The woman swung her sword with great might, clashing blades and knocking Hiein's to the side before going for an attack of her own. One such attack could have killed him, if it hit.
Yet, she had the misfortune of being the prey of two teenagers. She was stabbed in the back of the leg from behind, decreasing the speed of the swing enough for Hiein to evade, before Hiein followed up with a slash to her stomach, splitting her open for a moment as she then healed, only to be met with a diagonal slash to the back from Jack.
She turned around, swinging the sword wildly as a result of being provoked so suddenly, only to be kicked in the back of the leg, dropping her to her knees as Damien raised his bone sword into the air, looking down at her and swinging down.
But before it reached, and perhaps cleaved her head off, he stopped, slowing the sword down to the point of only making it on the skin of her head, which allowed for blood to trickle down. He ripped the sword out of her head, to which she screamed and grabbed her scalp with both hands.
Damien backed away, swallowing his own saliva and staring at her with great intensity.
'Crud, I hesitated. But, I didn't… no, I don't—this is a life. And an intelligent one at that. I can kill an animal, but something like a human, that's…'
As he was dwelling inside his own inner conflict, Hiein took a bat made of blood and swung it down at the woman's head, cracking open her skull, not just her skin. Naturally, such a blow immediately knocked her out, and she laid on the ground, her fingers twitching.
As Damien looked down at it, the bat was tossed to him, which he quickly caught before Hiein stepped over her body without much worry, like he was stepping over a spill in the kitchen.
"Hey, finish her off, I'll get to work on the rest of them," Hiein said to Damien before summoning another bat of blood and lunging into the "adult" fight.
Damien looked down at the woman, whose body still did not move, with the exception of her digits, which pulsed like the ticking of a clock. The blood which was pooling from her head was quite frightening.
He couldn't think too straight, with his ears being surrounded by the sounds of grunts, the destruction of battle and metal scraping from swords clashing.
He shifted his hands further down the bat, closer to the proper handle before gripping it tightly.
'Gah, this… no, I can't, I can't hold back. After all, she's… but I don't want to kill anyone. What would dad say? Probably nothing crazy, so… do I do it?'
He took a deep breath, focusing on his heartbeat, which was so hard that he could feel it through the rest of his body. It was quite fast, as well, something that Damien found interest in.
'I have to. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta. It's the right thing to do, as technically, this is the family that made my brother into a traitor, which nearly got him killed. Alright, I'll do it.'
Then, Damien swung the bat into the air, and swiftly brought it down. The reverb it sent through his hands shocked him, as the solid object collided with a head. Blood spurted from the blunt force attack, to which Damien felt sick from it.
He raised the bat once more, and swung it down. Then, he repeated it. Each time he did it, it felt as though it got easier, and did not. It got easier as his body became adjusted with the sensation, but the more and more damage he did to the (most likely dead) woman's skull, the more violent it got, which made his heart hurt a bit.
But, nevertheless, he disregarded it, eventually bludgeoning her to the point that he was certain she'd been killed.
He'd killed his first person.
'And that's nothing to feel anything over. I'm just doing what I have to do in this situation.'
'This is nothing. It is the wind in the sky, it is the ghost that I cannot see. This is nothing. It means nothing, does nothing, and is only another aspect to existence. It is nothing special.'
So, his heart soothed itself, taking refuge in the emptiness of his actions. He chose not to think too hard about it at the moment, before double wielding both the bat and the sword.
"Alrighty, let's clean the rest up," Jack said, to which Damien agreed as the two joined in other fights.
…
Damien and Jack were both quite the fearsome team, especially when the other person was already fighting one or two people, making it a 3-4v1.
And when Damien licked the blood that was inevitably spilled in the battle, he healed and was then empowered via the blood, making him a capable combatant despite his lack of experience.
So, rather quickly, in fact, the battle came to a quick halt, as the members of the Graves family, for all their strength, were outnumbered to an unwinnable degree.
It is a bit of a pain to simply explain what happened rather than show it, but it would mostly consist of:
Damien and Jack join someone who's already fighting someone. Then, they jump them until they're overwhelmed to the point of death. Then, they go back and repeat until all opponents are defeated.
In truth, the only differences would be in the manner with which the opponent is killed/knocked out, and it's no good to write about violence if it's plain old unnecessary.
…
Hiein was in charge of cleanup duty, making sure the bodies were dead, and cleaning them up, making sure they couldn't be traced back to them.
Meanwhile, Damien and Jack sat around in the living room. The other groups had left, but those who weren't with Hiein's group had to stay until he finished his job. They got on their phones and watched videos.
Then, Damien got the bright idea and asked for Jack's contact information, which he received. He then sent Jack a video.
"Top 10 Scariest Fortnite Creepypastas. Number one, Evil Lake."
It was truly frightening, and just listening to the story was enough to send chills down the youths' spines.
However, Jack looked up from his phone with a fairly serious face. "Hey, we need to talk about something serious for a sec," he said.
"Ah, yeah, go right ahead," Damien replied coolly. Jack looked around at the destroyed house before them, and at the few corpses Hiein had not yet gotten rid of.
"Tell me," Jack said. "Are you alright? I'm assuming that was your first time killing someone, after all."
The jump in topic from a stupid creepypasta to literal murder gave Damien quite the whiplash. However, he tried to remain calm, and smiled.
"Ah, uh huh, yeah, it was… it was my first time, yep. What about it?" Damien said, scratching the back of his head and tugging on the hair a bit.
"My first time killing someone was pretty awful to me," Jack answered. "And unlike every other dragon, I feel like it is actually a big deal. They can kill without remorse, and I get that, but to us, who were mostly raised either near humans or as a human, it's not like that."
Damien swallowed his spit silently, exhaling through his nose as his smile faded into a slight, very slight, frown.
"Yeah. Um, I think I'm okay," Damien acknowledged.
"Are you sure? It's okay if you're not; it's not the end of the world," Jack stated.
Damien nodded his head.
"I… I don't really regret it," Damien remarked. "So, I think that, if I don't regret it, and I wouldn't change what I've done, then even if I'm sad that I had to do it, then there's no point in feeling bad about it."
If he did regret, and wish he'd done something else, then there was meaning to that sorrow. But, because he wouldn't have done anything differently, then it was pointless to feel pain over it.
So, any pain that he felt at the moment, was simply natural, and he would leave it be, to fade away.
"Alright," said Jack. "If that's how you feel, then I won't pressure you."
Damien smiled and let out an "mhm," before going back to watching those stupid videos of theirs.
Meanwhile, Hiein was approaching dragon form, devouring the corpses after making sure they were dead, and cleaning up the blood.
When he approached one dead body, that of a teenage girl, found dead in the kitchen after being impaled through the back of her throat with a sword, he prepared to make sure she was dead.
She was perhaps 17 or 18, with black hair and green eyes. In any case, he raised his bat into the air, and swung it down onto the back of her head.
However, rather than feeling the skull shatter and fold in on his weapon, it in fact bounced back, nearly hitting him in the face if he didn't dodge.
The human equivalent would be like hitting a metal wall with a bat, honestly.
His fingers felt tingly, as the skull was simply that hard of an exterior, before the girl popped back up. Her eyes were dead, lifeless, black and veiny. Blood came out in the form of tears, to which Hiein immediately called for the boys and Alicia, who was part of Hiein's group.
The group sprung into action, seeing the girl's body flail around its limbs, as her black hair began to grow longer and longer until it reached her feet.
"The heck is that!?" Damien yelled, taking out the bone sword, before the girl began to float into the air like she was possessed, her head rolling back as if it was broken.
No, it was broken.
Her mouth stood agape, making a small, shaky inhale like that of a ghost. Hiein rushed towards the others, getting away from the girl whose head lunged forward, her left ear hitting her chest as her skin became more and more pale until it was unnaturally white, like she'd just been swimming in white paint.
…
Hina Graves was born as a frail and sickly child, totally unlike what one might imagine for a dragon.
Initially, her parents and relatives wondered if she was even truly a dragon, due to her early complications which had been unheard of for a dragon, as a majority of them were healthy.
However, they kept her around anyways, and once she grew up, she did see better health. Once she reached the age of 12, it was absolutely no secret that she was a dragon, and so she was trained to figure out her Dragon Art.
She tried to manifest "death" in many, many different forms. She saw if drawing someone would kill them, she tried to test if she could kill small animals with a touch, she tried to create weapons of darkness to kill people, she tried to manifest black magic, she tried voodoo, possession, killing insects to see if she could take their souls or channel death, she tried, she tried, she tried and tried and tried and tried and tried.
But nothing came of it.
She showed the strength of a dragon beyond human means, but it wasn't particularly special. In fact, due to early sickness, her body wasn't as strong as the other dragons.
So, rather than living with the "important" people in New York City, or with The Strongest, Chad, she was essentially sent to live out with her mother, who despite receiving a great Dragon Art, wished to care for her above all else.
And being such a burden made her sick. She would rip out patches of her hair, bite her nails until they came off and healed them just to bite them once more.
Always looked down on, always seen as inferior, unable to manifest a Dragon Art which is something everyone should be able to do, she was hardly even a dragon or even a human in the eyes of everyone except those who were close enough to see the heart she'd built, the kindness and helpfulness she tried to have.
Which is why—
…
"Shameful Life… A Shameful Witch."
Those words came from the dead girl's mouth, as her final words before she died. No, no, no. Not that.
These words were presently being spoken, not before her death, but after.
A girl who'd lived a shameful life of inferiority and helplessness.
Now, manifesting beyond death, was the Witch of Death.