Finding my Parents in Another World-Chapter 55: (Zack) Tyrant

The top half of Brunaulf’s body toppled, and then fell down, separated at the waist. Blood spurted out from the wound. The General was instantly dead, his expression locked in concentration and regret.

Zack collapsed on his knees, huffing from the exertion. He had used up all of his magik reserves, he was running empty now. He almost closed his eyes from exhaustion, when a clang caused him to look to the side.

Isadora and Fermi Ja were still locked in fierce combat. The Sciadorm was dead though, it’s body carelessly discarded in a pool of blood. It’s face was now completely a blank slate, all the shimmering gone. Zack felt a little sorry for the animal, forced to be a slave to a tyrant.

The tyrant himself was more than capable of holding his own against his daughter though. With his two daggers, he was expertly sidestepping Isadora’s swords as well as her frequent attacks with snakes. It was a deadly dance between the two, Isadora being more aggressive while Fermi content to wait and prepare the perfect counterattack.

Pende rolled forward, going to assist, but Zack put a hand to his shoulder.

"No, we shouldn’t interfere here."

"Are you mad old man? The tyrant is out of his magik beast. And his general. This is the best time to overwhelm him."

"No!" Zack was surprised at the strength in his own voice. "We shouldn’t interfere. Isadora herself should be the one to end this. We have no right to interfere."

Pende looked at him incredously.

"Why?"

"Because she is going to be the next ruler of this town no? She needs to uproot the evil herself, slay the tyrant terrorising this town herself to claim that throne. We cannot, should not, do this for her."

"And what if she loses? What if she does?"

Now it was Zack’s turn to be surprised. "I thought you didn’t care about her as long as we get what we wanted?"

Pende turned away so Zack couldn’t see the expression on his face. But clearly he was flustered.

"Just answer the question old man." He muttered.

Zack suppressed a smile before answering, "If she begins to lose, only then will we help her."

Pende didn’t answer, his eyes affixed to the dance of death between a tyrant and his daughter.

There were no words being exchanged, it was just a curious exchange of blows followed by another furious exchange of blows. Each exchange was more frenzied, more rabid than the last one. Isadora relentlessly kept attacking, thrusting and stabbing her sword and sending her snakes as additional attacks, while Fermi deftly used his two daggers to block each of her strikes effortlessly.

"Do you forget who taught you to fight?" Fermi Ja said, thrusting up the dagger in his left hand towards Isadora’s throat, while blocking her sword with the one in his right.

Isadora stepped back, and the sword in her hand turned into a snake, curling around to reach its destination faster. As soon as the sword was up at the level of the second dagger, it turned back again blocking the stab of the dagger.

"And you forget who taught me to survive." She responded, kicking up a cloud of dust by her feet towards her father.

Not wasting any time, she immediately stabbed her sword towards the cloud. The pointed end of the sword wobbled and turned into a snake once more, extending impossible distances into the dust cloud towards the invisible Mayor.

A cry of pain from within confirmed the hit, and the tyrant jumped out, clutching his bleeding arm. The look on his face had changed into something more solemn, more sombre than simple expression.

"So, you would raise your blade against your own blood?" He said finally.

"Own blood? I am ashamed to share blood with someone like you." The venom in Isadora’s voice was apparent.

"Everything I did I did for you."

"For me, is it?"

"Yes! To make the city safer for you! You don’t know the history of our family, the power the name of Ja still commands, the respect we are entitled to by the Crown because of the contributions of our ancestors. But with a name like that, with a reputation like that comes dangers. Jealous nobles. Angry mobs. Assassins hiding in shadows. The easiest way to quash that is to display no weakness."

"And raise the assassin in your own house?"

With a frustrated roar, Fermi Ja threw one of his daggers at Isadora, who gracefully pivoted out of the way.

"Why don’t you understand?! You can call me a tyrant. That Chianti Hunter can call me a murderer. But all I have done is ensure the safety of my family."

"How can you even speak of safety? When your thug soldiers overrun the town looking for dissidents where there are none? When detestable criminals like the Garbage Snatchers roam the streets and you can’t even protect the daughter of your friend? Protect me? Save me from assassins? You have to be joking ’Father’.

But I know you aren’t. It’s easier for you to blame it on me, or when Mother was alive on her. It’s easier for you to pretend you are doing this to protect us, when your main aim all along has been your own protection. That’s why you don’t hesitate to shoot a dagger at the daughter you so yearn to protect."

Isadora had struck a chord. Fermi Ja’s face became even more terrible, more angry as he regarded his daughter coldly. Raising his one remaining dagger, he jumped forward, his tall lanky figure looming over Poison Bloom.

Isadora threw open her cloak and held it in front of her. From the twirling folds of the cloth emerged a pit of snakes, coiling together so perfectly that it was impossible to estimate how many were there or tell each individual snake apart.

With a graceful slash, Fermi Ja cut off the heads of the first few snakes and then crouched down low to the ground. Here his taller frame was a significant disadvantage. He had to almost hug the ground to save himself from the onslaught of snakes just above.

Isadora, on the other hand, took advantage of her agility. She leapt up, above the pit of snakes, and then, using the handle of her sword as support, propelled herself along the line towards her father. When she was just above him, she turned her sword upside down in a single, deft movement so that the sharp edge was pointed downwards, and then drove it forcefully through.

Fermi Ja rolled to the side, but not before the sword struck his face, causing another yelp of pain. The tyrant didn’t stop though, continuing his roll until he had cleared the barrage of snakes above him. Immediately he stood up, and now he was back to two daggers in hand. However Isadora’s sword had cut his face, just above the right eye. The large red gash poured out blood, and the tyrant was forced to close his right eye shut.

That along with the blood gash on his arm, and his dead mount meant that he was the one who had taken the first three hits in this battle. Isadora, on the other hand, was yet to take a hit from her father, and the one person who had injured her lay dead.

Fermi Ja refused to surrender though. Proud and haughty through and through, he stood upright, his back erect as he faced Isadora.

"You know what you have to do to end this blood then." He said calmly.

For the first time Isadora hesitated. Zack could see from the way her blade wobbled for an instant. She wasn’t prepared yet to kill her own father. Whatever she had said, that was one step too far.

Yet still she raised her sword and said defiantly, "Yes ,’Father’, I know."

With a roar, she charged forward, her sword pointed steady fastly at her father. With a resigned sign, Fermi Ja again took up a defensive stance with his daggers.

It was a fierce and brutal clash. Isadora was relentless as ever with her erratic swordplay, and Fermi Ja resolute as ever with his blocking and waiting for a counter approach. For a long while there was no other sound in the castle halls except the clang of metal striking metal. Isadora slashing with her sword, Fermi deflecting her strike. Fermi stabbing with his daggers, Isadora prancing about to dodge the strike.

Eventually though the tide of battle started to turn. Fermi Ja had no magik anymore, and that proved to be the decisive disadvantage. Isadora overwhelmed the tyrant with her sword as well as her snakes, and Fermi Ja couldn’t block them all. His torso was torn and covered with snake bites all around. The gash in his eye refused to close, pouring down blood over his chest, which was already red from the wound on his arm.

The decisive blow came somewhat anticlimactically. Fermi Ja, realizing that he was never winning in a battle of attrition, stabbed forward with his left dagger immediately after blocking Isadora’s strike with his right one, evidently to take advantage of the fact that her sword was blocked off. Zack watched with bated breathe, expecting Poison Bloom to dodge like she had done so many times previously. This time however, Isadora didn’t dodge. Instead she pushed her body forwards into the dagger instead. The dagger pierced her arm, but she used the forward momentum to lay a more deadly strike while Fermi Ja was stuck in that awkward position.

It seemed even Isadora didn’t expect her strike to go through that easily though. Zack saw the confusion, the hesitation on her face even as her sword proceeded relentlessly towards her father’s chest. Isadora tried to turn away at the very last moment, but it was too late.

The sword pierced straight through the chest of Fermi Ja, and the halls of his throne rang with his final cry of pain.