Hey Everyone, King Spike Rules here and here is the next chapter to One here we get our look into Dante's past and what the Five Hell Blades.
Chapter 4: Burning Past. Story of the Holy Swordsman.
Two days after slipping away from the marines and starting their lives as pirates, Malic sat back in the dingy and rested his eyes as Dante worked the mast, keeping an eye out on if someone was coming for them and the sound of seagull over head. Dante let the air hit his face and a smile, feeling a sense of freedom that he didn't fee as a marine and he could tell that it would be difficult, but being a pirate might be better then he would have day dreaming vanished from the sound of a loud growling and he looked at Malic sitting up holding his stomach.
"Man, i could use a lunch." he said grabbing the bag of food in between them and began munching on an apple, Dante noting he had eaten more then half of what had been eaten and he took a piece of dried meat, munching away with the sun beating down on them.
"We should try finding an island to get more supplies and a map or two." Dante said, making a mental not on the list of what they would need to grab, just hoping the word escaped from the Marines or it would be much harder without forcing the 'pirate way' on others.
"Wait, you can read a map?" Mailc asked already helping himself to more food from the bag, leaving Dante to stare at him in shock.
"Y-you can't read a map?" Dante question felt answered nearly instantly by the shake of Maic's head and a groan escaped his mouth laying back against the boat. "Okay, we should find someone to help use read maps before anything else."
"I would rather get a chef to join our group next." Malic tossed more jerky into his mouth and munched away at it.
"How would we get a chef without a kitchen?"Dante didn't even look at Malic, his mind filling with everything that could go wrong now and them becoming skeletons was number one on the list. Malic continued to eat, seemingly thinking it over or at least that is what Dante was thinking from the silence.
"Hey, what are the Hell Blades?" The new question made Dante sit up and look at Malic confused, watching him stuffing his mouth with food and a sigh escaped his lips returning to look at the blue sky.
"Well, I guess I should tell you since that is my goal as your crew mate." Dante didn't move and simply looked up to the sky with Malic watching him with his mouth stuffed with food. "It all started about ten years ago when i was nine..."
"DANTE!" a voice cried out from the church at the top of a hill, over looking the small island village going about their lives. A young Dante jumped from his hiding place in a tree and caught himself from falling, peaking down to see a young woman standing there with a stern look on her face, "You forgo your training to nap?"
"Come on Mary, i've been training for hours." He groaned looking at the annoyed look on her face with her hands on her hips and her brown eyes staring at him.
"You need to keep up with that training to help protect the village from danger." She said looking him over from her angle and scowling at him, gaining a sigh from Dante as he jumped from the branches making his bed and landed on the ground in front of her.
"I'm not sure why we bother." He said starting to the church were a group of kids were in the middle of their sword play with their teachers, Father Leon and Brother Lance. Leon was an elderly man in his 70 with grey hair nearly kept and was wearing a priest garb, his old yet caring blue eyes watched over the students training with Lance moving around them, noting their mistakes and helping them setting them right. He wear his brown hair slightly longer then Leon and his green eyes looked over the group like a lion watching their cubs practice. Dante stood by the wall, hugging it to insure he wasn't seen and looked for a way to slip into place.
"Finally deciding to join us huh Dante?" Leon said without looking at the wall and making Dante jump with Lance shooting him a glance from his spot in the middle of training.
"Dante, why you little." Lance stormed over and grabbed Dante by the collar, glaring at him, "I should wring your neck for wasting our time training you."
"Lay off Lance, I'm here aren't i?" Dante said holding his hand and struggling to get free with Lance's face growing redder, his other hand lifting up to strike him only for a can to wrap around his wrist.
"There's no need for that Lance." Leon said sternly and Lance put Dante down, "Dante, get your gear and began training. You'll behind today."
"Yes father Leon." Dante ran over to get his stuff, the two watching him with Lance looking to Father Leon.
"You're too soft on him Father." Lance said crossing his arms and watching Dante move his sword, moving a little faster then the others and his foot work was much better then the others.
"Maybe, but he reminds me of a younger me." Leon laughed returning to his spot to watch the students with Lance watching them better as he nodded at many of them getting into a flow.
After the training, the others where allowed to leave as Dante was forced to stay to make up for what he missed while slacking as Lance watched him closely with Leon heading in to rest his body. Lance's eyes scanned Dante's movements with a keen eye.
"Why do you slack?" Lance's question threw Dante off and he looked over to him confused on where that came from, "Your footwork is perfect and you movement clean, why not put your full effort in training?" Dante looked to him shocked before looking back to the wooden sword in his hand.
"I just never really thought of myself fighting for a life." Dante explained looking at Lance and smiling at him, "I'm just doing this for my sister told me i should be doing it as a village tradition and that's about it."
"I see, so you want to try other things when you grow up?" Lance asked smiling and moving towards him, smiling and patting on his back, "You know what, you've trained enough. Head home." Dante jumped for joy and glee, hugging Lance's leg bolting out the churches doors to get to home early.
"What about his training?" Leon's voice called out from behind him and Lance turned to look at the elderly man smiling as he looked at him.
"Yeah, I might need to lay off him you know." Lance said and Leon nodded, walking on with his can as Lance watched Dante vanish down the stairs. A smile appearing on his lips seeing the red sky covering the whole island in a calming glow.
The moon was high over village, calming in and peaceful when a small ship appeared in distance. It docked and five figures stepped out on to the dock, each holding a different weapon and moving down the dock to the village. A single man was drinking in the streets, smiling looking at the group.
"I have this one." The smallest of them said placing their hand on the handle of their sword and instantly appeared behind man, killing him as he fell to the ground with a thud. His blood leaking out on the ground, staining it with them showing up.
"Why'd you do that for?" The tallest member of the group ask, an ax firmly set on their back and arms crossed looking at them.
"It doesn't matter." The leader said stepping on towards the hill and the church laying on the top, yet a figure appeared in front of them.
"You shouldn't have come here." The figure said holding his broad sword with both hands and looking at them, "Leave or head straight to hell for your sins."
"Well, it took us years to find what we were looking for." The leader said stepping forward, drawing his sword from his hip and looking at with a longing stare, "And I'd rather go to hell empty handed then leave without them."
"Then tell the devil I sent you." The figure said launching towards them with the leader sword joins his and they looked at each other with anger fueling their fight.
"DANTE!" a voice screamed out throwing Dante from his slumber and he sat up confused, looking around before joining his sister by the door. The color in his face drained away seeing everything that had happened, bodies littered the ground with many young kids, his trainees with him at the church. His young eyes soaking in everything in the streets as the kids families had joined the young kids. Yet one figure stood out from them all, Lance laid face down with his face on the ground, his left arm missing and five weapons sticking out of his back.
"Lance." Dante yelled running over to him, shaking the body yet nothing came from it and Dante could see the hilt of a sword in hand attached to a broken piece of metal. Every one watched the young man crying seeing the death of his teacher when Father Leon stepped up, putting his hand on Dante's head to comfort him.
"He's on the other side Dante, no pain, no suffering, just peace." he said with Dante wiped his eyes away, looking at all the bodies, Something clicked in Dante and pulled away from the Father.
"Who came to kill them?" Dante asked throwing his arms to the bodies, tearing streaming down his face, "Why would people come to kill us all?" Leon looked about, noting no one was watching them and he looked back at Dante.
"Lance and i, along with the ones dead here all belong to an order meant to keep five cursed blades from seeing the light of day." Leon explained looking at the bodies around them, tears streaking down his face, "And those kids were being trained to protect them when those attackers snuffed them out."
"B-but why not me?" Dante asked his heart breaking seeing every one he knew was dead or suffering lost.
"Your parents won't a member and neither is your sister, so your names were kept from the secret." Leon said walking away down the street, "The blades are gone and without any protector, those blades will cause unknown danger to the world."
"Then I will get them back." Dante said wiping his tears away, "For every one that has fallen, I'll get them back." Dante then set himself on a path that would lead him to meet Malic.
"And so I trained for nine years and then set out to find the Five Hell Blades." He said looking at Malic, who had listened to him closely with a smile on his face.
"Well, I'm just glad you joined me and we can find our quest together." Malic said taking more food eating as Dante nodded and got more food from the bag, noting that they really needed to restock on supplies on their next island.
TBC.
Well, that was it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it and please tell me what you think as I still need more crew mates as i still need a Helmsman, Doctor, Histories, and Musician.