CHAPTER 99: HAMILCAR’S EXPEDITION 12

"Barrafin, you traitorous scum! You dare show your face here and vomit such disgusting words?!" A brutish, thug like man who wore no real armour to speak off and carried a large cleaver roared out with a ferocious expression, from the left side of the wall.

"Agrashi." Barrafin muttered this hateful man’s name under his breath, as his eyes cooled to frigid levels, remembering the many horrors of this mad butcher’s cleaver.

"What’s wrong young patriarch? Did the site of my colleague’s visage scare you silent?" Another voice heavy with pretentious sophistication and gloating mockery sounded out from the other side.

Barrafin felt indignant over the Evgenoth’s humiliating words, but he wasn’t going to lose his temper over such an amateurish taunting attempt, as he raised his voice again and sincerely tried to persuade these ignorant fools "If any one here should be fearful it is you not me." He said this as he gestured to the army behind him.

"HAHAHAHA!" The surrounding Tamarthul soldiers bellowed out an amused laugh.

"Barrafin, you wretched filth, have you no shame?! Or have you truly gone completely mad!" Agrashi roared out yet again, his hot temper on full display, as he believed Baraffin was mocking them.

"Calm yourself Agrashi, the boy’s mind is probably muddled with dread and he’s just trying to put on a brave front, as he most likely expected us to be with the Coalition’s army and not here, so he thought the city was easy pickings for his gang of marauders, right?" Evgenoth spoke with a self indulgent smile, as his vanity was greatly sated, thinking himself to have seen through all the events before him.

Barrafin grew so furious over his words that his face turned to a shade of red as he venomously roared out in reply with an insidious grin "As if I would ever fear the insecure bastard son of some nameless prostitute and his lunatic partner, who sell their bloody services to the highest bidder."

Barrafin’s words struck a nerve in the two men as their faces grew even redder than Barrafin’s and jumped off the high walls; unleashing their fifth rank auras, causing the Tamarthul men to erupt in thunderous cheers.

"To think that a snivelling little dog like yourself, who so cowardly wagged his tail for the northern invaders would dare bark such words in front of us!" The previously elegant speaking man crudely said, his previous mask of nobility quickly eroding away.

"Enough talking Evgenoth. Let’s be done with this already!" Agrashi impatiently said, his eyes already rabid with desire for simple violence.

Barrafin grew even more furious, but he quickly schooled his temper and restrained the words that were about to leave his mouth, and calmly said "I’m done talking to you two imbeciles. Go call your employer Leighis, at least he can be reasoned with."

"Master Leighis has no time to speak to the likes of you!" Agrashi roared out in fury as he rushed towards him; cleaver raised high ready to strike.

Yet before his strike could land, a black armoured warrior appeared before him and and then a flash of grey. That was all everyone saw before Agrashi, the feared commander of the Tamarthul Clan fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood, with his decapitated head frozen in a mask of disbelief and regret from the left arm of this mysterious scarred warrior.

The ait stilled for a moment as if the wind itself needed a moment to process this sudden turn of events, while the gathered men of the Tamarthul clan were no better as they blankly in front of them as if they could not believe what had just transpired before them.

This cruel silence that hung over the Tamarthul Clan was only expunged when Barrafin sighed in resignation, before saying "My apologies lord, I tried my best."

"It is what it is." Avestan replied, before he vertically swung his straight long sword in the direction of the city wall.

Instantly the battlements, where the Tamarthul men stood exploded backwards, hurling both flesh and stone on the helpless city behind, bathing it in a rain of gore and ruin.

But the second and last surviving commander of the Tamarthul Clan, had only one thought circling in his mind right now; and it was to flee! To flee as far as his legs could carry him away from this place. Yet before he could even move his legs, he felt the warm, wet edge of the sword that still dripped with Agrashi’s blood, rest on his neck.

"Where is the Patriarch of the Tamarthul Clan Leighis?" Avestan calmly asked, which Barrafin quickly translated to the Murathicus language.

"H-He’s not here! He went with clan’s best priests to join the Northern Tribes’ Coalition!" Evgenoth answered without hesitation, fearing his head might Agrashi’s if he dared delay.

"Then who is in charge of the city in his absence?" Avestan emotionlessly questioned.

"That would be young master Leighac, the son of lord Leighis! He was left as regent until his lordship’s returned!" He swiftly said, with a flattering expression, hoping to get on the good graces of this scarred northern warrior.

"And where would I find this young lord?" Avestan asked impatiently.

"In the Patriarch’s hall, in the centre of the city..." The instant he finished his words, Avestan’s sword cleaved through his neck, separating it from his shoulders, shutting him up, before turning around to face Barrafin and commanding "I will go after the regent. You and the others will finish the secondary mission."

"Understood lord." Barrafin saluted as he led the men into the city.

Meanwhile Avestan blitzed in ahead of them, rushing to the Tamarthul’s Clan’s Patriarch’s hall. Quickly carving a path of devastation without even meaning to, as just the hurricane winds rushing after him were enough to catapult the wood and fabric market stalls high into the air, to tear the roofs off buildings as if they pulled with iron hooks, to gouge stone and clay from the cobbled road and buildings leaving them riddled with hideous holes, and churn glass windows and mosaics back into sand.

He only stopped when his charge when faced with the imposing Patriarch’s hall, which slightly amused Avestan, since the Tamarthul clan is primarily a priestly clan, yet their patriarch’s home has a very domineering and militant appearance, even when compared to the Dolgan Clan’s hall, which was a martial clan.

But Avestan’s pause allowed the guards to finally catch a glimpse of him and they unhesitatingly unleashed their attacks upon him, all of which were of no concern to him as he calmly evaded or parried them before launching his own counter attack, which ended within a few brief yet bloody minutes, with him standing triumphantly, yet nonchalantly among a small lake of corpses.

He then swiftly made his way inside, where as expected, he found the man he was after, sitting uncomfortably in the throne room of the Tamarthul Clan.

Stepping inside the hall, Avestan was about to demand the man’s surrender so as to save himself the indignity of being dragged out like a beaten dog, when suddenly three dozen men all wielding different weapons and clad in master work armour, while radiating an aura of at least third rank, rushed at him from all sides.

Yet he, like usual cared not for any of this and instead struck back with his gleaming long sword, slashing their necks and piercing their hearts with terrifying efficiency. Yet no sooner had he finished dispatching them to the other side, did they suddenly rise up yet again and attack with the same ferocity!

Shocked by this, Avestan retreated and took a defensive stance, cautious and disturbed by what happened, as he noticed that their wounds were no where to be seen, as if all that he had done was no more than his own fantasy. Yet he knew that he was not mad, as he could still feel the sensation of steal cutting flesh, which could not be faked, besides he also noticed that the skin in areas where he’d previously struck them were now of a slightly paler complexion.

Seeing this Avestan quickly snapped his head in the direction of the Leighac, the temporary regent of the Tamarthul Clan and noticed a slight greenish tint in his eyes, confirming Avestan’s theory; this young master of the Tamarthul Clan was a high ranking healer, at least of the fifth rank so that he could instantaneously heal so many grievous mortal wounds so quickly.

Yet this technique held one great flaw, tremendous energy consumption. An ordinary healer could continuously heal a group this large so quickly and often for no more than a few seconds, but this young man seems to be especially talented, so he could last about a minute, or so Avestan estimated.

Never the less it did not matter, as Avestan does not intend to needlessly prolong this confrontation to last that long any way.

"Impressive." Avestan sincerely praised, with no hint of mockery or ridicule in his voice.

Leighac showed a proud smile in return, but before he could say anything in return, Avestan foot slammed onto the hard floor shattering it like glass, before propelling himself forward with the grace of an arrow and the force of a cannon shot.

The young lord of the Tamarthul Clan instinctively closed his eyes and channeled his power to it’s upmost to heal his guards, yet even after the passage of a few seconds he did not feel the expected assault of drowsiness or the sickening punch of nausea; instead there was nothing.

Slowly Leighac opened his eyes, only to see the terrifying man who assaulted his city and home standing in front of him calmly, while the headless bodies of his thirty five guards laying brokingly behind him, like a macabre red carpet.

The young lord, did not panic, rage or cower in fear at this sight, instead he calmly accepted his fate, knowing full well, that while yes, he may be able to heal a great many wounds, even mortal ones such blows to the heart, decapitations and the like were a whole different story, something that even his father would not deal with. So there was nothing more he could do.

Seeing this, Avestan calmly said "Wise choice."

Meanwhile, Barrafin and the elite forces of the Eclipse Empire that were dressed like Dolgan warriors stormed the city like a pack of ravenous wolves, shredding any and all resistance that they faced, until they reached their destinations; the granaries and food storages of the Tamarthul Clan.

Then and without any additional fanfare, they set them all ablaze, before calmly departing the city as if non of this had anything to do with them.

Once outside they saw the scarred Avestan patiently waiting for them, with the young lord of the Tamarthul clan slung over his shoulder, like an old bag of potatoes.

"Mission accomplished my lord." Barrafin announced.

"Good. Tie him up and make sure he doesn’t escape." Avestan replied, before he unceremoniously tossing the yoing lord of the Tamarthul clan to them.

"Now then, let us head out to our next target." Avestan mercilessly said, as he led his men away from the devastated city.