Rescuing Yuna (2)

"Who, who are you?"

"I am a friend," Leon said. "I am looking for a girl named Yuna.

"Yuna?" Roric's shock slowly turned to rage. "So, you are a bounty hunter?"

He did not wait for Leon's answer, and shot forward, swinging his shortswords like a whirlwind of steel.

Leon didn't retreat. He met the attack head-on, his hands a blur as he parried and deflected every single strike with his open palms.

Roric had never seen anything like it. This human wasn't using magic. He was just... impossibly fast. Impossibly strong.

He saw an opening and lunged, thrusting both blades forward.

Leon didn't dodge.

He simply caught both blades between the thumb and forefinger of each hand.

"Is that all?" Leon gave Roric a slight smile.

Roric's eyes went wide. He tried to pull his swords back, but they were held fast, as if gripped by a mountain.

Leon looked him directly in the eye, his calm expression never wavering.

"I told you," he said, his voice quiet but firm. "I'm not here for the bounty."

"I'm looking for Yuna."

"Princess Kira sent me."

The cat-kin's hostile expression shattered, replaced by one of pure, unadulterated shock. His weapons fell from his numb fingers.

"How..." he stammered, his voice cracking. "How do you know the name of our Princess?"

Leon raised an eyebrow. "The death of the Fox-Kin Princess is public knowledge. Why is her name such a secret?"

Roric's face, already pale from his effortless defeat, went sheet-white. He stumbled back a step, the fight completely gone from him.

"The world knows a 'Fox-Kin Princess' died," he whispered, his voice shaking. "But... but only her family, her personal handmaiden, and a handful of human royals ever knew her given name was Kira."

He looked at Leon again, unsure of what to make of him. "So I'll ask again, human... how do you know that name? Are you from the royal family?"

Roric stared at Leon, his voice shaking with a mixture of awe and dread. "So I'll ask again, human... how do you know that name?"

Leon turned his thoughts inward.

"Kira, is he telling the truth? Was your name really a secret?"

"Yes!" she confirmed, her voice urgent in his mind. "Only my family and Yuna knew it! No one else!"

She floated forward, trying to wave at the cat-kin who had once guarded her. "Roric! It's me! I'm here!"

But he couldn't see or hear her. He only saw the strange human who held his blades effortlessly.

Just then, the rustling of leaves echoed through the clearing.

More figures emerged from the Gloomwood's shadows.

A dozen more beast-kin, armed with crude spears and bows, surrounded them. They saw their leader disarmed, their companions downed, and their expressions hardened with feral rage.

"Let him go, human!" one of them snarled.

"Leon, no!" Kira cried out in panic. "Don't hurt them! They were some of my loyal guards! They are on our side!"

Leon let out a quiet sigh. This was getting complicated.

"It seems we have an audience," he said to Roric, releasing his grip on the shortswords.

Roric stumbled back, grabbing his weapons. The sight of his reinforcements gave him a surge of false courage.

"It doesn't matter how you know the name," he spat. "You are one. We are many. You will not leave this forest alive!"

"Attack!" he roared.

The beast-kin charged.

Kira hid her face, unable to watch.

Leon didn't move from his spot.

As the first warrior, a boar-kin with sharp tusks, reached him, Leon's hand shot out.

It wasn't a punch. It wasn't a strike.

He simply tapped the charging beast-man on the shoulder.

The boar-kin's eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed in a heap, completely unconscious.

Leon became a blur.

A wolf-kin's spear was gently redirected into a tree trunk. A swift chop to the back of the neck, and he slumped to the ground.

A bear-kin's club was caught mid-swing. A simple twist of the wrist, and the weapon was torn from his grasp before a light push sent the giant stumbling into two of his comrades.

In less than ten seconds, it was over.

A dozen beast-kin warriors lay on the ground around Leon, either disarmed and groaning or completely unconscious.

Not a single drop of blood had been spilled.

Roric stood frozen, his jaw hanging open, his shortswords feeling impossibly heavy in his hands.

He wasn't looking at a human. He was looking at a force of nature. A ghost.

He dropped his swords with a clatter that echoed in the sudden, deafening silence.

He fell to his knees.

His shoulders slumped, not in defeat to an enemy, but in the crushing weight of his own failure.

"I failed her," he choked out, his voice thick with a grief that had festered for months. "I was one of Her Majesty's guards. I was supposed to protect her. But she died, and I ran."

He looked up at Leon, his yellow cat-eyes shining with unshed tears. "And now... I have failed to even protect Yuna. We hide in this cursed forest like rats, and still, the bounty hunters find us."

He bowed his head, touching his forehead to the dirt floor of the forest.

"Kill me," he begged, his voice breaking. "I am a disgraced guard who does not deserve to live. But please... I beg of you... spare the girl. She is all that is left of our princess. She has suffered enough."

Leon looked down at the broken cat-kin, his expression softening slightly.

"Your princess wouldn't want her most loyal guard to die in the dirt," Leon said, his voice quiet but clear.

Roric's head snapped up, his eyes wide with confusion.

"She doesn't blame you for running," Leon continued. "She knows you did it to protect Yuna. She blames the ones who orchestrated her death."

The words struck Roric with more force than any physical blow. They were words of forgiveness, of understanding, from a source he couldn't comprehend.

"How... how could you know that?"