Eros

The Red Reaper - 31

It felt like being in a different world. Like a dream that felt more alive than reality.

His sight became so sharp it was as if he was blind before. He could count the beads of blood flying in the air. Detect a flawed ring in an armor of chain-mail. Foresee an attack by the shift of a foot, clench of a fist, or thrust of a shoulder.

His hearing alone painted an image in his mind. Footfalls in the sand, painful pants, urgent whispers, and steel whistling through air. He could turn and cut a gladiator down without even looking.

His muscles pumped with explosive vigor, eager to lash out at abnormal speed. His mind was free of feelings, thoughts, and tactics. His impulses commanded a body that hungered to comply.

It was a better world: a world without pain, without doubt. Without anger and sorrow. It was a clear world, simplified by a single goal. Slaughter your enemies.

Who's next?

-

Alora couldn't find any explanation of what played out before her. For minutes Kaido had been fighting with ferocity that would exhaust any swordsman in seconds. Out of the hundreds of slashes made at him, about a dozen found flesh. Although none of them bit deep, so many of them would undoubtedly hinder a man. Not him.

She wasn't far behind, following in his wake of gladiators both dead and dying. She yanked her blade out of one's neck, his cries silenced.

"Alora," Kaido spoke, his voice serene. His back was turned to her. He was finally standing still. "It's time."

She stepped to his side and saw the twin sisters ahead, a dagger in each of their hands and wide, girlish smiles smeared across their pretty faces. Kaido kicked into the sprint, charging forward.

-

"Fuck, he's fast." Alice muttered as Kaido crossed the distance between them in a rapid dash. She crossed and raised her daggers to block his blade as it came cutting down from above. Her arms trembled upon the blades' collision, unprepared for the sheer strength behind his swing. He rotated his torso sharply, pulling back his first blade and lashing forth the second. An agile bend of her body backwards barely got her out of its arc in time.

"Woah," She breathed out in excitement. "You really know how to treat a girl, don't you?"

Veni snickered and moved to his flank. He stepped in her way, his blade streaking. Her head coiled away as the sword's point soared before her face, cutting hairs off the tip of her pigtail.

"Are you sure we can't keep him, Alice? He's so feisty!"

"I know right? I bet that if we tie his hands and legs to the bed it'll be one bumpy ride!"

Giggling, the sisters lunged at him simultaneously. He sidestepped away from Alice and diverted Veni's stab sideways with a glancing blow of his blade across hers. Before he could riposte, Alice attacked again. Her dagger's tip poked through his tunic and nipped the skin beneath it as he bound back. Veni was upon him before his foot was even set solid on the ground. She jumped back when his sword came to welcome her, slicing the air her neck occupied a moment earlier. He was unable to pursue the opening as Alice blitzed at him once more, her daggers clinking against his swords.

The sisters' collaboration was flawless. They pounced at him like ravenous canines, one after the other, again and again, hungering to ravage his flesh. A murderous cycle was formed as the assault of one sister became the other's defense. Every opportunity to commit to an attack or even draw a proper breath was denied to him beneath a frenzy of flashing daggers.

Alice relished the skirmish. His prowess was phenomenal; multiple times were his blades a breadth of a hair away from reaping her life. She was constantly on edge, the thrill of the challenge and the cold breath of death on her nape pushing her abilities to the very limit.

It's a shame you won't last much longer, she grinned thirstily as they ripped more and more sanguinary cuts across his leather armor.

You are mine! Furor lit her eyes as the chance they sought for came. Veni leaped from one side and her from the other. She thrust her dagger, anticipating the familiar resistance when the blade sunk into flesh. Yearning to see his handsome features lose their unwavering apathy and twist with deathly agony. He whirled, a flurry of blood and steel could almost too fast for her eyes to grasp.

For some reason, none of her expectations were met. Then the reason flew past – a dismembered, feminine hand, with her dagger held in its limp fingers.

Excruciating pain pulsated in her wrist, warm blood pouring out of the raw flesh at its chopped end. Kaido's arm jerked and Alice heard steel scraping bone and tearing flesh before his bloodstained blade returned to his side.

"Veni?" Her lip quivered as her eyes fell upon her sister. The side of her torso was gaped, rigged with splintered ribs and spewing blood.

"No...No...." The frozen stare of her sister's ghosted into her soul.

He cut through my hand and into my sister. A turmoil rage followed her clarity, its intensity erasing every trace of pain. He killed Veni.

"DIE!" Alice wailed, flinging herself at Kaido as her sister's lifeless body collapsed to the sand. Her remaining hand stretched forward with a lurch, the dagger in her fist jabbing towards his throat. Its point was a fingerbreadth away home when her momentum was cut short.

His swords impaled her.

The pain was immense, and odd, as if her body refused to admit steel now ran through it.

"So close." She whispered, pressing her breast against his crossguards in a desperate attempt to get closer. Her dagger almost brushed the skin of his neck as she stretched and wiggled her hand.

"So fucking close..." The dagger slipped from her grasp. She reached towards his hand with numbing fingers. Their tips nearly touched his features, but grasping nothing as she clenched her fist shut.

She stared into his green eyes as darkness engulfed her vision, erasing more and more of her surroundings. His arms retracted slowly, his blades slid out of her chest, and she fell backwards. Air stroked her nape, the cheers of the crowd dimmed in her ears, and his penetrating gaze was all that lingered in the darkness. The ground rushed up to meet her, but she never felt it hit.