Alex didn’t know how long he sat under water, but when he realized his extremities were about to become too stiff for him to climb out, he decided to risk it and carefully left the hiding spot.
Right after the surfacing, he understood something was not right. While breathing through mouth he didn’t notice it, but now he clearly smelled the well was full of smoke as if it was dug right next to a large bonfire. When Alex climbed out, he understood why it felt like it – the whole capital was on fire!
Judging from the darkish sky it should already be the night time, but hundreds of burning buildings illuminated the smoke clouds and it almost felt like it was the sunrise.
Alex didn’t know his little stunt was the main reason rebels were forced to push their plans forward in case he reported to Jacobo or palace. He also had no clue his ‘little hunch’ few months earlier regarding the poison application was the main reason the whole city garrison was easily neutralized along with the palace guards. Of course, Gael would’ve found another way to create the appropriate poison, but technically the current one did result from Alex’s idea.
Obviously Alex couldn’t care less about all of it. After climbing out the well, he dashed towards the nearby city wall and openly scaled it. There were sounds of people fighting around the city and on the walls, but his main concern was if Gael was at home ore somewhere nearby. It was unlikely highly skilled Qi masters would be in this remote area – they most definitely were needed to subdue the royal forces in the palace.
At first Alex began to directly climb the steep wall, but his whole body was still wet and his hand slipped, and he fell. He didn’t brake any bones, but fall from two or so meter height still hurt.
Rubbing the right shoulder with grimace full of pain he looked around trying to find a more convenient way to get up the city wall and noticed a couple of crude, but long ladders leaned at the wall. They seemed to be crafted in a hurry from random materials one could find in the neighborhood, but Alex didn’t require a luxurious escalator anyway.
Few seconds later he stepped on the top of the wall only to get instantly assaulted.
“Die!” Someone dressed in a dark leather armor slashed his sword at Alex’s neck, but the latter, purely out of instinct, dashed to his left avoiding the attack.
Only after he retreated few meters using his ‘Bond style’ footwork, Alex saw that on the narrow pathway on top the wall four people were ganging up on someone dressed in the city guard’s armor. Turns out Alex climbed up right next to them and the attackers assumed he was one of the defenders.
Before Alex could do or say anything, the person who just attacked loudly shouted, “Qi master!”
Apparently Alex’s quick retreat resembled the style and speed of a regular Qi master, thus the attacker immediately drew the attention of others.
‘How f*cking stupid are you?!’ Alex cursed to himself seeing one of the rebels holding back the city guard while the three others did their best to approach Alex without obstructing each other.
Realizing they won’t be able to encircle the ‘Qi master’, one of the rebels let out a high-pitched whistle and a second later he received similar whistle as an answer from two hundred or so meters away.
“Catch!” While rebels payed more attention to their defensive positions, the city guard who was earlier in the loosing position quickly assessed the situation and threw a sword towards Alex.
Up until now in order to hold back the four attackers the man was holding a sword in each hand, but now that Alex drew attention of three, he only had one opponent left and could ‘lend’ one of the swords to his savior who for some reason arrived unarmed.
Rebels didn’t manage to react when the sword already landed nicely in Alex’s palm. Without a second thought Alex did few quick steps forward and in a lightning fashion performed two trusts towards the necks of attackers. Just as Bill taught him, not waiting for the result he immediately fell back and saw two men with dumbfounded expressions collapse to the ground, holding their necks and making gurgling sounds.
The third attacker, despite being in shock began to hysterically whistle, but was silenced a second later when Alex stabbed him in the eye. Meanwhile the city guard used the distraction Alex created and killed the last attacker as well.
“Thank you!” He weakly smiled at Alex.
Finally Alex could observe the man clearly. He was fifty or even sixty years of age, but obviously still only a Qi warrior. Even though he was experienced, most likely such person could only serve as a leader of a small squad, but Alex didn’t care about the man’s social standing or even his existence whatsoever.
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“Run!” What the only thing Alex said.
He glanced down the other side of the wall where the small suburban shacks were burning just like their larger counterparts inside the city walls, then threw a quick look around and noticed a rope not far away. He quickly grabbed it, made a primitive noose and threw it on the closest merlon. Afterwards he dropped the loose end of the rope over the side of the wall and immediately climbed down. He had been on the wall for almost ten seconds and it was at least nine too many for him to feel comfortable. Just now attackers called for help and if there was one or more Qi masters coming, they would arrive at any moment. Then, if Alex was still here, he would die.
The old city guard was surprised by Alex’s youthful appearance, but immediately understood what his young savior meant. The capital has fallen and the rebels were mercilessly slaughtering everyone without taking any captives. There was nothing left to protect and to escape was the only reasonable solution.
After throwing a glance in the direction of the palace, the old guard sighed and followed Alex who didn’t even climb to the ground, but from half way directly jumped down and then immediately dashed over the five meter wide moat. To his luck, it was not filled with water and didn’t hinder his speed one bit. A second later he was on the other side of the road that encircled the city and, ignoring the guard’s agonizing cry of pain behind him, ran in between two burning shacks, holding his breath and closing eyes while rapidly revolving Qi through his body.
The reinforcements the four rebels called were already here and the old guard was surely killed by them. In the lighting provided by the fire, they most likely noticed Alex as well and his only chance was to run directly in a burning building in hopes pursuers would not dare to follow or will simply loose his tracks.
He zigzagged between few shacks and then dashed in a larger building that was on fire just like the rest. Alex didn’t hear any footsteps following him, but didn’t slow down nevertheless. Holding the breath was not a problem, but the burns he was getting all over his body made moving increasingly difficult. The biggest problem, of course, was the inability to clearly see and Alex mostly picked directions purely on intuition.
After running through a couple of rooms filled with fire and smoke, Alex slammed in the wall and fell over, but after quickly getting up noticed a window close by and without a second thought directly dived through it.
Ignoring the fresh cuts and bruises, he immediately sat up and listened if someone was following him while still holding his breath, but the surrounding fire and crumbling buildings made it unrealistic to hear distinct sounds like soft footsteps. Alex waited for a minute or so, but no one came and he slowly crawled away, trying to stay as close to the ground as possible.
After crawling for ten odd minutes, Alex became braver and since there was no one around, he started to openly run along the road. On both sides there was only smoking rubble left of what once were the suburbs of Zamora. From time to time he could see dismembered and burned bodies of the former inhabitants. There were even instances where corpses were piled up, probably with intent to burn them properly later.
Alex had no clue what could cause such massacre. In fact, he never heard about this kind of warfare. In theory any conqueror was interested in preserving the lives of at least the common folk for them to continue to work in the future. But this genocide looked more like a vengeance or a religious cleansing. Back in Morales castle he never heard of Hallancia kingdom having such ruthless enemies, but then again he always focused on cultivation or search for information on the reincarnation.
After two more hours of running Alex finally left the outskirts of Zamora and after another kilometer found himself at the bank of a small river. He dropped on the knees and began to drink as if he hadn’t drank for days, and when he couldn’t anymore, lay on his back, partially still in the water, exhausted.
Only now the adrenaline rush began to subside and Alex finally realized how injured he was. He had cuts and burns all over his body, including on the face from slamming in the burning wall earlier. There was no spot on his body that didn’t hurt and the pain was so agonizing he began having suicidal thoughts again. Luckily, before he could do anything stupid, he passed out.
When Alex woke up, the sun was up high, but it was not clear if he slept only few hours or more than a day. While he was mentally rested, the whole body was still aching. Luckily his mind was sober enough and after dispelling the last few bad thoughts, he carefully washed himself, tore his clothing, made few crude straps and bandaged his hands and neck. There was no way to take care of his face other than washing it and it was clear he will have nasty scarring in the future, but he couldn’t care less.
After checking his body once more, he got up and slowly began to walk towards the west. He didn’t know who the rebels were, but knew that large forces were earlier gathered in south-eastern mountain ranges. Thus it was only logical to escape in the opposite direction.
During the next hours, he passed multiple burnt down villages. People were slaughtered everywhere, even the women and children. On the other hand, Alex managed to find something to eat and also few pieces of clothing. In one of the villages he even stumbled upon a thin, primitive longsword. After a bit of struggle, he successfully strapped it on his back like he did with the rapier Bill got him in his last life and finally felt a bit safer.
Of course, the current safety was an illusion and he had no chance against a Qi master or a squad of Qi warriors.
But in the worst case scenario he could take a few with him and this thought warmed his heart.
Alex was not really worried about his own future prospects. Already in his previous life he decided on plan ‘b’ in case he could not pursue knowledge – he would just cultivate the force of nature and look into the mysteries of reincarnation in the next life. Firstly – because it felt like cultivating advanced the level of his consciousness quite a bit and secondly – he had all the time in the world! It didn’t matter when he would find out the ‘truth of existence’ or the ‘secrets of the universe’. What mattered was how much fun did he have in the process. That was also the reason why he wholeheartedly dived into the poison research during the past year – the subject just was too intriguing.
Thinking of the past year he once again began to question the intentions of the rebels, of course, those beyond the simple genocide of all people in Hallancia kingdom. Unfortunately he lacked any useful information and decided to proceed to the west and decide on details later.