"I know how to beat you now, Leo Kingsley."
"OH REALLY!? AND HOW'S THAT HUH?!"
"This whole time you've been feeding off my emotions. Trying to bait me to getting pissed off."
"Hm... Your even smarter than before. What a a bitch. Go on tell me more."
Khione smirked "That barrier and your strength, speed, reaction time. All of that is powered by emotions. But... There's one more thing."
Kingsley's ego faltered.
Khione's smirk grew "You can only feed off of emotions that make you the dominant party. Anger, Sadness, Hopelessness. All the above... But if you feel inferior. You get weaker."
Kingsley gritted his teeth.
"I wonder how weak you are right now."
***
Kaede looked at Kael, his expression showed nothing, but anger and distain.
"If you are the 2nd Ignari left, then we are doomed."
Kaede couldn't say anything. What could she say? He wasn't wrong after all, he was 10 times more powerful and skilled. Every strike would be dodged or countered.
He could predict everything she was going to do, she could only guess and hope for the best.
She wiped her nose which was now bleeding.
He walked up a bit "Do you even know about your ancestry?"
"... Yeah we were a great and powerful group of warriors that could see strings when we fought and had enhanced strength and speed."
Kael paused and looked as if she'd said the most stupid thing he had ever heard.
"I see so you only know what the world allows. Let me tell you about the real Ignari."
He looked at Kaede who was still tense "Relax I'm not gonna hit you yet, I'm telling you about what we came from"
He let out a sigh before starting "The Ignari was a group of brave and skilled warriors. We would destroy Kingdoms so easily and do you know what we did with the people of those kingdoms?"
"Turned them into..." She looked around "S- slaves"
"Correct, but not only that we even turned them into breeders. We thought it'd create more powerful warriors, but however it didn't it bring weaker half breeds, but... That's when we noticed something, these half breeds could fight extremely well as if they could see moves before they were thrown. This came the first powered Ignari, yep the Ignari never had these abilities at first, they bred to have them."
Kaede's eyes widened Not even Commander Elara knew the truth, they weren't honorable, they were... Monsters.
"We got stronger and more greedy, enslaving mages and more, we'd breed them and create powerful Ignari, soon we gained the ability to nullify magic at an extent of course, like ice magic, a no go unless it was frozen bodies, but... Sometimes that didn't work out."
Kael's face darkened "We weren't a group Kaede, we were a Kingdom. However our cockiness killed us to a group. We underestimated our enemies and we paid the price as they grouped and brought us down. My mother... She wanted to join in their last battle, but my father told her to run and take care of herself since she was pregnant. So reluctantly she did. She gave birth to me and went to Cadis after losing something important. She ended up raising me here, but that important thing was still on her mind so, she went away to find it. Never came back."
He looked at Kaede "Never got to know what it was... Let me ask you something Kaede"
"Y-yes?" She shook a bit from hearing her barbaric ancestry.
"Where were you born? Just to see why I never knew about you. Who was your parents? Were they outcasts?"
"I don't know much about that, my birth and family is vague. All I remember is being dropped and... Waking in the cold, not like a winterland like Cadis, but a cold forest. I didn't know anything or have anything. It was as if I were reborn and just laid to wake up there."
She sat on the rubble "The first thing that came to mind was eating, just eating and stopping the cold. I saw a deer and dashed towards it. I broke it's neck and dug into its belly. I ate it's raw flesh and burrowed inside, for warmth. Then I saw another deer and killed it and did the same thing, burrowed."
"I kept doing that to any animal, but one day I saw an object hit a deer, it was an arrow. An hunter had shot it. He saw me and ran up to me checking if I was okay..."
She had a cold look on her face as she began to speak again "I killed him and ate him, to me he was just another meal, however his ribs made it hard to burrow so... I got a stone and broke them."
The sound of clashing was heard.
Kaede looked and saw Kian fighting Isamu.
She looked for Khione, but couldn't find her.
She'll be okay I know it.
Then she looked back at Kael "It wasn't long before I was found by another person. A woman, tried to kill her, but she ended up pinning me and tying me up. First thing that could hold me down."
Kael finally sat down as well "Who was she? Did she teach you how to be more... Human?"
Kaede nodded "She taught me not eating people... And how to communicate in a simple way."
"No eat People, she pointed at her and me."
"Do eat Animals, she pointed at a carcass of an animal"
"Alisha"
"Kaede"
"She tried to put clothes on me... I ripped them right off, felt uncomfortable. She tried again,but with an oversized shirt. I accepted it. She took me on her travels to a small village around the outskirts of Arcadia."
Then she rubbed her arm as if about to say something very uncomfortable "One day we came across a theif he asked Alisha for goods and me. Of course she said no, so he knocked her out after a little struggle. Then he went for me. I was pretty confused."
"Alisha told me not to eat people, so I took it as to not harm them too. So I thought maybe what he was doing was okay. Maybe I should just let it happen. Then I remembered her face, she looked like how a bear looked at me whenever it wanted to kill me."
"I thought... What if it's okay to kill bad one's? One's that make us mad. So I killed him and like usual burrowed, however when I tried to pull Alisha inside. She was too big, so I used his corpse as a blanket."
"Then when she woke up instead of being overly terrified, she scolded me. Taught me more stuff too though."
"She pointed at her mouth and said, No eating people."
"Then she pointed at my body, only Kaede and Alisha touch."
"Before long we reached the village. She saw a group of kids and told me to make friends with them. Surprisingly they didn't throw me out because I didn't understand. Actually they taught me. It was 5 of them. Duncan, Bea, Victoria, Wesley, and Ei."
"I was around 8 when Duncan was 10. He ended up taking me to the forest to ask me to be his wife however it was twisted. He said wife's should make their husbands happy and always comply with their husband, fulfill their desires... Probably got the idea from his father."
"He told me his desire was to kiss me, I didn't even know what kissing was, so I allowed him to teach me. However once his mouth came near mine I stopped him. Alisha told me not eating people and pointed at her mouth, so when Duncan brought his mouth toward me, I thought he was trying to eat me. So I scolded him and left. 'Humans don't eat Humans.' after that Bea ended up explaining what a kiss was."
"Felt pretty embarrassed, but she told me I shouldn't be as he was taking advantage of me. Bea and I began to become best friends. She taught me a lot of stuff including how to talk and write."
"Then one day, Alisha left. I packed up to find her, but Bea stopped me. I told her to come with me, she declined because she wanted to stay, yet eventually she came along. We looked everywhere and found ourselves meeting passersby's and learned how to read and fight, a lot of other things to."
"Soon we gave up and landed at another village. We made a makeshift home and stayed there together."
She looked at Kian "One day I went around the village just cruising and saw a boy being bullied. I fought them off and saved him. He thanked me over and over before telling me his name... Kian."
"Me, Bea and Him became a friend group always helping each other. When I was 9 in a half and Bea was 10... Kian was 9 as well. I was with Kian, it got a bit dark, so I went home. However Bea wasn't home. I walked around to find her and did. She was dirty, her clothes ruffled and dirty, so was her body. Her eyes were empty. When I tried to touch her hand she screamed and ran home."
"I realized what had happened. It had happened to me twice, I was lucky the first time was just minor touching, Bea wasn't so lucky."
She paused as her eyes looked towards the ground. "I slept with her close to me. Hugging her as if she'd disappear. She struggled, but I never let go and told her she wasn't filthy, she was going to be okay. In the morning what I expected was for my best friend to be in my arms, but instead what lied there was nothing. I looked around and saw her on the ground. Had she fallen asleep on the floor? No. She was dead, not by a killer, or a beast, or sickness... It was by her own hand. Her wrist had dried blood and the other hand clung to a blade. Her face was empty and lifeless. I fell to by knees beating myself up about not being able to save her. I hated myself, the situation, Everything. More than anything I wanted to kill the man."
Kaede gripped her pants "I walked out, the man could've left by now, I just wanted to kill someone or anything that'd make me feel like I avenged her. That's when I saw Kian. He was getting bullied again. I didn't fight this this time, I attempted to end their lives. I punched with all my strength, bit, kicked, grabbed, tore. Kian was the one to stop me. He took me to GranGran and I told them the situation."
"Of course GranGran told me not to seek revenge as it was wrong, so I nodded and said I wouldn't then went to bed. When everyone was sleeping, I went out to find him. I didn't care what anyone said, Bea was important to me. I needed to kill him for her. When I went inside the our house, he was there, waiting for me. He just laughed saying he'd do the same to me. I instantly charged to kill him."
"If course he ended up beating me up, but the angrier I got the stronger I got. Soon it seemed as if time slowed, I could see his attacks. I could counter. Then I landed a strike to his stomach, he fell. I grabbed the blade Bea used and was about to kill him, but... I thought about it. Death didn't suit him, at least not by my hand. I wanted him to suffer. So I cut his legs to the point that they couldn't really be of any use and took him to the forest. Got some honey and put it on his cuts and body. Then I sat on a log and watched the show."
"As I thought, bugs like ants came and began to eat his flesh. He screamed in agony and tried to slap them off, but it's not like he could move to fast. I ended up leaving to go back to my place and buried Bea alone and mourned. I left after that and stayed with Kian swearing to protect him no matter what. Then he started to try and protect me. Like now even. He wants to be a hero"
She looked at Kael "No matter what though... I will never lose him or anyone else I care about if I can help it. That's my promise to Bea!"
Kael let out a chuckle "Now that's an interesting backstory. I can see why your a weak Ignari though... You never had anyone to tell you what you were. I pity you and myself. Alisha... Did you ever find her?"
Kaede shook her head
"What'd she look like?"
"Dark brown hair like mine, focused amber eyes. Her hair was always out and long."
Kael's eye's widened "Did she have a tattoo on her neck?"
Kaede nodded "It was like an flame and sword, why?"
"... Because that tattoo is..."