Axios hadn’t yet had a moment to rest.

  As soon as the fighting broke out, he had been tasked to participate with the evacuation efforts, since the barracks that he was at was actually closer to the southern gate. The creatures had mainly poured in from the northern part, unimpeded, he heard, as many guards and civilians had been killed in the first onslaught, yet having served as a much needed temporary deterrent since most of the monsters had stayed around their first batch of victims, eating the fresh corpses. The enemy forces had mainly poured in from the west, all but immediately announcing that they marched under the banner of Sodom, but after the initial shock made by the creatures, the town guard had become alert enough to form up and send forces and civilian volunteers to reinforce the western gate. He heard of some fighting against enemies in the northeast as well, but it was hard to verify and he wasn’t even sure if those were true to begin with.

  Don’t think! Act! Act because your life depends on it!

  Axios ran through the cobblestones alongside his unit, the tongues of fire in the distance causing their shades to merge into a single, inhuman shape.

  Commander Philon was heading the front of this ten-man group. They had all just come from helping to evacuate what few civilians hadn’t been quick enough to catch on to the situation or were too old to quickly get to the southern gate on their own. Axios himself had carried an elderly woman in his arms and delivered her to other guard members near the southern gate, having been then immediately ordered to go beyond it, draw his sword and help cut down the smaller enemy detachments that had branched off and tried to capture that gate as well.

  His lack of skill aside, his strength and brutality, as well as his adherence to keeping formation had let Axios slay at least thirteen enemies before being called back.

  His companions had overcome every blade pointed at them, their ferocity mimicking his own and their vigour and resilience appearing as if boundless.

  They battled splendidly! Their hearts aflame, striking down those pitiable pretenders! The blades of kings, those men were!

  Yet, not all good things were made to last. Their prowess in melee couldn’t save them from being struck down by those long barrelled artifacts that spewed thunder into their chests. Axios’ fortune did not fail him however, as his brothers-in-arms were the ones to take all the blows in his stead.

  If he ever could repay them, he would like to be able to make sure that their burial rites were handled properly.

  Once enough ground had been gained and the gaps filled, commander Philon called the last remaining nine men back and said that their strength was going to be necessary to fight the enemy inside the town. Not a single man objected. All nine of them had fire in their eyes.

  In fact, he could say that everyone around that gate had had fire in them. He could see it in the eyes of the children waiting for their mothers. In the eyes of all the civilian volunteers. He could even see it in the eyes of the old lady that he had helped.

  Mortal men need conviction! Something to fuel them! Let each of these refugees be thankful that they count themselves among the minority that does!

  Those were his earned thoughts. That is how things should be, yet part of him couldn’t help but find their hearts mired in sad misery.

  They were all subjects. To be a master was beyond each of them.

  Running through town, they had been tasked with aiding the members of the Limani army that had come all the way from the north and was trying to cut through town to form up around the western gate to repel the enemy. They would need to both help them in that offensive and also watch their back for any pincer attacks coming from the centre region.

  However, Axios’ heart wasn’t in it anymore.

  A single glance at the temple up the hill had sent a dozen thoughts rushing through his mind and a deep sense of responsibility and worry had made a nest within his heart as quickly as those thoughts had entered him.

  For the first time in a long time, Axios found himself split between two goals that were both urgent and exclusionary.

  Because he trusted her goodness and gentle nature far too much.

  It ain’t easy to weight the lives of your people with your closest companions. It is a hard choice that all men of character struggle with.

  Suddenly, a group of about fifteen knights had intercepted them and pandemonium had ensued among the streets of the smoke-filled city.

  Their blood boiling, they crashed into them with all our ferocity, but they were well trained, compacting their formation to support their allies in the front from our momentum and positioning their swords at an angle to maximize their counteroffensive, using minimum effort.

  Their counterpush scattered us enough that they immediately took advantage of it to rush into our ranks, isolating many of us into one to one duels and sometimes even two versus one encounters.

  Alec was near the front. He saw him get kicked to the ground and promptly impaled by two enemies, but he had enough awareness to throw his sword towards commander Philon, which got the attention of one of his two attackers, earning the officer a shot that eliminated one knight from the melee.

  Axios was near the back of their formation so he clashed blades with just a single enemy knight. The golden-haired youth swung his increasingly rusting blade hard, downward, sideways, yet every single one of his slashes was seen through and promptly deflected. His lack of technique aside, he stepped into his space with every swing, riding the momentum of my previous move, forcing his opponent to endure him crashing into his chest with my sword guard and both hands, if he does not completely dodge my attack.

  They repeat this pattern for a few clashes, until they ended up moving forwards and sideways from where they started. He swung downwards with all my strength once more, yet this slash connects. Not against my adversary, but against one of his allies that had been fighting a comrade of mine.

  He clicked his tongue, aware of what would happen next.

  The knight that had been on the defensive until now made a full power swing at my sword guard, intent on cutting off my fingers.

  Reflexibly, as if shirking away from an open flame, he pulled both of his hands backwards, leaving his sword behind and letting it fall limp to the floor.

  A knight does not allow his sword to leave his grasp, ever! It invites death and it is a declaration of inferiority towards his foe!

  His frustration threatening to make him carve his nails into his palms, Axios raised both of his fists and took up a defensive stance, earning his adversary’s full attention as they sized each other up for a couple of moments.

  Yet a few moments was all it took.

  A blade crashed into the knights’s neck, not cutting into his neck because of the thick armour that even went above his shoulders, but disorienting him all the same

  His lips curled upwards in satisfaction.

  His previous misguided swing had hit the shoulder of one of his enemies, making it easy for his comrade to finish him off. With the knight’s attention turned exclusively on himself, he could not see Axios’ comrade coming at him from behind.

  Axios stepped forward, shifting his whole weight towards his fist, delivering a hammer-like blow to the side of the knight’s head, hard enough to cave the helmet in. The armoured foe′s legs turned to jelly, his unbalance unmistakeable, as the tip of a blade bloomed from his chest immediately after, courtesy once more of the enemy in his blind spot.

  He gave his unknown ally a nod of respect and thanks and quickly picked up a blade. Not his, but rather the fallen enemy’s. A blade with a guard was more useful to him.

  Now having an undisturbed view of the situation, he saw that three of his allies had already been felled, yet almost as many of the enemy were on the ground as well.

  “Aaahhh!”

  He rushed towards an enemy holding his sword high above his head, ready to cut down his comrade who had let out a cry of anguish as he now clutched his rapidly bleeding forearm.

  Coward!

  “Mvgy lev!”, Axios shouted, catching the enemy’s attention and making the knight change his target mid-swing with a half pirouette.

  The blonde youth didn’t flinch at the incoming blade, ramming into the enemy with his lauded strength, locking the man’s blade with his own sword hilt and headbutting the knight’s helmed from the sheer momentum of the charge.

  The knight staggered backwards for no more than two steps, yet his poise remained strong, holding his own against the wild youth who he now locked blades with. With a practiced hand, the crimson knight moved his hilt upwards and lifted with both hands, catching the boy’s own guard in the motion and causing both blades to be lifted.

  Yet it was the knight’s blade that was lowest and it would be it that would strike first!

  ***

  As he was about to begin the downward swing, the youth grabbed his left wrist in a vice grip with his own right hand, locking their swords and stances in place for a heartbeat.

  Then he crumpled.

  “Hu?!”, the knight thought, shocked and surprised, taken aback from suddenly seeing the world turn sideway, right before he felt intense pain in his left leg. From the corner of his eye, he saw the youth retracting his leg. Axios’ leg had been just long enough that the man’s knee was within striking distance and had used his grip to steady himself to better launch a powerful kick. As he pulled back his leg, Axios had drawn a wider arch with it and used the motion as a counterweight to throw the man sideways with the hand that had been gripping his hard just now.

  Yet his training and pride would not allow the knight to pitifully fall and flail on the ground. The man landed on his shoulder as best he could, landed with his good knee forward and threw himself forward, his sword plunging into the air with a powerful thrusting motion.

  And yet, the knight hit nothing but the warm knight air.

  Axios had just pierced right through the man’s heart, piercing the armour by putting all his strength and weight into the thrust.

  In his last moments, the knight realised that had the youth just thrust at him with the blade in his right hand, he may have yet taken the young man’s life as recompense.

  ***

  Axios felt the blade shatter as it pierced through the bones of the knight below him.

  This sword ain’t worth shit! Whoever made this butter knife needs to be hung for having me carry it into battle!

  His breath-taking strength and ferocity had allowed him to pierce straight through the enemy’s armour, but it had required a lot of leverage and his guardsman sword couldn’t withstand the backlash.

  He picked up his fallen enemy’s blade as soon as the former’s head hit the ground and spun on his heel, assessing the battlefield.

  The same fights as before were largely still ongoing, but the man that he had just rescued had gone to assist commander Philon, one arm and all, who now outnumbered his engaging enemies three to two.

  They all fought like lions, seemingly uncaring about fatigue or injury, which was clearly having an impact on the now more sluggish Sodom knights. Despite the numbers not being in their favour and having just come from a battlefield, no one could have guessed that they were not behaving as the favourites to win.

  Their morale is shaken! Now is the time to route their chick shit hearts!

  Axios took four powerful steps, closing in on a 2v1 melee against one of his comrades and too the arm of one of the adversaries clean off at the elbow with a powerful two handed swing.

  “Aaaaahhh!”, the knight screamed.

  With his sword still touching the ground, Axios took one arm and elbowed the maimed adversary in the chest, sending him stumbling against his shocked colleague. Immediately, the allied guard’s blade connected with the back of the second enemy’s knee.

  “Aaaaahhh!”, the second knight screamed.

  Axios moved the hand still holding the blade in a reverse grip and a desperate slash at his neck by the limping enemy with the outside of his sword and flipped the enemy to the side by pushing his sword out with a powerful backhanded motion.

  With the enemy’s back now turned towards him, Axios grabbed the enemy’s head with his left hand and brought his reverse gripped blade into the enemy’s neck with his right.

  “Ghuuuurrrg!”, the sound of the knight’s blood spurting out of his neck and mouth was heard.

  “Hugh!”

  Not missing a beat, Axios took a breath and exhaled, pushing his blade diagonally downwards and bending his right knee as he did, generating enough force to brutally cleave through the knight’s spine and his remaining flesh.

  The bloody head now in his hand, the golden haired youth threw the skull at a spot in the ground where most combatants would be able to glimpse it, with enough force that even despite the helmet, the head left a large blood stain where it bounded off of the pavement.

  The moment their attention shifted for a single moment, Axios roared, holding his bloody sword high above himself in a dramatic fashion.

  “Come and die you murderous pillaging bastards!”

  The foreigners probably didn’t understand any of it, but the message was clear and its effects were gratifying.

  Their fatigue having already become apparent before this display, some of them ran away, while others were left themselves open to attack due to the distraction, so the remaining guards cut them down.

  Hahahahaha! Now that is what I am talking about!

  The golden-haired youth’s thought resounded with jubilation, adrenaline and ferocity at his handywork. It almost made him feel that this sensation, this moment had been worth the invasion itself.

  Almost.

  As of right now, his allies were the ones outnumbering the enemies. In total, their numbers were six against the enemy’s remaining two.

  He both wanted to praise the ones that stuck around for their bravery and wanted to just take a breath and celebrate alongside his allies. Regardless, they would have to finish the stragglers off. They could just take their time encircling them and killing them.

  As he slowly walked in the direction of his enemies, Axios took a few slow breaths, regaining his strength.

  He could hear some of his allies chuckling.

  “Bam!”

  With a thunderous side, a large knight came flying from an alleyway, crashing through a wooden crate, rolling back up to his feet as he landed and taking one quick glance at our group before focusing once more to what was in front of him.

  From the alleyway came running at him a single young man, probably not even eighteen yet, his hair red like blood and holding a broken blade in his hand. His face and arms looked as if he had been burned by something.

  “Rhhaa!”, the crimson youth cried out.

  “Hugh!”, the knight grunted with effort.

  The broken blade met the dried blood-coloured sword, as the two combatants grabbed the attention of everyone present.

  The Vermillion did not push forward, he did not add pressure. Instead, he opted for a hit and run approach as soon as his first charge had failed. The large knight, his helmet adorned with three horns, kept his slashes short but strong, holding his blade with both hands, trying to catch the more agile and less armoured youth, making feints, faking openings. In contrast with the knight’s confident and calm body language, the youth was erratic, aggravation painted on his face and short flashes of unexplained pain could be seen as he fought, almost as if he was nursing an injury of some sort.

  “Are you going to help?!”, the red-haired youth cried out to our group.

  “Back up the Vermillion!”, commander Philon barked.

  The large horned knight closed in on the encirclement around the other knights and with wide, threatening sword swings dispersed the encirclement by throwing two of our own off balance, with the escapees relying on their tough armours to absorb a few glancing blows, coming to form up around their larger comrade.

  The Vermillion clashed once more with the horned knight but his ability to follow up on each inning was derailed by the two knights that now flanked the larger one.

  “Get your asses into the fight already!”

  Axios and the remaining town guard rushed the large knight, while the red haired newcomer was kept at bay from the horned knight by his two other comrades. It was not a bad strategy. Let the armoured and more powerful combatant deal with the seemingly weaker opponents first, while making sure that the stronger enemy can’t interfere.

  The captain and two others swung at the horned knight, a pair of slashes being blocked by his single large sword and another bouncing harmlessly off of his armour. Axios could tell at a glance that plates on this one were much thicker and much heavier than on the other knights that he had fought up to now. These were certainly made to allow the user to be borderline impervious to harm.

  The horned knight pushed back, almost knocking the captain and one other guard off of their feet and grabbing a third by pushing his large thumb into his eyes, causing the guard to scream on horror, but two others swung at the man’s arm, to no avail, their blows glancing off of his armour and the knight let go of the guard’s head in order to backhand another guard in the head, causing him to stumble into the ground and a wide motion of his arm made another guard step back to a safe distance.

  “Damnit! Go around and kill the other two guys in the back first and-“

  Axios ran in front, coming from the backline, gripping the middle portion of his blade. The time for observing was over.

  The horned knight grabbed his large blade with both hands and brought it downward on the blonde youth. Axios dove to the side, avoiding the slash, rolling and coming up next to the Vermillion, ready to fight the two weaker knights first.

  Taking out the weaker enemies with your stronger forces first made the most sense after all.

  One of the knights swung at Axios, but the blonde youth caught the swing with the guard of his sword, as he gripped the blade with his own gloved hands, and pushed the enemy’s weapon to the side with sheer brute force. With his enemy’s arms spread completely to the sides and his centre now open, Axios stepped into striking range and kicked the enemy between his legs with full force.

  The enemy collapsed to his knees.

  The first knight’s blade a moment prior had hit the second enemy’s helmet, startling him. With borderline superhuman reflexes, the member of the Vermillion race capitalized on this minor opening.

  Matching their tempos, Axios drove the spiked tip of the guard his Sodom-made sword into the side of his enemy’s neck with both hands, piercing the soft unguarded flesh. The red-haired youth performed a high kick which caved in the helmet of the second knight and made blood explode from the opposite side of it.

  “Nice!”, the Vermillion cried out.

  “Less talking Heron! Grab a sword!”, Axios admonished.

  As if reacting to their celebration, the horned knight made a swing at them, who were behind his back.

  Heron jumped backwards, grabbing Axios who was first in line to take the swing and pulled him along, with Axios still deflecting the tip of the incoming blade with his reverse gripped sword.

  They were about 5 meters from where they had first jumped.

  “Hey! Axios! Is that you under that helmet, you piece of shit?!”

  “Yeah, it is me, so what?”

  “Tch! Being stuck with someone that recently beat me in a fight isn’t a good feeling.”

  “Whatever…wait, if you are here, you know anything about the ones at the temple?”

  They walked briskly to rejoin the melee between the other six combatants.

  “I told the priestess to shove it and went out to fight these bastards, like the rest of my group. I think quite a few ran away and evacuated but others still stayed behind.”

  “And the other reds?”, Axios inquired?

  “The ones that came with me got killed-“, Heron quickly crouched and grabbed a sword from the ground, “-so I am going to take this bull horned son of a bitch’s head in turn!”, he swung hard at the large knight, who shifted his footing and posture to let the blow harmlessly slide off.

  Axios jumped backwards to avoid the following counter slash. They could now take their time more in dealing with the enemy by encircling him.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “Axios, start- hugh!”, the commander started saying but the horned knight had made another wide swing to the opponents at his back and the commander was caught in it and stumbled to the floor. The large knight then grabbed one of the guards by the neck, who tried hacking at his arm in a futile endeavour, hoisted him up high and then slammed the victim’s head against the pavement with a loud “Clunk!”.

  Grrrr…!

  No time to take things slow.

  Axios had cooled off from the long jump out of the action and the short, but distracting talk just now.

  He wasn’t the sort that could fight properly if his blood wasn’t boiling.

  But the death of a comrade, born of his hesitation, had just sparked his ire once more. The heat flowed through his veins once more.

  You have my thanks, peon! Now you die, faker!

  Axios rushed in, not allowing the enemy to finish turning around and facing him once more.

  The large knight reacted, having caught Axios’ rush from the corner of his eye, and swung his sword faster and more aggressively as he was turning around.

  Axios blocked his turn, by holding his sword like a staff and clashing with the man’s sword near the guard and locking his knees in place to get a firm stance that couldn’t be shaken without effort. As soon as the momentum stopped, he hooked his right arm under and over the enemy’s arm, both of their right elbows touching, and grabbed his right wrist with his right hand. With his left arm, he hooked it over and under and lowered his center of gravity as much as he could, bending his knees and squatting into a solid stance and holding the knight in place.

  “Kill him now!”, Axios yelled out.

  Not missing a beat, Heron rushed forward and jumped on the enemy’s back and grabbed one of the three horns for support, his blade in a reverse grip, ready to stab the knight. However, the man threw his left hand behind his head, the large and sturdy gauntlet blocking the blade aimed at the gap in his neck. He then seized Heron’s arm and pulled him forward, trying to get his chest above one of the horns, to then impale the youth. Heron held on, pressing his right hand against the smooth portions of the helmet, trying to prevent being impaled, but still the large knight attempted the deed. The remaining town guards aimed their slashes and stabs at the traditionally vulnerable portions of the armour, like the knees and the armpits. However, Axios couldn’t see his other allies from his angle and the enemy’s body obstructed his sight further, so he moved his left leg behind the knight’s right and tried to trip him up in an attempt to prevent Heron, considered their best battle asset right now, from taking a mortal wound. The sudden jerk and shift in posture caused all of the guard’s slashes to miss and harmlessly bounce off the armour. The knight took this shift leftwards in his own posture and momentum to perform an overhead throw and send Heron flying into the pavement.

  But true to the Vermillion name, Heron spun in mid air and landed on his feet, immediately spring boarding from the ground into the enemy’s chest, grabbing another horn for leverage, gripping his sword like a dagger to stab the enemy’s eyes, the red haired youth’s face the very visage of maddening brutality. However the knight was marginally faster, punching Heron in the face with his large gauntlet and the blade missing the small slit as a result. Dazzed, Heron took another punch to the face, but with the current positioning, the knight couldn’t put his weight behind it. Heron let go of his blade and instead pulled back and rammed one of his fingers at full force into the eye slit.

  “Aaaaarrrrghhhhh!”, the knight howled, his body flailing wildly, causing all blows aimed at his unprotected areas to miss once more.

  The horned knight threw poise out of the window and with a single gauntlet fist fueled by sheer wrath and agony, crashed it against Heron’s ribs.

  “Ghaaa!”, Heron cried out as the cracking of ribs was clearly audible for everyone around.

  Heron held on and dug and twisted his finger even deeper into the slit.

  “Argh!!”, the knight yelled out as he threw yet another punch, Heron being farther from the man’s chest since his ribs had cracked got hit straight in the centre of his chest and was thrown back, hitting the pavement hard.

  There was no display of catlike agility this time. Heron just rolled on the floor, yelling in pain as he grabbed his ribs.

  Blinded by fury, the knight attempted to execute Heron with the sword in his right hand, but Axios held that arm in place and kept the right leg locked as much as possible as well.

  Commander Philon and the other 3 guards kept swinging at the horned knight. He made an attempt to deflect the blows with the armour and by shifting his footing around, but the blades still found their way into the fold between his arm and shoulder.

  The deed was done.

  The horned knight would soon lose his strength. This had been a fatal blow.

  Blood flowed from the cut and splashed unto the floor, but only for a moment.

  It beggared belief.

  The man’s blood was dark, almost as if it flowed inside him while being dry, instead of a normal liquid crimson. Even stranger than that, as soon as it had hit the pavement, it had started to fume and let off steam, as if it was boiling iron colliding with the cold water of a forge.

  Within moments, what should have been a lethal blow to a major artery, which would have made him bleed out in a minute, was seemingly healed without any outside help.

  “Damnit! First just clashing with his sword hurts and now this?! Keep holding him steady Axios!”, the commander ordered.

  As if reminded of the blonde youth’s existence from those words, the horned knight tried punching Axios but the angle of each combatant made it painfully difficult to either aim or put any major force behind the blow.

  The remaining guards aimed at the legs, swinging with both hands. If bleeding out wasn’t an option, then hacking the enemy down like a tree would be the only other option.

  But it was easier said than done. The heavy armour wasn’t just for show. Most of the blows couldn’t pierce the outer layer of metal.

  The large knight attempted to grab his sword with his free left gauntlet by the blade, due to Axios holding his right arm and wrist in place, but Axios anticipated this and shifted his hold, grabbing now not just the wrist but also holding the guard with his gloved hand.

  They were in a deadlock once more.

  With the main threat of Heron eliminated and knowing that Axios couldn’t attack, the horned knight swung his left arm hard, in a backhanded motion and used the momentum and the rotation behind it to pivot and raised Axios off of the ground.

  “Hu?”, Axios exclaimed, shocked.

  The horned knight tried to punch him in the gut once more, but Axios intercepted the blow with his knees, by flexing his legs which were now dangling in the air.

  The knight spun.

  The man spun three hundred and sixty degrees, dragging Axios through the air until the youth was thrown off with a final, powerful motion.

  Time slowed down.

  Axios felt weightless as he flew through the air.

  Then came the hard crash.

  He managed to put his hands behind his head in time, so he halphazardly rolled with the impact and managed to stave off major injuries to his spine and skull, but the impact still rattled him and left him feeling dazed.

  He breathed hard, the air rushing in as his confusion and dizziness quickly wore off.

  He looked at the field.

  Heron was still on the ground, struggling to get up and he just witnessed one of his fellow guards being sliced in hand with a two-handed blow of that blood red sword. Included the commander, all but three now remained.

  The bodies of his dead allies and enemies were scattered around him.

  That wretched cur!

  He grabbed the two swords closest to him.

  I am going to butcher him!

  Two blades. One from Limani, a guardless blade, which he gripped in his right hand. The other from Sodom, grasping the blade directly, holding the cross guard directly in front of him.

  He took a single step forward but stumbled. The still present slight dizziness and the difficulty breathing after the impact still having an effect on him.

  I am not putting up with this shit right now!

  His blood boiling and its drumming indiscountably pounding in his ears, Axios ran forward.

  “Kelev Metunaf!”, Axios shouted at the top of his lungs, just as he saw yet another of his allied getting his head smashed in.

  The horned knight turned to him, raising his blade high and slashing down on the approach Axios with both hands.

  The blonde youth met the blow with one of his own, using his Limani blade. Pulled forward by his own forward momentum, the glancing blow between the tow blades had more projected Axios into a forward roll like minutes prior, than it had blocked the incoming slash.

  Landing behind the enemy’s left leg, Axios smashed into the back of the enemy’s leg using the guard of his Sodom sword. He wielded it like a hammer, his goal being to remove the extra thick plate protecting the back of the enemy’s left knee.

  The knight spun around with a slash with his left hand, but Axios had already anticipated and rolled just as the man turned, still behind him and hit him in the same plate, in the same spot, with even more strength and vigour. He kept his attacks leftward, not allowing the blindspot created by Heron to go to waste.

  The knight tried a mule kick this time, attempting to slam the sole of his boot into Axios’ skull. However Axios jumped backwards in time, dropped the Sodom sword and hooked his left arm around the knight’s overextended leg as he held it in place.

  Axios reversed the grip on his Limani blade and was about to stab down on the back of the knight’s knee but was dragged forward as the knight powerfully dragged his leg forward.

  Before he could come up with a counter, he found himself in front and below the horned knight, the dark red blade swinging down on him.

  Shit!

  From the enemy’s blindspot, commander Philon had arrived and deflected the incoming strike into the floor, by angling his sword at a slight angle.

  Now that is a commander’s blade!

  Commander Philon raised his sword high and struck at the enemy’s neck. The strike, imbued with far greater ferocity than any of those that knew him could have thought possible, cleaved into the enemy’s neck, causing much of that dark, boiling blood to flow out of it.

  The commander stepped on the enemy’s sword, pinning it to the floor, as he drove his blade deeper into the enemy’s neck using forearm and elbow shots, uncertain of whether he could hit that specific spot again and not wanting to waste the current opening.

  But the monster wasn’t done yet.

  Letting go of the dark red sword, it tried to grab the commander’s head with his right hand. The commander fought back, but as he had his hands full with the right hand, the left hand closed in.

  The commander’s eye would have been gouged out right there and then, yet fate stepped in.

  “Aaaahhhh!”

  With a war cry, the last of the guards that had made up the initial unit had come up from the right and stabbed his blade into fold of the armour on the monster’s right elbow. Its nerves severed, it couldn’t muster much strength its arm and it was further locked in place by the presence of the blade at the joint.

  “Die, damnit!”

  At the same time, Axios had rolled and come up behind the enemy’s left leg once more and, with a curse of frustration, stabbed down on the monster’s knee with his Limani blade. Its balance slipped, causing the left hand to fall sideways, scratching the commander’s right cheek, but not his right eye.

  Still, it caught itself. Whether because the strength returned to its left leg just in time or because it couldn’t fall down from being having its right arm held in place by the guard’s blade.

  Once more, commander Philon felt the cold shivers of death at the back of his neck as the giant gauntlet closed in again, his strength too depleted from the struggle of a few moments prior to successfully repeat the same defensive feat once more.

  He shifted his head sideways to protect his eye, but immediately, he could the blood red gauntlet placing its fingers on both of his temples. The pressure quickly building up. He knew that he was about to have his head be crushed like an egg.

  “Aaahhhh!!!”, the commander cried out in pain.

  Yet, as soon as the pain came, it vanished. The pressured had been lifted from his skull. He looked towards the previously outstretched arm and saw what had happened. The monster’s arm mangled, its elbow bent in an unnatural angle. Axios, the golden haired young man had come up from its blind spot in his assistance and shattered the monster’s arm by gripping and twisting its upper arm and forearm and crushing the joint with a powerful knee strike.

  Yet the youth did not stop there. His trademark anger and explosive violence, visible now on his face for all to see. Axios stepped further in and grabbed the creature’s lower forearm with both hands, pushed it upwards and then immediately brought its elbow down on his shoulder with maximum force.

  Crack!

  Rip!

  Bones were splintered and muscles were thorn to shreds in that moment.

  The monster’s forearm no longer fully connected. It dangled from a few strands of flesh, amidst a long shard of bone that visibly stuck out from the injury, like the remains of a broken sword.

  Any man would have fainted from sheer shock. The pain of the experience, the sudden loss of blood and the emotional realization of his future as a cripple would cause any man’s mind to shut down in order to protect itself.

  Yet the monster was not thwarted by even this.

  Its one remaining eye, ablaze with the fires of revenge, zeroed in on Axios and he brought down the three horns upon his head on the unguarded back of the youth.

  Yet the creature had wasted a single important second in bringing its head backwards to build momentum.

  The single second had given Heron, now back on his feet, enough time come up from behind and catch the headbutt by placing the edge of his reverse-gripped blade against the monster’s neck and using it as a lever to block the momentum.

  The creature bled its dark blood as it unwittingly brought its down neck down against a sword that hadn’t been there a moment prior. Yet still it didn’t stop. It dragged is head and neck forward without paying any heed to its own safety. It would kill the golden haired boy even if it was the last thing that it did.

  Heron did not have the strength to bring the creature backwards and finish the job, yet its moment of reprieve had bought the other combatant enough time to decide what they would do next.

  “Push the sword in!”, commander Philon barked, as he viciously struck the edge of the blade at the enemy’s throat with his fist, his underling immediately following suit and matching his second strike against the bladed edge. They pushed the sword further and further in and pushed the monster further and further back, yet not enough so that Heron could grab it from his own end and get any good leverage on it.

  Catching a glimpse of an opportunity, Heron kicked the back of the monster’s injured leg and the enemy fell to one knee, allowing Heron to finally grab hold of the tip of the blade, holding both ends of it like one would an iron bar, starting to exert pressure on it as he pulled it downwards.

  “Drag the bastard over your shoulder, Heron!”, Axios shouted.

  “I got it!”, Heron replied as he did exactly that, placing his sword as one would an iron bar over their shoulders and pressed downwards with all of his remaining strength, bringing the enemy increasingly closer to decapitation.

  “Ghhlurgh!”

  The monster let out its strained, gurgled screams as the blade pierced through its neck, cleaved its arteries and throat and hit the vertebrae in its spine. To hack through the bones of such a large fiend was nothing short of an herculean feat, even for a Vermillion, yet Heron had no doubts that he could do it, even in his injured state. He mounted pressure strong enough to crush a man’s skull on his back as he pulled the blade increasingly downwards, slow and steady.

  “Grrrrhhh!”

  Yet even then the fiend would not accept defeat and depart from this world with dignity. Its current unorthodox posture had allowed it to wrench itself free from the guard locking his right arm in place and grabbed hold of Heron’s arm, intending to either break his grip or his arm. Even the sword still sticking out of its right arm did not appear to stop the horned knight.

  “Aaaaarggghh!”

  The fiend’s very touch caused Heron’s skin to start fuming. He remembered this pain. He had felt it during its prolonged fight with it just a few minutes prior. He had come into this new battlefield bearing the burns from that altercation.

  Just as bad was the fiend’s blood. As it spilled from its veins, it fell on Heron’s unprotected neck and back. It stung and burned like boiling metal straight from a furnace. A single drop of it made Heron feel like he could simply black out from the pain of it, as it melted his skin, burned his muscles and slowly charred whatever pieces of bones that it could reach.

  Still the Vermillion lived up to his kind’s legacy.

  Fighting through the pain, enduring the cuts in his hand from his own sword and the crushing pressure on his arm, he kept pulling down the sword towards his shoulder blades, intent on fully severing the monster’s head. He would not die, he wouldn’t break until the deed was done!

  “Kill him!”, roared the commander.

  “Ghhlurgh!”

  The fiend let out its last cry as its life was about to expire.

  Rip!

  A single sound reverberated through the night.

  Heron stumbled and the horned knight lost whatever balance it had and fell to the floor

  The horned knight, now free from his binds, grabbed Heron, took weak from his final effort which he assumed would result in victory, and dragged the red headed youth down to the ground and impaled him as he descended.

  Three tries.

  It had taken three attempts.

  But now those three horns had finally found their mark and taken a life.

  “Hu?”, Axios thought.

  He didn’t understand what was happening. He had been looking over his shoulder just now and Heron seemed to be about to be about to finish off their enemy, yet now the same Heron, who he had traded blows just a few days prior, was hunched over the same knight with a large piece of metal sticking out of his back.

  The confusion slowed his thoughts down. His two other companions were next to him, looking in his direction and mouthing something that felt too far away to register.

  He felt an unfamiliar weight in his hand and guided his eyes into discovering what it might be.

  It was the large knight’s arm.

  “Oh…”, a slow and dull feeling of realization and recognition lazily made its way towards his consciousness. It reached its destination just as soon as Axios turned to look in Heron’s direction.

  And once it did, it felt as if time had stopped.

  For the first time this entire night, Axios felt cold like a child left outside during the season of ice.

  Even the drumming blood in his ears stopped

  He could tell that his comrades had started moving, but such thoughts were a whole skyline’s worth of distance away from him right now. He just stood there, transfixed as Heron’s back slowly turned the shade of his hair.

  You let him die!

  He didn’t want to admit it.

  Your carelessness caused his demise!

  To admit that Heron’s journey had just ended because of him.

  Your knights die before you, your enemies pillage and feast upon your keep, yet you remain!

  What good is a king if all that he amasses immediately turns to ash at his touch?

  What good is a lord if the chill of the dead is all that daybreak brings his dominion?

  Stop it.

  You will never live down the disgrace carved by your weakness!

  Don’t.

  You will never be anything more than one who is worthless!

  “Grrrrrr…aaaaaahhhhh!!!!”

  Axios sprinted forward, his heart suddenly beating with such force that drowned out all thoughts and vaporized all ice within his blood.

  Without slowing down, he grabbed the Sodom made sword that he had brought into the fight a minute prior from the ground.

  He caught up to commander Philon and pushed him aside as he jumped forward and hit the horned knight in the chest with a flying knee. The creature couldn’t withstand the impact running through the left side of its body and it collapsed backwards as Axios’ own left hand gripped its throat.

  The monster’s head bounced off of the pavement and just as its whipped upwards from the impact, Axios slammed his elbow downward into its already injured eye, hard enough that he heard the pavement crack against the fiend’s helmet.

  He did it a second time, cracking the pavement even more and yet again, somehow the fiend found the strength to mount a counteroffensive. It stabbed its exposed bone against Axios’ flank, trying to pierce his liver and grabbed his left bicep with its abnormally large left hand, dislodged his hand from its neck and attempted to pull him down.

  Yet his armour prevented the bone from ripping through his flesh and his arm was as immobilize and unbending as stone.

  A casual observer would have said that nothing had changed with those actions.

  But they would be wrong. Something quite important had changed.

  Without his hand on its neck, Axios could see the sword that Heron had carved into its flesh with his final struggle.

  Its emotions and thoughts, numb by its very nature, the pain and the adrenaline of the fights as they may be, those couldn’t help but stir the moment that, with its one remaining eye, it glimpsed the expression of pure, violent delight on the golden haired youth’s face.

  He pulled his right knee and thigh even closer to the helmet’s horns, dragged his left knee into the middle of the fiend’s chest and twisted his spine, hoping to get as close an angle to perpendicular as the tightly placed blade as he could. Grabbing his own sword by the blade with his right hand, he slammed it down like a hammer into Heron’s blade.

  “Ghhlurgh!”, the fiend cried out.

  Again and again, Axios slammed the guard of his blade against Heron’s sword, hard enough that sparks could be seen on impact.

  He should avoid touching the helmet with its life-threatening horns.

  But he didn’t care

  He should get off his knees and fight with the advantage that came with height

  But he didn’t care

  He should have cut the hand that was powerfully gripping him before anything else

  But he didn’t care

  He should at least get on a better mount and immobilize the arm of his enemy before continuing his butchery

  But he didn’t care

  He understood that he was going over the line now

  But he didn’t care

  He knew for a fact that his current actions were putting him in mortal danger

  But he didn’t care

  Such was Axios’ plight since that day. Caution went to the wind when the fire in him rose, even if that fire threatened to burn him as much as his adversaries.

  He wouldn’t think about it. He would drown out all those thoughts that cast him into doubt. He would bury them all under an avalanche of violence.

  And as if in synchrony, his companions too mimicked him and felt the same righteous anger that he did. Just like he did in this moment, they abandoned themselves to their wrath and indignation and mirrored his butchery, hacking at the fiend’s legs so that it might never rise again even if it could still move without a head.

  Clang!

  Finally, the final strike rang out and the fiend’s head was parted from its shoulders. Axios grabbed the head by one of its horns and tossed it into the distance. He looked to his companions, still hacking away at the fiend’s legs, looked at Heron’s body, limp and with its blood covering the stones of the pavement and finally looked at the smoke filled sky.

  “Huff! Huff!”

  Breathless from that lengthy endeavour, Axios could only wish that rain would fall soon.

  You really did it now.

  You burned yourself out.

  This is going to hurt like hell. Hope that you are ready.

  Axios rolled to the side and let his body fall limp unto the pavement. Not that he had any strength left to do anything else.

  Then it began.

  “Huff! Huff!” Haaaaacccccc!!! Aaaaaa…”

  It felt as if all breath had left his lungs and he couldn’t suck it back in, no matter how hard he tried. At the same time, the suffocation was accompanied by a sensation of burning pain that assaulted every inch of his body.

  He grabbed his neck. He grabbed his chest. Yet it wasn’t something that he could fight. Not something that he could sooth. Not a wound that he could just plug. Not a bone that he could just splint.

  “Aaaaa.. Huff! Huff!”

  He wanted water.

  Water would probably make it better.

  But the damn rain just wouldn’t come.

  “Grrrrrhhhhaaaaaa!”

  Axios gave a silent scream, letting out as much pain as he could without giving away to everyone else just how hard a time he was having right now.

  His limbs felt that they had lost all the warmth in them. His fingers were so cold that he could barely feel or move them.

  His chest felt like it was on fire. He had been stabbed before, but this pain was always on another level. If others knew of this, they wouldn’t be surprised about his pain tolerance anymore.

  Every drop of blood in him felt like it had become almost solid. It was sluggish and dull. It made him tired by just being like that. The slow moving liquid moved through his neck and skull. It slowed his thoughts down and sapped his stamina at an unprecedented rate. Beyond that, the fact that his blood felt that sluggish also made his painfully aware of every inch of blood vessels coursing through his body.

  “Hhhhhhgggggg!!! Huff! Huff!”

  He couldn’t breathe. This was always a terrifying experience, even for him.

  He looked at his companions that had just finished the butchering of the horned knight’s legs. He looked to the hill beyond the houses and the districts around him, where the temple still stood, pretty much still unblemished despite all the sooth and bloodshed.

  He gritted his teeth and pushed himself upwards with his elbows.

  He would not die to this fucking curse!

  If death came for him, it would be a blade from the front, not his body shutting down on him without any reason at all!

  He grabbed his sword by the blade once more and used the handle as a walking stick to prop himself upwards once more.

  “Hgghh!!

  A sharp pain ran through his right arm. He wanted to kick himself. Probably ripped something while going overboard in the last stretch of the fight. He couldn’t afford to be at anything but peak condition going forward.

  “Huff! Huff!”

  He breathed hard, hungrily sucking in the warm night air. He knew that he couldn’t afford to stay in one spot for long, so he began to walk towards the temple.

  “Hey Axios! Get back here!”, he heard the commander shout.

  But Axios just kept on walking.

  “Hey! Are you deaf or something?!”, the commander barked again.

  His life has been repeatedly saved by your hand, but he did save yours as well. At least grant this old soldier his due courtesy.

  Axios sighed in response to the commander’s repeated questioning.

  “I am going to save more people, huff.”, Axios replied.

  “Yes! And for that, we need to meet up with the main army. You are going east! It is the other way around!”, the commander informed him.

  “Huff! I am going to save my people, huff. I don’t want to fight random soldiers anymore, huff. Definitely not after this last one”

  “Are you deserting Axios?! Are you just going to let them take our town and gain a foothold in our land?”

  Axios was starting to grow annoyed at all of this.

  “If that is how you view it, I guess that I can’t stop you.”, he answered back.

  In a fit of outrage, commander Philon took off his guardsman helmet and threw it on the floor. Axios was surprised to see that his face had somehow been burned underneath it all. About a third of his face looked like it has been hit with a hot branding iron.

  “After all that they did?! They deserve death! They killed our friends! Our families! Put our homes to the torch! Killed our squadmates!”, the commander gestured at the carnage and bodies that littered the floor of the plaza, before finally pointing at Heron’s body, “they killed your friend! He didn’t even get to give you any final words! That horned bastard just now burned my face! I could feel it through my helmet. I am sure that you are in pain from him as well. I can not forgive them or give them quarter, so how can you?!”

  “Because I get nothing from, huff, just killing a few more of them before being pierced to death myself, huff,. What is lost is lost. Our anger won’t raise the dead from the ground, huff,”

  “You cold-blooded disloyal bastard!”, the commander barked, menacingly walking forward with his sword out.

  Axios prepared to fight his superior in order to move forward, yet suddenly the earth shook.

  The tremor was strong enough to throw each of them to their knees and Axios protested under his breath as he had fallen with his right arm first and used it to keep himself from fully falling to the floor, but the sharp pain that accompanied it mad him question that split second decision.

  Him and the commander locked eyes as they both looked in front, yet by the time that they both managed to get up on their feet, it seemed that the commander had cooled off and was no longer intent on walking straight at him.

  “Axios…I am going to ask you one last time. Do you want to renege your duties? Do you want to leave the assault on our town unpunished? You have always been a man of action Axios. Let join up with our reinforcements. If not for retribution, at least do it for the soldiers coming from the outside that will need that strength of yours and whose lives you could save with it.”

  A tempting and reasonable offer, to be sure. If Axios wished to save lives and protect his people, protecting the soldiers that came to their aid should be in line with those beliefs.

  And yet, Axios’ selfishness and desire to protect those closest to him easily won out the negotiation.

  “Sorry commander, I am no soldier, huff, huff…I am a guard of Pontimá. I don’t care for whoever holds the land or the buildings by the end of this night, huff. My job is to guard its people and keep them safe, including the unloved children left at the temple, huff, innocent of whatever went down tonight. I will not go alongside you, the both of us already broken, to yet another battlefield where our contributions will mean very little,huff. Cut me down from behind if that is where your heart is at, but we walk different paths starting now”

  “But no one is going to be there!”, the second guard spoke up. Axios found his voice, although manly, to be rather high pitched, “everyone must have already left! Are you going to walk through the town at random just hoping to find someone in need, once you find the temple empty?”

  “Did we the guards ever evacuate the temple itself?”, Axios asked the two of them.

  “Not to my knowledge, boy. We did not”, commander Philon replied.

  “Then the army likely didn’t either. In the temple we were always told to go there in case of an attack. I am sure that the less brave among the children must still be in the lower levels. The Vermillion even confirmed to me before he died that there were plenty of children left there before he came to fight. I am going to see what the situation is and save as many as I can.”

  Axios turned to them one last time before leaving, giving them a final smile as he bid them goodbye.

  “Besides, if it makes you feel any better, I messed my sword arm pretty bad right there at the end. Can’t move it all that much. I am sure you can understand that an injured man shouldn’t be sent to the frontlines.”

  “Hold up?”, the second guard said.

  “What is it?”, Axios replied.

  “My little brother was also among the children at the temple…he decided to stay with his friends even when I offered to have him live with me. If you are going to see if the children there are safe, then I also wish to come”.

  “What is your name?”, Axios inquired.

  “Alex.”, the guard replied.

  “Allright. An extra hand while I travel the streets wont hurt.”

  “Commander, won’t you come with us? Axios is right. How much do you expect any of us or yourself to be able to do in our current condition?”, Alex pleaded.

  Commander Philon simply sheathed his sword and picked up his helmet.

  “Sorry kids, I can’t run away from my duty. Those soldiers came to help this town, so I must protect them with my life, if need be, just to even the score”.

  The captain walked away from his two younger subordinates.

  “Stubborn, isn’t he?”, Alex asked.

  “Yes, but I can’t help but to respect that”.

  A man that runs away from his tasks is a coward and a fool. Those who remain steadfast in the face of death will always be one in a hundred.

  Axios and Alex walked the streets, careful to not be seen and to avoid fighting as much as possible. They were making slow progress, as Axios was still panting heavily and moving sluggishly.

  “Are you all right there? Kind of odd that you are taking so long to catch your breath like that.”

  “It will pass in time -huff!- I really went overboard back there-huff!- even forgot to breath at some points-huff!- if we find a bit of water, this will probably pass a lot quicker-huff!- “

  “I don’t know if you come to these areas often, but there is a small fountain nearby. The owners often let us guards take a few sips in between shifts. We just got to continue being careful and watch out that none of those monsters on the rooftops spot us.”, Alex informed.

  “Good call -huff!-“

  The two of them took a detour from their beeline trajectory and walked a couple of city blocks to their right.

  “Are we there yet? -huff!-“

  “Almost there. At least we shouldn’t be getting closer to any active fronts…you know, it is actually really odd that you still seem to be huffing. Are you sure that you are in good health?”, Alex replied.

  “Save it! -huff!- I am good enough to do this, thank you for the concern-huff!-“, Axios barked back.

  “Well, you seem to be improving as it is, but after all that fighting and with the fires all around us, we would be fools not to drink up, maybe even stock up on water if we can”.

  They turned a corner and came upon the vaunted fountain. It was a small thing, attached to the side of a house and made of the same stone as the larger structure. Like all waters of Limani, it was crystalline and despite the soot and smoke in the skies above, it shone beautifully with the light of the reflection of the remaining moonlight.

  However, the two of them were not alone.

  Greedily drinking from the fountain was one of the enemy. This man had removed most of his armour, so that his whole upper body was only left with a very light padded shirt, likely only to soften and absorb the least lethal of blows.

  He man turned to look at them at the same moment that Alex ran in front and charged, screaming in bloody rage and with adrenaline pumping through his veins.

  Bang!

  A loud noise rang out.

  The man had taken something out from behind his frame and the fountain’s and had point it at Alex. It was some sort of long stick with a metal blade at the front.

  Alex faltered and again Axios could see a crimson rose blooming in the back of one of his comrades, yet Alex did not falter in that moment. Axios knew that Alex felt what he himself felt: righteous anger, outrage and bloodthirsty killing intent.

  Coward! Craven! Damn him to the Abyss and back for assuming that he can plunder our land after killing so many of us! Our blades shall reach his neck before he can take another gulp of what is ours!

  Alex faltered, yes, yet he did not halt his charge. With crimson blood filling his lungs, he kept charging forward with his sword, his boiling emotions holding him together.

  Yet it was not enough.

  The enemy adjusted the grip on his weapon and impaled Alex through the neck. Red blood was spewing everywhere.

  Fighting through the fatigue and the pain, Axios closed the gap between the two of them and swung at the man with his sword. The man blocked it by holding the piece of wood like a staff, perpendicular the the trajectory of the blade. Axios however put even more force into the blade, causing it to slide sideways and quickly nearing the finger’s of the enemy’s left hand.

  The soldier, however, let go of the weapon with his left hand and thrust the blade at the end of the stick. Axios avoid the lethal blow to his neck, but with his arm overextended from having failed to slash the opponent’s fingers, he was currently off balance and was pushed him against the nearby wall. Holding Axios against the wall by the chest with his left forearm , the enemy once more tried to stab Axios through the head by using the staff-like weapon like a short spear. Axios grabbed the end’s blade with his gloved hand and shifted its trajectory the side, hitting the wall behind him at the spot where his right ear had been a moment prior. The enemy understood that Axios was trying to escape having his back against the wall and the mobility of his sword arm locked by trying to squeeze out through the left side and now had a clear path to doing it, so he intercepted Axios’s escape through the side with a right elbow shot to the face just as Axios moved. Dazed for a single moment, Axios couldn’t immediately react as the enemy pulled his arm backwards once more, trying to stab him again with a short-spear style strike. This time however, Axios grabbed the man’s upper arm long enough to push back against the incoming strike and gave up his sword to free right hand and hooked his arm around the enemy’s inner thigh. Axios used the enemy’s upper arm as a point of leverage as he lifted him off of the ground for but a moment and then pushed him forward with both his left arm and right shoulder, making the enemy hit the ground with his skull and spine as he dropped his like a heavy sack.

  “Huff! Huff!”, Axios panted.

  It was getting hard keeping up the pace. He needed to finish this quickly, as his endurance was being sapped away, yet even the current follow-up, where he needed to get above his enemy and deal the finishing blow, felt like a task for a man twice his mettle.

  Sluggishly, he picked his sword from the ground and held it in a reverse grip at head height and took two steps towards his enemy.

  However, the Sodom soldier on the ground had been given enough time to compose himself after the fall, pull out a small metal object from his clothes and insert it into the strange looking stick and aim it at Axios.

  Move! Block!

  Bang!

  Clank!

  At the last possible moment, Axios had managed to determine where the weapon was being aimed at and shifted his shoulder forward, as well as lowering the blade and shifting his wrist. The projectile had hit the blade with enough force to slam Axios’ body back against the wall and knock the wind out of him. He hit his head against the wall and even though he had his helmed on, the entire experience rattled him enough to make his fall on his backside.

  “Huff! Huff!”

  His prior experiences this evening and the chatter among his fellow guards had given him enough of an idea as to what that weapon was and how it operated. That knowledge had saved his life just now.

  But it was a pyrrhic victory.

  “Huff! Huff!”

  He didn’t have the strength to get up again. Everything that had gone down tonight had finally caught up to him, down to that last hit to the back of his head. He couldn’t do anything now. Perhaps he could crawl, but that would not be happening anywhere as fast now as he needed.

  The enemy in front of him, eyes bloodshot, had just placed another small piece of metal inside his weapon. He could already see him as the smoke had been nearly fully dispersed.

  It wasn’t a proper weapon, like a sword or a spear, but if it was at this distance, he wouldn’t have many complaints. He could face his ending with his head held high. At least it hadn’t been his curse to deal him the final blow, nor would this fight had turned all that much different if he didn’t have it.

  A very convenient little white lie that you are telling yourself, aren’t you?

  The man aimed.

  I guess that it wasn’t meant to be after all. Too much just for one man. At least I hope that she made it out of this alive. She has earned at least that much.

  Axios gave his final words and accepted his fate, closing his eyes.

  “Aaaaaaarrrrhhhhhh…!”

  His eyelids snapped open.

  Where he was expecting to hear a thunderous sound, he heard panicked screaming instead.

  Where he was expecting to just feel cold and experience oblivion, he saw crimson flow from the enemy’s hand, his weapon on the ground and several fingers missing in that hand.

  Someone was standing over the enemy, he was wearing simple white garments and his hair was the colour of charcoal. He held a sword of Sodom design and its tip was dyed red with blood.

  In a single swift motion, he knelt down and sliced the enemy’s throat with what looked to be a sickle and got up on his two feet again before the man’s head had even hit the floor.

  “Huff! Huff!”, Axios panted.

  “Oh? I figured that it was you”, the charcoal haired youth said.

  He walked to Axios and bent down while lifting Axios’ chin so that their eyes would meet.

  “Now, could you tell me where Aporia happens to be?”