Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

Chapter 135: The Blood of Mah'shai Clan (2)

Wrik sighed in relief, returning to the fortress. It was already pitch dark, and the atmosphere was cold. But the chilly wind was not as bothering as the cut and pierces on their bodies. None speak as of yet. They were too tired to do that.

They were successful in retaining half a dozen sacks of rations, but the injuries they suffered were not light either. 

At first they took eight of the sacks, but two of the men had to give up the test against the life-threatening assault of the enemies. Six sacks were all they could collect. 

In the end, they were losing that too, but Tanya, who was conserving her mana, held the men for them to ran away. By the end of the conflict, the men under Arjamith were in just as terrible a state as them. Supposedly, Lily asked Tanya to reserve her mana for the end, which proved to be a wise decision. 

Her ability [Mist of Change] did not just hide them, it also wavered the fighting instinct of the enemies. If she only pulled their emotions, then it might not have worked, but by now Tanya was far adept in her ability. She first made them fear her spells and then used that fear to pull their emotion in giving up.

"Do you need anything?" Tanya asked him. Her robe was bloodied, mostly from others than hers. She played the role of crowd control today and single-handedly took care of tens of men. And not to mention the crucial role at the end. She had suffered some injuries too, but nothing serious. Nothing as serious as Lily.

"Yes," he said. Blood on his cloak too, dried in a layer with dust. Fortunately, he was not injured other than the bruises and cut marks. "If Anton has returned, asked him to meet me." 

Now his only concern left was if Anton returned safely and brought Ben with him. It was a broad part of his plan. If they lost the one piece they captured, he would have to start from the beginning again. 

As for others, Davin, Jacob, and Michelle were sent out to secure the rations from other spots where the level of threat was low. Lily made the call. She appeared to have known they would face Arjamith, so purposefully sent out a smaller force to secure food from another location.

Tanya left after helping him put off the cloak and armour. Wrik felt he could breathe better now, and his body lighter than before. 

He was just relaxing on the chair when Tanya came again, bringing in Anton and others. Other than them, the group contained Davin, Jacob, Michelle, and Aeriel. They looked a lot better compared to the ones fought against the forces of Arjamith, but similarly as fatigued.

"Ton, tell me you succeeded," Wrik asked.

Anton looked carefully at him. Seeing no sign of heavy injuries, he said. "It was a success in some ways. The crazy guy is locked up here, but we could not keep the men from fleeing."

Wrik nodded. As he had expected, things didn't go wrong entirely on Anton's end. Even though their underlings fled and would alarm Scythe, at least they have one of the pieces. They needed to move a little faster now. 

"How was your end?" he asked again, eyeing the trio of Davin, Jacob, and Michelle. 

"We got four sacks from one spot," Davin answered. "But by the time we reached the other spot, all were already gone." 

"Ten sacks in total," Wrik mumbled. Counting the men they have it would last at least two days; three if they conserve a little. "Looks like the struggle for food will be regular from now on."

Fortunately, the sacks would be dropped each day in a similar number. And If Wrik was not wrong, the number of sacks would lessen with each drop.

"Other than the food, we found this thing," Michelle said this time, showing a stamp almost identical to a slave brand.

"What is that?" Wrik asked, frowning. "A slave brand?" 

"No, but a thing that could eliminate a participant from the test," the redhead said, giving the stamp to Wrik. 

Wrik took it and found it almost identical to the slave brand, but the runes imprint on it was different. He ran an inspection on it to dig deeper. 

[Item: Brand of Elimination

After the end of the first month in the Little War, the participants could eliminate each other. To eliminate one from the test, the participants have to brand the runes on the forehead of the other participants. Other than the forehead, it did not work in any other places. 

P.S: One brand of Elimination only works ten times.] 

"How many of these things did you get?" was the first question Wrik asked, knowing he could only use it ten times. 

"Only twenty so far," Jacob said. "We didn't even know we would get this. Only find out after checking the sacks."

"The sacks we brought have none?"

Aeriel and Tanya shook their heads. 

"How are Lily's injuries by the way?" Wrik asked Aeriel. The last time he saw Lily, she was bloodied all over the body, but still holding onto the spear. Though she similarly bloodied Arjamith, who had to be carried by his men. 

"Sister Lily will be fine," Aeriel said, but her eyes showed a sign of worry. "She may not have won entirely, but she had succeeded."

Wrik nodded. The folks of the Mah'shai were people of honour. They would not let anyone interfere with their duel. They were rather arrogant. Well, they have the strength to be arrogant. 

The more they fight and win, the further they develop arrogance. It is not just arrogance, their blood strengthened further as well. Wrik still remembered how Arrogant Arjamith was on the few occasions they had met. 

Wrik wanted to use that arrogance against him, deal a blow that Arjamith never expected, but the mismatch of today's occurrence wasted his plan. 

Now he had one more thing to worry about. 

"By the way, is there any chance Arjamith will join forces with anyone?" he asked. "Like with Scythe?"

If that was true, then there would be no chance of his plan succeeding. Fortunately, Ariel's answer soothed him a little.

"My brother won't do that," Aeriel said. "His arrogance would not be him. He would never join hands with someone he did not think was his equal."

"But what if he thinks Scythe is his equal?" Davin asked in the middle. 

If it was just a comparison of forces and reputation, Scythe beat Arjamith by a long margin. It was not unfounded that Davin asked the question. Others have a similar inquiry as well.

Aeriel shook her head. The archer looked at Wrik and continued. "I know better than anyone about his personality. He would give up on the trial, then join hands with someone he detests. It's in our blood, a curse maybe."

Davin and all turned silent in the room. 

"I suppose that is true," Wrik said, but his mind told him something else. The upper authorities were already interfering with the test. What if they do something again and destroyed his plan? What if an alliance between Arjamith and Scythe was made?

'No, it will only decrease Scythe's reputation and what Aeriel said, I agree to it as well,' Wrik thought, 'Arjamith was a proud son of the Mah'shai clan. he would never join force with an outsider.'

The men they collected were quite alarming to Scythe. Though they have lost a lot of the number today, their number was still higher than four hundred and most of them were armed. It was quite a large number if only all of them were skilled enough. 

'I need to make a move faster,' he thought. 'Before they could even guess it.' 

"What about Theiron?" he asked, remembering the noble son. "Did he not go with you?"

Other than Ben, Theiron was another piece of the game. A piece that would lead him to victory. 

"That guy is almost useless," Jacob complained. "He went out towards one of the locations with over fifty men, but came empty-handed."

"I do not think we could trust this guy, Wrik," Tanya joined. "Even though he was bound by the maha contract, there are many ways to destroy it."

"I know," Wrik said. How could he not know that when he made the contract? He already knew by the time Theiron might betray him. "Ton, leave an eye open for that guy."

Anton nodded. 

"How about we just eliminate that guy?" Aeriel asked. "He is nothing but a burden and I heard he already tried to seed a discord in the men." 

"It is not time yet, he still has his uses," Wrik said. Then paused for a moment and looked carefully at Aeriel. "Can I ask you a question, Aeriel?" 

The archer frowned, but nodded. 

"Is there any heritage in your clan where people could challenge others in a fair duel?"

__________

End of the Chapter: The Blood of Mah'shai Clan. 

Next Chapter: A letter of Challenge.