小嫂子的味道

Right after that, I started hearing the sound of clashing blades. Actually, it was not the clashing of two blades, I had grown used to this sound by now.

It was the sound of the clashing of a sword and the claw of a beast. Turning behind I saw that father was now engaged in a battle with a demon beast.

I barely stopped my heart from coming out of my mouth and my brain to explode.

This was wrong. I was being put up in a desperate situation right now. I didn't want to leave mother here, or Anya. But I also didn't want to let father fight that beast alone; I knew he wouldn't last long.

Someone was playing a dirty game with me here. I didn't like that.

I lay mother on the ground carefully, then I removed my battered cloak and put it upon her. After removing the cloak I noticed some of the deep cuts I'd gained under it and on my body.

I ignored them; my own cuts were the least of my worries right now.

Then I dragged myself to Anya. I didn't have another cloak and my shirt was glued to my skin due to all the blood, thus I took her cloth and covered her with it.

Once done, I turned toward my father and forced my body to stand on two feet.

It was hard, as I could feel my very bones shaking and creaking. Still, I forced my body to its limits and stood on two feet, swinging my hands in the air to maintain balance.

I let out a breath and then took a step forward. I was thinking of how I should deal with that beast but before that could come true the world in front of me rolled and I stumbled forward, falling on my knees yet again.

It was only to be expected. After all, I had more than a few broken bones and ribs and torn-up muscle fibers.

Even so, it didn't matter much. So what if I can't stand and walk?

I used my hands and crawled my way near Ron. In the process, my lower body gained more scratches and cuts, but at the moment I noticed none of that.

But after a while even doing that seemed impossible. All the energy had drained from my body, if anything I was probably moving only on will.

"Father! Please stop! You will die," I screamed, and it hurt my throat while doing so.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he screamed back, something I hadn't expected out of him. "You are wasting your time here, you should run as far as you can while you still have the chance!"

I paid no heed to a single word he said. Run away, he says. That's the stupidest shit I'd heard that day.

Rather than that I looked for Req. In this situation she was the only one who could save him, thus I searched for her in every direction.

I tried sending a thought communication, but it didn't work. My mind was too messed up and jumbled up for that at the moment. Therefore I searched for her with my eyes.

And soon I caught sight of her. There she was, still where I'd told her to be. Holding the frontlines and fighting against a literal mountain of demon beasts.

'But this is no good,' I thought.

When I say a literal mountain of demon beasts, I mean a literal mountain of them. There were no routes of escape. She couldn't move away from there.

If she did then also those beasts would come flooding down directly toward us.

It was a lost cause.

I stretched out my hand and tried to reach out to him. I used every single muscle fiber available in my body, but it still wasn't enough. I tried using magic, but I couldn't.

"Aggghhhhhhhhh!" I grumbled in frustration.

Why wasn't this working?

"Hush now, boy," he said while blocking the beast with his sword. "Let daddy handle this, for once," he said.

He pulled his sword back and dashed to the side, the beast grabbed in the air and got nothing. He kicked the beast to the side and leaped away before it could turn and come at him.

Taking a few steps back, he changed his posture. Planting his feet on the ground he held his sword tightly and then launched himself toward the beast.

He reached close and drilled his sword forward. But then he stopped.

His shoulder turned red as the beast bit off a heavy chunk of flesh from his left shoulder and some part of his neck.

I clenched my fist and gritted my teeth; in the process, I bit my tongue.

Father stood still, but for some reason, so did the beast. After a moment the one who fell was not him, but the demon. There I saw it. Before the demon had bitten him he was successful in plating the sword in its core.

"Why…" I mumbled. "WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY!"

I screamed and smacked the ground with my hands, damaging my skin in the process.

"Uggghhh! Damn it!" Yet again.

There came a sword, and it flew right past me and behind me. I heard a scream, and it was of a beast. Looking behind I saw one of them, with a sword stuck in its chest right where the core is found.

I looked back at my father, he was facing me and standing somehow. He wasn't dead yet. There as I saw him standing there with a satisfied smile on his face rather than pain and despair, I remembered one thing he'd said.

'I wanted to be a hero.' and heroes never live a long life.