Black Stained Winter: Chapter 12 - "Exit the White"

The black stained assassin rushes forward with knife on his hand. His eyes look feral and focused on the man before him, ignoring the lady with fire floating around her. He moves fast but without elegance. His steps are heavy and too powerful, leaving behind series of cracks on the ground.

But, with that kind of kicking power, he’s already in front of his target in no time. This time, unlike Vahn previous sudden burst of speed, Rick is ready. He’s prepared and unfazed by the speed the assassin shows. With ease, he blocks one of Vahn’s attack. Yet, without any pause Vahn releases another attack. And another. And another.

More prepared than before, this time Rick can handle this kind of barrage of attacks. Each of the attacks is handled with no discernable difficulty. With more control of the battle, Rick able to confidently throw counters. But, even with losing most of his reasoning, Vahn still able to handle Rick’s counters and delivers counter-counters.

The two men continue to trading blows. The speed of their execution is so fast and hard to follows. To untrained eyes, they look like a blur and looks fuzzy. And even with their superhuman speed and senses, every now and then an attack connect, both from Rick and Vahn. Some of Vahn’s attacks slip through Rick’s defenses and so do Rick’s.

Although the two of them get hit a lot of times, but the damage resulted is different. Vahn is using his knife to attack, thus each time it went unblocked a long wound cut through Rick’s skin. And his punches hit Rick’s face several time too, leaving his nose bleeding.

Rick’s punches are more powerful than Vahn’s. It hits Vahn several time in the face and body; it even breaks some of Vahn’s bone. Yet, every time Vahn get hits, he stays unfazed. He doesn’t stagger nor slowing down. It’s weird how Vahn able to withstand all that attacks without getting hindered by it.

And then, Tama, who all this time watching from the sideline waiting for opening, notices something. She notices that Vahn’s left arm is already broken more than twice, yet he’s still using it vigorously as if it’s never broken in the first place.

“Mister Hobo! He can heal his wounds almost instantly!”

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 11 - "Enter The White"

“So, this is your real form?” Rick asks Tama followed by taking a bite from bread on his hand. He still can’t wrap his head around the fact of Tama’s real form.

“Yeah, this is how I truly look,” Tama stands and spins a bit while smiling, showing off her now-adult-like body. Her long pink hair and blue Japanese kimono sway around as she slowly spins.

“Hm,” Rick averts his eyes and looks slightly up to the trees. He’s not really comfortable looking at such a beauty as close as this.

“Oh, oh!” Tama leans forward to Rick who’s sitting down eating his bread, “My memories has returned too! I guess the black thing clouded it or covered it or something.”

“That’s great news!” Rick looks happy from the news. Tama looks happy seeing Rick happy. 

She finds a good spot and sits in a kneeling position on the ground, “Alright then, what do you want to know, mister?”

“Hm, let’s see. First of all, where are you from and why are you here?”

“That’s easy to answer. Tama comes from Spiritrealm. There are gates scattered all around the Spiritrealm that connected to Earthrealm. And just so you know, I’m one of the designated guardian of one of the gate,” Tama looks very proud as she says that.

“Although,” she continues, “I don’t think the gate I guarded connected to this particular area. The gate should be connected to a place called Japan.”

“Huh. That’s really far away from here. How did you get here?”

“That’s a really good question. I’m not really sure how I get here either. Hmm…” Tama closes her eyes and appears to be thinking or trying to remember something.

Announcement: My Blunder, Chapter List, and No Chapter This Week

Hello and welcome to 'Wings of The Ravens' (WotR) website. This is the author speaking, Benard HP aka mrBenz.

This is the first announcement and non-story post since the start of the series and it is needed because I made a very bad blunder.

I've mentioned in several place that I write WotR without a proper outline and doesn't really have rigid draft or planning. This means that although I have visions and basic ideas of how the story will go, I make the details and chapters on the way. This also sometimes ended with new ideas suddenly pops and then added to the chapters and even some chapters started like that.

You see, I've had a 5 month hiatus between chapter 5 and chapter 6 which was the time where I lost motivation to write even though I want to continue the story. This, unfortunately, resulted in me forgetting that chapter 5 actually ended around two in-universe days after the start of the series. Since I already wrote chapter 6 halfway before the hiatus, when I finally get motivated again I just continued that and didn't bother to check chapter 5. I ended up thinking that it still the day after chapter 3 and chapter 4 not happened yet while in fact it's already two days and chapter 4 is already happened.

This resulted in the wrong chapter 9; it was written thinking that chapter 4 hasn't happened yet and thus (SPOILER) Aqua is still unconscious and Ren's sister, who was mentioned in chapter 4, is still there. Of course, if we're looking at chapter 5 we would know that this is wrong.

Thus, I wrote a new chapter 9 with the correct timeline. I already post it right before this announcement. It contains a new and different story of Ren but still the same story of Rick and Tama. There's only a slight edit and adjustment to correct the time on Rick's part of the story and the whole Chapter 10. The old chapter 9 is still online for the sake of completeness and a reminder of how stupid I was.

Another news, based on suggestion of a good gentleman on the comment section, I included a 'Chapter List' page that listing all chapters in chronological order. It will be updated each time a new chapter released. You can find it on the Navigational bar under the title banner on each page.

And last, a little unfortunate, but the result of day's mistake and rewrite of chapter 9 means there will be no chapter 11 this week. The time needed to check my mistake and find a way to fix it was actually need more time than I expected. Please expect chapter 11 to be released next week as usual on Friday.

That's all for the announcement for today. Thank you for reading and please continue to support Wings of The Ravens.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 9 - "Red Blood and Black Mist"

The sun is already high. But, as like any other day in winter, the sun is unable to make people warm. And such is the condition of one small room in a certain building in a certain part of the city. A young woman, sitting in the bed with her arm bandaged, is looking at one side of that room. There resides one small device that glowing red and radiating warmth all around the room.

“It’s one impressive little device,” Aqua, the young woman, is impressed with the portable heater. She’s curious about how the device work, but the pain from her injuries is winning against her curiosity. She decides that it’s better to just rest for now. She could ask the owner of the room about it later.

Aqua then turns her head to the book on her lap. It’s a ‘novel’, Ren said to her. A book that contains a fictional story created to entertain its reader. There’s a similar kind of book in Demonrealm, but novel is different. In Demonrealm, story books tell stories of grand adventure, heroic achievement, and grandeur. Yet, this particular novel she’s reading for example, although it tells story of achievement, is telling story of someone that’s insignificant to the world. But, to her amazement, it doesn’t lessen the excitement of the story.

She’s been reading this book since this morning when Ren went out. He said that he’ll be gone for a while, yet it’s already hours since he left. Aqua’s glad that she asked for some books before he left. With the help of general English dictionary and her basic English knowledge, she can learn quite a lot about Earthrealm simply from reading a book.

Although she’s having fun reading, but Aqua’s not too comfortable being alone. As a princess, she usually had companions almost all the time. Plus, it’s been a while since she had her breakfast. She’s not hoping for Ren to be home soon, she just want him to bring her something to eat.

*click*

Aqua looks to the door when she hears the door’s unlocked. The door opens and there he is in his red jacket and pink scarf. Ren comes inside and closes the door behind him. Aqua is about to comment on his lateness but then she stops herself when she notices something. There’s blood dripping from his arm and staining his white shirt. Aside from the arm and gaping wounds on his stomach, there’s also small cuts and bruises here and there.

“Ah, I’m back,” Ren greets Aqua in a nonchalant way despite his condition.

“Wait, what happened to you?” Aqua closes her book and put it on her side.

“Hm? Ah, this? Nothing much. Just got into a fight,” Ren removes his scarf and hangs it in the hanger near Aqua’s scythe.

“Why are you act like it is nothing? That wound,” Aqua points to Ren’s stomach, “looks really bad!”

“Wait,“ Ren turns toward Aqua as he about to removes his jacket, “Are you worried about me?”

“Of course, I am!” She answer without hesitation, “if something happens to you, who would take care of me while I’m in this condition?”

“That’s a valid reason, I guess. Ugh,” Ren flinches as he remove his jacket. It seems that the sleeve of his jacket is sticking slightly to the wound on his arm and hurts a bit when it’s pulled.

“Hey,” Aqua calls Ren.

“Hm?”

“You need help?”

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 10 - "Skirmish Above The City"

“Ugh,” a man’s grunt can be heard under the moonlight. Two day has passed since he fought with his contract and lost. Yes, he hate to admit it but he lost. He, a trained assassin, lost in a battle to a barehanded homeless man.

He slowly lifts his head and look around. He’s still there. He’s still in the park where he fought the homeless man. He’s still in his trademark white hooded jacket from that day. In fact, he hadn’t got the chance to change. Right after he managed to escaped, he passed out. Luckily for him, he fell in a secluded part of the park thus no one found him.

The assassin stands slowly and leans his back to the nearest tree. His body hurts all over. Everytime he breaths, he feels pain on his chest. He slowly run his hands on his chest. A sudden sharp pain tells him that his ribs are broken. The punch from the Hobo must’ve been so powerful to be able to broke his ribs easily.

He pushes himself away from the tree using his right hand when suddenly pain strikes his arm. It looks like his right arm is slightly fractured. He tries to move his arm around and decided the damage isn’t too bad unless it takes some strain.

After feeling that he’ll be able to walk for some distance, he goes through the shrubs into the concrete pathway that connected to the main street. As he walks, he rummages his pocket and found some money in it. He needs those to get something to eat for he hasn’t eat anything for two days. 

The night is still young and the street is still filled with commuting people. The road is busy with cars going in both directions stopping only when the traffic lights turn red. The assassin in white walks among the crowds, eyes scouring trying to find place to eat.

He walks his legs toward the first place that catch his attention. A well-known fast food chain. He walks through the automatic door and get into the line. The place is crowded and noisy. No wonder, it’s dinner time. People look toward him as he enter the place with slight annoyance. It seems they’re not comfortable with his appearance covered in dirt and some hints of blood here and there.

“Hey, how are you? Bad day?” The young guy manning the register politely asks as soon as the assassin comes to the counter.

“Yeah, something like that,” his answer come out sounds tired.

The cashier catches the hints and decided to not engage this customer with idle chit chat, “So, dine in or take away?”

The hungry man looks over his shoulder. He prefers to eat in the crowds, blending it. The crowds provide passive defense. He’d looks less suspicious in the middle of people and harder to find. But, in this particular time, that is not the case. With his battered looks and  messed up appearance complete with dirt and blood, he would stand out instead. People attentions will be drawn to him and make it more easier to find him.

“Yeah, I don’t think dine in would be a good idea,” he signalling the cashier to his appearance.

“Um, yeah, I agree with you on that. So, what’s the order then?”

He orders two biggest burgers the place has and a pack of fries. He pays it and as soon as the order’s ready he grabs it and walks through the exit. As soon as he exit the building, he opens his brown paper bag and grabs a burger. Without wasting any moment he opens the paper wrap and chow the burger down. He’s so hungry and the taste of food on his mouth is exhilarating.

The man keeps eating down his burger and finishes right in front of an old hotel. It’s the place where he stays in this city. The hotel looks run-down and slightly dirty with walls covered in graffiti. The street where it is located is dimly lit. Some homeless people can be found resting in the dark alleys. This area perhaps what’s considered as the slum of the city.

The assassin enters his room in the top floor of that old hotel and locks the door behind him. His body feels heavy and really need a nice rest. But, before that he need to get cleaned and satisfy his growling stomach first. 

He puts the paper bag on the table near the window and reaches inside to grabs a handful of fries. Some pieces of fries fallout from his hand as he shove them into his mouth. Feeling bad wasting food, he bends down to picks the fries.

*crash*

Out of nowhere, something flies in really fast from outside the room through the window and barely misses the assassin’s head. It penetrates and leave a small hole and cracks on the window. The assassin instinctively ducks and hide below the window. He looks at the floor and founds a bullet stuck on the wooden floor.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 9a - "Spearman's Sisters"

Author's Note: This chapter 9 was written in mistake and thus is non-canon to the story since it is located in a wrong timeline. You can read the correct and canon chapter 9 here. For more information what's wrong with this exact chapter, you could read about it here. This chapter is still online for the sake of completion.

When he opens the door to his room, Ren sees a pair of woman boots still lined up tidily inside near the wall. That’s mean that his older sister is still there.

“Ren, is that you?” A nice and gentle voice of a woman comes from inside the room.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Ren removes his boots, puts it near the wall tidily besides his sister’s boots, and proceed to enter the room. 

Inside, washing her hands on the sink is a pretty woman in a light blue sweater and gray skinny jeans. Her slightly wavy dark brown hair is tied up in a ponytail, showing off her white neck. Her face is framed with her bangs that fall down to the both side of her face. A white framed oval glasses add a refined feels to her looks. She’s Elizabeth, Ren’s older sister.

Ren walks to the bedside and looks at the unconscious young woman. She looks much better than when he left this morning. He was thrown out from his own room by his sister when she decided that she needed to remove the wounded girl clothes to treat her wounds.

“Ren!” Elizabeth looks surprised when she turn her head to Ren as he come in. She sees a long slice wound on Ren’s abdomen. Not just that, there’s also several light wounds here and there. She quickly turns off the faucet and approaches Ren. “What happened this time?” She squats to take a closer look of the wound. Her face shows concern.

“Come on, Elie. This is not that bad.”

“Not that bad? This cut is quite deep. A little deeper and you’d be bringing your insides back home in your bag.”

“Yeah, I was lucky I guess.”

“There’s no such thing as lucky when you run headfirst into stuff that could kill you,” Elie stands and walks to get her bag on the small table, “You sit tight there. I’ll treat it in a moment.”

“Thanks, but I can treat this on my own.”

“Shush! Hear your sister, will you? Or you want me to slap that wound of you and leave you bleeding here to death?”

“Ugh… Alright, alright,” Ren complies to his sister’s order after he briefly recalls the grisly moment when he refused to be treated by her. He walks to the window and sits under it. Elie then sits in front of him with her bag full of medical equipment.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 8 - "Impasse"

The sun is reaching its peak, yet it still feels somewhat chill thanks to the winter breeze. It was just last night that Ren met the infamous Hobo and fight a demon. It was just last night that he brought an injured demon girl back to his place to treat her injuries. And it was just this morning that he met the city mayor face to face for the first time. And now, he’s here. Someplace just outside the city. Located in the hill and surrounded by curtains of trees. Sweat flowing down through his forehead, blood dripping from his right arm, and breath are rushing in and out of his lungs. His hand gripping his spear tightly, his legs are tense, ready to react in a moment notice, his eyes focused at the enemy in front of him. A man in a black suit of armor.

It’s been a while now since Ren and this man battled, but it looks like a winner is yet to be determined. Both men are strong; both men are skilled. Every strikes are almost always readable and every hits are countered. The previously normal landscape is now filled with loose rocks and craters from the intense battle between these two men.

And now, they both stand at a distance from each other, eyes locked to the opponent before them while still catching their breath. This battle is exhausting for them; they never fight anyone with equal strength before. Now they need to be careful with their movement. The first one who makes a mistake will be the first one to kiss the ground.

Then, at the same time, both armed men dashed forward. The armored man slashes horizontally and create an invisible blade that moves forward in high speed. Yet, Ren’s reaction is faster. He jumps over the invisible blade and follows with a strong thrust with his spear toward the armored man. For a split moment Ren’s jade colored spear acts as if it increases in length and in almost an instant almost hit its target.

The man does a quick sidestep to avoids getting impaled and manages to dodge the elongated spear. But, it’s not actually increases in length. Ren’s attack is simply traverse way longer than the tip of his spear and leaving greenish trail in its wake. To the untrained eyes, this looks as if the spear itself getting longer and hit the ground before instantly revert back to its original length.

The man himself is barely dodge the attack. The attack was so fast that it still scratch his shoulder. But that doesn’t hinder his movement. Right after the dodge, he jumps up toward Ren and do an upward slash with his sword.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 7 - "Emptiness"

With enough force, Ren pushes the armored man’s sword with his spear and swiftly delivers a quick kick to his abdomen. The man thrown backward several meters but still able to keep his balance to avoid falling down.

“I can handle this, Rick,” Ren tells Rick when he sees Rick is about to enter fighting stance, “Just go inside and get Tama out.” Rick looks hesitant at first but soon break out from his stance and runs straight toward the door where the armored man came out. 

“Not so fast!” The man raises his arms over his head with his blade facing forward parallel to the ground. With tremendous speed he swings it hard toward the path where Rick will be in a few moment. The armored man is far from Rick, yet his slashing sword creates an invisible blade that move towards his target in a great speed. This invisible blade is powerful enough to leave the earth scarred in its wake.

Rick notices the trail created by the invisible blade and abruptly trying to stop. He was running too fast that it is hard to suddenly stop. It is remarkable how the man able to calculate Rick’s speed and the speed of his sword slash; the invisible blade passes Rick only mere several centimeters in front of him just right when he’s able to stop. If he failed to stop in time his fate would be similar to the now splitted rows of trees.

“That was way too close to be comfortable.”

“I won’t let you two go any further,” the armored man enters a ready stance, facing sideways to Ren with his sword being held low pointing to the ground with his right hand concealed behind his body.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 6 - "Being Processed"

“So, who is this Gerogom guy?” Rick asks as they arrive at the city’s outskirt. Behind them is the city and in front of them are rows of chain-link fences. Behind those fences are thick rows of trees forming the forest that continues to the mountain ranges. The fences continues far to the left and right that one can’t see the end of either side from where Ren and Rick are standing.

“An elf,” Ren answers as he approaches the fences and then turns to looks to Rick, “And also a mad scientist.” As soon as he said that, Ren leaps over the three meters high fences without visible efforts and lands smoothly on the other side.

“Mad scientist? There really stuff like that in this world?” Rick follows Ren and jumps over the fences.

“You battle a demon two days ago, we’re currently trying to find a girl with animal ears and tail, and you don’t believe in mad scientist?” Question Ren in a calm, almost monotonous manner of speech. He reaches into his bright red jacket, pulls out a pack of toothpicks, and takes one of them and put it in his mouth as if it’s a cigar. “That’s cute,” Ren adds as he puts back the pack to his jacket.

“Hmf, I guess you’re right.”

As they start walking, Rick notice boards with warning written on them hanging from many trees

WARNING! PRIVATE AREA!

TRESPASSER WILL BE PROCESSED!

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 5 - "The Pain Within"

“Mister!” A cute high pitched shout can be heard in the sunny winter morning. The owner of that cute voice is a pink haired fox girl, Tama. After the unexpected event from the previous night, she just went away into curtains of trees. Gone just like that. Yet here she is, returning once again to the camp of the homeless people. “Ah, I thought you already return to your realm,” says The Hobo. He sits near one of the fire on the camp. There are only a handful of homeless people on the camp right now, so the appearance of the fox girl not really make a scene. Tama runs toward The Hobo and take a seat near him, “Oooh, this feels warm.” Her hands are facing towards the fire to catch the warmth of the fire in front of her. “We haven’t had the chance to talk yesterday, aren’t we?” “Sure, sure! It’s all thanks to those demons and hooded guy!” “So, why are you here and how?” The Hobo starts. “Hm, that is a really good question! I don’t know either,” she answer with ease. “Wait, why?” The Hobo is not expecting that answer. “I can’t remember anything before I arrived here,” she shrugs, “When I came to, I realized I’m on earthrealm and nothing else.” “So you lost your memories, huh. You doesn’t look burdened by that, though.” “Yeah, I guess. I know I need to regain my memories, but thinking too much of it and burdened by it won’t help me, isn’t that right, mister?” Tama turns her head to The Hobo and smiles. “True that,” he didn’t expect that kind of thinking from someone that looks so young. “Although,” she adds, “those black stuff coming out from those demons feels somewhat familiar.” Suddenly, Tama winces as if she’s in pain. The Hobo realizes that, “Hey, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Tama nods, “Yeah, yeah. I’m okay. There was a sudden and brief pain that come from nowhere.” “Is it from yesterday’s fight?” “Uh-uh,” Tama shakes her head, “It already comes and goes from before that.” “Hm, that might be serious.” “Maybe, maybe.” The two go silent. The Hobo is trying to remember whether he knows someone who can help or not while Tama is wondering why the pain is not gone yet like previously. Yes, she lied. It used to come and go, but this time the pain persist. She doesn’t want to make the kind person to worry since the pain is very bearable. It’s akin to sore and doesn’t feel dangerous so she keeps quiet.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 4 - "In The Small Room"

The sun's shining through the gaps in the curtains, a small fan running in one corner blowing cool air all around the small room, and water drips unto the sink every couple of seconds. On the bed in the corner of this small room, lies a young women. A blanket covers her from her feet to her chest which rises every time she breaths in her sleep. Seeing her peaceful sleeping face, one wouldn't imagine the harshness she have been through just the other night.

Slowly, the long haired girl opens her eyes. Grey ceiling; that's the first thing she sees. Her body feels heavy and her head is aching. She turns her head carefully to see around. Although she can't see quite well after just waking up, she know this is not a place she know. And when her consciousness finally come fully to her, she feels sharp pains on her abdomen and left arm.

Using her right arm as support, she slowly rises her upper body and sit straight. With every movement that involve her chest and stomach, sharp pains strike her. When she finally sitting up right, she moves back to lean to the frame of the bed. She can't believe how painful and tiresome it was only for sitting up. She starts to breath a little heavy, although in short moment she seems able to control it.

When the pains receded, she turns her eyes toward her left arm. It's covered in white bandages and can't be moved freely; not that she wants to move it since it's really hurt to just moves it slightly. It seems there's a long, thin and hard thing inside the bandages that prevents her arm to move freely. A splint. Judging from the treatment and the degree of the pain every time she move her left arm, she's guessing her left arm is broken.

The girl's red ruby colored eyes then notices that she's wearing something unfamiliar to her. It's not her clothes that she wore that night. It's a simple sleeping robe with sky blue color. Underneath is her body wrapped in bandages with some pinkish stains on it. On the floor besides the bed are piles of bandages and cottons, stained red with what seems like blood.

She lifts her face and gazes around the small room; the bed she's on lies in one corner, a small desk fan is sitting in a short table across the bed on which a closed black laptop rested, a sink and stove are occupying the area on the other side of the table with a small fridge standing below the sink, the door that seems to lead to outside lies facing the door. There's also a small door with frosted glass near the sink and stove and a sliding door between the table and the sink. A small curtained windows decorates the wall between the bed and table. The room is small and simple, yet doesn't feel cramped. All of the stuffs are sticking to the sides of the room, giving quite a comfortable space in the middle of the room.

The girl notices her belongings are here in the room. Her big scythe that usually act as proof of identity leaning to the wall and supported by the end of the bed while her now ruined and bloody clothes can be seen hanging out from the sink. Between her wounds, piles of bloody bandages, and her belongings in the room, she suspects that whoever own the room was tending her wound.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 3 - "Two Demons, Two Men"

The Great Green Park spreads several blocks. Its enormous size inadvertently cuts several main roads and force people to get around it. To compensate with this, roads that connect each sides of the park were made. Those who need to get to the other side of the park can simply utilize the roads and go through the park either by foot or in a vehicle. A lot of people thus cross the park in daily basis.

One such man is still walking inside the park tonight. His bright red jacket is in contrast with the dark surrounding. A pink scarf is stylishly circling his neck, keeping it warm. His legs are covered by blue denim and his foot by brown boots. His tidily brushed back black hair is shining from the moonlight. On his mouth between his lips is dangling a piece of wood, a toothpick.

This guy visits the park almost every day; either just crossing it or enjoying the atmosphere of the park. His uncanny sense of fashion make him easily stands out in the crowd, especially because he always wear that eye-catching pink scarf everyday regardless of the weather. The homeless man refer to him as 'Mr. Dandy' because his fashion sense.

Just like every night, Mr. Dandy is still walking in the Great Green Park. His hands find refuge from cold inside his jacket's side pocket. He is on his way back home after bought and ate his favorite pork dumpling. The Great Green Park lies between his place and the store that sells it. Tonight is not the first time he went to such length only for a pork dumpling.

A winter breeze blows, sending cold air all around. Mr. Dandy stops in his steps. No, not because the breeze affecting him and make him feel cold. No, he is stopping because he noticed something unusual, something that not supposed to be here.

*Sniff* *Sniff*

Mr. Dandy raised his nose and trying to catch the scent that was brought by the passing wind. Between the usual scent of grass, leaves, flowers, and woods, mixed in a scent that shouldn't be here. It's a scent that Mr. Dandy hasn't encounter for years. The source of the scent is something not from this world, something that out of place. The source of the scent is...

"...A demon."

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 2 - "The Unlikely Target"

It is cold. The winter is already here. The man in white clothes seems not bothered by the cold wind blowing through the gaps from the trees around him. He’s not in this enormous park for a walk nor for sight seeing. He want to kill a person.

He is one of the member of the Assassin’s Order. They are hired by anonymous clients and kill their target without question asked. The assassin who’s in the Great Green Park right now has an interesting target. A homeless man; he’s known as The Hobo. The Assassin has handled a lot of contract before, but never as weird as this one. His previous targets were politician, country leaders, rebel leaders, big company CEOs, and other kinds of important people. But this? A homeless man? Why is someone want to kill a specific homeless man? And how hard is it to kill one?

He grumbles while tons of questions fly over his head, wondering the purpose of this kill. He feels somewhat insulted to be given a task to kill a mere homeless man. Are the upper echelons have low assessment of him? The Assassin want to kill this Hobo guy quickly and then return to base as soon as he can and prove that he is able to finish his contract easily.

***

Whatever he thought about this homeless guy is wrong. The Hobo just blocked his sharp and fast knives with bare hand as if it’s just a normal punch. The Assassin has trained all his life to achieve what he consider as the peak of human physique. His slashes were accurate, fast, and filled with his power, yet this homeless man in front of him simply shrug it off. Forget about finishing the contract easily, he even doubt he could kill the Hobo without injury.

“So, why are you trying to kill me?”

Ignoring the question, the Assassin lunges forward and swings his knife at the Hobo once, twice, thrice. The Hobo ducks, steps aside, and moves sideway; he dodges all of the slashes with such small and precise movement. His face shows that he doesn’t need much effort to dodge.

Feeling his attacks were ineffective, the Assassin steps back. Questions run amok in his mind. Who is this man? How could he do that? Amidst the storm of unanswered questions, at least one finally has an answer; he finally knows why he is the one they sent. This hobo guy is strong and perhaps annoys some people in power, thus the reason why he need to be killed. And he is given a contract to kill a homeless man is not because they think lowly of him, but because they think he can bested the Hobo in a fight.

Unconsciously, the Assassin smirks. He’s glad that the upper echelon still think highly of him. This Hobo guy perhaps is the strongest and most troublesome target he ever has. But, he looks at it as a challenge. Beating this guy may be a test of his skill. Plus, it’s been a while since the last time he go all out.

With one deep breath, the Assassin rushes forward. His speed is incredible, in just a blink of an eye he already arrived in front of the Hobo. Surprised with how fast the Assassin is, the Hobo unable to dodge the first slash and is forced to parry it. This proves to be fatal. By parrying the first slash, the Hobo has given the Assassin the momentum to continue slashing non-stop without able to dodge.

Black Stained Winter: Chapter 1 - "The Beginning of Winter"

The sun has set and the night has fall. The night will be longer now since it’s already winter. The moon is nowhere to be seen, clouded by the thick layer of clouds pouring cold drizzle unto the sleeping city. People on the streets are wrapped tight inside their winter coat, trying their best to prevent the chill get to their body.

On the heart of the city, lay a huge green patch. Great Green Park, a big city park spreads amidst the towering skyscrapers. With it’s own lake, huge open spaces, and areas covered in foliages, the Great Green Park is one of the most visited place in the city. Spreading several blocks, the park is so enormous that most people hasn’t even seen all part of the park.

On one of the corner of Great Green Park, there are camps. A flock of homeless people gather and live there. The authority obviously has problem with it and of course has tried to get rid of them in the past. Led by an enigmatic young man only known as the Hobo, the collection of homeless people rendered the authorities effort fruitless. In the end, to avoid unrest within the society, the city left them alone and let them live there.

Just like every night, the park is quiet and almost feels lifeless, yet the homeless camps are brimming with life. Fire are blazing on sporadic spots across the camps spreading warmth to the people circling them. The people chat, drink, and eat, protected by the warming flame. Although they don’t have a permanent roof protecting them from nature, they seem content with what they have right now. What they do now is just like other communities out there; hanging out and sharing with each others.

On one of the fire spot, sitting alone a young man. He is known only as the Hobo, leader of the homeless man. He has done many things for the homeless community and regarded as their leader whether he intended it or not.

The Hobo’s eyes glistening red reflecting the dancing flame in front of him. His hand is holding a loaf of bread which he bit every now and then while waiting for the corn, his dinner, on top of the fire to roast nicely. He tries his best to conserve the bread so he can use it for breakfast all while holding down his hunger. The smell of the roasted corn fills the area, makes it harder for him to stay sane.

*Rustle* *Rustle*

The Hobo turns his head. He heard rustling sounds from the bushes near him. It’s already night and cloudy, the lack of light makes it hard to see far. Hobo squints his eyes to let the light more focused.

*Rustle* *Rustle*

Again. But this time the Hobo can see it. Something is moving there. “There’s something there, Hobo.” Some of the homeless man noticed it too and start to gather near the Hobo. “Well, yeah, I can see that, guys.” His eyes stay on one spot, not moving at all from the bushes.