Blood Will

7

The savior abruptly turned on the heel of her high boots and kicked the next guard in the chest with her right foot, also sending him flying. The kick was so powerful that the wall he crashed into cracked. The guard bent over. Dark blood gushed through the slits of his helmet and the man fell without breathing. The girl froze. She turned to the dead body and didn’t move for a long time.

Hadjar couldn’t believe his eyes. The girl’s Techniques were so strong and she had so much power that it was impossible for her to be anything less than a practitioner on the verge of becoming a true cultivator. However, her behavior showed that she... had never been in a real fight.

Her shock had given the third guard enough time to recover. He snatched his blade from its scabbard and swung it in a wide arc through the air. A lilac-colored line of sword energy rushed toward the girl. She didn’t have enough time to unsheathe her own blade. Actually, she didn’t need to.

She snapped out of it and, picking up her cloak, spun around. It looked as if the guard’s strike had gotten tangled in the girl’s clothes and then disappeared into them. A moment later, she appeared from a completely unexpected side and cut the guard’s legs off. He fell, screaming and choking on saliva and blood. His sword rolled across the ground, and the guard tried to grab the bleeding stumps his legs had become. The final two guards, who were still holding the girl, looked at each other, threw her to the ground, and rushed away.

The heroine walked over to the posts and squeezed the chains that bound the man. They cracked and almost disintegrated in her grasp.

“Thank you!” the man bowed, and then, stumbling and falling into the dirt, went to the girl’s side. After whispering something to her, he picked her up carefully and carried her into the house. After no more than ten seconds, they heard shouts and the noise of iron boots approaching from the next street over.

“Hurry up!” Hadjar was grabbed by the wrist and dragged off somewhere to the side.

Together, they ran toward the dark alleyways and yards. Away from the scene of the ‘crime’ and from the trade district. Like experienced thieves, they avoided the illuminated streets, hiding silently and wrapping themselves in a cloak of night. They helped each other climb rooftops and continued on their way along the second tier of the city.

Tiles sometimes cracked under their heels. When that happened, they would jump, flying across the streets to another building. Half an hour later, Hadjar realized that he was in a completely unfamiliar part of the city. Judging by the girl’s worried glances, she had gotten lost as well.

Without saying a word, they both went back down to the street and turned a corner, finding themselves in a small park. A creek was murmuring quietly; a stray dog was sleeping under a stone arch; the rare bushes of flowers were hiding from the moonlight, and tall, green bamboo swayed slightly in the breeze.

A normal man would’ve definitely tried to start up a conversation with the girl. Hadjar, however, after bowing to her gallantly and tipping his hat slightly, headed off without saying a word. He just wanted to return to the tavern. He didn’t want to see anything else in this city. He’d had enough.

Amid the moonlight caressing the park enveloped in darkness, the blade of her thin sword flashed noiselessly. Small drops of scarlet fell to the grass. Hadjar froze in place. The cold blade pressed against his neck.

“Milady?” Hadjar asked.

There were only a few practitioners in the nearby kingdoms who could hurt Hadjar like this. The only woman among them was the head of the ‘White Sail’ school in the Kingdom of Onesk. As far as Hadjar remembered his geography, that particular Kingdom was about a five years’ journey away, and the head of the school had never left it.

“Why didn’t you help them?” the girl’s voice sounded accusatory.

For the past half hour, Hadjar had also been searching for the answer to that question. He’d found it in the depths of his heart but didn’t like it. There was nothing ambiguous about it.

“I just didn’t want to…”

The pressure on the sword increased and the blade licked his skin a bit more greedily. The drops merged into a thin stream. Hadjar really hadn’t wanted to help that man and woman. Regardless of whether she was his daughter, sister, or wife.

During all those years he’d spent in the body of a freak and a slave, very few people had helped him. Hadjar felt like he had managed to repay them fully for their kindness. He’d shed blood in the name of Lidus for years. He had often risked his life for the sake of his people. But what had those same people been doing all this time? They’d been putting up with the yoke of the Empire and King Primus.

After all, what had prevented that man, as he’d been setting up his shop, from spending some time and money on his cultivation? He’d had enough money and influence for it, but was still lower than the initial steps of the Bodily Nodes.

Well, Hadjar simply hadn’t wanted to help that stranger. He was too tired of it all. He was also rather fed up with the senseless war that had brought neither joy nor peace to his Kingdom. He had only the ring of the Patriarch and hundreds of scars on his body to show for all his efforts.

Without drawing his sword, Hadjar swung to the right and hit the girl’s blade with his open palm.

Hadjar didn’t see the girl’s face, but she was probably very surprised. She dodged away and nearly lost her balance. That was enough for Hadjar to get close to her. His feet seemed not to touch the grass as he all but flew over it.

Appearing behind the girl’s right shoulder, Hadjar took advantage of a swordsman’s natural blind spot and swept the girl’s legs out from under her. She fell to the ground and tried to spring back up instantly, but wasn’t able to because of his foot, which was pressing her to the ground.

“That Technique seems familiar,” Hadjar whispered, trying to remember where he had seen the girl’s fighting style before.

She didn’t let him reminisce for long. She screamed and twisted away like a snake. Her blade flashed like lightning, but instead of hitting her enemy’s knee, it whistled through the air. Hadjar was standing a few yards away with his hands behind his back.

The girl, growling in annoyance and anger, jumped to her feet. She assumed a somewhat familiar stance.