I hurriedly picked up my clothes from the ground and wrapped them around my body. They were torn previously by the bastard, but enough fabric was left to keep me from being naked.
After that I turned toward the man, he was struggling on the ground as the fire burned his skin, he tried to scream but every time he opened his mouth all that came out were gulps of blood.
I wandered a bit close but kept enough distance, so he could not attack me. After all, reaching him was not my target. I bent down and picked up a long, cold, and heavy piece of metal in my hands.
It was the bastard's sword, he'd discarded it along with his armor when he was undressing. The sword's size was too much for my little hands, but I had only the slightest difficulty lifting it, since I was used to carrying heavy things back home.
My eyes shifted back to the burning man, for a moment I stood there with my gaze locked on him while I held the sword up with both my hands.
What I wanted to do was kill him, my body was screaming at me to do it, and my hands were itching to slit the throat of this bastard. However, deep inside, my brain knew that I could not defeat him in combat despite the troublesome situation he was in.
If I tried to slash him, and somehow he stopped the sword and countered, that'd be the end of me. That was when the sharp smell, that was stinging my nose from the moment I'd entered the tent, caught my attention and I noticed what it was and where it was coming from.
An idea struck my mind. It was something dark, and brutal, but I didn't hesitate to do it. Honestly, my spirits rose when I thought about it. That was even worse.
I realized it later, but this was the moment when the normal fourteen-year-old girl died. What was left was a daughter who wanted nothing but revenge, which was far worse.
Unaware of this, I proceeded with the idea I had in mind. Taking a few steps back, I placed myself at a point from where I could escape out of the tent in one go. After that, I tightened my grip on the sword, then swung it down as hard as I could manage without falling over.
The sword hit the side of the barrel, and the blade inserted itself deep inside, destroying the wood. It didn't break the barrel completely, rather the blade was stuck there like a cork in a bottle. All that was left was…
I pulled the sword back and a second after that loads of alcohol poured out from the opening I'd made. It spilled out in a rush and in no time it reached that bastard.
Flames that were double my height erupted from the ground, and I had even less than a second to see it, since I was dashing out of the tent right after taking the sword back. My legs moved on their own, and before I knew it, I was outside the tent.
But not all things went as planned, I was not so far as to leave unscathed. An explosion was heard, and I felt a similar heat behind my back, but it was far lower than what I experienced during the attack on my house.
Regardless, the blast was strong enough to send me flying a few meters. I crashed onto the ground, but I soon took hold of myself and was back on my feet. Turning around, I saw the tent burning as the flames devoured everything present there, including the naked bastard.
Maybe it was because of all the adrenaline rushing throughout my body, or for some other reason.
But I felt nothing even after having killed a human being. If anything, a small wave of relief washed over me, though it was soon evaporated by the flames I had not lit up and was not familiar with.
And the reason behind the screams I'd heard became clear. Everything was burning, all the tents set by the knights were on fire, although a few were still out of the flame's reach.
Men were running around, some searching for a way to extinguish the fire on their bodies, while some looking for weapons and getting ready to fight.
However, one thing was common; all of them were terrified down to their very souls. It was clear on their faces, the expressions were as if they had seen a ghost, or maybe even something far worse than that.
Along with the tents, the ground was burning too. As far as I could see, waves of flames covered the ground. In between the hell of fire, the horses that were on fire too were getting crazy as they ran between the walls of flames and slowly burned to death.
No matter where I saw, there was a fire. Everything was burning. Everything. And I was not the one responsible for these. In fact, in front of this great sea of fire, the tent I'd set burning looked like a child.
It was not long before I came to know the cause of this destruction. A powerful gust of wind trampled me to the ground even though nothing touched me, it was just pure air that made me fall like I'd been kicked by a man ten times my height and weight.
I rolled over and grabbed the ground, digging my fingers in the soil as deep as possible to not get blown into the sky. The wind died—or rather slowed down—after a minute or two, and then I looked up.
What I saw left me speechless and motionless for a while; my mind went blank, and I didn't know what to do.
In the sky, what I saw was a creature flying with its wings wide open. It was deep red; its tail was as rocky as the mountains and its wings as wide as rivers. It opened its mouth and breathed flame, setting a remaining piece of land to fire.
Then it turned upward and flapped its wings, the flames that were directly below the creature danced wildly and erupted into a roar as the creature went flying straight up. There it met with a few more of its kind. All were the same deep red, and all were as big as the size of a small city.
The stories my father had told me revolved in my mind, and information flooded in. If everything in the folklore were true, then the creatures before me were klauths.
The king of dragons. The creatures were said to live on the top of the Devil's Mountains. Klauth. A name that was feared by all mankind. No matter how powerful you were, you could not defeat a klauth. Even the five kings tried to avoid them.
Yet here I was, standing on the ground, stuck between a sea of flames as at least three klauths wandered and circled over my head.
I would have been frozen there for longer if I had not heard Roe's scream, it caught my attention and I heard my head toward her tent.
The fire had not reached there, and probably the man with her was too drunk and blinded with pleasure that he was blind and deaf to everything going on outside.
I looked up at the klauths once again, they were flying through the sky with pride and authority. But for once, it didn't look like they were coming for me. So before realizing it, fueled by the adrenaline going crazy inside my body, I picked up the bastard's sword and was sprinting toward Roe's tent.
The ground itself was burning, so I had to take a few detours and jump and slide and dash around the flames before I was standing in front of the tent. I took a moment to catch my breath, although I breathe calmly and slowly. Despite being a kid, I knew how bad it would be if I inhaled all the smoke that was practically everywhere.
I held the sword tightly and with my hands lifted the curtain of the tent and peeked inside. The view was purely disgusting and filthy, but all it did was add more fuel to the fire of my revenge.
Roe was on the ground, naked. And the man was forcing himself upon her as he ravaged her.