Onslaught of The Heretic

Behind Saga, he could hear the arrival of watchmen, their metal boots striking the ground as they stopped. Four of them, armed with wooden swords. Saga instinctively knew how many of them there were before he turned around. Their petrified faces looked at the bodies on the ground, their swords shaking in their hands.

The closest one quickly approached Saga, “YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” He yelled through teary eyes. “Why..? You’ll pay for this you fucker.” His eyes grew focused on Saga as he gritted his teeth with determination and anger. He raised his sword above his shoulder, pointed directly towards Saga, preparing for a stab.

Saga picked up the baton on the ground next to him, covered in blood, then approached the guard, stopping almost within striking distance, and took his own stance.

With only one arm functioning, Saga put forward his limp arm to the watchman, almost like a shield, and leaned down to the same height, his functioning arm pulled back under his shoulder, slightly mimicking the same stabbing stance as the watchman.

The watchman circled to the left of Saga, keeping his distance as he tried to turn Saga’s back towards his teammates to get them an easy strike. Saga instinctively circled in the same direction as him, playing around the watchman’s fear.

Surprised, the watchmen lunged back to his original position, he took out those guards with one hand and a knife, I can't do this alone. He grew worried at the boy's instinctive capabilities, his initial determination and anger fading as the two continued to stalemate back and forth.

He suddenly called out to his teammates, “YOU LAZY PIECES OF SHIT, GET OVER HERE AND HELP ME!” The watchmen behind him, who seemed much younger than he was, had their swords in their hands, shaking in fear, still staring at the lifeless bodies in front of them.

They slowly approached the two and started circling Saga, trying to surround him, their stances loose and untrained. Saga did not take his gaze off of the one in front of him, however. The noisy and sloppy movement of the enemies around him told him all the information he needed. The watchman in front scoffed at Saga, his face unable to hide his fear. He’s just a child… Why does he move like a soldier? This isn’t a serious matter, no matter how good this kid is, he’ll still grow intimidated easily. He stood up tall, keeping his stance solid. Saga’s eyes followed, but kept his stance low. A loud whistle blew in the distance, apparently an alarm that would bring the armed men Saga saw before.

Upon hearing the whistle, the watchman scoffed at Saga, “You won’t make it out of here alive, you know that? Surrender now. And I’ll make your death quick.”

Saga brought the baton down behind his waist, pointing sideways, preparing to swing. The watchman, not hesitating at the sudden opportunity, lunged his sword straight at Sagas chest. At the same time, Saga stepped to the right, dodging the attack. The watchman did a double-take as he turned his face towards Saga, unable to recover his stance in time as he tried to rotate his body around.

Now with a mad smile on his face, Saga dug his feet into the ground and swung the baton as hard as he could against the watchman's exposed side.

The baton pierced the air and crashed straight into the guard at an incredible speed. The sheer force of Saga’s swing threw the body into one of the other watchmen, knocking him down instantly. The body laid face down on top of him, blood spilling out of his mouth as his chest was crushed.

A beautiful dark red, dancing and shining as the Sun reflected off of it.

The last two standing watchmen froze in terror, Saga dropped the broken baton and stared at the newly mutilated body. The watchman under it screamed as he finally realized what had happened.

“M-Monster.” One of the standing watchmen said, dropping his sword and stepping back, face quivering in fear. “H- He’s not h-human, it’s a fucking monster.”

He turned around and ran towards the manor, but before he could get any distance away, Saga lunged forward and grabbed the back of his neck, stopping him completely in his tracks. He gasped as the cold hand grabbed his neck, a freezing cold, it could not be the hand of a living being.

“Mercy... Please, God, I don't want to die by a Blasphemer.” He started to cry as he stopped struggling against the monstrous grip.

Saga dug his fingers in the man’s throat, blood covering his hands once again as the man screamed.

“PLEASE! N-”

The rest was cut off as his jugular was pierced, turning his screaming into a gargled mess, he let his grip go. The man grasped his neck and tried to stop the bleeding in vain, squirming around like a pig in mud as he slowly fell unconscious.

Saga looked towards the last remaining guard, running away blindly towards the cursed lands. Saga calmly went over towards the pay booth guard’s body, the knife still stuck in his lower jaw, audibly snapping as he pulled it out. The running watchman looked back once at Saga, suddenly tripping and face planting into the ground. Saga took a deep breath and cocked his hand back behind his head, preparing to throw the knife. He leaned forward as he threw it, watching it whip through the air before it met the back of the watchman’s head, piercing his skull and forcing his face into the ground. Blood splattered all over the grass, instantly slowing to a gentle flow as the body went limp.

A smile cracked along Saga’s face as he looked for his next prey. His eyes met the watchmen on the ground, still struggling to remove the body off of him, his blood-covered face opened up as he screamed and tried to wriggle out of the body, away from certain death. Saga approached the helpless man, as he screamed louder and cursed at him.

“YOU DEMON, GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, GET AWAY FROM ME YOU GODFORSAKEN BLASPHE-” The cries for mercy suddenly ended as Saga stomped into the man’s head. Blood running from his temple. Saga stomped again. A crack could be heard.

Again. The skull caved inwards.

Again. The man’s face became unrecognizable.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Blood stuck onto Saga’s shoe as he lifted up his foot away from the mutilated face.

He took a deep breath in, absorbing all of the farm’s insanity. Then looked back towards the manor, where he saw six more guards rushing towards the scene. They were much bigger and looked much more trained, armed with real iron swords. Three of them were swordsmen, three of them were archers equipped with longbows. Their armor dancing in the sunlight, pushing women and children over along the way, anger and confusion in their eyes.

The workers had started to run away into the cursed land, tripping and yelling at each other as they stampeded the wheat fields and ruined the newly tilled ground. Some of them yelled about demons and blasphemy in panic. The bystanding watchmen chased after them, distracted by the fight.

Saga looked back at the approaching soldiers, the longbows stopped in their tracks and started to take aim, the swordsmen were only 100 paces away from Saga now. He stood his ground, no weapon in his hand, yet no fear on his face, his heart grew calmer and his mind clear, his eyes focused on the archers. It was unlikely they would land their first shot at this distance.

Saga could tell every little detail of their movements, he could see the drawback of each bow, even their drop adjustment. He instinctively knew where each arrow would land as well. All of it came to him naturally, as though he could tell the future. Not a single question of what this power actually was crossed Saga’s head. His endless thirst for blood and purity were the only things driving him.

Saga walked four steps away from the watchman’s body, his attention now focused on the approaching swordsmen, now in yelling distance. They slowed to a walk as they pulled out their swords and caught their breath, approaching Saga together. A quick hand signal from the one in the middle and they split, two of them taking Sagas sides while the leader walked straight up to him. Now only around ten paces away, Saga looked up as he saw three brief glints in the sky, very quickly striking the ground with immense force, two of them going over his head some meters away behind him. One of them landed right at his feet, centimeters away from taking his entire foot. He picked up the arrow from the ground and wielded it, it’s iron edge would be his weapon.

The leader scoffed as he took his stance. Did he know that arrow would land there? What absurdity. Still… It’s strange, no blasphemer had ever been born in these parts... Whatever, I’ve fought and killed plenty of these blasphemers on the battlefield. Even if he is one, he’d just been awakened. It should be an easy kill.

The soldiers on Saga’s side took up a defensive stance, their hands stretched all the way down, their blades pointing diagonally up, effectively defending their entire stomach and upper body, the iron swords gleamed in the sunlight.

Saga looked at all his opponents one by one. They were now dangerously close to him, none of them taking any chances at striking one by one. After a few seconds, they had encircled him completely.

The soldiers spoke to each other with their eyes, waiting for the signal to attack from their leader. Despite their danger-close distance, Saga looked past them all and stared at the archers in the distance, running closer to the battle to get a better shot, not wanting to risk friendly fire. He turned his eyes away from them and looked at the leader of the soldiers, his eyes now focusing on him intently, he bent his knees and held his arrow like a knife, waiting for their move.

Upon meeting Saga’s eyes, the leader grew angrier at the boy’s obvious determination. Does he really intend to fight all of us? A brief moment of questioning quickly thrown away as he continued to stare into Saga’s eyes. The once beautiful blue was now literally glowing radiantly. Not a human’s eyes.

The leader shifted his foot, the audible shuffle broke the tense atmosphere. The soldiers on Saga’s sides lunged at him, their iron swords coming down on him at full force, the leader also lunged forward, wide-swinging at Saga’s good arm.

Saga jumped back away from the soldiers, his inhumane strength sending him far back on top of tilled ground. Dazed and confused, the three soldiers quickly looked back at Saga, their stance lagging behind them. The leader tensed back up as he stared at the now distant Saga.

The archers were now slowing to a walk as they readied their bows once again, pointed almost straight at Saga as the distance was almost closed. Saga leaned down, getting ready to sprint. A sudden thrust from his foot left the ground mangled in his wake, charging straight towards the leader, arrow in hand. The soldiers, their stance still lagging behind their gaze, broke away at the sight of his blurring speed.

The leader swung blindly in front of him, surprised at the lightning-fast speed. However, the blade never left his side as he suddenly froze, an arrow was stuck in his neck, he choked on blood as his vision grew hazed. Saga looked into his eyes as he slaughtered the man before him.

“Im-Impossible- w-wha- are you?” He gurgled as he fell to the ground.

Saga grabbed the sword and immediately charged towards the archers, who had finished taking aim and now ready to fire. The two soldiers chased after Saga, unable to match his speed.

“GET BACK HERE!” One of them yelled at Saga as he sprinted off.

The archers released their hands and sent the arrows off, gliding through the air. Saga jumped to the right as they released the arrows, still keeping his momentum as he quickly resumed running towards the archers, the arrows slicing nothing but air as they flew off into the ground some distance away. A wicked smile made its way into Saga’s face as he thought about the ways he would kill the now defenseless archers. His predatory instincts boiled his blood further as he closed in on the first archer, still fumbling to ready his next arrow.

Saga charged into the archer and swung at his bow, snapping it in half. The archer stumbled back and gripped the air, fear now on his face as he realized that he was going to die. Saga’s smile grew even more wicked as he cocked the sword back and stabbed the archer, his scream instantly stopping as he was lifted off the ground.

His chain mail did nothing in stopping the blade from passing straight through his entire body. Saga heard a short cry of disbelief from the last 2 archers as they drew their arrows back. The body still on the blade, Saga pointed it towards them, using it as a shield, and slowly began walking towards them, amusing himself as he thought about what decision they were going to make. Whether their fear would lower them into mutilating their friend’s dead body even further. He approached the next archer, his insane face visible at the side of the body. The archer released the arrow by accident, bouncing off the armor with a small clink.

Saga dropped the body and ran at the panicking archer, trying desperately to back away and ready his next shot. He swung at the archer’s knees, slicing through them as if they were paper. The archer released a blood-curdling scream as his legs were amputated, blood spurting out and staining Saga’s already red pants.

An arrow suddenly stuck itself into Saga’s stomach, he looked at the last standing one, who was scrambling for his quiver.

Without looking down, Saga drove his blade into the fallen archer's neck, reducing his screams into mangled gurgles and his desperate grasps at his separated legs into an agonizing squirm. Blood dripped from Saga’s new wound, but he remained unfazed as he walked towards the last standing archer, he could hear the swordsmens’ footsteps approaching now.

Another arrow drove itself into Sagas left shoulder, his already limp arm recoiling before returning to his side. Saga dropped the sword and grabbed at the retreating archer’s neck, he yelped as Saga’s fingers immediately dug into his jugular. Once again blood filled the air, once again the yells of suffering were unable to quench Saga’s blood lust. He crushed the man’s esophagus and dropped the body onto the ground as he heard yelling in the distance.

“STOP IT! YOU FUCKING MONSTER! AHHHH!”

The swordsman cried as he charged Saga, his teammate lagging behind, unable to cover him. Saga quickly picked up the sword and swung wide at the soldier, their blades meeting with a giant CLASH. Yet the force of Saga’s swing had knocked the sword right out of his hands, turning the blade into a lethal projectile as it spun across the field and stuck into the ground far away.

The soldier looked at his hands and stepped back in complete disbelief.

“You monster... You are no Blasphemer...” His final words as Saga cocked the sword above his head and struck the man, A slice straight through his right shoulder, exiting down through his lower left waist, straight through his entire body. The two pieces fell back as the man’s organs spilled out, the blood at this point became a commodity in the scenery.

The final soldier stopped in his tracks as he looked at the slaughter before him, he knew he couldn’t do anything against Saga.

“What… are you?”

He asked in a quivering voice. He looked at Saga, showing no signs of resistance or will to fight as he accepted his death. Saga cocked the sword back and stabbed him, piercing his heart as the swordsman instantly died. He pulled the blood-bathed sword out and walked back to the archer’s bodies, looking back at the pay booth. The bodies of the fallen men scattered across the grass.

A beautiful sight.

A wonderful red covered the dreadful farm.

A vibrant and lively red.