Chained -On Hold-

Chapter 13: The needs of the many

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(Bernard's perspective)
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The man spun his axe around before swinging it at me, but I sidestepped it and placed my foot on his chest before sending him flying through a couple of walls.

I then turned around and started thinking whether or not I should go and save Sarah. But that's when I heard the screams of my men being slaughtered and figured it all out. That explosion was very close to her location, so the odds of her surviving were slim. Also, I had to choose between saving one girl or saving over a hundred of his men, so my choice was made quickly.

"I'm sorry, Sarah", I whispered to myself. "But the needs of the many, outweigh those of the few."

I then ran over to where my men were fighting. As soon as they saw me approach, they started smiling. This confused their opponents, but the sergeant realized something was off and ordered his men to fall back. I had stopped running and now slowly walked over to them, but stopped about 5 meters away from my enemies.

I grabbed the grip of my katana, focused my strength and unsheathed my blade with an incredible force while saying: "Sheathing style: release". Because of the amount of strength in that blow, and the shape of the sheath and blade, a focused gust of wind flew towards my enemies, cutting a clear path through them.

I then put the tip of my blade back in the sheath and pushed it in with all of my strength as I yelled: "Sheathing style: shockwave". As the name implies, an enormous shockwave blasted back my opponents as I got ready for my next attack.

They started getting back up and their sergeant started yelling at me: "What kind of a monster are you?"

"It's your own damn fault for coming after my men", I replied. "Now say your prayers. It'll be over soon." I then brought my sheathed blade down upon the ground, which caused a block of solid stone to come loose. I followed it up by unsheathing my blade and cutting up the rock before anyone else could even see it. Then, to finish it off, I created another shockwave by sheathing my sword while yelling: "Sheathing style: meteor combo".

I heard my men prematurely celebrating their victory behind me. They thought I was invincible, but I knew the truth. Whoever was behind all of this, might actually be capable of killing me...

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(Sarah's perspective)
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I woke up as my head hit the ground and tried getting up, only to fall down onto my knees because of the dizziness. I looked up and a saw a man standing on top of the wreckage. He wore a hooded cloak and was laughing like a maniac.

"So", he said. "You're alive. Impressive... But for how much longer!?" He then threw multiple grenades into the air.

The grenades exploded and sent shrapnel flying all around me, but I lept backwards to avoid them. That's when I noticed two people sprinting towards me from the side. Not trusting the situation and unable to avoid them, I dropped flat on the ground, clawed my fingers into the pavement and launched myself out of there.

An explosion behind me signaled that I had been just in time. I looked around to see if I could find something to use as a weapon and I did. I ran toward it, pulled the traffic sign out of the ground and threw it towards Trap like a spear.

He dodged it and lept down while saying: "Impressive." He then pulled out two swords as six other people surrounded me. That's when I noticed that they all looked exactly like him.

"What the hell are you", I asked him.

To which he responded by laughing. "So you noticed. Well, it's like this: I'm giving you a chance to fight me fair and square. However, be careful. If you hit the wrong one he may explode."

I figured I should attack him while I was still sure which one is the real one and punched the one who was talking, but then I heard someone behind me laugh. I quickly covered my face as the clone exploded.

I managed to stay conscious this time, but it took all my strength and willpower to keep standing. Everything hurt and it felt like my arms were almost ripped clean from my body. It was clear that short-range combat wasn't going to work, so I picked up pieces of rubble and began throwing them towards the six Traps that remained.

I managed to hit two and they both exploded. At least that narrowed down my options, but that's when I noticed that two of them ran towards me.

They both started swinging their blades, but I dodged them, grabbed the left one, threw him into the other one and lept backwards as far as I could. Luckily, I was able to escape the explosion and noticed that only one of the two had blown up. The best part about it? His hood had been torn to shreds, so I could easily spot him.

I then continued my barrage of rubble until the remaining clones had exploded as well and ran towards the real Trap. I unleashed a barrage of punches, but he dodged them just as I dodged his blades. I then delivered a crushing kick to his ribs which caused him to drop to his knees and then continued my barrage until every single part of his face was covered in blood.

That's when he started smiling. He grabbed my arm and reached under his robe while he told me that he had covered his entire body in explosives just in case he were to lose. He then pulled out a detonator and began to laugh like an absolute madman.

I managed to use all the strength I had left to throw him up into the air and, lucky for me, his hand slipped of my arm.

The explosion he caused, however, was larger than any of the previous ones and knocked me into the ground, as I faded into unconsciousness one more time...

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This chapter took me forever to write because of writer's block.

I hope you enjoy it

-Demon King Karnage