Regrets of The Fallen (Victis Honor Book 1) (43 page)

Haruka picked herself up from the grass and brushed herself off, glaring at the large man who was nearly twice as tall as she was. “I didn’t forget, I just changed duties. If you’re here, too, I guess Trish is around somewhere.”

“They wouldn’t leave me behind,” a woman said as she came down slowly in front of the large man. Even though Bella immediately disliked her, even she couldn’t dispute that the woman was startlingly gorgeous; her blonde hair nearly reached the ground and shone gold, and she wore red robe-like clothing that revealed more skin than most people were comfortable showing. It tended to attract attention, and that was obviously her intent. She turned light green eyes on Haruka. “We were sent to bring you back like a disobedient dog.”

“Better than being an obedient bitch.”

Trish smiled. “Is it?
My
lover isn’t about to be executed.”

Haruka
snarled. “What?”

“Those are our orders,” Aizen said as he looked at Isabella. “Kill Isabella Enyo, capture Haruka Saito.”

“Your father is tired of this charade,” Trish said disdainfully. “He wants to be sure this doesn’t happen again, so we will remove the reason it happened in the first place.”

Isabella raised her iron sword and pointed it at them. “You act like I don’t have a choice in the matter.”

“You don’t,” Aizen replied. “I can smell it from here; you’re weak.”

“You can… smell it?”

“Aizen is a vampire,” Haruka explained as she continued looking for a way to get over to Isabella. “That’s why none of his skin is exposed, to keep it out of the sun.”

“Yes, I should thank you for choosing to walk through a rather shady forest. It’s certainly making my involvement easier.”

“I don’t really care
what
you are,” Isabella said as she stepped forward. “
I
am Isabella of Two Faces, and I am
tired
of not getting the respect I deserve from this country. I’m going to kill you,” she said simply as she smiled at Aizen, “and I’m not even going to transform to do it.”

The vampire tilted his head. “Really now? Do you have any idea how foolish that statement is?”

“Why don’t we find out?”

“You intrigue me. Very well, one-on-one.” He spun his daggers in anticipation as Trish sighed.

“Why are you turning this into a game?”

“Stay out of it.”

“Very well, you do what you like,” the blonde said, folding her arms disapprovingly.

Genlock rolled his shoulders. “So what do we do?”

“We prevent Haruka from stepping in while her lover is getting eviscerated.”

“Sounds boring.”

Both of them blinked as Haruka landed in front of them on the tree trunk, giving them a dark smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you entertained. Bella’s going to kill Aizen, and I’m going to bring you down so you can’t stop it.”

Trish looked at her in disbelief. “Surely you can’t believe that, she’s-“

Haruka’s fist cut her off, sending her clear off the log with a grin. “I’ve wanted to do that for
way
too long.” Genlock’s massive fist rushed at her and forced her to block; she shut her eyes tightly in preparation before she was blasted down
through
the tree trunk, sending shards of wood everywhere followed by a cloud of dirt when she met the ground below.

Isabella kept her attention off Haruka and on the man in front of her, barely ducking before his blades cut a cross out of the tree behind her. She stabbed her sword up and forced him back, after which she went on the offensive with a wide array of moves that he had little trouble blocking. He disappeared in a flash of movement and Bella spun forward, managing to evade his strikes at her back. “You’re very fast,” she said as she eyed his blades, ignoring the pleading of the voices in her head that asked for their power to be used. “Too fast.”

“My speed is a point of pride.” Aizen flipped a dagger in his hand and pointed it at her. “It is also what will be your death within the next few moves.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it’s too fast for
me
,” she corrected. “I mean it’s too fast for
you
.”

He frowned in confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Then attack me again.” He complied and, as he disappeared, Isabella flipped her sword and pointed it at her right flank.

Aizen reappeared there and barely whirled around the point to avoid it, skidding to a stop a few feet away with wide eyes. “How did you react so quickly?”

“I am just
that
much better than you,” she said with a smile, flipping her sword back around and readying it. In truth, Isabella knew what having such speed was like, as her Demonic form wielded that ability. When moving that quickly, everything had to be planned out unless your reaction time was off the charts. That left a much narrower range of attack options and the inability to readjust on the fly, and with her experience Isabella was able to predict with near-certainty, which moves he would choose. More than that, she was able to choose
for
him by positioning herself in such a way as to present an apparent opening or weak spot; while focusing on his attack, he was unable to gauge how she would move. It wasn’t an infallible strategy, but in Isabella’s experience, people with one incredible strength usually focused on it to the exclusion of any other attributes, meaning this man had impressive speed and little else.

That seemed to be the case with this whole Triad, as she had surmised when they had appeared; one was speed, one was power, and the last was likely magic. As a team they were probably nearly unbeatable, and that was the purpose of Isabella’s challenge; she would keep the speed busy, leaving Haruka to deal with the other two. She had faith that the monk would be able to take the others. If Isabella’s plans didn’t work out, though… Well, then she would transform,
and hopefully that would be enough. She knew she only had perhaps two more transformations in her, though, and both would cut her time down, so that remained a last resort.

Haruka recovered quickly and moved from her position as fast as she could, launching herself off the ground as electricity arced through the air into the spot she had just left, turning the dirt glassy.
Apparently, Trish is angry
, she thought as she flipped over another bolt. Genlock came rushing at her and she shifted to put him between her and Trish so she could focus on dodging his strikes without worrying about the lightning. She felt the rush of air every time the huge man missed, a promise of the damage he could do if he connected. She couldn’t take many hits from him or many hits from Trish’s magic, meaning she would have to stay on the move. That thought reminded her of what Trish could be planning if she wasn’t busy being angry, so as Genlock thrust a fist down at her she ran up his arm, performing hand movements along the way. At his shoulder she leapt up and unleashed a fireball in Trish’s direction, forcing the woman to move but scorching the edges of her robe.

Haruka grinned as she heard the woman give a cry of annoyance, and she spun back around in time to duck Genlock’s left cross. Unfortunately she didn’t do it fast enough and the steel gauntlet clipped her head, sending her spinning into a tree. She slumped down and shook her head clear, gritting her teeth and placing her feet on the trunk. She kicked off of it and over a lightning bolt that tore apart the tree behind her, and the force sent her a few feet further than she wanted to go, straight towards Genlock who brought clasped fists down at her. Haruka spun and dug her hands into the ground, shooting her heel up into the man’s chin and knocking him off-balance. She then bent her elbows before extending her whole body and planting both feet in his stomach, knocking him away breathless. After that she gained her feet and started moving again as another spell tore apart the ground behind her.
Keep moving
, that was all she had to do…

Isabella continued to frustrate Aizen. Every time he disappeared she predicted his move and cut him off. However, she wasn’t making any progress by doing this, only stalling him. She had to give him credit, unfortunately, because he figured that out faster than she’d hoped. “This stalemate is cute,” he said as he spun his daggers, “but I’m getting bored of it. I’m going to put an end to this now.” He began tapping his foot as she watched, slowly increasing the frequency. Soon his other foot joined in and he was slightly bouncing from foot to foot with increasing speed. Isabella narrowed her eyes and lifted her iron sword in both hands, focusing everything on him.

Then he disappeared and the dirt flew up in a line as the staccato rhythm of his feet increased to a point where the individual steps blurred together into a nearly-constant sound. Isabella shifted and blocked a blow from the right, but this time he didn’t stop; he came in from all directions seemingly at random, no longer going only for kill shots but striking at whatever he could. Isabella could see his movements, but her body was unable to react in time to all of them. She was forced to choose which ones to block and take others, ending in her taking multiple deep cuts on her arms, shoulders and legs. Her thick knight cape kept her back somewhat protected, but it wouldn’t take long to shred it. Now she was in a losing battle, holding off death but inflicting no damage on her opponent. She had to do something or she was going to die here.

Summoning power she spun in a circle, emitting a burst of Wind magic that threw Aizen away from her. She then knelt and quickly took blood from a deep gash on her arm, inscribing a series of runes on the iron blade and on her arm. As she finished they all flared with light and she leapt up just in time to block a strike from the angry vampire. He came at her quickly, but he leapt back with eyes wide in surprise as her sword spun up between his strikes and cut three deep gashes in is chest, narrowly missing his neck. He skidded back and stared at her in confusion.
Isabella stood panting and dripping blood from several injuries, but her eyes remained determined and strong even as she was bent and exhausted. Her iron sword floated up beside her, hovering in the air on its own.

“What is this?” Aizen asked as he stared warily at the sword.

“Most people these days… don’t remember the runes of the language of the Ancients,” Isabella said as she caught her breath. “If you know them, you are limited only by your inner power and the words you know. And even if I can’t let it out, I have a
lot
of power.” Isabella brought her hands up to reveal that she’d also placed runes on each of her palms. She steadied her legs and lifted her head proudly, bringing her arms down and clapping her hands once. A burst of power shot from them and Aizen was launched back into a tree. The iron sword shot after him and pinned him to the tree through his shoulder, causing him to grunt in pain and glare at her with rage.

Isabella began to walk towards him as a red glow flowed over her arms like a mist of blood, a sign of her demonic power being focused through the runes. “Did you think I had only one trick?” she said condescendingly as she approached him, her eyes growing colder with every step. “Did you think I was helpless without transforming? Did you think I gained the title of The Golden Butcher by being WEAK?” With the last word she threw her hand forward and shoved him with such force that he broke
through
the tree he was pinned to and flew across the ground leaving a cloud of dirt in his wake. He pushed himself up on his elbows and yanked the iron sword from his shoulder, but he found himself frozen as Isabella approached.

The red mist had spread across her body and silhouetted her like a demon from a storybook. The injuries he had inflicted on her no longer seemed to bother her as she grew straighter as she walked. Her eyes, though – they were different now, hard and hateful. He could no longer believe what he’d heard about this woman now; she seemed as powerful and intimidating as Kazuki himself. “My hands are stained with the blood of thousands. My eyes have seen the life fade from more people than you have ever
met
. And you think that you can come in
now
, near the end of my life,
and kill me like none of that happened
? Do you think I would
deign
to let rabble like you end a legend like
mine
? You think me prey, but when history is written, your life will be nothing but a
footnote
in the story of mine.”

Aizen refused to be disrespected any longer; he shot at her with all his speed, but her backhand sent him into another tree. As he bounced off of it she appeared in front of him and slammed him back in its direction and straight through the trunk, bringing yet another tree down. “I would teach you to respect me,” Isabella said as she moved to stand over him, “but a wolf doesn’t bother teaching a rabbit before it devours it.” Aizen was about to respond but she lifted a hand and he was pulled high into the air by an unseen force. Without another word, Isabella moved her other hand and his cloak and scarf were shredded away. He let out a scream of agony as the sunlight, let in by the hole she had created by taking out several trees, scorched him. He struggled but it was useless, the sun burned away his flesh and muscle, leaving only a smoking husk that fell to the forest floor as she released it.

Isabella’s eyes then turned to the other fight, focusing on the blonde woman as she let out a cheer; one of her bolts had finally struck Haruka, and Genlock was rapidly closing on the injured monk. Trish lifted her hands and charged them with electricity before her wrist was caught by Isabella. Her eyes widened as she tried to pull her wrist away. “What – where is Aizen?!”