Hero – Part 09
Luke laughed out loud. Goosebumps prickled his skin. With a burst of speed, he kicked up dust and leapt into the heart of the battlefield.
The Inhumans feasting on corpses let out a guttural roar as they noticed the crazed human charging at them, laughing madly. Sensing something inexplicable from him, they grew furious. At a command from the black-armored figure at the rear—Francisca, brandishing her battle axe—they surged forward with a collective, earth-shaking roar.
The first Inhuman to close in on Luke exploded in a spray of dark fluid, dropping dead. Its face was split vertically from skull to chin, spraying a mix of brain matter and foul ichor. Luke, standing in front of the Inhuman, was splattered with the grotesque fluid.
The creature’s limbs went limp, and the first Inhuman collapsed on its belly. Luke dashed past its lifeless body, slicing horizontally at a second one rushing in. It tried to catch his blade with its powerful jaws, but to Luke, it moved in agonizing slow motion. The sword had already passed through. Before it could even register that its jaw had been cleaved, Luke had already sidestepped to its flank and sliced through its neck, killing it before it could realize what had happened.
A third Inhuman crouched low, its snout grazing the ground before launching itself at Luke, thrusting the spikes on its back toward him.
Luke placed his left hand over his right, which gripped the tang of his sword, and spread his legs wide. With his left side thrust forward, he raised the sword high, elbows wide. Then, drawing his right foot forward in a sweeping arc, he swung the blade down in a diagonal slash.
The air split with a resounding hiss. The third Inhuman, caught mid-leap, was cleaved clean in half along with its spiked back. The two severed halves flew past Luke on either side, perfectly bisected.
“Hahahaha!”
Luke, soaked in blood and grinning like a madman, couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Adrenaline rushed through his veins.
A fourth beast loomed behind him, rising on its hind legs and lunging forward with spear limbs. Luke turned, flicking his blade lightly.
The creature’s pupils contracted. Its exposed throat was slashed clean through, with only a thin strip of flesh keeping its head attached. As its massive body toppled forward, Luke ducked low and slipped beneath it. A tremor rippled through the ground as the Inhuman crashed face-first. Without sparing a glance at the severed head tumbling free from the force, Luke surged into a sprint.
As he ran, he noticed the cloth wrapped around his sword’s tang was loosening. Annoyed, he tore it off and tossed it aside. The sword, slick with sweat and blood, might slip from his grip, but he’d deal with it then.
The resistance from that last kill bothered him, so he glanced at the blade. It was coated in a muck of dark fluids. He wiped it with his sleeve, but the viscous grime refused to come off. The edge was also slightly chipped, dulling it significantly.
“I thought it’d last a bit longer,” he muttered.
Still, any other katana would’ve snapped by now. This one had already sliced clean through one of those monsters’ spines. This was likely Luke Ainsworth’s best work, at least for now.
Scanning the battlefield, Luke saw soldiers from the Militant Nation still scattered around. Some cowered in terror, while others fought on bravely. Luke shouted for them to retreat, then stopped and turned on his heel.
A fresh wave of Inhumans thundered toward him. Narrowing his eyes, he kicked up a fallen ōdachi, snatched it with his left hand, took a few strides to build momentum, and hurled it. Spinning like a windmill, the massive blade pierced straight into one Inhuman’s eye socket. Unable to dodge, it collapsed backward. That made five down.
Quickly counting, he tallied ten—no, eleven left. Luke’s lips curled into a blood-smeared grin. The constant motion was beginning to take its toll. He could feel fatigue slowly seeping into his limbs. Could he fight through to the end?
“Is that even a question?”
He remembered his childhood friend who faced Valbanill head-on. He recalled his apprentice who blindly believed he was a genius. He thought of that female knight who would tell him he could do it.
So yeah, of course he could. He just had to believe.
He charged forward, clashing with the sixth Inhuman. Two quick slashes opened deep cuts along its snout, but he couldn’t finish it off. The creature’s headbutt struck him square in the chest, sending him flying. His vision flipped as he hit the ground hard, his shoulder taking the brunt of the impact. He skidded across the dirt, the friction ripping at his skin.
Agonizing pain devoured his calm mind. Covered in dirt, Luke sprang back to his feet.
“Haaaahhh!”
With a fierce roar, he drove his katana into the nose of the charging beast. The blade pierced through the flesh, entering from the mouth and emerging from the back of its neck. The sixth Inhuman’s eyes rolled back and breathed its last.
Katanas weren’t made for thrusting. Their curved blades made it difficult to pull them back out. To make matters worse, the Inhuman’s flesh began to stiffen with alarming speed as rigor mortis set in, tightening around the blade and refusing to release it. As he struggled to pull it free, two more Inhumans closed in.
Luke let out another defiant shout, and with a powerful leap, drove his weight into the blade. It sank deeper with each heave, bones snapping and flesh tearing. After a few more thrusts, he finally wrenched the blade free, slicing clean through the corpse’s abdomen. He spun around, unleashing a sweeping horizontal slash.
The sword bit into the seventh Inhuman’s skull, cleaving into its temple. But the edge deflected off bone. The sword had finally reached its limit.
Showering in blood and sparks, Luke grit his teeth.
Nothing we can do about that.
“If I can’t cut with this katana anymore… then I’ll just beat them to death with it!”
His sword rebounded back, but he flipped it to strike with the spine. Using all his strength, Luke brought it crashing down onto the Inhuman’s skull, shattering it in an instant. The seventh Inhuman fell lifeless to the ground. The sword groaned from the force of the strike.
Only nine left.
But suddenly, exhaustion pressed down on his entire body like a heavy weight. His arms refused to rise, and his legs felt chained to the ground. The relentless bursts of intense movement had pushed both Luke and his weapon to their limits. Worst of all, the fatigue began to affect the vision in his only good eye.
His vision blurred. Did I overdo it?
He clicked his tongue in frustration as he watched the snout of the eighth Inhuman closing in on him. He had no way to fight back.
Then, a blade streaked across his vision, cutting through the Inhuman’s skull from left to right.
“What’s wrong? You seem to be struggling.”
A female knight with fiery red eyes gallantly appeared. She pulled her rapier free from the Inhuman’s body and gave it a light flick to the side to shake off the blood. Behind her, the corpse of the eighth Inhuman collapsed to the ground with a thud.
“Still, you fought well. That’s half of them. Well done, Luke.”
Talking big, are we? You were scared shitless before I got here.
“I was just taking a break. I can still fight,” Luke retorted.
“I see. But just stay there for a while.” Cecily Campbell turned her back to him. “It’s my turn now.”
She took off.
With the Infernal Blade Aria in hand, Cecily surged ahead.
The sword’s wind propelled her forward, parting the surrounding mist like it was avoiding her path. She leapt over the corpses of Inhumans and humans alike, swiftly passing by everyone—the brave Militant Nation soldiers still standing their ground, gripping their ōdachi, the wounded who lay motionless, and those who cowered in fear with their heads in their hands. She tore across the battlefield strewn with countless dead.
The Inhumans, already spooked by Luke’s demonic ferocity, saw Cecily’s arrival as a welcome opportunity and swarmed toward her. They likely mistook her for just another weak human, easy prey to devour. And they couldn’t be more wrong.
The ninth Inhuman lunged at her, fangs bared to crush the female human, but before it could sink its teeth into her, Cecily struck. Her rapier pierced its right eyesocket, then unleashed a torrent of wind from within, shredding its brain to pieces. The creature collapsed, dead before it knew what hit it.
Cecily swiftly pulled out her rapier from the beast’s corpse and moved on to her next target. She didn’t stop for a second. Her movements, enhanced by the power of the radiant wind, were faster than ever. The Inhumans couldn’t keep up with the silver gleam darting in every direction.
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