Kai's clone on the other hand did not encounter any enemies throughout his entire journey and somehow made it to the entrance of the village unhindered. It was as though the enemy did not expect anyone to have survived in the castle, and were stupid enough not to expect anyone to flee in this direction.
Although this did feel a little suspicious, Kai's clone did not suspect it and continued to the entrance where he found out that the guards of the village had been killed, and a chill ran down his spine. Although he did not know these people, they were still people who had been killed.
Entering the village, Kai found more dead bodies littered around everywhere, and after a while, although he too was experiencing the grief Kai was and visa versa, the influence of each experience on the other party was still limited. On the other hand, Kai felt more pain from having killed two people himself, while the clone felt pain from seeing all the dead people around him.
'Why would they do this?' the clone thought to himself as he looked at the bright sun in the winter sky.
After a while, he went into one of the larger houses; shuffled past the pools of crimson blood and deceased family and found a shovel.
…
Meanwhile, somewhere near Kai, a fierce battle was ongoing.
Baron dread and a handful of his heavy-armoured cavalry were not on their mounts and were surrounded by enemies who were also not on mounts. The reason for this was rather simple. They had already fought for an hour and although many soldiers on both sides had died, all the mounts on the battlefield had been killed by the other side in this fierce battle.
Not having their mounts put the heavy armoured cavalry who were in full-plated iron armour at a severe disadvantage compared to the enemies who were in lighter leather armour. Without their mounts, the Baron and his troops were considerably slowed down in mobility and flexibility, forcing them to almost immediately take on the defensive role compared to their previously aggressive tactics of battle.
And now, although the enemy had lost almost half of their numbers, which was a lot considering the Baron barely had a quarter of their forces, to begin with, the Baron had nearly lost all his troops as well. From his original 300 men, he only had 50 men left. Although 300 was not all the soldiers he had with him, it was all that was available to him at the moment. He had sent the rest with Jason to take care of the castle.
Although the Baron had not specified to anyone where Kai was; afraid of a spy among his ranks, he was still scared for the child. Therefore, he sent Jason there with the excuse of taking care of the manor and its land as it would be the last symbol that the Dread barony even existed.
Jason had taken 200 soldiers with him to defend the castle, so the Baron was not too worried about that since most of the enemy forces seemed to be focused on him.
"Boys! If you want to live, pick up your swords and charge with me. We will only survive if we can break out of this encirclement!" Morgan Dread shouted as he wielded his longsword in his left hand and activated the Five Elephant Palm on his left palm, charging straight at the enemy in front of him.
He used his sword to parry the enemy's diagonal slash, before using the external art and throwing his palm right for the enemy's chest.
Despite having leather armour, the chest of the enemy immediately resembled a valley as the ribs were broken and stabbed into the organs they were meant to be protecting. The shock from the blow shifted all the organs and channelled into the soldier's body, killing him on the spot.
However, the Baron did not stop as he shifted his weight back onto the left side of his body and dodged the falling soldier, before moving on to the next one.
The 50 heavy-armoured cavalry also followed suit and charged behind the baron in a triangle charging formation. Unfortunately, without the speed of the horses as their mounts, this charge was rather easily stopped considering the sheer number of enemies.
Kai had already arrived at the edges of this battlefield by now and was silently watching everything from inside a bush. His eyes no longer held the grief and resentment they had before, but along with that, they no longer held the warmth and naivety of a child. Now, Kai's eyes were filled with intense coldness and nothing else.
Kai noticed that on the chaotic battlefield, there were two people giving orders; wearing rather conspicuous black leather armour. The men in leather armour turned away from the battlefield and in the direction where Kai had battled the other two soldiers, before pointing at another two soldiers.
Those two soldiers nodded and stepped out of the battlefield and began walking towards the direction Kai had fought the other soldiers. Unfortunately for them, Kai had already hidden the bodies nearby and covered the ground in dirt and leaves to hide the traces of battle and the blood.
Of course, he would not give up the opportunity to take out two more soldiers without putting himself at too much risk. So, he turned away from the battlefield seeing that Pops was not in immediate danger and went to try and take out these two soldiers.
Just like that, a figure bathed in dry blood turned his attention away from the main battlefield and towards the two unfortunate soldiers who were sent for ensuring that the rear of the army was safe.