Chapter 39 - Practice

"So, you're telling me that this was just the start?" Silva confirmed. It was an eventful day, to say the least. He was tricked into a trap, fought his way out of the encirclement, piling bodies left and right. And when he got back his hometown was burnt down to the ground, still burning even.

And now, some upstart was telling him that the attacks haven't even begun? That was ridiculous! But, he had no choice, in truth he was only ranting right now. He's seen the other person's memories, and from what he was shown. It was the truth. As of this moment, the forces of the enemy is marching down on them. Slowly but surely, they are on their way, bringing thousands of chaos-spawn to slaughter them.

Curtis had explained it to him as thoroughly as he can. In their talk within the Soul Reacher's influence, he had shown him the events he had seen during his stay on the battlefield. Towns, villages, cities, that were once the gathering areas for humanity turned into ashes, leaving only husks of the once peaceful sanctuaries for the people.

"We need to move now, I need you to mobilize the people here, command them, move them into another place, away from Chaos' path." Curtis urged him. The longer they stayed here, the higher the chances were that Chaos catches them.

They had no chance of defending this place, the walls have multiple breaches in them. They had supplies, sure. But, it wouldn't help if they can't even plug the holes in their walls. And with breaches that large, Chaos would just swarm them.

The number of abled bodies that they had wouldn't even cross a hundred. Most of them, farmers who didn't even dream of holding a sword in their entire lives. And placing that amount of guards versus a thousand screaming monsters, it wouldn't even make a dent in their number.

"I'll talk to the people, I could probably get them to move out in 2 hours. I'll also get the word out that you're a friendly, the remaining guards will assist you in whatever you need." Silva declared, finally getting his thoughts together. The reality of war had hit him, and it had hit him hard. In their earlier struggles against Chaos, he had never thought that things would develop this way. He and his group of friends beat them back every time. He had thought themselves to be invincible, that they would be able to fight off anything that was thrown against them.

But now he wasn't even sure if there was a way to win. In his fight against the bigger picture, he had been weighed, in his battle against stronger forces, he had been measured. And now that he had found out part of the truth, he had been found wanting.

𝑩𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍.

Words spoken by the wise had never been truer. Now that he knew what was coming, he couldn't help but shiver, it was one thing to fight against a few, he had just treated them as bandits, bloodthirsty bandits that were not going to surrender even if they lost a leg or two. It was another thing if he was fighting against an ancient enemy that had vowed to eradicate all of humanity.

Knowledge about the enemy was both a blessing and a curse to Silva, he had a choice, to fight or to flee? His sense of justice had appealed to him. Even more, he felt the fire in his earth burn brighter. He made his decision, he will fight until the day when the sun rose to a brighter world.

"Make it an hour, go order the guards that still have the energy to pack up supplies. I'll go ahead and scout a direction we can head in." Curtis smirked as he instructed, "And someone get me a map!" he shouted to the few guards who had tried to see what was happening.

Curtis had found someone willing to pit his life against Chaos for the brighter tomorrow.

Watching the silver armored man run off, Silva turned his gaze to the woman he was holding, Clara, she was the love of his life. Taken away by his closest friend. Determination filled his eyes. Even as a friend, he would give his life to protect the woman he loved.

He picked up his friend and delivered her to one of the beds below the fort, it was a makeshift medical area, tens of wounded guards had been placed inside to rest. Looking at one of the beds he found Dean, his best friend, sleeping, face as pale as his, sweat still covering his face. A small child, about the age of two, was by his friend's side. It was Josh, their son. Looking at the scene where his son was trying to wake up his father, Silva's heart clenched. Dean had exerted himself so much that it caused him to faint. And even as he slept, he couldn't get rid of the fatigue plaguing him. He couldn't even hear the voice of his son who was trying to wake him up. Silva placed Clara in a bed next to her husband. His godchild ran up to him, asking what happened to her mother.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to protect you two," Silva whispered to his two friends. It pained him to see them this way. Even more, was that their son was trying to wake them up. Not understanding the scene that was happening. Silva picked up his godson, attempting to placate the young boy, he was young, too young to understand things, and too young to have to see the effects of war.

"Come now champ, let us go find your nanny."

~~~

After a few minutes of rest, Curtis walked out of the fort with new eyes. He had ordered a few guards to go to the beach by the east end of the town, his boat was there along with some supplies. The immediate sense of danger had fully vanished, corpses of Chaos-spawn was strewn about, some beheaded, some missing limbs, and some split straight down in the middle. Beyond the corpses of those infected with Chaos, a burning town was seen, the silence of a once-bustling town had deafened him.

A cart that sold vegetables.

A stall that sold flowers.

A smithery that once produced wares that were needed by households.

Curtis took in the town that he was in. Death of innocent people, homes lost because of Chaos, families torn apart because of war. There were no cries of help. There weren't even any cries of pain. Curtis passed a few people who were alive, but clearly dead inside.

They had crawled out from under the rubble of their home.

A woman was cradling her loved ones, but afraid to even cry lest they drew whatever killed their family back to them.

A man, heaving as he carried someone on his back, slowly trudging towards the fort.

A young boy dragging his whimpering sister, clamping his hand over her mouth to prevent her cries from leaking out.

The fight was over, but their battles with their hearts were still raging.

Curtis' figure drew their eyes, each gaze clearly screaming for help but afraid to give voice to it. He wanted to help, but there were tasks that he needed to accomplish. It was much more important to see where their enemy was. Where they were going to come from.

All he could do was direct them to go to the fort. His current mission would benefit them more than what he could do by helping them now. At least the imminent danger had been averted. Curtis fought the urge, he needs to think of the bigger picture.

Armies fought battles.

Champions wins fights.

Information wins wars.

Of the three, Information was crucial, it dictated the flow of the battle plan, in today's events the enemy had done their research, they had made preparations. They trapped one of the champions, they were about to kill the other two. But, they had failed to make contingencies in case reinforcements had come. Or maybe they were too confident that there was no way that reinforcements could arrive?

They had no steps prepared in case a much stronger opponent had appeared. Curtis' appearance had all but saved the town. His arrival prevented the enemy from succeeding in their plan. Now he needed information on them if he ever wanted to win this battle.

Curtis ran out of the town, fueled by renewed rage towards Chaos, he ran towards the direction where the machines of war should have been. He had been exhausted with his fight with the Chaos leader, he had been drained with his fight with Silva. But, he needed to push on, he still had some left in the tank, and with what he was going to do, it wouldn't affect him that much.

Atop a hill, Broken trebuchets littered the ground. Wood charred with flames, their operators writhing on the ground. This should have been where Silva dropped by before he reached the fort. Traces of lightning bolts littered the area. He had targeted the trebuchets when he arrived, and a few contingents of the guards that had protected them.

Few had survived the attack, even fewer had escaped. Even now Curtis could see them running back on the plains heading south. The few that had remained could not move. It was perfect for Curtis.

Soul Reacher was initially created to rip information out of the mind. And now, he had a few targets. He hadn't mastered the technique. He had needed to practice hundreds of times before he was able to perform it back in Candelabra. But now, he had been given practice targets that could only wait for their turn.

"Thirteen."

Hearing his words, the poor sods that had been left behind by their allies squirmed. But, after being affected by Silva's lightning, they had no way to escape. Their limbs were paralyzed, dead as a log.

"Just enough."

With these words Curtis went to work, the temperature of the area went down by a few degrees, the fire still burning on the wood of the trebuchets had died out. He would still need to scout the area if any force of Chaos was left.

Chaos gave no quarter. So why should he give them any?