Hands-dipped in Blood

It was a crop seeding season. If it was a year like any other, the field would have been green with corps, ready to be harvested.

Alas! This year was different. The citizen didn't dare to plant the seeds. As a result, the fields had dried up and cracked. Long tall wild grasses were terrorizing the places with leftover nutritions. The morning coldness hadn't faded away, when…

There was a movement in the empire's camp. Soon a group of the people marched out. Not more than two hundred stopped somewhere in the middle of the wall of Na and the empire's camp.

The soldiers, garrisoned on the wall, were in confusion as those people started to assemble them in a peculiar formation.

About a hundred people assembled themselves in a perfect square in the middle. The left-over soldiers gathered around them as they were protecting them.

But soon those garrisons understood, something was wrong. The soldiers in the middle were on their knees with hands tied behind their back.

The order for rotation of guards didn't come, but new guards had started to pour in. They were lining along with the guards who were on the night duty. The curious formation of the enemies, outside the wall, had piqued their interest.

"Aren't those armours similar?" One of them spoke.

'Those armours do look similar.' But with the distance between them, they had no way to confirm it.

The outer shell of the formation parted as someone walked in. He was just about 5 feet and wasn't wearing any armour. In a cloth robe and a talwar on the back, he looked anything but strong. Yet they could hear the voice very clear, "Let's play a game."

With the signal, one of the guards came forward, and grabbed one of the captives, forcing him to stand up.

The man with small stature spoke again, "I don't like an unfair game, so I will give you 50 meters head start. And, if you can reach the city before I could hit you, then, you are free to go."

With the words, Kinoya took up the composite bow made using animal horn with his design. He took out the arrow and looked at the captive, "You are going to die anyway, I am just giving you a chance to survive, if you don't take it, I could kill you right now."

The captive hesitated for a moment more, before he ran toward the city. Weak and hungry, he knew this was his last chance of survival.

All the left-over energy in his muscles exploded at the same time. Yet the moment he stepped outside the 50-meter mark, an arrow went straight through his neck. He fell, not to move again.

The whole wall was silent. Until now, they weren't able to understand what was happening. They weren't sure about the identity of the people who were forced to kneel.

However, as soon as the arrow passed through his neck, it became clear. Their confusion about the armour faded with just one arrow, followed by a moment of silence and the whole wall erupted in an uproar.

"Those are our brothers. They are killing our soldiers."

"Those moral dogs are slaughtering the captives."

"Those empire's bas…"

The loud curses put a smile on Kinoya's face, "Wow, that was too easy. Let 2 of them go this time and lucky for you, I won't shoot until you reach the 100-meter mark."

Even between the uproar, they could hear Kinoya's voice loud and clear. The more they heard, the more frustrated they felt. Alas! Kinoya was outside the range of their arrows.

On the other hand, even before Kinoya could finish his words, one ran away, yet the result was no different. No matter how fast they were with their legs, or how agile their movement was, their blood was only good enough to wet the ground. The same thing continued for quite a while, and as the drama progressed the wall got more vocal.

Even if they failed to touch him, they continued to shoot arrows at Kinoya. One lucky one was able to put an arrow a few meters away from Kinoya. Failure after failure made them more frustrated, and Kinoya was happy with the result.

'One last push.' Kinoya could understand they need one more push before they will charge out, still 'Where is that white freak?'

Kinoya didn't dare to waste any more time and put down his bow. "The one who will be able to beat me will be free," Kinoya said with a smile and pointed at one.

Somehow the leftover Sixty felt relieved. 'Such a good archer could never be good at close combat.' They all had the same train of thought, but none wanted to test it.

One of the guards removed the hand shackle and gave him a sword. Being the first, he was surprised for a moment.

He stared at Kinoya, with his bloodshot eyes. The fear of death had long faded from his heart, all that remained was hatred. The death of his brothers bore the seed of vengeance deep in his heart.

"Aghhhh…" He charged at Kinoya with the open sword in his grip, but alas… Kinoya vanished from his view.

A deep cut appeared on the back, then on the chest, belly, cheek, and the last thing he cut, was the Achilles tendon. Before he knew it, he was already sprawled on the ground, but Kinoya never gave him the killing blow.

"What are you waiting for? Kill me." The fallen soldiers shouted as his blood continued to paint the ground red.

Kinoya didn't care about him at all. He called for the next pair. He could see the crowd on the wall getting more forceful. Their howling was resonating with the cry of the fallen.

Looking at the part of the wall that had fallen silent all of sudden, a smile appeared on his face, 'So the important figures had started to gather.'

With a nod, he moved towards the next. He got more violent, decapitating one, cutting the gut out, he was attacking the worst way possible. Yet he didn't kill most of them.

The guards around them were shuddering in fear. With the deep blood stench, it was hard for them to breath. The wails of the victims were sending chills through their spine, much less the one who was standing on the walls.

"Are you even human?"

"Do you have guts? Come here if you want to fight…"

"I swear in the name of great Djinn if I don't kill that one by my hand I won't…"

"You dog, if you want…"

Curses were showered on him, but those had little to no effect on Kinoya. He called five of the next. Everything was similar to all those last encounters but…

A wound appeared on his chest, a part of his robe was cut open. Kinoya jumped back to create some distance, but the five weren't inexperienced either. They charged at him without giving him the chance to catch his breath.

Kinoya stood there, with a smile on his face, "You will wish that you haven't done It." The blood that was coming out of his wound started to sizzle and soon turned into black smoke.

Not just the wound, he had started to ooze off black smoke from all the pores of the body. Soon his left eye hole turned dark but a blue flame flickered in his right eye hole.

It was the first time for the empire's army to see his form, they were surprised, much less the five, he was fighting.

'Wasn't he died?' They wanted to ask, 'But then again who can kill a devil.' Their reasoning had frightened them more.

They knew about the terror of the blind devil, yet they had no choice but to attack. Kinoya put his claw through the chest of the captive. The blood-ridden heart, beat in his claw for once, before he crushed it.

Kinoya's loose robe was blood wet, he moved without a single flutter. The whole thing turned into a slaughter. The head of the last one was crushed under his feet.

"Uggghhh" One of the guards couldn't hold it in any longer, and sprayed out the last night ration. The face of the other wasn't any good either.

A gleeful smile was decorating his face, but to the captives, the smile couldn't be more frightening. A foul stench filled the air.

"Let's not make it lengthy. Release them. I will give you a 100-meter head start. The rule will be the same, but instead of my arrows I will be coming after you."

The quick-witted broke into dash even before Kinoya completed his sentence, and the weak-willed wasn't much behind them.

"You can leave now, get ready. The enemy will be coming out at any moment." The guards left Kinoya and Chanakya behind.

"Red bands on the right." With a single phrase, Chanakya left too.

Kinoya started with those at the front of the herd, and the massacre continued. He was jumping from the shoulders to shoulders, removing heads, and spraying blood in the air.

*sharp* *sharp*

The cloud of arrows rained down on him, putting a stop to his progression. In the hand of the archers on the wall, the bows were at the full taunt. They were ready to release the next volley of arrows with a moment's notice.

Kinoya didn't get the chance to look at the wall before he was sent flying with a blunt force at his chest. It wasn't blunt, the robe was cut in half along his chest, but the thin blood-line soon lost under the black smoke.

Kinoya had taken out the talwar from the back, before landing on the ground. In his hand, the talwar glowed in the brown aura as it clashed against the blue claymore.

Behind the attacker, the gate of the city closed again, taking in the last bit of survivors. With a breath of relief he greeted the one with the blue claymore, with a smile "Captain Fret, it is nice to meet you again."