Fragments of Ash Vol. 2 (Urban Fantasy)

Chapter Ten: Francoise's Wrath

Another dead outlander. If Francoise had the choice he'd demolish the whole damn city. But killing one outlander after another was his choice of approach so far.

Finding Eleanor's dead body was almost too much for him to bear. Even during the war, he'd never really gotten used to seeing comrades die. Seeing her in the town square on the floor, covered with some sort of magic preservation material that almost taunted him with her death was like a knife to the heart. He took her back to his car and swore he'd make sure the same didn't happen to Ada.

Once he'd found Ada, he'd make every person and creature in this town suffer. As he promised to Ciel, and as his own promise to Eleanor.

Amelia, who was done with Ada for the time being, walked through the dirty, muddy corridor of the ruined mansion. It happened to be same building where she was keeping Ada. The building was the largest in the small fishing town. She had earned it when she stormed the settlement and slaughtered all of the building's inhabitants. She went out of her way to domesticate as many of the outlanders as she could initially for the sole purpose that they clean her new temporary abode until it was spotless, every splatter of blood, every charred organ, every tiny bit of mess which she had no place in touching needed to be wiped away. Only the torture room was to be left in the state it was after she had been there; she felt the rotting remains of her enemies would help it be in keeping with the theme of the room. She had accomplished a lot in this little town in just one small week. Established herself as their new queen by force in a mere afternoon, turned them from savages into slaves in a couple of days, leading a successful attack on Melchiezedek City, and now, securing a valuable captive.

In any case, even being the biggest building, the house was still far below Amelia's standards. It was a temporary abode for this mission only. Still, it was quite nifty that the house had more than one floor, yes, the second floor was caved in, however the basement made for a perfect dungeon. Ada and the other.

She walked into the front courtyard; it was gated off with crude wooden stakes, but it was still a tad too high to jump, there were originally three guards at the door too. Now they were all dead. Obviously someone was trying to make his way in stealthily, but was also killing as many enemies as possible so as to make escape easier. He had probably not counted on the bodies being found so soon, or maybe he had trouble finding the dungeons. Either way, Amelia was right, it was definitely the work of an intruder. She knelt down next to one of the bodies. A precise cut that had sliced right through from the left shoulder to the right hip. The amount of technique and sharpness of the blade required to perform such a cut with such little mess must have been off the scale. It was a very tailored kill, one that was intended not to punish, but to silence, in the most forgiving and stealthy way. Most likely the intruder had leaped into the middle of the courtyard and cut every enemy in half before they had noticed he had landed.

No doubt about it. It was him. Amelia smiled; it was her lucky day.

The outlanders were scared, they could see that Amelia was scheming from the look on her face; her desire for blood pierced through the dark, cold, mist. She had made it known that she was aware of the superstitions regarding the foggy wind, it was commonly believed even among the outlanders. These strings of murders around the village was starting to cause havoc and hysteria. All of the outlanders involved in Ada's torture were dead now. Over twenty outlanders, killed before they knew what had hit them. Amelia had decided not to look for her opponent, she wanted to face him head on. And so she stayed at the front entrance of the house and blocked off any other exits. She stood in the courtyard with her sword out facing the front gate waiting for this mysterious assassin to turn up. The outlanders found her as mesmerising as she was fearsome, they were buzzing with anticipation, a fight between Lady Rosa and someone she said would be a "worthy opponent" sounded like it'd be something truly worth witnessing.

And indeed, through the mist walked Francoise. He confidently ignored the outlanders that stood at the entrance, it was already evident that they were somehow tamed by a creature more fearsome than they were. He looked at Amelia and narrowed his eyes,

"Oh, I should've expected it was you Francoise," said Amelia haughtily,

"Where's Ada?" Francoise decided not to ask how Amelia knew his name. It wasn't important.

"Straight to the point aren't you? Shouldn't we have some playful banter before we get started?"

Francoise walked forward and drew his sword,

"Tell me. Now."

"Come now, your friend is busy enjoying her beauty sleep, you shouldn't wake her."

Francosie frowned, "You'd better not have hurt her..."

"Or what? That soldier, what's her name, Eleanor, she couldn't defeat me. You think you have a chance?"

"You're exhausted. I'll execute you painlessly if you tell me where Ada is now."

"Not a fan of torture huh? Interesting. Your friend Ada wasn't either."

Francoise tried not to falter, but the grip on his sword tightened even further.

"A tortured body for a tortured soul," chuckled Amelia,

Francoise frowned, he could feel his blood boil,

"Beaten, naked, strung up in a meat locker. Because that's all normal people are, isn't it? Meat," Amelia laughed, she bit her lip, "mmmm."

"Alright. Enough," said Francoise, "let's get on with it."

Amelia sighed, "Fine. You certainly are boring," she drew her sword. Ready to fight. The two clutched their swords and eyed each other up. Without a moment's notice the two suddenly dashed towards each other with the intent to kill.