It's been nearly three months since Selan had died. It feels like it only happened. He was the one who kept us going, who led us, who kept us alive even in the direst situations and he died to keep us together. That's what he was destined to do. In the past few months, Najenda's kept us busy by doing side missions. Taking out guard captains on the countryside so that the Revolutionary Army can make camps out of the taken villages. The rest of Night Raid doesn't fully trust Anna yet. She's had her bad days and her good days. At least today, is a good day. Najneda's got another mission for us.
"I don't know if you heard the rumors or not," Najenda says, "but we've managed to lose three villages to an unknown enemy. Akame has told me that it is the Empire, but it's only one man. He must be a new addition to the Jaegers and is extremely dangerous. The locals around the areas have been calling him the Blood Killer. It appears that he can use his own blood as a weapon. I advise extreme caution you two. Take down this User and take his weapon from him, or better yet, try and recruit him. We need all the help we can get."
"You think we can take this guy down?" I ask.
"Why just us?" Anna pipes in, "If he's that dangerous, why not send Akame, or one of the others. They have more battle experience than us."
"The time to prove yourself worthy to our cause is now." Najenda lights up a cigarette, "If you defeat this killer, we'll fully welcome you both into Night Raid. Now go, I expect you two to do well."
****
We've been following leads about this Blood Killer for a few days now and we've gotten nothing. He seems to have completely disappear from the area. His trail of destruction goes in a triangle of villages and he's destroyed more than the three we were looking for. I wonder what Teigu he uses. I wonder if we'll even be able to defeat him. I grip Yami as a blade whizzes through the air. I turn on my heels and slash the blade away. It would seem the Killer has found us instead.
"I can't have my targets fighting back, now can I?" A man walks out of shadows of the forest, "Do you really think you can beat me?" He's dressed in a cloak that covers his whole body. He drops his hood and I'm surprised to find that he's nearly my age. He's been in some hardship in the past as well. He has scraggy black hair and dark blue eyes. He drops the cloak onto the ground and his weapon is revealed. A chain with small spikes is wrapped around his waist and run down his arms in armored sleeves. And at the end of the chains are two blades. "Play time." He smiles and instantly disappears. I step in front of Anna as she touches her seal. I block one blade as the other wraps itself around my leg. Spikes dig into my calf and blood spurts onto the forest floor. I scream in pain and get thrown into a tree. I nearly wrap around it from the force of the blow. Yami clatters to my side as I gasp for air. "You, I'm not interested in. Your sister however, is a worthy opponent." Anna flashes forwards and catches the blades in between hers. She manages to land a kick into the boy's chest and sends him stumbling backwards. I crawl to my the tree and use it to stand up. I grab Yami off the ground and watch the Killer and Anna fight. He's only toying with her and I can't read his movements at all. He's on a whole different level than us. I dash forward to help out Anna, only to get a blade piercing straight through my shoulder. "Stay out of this Ren." He's so calm about the situation. He knows that he has already won this fight from the moment it started. It wasn't us that was hunting him this whole time, it was him hunting us. We're the targets that the Empire wants. They only want Anna back.
"Rirīsuwaibān!" Anna yells out, "I'm gonna kill you if it's the last thing I do. I will bring peace to this world." I've only seen her do her trump once, but Master told her not to use it anymore. I only hope she knows what she is doing. The fiery green wings sprout from her back and her left hand turns into a fiery green claw.
I grab onto the chain to try and pull the blade out, but it's no use, I can't take any more pain in my hand. Anna only has minutes before she tires. I turn and look down at the blade in the ground. He's only using one blade to defend with. I turn back to the fight which has taken to the skies. That's when the sky turn red with blood and Anna comes crashing down to the ground in a hail of blood-like spears. Hundreds of tiny blood spears plummet after her. They crash into the ground and onto her in a flurry of dust and rubble. I feel the blade exit my shoulder and the boy comes back down to the ground holding his right side. Anna hit him and he had to resort to using his blood as a weapon.
"Seems like you had to resort to your trump." I pick up Yami and face the boy, "You didn't really hurt Anna much, her armor protects against most attacks." I turn and look over at Anna who's breathing hard with blood dripping from the unarmored parts on her body. Other than that, she's fine and alive. She struggles to stand up, but her energy has been wiped out from her trump.
"And it seems like you're still standing." The Killer readies another volley of blood from his body. I've already studied this attack from Yami's power and I know I can beat it if I jump high enough, but the problem is, is that my leg can barely handle my weight from his earlier attack. "I'll change that smug look on your face!" I might be able to slide underneath the attack as well. I hold Yami out in front of me and wait for the blood spears to get closer and dash underneath the attack. I feel my side rip open from the lowest of the blood spears. "Damn you! Third seal break! Blade Whirlwind!" The ground underneath us rumbles as thousands of blades appear out of nowhere. This isn't a trump, it's an attack; an attack that could wipe out an army!
"Kurayami ni Noboru!" Ascend into Darkness my trump can stop any attack if Yami has connected with the weapon. It also makes it so dark that only I can see. Thankfully, I was able to block the Killer's attack earlier, or I wouldn't be able to use it. I quickly grab Anna and retreat from the battle. There's no way we can go against a force like that, and he's completely hell bent on killing us and Night Raid. He won't be joining us any time soon.
****
We reach a small spring and I put Anna next to it. I stumble onto my hands and knees gasping for breath. The only downside to Yami's trump, is that it takes a great deal of energy from me. I only used it in training. I quickly look at my shoulder and leg and start washing out the wounds. I don't know how far we've gotten from the Killer, but he was wounded enough, he shouldn't be able to follow us. I grit my teeth as I clean my shoulder. His blade went straight through the muscle. It'll be some time before it'll heal up.
"How did he survive?" Anna looks up at the sun staring at the seal on her Teigu, "A wyvern's venom is a death sentence, yet he survived like nothing happened."
"It's his trump card." I take a deep breath, "He was able to take the venom out of his blood and then attack with his blood. Najenda warned us of this remember."
"Why didn't you try to kill him?" She looks at me with her green eyes, "He was barely able to stand. We had him where we wanted him."
"None of us were in the condition to fight." I tell her as I bandage my shoulder and leg, "Besides, we were the ones being hunted; we were never hunting him. He planned the whole thing out to try and kill you because you're a threat to Esdeath."
"Night Raid is the threat, not me." She says as if in a trance.
"Are you alright?" I ask her wondering if using her trump caused the spirit of the wyvern inside her is taking over.
"I'm fine." She shakes her head to clear it, "Ren, we failed our mission."
"We're alive though," I stand up on shaky legs, "Come on, let's head back and report to Najenda."
"Will you be able to make it back?" She appears next to me quickly, "I can help you walk if you'd like."
"I'm fine. My trump took more energy out of me than I expected." I sigh, "His attack was a powerful one. Damn! We never did get his name."
"He'll remain the Blood Killer until we get it." She pulls me closer so that I can lean on her, "I thought I was going to die when all those blades appeared."
"I thought we were both going to die." I tell her as the sun disappears behind dark clouds, "We'd better get a move on, looks like it's going to rain soon."
She nods and starts walking ahead of me. She's battling both the effects of the drugs and the spirit of the wyvern right now. It's best if she's alone for now. The last time I tried to help her, I nearly died. Thankfully, we had some antitoxin lying around. I worry about her a lot. She's the last family I have. I look up at the dark clouds as rain plops onto my face. It's refreshing, yet it feels as if forest is crying that so much destruction has happened in the world.
*****
We finally made it home after a couple hours of limping and taking a lot of breaks. We're both completely out of energy, but we still have to report to Najenda.
"Boss." I nod to her, "We managed to drive the Blood Killer off. We couldn't defeat him, however. He planned the entire thing, from destroying the villages up until the battle. He was hunting for Anna the whole time."
"Did you ever get his name?" Najenda asks.
"No, but we know what he looks like and how he attacks." I tell her.
"Go on."
"He's a boy my age, with scraggy black hair and dark blue eyes." I hear Leone gasp and go on, "His weapon is a chain that wraps around his waist. The chains themselves have thousands of spikes on them and at the end of the chains, are two blades. He has armor on his arms to protect himself from the chains. Anna managed to hit him with her venom claws, but he wasn't affected by the venom at all. What you said about his ability to control his own blood is stronger than we thought."
"Leone," Najenda looks over at her, "do you know who this is?"
"I'm not entirely sure if you want to get the wrong name." She starts backing towards the door.
"Tell us, I'm sure we can narrow the name down." Mine says.
"I believe the one you fought today, was my old friend, Crow."