Chapter 43: XLIII – Display(s) of Cruelty

Esperanza rushed towards the direction where her small hut lay. She moved so fast due to the urgent nature of the situation that she even left Dali and Gordy behind, though she could feel the two dogs following the path she took as fast as they could. The first thing she saw when she finally arrived near her little hut was the sight of Avec-Litu’s body falling backwards, more than a dozen arrows protruding from his torso and limbs.

 

The village elder fell with his arms spread wide, like he was trying to cover someone behind him. The way he only started to fall as another arrow – there were already at least four other arrows protruding from his chest at the time – caught him right in the middle of the chest showed how he had kept standing and taking those arrows out of pure willpower up to that point.

 

What she noticed next were the dozen or so children – all of whom she recognized as from the village, many of them being ones who often visited her hut to play – crowded and huddled around the fallen form of old Avalanusi. The old blacksmith was unmoving, her body similarly riddled with dozens of arrows like Avec-Litu. 

 

Eda-Zil and Kvar-Litu were keeping the crying children close together, while at the same time shielding them with their bodies.

 

The culprits responsible for the situation were obvious. As Esperanza pulled her attention away from the village children, one of her other eyes caught sight of four figures in the direction of the village. They were laughing at each other, and two of them held bows in their hands, one of which still thrummed from a recent shot.

 

All four were men – while it was a bit harder to distinguish between males and females of some races the villagers hailed from, these four were from races with easily distinguishable appearances – who were of the same race as some of the villagers of Navef. Unlike the villagers who mostly wore clothing made out of hide or leather, though, these four wore fabric clothing underneath their bloodstained chainmail shirt, which covered their bodies from neck to mid-thigh.

 

She did not fail to notice that the fletching on the arrows still in the quivers slung behind their backs were the same as those protruding from Avec-Litu’s and Avalanusi’s bodies, as well as Adan-Zil’s corpse from before. The way they laughed as if they were enjoying themselves further incensed her, doubly so as it coincided with her system’s notification of a soul entering her [Soul Storage]. At that very moment she already decided how she would be dealing with those four people.

 

All that took place in a single moment, Esperanza’s mind running in high gear as she took in the information. None of the four even had the time to react to her arrival yet, and given the speed she hurtled her body as, she already descended upon them by the time some of them started to react. Their reactions were far too little, far too late.

 

Esperanza turned her hands into gruesome, long-fingered mockeries of the human shape, the too-long fingers tipped with wicked claws like those of a predator’s. She also turned her legs into longer, tentacular appendages and whipped them towards the further two of the four. While she could create more limbs at will by shifting her shape, she still felt most comfortable and had the best control over herself when she used no more than four limbs at a time.

 

Her hands wrapped themselves around the heads of the two bow-wielders, the overlong fingers circling their heads tightly, even as a maw opened in the center of her palm and bit down on the nose and cheek of those archers. Her tentacular legs wrapped themselves around the legs of the two people further away. Barbed claws emerged from the membranous surface of those tentacles, where they dug into and tore the flesh from the calves of the unfortunate pair.

 

Rather than waste any time, Esperanza went for kills as fast as she could. Thick, muscular tongue tipped with fangs held together like a wedge shot out from within the maws that adorned her palms. The tenebrous limbs shot out with great force, and as Esperanza had shifted an eye to each of her palms, unerringly struck the eyes of their victims.

 

Blood, bone fragments, and other fluids splattered as the tongues forced their way through the eyeballs of the two archers, broke through their eye sockets, and into their brains. The instant they broke through the eye sockets, Esperanza allowed the fangs which had gathered their points to form a wedge to open wide as they ravaged the contents of those archers’ skulls.

 

Esperanza ignored the dings of kill notifications and that of souls being stored as she focused on dragging the remaining two people over to her using her legs. One of them was screaming like a pig being butchered, blood flowing freely in rivulets from the wound torn open on his calves. He was also desperately trying to unsheathe the sword hanging from his waist, but the lower part of the weapon was wrapped and gripped tightly by the tip of Esperanza’s tentacular limb, which held it firmly in place.

 

The other man was less fortunate as when Esperanza’s limb tied his legs together he fell forwards towards her, so she had instinctively wrapped a portion of her flexible, barbed limb around his neck and head. That not only made the man unable to scream but also rapidly gouged divots in his flesh, which bled profusely shortly after. By the time Esperanza dragged the man over, he was already on the verge of death from blood loss, one of the barbed claws having nicked a large artery on his neck.

 

With the last man, Esperanza shed any pretense of being humanoid, as she stretched her body thin to wrap around the screaming man’s upper body. Moments after she wrapped around him, the many fanged maws on the inside opened and devoured the man’s flesh, one bite at a time. Not even the chainmail shirt he wore saved him, as while they gave some resistance, the chains broke under the pressure of Esperanza’s bite, her fangs sinking deep into the man’s flesh and tearing off chunks until he remained still and unmoving.

 

By the time she unwound her body from the man’s, all that was left of his upper body was an unrecognizable bloody mess that looked as if a pack of jackals already feasted on it. The other three were somewhat fortunate to die with their bodies left relatively intact.

 

Esperanza just stacked their corpses together, then almost as an afterthought, drove the blade she received from old Avalanusi through the three mostly intact corpses in order for it to absorb the blood from them. She herself shifted her form back to her approximation of a humanoid form and put on her clothes before she approached the villagers that were by her hut.

 

“¿Qué pasa?” she asked them. Fortunately the [Language Understanding] skill automatically translated the meaning of her words to others, regardless of whether she said it in english or spanish.

 

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“They… they suddenly came down upon us out of nowhere from the south earlier this morning…” muttered Eda-Zil with obvious nervousness, tears still brimming in her eyes. “They… They just killed everyone… the elders and the children… all of them… Most of the elders had stayed to allow us to escape with these children. We had thought the worst when father went off in hopes of finding you and those bowmen chased after him… Where is father?”

 

“Lo siento,” muttered Esperanza as she looked down sadly while shaking her head. At that moment, a mixture of self-blame and regret filled her mind. If only she had not hunted so deep into the forest this time. If only she had not been enthralled with learning the ins and outs of her new skills and spent so much time experimenting.

 

If only she had not dallied during the first few days of her trip back to the village. If only she had departed and returned even a day earlier… Many such thoughts crossed her mind before she finally shook her head once more to chase them away. What was done could not be changed. All she could do was to do better for those who still had a future with them.

 

“Father… is gone then?” asked Eda-Zil with a disbelieving tone.

 

“I’m sorry. It was too late by the time I came upon him,” admitted Esperanza. She heard the brush rustle behind her but did not turn around, somehow already knowing it was just Dali and Gordy arriving at last. Her own thoughts were occupied by the condition of the survivors at the moment, the anger that had cooled down stoked to new heights once more.

 

All of the survivors had injuries on their bodies, the little children having scuffs and bruises, and the occasional burn mark as well. Eda-Zil still had the shaft of an arrow protruding from behind one shoulder, while Kvar-Litu’s left arm hung limply. Of course, what had incensed her the most was the sight of old Avalanusi’s body, which laid on its back, arms splayed wide like she was trying to cover others behind her.

 

Dozens of arrows pierced through the old craftsman’s fur-covered body, and she had already passed on by then. The soul that went into the [Soul Storage] upon Esperanza’s arrival was hers, it looked like. All Esperanza could do for the old craftsman was to close her still-open eyes gently, while holding back a desire to scream and cry out at the top of her lungs.

 

“Honored… One…” mumbles Avec-Litu weakly, which caught Esperanza’s attention. She quickly lowered her head so she could hear his words better, kneeling on the dying elder’s side. Kvar-Litu was trying to staunch the bleeding on his wounds to no avail from the other side.

 

“Do you have anything you wish to say?” she asked as kindly as she could despite her own frustrations with the situation. “I will do what I can.”

 

“Please… do not blame yourself. This disaster… has been due to our own vanity and recklessness,” said the elder with a deep, remorseful sigh. “Some of ours… hunted further south… then they should… We had thought… they were just late… They… must have been found out. We… had brought about our own end…” 

 

Esperanza just nodded as the old man tried to gather his breath to say something more. It was something he only did with great difficulty, his voice clearly growing weaker.

 

“I beg of you… please help… our young ones… They… still have a future… ahead of… them… Their lives… still have many years ahead…” continued the dying elder with strenuous effort. “I beg of you… I… beg…” 

 

The old man’s words petered out mid-sentence as he gasped and failed to continue what he was saying. Kvar-Litu tried to assist him, but it was to no avail. Avec-Litu’s eyes dimmed even as they watched, as life left his body and he passed away in his grandson’s arms. 

 

It was a situation that felt somewhat unreal to Esperanza. Less than a week ago, she was still chatting with these very same people, saw them doing their business as they went about their daily lives. Now they were dead. If what Eda-Zil said was true, chances were that the rest of the village was in worse shape. She was numbed with indecision when she thought about it.

 

Should she immediately evacuate with the surviving children and two youths? Or should she head to the village first? Maybe there were still others trying to resist. Perhaps some survivors managed to hide somehow. Given how the people that attacked them seemed prone to toying with their prey rather than quickly dispatching them, there was a chance of that, but to do so would mean risking the few survivors she had with her.

 

The indecision plagued her mind until another notification sounded, signifying yet another soul entering her [Soul Storage]. She took a closer look this time, and realized that if she paid close attention, she could distinguish the owners of the souls. Most of the souls in there felt like wild beasts, but three in particular were ones that felt familiar to her. She identified them as Avec-Litu, Avalanusi, and Adan-Zil respectively. The souls of the four people she killed, on the other hand, were noticeably different, somehow.

 

In the end she turned to the survivors and asked for their opinion on what she should do.