The Eternal War: The Dragon's Valkyrie

The Crimson Slave

Saidy fought not because her life depended on it, but because the edge of a blade was all she knew to be true.

She danced carelessly as she slipped between the blades of two of her opponents that kissed her bare skin. The price of which was paid with their lives. And although she was not a part of the demon race, it was this very brutality that she displayed time and again with her two sorry excuses for shortswords that earned her the nickname, The Dual-Wielding Demoness.

In fact, it was because of this brutality and carelessness for her own life that some of the oni had come to wonder if her crimson locks were really that color at all. They whispered rumors as the two remaining slaves stared each other down. Was her hair dyed that way from the blood she was constantly bathed in? They would often speculate her hair used to be sable or black. Some imagined it to be blonde while others swore it had to have been as white as the snow she stood upon.

The white blanket of ice that adorned the ground turned a putrid shade of crimson as her earlier prey's blood rushed between the frozen crystals. Saidy now circled her final victim.

Rivulets of her own blood trickled down her pallid skin. One from the butt of his hilt to her head, and a few others, flesh wounds that covered her bare body. Slaves were not permitted clothes or armor when in servitude to the oni. They were only allowed the decency of rags to cover their more intimate areas; however, that was entirely subjective to the slave's Dolletus-their master.

"You're going to die, slave!" Saidy seethed.

The remaining slave looked beyond the ring into the crowd that made up a makeshift arena in the center of Reich. Rather he was looking for an escape route after seeing his fellow slaves so easily slaughtered or for approval from his Dolletus didn't matter. It could've been the slightest whiff of fear for his life that made him look, but to Saidy, it was the opening she had intended to create.

She charged as his eyes darted back to reality. He didn't have much time to react as one of Saidy's crude shortswords parried his heavy mace. He was thrown off balance by the sudden blitz attack The Dual-Wielding Demoness had unleashed, and a quick follow-up from her second blade alleviated his head from his body, allowing his blood to add copiously to the red canvas Saidy had created.

The crowd cheered for the carnage their favorite slave had graced them with. Saidy had accomplished a feat few seasoned warriors could even attain and escaped with only a few mere scratches.

"Shouldn't have looked," she said, wiping the spattering of blood that covered her face with her wrist, staining her skin as scarlet as her hair. "Maybe then, I'd be the one set free... lucky."

Only the two emerald green jewels that were her eyes added contrast to the blood-soaked land.

She dropped her swords, so as not to show hostility towards her master or the other oni. This was slave law. If a slave gave any appearance to defy their Dolletus, then they were to be executed without discrimination.

The sorry excuses of metal buried themselves in the snow as they rattled against the cobbles hidden beneath, two crude, nearly dull and rusted swords. It was not uncommon for slave weapons to be nearly unserviceable which was a better treatment than the faction of oni that betrayed their brethren to join the world of the light.

Saidy turned and bent to her knees, bowing her head so that her nose nearly kissed the bloody ice of her enemies.

Her Dolletus picked the swords up that lay in front of her head as she spoke, "I trust I have served your will satisfactorily, Dolletus."

Her voice was low and humble, so as not to show any indignation towards her Dolletus, lest she be slain right there like the rest of the slaves.

She waited, head still bowed low, as the tips of her Dolletus' boots turned from her vision and crunched away from her. The smell of iron filled her nose as she waited for her Dolletus to beckon her. The smell always reminded her of the day she was taken; the day she was given a baptism in blood at the early age of four when she was abducted into slavery by the race of demons called the oni. Ever since, she's bathed her body in the blood of others.

"Rise, slave."

However, she did not hear him. In fact, she was far from Reich as memories of her baptism of blood raced through her mind, but one memory forced its way to the forefront—her older brother.

"I told you, for a worthless slave, it fights like one of our own."

The oni whose slaves had just been slaughtered stared wide-eyed at Saidy. She'd never seen an oni stare at her with anything other than malice.

Saidy felt a sharp sting on her head as her Dolletus' fingers snaked through her hair and pulled. Her Dolletus forced her head to the bodies of the three men she'd just slain.

"Remember, slave, death is the only escape from your service to the oni."

Saidy grimaced as he turned his hand, forcing her to look at him. He grinned at her before tossing her aside. Saidy stumbled, trying to keep her feet beneath her, but caught her fall on the edges of her blades. The sting of the frozen steel slicing her hands shot up her arms, but she dared not to make a sound.

"I will be over in the morrow to collect my winnings, Gallos." Talik, her Dolletus' voice, dripped with greed at the amount of coin Saidy had just won him.

Her Dolletus had wagered her against another noble oni that she could single handedly take on three of his best fighting slaves. The oni, of course, accepted that wager, unknowing of Saidy's prophetic skill with a blade.

"Y-yes, of course, Talik."

"Good," Talik said, his grin widening before turning away. "I said come, slave!" Talik's voice echoed, snapping Saidy from the memory the scent of blood forced into her mind.

She rose from her knees with her head still bowed and followed her Dolletus as he walked through the bustling streets of Reich. However, she paused and looked back to the three bodies that lay in the red snow. A thin layer of fresh powder had begun to accumulate on them, some of it growing patches of red still.

Her earlier words had been for show as ordered by her Dolletus, not her true feelings. She felt remorse over having to needlessly take life, but by doing so, she had given them something she felt she would never know again-freedom. It was a dream she'd long given up-wishing for this nightmare to end.

"May Leyellen guide you on your path through the dark of night to the heavens of Angril, and may you rest upon the grass in eternal peace when you reach them," she whispered under her breath.

Her father had taught her that prayer. It had been her only comfort during her years of slavery. And instead of going mad at the thought of death trailing around every corner, it helped her to make death a dear friend, one she gladly greeted with every sunrise.

"Now, slave!" Talik's voice rang over the crowd.

She obeyed but continued to look at the lives she'd stolen as she walked a few paces, burning their faces into her mind. The oni wouldn't remember them, so she felt it was her duty to in case Kayate instead claimed their souls.

Death was the only escape from the oni.