“The life force of all beings… to think that we are this frail… I am even frailer than most of the soldiers here…”
“We showed them, boys! These pieces of shit won’t see the sun setting tonight, but we will! We will drink until we fall, too!”
“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”
It felt like the ground was shaking in response to their excitement… There were supposed to be 2500 soldiers on that battlefield, and Zelos could only count a few hundred. Despite that, they felt that they deserved to celebrate their victory… Zelos assumed that despite their losses, they truly needed to celebrate being alive. However, when they calmed down, they still felt the ground shaking.
It didn’t take long for them to realize that, and when they looked at the horizon where the sun was rising, they saw a massive cavalry regiment moving toward them.
Everyone looked in silence as they saw the cavalry approaching… the ranks on the camp were completely scattered. Since they also thought that the enemies around were the only ones, they showed their best and exhausted themselves… it seemed that the enemies were a lot more cunning, while people on Zelos’ side needed some work.
“What is wrong?”
The commander looked at Zelos with a blank expression. The kid still had the same expression on his face, and that only strengthened his hypothesis that there was something wrong with his head. On the first battle of the commander, he actually pissed himself a bit. After all, he was only thirteen at the time… he was lucky that it rained during the battle.
“It is over. Pray that you have a bit of better luck in the next life, kid. Perhaps you would want to die quick and painless instead of taking your chances against those guys. I can help you with that.”
“The glaive seems like the best option against mounted enemies. Are you going to use it?”
“... I almost feel pity for you.”
The soldiers looked at the commander in hopes that he would lead them out of that mess, but he truly believed that he would die and they all would fall as well. but in the end, he took a deep breath and then pierced the ground with his sword and then grabbed the glaive from Zelos’s hands.
“It is time to show what you are made out of, boys! Show them the true hell! Make them pave our path in the afterlife! Unless you kill three riders and their horses each, I will behead you all myself!”
“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”
That was an unusual way to raise his troops’ morale, but at least the commander looked serious. He was going to die, but he wouldn’t feel satisfied until he took at least three riders with him… The soldiers began to cluster together to fight the enemies while grinning from ear to ear… at least until they began to hear some unusual sounds coming from behind…
“Reinforcements! Reinforcements are coming! It is a regiment of cavalry as well!”
That seemed too good to be true… but it didn’t matter in the end. The soldiers had already made their peace and soon charged to face the enemies. It didn’t look like their targets had realized that a group of reinforcements had arrived, so things would get bloody once more.
Zelos dropped the weapons and put the sword on his back by using the line of scabbard. Soon enough, he grabbed some stones that he found on the ground and followed the commander. Once again, the commander began to lead the charge, and soon, he reached the enemies. When the first rider was about to swing his glaive, Zelos threw one of his stones, and the projectile hit the forehead of the enemy, making his head move backward… thanks to that, the commander had the chance to swing his glaive and behead the horse and the rider in a single strike.
A rain of blood gushed from both of them, but soon the commander ignored that and looked for his next target… Two riders approached him from the sides and tried to stab him with long lances, but both of them were hit on their arms by stones… the weapons missed the commander and he had the chance to swing his glaive once more and claimed their heads.
The commander didn’t miss any of those attacks and he could tell that somehow Zelos was helping him, but he didn’t have time to confirm that… several other stones flew and hit the enemies and the commander had the chance to kill them without suffering a single scratch, until he saw the enemy cavalry suddenly turning around and then running away. The reinforcements had arrived.
The commander turned around and then saw Zelos with the same blank expression on his face, as if nothing had happened. When he looked around, he saw a lot of his allies fallen on the ground and soon went to move to help the injured while the reinforcements passed by them to chase the enemies.
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“Help me here. Let’s move the wounded to a cleaner place.”
Zelos nodded and soon began to transport a man who had his right arm chopped off and his stomach pierced by the tip of a glaive… he was bleeding a lot, but it looked like he could take that kind of pain with ease… he didn’t grunt a single time during the moving process.
The healers arrived and soon they began to look after the wounded, but Zelos and the commander kept working on helping the wounded.
“It looks like we arrived just in time to save your ass, Hei.”
“... You are late. We lost over seventy percent of our troops, Rux.”
A man riding a horse and wearing a golden cloak arrived while smiling… he had long black hair tied up in a ponytail and he looked pretty relaxed, given the circumstances. Zelos didn’t care much about their names, but it was better than thinking of tiles for them.
“I can understand why you would be angry, but you look completely fine despite the battle here… maybe your squire did your job for you, Hahaha.”
Hei grunted in annoyance. He couldn’t confirm that out of sheer embarrassment, nor he could deny it since he didn’t know the truth and he didn’t like lies.
“Wait, seriously? This kid seems odd, but… I guess he has a weird presence. Anyway, it seems that there are still some issues to solve here…”
Rux looked to the side and then Hei and Zelos did the same. They saw a large group surrounding something ahead and soon decided to check it. Zelos thought that he should leave that kind of thing alone, but he felt eager to confirm what it was about… soon he found another slave kid, one of those who had been chosen as squire, being whipped by that tribal looking woman. She has some cut marks that were bleeding in her arms, and it was probably better for her to treat those wounds.
“Not again…”
Rux jumped from his horse and then sighed… it seemed that such a thing was a common occurrence, so Zelos wondered if he survived just to be whipped to death, apparently.
While seeing that, Zelos wondered what he should do… he didn’t have any reason to be involved in that. All the other kids always ignored him, after all. Still, he felt like that wasn’t enough reason to see a kid die like that.
A few moments later, a mud ball flew in an arc on the back of the group of people and then splashed on the face of that woman. She immediately stopped whipping the kid and then stared blankly into the air before looking around for the culprit. Everyone looked around in confusion, but Hei looked at Zelos and saw his hands dirty with mud… once again, the kid looked at him without showing any emotion on his face.
“Who did that? WHO DID THAT?”
The woman moved toward the large group of people out of anger, but soon moved away from them after flinching. Zelos immediately realized that she had some issues, and that was probably why she was whipping the boy.
“It is enough now, isn’t Lua? Don’t let the blood rush to your head all the time thanks to you hatred. What did he do to deserve this after serving you, anyway?”
“Shut up, he was too slow, and I ended up hurt. I could have died, and he will pay for it once I find the one who attacked me.”
“Enough, Lua. I know that you have your own issues thanks to your past, but this won’t solve anything. The battle is over, and we can’t afford to lose any more people. Look around and see the numerous comrades we lost. Enough blood has been spilled already.”
“Who the hell are you to think that you can give me orders? Fuck off.”
“I am not giving you an order. In your current state, you will only worsen your wounds and you won’t find anyone. If you didn’t realize it, you didn’t feel the attack until it hit your face. Whoever attacked you could have killed you, but avoided doing so. Besides, the kid already served you more than any of your underlings did. Look for a healer and cool down your head. The boy is free now.”
Lua clenched her teeth and grunted in annoyance for a few seconds but soon realized that Hei had a point… she left, and the large group began to disperse as well, so he sighed and relaxed a bit.
“Well, that was surprising… Why help that kid? Is it really worth getting on the bad side of that woman?”
“... Look for the kids who were brought here last night. At least those who survived until now… we can say to the people of the farm that they died and take them for us.”
“You don’t need kids nor servants… in any case, it seems that you have your reasons for this… I just hope it isn’t because you barely escaped certain death. That doesn’t suit you.”
Hux soon climbed his horse and then left the area. At the same time, Zelos wondered what Hei was up to…
“Usually, you would lose your hands for attacking people like me and Lua, no matter the reason, but you helped me more than a few times today, so I am willing to forget all that. Moreover, I hate owing favors to others, so that I will be taking the kids and offering them a bit of a better life. You care about them, don’t you?”
“I just acted on the spur of the moment.”
“What are you going to do? It seems that despite being a slave, you have been preparing to defend yourself or fight in wars should the need arise for you. There are some mercenary groups and clans that can welcome even kids like you.”
“Like yours, I assume.”
“There are others around. In fact, if you don’t join us, then I won’t feel the need to repay the favor of your help.”
Zelos couldn’t help but stay silent for a bit… that was convenient, too convenient, in fact. While that could be the best outcome for the kids, it could also be a trap to lure him to join Hei’s group in order to learn more about him. Not like a ten-year-old kid could be that insanely impressive, but he could have an unknown trait that had been overlooked and that could power up even some old families or mercenary groups.
“You should think about that for as long as you want. For now, focus on the last part of your job.”