Bloodline

War Crimes - part 17

A battle cry coming from many soldiers outside the walls is heard, and those who weren't being attacked by Zircon stood their ground, getting together before Zircon or the outside forces could get in. Zircon twisted through enemies and attacks from everywhere, using the environment and the enemy soldiers around him and killing all who stood near him in a brutal manner, even stabbing a man through his back, swinging himself onto the soldier's neck whilst holding the dagger, and snapping their neck before moving onto another target. The gate then began to splinter and break, and soon a battering ram comes through, soldiers rushing in and battling any enemy that came to challenge them. Damian comes into view, as well as Maralyne as she takes down a large soldier with her bow, Tesath and Lutol coming in after they kill a soldier together. Looking around, Tesath spots Zircon as he jumps onto the back of an enemy as he falls from an attack, springboarding off of them onto another enemy's chestplate, stabbing them through the helmet multiple times. "Over there! Zircon, what did you do!?" Tesath shouts, making her way to him, the others catching up until he then grabs a sword from an enemy soldier, and decapitates the man, their head falling clean off as he drops the sword onto the floor, the last of the enemies falling not long after.

"I infiltrated the fort, saw their fort schematics, and used their large stockpile of weapons to our advantage, using gunpowder for what I assumed to be cannons for later attacks on the castle and blowing the base from the inside, all their supplies except for what's out here being destroyed." Damian walks directly in front of him, looking almost as if he were to scream into his face. "You said you were going to get the plans to the fort, and bring them so we could prepare an assault! What you did was reckless!" Zircon looks at him, and takes one of his daggers out from a corpse near them. "I did take the plans, I even have them with me, but we already planned the assault, with me blowing the supplies and you having a squad outside, we already had the whole situation prepared." Damian looks at him in surprise, and raises his voice. "That was not the way it was supposed to go and you know it! And these acts that you committed, especially in the ways you slaughtered these soldiers, are considered war crimes in the kingdom!" "Then I guess we're already passed the border then, if you remember what the grunt from the encampment told us, this fort separates the new borders of our kingdom, and theirs, so our rules don't apply to them." As he finishes this, he then sees something in the corner of his eye, and rushes to it. Moving some boxes from a corner of the fort reveals an enemy soldier, cowering in front of them. "Please...! Dont kill me..! I only follow orders, I never wanted to kill those innocent people...!" Zircon grabs them by their armor, and throws them in the center of the fort, where everyone sees them.

The enemy soldier looks around at the other soldiers around him, everyone looking at him as they still hold their weapons. Zircon walks to him, and lifts his mask partially, revealing only his mouth as he speaks. "You're going to tell us where the other forts and camps to your pathetic army are located, and you're going to be mutilated like all those civilians that you have murdered and left to rot as a sign of fear. If you tell us where more forts are around this area, maybe I'll spare you a quick death, if not painless." The soldier looks at him, and in utter shock and surprise, begins talking nonsense with words barely coming out."Speak sentences damn it!" Zircon slashes the face of the man, him screaming in pain as the broken dagger Zircon used left multiple cuts, some being more severe than others when Damian throws him off the soldier. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" "I'm interrogating him, it's not like he can get through us now that we have a squad and more around him, so I'm using what I was taught in the Crimson Wind to get information across to us." Looking at the man cowering on the floor with a hand to his face, Zircon sighs, examining the broken dagger. "Great, now that he heard that, I have to kill him now, so if you'll please excuse me." He moves past Damian, and crouched next to the man, holding his dagger.

"Wait wait!! I-I'll tell you what you want!! Please dont kill me!!" The man yells out, kneeling in submission in front of his feet. "We have more camps north of here, an officer of high position is also in charge of this area of our campaign, and he's stationed in a much bigger fort near the mountains leading to the kingdom, just please dont kill me!!" The man shouts, Zircon stops and looks at Damian, shrugging. "As I said, I was interrogating him the way I knew how, and now we have what we need." The soldier looks up at him, tears being seen on his face mixing with the blood from the cuts the dagger made on him, him talking through his pain. "D-Does this mean...I wont die...?" His eyes show a slight glimmer of hope as they look back at Zircon, him putting the mask back fully on his face. "No, but you only extended your life by a little, we have to show your army that we can be brutal too." Soldiers come around and pick the man up, him thrashing around as he tries desperately to escape.

Damian looks at Zircon in disgust, and walks back in front of him as he puts his weapons away in his satchel. "I'm really not liking how this path of yours is going Zircon, and I think I dont want to support you in your views now, how could you do this to them and what we stand for?" Zircon looks at him, and almost in an empty manner, he says in his face, "I don't serve your kingdom Damian, I think you forgot that your father only hired members of the Crimson Wind to protect him, and though we didn't anticipate the eastern army to attack, we are fighting in the shadows, and assisting in their defeat." Damian grits his teeth and holds him by his cloak. "Does this mean that the adventures and friendship we all made was for nothing...maybe even for coin?" Zircon looks at him and brushes his hand away, "As I said before, I dont expect you guys to follow this new path I'm following, as now that we're in their territory, I'm showing the causes of the suffering and slaughter they brought upon our people." "That doesnt answer my question Zircon, was all this that I thought we made for simple coin?" He grabs his cloak again, only for Zircon to grab his arm, and twist him away, sweeping his leg and making him fall. "I'm keeping my cool Damian, and though I would say that it is, I know I would be lying to myself and to you all if I did, I appreciate everything you guys did for me, and I love every second I have being around you guys, but in our encounter with Opal, I now have seen the ways of their actions, and they think they're safe as long as they keep pushing on us, which is why with my path, I'll reveal that nothing is safe around me." Damian looks at him as he gets up, Tesath stepping forward. "Is this really the right way to do it though Zircon? This path is a dark road, even for you to be traveling." He looks away, and takes the mask off, "I'm still the same Zircon you guys know, but with Opal's mask, I'll be a plague to them, a shadow that stalks them everywhere, I'm sure that this path will lead me to a darker chapter to my story, but if I decide to push forward on it, by god I will see the end of it." Maralyne looks at him, and hesitantly steps forward as well. "That still doesnt mean that you have to do it, and what if we dont agree with you and your actions, what will you do then?" "I dont think you'll follow me the more I keep going, even as a friend, but Damian is a beacon of light to the army and this campaign, and I am a shadowed killer, who hid himself away from where I shouldve been all along, I'm sure you guys will see what I mean soon, I mean, its practically in your face at this point."

Tesath walks in front of him, Damian also standing next to her with Maralyne and Lutol following suite. "Can we trust that once you're done with this, you'll leave this way of life behind?" "I have strayed from the path we were meant to follow, and twisted my own, but once this war is over, I swear from the bottom of my soul and the oath I took way back to the Wind, I will return a new person, free from this strange road I am following and back to the path we follow together." They smile a bit at him, and after gathering a few soldiers, they make their way back to camp, the soldiers salvaging as much as possible before they head back.