I didn't care what he was asking. His deep dark voice, with its clenching desire to avenge a feeling or a purpose, seemed more than absurd to be true. After everything he had done, there was no way that I wasn't going to go crazy without fury. He got on my nerves so much that his behavior, and the fact that he relentlessly killed people, gave me enough reason not to pity him.

Not to pity a monster that killed tens of hundreds of people. It gave me enough reasons to make me want to punch the life out of him.

But since there were things I wanted to know, I just wanted to look into his eyes and get the disgusting choices out of the way. Grabbing him by the throat, I lifted him up, and shook him, letting him know that I am not messing around,

"I can't let any more unnecessary blood spill! So tell your men to stop! War is over!"

"You don't want me to put an end to this. There are more to see."

"You have no possibility of creating pain in these lands anymore! So stop it!"

"Even if you stop us, the elite soldiers will keep coming, and every time things will get harder. Elite soldiers will be your nightmare since you are this cocky to underestimate them. And if you are not lucky, you may even encounter an epic much sooner than you can imagine." He coughed blood when he talked, and put up a grin that was more wicked than his same one before, "That's when you are not going to be able to do anything."

"You obviously don't understand anything we're doing. And you're still blinded to reality by what you're trying to believe. How pathetic."

"What are you talking about!?"

"If it's possible that you managed to stop us here but the elite soldiers will still continue to come after people like you. In fact, after this stupid behavior, it will be even easier for you to get into their field of vision. After every move you will make, after every step, you will take, their eyes and hands will be just an inch close to your neck. They will be so close to you, that you will never feel them, but will feel that pain that they will cause for you. And if you just keep on going about bragging and nagging about "losing your loved ones", and just destroy everything that you see, which not only makes you just like us, but it makes it easier for us to take your life away from you, everything you see will come down upon you! And while your childish behavior will come down destroying everything you love, you will also come close, losing your life at the hands of an epic."

And after, just with a short pause, he said that he saw something behind me, and grinned in pain,

"And you shouldn't underestimate us either."

I knew very well that there was a reason why he said that. The fact that his smile grew and grew to be a bigger grin, was simply indicating that there was more for me to see on this battlefield.

A person whose life was in danger, in such a situation began to smile was also an indication that events were moving in another direction on the battlefield, and that very great danger awaited me.

And not to wait for it, it did happen shortly.

When I turned my head, the other Elite Soldier, which was the big creature, landed a very strong blow on me, and made me fly away, far from where I stood. With a very big wooden stick that he got nearby, that almost weighed three times more than me, it was such a strong hit that I had taken, I flew away and landed on the wall of one of the houses nearby.

I came down trembling with pain and fear of losing my conciseness right and there because of the impact.

And while I got problems keeping my legs in one place, both of them approached me, with one still smiling with the fact that he was now on the side of getting the victory,

"Humans like you are so annoying. You should know that you should obey the ones that are above you, if you want to be alive."

"Shut up! You are the one who doesn't deserve to talk here! You stole people's hope and killed their families! I will never obey monsters like you!"

"So that's what you think. Then we have no choice of solving this either then."

They both started to attack at the same time.

When I put my arms down and stopped holding my defenses against them even a little bit, they used it to their advantage as quickly as possible, and attacked me as soon as I was unprepared. One come from low, and one from high, while they didn't give me any chance to attack, and left me only defending.

And after a while, one of them got behind me and landed a punch on my waist and the other one punched me in the stomach.

As they both put pressure on different points with their fists at the same time, my skin became twisted and my breathing became impossible due to my pain for a few seconds. As soon as they both came to an area with my fist bone, most of my bones would break unless I ran away from there. And there was no other chance for me to redo the things just as before, I didn't get myself a safe point.

And even though I was out of tactics, and my body was tired, my anger gave me the energy I needed.

As their punches once again came at me from the same point, I jumped into the sky and dodged both of them.

But as I was rising into the air, I noticed that Jixus was pointing one of his spells at me. And this force floated in the air, received a certain acceleration, and approached me almost like a flash. Of course, I was going to try to prevent this by making a sharp turn, but because I didn't know where I could move or move with the fact that Jixus was able to control his spells, I had taken the attack directly to my stomach and had to take the blow on the spot.

And along with the impact of the spell, my fall had become as fast as I rose into the air, and caused me to hit the ground hard.

One of the reasons that I wasn't rising was to be able to stop attacks on a short scale and look out for everything on a large scale on the battlefield. But as a result of my rising so much, one of the mistakes I made was that I didn't take into account how much I would get hurt, and so that I got attacked by this way of sorcery.

I had only intended to stop them before I succumbed to my anger in such this time when we all fought against each other, just like my opponents, and relooked at my moves. But that move, which had caused all of my attention and focuses to get lost as thin air, had made me angry because of the slowness of my actions and the inaccuracy of my thinking. And as I thought I could block the incoming attacks, as I fell to the ground, I hit my back and legs very hard, causing my pulse and getting points to suffer extremely sudden pain and whimper with a very painful secondary pain within seconds.

My breath stopped for a moment and dragged me deep into the sharp feeling that was going around my body, until my whole body relaxed and trembled, and even my eyes gradually closed with numbness.

But at that moment of crawling to my enemies, I also saw her.

Pelena's daughter Lezlie. She had come to a battlefield with her own feet, and was standing there.

She had suffered severe bruises from her ankles to the wrists on her hands and wounds to the scratches on her face. Her body was covered from head to toe with the rubble and burns of the war, her palms were beginning to darken, and her shoes were peeled off as much as possible. Her breath, which she was trying to breathe in the dirty air of the battlefield, was coming out as if she were breathing in a dark cloud, and the clouds of it were taking on black color and a certain shape.

Her face frozen with fear, and her tongue gripped with lost courage, made us all notice her on the battlefield. However, she who saw such a terrible thing, still could not move from where she was and just stood there.

"No, don't come here..... You have to run away....." I could barely breathe, as I tried to talk to her.

I tried to warn her and use all of my remaining powers to let her know that this was the worst time possible for her to help anyone.

But she couldn't listen to me. She just stood there, and silently looked at us,

"Young lady you know that you shouldn't be here right?" said Jixus's disgusting voice, showing that he had targeted her right away since the moment she stepped on the battlefield.

And as his hand turned with such ego he had, he didn't hold back from giving orders to the creature beside him,

"Nozu, would you mind taking care of that little lady. It seems we have left a couple of people, that need to be guided."

And with assurance right away, Nozu talked with his growling monstrous voice,

"Roger."

I tried to move to her but I was too slow and I couldn't get up.

*What am I going to do now?* was the only thing that went through my head.

They approached her, and they became much and much filled up with the fact of how easily they could have hurt her.

They looked at her with terrible eyes. With cruel thoughts, and with the thought that they knew that many people were injured, they approached, knowing that there was no hope of catching up with the rescue. There was no doubt that there was no moral or any reason that could stop them if they could get close, that they would not limit their cruelty.

That's what made me desperate the most, and my heart kept sinking with the pain and desperation of it at that moment. I've been training myself all this time, all this time to gain many things, even though I was screwed up on the floor, with how pathetic it is that something like this happened.

I was so desperate.

But only then would I completely lose hope that someone would come out at that moment, A person who is scarred just like us, came to stop in front of me, and formed a shadow that I used seeing to.

"Are you two alright?"

It was Pelena that appeared, and the one who stood before us to protect us.

Pelena's voice was quite frightening and full of pain. As she stood in front of Jixus, her hands were shaking. But because of her anger, I could only see how much she wanted to protect us. It wasn't fully fear that was taking over her, but something that would take the chances of protecting us, and something that appeared otherwise of she wouldn't be in the chance of being here anyway.

It was the risk that she took, that if she hadn't already prepared herself for this situation that she wouldn't be here.

But even in this unexpected encounter, in which we were all full fear of, even though we managed to save many people's lives and stand back, it was so uncertain of what was going to happen that we had no choice other than to wait and see what would happen.

"And here is the main guest of our show! And I was wondering where you had gone!" he said, as he laughed with such egoistic manners.

"You can not touch her! Leave this business between us!"

Pelana slowly created a magical shield around her daughter and created a shield for herself.

"You will not touch her! Never!"

Besides, this shield was not such a simple magic shield. It was a magic construction similar to the power barrier, which took the form of a balloon, took on a bright color, and looked transparent inside. It was something so powerful but so basic for the people that lived here, even I was able to gain knowledge because it was one of the simplest spells used by witches.

But to see someone do it up close and see that she was able to create a strong one despite such an injury was really quite a different experience too.

"You witches won't give up, don't you?" Jixus said with a deep sigh before he looked at her with battle-thirsty eyes,

But as well his words were humiliating enough, Pelana just replied and smiled with a reply that was the same as letting Jixus taste his own medicine, "I guess I have that "useless pride" don't I?"

"Nozu, alive or dead, it's up to you." Jixus just replied with the angry voice he had.

And after their words, they started to attack her.

I was out there thinking that she could get hurt, after all the fights I tried to hold them back. But unlike me, she could easily prevent their blows.

She used her spells very carefully and quickly.

Every time her enemies approached her with greedy and bloodshot eyes, she was protecting both us and herself, while maintaining her position. Tossing through the wild and heavy blows like a feather in the same wind, decimating the opposite side as much as she could. She was like an impeccable and elegant fighter who managed to mitigate the attacks of her enemies, that when they both came upon her, turned their forces around in her area, counterattacking them with the same force that she had.

It was maybe the first time I had seen a witch who had mastered her powers. And the only time I could see such strong will from a person like Pelena.

But even though she was so elegant at fighting, I found myself in a will, while she was fighting I tried to get up, and I wanted to help her more than anything.

I tried to get off the ground with all my strength. I tried to focus on the desire that lay behind my soaked arms and sweating face. Trying to lift myself up one more time by pressing my arms to the face of the hard place. That even when I felt like the world had to move, I thought about not stopping. My arms trembled, and I heard and felt in pain that my blood flowed not in my veins, but outside my body and dripped on the floor like raindrops. I was even beginning to feel that my inner hesitation had reached a physical form. But nothing was louder than my want of protecting others.

I've tried and tried.

But I couldn't. I couldn't get up.

And at that short time, I found myself failing countlessly, they stopped and gasped for air,

"Why don't you give up already? That boy and girl are going to die, this is an order!"

"I don't care about your order! This is my village and you can play with their lives! Do you even have any idea how many people died because of your orders!? How many people got stuck under the constructions, trying to breathe and hoping every second that they will not die! Every single person getting smashed by rocks, hoping that the loved ones are alright!

"You are being selfi-"

"You have no idea about how many people of so-called your own that you killed! And I, will not allow you to hurt anyone else anymore! Nor my daughter or that boy either!"

It was their voices that broke down even the walls at that moment.

One that is rotting, even the strongest walls and houses. And one that builds up even the weakest wills.

Perhaps it was the thing that protected our hearts from the final stage of getting out of their nest and made us wonder about how it will end with curiosity.

The voice of a mother who wanted to protect her nest, was even louder and stronger than that of a monster who wanted to destroy it. His standing on a privileged step, and with those eyes that radiate fear, maybe he thought he had anything, or everything that he needed.

Like the lives of people, he had taken our hope, created a future in which his unstable, monstrous personality had really struck out, and had us drowning in the darkness that was even darker than his powers.

He had even stolen the hope of the chief who carried the heart of this village like his own. The one that never could have predicted that this could happen. The person that would die for the piece of their people.

However, that will be carried on.

It so happened that we stayed afloat for a while in this situation, perhaps Pelena's standing there for us at that moment was a behavior worth more to us than we could imagine.

In front of us, was not just an indicator of a simple will, but also a reward for the sacrifice she made to protect us and all the work she spent protecting her village. She had the will of these people single-handedly carrying it forward.

And she had everything to be a strong person. Not because of the power she had in her hands, but with the power, she had in her heart.

She was such a great woman that our hearts were shaking as if she would slip away from the hands that held everything tight at that moment.

And they talked, as we hoped.

"Then you deserve to die, just like the ones who died."

Then they, started to attack her again.

Again she had started to defend herself, with the power left on the battlefield that they wasted earlier. With so many punches and kicks flying, and one another hitting and not hitting others closely. She was using her palms and the already created magic barriers in her hands to deflect and counterattack with much better moves.

*If she continues to waste her energy here, she will probably fall on the floor and will not be able to move again!*

She managed to save herself by pulling the two incoming attacks to one point at a time, then bursting many more magical powers she had towards them.

Her remaining energy that was spent to stay afloat, was able to pull them to a point instead of dodging blows and provide herself with enough time and territory to practice her own fighting style, and do much better and simpler attacks on them.

With her severely injured arms and the difficulties experienced in our breathing after the war, we thought even in the moments when I said that they could stop her, she was able to keep her calm and take the fight into a much better state.

Of course, I was able to understand how well she fought, as her knowledge of martial arts affected her so well. But I didn't expect to see her experience used so effectively, and create something much more unique in a short time. She was pouring out exactly the learned knowledge in front of her enemies, perhaps with the finest craftsmanship, processing it like a lady's hand, and the bravery that was needed to proceed to this conclusion.

It was as if her spirit and personality were the main components that made up her fighting style, and carried her all the way for the protection and offensive attacks.

And as their battle was forging into a much more heated fight, Pelana used her hands differently and changed her attacks to become more mentally, with a move that would get both Jixus and Nozu into a mind-bending situation.

At first, I thought that he was hiding his moves and was intricately planning only according to incoming attacks. But it wasn't like that. Jixus and Nozu had already made a certain plan before, as well as used this technique in their fight with me. It was a technique, which was based on looking into the eyes of his opponent and making them realize how superior he was. And as he would plan to fill this mental gap that had formed between him and the created opportunity and the deficit that his enemy would give, he decisively attacked the one in front of him and never gave him a chance to defend himself.

The success rate of this, of course, depended on the ability of the opposite person to understand it, but due to the tension and emotional burden on the battlefield, Jixus had already been able to achieve this, with many he scared from the heart. And because of the mental burden advantage that is happening right now, he had put Pelena under pressure, and if his plans were to be successful, he was going to switch to a heavier type of attack.

"How is that?"

However, Pelena also noticed this. So my hope for her from the very beginning of the war grew even more with the fact that I learned something that I never expected.

During the time I watched her fight, I predicted that the moves she made were moves based on a template.

Between her attacks, Pelena was holding back the basics she had actually learned with a fighting template she had created herself, fighting as if to convince enemies that she was tired and filling their endless egos. In this way, she could both stand behind and create a plan for herself.

Her only reason was that she had little time left for this, was because although she tried to outmaneuver her enemies, it was the difference in power on the opposite side that decoupled the techniques in between and ensured that most of her attacks failed.

Both sides were equally capable. But if she continued to withstand this force, she had to find a move, as her body would sooner or later give up.

"Behi-"

As I tried to scream and shout at her, my voice went backward down my throat. All the dust I had swallowed had all covered my throat and my lungs were having a hard time breathing, and were just burning inside me like an extinguished ember.

But luckily, it was Lezlie's voice that made her realize the incoming attack.

"Behind you!"

With a very quick turn, she was able to cast very powerful magic and made Nozu fly one of the houses. She had created a shield spell to bounce his attack, and stayed in her position.

She got rid of one of them, and turned to Jixus. She calmly breathed, and her eyes flashed anger for a moment.

Looking under her hat, with killer sharp eyes,

"Now, It's your turn."

Jixus stepped back, feeling the anger of his hands shaking because of her gaze,

"You think you can beat me? Don't be stupid. You have nothing that could be countable to beat somebody." His voice got deeper, still hiding the anger and shock he had been feeling.

He put his hand over his waist and looked at her for a single second. Their gazes collided in the thick air, glooming through the dust. He didn't even flinch, not because it had angered him to death, but had to see what she could have done in such fury.

Their long hairs swung in the frozen moment, both hitting right and left as a strong breeze hit them on their face.

Jixus stepped forward, this time wanting to hurt Pelena much worse. He tried to attack her, his hand streched out sideways, trying to find a deficit on her body. He swung his arm and legs, missing one and the other trying to force his way through.

But Pelena was much faster. She quickly created a whip using her power and hold Jixus by covering his throat with it. She then made him limp, by wrapping the whip on her arm and pulling it to herself. She quickly sent him to one of the walls, and made him smash a brick wall, just like she made it to other soldier.

She had got him flying really quickly towards the wall, making him land just perfectly to be buried deeply in the hard bricks. Putting him inside and under the wall.

This caused Jixus to stay under the concrete for seconds, letting Pelena talk much more, and show what was inside her fury all this time,

"Because of you my people lost their lives, they lost their family, their hopes, their loved ones. But people like you don't understand these kinds of feelings, don't they? You can't do anything about this right? But give it to my foolishness. I shouldn't expect a monster to feel the same way as a human."

And with little steps, Pelena decided to approach him.

She took very heavy steps, once opening her eyes not to close them while giving his immobilized body a death stare.

She was angry. All the pain was in her heart, listening to the screams of her people for minutes on end drove her mad. The way she clenched her teeth with her face shaking with rage, then repeatedly slammed the magical camper in her hand into the ground, destroying the rocks in its path, showed how filled she was with the desire to kill.

I didn't expect even a person with a mother's heart to be filled with such rage, but as the tears welled up in her eyes, the scars on her face glistened, showing why she had turned into the monster she had become.

But before she could avenge the souls of the lost, she had lost her concentration, and gave a deficit to the enemy that would be deadly.

As she was about to finish him. Nozu landed a very hard blow on her waist, making Pelana fly back and land on the ground, hitting her body again and again.

She was screaming in pain. Both of her legs got broken. They were highly damaged, because of how fast she had hit the stone hard ground. Her legs got into a very forced up, and shapeless form. They were all purple and covered with dust and weren't moving. Her both legs were looking in a different directions. Her body was so in dark bruises, it was even hard for us to see her body normally. She was moving with her arms, at the same time trembling and shaking uncontrollably.

But she still tried to move.

Lezlie's eyes teared up, seeing her mother in a such desperate moment. Watching her own mother, breathe heavily and have trouble opening her eyes, caused her to feel an incredible pain inside her. Her lips shook, and her body trembled, compactly frozen with the view she was looking at.

I even felt an amazing shock, just by feeling the fear in Lezlie's eyes, understanding that this was no little damage.

Pelena looked at us with fear, trying to move in her immobilized body,

"Lezlie, you have to get out here."

But Lezlie didn't move a single muscle. She just stared at her own mother, feeling very deep emotions about losing her mother in front of her own eyes. It felt so heart-wrenching to watch.

Her eyelids were shaking. With blood dripping out of her mouth, she put her hand to crawl even further. The broken bones in her body had changed their shape and they immobilized her from moving. Her crushed nose and face, with bruises all over it, showed how much she was having a hard time moving.

Her half-dead body crawled in front of me, and both of our hearts literally sank watching her get that desperate,

But Jixus smiled, and looked down at her,

"I said you will going to pay for your mistakes. Now it is too late for everything."

He used his magic and made a hole in her body. Jixus made a hole inside Pelena's chest, and made her shake once more with tremendous pain, sending waves of power to her legs and arms equally. Pelena's pain-filled body lay there, her head slightly lifted from the ground, feeling an undesirable pain, that hit her just once to leave her emotionless.

Lezlie was looking at them with fear, she was crying with a horrified expression. She looked at her mother, with teary eyes and her cheeks all wet from crying. Her dry throat hummed again, once again making her talk. But words weren't enough to say at that moment. Then she screamed,

"MOTHER!!"

Not caring about the elite soldiers, She quickly went to her mother. Her fear grew more and more, showing how desperate her choices were at that moment. She felt like all of her world was falling down, running at her emotionlessly lying mother. Her mother's eye, with gray-filled oceans deep inside, made her step much firmly to the ground. She ran and ran, screaming every second of her painful endeavors.

She collapsed, right in front of her mother, shaking like crazy, trying to hold her mother's body,

"Mother, please, you can't leave me right now! Please keep your eyes opened! Move your hands! Say something! Please!"

She was trying to make her mother hear her voice, even though the light of Pelena's eyes color was slowly fading. She wanted so bad at that moment, that her mother would even scold her. Shout at her. Just touch her face once more. But her soulless body wasn't moving an inch. It stood there, just her eyes moving right and left. Showing that there was only a little pinch of life, pushed her to communicate with her deeply scared daughter.

Lezlie's tears dropped on her mother's face,

"Mama....."

Lezlie talked to her mother, like a little girl wanting to see her mother, just to feel her warmth.

My body stopped feeling its pain at that moment, I just felt my heart stop beating. I just felt a hard-hitting cold, covering my legs and my arms. My heart slowly sank and my ears started to hear nothing.

An unstoppable rage covered my body fastly. I knew what I had to do. They didn't deserve to live after this moment. I got up feeling nothing at all in my body. Took a step back, and jumped in front of me. Taking a very long breath, filling my lungs with air. And started to use the mad desire inside me. Catching the elite soldier's deficit and threw him a punch that he had never taken before. I took his body under me and flew with him. Flying towards to forest, breaking dozens of trees, I continued to punch him. My anger made me lose my mind. There was no way I could stop.

I had used a power that was so different than the one I had learned. It didn't look like the power that Ronk told me. Nothing similar to a single thing he told me. It was nothing similar to controlled power. Maybe it was its strength, but it was an anger that came out of me. I covered my hands in blood, but I still kept punching. I never felt this angry before.

I punched him again and again, munching his face under my fists.

And when I stopped throwing punches, I realized that everyone, every single person on the battlefield, was looking at me with fearful eyes. They were all looking at me, with my fists slowly pulling back, as blood swung in the air with it. I knew why they looked at me like that, but I did not give in to any fear back.

I just looked at the elite soldier and saw his face covered in blood. He wasn't moving.

My hands were shaking involuntarily. I had lost control for a moment. When I got off him, I saw Jixus and attacked him too.

I threw much harder punches at him, I broke 2 houses with him. He was gasping for air in pain. I was going to kill him too but he then stopped and said something.

Jixus looked at me with hatred,

"It's not over here, next time we meet, I'll destroy you and everyone here. And that's a promise."

After his words, Jixus teleported his remaining men and himself using a spell. And after they left, I remembered about Pelena and Lezlie and searched for them.

Lezlie looked at her mother's eyes and cried,

"Mother, I regret my decisions, If I had done what you have said, none of this would have happened. It's all my fault...."

Pelena gently touched her daughter's cheek and smiled,

"Lezlie, it wasn't your fault, a person can't escape its fate and everyone dies someday, death would come in any way."

Pelena then slowly turned to me,

"Ryuu, can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure."

"Take Lezlie with you. She'll be safer with you."

I didn't say anything,

"We witches can see someone's future and in exchange for that, we pay a price. I saw my daughter's future. Please, Ryuu, promise me."

"Pelena, don't worry I will protect her."

She then turned to her daughter again,

"Why are you crying? You know you don't have to be sad, come on smile."

"Then I know what will make you smile."

After her words, she started to mumble a song.

Her voice was soft, relaxing, It was beautiful but so painful.

A tear came out of Pelena's eye, and then after closing her eyes. she died on her daughter's knee.

Everyone in the village has gathered around us. The chief raised one hand as he was wounded, shouting,

"She was an honorable witch."

Someone else raised his hand in the same way and yelled,

"An honorable friend."

Everyone in the village raised their hands and shouted one by one,

"An honorable woman."

"An honorable comrade."

Finally, Lezlie slowly raised her hand,

"An honorable mother."

After their words, the whole town fell silent.

-1 Week Later-

I got out of bed with a nightmare, as usual. But this time it wasn't the same nightmare, I saw the elite soldier I killed.

We've been in a witch's village for almost a week.

We stayed here for a week for Hiroshi's wounds to heal and for Lezlie to recover. But we had to move very soon because our location had been compromised.

After I got out of bed, I went to the chief to talk. I walked into the chief's tent, and it was just me and him. I went straight to the chase.

"Chief, we're leaving the town today, and I wanted to thank you for everything before we leave."

"I understand, my child. And what are you going to do with Lezlie?" I wish we'd never met like this.

"It would be better for her to make this choice instead of me. I can't force her at such a difficult time like this."

"Now listen carefully, I want to tell you something. Pelena was no ordinary witch like us, and so was her daughter. There's a curse on them from their ancestors. This curse shows them the future, but when it is used, your death is inevitable. I don't know if Pelena died because of the curse or because of her wounds. But if there's one thing I know, that it is dangerous. This curse can even bring death that people close to it."

"I understand, but is there any way we can break the curse?"

"No, it can't be broken, they are doomed to this curse because of the mistake their ancestors made. Finally, let me warn you."

"About what?"

"About your lineage, you involuntarily got into a rage in combat, that's because your lineage is a wolf lineage. Your bloodline is not a merciful lineage like any other bloodline, Ryuu, if you can't control your powers. You will kill without distinguishing between good and evil."

"Don't add your feelings to the war, if you add it, you can't control it. If you get as strong as you can, you can control it easily."