Chapter 3

  The wind blew through the air, picking up dust as the beast towered over the woman with a bloodlust. Although its four legs were now rendered useless, it’s 2 legs in the front were strong enough to support its great weight, allowing it to charge at the woman.

  Eyes clear and free of fear, the woman braced herself for the oncoming assault. The beast, before clashing head-to-head, tucked its head inward and flipped itself over, swinging its hammer-tipped tail down wood and smashing into the ground.

  Before it connected, she dashed to the side and dodged the attack, having seen it coming. Twisting back around, the creature slashed at the women with claws that carved into the stone walls that made up the gorge. She weaved through each slash, moving a split moment before the beast’s next move.

  As the creature reeled back its arm, Lyaikomi leapt up and delivered a flying spin kick against the mandible of the creature, dislocating its jaw and making it hang open on one side. Crying out in pained rage, the beast planted its arms down into the ground, dragging its back half around and swinging it like a blade.

  Lyaikomi leapt up and over as it hurled its body, trying to slam its behemoth weight at her.

  Landing on her feet, Lyaikomi sprinted towards the beast.

  Seeing this, the creature shoots its tongue at her to ensnare her. Failing to, as she held her hands out in a hand knife shape and swung them, slicing through the flesh of the tongue and tossing it to the side without slowing.

  Once face-to-face, the woman threw a roundhouse kick, and shattered the knee of its right leg, blowing out the joint and surrounding bone as it jutted out of its flesh, causing it to balance on its last remaining leg and lean against the white stone wall.

  As Lyaikomi rushed towards the side, the asurak opened its mouth completely, pushing off the ground and slamming its upper row of teeth into the ground to try and pin her to the ground. When the beast rose, a rock shard thrown by the girl entered its mouth and jammed itself into the eye socket of the face inside, eliciting a roar of pain and boiling over into desperate rage.

  Leaning against the wall, the beast took its free claw and struck at the Stony wall and ground around it and hurled shards of rock at her with the force capable of piercing iron armor into shreds.

  Leaping back and turning around, she ran towards the opposing wall and held out her hands, striking them into the stone wall and creating her own finger holes that she used to climb up like a squirrel up a tree before pushing herself off and falling towards the beast.

  The beast, sensing the woman's murderous intent, pushed off the ground and flew upwards towards the woman, preparing to swallow her whole.

  Reorienting herself in midair, she gently landed onto the top of its upper lip before tilting and becoming parallel with the side of its head, reeling her hand back in the shape of a sphere and puncturing the beast's head, going through the fluid-filled ear canal and skull to puncture to the center of its brain before pulling out.

  She landed on her feet like a feather as the beast crashed into the opposite wall with a crack.

  The fight was over. Giving a few delirious sounds as the beast suffered from Vertigo, it took its last breaths and went still on the ground.

  Off to the side, Saikougott stared at the scene before him with utter amazement at Lyaikomi’s strength, marveling at the sight of the dead beast that lay before her. A creature that slew countless of the villagers with their own divine powers backing them up, now vanquished by a woman who used only her body to dominate her enemy.

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  He would have continued admiring her work if not for the glare he caught as she turned around and spotted him ducking down behind a boulder.

  “Saikougott,” she whispered as her cold, narrow eyes focused on him as she strode towards him. “You are in so much trouble,” she said, a cold anger tinging the tone of her voice.

  Sensing the suppressed fury in her calm voice, Saikougott gulped before turning around and racing towards the forest near the end of the gorge. Yet, for as fast as he was, even able to outrun fully-grown devakian guards around him with effort. He was nowhere near the speed of Lyaikomi as he felt her grip around his upper arm before he could get a few feet away.

  “Oh no, you don’t! Come here!” she shouted, pulling him in and forcing him onto the ground.

  “Aiko, I know you're probably really mad, but just give me a second, I can—“

  “Not now! Arms up!”

  Saikougotts' arms shot up without hesitation, allowing Lyaikomi to run her hands frantically over his body to see if he was injured. Satisfied that there wasn’t a scratch on him, she sighed as she glared down at him.

  “What is wrong with you?” She yelled at the shaking boy. “Why did you leave my side like that! You know you can’t fight! Stop running off without me like you always do!”

  “Aiko, I know you’re mad, but I have a reason, just—”

  “No!” She pulls him up so that they are both on their knees looking at each other. “Why do you always have to act so recklessly! Do you like having me see you in danger? You think I like it?” her shouts soften till only the two of them could hear each other, and in the softness of her voice, Saikougott could hear the slight tremble of her voice as she began shaking as he had a few moments before. “P-please stop being so reckless, okay? I don’t want to see anything happen to you. Y-you almost got yourself k-killed,” she whimpered.

  The adrenaline coursing through his beating heart began to slow and give way to shame as Saikougott looked at the tired cries of his friend as she gazed down, arms hugging herself to soothe the shaking from seeing him so close to death.

  Dammit! You messed up! Now look what you did! Now you’re failing even your friend. Things got out of hand, and now look what you did! She’s crying now!

  Feeling the heavy heat in his chest, he slowly moved his arms and wrapped them around the woman as he rested his chin on her shoulder.

  Feeling the warmth radiating from his smaller body pressed up against hers, Lyaikomi’s sniffling ceased as she gazed down at the small boy who had realized the error of his way. Almost instinctually, she wrapped her own arms around his smaller frame, her breathing evening as he was safe in her arms now.

  “I'm so sorry, Aiko,” Saikougott said. “I didn't mean for things to get so out of hand so quickly. You know I wouldn't want to worry you or anything. It's just that I had to check something out here in this area for myself. Although I'm sure that's not a good excuse, now is it?”

  Lyaikomi rubs away her remaining tears and clears her throat before gazing down at him. “Wait?” she sniffed. “Why did you come out here? What was so important that you had to run off like that?”

  Saikougott inhaled a breath before readying himself for his explanation, knowing full well his companion's feelings on the matter he was about to bring up. “The reason that I was out here was that I—“

  Saikougott was cut off as Lyaikomi grabbed them and dragged him to the ground, where she rolled a few feet away from something that was thrown at them; her instincts as a fighter reacting faster than Saikougott could.

  “What is it!” exclaimed Saikougott. " Is it another enemy? Are we under attack by another—”

  Lyaikomi pointed over to the ground where something had landed, revealing the item that she had to dodge had not been a dagger or even a rock, but rather a grayish, rotten piece of fruit that was gathering mosquitoes around it.

  “What's the— is that a rotten piece of fruit? Who would throw that away out of nowhere? What's going on?" Saikougott asked.

  Lyaikomi and Saikougott heard voices growing louder as a crowd of people from the village strode down the gorge. However, this was not a crowd ready to shower our heroes in praise for their bravery in defeating the monster. No, instead, the two came face-to-face with none other than a raging mob whose hearts were filled with nothing but venom that they were all too quick to spit at them.

  To top it all off, neither of them would ever know the faces of all the villagers or be able to point them out walking around them and the crowds in the future. Forever, they'd have to wonder who was friend and foe, as they always had to for their whole lives, for the crowd was all donning masks over their heads so that none of them could be called out and reported on later.

  A phenomenon that was all too common for both of them.

  One that had happened many times in the past

  And countless times more in the future.

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