Orin swallowed his spit in apprehension, 'He could've effortlessly killed her, but he chose to bite her neck instead... Is he just playing with us?'
The thought made him shiver.
Cale, with blood crusted down his jaw and his glowing onyx eyes, was a horrifying sight. He was more of a demon than a human.
Alan swung his hammer, which Cale could easily avoid.
Instead, he let it swing at him. He let it get as close as possible before ducking under it. The air displaced by it caused Cale's hair to flutter, and a gust of sand got in his eyes, but he ignored it.
Instead, he slashed at the knees of Alan, not enough to cut them off, but to incapacitate him.
"FUCK!" He roared in pain, falling to his injured knees. The weight of his own body caused his wounds to bellow in pain as it hurt more than the sword, and he erupted into a string of agonizing cries. Cale simply redirected his gaze to the trembling Louis.
Cale stepped forward, flourishing his sword as he approached slowly.
Louis sent his spear forward, aimed at Cale's throat.
"You get on my fucking nerves, you pest." Cale easily bobbed his head around the spear and raised his hand, fastening his fingers around the wooden pole of it. The wood croaked under his strength before it burst into a shower of splinters and dust, Louis opening his mouth in shock. Before he could respond, Cale dug his fist into the hip of Louis and forced him to go slamming into the trees behind him. Quickly, Cale leaped forward, following after him.
Mid-air, he grabbed Louis's shoulder-length hair and yanked it back, causing his lower body to violently whip from the counter-acting force. Afterwards, Cale threw him straight at the weeping Alan. He had no time to react as they were both sent flying back a few meters, and Alan's screams only became more exaggerated. His cries turned into spine-chilling shrieks of agony, but in turn only made Cale more ominous.
Cale turned around, his eyes locking onto Orin. "Kill her with your own hand, and I'll let you all live. If not..."
Cale spun around and grabbed Louis by his hair again, dragging him over right in front of Orin. He desperately clawed at Cale's arms, spewing out curses in desperation. Cale peered down and smacked him, a group of teeth ejected from his mouth. Cale smirked and raised his blade to Louis's neck and pressed down, drawing a light trickle of blood. "You all die a slow death."
Orin shook in fear and couldn't move; the paralyzing atmosphere of Cale was too potent for him to move. "C'mon. Move." He urged the archer.
Orin moved his eyes downward to one of Reina's swords and slowly reached forward, his arms trembling in fear. Reina watched, unmoving and in fear, as his hand got closer. The paralyzing agent had already overpowered her entire body, and she was defenseless to what was coming.
Finally, his hand clasped around the handle, and he brought it to Reina's neck, biting his lip in fear. The tip dug into the surface of her skin, a drop of blood coursed down her neck into the bite mark.
Suddenly, the blade slid into her neck and dug all the way to the other side, protruding out of the other end of her neck. "Woops! Looks like you took too long, and I killed her." Cale exclaimed while giggling. "Now I have a corpse on my brand new sword! How despicable." He grabbed the blade of the sword and the handle and raised it, bringing up Reina's corpse with it. "That's a big catch, if I say so myself." He mocked ruthlessly, grinning at the staring Orin.
He lowered his sword and jerked it up in a fast motion, causing Reina's head to be sliced in half from ear to ear. She plopped down and landed right in Orin's lap, her exposed brains slipping onto his pant leg. The sight broke his mind, and he couldn't muster any thoughts as he watched the grueling sight before him. Louis attempted to use the brief moment of distraction to jump to his knees and elbow Cale's stomach, but Cale simply reached down and grabbed his arm before he could.
The sword dropped on his elbow and sliced it cleanly in half, and he quickly raised his sword and cut off the other arm before drawing his sword back and stabbing it into the midriff of Louis. The poor man watched as the sword slipped through his body and came out his chest, desperately grabbing onto it to stop it from going further.
Lifting his body up into the air, Cale looked into his eyes and taunted him before he passed, "You look like a training dummy now! How fitting."
Orin watched with his mouth agape in horror; he didn't feel sadness, rage, grief, or anything. He simply couldn't feel anything. His mind was broken. This was worse than any torture he could've received.
The man he watched was merciless and was having fun at the same time.
Cale grabbed the dying Louis's neck and slipped him off his blade and threw him back to Alan, not sparing another thought.
"Now, you." He said as he lowered himself to a knee.
Cale dug into his pocket and pulled out a small green gem, and handed it to Orin. "Use that to teleport back to wherever you came from, and tell them, if they come back, I'll send their mutilated corpses to their family's house for their children to see. Okay?"
Orin mindlessly nodded and held the gem in his hand, and peered down at it.
"Of course, technically I killed her, but no worries! You did half of it. And so, you and the hammer guy get to live. Come!" He grabbed his shoulder and brought him over to Alan, dragging along Reina's corpse. He threw them all in a pile and watched silently. "Go on!" Orin's eyes finally regained the dimmest light as he realized he could finally escape this hell; If that word was worthy of describing it.
He injected his mana into the gem, and it shimmered to life, radiating rays of mana encompassing them. 'Finally.' Orin thought in his mind, smiling in relief with tears welling in the corners of his eyes.
Just as he thought it was over, his mind was hopelessly shattered again.
The mana from the gem dissipated, and all that remained were the towering trees above him. The same harrowing atmosphere suffocated him, surrounding him like the air was a manifestation of Cale's horror.
Cale perked his brow and tilted his head in feigned confusion, "Ah! That's weird. It didn't work... Y'know, it costs to use those! So I'll take..." His words trembled off as Cale scanned over his body, locking onto his arrows.
"Ah! I know!
Just so you can't ever be a hassle to me again... I'll be taking your hands so you can never draw a bow in the future." Orin widened his eyes and drew his arms back, but it was too late. Cale had already sliced his hands off, and blood relentlessly sprayed out. "Now go. I'll do it for you. Cale injected his mana into the gem and threw it at Orin, who could only think about going home. "Bye!"
The recurring scene of the gem blossoming to life swallowed the four soldiers in its power, and soon enough, they were gone.
--
A mage felt a pang in his head and quickly turned his head and called out to a man writing on a scroll, "Reina and her squad are back!" He yelled.
The man he directed these words to quickly raised his eyes and stood up and walked with a brisk pace to a room in the building that served as a room for people to use teleportation gems.
As he walked in, he could only observe in horror at the mutilated corpses of Louis and Reina, the passed out Alan, and emotionless Orin who was missing his hands.
"W-What the fuck?" He muttered aloud. He cowered backward in apprehension and yelled out, "MEDICS!"
A second later, a group of four mages quickly sprinted through the corridor into the room and revolted at the sight. A pool of blood was already forming underneath Orin as he blankly stared into the ceiling, his eyes losing all their light.
They quickly sprang into action and cast a combination of spells.
Orin could only muster one word before passing out: "Monster..."