~Notes~
Couple things to note here..Blod’s sword is actually not the Red Katana, but it’s the Nameless Sword. Also, from now on, if you see the word ‘Fatalist’ pop up, you should know you’re in for really gruesome fight. Train yourself to remember it’s an automatic content warning. And I HOPE this chapter doesn’t inadvertently remind someone of an anime they already know..-_-

Episode 63 The Fatal Number

Tide clenches his teeth, his fists tightening so fiercely on the hilt of his Zard that they become white. “Say that again, hot shot?” he growls.

“Humph,” Recelo smirks, “I will. I said that you are not even worth killing. Now step out of the way, so that I can eliminate the girl.”

“Heh, not a chance!” Tide retorts. “Y’know, you’re really starting to piss me off. Saying all this garbage about me not being worth killing. How about I knock off that pretty little head of yours?”

Recelo ignores Tide, and straightens the Black Mamba coiled around his arm. Tide shivers slightly, his grip on his Zard loosening a little. “A Black Mamba?” he whispers hoarsely. “Whoa, wait, I thought he was a Warrior.”

Recelo smirks widely upon hearing him. “No,” he replies, “I’m not even a Warrior. I am a Hermit and Chief Bandit fusion!”

“‘Fusion?’” Tide repeats, blinking slightly in response. “Then what’s with the sword you’ve got right there?”

Recelo sighs, a flash of exasperation crossing his face. “You really don’t know anything, do you? At first I thought you were pretending, but you really are as stupid as a snail. I’ll say it again. I’m a Fatalist. We Fatalists achieve power by using a process called soul fusion, which we developed.”

“Soul fusion?” Tide wonders out loud.

“It is a method in which ordinary humans can gain power by splitting their soul and learning a new job all over again. Essentially it’s like restarting your life from the beginning, and then fusing both lives together. In this way, we gain power not even conceivable with the hybrid method,” Recelo explains.

“And you’re…a Hermit and Chief Bandit fusion?” Tide asks.

“Damn straight,” Recelo sneers. “Now you’re getting it!” All of a sudden, he reaches over to his side with his clawed hand. He draws his Doombringer, sliding it slowly but surely out of its sheath.

Tide stiffens, his battle stance tightening at this movement. ‘What’s he up to with that sword? I still don’t get why he’s even got a sword if he can’t use it.’

“Hahaha!” Recelo laughs suddenly, a loud, cackling, maniacal cry of homicidal mirth. “You’ve got this look on your face right now that’s just plainly asking me why I’ve got my sword. All right, you want to know so badly?”

Recelo finishes drawing his sword completely; the black blade is held in his hands, its smooth blade glimmering slightly in the morning sunlight. “We Fatalists have existed since the dawn of time. We’ve been on this planet longer than you humans, or even fairies. We have guided the events that have occurred in your short history.

“As such,” Recelo continues, his grip on his Doombringer growing stronger, “we were the first to develop skills. Once, long ago, we intended to show them to the Four of Victoria Island, and share them with humans. However, that is no longer our policy. While you humans have still been writing the skills for the Third and Fourth Advancements, we have already put into practice our own, more powerful, illegal skills.”

“Custom skills?!” Tide cries. “That’s just crazy. I won’t—”

Recelo cocks his head, the frown on his face widening. He cups a hand to his ear, tilting his head forward slightly. “What’s that you say? I didn’t quite catch it. You don’t believe me?”

Tide opens his mouth to reply, but before a sound even comes out, he hears a sharp, slashing breath of wind dart past him. Several of Tide’s hairs fall to the ground. He turns briefly, making sure to keep one eye on Recelo, while he looks behind him with the other.

The Doombringer is sticking straight out of the trunk of a tree, lodged in place by a powerful throw by Recelo. The tree is still quivering; several leaves and twigs fall to the ground, while birds that had been nesting there flee into the sky, shrieking fearfully.

“Get it now, kid?” Recelo asks harshly. “This sword isn’t my weapon…it’s my throwing knife!”

Ryuu narrows his eyes, as he gives the new arrival an austere look. His hands tighten around the hilt of his sword, as it continues to breath with a soft flare, crackling slightly in the chaos of Ellinia. Ayame, Sasha, and Lily line up next to him, backing him up.

The woman with long, black hair and her face hidden behind a mask stares back, grimly, and silently. Suddenly, she leaps down from above, landing lightly on ground level with Ryuu and the others.

“Who the hell are you?” Ryuu growls antagonistically, making sure to bear his sword in plain sight.

“My name?” the woman laughs softly. A katana colored a deep, blood red hangs in a plain black sheath by her side. “It is Blod, sixth-ranked Fatalist.”

“F-Fatalist?” Ayame repeats, quivering slightly.

Behind Ayame, a light shuffling stirs, though no one hears due to the sound of the flames leaping about and buildings crumbling. Mayor Wing crawls slowly forward on his hands and knees, nursing a heavily bleeding right arm. Black marks of soot stain his face, as his hair is ruffled and one of his wings has been singed black by a stray ember of fire.

Wing peers out through a break in two boughs of leaves, while he himself hides behind a bushy layer of tree safely away from the fire.

“I suppose there’s no need to ask,” Ryuu says resignedly, “you’re our enemy, right?”

“Correct,” Blod responds, her voice hardly hiding her insane glee at having located such strong-looking individuals. Without warning, she draws her sword with a piercing, grating sound. “There is only futility in attempting to hide.”

A crunch of twigs announces Wing’s arrival as he steps out of the bushes. He folds his arms, glaring back at Blod and the others. His injured wing flaps weakly in the crimson glow of the burning forest. “So you knew I was here all along,” he mutters.

“Well, duh, she came down from above,” Sasha whispers to herself, blinking confusedly.

Wing glares at Sasha. “H-Hey! Stop making fun of me!” After a moment, he rapidly regains his composure, giving Blod a surly glare. “More importantly,” he says, “who sent you here? The Myougun? If so, you have violated the treaty you wrote with my people. It was clearly stated that the Myougun may continue to attack Ellinia with our permission if they wish, but they would not hurt the fairies.”

Wing closes his eyes, thinking over his words for a moment. When he opens them again, an angry glow has appeared in them. “Yet,” he growls, “my people have been hurt!”

Blod shrugs, a menacing hum of impatience about her. “Myougun? I suppose you may say that. We Fatalists are here on the orders of Lord Duncan, Myougun leader.”

“Lord…Duncan?” Lily repeats.

Wing’s eyes widen slightly, though he shows no sign of being fazed. “Lord Duncan, eh?” he says softly. “In that case, you have violated our treaty indeed.”

Blod shrugs again, her impatience growing stronger. “I do not care about such trivial things. I am only here on my orders: kill all those that may be a threat to Lord Duncan and his cause.”

“Kill?” Ryuu wonders. “So you’re specifically here to kill us?”

Blod disappears in a black blur; next second, Ryuu raises his sword only just in time, as it makes contact with Blod’s considerably thinner blade.

“I suppose that’s a yes,” Ryuu growls between his teeth.

Without warning, Blod reaches for the mask on her face, and removes it completely, casting it aside. With the mask off, her face is completely revealed, allowing the others to see the inane smirk on her face, and her wide, violet eyes.

The others all gasp as one for a moment, before Blod presses lightly on Ryuu’s sword, using the momentum to push herself backwards. She dashes nimbly to the right, Ryuu’s left, and takes a wide, high-arching swing at him.

Ryuu blocks the attack, but not before she withdraws her sword with terrifying speed, aiming lower for Ryuu’s leg this time. Ryuu steps back instinctively, parrying the attack, only to be cut across the shoulder as he fails to raise his sword and counter quickly enough.

“Impossibly fast!” Ayame comments from the side. She bares her teeth, and jumps into the fray. “I won’t let you hurt Ryuu!”

Meanwhile, Sasha merely stands back, watching the battle unfold before her eyes. Her eyes dart left and right, tracking the movements of Blod. ‘Strange…’ she thinks, ‘She uses a one-handed sword, and yet has no shield? Why wouldn’t she opt to go for more power with a two-handed sword if she’s not gonna use a shield anyway? Unless…unless that’s part of her battle strategy.’

Ayame steps in, parrying Blod’s next attack for Ryuu. She throws Blod back with a powerful heave using her Geta, and takes a free swing at the woman.

However, Blod merely literally bends over backwards, eluding the attack. She swipes at Ayame’s feet with her own, and knock her over. Jumping over Ayame, she lands another wide, diagonal slash on target, hitting both Ryuu and Ayame at once.

Their wounds burst open simultaneously, as they cry out loud. Several pints of their blood leap and dance in the air, intermingling with each other.

Ryuu grabs his shoulder, holding his wound shut. He holds his sword in one hand, glaring angrily at Blod. “Damn, she’s fast!”

Ryuu bends his legs, preparing for a dive at the woman. “But she won’t get away from this one!” The glare and intensity of the flame on Ryuu’s sword suddenly multiplies intensely, as it rises into a blinding blur of red and white light.

“Die!”

Ryuu bounds forward, taking a swing; however, he skids to a stop, as Blod disappears right past him, skipping right past Ryuu and Ayame and heading straight towards Sasha and Lily.

Lily cries out loud in surprise fearfully, instinctively stepping backwards in alarm. Sasha, using her quick reflexes, jumps in front of Lily, stopping the attack with her Berzerker.

Blod comes to a grinding halt in front of Sasha, her breath heavy, as her katana comes up against a grating wall in Sasha’s sword.

“I’ve got you now!” Sasha shouts. She digs her heels deep in the ground, and takes a reckless swing at Blod. However, Blod merely grins, a corner of her mouth creeping slightly upwards.

“Fool,” she murmurs. She swings upwards, the edge of her blade cutting a rather shallow, but still painful blow to Sasha’s wrist.

She screams in pain, and drops her sword, leaving her defenseless. Blod swings with a devastating uppercut again, floating Sasha in the air. Blod pounds her, punching Sasha in the stomach with the butt of her sword’s hilt.

Sasha cries out loud, before slamming straight into the trunk of a tree. Several branches and heavy forest debris shower down on her, obscuring her from view.

Lily glances fearfully back, grabbing her axe in an attempt to counter Blod’s. Meanwhile, Blod grabs her sword, holding it loftily in one hand, and smirks. She takes a swing, but next second, meets head on with a dull resistance on her sword.

She glares, and sees Wing standing, arms raised, in between her and Lily. Wing raises his head, looking straight into Blod’s eyes, a smile on his lips. “Humans may be worthless, but the fairies are on their side, Fatalist!”

“Damn!” Tide curses, as he is thrown backwards into a tree yet again. Black and blue bruises cover the majority of his back, as his traveling cloak is torn completely open to the elements.

He glances at Silver, who still remains frozen on the ground, immobile due to her loss of consciousness. ‘Man! I’m in deep trouble now,’ Tide thinks. ‘Before, it was always Silver who pulled us out of tight situations. But this time, it’s all up to me! Damn it…I can’t let her down!’

Recelo smirks, as Tide glares at him loathingly. He spins the hilt of his Doombringer in one hand idly; Tide watches as the blade spins round and round like a windmill, a massive blur of blackness.

‘But still,’ Tide grumbles, ‘if he’s only just ranked 77 out of all the Fatalists, I’d hate to see some of the stronger ones. Is this guy seriously ranked that low among them?’

“What, what, what?” Recelo sneers. “Have you realized at last that rankings don’t matter in the Fatalists? It is simply only a measure of how many lives we have cleansed from this world. It means nothing. The number that we have killed and our true strength are not related. In fact, you could have the most kills and not even be the most dangerous. It only means that you have taken a lot of lives.”

“So you’re saying that you’re just as dangerous as the next Fatal Mist guy or whatever, just that you haven’t taken as many lives?” Tide replies. “Well then, I’m not about to let you take mine either!”

Recelo sighs, contracting his eyes in an impatient manner. “Stupid,” he retorts, “I keep telling and telling you again and again that you’re not even worth killing!”

“Oh really?” Tide sneers. With a clink of metal, Tide grabs his Zard, and holds it straight out in front of him with both hands. “Then how about I knock off that little mask of yours?”

Recelo starts for a moment, taken aback by Tide’s comment. However, the next, he’s forced to react, as a powerful beam of red light jumps straight towards him.

“Power Strike!”

Recelo bends over, using his hands to acrobatically jump out of the way. He lands unevenly on his feet a yard or two away, holding out his hands to balance himself. With a splitting crack, the mask across his face splits open, and falls to the ground.

Recelo gasps, holding up his hand to his bare face. Suddenly the expression on his face hardens, as he bares his teeth and glares at Tide.

Tide steps back, noting the features of Recelo’s face underneath his mask for the first time. His eyes are thin and narrow, a pale brown. A thin, yet deep scar runs across Recelo’s left eye, stretching from his upper cheekbone to almost the crown of his forehead. His hair is pulled back in a ponytail, as in the Conflict style.

“You’ve just done it, kid!” Recelo howls, his voice shaking and angry. “Do you know what it means when a Fatalist takes off his mask? Huh?!”

Tide does not reply, but takes a ginger step backwards, in case Recelo comes flying at him in his rage. He merely digs his heels in deeper to the ground, and holds his Zard out in front of him, to meet Recelo head on should he attempt to strike.

“It means…” Recelo begins, “that we are ready to show our opponent the face of their killer, meaning it’s time to stop holding back!”

A mad gleam explodes in Recelo’s eyes, as he raises his Doombringer, and swings it round and round in the air. Its heavy blade reverberates through the air, creating a heavy thudding sound as it slams against the atmosphere. “Are you ready to die, kid?!”

Next Time: Episode 64 The Appearance of Familiarity

Silver: All this fighting is really draining everyone. The battles continue, but what remains to be revealed is the true motive of the Fatalists! How much longer until we find out, and will we even make it out of the first battle against them, as they show us their full power?

Tide: Hey, that’s not cool…I thought you were unconscious!

Silver: Um…time to go now!

Otis: Next time, a third Fatalist shows up!

Episode 64 The Appearance of Familiarity coming soon!