"Hey, what are you doing?" A young boy asked the odd girl.
Both of them seem to be around 9 years old.
"I'm drawing."
"Really? What are you drawing?" The boy asked, his interest showing.
"I'm drawing a place where everyone is happy."
"A place where everyone is happy….so, 'happy land?'"
· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·
Sky woke up from his dream. It was always the same. A dream about him talking with a girl about a happy place. A fragment of his past reminding him of his once happy and joyful times. Well….at least compared to how grim the world has become.
He stood up from the tree he had slept on and took a small sword next to it. He also picked up a few small blades hanging on a string.
He put the sword on his waist and then put the small blades around his waist using the black string to wrap the blade around him and out of view.
It was early in the morning and he had to move out fast. The sun only shined for 7 hours at maximum and if he got unlucky it could be only 3 hours. So, he wore his light armour and wore a black clock around it to make it less visible in the dark and stood at the edge of the spirit's back.
He took a deep breath and said "Here goes nothing."
He jumped and was falling quickly, suddenly black treads started to form quickly into a glider with the exception of it lacking a handle and the fact that it was attached to his back.
He started to glide down quickly, his body heating up a bit and as he saw the ground getting closer and closer, the glider suddenly changed into a parachute and he started to slow down, reaching the ground after a short while.
The cloth that made up the parachute started to turn into threads as it went back into his body, now completely hidden.
Sky took a look around him and then went southwest. The place he had landed was a dark forest. The smell of something rotten is always present in it.
'From what I observed from the sky as I was falling, it should be in this direction.'
Sky began to run at a quick pace faster than 30 Km/h but his footsteps were quiet and only an occasional sound occurred when he accidentally stepped on a branch by mistake.
A warped scream for help occurred and SKy suddenly and abruptly stopped his movements and hid behind a tree.
He took the knife and threw them all except for one and holding the black string in his right, he manipulated the string to arrange the knives in such a way that the light would constantly and perfectly be reflected into the knife he was holding. It was an unrealistic and impossible feat but he had made it possible somehow.
The reflection from around 600 miles was perfectly reflected somehow into the knife he was holding, almost destroying the logic of our world.
The reflection didn't show a person crying out for help, rather it showed a reflection of a monster, with four limbs, sharp teeth, dark reddish skin. It had no visible eyes, only black spots that looked rather out of place. It had a mouth like a lion but longer and not resembling anything alike .(Yes I had lied but there really was no way to describe th- no, that "thing" with simple words.)
The creature opened its mouth but instead of a loud growl, a cry of help came.
"PLEASE HELP!" It was the voice of a woman, screaming for help.
It was copying the voices of its unfortunate victims to lure in more victims.
'It has a great sense of smell and hearing that is also unmatched if we exclude any demon above or equal to a fiend. But it has no sight or in other words it is blind.' Thinking that, Sky started to move his dagger changing the reflection constantly to find a somewhat safe path he could go.
After a while of observing, he found a path he could use. He retrieved all his knives back and started to move. This time slowing his pace by around 10Km/h.
'I probably have around 2-3 hours of sunlight left.' He thought, running and avoiding any encounters with any monsters.
After Around an hour of running. Sky stopped, catching his breath. He walked slowly and approached a small cave.
He could use a black fruit and break it apart to ward off prey or disgust fiend and use his thread to set up a few traps in case a dark Scavenger found this place.
As he entered a cave, nothing seemed odd. He kept his sword down on the cave, a dark substance formed on his chest. He reached inside the black substance or rather he likes to call it, his void and took out a black fruit.
"Don't move an inch." A deep voice sounded behind him, in the small cave he was in.
A dark figure, a knight wearing almost pure black armour stood behind him holding a black blade behind him.
"Are you with the fiend rouges?"
'Fiend rouges? The plural form he used indicates that they are a group or a faction. A lot has happened in the 25 years I left this land.' He thought, staying calm
"Hey, I asked you a question." He said as his grip on the blade tightened.
"To answer your question, I'm not with the fiend rouges nor don't even know what they are."
"I see…" he said as he lowered his blade.
Sky began to slowly turn around and immediately jumped back as the dark knight swung his blade.
"If you wanna take me by surprise, you should be better at hiding your intent."
"Shut up, I'll kill you right here right now you filthy fiend rouge."
"I told you I'm not a fi-"
A horizontal sword sweep came intending to cut Sky's head but he had lowered his body and dashed forward a bit and stuck him where his solar plexus was with his elbow.
The knight staggered a bit but held his ground.
"I don't wanna kill you so let's just cal-"
The knight dashed and did vertical swing but it was countered by a sidestep followed up with a sidekick, this made the knight collide against the edge of the cave entrance and tumble down on the floor.
"We might attract monsters at this rate, let's just calm down and talk about this properly later."
But the knight did not falter and stood back up, he held his sword.
"I won't be fooled a third time…" he said, his breath becoming heavy. "I…I won't fall for it!"
He dashed forward much quicker this time and went for a straight stab, Sky held the sword with his two hands and jumped back a bit and regained his ground back.
'Something is off, he was panting heavily just a few seconds, so how come he became stronger.' Sky thought.
A sword swing came and he dodged with a side step again. The knight followed the swing up with a downward swing but it was easily dodged and Sky followed up with a right hook.
As the knight staggered, he felt a strong force on his chest, he had performed a front kick which made the knight go flying and crash at the end of the cave.
"You! You ba-"
A back kick hit him on the face, interrupting him. His helmet became a bit dent and a bit of blood leaked out but as the knight was recovering, another side kick hit him on the solar plexus followed up with a high punch.
The knight slowly fell to the ground after those blows.
"So you wanna talk now?" He asked, kneeling down and staring at the knight through his helmet.
The knight stood silently, barely moving his body.
Sky, seeing his struggle, was about to knock him out cold so he would tend to his wounds and question him but the moment he tried to reach for the knight, a fist quickly appeared in front of him and he was thrown back.
The knight, still injured, stood back up again and repeated again "I…won't fall for it…not again…"
Sky, who had barely managed a direct hit just in time with his hand, was a bit shocked.
'Does he become stronger, the more damaged he gets?'
The knight slowly walked towards his sword and Sky looked at him and thought for a while.
'Using a sword would be a bit risky since I could kill him instantly and I don't wanna use my daggers in this cave as they could get chipped if I'm not careful…' he contemplated his choices and reached a conclusion.
A dark void appeared on his stomach again and he reached inside and at the same time, the knight picked up his sword, readied his posture and then with a strong kick, dashed towards Sky who hadn't completely taken out the thing he had been looking for.
[Crack] a sound resembling bone cracking was heard as knight was hit on the chest with a metal staff.
"I hope I don't kill you, since you look like you have quite the story to tell me." Sky spoke, holding the 6 foot metal staff with one hand.
But the knight stood back up even with a broken bones and lunged forward bring his blade down, Sky countered this by hitting the sword blade one the side, redirecting it, the knight jumped a bit back and lifted his sword again but Sky followed him and holding the staff with two had, hit him on his neck, injuring his thyroid cartilage before the knight could bring his sword done.
The knight bent down a bit but still tried to move forward but as he moved his leg forward, the leg was kicked with an oblique kick. The force made the knight trip and fall down all sitting, almost turning his knee inward.
Before the knight could even recover from the pain, Sky hit the knight on his back with an axe kick, completely asking the knight unable to stand back up again or so he thought.
The knight disappeared into the shadows of the dark cave completely hidden.
'That explains his lack of presence when I first came here.' Sky thought upon seeing the knight's power.
A sword came from his feet as the knight appeared right below him, the sword managing to make a cut in Sky's face.
The knight disappeared again immediately.
"Tsk" Sky was annoyed, there was probably only 1-2 hours of sunlight left and that's if he was lucky and he could not waste time here since he had to complete his preparation to ward off the monsters and this power of his was annoying. He didn't know the specifics. There is no telling if there is a limit so this fight could drag on for a couple hours.
"I hope you won't resent me if I accidentally kill you." Sky suddenly turned serious and stopped playing around
As the knight came to attack from the shadows, he felt something off but he realised it too late, in a flash, his chin was struck with a spinning elbow and his brain rattled. The knight tried to stand upright but the leg that Sky had kicked was just too heavily injured and he tumbled and as he was about to fall, his legs were swept and as he was a falling, he could see a fist in front of him and it struck him, completely bending his helmet, the bent pieces of helmet piercing some parts of his skin and face and a force like a truck hit him of the nose and broke it, knocking him out due to the sheer force and power of the punch.
"I hope you don't die…sleep well"