Chapter 15; Savage

“Zitao, what are you doing?” Su Min asks, an eyebrow raised as she stares at him. His eyes widen as he looks from her to the blade in his hand. Su Min had set it down a while ago, and Tao figured that he could use it if he sharpened it. Apparently, he was wrong. “Isn’t that my sword?” she continues, placing her hands on her hips as she tilts her head to the side. She looks like a disapproving Grandmother, Tao thinks suddenly, and nearly laughs as a result.

He rubs the side of the blade to remove the metal shavings. “I just thought that I could...”

“Use it? You can’t handle that blade,” she assures him. He laughs and picks it up, twirling it between his fingers. His skill is impressive, yes, but it doesn’t fit the blade. And he has weaknesses--a lot of them. He grips the blade too high up, so he doesn’t have good control over it. And he uses too many tricks, at some point, you just have to attack straight on. In the blink of an eye, Su Min draws Mirae and hurtles the crystal dagger right towards Tao.

The dagger flies towards his hand and flies right through the small opening that has been carved into the bottom of the hilt. The force of the dagger drags the blade from Tao’s hands and pins it up against the tree behind him. His eyes widen and he looks from the blade to Su Min. “How did you do that?” he asks frantically, excited to learn the girl’s secret.

“I took a chance,” she sighs.

“So it could have killed me!”

She shrugs, a smile forming on her lips. “It might have,” she mumbles. “But let’s not dwell on the past, okay?” Su Min suggests. Tao lunges for the dagger, but Su Min is quicker. She tackles him, pinning him to the ground as she places a knee on his chest. “Never go for my blades, bub.” she warns before standing up and grabbing the two blades from the tree. Tao lies still on the ground, frightened by his traveling companion.

This is the last time he lets the two boys leave him alone with her.

- - -

“Kwang! You’re correct!” Xiumin announces like the person that draws the lottery tickets. Su Min shrugs and smirks.

“Of course I am.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and imitates her, much to her displeasure. She hits his arm roughly, causing him to frown. Seconds later, a pebble flies out of the ground and launches towards Su Min, who avoids it as she sends Kyungsoo a glance. “If you even think of challenging me, Do, I’ll kill you--Divine Force or not.” He raises an eyebrow at the nickname.

“Do? Can I call you Min then? Or Su? How about Baek?”

Su Min smiles. “None of the above,” she responds. Xiumin chuckles slightly and claps the two of them on the shoulder.

“We’ll just continue to call her Bit--”

A hand whips out as Su Min slaps the back of the older boy’s head, her nose wrinkling. Tao giggles from a few feet off, and the sound causes the others to join in. “That must be the stupidest laugh I’ve ever heard!” the three older kids laugh, causing Tao to frown and pout. They grip their stomachs, unable to stop themselves. The original trio will always be the original trio.

“I have a question,” Tao announces, desperate to stop the teasing. Everyone looks up, beckoning for him to continue. “How many Divine Forces are there?” he asks, looking directly at Su Min. The mere thought of it hurts to think about. And the weight of the mission becomes real at that point as Su Min realizes somehing startling--she’s only found two of them.

“Twelve,” she answers, “there should be twelve.”

- - -

They had just finished lunch and were getting ready to set back out when Tao and Su Min heard something. Xiumin and Kyungsoo are too clueless to detect things like that, but Tao and Su Min have been trained to always be on the watch. Which means that if something is near, they’ll know. Ushering for the three boys to hide, Su Min pulls out Mirae, and the blade glints purple in the light of day.

She sniffs the air like a dog, knowing that monsters have a distinct scent. Each is slightly different. And these monsters smell like bandits--five of them, at least. Her eyes shine like her blade as she takes cover, watching as the leaves continue to crack and crunch beneath their pig-like feet. Eventually, they step into the clearing, revealing their ghastly selves completely.

Bandits are wretched things. They would look human, almost, if they weren’t quite so mutated. Their skin looks tight against their skin due to the layers of fat that cover rippling muscle. They have thick legs and arms and broad shoulders, and their skin is tattooed and pierced all over the place. The most disturbing characteristics, however, are also the most exotic.

The color of their skin is a deep plum color with brown patches here and there. Their beefy hands are taloned with long, yellow nails. Their heads are wide, and instead of having a nose and mouth, they have a thick pigs snout covered in coarse hair. Crooked, yellow teeth as big as a grown man’s finger line their jaw and large gold rings are looped through their two nostrils. Beady red eyes search the area, and in their grubby hands are large spears with hilts that have human hair wrapped around them.

Just as Su Min guessed, there are five of them. They’re all burly and hungry. Tao looks at Su Min and shakes his head, knowing that her first instinct is to attack. But she doesn’t listen. As one draws near, she pounces on it, her legs wrapping around it’s bare waist as she drives Mirae into its jugular. The beast cries out and thrashes as she pushes the blade farther in. The rest of the bandits turn, beady eyes wide as they lunge forward.

Su Min finishes that one off and starts towards the next one, her stride full of anger and tension. They run forward, their spears at the ready. But they’re slow and Su Min is fast like a cat. She evades each and every strike, slashing the bandits to shreds with each pass. Mirae is stained red, and Su Min’s eyes reflect that color as she approaches the last bandit. “I’m going to kill you,” she says, the quietness and calmness of her voice frightening in itself.

The bandit doesn’t even have a second to prepare itself as Su Min scales it’s body, swinging around it like an acrobat. Her blade tears the beast apart. Blood splashes everywhere. Onto the ground, onto the trees, onto Su Min. But she doesn’t stop, she only attacks harder. The beast cries out, begging for forgiveness in it’s mother tongue. It doesn’t even know why it’s being attacked so viciously.

It falls to it’s knees but Su Min keeps stabbing. She slams the blade up to the hilt into the beast’s heart and twists, evoking a roar of pain from the deepest part of it’s throat. Su Min, too, lets out a scream. The sound is so frightening, so loud and ear-piercing, that the birds hiding up in the leaves scatter. And then, as the beast’s final breath comes near, Su Min draws her sword and holds it to it’s throat.

Looking at the girl, it whimpers, truly afraid. Blood covers her face, it oozes down from her face, looking black. And it’s not even her blood. She tilts her head to the side, letting the tip of the blade push the monster’s head up. Leaning in, Su Min speaks clearly, her words coming out like black ink. “Your kind will pay for their sins.” she hisses before arcing her blade and slashing the bandit’s head clear off. It falls to the ground with a plop and the world seems to stand still for the next couple of seconds.

The three boys, who didn’t dare to move throughout the massacre, come out from their hiding place and stare at their blood covered companion. She looks ravaged yet complete. There’s something barbaric about her stance, her ragged breaths, and how she’s still gripping her blade tightly. As she turns around to look at three boys, the sight becomes even worse.

Su Min’s pale features are stained with black-red blood. Her eyes glint ferociously. She looks like more of a monster than those bandits. She looks scarier than they did, even with all of their ghastly features. Her eyes glance over them before turning to the carnage. Five bodies, if they can even be considered that. They’re torn apart, cut into pieces. Pools of blood cover the ground. For a second, Su Min feels triumphant, as if she’s done her deed for her parents.

But is that enough?

Shouldn’t she just exterminate their species altogether?

Kyungsoo shakes his head as he stares at Su Min. “What was that? How could you just...Su Min, you...” he begins, unable to finish his thought. She looks angry. She saved them after all. Shouldn’t they be happy? Bandits have no mercy, so why should she? Tao looks scared, disgusted, and confused. Kyungsoo looks horrified. And Xiumin just looks sad. Very sad. Unable to take their stares, she dashes off into the woods, leaving them alone for the time being. “I knew she was a killer. I knew she would kill us any second if we weren’t valuable. But this...”

“This is what she was trained for,” Tao says, sighing. “This is what Night Warriors do.”

- - -

The boys weren’t comfortable with staying at the site where all those bandits died. Especially because the ravens were quick to attack that scene. So they found another clearing some 500 feet away. But even then, they could still smell death. It’s attached to them, stuck to their skin, to their souls. None of them were keen on eating. So they talked.

“Maybe we should leave Su Min,” Kyungsoo suggests. “Someone like that can’t be trusted.”

Tao sighs. “I could take her spot as your main protector, seeing as how I have the most training,” he adds. Kyungsoo nods and then the two boys look to the eldest in the group. He’s shuffling his feet awkwardly as he glares at the ground. “What do you think, Xiumin hyung? Should we abandon Su Min? We could go right now...”

Xiumin looks up, eyes piercing. “How dare you two? She’s protected us all faithfully. She got you away from Lieutenant Lee, she showed you how to use your powers. And yet, you dare to abandon her. That’s cruel. Do you even know why she did it? Did you ask? Did you care to listen? What you’re doing right now is just as bad as what she did back there!” he screams before standing up and storming out of the clearing to get some fresh air.

Minutes pass like hours as the two boys sit in silence, wondering when Xiumin will come back. Wondering if what they said was wrong. And wondering where Su Min is. A loud pounding sound causes them to look up, and they stand soon after. Seconds later, Su Min runs into the clearing, breathing heavily. Her face is clear of blood, as are her hands, but her clothes are ripped and stained all over. She says but one word, and yet, they all comply. “Run.”

Without knowing why, or where they’re going, they all run. And then they hear it. A pounding, a loud pounding. It sounds like a thousand heartbeats beating at once. But, in reality, it’s just a thousand giant maemeodeu pounding towards them. They thrash about, knocking down trees, trampling brush. And they know that they can’t outrun them forever. They’ll have to hide somewhere. Su Min looks from side to side frantically. “Where’re Xiumin!?” she screams over the pounding of hooves.

“He ran off!”

Su Min sighs, points towards a small alcove and then dives off to the side before picking herself up and running to find Xiumin. It isn’t the stampede she’s worried about, actually. Despite the fact that they could all be trampled. It’s what caused the stampede. Maemeodeu are huge, so the thing chasing them must be much larger.

Ducking between running maemeodeu’s and trees, she searches for the rather short boy with puffy cheeks. He seems to be nowhere. Maybe he already got trampled. Su Min lets out a low growl, knowing that if that happened, it would be her fault. She should have been watching them. A loud screech makes Su Min whip around, watching as a frightened Xiumin runs away from three maemeodeu. “Xiumin! Dive!” she calls.

He looks to her and then dives to the left, luckily making it far enough to avoid the monsters. Su Min runs forward and helps him up by his elbow. “Are you okay?” she asks, brushing broken leaves off of his robes. He nods and laughs, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“That was scary,”

Su Min glances behind her and sighs, watching as a whole other group of them plows forward. She grabs Xiumin’s arm and drags him back into a run. Another alcove lies right in front of them, and seeing an opportunity and also realizing that they don’t have time to run anymore, Su Min jumps towards the cave still holding Xiumin.

Temporarily disoriented, it takes her a while to regain her senses. And when she does, she finds Xiumin lying on top of her, his forehead resting against hers...

And his lips oh-so-close to hers.