“Well, well, well. Look what we got here. Rats in our field,” a loud and mocking voice echoed through the battlefield. “I didn’t think ya’d have the courage to steal from us like this.”

At once everyone stopped looking through the corpses and turned to the newcomers. That voice belonged to the leader of the violent scavenger group.

The boy clutched his sword. There’s more of them, he realized.

The group was big, but now it had over three times their numbers. And what was worse, they were all armed.

The boss pushed his way through everyone until he was at the front, standing like a shield.

“Hey, rat boss. How many times I have to say ya can’t come and steal from me? Ya think I’m joking?”

The boss bit his lips and looked back at his group. At once the boy knew he too had noticed the weapons.

“We’ll go… You can keep what we got,” he said, taking a step back with his arms open.

“No. There’s no way I’m letting ya go this time. I can’t stand ya stealing from us again and again!” He drew his sword, and his companions followed, branding their mismatched weapons with terrifying smiles.

The boy drew his sword, ready to fight. But he was one of the few. Even he knew if it turned into battle, it was a losing one. From their side, few carried something that could be used as a weapon, and those few were in bad conditions.

“Wait! We’ll go! Don’t kill us!” the boss begged, getting on his knees.

“Why would I spare a thief rat?” the other man said in a calm, almost surprised voice.

At the same time, his companions closed in on them.

From the beginning, it was clear; they only wanted to crush a competitor.

Despite the constant skirmishes and battles in the area, with the raining season approaching, there were less and less fights. Sometimes they had to wait for weeks for a battle. And not only they had to hurry to get there first, they were getting less metal and leather each time. The crops didn’t look so good, according to the rumors the boss got in the villages, and the lords were salvaging what they could to save money.

The moment the leader said those words, many tried to flee to the forest. But they found their path blocked. More scavengers from the other group were already waiting for them. They were surrounded from the beginning.

Tō pointed his sword to the man before him.

“This’ gonna be too fun,” he said, laughing as he got closer. Unlike Tokage, he was an adult. He could overpower the boy with ease.

I need to be careful…

The boy raised the sword and brought it down with all his strength.

The man blocked with ease.

The recoil was so strong Tō almost dropped his sword. He managed to keep holding on to it, but his arms were throbbing.

The man tried to take advantage and kicked the boy’s leg to make him fall,

Tō jumped backwards to avoid, but he bumped into someone’s back. Without looking to see who it was, he charged again.

Laughing, the man blocked each of the boy’s attack.

“C’mon, kid. Why you try so hard? What’s so good about ya life you fight so desperately? Ya know that life’s not worth. Just die already.”

Tō barely heard. There was no way he couldn’t. Not with all the screams from the people he knew around him.

Clutching his sword harder, he charged once again.

The man laughed as he blocked.

That voice is annoying… I wanna stop… forever…

The man was having so much fun he didn’t see Tō drawing the blade he used to cut leather. He only realized when it was deep in his thigh.

“Ya piece of shit!”

When he tried to pull the little blade, he took his eyes from Tō. It was only for a moment, but it was enough for the boy.

Tō jumped, raised the sword, and brought it down with all the strength he had left.

Though the man tried to block with his weapon, he wasn’t fast enough, and the boy’s blade dug into his wrist, getting a loud scream from him.

It wasn’t cut off, but the wound was deep.

The boy didn’t stop, striking again and again until the man died stopped screaming.

With blood all splattered over him, those who saw stopped to stare.

Then the scavengers from the boy’s group took advantage of that and managed to run.

Tō wanted to save more people, but when he looked around, he knew it was too late. Most scavengers from his group had died.

It couldn’t be called a fight. What happened was closer to a massacre. Quick and bloody.

The boss was one of the few still alive, fighting until the end. But he wasn’t a fighter. When he lost his weapon there was nothing he could do.

The leader of the other group slashed at his chest and fell. As he looked around, he realized almost every one of his friends were either dead or dying. He turned to the leader and lowered his head.

“Please… please… spare the others…”

Though he no longer had any will, the other leader only smiled and stabbed him through the back of the chest.

“Ya really shouldn’t have pissed me,” he said before ordering the others to get everything.

The boss’ dying groans were the last thing Tō saw before running away.

Though he was exhausted, he managed to keep moving until he was far away from the battlefield without looking back.

Even in that situation, he remembered the boss’ rules and hid until he was sure there was no one following.

What he found, however, was more death. When he was almost at the camp, he saw a few of the survivors. But before he could call them, one of the women screamed. A moment later, a shadow stabbed her and all the others, making everything quiet again.

With his mind blank, Tō hid in the trees and got as close as he could.

The other scavenger group had found their camp and had killed those who stay behind.

The tree man made sure there was no one left alive, another survivor showed up.

No… no… Tō wanted to shout, but his voice was lost as he watched Mosuke walk into the camp.

As the boy saw the dead, his face became pale.

“Tokage! What happened here?” he asked one of the men.

Only then Tō realized it was the person he disliked the most.

Run away… run!

Once again Tō couldn’t utter a sound. Not even as Tokage killed his only friend.

The boy he felt an emptiness grow inside his chest.

“That was probably the last o’ them,” one of the scavengers said. “Let’s get everything a leave. I’m starving.”

“No!” Tokage shouted as he cleaned the blood from his new blade. “Not until I kill that brat! He’ll pay for what he did to me!”

“He probably dead by now,” the other said. “He stayed behind, didn’t he?”

“I’m sure he’s alive! And I need to kill him!”

“Shut yar yep. I don’t care ya hated the brat. We got everything. Let’s get out of here.”

Tokage cursed followed the others.

With his mind blank, Tō stayed where he was, waiting until everything grew still again.

Only after the sun had set he left the forest, walking in the camp.

He felt the emptiness growing as he saw the people he knew dead. When he turned to the direction Tokage had left, however, he felt something for the first time; the thirst for vengeance.