The Boundaries of Freedom
Nakano's eyes are getting heavy. She amused herself with the mosquitoes that buzz around her.
Whenever the pesky insects fly near her, she would quickly draw her sword a little bit, expose 2 inches of the razor sharp blade and cut their wings off.
She had been on the roof of the barn for almost 30 minutes now and she was itching to just jump down and slash all of them to death.
Damos clearly gave her the more difficult part of the mission. He is cozy in a safe place somewhere while she had been up all night jumping from roof to roof.
The slate roof made it extremely difficult to move silently but her training as an assassin that rules the night is slowly coming back.
This stealthy activity was indeed in her resumé but she did not particularly enjoy recon missions. It would have been more simple to just walk through the gate, ask questions and decapitate those who gave the wrong answer.
Hunter was being unnecessarily careful when he instructed them to bring back the traitor or traitors unharmed.
Damos is another tight-assed old man and he seemed to have decided to follow the instructions to a tee.
As far as Nakano was concerned, when their investigation led them to this remote village where no women and children could be seen, they should have come in here in full force and pulverized these cretins.
"We must find out if this treachery managed to get inside Saki's family as well," Hunter reminded them.
"We know what to do young master," Damos assured him.
Saki this, Saki that… Nakano sneered at Hunter's juvenile fawning over the brat. It baffled Nakano that Hunter was so keen on appearing docile and tractable in front of the Homuras. The night when the arrow she is holding now was shot, she wanted to go with them but Hunter feared that Saki would be there and ordered her to stay away.
Hunter was aware of her dislike towards Saki.
The people inside the barn were almost drunk to death. Any minute now, she would be permitted to touch these weak, rat-faced and incapacitate them in any way she could.
She further amused herself by imagining various ways to hurt them enough to render them useless but not kill them.
"Control your bloodlust, woman," Damos spoke in her earpiece and she was jolted out of her morbid entertainment.
"It isn't bloodlust," she corrected.
"Whatever you call it, take a hold of it. Someone inside might be able to sense you," Damos hissed on his two-way radio.
"What are we waiting for, old man?" she asked, letting the irritation show in her voice.
"I need to see all of them through the camera that's attached to you. There is something peculiar about our traitor. There was no fix on him even by our best data analyser. No pattern to movements, no continuity; only dead ends. That suggests we are dealing with very tightly linked and efficient individuals all acting as if on cue or following a very precise algorithm and had the ability to vanish on thin air…"
"Or?"
"Or this one has the ability to jump from one person's mind to the other," Damos concluded.
"Very outlandish. It could be long-distance telepathy," Nakano suggested.
"Negative. You are new to the group that is why you didn't know. Our equipment that can detect energy fluctuations across all known spectra will also pick up even the lowest grade telepath operating within a mile. That also includes spikes generated by teleportation or any other portal that can be used to jump even up to three dimensional layers," Damos patiently explained.
"You are one thorough bastard, aren't you, Damos?" she said admiringly.
"Aren't I? Now make sure that you all got them before I come in. Over and out."
Damos leaned back in his seat and folded his arms across his chest. He closed his eyes and concentrated on putting sword marks above the head of the ones Nakano saw. If they missed even one, the traitor might be able to escape the way those people Tam caught escaped capture. By killing themselves.
They had to act fast after he learned or deduced this fact about the traitor. It's a good thing that Nakano listens to Hunter even without proper explanations. This might not have been successful without her skills.
He had to admire the traitor or traitors, though. They were all willing to die for their cause whatever that may be. However, the methods used showed Damos that this was orchestrated by a single individual. The foot soldiers were all given hypnotic suggestions. He was very careful and clever. There were two things where he blundered; first was in his arrogance that he could not be caught. That was why he did not erase all his traces. Second was that he did not find out all he could about his enemies most especially about Damos.
He completed putting the marks.
"Is that all?" he asked Nakano.
"I think…" Nakano was cut off suddenly and Damos sensed her bloodlust shot several levels upward.
Nakano cursed herself even as she twisted in mid air to avoid the arrow. She landed on the ground like a cat. Her sword was already drawn and her eyes are like lightning tethered boomerang scanning the surroundings. She immediately noted the position of her would be attackers and at what sequence they would reach her.
She picked the optimal point of attack and proceeded to effectively pick them off one by one as they came at her.
She did not kill them as Hunter commanded. She merely knocked them out with powerful blows to the base of the skull.
Most of the attackers laid on the ground frothing at the mouth while others stiffened like planks.
She used mainly the butt end of her sword and briefly reflected to bill Damos for the cost to have the decorative pommel rebuffed.
After a while, she quickly realized that she would soon be overwhelmed and the way she had to avoid killing was dampening her speed.
"Damos!" she screamed and as soon as she did, the big van they used came roaring through the gate, tearing the metal construct from its hinges.
The van skidded near her, hitting some of the attackers and in one smooth motion, Damos came out from the skidding van more like a man attending a gala than somebody joining a savage fight.
He stepped delicately around the fallen attackers and brushed the dust away from his suit.
He had no weapon but he had a stance like he was holding a two-handed sword.
The attackers did not rush anymore, like somebody issued a command and they were now calmly approaching them.
Men came from all sides. Nakano counted 50 or so and some are still coming from the farther corners of the compound.
When they got the two of them effectively surrounded, guns and other weapons trained on them, one man came out in front.
He was better dressed than the others and was obviously their leader.
"Is this all of you? How arrogant the fox really is," the well-dressed man sneered.
"So you knew us," Damos said conversationally.
"Eh, not really. I know your boss. Slaves do not really interest me," he said as insultingly as possible.
Damos smiled, unaffected. However, his eyes glinted dangerously. There was something about being called a slave that made his teeth itch.
The men surrounding them smiled back nastily.
Nakano gathered her energy and prepared to unleash an attack that she last used 500 years ago.
Damos stopped her from killing all of them in one swing.
"Hunter wanted them alive," he said and looked at the leader straight in the eye.
"Your arrogance knows no bounds. You came in here with no weapon, outnumbered forty to one, cornered and helpless, and you act like you have the upper hand? Really, slaves have the tendency to twist their reality," the leader laughed.
"Is that all of them?" Damos asked Nakano.
"Yeah, I missed one a while ago but there he is now," Nakano sheathed her sword.
"Now call me a slave once more," Damos said and entered the two-handed sword stance once more.
"Kill the slaves," the leader said in a bored tone.
Before anyone could move, a zweihander materialized in Damos' hands.
Similar looking swords also simultaneously appeared above each person's head.
When Damos swung the zweihander, the swords fell on top of the enemies' heads like small meteorites.
All their enemies fell as one. Dust and silence hung in the air.
Damos brushed the dust from his suit and proceeded to search the leader for hidden killing tools before binding him up.