Test Subject

The hybrid came at Kies with both his hands outstretched, obviously not having learned his lesson from earlier when he cut one of them off... Or was it because he knew that he could attach them back on that he was being reckless? Whatever the case, Kies didn't care. He countered by swinging his sword down on the arms, but just as the blade was able to slice them off, the hybrid demon moved his arms up and blocked the weapon with the boney blades sticking out of his wrists.

The bones were hard enough that the sword couldn't cut through. "Hm?" The man pushed Kies' sword away and stabbed him in the chest with one of the bone blades. It was a good thing that Kies had the cloak since the attack couldn't pierce it, or so he thought. To his surprise the blade found a gap in his cloak near his neck and the bone dug into his body.

"Ahahah, I will tear you to shreds!" The hybrid demon stabbed Kies with his other bone blade. Kies retaliated by swinging his sword to which the hybrid responded by jumping back so quickly that even Kies couldn't see. "I'm surprised you can still fight after getting stabbed," the monster snickered.

He held one of his arms near his face and licked the blade, tasting the blood on it. "Delicious..." It wasn't even Kies' blood in the first place. It was his own blood from when the bones came out of his wrists, but he didn't know it. He thought that it was Kies' blood that he was licking and was trying to scare him, but it just made him look like a total idiot in his eyes.

"..."

The hybrid thought that it had Kies pinned but he didn't know that his injuries had already healed. The holes in his chest where the bone blades pierced were gone, but under the cover of darkness, he couldn't see a thing. Although Kies was completely unharmed by the attacks, they came dangerously close to his "heart,"

"I guess this serves as a wake-up call to me..." Kies mumbled unhappily. He had been so reliant on his cloak in soaking all the damage that he had become careless. This was the first time in a while that an enemy also killed him.

"What are you doing?" the demon smiled. "Saying your prayers?" he laughed. "Don't worry, I'll give you some time... It's only a matter of time before you bleed out anyway. Then..." he looked at Iris who was out cold behind him. "I'll enjoy some time with her..." he said, running his tongue across his lips.

Disgusting. Whatever happened, he couldn't let that thing get close to Iris. Kies readied his sword and pointed it at the man.

"Oh, fighting till the end, are we?" he asked amusedly. "I like that. But sadly-"

The howling of the wind cut him off before he was able to finish his sentence. Kies disappeared and appeared in front of the hybrid demon with his sword in his chest.

"Huh?" The man looked down, stunned by what happened. "Just how-"

Kies pushes his blade deeper into the monster's chest, making him cough out blood. He then swung his sword up, cutting the man in half. Blood exploded from his fountain, spurting upward into the sky like a fountain.

"That's that." The nuisance was taken care of. Now... Kies turned to Iris. Time to bring the girl back to the inn.

Kies walked towards her and picked her up carefully. He held her with both his arms and turned to leave. But before he did, he looked back one last time at the corpse that was lying in the middle of the street.

Tomorrow morning, an unlucky guard or civilian will have the displeasure of finding that thing. It will definitely cause a commotion and tighten security in Otane for a bit.

"What an idiot..." Kies shook his head. That was to both himself and that man. Kies had become a little too comfortable with the cloak. Maybe it was time to take it off and put it away. He didn't want to rely on it too much. If the day comes that the magic on the cloak wears out or there is an attack that can pierce through it, he might end up losing his life.

And as for the man who he killed, he was also a fool as well. If he didn't let his guard down, Kies was more than certain that he was fast enough to have dodged his sword had he been paying attention to him. But since he thought that he inflicted a lethal injury on Kies, he lowered his guard which was a fatal mistake.

But whatever. Kies called the winds to envelop him and he jumped off into the night. He didn't care who his enemies were. If they stood between him and his mission, he would eliminate them. That was all he cared about. As for who gave that man the sermon transformation serum, and how those people got their hands on it, he didn't care. If they were planning to stand in his way then they best be prepared for him.

While Kies jumped from rooftop to rooftop, he was unaware that two people were watching him. Of course, he sensed their presence as he scouted out the entire area with his winds before arriving, but he only thought that they were civilians, sleeping the night away, unaware of the chaos that ensued outside. But they weren't...

Inside of a building that was nearby where the fight unfolded, there were two men sitting in the darkness, staring out the window. They were watching from the second-floor window. Underneath them, on the first floor, there were two bodies belonging to that of an elderly couple. Their life had come to an end early when they had the misfortune of opening their door for the two men.

"Just what the h*ll is he?" One of the men asked in disbelief, looking at his partner, expecting him to know the answer. Getting stabbed twice in the chest like that would mean death for almost anyone, but Kies somehow brushed it off like it was nothing.

The other man standing beside him observed Kies until his silhouette fully faded off in the distance. "It doesn't look like he got injured at all," he noted. "Did the attacks not connect?"

"No, they definitely did. You saw the blood didn't you?" Famlt, the first man, pointed out.

"Of course I did," Ragar, the second man, said, rolling his eyes. "Unless he has instant regeneration or something, there's no other explanation for it," he stared.

"That is true... He uses wind magic so I guess he blocked the attack and faked getting injured?" Famlt proposed a hypothesis.

"I guess so..."

Even if they didn't know how Kies avoided that attack, they knew one thing for sure and it was that he was not an easy opponent to kill.

"Looks like we will have to go back to the drawing board..." Ragar muttered, biting his nail in frustration. The hooligans he hired for the job were useless as expected, but he didn't think that Kies would be able to kill one of them that had taken the serum. Taking revenge was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

Famlt walked over around the room, keeping his eyes on his partner the entire time. He saw the angered look on his face and smiled. "Don't fret over it, friend." Although he hated to admit it, "We stand no chance against that guy, but..."

"But what?" Ragar asked, showing a hint of passive-aggressiveness in his voice.

"Do you not remember all the work we did?" Famlt asked a question back, reminding him of everything they've done the past few days in preparation for the big tournament.

Ragar scratched his chin. "Wait, are you referring to 'that?'"

"Yes, I am."

"..."

Ragar paced around the room uncomfortably. As much as he wanted to kill Kies with his hold hands, it didn't seem possible. But killing him off with "that thing" also worked.

"I guess it will have to do."

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!