Chapter 3: A Chance Meeting
Zack
Zack wakes up slowly. He steadily recovers from his dizziness as he lies against the stone cliffside, unable to make out anything but a blur.
“Look who’s awake,” A voice said to Zack. Zack slowly regained his vision and saw Ryan sitting across from him. The sergeant had taken a few scrapes but was none worse for wear. Zack sat up
“What happened to me,” Zack asked dazed
“You took a hit that knocked you out on the way down I’d best guess. I found you lying like that a short while ago and brought you here.” Zack breathed heavily as he recovered.
“So what’s our situation,” Zack asked.
“Well, the girl's little tantrum didn't make our job any easier but it seems the skirmish has stopped…Joseph and Dennis didn't make it, however.” Thats right. Zack remembered how Dennis had died, and now Joseph too? He wasn’t overly fond of his squad but it was still a unnecessary sting. One he didn’t want to admit, thus it drag him down in battle.
“I've scouted ahead while you were recovering. No Vholerian forces, but I've found where the Ashians have begun to retreat.”Ryan stood up “So the plan will continue. Let's move.” Ryan relayed to Zack.
“We're down half our forces sergeant, surely we should change our strategy,” Zack asked confused. Ryan approaches Zack with a frustrated look, more so than usual.
“If we return empty-handed, then we will end up no better than Joseph and Dennis. You understand, don't you!?” It served as a painful reminder from Ryan. Atlus would execute any assassin who failed their mission or deserted, it didn't matter the circumstance. He had seen it in person plenty of times.
“Yes…Sergeant” Replied Zack
“Good…I’d rather die fighting than be executed in front of men with lesser magic than I” Ryan throws Zack his scabbard, It clanks and slides across the dry stone to Zack's feet. “Now come, Let’s make this right.” Zack picks his scabbard up and ties it to his waist. As he gets up he follows Ryan down the shattered mountainside, the landscape looking even more damaged and war-torn than before now that it has been embedded with large shards of ice several times the size of Zack himself. He could hear the ice shift and settle as he passed them. They would probably last for a while considering the neutral temperature and the potency of the mana they were formed with. Still, it felt like the walls of the chasms could fall apart at any moment.
“Watch your step soldier. The previous trails we were meant to use have all collapsed” Ryan told Zack as they hugged the stone cliff face to cross a short edge. Small pieces of rock and pebbles fell to the ground as their weight was pressed on the edge. The two were able to pass without any problems. Ryan approached the edge of the cliff as the mountainside opened up into a vista that overlooked the swampy marshland that was several meters below. Ryan turned and signaled to Zack to follow him. Zack joined him on the overlooking cliff. The cliff overlooked a large flat marshland with wild monsters that were neutral towards humans and dead trees dotted through ought. It was as depressing a landscape as you could get, but Zack was no stranger to this. He and his squad had drank from a gutter just to survive and slaughtered hundreds of soldiers. All just so they wouldn't be executed themselves. He was used to this way of life. Zack and Ryan spotted a group of roughly twenty Ashian troops. They wore barely any armor - not like they would need any - The men were gigantic and had strong powerful bodies. One soldier in Ash was probably worth three magicless men in Atlus or Vholera. They preferred wraps around their legs and arms with thick fur draped over their shoulders from one of the monstrous hawks that flew across the land of Ash. It always resembled a griffin's hide to Zack. They all were equipped with brutish weapons to boot. Two-handed maces, Balls, and chains. Waraxes. One swing and you and your squad would be dead, Never mind yourself.
“Surely that can’t be their main force Sergant?” Asked Zack confused. Ryan pointed down toward them.
“Look closer…in the center” Ryan replied. Zack spotted her. A Keta girl with bob cut-length black hair draped in filthy torn clothes tied around the waist with a thin rope. The Ashains may have had the decency to cover her but not to treat her fairly. He could spot the Ashians herding her as they retreated. Shoving her relentlessly as she tried to keep pace with the burly warriors.
“Let’s finish this before they regroup, Zack You're up. I’ll follow your lead” Ryan told Zack. Zack nodded to him.
If we were told to kill the girl, then I can be a little reckless here on my approach, I don’t have enough power to kill them all in one go, but I can make a good ambush. He reached down into his pouch around his waist and pulled out a handful of metal balls around the size of marbles. He held them in a fist and infused them with his lighting magic. Small specks of blue light rose from his hand until they became purple jolts of lighting that began to zip around his fist until a small bolt of lightning struck into his fist from three feet above with an audible buzz sound, signaling the spheres were charged amply. He stood and raised his arm before launching the orbs with great force toward the Ashians. Normally a throw from that distance would have been ineffective or may not have reached, but magic infused within allowed them to shoot like bolts from a crossbow. The balls left behind trails of purple lighting as they whizzed through the air. In less than a second the balls landed into the centre left of the retreating forces honecomb platoon. The thunder-infused balls created the effect of a lighting strike which knocked out one of the men with a few others getting stunned. The strike created burn marks in the ground and the platoon stopped to find where it came from in a panic.
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“Let's move!” Ryan ordered Zack. The two quickly trekked down a group of stones that acted as steps - Most likely made from the quaking earlier - and prepared to enter combat.
“Over there. The Atlus dogs come from the west” Shouted one of the Ashian warriors as he pointed his war mace, wielding it with one hand as if it were nothing. The soldiers were too unprepared and in a panic to use the princess and instead engaged them personally. Both Zack and Ryan reached the small cove of land they rested on and drew their blades. “Do not let them near the witch!” commanded a burly soldier with tattoos covering his chest. Ryan took to the front and held his left hand close to his right shoulder. Blue light drew around his palm until it then burst into flames. He stopped and swung his hand to the left, creating a wave of flame in front of him which staggered the five soldiers caught in the flames. He swung his blade with two hands upwards in the flame created, Igniting it with fire. He tore through the stunned guards with swift slashes that cut and seared their bodies with the flames. One man writhed in pain as his arm was sliced and burned off. In a blind rage, he swung at Ryan with one arm. Ryan heard his movements through the roaring flames that covered his blade and ducked, then quickly rising to slice one of the man's legs off which left him incapacitated. Ryan wasted no time and moved on to the next soldier. Moving like he was one with the flames himself. He may have been strict and was hard to approach but there was no other man fit for the title of commander like he was. Zack flanked around left of where Ryan engaged, surprising one of the soldiers who was focused on the flames. Zack sliced one of the soldier's stomachs horizontally and as he keeled over, he slammed his sword into his back. Gouging into the middle of his flesh and breaking the man's spine. As Zack pulled his sword from the Ashian's back. A throwing axe the size of a one-handed axe flew into Zacks's right pauldron, catching him off guard and splitting the metal, breaking the strapping that held it. The pauldron fell apart and the recoil hit Zack but not enough to hurt him severely. Three men roared and charged towards Zack. Zack used his free hand to enchant his blade with lighting. Zips of lighting coursed across his sword with a faint buzzing sound. He wielded his sword with two hands and thrust it into the soft marsh soil. Just as the three soldiers charged within his range. A sphere of lighting flashed around Zack which socred the soil he stood on within a three-meter radius and anything that was within his range. It stunned all of the men with currents of lighting flowing through them, seizing their bones. Zack quickly incapacitated all three of them with his sword. He quickly slit the men's throats and stabbed their chests, splaying blood all over himself and his blade.
“I…I don't want to…take any more lives…I…I can’t” The princess slowly backed away from the battle before eventually collapsing to the ground out of exhaustion. She fell on her side, unable to catch herself due to her hands being tied behind her back. Not long after she passed out. Zack and Ryan stood in a pile of corpses, covered in blood and mud. The two swung their blades to throw off the blood on their swords. Ryan approached Zack.
“Is that all of them?” he asked
“I think so…are you alright?” Zack asked Ryan, unaware of his well-being during the battle.
“A few scrapes, it's hard to tell anything more with all the blood. Still, that's not important, finish what we came for. Check the girl” Zack approached the girl who layed a few meters outside of the battle, not having gotten very far. He kicks her gently to turn her over. After getting a better look he could see she was a Ketan. Her black hair covered her feline-like ears with trademark marks on her face. She looked to be on the taller side but was bruised and beaten, her rags were practically falling apart. She looked to be in her early twenties, no older than himself.
“Is she dead?” Ryan asked standing a few feet away with an impatient tone in his voice.
“I…I don't know” Zack replied hesitantly as he looked into the poor girl's face.
“Then finish her off so we can be done with this!” Ryan ordered towards him. Zack held his blade to the girl's throat, lifting her face towards his. Zack stood frozen, unable to move. He had killed men and women for 8 years without remorse and with the ease of slicing bread, but knowing the girl's situation and story he just couldn't bring himself to do it. No, I've moved past my limitations. I need to do this to achieve my goal. I…
“ZACK! WHAT ARE YOU DO…AGGHHH!” Zack turned to find Ryan with a throwing axe lodged in his eye. His head split open and blood oozed from his face. Ryan died instantly in that moment as he fell over with a thud to the ground. Zack stood speechless. He wasn’t sure how to feel. He wasn't the closest with Ryan but he knew they had each other's back when they worked as assassins. He was the closest thing he could call a friend, but now all that was taken away in an instant. Before he could process what happened, he looked up to see another platoon of Ashian soldiers roaring at the top of a small hill to the corner of his position where they quickly advanced downward to him, ready for Zack to be their next victim.
“Fuck…FUCK!” Am I really going to die here? 8 years of searching for Matthew's killer…and it all ends here, like this?... I thought I’d be ready to hunt down this man, to take his life, but this hesitation in me…I haven't changed, not one bit. Zack recalls the words that Ryan gave him earlier “I’d rather die fighting than executed in front of men with lesser magic than I”
Zack approaches the princess who still layed on the ground, passing her body “But…I’m not going to keel over and let them kill me. If I can at least save this girl, then maybe this life won't be for nothing…I’m sorry Matthew. I'm sorry I wasn't good enough to avenge you. You deserved better than me.” The group of Ashian soldiers began to charge towards Zack, roaring in unison. Zack began to charge lighting magic in his hand as he stood in front of the princess, bracing himself to die in this moment as he took one final stand on his own. Just before Zack and the platoon clashed, an array of silver ghostly blades materialized in the air above the Ashian's as if they were frozen in the air, there had to be about 40 of them. Before he could process what they were, the blades plummeted into the men, going from having no speed to plummeting like a bolt of lighting which killed all of the soldiers in that moment, It was as if they had just been struck by perfectly executed volley of arrows, as all the men fell to the ground. The blades shortly disappeared into faint smoke. None of the soldiers lived and the roaring of their battle cry had stopped. Zack stood too confused to even dispel the lighting in his hand. He looked around panicked to see where the swords came from.
“It's alright lad, That was the lot of 'em” Zack heard the voice come from the cliff face. He darted his view there to find a middle-aged man and a younger man standing on the cliff.