Chapter 88 - Shock

While Zaos was getting used to his new weapon, he chopped off the limbs and the heads of many mercenaries, but he also had to pay the price. His arms had wounds all over since the swings of the weapon were too big and long. The only thing that was making him stand was the fact that he used Heal to stop the bleed.

After fighting for so long, many things started to make sense. One of them was the fact that the mercenary army was composed mostly of rookies. While some of them were as big as Elius, they didn't have nearly the same leave of experience and training. It was only thanks to that Zaos and the others managed to fight for so long. Still, their original force had decreased by half in just a few days, while the riders were nearly exterminated… only ten of them were still alive.

Zaos clenched his teeth in annoyance when a spear suddenly hit his back. While the chainmail protected his body, he still could feel the wet feeling of blood rolling down on his shirt. Zaos turned around in a fit of rage, but he only saw some of his squad members attacking the enemy. Thanks to that, Zaos calmed down a little bit and had another idea. It wouldn't last for long, but it certainly would leave some damage in the enemies' minds.

Instead of blocking the attacks when three mercenaries tried to stab him, Zaos lowered his stance to dodge the weapons and then charged. The next moment, he swung his sword with all his might and easily cut off the lower and upper bodies of the enemies. 

Thanks to the power of his Wind Sword, the upper halves flew for quite the distance, and many of the enemies froze in shock as they watched that. In the place, the lower halves were, a kid who wasn't even ten years old could be seen.

Zaos imagined that such a thing would happen, but the result still shocked him. Despite that, he didn't let that bother him for long. While he didn't know their names, many of his allies suffered a similar fate. Logic says that there is no life more important than another, but from Zaos's perspective, that couldn't be farther from the truth. The importance of his allies, who were basically kids, far outweighed the mercenaries who attacked the town for no reason.

Before the effects of his spell could disappear, Zaos dashed toward the enemies. Some tried to run away, but they tripped on the nearby corpses, and in the end, were split in half before they could do anything else.

After splitting ten or so enemies, the longsword became heavy again. Zaos saw his strikes becoming really slow from his perspective. Then, before he could react, he saw himself standing quite far away from his allies and surrounded by enemies. In the end, Zaos let the blood rush to his head… However, before the enemies could use that chance to attack him, two riders showed up and attacked.

"Dumbass… what is the point of attacking and moving away from the formation?" Elius asked, and then he hit Zaos's head with a scabbard. "Return, now!"

In the end, Zaos couldn't even complain since he did one hell of a mistake. Regardless, things on the enemies' side went as much as he expected. The mercenaries couldn't help but shudder in fear when they saw a kid splitting adults in half so many times in a fast sequence… they had no idea that Zaos had used all his mana in the last attack.

It didn't take long for them to finally reach the other side of the town. The defeat was unavoidable, but at least they bought enough time for the residents to leave. Zaos and the others had to lose many allies for that, but that was a job they had accepted the very moment every single one of them joined the army.

When the wounded finally began to cross the northern gate, Zaos couldn't help but smile. While things might even become more dangerous outside the city, the mercenaries also suffered many losses. So unless they want to lose all the chances of guarding the city they just obtained, they won't pursue them.

Just when Zaos was a few meters away from the exit, someone threw a spear at him since only idiots had the never to get too close to him. Zaos tried to move to his right side and avoided having his heart pierced by the weapon, but in exchange for that, his left shoulder was impaled. Zaos recalled the memories of that event on the castle, where he almost lost his life. First came the anger, and then the agony as the blood gushed out from his arm, but then he relaxed a little when he crossed the gates…

The five remaining riders crossed the gates the very moment, dozens of heavily armored soldiers suddenly entered the town. Zaos relaxed when he saw them outside… while they weren't many, they looked like experts. So, they will be able to deal massive damage to the enemy's army.

While the reinforcements were fighting, Zaos sat on the ground and sighed in relief. Unfortunately, that only made the pain in his left shoulder increase even more, but at that point in time, it couldn't be helped. Zaos looked around, wondering if he would find an answer to that situation, but he only found out more questions. The number of soldiers hidden outside the walls was higher than he had expected, not to mention, a lot of citizens were nearby… why they weren't far away when so many recruits gave their lives in order for them to escape?

"You seem confused," Elius said. "The situation is already solved, recruits. You can rest easy and leave the rest of the work to them… As for you, it looks like from those that survived, you are the one who has the worst wounds."

Zaos already knew what was about to happen, so he couldn't help but sigh… in the end, he almost passed out when Elius broke the spear in his shoulder and pulled the tip from Zaos's back.