Land of Mirriam

Simon crouching, he slowly approached the target, stopping for a while if its head would turn to him, he was sure that Andy’s and Percival’s way of doing this was much easier. Or maybe it just looked easier when one was watching. Simon was not complaining, it was better to produce results.

The smell was really terrible... It was tall, long-necked, with six limbs and six tails. Surprisingly, it was actually cuter than the giant mantis, and its face was ten times better. His feet dug some snow as he produced a low sound on his steps, it was an almost perfect stalk, but as soon as he reached a certain distance…

It raised its head, immediately identifying Simon. When it saw his eyes, the spike emitted a shivering sound. Then, it suddenly ran. Simon quickly followed its direction with his eyes.

“Is it afraid of me?” he wondered aloud as he started dashing. This reaction was different from what Andy and Percival had described earlier. They hadn’t even noticed Andy and Percival until the pike was lunged into the Spike’s torso. Simon must have done something wrong, but he wasn't sure, so he kept chasing.

The snow was no match compared to the old man’s dirty tricks when they played sword tag, a brutal game devised by the old man to make Simon suffer (Train). It was a simple game of tag, but with swords; if you were 'it,' you had to hit the other with a sword. While on defense, one could parry and escape as long as the sword didn’t touch them. The old man was untouchable.

The smell was getting stronger... There must be a lot of them, he thought. He planned to kill the monster before it reached their base or something.

“He said the heart was around here,” Simon said, then threw the pike at the spike.

‘Bullseye! Oh no! It's still moving!’ Simon realized he had done something wrong or was just not good with the pike, as the Spike continued moving towards its destination.

‘I probably missed... I hate throwing, damn it... I'll go for its neck,’ he decided.

After gaining more speed by dashing through the snow and then launching from a single iced tree, his distance from the target started to decrease. The field began to blur.

“Time to end this,” he declared, conjuring the water blade. But his initial attempt proved feeble, lacking the usual magic. The second try sent a water blade forth, only to be frozen by the wind. With no other option, Simon prepared to confront the monster head-on.

His sword bounced off the neck; it wasn't sharp enough. The Spike staggered, though, as Simon managed to create a wound on its neck.

“Hard... one more time,” Simon muttered. This time, he wrapped his sword with a water blade. Instead of relying solely on the strength of his swing, he used the water to sharpen his slash, creating a continuous, pressurized water slash.

With a quick swish, the head cleanly lofts off. He recalled the time when the old man had tried to teach him how to use Magic Edge, but he failed. It felt similar to this, he thought.

‘Muscle and sword... won’t betray me,’ he mused, reminiscing about the past. However, he was late to realize that he had already wandered into the Spike’s colony. The ground vibrated, and Simon felt the spikes emerging from the burrows. There were around thirty burrows surrounding the area where Simon stood.

‘Hmm... lucky I have my Wind Blades,’ Simon said. The wind blades were the talons of the eagles he had slain back in the dark forest.

‘But I'm going to miss lunch’ Simon thought.

<--->

Percival was surprised. He had seen two in his lifetime; he was sure this was a mother. A mother was the one who propagated a colony. The headless corpses of the spikes were strewn across the bloody field, with Simon in the midst of it. It seemed they had tried to make their mother escape but were instead massacred by Simon.

“Fucking hell, Simon!” Percival screamed as he began hurling pikes. But the mother deflected them with three of its remaining tails.

“...Damn,” Percival muttered, noticing the missing tails.

“Sir Percival, their heads are not that hard, I think,” Simon said with a smile, looking back at Percival. There were still a few guards standing between Simon and the mother. These guards were taller and had short tails, totally different from a normal spike. Percival was terrified, confused, and in awe of the scene. How could this boy be so serene in such a situation? (Had the old man messed him up?)

Slaying humans is understandable, since the eastern frontier is littered with bandits. Usually, criminals wanted in the central would come to the eastern frontier to either change their identities or continue their criminal streaks. However, monsters were different; Percival was sure it was Simon’s first time venturing beyond the walls.

“Fluid and clean, like the old man showed me,” Simon muttered, rushing into an attack. With each number entailed a swing and evasion on one move. one, two, three—a tail flew along with the pike fluid it failed to shoot, wounds carved on the meat his sword flicked. Four, five—the body and head kept severing, dodging, and cutting through.

‘He's a sword master,’ Percival thought as he watched Simon effortlessly dance through the Spikes, each one falling under his blade. Simon would stride forward, cutting with his weight while deftly dodging attacks. It was incredibly effective; the Spikes were being butchered.

“One left,” Simon declared. The water blade he wielded was now stained with blood, yet it seemed that the water itself cleansed the sword. Simon had been performing this cleansing magic every time he felt resistance in his swings. Over time, he had grown accustomed to the water blade enveloping his sword.

The Spike Queen fought fiercely, especially as her guards fell one by one. Simon continued his relentless assault, inflicting wounds all over her body. The Queen grew desperate, but Simon finally analyzed her movements enough.

Simon’s senses sharpened with each passing moment. “Okay, I've learned all your moves. Time to finish this,” he announced, causing Percival to facepalm. He wanted to scream at Simon, but he hesitated, not wanting to disturb him as the boy smiled amidst his bloodied coat.

“Oops... looks like I'll have to try piercing you with a pike. I'm not sure where your heart is, but I don't have a pike on me. Oh, Percival! Can I borrow your iron pike?” Simon grinned at Percival. Without a word, Percival threw him his iron pike.

“Just think of it as a larger type of spike,” Percival advised him.

“I see... makes sense,” Simon nodded in agreement. He released a sharp bloodlust, causing the queen to instantly lose her will to fight. “Good... uh, creature?” Simon hesitated, unsure if ‘girl’ was the right word, then he threw the pike.

<--->

The four scouts watched as Simon lay on his back, cleaning his clothes. His boots were bloody, but there were no wounds on his body; he confirmed it himself. With Gallo's help, who heated the cold snow into a pool of water using a portable heating device powered with magic, Simon plunged his hand in and started cleaning.

“A no-need-to-wash sword would be a good one,” he thought, looking at his clean water blade, though the handles still had blood on them. Simon glanced back at the scouts, feeling their stare. He tried to be friendly, but for some reason, Simon didn’t close his eyes.

The three scouts began to show fear, their eyes betraying their unease. Percival noticed it when he looked at Andy and the other two. “Simon, good job out there. Are you tired?” Percival initiated a conversation to ease the atmosphere.

“Not that much. I learned a trick to cut through their necks,” Simon replied, finishing cleaning the hilt of his sword. He thanked Gallo, who was starting to feel nauseous.

“I’ll smell some rosemary to alleviate myself. Good job, Simon. Glad you're on our team!! You should (Barf!!) take a bath soon, okay? Oh, and don’t worry about the eyes; they look creepy but cool!” There was no fear in Gallo's eyes; rather, he didn’t seem to care at all. Simon noticed this and smiled back.

They would be heading back; they weren't far from the wall, but the two teams of scouts wouldn't arrive until the next day. They needed manpower.

Percival went to the other scouts to calm them down. “Who the hell is this kid, Percival?” Andy asked.

“I told you, that's why I vouch for him; he's really strong!” Percival replied.

“He's a monster... what's with those eyes?” another scout questioned.

“I'm not sure about his background, but do you remember when the past hero of the era helped us defend the northern wall?” Percival explained. Andy and the other two scouts nodded. “He raised this boy,” Percival added.

Andy’s face distorted upon hearing it “That old guy who would only fight with a sword?!” he exclaimed.

“I heard he's a lunatic trying to create a cult of the sword!!” another scout chimed in.

“He damaged Bibs and his sister’s brains... but he was a good scout now, though,” another scout who knew the old man said.

The eyes filled with fear instantly turned to pity. He was raised by the old man? The boy might have been growing up with a few screws loose. (Oh they are right!!)

They carried four corpses with the help of the other scout teams in the area. It was valuable since the teams of scouts couldn’t bring corpses themselves; they were far more concentrated on watching their backs and surroundings. But the elimination of a colony instantly opened up a safe route for them, and the screams would make the Spikes wary of the area.

Simon gazed into the white fields of snow. It was truly beautiful, as Percival had said it would be. But right now, more than ever, he felt empty. “I'm hungry,” he muttered.

<--->

The next day, they had a meeting.

Simon began to explain how he slew the Spikes, but it seemed inhumane, impossible for a normal human. Those listening—scouts, adventurers, and warriors—began to wonder if he had a few screws loose.

“We can't do that... flicking a tail with just the warning of a sound we haven’t even heard?” one of the adventurers exclaimed.

“The neck is thin, but it's too hard!” another warrior complained. Simon sighed, then requested something from Gallo and Percival. A few days later, the engineer came up with a solution to suspend the Spike's corpse.

The next day…

They were back at the town hall.

Simon began explaining. “This is a blind spot, but you need to be closer to execute it... They can't see properly, but they can see in the dark.” Simon explained this while standing below the belly of the Spike. Then, he suddenly flicked his sword up, and the beheaded neck was cut, cleanly severing a part that fell down.

“It's possible to cut it like this... There's a sweet spot... One of the engineers, a normal human, tried it, and he said he can do it too... But we have to prove it.” The sweet spot is about 6 inches long. The same engineer attempted the same maneuver Simon did.

Rather than a flick, it was not a trained slash; the slash almost cut the neck. The engineer had to try it twice before managing to sever a part of the neck.

The listeners started to accept Simon’s story. “If you hear the sound, cover your face, or, even better, dodge with your head... They will try to aim between your eyes... They can see our eyes for some reason,” he continued explaining. Some of it made sense, especially from the point of view of the warriors and scouts that manned the northern wall.

“Well, they say that our eyes are the reflection of our soul, so it's probably true,” Andy proclaimed as he listened.