Chapter 24

The goblin and Mino glared at each other, the tension of the room mounting. Hic and Doctor Sheila looked confused, though I guess they weren't there to know why this meeting was so tense. The goblin was the first to speak, his voice a wall of barely contained anger. "You!!" He put as much venom into that one word as possible. "I already beat you once, you useless fucking human, the result won't change!" He pointed down at me with his free hand. "Even this weakling put up more of a fight than you!"

I saw Mino's face tighten in anger. She raised her sword above her shoulder and scooted it backwards, until it looked like she was going to stab forward with it. "You caught me off guard last time. It won't happen again." Her body leaned forward slightly, the tension building in her muscles.

The goblin chuckled slightly before assuming a much more aggressive stance, one hand on the ground with the other holding his stick by his side. For a second, the two stared at each other, assessing each other's weak points, trying to find a hole in each other's defense. Then in a flash and a slight whoosh, Mino sprang into action first.

She was almost immediately across the hallway towards the goblin, her sword arcing downward in a fatal path towards the goblins face. And the speed with which she did so shocked the goblin, his attempt to lean backwards to avoid the sword leaving him with a deep gash across his cheek. He tried to swing his stick to smack Mino across the face, but she stepped inside of his swing, slashing her sword upwards in the process. A red line appeared from the top of his abdomen all the way to his left shoulder.

His moves became more desperate, more panicked. He tried to claw at Mino's thigh. No luck, she simply batted his move away. He tried to grab her arm and bring his stick downward onto her head. She simply swayed to the side and punched him clean across the jaw, causing him to let go of her and roll on the ground a few feet away from the hit.

Then finally, he roared in frustration and raised his palm towards her, his fingers and skin glowing with a red color as sparks began flying from his hand. She stepped forward silently, with a quickness that was almost unbelievable, and sliced his hand clean off of his body. He looked at the empty stump in shocked silence, before dropping his stick and roaring in pain and anger. He grasped the bleeding stump with his other hand, blood squirting out from between his fingers.

He hunched over on the ground, rocking back and forth while groaning. Mino looked down at him with a look of contempt, her disgust at his behavior apparent. She sat bat on her haunches in front of him, staring at him for a few seconds before grabbing the few wisps of hair he had on top of his head. She yanked his head back, and his single bloodshot eye wavered at her in pain and anger, tears starting to pool in the corners.

"I'm going to kill you now. And nobody will care when I do. You've accomplished nothing with your sad, pathetic life. So, goodbye." She let go of him and stood up. She readied her sword right above his neck. "You should've prepared more." She raised her sword before swinging it downward in a wide arc. Her blade sliced clean through his neck, and his severed head rolled away a few feet before coming to a stop, his dead eye staring straight at me. And even in death, I could see the anger and silent curse that he was throwing at everybody in the room.

Mino slowly sheathed her sword in the scabbard by her side, letting out a small breath. She pivoted on her heels and turned to look at the rest of us, the shocked expressions on all our faces showing our emotions. And that's when I heard a small rustle, along with the sound of bare skin slapping against the ground.

I glanced over at the head. And it….was moving! It was slowly sliding across the ground, the eyes coming in and out of view with the rolling. And it was moving back towards its body, connected by a long red line that looked suspiciously like blood.