The rain had not let up since it started falling, the ground on the once large field, now battlefield was drenched, the sea of green grass, was now brown and muddied, mixed with a strong smell of iron, as blood from a slain soldier flew into the air and onto the wet ground mixing with the wet dirt, The soldiers of the Rebel army, were now re-gathered into one spot, those not there had met their unfortunate end, or were still fighting futilely, while surrounded by enemy soldiers,

The loud sound of metal scrapping against each other, rang through the air, within that moment Grahm’s injured body flew through the air, as he landed a few dozen feet away from Zack, who was looking pretty rough himself, his red hooded jacket had a few slashes and tears on it, bruises and cuts could be found on his faced and all over his body, with a steady stream of blood covering the side of his face and his ear,

“Uggghhh, fighting you and fending off these damn soldiers is a pain”, Zack exclaimed, taking a deep breath and standing tall once more, resting his Battle Axe on his shoulders, which was also looking quite haggered as the blade of the axe was now chipped and it had a slight crack running through it, he looked upon his former bestfriend,

“i’ll call this even now”, Zack stated, As even more soldiers encroached upon him,

with bard and the rebel army

Bard stood to the front of the remaining rebel forces, who were down by at least forty percent of their original numbers, steam pouring off of Bard’s skin, a feeling of intense heat washed over him, his veins were bulging, and his skin felt sore, as his heart felt strained, he could feel his berserker like state wearing off, as many voices began filling his mind,

“atleast spare my daughter”, one said,

“yes yes yes, a glorious end”, another spoke,

“why you, why did it have to be you”, another stated,

“i’ll see you in the underworld”, he heard from another,

As the voices began subsiding, with one or two whispers still there, bard held his head, trying to remain intact with his own sanity,

“commander Bard are you okay”, one of the rebel soldiers asked,

“yeah, I’m fine, just a nasty little side effect that comes with these swords, bard said, his gruff yet warming voice was comforting to the worried soldier,

Bard inhaled a huge breath, straightening out his slumped over back, as his muscles could be seen in detail through his shirt, and he drew both of his hands to his side, his stature, now, did not look worn out, tired or down trodden, his stature gave off an air of confidence and competence, which inspired the soldiers looking at his back,

“Don’t worry my friends, we shall achieve our goal here today, Let us prepare to finish the fight of our lives”, Bard’s voice rang out loudly throughout the battlefield, as he threw his fist into the air

with a loud, ”OOOOOOHHHHHHHH”, followed behind it, as the soldiers rallied behind him,

As they all stared down the forces of the Dracht kingdom, Both sides began to charge towards each other,

A loud high pitched birds shriek Echoed through the sky, As over head in the rainy weather, with the lightning flashing in the sky, a Flight of Gryphons, numbering about nine or ten soared through the clouds,

As Bard witnessed this he let out a hearty laugh to himself, his eyes alive with joy, As he shouted out mid charge, “MEN !!!, back up has arrived”, AS he raced off towards the incoming army, placing his arms in an X shape across his body as he clutched both of his swords, diving head first into the army,

off to the side, a yellowed hair, person, wielding two spears was standing atop a Bast rhino galloping at its full speed,

back with yumi Amon and Aluric

Yumi’s kick had connected with Aluric, the resulting force from the attack pushed her backwards, as Aluric rocketed towards the ground, she felt a sharp stabbing pain radiating intensely throughout her thigh, as she looked down she saw a small hole through her leg, the blade that Aluric had thrown had so much force behind it, it went straight through her,

feeling her body plummeting, she was hit with a sudden shock, as she back hit the roof of one the buildings, she laid there looking at the gloomy grey sky fillled with rain clouds, as the rain drops began hitting her in her face, she heard a loud collision, rolling over she saw Aluric, laying on the stony cold ground, and for the briefest of seconds she thought the fight to be over until, she saw aluric picking himself up, his white and gold coat now in ruins, run abound with rips, tears, dirt and blood,

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

As Amon walked up to his little brother, a slight shimmer of gold under Aluric’s ripped and tattered coat caught his eye, Aluric’s eyes faded from the bright golden yellow, back to their dark olive green color, As he stood there staring back at his older brother,

“Ohh now that’s interesting, Aluric, I wonder if that armor is the reason why you’ve been taking attacks from both me and yumi and just walking it off as if it were nothing”, Amon remarked,

“Or….maybe….you’re both not as good as you think you are”, Aluric rebutted,

“oh well, it’s a pity that that’s all you have left as an upper hand on us”, Amon stated,

“you should’ve gone with turning her powers off and on like you do the others, instead of using them straight through, now you’ve burnt through them and yumi isn’t any where close to you”, Amon continued,

“your point being brother”,Aluric answered, his labored echoed,

“my point being, if you weren’t so hung up about using them in the past they would’ve lasted longer, oh well I guess lady luck is within my favors today”, Amon finished,

Aluric pulled his fist in front of him readying his stance to attack his brother, noticing this Amon did the same, their stances mirroring each other, A strong grin grew across Amon’s face, locking eyes with his younger brother,

“as much as you blame our parents for being self righteous and sacrificial, you still can’t unlearn what they taught us”, Amon exclaimed,

As those words left Amon’s mouth Aluric squinted his eyes, almost closing them, rejecting what his brother was saying to him, when he opened them once more his expression shifted, steeling himself, Aluric rushed forward, launching himself towards his brother, Amon shifted his weight on to his backfoot, planting it into the ground, bracing himself for the impact,

Aluric sped forward, quickly appearing in front of his brother, who was on guard against the incoming attack, Aluric slamming his lead foot into the ground, as he landed a extremely strong punch on Amon, or so he thought, looking down he saw his hand being held in Amon’s palm, looking back up at his brothers grinning face,

“looks like we’re finaly on equal footing, who would’ve thought”, Amon gleefully exclaimed, grabbing ahold of Aluric’s fist, forcefully pulling him in even closer, Amon, struck his chin with the bottom of his palm knocking his view upwards towards the sky, Amon pushed him off of him, as he spun around landing a kick to Aluric’s side,

However he realized after he couldn’t pull away, aluric had grabbed onto his leg, clutching it tightly with his arm,

“funny that you thought we would ever be on equal footing brother, I’ll let you in on a secret, I’m able to take more than someone’s blessing or natural blessing now”, Aluric explained,

Amon felt his strength began to leave his body, as the feeling of weakness grew within him, when, Aluric violently pulled him in towards him, punching him in his face, which sent him, rocketing towards a wall, blood spewing from Amon’s mouth onto Aluric’s tattered jacket,

Aluric stood there standing in the middle of the street as the rain poured onto his body, he looked up into the sky, slowly bringing his gaze back down onto the broken and bruised body of his brother,

“Let’s put an end to this”, he said solemnly,

Amon could feel his consciousness slipping away, his eyes barely opened, his vision shakily looking on to his brother, one side of it slowly turning red, his breathing had become labored, pushing his hands onto the broken wall, he pushed his body up with all of his might, upon doing so he felt is shoulder hit something flat and hard, glancing around he saw his sword stuck into the wall, reaching around with his other hand he placed his hand onto the handle of his sword,

Aluric made his way towards his brother, watching Amon trying to gather himself and muster his strength to get back into the fight, seeing him reach for his sword, When an all too familiar voice rang out,

“ALURIC”, Yumi shouted at the top of her lungs, crouching on the roof top, in Aluric’s direction, the giant’s blood armor was cracked, with many fist sized dents in it, wounds were placed all over her body, drips of blood coming from her leg, as she gritted her teeth, clenching and compressing her legs under her body as much as she could, she pushed off with every last bit of strength she had left, rocketing her small frame towards Aluric, the roof giving away and crumbling with the force she pushed off with,

Aluric watched as this small but powerful person rocketed towards him, he spread his legs apart dropping his weight onto them, pushing one of his arms out towards her and pulling the other to his side folding his hand into a fist, Within an instant she had already closed the distance between them,

“yumi, I truly am sorry that you couldn’t see things my way, this wont kill you but by the time you wake up this war will be over and I will be the victor”, he spoke to himself,

As she drew in closer and closer until they were about to collide, Aluric let loose his fist,

“HOLY MARTIAL ARTS: Reversal”, Aluric shouted, landing his attack into thhhe middle of her stomach, going through her armor shattering it completely, the shockwave from the attack shook the surrounding buildings, as Yumi flew through the corner of one building into a stone pillar in the towns square, causing a large crack to appear on it,

Amon heard yumi’s voice ringing out, as he too mustered all of his strength pulling his sword out of the stone, spinning it and placing it back in it’s sheath, as he crouched down gathering as much strength as he could, when he looked up he saw a horrific sight as yumi’s body was rocketing away from Aluric,

“YOU BASTARD”, Amon shouted, propelling himself towards aluric at blinding speeds, “HOLY BLADE ARTS: Blinding Cut”, Amon shouted,

Aluric was caught off guard with Amon’s sudden and very fast attack, as he threw his hands in front of him to block the attack he felt the divine energy surrounding him pull close onto his body, followed by a searing hot pain going across both of his arms,