Zachary's Story - Kazen II (english readers .TXT) 📗

say, kid?” the knight asked in confusion when I presented him with the dueling challenge.

“I’ve said, while we’re waiting for the Zamos Clan to come, why don’t we entertain the other with a dueling match, Sir Nicholas,” I repeated.

“We don’t have time to play around...”

“I’m not playing around, Sir Nicholas. I want us to have a duel,” I said. When he still refused to react, I continued, “It seems that you have been questioning my capabilities in accomplishing this mission so someone advice me that I should show you the extent of my ability so you would understand.”

I never bother to my expertise in the handling the weapon. After my first stint as a Carrier and a Watcher, I realized that I need to improve my weapon mastery because it was unlikely that I would be meeting an acquaintance to accompany me on the road so I had been training in spear and other long-armed weapons, learning their strength and weakness, and had been practicing them on wild creatures and bandits I encountered on the road trip. I also honed my skills by practicing with mercenaries whenever they have the time. This would me the first time I had a knight as a dueling partner.

For a while, I let Sir Nicholas be on the offensive while I was on the defense. As I parry and dodge the slash and trust with my halberd, I tried to read his techniques and fighting moves. Despite his strength, I found that his techniques and moves were slightly more refined and structured, than most mercenaries and brigands that I met, which made it easier to form a counterattack. When I had enough with the defense, I change my stance and began attacking. We were still in the middle of the match when people from the Zamos Clan came so Captain Ben had to stop the duel prematurely.

“Need to continue the match another time?” I asked Sir Nicholas as I helped him to his feet. On my last move, I managed to sweep him off his feet and made him land on his back. I was about to follow up the move with a down slash with the axe-side of the halberd.

“I think you better save that energy when we meet the real enemy,” he declined.

“No problem,” I replied and we had no more problems with each other after that.
Chapter 8: Into the Foray

One minor problem solve, one major problem was yet to be resolved. It took days to get to the rendezvous point and within that period of time, I took the opportunity to learn more about the Medie Territories by asking Kash, Toma and the other tribesman. After all, this would be the only chance I had to experience and observe the sight and scenery of the vast land. Before long, we reached our destination.

There were roughly three thousand people at the camp based and they were strategically placed according to their various regiments – there would be a group of tribesmen wearing different cloth color and style, among the group of Estrey Regional Troop, along with knight and mages, as well as mercenaries and free fighters, The command tent located at the center and we barely rested our legs before we were ushered to join the discussion.

The ratio between the Renegade Band and the Combine Force was one to ten. Rationally thinking, we overpowered them by a lot. Still, I got the feeling the number was a bit too much and from the way I see it, the committee had planned to obliterate the Renegade Band without a trace. I said so to Dimitry when we met.

“You can’t blame the tribesman for wanting the band annihilate. They raid and kill every camp they chance upon and at the same time, they want to send a message to other who has similar thinking that they will face the same harsh judgment,” Dimitry explained. “So don’t be sympathetic to them.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I do condemn their action.”

“Yeah, and be sure to remember that when we face them.”

“I will.” And that promised still rang in my mind when the sortie for the Infiltration Unit was issued two days later.

Dimitry told me that they had been camping at the base for almost two weeks before the Infiltration Unit came and during that period of time, the Combine Forces had a few skirmishes with the assault group of the Renegade Band in term of physical and magical warfare. With each encounter, the Combine Force inched closer and closer to the Renegade Band stronghold and when the Combine Forces made an attack at the Renegade Band, the Infiltration Unit slipped towards the enemy’s stronghold.

I must say that I was impressed by the strategy the mastermind or maybe the tactician behind the Renegade Band, in spite of condemning them for their actions. That person knew how to disperse his man – the stronghold did not lag security when we entered the place; there were guards on the labyrinth-like hallways and chambers and not to mention the reinforcement which seemed to came out of everywhere. I had no idea how long we fought them as a group before Captain Ben decided to split the unit into two with me, Sir Nicholas and Lieutenant Arthur to hold off the guards. The other half would continue to seek the Renegade Band’s leader.

I had no idea how Captain Ben and the other fare but between the three of us there, we managed to cut the numbers to nearly a third of original force amidst cuts and bruises. We could hear the sounds of explosion here and there, and the stronghold shook with it. When I saw there would be no reinforcement coming from the, I called out to Sir Nicholas and Lieutenant Arthur.

“Sir Nicholas, Lieutenant Arthur, can I leave these guys to you two?” I dodged an incoming slashed, thrust the pointed edge of my weapon on the man’s guts, heard him screamed and collapsed. Less one guard for us.

“Where are you going?” Sir Nicholas asked back. Another swing from his sword and his opponents were incapacitated.

“I want to see if Captain Ben and the other are having a hard time fighting the leader. Can I leave you two to finish off here?”

At first the knight did not say anything. Then, he nodded. “All right, leave these guys here to us.”

Despite reading the map of the stronghold beforehand, I found that going through the labyrinth hallways was really a challenge. I would have lost time figuring one which one was the true path and which one was the fake if I did not see the corpses of man and creatures littering the hallways – no doubted from Captain Ben and the others. As I followed the trail, I could hear the sound of fighting, and it was getting louder and louder as I drew near and nearer to the source. I quickened my pace until I reached the end of the hallways, which opened up to a big, brightly lighted chamber.

From where I was, I could see Kash and Toma were fighting big muscled man, armed with axes on both his hands. They managed to give the man a few cuts here and there, but the man did not seem to be affected by it. Captain Ben was evenly fighting with another swordsman at one corner of the room, with Madam Salena on his back trying to negate the magic attacks thrown by the woman mage behind the swordsman. Dane, on the other hand, was fighting off a three hideous dog-like creatures, which was the size of a horse. Watching them, I did not know how I could fit into the fight until Dane called out.

“Zachary, watch out!” I turned to see one of the creatures broke away from Dane and was lunging towards my direction.

“Don’t think that I’m an easy target,” I thought as I brought my halberd forward and tapped the iron sodden end on the floor. A magical barrier instantly erected around me and the creatures was flung back from the force the rebound of hitting the barrier. I slipped out my dagger from its sheath in the process and stabbed the creature’s vital points – eyes, neck, underbelly and limbs – with it whenever I had the chance at it rammed against the barrier. After a while, the creature’s momentums lose its power and hit the barrier less frequently from the blood lost. I gave it a final pushed with the magical barrier and cleanly cut of its head with the axed while it loosed it balance. “One down and two more to go,” I thought.

Oh, I corrected that as I saw Dane was disposing the last creature while the other was a bloody messed on the floor. “Thanks,” Dane said to me before he rushed over to help Madam Salena.

I went over to help Kash and Toma with their opponents, and we managed to bring the man down on his knees. We bleed the man more of his stamina, and after cutting of his arms, Toma gave a final swing with his dagger to sever the man’s. By then, Captain Ben had disposed of his opponents and came face-to-face with the Leader of the Renegade Band, assisted by Dane and Madam Salena.

It actually took us almost an hour fighting the Leader and he was no pushover. He rained us with magic attacks in the form of fire and thunders balls, and occasionally summoned monsters from the pit to deter us. Until we broke his dark shield, we could do nothing to graze him, and we managed to break his barrier, we plummeted with everything we got until he ceased moving on the floor. Even then, Dane did not want to take any chances and encased the body in a magical barrier.

“Well, we were thinking of lending you a hand…but I see that you don’t really need it,” Sir Nicholas ranged from the doorway and we turned our attention there to see him and Lieutenant Arthur, standing ready with their weapons raised up in from of their chests.

“It’s not an easy victory. Never mind the Leader, his aides were quite powerful in their own rights!” Captain Ben told them.

“What are you doing, Dane?” I asked the warding mage as he checked all over the Leaders other, discharging jewelry and accessories. There was already a small pile by his side.

“I’m checking any magical artifacts I suspected the Leader was using and found a bounty,” Dane answered without looking at