Chapter 72 - Inevitable

"Stay right here and use the spell Wind Sword," Elius said, pointing to a certain bush behind three trees. "They won't be able to notice your presence since I will attack them. They will come with torches, and you should focus on those that are armed with bows. Don't hesitate in killing them."

"Yes, sir…" Zaos nodded. "But sir… is it really wise to face them with just the two of us?"

"They are just a scout party that managed to find me," Elius replied. "The others stayed behind to loot the villages."

So, some bandits really came and attacked… Zaos cursed his unluckiness. Why did something like that happen during his second week while serving the army? That really was annoying.

"Still… it surprises me that someone as straightforward as your father made you learn magic," Elius furrowed his eyebrows.

"He didn't teach me, sir," Zaos replied.

"Is that so… it still is weird that he let you learn, though," Elius said.

"He was against it since the very beginning, sir," Zaos said. "But after a certain bet, he stopped trying to stop me from learning."

"That sounds like him, alright…" Elius said and then began to move. "They are coming… no matter what happens, don't move and attack only the archers."

Elius quickly disappeared into the darkness of the forest, and Zaos's heart began to beat faster when the sound of something approaching increased. After a couple of seconds, Zaos noticed some torches approaching, and thanks to that, he saw robbed figures carrying them.

"What…" Zaos frowned since he imagined the bandits would be a ragtag group.

While Zaos couldn't see their bodies aside from their hands, he noticed that they were armed with some weird-shaped swords. They were curved… too curved but looked extremely sharp. After a while, Zaos found his targets, other cloaked figures armed with bows walking a few meters behind them. However, Zaos opened his eyes widely in surprise when he noticed that their bows were… made of bones… and they didn't look like animals' bones.

"Just what the…" Zaos thought.

The group had three archers and six cloaked figures armed with those weird-looking short swords, and while the archers entered his range, Zaos didn't attack. He had to wait for Elius… who was taking his sweet time. Suddenly, the nine weird individuals stopped and looked in Zaos's direction at the exact same time… he had been discovered.

"You have got to be kidding me… I didn't move a single inch," Zaos clenched his teeth.

The group muttered something, and then they began to walk toward Zaos's direction. Zaos didn't want to believe that, but maybe Elius used him as bait… in the end, he began to draw the symbols inside his head because he wouldn't go down without a fight. When the first group was ten meters away from Zaos, Elius finally appeared and dashed with lightning speed toward the cloaked individuals. One of those armed with swords was split in half in a single moment. 

The archers got caught off guard thanks to Elius, and Zaos used that chance to attack. A single Wind Sword flew toward the archers, and Zaos couldn't help but tremble slightly when his attack beheaded his target.

Despite his first reaction, Zaos cast another Wind Sword before the two others could react or notice what happened. Zaos didn't notice it, but he cast two other Wind Swords and hit the archers much faster than usual. That was odd since he didn't have any real fight since the spar against his father.

Your Sorcery has reached level 22.

Your Sorcery has reached level 23.

Your Sorcery has reached level 24.

Zaos frowned when he heard that voice so many times… that night showed him too many surprises, and he barely had recovered from the first time he killed someone. However, once again, he clenched his teeth and looked at Elius, only to find him splitting two cloaked figures with a single horizontal strike at the same time. It ended rather fast, but all the scouts were dead.

Zaos got up, but he couldn't relax. His whole body was trembling slightly, and sweat covered his face… he killed three people. He had been trained to defend his kingdom and the royal family someday. Still, it looked like he didn't understand the severity of the job he would inherit eventually.

"Hey… Hey!" Elius suddenly raised his voice and woke up Zaos from his stupor. "Don't think too much about what you did, you were just following my orders, you hear me? Their deaths are on me, kid. I was the one who decided to buy some time and bring you with me. You were just following orders."

"… Yes, sir," Zaos said.

"Go and check things in the village, I will make sure to hide these bodies," Elius said.

Zaos left immediately, but first, he made sure to take a last look at the bodies. He beheaded one of the archers, and the others got hit in their hearts. They probably didn't suffer much, so Zaos relaxed a little, but after a while, he began to wonder if he should truly worry about criminals. After all, they attacked other villages and probably killed some people.

When Zaos returned to the village, he saw that his squad was having some difficulty moving the elders of the village. Some of them didn't want to leave their things behind. Others were just too old to move fast enough. Fortunately, they had some carts that they used to transport things, so his squad was going to use those.

"Squad leader, did something happen? Where is the instructor?"

"He is… erasing the traces of his footsteps," Zaos said. "We are going to leave soon, so be ready to move as soon as he appears."

Everyone could tell that something had happened. Zaos was pale as a ghost, after all. Not to mention, while he was holding the hilt of his sword, he couldn't stop his arm from trembling. He had come to that world, and it looked like he couldn't change many things about his life, and for some reason, he felt like he was destined to shed and make more blood fall on the battlefields.