words: maneuverability. The best way to counter this tactic would be to go back the other way, or to stand still.

As she was charging, the Oni raised her blade into a vertical slash, meeting the guard of her opponent's axe. That same guard now guided her sword downwards as the warrior quickly pointed the blade of his axe towards her, inching closer to wound the Oni.

As with her weapon being pulled down due to both lack of support on which to rest as well as with the force with which she was pushing from behind the blow, the Oni dodged the incoming blade towards the right, dedicating a large ammount of stamina to it in the process.

Her next action would be equally as incomfortable and straining upon her feet: while she was dashing, she stomped the ground and launched herself backwards. The reason why she'd do such a thing was obvious: the warrior predicted her dodge after they'd clashed weapons and attempted to slash vertically.

By some ounce of a miracle, she'd managed to dodge his attack and jump back a good three meters. In the instance of the attack, if the Oni had been two centimeters higher, the cloth covering her chest would have loosed and fallen short of her approval.

But it didn't happen.

For some misconception of a second, she'd actually believed that that was her adversaries goal the whole damn time what with her dressing like that and all. Just what was people's problem about such clothing?

The problem was that she would give anyone the impression she's a slut.

The warrior brought his axe and rested it on his shoulder. One thing was painstakingly clear: she was momentarely incapable of moving due to excessive sudden use of stamina. But he? He hadn't moved a muscle of his feet, not when blocking, not when attacking.

Being perfect in terms of fighting capability, he lunged forward into a sprint, instantly causing her instincts to jolt back into full concentration mode and attempt to parry the hit. Yet the axe fell upon her blade like a boulder: with both weight and force.

Parrying prooved impossible. In that split second, the warrior used his foot to make her's slip, further guiding his axe down on her.

Her sword cracked, then... it broke. It broke due to the infinitely heavier axe which threatened her life.

"Tekkai!" She immediatly shouted after her weapon crackled.

The axe landed, scoring a hit right on her chest, severing her bikini's bind. But that was it. That was where the axe stopped.

Was the man truly after unclothing her? No.

It was that the Oni had activated 'Tekkai', a one second duration ability, not spell, that turned the wearer's skin as hard as the most solid of metals. But this ability could only be used within high intervals of time, and the user had to stand perfectly still for it.

Being surprised for only half a second, as his warrior insticts did not permit him any more, he thundered with his right hand to the downed Oni's neck, strangling and keeping her in place.

In that moment, eye contact was made, allowing her to 'peer' into him with just a glance. He was a true warrior, forever sworn to battle and conquest. His eyes betrayed he had no actual problem killing anyone or anything, or, that he had no problem killing women. Her chance to attempt seduction and then kill him would not be possible.

This situation was very terrible for her as proven by the choking and the actual fact that the one choking her was raising his axe to finish the job. Tekkai could not be used to protect her from the incoming blow.

Instead, she discovered that she'd regained control of her legs, they'd recuperated. She raised her right foot and kicked her oppreson straight in the side of his helmet. This proved to be a blow which the man did not expect as his face was thrown sideways, but it had not tossed him off his feet.

She immediatly got up, quickly disgarding her useless weapon and grabing ahold of her red hilted blade. With that blade, it was no longer possible for her to have been shielded by a crimson barrier like before because she required to spill a large quantity of blood for that to happen.

Against only one opponent, such a tactic would only be a waste of time.

The Oni next used a quick draw attack, unsheathing the sword at blinding speed to slash diagonally, missing her target.

The warrior had forseen the attack coming, and had leaned back enough to not get hit. He had achieved this due to his axe supporting him from behind. But that was a mistake on his part.

She noticed. Realising just how difficult it could be for him to get back up, she brought her sword above her head, helt it with two arms, and prepared to slash. The Oni did not care that her chest was showing. This man would be dead the next second, as such, it would not matter.

What she failed to see though, and what she acknowledged only when she had physical contact with, was the blade of her very own proviously broken sword, jabbed right into her side.

The pain she felt from that was monumental, not only in terms of physical pain, but also in terms of mental pain. The reason was because her very own blade was used against her.

It was one thing to wound a peson. It was an entirely different thing to use that which they themselves created or had gotten attached to, to harm them. For example, it was way more painful for a mother to be killed by her own child, than to be killed by a stranger.

It was pain on that level.

A crimson substance began flowing out of the Oni's abdomen wound, causing her to stagger down. Her fists hit the ground with the weapon still in her grasp. She felt pain; her broken sword must have pierced deep enough to be considered dangerous levels.

She could already be knocking on death's door.

The Oni's eyes trailed up to see her adversary, to whom she was kneeling. After taking a step back, he raised his axe on his shoulder and maintained contact of his left hand with that of the broken blade.

His left foot was stepping on her sword, not permitting it to be lifted against him. Now the Oni's only choice was to use her white short sword, if she could get it out before he stabbed her with the Oni's own blade.

Through her mind parsed two scenarios: One, that she'd get up and jump back with her martial techniques. This scenario was impossible due to her being in a weakend state of hemorrhage.

And two, she'd die in the next half second.

The Oni's visage lowered to the ground, tears began staining her face, realising she would die now.

"Do you yield?" It was small, quiet, barely perceptable over the sound of soon to come death.

"What..." She hardly managed to squeeze out through her tear soaked face as her gaze went up.

"I am not here to kill you, but I am here to make you submit. Become my subordinate and I will spare your life."

"I..."

THE END.

Author’s notes:

Cliffhangar ending. Take note that these events are set in a time when the current DL wasn't in charge. In other words, it is set hundreds of years ago. The Oni character in this story is an OC of Naju Silver. But the Zipangu warior is of my creation.