The War That Never Was: Death Made Flesh

The Left Hand Descends

"YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME, LEGIONNAIRE." Sevrin yells with a smile. The words leave him in a voice that doesn't sound fully human anymore.

"ALRIGHT!" Jeftun yells. Sheathing his sword. Sevrin does not move the blade from the crying guard at his mercy.

"Octavan." Jeftun says, defeated.

"Who?"

"It's who I work for! I get paid to have gaps in my shift schedule." Jeftun rushes to the man on the ground bleeding out. Sevrin throws the man he was holding to the side, he collapses into tears. A puddle of yellow liquid sits in front of Sevrin.

"He needs a healer." Sevrin says, squatting down to be on their level.

"He doesn't have time. Everyone leave this place at once!" Jeftun yells, throwing his hand in the air while grabbing onto his man. Everyone begins scurrying out besides the two dead bodies, and the man bleeding out.

"Aa, not you!" Sevrin laughs as the guard that was blocking the gate attempts to leave as well. He begins crying and collapses to his knees. Pleading silently for mercy.

"By The Above, I am your servant, I am your sword, I am your light. Guide me." Jeftun says as his hand glows white.

"You're a healer?!" Sevrin is stunned. Healers don't usually fight on the front lines, and that appears to be this guys strong suit.

"No." Jeftun says calmly. He puts his hand on the man's shoulder and the bleeding begins to stop.

"Sure look like one." Sevrin mocks.

"Wow, what a man." Maeve smiles besides Sevrin.

"Wench." Sevrin scoffs under his breath. After a minute, the man's bleeding completely stops.

"You! Take this man to a healer." Jeftun yells at the guard on his knees crying.

"Woah, that wasn't apart of the deal!" Sevrin yells, standing.

"This man will die without proper healing. I just used a blessing, it's not nearly enough." Jeftun yells, standing with Sevrin.

"Fine. Go." Sevrin scoffs, turning his head like a child throwing a tantrum. The guard jumps up and quickly scoops up the wounded guard and runs off, tears still streaming down his face.

"I will not let you escape." Jeftun says, drawing his sword again.

"No running for me, Legionnaire." Sevrin smiles as he stands in a balanced stance with both daggers in front of him. Jeftun lunges, faster than Sevrin expected. Sevrin manages to parry, but his hands sting from the impact. Before Sevrin can fully regain balance, Jeftun lunges again. This time, Sevrin parries with just his left blade, spinning to the left. He goes to slice Jeftun's thigh, but hits too low and his dagger bounces off the armor. Jeftun stumbles forward as Sevrin stumbles backwards.

"You're better than I realized, Legionnaire." Sevrin laughs. His voice almost sounds distorted.

"You're not as fast as I heard, Demon." Jeftun gathers himself and prepares to charge again. He is stopped when a man appears in front of him. The man wears a black suit and a white tie. He has short black hair and black glasses. He carries a scar from his right forehead to his right jaw.

"What the f**k? Who are you?" Sevrin asks, standing up straight and stares at the new mysterious man.

"Lin?" Jeftun asks, stunned.

"Hello, Jeftun. I am under strict orders here. Please vacate the area. This is mine to deal with." Lin says extremely calmly. Upon further looking, Jeftun realizes that Lin is floating slightly off the ground.

"f*****g Users." Jeftun says as he sheaths his sword and grabbing the two dead guards.

"Be seeing you, Legionnaire." Sevrin chuckles.

"No. You won't be." Jeftun says solemnly.

"You must be the infamous Straw-Hat Demon." Lin says, his voice is so calm it's almost compassionate.

"And you are?" Sevrin asks, c*****g his head slightly to the left.

"Oh my, where are my manners? My apologies." Lin says as he bows slightly, putting his right hand on his chest.

"My name is Left Hand Lin. I am the 'right hand man' as you'd call it, of Octavan The Void Tamer."

"Octavan. That's the second time I've heard that name. He's the one responsible for all this evil." Sevrin scoffs through his teeth.

"Evil? The only evil I see is you, my demonic friend." Lin pushes up his glasses.

"I wouldn't have to be if he wasn't robbing and hurting others." Sevrin's anger begins to overwhelm him.

"The only one hurting others is you. But that is neither here nor there. You shan't make it out of this alive."

"Your ego is showing, asshole." Sevrin balances himself again, putting his daggers in front of him again.

"Ego is the thought one is better, without being able to back it up." Lin starts, before disappearing. "I can back it up." He continues from behind Sevrin. He swipes his hand and a giant gust of wind throws Sevrin into the gate. Exploding the gate into chunks of wood.

"You managed to block that? Impressive, Demon." Lin says while floating towards the exploded gate. Outside the gate, Sevrin gets a flashback of the man with the blue aura and red aura that ruined his life. They had powers similar to this.

"Don't tell me the force of hitting the gate killed you." Lin laughs as he gets closer. From the smoke Sevrin dashes into Lin, daggers drawn. He is stopped by a wall that can't be seen.

"What- the f**k- are you?" Sevrin struggles to push against the wall.

"I am Left Hand Lin." Lin says before swiping his hand downwards, sending Sevrin straight into the ground. The force is so hard that it indents the concrete. The sound of his bones breaking echoes. He grunts, and begins to force himself to stand.

"Oh? You truly are a remarkable specimen. Shame I no longer serve Archsage Veradis, he would love to experiment on you." Lin's smile reaches ear to ear, almost as demonic as Sevrin's. Sevrin fully stands under the pressure, his body sinking deeper into the ground slowly.

"f**k you." He says as he rolls out of the pressure, now behind Lin he lunges instantly. He is caught by that wall again.

"WHAT THE f**k?!" He screams as Lin turns to see the struggling Sevrin.

"You're so cute." Lin laughs as he swipes his hand again. Throwing Sevrin into a house this time. Screams echo through the area as the house begins to collapse.

"You have SO many broken bones right now, my love." Maeve mocks next to Sevrin, who is inside of the brick wall, trying to get his body to react to him.

"Shut up, Winch." He grunts as he forces himself to stand, he wobbles as the wall he came through collapses fully. Above the pieces of wall that have fallen into a pile, Lin can be seen floating in. Sevrin lifts his arms again, one arm gives out from being broken and he grunts. One arm is in the ready position in front of him.

"Seems your body gives out before your mind. That is truly a mark of a warrior." Lin mocks as he stands a few inches in front of Sevrin's dagger. Sevrin is breathing heavily as if he just came out from under water.

"You are the demon." Sevrin coughs. He no longer has his hat on, and blood is covering most of his face. Lin studies him.

"Who would've guessed. You're just human with extraordinary strength. We were certain you were at least a User, if not an Outlier. Shame." Lin says as he clicks his tongue.

"DEMON!" Sevrin yells as he makes one last attempt to kill the man. He swings for the throat of Lin, but Lin quickly moves his hand upward. It was barely late though, the dagger slashes upwards on Lin's face. It slices open the left side of Lin's face, just barely missing his eye. Lin grunts and stops floating, grabbing his face. Sevrin gets thrown through the roof, and continues flying upwards. For the first time, Lin's calm broke. His eyes widened — not from pain, but from fear.

"F-uck." He mutters as he begins his decent down. The smack of his body against the ground is gruesome enough to make even a seasoned warrior look away.

"Still. Weak." Maeve scoffs.

"YOU f*****g BASTARD!" Lin yells as he slashes his hand downward, smashing the already dead Sevrin into the ground farther. He doesn't stop there though, he continues to s***h his hand downward over and over again.

"f*****g s**t!"

"MOTHERFUCKER!"

"f**k YOU!" The ground cratered around Sevrin's skull. Masonry snapped. Something wet splattered up Lin's pant leg. Sevrin's body wasn't even a body anymore — it was shapes that used to be human. Lin spits on what's left of the body and begins walking away.