Scene opens with a small village being pillaged by barbarians. Scene zooms in on a group of barbarians surrounding a young woman and a few young villagers, looks of evil intent upon their faces. Young man steps forward to try and protect woman and is cut down by armed barbarians. Villagers cower, and woman screams out for help, but no-one answers. Barbarians are about to attack, when one suddenly crumples to the ground, a bullet hole in his head. More barbarians crumple until only three are left. They, along with the villagers look around in confusion. Someone whistles and they look towards the sound. Resting upon a tree branch is a young man wearing a jacket, holding a smoking pistol.
BARBARIAN: Who there? What business you have with us? waves axe menacingly
JACKETED MAN: I'm a traveler. And you simply got in the way of my daily target practice. puts away gun in jacket There is no further story than that. Now, I really must be on my way. hops off branch, land on ground smoothly and begins to calmly walk past the barbarians
BARBARIANS: Die, little wretch! all three attack him
Jacketed man dodges weapon swipes with little issue, and unsheathes his kodaichi, effortlessly slicing off the arm of one attacker. He swivels around, blocks the strikes of his foes, and sends all three flying backwards with a single sickle-kick.
JACKETED MAN: This is your one and only warning. Leave now with your lives, or stay here as a corpse. Those are your only options. kicks arm to one-armed barbarian There's a good stitcher in a town thirty miles east. You can get that reattached there. turns and begins to walk away
Barbarians roar in fury and charge. First one to reach jacketed man is standing one second, then tears in half violently the next, stuffing and blood raining down on the silhouette of the jacketed man, who has his kodaichi raised to the sky. Barbarian #2 charges, swinging his battleaxe wildly, jacketed man dodges berserker-esque strikes with a calm demeanor, and finally sheathes his sword, reaching into his jacket instead and pulling out several throwing knives, which are buried into various pressure-points on the barbarian's legs a second later. Barbarian falls to knees, paralyzed from the waist down. Jacketed man strolls around the downed barbarian, plunges his hand into the man's back, and begins to slowly remove large amounts of stuffing, with a calm, almost peaceful look upon his face as he does so as blood spews out from every orifice from the barbarians back. Barbarian shrieks in agony, slowly deflating. Eventually, there is a barbarian-sized pile of fluff and blood next to an empty skin. Last barbarian howls in fury and pounces at the jacketed man, who touches his chest gently and then punches the barbarian in the face, who goes flying back a few feet. He gets up, and a cylinder is jammed in his mouth, while one is missing from the belt across the jacketed man's chest strap. Jacketed man pulls gun from inside of jacket, shoots the cylinder as the barbarian charges again, and barbarian is blown into little scraps and droplets of blood, cloth and fluff. Jacketed man puts away his gun.
VILLAGERS: terrified, backs away from the jacketed man
SMALL VILLAGE BOY: He's so strong! So merciless! He's a demon! A murderer! A killer! He can't be human!
JACKETED MAN: turns to face the villagers I can assure you I am no demon My name is Raize. I am just what I told them, a passing wanderer.
Village elder approaches Raize
VILLAGE ELDER: You saved our village, and our lives, from those savages, . I cannot thank you enough for your services! How can we possibly pay you back? Money? Food? Alcohol? Lodging? Women?
Raize just shakes his head, turns around, and begins to walk away once more. Reaches city limit, stops, turns around and says...
RAIZE: Wait, did you say alcohol?
End of act 1