"Mo…ther?"
She looked at her son with pity and a deep sorrow. Gently, she walked forward, looking him in the eyes.
"You…"
"It's me."
Arthur lunged at her, winding his cutlass back far. She closed her eyes, and tensed her body, refusing to move. And so, Arthur swung his sword, cleaving the woman in half, severing top from bottom.
Her upper body fell to the ground, spraying blood onto the already stained ground. His blade was coated in blood, which he formed into a ring. His fingers were getting full, so he decided to take all of her blood, creating a stud.
He jammed it into his earlobe, then healed the wound around it, wearing his mother's blood as an earring.
Looming over her, Arthur's sunken eyes carried simultaneously zero and heaps of weight.
"I'll… I'll eat…" He said to her quietly, getting down on his knees. Her skin became quite pale, and when he touched her with his fingertips, they reflexively backed away.
"Ah… no, heal! Heal first, I want to think before I do this!" He commanded. She obeyed, healing a brand new lower body. He looked away, and she put on the clothes from her old legs, before telling him it was okay to look.
She sat upright, looking at him with curious intent.
This was perhaps what Arthur needed most to snap him out of his madness, even if just for a moment.
"Are you going to kill me, Arthur?" She asked. Arthur looked at her hesitantly, getting up and looking down at her.
He wasn't entirely sure if this was the right decision. She'd attempted to kill him in the past, so it made sense, it wasn't illogical. But with that said, she was still his mother.
And so, Arthur couldn't make the decision so easily. Not someone with a weak heart like him.
He was reminded of the times in which she seemed, or very well truly was, the only person in the whole world who could truly love him.
…
One day, at school, Arthur was walking down the hallways. He was aged 12, a 6th grader, and a 14 year old 8th grader was hitting him.
It wasn't a cartoonish, overly dramatic beatdown, where Arthur got curbstomped and beaten into unconsciousness. However, when he was in the school bathroom, that 14 year old boy saw him as he was washing his hands, and smacked him a few times.
And this 14 year old was much larger than him, one might even go as far as to say he was twice Arthur's size. Arthur tried to leave, but failed, as the kid pulled him back and smacked him around a bit more, before ending it with a large slap.
It made quite a loud noise and stung really badly, so Arthur cowered as a result. The kid and his friends laughed at him, before leaving the bathroom. When Arthur left the bathroom, sniffling slightly and wiping his eyes, he saw the principal.Arthur went to the principal, asking for help. The principal pulled him aside, telling him a few things.
Firstly, that the reason he was being hurt was because he looked weird. That he was being hurt because he carried himself, looked like, acted like, and talked like someone with zero confidence.
Then, he told Arthur that if he wanted to stop being hurt, he needed to simply be more confident.
But from Arthur's perspective, all he had been doing was trying to greet his classmates like he watched them do. He talked the way they did, he acted the way they did, he tried to do what they did, but always, for some reason, they would never allow him to be like them.
When Arthur went home that day, something about him was different. He learned that no one was going to help him, even those who were supposed to.
And the reason for this was entirely because he was himself.
Arthur's mom saw the wounds, and consoled him. From that, Arthur learned that the only person who could love him was his mother.
Other than her, he was all alone.
…
Arthur looked down at her, clutching his weapon. He raised the blade into the air, looking down at her before his lips grew thin, tears in his eyes. He would not let them roll down, but his vision grew blurry, causing him to blink rapidly to clear it.
"Why did you choose them instead? Why did you attack me back then!? I thought you cared for me, I thought you were one of the only people who…!" Arthur whispered loudly, as he gripped his blade tighter, halfway to unleashing the attack and killing her.
"Arthur…"
"What!?" He screamed.
"Behind you."
Arthur turned around, seeing Hiein thrust a spear at his head. Arthur evaded, cutting the spear in two with a swipe from his cutlass before properly turning around, facing off against the Blood Artist.
"Ana, why did you do that?" He asked calmly.
"I… I do not know." She answered honestly.
"First, you volunteered to be the one to kill him. I thought it fitting, but when he survived, it seemed suspicious. I paid no mind, but in this instance, I've seen it with my own eyes. Are you a traitor as well?" He asked.
"Shut up you bastard, you've got no clue what you're talking about!" Arthur roared, lunging at him. Hiein clicked his tongue, forming a spear and shield. He thrust the spear forward to attack Arthur once more, but Arthur was able to slash the weapon away, push forward and make an attempt at an attack.
However, he was blocked with the shield, as the shield was hit into the blade at an angle to where the blade slipped off rather than cutting right through it, as was aimed for. As that happened, the spear was pulled back and quickly stabbed into Arthur's stomach.
Arthur dismantled it due to touching it, but such a move was countered when Hiein hit him with a haymaker after getting closer. The punch was thunderous, giving a loud bam noise before Arthur was sent off of the battlefield.
Hiein looked at Anastasia, reforming his spear into a sword, holding it at her throat and pushing it in just enough to cause bleeding.
"Well? If you protect a traitor, you yourself are one," he told her. She looked down, taking a deep breath and resigning herself to her face.
"Do you have any final words?"
"Ah… All I ask is that you don't kill Arthur. And if you must, please keep his death painless. That's all I want."
"A painless death… was that your reasoning for volunteering to be his executioner?"
"Correct."
"Very well then. You've been bothersome, but—"
He was cut off by a punch to the back of the head. It didn't do much more than make him stumble forward, and he didn't want to kill Anastasia that way, so the stumbling did not drive the sword even deeper to her throat as he pulled it out.
"Oh? You as well?" Hiein said, turning back and looking at Damien.
"Ah, shit, I thought that would've knocked you out or something… you got a dummy thick skull, y'know that?" Damien muttered with a red face due to his unexpectedly unsuccessful punch.
"A what?" Hiein asked genuinely.
"An old bastard like yourself wouldn't know what it means, so pay it no mind," Damien told him, before walking right in front of him, getting between Hiein and his mother.
"My mom's not yours to kill! I've been listening for a bit, and in all honesty, it seems like Arthur's the one who's got dibs! I mean, of course I'd rather he didn't, but—"
Hiein shoved the teenager away, causing Damien to fall onto his butt.
"Ow," he said instantly, though it didn't really hurt. "Hey, what're you—!"
Hiein raised the sword once more before Arthur came back, standing still and raising his cutlass into the air. Arthur took a deep breath, as the blood earring from his mom's blood was gone, and shards of that very blood were attached to his sword.
'Motherfucker! If he kills her, I can't question her or eat her! So I'll do it, and BREAK IT!'
Arthur took a giant step, swinging his sword downwards, slicing the air itself and causing a giant BOOM to be heard, as that swing launched the shards beyond the sound barrier. The shards were launched from the sword, flying at Hiein quickly, faster and faster.
Kinetic Energy equals ½ mass times velocity squared.
The average bullet weighs a fraction of a pound. However, these shards were 5 pounds each, around a foot long and the girth depended on which point it was examined, as it was shaped loosely like a diamond.
The speed of these shards and bullets weren't one-to-one. However, the weight did help assist its force.
The sniper round, a .308 Winchester bullet, has a mass of 9.7 grams. The velocity of roughly 830 meters/second times that mass, when squared and halved, is around 3,340 joules.
This swing, which was only possible with a large step and Arthur swinging it as hard as he could, broke the sound barrier. Doing the calculations, at 5 pounds of weight and exactly 343 meters per second, the attack would unleash an attack of 133,000 joules, give or take, adjusting for speed loss or wind resistance or whatever.
In contrast, a 20.mm anti-material rifle can produce 50,000 joules or more. Such weapons are used to destroy vehicles. It should go without saying, but such an attack would completely slaughter Hiein.
If it hits.
Hiein was able to evade a shotgun blast, with definite difficulty, but it was still within his capabilities nonetheless. Even if the force was larger, the fact that it was still slower than many bullets remained the same.
Hiein leapt back to avoid the attack, as it then ravaged the house, tearing through the walls of the mansion and ripping it apart.
"Damn! Yeah, you get 'em, big brother! Go whoop his butt! Show him who's boss!" Damien yelled, smiling at Hiein as he pointed at him.
"I've told ya, unc, I've got no interest in betraying the family. What Arthur's just done is really weird, and I am still scared of him, but I smell something fishy afoot! I'll decide for myself whether Arthur's really as bad as you say!"
"You… idiotic boy, he just killed and ate your aunt."
"Ah…?"
Damien tilted his head, turning to see Arthur standing there. "Um… you… you're not gonna eat me next, will you?"
"I don't know. You seem to be on my side, so I won't. That's our deal," Arthur told him.
"Eek, what a scary guy… y'know, maybe Hiein's right about you!"
Damien laughed it off as a joke, and Arthur looked at him seriously enough to scare him into pausing his laughter. It was then that their mother hugged Damien from behind, looking at Arthur sadly.
"Please, don't hurt him. I do want to talk to you about things, Arthur," she said. Arthur nodded his head, turning back towards Hiein, who clicked his tongue and took a step backwards.
"It truly is no use. There will be reinforcements, for all of you. Our allies are powerful ones, Arthur. I suggest you kill yourself, because if you do not, then you'll die screaming."
"Send all the reinforcements you want. I'm sparing you, because I want you to have front row seats to watch the end."
Hiein fled the mansion, and it was a victory for Arthur. Arthur turned to see his younger bother and mother, as his fingers twitched.
'I can kill and eat them right now. Mom's healed too much, and Damien's weak. So, I truly could just…'
'Not right now, at least. Maybe eventually, but not for now.'
Arthur exhaled in relief, sitting down as the cutlass turned into a ring around his thumb.
"I do have some stuff I'd like to figure out about you… both of you," Arthur told them. They all sat down, forming a triangle of sorts as they all sat criss-cross-apple-sauce.
"But first, I have a question for you, older brother of mine!" Damien yelled.
"Huh?"
"Who's Lucy? And was there something between you two, cause she seemed to really like you, so…"
Off to a rough start, it seemed.