SPLAT! Blood splashed on the ground as Merida walked past her old master’s corpse.

“How dare you!” One of them growled, pulling his sword. But he froze the moment she glared at him.

Those dead cold eyes, devoid of any signs of compassion or comradery. To Merida. They were nothing more than dust in her path.

She turned, ignoring them and approaching the sword. She slowly started unwrapping her sword from her crushed hand, blood spilling on the ground, but she didn’t even flinch.

All the students glared at her back, knowing full well the reason for her rage. But none of them could dare challenge her, not after she dropped their master.

Three centuries ago, their school was built to fight off the Zuggtmoy infection of the lands as conventional methods of fire started to wane when the creatures started picking weapons and armor.

The dance of blades, a sword style focusing on slashes with extra long swords made specially to combat the long tendrils of the infected fungi of the crimson rot.

Merida lifted the sword, looking at its long, golden engraved blade of silver steel. Using the bloodied bandages, she tied the sword to her right hand, making sure it never fell.

CLACK! CLACK! The doors of the training room got kicked open once again, and tens of armored fighters glared inside.

“MERIDA!” One of them walked forward, growling as he pointed his blade at her after seeing Father’s corpse on the ground.

Merida turned her head, giving an emotionless glare, “Amorin? Jeremy is dead, you know?”

“Shut up!” He screamed.

“I looked into it. You’re the ones who sent Jeremy to that dungeon.” She turned, her blade scratching the ground. “Your men were the ones who came and killed father, all to force me to return here. You and that fool lord summoned a demon and can’t contain it. Now, you want me to slay it for you?”

“I said shut up!” Amorin shouted, “You and your mothers were the only ones to master the art, yet you chose to escape, live a comfortable life in Alina, and ignore everything here.”

“Mother said it, didn’t she?” Merida lifted the sword, piercing a hole in the ceiling, “It’s not our concern to bear the burden of what your family summoned.”

“Whine as you like. It’s your duty, and you’re here.” Amorin smiled, “It’s your fate, whether you like it or not.”

All of the marriage proposals she got were from this man, Amorin Cuchilla. They wanted her to marry him and spend the rest of her life fighting off Zuggtmoy’s spawns, and teach the dance of blades to her children and the students in the dojo.

CLANG! She pointed her sword forward, aiming at him, “You killed all of my family, left me alone.” She smiled, “Now that I’m free, I guess I could put an end to this.”

“Finally ready to submit?” Amorin smiled.

Merida smiled, “This is the end,” BAM! She lunged forward, swinging her sword at him.

Amorin pulled his sword, blocking her attack. “Have you lost your mind?” He growled. CRACK! Deflecting her sword aside, he jumped back and tried to swing at her neck.

With ease, she deflected the attack and lunged at him, kicking him out of the dojo.

^This bitch…she snapped…^ He fell on the ground and immediately rolled to the side, dodging a stab from Merida. ^She intends on killing us with the demons…^

He stood, inspecting her body.

^Several slashes, broken ribs, and a crushed right hand. All infected with the crimson rot, she must have slayed the devils at the mountain base, but how is she still moving?^ He took a stance, “You won’t last long. I can have our healers heal you. Only if you submit,”

“Stop whining,” She took the same stance, “You already killed everything that held me down. I don’t care if I die, as long as I’m taking everything down with me.”

CRACK! The other students lunged from the dojo, swinging their swords at her, “For master!”

Thud! Merida took a step forward, swinging her sword above her head and slicing five of them into chunks.

“Kill her!” Amorin screamed, and one of his servants touched the ground. Mold Earth: Slashing mounds

A blade similar to a saw tooth made of stones, the size of a human emerged from the ground, rushing toward Merida at high speed.

With a smile on her face, Merida supported the long sword with her left hand and swung horizontally, cutting the spell in half and lunging at Amorin with a swing.

He lifted his blade to block, but it wasn’t enough.

CLANG! When Merida’s sword impacted his, the sheer strength behind it sent him blasting through the fences.

Amorin growled, his eyes staring at Merida, “You’re the monster,”

BAM! She disappeared from his vision, and then. CLANG! He could feel her sword impacting his side, cutting through his armor and into his guts.

BLUGH! He coughed blood as his body flew out of the peak’s edge, falling from the mountain as he stared up, seeing Merida standing there, staring at him.

^Alone…you were supposed to come back to me, not against me…^

****

The Cuchilla family made a deal with one of Zuggtmoy’s demons, reaping his spores and mushrooms to sell as curses and bases for drugs throughout the kingdom.

But, contracts with demons always come with a cost, and there was a door to the abyss where waves of spores started spreading into the mortal world, slowly infecting the mountains.

The Cuchilla family couldn’t stand the situation of being exposed to the kingdom, so they made a deal with Riverside’s ruling family to keep it a secret in exchange for money. They then build a dojo on the mountain to train warriors to fight the infected and keep the situation under control.

For generations, they managed to keep the situation under control, but everything started falling apart when Merida’s mother found out they were still dealing with the demon. She and the other warriors weren’t fighting to defeat the demon, but only to keep the infection from spreading.

She ran away with her daughter, remarrying a noble in Alina and hiding for years. Everything worked out until one day she fell sick, and the Cuchilla took the chance to intimidate her to come back, using her daughter and husband as a weakness.

She returned, but instead of letting her fight the demons like before, she was killed immediately for running away.

But, the Cuchilla’s dojo never produced a master of the dance of blades after her. All the students, not one of them could reach three-fourths of her strength.

They then heard of Merida winning the competition of whitehold, the traitor has taught the dance of blades to her daughter, and the little girl seems like a genius.

Their attempts to bring her backfired, and they created a monster. An avenging ghost seeking their end.