End War

Chapter 10 : First Time

The sun had down. It became dark. Without answering Eugene's question, Kido released the fingers that holding his arrow. In the blink of an eye, the arrow could stuck in Eugene's body. But that's not happen. Eugene unsheathed his rapier and parried the arrow with his thin sword. It cause a noise of two collided metal, like a noise when a smith forged a sword. Eugene could parry the fast arrow, it means Eugene's movement was faster than the blink of an eye. Eugene was so fast, Kido realized it. His survival instinct told him to step back. He draw another arrow and started aiming at Eugene again. But what he saw was just Eugene's shadow. Eugene had already at the Kido's back. Eugene's shadow was left behind because he moved so fast. He would stab Kido with his rapier, but Kido rotated his body and used his bow to hit the rapier and change the path of Eugene's rapier. Kido's bow had broken into two pieces. Kido then jumped from the top of the cart onto the ground.

"Don't underestimate me, Kid. We, the nobles, have been trained years by the grand masters. We are stronger than our own guard, except your poor princess, who is weaker than anyone in the world", Eugene started to show his truth personality.

Kido was unarmed. His possibility to beat Eugene was near zero. But then Jeanne shouted to Kido, "Kido, take this!". Jeanne threw a sword. It was the sword of the cart driver. He ran away, leaving his sword after being threatened by Kido. Kido caught the sword, his possibility increased a little. 

"Do you think you can kill me after getting a sword? Not even a chance!", Eugene moved again. Now he attacked directly in front of Kido. His hands become 8 hands that stabbed Kido. Using his eyes, Kido could avoid some of it but he still got two incision wounds in his face. 

"I see, you are a Gifted. Your eyes are your Gift. You make a good use of yours, although I think your Gift don't stand a chance against the other Gifted. Would you like to taste my Gift?", Eugene pointed his rapier into Kido.

"Trees Bombardment!"

The ground was shaking. Suddenly tree roots emerged from the ground. They were moving fast toward Kido. He could easily dodge one or two roots. But over time, more and more roots appeared from the ground. Kido were running circling Eugene. He jumped from one root to another while searching gap to attack Eugene. The rapier was still pointed at him. Eugene pointed it following Kido's move. Kido saw an opening to Eugene. He used it to attack but he forgot about how fast Eugene was back then. Eugene could easily dodged him. Not only that, Eugene began his move to attack Kido. Now there were the roots and Eugene himself that attacking him. 

It went on for a long time until Kido felt dizzy suddenly. His sight became blur and he couldn't keep his body balanced. He fell down from the root. Eugene stopped his attack.

"So you have reached your limit, Kid." Eugene said. Kido was unsure about what happened.

"Don't say you confused your condition. Do you not know that if you use your Gift for a long time, your body won't hold long. Even they said that some of Gifted were died because using their Gift too much", Eugene explained the danger of using Gift too much. Kido had just known it since he was the only Gifted in his bandit gang. His head became so heavy like it would blowing. He heard a heavy ringing voice in his ears. 

"It's a shame that you've reached your limit, it's really fun to dance with you. But before the capital kingdom's royal guard came here, I need to bring the princess to our base. This is the end of your journey, Kid!", Eugene pointing his rapier to Kido. The root was stabbed his belly. Kido vomited blood from his mouth and nose. 

Eugene was smiled and he laughed, "Bwahahahah it is a comfort feeling for killing the Kid. He must be dreaming of killing me, saving the princess, and becoming a royal guard. Yet I crushed his dream like crushing an ant walking on the dining table. Haaahahaha". Eugene seemed to be in a trance. He revealed his true nature as an evil.

"Ups, I'm sorry for being rude my princess, it's time for us to leave this place. You musn't be found by the royal guard or we, the defectors, will lose out," Eugene turned his face to the princess. Suddenly a voice came out.

"DO IT NOW, ANN!!!", Kido realized what Jeanne was doing. Since she threw a sword for Kido, she didn't just see Kido being tortured. She prepared a fire using rocks, dry branches and leaves, and pieces of cloth. She was taught how to do it by Kido when they were still inside Ygdrassil. Realizing what Jeanne did, Kido was distracting Eugene by circling and jumping around before the root stabbed him. 

Then Jeanne spread the fire around. The fire was burning Eugene's root. Not only that, it was burning the forest slowly. With pain spreading throughout his body, Kido plunged his sword into the root that was impaling him and then he broke the root as hard as he could. Eugene was surprised for short time, then he returned his attention to Kido.

"Damn you little bratssss!!!! You're interfering my business", Eugene drowned in his anger. He prepared to strike Kido with full power. Eugene pulled his right leg back. His body faces to the right side and leans forward. His left hand was straight at Kido and his right hand was holding the rapier as if aiming at Kido. The muscles of his left leg tensed to prepare for a full launch.

Kido's body swayed. His visions became strange, like when he tried to see the tip of the Ygdrassil tree and met a crazy old man. He saw the shadows of Eugene's figure like waves of shadow. He looked as if he could predict Eugene's movements. He stood straight and opened his legs as wide as his body. Both his hands held the sword in front of his chest.

They exhaled, trying to focus and calm themselves. Time seemed to slow down for the two of them. A tree branch broke from the fire and fell between them. When the branch hit the ground, Eugene launched himself with full power. Even though time slowed down, Eugene's movements were still very fast. In Kido's vision, he knows that Eugene is aiming for his heart and the roots of Eugene's Gift will emerge from under Kido. Kido then took one step forward with his left foot to avoid Eugene's roots. As soon as Eugene was about to reach him, Kido took one step forward with his right foot and pulled his left body to avoid Eugene's attack while raising his sword with both hands. He swung his sword as if to cut Eugene's body in half.

"Splashhhh", Eugene's blood spurted like a fountain from all over his body. His eyes turned white and his body fell down. In his remaining consciousness, he said quietly, "Urgh...., damn you, Kid!"

Kido vomited blood again. There was still a root stabbing in his belly. He didn't pulled it out because it could cause severe bleeding. He felt nauseous not only because of his wound but also because this was the first time he had killed someone. During his time as a bandit, he had never killed his victims. He actually secretly helped them. Without realizing it, Kido also had idealism that he maintained. But now, he violated his idealism to save a girl he just met a few weeks ago. Not long after, he passed out. He heard that Jeanne was kept calling him, but he had no energies to answer.

To be continued...