Minutes passed while Riche walked the field, and he started to feel its endlessness as nothing new came around, but the faces of even more people.
A sigh escaped his mouth, and he repeatedly tugged on his collar, enduring the heat
As he continued walking, he saw a mass of people in the distance, but he couldn't tell what was going on. He assumed maybe people just formed a group to discuss things, or maybe a fight had broken out, but he couldn't tell for sure; really, anything could have happened.
Still, despite the heat and his desperation to escape it, his curiosity proved a more powerful desire, so he approached the mass.
As he got closer, he soon saw the truth behind it. A crowd of people had circled a small spot of grass where someone seemed to stand in the center. Many people talked and whispered, forming a congestion of sound amongst the crowd. Riche couldn't make out anything they were saying.
Clearly, though, it was something interesting, as there were people at the outer part of the crowd desperately trying to see who was center.
Riche approached a man in the outer crowd who held a disappointed face after failing to see what was at the center, asking him:
"What's with the crowd, sir?"
The man turned to Riche.
"Hmm?"
"Do you know why there's a crowd? Did something happen?"
The man shrugged.
"I heard there is someone famous in the center, but I couldn't tell you who it is. I tried pushing my way through and looking over these people, but they are just too unforgiving!"
Hearing this, Riche's curiosity grew, and he tried getting on his toes, peeping over people, but he couldn't see anything but the backs of people's heads.
He came back down to his feet.
"You really can't see anything."
"I told you, man."
Riche didn't give up, though, and with his curiosity getting the best of him, he shoved his way through, parting his way through the crowd.
He felt the pressure from all sides, and eventually, he made his way through, but when he finally reached the front, someone pushed him from behind, causing him to stumble forward.
Recovering, he looked up, and a rise of surprise coursed through him, seeing a woman clad in a light set of deep black armor that wrapped around her thin body.
She was slightly shorter than he, and she had straight, silky black hair that draped over the back of her armor.
Hearing a shout behind her, the woman turned around and noticed Riche in front of her. Their eyes met, and Riche instantly became mesmerized.
Her face had a beautiful pale glow; she had the smoothest skin in all of existence, clearer than Riches and even more majestic. Her eyes were even more stunning, with a purple reminiscent of a lavender.
Her beautiful expression looked into Riche's eyes, noticing a blushing redness that filled his face with a burning heat. She opened her mouth, parting her soft lips slightly, and spoke, at first releasing a soft voice:
"You…" Then she raised her voice, revealing a fierceness that deceived itself under her beauty, "even all of you surrounding me! Step away before I paint this field full of your blood!"
Riche stared, blinking in confusion. He couldn't believe that such a face could have a fierceness to it.
"Um… pardon?"
He blinked a few times, then suddenly heard a rummaging from every direction.
The crowd had dispersed at the woman's words, and the only one who was now near her was Riche, who stared into her alluring eyes.
Everyone knew who she was, but since Riche had no idea, he didn't know that it was in his best interest to listen to the woman's demands, and soon he would come to regret not listening.
Since Riche was still in front of her, the woman's face was angered, and she reached down to her waist, where a black sheath attached itself, then grasped onto the hilt of the sword encased inside.
She pulled the sword slightly out, revealing part of a long black blade that shone like the night.
It was a mesmerizing piece; it was pure, solid, but terrifying.
The blade emitted a dark smoke like an expanding void that wanted to hide anything it touched, even if nothing was in its way.
To anyone within its range, it felt like an inescapable death, as it would seep into their souls, eventually taking over their bodies with fear, rendering attempts to move useless.
And, being within proximity, Riche felt these effects. His body started to weaken, and a force drained the life out of him; the smoke emitted from the blade was forming a numbness that forced his nerves to feel nothing but a tingling feeling that froze him in place.
He tried moving away, but couldn't; only his eyes moved, which twitched rapidly as the woman shouted again, fed up with him not listening.
"You, unless you want to die, you'd better move!"
Suddenly, her presence grew horrifying to Riche; his vision of her changed, his mind was forcefully making him hallucinate, and her once human figure was now a monster with deep black skin, arms that spanned every direction, and blank white eyes that appeared all over her body.
Because of this, his mind turned to panic, and his thoughts turned in all directions; he couldn't even think properly without fear taking over.
"Wait, wait! D-don't approach! Ah! Stop! I-I didn't mean anything bad! I don't even know who you are!"
The woman's face inched closer to his, almost touching, then her eyes widened, trying to intimidate Riche, who was on the brink of fainting.
"Clearly, you do, and so did all the others who tried surrounding me. I can see it in your face, your eyes, you're lying to me. Now step back."
Riche's heart started beating fast.
"M-my body, I-I can't move it! Please, get away! Get away!"
The people around stared in horror as Riche continuously shouted in fear.
She closed her eyes.
Of course, she knew this. Only a few have ever been able to maintain composure within the vicinity of her exposed blade, but they were only the strong, and Riche was far from being strong.
"Unfortunate, then…"
She took a step back, pulled the black sword completely out of its sheath, and held it horizontally across her chest, shining its crow darkness to Riche's eyes.
Then, she opened her eyes and uttered:
"Best of luck. I hope death gives you comfort."
Just as she finished her sentence, she threw her arms forward, striking towards Riche's neck as a blur of darkness followed the blade.
Suddenly, a familiar chime rang, the same one Riche had heard in his shop, then a blue book suddenly appeared between the two, followed by a small green light that disappeared in an instant.
As the book appeared, quickly, the blade collided with it in a dense force, sending a sharp pain through the woman's hand, causing her to grunt loudly.
"Argh!"
The woman staggered, and the black glow that surrounded her blade faded, reducing itself back to its original silver glisten.
At the same time, the hands of fear that had enshrouded Riche's body dispersed, and he quickly came back to his senses.
He was confused at first, still struck with a sliver of fear, but he soon realized that he could move again, and without a second thought, he bent down, grabbed the book from the grass, and quickly scurried back into the empty field, distancing himself from the dispersed crowd of onlookers.
Despite the pain in her hand, the woman tried reaching her sword out to stop him, but stopped it short of its extension because she knew he wasn't worth it, such a weakling, such a coward, such as him, wasn't worth her blade's sharpness. It would be a waste of such a beautiful piece.
As the pain lingered, she sheathed her sword, and turning her gaze downcast, she held her right in front of herself, clenched it tightly, then opened it.
It had hit her that someone had managed to block her attack; nobody had done so before, at least not for a while.
Taking away her attention from her hand, she then glanced up, and to the people surrounding her, noticing their siding eyes that still glared at her.
She felt disappointed in them.
"Do these people not understand that it's not a time to fond over someone? This situation is dire."
She paused for a brief moment, then sighed, shaking her head.
"Where are you at, Hawk?"