Chapter 102 - The Puppeteer
It was just a peck, nothing flashy to speak of but it left Selena touching her lips in a daze. She circled her fingers on her lips as she could feel Klautz's warmth through it.
'That was so…'
But even though it wasn't deep… even though it wasn't wild, it had something that made her feel her heart at ease. Unlike the kisses she was used to, they had a trace of something magical in it.
She watched as Klautz disappeared into the yellow light of the portal to the next island. Cherishing the memory in her heart, she followed behind them.
*swish* *swish*
As they opened their eyes they found themselves on the third island.
The third island was another forest but there were a lot of things that made it different from the two. The ground was bushy and in the distance, one could see pines, spruces and fir and what not! But all of them had one thing in common. They had cone-bearing needle-like leaves. Klautz entered while Selena and Verona followed behind.
Walking in those forests as the fresh breeze hit his nostrils some memories rejuvenated themselves. Of course instead of a fresh breeze the air had the smell of blood. It was in such a forest that he had killed his greatest enemy.
[Flashback]
Today was an unusual day. The ninjas of Kishiokagure were on a joint mission as they sprinted through the conifers. It was such a rare event! Rarely did these ninjas worked together. One could easily deduce that this must be an extremely important mission.
"My, my, what do we have here? Since when did you people do a frontal attack?" Armand whispered calmly as his teeth sunk into a piece of meat while he held onto its bone. He had just set up his camp and was calmly having his dinner but when will these ninjas let him rest in peace.
'They are just a bunch of goons being moved around with money,' he thought.
For the past few years he had been targeted by several A rank ninjas only to walk to their demise. But never before have they appeared in such great numbers!
'I guess money is enough to make them let go of their core principles.'
Ninjas work in solitude. Only in missions requiring many ninjas do they team up. Assasination mission like this was certainly not something they should be teaming up for.
And yet here they were storming at his puppets together with everything they had got! But alas there was no sense of coordination.
Little did he notice that the ones who were fighting his puppets at the moment were all Rank C ninjas. There were a huge number of five hundred. Usually, whenever the ninjas attacked him he had to be at least an A rank! That was how much of a threat he was to the upper administrators.
But Armand didn't bother to count as he sunk into his meal. He didn't even bother to look at his puppets fighting as he was fairly certain that his puppet outnumbered them by a fair margin.
*Gulp*
He gulped down his food as he finally took a look at the ninjas fighting desperately.
'Did they think that they could force me to a corner with numbers? They must be lost in their fantasies.'
"They seem certainly weaker than before. Have all the good ninjas been killed already?" he thought as he watched those ninjas die.
There were many puppets among Armand's rank but the most powerful of them all were the ones he had made from dragon bones. He had around a hundred of them. But they alone were enough to be a major threat to all of the ninjas.
The puppets tore apart their bodies, ground them in the earth. Some even slammed their bodies against the trees splashing their blood and guts everywhere. It was truly a horrid sight. None of the puppets were without traces of blood on them.
"Ninjas are an annoying bunch. They won't even let out a scream as they die." He said as he remembered the screams of the people he is used to killing. Unlike these people the ninjas died silently even to the point of hiding their bodies in their last few breaths!
He watched as the last man died to his dragon bone puppet.
"AHhhh!" He was the only one that screamed. He was avoiding a frontal battle with the puppet at the cost of his fellow ninjas. He was a coward who was afraid to die. He was a failure as a ninja.
Armand's brows twitched.
"Welp, that's quite unusual. Never expected Kishiokagure would fall so low.' He said as he took the last bite. The bone was cleaned off of its flesh as he tossed the bone aside.
Among the C ranks there was always one or two who would turn out to be such whiny selfs. These were the ones that died early in the solo missions.
"Clean this," he ordered his puppets as he waved his hands. His sleeve spluttered as if portraying his elegance.
The puppet followed his orders as he watched his puppets pile up all the bodies into a single spot. It had turned into a mountain of corpses. There were many different people among the mountains. Some were girls, some were boys. All had different personalities yet death had not discriminated against them. Death is impartial.
Armand walked closer to the bodies. There was a smile on his face that seemed to portray the thrill he was feeling just from watching the mountain of dead bodies. He walked closer as he hugged the pile spreading his arms across it.
"Ah, so warm. Humans are truly the warmest after they die." He closed his eyes as felt himself sinking in the warmth of the blood and corpses.
***
Author:
Creation is hard for authors. Cheer me up with your stones!
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