A short Jude story

The first, but probably not the last short story written about Jude, a swordsman adventurer.

“I hate you.” she said while she coughed up blood. I had impaled my sword through her stomach. I had already inflicted a gap in her chest, filling her lungs with blood. Her lifespan had been very short from that point.

“Don't worry. I hate you too.” I whispered back to her. I pulled my sword out of her body and swept it to remove part of the body fluids stuck to the blade while she fell to the ground. Her own weapon was on the stone floor of the dungeon we had entered. I cleaned my weapon by using her clothes while she still was on the ground, still dying, still not fully dead.

We had entered the dungeon together and had acted friendly then. We hadn't liked each other from the beginning. We both had gone to the same sword-fighting school. From the moment I laid my eyes on her, I knew I hated her. The feeling was mutual and that suited me just fine.

I stayed at the school, honing my skills while she had transferred to another one. Her chemistry with the rest of the students hadn't been good to say in the least. The teacher and she didn't see eye to eye as well. So she left. She went to school that was specialized in the art of spear fighting. It suited her much better.

Of course she and I hadn't entered the dungeon alone. We both were hanging around with a party of our own. We made a bet that whoever got to the lowest basement room won and that the others would have to bow on their knees while praising the other party.

My party won of course. It's not that I'm that skilled or that my party is really powerful. It's just that our party was way more balanced and we had been travelling around for a while now. We all knew our part both in exploring the dungeon and in battles with the monsters that lurked in a dungeon.

We were fighting the dungeon boss when the other party bursted into the room. Instead of minding their own business, they joined the battle and one of their party members actually dealt the finishing blow.

Then the argument began. About who won the bet. We had been first to get to the lowest floor of the dungeon, but then she started to argue that truly finishing the floor would be defeating the boss. Since that one of them had killed the boss, they had finished first and they had won.

She was talking bullshit, just like always. It was always like this with her. The argument let to nothing and we decided that we would settle the bet with a mock battle. A duel between a member of our party and theirs. I wasn't really interested in a duel, until she volunteered to be the fighter representing their group. She even challenged me personally then. Normally I wouldn't let these kind of things get to me, but with her it was different. My normal logical way of thinking just stopped working whenever she was involved. So I accepted her challenge.

We began the battle circling around each other, trying to read each other's moves. She took the initiative and was the first to attack. I could see her coming, so a simple sidestep was enough to dodge the attack and get close to her. I ram the hilt of my sword into her stomach and then jumped back. I grinned towards her and taunted her.

That's when things got messy. She lost control, let her rage overcome her as she began her assault on me. I was forced on the defence. I used my longsword to block her trusts and spins, needing to use two hands in order to remain balanced.

She drove me towards the wall and I almost bumped into it. She smelled the victory and pressed on. I rolled to the side and dodged her fierce trust of her spear. None of her attacks had been graceful like her usual dances of death. Her weapon hit stone and I launched a counter-trust towards her, aiming at her arms, hoping to disarm her in order to finish the battle.

Only her feral behaviour had made her unpredictable. Instead of an arm, my blade pierced through a gap in her breast armour and slit between her ribs. I jumped back in surprise, wanting to end the fight so we could her wounds, before it would become fatal.

But she wouldn't have that. I only lowered my guard for a second, but that was enough time for her to take advantage of my kindness. She had forgotten that it was a mock battle. Only a killing intention radiated from her eyes now. She wanted to see blood and not her own.

She continued her assault on me, not letting me get on the defensive in time. She first pierced my leg with her spear, then one of my hands and then she wanted to go for the killing blow.

Only she didn't. I used my ace in the hole. With a simple magic spell of illuminating the room for a split second, I blinded her. It gave me enough time to sidestep her attack and trust my sword through her stomach.

Now you know the story. At the end of the battle, only hate filled me. My despise for this woman was the only thing that filled my heart at the moment. I looked at her with ice-cold eyes while her life faded away.

“You killed her!” One of their party members shouted. “You actually killed her!”

“What choice did I have?” I simply said back, shifting my attention towards the speaker of the group. “She would have killed me instead if I had things continue the way they were going. I'm not that foolish to throw my life away. Especially not to someone like her.” I spit on her body as I finished my sentence. A warmth flowed through me as a healing magic spell sealed away my wounds. The cleric of our party was sensing trouble and didn't want me fighting in the condition I was at the moment. I smiled as I thanked her in my mind.

I could see hesitation in the other group by the way they were acting. They were angry that one of their party members had just been killed, but at the same time they knew they were now outnumbered and knew that if a fight broke out, they wouldn't win.

“Let's just say it was an unfortunate accident.” I heard myself say. “We got lost in moment of battle and forgot that we weren't enemies from the start.”

The other group gritted their teeth. I then knew that they wouldn't fight. Their life was too important for them to lose.

“We won't forget this!” the leader of the group shouted as they went towards the exit of the dungeon.

Our whole party sighed at the same moment as the others finally had left. We all had had a bad feeling about the fight that could have happened.

“I can't believe you killed her.” our leader said to me. His name is Grim. Although his name isn't that positive, the guy always is. He almost always smiles. He has simple brown hair, but beautiful green eyes that have charmed plenty of girls and women. He's also my childhood friend, although he and I went to different schools. “I didn't think you had it in you.”

“I always hated that b***h.” I answered back. “She left me no choice.” I shrugged my shoulders as I finally sheathed my sword.

“You regret your actions then?” our cleric asked me. Her name is Sophie. Her faith and prayers towards God are the real deal. Nobody mocks her belief nor her devotion. She was born with grey hair and her eyes were clear blue. She was two heads shorter than me and many people mistake her for an old lady from behind. She doesn't realize that she dresses as an old hag. She sees it as the clothing she had to wear to show people she is a true believer of God.

“I don't.” I simply answer and look her into the eyes. She simply sighed.

“Where did your kindness go Jude?” she asked while she walked over towards the dead body. She needed to purify the corpse before the negative energies that haunted these dungeons would possess the body. Many dead adventures have turned into monsters like zombies or living skeletons. You could still purify them and sent their souls to the afterlife after defeating these monsters, but it was better to not let it get to that point.

“It's still inside me. She didn't want my kindness. She wanted my hate. She got it and now she's dead.” I kept silent for a bit while I wait for our cleric to finish her work. The other two of our party were busy gathering the loot that was in the room. Grim was looking for treasure at the body of the boss we defeated before it would fade away. Monsters would just fade away after a short period of time after they died. Nobody knew why. At least, none of our party members knew.

“Well, never liked that b***h. I don't think she will be missed much.” Grim said after he was finished.

“Well, that party will have to look for a new member, so she will be missed for a short period of time. I don't know about her parents. I probably should inform them when we get back.” I said while getting ready to leave the dungeon. Sophie was finished as well and the other two were already waiting for us.

“You're really going to do that?” Grim asked me. He sounded confused that I would do such a thing. I hadn't lied to him that I had hated her.

“It's the right thing to do. They might challenge me to a duel as well.” I answered while smelling the fresh air again. We had teleported outside of the dungeon. It would take us a couple of hours before we were back in the village. This dungeon wasn't that far from the village. Most dungeons were days travelling away. “I'll just have to face their wrath.”

“On another note, since when can you use magic?” Grim asked me. “I've never seen you use it. That was magic, wasn't it?” I nodded to his question.

“I can also do a few simple basic spells, nothing too advanced. There hadn't been any need to use my magic before, so I didn't use it. It comes in handy to surprise foes, especially those who already knew me.” I explained to my best friend. I was lying though. The gift of magic was running in my family and I was no exception. Before I learned how to handle a sword, I had been trained into magic. I never stopped my magic training as well. I just never used it. It was just more thrilling to kill enemies up close than to use stay at the backside and cast your spells. I also liked to hide my true potential.

“You never cease to surprise me, that's for sure.” Grim said while cutting away some branches that were in the way. We were walking behind each other and of course our leader was up front. Grim liked to use a two-handed broadsword, but also had a longsword which he was using now for the moments were the area was too narrow to use such a big weapon.

“I guess I'll have to pray to God for your sake as well again when we get back.” Sophie said, trying to sound irritated. I knew that she wasn't.

Nobody was surprised I just killed someone. Things like that happened in the world I live in. That is the life of an adventurer. One day you're spending your days in glory, the other day you're dead. The only enemy in this world for me is boredom. That's why I started adventuring. I could have chosen a life without danger, but I never saw that as a choice I could ever make ever since I was a child.

No, this is the life I'm living right now. And what a life it is. Full of interesting people. Full of action. Full of both beauty and ugliness. And I'm enjoying it to the fullest.