The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

                                                    While Zaos and his unit were recovering from the battle on the second village and coming up with the next battle plan. Some mercenaries were arriving at Toules town while leading an army of five thousand men. They were the heads of three families of mercenaries that Edwyrd had allied with. One of them was a man in his forties who had long black hair, his name was Luvon. An experienced mercenary that rarely let anything break his calm poker face.

                                                    The second mercenary was a bald man in his thirties, and despite his baldness, he had a thick black beard. On his face, one could see several scars. It was practically the proof of a man who was brave or very reckless. Considering the look in his eyes, it was evident that he was very reckless… His name was Garrik. 

                                                    The last one was a young man who seemed pretty laid-back. One could even say that he didn't look twenty years old due to the lack of scars in any part of his body and fine facial features, soft light brown hair, and green eyes that didn't have any malice on them. His name was Camus, and despite his age, he was the head of that alliance.

                                                    As soon as they crossed the gates of the town, they noticed that something was wrong. The place was quieter than usual, which was weird since they knew that they wouldn't fight within a week. After asking about their ally's location, they finally learned what happened.

"Really, that idiot is dead?" Garrik asked. "I thought the enemies were curled up in the base, so how did he died?"

"Sir, Edwyrd tried to pave the path for the final battle, but he ended up ambushed in the nearest town," One of the guards of the town replied. "Some of his men returned, but the vast majority ran away from the area. Those who returned said that a monster and his army attacked them."

"An army of monsters?" Camus frowned. "I thought those stories about the demon god had died a long time ago."

"No, sir… it was a single monster and his army," The guard said. "According to the survivors. A single man carrying a big sword passed through the cavalry in the blink of an eye and killed two hundred of them on foot. The soldiers tried to attack him, but the attacks didn't have any effect."

                                                    Those three mercenaries looked at each other. While some of Edwyrd men were deserters, the vast majority were mercenaries who grew in their country and survived thus far, relying on their strength. So, it was hard to imagine that they would lie like that.

"Did you try to investigate the battlefield?" Luvon asked.

"We sent some scouts, sir," The guard replied. "But it has been a while since we received any word from our scouts."

                                                    Camus jumped from his horse and then approached the guard and then glared at him in the eye. It wasn't his fault that things were happening like that, but the guard felt like it was.

"What do you think that really happened?" Camus asked the guard.

"Sir… I believe a new enemy joined the fray," The guard replied. "Before we lost contact with all of our scouts, we heard of a new unit arriving in the area and entering the Western base. I also believe that such a unit was the one who attacked us and destroyed some of our stables and the main warehouse."

                                                    Camus turned around and then looked at his allies. They had received that news, but since they had been traveling from one place to another in the last weeks, they didn't know everything. 

"It is Zaos Sielders' unit, the Bloody Knights," Luvon said.

"They didn't accomplish anything, and yet, he named his unit like that?" Camus laughed. "That kid sure has some balls."

"Don't laugh. You have heard rumors about him in the last few years just like us," Luvon said. "He defeated, not by himself, two armies of mercenaries that belonged to some experienced men when he was just eleven. Not to mention, he crippled Elmar."

                Those three knew Elmar very well. After all, they fought against him many times, but not in the last four years. After he lost his arms, Elmar lost everything and, in the end, took his own life since he only had his accomplishments as a mercenary.

"Prepare the men. We will investigate the battlefield right now," Camus declared and then turned to face the soldier again. "Speaking of which… ``How many men did Edwyrd use in the battle?"

"All his men, sir," The guard replied.

                                                    Camus frowned, Edwyrd had four thousand men, and the last time he heard, Zaos was promoted Captain of five hundred men. Even if they had a monster on their side, how come they won a battle where the enemies outnumbered them eight to one?

                                                    Without wasting time, those three commanders led the five thousand men to the other side of town. After a couple of hours, they found the remainder of the battlefield and didn't find any corpses, but they found a lot of dried blood and some piles of bones. They were probably the mercenaries that were cremated along with their horses.

                                                    Even Camus, who was usually so laid back, couldn't help but frown while looking at the place the battle happed. He could see many traces of blood in a single area, and something like a line of blood… like a storm of swords, attacked the mercenaries. There were some traces of battles around, but those were small and weak. It looked like the mercenaries fell for a trap and didn't have time to react in any way.

"The already small unit was divided even further in order to create an encirclement around Edwyrd's army," Luvon said. "It seemed that they really lost without doing much… it was a really crude tactic, but it worked well since they had a monster on their side that drew the attention of most mercenaries."

"Interesting…" Camus smiled viciously.

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