General Alexander rode his horse slowly through the town with his remaining soldiers behind him. The streets were still desolate and so quiet that only the sounds of the marching army and horse trots could be heard. The bodies of citizens were strewn about, most of them decapitated per the orders of General Alexander. Some of the Wolfwater citizens had fought back, even killing some of the human army soldiers, but they too were killed along with the rest of them. The road was dotted with blood, as General Alexander's horse left a hoof trail of blood behind him as he walked.
According to Mia, the blacksmith camp was located on the far side of the town, so he had a feeling that by heading there now, he would at least find Murdan. General Alexander had set up barricades around the city's exit points before he came in, so there would be no way for Murdan or Tokuda to escape without a fight. General Alexander finally saw the blacksmith camp, and standing at the entrance was none other than Tokuda Tetsuo, katana in mouth and ready to fight. General Alexander smiled coldly to himself, glad that his prey wasn't taken by anyone else. Soon, General Alexander stopped his horse, and his army stopped behind him as well. Tokuda silently stared at General Alexander, feeling nothing but hatred towards him. General Alexander then said, "Well, well. The armless ghost of the Humanity War still lives to this day. And here I thought that it was a simple rumor of a hero long forgotten." Tokuda said nothing, and General Alexander got off his horse. General Alexander then took a few steps forward, but he showed no hostility currently. Tokuda was on guard but still said nothing. General Alexander then chuckled and said, "No words for your old comrade-in-arms, Tokuda? No 'Congratulations on your promotion to General, Alexander?' You surely are a cold bastard at heart!" Tokuda then said, "I have nothing to say to a stranger, to someone who's no longer the man I used to know." General Alexander laughed loudly and said, "I didn't know you had a sense of humor! That was quite the funny joke!" General Alexander then said, "But alas, I am still the man you knew, you're just seeing a different side of me!" Tokuda said, "Bullshit. The Alex I knew never would've done something like this. Or was it just you 'following orders' again like last time?" General Alexander laughed even harder, saying, "You haven't forgotten what we were supposed to do before you selfishly deserted the human army and joined those dirty animals!" General Alexander then smiled widely at Tokuda and said in a rather dark tone, "Good soldiers follow orders, Tokuda." General Alexander then drew his great sword, holding it tightly with two hands. General Alexander then pointed his sword at Tokuda and said, "I want to have the duel with you to the death and finish it like we should've 10 years ago, right here and now. I'm only a general now because you deserted the army. I believe you would've been a fine general at that, but you deserted your own race to join up with those animals." Tokuda then said, "I don't give a damn about being a general, but if it's a duel you want, I'll kindly take you up on that offer." General Alexander smiled in a sadistic way, saying, "Excellent!"
At the same time as General Alexander and Tokuda were about to duel, Ezekiel and Bear were now running towards the blacksmithing camp. The streets had little activity, and where there was activity, only a massacre was to be found. Soldiers were hunting down the citizens of Wolfwater relentlessly, leaving the roads to be littered with bodies of the citizens laid about. Not many soldiers were on the path to the blacksmithing camp. Any soldiers that Bear and Ezekiel came upon were killed quickly and easily, as Bear and Ezekiel wanted to avenge the innocent citizens that were massacred. While they were running, Bear sniffed the air and smelled a rather odd stench among the other horrible smells. It almost smelled like rotten flesh, but Bear ignored it, figuring that it might just be the bodies of the citizens laid around. Ezekiel then saw something fly by his face, and when he turned around to look at it, it was a black gooey substance. Ezekiel immediately recognized it, looked around, and said, "Bear! We've got a black wizard to deal with! Look out!" Bear looked at the black substance and realized that it was actually something to be worried about. Bear whipped out his axe and cut another glob of the black substance right before it was about to hit him. Ezekiel looked around and spotted Mia on the rooftops, looking down at them and shooting her black gooey substance. Ezekiel tried to combat this with his own magic, firing water and air bullets, but Mia was able to block his magic with her own. Mia then shouted, "I'll destroy you both to please General Alexander!" Suddenly, skeleton warriors popped out of the ground and Mia quickly fled to a safe location. Bear said, "Little bro! I'll handle the skeletons! Take care of that black wizard!" Ezekiel said, "Alright!" Bear then said, "Alright, there's no time, so let me toss you up on the roof, little bro!" Ezekiel immediately said, "Hell no! Are you even strong enough to do that?!" Bear then said, "Don't underestimate me, Ezekiel. Just trust me." Ezekiel sighed, saying, "Dammit. Fine!" With that, Bear quickly threw Ezekiel up onto the rooftop of the building, and this surprised Mia as well as Ezekiel. Ezekiel landed on the roof with a loud thud sound, and he got up, rubbing his face. Ezekiel then saw Mia, and Mia immediately fled. Ezekiel then chased after Mia by jumping from roof to roof.
During this rooftop chase, Mia and Ezekiel fired magic at each other in hopes of slowing the other person down a little bit. Soon, Mia was out of stamina, and Ezekiel slowly caught up to her, also running low on stamina. In a last-ditch effort, Mia used her remaining mana to surround herself with a barrier of the black substance. Mia then said, "Ha! Now you won't be able to hurt the Fallen Goddess Mia in my flawless barrier!" Ezekiel attempted to use his own magic to break the barrier, but the magic either simply bounced off the barrier or any holes in the barrier would be quickly closed. I need something that can go right through it, or at least cut into it more, thought Ezekiel. He didn't have a sword that could easily cut it, so he thought about how to deal with this problem. With the barrier up, it seemed like Mia couldn't fire any other attacks, so she was essentially a sitting target, giving Ezekiel time to think about it. His thoughts were distracted by the screams of the innocent, being slaughtered like cattle by the soldiers. He needed to end this quickly, but seeing the soldiers move about and killing without regard for anyone else disoriented his thinking a bit. Amid his thoughts, Ezekiel realized that Mia's barrier didn't need a constant supply of mana to keep it up, and she was slowly regaining her stamina and mana back. Mia then laughed evilly and said, "How about we add a little fun to our fight?" Mia then suddenly summoned some skeletons on the ground near a few citizens. The citizens were shocked to see skeletons moving about, but the skeletons surrounded the citizens and were slowly closing in on them. Ezekiel saw this, and he shouted, "You coward! Don't drag innocent lives into this!" Mia then teased Ezekiel, saying, "If you can get to me, then maybe I'll call off the skeletons from ripping those innocent people to shreds!"
Ezekiel's mind went into overdrive, furiously thinking of ways to get through Mia's barrier. He suddenly remembered a certain anime, where the main protagonist was able to use tightly compressed chakra to turn it into a fast rotating sphere that could deal lots of damage and cut into things. Surprisingly enough, Ezekiel also recalled that it could be enhanced if wind chakra is added, and Ezekiel just so happened to know air magic. I could probably do the mana version of that, although I'd probably need a lot of training to actually do it properly. Also, I'm copying a move from an anime, so I don't know if this will even work, thought Ezekiel.
Ezekiel held out the palm of his hand, and learning from the mistakes that the protagonist had made while perfecting this technique, he concentrated his mana into one singular point on his palm. He closed his eyes and remembered all the hard training that he did with Kairi and Aqua. I kicked my own ass to get here, and all of that training is truly needed for this moment here, thought Ezekiel. The weight of innocent lives weighed heavy on Ezekiel, and it made his training seem like a breeze. Remembering what he learned and using the tips that Kairi and Aqua had taught him, he imagined a small circular tornado, spinning at high speeds. Soon, he felt a small, constant breeze on his hand, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a small sphere of air spinning fast on his hand. Ezekiel tried it, pushing the sphere of air onto the barrier, but the sphere of air wasn't enough to break through the barrier, as the small hole it made closed up, but not as quick as before. I need more mana and more speed on it, thought Ezekiel. Ezekiel concentrated harder than he did before and was able to get a slightly bigger, slightly faster sphere of air this time. However, he felt it still wasn't enough and was able to increase the power and speed of the sphere of air by concentrating even more. He knew that he was running out of time to save the citizens, and Ezekiel could feel that he used the last of his mana on this one last wind sphere, so he put his faith into it, praying that it would work. He forcefully shoved the wind sphere into the barrier, and Ezekiel kept pushing and pushing, praying that the wind sphere he made would last. The hole that the wind sphere made was surprisingly large, as Ezekiel could fit his whole body into it. The hole also didn't close up, and Ezekiel could smell something like burning rubber from the hole he was making.
After what felt like an eternity of struggling against the barrier, Ezekiel was finally able to get his wind sphere to where Mia was, but the wind sphere had lost a lot of its power. Mia exclaimed, "How in the hell did you break through my barrier?!" Ezekiel grinned, stepped through the giant hole, and showed her the sphere of air, saying, "This is a tightly packed physical ball of air moving at high speeds. Since it's moving so fast, I was able to use friction burn to my advantage. Friction produces heat if two surfaces are rubbed fast enough, and by causing friction burn, I was able to slowly burn away your barrier while also burning your barrier to where it couldn't fix the hole I made, sort of like cauterizing a wound." Ezekiel chuckled, then said, "Simply put, this is the power of the nation of science." Ezekiel then shoved the remaining life of his wind sphere into Mia's stomach, and she doubled over, then fell to the ground, gasping for air. Ezekiel looked over at the citizens that were surrounded by the skeletons, but now they were surrounded by piles of bones that weren't moving. Relieved, he also fell to the ground, exhausted to the point where his muscles weren't willing to cooperate with him. Ezekiel laughed, then said, "Hey, Mia. Can we agree that was my victory just now?" Mia got her breath back but stayed down, saying, "Fine. But the Fallen Goddess Mia will have her revenge someday!" Bear then climbed his way up to where Ezekiel was and ran over to him, picked up Ezekiel, and said, "Good job, little bro! But we don't have time to lay around! We gotta go help Tokuda and Murdan!" With that, Bear made his way to the blacksmithing camp while holding Ezekiel over his shoulder.
As the fight between Ezekiel and Mia ended, another fight started. General Alexander, despite having a giant sword, rushed Tokuda with amazing speed. General Alexander then brought his sword down on Tokuda with a good amount of strength, but Tokuda barely parried General Alexander's strike and jumped away from him, now ready for the next attack General Alexander would throw at him. General Alexander looked at Tokuda with a smile then said, "Oh, not bad for a cripple. I see that I'm not the only one who's been training for the last 10 years." General Alexander then swung his sword, but Tokuda was ready. Tokuda and General Alexander started furiously exchanging blows, causing sparks to fly from every time their swords touched. Their battle was so fast that even General Alexander's army had a hard time following the duel. Amid the battle, Tokuda and General Alexander received various cuts from one another, but due to a katana's cutting edge, General Alexander's cuts were more severe. Soon, they were deadlocked with each other, with Tokuda and General Alexander pushing their swords against one another and staring at each other while fighting this battle of strength. General Alexander then said, "You know, Tokuda, we could use your strength in the human army. Once I win this duel, I think I just might spare you and carry you back to the army so you'll be of use to us." General Alexander then pressed his sword forward, slowly overpowering Tokuda. Tokuda then said, "Fuck the human army. They're just blindly following the king's greedy nature and justifying it as loyalty and pride to the human race. They won't open their eyes and take ambition for their own lives!" Tokuda then used a burst of strength to sidestep General Alexander, throwing him off balance as his greatsword crashed into the ground. The sword split the ground, and Tokuda tried to attack, but General Alexander was quick, as he recovered quickly and parried Tokuda's strike. Another round of exchanging blows was done between the two, but Tokuda could see that General Alexander's strength was overwhelming him. Tokuda was then cut in the leg by General Alexander, but although the cut wasn't deep, Tokuda fell right to his knees after receiving the cut due to his exhaustion from fighting.
General Alexander then smiled, saying, "I declare this duel over. You could say it's a bit unfair since I do have my arms attached to my body while you do not. Nonetheless, war is never fair, and you of all people should know that, Tokuda." Tokuda then slowly started getting back on his feet, saying, "We aren't done here yet, Alex. Arms or no arms, I still have legs to kick your ass with." General Alexander said, "Oh? Is that so?" General Alexander then used the flat part of his greatsword and used all his strength to bash Tokuda's back, which made Tokuda hit the ground hard as he gasped for air. General Alexander then said, "I advise you stay down. I've won this duel, so I'll give you two options: you come with me and rejoin the ranks of the human army, or you can simply die here, making our score 21-20 in my favor." Tokuda, still flat on the ground, looked up at General Alexander with anger and said, "I'd rather die here than join that disgraceful army." General Alexander's eyes lit up, then he lifted his sword above Tokuda's head, ready to strike, saying, "Noble words, I suppose. However, I'll send you down to the real hell where ghosts like you belong, you ancient relic!" General Alexander brought down his greatsword but was stopped by a blade of another great sword.
General Alexander, in a state of confusion, looked at the wielder of the great sword that had denied him his kill. It was an old man in brown robes, smiling as he wielded his golden great sword with confidence. As he deflected General Alexander's greatsword, a bar of soap fell out of his pocket. General Alexander then said, "What is the meaning of this, lowly peasant? You dare defy the Southern General of the Human Army?!" The old man smiled even wider, as he used only one hand holding his greatsword to disarm General Alexander with monstrous force. The old man then pointed his golden great sword at General Alexander and said, "Everywhere I go, I see the human army always throwing their weight around. I was just here to see if this town had a cup of coffee that would be just as good as my old world's coffee was, but I was disturbed by your dumbass army and the massacre that you caused here." The old man sighed then said, "Now, if I can get back to searching for a cup of coffee, that would be great. I refuse to believe that coffee doesn't exist in this world, so I'll continue my search for it now." General Alexander, angered by the attitude of the old man, asked, "Who in the hell do you think you are, old man?!" The old man smiled as he started walking off and said, "Just a long-forgotten legend from another world, I suppose." General Alexander was angered by this response, quickly grabbing his greatsword and attempted to attack the old man. The old man was surprisingly quick, as he dodged with incredible speed and used the dull part of his blade as he smacked his sword right in the back of General Alexander's head. General Alexander was knocked out due to the force of the impact on his head, and he fell face-first on the ground.
The human army that was standing by was now getting ready to attack this old man. The old man then looked at the small human army that remained and said, "Your general is down for the count. I suggest you get him and go." One of the humans in the human army then suggested that they all attack him, but another human suddenly said, "I recognize that blade! It's the legendary blade that cut down the Demon God 50 years ago!" Another human then said, "There's no way! The only person that could wield that sword was the hero from 50 years ago, and he was reported dead!" The old man scratched his head and said, "Well, I'm standing right in front of you, right? Wanna try touching me to see if your hand goes through?" The human army was divided, with those who wanted to kill the old man and those who didn't want to risk fighting someone who was probably the hero of 50 years ago. The ones who did want to kill the old man charged right at him, and the old man sighed as he said, "So now you're all gonna get in the way of me finding coffee too?" The old man made quick work of the human army soldiers as he cut them all down in a flash. Body parts went flying and his golden great sword was now a golden red color. Then, out of nowhere, water bullets showered over the soldiers that were hesitant to attack the old man, knocking all of them out. The old man looked in the direction where the water bullets came from and spotted Bear, who was holding Ezekiel upright as he used some of the magic he had recovered to help out the old man down there.
Bear then made his way down off of the rooftops with Ezekiel still over his shoulder. Once down on the ground, Bear then put Ezekiel down, and Ezekiel was able to walk on his own now after the bit of rest he had. The old man looked over at Ezekiel and exclaimed, "Hey! You're the kid that was on the road a while back!" Ezekiel walked over to the old man, and it took a little bit for Ezekiel to recognize him and say, "Oh yeah! You're the old man that bought my soap!" The old man then asked, "So, you didn't hear anything those soldiers said, right?" Ezekiel shook his head, but Bear spoke up, saying, "I listened in before the soldiers attacked you. Mind explaining who you really are?" The old man smiled and said, "Shit, I guess I'll have to. It was bound to happen one way or another I suppose. First thing's first, we need to tie up General Alexander here and help your friend out." The old man pointed to where the bodies of General Alexander and Tokuda were. Bear, seeing the condition that Tokuda was in, sighed and said, "I want to kill Tokuda right now, but I think I'd rather kill him in a duel where he's ready to fight." Ezekiel then exclaimed, "You're still going on about that?!" The old man laughed and said, "Just help me out with these two."
As Bear and the old man were tying up General Alexander and some of the unconscious soldiers, Suko and Rina then appeared at the blacksmithing camp, and they helped the blacksmiths load up some of their belongings so they could escape from Wolfwater for a few days. Aqua then appeared a little after Suko and Rina, and she used her healing magic to heal Tokuda's broken body, as well as anyone else injured in the attacks from the human army. Kairi also appeared around the same time as Aqua, but she was put in charge of detaining any human army soldiers that were still in the town. Ezekiel sat on the sidelines, still attempting to regain all of his mana and stamina that he used in his fight with Mia. As he saw everyone working together, he realized just how grateful he was to have people like these around him.
After everything was settled down for the most part, the soldiers were forced to help clean up the massacre that they had left behind, then they were swiftly kicked out of the town, and General Alexander was tied up and kept as a potential hostage as well as a source of information if they could get some out of him. Murdan and the other blacksmiths left town for a few days, leaving Ezekiel with a map with a big red X on it just in case Ezekiel needed assistance from any of those blacksmiths. The town, however, was left in peril. Many of its citizens were massacred, numbering in the hundreds, with some bodies of human army soldiers among the bodies of the deceased. Things that were damaged or stolen were replaced rather easily, but the lives of those slain for no real reason could never be replaced. A victory today for Wolfwater didn't really feel like a victory for the town at all.
Once everything was over and sorted out as best as it could for the time being, the old man then entered The Crimson Tankard Inn while Ezekiel and his party were all still there. The old man took a seat at the table they were all sitting at, which surprised some of the ones that hadn't actually met the old man before. No one said anything, as they all believed today wasn't a true victory until Tokuda looked at the old man and said, "Thanks for helping me out when I was in a pinch." The old man smiled and said, "Well, from one old relic to another, I was glad that I could help you out!" Tokuda wasn't sure what the old man meant by that, but Tokuda smiled softly. The old man then looked at Bear and said, "So, you wanted to know who I am? In short, you can just call me Liam. You're probably not gonna believe it if I told you, but I'm from a completely different world, and I'm the hero that slew the Demon God 50 years ago."148Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZfDf1hP7He
