The young man stood, his grip on the dagger firm, yet his hands trembled, his chest rose and dropped heavily. He was holding it all in, the fear, the worry, everything that was rushing through him right now. He wanted to be a man, he so desperately needed to be a man. It was as though something refused to allow him to back down when every person here cowered in fear.

The demonic humans looked at him, they burst into laughter, uncontrolled and loud. What would a puny kid do? He was nothing in their sights, nothing that they should pay attention to, that’s what they all thought, and they were right.

He saw the mockery, he heard their laughs, his rage boiled.

"Arghhhh, die monsters!" he screamed, charging ahead, attempting to stab with the dagger. The demonic human barely looked at him when he swung his hand and slapped him right across the face with so much force that his nose broke and his jaw was broken. He slammed into the floor hard, blood and tears mixed fast. The hearts of everyone who had seen an ember of hope when he moved were quickly dropped into despair.

There was no hope for them, they would all die, right here and now, this would be the end.

"Hahaha, did you really think that you could stop us, human? You are weak, useless, there is no power in you to defend or protect."

Those words hurt, because they were true, they crushed the spirit of the young man as he lay on the ground in his own defeat.

The demonic humans stood, ready to kill all with grins on their faces. They closed the gap, the people trembled in fear, tears streaming from their eyes. Ken’s mother sat with their youngest sister wrapped in her arms, she buried her head to ensure that she did not see it when it happened. She didn’t know when, for the first time in her life, she prayed for her last son, Ken, to arrive and to save her.

"Clowning on someone brave because he chose to stand and fight, how low do you demonic humans go?"

Ken’s voice cut through the air in a steady rhythm, it held no emotions whatsoever, yet it carried the weight of a warrior. "You hold innocent people hostage and try to kill them, that’s the most cowardly thing I have seen in my life."

The demonic humans turned in a rush, they looked at the kid that approached. There was something vastly different about the kid, the way he moved, the way he spoke, the aura that emanated from that small body, it made them worry in the depths of their hearts. But they were demonic humans, there was no way that a kid would be of any issue to them.

These demonic humans had not seen Ken in action and so did not know what he was capable of.

"Hahahaha, another brave kid, how about you drop that sword and come join them, or I split your head and drink your brains," one said, eagerly licking his lips and taking a few steps forward.

Ken drew a deep breath, then he approached. "I’ve already grown deeply tired of your kind." As the words left his mouth, he vanished. The demonic humans immediately panicked and started looking around in worry and confusion.

"Your kind shows me that even with power, you can all still be cowards." He appeared behind the first one while in the air, his eyes flashed with a red glow as he slashed for the neck and decapitated him in one swift blow.

He landed on the ground before the head hit the ground, his sword barely covered in blood because of how fast he had slashed through. He looked at the next, who were stunned by what had just happened, a human had taken down one of them with such ease.

"You brat, die!" one screamed and attacked, the rest followed, knowing that Ken had some strength and single attacks would do nothing to stop him, they chose to take him down together and get back to what they were doing.

They came all at once.

Ken was already gone before the first one reached where he had been standing.

He appeared inside their formation, not at the edge of it, in the middle, and his blade moved twice before anyone registered he had arrived. Two dropped. The remaining six scattered instinctively, trying to create distance, trying to find the angle that would let them use their demonic arts.

He didn’t give them the breath for it.

He crossed to the nearest one so fast that the man’s sword arm swung at empty air, and Ken took his head before the swing finished. Pivoted immediately, blade already moving on the next, a clean diagonal that opened him from shoulder to hip. The body hadn’t hit the ground before Ken was at the fifth.

This one tried to stomp the earth.

Ken’s foot came down on his before he could, and the slash that followed was so fast it looked like he hadn’t moved at all. The man simply separated at the neck.

Three left. They spread apart, trying to force him to choose a direction, to buy half a second, anything.

Ken chose all three directions at once.

He moved through them in a single connected line of motion, one, two, three, each kill bleeding into the next without pause, without hesitation, the blade barely singing as it passed through each of them. He stopped walking when the last body hit the ground and turned once to check the field.

Still. Every single one of them down.

The town watched in complete silence.

No one moved. No one spoke. A child somewhere behind him had stopped crying mid-breath. The young man on the ground with the broken jaw stared up at Ken from the dirt with wide and unblinking eyes.

Ken sheathed his sword.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​