The Laughing Swordsman

Apollo slowly opened his eyes.

Maya had a pleading look on her face.

Apollo gave her a deep look, then sighed.

"Alright."

His bokken shot out towards the ice wall, causing it to shatter.

Apollo's foot stepped on the shards of ice with a crunch, then surveyed the area.

The villagers were running back towards Apollo. Behind them were multiple two-horned and one-horned demons.

Apollo was bathed in demon blood and behind him were the demon corpses.

When the villagers saw that, they ran towards him with eyes filled with hope.

"Please save us!"

"Don't let this demon kill me!"

"I... don't want to die!"

Apollo sighed.

"Get behind me."

The villagers all made sure to stay behind Apollo.

At this moment, Maya's father came back with one arm holding onto the other. There was a gash on his arm that leaked blood.

Maya's father noticed everyone gathering around Apollo. His face twitched.

"Um..."

Apollo shook his head.

"Just get behind me."

Maya's father nodded and hurried past him.

Apollo dashed forward towards the demons.

There were ten demons with one horn and three demons with two.

He ran up towards a one-horned demon and directly took its head off.

As he did so, a saber and dagger were making their way towards him.

He split the saber in half and twisted his body to avoid the dagger.

Shortly after another saber and two more daggers slashed towards him.

Apollo arbitrarily thought of the time he kept his balance on the eagle.

He would have to suddenly shift his feet. If not, he would fall off. He would fight against the forces acting on him but also use it to his advantage.

His body contorted at a weird angle and dodged all of the blades threatening to take his life.

He could feel his old dagger wounds reopen, but ignored them.

Apollo's footwork became irregular like he was doing an erratic dance routine.

As he was dodging, he did not miss the opportunity to retaliate.

His sword slipped past their blades, slicing off heads and caving in chests.

He focused on the one-horned demons first. There were only two left after a few slashes.

Apollo slid past a two-horned demon's strike. He threw his body back while his hand traced the side of his blade.

His bokken snapped out, shattering the rib cages of the last two one-horned demons.

Now, there were only the two-horned demons left.

The remaining demons decided to get serious.

All three of them raised one of their feet. Following the white glow it emitted, they slammed their feet down.

Ice spread from their feet and ice walls encapsulated them.

Before the ice walls even finished forming, six icicles launched towards Apollo.

Apollo contorted his body and slashed out with his bokken.

He was able to divert three of them and dodged two. As for the sixth icicle, it grazed against his back, aggravating his stab wounds.

Apollo dashed towards the demons with a wide smile on his face.

The three demons swung at him. Apollo took advantage of the fact he split one of the sabers earlier to slip past them.

His bokken directly shot towards one of the two-horned demons. The demon that was targeted suddenly shifted its body, causing the bokken to land on its shoulder.

Nonetheless, it was still a heavy hit. The demon's shoulder exploded while its arm fell off.

The demon stumbled backward until it hit the ice wall. It then slid down and slowly bled to death.

Apollo was currently between the two-horned demons. The demons weren't just standing there, as they raised their sabers to once again slash at Apollo.

A thought flashed through Apollo's mind. He had the urge to experiment a little.

His free hand grabbed onto the middle of his bokken. He then twirled it and had each end press against the tip of a saber.

Apollo smirked and spun his body.

The two sabers brushed past his shoulders like they never intended to hit him in the first place.

The two-horned demons ended up stabbing each other in the chest.

Apollo did more than just redirect the sabers, but gave them more power. With that power, the sabers pierced straight through the chest of their respective demon.

However, that was not enough to finish the two-horned demons off. Their vitality was unnaturally strong, to say the least.

Nonetheless, they would still need a few moments to extricate their sabers from each other.

Apollo slipped out from between them. He was about to behead one of the two-horned demons but decided against it at the last moment.

The demons pulled out their sabers from each other and began bleeding profusely. Yet, like they didn't realize that fact, they charged towards Apollo.

He remembered how he redirected the beams of water and wanted to see if he could do the same thing with the sabers.

Once the two demons slashed, Apollo's hand traced the side of his blade.

The sound of a blade being sharpened rang out. The sabers flew with a peculiar trajectory into the necks of the two demons.

Instead of abruptly diverting, they moved as though that was how the slash was meant to go.

The two demons were beheaded by each other's sabers.

It almost seemed as if their enemy wasn't Apollo, but each other.

After Apollo was splashed by the blood of the demons, he sighed.

He felt lethargic. It didn't feel too good knowing that he was helping those villagers by killing the demons.

However, since Maya saved his life and wanted him to do so, he would oblige.

He climbed over the ice wall to see all the villagers huddled up together.

Maya was on her feet, though unsteady, and was at the forefront of the group.

Apollo slowly walked over.

His back was dripping blood on the snow, making him look heavily injured.

Maya's father whispered something to Maya.

Maya responded by shaking her head.

That was when Maya's father slapped Maya.

Apollo's eyes narrowed.

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