Book 2: Chapter 22

The members of Soaring Wolf were preparing for the annual mercenary tournament which would begin in 3 days time. Each resting their bodies and mind, they were surprised to hear a tremendous crash coming from the front door. Moments later a stampede of foots could be heard marching into the main hall.

“An enemy attack?” The Soaring Wolf members grabbed their weapons and cautiously entered the main hall where they saw Florens and a few other executive members of Soaring Wolf confronting a giant man and his posse of 20 men.

The Soaring Wolf members could all see the emblem sewed onto the invading group’s sleeve. They belonged to none other than the Ravenous Serpents!

Sucking in a deep breath and putting on a gleeful smile, Florens approached the giant man and said, “esteemed sub-leader Jughog, welcome to Soaring Wolf. I apologize for not having anything prepared for you and your men, but if there is anything we of Soaring Wolf can help you with, please tell us.”

Florens chose his words carefully. Even if he had met Jughog under different circumstances he would still have to be humble, not to mention now when the man reeked of murderous intent.

Jughog looked to Florens and did not respond, but continued to glance around the main hall at the other members of Soaring Wolf. Where his gaze passed, no one dared to meet his eyes.

After a long silence, Jughog demanded: “bring out all of your members that are under 20 years of age.”

Florens’ smile froze, but he still managed to ask, “of course of course, but may this puny individual know as to what esteemed sir would want with our young members?”

Jughog grunted and said, “not a single one is to be missing, otherwise, today, Soaring Wolf will be wiped off of Nakrul!”

As the Soaring Wolf members heard this decree some began sweating bullets while the weaker ones began to tremble.

Florens was better off than the others, but not by much because he knew Jughog’s threat was as real as the six mercenary groups he had already destroyed.

Florens quickly commanded for all the members under 20 years to come and it didn’t take long for them to assemble behind Florens. There were three members all together and they kept their eyes lowered as Jughog glowered at them.

Looking from each of the three, Jughog waved his hand and an old lady appeared from within the cluster of Ravenous Serpents. “Which one was it?” Jughog asked the old lady with an almost sincere tone.

“Hmmm,” squinting her worn eyes, the old lady only took a few seconds to point to Valter. “That’s him. The good fighter boy.”

Jughog grinned, licking his lips.

Florens tightened his knuckles so that they turned white.

Valter stopped breathing, a breath caught in his throat.

“Where is the other one?” Jughog asked the old lady to which she replied with a shake of her head.

“I don’t see him.” The old lady rubbed her temples, trying to alleviate her small headache from recalling so much things. “He was a scrawny short boy.”

“You don’t see him, huh?” Jughog’s grin grew even wider.

Florens could sense that things were spiraling downwards and said, “Sir Jughog, I don’t know who you are looking for but this is really all of our young members. Perhaps, you have mistaken someone else to be part of this group?”

Jughog ignored Florens and walked up to Valter, grabbed hold of his hair, and lifted him off the ground so that they saw eye to eye.

Valter didn’t scream, but pulled on Jughog’s wrist to lessen the pain of hanging by his hair.

“You’re strong, boy,”Jughog said. “But I suggest you start screaming and crying otherwise I will have to be more severe.”

Valter still refused to make a sound, displeasing Jughog who yanked and ripped of Valter’s hair.

Valter fell to the ground screaming in pain.

“That’s better,” Jughog laughed and tossed patch of hair on the ground.

Florens was nearing the end of his patience as he watch Valter in pain, but he tried his best to remain calm. “What is it that you want?” Florens asked.

Jughog noticed the icy tone of Floren’s voice and said, “simple, give me the other boy and I will leave with these two little bastards and never bother with your puny pissy mercenary group again.”

Florens clenched his teeth and said, “I have told you before, these are all our young members.”

As if expecting Floren’s answer, Jughog beckoned over one of his underlings who unfurled a scroll of beast skin and read: “Assi Male 16, Melkamu Male 19, Valter Male 15.. All members of Soaring Wolf as of today. Recently withdrawn members: Cyil Male 13.”

As the report was read, the colour from Floren’s face drained and he promptly grabbed his weapon that was leaning on a stool. “Brothers, run and live to see another day!”

Florens exploded forth, kicked Valter towards the Soaring Wolf members who scrambled to catch him and continued on to hack at Jughog’s leg with his scimitar.

Jughog laughed, slightly moving his leg to intercept the blade with his shin.

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Clang, the sound of a hammer striking an anvil resounded throughout the main hall.

“Ouch,” Jughog looked at his slightly cut and lightly bleeding leg. “You’re stronger than you look.”

Florens stared in shock at the dismal result from his full forced swing and yelled again, “Brothers, retreat now!”

Florens charged once more and jumped up to slice Jughog’s throat.

Jughog was confident in his defenses, but he wasn’t stupid enough to risk anything. This time, Jughog bare handedly caught the scimitar with one hand and moved to capture Florens with the other.

Seeing that his attack was stopped, Florens abandoned his weapon, dodged Jughog’s incoming hand, dropped down onto the ground and swiped at Jughog’s privates.

Jughog quickly realized what was happening and squatted down, bear hugging Florens who was in the midst of attacking.

Jughog tightened the hug, his biceps bulging and his arms crushing.

Florens tried to resist, but the difference in strength was too vast; it was like a baby struggling against a full grown adult.

“Leader!”

“Brother Florens!”

A bunch of shouts rang out as the Soaring Wolf members saw that Florens had been captured and was slowly squeezed to death.

Blood seeped out of Florens’ mouth and rolled down his chin as he shouted out once more, “Run you fools! Run! That is my final order as your leader!”

As soon as Florens finished his shout, Jughog applied maximum pressure, crushing the bones in Florens’ arms and fracturing his spine.

Florens spat out more blood and Jughog let him drop to the ground.

Florens twitched on the ground as Jughog said, “I will give you all one final chance. Bring me the boy called Cyil and I might just spare you lot.”

The Soaring Wolf members looked to one another, unsure of what to do.

A moment of silence passed, then a piercing scream rang out.

Jughog bellowed in agony as he felt a horrendous pain coming from his privates. Looking down in rage, he saw that Florens had a firm bite on his precious friend!

Jughog was already furious at the death of his wife’s brother and had held back as much as he could, but now his eyes turned blood red and without hesitation he clamped both of his hands onto Florens’ head and crushed it like a watermelon.

Despite this, the bite did not loosen but was instead reinforced.

Howling, Jughog ripped the deceased Florens’ mouth in two, sending his bloody jaw flying.

“You all will die here!” Jughog screamed and led the charge.

The rest of the Ravenous Serpents also startled into action and began attacking the Soaring Wolf members.

The Soaring Wolf members saw what had happened to Florens, their brother, and they roared with grief. They ignored Florens’ final order and clashed head on with the Ravenous Serpents.

In a swarm of chaos the two sides fought. Ravenous Serpents with their rank 3 and higher warriors and Soaring Wolf with their two rank 3 warriors and other rank 2 and even rank 1 warriors…

When the furniture ceased to break and blood flowed red in the main hall of Soaring Wolf, Jughog roared and stomped on a pile of dead Soaring Wolf members. His stomped caused a pouch of blood stained money to fall out of one of the bodies and plop onto the floor.

***

Cyil opened his eyes as the morning sun beat down on him. Cyil had been spending his days hidden in a forest, training his physical body during daylight and meditating during nighttime.

When Cyil abruptly left Soaring Wolf he didn’t have a plan, but decided on waiting things out. First, he wanted to make sure Soaring Wolf would be okay and second, he needed to await a response from the army recruitment. Emilia had said it could take up to a month or so before he got a response so all Cyil could do was wait.

Cyil got food from the city every 7 days then went out to his spot in the forest to train. While in the forest, when Cyil went over the routine exercises that Florens had taught him, he noticed that they were considerably easier; he could do more reps and finish them quicker than before.

It didn’t take long for Cyil to realize that his body had gotten stronger--much stronger. The leap was large enough so that it was clearly noticeable. Cyil smiled at this good fortune and thought back to the fight that had taken place. He thought about his weaknesses and all of the things that could have gone wrong and all of the things that went right.

Then, as Cyil trained throughout the day and night came, he entered meditation and was pleasantly surprised because he had broken through to become a rank 2 level 4 mage! And not only that, but he was just on the verge of becoming a rank 2 level 5 mage.

It had hardly been a month since he had last broken through and he had done so again only to be so close to breaking through once more?

Cyil knew that this leveling speed was fast.--much faster than the leveling speeds of any geniuses Mahoj had etched in his memories. Cyil guessed that the extreme battle he had experienced caused this to happen, but he was only half correct. The other largest factor was because his soul was so strong that it was ushering his mage levels up. Despite not knowing, Cyil was glad he was getting stronger.

Today was the 14th day since Cyil left Soaring Wolf and coincidentally today would also be the day the annual mercenary tournament began. Cyil got up off the ground and walked out of the forest. He would check for any news on Soaring Wolf and see if there was any updates on his recruitment into the army.

When Cyil came to the city gates he saw that there was a long line of people snaking through the main road, waiting to enter. Cyil covered his face and patiently waited in line, blending in with the crowd. When someone would cut in front of him or roughly brush pass him, he did nothing.

After 2 hours of waiting, Cyil finally made it to the gates and paid the newly increased fee of 20 coppers.

Cyil no longer marveled at the sights, but quickly made his way to the mercenary association’s house. There were even more people here and Cyil had to use his small frame to try and squeeze through.

Just as Cyil found an opening, a hand tried to grab him from behind, to which Cyil keenly dodged and grasped. Turning around Cyil saw a surprised Emilia staring at him.

Cyil quickly let go of her arm, sighing in relief. “Emilia,” he shouted over the noise. “I’m here again for the usual.”

Emilia nodded, but motioned with her eyes that they should speak elsewhere and walked off.

Cyil quickly caught on and followed Emilia. They did not go to the training grounds because they were packed with spectators watching people trying to show off their strength; instead, they went a far ways from the mercenary association to a neat and plain two story building.

Emilia turned to Cyil and said, “this is my home.” Emilia pushed the door open and walked in. Cyil followed without complaint and once the door closed behind him, Emilia turned around to face Cyil, her calm eyes turning slightly red.

Cyil was speechless. He was shocked to see the cold Emilia like this.

Emilia blinked a few times then said, “Florens was stupid. He was so weak and yet he dreamed so big.”

Cyil frowned, feeling that something bad was coming based off of those foreboding words. “What about Florens?” Cyil asked.

“He’s dead,” Emilia responded in a flat tone, cutting to the chase. “He and all the members of Soaring Wolf died 3 days ago. They were murdered...personally murdered by Ravenous Serpents’ sub-leader Jughog.”

Cyil’s eyes widened and he couldn’t help but to ask again, “dead?”

Emilia’s voice returned to its normal coolness. “Yes.” Emilia clenched her teeth. “Yes,” she said again. “They’ve all died.”