A drop of blood and the blade was ready. Within seconds, the blade had vines snaked around it, sharp thorns protruding from them. The vines wound themselves around the hilt, the thorns there sharper than the others and easier to pierce through flesh.

I grabbed the hilt, too used to the feeling of stabbing thorns to flinch. I could feel the vines draining my blood and feeding the seed. Throwing myself at the enemy, I took first blood. He flinched from the feeling of the blade and thorns. He had a bigger build than me. He wore chainmail armour and wrist guards. His weapon was a gladius and he was equipped with a shield. On the other hand, I wore no armour and had no shield, my blade was long and light, slender but yet wide enough to hold a flower in full bloom.

I darted around him slashing, never staying in one spot longer than a few seconds. His build was to my advantage. He was slower than I and he took ages just to swing his sword once. Like all other fools before him, he had assumed that having a bigger sword meant he could inflict more damage. At the end of one minute, he was bleeding at several places while I was still unscratched.

I darted in for one last strike, holding my breath this time. At the last strike, the flower on my blade bloomed. It was a blood red rose with a glassy look, as though someone had poured liquid glass glaze on it. The man stumbled, caught unaware by the smell of the rose. I held my breath and stood still. There was no need to attack anymore.

Suddenly, the man started clawing at his throat, he acted like there was a hand gripping his throat and strangling him. It was useless. Spots of green appeared on his neck. Vines shot out from his throat and his chest. They grew fast and started to encase his body. It was merely a precaution, if the seeds released from the glass rose with their sharp edges did not shred his lungs and throat, the vines would finish him. They too, had sharp thorns, but these were poisonous and paralysed all they touched.

When the vines were finished, all that was left was the shape of the man wrapped in vines. A single rose grew from the vines. It was black and looked tainted and sickly. The rose on my blade shattered. My job completed, I left the execution grounds, knowing the body would be cleared within the next hour. And the cycle would repeat. The nobles would send for me again to execute yet another murderer or someone who had committed a crime they considered too terrible to simply hang the offender. It was mainly for the nobles’ entertainment of course. And who would want to stop these fights when they could earn money from betting here? It was a world tainted with greed and selfishness.

This is a side story we may or may not be continuing. The main story will continue when we become more free - Wolf