Year 2: The Battle of Rhodes - Chapter 6

A street urchin with no parents or relatives was an easy mark for gangs and traffickers.

Dao Chen was no exception or so her two would-be abductors felt.

A raid on a dilapidated orphanage - for new members to be indoctrinated and for girls to train and sell on.

People went missing all the time.

People died in fires too.

For the rest of Thailand, it would just be another tragedy among many thousands that happened every year around the world.

The trucks had been loaded and most of the kids were too scarred to resist after seeing their nanny beaten to death before their eyes.

Dao Chen, however, was the exception.

The men holding her held her lightly, thinking she’d be docile like the rest.

With a feral shriek, she stabbed one in the stomach with a sharp glass shard from a window the thugs had broken.

Again and again, she stabbed him, blood spurting over her as the other man, panicked and terrified, try to flee.

Dao Chen screamed and leapt at him, diving her weapon into his thigh and then into his back.

The other fourteen quickly disarmed and beat Dao Chen to within an inch of her life.

From then, she imagined her fate was set in stone.

Until someone at the gang’s headquarters took an interest in the young seven-year-old brutaliser.

He took her under his wing and taught her that if she didn’t pull her weight, she’d die.

To demonstrate his point, he put her and a boy in a small metal room together with a kitchen knife between them.

“Only one of you will emerge from there alive,” her mentor taught her.

The boy hesitated and became fearful.

Dao Chen did not.

She gutted him before her mentor even walked away from the door.

“…Impressive. Did you really feel nothing?”

Dao Chen shook her head and glared at her mentor, a fire burning in her eyes.

“Survival of the fittest,” she muttered. “Your men taught me that.”

“When?”

“When they killed the woman I called mother.”

Her mentor was amused by her anger and continued her training.

Dao Chen was a gifted fighter who didn’t use any proper martial arts to fight, but instead efficient and brutal attacks paired with her intuition.

In time, she garnered a reputation among the gangs of Thailand as an impressive fighter, one of the best in the country.

After an ambush by a rival gang when she was thirteen, Dao Chen killed six men by herself and was the lone survivor of the attack, earning her the nickname of Harbinger.

As she got older, Dao Chen was tasked with more difficult duties within the gang, including the interrogation of captives.

Unlike most other things, Dao Chen struggled at first.

She would either kill her victims or break them to the point where they became like hollowed husks.

Her mentor, however, taught her the error of her ways.

He showed her the most efficient and painful torture methods known to man, and soon Dao Chen gained another nickname - The Reaper.

Day by day, night by night, Dao Chen fought and killed, then tortured and brutalised people without batting an eyelid.

She continued like that for years until she was twenty-one years old.

“Who is she?”

“Some Japanese CEO’s daughter on holiday,” her mentor said. “She’s not to suffer any permanent injuries, but some intimidation is necessary to get her daddy to pay the ransom. Gentle touch, Dao.”

Dao nodded and entered the room.

The young woman, maybe seventeen years old, was bound to a metal chair with thick ropes. A blindfold was tied around her eyes and her legs were strapped to the ground with metal chains.

Dao made a point of shutting the door loudly to try and startle the girl, but she remained oddly composed.

Curious, Dao slowly, and loudly, walked to her table of torture implements, making another point of picking up and inspecting each, so the girl’s mind would race with terrifying images of what was in store.

Yet.

She looks fine. Not even a bit of sweat.

“Do you speak Thai?”

“Eh?”

“That’s a no then?” Dao Chen switched to Japanese.

“…Why are you doing this?”

“Why? You’re a smart girl, I’m sure, you must’ve figured it out by now.”

The prisoner sighed. “Money, right?”

“Yep.” Dao picked up a thin scalpel. “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt for long.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Didn’t we just-?”

“I meant you. Why? Why are you doing this?!” The fear the girl had tried to suppress was starting to emerge. “I didn’t do anything to deserve this! I just wanted to have a nice holiday! Why…why?!”

Dao Chen paused; then, firmly held the girl’s exposed arm down and placed the scalpel against the girl’s skin. “Move and it’ll do more than leave a small cut.”

***

Dao Chen never really admired her work and today was no exception.

She had skilfully bled the hostage, but it was hard to feel proud, not that Dao Chen had felt much in her life before.

She had just lived to survive, that was it.

It wasn’t for money or for someone else’s sake - it was just to live.

Whereas the girl who was weeping softly as her mentor took pictures of the bloodied girl had lots to live for.

Her family.

Her friends.

Her inheritance.

Her future.

Why am I thinking about these things? Dao Chen asked herself as her mentor finished and left the two women alone. I’ve done far worse before, but most were people like us. We’ve…ventured out and done something big this time. Dao Chen bit her lip. Why am I thinking like this?

Dao Chen treated the girl’s wounds very gently, applying disinfectant, wiping away the blood with wipes and putting bandages and plasters over the wounds.

“Will you…do this again…tomorrow?” The girl whispered.

“…I don’t know.”

The Japanese girl laughed bitterly and hung her head. “Great…great.”

Dao Chen normally wasn’t told to stay with the hostages, but she’d been given strict orders not to leave the girl’s side. Dao Chen was to feed and bathe the girl and serve her almost like a maid, while making sure the hostage was restrained of course.

“…What’s your name?”

“…Hanabi.”

“Hanabi…I’m Dao.”

“…I didn’t ask.”

“…I know. Just thought…you might like to know.”

***

For the rest of that day, Dao, despite herself, made an effort to make small talk with Hanabi, though the Japanese girl didn’t answer.

Dao Chen herself didn’t know what to talk about, so the mood quickly turned sour.

As they ate, and as Dao fed Hanabi, she asked if she was allergic to anything, but Hanabi kept her mouth shut.

Does she think I’ll try and torture her with it?

Dao asked if she wanted some tea, but Hanabi didn’t answer.

She thinks I’ll burn her, right?

It was then, at that moment, that Dao Chen realised something.

She had, in all of her life, never had a friend.

Not one.

There was her mentor and the other members of their gang, but no one liked her and she didn’t like any of them - they were coworkers at best, and afraid of her at worst.

The Harbinger.

The Reaper.

That was all she had to show for her years of hard work to survive.

Something cloudy started to form inside her chest and Dao Chen didn’t know what it was.

“Oh.”

But it hurt.

It was very painful and she didn’t know why.

***

“I never knew my parents,” Dao said, without being prompted. “Your daddy’s a big shot CEO, right? Do you ever get to see him? What about your mum? Do they love you? Who am I kidding? They’re already discussing the ransom and shit.” Dao Chen looked at Hanabi and sighed. “Hang on.”

“What are you doing?!”

“Don’t move. Here.”

Dao untied the blindfold, but covered Hanabi’s eyes with her hand.

“What are you-?”

“Slowly. You haven’t seen light for a while and it’ll sting your eyes if you see it too quickly after being deprived of your sense of sight.”

“Heh, how considerate of you.”

Dao Chen frowned. “Sorry.”

“Eh?”

“Eh?”

“Did…forget it,” Hanabi muttered. “Is there something you want to show me?”

“No, just…I don’t know.” After a few minutes, Dao removed her hand slowly from Hanabi’s face, allowing the Japanese girl’s hazel eyes to adjust better to the light. “How do you feel?”

Hanabi didn’t answer.

***

Five days.

That’s how long it took for Dao Chen to change.

She didn’t realise it at first, and wondered if it was for the worse, but she quickly came to like her new self.

This one, who tried to, and often failed, to converse with Hanabi, the one who tried to think about what she was living for.

Hanabi didn’t seem to notice or care, or maybe she thought it was a new tactic her torturer was trying to use on her, but Dao Chen didn’t mind.

This girl, bound to a chair, had everything that Dao Chen didn’t, and that made Dao sad.

“Hey.”

“…What?” Hanabi meekly asked.

“…Do you have…like a dream or something for the future?”

“What brought that on? Are you planning on cutting off my feet if I say long jumper or-?”

“No, just…I don’t know.”

Hanabi cocked her head slightly to the side. “…I’m guessing you didn’t fulfil yours if you ended up here.”

“I never had one.”

“Eh?”

“I just…needed to survive, that’s all.”

“What for?”

“…Just to stay alive,” Dao Chen mumbled.

“…I see.”

Oh. Dao Chen saw the expression on Hanabi’s face and her heart ached. I know that look…it’s pity.

And it’s so painful.

***

The meeting place had been decided for the exchange.

Dao Chen escorted Hanabi to the van and climbed into the back with her, keeping the girl blindfolded and her hands tied with rope in front of her.

There were five men with them in an unmarked brown van and more following in a black van behind.

“We’re nearly there, so-Dao, what are you-?”

A gunshot rang out.

Then another six.

The driver who had come to a stop put his hands up as Dao shot him in the head.

“Hanabi, follow me!” Dao kicked open the back doors of the van and, after removing the Japanese girl’s blindfold, started running with her into the abandoned village.

Gunshots followed them and Dao returned fire, hitting one man in the shoulder but missing the rest.

The gun clicked and she discarded her empty firearm.

“Dao, what are you-?!”

“I’m getting you to your dad!” She pulled Hanabi into a nearby building, took out a knife and cut her bonds. “Listen carefully.” She sheathed the knife and put her hands on Hanabi’s shoulders. “Go out the door behind me and run in that way for two hundred metres. There’s a well in the village square; that’s where your dad, the cops and whoever else is coming for you will be. I’ll run the opposite way and lure them off. Go!”

“But-!”

“Now!”

***

Dao Chen felt the bullet first.

She knew that Hanabi would be fine, her father’s men and the police weren’t far.

Dao, however, wouldn’t make it.

She’d always known that, she always knew she was throwing her life away before attempting something stupid like this, but.

Dao Chen was smiling.

It was the first time she’d ever smiled sincerely from the bottom of her heart.

“You’re an idiot,” her mentor spat as he and seven others formed a circle around her crumpled body. “Why, Dao? Why?”

She laughed.

A man kicked her in the stomach, right where the bullet had pierced her flesh, and she vomited blood.

“I asked you a question, bitch.”

Dao Chen answered by leaping up with a kitchen knife and cutting her mentor’s stomach open.

His men attacked her and she fought back.

By the time they were done, Dao Chen was lying on her back, in a pool of blood with rain drops pelting her face.

Four of her assaulters lay dead too, a small victory, but Dao Chen knew she’d won.

Hanabi would make it.

She was certain of it.

And that made Dao Chen incredibly happy.

I…did something…useful…good for once. She snickered as blood trickled from between her lips. Honestly, what…a dumb…thing to do.

Then, she cried.

…Oh, right…I’m dying…aren’t I?

Hanabi…live…love…laugh…Dao Chen started to laugh, but it was weak like a wheeze. She coughed and spluttered as her body grew heavier and the light began to fade. What a…fucking…way to die…

Except she didn’t.

Dao Chen found herself before a Goddess who sent her to Aangapea, named her a hero, and gave Dao Chen a chance to save the world.

***

“All I did…amounted to nothing, on Earth,” Dao Chen mumbled, her strength returning to her limbs. “I lived for nothing and died for something dumb, and all that time I just hurt countless people, innocent or otherwise, because someone told me to. Honestly, I hated it - I know you enjoy this fucked up shit, but I don’t. I hate it.

“And I hate myself for taking so long to realise how much I fucking hated it.” Dao Chen glared at Charybdis and gave her a thin smile. “You might be right. I might be like you, a comrade, a fellow torturer, but I’m not you. I’m not some sick, pathetic pervert who gets off on other people’s suffering. I’m just a bitch who hates getting close to people because I know I’d just throw my stupid life away for them!”

With a great deal of force, Dao Chen ripped herself free of the Dread Knights, peeling off a good amount of her skin as she did for the Dread Knights were determined not to let her go.

The Swan Cloak expanded and feathers exploded out with great force, piercing the Dread Knights that held her and Talon, making them retreat.

Dao Chen then unleashed its full furry at Charybdis who deployed her claw-like appendages again to swipe the feathers out of the air, but one managed to make it through and cut her cheek.

Just lightly enough to draw a thin line of blood.

Charybdis put a finger to the wound and smirked. “I see.” Charybdis’ palm opened like a mouth and swallowed the dagger she had been holding into her flesh and then dispensed her bow into her hands. “It’ll be fun to break you.”

“…You lot really are just a bunch of freaks, aren’t you?”

Charybdis giggled. “I shall take that as a compliment.”

***

Thanks to Dao Chen’s efforts, Talon was able to escape and reclaim Carnwennan.

Immediately, she went invisible and leapt off the rooftop.

As I am right now, I’ll just be holding Dao Chen back, she thought. She cursed when she saw she was leaving behind a blood trail into the palace. Shit.

Talon’s whole body was on fire.

The multiple wounds that Charybdis had inflicted on her would stop her from moving soon enough, but Talon would keep on fighting until her spirit and stamina faded away.

“I just…need to find the others, get a healer and-”

“What a waste of a pretty face.”

Talon froze.

Instinctively, she knew someone was sat on the bed near her, they appeared lax as if invited her to try and attack, and Talon knew from her voice alone that the woman was more powerful than her.

That authority, that aura…she’s a high ranker. Talon swallowed the blood that had surfaced into her mouth. Don’t rise to the bait.

“Here.” The lady rolled a vial filled with red liquid towards her. “Drink it.”

“…Poison?”

The lady roared with laughter. “A healing potion. It was something Master prepared for me just in case I got hurt, but.” She snickered. “That seems highly unlikely.”

Cautiously, Talon picked up the vial, but she didn’t face her opponent or drink the potion.

“Why are you giving me this?”

“I’ve already told you - it’s a waste for such a pretty face to look like that. Honestly, Charybdis, I know that you’re unwilling to share a place with Master to outsiders, but a beautiful woman like Talon here should at least be offered before being discarded.”

Talon paled.

Then, anger swelled within her, but she held it in.

“You…what did you just say?” Talon hissed.

“Hmm? That someone like you should be gifted to-”

Talon pulled off the cap and downed the potion in a single gulp.

Her wounds began to heal, not fully, but to the point where she could stand comfortably again and without her whole body screaming in agony.

Brandishing Carnwennan, she turned to face the lady on the bed. “Who are you?”

“I’m Mania, one of Master’s closest aides and one of his mistresses.” Mania playfully kicked her legs off the edge of the bed and giggled. “We might soon have that in common, Talon.”

Seething with rage, Talon leapt forward with a mighty battle cry and aimed for Mania’s throat.

“Slow.”

Mania blocked the strike with her own dagger, then placed it against Talon’s jugular, threatening to slit it if the French woman moved.

Talon clicked her tongue.

“If I were you, I’d surrender and take the offer I’m giving you,” Mania said. “Don’t worry, it isn’t just to you but to all the women gathered here, especially-”

Talon ducked and swept at Mania’s feet, which the succubus jumped over, and Talon followed through with a stab at her stomach. Mania parried the strike with ease and then sliced Talon’s upper arm.

It’s not deep enough to leave a scar, but it still hurts…actually, it hurts more than normal. Talon shifted herself away from Mania who, with great delight, licked the blood off her dagger.

“Delicious.”

“Creep.”

“How mean. Well.” Mania spun her own dagger around her hand for a few moments, before charging with great speed at Talon. “You’ll join us soon enough!”

I can’t see her!

Reacting on pure instinct alone, Talon blocked, dodged and ran from Mania’s flurry of attacks.

They were too fast for the hero to keep up with, but she could sense the impending danger and acted accordingly.

However, it wasn’t enough.

She got cut and bruised every time, leaving her weaker and weaker, as if Mania was trying to bring her back to the state she’d found her in.

“Don’t screw with me!” Talon blocked Mania’s final strike, then spat in the succubus’s face, startling the demon.

Not wasting any time, Talon punched at Mania’s stomach and then tried to stab the demon in the face.

But Mania barely felt Talon’s punch.

She did feel her spit and that was a great insult to the succubus.

Mania pushed Talon’s dagger to the side, smacked her around the face so hard Talon nearly collapsed onto the floor, before smashing her foot into Talon’s stomach, blasting the hero through the wall and out into the gardens.

Talon vomited blood and staggered onto her feet, blood oozing from inside her cheek into her mouth, as Mania descended, whip and dagger both in hand.

“I shall make you regret ever being born!” Mania vowed.

Talon grunted and spat again, this time ejecting blood and a tooth from her mouth. “Try me.”

***

The walls were overflowing with invaders, but the battle was far from won.

The Gørviligr had taken more than half of the walls and Jorōgumo’s spiders and their riders had taken most of the towers, though the final one resisted their efforts with great vigour.

Arrows rained down on the Alliance forces both inside and outside of the King’s Palace, but fire was returned and many died on both sides.

Commander Hersi’s blade had slain more than forty men, but it was still not enough.

The Free People’s Alliance’s soldiers knew what they were fighting for and that everything depended on this battle, so they kept on fighting until the bitter end.

One man had his legs cut off, but that didn’t stop him.

Another was stabbed in the gut by a spear, so he grabbed it with both hands and jumped off, taking his killer down with him.

One had been set on fire with magic and tackled two Gørviligr, setting them ablaze before she died.

Commander Hersi took great pride in his soldiers and their abilities, and had often bragged about their combat prowess, and he’d been determined to prove it multiple times.

His men had earnt the emperor’s favour a few times before, most notably at Fort Atryus when Prince Augustus led his men to their final defeat. His men had played a part in investigating the goblin mines and they were permitted to help guard the Dread Keep and its castle town.

But tonight was the greatest chance he had to prove his people’s strengths.

Yet.

“Dammit!” He broke another elven sword and stabbed its owner in the chest, before kicking their corpse off into the courtyard. “Don’t let them take back any ground! If you die here, the Demon Emperor will ensure you never rest in peace!”

The Gørviligr let out a cheer and renewed their efforts, but not much change.

Until.

The golden armour and platinum coloured hair of Queen Dorothy arrived, leading her Queen’s Guard onto the walls. Her blade was dripping with fresh blood and she didn’t appear fatigued in the slightest.

With elegant, broad strikes of her curved long sword, soldier after soldier fell.

The strikes were fast, perfect, instantly killing whomever they struck.

Despite having brought her guard, her fighting style was so powerful and far reaching that her allies had to remain at a safe distance for fear of being caught up in her attacks.

Dorothy's Dance - I’d heard of her techniques, but seeing it in person. Hersi gulped. It’s something else.

Dorothy's Dance - a sword-fighting school with only one member, for only she, its creator, could ever use it.

It was aptly named for no movement was wasted and it had the appearance of a perfectly coordinated dance as she moved and killed.

Her eyes were often shut, as if she was listening to some invisible music as she moved, using only the spirits to guide her as she fought.

Eventually, she reached the captivated Commander Hersi and paused.

She opened her eyes and lowered her blade, staring at him with a look of contempt and apathy.

“You’re an officer of these traitors, yes?”

Hersi huffed. “Says the ones who sat back and let Themis persecute us despite our innocence!”

“…I admit that we in the west failed to see your plight until it was too late, but your hearts had become corrupted and blackened by the time we’d learnt of your survival. No matter.” Queen Dorothy raised her sword into both hands above her head. “State your name, Gørviligr.”

“Hersi - the slayer of Queen Dorothy!”

Hersi surged forward, gripping his bastard sword with both hands, and the battle ended with a single bout.

His sword swung at her waist.

Her body stepped around it and her sword took his head from its neck.

Commander Hersi, one of the leaders of the Gørviligr, fell down dead.

His men, who had been close by, began to break as Dorothy continued her dance.

***

Amen laughed as the chains from Gleipnir burst out all at once.

Hajime managed to deflect them all away with Tonbokiri, but then Amen stopped his attack and recalled his chains.

“It’s been too long, my friend. You’ve gotten so much stronger since I last saw you.”

“Amen.”

“Woah, that’s quite the scary face you’re making. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you wanted to kill me.”

Tonbokiri felt light in Hajime’s hands as he stared down his former ally.

Hajime remembered his first few months as leader of a team of heroes all too well, and the beating Instructor Kella had issued when he got a bit too big for his boots.

He remembered his uncle, the firefighter he’d always looked up to, and the fearless back he saw charging into blaze after blaze.

Those memories used to serve as weighted chains around his ankles that wanted to drag him into the unforgiving depths of despair.

Yet.

In this moment, whilst facing a man he once called friend, Hajime felt no nervousness nor excitement.

He felt nothing - his mind was clear.

He knew who he was fighting and what he was fighting for.

And he knew what he had to do to his enemy.

“As your former leader, the duty of killing you falls to me.” Hajime spoke in such a matter of fact tone that Amen was caught a little off-guard. “If you have anything you’d like to say, now’s the time.”

Amen lost his earlier joy and sighed disappointedly.

“Hajime, it saddens me that you haven’t realised that we have both done the same thing. You pursued your ideal and I have pursued mine; that’s all there is to it.”

Hajime let out a low laugh. “I’m actually glad you said that.”

“Why?”

“Because now I know that I’ll feeling nothing when I kill you.”

“I, however, shall be saddened by your demise, Hajime!”