Tale of Death

Chapter 10 - Fighting To Survive

Shi's eyes were locked on the fallen body of the muscular bandit, she wanted to quickly finish him off so she could deal with the others. So, with a blurred motion, she moved towards him, reaching above the man before he could even get up. Without much care to further indulge the man, she stomped her foot onto the man's chest, cleaving through the man's chest like it was hot butter. His bones instantly broke and caved into themselves as blood spurted out.

The bandits started panicking at their comrade's death. Shi turned around to see all of them running away from her, crying for help and screaming "monster!" in fear as they ran. She wasn't really bothered by this event, she had expected that would happen to some degree. Her crimson gaze shifted over each of them as they tried to run away, that's when she spotted that one of the bandits, wasn't actually running away. It was a male bandit, he was previously standing behind everyone else, and Shi could tell why that was the case now.

He was preparing magic. It seemed he at least knew some basic spells, at least Shi assumed so. He raised his hand in the air in front of him, chanting some words under his breath that she couldn't hear. Then, in a loud enough voice she could hear, he shouted, "Fireball!".

It was a simple spell, but quite effective, as a large ball of flames burst out from his palm and flew in the direction of Shi. With little time to react, Shi leaped back with all her strength, using the momentum to flip herself and use her arms to shield herself from the fire. The flames barely missed her, with only a little touching the edge of her hands as it passed by, it burnt instantly upon contact with her. It was odd how easily it burnt her and how badly too, but she simply thought it must be related to it being magic-based.

"Shit." Shi thought to herself as she knew this man could be a problem if she didn't handle him quickly, he was already preparing to chant another spell, so she needed to move quickly. She could see the man raise his hand again, ready to cast yet another spell. This time, however, he was aiming straight at her. As he chanted, something unexpected happened. Instantly a bright light shot out of the man's palm and hit Shi directly in the face, blinding her temporarily, she didn't even have time to move with how quick it was shot.

"Dammit!" She yelled loudly, not caring if they heard her, she couldn't see, but she tried not to panic. She didn't need sight to win this fight, her other senses were already screaming at her that the man was moving again, she could hear his hand movement, smell his sweat, taste his blood in the air. She knew where he was, and what he was doing. So, without hesitating this time, she dashed straight at him.

With a loud crash, Shi collided with the man, her arms wrapped around his neck while her feet planted firmly on the ground to prevent herself from falling. Shi brought her knee up into his stomach, pushing him down onto the floor to keep him pinned. It wasn't hard, the man was a lot weaker than her, and as long as he couldn't cast spells, he wouldn't be an issue.

So, without giving the name a chance to start chanting again, she bit into his neck but didn't drink it this time, instead, she just ripped his throat out. The gushing of the blood not only dyed her in blood further but also showed her that he was dead. Thankfully, her eyesight returned with his death, allowing her to peer around and see that everyone had already run away, leaving her there alone with the bodies.

After some time of thinking, she didn't bother to go after them, her body was starting to feel the pain and fatigue of that fight, now that the adrenaline was gone, not to mention, it was a pointless attempt. She stood up and walked over to the corpse of the leading man, she was about to search his body for anything of use, but when she took off his shirt, she noticed something strange.

There was a strange mark on his chest, which looked similar to a tattoo in the shape of a vine with thorns, at the end of the vine was a blade. Shi observed it for a bit, trying to figure out why it was such a weird shape, but then an idea hit her.

"It's a branding." She whispered to herself at the thought. Brandings weren't uncommon things to see around the world, in her little village alone she had seen a few different kinds. They were mainly used by different organizations, groups, sects, families, and so on, as a way to mark their members.

"Some brandings even have the ability to track members, or punish them if needed." She mumbled to herself as she looked at the mark, which didn't look like a friendly branding. This meant this man probably belonged to some odd group.

That could possibly be troublesome for Shi if they find out, but at the same time, she wasn't all that worried, because she was in the middle of the desert when he died. They had no way of knowing that she killed him, at least, he hoped so. Who would waste their time on such a waste anyways?

"Wait, shit." That was most likely the reason that they fled. If they did come across her later on, they might be able to tell it was her. Well, she hoped they died in the desert since they lacked supplies.

With that thought out of the way, she calmed down and looked around, "There is no point in worrying about that currently. Right now, the first thing I need to do is figure out how i am going to get to the place I was supposed to be dropped off originally." She said with a sigh, how annoying, she was now lost, and without a ride in one of the most dangerous places in the world.