Mortis watched with keen eyes on the road below them. By his trackers estimates the luxcian caravan should be coming in to their line of sight any time now.
Mortis had been restless the night before. Not only in preparation for the next day, but also because of what Morta had said to him.
He never liked it when she had that look on his face. The look that said he was despicable. It reminded him of times he wanted to forget. A part of himself just wanted her to have faith in him. Their talk from the previous night just reminded him how little she trusted him.
"Relam, don't you dare take out that horn."
Mortis could practically feel the anticipation radiating off of him. If he didn't say anything he was sure Relam would blow it behind his back.
Relam chuckled uncomfortably, "I would never dream of it my lord."
Mortis didn't really know why he let him keep the thing. It would be one less thing to worry about if he didn't have it.
Alsarie smiled pridefully, "Don't worry my Lord, I assure you I will not let him sound the call. No matter what it takes."
Relam seemed deeply annoyed by her announcement, but Mortis knew it would scare him enough. Actually the more pressing concern at the moment would be how far Alsarie would go to keep her word.
The Hands and Relam were waiting behind the hill for Mortis's signal to ride. Mortis sat alone at the crest of the hill. He look back to find Morta's face. It seemed that she still remembered the conversation from last night, and didn't want to be close to Mortis.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and turned his attention back to the road. He had explained everyone's roles. The Hands were to attack the carriages, but not stop them. Mortis wanted them to reach Sangai. Morta would of course provide them with protection with that darkness of hers.
Loinir Attoka in the sky. He smiled at the bat-like creature's presence. The caravan was close.
He raised his kukri and pointed it at the enemy and started down the hill on his attoka, Yamack. The others followed suit, and a stampede of tenebrage could be seen riding down the hill. Surely it would have any member of the caravan shaking in his boots.
Mid-way down the hill the luxcian carriages came into view as it rounded a hill. The arrows of light came shortly afterwards. Mortis didn't even take notice of them as they were blocked by Morta and her veil of darkness. There was no chance that anything would ever be able to get past it.
As the party swarmed the four carriages, Morta let go of her veil. It changed form, and almost like an animal darted to the archers in the sky atop their Attoka. It swarmed them, and most of the archers fell from their mounts to their deaths. The others that had been able to hold on, were quickly taken out by Alsarie's arrows, and Mortis could sense extreme satisfaction from the Hand.
Hands surrounded the carriages on both sides. Mortis gave a nod to Alsarie who smiled with joy and jumped onto one of the carriages.
Alsarie wielded a spear the same as the luxcian soldiers. It was almost as if they were getting a taste of their own medicine. The thing that made the whole situation amusing was the fact that the luxcian soldiers didn't quite know what to do when they saw her weapon.
They had been trained to deal with adversaries with short ranged weapons. As they should, for it was looked down upon for a tenebrage to wield a long ranged weapon. Originally it was due to them being the choice weapons of luxcian, but over the years Mortis had seen a rise in the belief that they were a courageous weapon.
Alsarie was no coward. She took advantage of this moment of uncertainty, and would strike with all she had in the first moments of a fight. It was almost like watching a wolf lurch at its prey before they could run away.
Alsarie impaled the soldier she landed in front of inducing even more shock into the other luxcians. Without retrieving her spear she dashed and elbowed the soldier right next to her victim off of the carriage.
She then went to retrieve her spear inside the soldier's body. She jerked it out violently, sending blood everywhere, but she was not fazed by it at all, unlike her opponents. It was a smart way to ensure that multiple opponents wouldn't come at you at once.
Right when she had pulled out the spear, a soldier had tried to pierce her heart with the thrust of his spear. She leaned down like a cat about to pounce on its prey dodging the attack. She thrust her own spear through his heart. Though she instantly pulled it out to slash the soldier to her right that was about to strike.
Blood rained.The floor of the carriage was dyed red in a matter of seconds, and Alsarie's dark green cloak now had a red hue to it.
She dropped her spear and turned to her last two opponents with a murderous smile.
She walked towards the one that readied his spear. The luxcian thrust his spear before Alsarie had a chance to get too close. Alsarie side stepped, dodging the attack, and caught the spears shaft and yanked it towards herself.
The man stumbled past her with his spear, and she kicked the back of his knees making him fall, but not before she caught him by the neck and snapped it.
The last luxcian ran towards Alsarie. He was likely to believe that any long ranged attack with the spear would not work on her. Though he forgot that every member of the Black Crescent has a kukri. He was reminded when he found one in his abdomen.
Alsarie nonchalantly walked to pick up her spear, then entered the carriage.
Mortis watched as other Hands boarded wagons and took on the guardsmen in the back. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. He Thought that they might be able to finish their business sooner than he had previously thought. Until an obstacle presented itself.
A piercing light came from the head carriage. If Morta hadn't guarded them both with her darkness, then Mortis's would have been blinded for a long time, maybe even forever.
He noticed that various Hands were recoiling from the attack.
"What the hell was that!?"
Mortis turned his attention to the blue cloaked man in front of him, "Relam what happened."
Mortis could feel disbelief radiating off of Relam as he shook his head, "How could that...from one man?"
Morta uttered a quiet whisper under her breath, "Ritoro."
Mortis started to notice the bodies laying on the road. He furrowed his eyes in frustration, "How could someone take out so many Hands so fast."
Morta spoke in an apathetic tone, though Mortis could sense that there was more behind it, "He's the man that Yorburn fell to. It's going to take a lot to bring him down."
Mortis glared at the head wagon, "Then I guess I'll go and meet him."
Morta looked at him in shock as he rode by her, "But you never..."
He wasn't able to hear the rest of what she said as he galloped as fast as Yamack could go to the man named, Ritoro.
As Mortis caught up to the carriage he saw the man. He looked to hold himself in a way that told anyone that he couldn't be defeated. Mortis smiled to himself, he almost looked like a hero out of a story book. His silver military cloak freely flew in the wind fully unveiling his light armor of roughly the same color.
As Mortis leapt to the roof of the carriage, Ritoro took notice, looking up at him. His expression was unreadable. Mortis tried to sense his emotions, but they were so complex at the moment that it would take more effort then it was worth to unravel them.
Mortis smiled, "Well. What are you waiting for? I heard you bested Yorburn."
Ritoro looked at Mortis as if he peering into his soul
Mortis laughed, "I wouldn't bother reading my mind. Those tricks don't work on me."
The man's face remained unchanging.
"I admit that you have piqued my curiosity. I would like to see how skilled the man who beat one of my most deadly men really is."
Ritoro furrowed his brow, "Is this just a game to you?"
Mortis tried to sense his emotion once more to try and find what he meant, "Now what do you mean by that general?"
Ritoro glared at the disciple. His path was now certain, though it would be a lie that one couldn't find a little fear in his eyes, if only a little.
As Mortis backed away from the ledge overlooking Ritoro, Ritoro climbed onto the roof of the moving carriage.
Mortis flipped his kukri in his hand, "Let's see if you can really use that thing."
Ritoro readied himself.
The two studied each other. Awaiting the other to make the first move. In the end neither remembered who moved first as both dashed at the other simultaneously.
Ritoro immediately went on the defensive. It surprised Mortis who had wanted to let him go on the offensive to see what he was made of.
Mortis made some playful strokes, to test the general. Predictably each one was deflected. Mortis was basically just asking for him to go on the offensive now. His strikes were halfhearted. He thought that even a Bluecloak would be able to block them.
As sounds of metal clashing rang through the air, Ritoro's glare deepened.
The sound suddenly ceased as Mortis' eyes widened in surprise. His Kukri flew in the air. He had seen the attack, but there was almost no sign of it coming.
"Now isn't a time to play around Lord Mortis. If you confront someone you better give it your all, or it's just a waste of time from both parties."
As Ritoro prepared to thrust his sword through Mortis who was now wide open his opponent gave a conceited smirk, "If you insist."
A purple wave exploded from Mortis, almost sending Ritoro flying. He would have if he wasn't able to stab the roof of the carriage with his sword. Despite his situation, Ritoro gave a triumphant smile as he looked towards the source of the explosion.
Mortis held a deep purple sword with razor sharp teeth going around the blade. The inner part of the blade was black, as if it had sprouted from the hilt. If one was to look into the blade long enough, one would be pulled into its abyss.
Ritoro stood up hastily, "So that's Tenebrence. It lives up to the stories."
"I hope you understand your request earlier."
Ritoro nodded, "I hope the rumors of Tenebrence's power are true".
Mortis was the one to initiate the fight as he rushed towards Ritoro. Though it looked more like a walk to an outsider.
Ritoro readied his defense, and it was met by Mortis's onslaught of strikes.
Everyone of Mortis's strikes was enough to bring a regular swordsman to his knees. They seemed to have no reason or rationality behind them. The only thing clear about them was that they would pierce any swordsman's defense.
That is why it surprised Mortis when Ritoro was able to keep up with him. The general blocked all his attacks with a look of deep concentration on his face.
When many of his strikes had either been dodged or blocked Mortis grew frustrated. He prepared one last strong attack to break Ritoro's defense, as the other method wasn't working. Mortis prepared a side-slash. The only way Ritoro could dodge it would be to jump back, which he didn't have much room to do, as Mortis had already pushed him back. His other option was to block, which would inevitably end in his defense being broken.
Mortis executed the slash and to his surprise Ritoro jumped back with a satisfied smile. As Mortis finished his attack, he was left wide open. He was then met by a blinding burst of light.
Ritoro rushed at Mortis, but he was surprised that he was met with the sound of metal on metal.
Ritoro's eyes widened and he could hear a laugh, "Your know you were doing so good hiding your eagerness before, to bad you weren't able to do it just before you tried to blind me like that."
As the light fully vanished Ritoro saw Mortis with his arm over his eyes, "I think I understand how Yorburn lost. You remind me of how my daughter fought. I have to think you for that much."
Ritoro smiled despite his failure, "She must have been a great warrior."
Mortis smiled warmly back at him, "She was."
Ritoro stared at him with dismay, "Was?"
Just then a burst of a purple force from Mortis's hands sent Ritoro flying from the carriage.
"That's what you get for using such a trick."
Mortis had already gotten the answer he was looking for. Fighting him anymore would be a waste of time. At least the luxcian was able to remind him of Shelta.
He thought back to the general's last word, "What was up with that face anyway?"
Mortis looked around. Most of the wagons had come to an abrupt stop. The drivers were in various states. Some were pale and trembling with trepidation, others had fallen from their post and were emptying their stomachs onto the road. Every guard was either dead or had dropped his weapon. Mortis looked down at Tenebrence, not many luxcians could stand in its presence.
Morta called out to Mortis, "Everyone's finished, let's go."
Mortis nodded and jumped back onto Yamack and rode off with the party.
***
Ritoro woke up laying on his attoka.
He sighed, "Looks like the caravan went on without me."
the attoka tried to motion for the pack on his saddle with the Rena Root in it. Ritoro didn't take notice though. He almost didn't even notice the pain throughout his whole body. He could only think about one thing.
"Has master really died?"
She was getting up there in age, but he wished he would have been able to say goodbye.
"What would she think about what I did?"
It was a natural thing to think about. That tent was probably one of his single biggest regrets. He wished that he had more time to come up with a better solution, but after they had all learned the secret...he couldn't think of anything else to do.
He thought back to his time when he was being taught by her, "When did I become like this? When did I become such a monster that would do such a thing like that without hesitation. He needed to find ??? if he found them it wouldn't be a waste. If only he brought ??? to him it would all be worth it."
The face of his master filled his head, "Would it really though? How much would he excuse for the sake of his mission? How much further would he fall for it."