Age of Strife Book 0: The Path of War

Chapter 17: The Crucible

The sound of cries and screams can be heard throughout the arena and beyond as the sound of soldiers fighting and steel clashing is heard, Hiryu fights off an Orcish soldier by disarming and striking at him until eventually he is knocked out. Pushing him aside Hiryu sees the others killing and cutting through the other beast-kin soldiers swarming in, bodies begin piling to the dozens as the four warriors valiantly fight off the swarming hordes. "There's no end to them!" Hiryu cries out. "Just hold out a little while longer, the Imperial Garrison has to make their way here!" Je-Yel calls. "Gah, who cares for them I'm having the time of my life here!" Tervar yells as he decapitates a beast-kin's head. "Well I'd rather we live to see tomorrow, so they better arrive here soon!" Irene loudly retorts as she launches spears at more beast-kin soldiers. This fight goes on for a while as the soldiers that focused on them lessened and lessened until a boisterous voice calls out "Go on ahead men raze this place to the ground! I'll take care of these lambs to the slaughter!" Through the smoke from the breach Hiryu and the others see and hear an exceedingly tall lion beast-kin soldier walking through the rubble and smoke as soldiers above them run inside the coliseum. "So you're the ones that my soldiers can't seem to get a beat on? At least the numbers seem to soften you up a bit, makes my fight with the lot of you at least that much easier." The Lion soldier says. "Who are you?" Je-Yel calls out. The Lion soldier's maw smiles as he says "You may call me Alyxanders, the Captain of the Siege of this very city. Kneel and I'll give you a fast painless death." Hiryu, Je-Yel, Irene, and Tervar ready themselves once more as the Alyxanders descend upon them with large sword and axe in each hand. "No? Then die like the rest." Alyxanders taunts as he walks towards the warriors. Within the coliseum Kasumi is doing her best to tend to the injured and despondent, soon she hears "More incoming! Make way!" City Guards carrying both injured guards and civilians lay them against the wall and allowing the other Verdant Sisters to attend to the recently injured. "What's the situation in the city?" Kasumi asks one of the guards. "It's not good, between the beast-kin soldiers flooding the city districts and the evacuations of civilians outside or into safety shelters the situation looks dire." the guards exclaims desperation evident in his voice. Soon another rumble is heard overhead as the sound of footsteps become louder and louder one of the guards yell out "We got company! Men take defensive positions!" The guards that are still able to fight go to join the defensive front, Kasumi seeing this as vain effort as the guards are running thin by the numbers decides with authority "Sisters! It's the time for healing is no longer enough, and action is need if we are to help the people here. Sister Cerva and Sister Itsumi come with me as we will help the guards in their efforts." Kasumi says while drawing twin needles from her hair. "The rest of you, tend to the injured to the best of your abilities and ease the suffering of others." Kasumi says before leaving with the two sisters at her side. Now running down the hallway Cerva asks Kasumi "What do we do Kasumi?" "We buy enough time for the guards to take back the halls, and wait for the Imperial Garrison to arrive." Kasumi answers. "Is that all? Sister Kasumi that plan is far-fetched if I'm being honest." Itsumi says. "I know but it's all we have." Kasumi answers again. Eventually the three of them arrive to see the guards about to be slammed into by the charging beast-kin soldiers until Kasumi lunging forward knees one of the beast-kin in the face and stabbing them in the head with the needle. The beast-kin backup a bit from Kasumi as the sudden appearance of her was unexpected, but one of the soldiers regain their composure and attempt to swipe at her until a knife lands in his throat. Retrieving her needle from the soldier's skull Kasumi readies herself with the needles as Cerva and Itsumi stand beside her; she then proclaims to the beast-kin soldiers "You will regret invading the homes of these people, as you face a Sister of Verdant." For a moment her eyes glow pink-ish hue unnoticeable to anyone but herself as Kasumi hears in her mind 'Well then, let's prove these mongrels what mistake they just made.' With no hesitation Kasumi and the Sisters charge at the soldiers and begin to push back the invading force with assistance from the city guards.Kazuma using his sword that was hidden his cane to fight alongside the other monastic elders in fending off the beast-kin warriors. "These wretches have no end to them, and will stop at nothing until all is destroyed!" Zeryas yells out as he bisects a beast-kin soldier. Ikumi using wards to repel the soldiers before blasting firebolts calls out to the others "Just stay the course and help will arrive!" Kazuma charges at another soldier as he impales him to then see some of the tournament's contestants fending off the beast-kin soldiers and called out to them "You lot! Come here and make your stand alongside us!" As Veronika draws a sword out of an impaled wolf solider, she along with the others stand alongside the monastic masters. "Are we all that's left?!" Veronika frantically asks. "Yes, the civilians are below us and the guards their holding the defense! We need to move to the lower floors to give assistance and to fortify their numbers, so cut a path to the halls." Zeryas yells out. "Then let's get them." Kassan says before letting loose a set of magical arrows in a concentrated zone. As the soldiers fall before the barrage Musashi charges into the aftermath and begin cutting down any other soldiers before they can retaliate, allowing for the masters and contestants to reach the floor below. As they run closer to the refuge, the sound of beast-kin dying becomes evident until arriving to see Kasumi and the other sisters finishing off the first wave of soldiers. "Verdant Defender Kasumi, you assisted in the retaliation?" Kazuma asked bewildered. Kasumi wiping blood off her needle and clearing hair out her vision says "It was necessary to protect the civilians and injured we had here. The mother supreme can contest this later right now-" A loud series of shouts and roars become closer and louder. "We have company coming for us, take up positions and we can hold them off more effectively." The monastic masters, contestants, Kasumi, the two sisters, and the guards ready for another defense against the beast-kin soldiers, but as soon as they come into sight the beast-kin soldiers they are killed from behind and react too late to the Imperial soldiers that arrived. "Reinforcement have arrived, and we've received reports that the Beast-Kin Siege Captain is here." The leading Imperial soldier exclaimed. "Siege Captain?" Kazuma asked. "Yes reports indicated a Siege Captain has arrived in this area, where is he?" The Imperial Soldiers asks. "I heard a loud roar coming from the arena, there's a Vanguard of Arkos, a Sister of Order, a barbarian and a monk there. For now you should prioritize the evacuation the civilians and injured before proceeding to the captain." Kasumi commandingly says. The Imperial Captain though split on what to do ultimately orders "Men! Evacuate the civilian and injured from the area! Sweep every bit of the safety zones for any survivors and refugees!" "Then we'll go to assist the Vanguard and the Sister with the beast-kin captain." Kazuma proclaims before going back to the seats above. Kasumi, Ikumi, Zeryas, Musashi, and Kassan join after Kazuma to assist the defenders in the arena. Hiryu dashes around Alyxanders and strikes at him with a series of mid-air kicks but it does nothing to faze him. Alyxanders in retaliation swipes at Hiryu with the sword in his left hand forcing him to backflip away for distance. Attempting to capitalize on the distraction Tervar hacks and hews at Alyxanders but much like Hiryu's unarmed attacks does nothing to properly injury him, and resulted in him being back-handed away forcefully. Seeing Tervar crash into the wall Je-Yel tries to swing his flail to wrap around Alyxander's leg but the chain of the flail is broken by the swing of his axe, this forces Je-Yel to raise his shield in defense as another back-handed swipe is made causing him to fly across the arena. Irene desperately tries to launch salvos of magical spears into the imposing beast captain but nothing is work, Alyxanders now taking notice of her swings his sword and axe at her forcing her to raise a defense ward but is immediately shattered upon the second landing of the attack. Now on her knees Irene strains herself to look at Alyxanders who is about to finish her, but is interrupted by Hiryu lunging from the side and landing a good few hits on him but is eventually caught mid-air and slammed down to the ground. Before Hiryu could even raise himself up he is kicked across the arena by Alyxanders who goads "Is this it? Is this all the Human Empire has to offer a pitiful vanguard, a weakling of a barbarian, a whelp of a sorcerer, and a pathetic monk? This was a tournament was it not? Where is your strongest fighter or is that supposed to be you lot? If so then razing the lands of this empire will be easy, if you are supposed to be among the best." Hiryu struggles to get himself up as pain rips through his body and he haggardly sees that his fellow combatants are in no-state to continue. Tervar is deep in a wall and is desperately trying to move himself out the wall but his wounds prevent him, Je-Yel is among the seats for the audience as he crashed into them and his left arm is visibly broken and bleeding blood rapidly, and Irene is desperately trying to get her magic working but is coughing blood and is physically exhausted. 'Accept it chosen, accept the instinct and feeling within you and claim what you feel is birthright.' Hiryu head pounds as the voice in his head beckons him to use the swords, pain becomes replaced with numbness as Hiryu haggardly stands up to Alyxanders. Witnessing Hiryu stand, Alyxanders aloud says "Impressive for a human to withstand such force and blows... I shall give you a warrior's death, as you deserve that much to stand up against me in such a way." Hiryu raises his left hand as one of the six swords manifests, soon after the rest of the five swords appear on Hiryu's waist and he assumes a stance unique only to the six swords pairing. Hiryu's breathing goes from rapid and irregular to calm and regulated as soon a bone-white mask in the shape of a skull begins to manifest over Hiryu's nose and mouth, and in a moment's notice Hiryu charges at Alyxanders.