Return of the Fallen Volume 9 Chapter 8
As soon as they made it out of the dense forest, a large army, thousands strong were already there waiting for them. Chela pulled the kids behind her instinctively and Grek stepped in front of her. His hand gripped tightly on the hilt of his blade. With this many opponents, he knew he could take them but he wasn’t sure if he could do the same whilst protecting his family.
He opted to run away with them. If he carried them all, he was sure he could outrun this army and escape. As this army just stood there though, he became unsure of their intentions. If they were here to attack him, then what were they waiting for.
“What do they want?”
Chela felt uneasy. Who wouldn’t? Seeing a large army covered in black plate metal. This army carried no flag and had no insignia to identify themselves, which made Chela feel even more uneasy.
Grek shook his head. He had no answer for his wife as he too was confused.
“So you are the man said to be legend!”
A large voice boomed across the land and sky and the black army opened a path. Out from the ranks of these soldiers two men appeared in their line of sight. One familiar one not.
Ignoring the voice that just yelled at them, they all couldn’t help but focus on the familiar face. It was the chief.
He stepped forward with a sad expression.
“Chela, this was the only way.”
Chela’s eyes widened in shock and fury.
“YOU OLD BASTARD! YOU BETRAYED MY MOTHER AND NOW YOU BETRAYED ME!”
Before anyone could say anything else, the ring on Chela’s hand lit up with green light. The very next moment a heavy boulder materialized above her and it shot forward as fast as an arrow. She had every intention of killing the old chief here and now but the moment the boulder was about to crush him, the man who had spoken a moment before stepped forward.
With ease, he lifted a hand and caught the boulder with a single hand above his head.
“Hmm, the wife really wishes to see you dead. It makes sense, you turning on her when she already had so little trust in you, funny.”
Chela was surprised the man had caught her boulder. The only people she knew that were capable of such a feat were her husband and that was it, at least when it came to those in the Great forest. Not just her, Zephris and Alta were left stunned as well. In their eyes, there was no one stronger than their father. Their worldview was just that small.
Chela wished to say more, to scream at the top of her lungs but the moment the man next to the chief caught her boulder with ease, she again felt uneasy.
Grek though was still unafraid.
“There’s no need to guess, you are clearly the lord of the south. You’ve come all this way but I’m sure you’ll be leaving in disappointment. You know who I am, and what I’ve done, my skills are not exaggerated. Let us not beat around the bush, I and my family are leaving. I would like to go peacefully but I understand if that isn’t possible. If we are to in fact fight be prepared for heavy losses.”
The man standing next to the old chief smiled.
“You are quite confident, which is good. That’s the exact reason I wish for you to serve me.”
Grek shook his head.
“I’ve already told your knights my answer before had and it still remains the same. I don’t know how you were already waiting for us but soon you’ll be opening a path. So will you step aside or will I have to draw my blade?”
“Only a few words and you already are releasing so much killing intent in my direction. Ah, I still haven’t even introduced myself properly. Would it not be better to at least know the name of the man you are prepared to kill?”
Grek said nothing more and gripped the hilt of his sword tighter. He still didn’t understand the man’s full extent of strength and was still half and half on whether he should fight or run away with his family.
The man gently set the boulder on the ground next to him before giving nobles greeting.
“My name is Ogastx pronounced the same way as the month. You on the other hand are the thousand manslayer. Grek’s with his trusty partner, the crescent blood blade. I’ve heard many things about you. As I made my way across the south and took it piece by piece, Your name kept crawling in my ear like a maggot looking for rotten bread. At first, I was simply interested in meeting you but the more I heard about you, the more I doubted, that is until today.”
Ogastx inhaled deeply through his nose.
“I can smell it, that mixed-blood running through your veins. It’s faint but I can detect a small hint of dragon along with your human blood.”
As soon as Ogastx said this, Grek’s eyes widened in shock.
(He knows what I am!?!?)
Everyone was shocked hearing this but Zephris was doubly so. Zephris now recognized why the smell coming from the item box his mother had received was so odd yet familiar.
(To be able to detect my father’s blood with just his sense of smell, now it makes sense. The weird smell I picked up from the item box, it has to be trialing flower. With this flower, it makes it much easier for those with a good nose and other beasts to follow its scent. I couldn’t tell earlier because there were other smells covering it. It turns out, those other smells must have been a cover. The chief knows I work with my alchemist master, he would have known I would have picked up the trailing flower the moment he gave the item box to mother and it would have been suspicious so he mixed in a bunch of other scents to throw me off.)
“Mom, the chief he covered the item box with trailing flower. That’s how they knew exactly where we would exit. The leader could literally smell the direction we were going.”
Chela grabbed the item box from her pocket and held it to her nose. Sure enough, she could smell that familiar smell. It wasn’t too distinguishable before and had gone unnoticed but now that Zephris and called it out and she was looking for it. She could pick up faint signs of it with her nsoe.
Chela then opened the item box and found that there were no supplies in it whatsoever and was left completely empty.
In a fit of rage, she took it and threw it as hard as she could.
The chief was shocked by this.
“Chela I’m sorry but this was the only way. As long as Grek agrees and serves Lord Ogastx, he has promised to bring no harm to the forest or any of its inhabitants. That means you and your children will remain safe as well. Everyone can walk away from this with their lives, no one has to die, and no one has to suffer. Please calm your anger and think rationally!”
Ogastx pushed the chief out of the way.
“Stop speaking, your words are unneeded.”
Ogastx turned back to Grek.
“It’s simple really, I can tell just how strong you are. In these lands, there are very few who can compete with you but that stops at me. I stand above you and you below, that is the truth. I don’t care that you killed my knights. I didn’t order them to attack you, merely to have a talk so their deaths, I don’t blame you for that. At the same time, that dragon blood inside of you. The moment you cut those men down, was it not a thrill, was your blood not on fire in excitement. That power is not something meant to reside in a peaceful weak forest. Your destiny lies in the field of battle. Why stand in the shade of mediocrity when you can instead share the light of glory and blood with me. War is coming to the Feya continent and those who wish to hide, tucked away in a peaceful corner will soon have a reckoning. Join me and help me take the continent as my own and when all is said and done, I’ll gift you a kingdom for you to rule over.”
Grek slowly took his hand off of his hilt.
Chela stared at him wide-eyed.
“What are you doing?”
“Don’t you trust me?”
Chela went quiet for a moment before nodding.
Grek looked at Ogastx and shook his head.
“In the end, I still don’t wish to join you and I gave up fighting long ago. Please do not follow us!”
The moment he said this, Grek grabbed both his kids and his wife before stomping on the ground with his full force.
*BAM!*
The ground broke apart forming a crater that stretched for almost 200 feet in every direction, As rocks and boulders were launched upward and part of the army was shaken, Chela’s ring glowed and she turned all of the rocks and other debris into dust, clouding everyone’s vision.
Grek didn’t hesitate to turn around and run away as fast as he could.
Ogastx was indeed disappointed.
“You made the wrong choice.”
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