TITLE: Cruelty and the Beast

CHAPTER: Chapter Twenty Nine – No Exit

AUTHOR: MockTurtles/Bleaq Black

RATING: Light T

SUMMARY: Dying


Arms, legs and bodies were hurled carelessly along the edge of his sword, onto the tip that slices through flesh, bone and soul. He felt them die by his blade. Some don't know it's coming and stare wide eyed as the pain cuts through them. The light doesn't go quick enough from their eyes because in their mind they're still living.

Throwing their corpses aside, they slide from the blade with a sickening plop before thundering across the floor with a dim echo. Above the rumble of footsteps and clashing katanas, Mugen could still make out the sounds of the dead as they rolled away, forgotten. He wanted to smile, fold himself into the rush of battle, yet he can't. He is unfocused, almost hesitant in his movements as each masked figure raced to their death. Tanaka didn't move from his throne, and watched the scene with bored eyes, conversing with his woman-servant, Saki whom continued to linger behind him. The waves were beginning to seem endless, and dawn, further away. Mugen caught himself staring into the ceiling, watching as grey clouds hovered overhead. The metallic hum of his sword always brought him back—but his distractions were coming more often between shorter intervals. The enemy's blade was getting closer. Mugen was helpless to prevent it. It was if he could see his own deterioration, listen, wait and observe his body collapsing under the weight of his task. The pain on his side was numb now—but the blood… he could feel the hot trails of it dripping down his leg.

At first it was easy to ignore; swing a sword and feel it connect with a body, which fuelled his resolve for another battle. It was his therapy. But there are so many to kill. His mind was becoming scarce, fleeing to memories, driving into the lost caverns of though.

At some point he noticed that less of them were attacking, though the swarm was ever present. It was not until the first wave of fatigue truly gripped him (eyes shuddering with pockets of darkness, his sword, almost falling from his grasp) did he understand why. They are waiting.

Like serpents they stalked him, tasting his exhaustion on their forked tongues, biting at his resolve to try and quicken what is inevitable. Mugen will fall.

When over half of the force were lying bloodied on the floor (a few rolling limbless, screeching out in pain) there was a moment of darkness—literal and overwhelming nothing. Sound came back to him first, in the nervous chatter of voices rose up in a stifled chorus. He pried his eyes open. Mugen was staring into the broken ceiling of the warehouse when his vision came to him, and blinked through the rain which fell in through the flaws of the rooftop. The ground manifested behind his back, cold and stable. None of them had made the final move to end his life, though they encircled him—still they waited.

Behind the crowds, he saw movement. It was static, dark and Mugen could only just make out their feathers. They were here to collect him, he thought. A voice, from reality, grounded him to his body. When the vagrant looked again, the crow man could not be found. Instead, Saki, the assistant, was standing in the foreground, away from her master.

"You are at your limit, Mugen." Tanaka was saying. "Blood loss is a scary thing."

Mugen was trying to hold onto the fibre of his words. It was becoming difficult to make heads of tails between the intonations. His heart was fit to burst and felt like a bird's as it pounded away behind his ribs.

"You must be feeling it now. You're arms are heavy, as limp as your dick on an ugly whore. You must be having difficulty seeing me—and maybe, maybe you're hallucinating, hmm? I remember when I got this cut (Mugen knows his pointing at the scar on his face; he's arrogant enough to think he can see him) and the blood just kept coming and coming and coming. My world seemed to melt from the very corners of my sight. It's worse than death—because it's the wait that many of us don't come back from. One, you, will not come back from."

A few fighters tip toed towards him. Mugen was certain that Tanaka had given the order for the execution. He fumbled for his sword, but only managed to shimmy the blade closer to him. His body now ached (all traces of numbness gone) and refused to move as his will dictated. Again, behind the scenes, the crow man resurfaced—and this time, he did not disappear."Fuu," Mugen mumbled, and mustered the resolution to stay awake, to see this through to the end.


NOTE: Sorry this chapter took a little longer to finish. Work has taken so much of my time, but I will try and get as many chapters uploaded as possible. Thanks for all the encouragement guys! Listed to some David Bowie while writing this piece – for some reason it made the task a'hella lot easier. Hope you enjoyed it! :]