Zombies On Fire & Other Short Stories

Field of a Thousand Swords

"No! Please don't. Stop. I'll go for you if you let Kurou live." Ami screamed.

Yasu lowered his sword and looked up at her with a grin. "That's more like it. Do you swear?" he asked with a low growl.

Ami nodded as the tears ran down her cheeks.

"That's not a good answer," Yasu roared as he raised his sword and pulled Kurou's head for the final blow.

"Yes! Yes, I swear. I swear on the life of my unborn children. I'll go to your field of swords and fetch this Reaper's Toll you are talking about. I swear it. Just let Kurou go." Ami sobbed.

Yasu grinned wickedly as he lowered his sword. Then he gave Kurou a hard shove to the ground.

Kurou groaned and rolled over to look at Yasu. "No! You must not do this. He already had the Scarlet Terzite. If you give him the sword, he will be unstoppable."

Ami shook her head and wiped the tears from her face as she shakily to her feet. "He is already unstoppable, Kurou. He defeated all five of us without it. The others are dead or dying. I just want us to live."

Kurou groaned and refused to look at her.

"I will not look at your face ever again if you do this."

"I don't care if you don't look at me, Kurou. Just knowing that you are still alive will be enough for me. The hope that someday you will look upon me again will be enough."

"I will never look at you again," Kurou spat in her direction, and then moaned in pain at the movement. Then he tried to push himself up.

Yasu kicked Kurou in the ribs. Hard. Ami heard ribs crack.

"Please stop it," she sobbed. "I already said I would fetch your stupid sword. Now, leave him alone."

Yasu smiled as he kicked Kurou again. "I don't trust your kind," he growled. "If I let him up, he'll do something that would make me want to kill him. I need him alive for you to do what I want. So, it's best he stay down."

The large, burly man spat at Kurou who lay groaning at his feet. "Now, go fetch me my sword you snotty, little brat."

Ami looked up at him pleadingly, "But where is it? How do you want me to get it if you don't tell me where it is?"

Yasu snorted, "Seriously? You expect me to believe that line. You and your friends attacked me to try and steal the Scarlet Terzite. It's obvious you wanted it to get to the Field of Swords. Why else would you have come after me like that?"

He reached down and grabbed Kurou by the back of his coat and tossed him over his shoulder.

"Walk in front of me down this way," he grunted while pointing down the shadowy tunnel.

Ami walked slowly shuffling her feet more than she had to just to buy some extra time.

"What about my friends back there?" she asked.

"What about them? They're dead. You can come back and bury them after you get me my sword."

Amy asked him a few other questions, but he didn't answer. Yasu told her to shut up and keep walking. He paused from time to time when they came to branching tunnels as if trying to remember which way to go.

Finally, he stopped and motioned for her to step inside. She walked into a massive cavern full of exquisite stalactites and stalagmites that had formed over hundreds and thousands of years.

They came to the other side of the cavern and Yasu motioned her through a smaller tunnel that led to another smaller cavern.

A soft blue glow filled the room. It was beautiful. It emanated from a round circle in the middle of the cavern.