Then I'll Stop Playing Around

Oybar howled in frustration, "How dare you?!"

Only a few dozen meters away, Ayse was already sprinting into action. He kept both hands open and ready to counter whatever the cannibal attempted to do.

As Oybar charged in, he led with a thrust and a swipe.

Then, Ayse did something unusual yet again. He dove legs first into the ground, sliding under the thrust and leaning away from the swiping spear.

Oybar narrowly leaped out of reach of those sweeping legs, forced to lean into his strike to tumble and roll off to the side. He wasn't hurt by that in any way. But Oybar's pride as a warrior felt stained by the unarmed, young man and his unseen fighting style.

"What is that? Fight like a man!" Oybar barked.

Ayse chuckled, "Then stop running like a coward."

Sneering, Oybar took in a sharp breath. He thought, *Focus! Don't get sucked in. Don't get sucked in!*

"Will you come to me? Or do I have to chase your retreating ass?" Ayse questioned. When Oybar flared his nostrils but refused to respond, Ayse shrugged. "Suit yourself. Then I'll stop playing around."

In a mad dash, Ayse leaped at Oybar. There were no sneaky dives or rolls. He was airborne directly in front of the cannibal chief, unafraid of his exposed position.

"FOOL!" Oybar erupted in hysterical laughter.

Both spears were swung horizontally at Ayse, from the lower left and upper right. And a few black threads laced each spearhead.

Off to the side, LaRee was caught in a stupor. "Ayse–"

LaRoe cut his son off with a chuckle, "He'll be fine."

Crack. Snap!

One spear cracked on impact against Ayse's back. The spear on the upswing snapped after colliding with Ayse's blocking arm. And Ayse's free hand grabbed the cannibal chief by the throat as Ayse tackled Oybar to the ground.

"W-What… D-did you…" Oybar could barely speak through his half-strangled throat. But Oybar immediately found the answer to his unspoken question anyway.

Around Ayse's blocking forearm, over a dozen black threads of energy were tightly wrapped in a spiral. And the father-son duo could see a patch of black threads on Ayse's back also. They formed firmed an unmoving, perfectly symmetrical vortex, which made the perfect deterrent against the incoming spear.

"You're not half bad," Ayse smugly commented. His heavy gaze weighed down Oybar's dwindling determination while Ayse's hand tightened around the cannibal chief's throat. "But you're a prick. And your ohra lacks control."

"O… Oh-ra…" Oybar tried to say more, but his throat was quickly clenched shut. Frantic, Oybar swung both his chipped spear and his broken spear shaft at his opponent.

Ayse let the broken shaft break again. He reached across his chest to grab the chipped spear with his free arm. Then, Ayse effortlessly crushed the black threads around the upper shaft of the spear, ripping the spearhead off without batting an eye.

Without hesitation, Ayse rolled the spearhead into a reverse grip and swiped toward Oybar's face.

"N-NO!" Oybar howled in terror through his strangled throat, closing his eyes in impulse.

… Oybar trembled. He blinked. He was still alive… But Oyber instantly focused on the spearhead firmly held between his eyebrows, dangling less than a centimeter away.

"Normally, I wouldn't care how I kill you. But I'll let you choose this time," Ayse remarked with a nonchalant tone. "Would you prefer to be strangled, or to be stabbed through the skull?"

The tension around the cannibal chief's neck lessened slightly. There was just enough passage for a trickle of air and a few words to squeeze by.

"I-I… M… Mercy…" Oybar stammered. Tears welled up in his eyes, streaming down the blood-painted arrows on his face. "H-have… mercy…"

But Ayse shook his head. "Wrong choice."

C-C-Crack! Crack!

"AaAGghh–"

Oybar wailed in pain as Ayse kneeled into the cannibal's ribs, rolling and breaking them. At the same time, Ayse's other leg stepped and crushed Oybar's shoulder with black threads wrapping his boot.

But Oybar lost the chance to scream or cry out for mercy.

Ayse tightened his grip on the cannibal's neck one last time. He made sure to not squeeze too hard and accidentally break the cannibal's neck, instead offering slow suffering through suffocation.

Oybar tried to thrash out, but Ayse rotated his legs to break more ribs along with Oybar's other shoulder. When Oybar tried to use his legs to roll over, Ayse tore through Oybar's thighs with the spearhead.

Try as he might, the cannibal chief had no means to free himself as his face turned red. By the time Oybar's lips and face turned greyish-blue, he had lost all strength to move his broken, cut-up body. And he eventually lost consciousness.

It all happened within a dozen or so seconds. But it felt like an eternity for the helpless cannibal chief.

"... Well, no use in waiting," Ayse remarked and tossed the spearhead aside.

CRACK…

Removing his hands from the corpse's head and broken neck, Ayse brushed his hands off, as if wiping off nonexistent filth. He then waved back at LaRee and the downed, resting chief. "Be right back!"

Before LaRee or LaRoe could reply, Ayse ran over to the one spear he had fully dodged. It was pulled from the ground and brought back to Oybar's corpse. With a swift swipe, the head was severed. And with a final thrust, the head was skewered onto the spearhead.

Ayse finally ran over to the father and son with a jovial smile. "Here, this should help wrap things up."

Scoffing, from both surprise and relief, LaRoe gave his son a nudge. "You do it, Son. And don't take too long."

LaRee couldn't complain. So, he accepted the spear and sprinted to the nearest watch tower. Once there, LaRee held the severed head up high for all to see. Shouting with all his might, LaRee declared, "Blood Spear is dead! Death Arrow lives! Surrender or be slaughtered!"

Those words shook the battlefield! As LaRee repeated those three phrases, it became impossible for the cannibal tribe to delay their forfeit any longer. Especially with fresh blood spilling out of their chief's piked head.