The Kalethi woman looked at Cornelius with hatred in her eyes “You have no honor,” she spat at his face. Cornelius wiped the spit off of his cheek and backhanded the Kalethi woman “Do that again and you will lose a finger,” he said his voice as cold as the frozen peaks.
Getting up from his crouched position he made his way to the fire, his breath was visible in the cold. His soldiers were huddled around the fire, the sound of chatter, the howling of the wind, and the crackling of the fire could be heard as he made his approach.
He sat down on a stone bench that Strom had summoned for the soldiers and sat next to Thompson, he nodded toward his soldiers and stared into the fire. “Who do you think will win the challenge of the mountain?” one of the soldiers asked.
“Who else but our leader, no one can match his blade nor his might,” another said matter of factly.
“You are crazy if you think Mathew the leader of the second unit will lose, he is the Blue Blade, a legend in the tournaments of the capital,” another replied.
Cornelius having grown tired of listening, got up and told Thompson to take first watch, he was finally going to get some shut-eye.
(In his dream)
Cornelius found himself standing on an uneven hill, the stench of rot and copper filled the air looking around he realized he was not standing on a hill but a mountain of corpses. He shifted his gaze up he found himself on a bloody battlefield, corpses littered the ground in the dozens, rivers of blood were flowing on the mud, and a shiver went down his spine from the sheer brutality of what he saw.
He heard the caw of a crow from above, carrion birds like crows and vultures were having a feast on this graveyard. The sound of footsteps made him turn around, standing amidst a true mountain of corpses was a man with snow-white hair, and eyes as black as the abyss from which his power came, he wore armor as black as onyx with a blade that seemed to eat the light around it.
The man lifted his head and looked directly at Cornelius his eyes were like two abysses, and a shiver ran down his spine, goosebumps marking his flesh, that was the first time Corneliu had felt true unbridled fear. “It is not yet your time,” his voice was like hundreds of voices speaking at once, it thundered with barely restrained power, and with a flick of this stranger’s hand, Cornelius awoke from his strange dream.
He was drenched in sweat from head to toe, he felt something wet running down his cheek, touching it with his finger he saw that it was blood leaking from his left eye. Another shiver ran down his spine, looking around he saw that the sun had only just started rising, the fire had died out sometime in the night only the embers of the coals produced a soft glow.
Cornelius sighed he did not have the time to ponder on his strange dream so he got up from his bedroll and started to wake his soldiers they had a long day ahead of them.
Stolen novel; please report.
They had been climbing the mountain for three hours before something happened, they had been moving along the rocky path when a strange monster barred their path it was a large humanoid ape covered in white fur, it had large yellow teeth and steely blue eyes, it was 9ft tall towering over the soldiers with it teeth barred.
Cornelius quickly commanded his soldiers to form a square with the shield bearers at the front and the spearman standing close behind them, he ordered Strom to summon a wall of stone around their flanks and Leonidas to shoot it with a ball of raging fire.
The fireball only singed the beast’s fur and seemed to enrage it further, it was still a hundred paces from them but its roar was deafening. Realizing that his initial plan would not work he told Thompson to follow him as the second strongest in his unit and Leonidas to cover them. He and Thompson were making their way to the white ape they both enhanced themselves with mana, Cornelius could feel the fire coursing through his veins as he enhanced his muscles and went even further to enhance Thompson as well, he let his wrath free and steam started rising from his body, his pupils had slit and his nails had turned to black claws.
Enhanced by both his mana and his bloodline he felt like a god trapped in mortal flesh, but he knew that in reality one wrong move and he would be nothing more than a smear of blood on the wall. “You go high I go low,” he said to Thompson just before they arrived at the monster.
And true to his words he struck with a horizontal slash at the monster's legs, Sky Breaker whistling as it traveled through the air, and when it struck the monster’s flesh he felt a great resistance even after all the enhancements he had put his body through a swing with all his monstrous power behind it barely left a scratch on the monster’s hide.
For the second time that day, he felt fear, Thompson’s swing had not even reached its mark before the monster swatted him away like you would an annoying bug, and he was flung back into the line of shield bearers knocked unconscious from the blow. Realizing that they would not win this fight Cornelius was faced with a difficult decision either fight and cause the death of his soldiers or retreat and be hunted by it instead.
He wracked his brain for a solution as he was dodging the monster's attacks it might be strong but it was still slower than Cornelius, That’s when it hit him earlier they had encountered a crossroad, if his soldiers retreated while he distracted the monster they had a chance to escape because it was far easier for a single man to avoid the detection of the beast hunting him than it was for a group. With his mind made up he shouted “Soldiers retreat! Go to the crossroads and follow the other path, I will distract the monster while you make your escape, Strom you are in charge while I am gone!”
His soldiers had troubled looks on their faces, they did not like the fact that they were essentially leaving him there to die but they followed his orders nonetheless “May the gods have mercy on his soul,” a few of them whispered under their breath.
They threw a final glance at the man who was giving his life for them before they finally retreated. Looking over his shoulder at the backs of his leaving soldiers he breathed a sigh of relief for he had no more need to hold back his power, the steam rising from his body grew in intensity as he grew larger, small scales appearing in patches on his skin, two nubs appeared on his forehead.
He was unleashing the full might of his bloodline, the final ace up his sleeve. The battle grew in intensity, the wounds he inflicted were still shallow but the once pristine white coat of the monster now had patches of red from its own blood. The monster roared in outrage its wounds freezing over, its eyes glowing an eery blue as mana surged from its body, Cornelius recognizing the danger he was in quickly dodged to the right just before the monster paw covered in ice smashed into the place his head had been previously.
Whipping the sweat from his brow, he knew he would not last much longer, his mana was almost depleted and his muscles ached from the strain of using his bloodline at its full capacity, he did something most would consider stupid. With the last vestiges of his mana, he poured it all into Sky Breaker to make it as sharp as possible before charging at the monster, and with a sideways swing he brought his blade down on the paw of the monster, his blade met no resistance as it went all the way through severing its hand. With his mana completely depleted and his bloodline almost running out he dashed underneath the monster's legs and made a run for it.
From behind him, he heard the monster howled in pain, but he did not focus on it all unnecessary thoughts left his mind as he ran. He did not know for how long he ran but the sun had already set when he finally collapsed on the snow incapable of running any further.