Bloody Crucible- Lone Wolf

by E C Chii

  His hand gripped the sheathed uchigatana charging at the officer as quickly as he could, thinking the ability ‘Iaijutsu: Nukitsuke’. The action made him twist the sword from the curve pointing toward the sky to pointing away from himself. Moving the scabbard away from the hilt of the uchigatana to allow the blade to be freed faster, the blade was pulled into a horizontal arc. As the withdrew electricity crackled down the spine of the sword. On impact with the Imperial Lieutenant’s back cutting almost to his core and making every muscle seized up and spasmed rendering him immobile.

  You deal the Phantom Imperial Lieutenant 167 damage with ‘Iaijutsu: Nukitsuke’

  Congratulation! You have learned the progressive swordsmanship style ‘Iaijutsu’ at Beginner Level 1

  Congratulations! You have learned the Iaijutsu sword technique ‘Nukitsuke’!

  Iaijutsu Level 1 (Passive, Progressive) – Exotic swords like the Uchigatana, Katana, Wakizashi deal 1 more damage and 1% more critical damage. Requires: 10 STR, 10 DEX, and 6 AGI.

  Nukitsuke Level N/A (Active, Technique) – Quick draw sword technique with an optional added elemental effect. Deals 150% weapon damage, Plus elemental affinity status effect. Requires:13DEX, 10AGI, 5% elemental affinity. Weapon Restriction: Swords used by Iaijutsu practitioners. Costs: 25MP when element is used, 30STA, Cooldown: 10 minutes

  The notification windows shocked and distracted him from the sword that descended cutting into his shoulder. Searing pain brought him out of his distraction, further punctuated by wrenching feeling that spiked more agony when the faceless man pulled it from his shoulder for another strike.

  You have taken 29 Damage from Phantom Imperial Soldier (4.3 damage mitigated)

  Wolf’s survival instincts kicked in as his left arm hung limply by his side nearly cleaved off at the shoulder. He pulled his uchigatana back striking back with a thrust to the heart. As he withdrew the blade and jumping back the stabbed man took a step forward with the shield out front in a steady measured manner. On the other side of the phalanx formation Wolf heard Raven shout “morior invictus”; Latin for ‘Death before Defeat’, echoed by the strained and weak voice of Peirce. Raven would only shout this when he believed that this would be their final stand. Outnumbered, heavily injured, and bleeding from a likely fatal wound, Wolf couldn’t argue with Raven’s logic or assessment.

  Deciding this would be as good a place as any to make his last stand with his brothers he took up the call with his own voice. Willing himself to take out as many of these slavers as he could before he fell, blood rage engulfed him clouding his mind, tinting his vision spurring him to fight harder and faster. Slashing, dodging, and thrusting he tried to take down as many as he could. Hate and anger, his longtime companions throughout life helped him ignore the stabs, cuts and slashes that would normally kill others. All in all, the effort was eventually futile as he body began to give out making him move half as fast as normal. Eventually all he could do was lay on the ground with several bodies lying next to him dead, with the other faceless Imperials standing over him swords drawn.

  Weak and straining the last of his energy he tried to raise his uchigatana for one final slash, breathing became harder to take with each moment. With his vision growing dim, the uchigatana was batted away with ease as the faceless men began to stab him over and over. At this point he no longer felt any more pain. The last thing he remembered was him saying, ‘See you on the other side guys’

  ……………………………………………………..

  Once again waking abruptly to the kicking of a dark silhouette, panic had him grasping at his pistol and knife.

  “Easy there, its Mike and your turn to go out to watch the camp, I’m going to get some shut eye before we wipe out all the guards.” The man said.

  The Philippines was always a humid place, more so during its rainy season. Wolf thought to himself, ‘I will never get use to this fucking humidity. It’s just like it was in Indonesia.’ Wolf stopped dead in his tracks. “Indonesia? When was I in Indonesia?” he muttered. Shaking his head, he put on his light body armor he was used to and left the cave to pull over watch. Carefully walking down, the trail to the vantage point he rechecked his gear list. Checking the positioning of his knives, sword, tomahawk, and pistol? Nope wasn’t there, ‘Shit, where is his pistol?’ Did he leave it in the cave? The ear on top of his head flicked in annoyance as he headed back to get it. Slowing to a stop, he thought “ears?” Though the thought passed as quickly as it came he continued to retrieve his pistol.

  When he got to the vantage point he saw a faint silhouette of his partner for the shift. Easing up he tapped him on the boot to let him know he was a friendly. His tail wagged a few times to help punctuate the effect. ‘Tail?!’ the voice raged.

  “What do you see Paul?” Wolf asked

  “Same shit as usual. I can’t wait for this OP to get the go ahead.” Paul replied

  “Hey what’s up with that tent over there? Troops keep going in and out.”

  “Dunno, Mike said it’s been going on since we got here and to keep an eye on it since it’s suspicious.”

  Paul and Wolf lay there for several hours watching the comings and goings of the Chinese camp. For most of the night it was quiet and uneventful until dawn broke.

  Wolf’s brow crunched up as he looked intently through the binoculars as the flap covering the entrance opened with a man in a Chinese uniform dragging a mutilated and bloody body out. “Hey Paul, do you see that? The tent that all those troops are going in and out of. Is…is that a body?”

  “Yeah, that’s a body alright. Looks young, can’t tell the gender though. It looks mutilated. You keep watching I will call it up.”

  Wolf watched the soldier dragging the body toward the latrine pits. “What the fuck” he muttered as the man rolled the body into pit. Rage and hate filled him at the sheer disrespect of another human being. It took a few moments before he calmed down and could think with a clearer head, as he watched the man swagger on back to the tent and enter as another came out. Wolf told Paul the situation as he reported it up.

  A few more hours later as it was getting time for shift change when they saw several of the barracks doors open. A trail of emaciated, broken, and lifeless bodies came limping out. The sight of it absolutely horrified them, immediately putting both into action calling it up. As they reported the situation the camp was stirring to life, they saw more things that made the situation more serious. Once all the bodies were gathered together a well-dressed Asian man stood next to several Chinese officers on one of the guard platforms talking to one another. The men looked to have been separated from the women when the two men shook hands.

  Several Chinese guards started herding the women forward with clubs beating those didn’t move fast enough. Once they were close enough to the guard tower he could assume they were easily visible. Their bodies turned back to the women as he pointed at a few of the younger ones. A Chinese soldier walked up and roughly pushed them forward to the guard tower door.

  Inside Wolf lost sight of them until they were pushed into the top room of the guard tower where the officer and man were standing. Once there the soldier proceeded to rip off rags the women wore to cover up their bodies. Wolf sneered in disgust as the horrid excuses of men as proceeded to violently rape the women. Meanwhile the other women were ushered toward the tent that they were originally watching. As the women approached a line of other women came hobbling and limping out. Many of them had obvious wounds, broken bones, and obvious signs of violent sexual assault. At this point Wolf’s self-control was at its limit, a loud growling started vibrating out of his throat and he was baring his teeth and fangs.

  “Easy there, command just gave us the go ahead for the op. I will go ahead and get the others. We will get into position and hit them at dinner time. They won’t be paying as much attention then when they are exhausted from the heat.” Paul said while trying to ease some of Wolf’s rage.

  “Ok, but those officers and that man
are mine! Shit looks like one of those old Nazi concentration camps.” Wolf said imagining all the ways he was going to kill them in excruciatingly painful ways.

  ……………………………………………………..

  Later that day at 1900 hours all members of the team were in position ready to hit the guard towers. They were due to kick off the plan in five minutes, once they discovered that this was a slave camp, the mission didn’t sit well with the team. Their first objective was to capture well-dressed Asian man, the second objective was to kill all the officers, and third objective is what gave most of them heartburn, destroy all the buildings. There was nothing in the mission regarding rescuing the prisoners, the team didn’t want to leave them but had no choice. They couldn’t take them with them to the ex-fil point, nor could they stay with them to help. It truly was a no-win situation that they had trouble swallowing.

  Wolf and another named Luke were positioned outside the guard tower that had their targets in. They could hear the shouts and laughs of the men inside, punctuated by the screams of the women being violated. Wolf’s rage was boiling over, every now and again he felt a hand on his shoulder because he was about to charge the tower. Regardless of the need for noise discipline Wolf was growling loudly, baring his teeth, ears plastered to the side of his head, tail straight out and bushy displaying his displeasure for the world to see.

  When they got the green light, Wolf shot out of the wood line in with a sprint heedless of any danger or caution, he bounded over obstacles with practiced ease when he crossed over the final strand of razor wire he was at the entrance of the guard tower he looked back. Slightly shocked he realized he had just cleared five hundred meters in less than a minute. About ten seconds later Luke caught up with him slightly out of breath. Silently they drew knives, quickly and quietly the opened the door.

  On the inside were two soldiers taking turns assaulting a woman with their backs turned to them. Creeping up on them Wolf and Luke proceeded stab them in the back of the necks. When they pulled the men away the woman collapsed to the ground seemingly with no energy left to scream or do anything but just lay there. Moving up the stairs they came to the door which opened to the top. Wolf sheathed his knife and gripped the scabbard and handle of his uchigatana. Gesturing for Luke to open the door.

  Luke grasped the handle, he put up one hand with all fingers extended, and systematically dropped one finger after another until he made a fist then jerked the door open. As soon as the door opened enough to allow entry the world seem to move at such a slow, Wolf couldn’t tell if it was the adrenaline or the shock of his entry that caused them to freeze. While these thoughts were fleeting, he did not pause, a singular thought burst into his mind ‘Iaijutsu: Shihogiri’.

  If he thought that he was moving fast before, now he was a blur. His sword shot out of its taking the head of the first Chinese man as he was thrusting into some poor woman. Twisting the grip of the sword bringing in the other direction and slashing. He cleaved the man from shoulder to hip, twisting yet gain and the blade was facing up. Stepping into the next strike his left hand gripped bottom half of the handle as he brought the blade up bisecting the third man through his crotch. With the sword in the kirioroshi position he pivoted and brought the blade down through the head of the fourth man.

  The man had a look of shock and utter disbelief as the blade sliced cleanly through stopping at the waist where Wolf ended the attack in the ‘Wakitori’ position. Withdrawing the sword and flicking the blood using the chiburi technique everything sped up in a split second. Glancing around he didn’t see the well-dressed Asian man nor the officer he was shaking hands with. Suddenly a notification window clouded his vision and distracted him from Luke’s entry.

  Congratulation! The progressive swordsmanship style ‘Iaijutsu’ has progressed to Beginner Level 2

  Congratulations! You have learned the Iaijutsu sword technique ‘Shihogiri’!

  Iaijutsu Level 2 (Passive, Progressive) – Exotic swords like the Uchigatana, Katana, Wakizashi deal 2 more damage and 2% more critical damage. Requires: 10 STR, 10 DEX, and 6 AGI.

  Shihogiri Level N/A (Active, Technique) – A sword technique that will hit four consecutive targets dealing 120% weapon damage to each designated target. Targets may be chosen multiple times. Cost: 10MP, 40STA. Weapon Restriction: Swords used by Iaijutsu practitioners. Cooldown: 10 Minutes

  Lost in his reverie he was startled when Luke put his hand on his shoulder, bouncing back bringing his sword up he paused recognizing Luke.

  “They aren’t here, where do you think they went?” Luke asked

  “Probably to the main building. These fuckfaces are still our secondary objective so we can call that a partial mission success. Let’s head to the main building.” Wolf replied blandly.

  The exited the tower using the walkway door since it was now getting dark which would mask their movements. Wolf had sheathed his sword and drew a knife and pistol, since several gunshots had occurred since they started the assault. Now that their presence was announced speed trumped stealth, they crossed the camp quickly using the walkways to bypass dozens of barbed wire fences and other obstacles. Once they reached the main building’s double door entrance they sheathed their knives.

  Brandishing their pistols, they both took hold of the handles and looked at each other. With a silent nod, the doors were swung in, clearing the room with practiced efficiency. Luke pointed to Wolf then pointed to the ornate door on the far side of the entrance way, with Wolf nodding he drew his tomahawk in case he needed to break it down. Tucking the tomahawk under his arm he tried the door finding it unlocked. Swinging the door open he crossed the over with moving to the other side as it opened. As soon as he heard the door hit the wall he darted in getting out of the threshold. Nothing worse than being caught in a fatal funnel.

  As he swept the room, he was taken aback at the two primary targets having been completely savaged by a giant Direwolf. The Direwolf lazily raised its head, muzzle dripping with blood and offal, bearing its teeth with a growl. Its eyes were glowing a dull red as it stepped forward preparing for to lunge, suddenly he was engulfed with an all-encompassing endless pool of rage and hate that filled him with fury.

  You are now under the ‘Infuriated’ debuff, you are you are unable to control your actions or think clearly. Damage dealt is increased by 30%, damage received is increased by 50% until the death of yourself or the opponent.

  As he charged at the Direwolf he managed to pull the trigger three times before the jaws of the Direwolf closed around his head. The last thing he remembered was searing agony that was quickly replaced by the darkness of death.

  Chapter 14 – Lady and the Tramp

  Lady Arete had been sitting on her grass and wooden throne for many millennia. Almost half her existence had she had been cursed to idleness. Since the destruction of her people’s kingdom she had been left all but powerless to do much of anything. The endless boredom weighed heavily on her, thousands of plans and endless amounts of work had fallen to the wayside when they were all but destroyed. Her face was lightly tanned showing refined features with long sandy blonde hair tucked behind elven ears. The long flowing dress of shimmering green and brown flowed elegantly and hugged her body accentuating her exceedingly amazing figure, the only way he could describe her is by using the word “Goddess”.

  To the casual observer she radiated power, but when compared to many in the pantheon she was as weak as a baby kitten. Unlike the more powerful and darker of her peers, she did not take power from those that were enslave or sacrificed in her name. She took power from the joy of creation, teaching, passion, and elation of those overcoming adversity, that is why many dubbed her the goddess of joy. She still received a trickle of power coming from time to time, but it was to such a small degree that she would be waiting another millennia or two years before she could do anything of note. One of her last options was to pull someone from another world. Pulling those from other planes was an act of desperation as
their actions and influence often threw the world into chaos changing it forever and she was incredibly desperate. The last time it happened it changed the very core of the world. Things like levels, health points, and window screens. When pulling someone from other worlds it was not an exact thing. Sometimes they would open into the plane’s distant past, other times in a strange and confusing future. Which is why it was considered an act of desperation since it was a gamble.

  Sighing to herself, she looked out on the endless plains of emerald green grass, listening to the soothing rush of water in the nearby river. Closing her eyes to enjoy the occasional breeze made moments like these seem almost tolerable. A stable world is good she thought, but to gather more power to further her goals she needed something to cause some ripples in the world. Stagnation simply didn’t fit with her. A presence interrupted her reverie, smiling she opened her eyes and looked over to see a large burly man standing in armor that had seen endless battle, a fully enclosed helmet covered his face, but she knew who he was. Spread across his body was a weapon of every kind, easily accessible, practical and completely meant for war.