"Shields up..... Watch your positions..... Spears forward..... Brace for impact..... Hold the line you worthless pieces of shits aghh...."

What is this? Am I a part of some kind of movie? No it looks so real! That man speaking previously really had his body split in half alongside his horse.

Just what kind of monster is that? Fuck, I'm scared shitless, my body is shivering non-stop.

Yes, I know that I always had shivering hands and body ever since I was born, and the condition of uncontrollable random muscle movements that happens whenever I got nervous or agitated.

Even the slightest body exercise made it so obvious to people around me, and I was the magnet of awkwardness in any kind of interaction with other people be that someone I know or not.

Whatever, this definitely doesn't feel the same at all.

Just how did I arrive here? Last thing I remember was getting my usual beating from the local gang when I went out to buy some instant noodles.

I made sure to bring a little extra money and offered it to them first thing once I got spotted, it just had to be one of these days with their asshole leader being in a bad mood.

Like always I didn't resist and didn't make eye contact with anyone.

He always threatened me with a shiny dagger to stab me to death and I always ended up getting knocked out afterwards, usually I would wake up with a swollen head drag myself to the store to buy my noodles then I would return and apply some ice on my bruises.

Why am I here? And that obvious scar on the back of my right hand, I can't remember having it before!

These assholes didn't mark me after knocking me out, Did they?

No, it looks old and already long healed.

Anyway, that giant scorpion is coming my way, shit, my legs are frozen cold.

Move damnit, bloody move, am I going to die?.

Don't run you cowards.

Others around him started throwing their weapons and armors to the ground and ran, only he was standing still shackled by his own fear.

Thump.... THUMP....

My heart is racing up, good.

It's better to lose consciousness than to watch that thing split me in half like it did to that horseman earlier.

My vision is getting blurry, Darkness is taking over like always.

Before his vision was out completely, Zhu Feng saw from the corner of his eyes a small girl no older than 12 wearing faint blue clothes run towards the giant scorpion.

Her ponytail hairstyle and serious look as she held nothing but a sword in her hand, it looked no different than the sword Zhu Feng held in his hands and he guessed she might've grabbed it from the weapons his fellow scared soldiers discarded before they took off running for their lives.

'Run, are you looking for a quick death?' Zhu Feng thought before he fell unconscious like a puppet with it's strings cut.

.......

Splash....

"Ahh.... Cough...."

"On your feet soldier.... What happened to your battalion?" Zhu Feng heard a rough, commanding voice calling for him after he regained his senses, when he looked up after wiping his face from the cold water he saw a couple dozen of horsemen looking at him from above, all wearing shining silver armor and staring at him with different expressions on their partly visible faces behind the helmets.

Before when the mega-sized scorpion was attacking it was either dusk or dawn, right now the glaring sunlight was hurting his eyes from the center of the sky.

Because of his previous uncountable experiences with bullies and unreasonable gang members, Zhu Feng hurried to stand up at once by reflex when he saw the rude people who woke him up by tossing water in his face.

After taking a quick look around at the aftermath around him, Zhu Feng saw the giant scorpion from earlier split in half 40m ahead from between two horsemen.

"This scorpion was attacking and I got knocked out when it was heading my way." Zhu Feng pointed at the scorpion body and said, he still couldn't believe the size of the scorpion.

It was the height of a two story building and longer than three cargo trucks, yet it was split in half just like that.

'Was it that small girl with the ponytail?' Feng thought as he made sure not to make eye contact with the horsemen.

"Scorpion! You mean that demonic beast? We know that it was killed by a senior from mountain sect, where's the rest of your battalion? And your commanding officer." The one in the lead impatiently asked with a frown on his face, this dumb soldier didn't give a salute to his higher-ups, spaced out, suspiciously avoided eye contact, his hands are shivering! Since when have the standards of the soldiers degraded to this low unforeseen level? This frontier is bordering beast mountains, if it wasn't for mountain sect being close by then this side of the kingdom wouldn't have been that safe at all.

"The rest were escaping after this demonic beast killed the only horseman giving orders." Zhu Feng answered when he felt the displeasure of the hawk nosed leader with sharp eyes, inside however, he was sighing and expecting to receive a beating as usual.

"General Lian, I found the body of battalion leader Zi." Fortunately another horseman rode towards the hawk nosed man and delivered his message when it seemed like he'll explode in Feng's face.

Without looking at the bronze armored new arrival horseman the leader called general Lian asked : "Status." He squinted his eyes at the cowardly soldier in front of him and kept him under his scrutinizing eyes.

"Yes, bisected with his horse. Demonic beast's doing, shall we retrieve the body or burn it with the others?" The man cupped his hands and spoke with a sad tune.

"Burn it, also give this shame of a soldier a hundred flogs, for not giving his superiors respectful salutes. His commanding officer was killed in action and his brothers in arm scattered like mice in the face of danger, yet he didn't die or flee. Shaking in his boots like a coward, clearly fear got the best of him and he luckily survived, he's not fit to be in the army. Being a farmer or a miner suits you best young man, you're dismissed from duty." General Lian gave the orders and turned to leave.

The silver armored horsemen laughed and followed after general Lian, as for the scared soldier? they didn't care at all about his future not a single bit.

Feng was thinking : 'What a sharp fellow! Still, the fucker is really ruthless, a hundred lashes! This shit is no laughing matter. And why the flying fuck am I in this shit hole? What happened to me after these gangsters stopped me yesterday?' as he stared at the ground in a daze the bronze armored horseman dismounted from his horse and dragged the dazed Feng by the shoulder and his horse by the reins to his partners.

The bronze armored horseman was finding Feng's silence and compliance awkward, especially when he noticed the shivering and constant weird muscle convulsions happening to Feng's body.

The young man was clearly afraid, captain Li has been in the military for more than 15 years and witnessed 4 great battles and a lot of small skirmishes.

This battlefield is no more than a small skirmish between a garrisoned battalion in the western border of Shi kingdom and a single stray demonic beast that wandered away from beast mountains.

"What do we do with this body captain Li?" One of his soldiers awoke the daydreaming captain Li with his question.

"Gather all the bodies and burn them, tie this one to a pole I'll administer general Lian's orders myself before stripping him from his rank in the kingdom's army. There's no place for cowards in our Shi kingdom's army, you all keep that in mind and harden your resolve or apply for an early retirement before you shame your family names." Captain Li started giving orders to his men and pushed Feng to one of his men, he warned the curious soldiers of the consequences and made a harsh example of poor Feng as a warning to his men.

'All of them are really ruthless, this scumbag is demonstrating me as a warning to his men. When or what did I do to offend these people? Endure it for now, I don't know my circumstances after all. If only that was a nightmare' Feng offered his hands to the two soldiers erecting the pole to tie him up as he thought that, escape? Heh, there was more than a hundred armed soldiers with horses in the area.

Feng never tried riding a horse before, if he tried running he'll only end up worse when he gets caught.

The two soldiers were sneering at the meekness of Feng and looked down at him as a coward, tightening the knots around his wrists then securing them at an elevated position, they didn't speak a word or wait a second longer after doing their job and left him alone after ripping his top and exposing his back.

They didn't want to breath the same air as that coward, they were afraid of catching any of Feng's cowardliness if they stayed near him longer than they should.

"Youngster, I won't be merciful and I won't be heavy-handed in my strikes. Hundred lashes and you can be on your way, afterwards you and the army will have nothing to do with each other." Captain Li said apathetically as he unfurled a simple whip.

'Yeah, I should be thankful and grateful. Better yet, if I kiss your feet and lick your butt clean. Why is it that all the bullies are long winded? Hurry up mother fucker I want to find a quiet place to think!' Feng thought as he rolled his eyes in exasperation secretly and didn't make a sound, he was preparing himself mentally for the punishment to come.

Crack.... Grunt....

'This is what you call not being heavy-handed!' Feng was almost about to start cursing at captain Li's seventh ancestor when the first lash hit his back.

He gritted his teeth and held back the string of profanities because it will only add to his suffering, never run your mouth when you're in a disadvantageous situation.

That was one of the lessons he learned the hard way after rounds and rounds of getting beaten half to death.

The soldiers collecting the dead bodies watched their strict captain Li personally lash the back of that coward soldier from battalion leader Zi's men, their captain Li was only a single rank lower than a battalion leader and was famous for being fair, strong headed, courageous, experienced in the battlefield and leading his men.

All in all he was a veteran thorough and thorough, getting a hundred lashes from him means the exact same weight behind each lash.

Their captain didn't hurry his strikes and kept it at two lashes every minute, from afar they all heard the cracking sound of the whip while doing their jobs of carrying the bodies of the dead soldiers, collecting armors and weapons from the battlefield or gathering flame-able materials from the area.

Yet, they only heard the stifled groans and grunts that escaped the coward's mouth at each hit!

After half an hour the battlefield had no more bodies scattered around and they were all clustered in a small mountain and burned with the large scorpion's body.

"Why isn't he screaming or making any noise? Last time I saw captain Li flog someone he kept making loud "music", you guys sure he's a wet chick!" One soldier asked his brothers as he brought out some of his rations and started munching on them.

"It sure is strange, he got lashed more than 60 lashes now and is still enduring. Never seen such a rare breed of a coward before, do you think he'll keep his silence to the end. Or maybe he's a mute?" Another man stared at the split skin at Feng's malnourished back and asked in amusement.

"Who knows, from this moment onwards we have no attachment to one another." Another soldier drank water from his gourd carelessly and seemed in a hurry to leave.

Captain Li was finding it strange as well, the young man was clearly afraid.

A person lacking courage and back-bone wouldn't endure his lashes, if he did, he won't endure over 70 without saying anything!

This young man was 16 years at best, malnourished body, pale skin, sunken eyes with black halos around them.

Yet he endured!

Am I going easy on him unawarely? No, i'm sure my strikes didn't fluctuate between strong and weak even once and remained the same with the exact force behind every swing.

Raise it a bit, just slightly to see how he'll react.

Crack.... Ugh.... Spurt....

'Couldn't resist the temptation huh, you bullies are just the same. Once you find the quiet, silent, and helpless victim you'll become wilder with your actions, 23 more to go. Do your worst, shitty captain Li' Feng felt the increasing power of every lash and knew the man holding the whip couldn't restrain his evil tendencies, smirking slightly he leaned on the wooden pole and hugged it with his elbows and tried to find a relaxing pose where he can rest his head on his shoulder.

He was too tired to stand since the fifteenth lash, hungry, his back and spine screaming from pain, warm liquid moving downwards at his back and Feng was sure that wasn't only sweat because dizziness was invading his head and coldness started to encroach on his arms and legs while his eyesight began to become blurry and fuzzy as everything in his vision swam or flipped funnily.

If it wasn't for the ropes tied high in the wooden pole and helping keeping Feng's body straightened, he would've helplessly fell to the ground long ago.

'Impossible! I used almost all my strength in the last strike, and all I got was a whimpering grunt? If that's a coward then all my men are sissies' captain Li took his breath and rested his arm as he thought that.

Only 3 lashes remaining, and the young man stayed mute to his lashes, even though captain Li has been striking harder since over 20 lashes ago.

"Hey, don't you feel like captain Li is taking it a little bit too serious." One soldier whispered to his friend when he noticed the strangeness of the situation, the whole company of 125 soldiers were silently watching their captain Li panting for breath and clearly flogging the coward with increasing force.

Still, the young man seemed to grow more and more scary in their eyes, first he was making faint sounds of grunting, now he's only breathing ruggedly and bleeding from the wounds on his back.

If he wasn't clearly breathing, spitting blood or coughing from time to time, then the soldiers would've taken him for someone who's long dead.

"Shut up, this is none of our business. Even if he died so what, he's a coward." His friend was already feeling irritated and snapped at him.

Such occurance was happening amongst the different soldiers of the company, all of them unconsciously clinched their fists or gritted their teeth as they watched young Zhu Feng get whipped silently.

Crack.....

'How's that? Eh! Still nothing? Is he dead? No, he's still breathing' captain Li didn't notice that his character turned from a good example to a villain in the eyes of his soldiers, he let his hidden demons surface on his personality while being completely unaware.

All of that was made effective by Feng's silence under cruelty.

Crack......

'Surely he felt that one! My shoulder almost got dislocated in that swing yet he didn't even grunt this time' again captain Li was disappointed to find out the lack of response from his victim.

After resting his arm and flexing his muscles for a few seconds, captain Li took his pose and swung the whip with 120% of his power

CRACK.....

'I really dislocated my shoulder, owwwww. Ouch' captain Li was in pain and grabbed his right shoulder with his left arm while the whip fell from his hand, his face contorting and twisting from the pain yet his eyes in complete disbelief as they stared at the motionless mute who received such lash in silence.

Snore..... Wheeze..... Snooore.....

Suddenly he heard the sound of loud snoring coming from the wooden pole, captain Li and his whole company of soldiers were staring wide eyed at the young man with a mutilated back muscles.

"This....." Captain Li was in disbelief.

Yet, the sound of snoring continued to rise from the young man hugging the wooden pole.

Captain Li felt insulted by the sound and crouched to retrieve his whip instinctively, when he tried to swing his arm again to wake the sleeping pig.

"Arghhh...." His dislocated shoulder sent waves of electric pain coursing through his body and his face would've been the best reward Zhu Feng could get after such torment, unfortunately he wasn't awake at the moment.

"Captain Li, you already gave this ex-soldier his full punishment." One of the soldiers who kept count of the number of lashes spoke to his captain.

He was feeling no more of the previous respect he had for his senior captain and company commander, surprisingly, many of his friends and brothers in arms were feeling the same way.

If captain Li didn't say before he started lashing Feng "I won't be merciful or heavy-handed", maybe, they wouldn't care at all for what he did.

However, going back on his words in front of them all and cruelly lashing a scrawny young man! Maybe, just maybe, that would've been alright if Feng acted like how he's allegedly been called a "Coward".

Yet, after the captain went all out the kid didn't utter a single word or beg for mercy or a release like cowards usually do, furthermore, he slept!

To sleep while getting flogged full power by a senior captain, heh, nobody in the whole armies of the Shi kingdom can say he can do the same.

"Huh!...."

As if the words of his subordinate woke him up from his demonic state, captain Li was rudely brought to the reality of things and looked at the eyes of his men, Li noticed the disgust, anger, and frustration they all gave or directed towards him with their looks.

'Damnit, I let loose in front of my men' captain Li knew he lost face in front of his men and there's no taking back what he did.

"What are you looking at? Where's the medic? Come tend to my shoulder, you release him. Everyone else prepare to head back to the garrisons, it's getting late and I want to return before sunset to report to the general." Captain Li was infuriated at Feng for being a tough nut to crack, yet he couldn't lose anymore face in front of his soldiers, calling the one responsible for healing then throwing orders while folding his whip Li Canglai avoided the eyes of his men as he walked towards his horse.

The soldiers gave their captain Li one last look of despise and did as he said, some of them were planning on transferring to another company, squadron or even squad as long as they don't remain under his command anymore.

The two soldiers who tied Feng to the pole in the first place ran towards him to untie his arms and release him, when they saw the young man sleeping like a baby with hideous scars crisscrossing his bleeding back they felt hidden respect for him as they gently helped him lie on the ground.

One of them ran to his horse and brought some worn out blanket, healing ointment, some rations and water.

He applied the ointment on Feng's wounds, and left the food and water next to him then covered him with the blanket.

Others nodded secretly to themselves at what their comrade did to the strong willed person, and some of them strolled next to the young man and secretly dropped a bronze coin or two.

As for captain Li, he let the medic fix his dislocated shoulder then rode his horse somewhat far and waited for his men to hurry and collect the weapons, armors, and take inventory of what they gathered.

By the time the company of soldiers left, Zhu Feng was covered by two blankets, had some rations and dried meat bundled next to him, three gourds of water and half filled wine gourd, and fourty-five bronze coins stacked up in a small pillar.

Only he remained at the site of the battlefield with a huge bonfire made with the bodies of more than 400 men and one large scorpion that shouldn't be possible to exist in the first place.