"Oh, and for your info, you should say 'mongrel' with a drawl at the end. One guy I knew can do it so well it is practically patented for him." The expression on her face made me want to smirk exactly like the fellow I spoke of.
...
"Now that I have your undivided attention, I would want some answers right now." I traced a sword and pointed the edge at her body. "What do you mean by us being your targets?"
"And why should I answer you?" She taunted me in a mocking tone, to which I answered back with a quick slice of her wing, clipping a few of her feathers and bits of bones and flesh. She screamed at the pain as she clutched her wound.
"I am not in a very cheerful mood to have you testing my patience." I maintained my tone as I looked at her. "I might have an idea as to why I am being targeted, but I would like to hear from your mouth as to why you are attacking us, especially a normal human like Issei."
"Hah! You humans are all the same, think you know everything but you don't!" The girl spat at me as she managed to stop her bleeding. A quick projection stabbed her other hand into the pavement, adding a new wound to her.
"I will not ask again." I narrowed my eyes as I focused my intent to control the effects from the Black Key stabbing her hand. The weapon seemed particularly overjoyed at the prospect of killing the creature in front of me, and it was taking a lot of my attention to stop it from spreading its effects all over her body and killing her on the spot.
"Okay, okay!" She yelled as she tried to pull the blade out of her hand which was starting to turn black from the wound. I obliged by gripping the handle and yanking it out quickly, making her yelp in pain as fresh blood flowed out of her hand.
"Talk. Now."
"Hah… Hah… I was ordered to keep an eye on the boy, because he has something in his possession that interested my leader." The girl panted her reply as she clutched at her wounds. "He apparently has a Sacred Gear that my leader felt it was too dangerous to be left alone, so I was tasked to keep an eye on him and if he was deemed too dangerous, I was to get rid of him."
'Sacred Gear, the hell type of thing is that?' I thought inwardly while checking her body language for any signs of deceit. Not that I needed to; pain was a pretty good motivator for situations like this, and from what I could tell, she was more of the barking type than the biting type.
"What about me then? What is the official reason for coming after me?" I asked the bit that concerned me greatly. And based on her answer, I was right.
"My leader was curious about you as well, when he noted you had an unusual power around you." She turned her hateful eyes at me as she struggled to get herself conscious. "He checked up on you but could not find a single bit of information, so I was tasked to find you after I got rid of the brat and disposed of the gear."
Damn it, was I too lax with my security? I guess I got careless due to the notion that no one would recognize me in this world, but I had been a little liberal with my abilities for some time now when dealing with other side jobs, and if that caught someone's attention, this was a serious issue. I would need to find out who after I dispose of her. Then again…
"Alright then, tell me who your boss is?" I decided to consider my options by asking her that.
"Like hell I would!" She glared at him with lots of venom in her eyes. "I would rather be dead than to betray him!"
"…"
I sighed inwardly at the sight before me. She was the fanatical type it seemed, someone who would rather choose to endure the seven levels of the hell than to betray her trust of the leader. I have met a great deal of this type back in my old world, where the followers of some crazy magus would gladly throw themselves into the fire or slit their throats if they felt would aid their master in his quest for the Akasha Records. There was no amount of therapy to overcome such devotion.
Guess there was only one thing to do.
I slowly raised the blade while looking at her resolutely. Since she won't tell me who was her leader or the other details, I would have to do it the longer way. But at least I would rid the world of one lest damned creature. For a while the blade was held up high, then with a quick movement, I swung my arm and…
"WAIT!"
"!"
I barely reacted in time to stop my blade short of bifurcating Issei as he stood in front of me with his arms wide open to protect the bird lady behind him. His expression was a mixture of fear, pain and confusion as he shook uncontrollably in front of me.
"Issei, what are you doing?" I asked softly while keeping my blade in position.
"Shirou, please don't hurt her!" Issei begged as he tried to move his arms in a manner that would prevent me from getting a clean hit on her.
"Issei, maybe you got hit harder than I thought, but do you realise what you just said?" I narrowed my eyes at him. "If I do let her go, she would come after you again. Is that really what you want?"
"I don't know what is going on anymore, but I do know that you are about to kill Yuuma!" Issei looked at me with tearful eyes. "Please just let her go!"
I looked at him with such an expression and sighed. As much as I wanted to oblige to his request, the fact remained that the bird lady was a danger to everyone, especially him, and that letting her go free was the biggest mistake he could do.
In an unusual but cruel twist, that decision got taken over by someone else.
"Well, you are in quite a pickle, eh?" A voice from behind was the only warning I got to move the blade in time to block a shot to my head, forcing me back a few feet before I could stop. I looked up and found myself staring at a guy who lightly landed on his feet and folded his wings behind him. He was an older man with short black hair roughly in his mid-50s and was dressed in an old pale violet trench coat with a fedora covering his head, making him look like he was imitating a character from the old western movies.
"So, someone was saying that she did not need any help dealing with a mere human, huh?" The man asked in a mocking tone as he looked around at the destruction within the area. "Good thing I was in the area and decided to find you, Lady Raynare. If it were not for that weird barrier, I wouldn't have noticed you were getting your ass kicked around."
"Shut up, Dohnaseek."
'STAB!'
I turned my head quickly to find Issei standing weakly with a light spear protruding from his chest, with the woman standing behind him with a slightly irritated expression while holding the spear in her hand. "I was just getting side-tracked by the wizard here."
"Wizard?" The man turned to me while narrowing his eyes. "So the second target to watch out for was a wizard? Guess this one is a little unusual; I have never heard of one who fights with swords before. A Sacred Gear user of swords perhaps?"
"Who knows?" She shrugged as she pierced the spear deeper into Ise, causing him to cough up more blood from the mouth. "I just want to get rid of these two right now and..."
Whatever she wanted to say, I didn't care anymore. I sprung forward and with a quick jab, punched her cleanly in the face that caused her to stumble and pull the spear out of Ise's body. I managed to grab his body just before he fell to the ground and pulled him away from the two. Once he was secured, I immediately turned and ran in the opposite direction with my reinforced legs.
"Oh, so you think you could just hit me and take my prey away?" the woman's voice was audible with a hint of disdain for me. "Fine, consider it your final gift from Raynare of Grigori, because when I come after you, yours would be the next corpse to taste my wrath!"
I did not look back at all and just kept on running at full speed, using the trees to prevent them having a clear shot at my back, until I arrived at a small cluster of bushes and a big tree that served as a good spot to take stock of the situation. I put Issei gently on the softest patch of grass I could find and checked his wound. It was a pretty fatal wound that cut through his spine and his heart, I could almost the grass patch under him through the gaping wound. No matter how I looked at it, he needed a doctor quickly or he would die on the spot.
"Hang on, Issei. You are not going to die on my watch!" I checked my Prana levels to see if it was enough, then closing my eyes briefly, I traced a staff entwined by a wooden serpent, wrapping his arm around it and pouring some of my Prana inside. The eyes on the figure head glowed green, before a light shone from the staff and spread to his body, focusing mainly on the wound and starting to make it smaller.
The Staff of Asclepius, the tool once wielded by the deity of healing and medicine to help the sickly and those who were extremely weak in mind and soul. I encountered this during my trip to Greece and added it to my collection to at least have an edge in my fights, but its effects were diminished due to me being a mortal who could not fully comprehend the true aspect of the staff used by the god. Still, it should be enough to keep Ise alive.
For now, I could only supply the staff with whatever Prana I could spare and hoped that it would be enough. From my position, I could see the two creatures approaching my position, and I would not want to give them an opportunity to finish the ob.
"Stay here, you'll be safer that way." I moved a few of the branches to hide him better before getting up. "I'll be back." With that, I sprung towards the next clearing to gain some distance between them and the kid.
I will save him no matter what!
...
Hey guys I really need you to throw some power Stones ;)
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can go to my p atreon :
p atreon.com/Aerle