“Don't trust those who speak without showing their intentions.” ~ Sovereign of Sorrow

Samuels looked into the crowd and then called out on someone as he waved his hand. "Come here, Arima! We shall thank this huntress for saving us."

A young boy stepped out from the group of people and Marama recognized him immediately.

Those sad black eyes in the rain and the cloak still around his shoulders...

Marama slowly tightened the grip around the ax’s handle again without drawing any suspicions. Samuels held a hand on the little boy’s shoulder before he grudgingly said, "I am sorry for doubting. Thank you."

A blatant lie...

He then looked down on Arima. "Say thank you to her…"

"Thank you."

The boy’s voice sounded monotone and without enthusiasm.

Samuels turned his back to the huntress and looked down on the boy. "Now, let´s go home, Arima-"

"There is no need to apologize." Samuels stopped for a moment as Marama interrupted him. Above them, the rain began to fall. "After all, I am not done yet."

Marama stared at the back of Samuels’s head with such intensity that it would ignite it if could. Her gaze saw into the very core of his soul.

Samuels bowed his head just a little bit and then up again.

"There were five after all."

Marama swung the ax in a downwards arc at him and Samuels leaped forward in an instant to dodge it.

The ax hit the muddy ground while small fragments of dirt and water flew from the impact.

He landed five meters from her and turned around on the spot while transforming. His forehead and face bulged with thick veins. His mouth turned into a lipless maw and filled with sharp teeth. He looked bulkier than the others and his golden cat eyes couldn’t have made the truth about him more obvious.

The fifth ogre.

He held Arima hostage and threatened to carve his throat up with his claws and a furious expression. "I knew you were trouble from the start! Shit!"

Marama pulled up her ax and became a touch more serious.

"You thought you were smart using the others as distractions while covering behind a wall of humans. I bet you were bold yesterday after our first meeting. A clever schemer indeed, but not smart enough!"

"So you knew all along?!"

"No, I met him last night and he told me something interesting…"

"Did he tell you what I was!?"

He held his claws so close to Arima’s skin that it almost bled.

Marama’s eyes hardened to glare at him.

"No, he didn’t say anything like that, but only that he was afraid to go back home. And before that, I overheard you and your gang when you discussed it with the village chief. I put two and two together since the only reason that boy stood outside and alone in the rain was that he didn’t have any parents to stop him in the first place. In times like this, all parents would put their children indoors from the risk of the ogre. Even the weather would be reason enough. You provided the clues to make the connection since he was out because you weren’t home. Your actions only added to the evidence. Why would someone rally up a group to kill the ogre if they could not find them? The option I didn’t speak of was that mist corrupted beings could sniff them out. Then he would kill two of them, let the others flee, and the massacre would still continue. You would be seen as a hero, and still murder people in secret."

The ogre looked shocked by someone using basic reasoning skills and cursed his misfortune. "Damn it!"

"Now, I will kill you and then, my job will be done."

"Like I would let you!"

Samuels carved his fingers into Arima’s skin and the blood flowed over it in small creeks. The boy didn’t even react to the claws that now sunk into his cheeks with the exception of a shiver in his eyes. It was like he was used to far worse pain.

This just made Marama angrier at Samuels.

"Drop the ax in the ground or I will kill him!"

The hostage situation went on for a minute. The villagers had run off again and only Samuels, Arima, and the huntress remained in the town square.

Marama took a deep breath and then stabbed the ax into the ground with ease. It tilted forty-five degrees with the handle away from the hostage situation.

Samuels seemed to calm down a little."Now just stand there and I will get out nice and sound."

The Moira Huntress began to charge up power within her. She stared into the unknown child’s eyes and whispered, "Get out of the way."

The boy didn’t need to hear. He understood and looked down on the arm that held him.

It took a moment to think before he bit Samuels on the forearm as hard as he could. He managed to make him bleed, an impressive feat since mist-corrupted being’s skin could be quite difficult to pierce by such means.

"Is that any way to treat your own father!?"

The grip around him loosened up and Arima got away from monster. Samuels tried to catch him and then looked up in shock.

Marama rushed forward with incredible speed since she wasn’t burdened with the ax now and had raised her clenched right fist. Her eyes glowed only gold and murderous intent and the face distorted into an infernal nightmare.

Samuel said one last thing in a tiny scared voice, nothing more than a squeak. "Oh shit-!"

The enraged huntress punched Samuels in the face so hard his feet left the ground. Before he flew very far in the air, Marama stomped down on his foot and nailed him to the mud.

She grabbed his right shoulder and kept punching his face with her fist in a fast succession of punches, each one bruising and pushing his face.

Samuels couldn’t even collect his mind enough to counterattack or think for that matter.

Marama grappled his neck with her right hand as she let go of his shoulder with the other one. The huntress looked back for a second while she built up her mana to the point her body started to distort beneath the uniform.

She threw Samuels with one hand at an impressive speed through the rain. His journey came to an abrupt end with the sharp edge of her ax as his final destination and bisected him into two vertical halves, right between the eyes.

The pieces hit the ground and slid over the mud a little further like two blood-filled tomatoes.

Marama breathed deep breaths and her eye color slowly changed back to pale blue once again.

She went back to her ax and pulled it up with no effort.

"Five. Finally finished."

Marama noticed the boy who walked slowly towards her now. Blood flowed in small rivers from his slightly open mouth and he had a shocked and pale expression on his face. There was absolute silence around them with the exception of the rain.

The boy walked onwards and the huntress followed him with her eyes.

Arima stopped right before the remains of Samuels and just looked at them. He didn’t say a single thing and then bowed his head down. He started to shiver and tears began to fall over the remains.

"Father…is…father is…father…is…"

Arima held his hands up to his face and shivered a little more. Tears fell between his fingers.

He cried and sobbed loudly with the rain to accompany him.

"Too bad. Well, at least you won’t have to worry about the ogre anymore."

Marama began to leave the scene. Soon the townspeople would gather up the corpses and ditch them somewhere outside the city limits.

The warrior stopped. Behind her, the sobs replaced themselves with something else.

Arima looked up at the sky with tears over his cheeks and blood from his mouth.

On his pale lips was the most disturbing open smile.

A loud laugh left his mouth and up towards the dark sky. The open mouth revealed blood on his teeth.

"FATHER IS DEAD!"

Arima stood there and didn’t seem to stop laughing anytime soon.

Marama was rather bothered by the behavior at first but then thought, He’s at least happy…