Author's Note-

The first thing to understand about this story is that yes...it has an OC. However, honestly Soul Calibur is, in my opinion, a story that OC's can actually fit in (if done correctly) naturally, as the games constantly add new characters and parts to the story.

This is an idea I have always thought of, but never had the motivation to write, though now as I write this I'm finding it a crap ton easier to write than any other fanfiction I have ever done. I can thank the Soul Calibur games and their sufficient amount of character and plot story for that. I can't believe I didn't start on this sooner!

Also, please note that the rating of this story may change, due to some later but rather light adult themes, which will be treated as necessary to the plot. I'm keeping it at T for now, because I'm still trying to decide how things will go in that subject.

Better Summary:

Like I said in the other summary, this will go through most of the SC games. Esther witnessed the grisly murder of her parents at the hands of a monster with an ax (yeah, you all know who that is.). Several years later, now living with her adopted family in a small remote village in 14th century Germany, she trains secretly in the arts of double fencing (a fighting style where one dual wields fencing swords) due to her traditional foster mother's disapproval. One day, as she is walking along the river near her village, she comes upon Maxi, who is severely wounded and takes him back to her village. Other adventures will happen as the story goes on!

And I can't tell you much else, so you'll have to read it! :)

Prologue—The Abomination

There was so much blood.

Little Esther couldn't make a sound, not even a whisper, as she stared almost disbelievingly at the horror before her. Her knees locked up, her breathing paused, the nine year old girl stayed seated on the stairs. Before her, were the lifeless bodies of her parents, their blood merely being puddles which ran underneath them like a spilled glass of water.

Being the small and vulnerable child she was, all she could do was stare up at the massive man—no this was not a man, this was an abomination—who had just taken the lives of those who meant the most to her. It appeared that the same fate was about to happen to her.

He didn't even say anything. He only gave her a silent stare, without expression, through that hefty mask which covered his mouth and nose.

Heaving his ax back up, which was covered in blood, he slowly prepared to end her life as well. It was obvious that he knew she wasn't going anywhere, and he was amused by her increasing fear.

Esther's cheeks served as a running surface for the tears pouring uncontrollably out of her eyes. She did not sniffle or whimper, she only stared wide-eyed at the blade of the ax, which would in moments send her into blackness. As she prepared for the end, she did not make a sound, nor could she find the ability to move.

Well, at least until the last second.

She didn't know what it was, but something in her screamed at her to move, almost too late. Rolling out of the way, the ax had grazed her eye, but for the most part she was alive. Her vision hindered, and blood filling her right eye, she kept a hand to it and ran for her life.

Her eyes slowly opened to see nothing. Nothing but the deep blue color cast on her simple room. Nothing but the dim moonlight that poured in through the crack of her curtains.

She let a single relieved sigh escape before turning over in her bed. The monster was gone, and he had been for many years now. There was nothing to fear anymore. All that remained were the memories.

And the nightmares.

Chapter 1—The Stranger

Today was just an ordinary day in her village by the river. Or at least it started out that way.

It all began with an early rising, about seven in the morning more precisely. Esther dressed herself in whatever way she saw practical, and headed out towards the forest, just a mile from her home. She was careful not to wake anyone else in the house, for her foster parents disapproved greatly of her early morning sword practices.

Quietly adjusting the swords in their sheaths, then strapping them around her waist, she advanced to open the door. It creaked slightly, which caused her to flinch. However, she continued onward and out the door.

A little bit colder than I had anticipated...She observed, tucking her coat collar a little more comfortably around her neck. Oh well, the activities she was about to engage in would hopefully solve her problem.

She had little over an hour before she would have to come home, sneak back in her bed and pretend as if she hadn't actually gone out. That meant she needed to get to her decided location quickly, and return quickly too.

Stepping over a stream, she thought, Damn. I should have awakened sooner. Now I'll only have forty minutes or so. Ugh...Teacher is going to be so upset with me... She picked up her pace. Now was not the time for self scolding, she had a practice to get to! Besides, all of this contemplating would only serve to slow her down.

At last, she reached the opening between the thickening trees. Pushing a branch out of her way, she slid down the loosened forest dirt and into the small path, a path which she had made for herself during all of these trips to her 'training grounds'.

Her teacher, who was a woman in her village named Seras, was seated on a tree branch, just ten feet off the ground. She had her legs crossed, and one hand supporting her weight on the tree branch. The fingers on that hand tapped the branch impatiently.

"You're late," She commented, no tone to her voice. It was often difficult to tell just what her teacher was feeling, how angry she was, or whether she was serious or not due to her unvaried body language and voice tones.

Esther frowned and dipped her head apologetically. "S...sorry..."

"Don't apologize to me. You're the one who is the most impacted by your delay. Now we won't have enough time to work on some things."

"I know, I know." She sighed drew her swords from their sheaths. "So what are we to work on today, teacher?"

The woman shook her head and dropped lightly from the tree, drawing her own pair of deadly looking swords. "How many times have I told you not to call me that? My name is Seras."

Esther rolled her eyes. "Are we going to discuss what to call you or are we going to get down to training? We don't have much time you know."

Seras readied herself into a fighting position. "Now now, we wouldn't have that problem if a certain someone wasn't late, now would we? Now get into stance and come at me."

Esther closed the door behind her as quietly as she could. Though, it was hard to get away with anything because of that damned creaking.

Hopefully no one heard. She highly doubted it, everyone she lived with slept like rocks, another defining trait that set her apart from them.
Walking on the fronts of her feet, she made her way past the ladder and almost into the hallway. Almost.

"Now what are you doing up so early in the morning?'

Dammit.

She searched her mind for anything that would work as a suitable alibi. "I was just outside, on a little sunrise-"

"Save it, Esther. We both know that you've been sneaking off every morning for weeks, practicing with that Seras lady." Her foster mother, Ophelia, stood with her hands on her hips, a disappointed look on her face.

"How did you find out?"

"Really? You want to ask me that?" The small woman shook her head in disbelief. "The clanging of those swords every morning, CLING CLANG TING! And not to mention, how could I not hear that door?"

Esther frowned. "I didn't realize your hearing was in such remarkable shape..."

"I'm a mother, there is no need for an explanation."

Leah, Esther's foster sister, came from around the corner. Wearily, she yawned,"What's with all the noise?"

"It's nothing, you should go back to sleep." Esther answered.

Ophelia rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Nothing? Oh, so disobedience and sneaking off into the forest to go sword dancing with some village hooligan means nothing to you?"

"That's not what I mean! And Seras is not a hooligan! She's my friend, and she happens to actually care about my well being!"

"Esther, you know that I love you, and I've forbidden you from sword fighting because of that. A woman is not suited for wielding a sword and slaying monsters, and I wish you would realize that. You need to leave all this silly nonsense behind, and start acting like a normal girl of your age! You can start by obeying your mother."

She couldn't take it anymore. The stress and all of this anger that she had bottled up inside finally had to be let go.

"You're not my mother and you never will be!" She screamed, tears edging at her eyes as she pushed her way past a very shocked Ophelia and ran out the door.

At that moment in her life, Esther was cursing everyone, but mainly herself. She shouldn't have reacted like that. Ophelia was just trying to do what she thought was best for her, like parents do. As much as she wanted to argue, she was definitely in the wrong. She shouldn't have been sneaking about, and she especially shouldn't have yelled such a horrible thing at the person who had taken care of her so lovingly after her parents had died.

Now all she could do was walk guiltily along the river banks, too ashamed to return home. I'm sure that Ophelia is crying her eyes out by thought, wanting to cry as well. And so, she did.

After walking for a bit with tears threatening to pop out at any moment, she succumbed by falling to the soft river bank. An outbreak of sobs escaped her body, and all she could do was cover her eyes with her hands.

What could have caused her to do such a horrible thing anyways? Today she was causing problems for everyone. It started out with her showing up late to her practice and inconveniencing Seras, and now she'd gone and hurt the feelings of her foster mother. Alright, that was only two people, but the guilt still weighed down on her.

These tears didn't feel purely guilt induced though. Yes, that was a huge part of it, but by the way she was trembling and this feeling of an impending doom coming swiftly upon her said that there was another part of it. Reoccurring memories and nightmares seemed to be tormenting her even more so lately. No matter how many times she'd try to comfort herself by reminding herself that the monster was gone, fear had seemed to find itself within her heart yet again.

"Great, now I'm a fearful coward and an ungrateful brat." She sniffled, wiping her tears away.

She'd been sitting out here for a good ten minutes, her head buried into her knees. It was time for her to move past her petty struggles and find a way to apologize to Ophelia. Looking up, she let her tears sink back into her eyes and disappear somewhat.

However, it was when she looked to her side, she noticed something she really should have noticed before.

"Oh my god!" She exclaimed, standing up immediately.

A man lay at the river bank, most of his torso out of the water, but most of his legs were still under the current of the water. He appeared to be unconscious and severely wounded. Bruises and cuts were everywhere on his body, his clothes stained with his own blood. The staggering rise and fall of his chest told her that he was still breathing, but needed attention as quickly as possible.

"Help! Is anyone out there?!" She called out. "Help!"

It was useless calling for assistance. Even if anyone was up, they wouldn't be able to hear her from so far away. Would she have time to run back to the village and perhaps grab some helpers there? Esther didn't want to take any chances. This man would die by the time that she came back with help.

Left with no other choice, she quickly knelt by his side to check where the worst wounds were at. There was one particularly bad one just above his hip, a fairly bad gash on his right upper leg, and to make matters worse, a couple ribs appeared to be broken.

"God...I don't even know what to do..." She looked around her again for anything that would be of use to her, but of course there was nothing. The village was almost a mile away, so she could probably carry him there, but his wounds were so bad that it made her hesitant to do so.

The man took in a rather jagged breath, then began a small coughing fit. Blood started to come up, and it looked like he was going to choke on it. A startled Esther put a hand under his head, gently lifting it up so that he would at least stop choking.

She didn't have the time to consider her options. She needed to get him some help quickly.

When the coughs died down, she used her sleeve to wipe away some of the blood from his mouth. "Hold on," She whispered soothingly into his ear as she began to hoist him over her shoulder. "Just hold on for a little longer."

He let out a small groan at the feeling of his position changing, and she knew that it must have been rather uncomfortable, especially with his broken ribs. However, she had to move him. She didn't let the feeling of his blood soaking into her shirt or running from the cut on his shoulder onto her neck bother her. She'd seen much worse, and his life meant more than the squeamish feelings she wanted to let out.

Her pace was slow, but steady. It was indeed difficult hauling a man of his build, but for the most part he wasn't really as heavy as she expected him to be. She guessed it was probably due to the shape he was in, which despise his injuries, was great, though his fair sized muscles had made her overestimate his weight.

They were almost to the village, and much to Esther's happiness she could now see the silhouettes of the small houses that composed it.

"Just a little further!" She told him, though she doubted that he could hear her.

As she came closer and closer upon the village, the man began coughing again. Esther tightened her grip around his arm, and pulled the other one up around her shoulder a little more to secure his position better. She used her partially free hand to gently cup it to the side of his face, which was positioned in the crook of her neck, in a calming way.

"You're okay," She cooed. "We're almost there."

He took in a pained breath, and pushed another out. "...Sorry..."

Esther cast a side ward glance at him. "Shh...just keep breathing. Don't waste your energy."

They were only fifty yards away from the village when she could feel him slipping off of her. Luckily she was able to catch him, and lay his body softly on the long grass.

"I'll be right back with some help. Stay with me, okay?" She brushed the straying black bangs out of his eyes and put a small kiss on his forehead. And with that, she ran right into the middle of the village and began calling desperately for help.

"What's going on?" One of her neighbors asked as they came out with numerous others to see what all the fuss was about.

"Please!" Esther begged. "I found a man washed up by the river! He's hurt really badly!" She ran over to him to show them where he was.

"Esther?" She heard the voice of Ophelia coming from behind the group of people gathering around the man. After they had begun carrying him over to a place where they would heal him, did she see the small form of her foster mother.

Immediately the guilt she was feeling earlier came crashing down on her. "Oh...Ophelia..."

"My goodness! You're covered in blood! What happened?" Ophelia asked worriedly as she ran up to Esther.

"It's not my blood," Esther explained. "I carried that injured man all the way from the river."

"Thank goodness," Ophelia sighed, caressing the younger girl's face gently. "I'm so glad you're okay. About earlier, I'm sorry for getting upset..."

"No, Ophelia, it is I who should be apologizing. I have my own extended opinion on this, but...I shouldn't have said such a horrible thing to you. You've been there for me ever since my parents died, and you've done a great job of being a second mother to me."

Ophelia nodded, giving Esther a small smile. "Come here," She said, pulling her into a hug, then brushing a few strands out of Esther's face. "You're such a pretty and mature girl, I'm glad to have you in my family."

"Do you forgive me?" Esther asked quietly.

"Of course." Ophelia then looked towards the small hut where the villagers had taken the wounded man. "Let's not worry about these things for now, I'm sure that the healers could use your help."

Esther nodded, and made her way past the gathering crowd and into the small hut. She figured that the argument of what she should be doing with her life would come up between the two again, but for now she let it be. She was just happy to have Ophelia's forgiveness and enjoy a proper mother and daughter moment with her; moments that had come less often ever since Esther had turned the age that most girls got married at in her village.

Author's note-

To explain the part where she kissed him on the forehead, it's an old belief kind of like kissing boo-boos away, but in this context, it's called "The kiss from a virtuous maiden can give a dying man a reason to live".

To answer any upcoming bee-otching, I know that technically in Maxi's profile it says that it was an old man that rescued him, but for this story's sake I changed that little detail...and maybe because after I had finished writing my guts out on this chapter, I may have forgotten that part until I went over my research...*awkward laugh*...but oh well, ya'll can get over it right? Please don't kill me...I have hopes and dreams~!

Please review n' stuff, it's highly appreciated. Thanks! :)