“Everyone has their strengths.”
They stood there in silence for a moment before returning to the squad. When they were finished with the cores and the ashes of their dead comrades, the hunters took off and went further up into the mountains. No one had even the slightest desire to stay there, on that battlefield soaked in blood. Who knew what kind of scavengers such a rich feast would attract.
Before leaving, they took some skins to mend their jackets, pants and boots, and some meat to eat. They set up camp only three hours later, under the shelter of a cliff and a glacier.
They planted stakes in the ground, laid down fur blankets on the trampled snow, and set up tents. The Baliumians suggested they dig up some snow pits, where it would be warm and safe, but the troops from Lidus were skeptical of such practices. Hadjar also knew about this practice, but he didn’t trust it.
The Black Mountains were a dangerous place, and the hunters didn’t want to wake up imprisoned in the ice of an avalanche. They kept watch to avoid both the avalanches and encroaching predators. The General wanted to be the first on watch. He needed to be alone with his thoughts for a while and meditate. By the gods, he had to calm his heart and mind.
After eating a little porridge that had been cooked on the melted snow (a truly awful meal) most of the soldiers went to sleep. Some meditated in their tents as Hadjar took the observation post at the north side, the most dangerous side of their encampment. Three more watchers were sent to the remaining sides of the camp.
He spent the quiet night in meditation as he watched for signs of danger.
The next morning brought with it wind, snow, and more hiking. The squad went deeper into the mountains, looking for more traces of white apes. They found another ape settlement at the dawn of the third day. This time, they captured it quickly and without suffering further losses.
After experiencing that first battle, the squad now worked well together, and the General didn’t skimp on his Techniques. With the ‘Strong Wind’, he cut the Alpha ape and his mate to shreds. A storm was launched from Moon Beam and almost cut through the glacier where they stood.
Since that first day, hunting the apes had become a routine. Nobody talked, except for when they made camp in the evenings. The hunters preferred to stay deathly silent and communicate by means of hand signs while searching for prey.
They passed through one ape settlement after another, collecting a bloody harvest as they went. They did so without any pity or regret because that was the law of this world. If their hearts wavered, they would be the ones who didn’t live to see the next dawn.
At the sixth settlement, they lost another soldier. He’d hesitated because he’d been unable to kill a little ape cub. That ‘baby’ had torn his throat out with its fangs. The soldier was set on fire in silence. He was treated with respect, but his stupidity served as a lesson to all the others present.
Soon, the hunt became more difficult. Each time they ran across a settlement, it was empty and seemed like it had been hastily abandoned. Apparently, the news of their advancement had somehow spread through the mountains and reached the apes.
By the beginning of the second week of their campaign, they reached a high ridge that surrounded a wide plateau. As soon as they saw what was happening on the plateau, everything became clear.
“Do you think it can mate with three females simultaneously?” Nero whispered as he peered through the telescope.
A huge white ape sat on a high throne-cliff. It was about 25ft tall and had a huge hammer made of ice instead of a regular bludgeon. It did still have a ‘bludgeon’ of sorts that piqued Nero’s interest so much.
Hadjar looked at the hundreds of apes at the foot of the ‘royal’ cliff.
“We need a plan,” the General said.
Nero didn’t immediately stop watching, and so he nodded slightly belatedly. They went back to the squad and reported the latest news. It would be a lie to say that the soldiers weren’t afraid, but they believed in their General, and he wasn’t planning to let them down.
Just in case something like this happened, he had already prepared a plan. He’d come up with it after the sabotage on the Blue Wind Ridge, after analyzing everything that had taken place in the camp of the nomads.
Nero noticed the cunning gleam in his friend’s eyes, hid his face in his hands, and muttered: “The current madness isn’t enough for him. We need to think up something new. Why have the Gods cursed me so?”
Chapter 150
Setting up the powder charges took two days. The warriors of the Moon Army spent every one of those 48 hours constantly looking over their shoulders, pausing at every rustle, and hiding from even the lightest of breezes.
Each time they hid another powder charge tied to the monster cores from the stocks, they pressed it down into the snow and tried to merge with the surrounding environment as they did so. After all, there, at the foot of those icy mountains, among the high, black cliffs, at least three hundred white apes had gathered.
Hadjar had no idea how the monsters had managed to communicate the news of the local genocide to each other. Their leader—an Alpha at the fourth stage—was worthy of respect as they even had apes on watch duty.
For the General, the sight of it was something absolutely crazy. It amazed him that these animals, even though they were at high stages of cultivation, had watchmen! They didn’t just put omegas in snowdrifts and order them to wait around. No! Along the perimeter of their camp, at equal intervals, real patrols of strong males and females were walking around.
One of the soldiers crawled over to Hadjar’s shelter. He was a young man of around nineteen, inexperienced, and he hadn’t seen any blood or real battle. The boy had been recruited after the battle at the Blue Wind Ridge. During the siege of the Balium Fort and the sixth pavilion, archers like him had escaped the horrors of the melee.
“The charges are set, my General,” the archer reported before crawling away toward the rest of the squad.
Hadjar looked at his soldiers. They were the best of the best, the elite of his army. He couldn’t afford to lose even a dozen of them, but if they didn’t take a chance, he would lose far more.
The news that the charges had been set quickly spread through the ranks of the nearly five hundred practitioners gathered there.
The General gave them all a little time to prepare.
Some of them whispered prayers, pressing the idols of their gods to their lips. Some of them remembered their parents. Those who were more experienced and had survived the battle against the nomads just looked at their comrades nearby. They knew they would have to cover someone’s back and they hoped someone would cover theirs.
Nero, who was sitting next to his friend, tucked a red handkerchief into his belt. It smelled like the desert and freedom—just like Serra.
Hadjar raised his clenched fist, and five hundred strong fists soared into the sky in response. A moment later, the mountains shook with a series of powerful explosions. Along with the orange flames, entangled in black ribbons of smoke and ash, the images of various animals appeared in the snow. Huge eagles with fiery crowns spread their wings; wolves snarled, digging emerald claws deep into the ground, and deer whose horns emitted a fiery glow stood on their hind legs.
The apes below tried to huddle against the high cliffs with wild cries. A chaotic whirlwind of claws, bludgeons, ice, and white fur ensued. An avalanche of death and destruction descended from the mountains surrounding their settlement.
The bigger specimens batted away their weaker relatives. All the supposed organization of the white apes immediately evaporated. Now they looked like nothing more than a typical herd of animals. Scared and…
A roar like spring thunder sounded and the apes immediately calmed down.
The fighting stopped. The chaotic struggle ceased.
Directed by their Alpha, the strongest apes stood in a circle around the herd. They lowered their ice clubs and a solid wall of ice began to rise out of the snow.
Let’s see how long you last, Hadjar thought.
He unclenched his fist and twisted his palm a couple of times. Five hundred warriors immediately removed ice boards from their shoulders. Following their General and Commander, they jumped right into the plummeting avalanche.
While falling, Hadjar slightly bent his knees and put the ice board under his feet. The landing was rough—his spine felt as if a hammer had hit it—but Hadjar kept his balance. For a swordsman and practitioner of his level, it was no more difficult than jumping on one leg was for a mere mortal.
Balancing with the help of his arms and hips, Hadjar drew his blade. The wind blew with such force that he wondered if it would tear the very skin from his face. The roar of the ghostly beasts and the rumble of the avalanche rushing downward merged into a single echo, drowning out even the thunderous beating of his heart.
The speed of their descent increased, making his vision narrow. He could no longer see what was happening to his right or left, he could only sense his subordinates and comrades as they descended at his side.
Many of the apes didn’t manage to get behind the protective ice wall in time. Instead, they ended up outside of it—facing the raging disaster and the approaching warriors.
Hadjar swung his blade, chopping an ape’s head clean off its shoulders. The power behind his attack was increased further by the speed of the ice board rushing through the avalanche. They’d have time to dig up the bodies from under the snow later. Their main goal right now was to just survive and kill as many animals as possible while doing so.
Hadjar’s blade always found its prey. He didn’t think twice about striking apes in the back. The beasts screamed and ran, stumbling away from the avalanche toward the ice wall. The wall kept getting higher, eventually forming a dome.
Hadjar raised his fist and showed a few signs to his comrades. Immediately, the officers relayed the orders to the rest of the squad.
The gestures translated as: More quickly. Upward. Be careful.
Reaching the wall, the apes began to punch it, but their fellows didn’t even look at them. They could only stare at the oncoming tsunami of snow, ice, and stones heading their way.
The cries soon died down. They were replaced by the deafening roar of the avalanche colliding with the ice wall that shook from the force of the impact. Spots of blue blood were all that was left of the apes.
Just before the collision, Hadjar pushed off the ice board with all his might. Like an arrow, he soared into the air, sheathing his blade as he did so.
The dome didn’t manage to close in time. Instead, small bipeds, wrapped in furs and skins, began to rain down on the apes below, coming in through the hole at the top. At least that’s how the Alpha ape saw them.
The very first to enter was the biped that smelled of wind and sky. For the first time in its life, the formidable Alpha that had previously known no equal and had survived hundreds of challenges to its authority, was afraid.
When the biped fell upon the ranks of the apes and drew his steel claw, the Alpha heard the lingering cry of the Lord of the Heavens.
Accompanied by the roar of a dragon, Moon Beam shot out of its sheath and the silhouette of an attacking dragon was launched from its sword tip. Spiraling down from the sky, it dug its fangs into the male ape standing before it on the ground. Fountains of blood and severed limbs didn’t slow the dragon’s flight. Creeping along the ground, hissing and showering the snow with scorching steel sparks, the dragon tore into the flesh of one victim after another.
Suddenly, the Alpha ape caught its tail with its bare paws. Opening its huge mouth full of yellow, dirty fangs, it brought its ice hammer down on the dragon’s head with crushing force.
The ice hit the steel and the latter couldn’t withstand the crushing blow.
The dragon faded like a faint mist, but even a flight as brief as this one had been enough to leave behind a rich harvest. A dozen apes were screaming and rolling in the snow, trying to somehow deal with the fountains of blood that were currently spurting from their severed limbs. They’d dropped their bludgeons; their eyes were full of raw pain and fear.
They became easy prey for the other bipeds that had gotten through the hole in the dome.
The soldiers finished off the wounded apes and took up defensive positions, preparing for a fierce battle.
At the head of the group and covered in blue blood, was Hadjar. He clenched his sword tightly and calmly approached the giant ape.
The Alpha growled something and pointed at the small bug and its claw.
Three of its strongest subordinates charged forward. They jumped on the bug from three different sides. Their bludgeons flashed with ice. Bludgeons that could easily break rocks and even the spines of ice bears.
However, the bug didn’t even slow down. There was no fear in his bright, blue eyes. The steel claw flashed. It was so fast that it looked like a blur to everyone watching.
Three bodies, cut into several pieces, rained down all around the bug, and a fresh drop of blue blood fell on Hadjar’s shoulders.
They stood opposite each other.
The almost seven-foot-tall man and the nearly 26-feet-tall ape.
The ice wall shook as the beast whose territory was so brazenly being invaded roared. A second roar echoed it, but it was not the roar of a human…
For a moment, the Alpha of the apes had felt like it wasn’t a bug but a young Lord of the Heavens standing before him.
A dragon.
Chapter 151
Hadjar looked at his foe. The giant ape was blotting out the sun and the sky, and its hammer was larger than Hadjar. This was the biggest and strongest opponent Hadjar had ever faced.
This time, the neuronet was completely unable to scan the beast. However, it wasn’t really necessary. One look at its long claws and the muscles that looked more like thick cables was enough to define the ape’s parameters.
Maybe it didn’t have exceptional dexterity or speed, but its strength and physique was definitely outstanding and something to be feared.
The battle was still raging around them. Out of the corner of his eye, Hadjar could glimpse the huge hand with heavy swords instead of fingers. He saw the light of flames and flashes of lightning and felt the cold of ice spears and fangs.
Blue and red blood was being spilled on the snow all around him.
But all of this didn’t concern the leaders.
They looked into each other’s eyes. The black eyes met the blue eyes across the snow-covered ground.
Hadjar attacked first. He pushed away from the snow, moving at his maximum possible speed. To most of the apes, it looked like the bug had simply disappeared, and instead of it, the shadow of a large raven had taken its place.
Circling his enemy, Hadjar assumed the first stance of the ‘Light Breeze’ Technique. A tsunami with hundreds of blades inside it was unleashed by Moon Beam. It dug up the snow and launched rocks and debris alike into the air.
The wave of wind, slicing apart and sweeping away everything in its path, crashed into the giant ape standing before the General. The beast simply held its ice hammer out in front of it. The wind bit into the weapon, even chipped it a little, but it wasn’t able to get through its protection.
With a wild roar, the Alpha of the apes just swung its weapon once and that seemed to completely crush the storm wave out of existence. It burst and scattered in the air, but even the echo of the attack was still enough to kill a few of the lesser Alpha apes that failed to run away in time.
As the hammer hit the ground, it shuddered, and Hadjar almost lost his footing. He stayed on his feet, but the second shockwave was enough to dissipate the ‘Ten Ravens’ Technique. This left him completely defenseless against the foe’s sweeping paw strike.
Only the hundreds of battles he’d been in and thousands of hours he’d spent training helped the General break the claws trying to gut him with his blade alone.
The avalanche, which he had so recently ridden, hit his chest. Hadj
ar was easily tossed into the air like a rag doll.
That’s what the men saw, at least.
The ape had thrown the bug up to the same height as its eyes and then tried to bite into it with its sharp fangs. Its jaws clenched, but it only managed to brush against the bug’s flesh. Sweet blood spilled against the beast’s lips but it howled as the enemy’s claw dug deep into its left eye.
The beast closed its eyes for a moment, and that was all the opening Hadjar needed. As he fell, he again sheathed his sword and then suddenly unsheathed it once more. The roaring dragon plunged into the giant beast’s chest, forcing it to take several steps back.
The General landed in the snow, and then, with a couple of simple slashes, he cut his torn trouser leg away, not allowing the fur to stick to the wound. He snatched a tourniquet from his pocket and tied it over the limb that had been bitten. The ape’s fangs had only just grazed the flesh, but that had still been enough to tear away a piece of his leg.
The Alpha was shaking its head and recovering its focus. Blue blood ran down its chest and its left eye had lost the ability to see forever. But such wounds were nothing more than a trifle to a giant that was already covered in hundreds of scars. It had survived thousands of battles, and it had no doubt that it would survive this one as well.
With both paws, it grasped the haft of its hammer and swung it with all its might. The air and the earth shook as a titanic wave of ice came at Hadjar. It left a trail of frozen air behind, and the icicles left in its wake fell with a crash onto the snow below.
The General had no intention of facing this beast’s strike head-on. Taking a deep breath, he turned into a black raven, but he wasn’t going to dodge the ape’s attack. If he allowed it to pass by him, it would turn not only the apes into icicles, but all of his soldiers as well. The General couldn’t let that happen.
This time, the raven’s shadow almost split in two. Hadjar was moving so quickly that he almost reached the second stage of the Technique.
Now the speed was not only in his legs, but also in his rapidly moving hands. The shadow of the raven rose up from the ground and soared high into the air, circling around the ice wall. A second later, it spread its wings and dived toward the snow, turning back into the form of the General.
Dragon Heart: Iron Will. LitRPG Wuxia Series: Book 2 Page 39