What is a monster, but a miserable pile of man! [Mission]

Posts : 65

Objective

Galateia huffed and panted as she straightened back after an intensive session of getting wrecked by Rose over and over again. This time the woman put some sort of thing on her puny “rapier” sword so that getting stabbed didn’t actually do any damage to the young warrior, the sword just somehow bent like a twig which didn’t stop amusing the girl. Every time she saw the rapier bend after what would’ve been a stab to her skull the girl just fell on the floor and rolled in laughter. Initially it annoyed Rose but then the woman decided to join in on the fun and laugh for a while too, she could use a break anyways.

Now after having faced the woman at her full strength Galateia witnessed the difference between the two, before she managed to beat the woman but only because she became one tenth as fast as she was normally due to fatigue. At Rose's full speed the young warrior barely could even track her movements, she was all over the place and her bendy twig-sword only complemented the woman’s movements. Whenever the two weren’t sparring the nukenin trained by running around the small town and lifting weights, she had to become so strong that she could match Rose in speed with her gigantic sword.

“You know, if you dropped that thing and tried to land a punch on me you may fare a little bit better…” Rose kept taunting the girl, the training was tough but the woman felt strangely kind to Teia. No one has ever been like that with her, maybe just Aoi, but the despite Galateia’s continuous attempts to reject the woman’s “friendship” and keep things strictly “mentor-student”, Rose still acted very strange around her. The woman kept making her meals, she never cursed and yelled at Galateia, never stabbed her and left her to die like her father used to. The blonde just couldn’t get this training.

It wasn’t like Rose was keeping it back, she just acted very kindly towards breaking Teia’s bones during training. Despite her bluntened end of the rapier the woman’s thrusts still hurt like hell and left nasty wounds, still, Rose never called Teia “pathetic” or “useless” and told her that she was better off dead. That was not something the girl was used to, she kept feeling uncomfortable every time the woman hugged her after the training and kept trying to punch Rose for doing it but the woman always gallantly leapt out of the way and laughed it off.

They were training on a simple farm building, surrounded by the most amazing garden of roses, strangely enough the woman called the entire farm complex “the Garden of Roses”, probably the simplistic house she lived in embarrassed the woman compared to how sophisticated the garden was. Rose never trained in the garden so Teia just assumed that she wanted to keep the garden safe. The strange thing was that the townsfolk knew where their hero lived and came to visit occasionally. They still didn’t like Galateia but they were starting to get used to her, it was like when your best friend adopts a bad seed kid and you want to see your friend but you just want that kid to stop peeing in your cereal.

For that reason it wasn’t anything special to Galateia when a town fellow busted in the farm in the middle of training and called for Rose. He spoke of a small town nearby being plagued by some sort of “monster problem”, apparently his sister lived in that town and she recently came to visit and told him she’s afraid to go back home because of the horrible events going on there. Rose calmed him down, she noticed the awry stare that the villager gave to Galateia and smiled at them both, “Galateia-chan has been training pretty hard these days, she’s a real wonder this one, she’ll take care of your “monster problem”…” the farmer seemed very annoyed. “B…But… Rose-san… We all hoped that you would take care of it.”

The girl turned back, she didn’t care that the people didn’t trust her, that they rejected her. Such was wherever she went. Such was the fate of someone who lived only for battle, herbivores hated the predators because predators feasted on meat and the peaceful herbivores were afraid that one day the predator will feast on their meat. Little did they know that some predators were interested only in specific kind of food. Then again, Galateia probably couldn’t even spell neither the word “predator” nor “herbivore” so the metaphor would’ve been lost on her. All she was interested in was the described “monsters” that left only bones out of the people they ate. That sounded a lot like Jiangshi from her nanny’s stories…

“I’ll take them on!” the warrior exclaimed all out of a sudden as her lips shot out forward in a duck-like expression, it was a rebellious gesture towards that mean farmer. Rose giggled, “See? She’s glad to help!”, the farmer didn’t really mind the change of the warrior taking care of the problem after some convincing. He thanked Rose for the help and left. The woman placed her rapier sheathe near the armchair and sat down. “Well, I know you’re excited for a fight and to prove your worth to these people, I promise you that soon they’ll look at you differently and stop shunning you.” she said softly.

“I don’t care about that, those “monsters” do sound interesting though. I don’t want to be a hero like you, I just respect you for your strength and want to train with you to enjoy fighting more, that is all.” Galateia responded pouting like a child and turning to the wall, crossing her arms on her chest again. Rose scratched her forehead and smiled, “I swear to God it’s like having an immature bratty kid… Don’t take too long with this.” she said, Galateia didn’t bother to sleep over the evening, she just took her stuff that were pre-packed the whole time and started walking off into the snowstorm. Just an hour later she returned back to Rose’s little farm to ask for directions one more time…

After that the mission was on for real!

Posts : 65

The particular town in question was just what Galateia would have imagined it to be. It was similar in a lot of ways to the one she came from, the one that the girl was hesitant to call home as she as a criminal had no home. Even her stay with Rose, as much as the woman is trying to become her mother, won’t last. Eventually Galateia’s personality will cause the woman to hate the blonde and cast her out, it’s just a matter of time before everyone is out for the girl’s head again. Maybe soon it will be time to move, not back to Lightning Country, just somewhere else…

Slowly the warrior made way through the endless field of snow, trees surrounded the area shaping a huge tunnel of snow leading up to the town. Galateia could already tell something was off, usually towns were lit up by fires and filled with shouts of salesmen selling their things and services, what could have caused this town to look like a complete ghost town was beyond the numb skulled girl. Suddenly she realized that her armor plated boot had stepped on something, just out of pure luck that sharp quill hasn’t penetrated her boot and dug into her leg – it was a sharp and thorny steel edge of what looked like a chain.

Had the girl not been such a dumb youngling she’d have realized what was going on but now she remained standing there and with a curious look continued to observe the weapon laid down for someone to injure themselves. That was something that the invisible enemies intended to punish, they pulled the chain from under her feet and the bladed edge jumped up with the thorns cutting into the girl’s legs as the chain returned to its owner. This was no monster, this was a weapon of a crafty man. Galateia succumbed on her knees and looked over the grievous wounds on her thighs and her shins, it looked as if a pretty large knife had cut those spots. It was nowhere close to being lethal but it was dangerous.

“You’ve got nowhere to run now. If you run back – you’re dead, you ain’t getting nowhere with those wounds. You’ve only got forward to walk and we’ve got all night… This is gonna be fun!” a voice reached the girl’s ears, the man speaking may have been right by her side and she wouldn’t have seen him in this thick blizzard. The warrior started slowly walking forward, she didn’t understand this, these wounds weren’t made to kill her, they were made to cause her pain. Why would someone do that? Make weapons to cause pain instead of win them battles? The girl’s think skull just couldn’t pinpoint this strange way of thought.

Blood slowly dripped from the cuts on Teia’s legs but she kept walking, at this point the warrior was curious just what is going on. Are there going to be more traps? What for? Do these people just want her to suffer and don’t want her dead? Why would someone do that? Wish to kill people not because the two are fighting but just as a secondary result of wishing to inflict pain. “If your goal is to annoy me, you’ve succeeded, I’m proper pissed!” Galateia roared into the emptiness of the town being occupied only by Teia, whoever wanted to draw her blood and the blizzard. There were several skeletons laying around – those probably made people believe of those monster stories.

Suddenly Teia felt a strong grip, something had bearhugged her and tried to snuggle the life out of her that way, just what kind of people these “monsters” were? They just couldn’t decide if they wanted the girl dead or just bleeding. This one was strong, probably physically stronger than Galateia and that was not an easy feat many people had. The girl kicked her feet forward, bent them and drove them back straight into the “monster’s” groin, the thing roared loudly and let Teia go, the girl fell on her feet and rolled forward drawing her sword and turning around to face her attacker. The sight was neither a man nor a monster.

It was a large man, one of numerous in this Country, by now the girl had accepted that the people in Snow Country just ate more and grew larger, they also worked hard in the cold so they grew either thick layers of fat or impressive muscular builds. This one was a mixture of both, he was fat but also quite well built, just a thick man in general and not one anyone would be fond of slugging with – he was tall and had a part of his head missing. It looked like the right side of his head had been bitten off if there was someone with a gigantic enough jaw to cover this man’s pumpkin of a head.

Apparently this man was even dumber than Galateia – he barely spoke in an intelligible speech, he just spat things that were only words that were combinations of letters but had no actual meaning. “I like people who show me things, not ones who give me words, since none of those are words… Let’s go!” Galateia shouted out as she leapt forward, as expected the “monster’s” reply was more unintelligible banter. Teia’s sword swung left and right but the man’s bones were strong enough to withstand her cuts. The sword drew blood but Teia didn’t have enough strength to remove the limb entirely. With a powerful push the man sent the girl rolling back on the snow, Teia jumped right up and started breathing heavily.

“I think he’s too dumb to understand he should be dead… I like him…” the warrior smiled seeing the man missing chunks of flesh from her own assault, some of his limbs were almost cut off and hanging on just some muscle tissue and his gut was this close to falling out of the gash in his belly. The man charged forward in a pretty impressive pace, the girl tried to dodge but her legs refused – the blood just splashed out of her muscle and she remained on her knees as the man picked her up and didn’t stop running until he passed through two or three walls of buildings on his way. He then flipped the warrior over his shoulder and slammed her onto the floor.

As Galateia felt her own blood filling the room and getting all over her hair making it feel sticky this moment started to remind her of her childhood days, of all the times she trained with her father… Galateia’s consciousness was starting to fade. It was turning on and off randomly, it was as if she was jumping in time several minutes at a time. There the big guy was carrying her around, there was some other guy carrying the large chain that hit her legs, then there was another smaller guy and two more seemingly ordinary looking guys. None of them were lookers really, they barely even spoke words, mostly the same strange speech that the dumb giant spoke in. As the warrior saw herself getting tied to a pole she finally passed out for just another moment.

Posts : 65

The girl felt four sharp stabs simultaneously hitting her body. She looked over the wounds spraying off blood and fell on her knees, her Father’s feet walked into her gradually obscuring field of sight, her tiny child hands couldn’t keep all the blood from coming all over the floor as she hit the mat with a pathetic cry of pain. Mother entered the room, “Still no luck then?” Father tossed the knife he used to stab her multiple times into the wall, he caressed the Mother’s belly which was steadily growing larger as her day of delivering Teia’s brother was coming closer. “I told you, Nothing, you are just a Nothing in this house, you have no right to ask me to train and if you try to spar with me I shall treat it as an attempt at my life, now die already.” Father shouted out as he slammed the door.

The girl felt pain but also felt a sweet release of that pain close-by, it was so very similar to wanting to pee… As if one had this completely natural process in their way which was causing them pain and all they had to do to stop that pain was to let go. Galateia didn’t want to let go, despite everything, despite her parents not caring about her anymore, despite the entire village not caring she still crawled forward. “Father messed up my dress…” was her only thought as she reached for the bandages. This might be too big to bandage, she might need to burn these wounds again…

Teia’s eyes shot open as she felt a cold breeze matching that she felt near death. She was tied to a pole with five people sitting around five separate fireplaces, just warming their hands up. Galateia was cold too, she must’ve been out for quite the while so she was so cold… One of the men walked up and bit her in the neck, trying to tear a bunch of her flesh off but someone kicked or punched him in the back causing him to stagger back. Galateia wanted not to scream but the pain combined with the cold was too much. “Come on! Let’s just eat her already!” the man with the chain shouted out, apparently he was capable of intelligent speech after all.

The large man that knocked Teia out previously mumbled something. Something in his weird combinations of letters that were only word because the definition was so broad. The man got pretty mad after that, “So what if Father told us what to do, why the fuck should he pick what he wants to eat first!?” he shouted out in rage. Galateia spat out some blood that was coming up from her neck where she was bitten, she’s missed it – being close to dying, this sensation, feeling this sweet release from this pain being so close… “Father…?” her slipping, cold and hurt mind forced to utter. The man turned back and smiled with a smile of teeth that looked like they were sharpened with a stone.

“That’s right, hun, Father, what’s wrong, think your daddy misses you too? Feeling regret you didn’t kiss him goodbye before getting eaten by bunch of “monsters” in the Land of Snow?!” the man laughed out sarcastically making fun on the “monsters” part. “Well tell you what! Man is scarier than any monster, people make up monsters just to soften it up for children how really messed up man is! There are no monsters you stupid, stupid brat, doesn’t mean you can’t get eaten in a middle of the journey!” the man spoke not noticing Galateia’s eyes flipping over and her mind entering a state where she’s functioning on pure instinct.

A loud roar came from Teia, one that she herself was getting scared from, someone ran out of a nearby house and started yelling, “What the fuck is going on, I told you not to eat her ye…” the man froze as the girl’s survival instincts combined with her inhuman strength tore the ropes on her arms. “Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to just tie her arms, did you see the sword she’s carry…” the sharp teethed chain guy spoke as his neck instantly got snapped from behind. To someone like Galateia necks were so easy to snap, she’s learned something in this town, people sometimes hurt other people not because they are fighting, but because they want the other person to suffer, just to cause pain.

Galateia didn’t even bother to look for her sword, some idiot ran at her holding it, he lifted it over his head but he couldn’t force it any further, the girl slammed his head with her palm forcing his head to hit the sword hilt, she heard something loud crack and snap but she didn’t stop, she snapped the man’s neck too and then picked the sword up. The other one charged at her, his teeth were sharpened too, he had some nails that looked like they weren’t trimmed in years. “Wannabe monsters…” Galateia uttered as her mind returned to her body and the other bald “monster” fell on the ground in two pieces. Split right at the torso. The upper half still tried to crawl away but then his body realized it wasn’t worth it and just stopped moving.

The large man charged at her with all of his speed, yelling his unintelligible things, this time Teia was more mad and much smarter, she won’t dodge, she just swung her sword cutting right at the center as her claymore pierced through half the man’s height splitting half of his body in two. The giant fell on the ground too. Another strange man ran at her, he seemed to wear some sort of weird legs, probably wooden or prosthetics so it was impressive he could walk at all… The enraged warrior shouted back at him, her sword just flashed in the silver moonlight:

“QUICKBLADE”

The words were like the prediction of a storm of slashes that left the freak in pieces. Galateia turned around and started walking towards the “Father” of those “monsters” she stopped at least five meters to the man as he trembled on the floor, he knew it was useless to run. “So… What are you waiting for? Haven’t you learned anything right now? People are messed up, you’re just as messed up, you have to be to kill them, to survive, that’s the kind of world we live in, you got to kill so that you don’t die, you have to kill and enjoy it, own it because everyone else owns it. You have to kill, only by killing will you remove the threats of this world, threats to you and your family! I have no regrets, come on! Show me, kill me how you’ve killed my sons!!!” the man yelled. Galateia’s left hand raised and stroke her own wild blonde hair.

“I don’t really get what’s going on here and I wasn’t really listening to you that “Shark-tooth-guy”… Whatever… I saved you, Sir, your welcome.” she replied as the warrior turned around and started walking away. She could hear loud weeping, weeping that soon turned into wild and uncontrollable laughter. “You fucking bitch! You’re so dumb that you’re the actual freak around here!!!” the man kept laughing. Teia felt a heavy thud in the back of her head, angry she turned around and slashed at the man’s head opening his throat up and forcing him fall down and choke on his own blood. Teia stroke her hair again and saw some blood, whatever the man hit her with was pretty tough.

“I wonder what his problem was…” she uttered to herself as the warrior slowly started walking the way she came back to Rose’s farm. She had some more training to do, none of those guys were actually fighters, what was the point of them carrying around weapons or having those sharp teeth still eluded Galateia, her neck felt really off though, it’ll probably get infected which means Rose will have to take care of it, it happened to Rose once when Teia bit the woman accidentally when she took Teia’s sandwich, well, technically Rose made it but it was given to Teia so… It was her fault…

Spoiler:

[Mission Endo]