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Ch 20 - Shadow, Flame and Shadow

We closed in at about midnight carrying as silently as possible our siege weaponry. 

Ali’s squad left an hour earlier to hide and position themselves to climb the rampart as soon as our attack begin. 

I’m confirming everyone’s position and start getting ready to give the order to attack.

We don’t have much ammunition for the ballistas but they should be enough to cause some ruckus and make a lot of noise. That should gather the guards in the rampart area of the door, helping  the stealthy infiltration to be successful.

As soon as Juls, Dan, Gal Aaron and the other three knights nod their heads I swing my right arm down giving the signal to fire.

*fuiiiiiiiii fuiiiiiiiii*

*fuiiiiiiiii fuiiiiiiiii*

*fuiiiiiiiii fuiiiiiiiii*

*fuiiiiiiiii*

*crash crash crash crash crash*

The first volley of metal arrows crashed on the rampart and some went overhead landing inside the city and they start preparing the second volley adjusting their aim. Soon enough in less than two minutes it’s shot and again some crash on the ramparts, and some on the door.

I order my men to follow me and start getting closer to the rampart so we can storm the entrance as soon as it’s possible. 

While marching up front, ten more volleys passed above us and made a ridiculous amount of noise when impacting.

A small cloud of arrows passes us by from the rampart not aimed at us but to where the ballistas are.

Another four volleys fly above us and crash against the door and walls, then suddenly bodies start to drop from the top of the rampart. 

Ali and her group are doing their job as planned, yet at our distance we can already hear the clashing of metal from above.

It seems they are encountering some resistance.

After about ten minutes right in front of us the door starts to open and I order the men to rush with a huge roar, infusing it with a little of my energy, not so much as to make the men scared yet loud enough to let those behind know, they can stop the volleys and charge in.

**CHARGE IN, STORM THE DOOR**

And started running after kicking the sand leaving behind my group of men. They’ll join me soon enough!

*kick swoosh*

*swish swish splurt swish thud swish splurt swish*

*clang swish kick swish*

I’m cutting everyone that crosses my path holding a weapon after going through the gap of the door. 

Shortly after Ali appears besides me as do about twenty of the men from her squad. 

So we have suffered casualties already? I question Ali with my eyes.

Ali and she shakes her head without returning the glance, swinging her daggers as if she was dancing with the shadows.

Her graceful movements inspire me to keep going and we separate a bit, she went to the right and I went to the left.

*stomp stomp stomp stomp*

The army is already entering the opened door and starts spreading through the city streets.

The sound of bodies falling, men running, swords colliding, shields being hit can be heard everywhere. 

Screams of agony and requests for mercy, shouts of anger and taunting echo in the night.

*swish swish thud kick swish splat drop plap*

*swishshshsh swishshshsh swishshshsh swishshshsh*

I dodged four arrows that came at me from the roof of a house, rolled to my left to avoid them and a rain of arrow flew from behind me.

The sound of the drops of metal falling in the ceiling of the houses nearby was music to my ears, and I rushed forward resuming my attack.

I scan the scene in my vicinity looking front, back, left, right and up.

Ali is riding the stream of blood dancing in the shadows dealing a single but fatal strike with each hit, Aaron is performing his well practiced shield bash and swing.

Breaking stances with the shield then finishing off his opponents with the sword, several knights are executing similar strategies but as I look back I see a lot of black armored men downed!

That puts some weight on my heart as I’m seeing some of my father’s men dead in the floor.

“**Look ahead of you general**”

Gali shouts at me as she advances forward steadily with a small contingent of men covering a small area each step. 

It’s a maneuver designed to advance slowly but securely, keeping one’s strength without making any wasteful movements. Push forward, strike your enemy, stand your ground and raise your shields to protect the group, if there is no enemy they walk forward with shields in place until they reach them.

Accompanied with courageous roars with each step, it works both to intimidate and taunt your opponent to charge into them and face almost certain death.

Beautiful, just beautiful Gali, thank you! Keep at it - I thought as I resumed my charge - 

I ordered my father’s men to protect my group above all else, I don’t want any of them to fall as it would be just too painful to bear. They are just too young to die yet, so I’ll protect them even at the cost of more experienced knights.

As I’m making my advance, drenched already in the blood of my enemies, I felt a very strong source of energy closing in.

It was a clear wide projection of bloodlust. Aimed in my general direction. I could tell it was not aimed at anyone in particular, so there is little doubt that someone here knows to how to use their energy(‘qi’).

It is wild and unaimed so it must be meant to scare those who can feel it in the vicinity.

Ali could stand in front a crowd, aim her bloodlust towards a single person in the middle of it and only that person would shiver. And I could even make them faint or enter a state of panic and flee.

Whomever it is, has learned to use his/her energy but haven’t yet reached a level of mastery that would make me sweat.

“~nee nee~ someone strong is coming gat ~putu~”

“Yes, but is somewhat crude I bet everyone here, friend and foe feels that somewhat intimidating ‘air’ but that’s that. It feels intentional”

“~ehehe~ yes I thought so, whomever it is, is intentionally just releasing widespread bloodlust. So leave him/her to me ~kay~? I wanna have some fun.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“Don’t be conceited Ali, I’ve told you many times ‘do not underestimate anyone, no matter how strong you are’ or you may fall!”

“~kay~ *smuch*”

I repeated the scan to see the state of mind of my men, but they seemed unaffected so I continued my advance. Slowly following behind Ali just a few tens of meters away, I want to see who is the owner of that energy stream. 

But this indeed is turning tough, there are way too many opponents, no matter how organized we are if Ali and I don’t start using at least some of our energy we will lose more men.

*clang clang thud clang splurt clang swirl*

Huh? No way? That style of fighting... that hair... 

What is he doing here? 

Ali is way too excited and entranced in her play that she hasn’t seen him yet? I can’t let those two fight, a lot of people will die just by being around them. 

I kicked the ground using some of energy and the street down my right foot cracked. 

As I sprinted forward at very high speed, I’m sending my bloodlust straight at him, as much as I can muster right now, I hope is enough to freeze him.

*~puu puu~ let me p..*slap*”

It seems aly felt my rush and complained. I gave ali a small slap with the flat end of my blade to stop her, then I kept going forward.

**Dom**

I roared at him, just at him, keeping my bloodlust as sharp as I could possible keep it. 

But he was already frozen stiff when I reached him.

I could see the drops of sweat on his forehead and his eyes totally wide looking straight at me.

“H, He, Heavenly Commander?”

He stuttered his words a little and stood there his swords hanging from his hands not moving an inch.

“Sheathe your swords Dom, *RIGHT NOW*”

I commanded him without looking anywhere else, not four seconds later I felt a pinch on my right cheek and some grumbling from Ali’s voice behind me. And Dom sheathed his swords on his hips and knelt down.

“I’ve been searching for you Heavenly Commander, forever since that day, each time I came back, all I’ve done is search for you.”

“So have I Dom, so have I”

The sounds of the fight were starting to diminish, but behind dom was a wall men in -ready-to-attack- stances, and behind me shortly after Dan, Aaron, Gali, some of the men of my father arrived and witnessed part of this odd spectacle.

“Are these your men Dom?”

“They are Heavenly Commander”

“Order them to stand down”

Dom did a signal with his hand and the wall of men stood down, they were still suspicious but there was no clear hostility towards us.

What impressed me the most was that many of those men knew how to project bloodlust, that means Dom must have trained them personally to learn the control of their energy(‘qi’).

“Whats going on General?”

“Who is this man General?”

“Would you care to explain what’s going on Lady Gatriel”

“~ehehe~ calm down guys, he’s our friend so it’s ok ~pyon~”

Even after Ali’s words I could see the doubt in their eyes. How the hell do I explain this to my men... 

Now that Ali said that he was our friend, what do I tell them? It is already time to let them know the truth?

As I was immersed in my doubts and fears Ali continued.

“~ehehe~ his father was a merchant that wanted to explore other lands and left when he was very young, Dom, Gat and I used to play knights and bandits, o~f~c~o~u~r~s~e Dom was always the bandit. But then they left ~puu puu~ and we haven't seen him in years”

Oh Ali that was one hell of a lie you threw there, but it’s valid and believable, well not sure if Aaron buys it tho.

I look at Aaron and he calms down and started looking at the wall of men.

Behind us there were still fights going on but was noticeably calmer.

“Oh that’s how it is”

“So what’s your relationship with gat uh?”

“Don’t be so rude Dan, Ali said he was a friend”

Aaron accepted right away, Dan just shot a ridiculous question and Gali sent us a lifeboat there.

“Raise Dom, we are no longer playing ‘Knight and Bandit’”

Dom rose from kneeling and started explaining.

It seems he in his search for us decided to come to this continent using the excuse of being a mercenary hired by some lady named ‘Moraea’, who is the responsible for capturing the city and closing the doors.

He said how his father through trade managed to gain the favor of an old king and twisting this and that, he is now the ruler of a ‘somewhat’ small nation in the northern continent.

I asked him to tell his men to join my army and finish off all the resistance, help every single one of the injured black armored men and asked him to take me to see this miss ‘Moraea’ immediately.

An hour later we were walking inside the castle where this person ‘Lady Moraea’ stayed while the fight for the city happened.

There weren't even 50 soldiers protecting the palace, so we killed them all on the spot. Ali, Dom and I walked through the castle without anyone able to stop us.

*Knock Knock*

“Who’s there?”

“It’s Domenic, miss Moraea, I’ve brought the leader of those who were attacking the city”

“Oh oh! You have done me a great service, bring him to me”

“Her”

“What?”

“It’s a she miss Moraea”

“It doesn’t matter, enter enter and present her to me”

Dom opened the door and we entered walking side by side, the eyes of the woman named Moraea saw us and then and her body froze in place as a shadowy figure appeared behind her out of thin air.

As soon as we entered Ali disappeared from my side and two seconds later was behind ‘Moraea’ holding one of her black daggers to her throat.

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Thanks for reading my fiction! I hope to get your comments and help from now and in future issues.

Give and Take you know undefined, you help me, I help you! isn't that the main reason why most of us gather here in RRL? to learn from each otner?

Cheers.