Roz

Amity loved her cute little bookstore. It was all nice and quiet inside. To Amity, it was her precious home. She loved to tidy up the pesky dust loitering on the shelves. She hummed with happiness as she swept out the dirt lurking around the deepest corners. She was even willing to spend hours arranging all her books in alphabetical order and sorting them out based on their respective genres. But most importantly, she loved to twirl the curls on her fluffy pink hair while reading a page of some steamy romance.

The bookstore was her safe space. Life was good.

But when night fell in Bordertown, anything could happen.

The entrance door burst open, causing Amity to throw her book away in shock.

“Give us all your money, woman!”

Two big and burly barbarians had barged into her store unannounced, armed with large scary axes. She had her glasses on, so she was sure that those were weapons they were carrying. They looked too ugly and dumb to read, and they had made it clear that they weren’t here to buy books. One of the men kicked down one of the shelves, causing them to crash over another shelf and drop books on the floor.

“P-Please! Don’t hurt me!” Amity extended her hands. “I’ll hand over all my money! Just please don’t take my books away!”

One of the men leaned closer and caressed her face with his sticky dirty fingers.

“Hey, the lady is kind of cute, don’t ya think?”

Amity froze in place.

His breath touched her face. The smell was horrid, like that of rotten fish mixed with the corpse of a dead dog. Amity looked like she was about to hurl, but she somehow managed to hold it in. And not to mention, his teeth. This was the worst set of teeth that Amity set her eyes upon, yellowy, black and malformed in shape.

His other friend cackled like an imp.

“Maybe we should steal her instead! I bet she’d make a fine fortune as a slave!”

Amity found the courage to move. She slapped the ugly man’s face away and threw a bag of coins on his chest.

“Stay away from me! Just take my money and leave!”

“You stupid wench!”

The disgusting man punched her straight in the face, shattering her glasses completely. Amity cried in pain. Her vision spun around in circles, and she felt like she was going to collapse at any moment. This was the first time she had ever been assaulted by a man like this. She managed to scream for help, but the barbarian grabbed her by the throat and slammed her to the ground.

“It hurts…” she whimpered.

“Perhaps I should teach you how to make yourself useful as a woman,” he said and laughed.

The barbarian ripped out her blouse and licked his lips.

Amity was terrified. No one was coming to save her. There was nothing she could do but watch as this man had her way with her. It was over.

Or so she believed.

The bell of the entrance door rang, interrupting the barbarian from going any further.

“Who’s there?!”

Someone had entered the store, but they couldn’t find where they were. It seemed like it may have very well been the wind. However, the two barbarians were suspicious.

“We know you’re in there! Show yourself.”

No response.

The other barbarian tried looking around the bookshelves, all to no avail.

“I don’t see anyone!”

Right as he said those words, something struck him right in the forehead, and he dropped to the floor.

“W-what happened?!” The disgusting barbarian let go of Amity and ran over to his comrade.

When he checked the man’s head, blood gushed out of the wound, and he saw what had hit him. A throwing cross made of ice.

“That’s no way to treat a lady.”

The barbarian was startled by the voice. He turned back and pulled out his axe.

“W-Who are you?!”

The mysterious man was leaning on one of the shelves, spinning a dagger of ice in one hand. To the barbarian, he appeared like a phantom, donning a cloak as dark as the shadows. However, what stood out to him was not his clothes he wore, but the mask that covered his face. A mask made out of ice.

“Answer me, you masked freak!”

“Silence,” the masked man placed a finger where his lips would be. “We’re in a bookstore. I have no words for filth like you.”

“Idiot!” The barbarian stuck his tongue. “We’re with the Crimson Desert Tribe! Are you sure you wanna be our enemy?!”

“I already am your enemy,” the masked man said with a frigid tone.

The barbarian clicked his tongue and stepped back.

“Don’t underestimate me, frost face!”

He lifted up his axe.

“Soul of Annihilation: Axe of Explosion.”

The axe flared with a violent orange, creating a deep humming noise that bounced off the walls of the bookstore.

“An Annihilator, huh? How troublesome,” the masked man said.

“Here I go!” The barbarian charged in with his tongue out of his face.

“Eat this!” He swung right for the masked man’s head.

The masked man kicked off one of the shelves and jumped above the barbarian, placing his hand over the man’s head to get over him completely. The axe slammed right through the books, blowing them up into tiny little white pieces.

“M-My books!” Amity cried.

The masked man leapt over the counter and ran up to the shopkeeper.

“It’s not safe here.”

“R-Roz! What are you-”

Before she could say another word, the masked man had lifted her up like a bride in his arms. He jumped over the counter and left the store with Amity. Once they made it out into the street, the masked man hid her behind a pile of boxes on the other side and walked back to the store.

“Roz!” Amity called out his name. “Are you gonna be all right?”

“I’ll handle this,” he said.

The barbarian burst out of the bookstore windows, causing bits and shards of glass to fly out into the open. Instead of the arrogant smile he showed earlier, he stared down the masked man with a fuming look on his face.

“How dare you make a fool out of me! The Crimson Desert Tribe will make you pay!” he roared.

Roz twirled the frozen dagger on his left hand.

“Then I shall pay you all with death.”

The barbarian roared and charged at the masked man. He leapt up into the air and slammed his axe down on the ground, blasting a hole into the cobblestone road. Roz knew that one good hit from that axe would be enough to blow up his body into a pile of flesh. That was how strong his opponent was. But the masked man was untouchable. Not only did he appear like a phantom, he even moved like it. No matter how many times the barbarian swung, he could never land a hit on his enemy.

What good was a powerful weapon, if it was incapable of hitting anything but stone?

“That’s enough destruction from you.”

Roz slashed his forearm, causing the barbarian to drop the weapon.

“Ack!”

After that, he finished off the barbarian with a flurry of cuts.

“Y-You’ll…..pay…..”

The barbarian crashed down to the ground.

Roz looked up in the air and took a deep breath.

“I-Is it over?”

Amity peeked out from her hiding spot.

“Yeah.”

Roz took off his cloak and wrapped it around her body to protect her dignity.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t able to protect you in time.”

“I-It’s all right!” Amity flailed her hands.

He shook his head. “But I allowed them to hurt your face. And if I hadn’t come sooner, you would have-”

Amity interrupted him with her finger.

“You saved me from those men, that’s all that matters! So thank you!”

Despite everything that happened, she still managed to put on a smile.

Roz sighed. “I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do.”

He knelt down next to the fallen barbarian, then he placed the body on his shoulder and lifted him up.

“I-I can help you with the other one!” Amity said.

“The other one’s too heavy for you. I’ll just come back for him later.”

“I-Isn’t that too much for you?” Amity wondered.

“Don’t worry, I’m used to stuff like this.”