-Chapter Twenty-One-
Triumph
Without a hint of distress or even emotion his voice, ladened utterly with apathy, the boy before Owen who had to have been no older than eighteen, possibly even younger, turned his back on the site of massacre and began to lead the small party back towards the main camp.
He didn’t even look back as he silently trotted away, giving Owen an ominous sensation of callousness.
Just as he was about to follow them, he stole one final glance behind him at the corpses, noticing they were shrivelled and dried up, as though all the blood had been syphoned out of them.
Even for someone at the Sixth Ring, this was too much, right?
“Owen!” the twin sword captain party leader that led them here called out. “Don’t fall behind.”
Owen swallowed a gulp.
“Coming!”
As the group arrived back at the camp, the remaining Mercenaries who were busy cleaning up, making food, tending to the wounded and respharpening their swords looked up at their return.
Immediately, the woman from the very first day Aelius had arrived, the only female party leader, staunchly stomped up to them, crossing her arms as she plot herself in Lius’ path.
“Where did you run off to, during a time of crisis, huh!? How irresponsible, to desert your comrades in such a time! I knew it, we shouldn’t trust you!” she furiously accused him. “
Explain yourself!”
Lius sighed as he stepped aside, walking past her back to his camp, with nothing to say to her.
“Hold it right there!”
She quickly drew her blade and crossed it over Aelius’ shoulder, resting it up against his neck.
“I won’t let you off,” she lowly threatened him.
Behind her, the other Mercenaries exchanged an uncomfortable glance.
“Laura, hold on a moment,” the male captain stepped forward, nervously trying to appease her but her will was adamant.
She sent him a glare over her shoulder as he came closer.
“No! You will not defend him just because he’s young. This is life and death. It’s not a place for him to piggyback on us through!” she shouted at him and then turned back to Lius.
“I want to hear it from your mouth; that you’re a coward who ran away in the fight.”
“Laura!” Owen exclaimed. “Use your brain! Didn’t you see Ria earlier take down the Fifth Ring wolf!? Do you think her party leader’s any weaker!?” he tried to reason with her, and at his words, she grit her teeth.
“Then where did you run off to, if you’re so strong?” she turned back to Lius and asked. “If you don’t give a satisfactory answer, I won’t let you off!”
She was about to continue when she suddenly felt all the hairs on the back of her neck standup and her heart freeze.
In sudden, overwhelming fear, her gaze rose to meet Aelius’ red, glowing eyes and though she could not see, she felt as though his face was twisting into scorn.
Slowly and menacingly, he turned around and stepped up to her, his hot breath quiet but ringing in her ears as though he was breathing down her neck.
He stood a small distance away but Laura felt as if his hand was wrapped tightly around her throat.
His eyes were filled with fury and horror and Laura’s widened, shaking eyes dropped to the ground as she felt an oppressive force compel her to dip her head in submission.
A nauseating aura of domination radiated out of Lius, and though Laura couldn’t tell, the entire camp had been forced frozen at his released presence.
His quiet and subtle, but spine-chillingly low voice whispered in her ear as he leaned in closer, causing her heart to frantically pound even more.
“It is you who’s being let off.”
The voice echoed in Laura’s head like she was trapped in an illusion, and the ground beneath her began to swirl and warp into strange space.
She felt her head begin to float and her gut lift, the air so suffocating that she couldn’t breath.
Just as she was about to pass out, she heard, “Nod if you understand me.”
Frantically, Laura summoned all of her strength to nod.
At her response, suddenly, all the oppression disappeared.
With all the tension released and the ground turned back to normal, Laura felt all the strength in her legs desert her and she fell onto her knees, gasping for breath, clutching her chest tightly.
Lius stood over her with cold eyes, looking over the other Mercenaries who were watching on in fear, before he quietly turned away again.
Without another word, he disappeared into his tent, leaving the rest of them in each other’s company.
As soon as he was gone, Laura collapsed onto her back, her eyes still wide in bewilderment at what had just transpired.
Owen clutched his chest tightly behind them as well, gasping for breath.
“Are you okay?” the male captain knelt down beside Laura, offering a hand to her.
“I have no idea… what just happened,” she answered through deep breaths as she took it.
Legs still like jelly, she found it hard to get back on her feet.
“I don’t fault you in any way, but you pushed him too far.”
The captain looked to the tent for a moment and then spun away, almost as though he was in fear that if he looked any longer, Lius would come right back out and end them all right there and then.
“...I think I’m going to spend the rest of the Commission in the background,” Laura decided with a soft nod.
“I didn’t get paid enough to deal with this.”
“Neither was he,” Owen added in, slowly stumbling back to the campfire like an old man missing his walking stick.
For the rest of the night, very few words were exchanged among the Mercenaries.
The atmosphere had been completely ruined as not a single one of them was able to escape Lius’ wrath that evening.
They spent the time tending to their duties while trying to make as little noise as possible, lest they disturb Lius’ rest and incur his wrath a second time.
Nobody even dared to talk about what they just experienced, that was how frightened they were from his figure, and like that, morning soon came.
—-----------------------
Just as the sun was rising, their client and employer, the esteemed Mr Daniesvich came wandering out of the mastertent, into the golden light rays.
With a hum, a stretch and a yawn, he stepped out to the canteen to find the Mercenaries were already up and about as usual.
But, something was a little different today, he noticed as they quietly went about their business.
His eyes ran across them until they landed on the three party leaders and Owen, grouped up at a table, silently eating their breakfast in each other’s presence.
“Good morning, Mercs,” Mr Daniesvich greeted them as he approached.
The four quickly finished swallowing down their porridge and turned to look at him.
“Good morning, sir,” they responded.
“Why is everyone so pensive? Don’t tell me we had casualties in last night’s attack I wasn’t informed about?” Mr Daniesvich exclaimed, looking at them as they exchanged a dejected glance with one another.
“No, sir,” Owen shook his head, looking back. “There were no casualties, but Mercenary Lius well… scolded everyone a little bit. Did you really not notice what happened last night?” he asked.
“Weren’t you the one who told me of the attacking wolves?” Mr Daniesvich asked with a raised brow. “What do you mean Lius scolded you all?”
“It’s nothing significant. Just a squabble among Mercenaries,” the twin-sword captain assured Mr Daniesvich.
“You don’t need to worry. We’ll quickly finish our breakfast and get to our duties,” he nodded sheepishly.
“Well… alright then. We’ll be relying on you all doing a good job today as well,” Mr Daniesvich answered, slightly fazed by their odd behaviour but trotted away nonetheless, still eyeing up the Mercenaries.
“Scolded?” he wondered as he regarded the almost soulless workers.
—-----------------------
“How did he not notice that nauseating presence?” Laura hissed through her teeth at her colleagues, who nodded in agreement and deep thought.
“It was probably for the better that he didn’t feel anything though,” Owen commented. “As a normal person with no Mage abilities, I felt as though my heart was about to explode.”
“Hmm…” the twin-sword captain wondered. “Maybe it was intentional. He purposefully made it so that the Daniesviches couldn’t feel anything?”
At his thought, the other three stared at him in bewilderment.
“How would you even do that!?” Laura exclaimed. “That’s got to be impossible. Not to mention, from a teenager?”
“Maybe he did,” Owen thought with a nod. “Laura, he’s really not a normal teenager. You have no idea what we saw when we found him in the woods last night.”
“By the time we got there,” the twin-sword captain began to say. “It was a bloodbath.”
—-----------------------
After crossing Colefield, they finally reached the base of the Hamadia mountain ranges.
It was a far cry from the cold, sunny forest they had just passed.
Instead, before them, the tall mountains were plagued by moisture, heavy rain and hot heat.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Though the region didn’t span long in length, it will still prove to be a challenge because they have to hike up the mountain at certain points to avoid parts of the valley that were dangerous, and through it all, the rain will never cease.
Fatigue and exhaustion will quickly accrue and the convoy will quickly find that they need to rest more and more often.
At all times, they have to be vigilant and ready to fend off any external threats.
Though the morale was low among the Mercenaries, especially with the fiasco from Lius and Laura two nights ago, they were still professionals and will carry out their task to the best of their ability.
What gave them a glimmer of confidence, despite how scary Lius appeared to be, was that he was indeed on their side and they could leave any big problems to him and Ria.
The terrain rapidly shifted into a tropical rainforest, heat and sun lashing out at the convoy as they progressed through the trees and came to the first mountain path of the trip.
It was narrow at the top and incredibly uneven, but they got through it with little qualms and returned to the valley again.
While Lius stayed on the roof of the centre convoy in disinterest, Owen was making rounds along the lines of Mercenaries to each party leader, informing them of the previous records of the local area from past travellers.
It was likely they would encounter threats.
The most likely were ogres, ranging in between the Second Ring for younger ones and the Fourth Ring for matured adults.
Ogres were a nasty species with foul breath, snot, fat stomachs, pig-like noses and pointy ears.
The average adult ogre stood at ten feet tall and though their Mana Tier was not incredibly high, it was all compensated for by their physical prowess.
It would take at least five C-rank Mercenaries and a B-rank Mercenary to kill an ogre safely without casualties.
In other words, they were very fearsome creatures that could squash a human like a bug in an instant.
Only coordinated teamwork can take them down, and if they run into more than four or five, the convoy would be screwed.
That is, if Aelius doesn’t step in to help.
In addition to ogres were all sorts of other predators. Leopards and dangerous exotic insects, it all fell to Owen as the survivalist expert to make sure everyone was educated and prepared for the numerous threats.
And just as Owen feared, the convoy scouts returned in a frantic mess, reporting ogres down the path ahead.
“How many? And how far?” Laura asked them as her two party members caught their breath.
“A pack of nine of them. All adults,” he reported and Laura answered an expletive in response, turning to the other two party leaders.
They didn’t exchange a word, and all in tandem, looked up to Lius and Ria sitting beside one another on the rooftop of a carriage nearby. The two were entirely in their own world, with Lius simply gazing off into the distance, or the sky. And Ria was softly giggling to herself and humming in pleasure, coddled up against him with her head on his shoulder and her arms around his chest.
“...Lius?” the twin-sword captain hesitantly called out to him, he gave a short sigh before jumping down to approach them, making Ria lose her headrest and waking her up out of her little daze.
The girl looked away with a huff and a pout, crossing her arms now that she was alone.
“Leave ten men here with Ria to protect the convoy. The rest of us will move forward and engage them. The convoy should stay here until they receive our signal that it’s safe to continue. Get ready and follow me.”
The three party leaders did not think there could be anything else to surprise them as this point, yet Lius surprised them yet again.
His orders were quick and concise. The decision he’s made was also probably the safest and most correct one.
Even if they wanted to find fault in his youthful inexperience, that too proved to be not possible, with his exemplary leadership.
As usual, without interest, Lius stepped past them and began to make his way down the path as the remaining three party leaders quickly gave out the orders.
Like the experienced warriors they were, they had their weapons in their hands in no-time and were following Lius down the path.
All was but silent while the Mercenaries followed behind Lius, gazing at his figure from behind, nervously awaiting orders.
They knew nine ogres were nothing to scoff at, and they could all very well die if things go wrong.
No one knew what Lius was contemplating in his head, but they felt as though he was thinking incredibly hard about something, in the boine-chilling silence.
“Hmm…” he deeply inhaled as they continued down the windy and uneven forest path.
It’s just nine ogres, I can easily take care of them. In fact, if I give Asura their blood, we’re one small step closer to completing her Summon. But… Lius looked doubtfully at the Mercenaries around him.
I shouldn’t catch too much attention. The tree that stands taller than others is already scrutinised enough. It’s even worse if it stands even further taller than what they already thought.
“Alright,” he quickly stopped, holding a hand up to halt all of the Mercenaries behind him.
Abstergo was active and cautioned him of all the ogre’s locations.
“There’s a group of five together in the trees a hundred metres ahead of us,” he first reported and the Mercenaries narrowed their eyes in grave seriousness.
“The remaining four of the nine are patrolling the perimetre of the five.”
Lius turned around to face the twenty men following him and pointed diagonally through the trees.
“If it’s a 20 on 1, you should be able to win right?” he asked them and they exchanged glances.
“I’ll take on one and then come join you. We’ll shave away the patrols first before formulating a plan to attack the large group.”
“Alright! Let’s do as he says,” Laura nodded with determination.
“In that direction,” Lius reminded her, pointing again.
“Alright. Men, let’s move!” Laura ordered and the group of twenty bolted off at full speed, scattering and moving swiftly and silently through the trees.
Though they each had individually low power, they were well trained at least, Lius thought with some degree of relief, and turned to the opposite direction, where the other patrolling ogres were clumsily trudging through the forest, looking for signs of any intruders or food, and dashed off.
—-----------------------
If Laura was honest, she and the men under her had never seen ogres in person before.
The Guild did give them a brief education on tactics to fight them though, during their initiation.
She never expected the day to put that knowledge to use.
She was alone and hidden in the bush, quietly sneaking through when a series of voices crackled to life in her ears.
“Reporting, we have spotted the patrolling ogre Lius pointed out. It is on our location.”
Laura’s glowing eyes pierced through the leaves and trunks to the scouts ahead of her and the main body of the Mercenaries.
They were connected through a ‘Mana Network’, which was maintained through one of the fighters with an affinity in precise control.
They could relay messages and locations this way to each other without alerting the enemy of their presence. It was a group skill all Guildmembers were required to learn, and came in perfect for ambush situations like these.
“Very well. I will make the first move. I want the tanks to support me. The damagers should try to take the ogre as quickly as possible!”
As Lius had evidently expected by giving out his order, twenty of the Mercenaries against one ogre was not even close to the end of the world.
Though it was intense while it lasted, the battle was over with a decisive blow to the ogre’s neck while it was distracted by the tanks after only a few minutes passed by.
The group quickly took the chance to catch their breath when they heard clapping from behind them, and spun around to find Lius giving them a small applause, leaning up against one of the tree trunks.
“Now, the real hurdle comes,” he told them and some of the Mercenaries swallowed down a nervous ball of saliva.
“I took out the remaining patrollers, so it’s only the group of five left now.”
What!? Laura exclaimed through her harsh breathing, reaching up to wipe her sweaty, drenched brow. He killed three in the time we took to kill one?
Lius’ head turned as he inspected the condition of the members.
“Listen up. I’ll open with a spell before I want the tanks to engage and focus on them. Distract them any way you can while I try to take them out. With a bit of luck, it’ll all be over before too long.”
Laura looked through the trees apprehensively.
Could they really fight five ogres?
Though it was true Lius took down three on his own in the time it took for them to take out one, all on his own, the real question was whether the twenty of them could hold off five ogres long enough for Lius to relieve the pressure.
But what could she do? She has to follow his orders and judgement.
Her, following the judgement of a teenager. She wanted to scoff but buried the sense of irony stabbing at her.
As the female party leader followed closely behind Lius into the trees, with the twenty men behind her, she thought back to the night he had disciplined her, dread bubbling up in her throat.
It’s die if I do, die if I don’t, she thought with a sigh.
They soon came up on the ogres, camped out in a small cocoon of trees, idling around what from a distance appeared to be a dozen human corpses, and Lius felt the rest of the team tense up.
“Don’t forget the plan,” he softly whispered over his shoulder.
“I’m starting now.”
At his declaration, the group tensed up even further, some of them clutching their weapons so tightly their knuckles were turning white.
Then, they saw Lius dash forward in a shadowy silhouette through the trees into the centre of the camp.
Everyone, including Laura, watched in awe as Aelius landed behind one of the unsuspecting ogres and without missing the beat, sucked in a terrifying and unimaginable amount of Mana from the surrounding atmosphere, only to release it all at once in a rapid hyperblast.
There was a deafening ‘BOOM’ as colours of purple, blue, pink and white shot out everywhere and Laura heard the men behind her shout a warcry.
Before she could even think about moving, the tanks behind her charged forward with their shields, roaring at the top of their lungs.
Laura could hear the emotions of her men in their battlecry. She could hear that they had already relinquished any chances of comfortably going home tonight.
They were ready to not fight, no. They were ready to resist; resist the cruel hand fate had dealt them, in forcing them to fight five entire ogres.
Even though they were about to fight a battle to the death, Laura felt more than just the thrill.
Excitement overtook her, as did admiration for Lius who single handedly compelled them to forfeit their fear and fight.
“Move!!!” she commanded with a shrill shout, raising her blade to the air.
The rest of fighters flung themselves into the fray, all crying out a rally cry together as they charged in and Laura followed the tanks into the neon smoke.
When they reached the centre, they saw two of the ogres had been blasted with their corpses laying off to the side, leaving only three remaining.
“Stick to the plan!” Laura commanded and the tanks surrounded the three ogres.
In perfect symphony, the ogres began to exchange with the tankers and attackers in tandem.
The battle blew into full force in seconds, with trees toppling and the ground splitting from the ogre’s swinging their large batons.
Occasionally, a fighter would get grazed and sent flying like a doll, but the remaining warriors pushed forward, and as time passed whilst they held on as long as they could, one of the ogres suddenly dropped dead without anyone even being able to tell how it died and Lius emerged from behind it with a shining, blood-crimson blade.
He quickly moved onto the remaining two, and now that the first was dead, the pressure was immensely relieved.
While they cleaned up the two ogres, the support Mages began to tend to the wounded and by the time they completed first aid treatment on all the injured fighters, the battle was over.
Lius stood victoriously over the corpses of the ogres while the fighters realised they had succeeded and began to cheer.
Laura watched on, breathless at the sight of the boy.
A single person who could change the outcome of a battle, stronger than numerous people combined.
That boy however, had nothing to say.
Silently, he hopped down from the top of the ogre corpse, shook the blood out his hair and then gradually entered back into the forest, making his way back to the convoy.
It was a strange, serene scene.
From behind, his figure disappeared into the shade of the trees, leaving only silence in what Laura regarded as such an extraordinary triumph.
Clearly, he did not care.
As soon as Lius returned with Laura and the Mercenaries in tow, Ria was already awaiting them at the front.
As soon as Lius approached her, she raised her wand and summoned a bubble of water around him, cleansing him of all the blood, before she tucked her wand away, twirling her hair in a girly manner.
“Thanks,” Lius staunchly nodded to her and returned to the roof of the carriage.
Laura watched on as Ria gave a cheerful giggle and joined him, clinging to his arm.
She supposed that was Lius’ role now over, and spun around to start giving out orders on recovery.
No casualties, no heavy injuries and a triumphant victory.
It was all thanks to one boy.