Touka stood up slowly, brushing the dirt from her coat.
"Alright then…" she muttered, scanning the jungle around them.
Suddenly—her eyes twitched.
She sensed it. Three… no, four figures. Moving, watching.
"A-Ahh… Regan," she whispered, fake fear creeping into her voice. "I-I think I saw someone over there…"
Regan sat up, alert.
"W-Where?" he asked, stumbling to his feet.
Touka raised her trembling hand toward the dense trees—nothing visible but shadows.
"T-There…"
Regan squinted. "There's… nothing."
SWISH!
A knife tore through the air—Touka ducked instinctively.
Then—a flurry.
More knives, slicing through leaves, thunking into bark, thudding around them.
"AHHH! AHHH!" Regan screamed.
Touka dove behind a large stone. Regan followed, scrambling beside her.
"Ahhh ahh! What do we do?! What do we do?!" Touka cried, her voice cracking—panicked. Convincingly so.
Regan gulped. "D-Don't worry! I'll protect you!"
Touka turned to him, eyes wide. "B-But what if… there's more of them? What if they surround us?!"
Regan's hands shook.
"S-Shut up!" he barked. "You're making it worse!"
"T-They'll kill us, Regan! They'll kill us!" Touka wailed.
SMACK!
Regan slapped her across the face.
"SHUT UP!" he hissed. "They will know our location !"
Heavy breathing filled the space between them.
"Uhhff… uhhff… ahh…" Regan gasped, drenched in sweat.
Touka stared at him—then slowly smiled.
Her smile vanished, replaced by a sudden pout. "You… you hit me… AHHH! HE HIT ME!"
Regan flinched. "Stop—shut up—please—!"
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
"Stop screaming!" Regan begged. "They KNOW we're here!"
She screamed louder.
Regan's mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air. His knees trembled.
Then—a cruel voice echoed.
"No need to hide. They're behind the stone."
From the mist and trees, four masked assassins stepped into view.
Their leader sneered. "Heheh… pathetic. They didn't even run."
Touka whimpered. "T-They found us! We're dead! We're dead!"
Her body curled tighter, fake shivers running through her limbs.
Regan's face turned ghost-pale.
"Hey, come out! We won't hurt you," one of the assassins called mockingly.
"Heheheh… do they think we're idiots?" another snorted.
"Hah! Maybe they want to play hide and seek with us," a third jeered.
Touka whispered, eyes narrowed, "H-Hey, Regan… go out there."
Regan flinched. "N-No way!"
"They'll surround us in here. If we stay, we're dead!" Touka hissed.
"Then you go!" Regan shot back, panic rising in his voice.
Touka's expression turned cold. "Hmph. Knew it. You don't have the balls. Vairan would've gone out there already. He'd protect me. He's stronger than you'll ever be."
Regan clenched his fists. "Shut up!" he screamed. "Fine! I'll go!"
Sword trembling in his grip, Regan stepped out into the open. His hands shook. His stance was loose.
The assassins stared—then burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Look at this! It's just a kid!"
"No no, it's a grown-ass kid!" another mocked, holding his stomach.
"He can't even hold a sword straight!"
Touka stepped out slowly behind him, feigning fear.
One of the assassins grinned. "Ooh… a girl."
"She's trembling too," another said with a crooked smile.
One stepped closer, twirling his dagger.
"Hey, kid. This ain't playtime. Go drink some milk."
Laughter erupted again.
"Alright, you can go, but—" his voice dropped, eyes narrowing— "—leave the girl with us."
Something inside Regan snapped.
"AAAAAHHHH!!" he screamed, charging forward with his sword.
The assassins' smiles faltered. Their eyes sharpened, shifting into combat stances. But just as Regan neared—
THUD!
He tripped—his blade bouncing as he hit the dirt face-first.
The assassins burst out laughing again.
"BAHAHAHA! Did you see that?!"
"What a wimp! Gods, that was pathetic!"
One of them stepped forward, licking his lips.
"Enough play. Let's end this."
He raised his weapon—
But CLANG!
Touka's blade intercepted the strike with flawless precision.
Touka shoved the first assassin back with a desperate grunt.
But another one lunged in from her blind spot.
CLANG!
She barely managed to block the strike — but her grip faltered.
Her sword slipped from her hand and clattered to the dirt below.
"Heheheh..." sneered one of the assassins as he stepped in, pressing a cold, curved blade against her throat. His breath reeked of blood and rot. "Ohh… would you look at that face. Those eyes…"
He tilted his head, almost in awe.
"She ain't from around here, is she?"
Touka's chest heaved. Her back hit a tree. Trapped.
"R-Regan! Help me!" she screamed, her voice raw and cracked with panic.
The assassin grinned wider. "Heh. Girl's got more balls than the boy."
Another chuckled, circling behind her. "Come on! Someone be a hero! Save the little flower!"
"Pft—hahahaha!"
Regan stood frozen just a few feet away. His sword was drawn, but his arms trembled violently. His breath came out in shallow gasps.
Am I… going to die here?
His eyes locked onto Touka—frantic, wide-eyed, helpless.
For her? No. No way.
"I'M NOT DYING FOR YOU!" Regan screamed suddenly, his voice cracking with fear and rage. "Go to hell, bitch!"
And with that, he turned—and ran. Sprinting into the jungle, branches whipping against his face, heart pounding in terror.
The assassins stared for a second.
Then erupted into howls of laughter.
"BAHAHAHAHAH!"
"What a coward!"
"A sword in hand and still runs like a dog!"
"Hahahaha!"
"What should we do with her?" one of the assassins asked, eyeing Touka like a piece of meat.
The leader grinned, licking his cracked lips. "Sell her, of course. A foreign girl like this? Those eyes? She'll fetch the highest price we've ever seen."
He laughed cruelly. "It's our lucky day."
Touka's expression shifted.
The fear vanished.
Her gaze grew cold—unnervingly cold—as shadows crept across her face. Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"From all fifty soldiers here…you still choose mess with me."
"you're the unluckiest ones."
She tilted her head.
"What the hell are you babbling about?" barked the assassin behind her, raising his weapon.
Before he could react—CRACK!
Touka drove her elbow straight into his ribs. Bone snapped. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he crumpled with a pained gasp.
"Ahhh—!"
"BITCH!" another assassin roared, charging toward her with his blade raised high.
He slashed.
But she was no longer there.
Fwoosh!
She appeared behind him—silent as a shadow.
As he turned, confused, her hand flared with blinding violet light. It surged like lightning, pulsing with raw energy.
She slammed her glowing fist into his chest.
BOOM!
A shockwave burst out as he was hurled backwards, coughing blood midair before crashing into the dirt.
"W-What the…?" gasped a third assassin, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Is that… Kendra Energy?!"
"One down," she smirked, licking the warm blood from her trembling hand.
The man she struck collapsed instantly, his eyes wide with shock, chest caved in from the blow.
Lightning?
"S-she… she's using unusual Kendra energy!" one of them gasped, stepping back in horror.
"What the hell?! That... that isn't normal Kendra energy!" another stammered, his voice thick with disbelief.
"I've never seen anything like it…" a third muttered, his dagger trembling.
"That Energy… it's violet. And the air—it's shaking."
Touka walked calmly toward the rusted knife they'd thrown at her earlier. Her boots echoed across the bloodstained ground. With a cold smirk, she crouched and picked up the weapon.
"Very well," she said, her voice low, dangerous, almost amused.
Her eyes glinted as she raised the blade.
"Now that you've seen this... it's already too late."
Her voice dropped an octave, rich with menace.
"Even God won't hear your screams."
As she spoke, radiant lightning sparks surged around her body.
A violet-colored aura ignited across her skin, flickering and cracking like a storm being born—electric, fierce, and untamed. It pulsed with something unnatural, something not even trained monks or elite soldiers had ever harnessed.
"T-That… that aura is wrong," one of the assassins choked out. "It's not like anything I've ever—"
"Shut up and attack!" another screamed, charging forward in desperation.
"Kendra—Tempest Strike!"
But it was already too late.
Touka vanished in a flicker of light—
—and in the next instant, SLAM!
She drove the knife straight into his heart like a bolt of divine lightning.
The shockwave from the impact cracked through the jungle.
It felt like an actual lightning strike had crashed into his chest.
The other two assassins froze.
They hadn't even seen her move.
They could only watch in horror as their comrade slumped, blood pouring from his mouth, his chest crushed inward.
"Ahhh! AHHHHH!!" one of them shrieked and bolted in blind panic.
Touka didn't even blink. She flicked the knife toward him.
Thunk.
He dropped mid-sprint like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Pathetic," she muttered.
The last man stumbled backward, trembling. "W-What are you…? What are you?! That's not normal Kendra energy—no one's ever taught that in the capital… not even the monk have that kind of power!"
Touka tilted her head, smiling coldly.
"I guess I'm just… a little different."
"P-please! Don't kill me! I—I have a wife and a kid… they're waiting for me!" he cried, dropping to his knees, tears pooling in his eyes.
Touka's voice was calm.
"Then why haven't you sold them already?" she whispered.
Before he could react—
CRACK!
Her lightning-coated fist slammed into his chest, caving it in with thunderous force.
She reached in with her bare hand, her fingers slipping past ribs and flesh—
—and ripped out his heart.
It pulsed once.
Then stopped in her palm.
Then—she crushed it.
And smirked.
Meanwhile, at the main gate—
A distant boom echoed across the fortress.
Duke flinched. "What was that sound…?"
"It sounded like… a lightning strike," Samaira said, eyes narrowing.
Drex clenched his fists. "That wasn't thunder. That was Kendra energy."
Miss Violet turned her head sharply, her gaze lifting toward the peak.
"What the hell is going on…" she murmured, her voice tense.
She could feel it—an unfamiliar energy swirling through the air, thick and unstable.
That lightning… and now this surge... Something's wrong.
"We have no other choice," she said firmly.
Miss Violet's eyes narrowed.
"We move. Now."
To be continued