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Stone Will 116
The carcass of the monster, in which the two madmen had hid, was lifted like a light feather and then dragged ten yards across the ground.Nero and Hadjar got out, groaning in pain as they did so.One of them pressed his hand to his side. Something white protruded from his bleeding forearm. It seemed Nero had an open fracture.Hadjar tried to put some dirt on the hissing fluid which had coated his right thigh. Alas, it didn't help much, and the monster's boiling gastric juice still scalded his leg severely. Not to the bone, but enough that his flesh and muscles were visible.“In any case, we’re better off than the rest,” Nero nodded toward the Fort.Or rather, where the fort had once been. There wasn’t even a single pair of stones left. Only a black ravine. Blood rained down and charred pieces of bodies, tiles, stones, and iron joined it, making for a truly macabre downpour.Nero and Hadjar had been thrown far enough back to avoid the danger of being ‘killed by the sky’. And, smiling
Stone Will 117
The orderly he was talking to turned away too abruptly and went to the field.Hadjar could not take a single step further. The whole area, as far as the eye could see, was littered with bodies.Dead, moaning, wounded, dying, impaled on a spear, torn to pieces, burned, broken people… were everywhere.The once beautiful plain was covered in bodies, all the way to the horizon.Hadjar looked at his feet - they were buried in blood up to the ankle.“Damn it,” Nero hissed. “Damn it... Damn it!”“Let's go,” Hadjar said softly.Overcoming their fatigue, they kept dragging the bodies back to camp until nightfall. Only when they themselves had almost collapsed on the battlefield from exhaustion were they replaced by the lightly wounded soldiers. As well as by those warriors who’d come out of this monstrous meat grinder with no more than a couple of cuts or bruises. Those people must have been cared for by God since their birth.The hard, brutal days stretched on.Hadjar and Nero set up their te
Stone Will 118
The place where about a thousand trainees had once used to suffer and train now belonged to the two friends. A feeling of loneliness sometimes came over them because of that fact, but more often than not, they were calmed by it.And they’d had to cut some new logs. The old pieces of wood had gotten covered in grass during their absence.“How could they know?” Hadjar waved his friend’s words away.He was carrying something like a huge plow on his back. Only instead of digging up the ground, this tool was used to remove the soil altogether. They would then have to bring some sand in and make a completely new training ground.“What about all the songs praising our deeds in battle? Do you know how many songs there are about us?”“Nope.”“I don't know either, but it’s a lot. Especially considering that you and I covered the withdrawal of the army from the Fort.”“Yeah, we sure did,” Hadjar smiled wryly. “You and I were saving our own asses and weren't covering the retreat of the army at al
Stone Will 119
And rather creepy.Hadjar greeted the new spymaster with a nod.Simon was a good man with a difficult past. He and Hadjar often chatted.Tuur, the chief engineer, now walked with a crutch. His leg had been cut off by a healer. However, the most important thing for the chief engineer was that he’d kept his brain, as he could work even while missing a leg.“I want all of you to listen to the report from the Generals.”The General, who was now covered with scars, pointed at a figure hidden in the shadows with the wooden prosthesis that had replaced her left hand. The woman she’d gestured toward looked like a shitty person at first glance.Wearing a light leather jacket and high-heeled boots, she stood ramrod straight and constantly adjusted her brown hair.“By the order of the Highest Generals, the army of the Moon General Leen must be at the border with the Kingdom of Balium in two months.”The commanders looked at each other. Damn it! Why were they being sent to the cursed north again?
Stone Will 120
Even Nero's punches felt much weaker now. They were still deadly, but Hadjar could feel his progress.“Do you think it’ll be a waste of time?” Nero asked.“Absolutely,” Hadjar nodded. “Why do you think the King doesn't know the whole story and is sending us to war? And why we’re at war with The Black Gates in the first place?”“With Balium,” Nero corrected.“Don't be so naive, buddy. Balium is the cash cow of The Black Gates. If you start a war with that kingdom, you will have to fight the sect as well.”Nero thought about it for a moment and then shrugged.“I won’t argue with that,” he said, producing another ring of smoke. “If it turns out that the generals have forged the message...They'll be staked alive, at best.”“If they did it and it’s found out, sure,” Hadjar added. “I have a feeling the king’s going to have a lot of trouble on his hands soon, regardless.”The friends looked at each other. People were afraid to say it out loud, but rumors had spread throughout the Kingdom tha
Stone Will 1
Blue eyes peered at two yellow stars.Instead of pupils, he had sharp spindles.A man and a dragon looked at each other.The creature, which had been alive for millions of years, had spent its most recent ones in a tomb. Unable to move its tail or claws, it gazed into the infinite emptiness of its soul.The man had lived but one life in the prison of his own body, and then continued to exist in the same prison during his second one.The amazing dragon, whose beauty had been praised in a thousand and one songs... The legendary conqueror of heaven and the Lord of Starlight had been cast down like a simple mortal.The young man was disgusting to behold. His hands twisted at unnatural angles. He also had skin covered in scabs, a scarred face, an almost white, bald scalp and purulent blisters. Instead of legs— mere wooden stumps.He’d been one of the most brilliant masters of his time, who’d reached the pinnacle of the martial arts practiced in his country.The once-talented Prince was now
Stone Will 2
He was never a lucky man. Many stories begin like this, and this one is no exception. He was born on Friday the 13th. That day, sheets of rain poured down, accompanied by hale. Only this fact hinted that his destiny wouldn’t be an ordinary one.His mother apparently thought the same.Typical gutter trash, she became pregnant with a street tough’s baby. They abandoned him on the threshold of a local hospital. They didn’t put him down on it, but instead threw him away out of the car window as they drove by. They’d been afraid of being noticed, or something like that. No wonder he was bedridden literally from birth, able to move only his right hand.He probably shouldn’t have lived long with a broken backbone and craniocerebral injuries. But he decided to disregard that. He chose to live. He was housed in a special orphanage. He lived there until he was twelve. Always alone, cooped up in a small room. Sometimes, the other wards of the orphanage toyed with him.They thought they were good
Stone Will 3
She’d asked him what he wanted to get out of the neural network in the immediate future. He answered her almost honestly. He wished to have the opportunity to invite her to dinner and then get her laid.She had, probably, wanted to say something unpleasant in reply, but she stopped herself from doing so and just walked away in silence.He laughed for a long time. It was funny that the psychologist hadn't understood that he, someone who’d never felt anything but his hand, had never experienced sexual attraction, even a mental one. He didn’t know what it was.Then the journalists came to interview him. They interrogated him for a long time, under the greedy supervision of the magnate. He was surely the sponsor of this operation, and had already calculated his future profits. He must’ve been thanking his lucky stars that he’d decided to take the disabled orphan under his wing.Finally, he was dressed in a special robe, some muck was injected into his veins and he was sent down a long cor