Round three

BGM

I cast the hammer aside. The fight had pulled the attention of anyone still living. There were no more cultists within the Lutia District, but Kain was nowhere to be seen. The villagers stood in nervous awe of their savior. I only gave them a passing glance before moving to let Sora down.

Once on the ground, Sora straightened her black coat.

I turned away from her, I didn't care too much for what Sora did now. Sora cautiously followed close behind, rubbing her bruised arm, her face pale as she took in the scene. "That was... intense," she said, voice unsteady. "I've never seen anyone fight like that before."

I wiped SkullHacker clean on a fallen cultist's cloak. Sora hesitated, then asked, "Are you... okay?"

I snorted. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You just... killed all those people. And you're acting like it's nothing."

I turned to face her fully now, noting how she stood at a careful distance, arms wrapped around herself.

"It's not nothing," I said. "It's necessary."

Sora flinched slightly at my tone. "But... doesn't it bother you? Even a little?"

"They left me ****. They came here to kill and destroy, to spread their twisted version of faith."

"Hey, I'm sorry. You're right, I shouldn't have been so reckless. The Executioner... that was level 30, right?"

"I didn't get the Pro Gamer HUD."

I didn't stop walking. The villagers cautiously approached, some bowing, others simply staring in awe. A woman in stepped forward, her face streaked with tears and bearing the marks of a recent beating. She was barefoot, her dress tattered and mud-stained. She was young—perhaps only in her early twenties, with mud-streaked blonde hair.

"Thank you, sir. You saved us all," she said, clasping her hands together. "But what about our children? What do they want with our kids?"

The question hung in the air like a noose. The woman's words sent a cold wave through me. I turned to face her fully, noting the fear in her wide eyes, the way her fingers twisted together anxiously. I scanned the crowds and saw that all the children were missing.

Those unholy demon conspiring fuckers!

The woman's face crumpled. "No... no, please..." She fell to her knees in the mud, her hands clutching at her chest. "My little girl... she's only six..."

"Which way did they go? Which path did they take?" I asked with urgency.

"They took the south road." another villager explained, "But how will you catch up? Their wagons are being pulled by Gastornis!"

I loaded my shotgun.

Make peace with your demonic gods, you cultist bastards.

I began to run in the direction of the cultist's wagons until I came to a dirt road.

Round three, assholes.

I didn't hesitate. I ran.

The shotgun was already in my hands, loaded and ready. I'd catch them. I had to. Two wagons with cages full of the kids of the Lutia District rolled quickly down the road. The drivers continually lashed at the feathered Gastornis pulling the wagons with whips to go faster, leaving angry red welts that glistened with blood in the dim light.

The fairly large cages built into the wagon's backsides were filled with about twenty or so kids per cage ranging from ages three to sixteen.

Most of them were crying out loud, begging to go home. Eventually, Kain got fed up with it and had the driver bring the wagon to a stop. The wagon creaked to a halt, the Gastornis huffing and stomping their clawed feet in the dirt. The wagon behind them stopped. Kain approached the cage where the children were huddled together, their small faces streaked with tears and dirt.

"Silence!" Kain barked, lashing across the face of a boy who was only about four. The child cried out, clutching his cheek as blood trickled between his fingers. The other children shrank back, their sobs turning to whimpers. Kain's lips curled into a cruel smile as she surveyed the frightened faces.

"Please stop!" A girl about fifteen years old next to the boy pleaded, tears streaming down her face. "We'll be good, we promise!"

Kain's face twisted into something almost pleased. She reached through the bars and grabbed the girl by the hair, yanking her forward until their faces were inches apart. "Oh, I know you will be good," she cooed, voice dripping with false sweetness. She whipped the girl across the face. The girl cried out, her nose immediately beginning to bleed. Kain released her hair, letting her stumble back into the other children. The boy she'd struck earlier was still crying, holding his cheek.

I kept pace, knowing I had to act soon.

"Listen here, you ungrateful little brats. You will be quiet, or I will have you all flogged! The loudest of you will be flogged to ****." She turned to the driver and spoke in a low, dangerous tone. "Drive on-"

Kain was silenced by the faint of her driver dead, his skull pierced by my SkullHacker. The wagon driver's head split open like a ripe melon, spraying skull shards and brain matter all over Kain, whose eyes widened in fear as she turned back forward to see me.

Kain sat back down and whipped the Gastornis to get them moving. She hoped to run me over. Instead, I braced. I caught the two Gastornis pulling the wagon mid-run, bringing them and the front wagon to a grinding halt.

The driver of the second wagon had also prompted intense speed from his Gastornis but aggressively pulled them back to stop his wagon. The Gastornis banked to the side, breaking the front axle. In both wagons, all of the kids were shaken from the sudden shifts in speed but were otherwise unharmed.

The Gastornis of wagon one trembled in fear from me. It was enough to make them freeze on the spot.

The thirty or so cultists who were accompanying the wagons came forward to see what was happening when Kain suddenly yelled, "KILL THE HERETIC!"

I began dispatching them.

Some kids covered their eyes and ears to block out the symphony of explosions, dying screams, and flesh and bone being ripped asunder. The boy and girl that Kain had whipped in the face watched in awe.

One cultist rushed me with a sword raised overhead. I preempted the attack with an upward slash from the SkullHacker that left a two-inch-deeo gash going up the cultist's torso. I rushed forward, jamming my fingers into the incision. With little effort, I tore the cultist's chest in half, leaving the rest of him to die on the floor. I turned to meet the next attacker—a woman with a mace.

She swung for my head, but I ducked under the arc and rammed my shoulder into her stomach. The air burst from her lungs as I drove her backward, slamming her against the wagon. Before she could recover, I yanked her forward and slammed my forehead into her nose. Bone crunched as her nose shattered. She reeled, blood gushing down her face, and I followed up with a knee to her gut. I plunged SkullHacker into her throat, blood spraying across the wood as she gurgled and clawed at the blade.

In not even thirty seconds all but two cultists had been slain. One had hidden under the wagon, and Kain had run into the woods.