Chapter 18: #16 Esdeath
------Night Raid's base------
"How is Sheele?" Najenda asked in grim voice.
"She is not in danger but she needs to rest" Leone answered her question.
Najenda already got information on everything that happened that day.
"We must get information on who was that and get revenge for Sheele!" Mine cried out
"It's not that easy... I have never heard of someone so strong who would be willing to protect Lokal." Najenda tried to calm Mine down.
"When we fought that man I felt similar aura from him like I felt from that Ryu" Akame said aloud.
"But weren't you able to cut him all alone while that guy was able to fight all 3 of us with Mine backing us?" Bulat asked Akame
"How should I know, but he could also hide his true strength back then." Akame said while not being sure herself.
"But he saved Leyasu and Sayo! And why would he even risked getting cut by Murasame just to hide his strength?" Tatsumi asked in confused voice.
"But why did he save them? I tell you that when I sense that someone's aura is evil it is evil. Although I didn't feel "Evil" aura from him but what I felt is maybe even worse." Akame said to Tatsumi
"What do you mean?" Tatsumi was now really confused.
"I felt death. Not "evil" or stench of death. It was odorless smell of death. Do you know how one can achieve that?" Akame explained and asked Tatsumi
Tatsumi only shook his head and gulped down in anticipation.
"When one kills hundred thousands of people without acquiring mental illness"
'Just how strong is his mentality?' Tatsumi and everyone else thought.
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Somewhere in forest.
'Finally it starts to snow, means I am getting closer and closer to Northern Tribes.'
While Ren was on his journey he never stopped to train and he was able to master his new movement technique which he named "Flash step".
It gave him burst of movement speed when used but it was still extremely exhausting.
He also practiced with his Wind blades and tried to make it sharper and bigger. After all he will need to cut down a lot of people and he didn't want to waste his entire day. He also didn't know how will that ice woman react to him stealing her fun, therefore he had to be prepared to fight her.
After 1 more week of training, killing danger beasts and traveling he saw smoke from afar.
'Finally, I need to get closer look on how this battlefield looks like before I start my collecting'
When he arrived on branch of tree he started to observe entire battlefield.
'It seems they haven't started yet' Ren thought when he saw Empire's soldiers on one side and Northern Tribes on other side. He even saw Northern Tribes hero Seika but he wasn't really interested in him. He was more interested in Esdeath, who was strong and had control over ice, maybe he could even get something from fighting her.
'Lets first create Eternal mist to confuse them' Ren thought while he used his water technique.
'Hm? Why is here a mist? It feels almost same as my ice control but it is still different' Esdeath thought
When Ren was preparing to move he was surprised that his Eternal mist was taking much more energy than normally.
'Maybe it is because of enormous amount of people here. I need to be fast, my mist won't last forever' With this thought he started his first move.
He quickly arrived at Northern Tribes side and started his slaughter with few Wind blades.
'Sorry but I needed to choose someone and you would die today anyway... You can take it that you saved lifes of different people' Ren thought while having small smile on his face.
It wasn't long before people at Northern side started to scream.
Esdeath could tell that someone was helping Empire by killing Northern Tribes, but who was she? She was battle maniac, if it wasn't for mist blocking her view and her being amused she would already run in there.
Hero Seika on other side was full of rage when he heard his people's screams but due to mist he couldn't see anything too far away from him. He didn't hesitate and started running towards screams He was already close enough to see Ren but what he saw greatly shocked and enraged him. Death... he could only see death and severed limbs all around him.
"I WILL KILL YOU!!" Seika screamed while he attacked Ren with his spear in vertical slash at Ren's head.
"You are too noisy" Ren said coldly while blocking his attack with ease. Ren wanted to find out how exactly Northern Tribes prince is strong. Since he already slaughtered almost half of his army and absorbed enough Death energy for his break through he could waste bit of time to test him. Of course Ren didn't kill them all alone, he had help of Shadow who had some fighting capability, unfortunately Shell wasn't really combat type so he had her support Shadow.
"Come.." Ren said while motioning him with his finger to come, he even sheathed his sabre and was barehanded. As Ren planned, Seika got even more angry and sprinted to Ren.
"DON'T YOU DARE UNDERESTIMATE ME!!! I AM HERO OF THE NORTH AND I WILL CLEANSE FILTH LIKE YOU FROM THIS WORLD!!!"
'He really is annoying...' Ren thought when he evaded and kept dodging his attacks. Seika was simply too slow to land a hit, so slow that he couldn't even scratch Ren.
Ren was already getting bored so when he avoided Seika's attack he caught shaft of his spear. Seika tried to move his spear but he was surprised by Ren's firm grip.
When Ren caught his spear with one hand he poured some of his Wind energy to his hand and struck it towards Seika's heart in one swift movement.
Seika's armor didn't show any resistance to Ren's hand and Ren tore out his heart with ease.
Ren already canceled his mist since it took him lot of energy to maintain it for long time and he already achieved his purpose by not letting Empire's army help him.
When mist dispersed Esdeath saw thousands of corpses and lot of limbs laying at every place possible. What she saw among the corpses was 1 standing man with white hair swaying in the wind.
She found that image quite beautiful.
When Ren turned around he saw Esdeath. Their cold eyes locked with each other and they dazed out. When Empire army saw their general act like that they didn't know what they are supposed to do. After what seemed minute both Ren and Esdeath made devilish grin and disappeared from their places.
Ren's sabre clashed with Esdeath's rapier, they were equally strong so it was tie, both of them decided to kick with their right leg and met each other but no one won once again. Both of them returned to their previous places. In this entire exchange they never broke their eye contact.
'This man...'
'This woman...'
'IS STRONG!!!' Both of them thought while happily grinning.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
aadw
aadw And that's "How I Met Your Mother" xD
(couldn't help myself)
My big exam is nearing and I don't know how it will be with new chapters next 3 days. So I apologize if nothing new comes out.
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