"SupremeCommanderZvyrf," a soldier said.
"We are being followed..."
The Supreme Commander was surrounded by his men,the majority of the army was marching toward the capital ahead of them.
Zvyrf got down from his horse.
"...It seems we are forced to make a sacrifice to save the rest of the army." He pulled his sword from the horse's saddle.
"We can see them!" Nokio shouted.
Vanguard was with a group of soldiers and mercenaries.
"Nokio!! Stop advancing!.." Vanguard ordered.
They stopped and gathered. Vanguard explained:
"We are the last force capable of fighting. Some of you came from the North, and some came with me from the capital. We are tired, we are afraid. We have nowhere to go, but we cannot stop."
He motivated his men.
"My comrades from Questia... and our mercenary friends..."
Nokio and the mercenaries were in disbelief because he had just called them "friends."
"If you follow me... if you want to stand with me here and now... then glory waits. Victory... waits."
He pulled his short sword as well and pointed it toward the tall, wise man standing there.
Zvyrf was a commander with a sinister look. His shiny grey hair, pointed mustache, and twisted smile made him look gloomy.
"By God... after all the men I have destroyed, I didn't think the Questian army would come to me with a child. He is barely the age of my son," Zvyrf commented while holding his sword.
He ordered a man to approach him. The man came closer and held out his palm. Zvyrf cut the man's palm. The man was in pain, his face was dark and defeated.
Then he did the same to a second man, and the next. They were five men in total ..with cold faces and lifeless eyes.
"He's doing it..." Vanguard looked anxious.
"What is happening there?! Is this some kind of twisted ritual?!" a man asked.
"It seems his Grace is still working," Nokio said.
"It seems so. The tyrant Zverev and his Grace, 'The Dictator.' If you are on his side, he can command you as he wishes after he takes some of your blood."
Vanguard cleared the mystery of the suspicious scene his men were witnessing.
"Brace yourselves..."
...
"With all your strength...ATTACK!!" Zverev shouted.
Those men erupted toward Vanguard and his men.
Five against a little more than twenty.
But those five were one hundred percent suicidal.
"Gooooo!" Vanguard shouted as he attacked first.
As they were about to collide, Vanguard disappeared and reappeared instantly in front of one of the five. With his short sword, he cut him so deeply that the man's blood splashed everywhere and his insides began to fall. The man fell immediately.
But the remaining four were tearing apart Vanguard's men behind him. They lost limbs and had their bones broken, but that did not stop them.
"You have to kill them!!" Vanguard shouted to his men and disappeared again to reappear in his first position.
He cut another man from behind but that wasn't enough to kill him. Nokio succeeded in killing one. The men struggled to fight effectively against mindless bodies that would not stop.
With more pressure and the help of Vanguard and Nokio, they finally managed to kill all five.
The moment of rest was interrupted by Zvyrf's voice:
"Unfortunately, time has taken its toll on my Grace. Otherwise, the number would have been larger."
He is heartless, even toward his own men.
Vanguard stared at him with anger.
"Is this how you treat your men!"
Zvyrf laughed:
"You are billions of years too early to teach me how to treat my men."
He fell silent. The smile disappeared.
"Fine, enough games."
Zverev cut his own hand.
"No... my God, please no!!" Vanguard looked on in total despair. "You can't be serious."
Zvyrf joined his bloody palms together. His eyes were closed. He raised them together to his chest,the same gesture as that of Basilisk earlier...
"The Empty Hand..."
"Run... RUN!" Vanguard shouted to his men.
But it seemed it was too late.
Every one of Zvyrf's men turned into a running suicidal body. They rushed with such insane speed that some of them broke their ankles and legs just from the force of the run.
Vanguard gripped his sword.
"Well... it seems this is the end, isn't it?"
But...
Someone was close to that fight. Someone was running at full speed to join the battle.
In a moment, Vanguard caught a glimpse of the person coming.
Vanguard saw the beautiful girl in her black outfit. With her straight, soft black hair parted in the middle and tucked firmly behind her ears, not a single strand touched her face. Yet, when she moved, its length flowed behind her, swaying with her dash. Her wide green eyes looked even more beautiful under the shy moonlight. She rushed toward Zvyrf.
Vanguard was certain. He recognized her,it had to be her.
"Hilda!?" he muttered.
__________
Punches and kicks were exchanged with Astria as she faced both Tartar and Casper.
"This bitch and her cursed Grace!! I'm exhausted!" Casper shouted.
But Tartar was struggling even to lift his axe every time he tried to attack.
Astria rushed under his attacking arms and kicked him in the stomach. He dropped the axe from the force of the kick he received. Spit blew from his mouth. After a few backward steps, he fell.
Astria grabbed the axe. She spun... and spun and spun and spun. Then she threw it toward Casper, who dodged it by a hair thin.
Astria was controlling the fight. She took a stance again as she had before,standing sideways toward her two opponents with her arm extended.
"We can't go on like this" Tartar said.
He sat up after lying down for a bit.
"We must give everything we have, Casper."
Casper looked at his left palm, which was glowing with heat.
"Roger that."
They moved away and attacked in different ways to confuse Astria.
"My, my, what happened to a fair and square fight, you two?" she commented in an annoyed but calm tone.
Tartar rushed and attacked quickly with his bare hands, but he knew well he would achieve nothing from that.
Casper jumped to cut the fight with his scorching palm. She dodged and leaned back so far that she almost touched the ground. She kicked Casper's face with insane flexibility. But he tried to grab her again. She pushed herself off the ground with her hands to avoid the attack, she bounces back to deal with him. He was a mess after her kick,dizzy and disoriented. He tried to put up a good fight but could not catch her.
Suddenly, Tartar attacked with his axe. it was fast and surprising. She retreated to avoid his attack, if she had been a second late, she would have been dead.
But the angry, raging beast attacked her with a demonic look in his single eye.. he took advantage of her messy position from Tartar's attack..
She tried to run from him, but he finally managed to get something from her. He grabbed her right arm by the wrist.
With his evil smile, he stared down at her, while she screamed her lungs out from the heat and pain.
He squeezed, and squeezed, and there her hand fell. She retreated very quickly from the pain and suffering.
Tartar and Casper were smiling.
"Now that's fair don't you think?!" Casper points to his severed right hand..
They finally think they have a lead in this fight
But she looked at them... and smiled.
She held her cut and burnt arm.
Her smile made their smiles disappear.
"Why the hell are you smiling fir?!" the two were shocked.
______
Some men from the camps refused to stay behind.
They wanted to fight after resting for a while.
They marched toward the crater to help Canaria and Vandall. They met some groups of mercenaries and some soldiers who returned from the North.
"What took you so long?! Almost everyone has returned. You people with Hilda took a long time!" It was Kidman who shouted.
He marched with his men and refused to stay behind as well.
"Correct me if I'm wrong but... I don't think we take orders from you, Mr. Soldier," a man shouted from the back.
He was in his late twenties..short, with light brown skin. His hair was braided in short braids but shaved on the sides. He wore a sleeveless white shirt covered by his chainmail armor. He had gloomy brown eyes and a diamond-shaped tattoo in the middle of his forehead.
The other men looked tense.. Two of them whispered:
"We should go. That mercenary man is completely crazy."
"Yes... he hates the King and the government very much."
"Haaaa!!! Who was that?!" Kidman was fuming.
But when he looked...
"Oh... it's you."
Kidman ignored him completely.
The men felt relieved again.
They walked together toward the crater.
"Who was that..?" a man from the army asked his mercenary comrade.
"Oh... yes. Rico. Yes, he's a bit of an oddball," the mercenary replied.
"He is one of our other leaders."
Rico was exactly behind them.
"A bit of an oddball, huh..."
The mercenary was surprised and started to apologize immediately.
"Rico... forgive me!! We are friends, remember!?"
"Hmm..? Why are you apologizing?"
His eyes turned red with anger.
"You are lucky that Canaria would kill me if I kill you."
After seeing how harsh and heartless he was, they continued their march and made sure not to look in his direction.
..
Vandall was waving at them from afar. Canaria was standing behind him, waving as well.
They met and talked for a bit. Someone took Rodeln and his sword from Vandall to carry him instead.
"Listen... he is only one man. But we don't know what his Grace is. What we know is that he can manipulate blood in some way. That's for sure. We were attacked by blood he was manipulating," Canaria explained.
Kidman and everyone were analyzing and exchanging details of the fight.
"So we should all attack him, all against one?" Kidman asked for Canaria's opinion.
"Not at first. We should provoke him with a 'hit and run' style to learn more about his ability."
And as everyone was talking and approaching the river...
Blue eyes were looking at them with anger.
Someone was sitting on the riverbank.
"Come... come to your certain fate, you bastards."
Bismarck awaits... With his cold gaze...he was planning for revenge.