A man with a just cause, and one who only helps himself. Each their own reason to fight for their cause.

These two were mere seconds away from clashing, while both held their own reason to win neither wanted the other to survive.

Standing on the edge of the cliff, looking over the battlefield was Gandor.

Together with fifty of his most elite soldiers which he brought from Falak, each covered in full metal armor and noticeably sharp weapons.

Behind Gandor’s camp charging towards him was Kaze’s squad of a hundred soldiers.

Though the squad he originally came with was only wearing light armor so as to not seem suspicious for their earlier mission.

There were also the seventy men brought from the Nivalis reinforcements, they were all covered from head to toe in metal armor.

The layout of the terrain was in Kaze’s benefit, having their enemies cornered with no way to run was a great opportunity for him.

Not a single man was left behind in this battle even the archer were brought into close combat.

Because Kaze knew, if Gandor were to survive this battle there would be no second time that such an opportunity would show itself.

Swords clashed against spears, and spear against armor. Multiple men were cut down within the first clash of the two squad.

Though they had a numeral advantage Kaze’s squad had gotten the most damage done to his men.

It was made clear what difference there was in experience between Gandor’s men and Kaze’s men.

By no means were the men of Nivalis weak, but Gandor would allow no men who he deemed weak in his army. And because of this his elites were the best of the best.

But that did not mean that they would give in to Gandor.

At the second clash the battle turned into close combat, and the one who set their sights on Gandor were Kaze, Fubuki and Rentaro.

Even before they had departed it was the commander of the reinforcements that Kaze was to bring down Gandor.

Even though he thought this to be an impossible task, Rentaro and Fubuki told him that they would assist him in doing so.

After which Kaze felt that he could no longer refuse this task.

While the three young men were looking at their enemy, Gandor first spoke out to them.

‘’I’m impressed to see someone of such a young age make it all the way to my camp.''

No doubt that you are talented if you are able to lead an attack like this, so I’ll make you a proposition. Become one of my men and I’ll show you things beyond even your wildest dreams, I promise to take good care of you, as long as you are of use to me.’’

And of course Kaze denied his offer immediately.

‘’Someone like you who only knows how to take a life will never be able give me what I desire. I shall never follow a man like you who would throw me away as soon as he deems me useless.’’

To his words Rentaro and Fubuki turned to each other and smiled. Gandor’s expression turned to anger hearing to youngsters rebuttal.

‘’Then this is as far as you shall go, now say your prayers!’’

Gandor charged head first at Kaze as if he did not think this through.

Noticing his odd behavior Fubuki knocked an arrow in his bow and his directly at Gandor’s skull.

Though he could have easily deflected the arrow, it seemed like Gandor let himself get hit.

The arrow pierced through his skull dripping blood from the tip of the arrow head.

His horse lost speed and eventually came to a complete stop.

Not believing what had just happened the Nivalis men all stared at the struck down commander.

But there was no sign of giving up in Gandor’s men in fact they made use of this distraction to attack the Nivalis soldiers.

Rentaro voiced out his concerns before everyone else could.

‘’Why aren’t they stopping didn’t we just kill their commander why are they still fighting?!’’

‘’That is because they know something of this caliber will never be able to kill me.’’

The shock that this sentence gave was even more severe when they saw who it was coming from.

‘’Did you seriously expect that such a slow arrow would reach me if I tried to stop it?’’

Normally Fubuki would be offended by such a remark, but at the moment his mind was preoccupied with something else.

‘’H-He’s still alive, how that arrow should have destroyed your brain?!’’

‘’Fubuki calm yourself down, if you start to panic now it’ll mean the death of you!’’

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Kaze shouted at his friend to calm him down be even he was unable to remain his cool.

‘’Keeping your men from losing morale is a key factor in any battle, but if the commander shows any sign of fear so shall his men become frightened.’’

Gandor spoke down to Kaze as he removed the arrow from his skull.

‘’Do you want to know why I am still standing?’’

The youngsters looked at the man who should be dead, although he said, ‘’do you want to know’’ they had already guessed what it could be.

‘’Gods elixir that is my blessing, it allows me to take any injury and walk away as if nothing happened. Beautiful is it not, the perfect blessing for any soldier.’’

‘’So what you’re saying is that you’re practically immortal.’’

Kaze said with a pained expression.

But Gandor rebutted his statement.

‘’Though I say that I can take any injury I can still feel the pain. Do you know the intensity of being shot in the head? Since the day I have gotten this power I have been training my tolerance towards pain, but something like this still made me lose conciseness for a few seconds.’’

‘’And why are you telling us all of this?’’

Telling his enemies the extent of his powers in full detail made Kaze worried.

But Gandor just smiled as his said this.

‘’Because it doesn’t matter if you know, none of you shall leave here alive.’’

And now Gandor once again drew his sword and met with Kaze.

‘’’’Kaze!’’’’

As Kaze was now in combat with Gandor, Rentaro and Fubuki were clearly concerned. Both wanted to help him but Gandor gave them no opening to interfere.

‘’Tell me the blessing user who killed my ogres is he still alive?’’

‘’And what is it to you?’’

‘’I merely want retribution, after all they have been with me for so many years they are practically my children. And taming them was anything but effortless, so you can guess that I am furious.’’

Furious seemed to be an understatement when one would gaze at his expression.

‘’Kaze dodge!’’

Rentaro seized the opportunity now that Gandor was distracted.

He swung his sword with tremendous strength towards Gandor, but he did not aim for Gandor but for his horse.

But with ease his strike was countered, losing his balance Rentaro almost fell of his horse, but he managed to hold on.

‘’In terms of raw strength you are quiet a threat, but without proper technique it is like swaying away a child with a stick.’’

Each of the youngsters pride was crushed by this one man.

None of them had time to think about it though, as Gandor easily repelled all of their attacks their difference in experience became painfully clear.

Gandor sighed heavily as if he became bored with the youngsters.

‘’I have had enough of this child’s play, from this point onwards I shall be fighting serious.’’

Sweat flowed down the faces of the youngsters.

If this was him fighting not serious, than what would it be like when he did not hold himself back.

Rentaro and Kaze attacked from Gandor’s side while Fubuki tried to shoot arrows at him.

‘’Pathetic.’’

With a single swipe from his sword Kaze and Rentaro were knocked out of the way, and the shot arrow was blocked.

Just one graceful motion was all it took to simultaneously block three attacks.

Kaze now stood just at the edge of the cliff.

‘’Dammit.’’

In his current situation this was the only word he could utter.

‘’This is it child, it really is a shame, had you followed me I could’ve made you into a great pawn.’’

Not listening to Gandor as to not get agitated, Kaze got of his horse and sent it away.

Gandor raised his brow while trying to figure out what the meaning of this was.

‘’Ho, have you finally given up on living. How nice, saving me the trouble of chasing after you.’’

Kaze bent down his body minimalizing his surface, he was holding his sword with both hands over his shoulder.

He was standing as close as he could to the edge of the cliff, after a quick look down Kaze’s eyes started to burn with vigor.

Rentaro and Fubuki exchanged looks with each other and nodded.

Kicking his horse’s stomach Gandor charged at Kaze, his eyes set on his target, eagerly awaiting to strike him down. He was but a few meters away, from certain victory.

With his sight fixated on Kaze he had not noticed how close Rentaro had gotten.

Using all his weight Rentaro swung down wards on Gandor, though he managed to block it, the force of his blow was strong enough to make Gandor’s horse stager.

He was now within reach of Kaze, dashing forwards with amazing speed Kaze managed to cut the front leg of the horse, but it was too shallow.

But Fubuki had already shot an arrow at the same leg Kaze had attacked, with its leg broken the horse together with Gandor fell of the cliff.

Still in the middle of falling Gandor called out to the youngsters, with a smug smile.

‘’Did you expect that this would defeat me, my soldiers lie down below, and it will take mere seconds before I am healed again!’’

Kaze without uttering a single word pointed downwards at the ground.

When Gandor turned he saw not his soldiers but those of Nivalis, and leading them was the flashy commander who had given him his task.

While still in lost in thoughts Gandor’s body hit the ground, covering the grass in a thick red paste.

The flashy commander made his way towards the body, but as it started to reform he got off his horse.

‘’You, you bastards will never defeat me, no matter how many times you cut me down! As long as I’ve got this power I can keep getting up, no matter how many times you cut me down! Falak shall regret banishing me, each country in Siegdrak shall fall under my rule!’’

The flashy commander looked down at Gandor, as what he was saying was no more than the ramblings of a defeated man.

‘’You may be able to regenerate every wound you get, so I will make sure your body shall never get destroyed.’’

The flashy commander took off his helmet, and pointed his sword at Gandor.

After removing his helmet the commanders white hair started to flow in the wind.

And a serious look which did not seem to belong to his personality floated on his face.

‘’Y-You’re…’’

Fear appeared all over Gandor’s face.

‘’For every life you took, you shall now receive your punishment. Eternal glacier prison!’’

A cold blue lighted started to shine underneath Gandor, he could not even utter a single word before it was over.

From head to toe he was covered in ice, even if one were to break it not even his blessing would be able to save him.

After word got out on the remaining battlefield of Gandor’s demise, the remaining soldiers threw down their weapons.

It had been quiet a battle but now it was finally over.

After returning to the main army Kaze and his friends were met with the flashy commander.

‘’Well done youngster, you have brilliantly dealt with Gandor despite not having a blessing at your disposal.’’

Kaze seemed a little down about not being able to deal with the issue himself though.

On the other hand Fubuki gallantly bowed down towards the commander, to confusion to his friends.

‘’It was of the greatest honor fighting alongside you lord Nivalis.’’

‘’Hehe, I was found out after all.’’

The commander lightly scratched his cheek.

Kaze and Rentaro realized who this man standing in front of them was, and while trying to remain their cool bowed down towards him.

He was one of the seven Great Lords of Siegdrak, he is the one who ruled the kingdom of Nivalis.

And went by the name of Ran Nivalis, what stood most about him was his white hair.

Through a contract which he formed with the goddess Skadi he attained his title.

It has been ten years since he achieved his position and since then he had dealt with war, political issues and everything that came with his title.

There was still one thing that bothered Kaze though.

‘’Lord Nivalis, if I may ask, how is it that you know of me?’’

Ran turned to Kaze with a smile.

‘’Your father and I have a long history together, we have known each other for about twenty years now.’’

Twenty years, though he had only attained the title of Great Lord ten years ago.

This made the youngsters wonder what kind of past they had together.

But that would have to wait for another time.

For now they headed back to their leader to report their mission.

And after that they are finally able to get some well des