General Roberts stood frozen, side by side with the two girls. All three of them faced the six-eyed creature. The General's eyes were wide with terror, but he made no move. He was too paralyzed by fear.
The soldiers behind them weren't so lucky. They stood frozen, their eyes wide with terror. Fear had turned their bodies to stone.
They never got the chance to move.
Kokushibo's sword became a blur of motion. None of them saw the cuts happen. One moment the soldiers were standing there, weapons ready. The next moment, they were falling apart. Pieces of them slid to the floor with wet, sickening sounds. Blood sprayed across the room, painting the walls and ceiling red. It happened in less than a second. Six highly trained soldiers, cut to pieces before they could even scream.
The two girls, Kaily and Xxya, stood perfectly still beside the General, their bodies trembling so hard their teeth chattered. Sweat poured down their faces, mixing with the blood spray that had showered them. Their guns felt heavy in their hands, but they were too scared to drop them. Too scared to move at all.
General Roberts stood between the girls, facing Kokushibo. He could feel the evil presence radiating from the creature. It was like a physical weight pressing down on him. His mind raced. 'So this him, the one who killed our three squads.' He looked into his six eyes and knew true fear. 'His strength is of a different kind than even the other mutated zombies. his presence is overwhelming evil... i fear that every move we make now might result in sudden death.' The General's knees shook, but he forced himself to stand straight.
Kaily stood beside the General, her mind screaming.
'BREATHE.
BREATHE.
BREATHE.
BREATHE.
BREATHE.
BREATHE.
BREATHE.
BREATHE.
BREATHE.
BREATHE.
BREATHE.'
She tried to make her breaths quiet and small. 'It's okay to breathe, right? He won't kill us for that, right?' Her whole body trembled like a leaf in the wind.
Kokushibo's hand moved to the strange flesh-like sword. "You hold your heads quite high." he said in that deep, echoing voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once.
The girls understood immediately. They dropped to their knees, pressing their faces against the bloody concrete. They bowed as low as they could, trying to make themselves small.
General Roberts reacted too. He went down on one knee.
It wasn't enough.
Kokushibo's sword moved. Too fast to see. Just a blur, and then the sound of air being torn apart.
The wall behind them develop a huge, clean slash mark. The cut went straight through the concrete. The general felt a strange sensation, and his head split neatly in half. He was dead before his body hit the ground.
The two girls sense what happened. They sense the General's blood join the growing pool on the floor. Some of it splashed on their arms and faces. It was warm and sticky. They became even more terrified, pressing their faces harder against the bloody floor, hoping to become invisible.
Kokushibo spoke again, his voice full of cold contempt. "Did you believe taking one knee is enough?" He glanced at the General's corpse. "That bows that bear most hang lowest, yes. But I guess you guys are pretty lightweight."
Then he turned all six of his eyes toward the two girls. They could feel his gaze like a physical weight on their backs.
Xxya found her voice, though it came out as a choked whisper. "Please," she begged, "please don't kill us. We just want to ask you something. And we want to give you these bottles." She gestured weakly toward the blood bottles they had risked everything to steal.
Kokushibo was silent for a long moment. Then he spoke. "What did you want to ask? I'll grant you a bottle's worth of time. Now talk."
The words came tumbling out of the girls. They told him about their mother. How soldiers had found them. How they thought they were saved. But then Captain Lee and his men had trapped them. They described the horror of watching their mother being raped. How their mother created a distraction so they could escape. How they found her days later, turned into one of the walking dead.
They explained they wanted Kokushibo's help. They wanted him to kill Captain Lee and the other soldiers who had destroyed their family. In exchange, they would give him the precious bottles of mutated blood.
Xxya placed the bottles on the floor in front of her, pushing them forward with trembling hands. She kept her head bowed the whole time.
Kokushibo was silent for what felt like an eternity. Then he spoke two words. "Raise your heads."
The girls hesitated, trembling. But slowly, fearfully, they lifted their heads from the bloody floor.
As Kaily raised her head, something impossible happened. One moment her head was there. The next moment, it was simply gone. Vanished. Her body slumped forward, blood fountaining from her neck.
Xxya saw it happen. She stared in disbelief. Then she began screaming. "Kaily! Kaily! KAILY!!!!! " she shrieked her sister's name over and over, her voice cracking with grief and terror.
Kokushibo's voice was cold and flat. "Did you think a measly two bottles of this blood would grant you the right to order me around?"
Something in Xxya snapped. All her fear turned into rage. She grabbed one of the pistols from the floor, her hands shaking with anger and grief. She pointed it at Kokushibo, her finger tightening on the trigger.
She shouted. "DIE! YOU MONSTER!"
But before she could fire, her head split perfectly in half. A clean vertical cut from forehead to chin. Her body collapsed next to her sister's.
Kokushibo looked down at their bodies. "How insulting," he said quietly.
He stepped over to the blood bottles on the floor. As he picked them up, a blue screen appeared in his vision.
[ITEM DETECTED: CONCENTRATED MUTATED ZOMBIE BLOOD]
[RARITY: HIGH]
[ESTIMATED MUZAN'S BLOOD YIELD: 5.9%]
Kokushibo opened the bottles one by one. He drank the dark, thick liquid inside. It tasted strange and powerful.
As he finished the last bottle, another notification appeared.
[CONSUMPTION COMPLETE]
The two sisters lay dead at his feet. The General and all his soldiers were dead. He had gotten what he came for.
He vanished into the darkness, leaving only the dead behind.