1 War-torn
~Existing is often difficult. We spent everyday paying for the fact that we're alive. We pay for our conscience, with our own flesh, blood and bones!~ Bardeelus, Border Control.
...
War never did anyone good, but there were certain combinations that made it even worse. For example, if a gruesome war spread across an underdeveloped island; The effects would equal to an actual apocalypse, rather than just war itself!
The island of Arberus suffered such damages. Although this place could be considered a tiny continent, it still couldn't counter some effects regarding trade, while in war. It took so little for everything to go wrong, and some governments made things worse because they ignored the consequences ~ They could've predicted the famines!
It hadn't been so difficult to predict them, this island was rigged for failure. Arberus had a landmass, which stretched about six-hundred-thousand square kilometers. It featured eleven countries, half of which were very small.
Four of the bigger countries engulfed themselves in a few, official, gruesome wars with one another. In this process, the other countries close by crumbled towards anarchy, and famines too!
The island-wide trading system was in shambles now, and it hadn't been great to begin with.
These eleven countries had depended on neighboring islands or continents before ~ Now, many of those trade routes have been destroyed because of the war, which as expected, sent most of Arberus towards extreme poverty!
Relatively, mass massacres grew increasingly common, and it didn't solely occur on the battlefield either!
The governments were practically non-existent now, which meant that no one had to follow any laws or rules. Worse yet, half of the population were wizards or witches too!
The branches of magic which people practiced were expansive, but regardless of those details, a lot of people simply were equipped to slaughter one another, at any time! Everyone was a plausible murderer!
It was tough to survive, and even the richest people couldn't promise themselves a good future. The wars were nowhere close to ending either!
This was a horrible time to exist, nonetheless have a family. Some men were burdened with such a responsibility, however, and they weren't raised to give up, regardless of the circumstances!
…
"You have to be the most useless boy I ever met… Hell, you're not even a boy. How old are you lad?" A rusty, middle-aged man whispered.
"Twenty-three, sir. But, is this the best time to harass me? We gotta save our friends." Bardeelus whispered back, but he was far more nervous to communicate.
The other grew increasingly irritated, and his puffy beard rattled too, as he countered. "I have to save our crew, not we. You can't do shit for us, and would be dead within a second. You're no wizard… also, there are no 'friends' out here either, jackass, it's a crew."
"Right right, but I can still help though. I can sniff everyone's heartbeats, how's that useless?" Bardeelus joked a bit.
The other, as expected, wasn't so responsive towards comedy. Instead, he just said. "Hide in them rocks, and don't come out unless you want to die. I'll try to set some of the men free, but half of them will likely get slaughtered ~ Can't save everyone."
He bounced out of the bushes right after, and didn't care to communicate any longer. Bardeelus felt bad that he couldn't join in the battle, but he didn't want to die either.
He already felt nervous here, from afar, as he watched the other run towards battle, so it didn't seem smart to fight. As for that middle-aged man who trotted fearlessly against danger, he had quite a unique name, they called him Kutal the Sturdy.
As the same man rushed towards battle, that name made more and more sense. His magic powers solely revolved around metal, and right now, even his spine was toughing up with a thick layer of the same material!
The dark, wool shirt he wore had been torn a while ago, as he summoned that layer of metal on his spine, pretty often. It was slightly spiky, but pretty thick too ~ Most of the time this ability guaranteed survival.
"Oh what I'd do to be cool like that…" Bardeelus thought, as he was close to shitting himself here, while hiding behind the rocks.
He couldn't help admiring Kutal. He was a short and roundish man, but that bodily form was very deceiving!
He was a force to be reckoned with, and right now, he flawlessly ambushed the fifteen or so men, who had captured his crew. Kutal could transform his hands into two-foot long spikes, which were tough and invaluable weapons!
He punched two men through the throat, and charged at the most crowded portion of the enemy group afterwards. Some of the enemies quickly acknowledged what was going on!
An opponent shot a fireball against him, which seemed more like a wall of fire at its peak, but that didn't stop Kutal the Sturdy. Even his beard remained unscathed, as the whited-out bits of hair were swiftly replaced by thicker, silvery ones within seconds!
He pierced right through the fireball, almost effortlessly. The remains of such scolding fire, headed towards his own crew afterwards.
Kutal did not look back, as he knew how crafty some of the crewmembers were. Two men were quick to risk a few bad burns, just to set themselves free!
They leaped in front of the fireball's remains, with their backs turned, just to burn off the ropes which binded their wrists! The howls that they unleashed afterwards, signified their success.
However, even though they survived, these two men weren't exactly noble or holy. As soon as they broke free, both of them dashed towards random directions within the forest; They fled, and left their crew behind.
"Shit shit shit!" Bardeelus cussed from a distance.
He understood the severity of the situation very well. Five more men, and three women from his crew, were still captured. Most of them had their legs tied up as well, and the women were far worse off!
They were stripped naked, so Kutal had likely interrupted what could've been some gang-led, forceful activities. The point was, no one else from this crew could escape!
Bardeelus peeked at Kutal nervously, and noticed that he was suffering fireball after fireball already. Although his metallic capabilities gave him an incredible endurance bracket, there was only so much he could handle; He'd fall down on the battlefield soon enough!
With that considered, Bardeelus decided to ignore that direct order from earlier on, as he had to help these people escape. However, he didn't want to die either, so cautiousness was a must!
Earlier on, he was joking freely, but didn't exactly lie about one thing… He could really sniff everyone's heartbeats! This skill was unheard of and really weird, but today, it has to come in handy!
"Okay… so I should kill that fucker first." He decided quickly.
There were three enemies who guarded his captured friends, and one of them seemed like the most relaxed. Bardeelus could read his heartbeats like a book, and figured that this particular enemy would have a sloppy response time!
With that considered, he grabbed a thick, oldish stick that was close by, and charged at the enemies regardless of how his gut advised the opposite. He farted a couple of times out of stress, but he refused to give up, and made sure to approach these three men from behind, in order to avoid detection as long as possible!
Bardeelus' arms weren't exactly the strongest, so he made sure to approach the target as closely as he could, just to land a good blow.
"Die you ugly bastard…" He whispered first.
Afterwards, he thrusted that stick against the back of the enemy's head, and punctured a thick, two-inch deep hole in there! This was enough to disable, if not kill the target, which right now gave him a tiny advantage.
Next, he pulled the stick towards his upper body, and then flung it against another enemy close by! It was enough to knock the other off of his feet for at least a few seconds!
Within this short moment which he won over, he grabbed a sword that the first victim had dropped, and couldn't help admiring its thin, but sharp form.
"So this is what a real sword looks like," He said. Good weapons weren't exactly common nowadays.
With that same sword, he ran towards the third, standing guard and clumsily slit the guard's back!
That was not enough to guarantee victory, as the other turned around, and seemed very capable to fight back! After this point, Bardeelus lost all of his advantages, as he clearly couldn't win a fair fight ~ One wrong move was enough to get himself killed!
The situation grew worse, as that second guard which he had tossed his stick against a moment ago, joined in on the fight as well. He approached from the side, so surely, Bardeelus was surrounded now!
"To hell with you, I'll die with honor!" He sighed.
It felt very stupid to die like this, regardless of how he tried to convince himself otherwise. Two days ago, they came out here in the forest to hunt for food, and now he and the crew were about to get killed off by a bunch of random, lawless wizards!
This situation was embarrassing, and he got increasingly angry about it, but now all he could do was fight and likely die!
Before he was about to swing against the man in front of him, however, a sudden wall of fire almost blinded him instead.
By luck, the enemy close by absorbed most of the blast, so Bardeelus was barely burned. When the fireball hit the enemy, he could see the lines which depicted the human body, being drawn accurately by the same fire, based off of the man which just got scorched!
It was beautiful, but surely powerful. Two of his opponents were wiped out because of that blast, just like that, by a stray fireball, so now he had an advantage once more!
He clung onto the sword, and freed a friend who laid close by. The idea was to free a couple of people, so they'd help untie everyone else.
Bardeelus cut through two pairs of binded ropes quickly, and was about to free the ladies afterwards. However, all of a sudden, he felt a heavy blow against the back of his head!
"What…?" He could only mumble.
He fell to the ground, but wasn't knocked out cold just yet, so he quickly figured out who attacked. A crew member, one of the same men who he freed, had hit him!
At first he didn't understand why, but then, he noticed that they weren't helping anyone else get loose.
Right after, one of these traitors said. "Okay, those hotheads won't be coming after us anytime soon. Let's go home!"
"Fuck you, traitor!" Bardeelus whispered, as he couldn't quite shout.
He focused on the other's heartbeat at that specific time-bracket, and channeled all of his rage towards that direction. Out of a sudden, he could sense how the traitor's heart started beating abruptly fast!
It was close to exploding, but Bardeelus wasn't given enough space to figure out what was happening to this traitor. He fell unconscious!
