12. Anna Loop I: A bit Unhinged(3/4)

The scimitars strapped securely to my arms in their holsters begged me to pull them out again but I was going to be patient.

I leaped across gaps, scaled walls, and balanced precariously on narrow ledges.

He finally stopped before a nondescript building with a crumbling facade that was a drab canvas of peeling paint and cracked brick.

Isn't this an obvious evil layer in the 'nice' part of town?

Why didn't they try to make it look like the other buildings?

I shoved the thought aside and watched below.

I examined a single door that was heavily reinforced and was guarded by a burly man with a face like a granite statue that was flattened with added triangles for accessories- from the rooftop.

I moved until I was perched on a nearby rooftop ledge and I watched as the recruiter approached the guard.

He spoke with a low voice, I almost didn't hear the password.

But I caught it. "The shadows fall and the emperor dies," he gave a strange and unsettling password.

That was enough.

I had heard what I needed to hear.

I dropped down from the ledge as I pulled my scimitars as I swung them in a flash. I spit him three ways as I came down.

The recruiter had his back to me the entire time so he never saw it coming.

One side of his body went to the left and one to the right as blood went everywhere.

As the blood covered me I smiled happily and kicked the middle portion that was collapsing forward in a grotesque parody of a bow to the side.

More blood splattered across the cobblestones.

The guard at the front of the door gaped at the carnage before him.

His shock lasted too long for him to live through this.

I smiled, a mocking curve of my lips. "The shadows fall and the emperor dies, despite being alive and ruling the country. Very evil. I appreciate the asinine password, very easy to mock. You know his royal guards would tear you apart by looking at you if a little girl can do the same? You really are funny." I berated with my voice gushing with enough mockery to fill an entire lake with my sass.

He began to panic and fumbled for the door handle as he fumbled with it in fear.

Finally he decided to Ignore the handle like he should have in the first place and tried to slam it shut.

He was too slow.

My scimitars flashed out again, severing his arms at the elbows.

He began to scream as his carved-from-granite expression turned from panicked to terrified and tried to turn to run.

His screams were cut short as a negligent flick of my wrist sent his head flying and bouncing across the cobblestones like a discarded toy.

I elegantly moved into a hall that looked like a chokepoint and slammed open the second door.

The dinghy bar area with my scimitars still dripping with blood.

A savage smile etched itself across my face.

The air hung heavy with the stench of stale ale, sweat, and a surprising lack of fear.

"Mama's here to punish the bad babies who thought they could get away with murder! Surprise, you can't! Wow! I wonder what changed?!" I shouted at the top of my lings.

Everyone stared.

From the man in the black ninja suit to the mustache man with the lightning bolt emblazoned onto his martial arts suit.

They stared incredulously.

Then they opened their mouths and began laughing.

I giggled and then I laughed with them.

Then I decapitated a ninja and continued laughing even as they stopped.

My giggles turned to laughs and then a manically intense laugh echoed through the bar as heads went flying.

I continued giggling as I rushed forward and cut off the arm of the man with the nunchaku before he could do more than get into a stance.

I continued guffawing at the man with the large hammer-wielding man who I hamstrung at the knees and heels and followed by stabbing my blade into his skull and fell to the ground as a lifeless corpse.

Sure, carry a large hammer, but don't be so slow!

Blood painted the walls, the floor, even the ceiling of this wretched den.

I moved through the bar area as they actually started trying to escape.

I threw my left scimitar and bypassed the person who had the single line of a pointy hairstyle that really looked strange.

What is with these people and sharp triangles?

He found that just because one scimitar was busy impaling a man with a staff to the wall after being thrown, didn't mean the other wasn't just as capable of severing his head.

As for the one with the staff, I was aiming for his forehead, but that's okay because I took his head off too after approaching him.

As I took my scimitar from his corpse I looked around.

With a shrug I moved towards the helpfully labeled 'training area' by a tablet hanging over a door to a large hallway.