As the gigantic black flame continually spewed up into the air, Adam's face turned pale. The fire was actually too far for Adam to see with his elemental sight, but he could hear it! Not only the sound of the fire, he could hear the twisted sound of that spirit formation that linked this world directly to the spirit plane of death. This was a portal, just like the one that had been opened up at Fort Erich that night it was attacked!
Adam looked over at Emery with shock. “You... what have you done!? Silber says there is an undefended city over there!?”
Emery gave a heavy sigh. Unbeknownst to Adam, Emery and Defoy had long talked over whether or not Adam should have actually followed along on this part of the mission. Adam had many times put forward that he was displeased with the army hurting innocent civilians. Emery wanted Adam by his side since he considered him a close friend and didn't want Adam to get caught up in something back in camp. Whether that was suddenly being ordered to help the assault by commanders who did not know that Adam was not there to follow their orders, or some other unforeseen event. At this point, Emery decided to lay some things out for Adam: “There is indeed a city over there, though it is not entirely defenseless. It has no walls around it besides Sagan Wall which is a few kilometers away from the city. Many of the soldiers who man the wall reside in the city. My job was to summon a portal to the spirit plane of death and call a horde of ghouls to assault the city! Between defending Sagan Wall and fighting the ghouls, the soldiers would be overwhelmed and more easily defeated!”
Adam then asked with condemnation: “Is the city only full of soldiers?”
Emery twisted in a moment of hesitation. He valued Adam's friendship and wanted to lie to Adam and make him believe the city was only full of soldiers. Adam could then accept what was happening and move on with them, since Adam hated Luxom soldiers but not the civilians. At the same time, Emery knew that Adam would find out the truth at some point and would hate him if he lied. The city was a port city where goods that came from further in Luxom would stop at. Aldvind was the only city down river from here so many trade caravans actually came to take off loaded cargo from boats at this city and distribute them across the other cities on that side of the mountains. The majority of citizens of the city were most definitely civilians. While Emery also felt it sad to sentence many of these civilians to death, his sense of duty forbade him from abandoning the mission for either his or Adam's feelings on the matter.
That one moment of hesitation in Emery was all Adam needed for an answer. Adam immediately turned around as he shouted: “I won't let them become like Fort Erich!”
Adam then suddenly rocketed away at a faster speed than he had shown over the past few days! In this moment, when he wished to reach that city before whatever would come out of the portal arrived, he subconsciously started using the wind formation he had created when fighting the dragon! Before anyone realized it, Adam was already fifty or more meters away with Silber following just behind!
Defoy looked over to Emery: “Do you want me to bring them back?”
Emery sighed: “Adam... he must have been a survivor from Fort Erich if he is reacting like this! If they make it back alive, that would be great, if they don't... well, they chose their fate... Let's leave.”
Adam was no longer paying attention to Emery and the others behind him, instead he was concentrated on moving forward as fast as he could. He was surprised by the sudden burst of speed he had gained, just like when he fought the dragon. Adam did not take the time to try and analyze the wind formation, though, because he knew that if he did that it would fall apart! Right now the formation was feeding on his emotions to reach the city and he did not want to cut that off. He ran forward as fast as he could without running into anything. In his mind, he was also thinking: “I thought Heider was better than this. Why do civilians have to be put at the edge of a blade for a stupid war!?”
Silber followed behind Adam, watching his figure. “Beta is so fast! Though, not quite as fast as my top speed. Ah, if only we could go this fast all the time!”
They ran along at top speed towards the city. Adam had no idea how he could even try to close the portal so he felt the only thing he could do was try to and help contain whatever was going to come out. With their fast speed, it only took then about ten minutes to actually reach the city! What lay before them, though, was the scene of a one-sided massacre! Since most of the soldiers were stationed on Sagan Wall, there were not that many forces in the city. They could only mount a token of resistance against a horde of ghouls that appeared from the portal. Adam couldn't fully see what was going on, but he could guess. “Silber, lead the way! We need to get to that defensive line!”
Silber started to lead Adam forward. Before too long, though, a group of four ghouls that were mindlessly roaming crossed their path! Adam saw them beforehand and Silber also detected their presence before they actually saw them. They did not need to communicate much more than just sharing a glance to make sure the other knew what was coming. Adam and Silber were presently heading down a street as the group of ghouls came out of an alley with one in front, and three in the back. The ghouls had just noticed Adam and Silber, when Silber used the very same trick he used with the soldier who tried to ambush Emery. This time, however, the ghoul did not scream as its leg was dislocated. Instead, as soon as it hit the ground, it started to crawl in an effort to reach and attack Silber, who was already a fair distance away. Right after Silber made his attack, Adam actually did something similar, but with his sword. With the incredible speed from the wind formation, Adam easily sliced through the first of the three ghouls in the back in half! The other two ghouls thrust their arms forward in an attempt to grab Adam and bite him. As the ghouls lunged, Adam continued drawing his sword in an arc from slicing through the first ghoul and cut the arms of the other two off! The ghouls were not even fazed by this as they continued forward, attempting to bite Adam! The resilience of the ghouls surprised Adam. Even if he had heard the stories and knew they would act in this way, it was totally different from experiencing it first hand. Silber pounced on the back of the ghoul that was trying to crawl and started biting its neck to kill it. At the same time, Adam calmly sliced his blade out in an arc and easily decapitated the remaining two ghouls.
Ghouls could be considered a demonic beast, but they had a unique oddity. The spiritual essence that corrupted them stayed in their blood instead of fusing with their body. This made their bodies weaker than any other type of demonic beast but their blood then became highly contagious. No one knows how this all came about, but it allowed Adam and Silber to make short work of this small group of ghouls.
Adam took a small moment to catch his breath, but he didn't take too long. Running all the way here had made him tired and more than just physically. Maintaining the wind formation was taking a toll as his soul continuously did whatever it had to in order to maintain it. In short, it was sapping his spirit. Even still, he wished to continue and tried to keep his current frame of mind so he could continue using the wind formation since it was his greatest asset in the battles to come.
Adam and Silber then took off running as they headed to the defense line the soldiers of the city had set up. There, they would work to ensure that no ghouls managed to get through and attack the civilians the soldiers were trying to guard. Adam didn't like the thought of working with Luxom soldiers, but right now he had no choice.
After encountering a few more small groups of ghouls, they finally reached the defensive line and it didn't look good. There was a massive amount of ghouls pushing against too few soldiers. Groups of ghouls were breaking through gaps in their defenses. Adam immediately went to go hunt down these groups of ghouls. His participation in the defensive line would be of negligible help but hunting down the groups of ghouls could ensure more safety for the civilians. Between Adam's elemental sight and Silber's nose, they should have an easy time of tracking ghouls down.
Adam and Silber ran around the city for an entire hour exterminating small groups of ghouls, but the reinforcements from Sagan Wall still did not appear! Adam was dead tired and he had no idea what was taking them so long! He knew that the collapsing defensive line would not be able to hold out much longer and giant hordes of ghouls would make their way into the center of the city. Most of the civilians had chosen to hole themselves up in sturdy buildings than to try and run for Sagan Wall in hope of being protected. No matter how sturdy those building were, though, as soon as giant hordes of ghouls appeared a massacre would begin. The groups of ghouls making it through the defensive line were already getting larger and larger as it was.
Adam kept running along, no matter how tired he was he had to keep up the intense emotions he was feeling to keep the wind formation working. In an intersection ahead of them, Adam saw a group of over twenty ghouls attacking a group of civilians! “Silber, we need to speed up!”
They sprinted to the intersection to try and help the civilians before it was too late. When they arrived, most of the fight was already done. There were people laying unconscious in pools of both red and black blood as well as partially eaten corpses left by the ghouls. There were still a few survivors hanging on trying to fight with brooms and an occasional dagger. In the center of the intersection sat two cowering children, a boy and a girl who were around five years old. A group of around ten ghouls had started running their way after finishing off some of the other civilians. Adam's heart fell, no matter how easy it was to kill a single ghoul, ten of them would be hard to kill in a small space of time and at least one of them would likely make it to the children no matter the effort Adam put in. Adam then suddenly thought of a method he could use to stall for a little time! Both his and Silber's speed was faster than the ghouls so they were able to reach the children first. Standing in between the children and the ghouls, Adam swung his blade even though the ghouls were no where close! What Adam was hoping to do was to change the wind formation like he did when he tried to study it, to form a gale of wind that would hopefully be strong enough to stagger the ghouls for even just a second! It worked far better than Adam could have ever hoped! He didn't know what changed it, whether it was his intent or using his sword as the focus for the wind instead of his arm. Either way, what appeared wasn't a gale of wind. Instead, it was kind of a ripple of distorted air that emanated out from the arc of his sword! Wherever this ripple passed, it cut clean through! The ten ghouls were instantly cut in half and died after a few brief moments of struggle!
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Adam was extremely exuberant when he saw this. But then... the ripple continued going outward. As it expanded it lost much of its power, but it was still enough. There were still civilians fighting the rest of the ghouls in the area and the ripple... passed through all of them! All the ghouls and civilians in front of Adam were cut in half while those behind him were left alone!
Adam's face turned pale. He had long gotten used to killing people before, but he had never ever killed an innocent person! Now he had killed what, five innocent people? Sure, it was an accident, but he still felt responsible. Adam staggeringly moved to try and help the remaining civilians. The wind formation was now incredibly weakened from both changing it into the ripple and Adam's collapsing mental state from killing innocent people. It still did seem to work some, though. The rest of the ghouls were dispatched and everyone in the area gave Adam a weird glance. While they wouldn't blame Adam, as they could see the guilt all over his face, he still killed the others.
Adam slowly walked over to Silber who was trying to console the frightened children. Nudging them with his nose, he was saying “Come on cubs, go ahead and pet my fur! I know you want to. No cub has ever been able to resist the lure of my incredible fur!”
Even though he wasn't touching on the subject, Silber was incredibly worried about Adam. He could see what Adam was feeling, but he had no idea how to broach the subject and console Adam. All he could do right now was help the children.
Then, they finally noticed it. Adam was so tired that his elemental sight was incredibly restricted and Silber was thoroughly distracted by his thoughts on Adam. Another large group of ghouls was coming down one of the streets! The other civilians started to panic when they saw the ghouls a small distance off. No matter how fast they tried to run, the ghouls would likely catch up! Adam quickly bent down and picked the two children up and placed them on Silber's back. It was incredibly cramped to fit them both on Silber, but he had the strength to spare in order to carry them. Adam gave Silber and order: “Take these two somewhere safe and then come back to me!”
“Beta-”
“Just go! No time to argue!”
Adam was now only getting the barest hint of a boost from the wind formation. He was also incredibly tired, so it was unlikely he would be able to outrun the ghouls. Silber could at the very least get the children to safety. Adam could only hope that he would last long enough against the ghouls for Silber to come back and help him escape.
Silber knew if he refused to take the children and stayed, the children would become a fatal distraction for Adam. He decided to comply and ran off at his fastest speed in the opposite direction from the ghouls. He was sprinting as fast as he could so he would be able to get back to Adam faster!
Just as Silber left, the ghouls made their way into the intersection! As they did so, a few of the unconscious civilians that were laying in pools of red and black blood started twitching and growling as they rose up, becoming ghouls themselves! The remaining civilians brandished their weapons as they decided to go down fighting instead of trying to run and being attacked from behind. Something remarkable happened, though. Once the ghouls made it into the intersection they moved to surround everyone, but then... they stopped moving and didn't attack! There were now more than a hundred ghouls surrounding them that were sending out vicious growls, but that was all! Nobody knew what this meant and were feeling uneasy about it. The ghouls then split to make room for a single man clad entirely in black to come forward! Adam shook as he recognized what this man must be; a ghoul commander! Memories of Fort Erich resurfaced again and how he was unable to stop the ghoul commander from hurting his mother and killing Emilia.
The commander looked at the aftermath of the previous battle in the intersection and showed an expression of interest. He had never seen so many people cut in half in such a manner. He looked at the crowd in front of him and singled out Adam. “You were the one who must have caused all this, no? Duel me!”
Adam was extremely surprised to hear this, but still apprehensive. The commander spoke again: “What, worried that I will just use the ghouls to fight you or kill the others off while fighting me? Don't worry, I won't do either! In fact, if you can best me I will let all of you live! Come and fight me!”
It seemed that ghoul commanders all had eccentric personalities. The one at Fort Erich was a sadist and this one sought a good battle. The commander could clearly see how tired Adam was and was certain Adam would not be able to reproduce whatever it was that allowed him to cut everyone in half, but he was still interested in Adam nonetheless.
Adam decided there was nothing to lose. If the other ghouls didn't attack during the time he was dueling the commander, that was enough. He didn't trust the commander to keep his work about keeping them alive, but if Adam could hold out until Silber got back, his chance of survival would be better. Adam voiced his consent with a simple “Fine” as he strode out in front of the civilians with his sword drawn.
The commander gave a smile as he too drew his sword and stepped forward. When they were not much more than a meter apart, they immediately began to fight. Neither asked about rules or waited for a start signal, those did not exist in a true duel to the death. At first, neither Adam or the commander started at full strength. Adam was too tired as it was and he wanted to draw the battle out whereas the commander was testing Adam out. The commander sounded impressed as he said: “Your sword sure is something else. I think it is better than my own spiritually enhanced sword! Your armor, however... so mortifying it must be to wear simple beast skins as a form of protection.”
Adam didn't respond, but he could see the truth in the commanders words. His sword barely had nick on it while the commander's now had several. Adam's leather armor, however, was worse off. While he had been grazed a couple of times, none if it had yet to hit his skin but the armor appeared to be in a very sorry state whereas the commander's armor only had a few thin scratches. The commander started to control the battle's pace as he was attacking faster and stronger as time went on. Adam had no choice but to meet the commander's speed if he didn't want to lose and tried to drag the battle out.
Five minutes into the duel, Adam had thoroughly become tired. It was all he could do to just meet the commander's blade, let alone attack. The commander let out a disappointed sigh as he suddenly flicked his blade in an odd manner that Adam was not expecting. Adam suddenly found that his sword was flung out and away from his hands! The commander gave a disappointed look at Adam as he swung his blade back around at Adam. Adam could feel the threat of death breathing down his neck. With his life on the line, Adam moved with more vigor and determination then he had for the last minute or two and drew in close to the commander. He had no weapon, but Hansen had trained him and the others in hand to hand combat in case such a thing happened. The ghoul was swinging his blade in from Adam's left, so Adam put his left arm up to meet the blade! At the same time, Adam struck out with his right fist aiming to hit the commander's throat! It was the only part on the commander's body that was a weak spot and was not protected by armor. When the commander saw all of this, he once again broke out into a grin as he said: “Wonderful! How vicious!”
Even as the ghoul was saying that, he did not change his attack. Adam felt an intense searing pain in his arm when the commander's sword hit it. The sword did not stop and cut through Adam's arm just below his elbow! At the same time, Adam's right fist was just about to hit the commander's throat when the commander suddenly spun backwards! His sword following his movements, it swung around to the other side of Adam and Adam felt a searing pain in his right leg! Adam could only gasp in surprise as he fell to the ground. “How did father and Hansen even manage to kill that commander at Fort Erich. They are too devious and strong!”
Adam looked up at the commander who was standing above him. Adam's heart fell as he knew that he has completely lost and was certain the commander was going to kill him. His home back in Hessler suddenly came to mind and he thought of Helen who was waiting for him. “I'm sorry Helen... looks like I won't be coming home after all.”
As Adam was thinking that, the commander gave him an oddly warm smile as he said: “Oh, you will do just fine.”
The commander then struck the pommel of his sword against Adam's skull and Adam lost consciousness as everything went black.