The Four Legendary Alkaldrias

Chapter Three

A soldier ran to the king in agency.  On reaching him, he knelt with his head facing the ground, “My Lord, we have received an important message.”

                The king looked at him and said, “You may raise,” standing from his throne.  “What did you receive?”

         “A message has been sent from an unknown source, saying that the mission has been accomplished.”

        The king clenched his hand, then faced the opposite side on which the soldier was standing.  “So, they were eventually able to kill the hammer lord,” said the king, rather than speaking to himself.  He then faced the soldier, “I want all the followers of the hammer lord, assassinated!” 

      The soldier’s face became pale almost disbelieving what he had heard.  He looked to the ground and asked with hidden fear, “Pardon ……... my Lord?”

    The king looked at him again while grinding his teeth, showing that he was beginning to be enraged, but decided to breathe it out.  Pacing around, “Yes you heard right.  I want all followers of the hammer lord assassinated whether old or young. And,” pausing for a moment, “you should do it privately, no other person should know about it.”

              “Yes, my lord,” walking out of the throne room with haste.

      When he had gone, a human in dark clothing appeared behind the king.  The king looked behind and said, “I believe you’ll be able to kill all the followers of the hammer lord.  The soldiers won’t be able to lay a hit on them,” sitting on his throne, “your payment has already been sent to where you had instructed.”

             The human bowed his head and said, “Consider it done.” 

         The king smiled, 'Everything is falling as planned, soon, everybody will be under my feet.  Even to all the assassins out there, I’ll drag you out from your hiding places.  Tic toc, the time is almost arriving.

     A priest in a temple said to a group of people, “Um afraid our time is almost over.”

 A man asked, “What is wrong?  What could have happened?”

       The priest answered, “We have to leave immediately.  We had spies in the palace and they have confirmed that the hammer lord is dead.”

    Everybody gasped in shock and murmured among each other.  A woman asked, “Then why are we running?  Shouldn't we be mourning his death and retrieving his body?” and everybody nodded in agreement. 

         The elder shook in fear while trying to support himself with a piece of wood.  He looked to the ceiling while a tear splashed to the ground.  “I wish it was as simple as that, but it’s not.  The king has ordered the soldiers to come after us, and kill every remaining follower.”

      A man said in rage, “That’s impossible, isn’t it against the law?”

The old man looked at him and said, “With power, nothing that is possible is impossible.  What I mean is that the king can do the most devious of crimes and in the end, get away with it.  Even though the people know it’s wrong, no one will speak.  We must leave, immediately!”

              Suddenly they heard loud bangs on the door as the soldiers tried to break their way through the door.  The elder said, “They are already here, we have to find a way around.”

       A man removed the ragged cloth which he was wearing, exposing the armoury he was wearing.  “We cannot leave together, that would only lead to the death of everyone.  I'll sacrifice my life so that the rest of you can escape,” he removed two swords from his back, “I’ll remain behind and buy you some time.”

    The elder said, “We shall not leave anybody behind, we must leave as a whole.”

  The man said, “If we leave, then all the pieces will be shattered eventually.  Even you, know that.”

         The elder breathed in deeply and said, “May the gods keep you safe.”

    Two other men moved steps forwards with their armour and weapons.  One of them said, “We shall also remain,” and the first man nodded to them once, in approval.

           When they had gone, there was a final bang which made the wooden door shatter into pieces, and then it was followed by footsteps heading their way.   When the soldiers found them, one of them said, “The king would like to have a word with you.”  One of the men counted the soldiers and confirmed that they were ten in total.  

        The man answered, “Is that why you have to come fully equipped for battle.”

      Sweat dripped down the soldier and he drew out his sword while saying to himself, 'They saw it through us.'

         The soldier ran towards the men, and one of the men also ran towards the soldier, with four blades each on both hands.  He threw one of the blades on the soldier’s leg and as he came crashing to the ground, he threw another at his throat killing him.  He then ran towards the others throwing several blades at them.  

     The man with two swords ran towards them slitting their throats and cutting their body parts.  The last man had an axe and he killed the last soldier by splitting his body into two in a diagonal direction.  The man with two swords slashed the air, spilling the blood which was on the blades, on the ground.

         The man with an axe said while walking forward in haste, “We should hurry and catch up with the rest.”  

        But the man with two swords shouted, “Watch out!”  removing a shield from his back and protecting himself from a bullet which was coming his way.  The bullet hit his shield, throwing him behind and creating a depression on the shield.  He stood to his feet looking at the direction in which the bullet had been shot and saw a man in black laying on the ground with a gun.

            He said to himself how can a bullet have such a strong hit, looking at his shield, it even made a depression on the shield.  

       Three other men appeared in front of them.  One of the three had a scar on his right eye and was of average height.  He had a leather belt passing from his right hand to the lower side of his left hand, which carried arrows.  The second one had an older face and was more muscular.  He had armour, but most of his body parts were exposed and had a large axe.  The last man had a serious face with a rather slender body, he neither had armour nor a weapon. 

               The man who had been shot asked, “Who are you?”  

The older of the four said, “The men who shall send you to hell.”