Kiara’s body turned away from aster instinctively, her breath now labored with rage, she had forgotten all about her previous opponent her visions tunneled on Bard, on the swords he had in his hand. The golden chain that wrapped all the way up her arm squeezed around it tightly rattling and shaking, as though it responded to her feelings, she took her first step towards her new found target only to be met with a thick wall of earth cutting her vision and focus on Bard.

“As if I’d let you get away, You’re fight is with me”, Aster said, his hand gripping tightly ono his weapon, lifting the hammer’s head off of the ground and onto his shoulders, Aster tuned his focus analyzing his surroundings, All of the soldiers were gone it was just him left by the tree line, he had six on his right and three on his left, the others including serene and kiara were in front of him, his answers were in front of him. Kiara grew irritated, she had questions, lots of them as to what happened just now, she knew of Bard, he was quite famous when he was apart of the royal guards, but they had never crossed paths or blades, this was a new feeling, a kinship she felt in his aura, in his weapons, all of the questions and answers now blocked off by a foreign intruder, an outsider.

“I guess it is”, She answered, in her years of working as an adventurer she had fought many opponents, many men who seemed confident in their abilities only to be slain by her sword, Manslayer they called her after a while, she let out a small chuckle to herself, the weight of her sword feeling ever so light in her hands, “I’ll make short work of you like I did all the other men who stood before me”, she said,

From both sdes of him his opponents descended, each one with a weapon drawn, besides serene and Kiara two more caught his eye, one on the left her hand and sword became engulfed in lightning, the one on the right large pieces of stone flew into the air surrounding her sharpening to pointed blades. “HUNT HIM DOWN”, Kiara shouted.

A smile peeled it’s way across Aster’s face, baring a striking resemblance to the one Barak wears when he enters battle, rushing forward to his opponents, he reeled his arms back as they began turning a bright silver, “I’m glad that you’re making this interesting”, he said.

back with Aluric

Aluric stood in the main tower, spitting out commands as the reports came in, moving the soldiers into the positions he saw fit as the battle raged on. The cold malicious feeling he felt in his office a few days ago ran down his spine again, he felt a presence behind him, “What is it you want ?”, Aluric asked, he leant on the wooden railing turning his back to the battle at hand, he crossed his arms looking on at Kazak, who knelt before him his head lowered.

“stop kneeling, I am not your prince, your king or your master”, Aluric said, turning around he put his focus back onto the battle being fought in front of him, Kazak rose from his position his gaze observing Aluric’s back,

“as I understand it, had fate played out differently, and you mother recognized, you would be a prince, it is in your blood, and shows in your hair, you cannot hide it”, Kazak said approaching Aluric’s side watching the fierce battle rage on.

“I was ordered by Master Ea to be of assistance to you today, to ensure you’re victory in this battle, however if I may”, Kazak said, his posture stood stagnant his hands rested behind his back only the side of his gaze fell onto Aluric’s presence,

“Go on”, Aluric said, his gaze remained fixated on the fighting. Explosions went off in the distance, on the front lines, the once green beautiful planes that stood undisturbed outside of the capital now scarred, torched, and riddled with bloodshed,

“my strengths do not lie in a frontal assault or a head to head confrontation, due to my natural abilities I am more adept at striking when I am not seen, when my target doesn’t expect to me to strike”, Kazak said, his eyes looking upon the battle field at the major players wreaking destruction across it.

“oh, and who would be these potential targets be”, Aluric said, his attention falling back onto Kazak,

“well if I may say, take the rebellion leader known as Bard, he alone is cleaving his way through the center of your army, but he is embroiled in combat, focused on what is only in front of him, an unexpected strike to his back before he can even sense it would leave him wide open, Or how About the foreign intruder fighting miss Kiara, a quick, precise and deadly attack to his neck while he goes on the offensive would surely draw a conclusion to her fight would it not, or you’re brother and you’re former companion miss yumi trying to use the chaos to sneak into the city, they think they are clear of any detection, they would surely be easily taken out ending this war quickly”, Kazak said, his cold calculated eyes panned slowly across the battlefield, his sense of bloodlust emanating off of him,

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

A laugh escaped Aluric’s mouth at the mention of his brother and yumi, “if you think there would be anything easy about killing my brother or yumi you are sorely mistaken, and if you do believe their deaths would stop the fighting then you are blind to the fervor that our enemies fight with if anything it would only push them to fight harder”, Aluric said, walking to the side of the tower, he looked down spotting yumi and Amon, yumi however looked directly at him, a devilish grin was now on his face,

“interesting that’s what they want huh, fine I’ll play their little game, it makes no difference, Kazak, I’m going after my brother and yumi, see to it that things here run smoothly and that none of my pillars die, and have one of them take care of Bard while you’re at it”, Aluric, standing on the railing of the tower,

Back with Polaris and Barak

“hey Rak, you ready to head out now ?”, Polaris asked,

“yup, right now I’m so charged up with energy that I’m itching for a fight, lets go”, Barak said to Polaris,

“hey water can wait a minute”, Levant said as he walked from within the forest,

“oh you’re alive”, polaris said, turning around to get a good look at levant,

“yup, somehow I’m alive, not that that helps, cause my favorite fucking coat is burnt to shit now”, Levant said ranting,

“that’s on you dumb ass”, Barak said, chiming in,

“anyways, we all chose our targets so I’m heading back out”, Levant stated, putting away his guns in the holsters on his lower back,

“well what are you waiting for lev”, Barak shouted as he and polaris were already dashing onto the battlefield,

“fuck man wait for me”, Levant shouted, as he ran behind them,

somewhere on the battlefield

Another dying scream filled the air, joining the chorus of others all throughout the battlefield, As the soldier fell, a blue light radiated from their body, the weapon that fell him, a scythe readily and greedily fed on the light, Pix had mowed down yet another enemy in front of him, his eyes felt distant, as though this was just another chore for the day. One by one he cleaved and hacked his way through the rebel soldiers, cutting a path aiming for bard, not moments before his comm crystal buzzed, an unknown voice assuring him that the order came from Aluric himself, but the fighting had bored him, his scythe fed on the souls of the dead in close proximity to it, ferrying them to the afterlife, the rush he got from it was euphoric, from the day those damned elders bonded him to his scythe, the same day he reaped his first soul, he knew no feeling could best this, but now he seemed bored of it.

A defeated sigh came from his lips, “at least fighting Bard will cure me of my boredom”, he said, spinning his scythe yet again to cleave his way through another soldier, however the soldier in front of him did not meet his swift death, instead he seemed to get further away, no it was him he was moved, his eyes lit up from the depths of boredom they were in, in front of him stood another individual with a scythe in hand.

“Let me cure you’re boredom instead, Master Bard is doing very important work right now”, Krio said, the blade of his scythe pointed towards Pix. He stood his ground his gaze fixated on the new opponent in front of him, not only did his eyes come back to life but a smile, a smile appeared on his face, Pix took note of his new found toy, a white mask, a cloak like midnight, hair the same depth of blue as his, and eyes that mirrored his own,

“I wasn’t aware that Amon had a reaper working for him, I could’ve sworn I was he only one working in Dracht”, Pix said,

“you might not know me but I know you, Pixxel the berserker”, Krio said, Soldiers from both sides fell silent,as the two faced off, the stench of death filled the air, under the grey drab sky, crows burst out from within the trees, circling over head of the two reapers, One soldier, a dracht soldier dropped to his knees, rustling around in his armor he pulled a pendant from it, a silver pendant of a sword pointed downwards, placing a kiss upon it he prayed,

“goddess of the saintly knights, grant me you protection from the death that has been fprced upon us, lady Arma Areia grant us your protection”, the soldier said,

“this is a dark omen, death walks among us now”, yet another soldier said, dropping their weapon, he clawed at the ground in fright desperate to run away, the other soldiers followed him, everyone trying their best to run,

“seems we’re quite the eyesore”, pix said to krio,

“nothing we both aren’t use to”, krio responded,

“well since you’re here show me what you can do”, pix said, walking forward towards krio, his scythe marking a trail through the ground behind him,

“Theia sa nekrios, mis envak yi nymos, fil mys thris pyrak, fo mis aya sylkiras mys enmyas”, pix chanted, the glow in his eyes grew brighter, so did his grin,

(God of Death, I invoke you name, fill me with power, so I may slaughter my enemy)

“he spoke the old tongue”, krio said to himself,

“DEATH”S FEAST: CHYTROI”, pix spoke, as the divine energy within him grew,

“you ran into me on the wrong day, because now I can gorge myself on the death that surrounds me”, pix said, his orange eyes growing brighter and his hair began glowing a brighter blue,

‘well shit’, krio thought to himself, lowering his center of gravity, and placing both hands on his scythe, sticking it out in front of him as he braced for the attack,

“it seems you can’t invoke our lords name in the old tongue, that’s a shame, I thought you were blessed, I hope you don’t die from this”, pix said as he dashed forward towards Krio,

in a mountain pass close to Drachts capital

“alright men we’re almost there”, lets pick up the pace even more”, the blond headed figure said, riding atop a bast rhino

“jeez captain, by the time we get there we’ll be to tired to fight”, one of the soldiers behind him complained,

“nonsense, I trained you myself Jhaldir, you just love complaining, but on the name of Demitr we are going to reach that battlefield today, send word to the gryphon squad we are kicking up the pace”, the blond haired figure said as they sped through the mountain pass at blazing speeds on their bast rhinos