POV: Bash
Location: Southern Empire
A warrior or a slave, a swordsman or an assassin, up til now I can't decide which of the four truly represents who I am.
The slave mark edge on my right cheek just below my eyes has been hunting me for years. It is the symbol of the Yomah noble family, a capital Y with two swords crossing it in the middle.
I was sitting on a long stool with a mug full of beer in front of me, the tavern I would be eating dinner tonight was full of scumbags like me, paid mercenaries that cut off people's head for a bag of coins.
The round table I was sitting on has four bastards on it, Liyo, a guy who is narrating to his friends how he ripped apart a human body with one clean cut, a legacy he thinks is worth bragging to others.
The man I was concerned with the most was a guy quietly drinking his beer and eating pork belly. He is sitting directly across me with his blood-stained sword lying down on his thighs, a sitting position use by the members of the Dark skull mercenary group, if you pay them the right price they could present any head to you on a silver plate.
Suddenly, a hand tapped me on the shoulder, I turned to my left and faced one of Liyo's friends.
"A slave hah," he said, looking at Yomah's emblem on my right cheek.
I paid him no attention, I just returned to drinking my beer.
He paused a bit and stared at me for a moment.
"You respond to me when I am talking to you, slave!" he yelled at me.
I know the game he wants to play and I am not in on it. I tilted my head away from him and grabbed a roasted frog from the plate.
"Bash, Why are you ignoring my friend," Liyo taunted while tugging my shirt to the right.
The sound of my mouth chewing the limbs out of the frog was all the response they got.
Liyo grained his teeth and mustered a silent chuckle, "The silent treatment, hmm, I know how to deal with this."
My eyes remained fixed on the roasted frog in front of me, memory's of all the times scumbags like Liyo harass me kept playing in my head.
While I was stuck in my thoughts—avoiding the physical world. Liyo grabbed my mug and took a long sip of the beer I was drinking. He then scrambled his tongue mixing the beer in his mouth with all the meat residue he ate.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw his cheeks expanding like balloons, at that moment, I knew he wanted to spray all the contents of his mouth in my direction.
Be patient Bash, be patient Bash, I kept telling myself. Not every fight is worth your time, let scumbags be scumbags.
Liyo opened his mouth and spread beer all over my body, the beer came out of his mouth like a water splash from the nose of an elephant.
"Look at you Bash, you look like I have pissed all over your body." Liyo jeered.
His two idiot friends laughed in a ridiculous way.
It was not nice to be soaked in the beer that just came out of a grown-ass man, however, for some reason, my nerves were down and I was not as angry as I should be, I just reached for another roasted frog in front of me without even making eye contact with Liyo.
Liyo then grabbed my dark hair and forced me to make eye contact with him. "Its your last warning you slimee bastard, Say something...Anything."
My eyes remained glued at Liyo but my mouth remained shut with a frog leg stuck between my lips.
At that time, one of his friends took the roasted frog I was holding then threw it away.
Looking at Liyo in the face I smiled without saying anything, only swallowing the remaining frog meat in my mouth. I knew for a long time that the best way to make a bully like him angry is to stay silent.
"What are you smiling at?" Liyo's other friend asked, he then came close to me and pick up the entire plate filled with my roasted frogs. I watched him closely looking at my silver plate which he was holding.
"You want this?" he asked, lifting my plate upwards with his hand.
Without my consent, my eyes followed the plate he was holding and indicated to him I was not having it with my food, its a line clearly visible even in the sand.
As our eyes locked he smiled with his brownish teeth showing.
The next thing I know is that my plate filled with roasted frogs was crashing straight into my face, making the red sauce to paint my face orange-red.
A wave of laughter and loud giggles filled the air between Liyo and his two friends.
"Where is your smile now? bastard," Liyo said with a grin still stuck on his face.
His two friends were giggling with slight tears falling from their eyes. I watched through my red sauce covered eyes as their stupid mouth spread wide open, exposing their brownish teeth.
That time I was sitting on a stool with three grown ass men laughing at me, the three of them stood in a circle each taunting me with stupid jokes, they were successful in gathering the attention of nearby diners despite all the noises filling the busy tavern.
Be patient Bash, be patient, they are not worth your time.
At that moment, seconds after my frog dinner got ruined—I heard a sound, the sound was familiar to my ears, even in a deep slumber I would be able to sense it.
It was the sound of a rusted sword cutting through the air.
My hands immediately reached for the scabbard tied across my waist, pulling my dark silver sword in an instant.
It happened almost simultaneously, me getting a proper grip on my sword and a splash of blood hitting my face.
When I blinked intensely to get rid of the blood covering my eyes, I opened them to a view of three bodies mutilated in the cruelest way possible.
Liyo was slashed into two with his body splitting from the right shoulder to his left ear.
One of his friends have half of his brain split into two from an angle through the right eye. The other friend that was standing in the middle have a vertical slash separating him into two equal pieces, his body landed on the ground with his right ribs and left ribs separated from each other.
After assessing the horror in front of me, I turned back to look at a guy standing right across the table from me. He was licking his sword with his tongue exposed to the chilly night air.
They were fools, stupid fools, how could they have thought they could get away with splashing a member of Dark Skulls with leftover frog sauce.
The guy standing in front of me has his right eye missing, part of his hair was missing and the black leather jacket he wore has both of the sleeves cut off.
His eyes narrowed down to my sword extended at him in self defence. "What's your name," his heavy voice asked.
"I am Bash the wandering swordsman," I replied.
"Good then," he returned back to his sitting position, "I am Jackson, sorry for the blood spill I forced on you."
His eyes contain no sign of being sorry, they were cold, staring into them only reflect a roaring desire for violence.
Returning my sword back to the scabbard I also sat down, with no beer to drink or roasted frogs to feast on.
My savings have run low and I have stayed in this Iron Stone village for too long, I cannot afford to stay one week longer, I have to go to Ash, my only salvation.