To Xie’e, the journey to find his master was bound to be long, Ali had said yesterday.

In confirmation of his former knowledge, like most guilds other than Guild Of Commerce and Guild Of Banking, Guild Of Explorers were also shunned away by Shamo for the lack of- in their words- respect to their ancestors and dead; it was the work of the explorers and archaea immortals to uncover old times’ secrets by any means, after all, and defiling tombs were one of the most fruitful ways to do it. And so, they had too few bases of operations directly in contact with the guild, and only three of them had solid and reserved places.

One was right next to the border with Shaowei and Shamo, in the city of Onshom around the remains of a large genocide that Ali refrained from talking. He said the remains of a secluded community like the Totinhu, and that was their name, enticed great many of them to scourge through all records and graves left behind after the horrible events. And so, their headquarters settled a few dozen clerks and explorers to prepare the initial expedition.

When Ali seemed quite sour about them disturbing the dead, Xie’e also remembered his father’s now-gone grave.

Shaking his head and returning from the ridiculous revelation he had with Thleaft and Theraght, his mood turned for a little bit worse as well at the thought. The sun had not risen by much, for their talk lasted at most eleven or twelve minutes. The winds turned milder at this time of the day, and would do so until the third quarter of the day, when they would riot into gusts and storms. It would bother them quite bad, honestly.

But now, Xie’e enjoyed the wind caressing his face and lifting his hair; it had grown long again, he realized.

I should cut it sometime- he decided and went back into his tent after passing through the first one by the entrance. Since the company would, with his estimate, still be asleep for an hour or more, he would rather meditate to look how his body fared.

He walked in and cast his eyes to anyplace that would be comfortable to sit, and he found none. A few steps into the tent started a sea of soldiers, and by sea he saw only seven of them, but each man and women had such large-built bodies that they covered twice the land he would. Even then this tent wouldn’t be such crowded- but there they were, the mules and horses laying and sleeping at the edges of the wide tent made it so.

The grey mule he saw some minutes ago with over-sized eyes now seemed awake and well, though it continued to crush the same pair with its body. Xie’e looked on at it, and it stared at him with a blank gaze. Then it whimpered and Xie’e moved closer to it. Right beside the mule, away from the trembling hands and the grunting heads of the two soldiers, he found an empty space he could sit; he sat down and leaned his back to the mule’s chest.

‘’Thank you,’’ He said and closed his eyes.

In a meditative state, he thought of the other two bases Explorers had.

Like the one in Onshom, the guild built its other base at the other edge of the Shamo: next to the border between them and Cindersnow City. There, Ali said, laid not tombs but ancient homes and residential areas constructed around seven to eight hundred years ago; right before The Sect’s foundation by two patriarchs. So they carried quite a value to understand the time period between the old God’s Nation fall, end of the Frenzy Of Century, and Cindersnow Hegemony’s starting point. Thus, the explorers put more importance right after The Sect’s absence, and so the base there had both a great deal of manpower, and communicative devices and records of the registered members; there, he could find his master’s contact and get in touch with him.

But right before that, there was the third base in Shamo’s capital, Bashkend, which also had its name applied to the whole province. Ali brushed off most details about it, as he admitted he didn’t know much about them as well, but being in the center of the whole country they were bound to have the devices and registers to help him as well. Even if it didn’t, since it shared the common road to the Cindersnow, he could try his chance there and go forth to Cindersnow city.

What will I do right after...then?

He didn’t put much thought into that before, nor did he consider the circumstances his master might be in. He, and Xie’e learned this from Quan himself, had promised to his excellency Shuangxing ten years of service for a debt. What it was, Gaobun seemed to know but showed no inclination to confess it, and at that time Xie’e felt no need to push a grieving disciple for his curiosity.

What need Quan had to lie to him, he thought of none, and even know he believed it to be the truth. Both of them, Quan and Shuangxing, were of high status and almost at the peak of the world in martial prowess; what would warrant the necessity to not let him know other than a national secret? As such, he thought knowing it to be a debt sufficed. Whatever it may involve, his master was there as a beneficiary to that debt. So it was nothing but truth.

Or I am delusional- he let out a smile at that and released his focus to the surroundings.

Since he would travel all the way to the Bashkend with Ali and his company, it would be the best to recover fast and be of help somehow. There were many things he could do, they said, to help. Only, he didn’t know in what, and he had to wait until everyone got on their feet to do so.

Trying to guess along, Xie’e kept seated and willed the Qi around him to move; his forehead wrinkled and for a moment, he sensed something peculiar in the tent. He inspected for a moment, and his intangible sense passed through the particles of red Qi swarming around the mules and horses.

‘’Is this why they hold you here?’’

The mule behind him, as if answering, snorted.

*********

In two hours the soldiers in the tents rose and started getting back to their work. Some woke like a bear and some awakened quick; yet they all did the same.

Those in the same tent as Xie’e cast him glances before greeting, he supposed them to be the slow awakeners, and climbed up to their feet to get dressed. There were many who took out their chest pieces to sleep, for it would be scorching hot in the armor, and for those the elder soldiers in the auxiliary group prepared the yellow and white robes to wear for the time being. They were the first ones to awaken and get to work; Xie’e watched the sole older woman in their tent shot to her feet and get dressed before storming out before everyone else tightened their belt.

After her came the others, and one by one they disappeared, leaving him with the two struggling under the mule. Xie’e stared at them for a moment, then stood up. With the mule in front of him, there were two horses and another mule surrounding the tent. They were, even if awake, still lying comfortably on mats sinking into the sand.

‘’Rise for a second,’’ He muttered and held the grey mule’s head in his hand. The mule peered at him, then rose to its four feet; it whimpered and with it other animals rose as well. They stomped their hooves, and they neighed, then left through the flapping entrance to the outside.

Those two lying under the mule groaned and clutched their backs in pain, and they seemed to awaken faster than even the elderly woman as they shouted.

‘’My back! Aaagh! Get master Batos, aaaaaaAAAGH!’’

Xie’e held his laughter and ran out of the tent to find the old man from last night; it seemed his service was needed today.

*********

‘’Aaah! Slow- yeah, like that! Mmmmh!’’

Ali peeked into the tent Batos rushed in a moment ago and saw the man fingering the back of a soldier; his face lit up and his arms shaking the man continued to shout and call.

Ali withdrew his head, let go of the veil, then walked back to pale-faced Xie’e.

‘’That’s why, benefactor, I said you should refuse-’’

‘’Yes, yes, okay, I understand.’’ Xie’e nodded. His face lit up red at the thought of letting out such sounds in the middle of a group of strangers.

‘’Was the sleep...’’ Ali asked.

‘’What?’’

‘’You ear is the same, alright,’’ Ali said, ‘’I said was your sleep any good?’’

‘’You don’t need to shout that hard, but it was okay,’’ Xie’e said. ‘’So, bene-’’

‘’I can lit that fire again.’’

‘’-Ah Li, what will we do?’’

‘’As you see, benefactor,’’ Ali pointed all around them to the soldiers; they gathered the excess wood and stone and put them on mules in sacks, they reclaimed the tents and stuffed them in stacks of boxes and hung them around mules as well, and auxiliary group started helping soldiers to put on their armor. Those with free hands pulled out the spikes put around the camp and placed them in their personal rings. ‘’We are preparing.’’

‘’To wher?’’

‘’...really?’’

‘’...I mean, where will we pass?’’ Xie’e pouted for a moment.

‘’You know the general area, I suppose?’’

‘’Of course,’’

‘’Good,’’ Ali said and started drawing in the air a square. He tapped a small dot at the farthest left of the square and put a cross a little bit to its right. ‘’The circle is Shagang, and this cross is us, here.’’ Then he drew a half circle covering both Shagang and their location, and two more that separated the map to four parts.

‘’We need to get out of Savbath region and pass the Province border to Batıh,’’ He drew a shape in the leftmost half-circle, which was like the character 人, and so it became apparent this was Ghuneit province, and these three parts were the regions Savbath on top right, Savest on the top left, and Savkhuz in the bottom. In each he drew some circles, then smaller squares to indicate villages, and in a moment the whole map of Ghuneit appeared before his eyes.

‘’Is it a supplementary art?’’

‘’Commanding manuals- they are widespread among thousand-men-commanders,’’ Ali said and started drawing a route for their road. The line slithered and sometimes went straight, all the way until it touched the border of the other half-circle.

‘’This isn’t the general area, is it?’’

‘’...we will avoid these three settlements as far as we can while going, named Ghbat, Ghukhet, and Nuofuon.’’ Ali ignored the question.

‘’My prince,’’ Nehkar came to their side at that moment, with pants a yellow not that natural, and still a bare, hairy chest. ‘’Kazad says we are ready to depart- did you not talk about these to him last night?’’

‘’It is better to make a quick summary to keep in mind,’’ Ali said and waved his hand, and the map dispersed. ‘’How fast can we move in a day?’’

‘’Sixty or seventy kilometers at best, the rations were quite bulky after all.’’

‘’...that’s fine as well. Then let’s get to the front,’’ here Ali turned to Xie’e, ‘’Benefactor, have you ever rode a horse?’’

Xie’e scratched the itch on his hair for a moment, then answered. ‘’I rode a boar before- and a deer.’’

‘’...well, at most I’ll make you and Nehkar ride together. Let’s set out,’’ He said and moved forward.

They followed after him and went past the handful of soldiers almost ready, tending to mules and horses or steadying their belts and quivers. They greeted the trio, or just Ali, as they came to the front, where almost half of the soldiers had mounted their horses. They, too, gave salutes and Ali and Nehkar climbed onto their horses. Xie’e stared at them for a moment, then tried to get onto the black horse.

He held the reins and stepped on the stirrup, and he threw his other leg around to sit tight. Yet, the horse let out a neigh and shot itself back, rising into the air; Xie’e shook for a moment and tumbled back. A few snickered, and Ali himself looked the other way with a repressed laugh.

‘’...boars were milder-’’ Xie’e said on the ground. He patted the sand off of him and stood up, then cast a glance at Nehkar.

‘’Alright then, come here benefactor,’’

Nehkar slid back a little and caressed the empty space in front of him. It seemed the gap was just enough to fit them both.

Xie’e sighed again.

*********

Not long after they set out towards their first target: Usorho village. It was seventy-six kilometers southwest of the Nuofuon and the general pathways trodden by the Ghuneit patrols, and with there being a Talisman Beacon Ali and his men hoped to contact the warlords of the Batıh and Bashkend for possible escorts. Furthermore, the supplies gifted to them by the Judge Of Shagang was, although much when looked, remained low and would be running out in no more than five days time. Compensating the lack of rations for both men and animals in Usorho would not waste much of their lacking travel time.

Xie’e didn’t bother himself much with the company’s decisions; he couldn’t involve himself even if he wanted. So he stood silent and rode in front of Nehkar, whose arms covered his left and right to hold onto the reins of the black Runvalt. And indeed, Runvalt was the name of this type of horse breed; they were born from a cross-breed of the battle horses called Ritous: with legs quite thick and skin most of the time a darker shade of scarlet, the Shamo Khanate housed around sixty thousand of them in Bashkend alone; and Testous: Horses used for racing and for scouts for their agile builds and early maturing bodies.

This Runvalt of Nehkar, and of Ali’s, were among the cream of the crop, as one half of their bloodline came from a superior breed of Ritous called Noble Ritou, and the other half from a generic family of Testous. Their speed, unlike other Runvalts, surpassed one hundred and twenty kilometers per-hour, and their hind legs could crush another horse’s skull with no effort, and their stamina equaled a normal breed of Testous, so in all aspects these Runvalts were of an excellent quality.

This, Ali and Nehkar explained as they went by sand dunes and sand hills and sand dunes again. For the first time Xie’e remarked, aloud, on the unchanging landscape to Ali as they ran right behind the vanguard in a formation of wedge, leading the mules with a pace a bit slower than trot.

‘’I know that the lands beyond my country have many different things,’’ Ali said, ‘’They have dunes and hills and pits as well, and with them they also have; mountains, cliffs, valleys, seas, lakes, and rivers. They also have marshes, though they said some in the north had dried, and last but perhaps not the least, they have forests with trees overshadowing five-story palaces.’’

Xie’e looked above Nehkar’s muscular arms and cast a confused gaze.

‘’...Do you not know what they are?’’

‘’I do, and everyone does too, right?’’

‘’In name, of course,’’ Nehkar replied in Ali’s stead. ‘’The merchants have foul mouths, after all. They speak seductive words about how wonderful it is outside all the time; it became worse after the war, even.’’

‘’Foul? What bad is there in telling some stories about the outside?’’

‘’It plants the seeds of rebellion in the youth, what else is need to be said?’’

‘’Stop-’’ Ali said, halting their conversation before it went towards a undesirable direction. At least, that is what Xie’e assumed him to do.

‘’Benefactor, It would be to our benefit if you, and Nehkar too, refrained from talking about controversial matters.’’ Ali said, then cast him a glance. Right after it came his Qi transmission.

‘’Benefactor, I also advise you to not speak of Light and Brynhildr, or other imposters in public.’’

Xie’e stared at him for a moment, awaiting the reasoning behind his words. He couldn’t ask outloud, too, else Ali wouldn’t have contacted in private.

Or he had done that to not let him question it, but Xie’e didn’t pursue. He nodded, knocked Nehkar’s neck with his right index finger, and the man let out an approving grunt.

For an hour or two they then traveled in silence. The company’s capes tied to their robes straightened, then started flapping under the wildening winds of the desert. Now came their use of time, Xie’e saw, as soldiers wrapped them around their necks and a part of their shoulders; the scale armor seemed like a rag with their cover.

To his surprise, too, no one drank or ate all this time. They did not eat breakfast, they did not open their canteens of water, and they did not rest the horses for even a little. These horses might have been much better than he imagined, Xie’e guessed, or the riders themselves had some kind of supplementary manual’s art to help them keep on.

For in the military arrangements The Sect placed upon the Northern Continent, it was essential to have at least four diverse arts based on a single manual; Pseudo-manuals, to say, which did not benefit cultivation, but let the user practice spells and arts of variable origins.

Cindersnow had the most with seven of them, then it should have been Shamo with five- Shuangguang also had five, but Quan mentioned before that they lost one of their legacies after their incapability to protect continent borders in the last frenzy. Now they stood with four Pseudo-Manuals and Five State Manuals, the same amount remaining for the fallen Han Dynasty and Shaowei Empire.

These were tidbits of information he thought in his boredom, and since it had been four months of the last news he heard from The Raven there might have been changes to the balance of matters in the Northern Continent. What they could be, however, even that he found hard to estimate.

‘’My prince,’’ Whilst in thought, he and others heard the voice of the left flank leader: Thleaft, of course. ‘’It seems a group of deserters have camped not far away and are eyeing us. What shall we do?’’

Ali didn’t question when they spotted them and how they did it, they, as he told before, were works of his subordinates and checking them were also others’. And those others were Kazad, the leader of the vanguard, Theraght, leader of the right flank, Thleaft, leader of the left flank, and Nehkar, leading Companion of the prince. Yet even them did not say anything. Instead, their brows rose and among the company alert surfaced.

‘’Is the scout back and safe?’’ Nehkar asked, turning his head to the left. Xie’e did not know of the existence of such a man or a woman being a scout, but it seems they did.

‘’Yes companion!’’ Who answered was not Thleaft, but a woman riding at the back of the left flank, standing conspicuous among the eight riders raising dust.

‘’How many?’’ He asked again.

‘’Forty-seven, only thirteen of them have mounts to ride, however.’’

‘’Kazad?’’ Nehkar nodded and raised his voice towards the vanguard.

‘’It would be better to get past, unnoticed or not it doesn’t matter.’’

‘’Then ride forth and ignore them, but don’t change the route else they realize their folly.’’ Nehkar gave the judgment and all three leaders spoke in agreement. Xie’e looked left and right, to the horses neighing and stomping the sand, but he heard no voice among the company; disagreement or acceptance, none even grunted other than the three leaders of the flanks and the vanguard.

‘’So here is the military discipline you talked about.’’ Xie’e said.

Ali chortled beside him and Nehkar coughed.

‘’Nehkar, take out the head if they come close,’’ Ali reminded amidst the loud steps and breathings, and waved his hand in the air. In his hand flickered a red shaft, a tad bit lighter in color than the Ritous of the company, and came into sight a long pole with a carved top. It was longer than two Nehkars, and even surpassed the well-known Rock Lances of the Shaowei Knights Of Rock Valley in length. Knowing that Nehkar was very well two heads taller than him, he doubted what use Ali had for a...pole as such.

‘’My prince?’’ Nehkar mumbled.

‘’I changed my mind-’’ Ali said, ‘’We might as well collect the heads sooner than later; we should face no trouble passing the region borders if we are to haste towards Bashkend.’’

There he beckoned Nehkar with his fingers, and Nehkar smiled. He also waved in the air and a streak of light shot towards the pole raised into the air, now visible to all company. A round ball flickered, then impaled itself to the top of the sharp end. Once the light around it, glowing and gleaming in the eyes of the company died, there appeared the head of a man hated by the all men and women around the pole. Jiao Xue, the blood serpent, the head revealed itself to be, and now gazed forward to the endless sand with a grimacing agony with his open jaws. Indeed it looked terrifying, and the last screams he uttered resounded in the minds of those gazing in his still-bloody eyes.

‘’Are they still around?’’ Nehkar asked towards Thleaft.

This time a man said ‘’They have retreated forty-eight seconds ago, companion.’’

Nehkar nodded and turned to look at his prince, and Xie’e followed his gaze to see the man sighing. Once the weary look he had worn out, and they kept going in silence, yet more dreadful than before, Ali halted the company after some dozen minutes.

‘’We are past the second quarter,’’ Ali said as the company came to a stop, raising clouds of sand, and neighs and whimpers from the mounts. ‘’Of water drink two mouthful and give three mouthfuls to the horses and mules, and of grain feed the mounts a pack. We’ll get to moving in six minutes.’’

So they all dismounted except vanguard, who circled them with their horses and stood alert. Elderly men and women from the auxiliary group came forth from their mules and fed the vanguard’s Ritous for them; the others fed and gave food and drink to their own by themselves.

Three minutes after the vanguard dismounted and the flanks mounted, and they let the horses rest whilst flanks rounded the company to let the horses warm up. Then passed three more minutes, and they all mounted their mounts and set forth again with the same formation; Seven of the Kazad’s glaive cavalry at the front with him leading as the vanguard, sixteen mounted cavalry flanking led by Thleaft and Theraght, the mules and the seven of the auxiliary riding on them at their center. Ali, Nehkar, and Xie’e stood right behind the Vanguard and right in front of the Auxiliary group, and that made them the most protected of the company for the meantime.

Then they rode for five more hours and stopped for one more time on the way, and then rode two hours more when the sky started losing its luster. The last bits of sunlight dyed the brown and white-clad company in it, and it seemed like they would have to camp one more night in the desert.

But they needed not, for when the last sunlight snuffed out and the few stars in the air twinkled, from the horizon the company saw bundles of yellow and red lights gathered together in a place. Around those lights were more lights, and they gleamed rather soft through their pupils and glaives. Fire, they concluded, and it all matched up with their road and ride time. So it became apparent where they reached, and with that conclusion Nehkar rallied the company a little bit tighter.

‘’We have arrived to Usorho, get ahold of your bearings and sit straight!’’ He shouted and waved his fist to the front. Xie’e clasped his ears with both hands, baffled by the magnitude of his shout. He heard less than others, even, so how loud was his noise in reality?

‘’My prince?’’ There he turned to Ali, and Ali cast a disturbed glance to his pole standing upright with a single head.

‘’Let’s hope they recognize the man,’’ Ali said, ‘’If not, we shall depart right away.’’

‘’Understood,’’ Nehkar said and shouted again, and the company lined themselves into a four-line rank. Now the supposed village’s lights drew closer and closer to them, and with each step of the horses the cold seeping from the night receded back to its place. Winds howled, and a few figures started riding towards them from the blurry image of the Usorho.

Xie’e stared at the incomers as the others did and once they turned visible, widened his eyes in surprise.

*********

Though visible only in outline, and from their shape he assumed the five riders to be all men, the two riding at the front gave off ominous auras Xie’e knew very well: Death Qi.

This dreadful Qi overlapped with the duo at the front and when looked upon, he, and the company, saw a curtain of darkness rise behind them. It cloaked the three behind the duo, and the duo slowed down their horses to greet the company.

They approached and stopped ten meters apart from the vanguard leader Kazad, who halted the company; he stroked his mustache and cast a glance at the duo. The one at the left stared at them and raised his hand, then Xie’e felt a familiar suction force.

Another cripple?

The Qi in the air and the sky had not converted to Lunar Qi as of yet; the darkness came new and it would take at least an hour for Moon to settle on the world’s ceiling. So he wasn’t baffled when an ember sparked into existence in the man’s hand and started circling his fingers like snakes.

The man squeezed his fist and another suction force emerged, and with it a flame roared in the man’s hand. Its brilliant red lighted up the surroundings and started crackling, and whilst being fanned by the cold desert winds they inspected the company with the source of light. They seemed not impressed, yet once their heads rose and their gazes swept by the head the duo froze. Their lips twitched together, and they stared at Kazad smiling.

‘’Nutis must be an excellency of war and courage to hunt a serpent,’’ the man at the right said. His eyes, cast in shadows of the flame, swept by the back once. The same shadows crowded on the ground, and behind the ranks of the company, where Xie’e and the rest watched the interaction. Though Xie’e noted the use of the old tongue; One the primitives and those before the sect used.

‘’Nu is not from here?’’ Kazad cast his blue eyes to the horses they rode. ‘’These steeds, I saw none around Batıh or Ghuneit.’’

The steeds he mentioned were horses quite small, perhaps a head larger than a young colt or mare, and were with manes almost non-existent. Instead these steeds had white marks on their brown skin.

‘’My tat’s own breed,’’ The man at the left said and raised his hand higher; the flame rose and cast its light further beyond the company. Yet it couldn’t pierce the dark curtain behind them. ‘’But your excellency must be tired to talk; let us guide you through the traps into the home.’’

‘’My gratitude,’’ Kazad said and raised his right hand, shouting. ‘’Stand closer and follow behind, don’t go astray.’’

The company complied with a hearty shout and spurred their mounts, and with them the duo let go of their assumed spells. The curtain of darkness disappeared and revealed the other three men, holding bows of exquisite wood with origins unclear and arrows nocked to them with, also, origins unknown. But the curtain of death, now Xie’e realized whilst riding with Nehkar, came not from the duo but from those arrows; they concentrated the most on the arrowhead.

...it might be possible to summon Embodiment with them.

He couldn’t ask for those, of course, but questioning Ali and others for similar sources would be easy.

With that in mind he watched the five men lead the company through a route of criss-crossing steps and round the Usorho’s faint lights twice; there were no sounds apart the crackling flame and no lights except the blazing fire. Under the flame’s shadows, they went on.

Though it seemed like they took their time, and wasted the company’s, no one uttered a sound. In a deathly silence they kept in line and at last the five men took a left towards the Usorho and started trodding straight forward.

The company followed after them and the faint scarlet of the village started reaching towards them; the figures turned bigger and the adobes of the residents became visible. There were people moving back and forth under the torches, placed on the stone-ish walls’ corners and blazing. Xie’e noticed, and all of them seemed quite busy even in the dark. He saw men and women carrying baskets, and some standing on the square roofs holding what he assumed to be short sticks; yet in dark he had no capability to assess what it really was.

They approached some more, and the man holding the flame snuffed out his fire. Xie’e, then, spotted the peculiarity of it. They had, perhaps, some dozen horse-steps left to reach the arch-gate, and still the flames, although not few, couldn’t light up their surroundings.

And with its sudden lack, everyone's sight turned pitch dark.

He heard strings pulled back, and the shrill whizz of glaives descending. The flame had left in an instant, and so it took seconds for his eyes to get used to the sight; once it did, they widened again.

The arrows in the horizon, now right above those men on the roofs and women in the streets, shot through their limbs. Xie’e gulped and shot his gaze to the company; he ducked left and right and saw a second volley of arrows being nocked on, and the vanguard charging forward with Qi swirling on their glaives’ blades. They stomped on the corpses of the five leading, beheaded, and shouted.

Xie’e paled and his heart started beating faster.

‘’Benefactor-’’ Nehkar’s voice sounded in his head and Xie’e felt the man grasp him by the right shoulder. ‘’It was a trap- do not worry.’’

With his words Xie’e felt a sense of calm, but it seemed Nehkar confused his worry with something else. And though unconvinced, when he saw men and women thrice the number on the streets rushing out, and all armored, he realized they weren’t assaulting mere innocents.

Then came upon him a sense of dread as everything told here happened in less than a minute.

He watched Kazad and his men rush through the yellow-ish arch gate into the narrow streets riddled with enemies. Their glaives rose and fell, and in front of them a group lost their heads to the earth. Their blood gushed out, their legs went limp, and they fell to the ground or to the building they emerged from.

Then another volley of arrows shot out, and Xie’e saw the scales at the nocks light up. They glowed crimson and morphed into spikes with six tips, all pointing forward.

The arrows whizzed in the air and shot, this time, those facing the slowed-down vanguard. Indeed Kazad and his men were stopped before a group of fifteen, all with broad-shields raised towards their mounts.

‘’Hah!’’ Kazad let out a shout and his moustache trembled; Qi climbed from his wrists to his glaive and his Ritous leaped forward. Behind him came the arrows and piled upon the copper surface of the shields, and right after they pushed the enemy’s arms back Kazad fell on them. His glaive gleamed in the eyes of the few inspecting, and an emerald glow burst down.

Screams and wails rose within the ranks; the green crescent Qi cut through the shields like they were butter and smashed down their owners into slices of bloody human bread. With one strike, Kazad claimed the lives of six men.

The rest of the vanguard came after for the slaughter, and in the meantime flanks nocked a third valley to their bows. These arrows they held with the orders of Thleaft and Theraght, and they released a few seconds after to another group climbing up the roofs. The men and women cried again and fell on their backs and heads and bloody legs or arms.

In the span of forty-five seconds, Xie’e counted with his breath in his cheeks, the twenty-some men of the company slayed a party of sixty-something ambushers. Whether they did it with physical prowess or a better cultivation, he couldn’t assess, but he knew the advantage of first helped them more.

Even then, it was too quick of a time. His blood cold and his expression still a tad bit pale, Xie’e stared at the somber Ali under the darkness, then at the vanguard chasing down the last enemy; his and the vanguard’s shadows flickering left and right, and both with no visible emotions.

It was too conflicting of an image.