Reincarnation?

Early in the morning of the second day after the death of Lazaris, the ritual killer, the boys set up an ambush at a junction on the road towards Akanza, a town west of Aciri. They waited in the cover of the thick trees until day break.

"They have finished loading the gold." Leo said.

"Get ready."

"Wake up! You like to sleep everywhere." Nathan shouted.

Amaros who was sound asleep under the shade of an Arjuna tree, suddenly woke up, rubbing his eyes and squinting them open.

"If it was not for you, I wouldn't be feeling drowsy." Amaros snapped.

"You got too carried away about by the attention the girls gave you at the celebrations that you made us stay with you until late."

"You had seven hours of sleep. Isn't that enough?" Said Nathan.

"Besides I was forced to attend the celebrations as I helped catch the killer."

"Keep it down you two, there are people coming. Leo interjected.

A family riding a donkey buggy passed from the Bearis road and turned towards Akanza.

"Let's take our positions the gold carriages are near." Leo commanded.

They all spread out in the jungle and Nathan went towards Bearis.

There were four carriages mounted to 3 horses each. In front of the carriages were 6 front guards wearing red tunic and black pants, riding black horses. There were 6 more rear guards wearing all black.

The horses mounted to the carriages were white and one guard was riding each carriage.

Everything was going smoothly as the horse drawn convoy approached the junction. The front guards passed the junction towards Akanza and out of the blue the carriage horses went rogue. They turned and galloped towards Bearis. In panic and confusion the rear guards chased them down.

'This can not be happening.' They thought.

The front guards also turned around and went in hot pursuit.

Everything happened so fast that Garrod, the leader of the guards couldn't believe his own eyes. His own man were betraying him right infront of his eyes. Nothing ever went unnoticed by those prying eyes. However today he didn't see it coming. Nothing about his man raised any suspicion that they will double cross him. His mind was racing and then came to a sudden conclusion when the riders were thrown off the carriages and the carriage horses continued on their way down to Bearis.

'There is someone controlling the horses.' He thought and noticed crows and ravens hovering above them in the clear morning sky.

He recalled seeing unusual sightings of ravens and crows around the storages and it hit him.

'Who ever is controlling the horses is also controlling these birds.' He thought to himself as he stopped by one of the guards who violently crashed out of the horseback.

"What happened Nim?" Garrod asked.

"The horses were out of control. I tried to stop them but they were not heeding my instructions." Nim replied in discomfort as he was helping himself up.

Garrod took out his two twin axes and leapt high in the air rapidly and slayed the ravens with lightning fast attacks. Their blood stained feathers lazily flew in the calm air as the birds rained down on the ground.

When he was still floating in the air he saw two carriages going off the main road into field roads. He descended down and jumped onto his horse, instantly the guards chasing the carriages on horseback dived nosed down after their horses came to sudden halt.

Garrod ditched his horse and pelted down the road at blistering speed that he caught up with the guards in no time and signaled that he was going after the carriage on the fields roads. He took with him 5 guards that he could not recognize as they were covered in dust and dirt.

The other 6 went after the carriage on the main road and when they caught up with it , Nathan jumped over the horses from the front and landed smoothly with his light feet on top of the carriage, with his hands on his pockets.

The guards saw a topless beast of a man who looked like he could lift a horse with its cart and they all wanted to stop the pursuit. They must have. The look in their faces as Nathan glared at them exposed their deep feelings. But nonetheless they continued the chase until Nathan dropped down swiftly and landed between the two men at the front as he outstretched his arms and grabbed them by their throats. All their momentum dissolved in Nathan's clasp and almost instantly they found themselves hanging in the air. Before they knew it, they were hitting the ground with their backs so hard that their bones shattered on impact.

The other terrified men passed on the flanks and continued the chase.

If it was their choice they could've hid from this giant of a man in the camouflage of the forest. But if they had to keep their job and their pride they had to act tough and bold.

One of the man was Ronnis, Garrod's assistant. He told the other men to go after the horses and he stopped and stood between Nathan and them.

Ronnis lunged at Nathan and conjured yellow flames. His eyes turned yellow and a yellow ring shone around him. Nathan met him as his eyes luminated with an intense orange color.

Ronnis threw a punch but Nathan saw it from space and ducked it. He counter punched him with a body shot and a right hook to the face. His tooth went flying and so did he. He catapulted in the air and hit the ground with a devastating force that he rolled like he was being pulled by a carriage until he came to a halt.

He put all his strength in one arm and raised himself up. With both hands he dusted himself. If only his damaged pride could be dusted off like that he would be the happiest man in all the four kingdoms. His clothes were torn by the friction of the hard rough road as he was dragged by an invisible force. His ego was the most torn though and there was no known wool to sew it back together.

With quick thinking Ronnis leapt in the air and conjured multiple fire balls. He called his men and when they looked back he released the fire balls towards them.

'What is he thinking, is he trying to kill us?'Then men thought as they jumped out of the way. The balls struck the carriages and they somersaulted into the horses. A cloud of smoke rose high in the air and the gold bars littered the road and the forest.

Ronnis acknowledged the difference in their powers and decided to take out the carriage so that Nathan would be delayed long enough for their most trusted warrior, Garrod to arrive.

Nathan was infuriated.

"I'm going to make you pick them one by one and carry them to my house." Nathan said in fury.

He lunged towards Ronnis rapidly, dodging fire balls while closing in the gap. In the midst of the barrage of fire balls, Ronnis sent 4 distinct ones. Two were aimed towards his left, and the other two towards his right side. In both sides, there were those at knee length and two at shoulder length.

Out of anger and hastiness Nathan didn't notice they were coordinated. He paid more attention to the ones coming directly at him. As the four fire balls glided by his sides, a net of sticky sugary substance carried by the four fire balls embraced him with a sticky hug. The fire balls lost momentum when the net entangled tightly around him and changed direction to meet each other behind Nathan like hands wrapped around a tight hug. When the fire balls collided, a massive explosion rocked him.

Before the explosion he thought to himself that he messed up. But never had he thought it would be this bad. The net kept him immobile and the two explosions, one at the back of his shoulders and the one behind his knees exerted an overpressured blast wave that almost fractured his bones. If it was not for his quick thinking at the last fraction of a second to toughen his big muscles with magic, he would have been toast. Well he was a human toast looking at the burns and his charred flesh and clothes. But at least he was alive. When the smoke cleared he was more angered by what he saw next.

He saw no one. They all ran and hid in the forest to his frustration.

He sensed their faint magical presence and for once he made a good choice to not acting on his feelings. He decided to join up with Amaros. He ran through the forest towards Amaros's position and before he did Garrod found Amaros engaging his guards. His sword was already blood soaked and he was panting. There were three guard corpses on the ground he had killed and two more standing. This men were with Garrod as they followed the two carriages into the field roads ealier. Along the way when the two carriages separated, Garrod instructed his five men to go after one carriage and he alone went after the other carriage.

They had planned from the start to separate Garrod from most of his man and it worked like a charm. However Amaros did not think Garrod would return before Nathan regroups with him as he was desperately counting on him to take out Garrod. Battles do not always go to plan, that's the bitter truth that Amaros was forced to accept.

"Go after those two carriages that went along the Bearis road." Garrod commanded his man.

"I will deal with this fella."

The two guards nodded and vanished into the trees.

"Who are you boy? And who put you up to this defiance?" Garrod barked.

Amaros's reply was stuck in his throat or perhaps he couldn't speak because he was still panting. He saw Garrod brandish his twin hatchet axes as he was strutting towards him and felt chills going down his spine. What was more intimidating though was a scar running down from his forehead through his right eye, all the way down to his mutton chops. Which was prove to everyone who had eyes that he was a seasoned fighter.

"Tell me where your friends are, especially the animal control magic user." Garrod said in cold voice.

"And perhaps I will spare you."

Amaros's lips were still tight knit as his family and community, only his loud gasps of air were heard in the quiet forest. The green flaming ring that was burning bright around him when he was fighting the 5 men ignited again and now a greenish yellow electric current flowed in his body and outside. He adopted a hanging stance and fixed his gaze on Scarface.

Garrod's eyes turned orange and he lunged at Amaros, swinging the hatchet axes. A clinging sound of a sword and axes echoed in the forest. Two is better than one, a lesson that Amaros was learning as he was losing ground. The two axes proved formidable and Amaros was more impressed than scared now. He had never fought against them, let alone saw them before. There were in perfect coordination and harmony as they sliced through the air, complimenting each other.

They looked around Amaros's sword parries, blocks and deflections like ravening wolfs hunting down an exhausted prey. Searching for an opening. The more the fight raged on the more ground he lost. And he found himself backed up against a huge oak tree. Garrod feinted with his left axe and swinged his right axe straight at Amaros's head. Amaros quickly lowered his body and rolled underneath him as the axe was buried deep in the tree trunk.

Immediately peregrine falcons came swooping down on Garrod, crash landing on him at speeds that penetrated his magic body armor, opening old wounds. His face and scar bled out and a swam of blood bees joined in the attack sucking out the magic in his flowing blood. As Garrod was distracted Amaros struck the ground with his electric charged sword and a greenish yellow shock wave blasted him into the trees killing the birds and bees.

When he rose from the rubble the fist thing he saw was a mountain of a man.

'How did that small boy grow so big suddenly.' He thought in confusion.

'Or is my mind playing tricks on me?'

His mind cleared and realized that there was indeed a tower of a man standing before him with dark orange eyes.

"Who might you be." Garrod asked.

"I'm Yownsize." Nathan replied angrily.

"Pick Yownsize, that's my name."

"Bold of you to think I'm your size boy." Garrod chuckled.

Without wasting any more time Nathan lunged at Garrod with a combination of jabs, hooks and overhead kicks. Garrod matched the speed of the attacks and his blocks absorbed the punches. He had met his own size. Although they are both orange, there is still a huge difference in power between upper orange and lower orange but they seemed to have equal powers and speed. Nathan was a lot stronger physically but Garrod's experience leveled the playing field.

Nathan was on the attack and after a combination of hooks he fainted a forked lightning kick and changed to a winged horse kick at the last moment. It caught Garrod off guard and the impact of the kick sent him crashing into the trees knocking them down. Nathan lunged again and swinged a right power punch. An orange lightning bolt flashed in his hand as he blasted a tree with such a great force that it snapped in two and crashed into the ground. Garrod was lucky to not be at the end of that punch or maybe he is just too good.

"Is that all you got." He mocked Nathan.

"Now it's my turn to attack."

He charged at Nathan swiftly and launched a series of body shots and hooks. Nathan was overwhelmed by his stance and techniques that he fell for a feint. Garrod baited him with a feint left hook. When Nathan moved to the right he was caught by a right overhead kick. He backed up a bit in pain startled by this man's fighting skills.

They engaged again in a fierce battle and Garrod was more accurate with his kicks and punches. But they didn't do much damage to Nathan. As the adrenaline was rushing through them and the heat of the battle rose they exchanged heavy blows until their fists struck each other and a loud explosion erupted in the forest, uprooting trees in a 120m radius. The trees were swept clean off the ground and what was a forest was now a sunken clear field.

Nathan and Garrod were both pushed back by the blast and they landed 50m from each other. The cleared area looked eerily similar to circular fighting grounds at Yoshino where they train but nothing about this fight seemed like a sparring session.

Garrod charged again at Nathan with more intent than before. He went for a left jab and a quick right hook to the head. Nathan with quick reflexes lowered his head. But the hook was a set up. He anticipated that he will lower his head just like Amaros did earlier so Garrod launched a high knee to the lowered face.

Nathan saw it at the last fraction of a second and blocked it with his violet glowing palms. He used the force behind the knee to push himself backwards and back spinned until he landed smoothly next to Amaros. Who was at the edge of the circle.

"What happened, Did you take out the rest of the men?" Nathan asked Amaros.

"There are two more who went to your position, you missed them when you came here." Amaros replied.

"You did well Amaros to hold him off." Said Nathan patting his head.

"Should we leave?" Amaros asked.

"I mean he is already dead." He added.

Before Nathan could answer Garrod bawled.

"Don't even think of running away."

"Your men are the ones who ran away from me, is that what you're good at?" Nathan replied.

"And besides why would I run away from a dead man?"

'Dead man?" Garrod asked himself in confusion.

He got more infuriated and charged towards them at a terrifying speed. He uttered words and a dark sphere with shadows inside appeared in his right hand. He closed in and just as he was a few feet from them his knee buckled and he nose dived into the ground. He slid down till his head halted at Nathan's feet.

As he was laying on the ground he looked down his leg and saw a bruise right were Nathan touched with his palms.

'So that's what they meant by saying I was already a dead man.' Garrod thought to himself in panic and fear.

'What is this magic?'

Nathan has the sun magic. He possesses ultra violet rays. Ultra violet rays, like many other rays, destroy cells. The rays not only destroyed the cells in his knee, they spread out through his body destroying all the cells in their path.

"I would have loved to fight you but I had to use that power because we are in a bit of a hurry." Nathan said.

"I will give you a quick death to honor you. You're the first man to evade my hand to hand combat attacks and also the very first to land a punch on me."

"I will never forget you."

He drew his black hilt monstrous sword and punctured a gaping hole in his neck as he was lying flat on the ground. Blood gushed out when he pulled out the sword and he fell dead.

Amaros combed the forest looking for the hatchet axes and right after he found them, they sensed the two men returning from Bearis road.

Nathan was not in their vicinity when they saw Amaros holding Garrod's hatchet axes.

They knew that for him to be standing in front of them wielding Garrod's axes meant one thing and one thing only.

"He must have killed Garrod." A terrified man said in a strangled voice.

I'm sure they pissed their pants a bit.

"What have you done with Garrod?" One of them asked in a faltered voice.

"Your master is dead." Amaros replied.

"And I'm going to kill all of you." He added grimly.

Upon hearing that the two men shuddered and fled before Amaros through the dense forest stumbling along the way. They were cut by branches and about an hour later when they stopped fleeing, they were unrecognizable. The forest did to them more than Amaros could have.

Nathan got out of the bushes chortling hysterically.

"Amaros the slayer, men run before you." He chuckled.

After a quick laugh they regrouped with Leo who had with him 9 fresh horses. There was only one carriage with mounted horses. Two were destroyed along with their carriages and the other one, Garrod killed the horses. The boys mounted all the nine horses. 6 on the carriage that had dead horses and three on the carriage that had 3 horses. They went towards the Bearis road where they collected all the gold that was scattered around, packed the carriages to the brim and drove to Yoshino.

They arrived in Yoshino five days later where they were welcomed by the seven swords and the royals. As they were unloading the gold Cassie noticed a doll in a carriage and immediately knew it was infused with tracking spells. She saw another doll in the other carriage and asked.

"When you were picking up the gold on the road, didn't you find similar dolls like this ones?"

" I recall seeing a half burnt doll, but I didn't think much of it." Nathan replied.

"I think you have led them to us. They now know where we operate from." Cassie said.

They all raised their brows, looked at Cassie and froze.

"But it's okay, we will kill them when they come here." She said fervently.

"If giving up our location for this gold was the cost then so be it. We will kill whoever crosses into our territory." Uriel added.

After they had unloaded the gold bars Nathan and Leo went to see Daniel and Raphael. Nathan told them about the sacrificial murders and how they helped catch the killer.

"The people of Aciri say more murders will happen in the future because they believe he wasn't sacrificing people for his own benefits." Nathan said in a low voice.

"Whoever they are, they are still out there. The death of the old man have not stopped their agenda."

"I know I'm not the most intellectual person but I think they are a bigger threat than the Onisians."

"Sacrificial murders huh?" Raphael asked.

"That is some very dark arts."

"Were they missing body parts." Daniel interjected.

"No they did not, their bodies were marked by fire. A rectangle interlaced with a triangle." Nathan responded.

"Was the rectangle above the triangle." Daniel inquired.

"Yes it was." Nathan responded attentively.

"If that is what I think it is then I fear for the future."

"That mark has been lost in time. It's from one of the darkest times in human history."

"The age of the nephilims, half human and half demons."

"They are said to be three times bigger than you Nate, strong, fast and powerful."

"They are always bent on evil. There's no trace of good in them. They brought the earth to its knees and almost destroyed it, until a world flood annihilated them."

"One family in the whole world survived the flood. The man had 4 sons, Abal, Adonis, Tswania and Onis. That's where the four blood kingdoms come from." Said Daniel.

"The people behind this sacrifices must be trying to reincarnate the nephilims. And if they succeed then the world will be in total chaos." He added in a gloomy voice.

"We should send Cassie to investigate." Said Raphael.

"She is well educated on magic and spiritual powers."

"I really wanted her here since our location is compromised." Daniel said in a hushed voice.

"But I guess the biggest threat its the sacrificial murders."

"Nathan, Leo take the seven swords with you as you distribute the gold among the villages. Take Cassie with you too and tell them all we have discussed." Raphael said and the boys left.

Nathan and Leo gathered Cassie and the seven swords of Yoshino. Along the way as they went to Nara, they told them all the transpired at Aciri and what Daniel said the marks are from.

"They are the trying to raise the nephilims. Mythical creatures in the books that are said to have been eradicated by the world flood."

Everyone stood quietly for a while, all trying to comprehend what they have just heard. You could see fear and uncertainty in their eyes.

"I'm sure Ethan and Jason would love to fight those nephilims." Lucia said jokingly and they all burst into laughter, trying to calm their nerves.

"Amaros the slayer will deal with whatever remains of them." Atlas added and the group cracked into chuckles.

Nathan had told them about how men ran before Amaros and they called him Amaros the slayer.

Their nerves calmed as they shared the well needed laughter. Nothing a good laughter can't fix right?

"We will send them back to where they come from." Leo said intensely.

"Yes. We will kill Onisians first and destroy all they hold dear then deal with the nephilims." Uriel added grimly.

They were all motivated and rejuvenated. The rest of the journey was filled with laughter and good spirits as they went village to village distributing gold equally among the people.

Afterwards they went back to Yoshino where Uriel and Lucia checked on their brother Joel at the mountain cabin. He had been staying here since they returned from Pakresia about a month ago. He had been reading a book they borrowed from the library of Pakresia. The book titled 'the laws of the earth.' He was not much of a reader but this book made him a book worm. There was something about it that made him feel like it was speaking to him. And he followed all the instructions in the book through rigorous training fueled by the fresh memories of the slaves he saw suffering at Pakresia. He was with the slave boy he bought. He called the boy Gabriel. Together they trained day and night hoping to unlock his magic powers