The small sounds of the dirt crunching beneath their feet as they ran through the forest, avoiding roots and brush to try and remain relatively silent, which contrasted with the otherwise deathly silent forest, and each Ranger was on edge. Gyun led the group as they slowed down, reaching a small clearing; a group of dead infantry soldiers lay on the ground in the clearing, their red blood stained the green glass below.
A brief pair of hand signals from the quiet Gyun informed them to move forward cautiously as they entered the small clearing; the smell of blood was fresh in the air, and a slight metallic taste sat in the back of Gyun's tongue, a taste he was familiar with. More than two dozen soldiers were sprawled around in the clearing, all dead, their bodies stuck at unnatural angles, and the men's blood was soaking into the earth below.
"Watch my back for a minute."
Brief nods of acknowledgment were exchanged between the squad as they formed a protective circle around Gyun as he approached the bodies of the soldiers; stepping closer to the bodies, he could see the glistening of the sunlight off the pools of blood on the blades of grass. The blood had yet to dry; Gyun slipped off one of his leather gloves, squatting down onto his haunches before pressing his finger on one of the dead soldier's skin. The soldier's eyes were open, the eyelids drooping half closed as if he was sleepy, his skin a delicate olive tanned from his time in the sun, the black hair fell across his face covering a head wound that was still bleeding, but the emptiness in the man's gaze betrayed his lack of life.
Avoiding the dead man's lifeless gaze as he stood up, speaking as he slid back on his glove, "The blood hasn't dried, and the bodies are still warm; they're nearby."
Gyun glanced back at the dead man, his eyes naturally drawn to the dead man; there was something there, something about the empty gaze; it was different from the empty gaze he'd seen in some of his fellow Rangers or soldiers. It was a truly empty gaze; there was nothing behind those eyes, no anger, happiness, sadness, or fear; it was just an abyss as if the soul had left and left a hollow husk. In a haunting manner, Gyun had heard stories from some particularly scarred Rangers about how looking a man in the eyes as you kill him allows you to see the deepest part of the soul just before it evaporates to join the Holy Mother's embrace in paradise.
As he was about to look away, Gyun noticed a brief movement in the man's eyes, causing him to freeze for a moment before he returned to normal.
Vin commented on it in a low voice, "Poor bastards."
"Nothing we can do for them now; I'll call the rest of us to decide our next move." Gyun's movements were stiff from fear, he could feel his heart pounding a shiver ran down his spine, if what he saw was what he thought it was he had to get the squads at least together if they wanted to have a chance of survival
Pushing his helmet up, he held his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly; after a few moments, footsteps from both directions could be heard before the other squads appeared through the forest's brush. One of the squad leaders started to speak, "wha-... oh damn."
Gyun gestured the two sergeants over, who hurriedly jogged to stop in front of Gyun, gesturing them even closer, the pair of sergeants leaning in near Gyun.
"What is it?"
Gyun's voice remained calm, but the slight tremors in his hand as he reached toward his sword very discreetly betrayed his fear, "Whatever you do don't look up...but they're in the fucking trees."
Both men froze; in a barely audible voice, one of the sergeants cautiously spoke, "Are you sure?"
"I saw them in the reflection of a dead man's eyes, I saw four but the fifth may be nearby"
"What do we do?"
Gyun's sword was slowly pulled out of his sheath as he answered, "I the-Urgh!!"
Gyun was sent flying by an arrow that struck him in the chest; the man's armor clattered as he rolled over himself, smashing through the brush and foilage before he slammed into a nearby tree, crumpling over and laying face down, unmoving; the sergeants took a moment to recognize the situation before moving.
"We're under attack!! Watch the damn trees!"
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His eyes flickered open; he could feel the cold steel of the helmet pressing up against the front of his face, and there was a stabbing pain in his chest. He could feel warm blood leaking out from his side through the bandages.
-Did I get shot?-
Rolling over onto his back, he sucked in deep breaths sliding backward until he was sitting against the tree he'd slammed into. His gaze was blurry, he felt nauseous it felt like the world was spinning, the fabric from his clothes was damp and wet from sweat. He could feel it all, yet he did not know where he was, screams and the screech of metal on metal could be heard all around.
Shakily standing up, he gripped his sword, pulling it out of its sheath; his eyes shot around from within the helmet.
He felt someone grab his shoulder; startled, he spun around about. to swing his sword, "Vin?"
Vin was covered in blood; his black uniform was stained bloody red, especially on his arms; his helmet was missing, and his black hair was soaked in sweat and stuck to his face; his eyes stood out. They were struck with fear and wild,
"They're all dead, Gyun the-"
"Wait-wait! Who's dead?"
"Squads 1 and 2, they were wi-!"
An arrow shot through Vin's neck was sticking out his throat. Vin's eyes widened as he looked at Gyun in fear. His hands shot up to his throat, and blood squirted onto Gyun's face as a desperate gurgling sound came from Vin, who slowly fell forward, grasping at Gyun to keep himself from falling. Vin desperately tried to keep himself from falling; Gyun was frozen, his hand slowly raised up to his face, touching Vin's blood, "V-Vin?"
Vin was convulsing on the ground, gurgling as blood poured out of his neck, Gyun's eyes were locked on the image of the dying Vin who was holding onto his throat for dear life.
"Similis est superstes." A female knight dropped from a nearby tree. She landed softly on the ground, a bow in her hand; her armor was silver like the knight Gyun had killed, except hers was much more ornate and certainly a higher quality. Her lack of helmet exposed her young face, almost arrogant expression; it was a clean face, a face that had yet to be dirtied by the war, a fresh face straight out of the Royal Academy.
Gyun glared at her; through his helmet, his eyes burned with anger. Vin had stopped moving and was silent now as life had fully left his body.
"Oh, I forgot, you savages only speak. This barbaric language, I meant to say, prey should run." The girl smiled arrogantly as she notched another arrow.
Gyun's sword stabbed forward almost the moment she finished her sentence; a brief gasp of surprise came from the girl's lips as she dodged to the side.
He chased after her, not letting her get any distance to fire her arrows, swinging wildly. He was in a rage, swinging with all his strength; the inexperienced girl was skilled; she wasn't evading by much, but she could avoid his blade. The girl was fast and skilled; she maneuvered elegantly along the forest floor.
Faking a swing with his sword, Gyun stepped to the side and kicked the girl to her stomach; the female knight's eyes momentarily showed surprise, but she blocked it with relative ease despite being caught off guard.
The girl hopped back, put the bow onto her back, and drew a dagger from her hip, brandishing it with a smile.
"Since you insist on it, I will show you the difference between heaven and earth!" The girl's arrogant statement after killing his friend in front of him only served to anger him even more.
In their brief fight, Gyun had figured her out: technically skilled, fast-moving archer with good accuracy and aura usage, but arrogant and inexperienced in real combat.
"Arrogant Bitch" the words dripped. With venom and hate, Gyun switched to a one-hand grip on his sword, and his muscles strained to keep the sword up as he focused all his aura on his sword blade, causing it to glow and vibrate ever so slightly.
On the other hand, the girl spread her energy evenly across her body and, therefore, exploded forward with inhuman speed; Gyun swung his sword, but it was all a trap as she focused on blocking his sword strike. His other hand flung a handful of dirt into her eyes.
She yelped as she tried blinking the dirt away. Gyun reached his hand out, moving so slightly to the side as he stepped forward, avoiding the blind, desperate stab, pulled her in, and headbutted her face; a satisfying crunch sounded from the impact on his helmet. Holding her by the collar, he smashed the side of her head with the pommel of his sword. The girl's legs gave out from beneath her as she tried to fall to her knees, but Gyun kept her standing, tightening his grip on her collar; he tossed her over his hip, slamming the girl into the ground.
The breath left her body as she slammed into the ground, both of their armors clattering; Gyun hastily grabbed her arm, spinning before falling back into an armbar, breaking her arm at the elbow. A short scream came from the female knight as she rolled over in pain, standing up. Gyun grabbed the arrow still stuck in his armor; he grabbed the base of the arrow, snapping it; the girl's eyes widened, and the fear began to set in as he plunged her own arrowhead under her armor and into her stomach, he felt the softness of her skin being broken as the arrow pierced through the uniform and skin into the intestines of the stomach.
Staring back defiantly at him as he loomed over her. The pain was all over her face, yet she still had the will to look at him like that, her labored and quick breaths as the pain spread throughout her body; she was quivering in pain, yet those eyes...they disgusted him.
Breathing heavily, he wobbled slightly as he stood watching her lie helpless on the ground. His uniform black shirt was soaked in sweat and blood; the blood poured out of his wound so much so that he felt dizzy as if he was about to throw up. Swallowing his tiredness, sheathing his sword, he bent down grabbing the female knight's dagger; he lifted it up to his face peering at it through his helmet slit, twirling the dagger to the dismay of the female knight who watched in terror while cradling her broken arm lying on the ground.
"HEY!!!"
The voice caused Gyun to turn around slowly. He felt like the world was spinning. He wanted to vomit at that moment but held his composure, blinking away the sweat from his eyes.
Not more than 3 meters from him was one of the other Royal Academy Knights; his distinct lack of a helmet told Gyun all he needed to know: he didn't care about the fancy armor, the student's handsome appearance, or the beautiful sword at his hip. He was just another body that needed to be buried in the ground to win,
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" The student's sword lit aflame at that, glowing a brilliant black flame, his young handsome face was seething with rage.
Gyun cocked his head at that. Flames or any unique aura usage were normally from a big sect or family in the Canto Empire, in the Aegean Kingdom it was for the Nobles. Gyun had heard of only one family in the Aegean Kingdom with black flames. The Evermore duchy, the so-called Aegean Wall, was one of the three noble families controlling the Aegean Kingdom.
Wait...
Gyun's head titled as a realisation began to dawn on him the gears clanked away in his mind as he puzzled through this in a few moments. It only took a few seconds as he stood over the defeated knight holding her dagger.
Clicking his tongue, he sighed as stepped away from the girl "I know now....Adrian Evermore, the third son, the bastard son, the genius son."
The knight stared intensely at Gyun, his eyes occasionally darting to the female knight who passed out from the pain, however Gyun while not being very good at reading emotions, was not a fool. He noticed this and caught on, he originally had no intentions of taking a hostage, he despised the idea of dying dishonorably using a hostage but it seemed like it could now be a viable option.
Gyun eyed the unconscious knight, and he squeezed the vial in his other hand discreetly loosening the top of the vial; it was a spare vial of the drug he had taken before, aptly given the nickname 'war blood.' It was a last-ditch effort, and he'd be lucky not to have a heart attack after taking it but he seemed to be left with no choice.
He felt his sheathed sword. Tapping it with the dagger, his stare at the girl was broken as his Qi sense felt the presence of powerful individuals moving towards them.
-Damn, they aren't even trying to hide it now, they're closing in on me...-
He turned back to Adrian Evermore who was anxiously standing with his sword drawn waiting for Gyun to move away from the girl.
Letting out a deep sigh, Gyun's tired voice broke the stand-off between the two.
"I guess you won't accept my surrender?"
"No, a dead man can't surrender." The boys voice was cold
"Tch, I won't beg for my life, I may be a dead man but I have the honor of the Rangers to uphold, let us fight this honorably then, you and me, no one else."
"I can give you that if you step away from Rose."
Gyun nodded, stepping away from the girl, he was trembling all over as he walked, but the clatter of his armor helped hide it, whether the trembling was from fear, exhaustion or blood loss he couldn't tell.
Anger, fear and pain all burned like an inferno just beneath the calm demeanor he was trying to exhibit, he still hadn't recovered from the arrow still lodged in his armor and chest. Each step he took away from the unconscious girl he could see it, his life flashing before his eyes. All the times he spent training, his life in the modern world, his family, his squad, his Ranger graduation, his first kill. The dead man's stare still haunted Gyun at times. All of It all came flooding back; each step the two took towards the duel felt like it brought up a new memory.
As they walked, Adrian Evermore didn't break his stare at Gyun, ignoring the stare he reached up to his chin unfastening the strap for his helmet he then slid off the helmet dropping it to the ground, a metallic clang sounded as the helmet hit a stone on the forest dirt. His black matted hair was soaked in sweat stuck to his face, he awkwardly pushed it up.
Adrian was surprised; the face under the helmet was even younger than he was. Adrian couldn't tell before because the helmet gave the voice a metallic echo sound, making it hard to distinguish age. Even then the soldiers face was caked with sweat and dirt, his nose was bleeding and blood was running down his face, the soldiers face was more like a boys but his eyes betrayed him. The eyes were watching him, analyzing him as he walked, it wouldn't matter, Adrian could sense that they were on different levels. Adrian didn't want to kill him anymore despite what he did to Rose, but it was war.
Swallowing the fear he could, Gyun stopped after they were about a dozen or so meters from the unconscious female knight, popping the lid off the vial he downed it in a single gulp, savoring the burning feeling as the thick sludge slid down his throat. Crushing the glass vial in his gloved hand his other hand grabbed his sword.
Drawing his sword, he felt the weight more than he had ever before, it was almost as bad as when he first picked up a sword, his skin was turning pale as he had bleed out progressively for the past hour since first getting stabbed.
His attention was only briefly stolen by the shouts of the other arriving knights, but Adrian quickly waved them off, "This is between me and him! Help Rose and giver her potions!"
A deep breath later the two stood their stances ready as their swords were both stained with blood, Adrians blade still wet with blood while Gyun's had dried, it was a sight as the two stood no more than three body lengths apart.
One would think they were statues if it weren't for Gyun's labored breathing, it sounded like wet wheeze, he would surely die if he didn't get advanced treatment in the next few minutes. Yet that was something out of his control; the only thing he could do now was fight with all he had.
Finally, after a few moments, Adrian kicked the ground, his entire body emanating the black flames. His sword's movement was fancy and delicate, the mark of a genius.