Chương 68: QUIZZED TO DEATH.

***On Planet Gieă, In the Outskirts of the Continent 'Eclipse of the Oceans', In a small house on top of a lonely and silent hill.

The beast-kin is fast and decisive with his attack, there is no big chance at a clean retreat in the darkness but there's also no big chance that Navi can take both of them on.

The beast-kin knows well that he can still make a decent attempt at retreat but he wants that money!, he needs that money!. His Academy bills would be due for a renewal in a few months and forking out that much money as an orphan is truly saying something.

When next would they ever get a deal this juicy or even a quarter this juicy?!.

As soon as he sees the chance, the beast-kin takes a fast step forward. He has settled his mind for a fight as he swings one of his small cutlass at Navi body and the other one to block any possible thrust of Navi's blade at his body but unlike what he would expect, Navi pulls off a sudden move, -he dodges the cutlass blade at the cost of pushing himself further at the wall behind.

Instead of defending, Navi reacts as fast as a cat as he pushes himself backwards before turning his body to kick himself off the wall!!!.

Navi never truly showed his back to the beast-kin as he shoots back and away from the attack before shifting his posture as the tough sole of his right foot dully slaps against the wall. His entire body launches forward and into the air for a second but its enough!.

!!!CLANG!!!

With the brief moment in air, Navi's twists his swords handle with the cold blade turning into a whip as he sends a blazing fast counter attack at the beast-Kin who also somehow reacts in time to block the wild strike. The impact of the blades clashing brought faint metallic sparks as the sheer force of the blow forces one of them to take steps backwards. The beast-kin is forced to takes stumbling steps towards the half-dwarf while Navi pulls off a game-changing landing.

Despite a sword in his hand, Navi affords a roll to the right for his landing to escape his 'cornered situation' but he is immediately greeted either a new challenge as he is immediately pounced on again before he can fully rise back up but this time, not by one attacker but by two!.

!!!CLANG!!!

His sword goes into a backwards grip as he deflects a skilled cutlass strike falling fast and high from his right but at the same time, The half-dwarf's axe strikes to his waist from the left with a curved assault.

Using the recoil of his sword against the cutlass, Navi skilfully retreats two small steps backwards and so, it only takes a small lean of his body to the side in order to completely avoid the mean strike to his waist. Everything was happening too fast and every action seemed to come from a layered battle instinct.

From the triggered push against the wall to blocking the cutlass strike to dodging the axe's blade, each action comes to his body rushed and they are barely completed before he is forced to make another decision with his life drifting past death with each move.

!!!CLANG!!!

Navi's sword swings an attack but it is easily deflected by a cutlass and he moves steps backwards a bit more with the skillful use of the recoil of the collision. Every second moves too fast but every move seemed too slow, he heart is pumping powerfully, His palm was numb from the collision of blades but somewhere in his mind, utter calm remains.

In a part of his mind, Navi is somehow thinking calmly even though he has absolutely no time to even think about his actions before executing them and in this calm part of Navi's mind, a plan forms.

!!!CLANG!!!..!!!CLANG!!!..!!!CLANG!!!..

Navi's sword moves aren't the best and he is constantly pushed back with each forceful stike by the ruthless duo but in this cold death duel, surviving is winning(atleast for now).

Barely deflecting another dose of swinging cutlass blade, an axe gets thrown from outta nowhere in the dark and Navi's wild instincts fires up. Almost completely subconsciously, Navi's goes from extreme fight mode to something beyond in a second as he moves fast without much command. Through the darkness, even though he could barely see a thing, his sword's blade flashes in front of his body with a *BANG* while managing to deflect the flying axe but as a result, he is forced into a bad posture for defence and an even worse position with his blade.

"UMMMMUUGGGH.. AHHH!!!..

A bestial groan enters Navi's ears and he is barely able to look-up before reacting once more to the attack with its source is not from the beast-man but from Melisa(Half-dwarf) who charges wildly at the terrible postured Navi with the intention of a brute spear-tackle. Her short distance charge began barely a second after her axe hits Navi's blade away from his body and she is about to hit her target immediately after.

Navi knows he cannot swing his blade in time to hit the dangerously close Half-dwarf so he doesn't attempt to. With his badly positioned blade still in a backwards grip in his right hand, Navi puts a his left leg back thus giving his body a barely adequate space from Melisa charging figure but enough time for his next move as he tightens his left fist before shooting upwards with vengeance!.

!!!POOUM!!!.

Melisa is just a feet and a bit taller than Navi currently is and she has been kind enough to lower her face even further when charging in for a tackle. Navi's left fist covered with reinforced knuckles smashes into her charging yet defenceless jaw at a speed of flash with the impact pushing enough force for Navi to feel facial rearrangements on contact. Melisa's momentum is sent sideways and backwards but this didn't stop the attacks of her trained partner who immediately dodges Melisa stumbling figure before raining skilled attacks at Navi.

The beast-kin's blade whistles in air as Navi performs a dodge, a block and then a sharp reflect of three consecutive cutlass swings while still retreating further and further backwards but then,..

*CLACK!*.*!ψ!!ψ!!ψ!*.

The barely on lanterns suddenly comes to life as it immediately lights up the room that has been in the pathetic state of low lighting with a renewed energy.

Fighting in the almost complete darkness, no-one is ready for such a powerful burst of light as it sends dark visuals suddenly bleached and minds buzzing but in this moment,..

*SLASH/!!!*.

Blood splatters as a cold blade ruthlessly crosses through flesh, warm bones and blood. Someone stumbles backwards in the light from a sudden burst of pain as his mind rudes a sharp wave of dizziness. The person opposite him calmly feels the fresh blood on the pointy edge of his blade which is just a few inches above the ground slowly accumulate with drips as a drop silently goes to the ground.

From the sudden burst of light, everyone felt dizzy and stunned. Well, everyone but the one person who had flipped the switch,.. Navi.

Navi's blade and body has a new flowing red of beast-kin's blood on it and the injured and dying beast-kin stumbles backwards and away from him with a terrifying bloody gash tearing from left chest to right abdomen.

Navi coldly watches as they other guy coughs a little blood and then falls on his back. Seconds felt like minutes to the beast-kin whi struggles through the intense pain and agony of a torn apart inside and outside but this dying agony didn't last for long as his body soon goes still with his eyes wide open.

'Two more to go..', Navi reminds himself when suddenly, his attention is drawn to the door due to a rough scuffle. Navi watches calmly as Troy stumbles himself out of his house main door with the dagger still painfully in his abdomen and hopefully in an important organ.

Taking his gaze off from the 'limper', Navi ignores Troy as he walks up to the still dizzy Melisa with his bloody Claymore sword's tip trailing on the ground with a scratch. In the light he could finally really see Melisa's fully as well as how much damage has been done to her broken, torn and bloody right jaw and mouth by his metal knuckles.

She is down on the ground, still dizzy and in pain from Navi's strike and her vision is just really stabilising from the sudden burst of light yet the first thing she truly lays eyes on is the calm Navi taking slow and powerful steps towards her with the sound of his blade's tip crawling against the floor sending chills into her soul.

Subconsciously, she moves her body backwards with heavy breaths and heavy eyes that no longer contain anger or grief but rather fear and anxiety for her life.

*STAB!*.*PUING!###*.

"Aaaarrrgggghhhh!!!..", Melisa screams in tortured pain as her suddenly fast and heavy breaths admitted to her bodily agony. Panting heavily, Melisa looks up without daring to move any further because the calm and seemingly indifferent Navi whose pale face and white-suit drips of fresh blood from her dead partners has just suddenly and ruthlessly put the tip of his bloody sword through her ankle and into the wooden floor in order to painfully pin her down and keep her in place!.

Navi did the stab so fast, calm yet brutally with his blade's tip going through Melisa's ankle joint's bone and flesh and a couple extra inches of metal going into the cold floor.

Stars twinkled in Melisa's mind, her legs tenses up bad from pain but that only brought more pain as her loud breaths gets mixed with painful sounds.

Blood starts to accumulate very slowly under her ankle as she groans deeply while trying hard to fight the urge to go unconscious from the extreme pain.

With calm steps, Navi walks to the side of Melisa's head before bending down to pick-up one of her axe lying on the floor by her side. She had thrown this axe at his body just seconds ago with a speed that almost ended his life. Calmly thinking, Navi picks up the axe.

He looks at Melisa's reddened eyes and trembling face calmly for a few seconds and then with a swift and cold punch, he knocks her out before going back to pull his sword out of her destroyed ankle as he walks calmly towards the still opened door while leaving another bloody dent on her face.

Navi's steps were completely unhurried as he goes outside through his house door calmly. The pale moonlight baths over his white bloody suit and face as he coldly steps over his bloody first kill while looking around.

The footsteps were very clear in the sand under the moonlight and the small drops of blood in the dirt directly pointed to the direction to his target.

Slowly, Navi moves down the hill as he can already see the stumbling figure of his enemy and former room-mate in the not so distant distance.

Navi adjusts the axe in his hands and for some reason, he feels completely confident in his ability to launch the weapon. Reaching his hand back, Navi suddenly releases the axe in his hand for a confident throw. For a second, Navi's weapon rolls in the air with a whistle before its cold blade spikes into the upper thigh of Troy with a pained scream echoing as a response!.

Troy's figure falls forward into the dirt but he somehow prevents landing on the dagger that's already deep in his organs.

*GROAN**PANT..PANT!!*

Navi approaches Troy's figure at his own pace while Troy claws forward in the dirt as he tries desperately to keep moving downhill but he soon forced to give up as his body barely responds anymore to his commands.

With pain, exhaustion, fear and fury in his eyes, Troy turns around to watch as the very calm Navi walks down the slope of the hill with fresh blood still over his white-suit and Navi's distinct cold predatory Orange iris staring at his injured body and into his broken soul.

Navi walks calmly till he is just in front of Troy's pathetic and bleeding figure that leaning back against a small rock on the hill's slope. Troy is breathing heavily and staring up at Navi with eyes full of tense and heavy emotions and Navi is also staring down at him with the only difference being that his eyes holds nothing but a lot of cold and calm..

*HUFF*-An exhausted breath suddenly escapes Navi's lips as he gulps down a bit of saliva. The effects of his extreme adrenaline rushes is beginning to wear off and his body is crying for rest, thankfully he has felt much worse pains so it didn't weigh him down much.

"..If- if you spare me I would give you all I have!", Troy immediately starts a shaky bargain in fear while raising his blood covered palm by the side of his face to show all his sincerity.

"You thought it is a good idea to root out all I have and bury me instead,.. I highly doubt you can give me anything I want.", Navi says calmly before slowly bending his knees to lower himself to a level where he can comfortably look into the fear filled trembling eyes belonging to Troy.

"P.. please don't kill me, I'm just Twenty-five.. I have a whole life ahead!.", Troy say with a whole new pitch of desperation in his tone as he breaths fast and heavy.

"I'm only twelve..", Navi says calmly without much shock at the hypocrisy as he purses his lips to continues speaking,".. but that didn't stop you guys from trying to put me down, infact.. you all seemed to have consider it.. amusing.".

Navi says slowly while Troy's body trembles once more from both panic and pain as Navi's free hand it now lazily hovering over the dagger in his abdomen. This teasing action makes a panicked Troy to subconsciously clench his stomach muscles thus bringing pain amidst his panic as his terror filled eyes follows Navi's finger above the daggers handle.

"..You look like the most 'interesting' guy in the group so I'm going to guess you have been in a similar situation just.. Well reversed. Think about how you felt back then knowing the death of a pleading enemy is just one action away, then think about the decision you made to their pleas.", Navi says calmly while looking on at the new level of terror unfolding in Troy's eyes.

"P.. p-lease I would do anything thing,.. any.."

"Anything?..", Navi cuts off Troy's whimpering pleadings with a simple word and question.

"Ye.. yes!, anything you want *HUFF.HUFF*..", Troy says with a loud gulp as he breaths loudly from his nostrils with a glimmer of hope now in his gaze.

"OK. I indeed have a problem that i need to be solved and this problem comes in form of a question. If you can somehow give me the answer I want, I might be thrilled enough to let you go.", Navi says calmly with his hand tightening around the bloody handle of the dagger in Troy's abdomen as they both know that pulling the dagger out spells a cold and fast end for Troy as he would immediately bleed to death.

"I.. I'll answer you,.. anything!", Troy says with his eyes reddened. Strenght was already leaving his body and he knows that if he cannot rush to help soon then he would breath his last soon.

Navi nods his head slowly in approval at Troy before saying, "The question now is, 'What truly is balance?'.", Navi says while looking into Troy's eyes in the cold moonlight.

Troy looks into Navi's eyes in confusion yet panic as he is completely unsure about the question or an answer to the question. Navi's cold gaze reminds him that although calm, the orange eyed demon is anything but patient, each second more of hesitation could spell his end.

Heavy heartbeats, rough breaths, cold sweat and a trembling soul. None of these are the best conditions to think of an answer so Troy just stares deep into Navi's eyes while confused as to why he cannot find the words to describe such a 'simply-framed' question.

To Troy's own shock, the seconds ticked by gracefully but he didn't even utter a word at an answer.

!!!

!!!!!

"Wrong answer..