“Boss, there is a commotion ahead!” A man landed in front of his leader and informed. “There are two forces heading our way. The group approaching from the west I recognize as mercenaries but I am not certain which sect they’re from. The other…the other…” he shuddered at the thought.

“What? What?!” The boss anxiously asked his messenger. “Who are they?”

“Boss! The force of Qin approaches!”

The boss widened his eyes, “What luck of it is ours to cross paths with them today! Guard the hostage and draw back.”

“Yes, sir!” His men obeyed. The largest of his men surrounded the carriage carrying the hostage and withdrew first.

The boss inhaled deeply and prayed, “I just hope that the Qin force that approaches us is not lead by that Beast.”

Deep in the bamboo forest three days later, Xia galloped back on his horse from the early morning patrol and made haste to Ying-tai. He was sitting by the gentle fire with Huian and his men, all recovering from their fight from the past few days against the swarming numbers of bandits and violent renegades. As the war was approaching its ending time and men were becoming more desperate, those numbers of bandits and renegades were going up more and more by the days.

“Ying-tai!” Xia called to him.

Ying-tai raised his head up. “Xia,” he acknowledged him, “you’re back.”

Xia knelt down by him, “There is a group of men camping not too far from us up north. There are quite a number of them and they seem to be guarding something of great value.”

“Treasure?” Huian guessed.

“Whatever it is, it’s in a carriage large enough to carry a human being,” Xia informed.

Ying-tai sat up straighter and wiped the dirt off his forehead, “We should get moving then.” He took a look at his men laced with dirt and blood, “We must not risk being attacked whilst idle.”

As they moved on cautiously in the bamboo forest, a whistling noise alarmed Ying-tai’s dark horse, Shen. He halted in his steps, refusing to lift a single hoof.

Ying-tai raised his arm to stop his men and whispered to Shen, “What is it, boy?”

Before Shen could respond to Ying-tai, arrows whizzed past him and pierced through a number of his men, killing them instantly. At the sight of his fallen soldiers, Ying-tai’s eyes widened and malice imbued his eyes.

“Take cover!” Huian cried and flew to the side.

Ying-tai spun over by Xia and then promptly looked over his shoulder to observe the direction the arrows were flying from. While a few more arrows flung over them, one ripped right before Ying-tai’s eyes and splintered through the stem of the bamboo by him.

“Whose forces does these belong to?” Xia asked, his heart still racing from the surprise attack.

Ying-tai examined the systematic flying arrows then lowered his eyes to his fallen men. “Their approach seems to be military like but it still seems too disorganized.” He then scanned the forest for his soldiers in hiding, “Seeing a vacant zone in the middle of nowhere, a smart soldier would know not to waste arrows like this. We wouldn’t even gamble a single arrow for a much too ambiguous target.”

Xia looked up at the oncoming arrows. “Heh. You’re right. They are not ceasing fire at all.”

“They will keep coming closer, thinking they have the upper hand,” Ying-tai adjusted himself, “and we’ll let them come. They will have to lower their bows at some point and that’s when we’ll take our chance.”

Xia nodded.

Ying-tai turned to Huian and hand motioned him the plan. Huian nodded and helped pass on the plan with the rest of the men.

As expected, the arrows came to a halt and the bamboo forest became quiet. Ying-tai closed his eyes and brought his breathing into a rhythm as he gripped his dagger that was still sheathed by his side. He listened keenly.

Shuffle. Shuffle. Shuffle.

Five men carrying the bows are five steps away. Seven are on the far right. Seven on the left. Three of them… Ying-tai continued to visualize.

Crack!

Ying-tai’s mental sketch of their positions became interrupted and he shot his eyes open. He slid his dagger out in a blinking motion and jolted upward, mangling the skull of the foe that approached him. Huian and Xia followed his action and then immediately tumbled across the ground to find cover again. Ying-tai rolled after them and as soon as he positioned himself for cover, an arrow perforated through the bamboo tree and the splinters of the stem brushed his right ear. He glared at the men daring to challenge them and readied himself to strike again.

A foot was set down by his right and he plunged the iron blade of his dagger into it. Before the man could even react to the pain, Ying-tai twisted upward and thrusted behind the man’s chin, snapping his hyoid bone and killing him instantly. Ying-tai took a hold of the man, made him stand upward, and advanced toward the oncoming enemies. He used the dead man’s body to shield him from any flying arrow that attempted to prick him. Ying-tai’s men emerged from the shadows they hid in and darted forward with him. After shuffling several meters ahead, Ying-tai threw the dead man to the side and took cover again.

Meanwhile taking his breath, he flipped through his thoughts to find a strategy to take out all of the bow men. Darting his eyes within the region of his close surrounding, a dirty rope caught his eyes and he shifted his foot under it and kicked it toward him. Improvising, he looped the rope around the handle of his dagger and knotted the rope in its place. He stepped out of his hiding and spun the rope around for momentum before plunging the dagger into the head of the foe before him. He yanked it out after the man’s immediate death and flung it to behind him where a man ran after him with an ax in hand. The dagger at the end of the rope met with his throat and cut his run short. As he fell to his knees with lifeless eyes, Ying-tai pulled his rope and the blade that acted like a cork to keep the blood from flowing slid out and coated the ground with a crimson color.

He continued to swing his weapon that darted like endless flying arrows, moving at such a velocity that some of the oncoming enemies were not able to perceive his movements. Ying-tai swung it under his arm and swatted one man down. He looped the rope around him once again and used his footwork to swiftly zip the blade at each archer and man that continued to surround him.

Soon enough, the men drew back and leapt away.

“Shen!” Ying-tai called for his dark horse and jumped on him in mid stride. Not wanting to spare the lives of the enemies who were able to slaughter his men before him, he relentlessly pursued them.

Huian and Xia signaled their men and followed Ying-tai through the bamboo forest, shooting down the men leaping from tree to tree above them.

As Shen sprinted through the bamboos, Ying-tai cut down each man that bungee jumped unto him like hanging spiders coming to claim their prey. After a long pursuit, the men began to disperse into many directions. Acting quickly, Ying-tai swung the weapon he made and flicked it hard toward the man closest to him. The rope wrapped around him while he was in mid-flight and Ying-tai took a tight grip on his rope and reeled him in like a fisherman. As soon as the man plummeted onto the ground, he was immediately enclosed by Ying-tai’s soldiers, weapons pointed unto him. Shen’s hooves approached the captured person and he raised his head at the sound of Shen’s deep snort. Ying-tai climbed down and walked toward the man on his knees.

“Simple man,” Ying-tai began, “You’ve clearly lost your mind to wish a challenge against us.”

There was a flicker in Ying-tai’s eyes that made the man’s spine shiver. Ying-tai’s soldiers took a hold of his arms as Ying-tai proceeded toward him. The closer he approached, the broader his shoulders looked and the bigger he seemed. Because of the constant fighting, Ying-tai had not groomed himself for an acceptable presentation, and with his stained armor and worn robe he appeared what many people pronounced him to be: a Beast. Ying-tai grasped the man’s collar and stared coldly into his eyes causing him to go numb. As he lifted him, he noticed his small frame and light weight.

“Under whose command do you follow?” Ying-tai interrogated. “Your skills are far too adept to be bandits. In fact, you display multiple military tactics; all are far different from the other. You’re none other but the renegades!”

The renegade’s lips trembled at the close presence of Ying-tai. He then eyed Ying-tai’s sword and made a move in attempt to slit his own throat with it but was stopped short by Ying-tai’s quick reaction. Ying-tai twisted the man around and pinned him on his belly against the ground while keeping a firm grip on his forearm that was being wrenched behind him.

“Ahhhhhhhh!” The renegade yelped in pain.

Huian and Xia stood by silently with no intention of interfering.

“I know you have been stalking us for days. Tell me who commands you!” Ying-tai demanded as he began to bend the renegade’s arm.

“Please don’t kill me!” His voice cried out. “Please! Please! Please!”

Ying-tai flipped him over and pierced his eyes into the man while he rubbed his throbbing arm. Ying-tai lowered his sword that pressed against him and widened his eyes as the scarf came off the renegade’s face and his hood fell down. The renegade did not look older than twelve years.

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“A child?” Huian stepped a foot forward.

“You got to be kidding me,” Xia shook his head. “Sending children to do the dirty work.”

Ying-tai knelt down to the boy’s level who shuffled back from him.

“Y-you’re the Beast they speak of,” the boy shook.

“Is that what they tell you?” Ying-tai spoke in a softer tone.

The boy nodded.

Ying-tai’s eyes became kinder. “What’s your name?” He asked the boy.

The boy did not respond.

“It’s okay. You can tell me,” Ying-tai assured.

The boy looked at the Qin army that surrounded him and then returned his eyes to Ying-tai, “You are not to be trusted.”

Ying-tai grinned. He raised his eyes to his men and nodded his head for them to yield their weapons. Immediately obeying his orders, they sheathed their weapons along with Ying-tai. He returned his eyes to the boy, “You can trust me.”

The boy took his eyes off of Ying-tai’s sword and looked at him with his raised eyebrow, “What Beast confines his fangs?”

“I am not your common Beast, kid,” Ying-tai smirked and rose to his feet. “Now, as for what I asked—”

“I cannot tell you,” the boy blurted.

Ying-tai looked at him, “Oh?”

“What to do with you then, kid,” Xia sighed, annoyed.

The boy turned to Xia, “I cannot say because she’ll get hurt.”

Huian tilted his head, “And who is she, child?”

The boy returned his eyes to Ying-tai, “I have to return to her. And I cannot do that until I kill you.”

Ying-tai’s men laughed at the boy and Ying-tai shook his head at him, grinning, “I will not let you do that, boy.”

“Why not?! I am stronger than you know!” The boy positioned himself into a stance and slid out a dagger from his sleeve and gripped it tightly.

Ying-tai kept his eyes on the boy and allowed him to attack.

“Ahhhhhh!!!” The boy screamed.

Ying-tai hustled with the boy for a small while and struck his flinging arm downward. He shifted to the boy’s back and blew a jolting thrust to his shoulder and made him limp. The boy swung around and jabbed his dagger in wild directions but failed to land a hit on Ying-tai. Ying-tai ended the fight by transporting himself to the boy’s behind again in a lightning pace and, in a smooth motion, applied a precise thrust to the boy’s nerves by the neck and shoulder, paralyzing his whole upper right side.

“Aaagh!” The boy grunted and fell to the ground. He lifted his face to Ying-tai and desperately tried to shift himself away.

Ying-tai bent down on one knee and looked sternly into the boy’s unrelenting eyes.

“Why do you insist on fighting me, young boy?” Ying-tai questioned him. “Why do you not flee? If I were to take your life now, you will never see that girl again. You can’t protect her if you’re dead.”

The boy’s eyes widened for a second at the statement. He lowered his head, “Heh, a man of the regime is telling me this?” The boy lifted his head again to look at Ying-tai, “Why do you face death everyday knowing you are your country’s brightest hope? Or your loved one’s brightest hope?”

Ying-tai softened his eyes and slightly lowered his shoulders.

The boy smirked as he, too, lowered his other shoulder that was not paralyzed, “I guess you already know the answer to your own question.”

“Unit Commander,” an official voiced, “what shall we do with the child?”

Ying-tai continued to study the boy for a moment. He then raised his hand and the boy shut his eyes to accept his death.

“Ying-tai—” Huian started.

In one blink, Ying-tai struck the nerve points he hit previously and jolted the right side of the boy’s body conscious again. As soon as the boy noticed this, he shot his head up, his eyes big and wide.

“Tell me, is this girl valuable?” Ying-tai asked as he stood up.

The boy maintained his shocked state.

“What I mean is, is she worth keeping you alive?” Ying-tai clarified to the boy as he sheathed his sword.

“You’re not going to kill me?” The boy exhaled in disbelief at the man people declared as ‘Beast’. Ying-tai’s shoulders appeared broader standing tall before the boy and the crimson silk that draped by his steel armor mimicked a stream of blood. For the first time in his feral existence, he feared for his life. The boy brushed the dirt off his clothes and thought hard about his next words. “I have to live,” he said in almost a whisper. “Without me, she may walk a dark path with no return.”

Huian and Xia raised their brows and looked at each other.

“It is my wish to return her home,” the boy raised his head to Ying-tai.

“Home?” Ying-tai repeated.

“You love this girl?” Xia smirked as he crossed his arms.

The boy looked at Xia, “Nothing of the sort! She…she reminds me of my older sister who was murdered by the regime of Wei.”

Huian sighed then questioned the boy, “Where is this home of the girl you speak of?”

The boy looked at Ying-tai who nodded at him to continue. “Q...Qi,” he pronounced. “She is the Grand Princess of Qi.”

Huian and Xia widened their eyes at each other and turned to Ying-tai whose eyes expressed his shock at the unexpected report.

“G-Grand Princess of Qi you say?” Xia exasperated.

Huian furrowed his brows, “This is a bigger problem than I thought. I’m sure there is a fleet already looking for her and if they see her with us they’ll assume we had something to do with it. Being caught in the middle of them and the renegades will be troublesome.”

Ying-tai turned to Huian, “Or we can see it as a good opportunity.”

Huian raised his head, “What do you mean?”

“Say we save the Grand Princess. We go to Qi and offer them a favor hard to pass,” Ying-tai suggested.

“A ransom?” Xia raised his eyes.

“I wouldn’t think of it as that,” Ying-tai chuckled.

“Rather risky to just dive into their walls, isn’t it?” Xia thought.

“The Qi aren’t much of fighters. Of all the seven kingdoms, they participate in conflict the least,” Ying-tai explained.

“That’s true,” Huian nodded, his hand on his chin. He looked at Ying-tai, “Either way, Qi will soon be our attention of interest. I say we can test your approach on this.”

Ying-tai smirked and turned to the boy, “I’ll give you a deal. You show us to your leader and the other renegades and help save the Grand Princess of Qi.”

“You ask me to betray them when they have sheltered me from being hunted? What am I to gain from this?” The boy questioned Ying-tai. “I will have nowhere to go. The world of the regime will still want me dead for being a feral ren—”

Ying-tai raised his large hand and the boy immediately flinched and squinted his eyes shut, expecting a blow to the head. He then opened his eyes slowly and exhaled heavily when Ying-tai’s hand lied still on his head.

“In return, I will make you a free man,” Ying-tai declared.

With widened eyes, the boy shot his head up to Ying-tai. Though his lips moved, he was unable to say a word.

Huian grinned, “I think that’s a yes.”

Xia smirked and then signaled the men to prepare for their coming operation.

Ying-tai smiled at the boy. “I trust us in your hands, young man,” he said and turned around toward his horse as he whipped his crimson garment to the side.

Traveling through the remaining hours of the day and into the night, the boy walked quietly by Ying-tai and Shen in disbelief that he was allying with the feared Qin army. He repeatedly moved his eyes to the side to look at Ying-tai, and then to the front again.

“Is there something you want to say?” Ying-tai’s deep voice sounded.

The boy stiffened up and looked at Ying-tai who was still looking forward. “Ah…” he paused. “How does one become so victorious if they always give others leeway? How does one triumph over the other of that’s the case?”

Ying-tai smiled gently at the boy’s doubt, “I don’t always give others a leeway. I’m not as merciful as you think.”

The boy raised his eyebrows at Ying-tai’s comment.

“I’ve killed countless of men who had families. Men who had loved ones waiting for them. Men who knew how to fear for their lives. Tell me, how is that merciful?”

The boy turned to Shen who sighed and shook his head as his dark mane waved softly.

“How do you think I got my many nicknames?” Ying-tai mentioned.

The boy nodded at this. Then he asked, “Why did you spare me?”

Ying-tai continued to look forward. Night was falling unto them and the shimmer of the stars were beginning to be more visible by the absent of day’s light.

“That woman,” Ying-tai started, his shoulders lowered, “seeing that you’re all she has, she deserves to see you return alive.”

“I am none but a feral boy,” the boy sighed. “With someone as pure as such, she deserves more than a mere insignificant like me who has no name.”

Ying-tai looked at the boy.

“There are more kids like me. I was too young to remember my name. When I met the leader, he stripped me from my past and gave me a future. It wasn’t much but it provided me enough protection and food. All my life, everyone just called me ‘little brother’. That’s normal for lost children of war that are found by renegades.”

Ying-tai turned his head to the front again. “When you become a free man, I shall give you a name,” Ying-tai kindly promised.

The boy stopped in his tracks and looked at Ying-tai’s broad back.

“For when the world is mine, I shall look for you once again for we both will be men of a free world,” Ying-tai gently smiled as Shen strutted forward.

“A name?” The boy let out a breath. He tried to keep his thrilled soul together. He smiled with gleaming eyes and shouted after Ying-tai as he ran forward, “I’ll hold you accountable for that!”

When it became too dark to travel, Ying-tai and his men camped and rested for the morning to come. As they pulled out their meals and grilled freshly killed rabbits by the fire, the boy looked shyly at the sizzling meat as he tried to hush his growling stomach. One of the captains handed Ying-tai the first cooked rabbit and the boy kept his eyes away with his head lowered.

“Here,” Ying-tai smiled at him warmly.

“Oh! Of course, sir!” He bowed to Ying-tai and quickly took the rabbit from his hands before tearing the meat by hand into smaller bite sizes.

Ying-tai’s men looked at each other and whispered at his poor mannerisms but then widened their eyes when the boy returned the meat to Ying-tai.

Ying-tai raised his brow at the boy.

“It should be easier to eat now,” the boy bowed his head lowly.

Ying-tai’s men began to chuckle.

Ying-tai, still smiling warmly, shook his head, “I meant to give it to you to eat, not to shred it for me.”

The boy raised his head, confused at why the men were laughing at him, “I don’t understand.”

“That is for you to eat, boy! You better thank him wholly and remember this night when the great Unit Commander Ying-tai of Qin handed you his own meal!”

The boy’s eyes grew big and he pressed his head onto the ground, “Thank you, Unit Commander Ying-tai! I am entirely grateful!”

As he sat himself down with the whole rabbit in his hand, he handed Ying-tai half of it. Ying-tai smiled at his gesture and accepted it while the rest of the men sipped their stashes of wine in quiet bliss. As the night continued to veil over them and the laughter of the Qin soldiers began to calm down, the boy sat by Ying-tai quietly while Huian and Xia rested nearby.

“I’ve decided,” the boy spoke through the crackling of the fire, “that I want to travel with you and see this world turn into something more.”

“You’d rather live in the battlefields and see bloodshed?” Ying-tai tested the boy. “You will pass up on a soft bed and hot tea by a tranquil garden?”

The boy looked at the Qin men around the fire who laid their heads on one another and poured each other a small cup of wine. Listening to them speak softly and laugh quietly, he raised his head to the sky and looked at the infinite stars above him, “To gain more nights like this where we are all brothers, I don’t mind it. I don’t mind this one bit.”

Ying-tai smiled and looked up at the stars himself.

“Funny how one small gesture can change the way you see things,” the boy mentioned. “I see why you do the things you do now.” He lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, “For a man who is so feared,” the boy continued, “there is actually someone who waits upon you?”

“What makes you say that?” Ying-tai asked.

“Earlier you said you spared me because I was all someone had,” he turned to Ying-tai, “and that she deserved to see me return. That’s when I guessed that the biggest reason you kept me alive was because you understood.”

Ying-tai continued to look at the night sky. He took in a deep breath, “It is unbearable to think of someone being trapped in such a frightening position. It is even more unbearable when you know you are the hope they gaze unto and wait upon knowing there is a slight chance that you may disappoint.” Ying-tai paused and placed his hand on his chest while the boy studied him, “My greatest fear is being nothing more than an illusion of the hope they hold onto so dearly.”

Huian and Xia were still awake and listening silently. Xia started to weep, his shoulders trembling.

“You want to add in something, Xia?” Ying-tai called him out.

Xia sniffled and quickly wiped his tears. “No…” he wailed softly.

The boy chuckled at Xia as Ying-tai smirked, closed his eyes and exhaled.

“Well,” the boy readied himself to sleep, “whatever you do, don’t make her wait too long. It’ll be a shame if you lose a person like that forever.”

Ying-tai opened his eyes at this and looked at the boy already slumbering away. The rest of that night, Ying-tai watched the flames of the fire diminish into small floating embers as he ritually held onto Xiu Juan’s pressed plum blossoms tightly before falling into slumber himself.