The Dark Soulslayer

3. Ventura

I walked down the road to the closest town, Ventura. Ventura, California is a pretty normal town (at least to me it is, since I've only been in one other town my whole life) and is an average size town with only a little below 110,000 people. Of course I don't know much about it considering the only thing I do when I come here is either go to the park, the E. P. Foster Library, or, the best pizza place ever, Round Table Pizza. What can I say? I love pizza. Greatest food ever.
Anyway, besides that there is one other thing I sometimes do when I come here. Street fights. I can't help but fight sometimes. It's fun to me. A regular punching bag gets boring sometimes, and fighting is in my blood. (I can explain that later)
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a bad guy. Most of my fights are actually against bullies or thugs picking on people. I fight like any man should, defending those who can't defend themselves.
I turned a corner and found my happy place. E. P. Foster Library. I'm a big reader mainly because since I can't really go anywhere, books help me escape to other places. I enter the library and pick a book from the mystery shelf. I've spent hours in here, reading about adventure, mystery, fantasy, horror, and I'll admit even a little romance sometimes.
I spend almost a hour reading a book about a religious murder mystery and finish it when the time becomes 2:14. I put the book back and walk out of the library. After last night, I really needed to have an escape for a little bit.
I walked down the road and looked at my boots. If the soles of my black boots wasn't red then I think people would see the color anyway. I think of last night and my encounter with the werewolf. I fought hard last night and amazingly didn't even get a scratch. I'm getting stronger everyday.
I said fighting is in my blood and that's true. It's true for all Crusaders. Yep, I am a Crusader. I am a member of the organization that has confined me to a limited amount of space to live. I was born into it, as most members are.
My family, the Knights, or Naito since we're of Japanese lineage, has an ancestor who helped found the Crusaders a long time ago. The four brave souls were each given a different gift from angels to defend the world from sin and those four were the first Crusaders. That's how the story goes. Generation after generation, led to more people able to use the gifts, even people not related to the ancestors. The gifts were-
Bam.
I had been walking with my head down and when I reached a corner something had bumped into me. The something, someone, had fallen backward to the ground with a small squeak. "I'm sorry. Let me help you." I helped the stranger up and she looked at me.
This girl was very beautiful and I can't lie about that. She had long golden blonde hair flowing to her waist. Big blue eyes and cream colored skin. She looked at me sincerely and surprised, "Thank you. I'm sorry for bumping into you." She had dropped a few books and papers that I recognized as schoolwork.
I helped pick them up and gave them to her. "Thank you." she smiled and I saw she was reading the same book I read. Guess we have the same favorite book genres. I also saw her watch, the time was 2:20. "Oh, I got to go. See ya." I passed her and I heard her walk away.
I ran a couple blocks then stopped and thought, Well, I have more than half a hour. I have time for a little chat. I backtracked and tried to find where she went. I walked and saw her down an alley. Three, big guys surrounded her and I rushed in. I stepped in front of her to defend her and saw them.
The biggest guy was a bully I frequently fight, his usual two lackeys having his back. Our last encounter ended with him and a black eye, mainly because for normal people standards he is strong, but I'm stronger. "Outta the way loser." he said to me and I shot back, "Nah. I like standing here musclehead." I look at the girl for a second, "Go." She ran away and I didn't know she ran and hid behind a dumpster.
I stare down the three. One of them has an iron pipe and the other has a baseball bat and the biggest guy has metal knuckles. The two lackeys grab me and hold me by the arm, and I humor them by pretending to struggle.
The boss drew back his fist and punched me in my stomach and then continued to punch me hard on the stomach and in my face. I'm tough but I feel the sharp sting of pain from the metal. When he aims a punch for my face to finish me I duck.
He misses and I kick him in his crotch, he staggers back and I bring my arms down so my elbows are aligned to the two's faces. I elbow them hard and they stagger back and let me go. One of them try to rush me, but I grab the bat and in a matter of seconds hundreds of splinters fall to the ground as the wooden bat's top is broken off of it.
I take the bat and swing the handle across his face. He goes down and I strike the other guy with a roundhouse kick to the face. I grab the pipe and fling it at their boss and it makes contact with his stomach. As he grunts in pain, I rush him and punch him and my fist connects squarely with his face and he flies back. He hits a wall a few feet away and collapses on the ground.
I breathe heavily and look at them before wiping blood off my face. I made my way down the alley and back to the streets. The girl waits for a bit then starts following me. I turn a corner, when she comes around she bumps into me.
"Why are you following me?" I ask her. "I just wanted to thank you." she replied. I shrugged and walked away, and she kept following me. After a while she went, I started walking back to my home and checked the time. 2:54.
For a normal person, it would take a person at least 12 minutes to even drive here from the city. I made it in 4 minutes running.