When the screaming and moaning died down to reveal the landscape, hundreds of men dressed in either leather or black metallic armor laid dead in wide eyed terror. The broken bodies of men were scattered across the land next to the river in a gruesome display of Aidonia's might.
In the end the appalling aftermath of the battle sent shivers through even the two squads posted a hundred meters away who had rushed over with Hartley. They could only stand slack-jawed as they witnessed the brutality of the scene.
The shattered remnants of the rebel army tried to make their escape back into the treeline in groups of twos and threes, they trampled over the fallen banner of Count Zixin (the king's brother) that had been held proudly aloft as they had marched to destroy the enemy.
Now without a shred of concern, the footprints of desperate men desecrated the dignity of that very same flag as they skipped pass the bloody remnants of the flag-bearers in a bid to preserve their own lives.
In the ensuing chaos men sank to the bottom of the river after opting to swim to the other side before the unknown butcher could put them to the sword. The loss of life and moral had broken the minds of the survivors. None of them cared where they were headed as long as it was not anywhere near here.
The members of the first legion army broke from their stupor as the rebel army made a frantic attempt at escape, stood a hundred meters away, the two squads got into a spread formation and showered the retreating rebels with a hail of crossbow bolts making the miserable retreat even worse.
There was a group of knights dressed in black metallic armor carrying shiny long swords clanking towards the forest, desperately trying to make their way into the tree line along with the rest of the survivors who were scattered like ants dotted around the battlefield.
In their tunnel vision, all they could see was the safety of the forest.... then whoosh!... a blue blur assaulted them from behind.
They didn't even see the lethal blow before falling to their deaths, their helmeted heads rolling and clanging in random patterns as blood gushed against the rocky ground.
This motivated the others making their escape to no end, they increased their speed not even daring to look back.
The meticulously planned ambush collapsed into disarray as men screaming like little girls made their escape in every direction not even caring about the fierce beasts loitering in the forest.....
The captain who had led the assault was mounted on a white horse at the edges of the tree line watching as half of his troops scattered in chaos and the other half laid motionless, the screams of the soldiers writhing in agony still echoed in his ears even though those screams had long since gone quiet.
Stood beside him were six body guards, every single one in the 7th layer of the xiantian realm. All of these men were from Sasko and they all sported the same looks of anger, trepidation and confusion.
"Captain lets fall back and regroup, these soldiers from Count Zixin are not dependable, lets make a report to commander Haiyuan." said one of the bodyguards, he was a middle age man dressed in a red robe that looked out of place on a battle field, it was almost as if he was dressed for a casual walk in the park.
The captain mused for a while then gritted his teeth, "Yes I think you might be right, bring me the head of that guy then lets head back." At least he could bring back a trophy in this catastrophic failure he thought to himself. The person didn't seem to be giving strong fluctuations, he might just be a level or two stronger than these worthless soldiers.
What they had witnessed from their rear position on the battlefield was someone nonchalantly walking through the stumbling troops and cutting down people like weeds.
Hearing the terror of the men they could only assume that the men provided by the Count were too weak.
The man dressed in a red robe flashed away towards the figure dressed in black who was still harassing and killing the hapless soldiers as they tried to make their escape....
"It ends here." the man stated with cold intension, he was a bit surprised when the figure turned around revealing youthful features and a cold blue stare.
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Brandishing a rank 5 spirit weapon billowing with heat the man dressed in red was seeking to end the battle quickly so he could retreat to safety with the captain before their identities were exposed.
Heat swirled off the blade as the sword burned yellow. From about ten meters away the sword lashed forward bringing a sweltering heat to the cold winter day, a couple soldiers that were being chased by Hartley turned to ash and blew away as the yellow lights from the sword brushed pass them....
The yellow sword light streaked towards the youth...
Suddenly the rocky ground exploded under the youth's foot, the calm youth took a step forward with his left foot and disappeared in a rumble, the space around him rippled and imploded with a thunderous flash of black energy.
The youth reappeared behind the man with two sparkling blue elemental swords in hand, the space rippled and cracked with black chaotic energy, shocking the man who had already committed to his strike and could only raise his yellow elemental armor from his waist to his neck.... but it wasn't enough to save him.
A horizontal slash from high-right to high-left with the short sparkling sword in the left hand of the youth crashed through his armor and sent the man's head flying with a blue flash.
Then a lightning quick downward vertical strike from his long sword in his right hand split the man's head vertically in two equal portions.
Blood gushed from the neck of the still standing headless body, then the head separated in two halves and went in opposite directions.
The yellow sword went clanging and skittering across the rocky surface of the ground, the figure walked towards the sword and it disappeared into his space ring.
"What the?" The startled captain couldn't believe his eyes, then there was a flash of what appeared to be blue mist around the figure in the distance, in a split second there was a ripping sound like someone pulling a zipper, the air rippled and a circular ice-blue mist appeared before their very eyes spinning end over end.
A figure dressed in black stepped forward and the mist disappeared with a dull flash. Gravity attract... one bodyguard involuntarily came flying towards Hartley and was greeted with a booming right handed punch, two blue flashes strobed from the compressed circulation technique and the bodyguard exploded like a balloon filled with blood, not even given a chance to scream.
Blood splattered and the white horse that the captain sat on, whinnied in fright and railed up onto its hind legs throwing him to the ground as the blood stained horse tried to make its own escape.
The color then bled from the world as Hartley transitioned into his time domain immediately and everyone was frozen with panic stricken faces, the world around them turned monochrome then two sparkling blue elemental swords reappeared in Hartley's palm with a flash.
Whoosh!....Time restarted and two more heads went flying spraying blood everywhere like an out of control fire-truck hose, the majestic white horse neighed and galloped off into the distance abandoning its owner.
The three men remaining finally saw a glimpse of the person dressed in black, looking at the youth's face, they finally felt the gut wrenching terror the soldiers had experienced before them, those cold piercing blue eyes with not a single shred of emotion sent shivers down their spines.
Drenched in blood, what the captain had witnessed on the battlefield all started to make sense, all he could think about was escaping with his life, similar to the thoughts of the soldiers under his command that were scampering off in every direction like a bunch of rats who were confronted by a cat.
"Captain fall back!." A body guard shouted before launching himself at the threat, before he could take two steps forward the earth quaked and trembled, a gravity field measuring 60g's slammed down entrapping the three men.
The captain screamed in terror as his bones fractured with snapping sounds and he was forced face down into the rocky ground puking a mouthful of blood, the two 7th layer xiantians were startled and stumbling around in disbelief...Swish.... The sparkling long sword hacked through the bodyguard that was making his way forward, the strike was so quick that the man stood with disbelief written all over his face for a full two seconds before his top half separated from the bottom half of his body and slid to the ground with a gory explosion of blood.
The final bodyguard who had watched five 7th layer xaintians killed in quick succession trembled in fear and his fate was sealed with a quick vertical strike.
Hartley retracted his gravity field and released the pressure on the captain. "Please, please spare me me. I'm a noble from Sasko, my house will pay any ransom you request."
The man wearing tight fitting leather armor trembled as he blabbered, Hartley grabbed him by the collar like a naughty puppy and used gravity steps to regroup with the two squads who were still firing bolts at the stragglers.
Dashing the man mercilessly to the floor he ordered, "hog tie him and lets regroup with the commander."
Even though Hartley had no official rank in the army, no one dared to not listen to his command, two men quickly tied up the captain and placed him across a horse as the group left, leaving a landscape from hell.
More than seven hundred men laid dead or dying in the carnage on the riverbank, not to mention those who had jumped in the river or those who had run into the jaws of the fierce beasts waiting in the forest, as soon as the melee died down birds flocked from the forest and plundered the bloody flesh of the dead. The sickening stench of blood, vomit and the emptying of bowels dominated the air.
One of the bloodiest skirmishes in the history of the country of Tivoli ended and reports of the carnage flooded into to Commander Haiyuan who was seated fuming in his command tent.