He ended in a tone of regret and pity. I was struggling to comprehend all that he said, but as he spoke, I just felt pity for this man. I wanted him to suffer, but I no longer had the heart to kill him.
For a second that seemed to last forever, neither of us spoke. Nor moved.
The assassin then weakly added, “I killed a man I didn’t know, for rulers I have never met… Your friend never had a chance. If not me, there would have been some other assassin who would have come to kill him. As long as the Imperium dictates who lives, who dies… there is no true… choice….”
Then the assassin smiled at me. He said nothing else. He suddenly unleashed a furious volley of daggers. There was intensity in his face, the motivation for which I could not understand. But I had to defend myself. Even in my weakened state, using my sword and glove, I was able to deflect all the daggers. I slowly walked up to him. And then, as the assassin raised his hand to slash me with the dagger, I ended it.
As my sword went through his chest, the smile returned to his face. He was ready to die. I didn’t understand why he smiled.
But my quest was finally done. I collapsed on the ground, satisfied that I had avenged my friend.
As I panted and struggled to retain consciousness, I saw Grim rush back. I waved to him and asked, “So, my immortal master, what is the name of your sword, which you hid from me?”
Grim smiled. “It goes by the rather unimpressive name, Varta blade. But its history is more impressive. It is one of the seven swords of legend.”
Chapter 39: The end of a journey for an old warrior
As we entered the village, I was enthralled by its beauty.
For a moment, I was distracted from the battle. But the moment passed, and I saw the battle unfold, where we saw the villagers put up a brilliant defense. There didn’t seem to be any need for us. But we could definitely help end the fight faster. So we started to edge towards the villagers slowly, to join them. Then Karn saw something and pointed to it. There were two other battles going on and both caught my eye. One was between my master and Morgan. The other was between seven people and Azrial. I knew what I had to do, although it was difficult to choose. I knew Dev and the others could help my master. But only I could take on Azrial. Only I had the drive and skill for it.
I rushed towards Azrial and the seven who fought him. They were putting up a brave fight, but they were struggling. There was one fully armored person with a massive blade, who was using it extremely proficiently to keep Azrial at bay, but wasn’t able to land any serious blows on him. As I rushed in, Azrial saw me and jumped several feet away. He eyed me carefully. Then there appeared an evil glee in his eyes.
“Elbir, my dear friend,” he said mockingly, “I was afraid I lost you in the barracks blast. I am so glad you survived.” He and Keshin were prancing around at a distance, as if to mock me. I wasn’t going to be distracted.
“I lived so that I could kill you in person. I am almost happy that you survived. I can now see you die right in front on my eyes.”
Saying that, I drew out my spear sword. He was surprised to see it. “Have you given up on your hammers?” He then saw my leg. “Oh, I see why. A one-legged man can’t really swing a hammer, can he? Let alone five. So you shifted to an ornamental spear. How nice. I am sure you can decorate your house with it. Or maybe I can, once I take it from your dead hands.”
I just told the other seven warriors, “Please stand back. You don’t know me. I am a friend of that man.” I pointed to Dev.
“And that man’s former student.” I also jabbed a finger in master’s direction.
“I have faced this opponent before; I know how to fight him. You, with the large sword,” I called to the man with the massive blade. “Stand behind me and get ready to slash any and every time I miss. Slash at my command—when I say ‘come’ you move forward, when I say ‘back,’ you move back, and when I say ‘go,’ you slash. Understand?” The warrior nodded.
Saying this, I charged at Azrial, pointing the spear at him. I was going to use it as a lance to impale the devil spawn. I knew he would disappear to escape it, but I knew how to read him. I had to read his jump, estimate how long he would jump for, and then try and get the armored warrior to slash him where he lands.
Azrial didn’t seem to care. He was elated at the chance of having a duel with me. He pointed his spear, Nazyen t’ori, at me and charged. We both sped towards each other, pointing our swords straight out. At the last moment, Azrial jumped and appeared right behind me and slashed sideways, with Nazyen’s serrated edges moving up and down the blade. I turned my spear at the right moment to take his blow on my spear. To his disappointment, the Nazyen didn’t even scratch my “ornamental” spear. But he wasn’t particularly fazed.
“Again?”
I nodded.
“I am so glad we are doing this,” he said, sounding happy like a child.
I started to back up. I couldn’t trust Azrial not to attack with my back turned. He started to back up as well. After our exchange. Azrial was closer to the group of seven than I was. I decided to use the long-bladed warrior’s help during this attack.
“Come,” I shouted as I charged. Azrial was surprised. The warrior also charged at Azrial, but on foot. “Go,” I said as the warrior got close to Azrial. He slashed. I closed in on them, as the warrior slashed. Azrial jumped. I saw the direction and height of the jump. I threw my spear. Azrial appeared at the right spot, only a meter off. My spear landed harmlessly into the ground. I was defenseless.
Azrial was angry. He again said in a mocking tone. “How could you do this Elbir? You involved a stranger in our combat. Not done.” He jumped towards me. Azrial appeared in front of me, ready to slash. A large blade blocked the Nazyen. The long-bladed warrior had run towards me as soon as I had missed. He blocked multiple slashes from Azrial as I turned and sped towards my blade. Azrial jumped again. I knew he was going to appear. I jumped off my horse, rolled on the ground and picked up my weapon. Just in time. Azrial appeared and slashed where I was sitting.
In his anger at having missed me, he slashed down my horse, cutting into the poor beast and killing it. Now I was also on ground facing a maniac on an armored horse. Azrial was now done toying with me. He started to slash me with a fury and purpose I saw for the first time in this man. I tried to defend myself, but I did miss at times. He was also jumping around, trying to deliver fatal blows as soon as he appeared. But I was ready. As I gradually got better at reading him, he got more frustrated.
The long-bladed warrior, who was approaching us slowly, suddenly jumped in to join the battle. He swung his sword out of nowhere surprising Azrial and me. Azrial was able to jump out in time. The blade swung to hit me and knocked the spear from my hands.
The warrior apologized to me as Azrial re-appeared and attacked the warrior with Nazyen. Fortunately, the warrior was wearing Azmoq armor, as it took most of the blow. But the revolving serrations tore a little into the armor. No armor was equipped to handle such shear forces. But the warrior was still standing. He swung around his blade to try and hit Azrial again as I dove again to retrieve my blade.
Well, actually she swung her blade. When the warrior apologized, I realized, based on the voice, that the warrior was female. I was impressed. No woman I knew was this strong.
Azrial showed no signs of relenting. I wasn’t able to attack him at all. I was only defending myself and the warrior. She and I hadn’t fought together before. We weren’t coordinated at all. I had to keep her in mind when I slashed, and had to be careful when she did, so that I could avoid her slash. Azrial was also exploiting this completely. We couldn’t continue like this for long. Sooner or later I would make a mistake and get slashed by my foe or as luck would have it, by my friend.
I asked the warrior in the middle of trading blows with Azrial. “Could you please step back? I can take him by myself. You are getting in the way.” The warrior understood and started to slowly retreat. I started to take more control of the battle on
ce that happened. Azrial was mocking as usual. “Oh, look at that. Differences between last minute allies? Do you think he wants to kill you as well? You are, after all, an annoying man.”
He soon shut up. We were in the middle of an extremely heated battle. Without interference, I was finally able to read him well enough to go on an offensive. I slashed as soon as he reappeared. It was usually met with a parry from the Nazyen. I did get hit by the Nazyen a little, but he was also getting hit by my slashes. But unfortunately, they were leaving only superficial wounds. This spear sword was not made for slashing. It was made for stabbing. But being a hammer user, I found it extremely difficult to focus my attack on thrusts and not slashes. Especially in the heat of the moment. Slashing movement resembled striking with a hammer the most.
This became a battle of endurance. Both of us weren’t getting anything but superficial hits in. Both of us were getting tired. I was hoping he was tiring out faster than me. But he gave no indication of that. Thankfully, I was used to handling much heavier weapons, so my arms endured. I wasn’t so sure about him. His attacks seemed to be weakening, although that could have just been a ploy to lull me into a false sense of security. I wasn’t going to let that happen.
As our fight continued, he slowly realized he couldn’t kill me like this. Changing tact, he retreated with his latest jump by a few meters. He was clearly going to charge at me. There were no witty, mocking comments originating from Azrial. He was tired. He was all business. He charged. And abruptly stopped. He saw something from the corner of his eye. Even I saw it. I don’t know when it had happened. Both of us had missed it in the heat of our battle. Major Morgan had been cut into half. Master Grim and young Dev had defeated the Major in open battle. That was quite a feat. Dag had struggled against Vimridh, number 15 in Final 100. Morgan was 12. This was really impressive.
That death had a clear effect on Azrial. The coward in him was emerging. He was scared. Two thirds of his cavalry was gone. As he looked around, he saw something wreaking havoc among the archers and infantrymen. They were going to lose. He had to do something. He did the only thing that made sense to him.
He ran. He ran like he had on the battle field all those years back. He ran like the coward he was, preferring to keep his petty life to sacrificing it for the army he served, unlike what he expected from his soldiers. When he ran the last time, no one, not even General Zastraax had the means to stop him. However, I was equipped. And I was ready. The battle with him had honed my instincts of his jumps and landings.
He jumped. I waited. He reappeared. He was now one jump away from the Northern exit. This was my one and only chance. I knew I wouldn’t miss. More so, I knew the spear wouldn’t miss my target. I focused on my brothers, my Dag, my tribe and my master. Then I emptied my mind. I thought only of Azrial. I then let loose the spear. Azrial appeared near the exit sign. The spear had not reached him yet. He disappeared again. I had lost my opportunity for now.
But the spear disappeared too. I wasn’t sure where it went, as I had thrown it at Azrial anticipating his appearance. “Where could it have…?”
Before I could complete the thought, I heard a scream. It came from beyond the exit. There was no one there except the coward Azrial. I rushed to the northern exit, hoping to see my spear and picking it up. I was also hoping that Azrial made a mistake and landed on the wrong place, injuring Keshin and himself somehow. I reached the exit and continued to run till I found my spear.
I was luckier than I had hoped. I found Azrial. With my spear through his chest. On the ground. Keshin was just standing there. I was stunned. How did the spear hit him? He was at a sharp right turn at least hundred meters from the exit. There was no way the spear, travelling in a straight line could have hit him. Nor did it hit him at the exit. He lingered long enough at the exit, to look at me and mock me for missing him again.
Azrial spoke, coughing up blood as he drew his final breaths. “I didn’t… think… it was real… Well done… one legged man… you got your revenge… with one of the most… legendary weapons there is….”
And that was it. The end of Azrial. My quest was half done. For sure this time. I had killed the man who had killed my brother, Muster. The man responsible for the deaths of my other brothers. I was happy. My journey to avenge my brother had ended. But time for celebrations was not now. I retrieved the Spear and headed back.
Chapter 40: Fight and Flight into the Forest
As we entered the battlefield, Dev and Elbir had their tasks cut out for them.
Dev had to face Morgan and Elbir, Azrial. I wanted to help Dev as Morgan was one tough customer. I was surprised to learn that he was still alive and kicking after taking a blast that destroyed a small city right in the face and then having a building fall on him. I would definitely have been in some trouble if that had happened to me. I had almost died, despite the defense put up by Dev for us at the last moment.
But he was not in great shape, with a broken jaw and arm. And Grim seemed to be some kind of super human, taking multiple hits from Morgan and still going on. So I decided that Dev would be enough support. I had to attack the army and destroy them. Otherwise there might not be a village left to save after Morgan and Azrial were defeated.
Kazena and I continued to slowly move towards the villagers. We weren’t noticed for at least a couple of hundred meters when the fringes of the Valantian archer formation saw us. They started to fire at us as I shouted to Kazena.
“Head to one of the empty boards!” I blocked all the arrows with my side swords. They weren’t as light and effective as my original blades, but still did the job. Plus these guys were not an Elite unit. They were your run of the mill archers. It was easy to block them, not just off me, but off Arion and Kazena as well.
Arion and I reached one of the closest boards relatively unhurt. We had to take out the archer unit. There was no other way for us to ensure victory. There might be a chance if we wait long enough for both sides to get done with their arrows, but it was unlikely that it would end well for the villagers. The archers would have brought enough to last them a while. There was no way we could strike at the archers. The whole infantry unit was protecting them. Then, I had an idea. I asked Kazena, “Could you jump the both of us right into the trees?”
She nodded but spoke with caution. “I could. But I can’t be invisible there. Not enough space to create my lenses.”
I wasn’t worried about that. She just had to drop me there. The confined space would work to my advantage. The archers wouldn’t be able to fire effectively there, given all the interferences from the trees and plants. They would be easy pickings.
“Don’t worry about it. You can function in the open field, where your ability would have an advantage. You just drop me and return.”
I then shouted to all the villagers. “I am Karn. I am a friend of that man, who you all know well.” He pointed to Dev. “Please listen to me. My friend here will help you tackle the horsemen during their next charge. Please give her a wide berth to attack. I will be tackling the archers. Please start moving your boards up closer to the woods when you see me emerge from the woods. We need to start attacking the infantry sitting out of the range of your archers. And as soon as the infantry comes in range, all archers move up to the front boards and fire continuously. Got it?”
There was a murmur among the villagers, followed by a voice shouting. “I am Fred. I am in charge of these defenses. We will advance once we know for sure the archers are dead.”
That was as good an assurance I could get from strangers. I looked at Kazena. “Drop me behind the archer lines, return here and wait for any charging troops. You can move in and kill multiple troops if they charge.”
She nodded. “Hold me tight.” She created her lenses around us and we were invisible to all. The villagers who could see us were surprised at our sudden disappearance. It was amusing to watch. I held her hand. She looked at me as if I had killed a lamb.
“Are you going to dance with me?” She a
sked testily. “Hold me lightly around my waist.”
Right. That was much better. Hold a woman around her waist instead of her hand. Holding her hand was dancing, but her waist, that was a hard-core battle tactic. Anyway, I did as I was told. She swung her arms around like I had seen her do many times. But the sensation was interesting. One moment I was behind a thick wooden board, with open fields in front of me. Suddenly I was surrounded by thick dark forests. Kazena looked at me and asked, “You alright?” and disappeared without waiting for my reply. Apparently, I was in one piece, which was enough for her.
I was well behind the archer lines. I wasn’t used to such crammed locations, but it had to be done. Kazena was probably a better person to do this, but she had never been in a battle before. It was too critical a task to leave to a complete battle virgin. I regretted the choice of my words in my head as soon as the thought formed.
I stealthily progressed on the archer lines. With the horsemen and infantrymen chatting among themselves, I was able to sneak right up to the archer line without being noticed. Many archers were positioned atop trees. Those would be more difficult to kill. I decided to start with the archers on the ground. I could see that there were roughly 30—35 archers on the ground, in groups of two or three. I slowly approached the nearest group, with both my back swords in hand.
I was able to get right behind them. I stabbed both through their necks to prevent them from making a sound. They both dropped. I held their falling bodies so that I could softly place it on the ground. This was the easy bit. I moved through the ground archer levels, killing groups of two and three at once, and softly placing their bodies on the ground to prevent any loud noises. There was little communication among the archers. It seemed like all of them had been given simple orders. Shoot at the villager closest to you.
That is why they had been positioned across almost a 200-meter distance, so that individual archers could cover larger range of defenses. What this strategy gained in terms of coverage, it lost in terms of accuracy. Twenty groups of two shooting at twenty targets were bound to hit fewer men compared to two groups of twenty systematically taking out 3—4 targets at a time. The archers were being used as good support instead of primary attack groups with cavalry supporting them.
Age of Azmoq: The Valantian Imperium Page 43