Ningyō no Ohimesama (The Doll Princess)

Kaiju and Eito

{MIHO'S POV}
I close the distance between Kaiju and myself quickly. However, for a hefty man with a massive mace, Kaiju sure moves fast too.

Eito jumps back, giving his fellow general some room to let loose.

If I was a second slower in dodging, I'd be mince meat under his giant spiky weapon. As it is, the mace hits the ground and sends up a shockwave that rams me through the air.

I land on my feet and skid back. He hits heavy! My innards are both shaken and stirred.

Kaiju is far stronger than me, but I'm still faster. I can overwhelm him, though avoiding the mace will be a nuisance. One hit from that ball of solid metal will turn my bones to powder.

I speed forward again. Kaiju swings the mace in a devastating horizontal blow, but I duck under his guard. I jab my rapier into a chink in his armor under the armpit, and feel the blade sink in a few centimeters. Kaiju pulls back.

He rams the ground again. I leap backwards, bracing myself for the shockwave. Almost immediately, Kaiju comes at me again, swinging haphazardly.

He's strong physically, but lacks technique. A true muscle-head fighter.

I run in circles around Kaiju, occasionally passing close for a strike and dancing out of range again. We play this game for a while. He tries to follow my movements with his eyes. I can tell he has trouble keeping up with me, and is likely betting on me tiring and slowing down.

"Fucking wench! Stay still!" Kaiju growls. He begins pounding the ground repeatedly in multiple directions. Like ripples of the surface of a lake, the shockwaves overlap. I'm bounced back and forth bewteen them, landing on my side.

I sit up and grab my stomach, which feels like it's been turned inside out.

A shadow looms over me. I let him get too close.

I scramble backwards and to my feet, feeling the wind as Kaiju's mace cleaves air less than an inch from my face. Some of the spikes graze my arms, leaving scrapes which immediately begin to sting.

I back away, creating distance to catch my breath. My sides heave. I pushed myself too hard with all the fighting before these assholes came out. I wasted too much energy on the small fry.

One move. I need to finish this in one more move.

Kaiju continues his onslaught, pulverizing anything unfortunate enough to be in his attack range, including dead bodies. I switch to dodging.

An opening. That's all I need.

Kaiju continues to swing his mace, devastation in his wake. From the right. Then the left, down, left, down, right, left, down, right, left, down, left, down, right, left, down, right, left, down.

Observing him, he only has three directions he can swing such a giant, heavy weapon. Horizontally from the left or the right, and vertically towards the ground. Simple yet effective.

Is it just me or does he almost always swing down after a left horizontal strike?

Right, left, down, left, down, right, left, down, right, down, left, down, right.

I was correct!

I wait a minute more, confirming my hypothesis. Then I wait for my chance. Kaiju swings from the left. Timing it right, I dodge and duck under his guard as he raises the mace above his head.

I stab from point blank range at the chink in his armpit I found before. This time it goes more than a few centimeters deep. It glides through Kaiju's rib cage and into his heart.

I'm deaf to the rest of the battlefield as Kaiju's body falls. I stand there, panting. This isn't over yet.

Eito doesn't give me a moment of rest. He swings his halberd low, aiming for my most valuable asset—my legs. I leap and he adjusts the direction of his strike, sweeping me off my feet.

I land back first in bloody dirt, the impact jarring the air from my lungs and making me drop my rapier. It clatters next to me, just out of reach.

Before I can re-arm myself, Eito plants a heavy boot on my chest. He raises the halberd over his head with the deadly sharp tip glinting maliciously.

I jerk my head to one side at the last second as he stabs downward. By some miracle, the blade only scratches the skin of my left cheek.

I heave myself upward. I'm bedraggled and tired, but I'll be damned if I don't find the strength in myself to win after getting this far.

Eito stumbles backward, trying to regain his balance after my maniacal burst of energy allowed me to knock his foot off my chest.

With no time to grab my blade without losing the advantage, I use the only weapon I have available: I head-butt Eito with every ounce of my strength.

We topple over each other, grappling in the mud. I end up sitting on his chest. I clench my fists and punch him in the face repeatedly.

Eito struggles at first, but his arms are pinned to his sides by the entire weight of my body.

I keep punching. This is for all the people who've suffered by your hands.

Stupid. Punch.

Hate. Punch.

Disgusting. Punch.

Soon my knuckles are bloody and raw, but I don't stop. Or rather, I can't. Eito pleads for merciful death. I literally beat him to death, mashing his face into an unrecognizable pulp.

Only when he's perfectly still do I stop. I stand unsteadily and survey the remaining enemies.

When my eyes fall on a group of people, they back away rapidly, afraid of being my next target. I turn and slowly walk back to my rapier, picking it up and shaking off the mud.

Slow clapping resonates through the still air.

"Bravo. Truly magnificent, Miho Wistaria." A slightly familiar male voice deadpans.

I turn, and blink in surprise when I spot the man in shiny armor approaching me, sword drawn.

The last time I saw him, he surrendered to us after a failed attack on the march to Citadel, but Aoi-kun let him go because he was worried about his family.

"So Itachi... is the third... general."