Áz - The Battlefield

The Help of Force

South of Aggron, Callua City.

At a guard post near the south gate of the city of Callua, a girl in a dusty red dress was slumped over a bench, sweat was running down her forehead and neck, her once tidy hair now looked more like a cat's nest. tied by a cyan colored ribbon. Beneath her closed eyes, large dark circles spread across her face, with an equally exhausted expression she rested as long as she could, which wasn't much.

A guard approached her carrying a brown leather bag, such a guard looked at the girl with pity and even then he couldn't do anything for her, she told them she didn't want any escort so she wouldn't be disturbed despite being dangerous.

— Miss Laylla. Here are the groceries you ordered from me. — The guard commented with extreme calm as he offered her the bag.

Opening her eyes quickly Laylla looked in his direction and took the brown bag, opening it she checked everything inside and then closing the bag and hanging it on her back she got up slowly.

Further away another guard was bringing a strong horse towards her, it was time to leave again. She had already passed through several villages and some cities, half of the way she already crossed in about four days passing between carts, walking paths and also riding alone as she would do now again. Perhaps only messengers with something important to report would go as fast as she did, yet in most cases they changed messengers along the way, if that was possible.

Laylla was really exhausted, the only relief she had in her mind was the fact that she hadn't suffered any attacks in all this time, that didn't mean she would let her guard down, but in her view it made the chances of that happening less. still, which was already something relevant.

Moving towards the man who was leading the horse, she slowly approached him.

— Miss, here is the requested horse. — The man explained to her handing her the horse's reins.

— Thanks. — Laylla said in response taking the horse's reins, even tired and worried she kept her education for everyone as one of her priorities. — I will leave this instant. Something relevant I need to know?

— Yea! — He replied. — The next relatively large village after Callua would normally take about ten hours by fast carriage to get there and maybe six by horse alone. It's a place where old mines work, so it's not difficult to spot the place from afar, even in the dark.

It was early afternoon, even if she was fast Laylla wouldn't get there before dusk, even though she knew how difficult it was to walk a road at night with almost no light she wouldn't back down.

— I took the trouble to tie a lamp to the horse in case you needed to. — He added.

— Thanks again… — She replied in a nod, mounting her horse and turning towards the open gate. — I hope to see you again.

Saying good-bye, Laylla rode out of town on horseback, heading south, ignoring anything in her path. She might not be the strongest of people, but she knew when to really give up on something or not... And of those two she wouldn't give up.

Behind the guard post she had left several of these watched her figure leave the gate and disappear into the horizon, several of them had the same expression of pity already shown, however, others in smaller numbers acted indifferent to any considerable feeling about the lord. who had left, their expressions actually stared at the horizon as if they were waiting for something.

❖✴❖

❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖✴❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖

❖✴❖

The Shadow Assassins were the organization most feared by the rich, influential and most of all... Lords. The number of Lords killed by them over the centuries was not few and even if they failed to eliminate their targets they left no trace of their existence in it.

Some say they were actually commanded by the last emperor hundreds of years ago, however today apart from certain rarer and more reclusive types of people who keep such information, no one else really knew who was ahead of them.

It was early evening on a dry dirt road, the full moon was easily visible in the sky which somehow made it a little easier to see the way ahead. To the left of the road was the forest, dark for the moment and shrouded in the mystery of its own shadows and the difficult noises of nocturnal animals. To the right was a vast plain that stretched to near the next village with several large stones scattered across it.

Riding on the road was the leader of one of the Shadow Assassin groups along with his underlings. This man was dressed like a poor bandit, in fact they were all dressed alike, this was also their plan... To be treated like bandits to cause more trouble to any possible witnesses if there were any.

Wearing a black hood and a mask whose eyes could only be seen, this aspect was the only thing that differentiated the leader from the others who were using dark cloths to cover their faces.There were four of them riding in search of someone. Ahead a dark colored horse that was running away with a girl mounted on it, this horse was a little lit by the faint light of a lamp hanging in its saddle.

The girl who was being carried at the moment didn't seem to be able to move very well, her hands were tied to the horse's reins so it wouldn't fall over.

It had been some time since she had started to lose the movement of her limbs, clearly poisoned now she could barely move a little on her horse and that was an advantage for the assassins.

The masked leader took a whistle out of his pocket, a rather long yellow whistle. Blowing the same, a high-pitched sound that could be heard by everyone echoed in various directions.

— G-Four! G-Seven! Prepare your beasts! — He ordered two of those accompanying him.

Seconds later, from above the trees on the girl's left side, three people appeared in the shadows. All three held several small knives and threw them from different angles in the direction she would go.

Seeing this, Laylla, who was fighting for her life in this chase, despaired with nothing to do, the only thing that came to her mind as a reflex was to duck while she managed to lean her body against the horse's neck.

Of the eight knives thrown, two missed the mark. One lodged in his thigh, the next ripped the muscles of his forearm and lodged there with the tip sticking out, the third was the worst case as it dug into his belly. The other knives had lodged in the horse which neighed and tried to run desperately when hit, but ended up falling meters later dead with two knives lodged in its neck.

Being knocked down along with the horse, Laylla was now trapped under him helplessly, and despite that, even if she didn't have time to think about what making such a simple move ended up preventing Laylla from dying instantly as the knives that missed aimed at her. head.

— Haa… — She sighed at the pain inflicted by all three of them.

It also went without saying that all these knives were poisoned, that was an irrefutable fact. The leader of the G team of assassins along with the others were rapidly approaching the target.

However, the leader could hear a strange sound coming from the sky. Looking up he didn't believe what he was seeing and stopped the horse from continuing forward by sending it to the right, yet he believed it wouldn't be enough and in a desperate act jumped off the horse away, he was right.

At the same moment, when the others noticed what was happening, it was already too late. A huge boulder big enough to fill more than this whole wide road fell from the sky onto them.

There was no scream, no words amid the despair. Falling right after the girl and the dead horse the huge boulder ran over three of them, two seconds later the last one had the same fate, as well as the leader's horse that despite not being crushed the side impact split it in half and threw the rest of your body away.

With the huge boulder slowing it down, it stopped just hundreds of meters later as the ground held it in place after losing all its strength. There was no distinction between all that mound of crumpled flesh and blood, you couldn't really know whose was what was left on the road, what was the remains of the dead horses and what were the remains of the dead assassins and also... At the moment no one would care, not even the leader of these dead.

— All! Gather Now! — He ordered as he got up and ran towards the forest.

The other members of team G, those dressed as assassins really, came out of the trees on the other side of the road in a few jumps and approached him circling him joining four more of them in this action not counting the leader. Everyone looked up, expecting to see something else.

— G-Six! Use your crossbow! Burn and blast the target! — He ordered as everyone carefully awaited any further attack.

A tall woman among them took a crossbow from her back and aiming where the girl and the dead horse were she set fire to the tip of an arrow, on this same arrow there was a wick on the tip as well as a bomb built into the arrow body, an amazing job and also deadly.

Shooting towards the target the arrow flew and stuck in the neck of the dead horse, the arrow caught fire and later the dead horse also started to catch fire.

Being unable to move, the girl started to have the tip of her hair burned, her clothes started to catch fire too and later her skin, but she couldn't scream... She couldn't do anything else but watch the flames and feel the odor of burning flesh... His own flesh.

Boom!

At that moment, something else fell from the sky in front of where Laylla was. Another crater had been made in front of it and still nothing came out of it, not a stone. The shock wave driving the wind and the exhaled dust doused the flames that were on top of her even though the horse was still burning.

A large figure approached Laylla quickly pulling her up and tossing her into the air.

Boooom!

Just after she saw herself soaring in the sky an explosion sounded below her, as she started to fall her body spun around and she could see a destroyed horse leg flying away, she noticed as soon as the horse had been blown up... And she almost went along with it.

Falling again, something caught her and prevented her from ending up with a probable death by falling.

When the dust had completely settled and stopped blocking her eyes, she saw a tall, dark-skinned, scarred man staring at his pursuers as he set her down with a single hand.

Even with all the movement carried out and the wounds inflicted by the knives, Laylla didn't feel pain, quite the opposite... Her body felt super strong as if even the wound could get up and start running, this was strange for her.

— You… —  Said the man looking at the group of assassins.

Their leader soon volunteered not to attack, his team would probably be dead if he tried and he would have bigger problems than a failed mission if he did.

— Withdrawal! — He ordered immediately.

Retreating into the shadows of the trees each of them disappeared, at the same time what was left of the dead were also swallowed up in their own shadows and disappeared, even if they were extremely small such shadows.

The masked leader was the last to disappear, before that he was watching the luck of his target, something seemed strange with the unfolding of all that and one day he would know what it was, that he could guarantee.

Silence reigned after their departure, insects and animals had fled or had been fleeing for a long time due to the first attack of the stone, now in the midst of this silence only the girl and the muscular man with several scars remained.

— You…thank you, but…who are you? — She asked when she noticed her voice. — Which Lord are you?

He turned his attention to her and observed her injuries by lifting her and placing her over his shoulder.

— I'm not a doctor, let's go find one... And don't move too much, my authority doesn't make you unbeatable against poison or wounds. — He replied after analyzing her condition.

Bending down he turned towards where the mining village where he resided was, putting strength to his feet the ground began to shake and in an impulse he took the air making a kind of the path of a rainbow from end to end. .

— You! Noooo! Answered me! — Stammering in the air, Laylla asked.

— I? I am Kandar, the Lord of the Force. — He replied calmly with a smile, and by the way he had been smiling since the assassins left.