Chapter 6 - Scavengers
Suddenly, many arrows flew toward Evan and Zak, which should have killed them. But Zak was no ordinary man. Such a pathetic attack would not kill him.
Whoosh.
The moment the arrows were very close, Zak swung his flaming sword. He threw aside all the arrows, slicing them in two in the process.
<Commander Zak is incredibly strong, indeed. His skills are almost flawless.> To himself, Evan appreciated his commander\'s abilities, and prepared for battle.
Immediately after Zak\'s sweep, six men came out from behind the trees, clearly unfriendly at all.
"Well, Evan, show me that I wasn\'t wrong in my choice. Those two are on you, I\'ll take the others."
In fact, Zak was well aware that Evan had already killed quite a few people, because he was covered in blood from head to toe. He wanted to see Evan fight with his own eyes, and he got an unforgettable experience.
When he heard Zak\'s words, the young man instantly attacked the two men in silver armor.
Each of them was armed with a short one-handed sword. The weapon was very sharp and, most importantly, light. Evan felt just fine in his new armor.
He got to his first victim in one fell swoop. Evan swung his sword sharply, and brought the blow right down on the man in front of him. But his attack was easily blocked.
"HAHA, boy, you\'re being too cocky, that\'s what you\'re going to pay for now."
Evan didn\'t appreciate his opponent\'s flattering comments and only frowned, without responding.
Their swords clashed and the other man was about to attack Evan from behind. However, his plan didn`t come true. Evan was not a valiant knight who fought by the rules and with honor.
He thought such people were either madmen or idiots. That\'s why seeing that his attack had no effect, Evan simply loosened his grip and punched his opponent right in the stomach with force.
Bam.
The man flew backwards and started coughing up blood. Evan\'s blow was hard enough that his fist left a dent in the silver armor.
He also sustained a minor wound. His knuckles began to bleed. After all, hitting the sturdy metal armor with his bare hands was not easy and rather painful.
"So, you`re the next." Evan quickly turned around and swung his sharp sword right into the side of his second attacker.
The sword went through the silver armor like a red-hot knife through butter and left a deep wound on the man\'s body.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He squealed in pain, clutching at his wound to stop the flowing blood anyhow.
"Ugh. You`re wimps who can\'t stand the pain of even such a small wound. Just wimpy." Evan slowly approached the man, gripped the sword tighter and decapitated his opponent with a single swing.
After massacring his first opponent, Evan headed toward the second, who was also writhing in pain and vomiting blood repeatedly.
"Please don\'t kill me..." The soldier begged for mercy. But when he lifted his head and looked at Evan, all he saw was his ruthless expression and incredibly cold gaze.
Swing.
After killing his second opponent, Evan swung his sword sharply, knocking all the clinging blood off him.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
As soon as Evan finished his battle, he heard clapping behind him. Turning around, he saw Zak and four burnt corpses beside him.
"That was a great fight, a sight I haven\'t seen for a very long time. And I probably won\'t see something so brutal and at the same time beautiful for a long time. I haven`t miscalculated about you."
Zak was very pleased with Evan\'s performance. A wide smile shone on his face and a small light burned in his eyes.
"Thank you." Evan simply accepted the praise. He had originally wanted to ask Zak about magic and mana, but the sounds of battle were still constantly being crushed around him. Evan decided this was far from a good time for such talk.
Zak hurriedly went to his men and gestured for Evan to follow him.
"Commander Zak, to your mind, how many more enemies are left?" All Evan knew was that they were under attack. Neither more nor less. Not the number of their enemies, not who they were, not even whose side he was on. None of this Evan knew.
At that moment, he was just fighting on Zak\'s side. He needed to get more information about outside factors and the whole situation.
"I think there\'s about a hundred more soldiers. I`ve already killed the strongest man and their commander, Ermis. If there aren\'t any unexpected things, even if with losses, we\'ll easily fight back."
Zak took a deep breath and continued: "Our enemies, though they acted rather sneakily by attacking at night, on the other hand they did us several favors at once..."
Zak wanted to continue, but Evan hastily interrupted him and said in a quiet voice: "Weeding out the weak."
Hearing the young man\'s words, Zak once again smiled and loudly replied, "Yes, you are absolutely right. We also didn`t have to look for our enemies. They came to us by themselves and we thank them for that. The sooner we`ll kill them, the sooner we can get away from here."
Evan listened attentively to Zak. From his words, he understood that all this gathering and the hiking in the villages, was only for this battle, after which Zak and all those who had survived would return back to the city.
This news couldn\'t help but make Evan happy, as he was in desperate need of information about this world. The city was the perfect place to get it. In part, he had already achieved his goal and had distinguished himself with his skills, his cold-bloodedness, and his ferocity.
"Well, then, we need to kill everyone as soon as possible. I don\'t mind fighting, but I just hate when somebody interrupt my sleep."
"AHAHAHA, I know what you mean kid, well since you\'re full of fighting spirit, let\'s not delay it." After these words, Zak quickened his stride, and headed in the direction of the battle`s sounds.
The attack on the Zak` squad was quite serious. It was a large-scale operation, which goal was the complete destruction of all Zak\'s soldiers and himself.
Ermis and Zak were the heads of the two sides, and it was their duel that was the most important. Zak could have handled everything himself, but it would have taken too long. He needed to help his soldiers to quickly deal with this problem.
In fact, there was nothing to worry about. Zak was sure that it was Ermis who represented the biggest threat among the attackers.
He was a skilled magician who could cause trouble for Zak. Ermis had even managed to wound him, and that alone showed how strong he was.
But, Zak still could not be sure that they had finally won the victory over their enemies until he was personally convinced of this. Something out of the ordinary could always happen and you had to be prepared for it.
After a while, they arrived at the center of the action. Bodies were piled everywhere, both of their people and the enemies. The ground was drenched in blood, and dozens of tents were ablaze.
Any normal person who saw such a scene would have begun to tremble with fear. But Evan felt himself like a fish in the water in such atmosphere.
In his past life, he\'d been in so many different battles. Both in the very small ones and the incredibly great ones. He had seen horrific scenes, brutal murders, and burnt cities.
It wasn\'t the first time for him and instead of fear, he felt only excitement and inspiration about the whole situation. Evan could feel he was alive again and his blood was boiling.
In the distance, Zak saw his soldiers fighting someone, so they rushed to their aid. What they saw at the scene shook them badly.
His men were fighting against large brown hyenas. Several tattered corpses in silver armor were lying beside them, along with a couple of Zak\'s subordinates.
Watching this strange scene, Zak frowned heavily and said rudely: "What bitches they are. They`ve figured out we are killing each other here and decided to come in for the fresh flesh and blood."
Zak drew his two-handed black sword and said loudly to his men, "Hey, dummies. Stay away from them. I still need you alive."
Hearing their commander\'s voice, the men in black armor breathed a sigh of relief. Each of them was sure that for Zak, dealing with this gang of hyenas would be no problem at all.
And they were absolutely right. With just a few swings of the flaming sword, a couple of the hyenas were badly wounded. The others quickly fled as far away as possible.
Watching the beasts flee in terror, Zak muttered: "Well, all that\'s left to sort out the last problems and we can go home."