Massacre and Horned Demon

“EMERALD!!!” I scream.

Fuck, fuck, I still can’t get out from under this tree.

“DAMMIT! LET ME OUT! SCARLET!!!” I look at Scarlet.

Scarlet stares as Emerald falls to the ground, she looks like she didn't expect Kamikaze to slash her. My katana slowly fall from her hand.

Yes!

I catch it before it hits the ground and instantly slice the tree into two pieces, halving the weight. I push it off of me and quickly stand up.

"Bastard." I say before jumping into the air, doing a spin to increase velocity. I kick Kamikaze as hard as I can and send him into a tree.

I pick up Emerald and start sprinting full speed down the mountain. We can't beat them as we are now. It's clear. All I can do now is get Emerald to safety and make sure the endurance booster is safely delivered back to Commander Jackson and the rest of Squad G.

Emerald's weight on my shoulders is slowing me down but I can't leave her. I need to get back!

---

"Scarlet! Your job was to hold the sword and not let go! Why are you just letting them leave!?!" Kamikaze screams at Scarlet.

She finally snaps out of her trance and looks up.

"I-I'm sorry sir..." She says.

"God fucking dammit..." Kamikaze mutters before preparing to throw a spear at the fleeing Link.

"What's your plan?" Scarlet asks.

"I'll hit them both with one spear. Then we'll go and retrieve the booster." Kamikaze answers, trying to find a good angle.

"R-right." She looks down. 

"Shut up." Kamikaze snaps.

After about 5 seconds of concentration, he throws the spear with enough force to create a shockwave in the air.

---

I keep running as fast as I possibly can. I almost trip multiple times on some stray branches on the ground. The bottom of the mountain is starting to come into view. I can make it!

*STAB*

What the... fuck?

Kamikaze's spear pierced right through my shoulder, barely missing Emerald as well. This hurts like a bitch.

I fall over and drop Emerald in the snow.

Goddammit!

I have to get up. I have to. FUCK!

---

"Come. Let us retrieve the booster." Kamikaze begins walking down the mountain.

"Yes sir." Scarlet follows.

He pays no mind to her and begins looking around to see where they fell.

"...Are you gonna kill them?" Scarlet asks with a worried tone.

He scoffs.

"Well they can't live now can they?" He says.

Scarlet looks to the spot where Link got hit. There's a stain of blood in the snow, with a trail leading farther down the hill.

"Huh?" Scarlet notices something.

The trail of blood suddenly ends, with no trace as to where they could've gone.

"Scarlet, what are you doing!?! Follow that trail!" Kamikaze yells at her.

"But it just ends!" Scarlet defends herself.

"That's impossible! They couldn't have have disappeared!" He screams.

Kamikaze begins searching around erratically, desperate to retrieve the endurance booster.

"Where is it!?! Where are they!?!" He's getting anxious.

Scarlet looks away and quietly whispers to herself, so Kamikaze can't hear.

"Please... escape."

---

This is quite cold...

I managed to dig a hole of some sorts in the snow where I'm currently laying, beside Emerald. I can hear Kamikaze having a hissy fit or something in the distance but it seems like he's getting farther away.

Aha!

I look over at Emerald, who's still unconscious. I put my trench coat around her to stop her from freezing to death down here, which has left me pretty cold.

"I'm sorry. I should've been more careful." I say to her.

She can't hear me but I still feel the need to apologize anyways. This was quite the eventful day. Got into a confrontation with Klein AND Kamikaze in the same day, I doubt anyone can say that happened to them too.

I'm exhausted. It's still the dead of the night and I still haven't slept at all. I relax my muscles and begin to drift off to sleep

---

"Link. Link. Wake up. Link!" Huh?

I open my eyes and see Emerald staring at me.

"Oh, Emerald. Good morning." I say.

"...What happened?" She asks.

"Hm? What do you mean?" I reply.

"After I passed out. What happened?" She says.

"I, uhhh, ran." I look away.

"...Ran?" She tilts her head.

"Aha. Well, you know." I rub the back of my neck.

She stills seems to be trying to piece together what happened.

"Ok, ok. Kamikaze slashed you, you fell unconscious, then I picked you up and ran. We're still on the mountain I just dug a hole in the snow." I explain.

"I see." She looks up. "Is it safe to leave?"

I stand up and clear up the snow, crawling out of the hole. I look around to see if Kamikaze or Scarlet are still around but I see no one.

"You can come up." I hold out my hand to her.

She takes my hand and I pull her up.

"Do you have the booster?" She asks.

I pull it out and show it to her.

"Right here!" I boast.

"Let's get off this mountain then. Squad G is probably waiting for us." She turns and starts walking down.

We aren't too far from the bottom since I ran pretty far before getting stabbed. Now that I remembered that I rub my shoulder.

"Owww." There's some distance between me and Emerald now. "Wait up!" 

I run after her until I'm right beside her. 

"We're gonna move up in the rebellion rankings so fast now I know it!" I say.

"..." Emerald seems deep in thought.

"What's up?" I ask her.

She still doesn't say anything, but she looks troubled.

"...I'm sorry." She says.

"Huh? What'd you do?" I ask, confused.

"What do you mean 'what did I do'? You almost died because of me again." She says.

"Well it's fine now isn't it? It's over. You did a great job stalling Kamikaze while I fought Scarlet. There's no way I could've fought both at once. If you weren't here I'd be dead right now without a doubt." I assure her.

"Still, this keeps happening. I'm the one holding you back." She says.

"And I keep telling you, don't worry about it. That just means you have room to grow right? And if you think it's your fault for holding me back, on the contrary, it's my fault for failing to protect you. It goes both ways." I say. 

"I..." She doesn't seem to know what to say.

Before we know it, we find ourselves back at the Squad G tent. Wait. somethings off.

"Where is everyone?" I ask.

When we were here last time, there were soldiers walking around outside the tent everywhere. Could they all be in the tent? Would they even fit? That doesn't seem practical.

"...Let's check the tent." Emerald says.

We walk over to the entrance of the tent and prepare to open it. What is this atmosphere? I decide to call out before opening it.

"Anyone?!? Commander Jackson?!? We got the booster! Are you there?!?" No answer.

"Let's just open it." Emerald steps in front of me and quickly swings the tent open.

...

I see Emerald's face goes pale. She just stares in horror.

"Emerald? What is i-" I look inside the tent.

Bodies. Bloody bodies fill the inside of the tent and in the middle of the tent, on a chair, sits a man. His eyeholes are hollowed out with two knives stabbed into each socket. It's Commander Jackson. The other bodies must be the rest of Squad G.

"What the... fuck?" I force out.

Emerald looks away and steps behind me.

"What... happened?" I say.

I can't believe what I'm looking at. All of them, massacred. Who could've done this?

"...Can we go?" Emerald speaks up. "The smell is awful."

I close the tent.

"..Yeah. Yeah, let's go. We need to tell Commander Hardy at the battlefield." Drops of sweat trickle down my face.

He said there's a dirt battlefield to the south. We have to go alone now due to... this, but we still have to get the endurance booster to Hardy. We start walking away and Emerald starts composing herself.

"Could Kamikaze've done that?" She asks me.

"...I don't know. He didn't seem to use knives and that whole thing didn't really seem like his style." I respond.

"Right..." She looks down.

The walk south is a quiet one. Neither of us know what to say to eachother after what we just saw, and finally, we see Hardy and his squad, Squad C, at the dirt battlefield.

"Hardy!!!" I yell out before running to him.

"Oh, you two. Where's Squad G?" He asks.

"They, um." I can't seem to spit it out.

"Dead." Emerald says for me.

"What!?! What do you mean? What happened?" He asks, looking confused.

"...We found them when we got back. Brutally murdered. We don't know who did it." I say.

"What the fuck?" He responds.

"The commander had knives in both his eye sockets. It was terrible." I say.

When I say that, Hardy's expression changes. He looks shocked for a second, but then he composes himself.

"...I see. Then, there was nothing you or me could've done. It was her..." He says.

"Huh? Who's her? What do you mean?" I ask.

"Forget it. Did you get the booster?" He asks.

"...I did." I take it out and hand it to Hardy.

"Great work. Klein and Kamikaze's soldiers should be arriving any minute now for the battle. Our job is to intercept the battle and take out as many soldiers on both sides as we possibly can. We were meant to have more manpower with Squad G being here, but for obvious reasons, they're absent. To make up for it... here, catch." Hardy throws me the endurance booster.

"You're giving this to me?" I catch it.

"Well, we fully expected Kamikaze to make some sort of appearance on your mission for the booster, and seeing the state of Squad G,,, it seemed we were correct in at least some form. You proved yourself to be able to handle Kamikaze to an extent which is more than any of the rest of us can do so I'm trusting this to you for the battle. It's a one time use so make it count." He says,

In the distance, two armies begin making their way into view, eyeing eachother up.

"Use it. Now. If you open the capsule it'll reveal a needle. Inject it into you and it should come into effect within a few seconds." Hardy tells me.

"What kind of effects?" I ask, worried.

"Well, it'll boost your physical capabilities to a new max. No time to explain, hurry up!" He orders.

I open up the capsule and stab it into my arm, injecting it with some sort of liquid.

"Ow." I say.

"The effects only last a little while so make use of it. Get out there!" He says.

The two armies begin clashing and Squad C joins the battle as well, using all sorts of firearms to take out both armies. I jump as far as I can onto the battlefield.

What the hell? I jumped with ease. Soldiers begin targeting me. Their eyes are normal so I assume they're from Klein' army. One swings an axe at me while the other shoots at me with a bow simultaneously. I slice the arrow in half with my blade and punch through the other one's chest, leaving a hole.

Holy shit. I could never do that normally. I jump to the next soldier, from Kamikaze's army, and knee him in the jaw. I hear a crack and he falls to the ground instantly. Soldier after soldier approaches me one after the other, only to get killed in seconds. I slice, beat, and incinerate them no matter what army they're from. Another one from Klein's army comes at me, but I sweep his legs and break his spine over my knee.

"Ahaha!" I laugh.

So easy. It feels like I could flick them and they'd die.

--- --- ---

Hardy and Emerald watch from the distance. Emerald stayed back, feeling that she'd just get in the way.

"He's like a... demon." Hardy says.

Emerald continues to stare, not flinching at the violence. She smiles.

"I mean, he's been wanting a nickname for a while." She says.

"The Horned Demon..." He says.

--- --- ---

Normally I like the challenge of a fight, but this is a new experience. Luckily it's only temporary but I should enjoy this while it lasts. I stand up straight and begin sharpshooting different soldiers with my pistol, being sure to avoid Squad C.

*SMASH*

I go flying a few feet. What the hell? I look up to see who hit me.

It's a girl with light purple hair and purple eyes. On her hands are two large, solid glowing purple fists. She's wearing a tight black combat outfit and has a scary expression on her face. 

"...Saffire."