ALL NOVEL Chapter 23: In and out, 20 minute massacre
The death squad marched slowly but steadily. They had to cover a large distance, but one of them was a powerful "child", while all others were echoes with dormant capabilities. They could keep going tirelessly and indefinitely
They marched for a few hours and finally they saw the gates of Assai. The wall was manned by the standard guards, not even an awakened in sight. The watchmen also saw them. The grizzled, stubbled and mountain of man called Chiron was nowhere in sight and no one expected a poorly equipped rag-tag group to be of much threat. They spotted him coming towards them and none recognized him.
It was only logical. Most who experienced Chiron's terror were killed, Elbaf, or had long since moved on. Those now manning the castle were newer soldiers, some awakened, but mostly normal men and they only remembered Chiron as a 3 foot tall dwarf, that was only good at getting cut up and used to train swordsmanship.
Aranai didn't have the the same watchmen corps that Analand did and their best archer was killed several months, so none have received his legacy and were able to follow his path to awakening.They could only man their towers with simple warriors and have awakened as bonus security.
Their favorite strategy was using their sheer numerical advantage to overwhelm Analand's forces and take territory, so even though they noticed Chiron's little army and reported it to Elbaf, no one realized it was Chiron the traitor they were talking about and the awakened stationed for that side of the fortress sent a delegation to communicate with Chiron's group and find out their intentions.
This delegation was a young soldier, a boy, who rode out on horseback from the gate and met Chiron a couple meters past the main gate. The group stood 100 meters away from the gate and waited to meet their efforts, trying to appear peacefully to gain the necessary clearance and be let in.
"Good day, young friend." Said Chiron. The delegate also answered in kind "good day, sir. May I ask of your reason for coming to new Assai?"
Chiron nodded his head and said "As you can't see, I am here traveling with my men. We are a minor group of soldier and my men were attacked by a bunch of bandit and the caravan we were escorting got robbed. Our employer forced us to hand over pieces of our equipment to be let off without a fine and now we want to seek refuge in this fortress. I do not have money, the merchant made sure of that, but we can offer some of our equipment as collateral, until we rest and find work once again."
The boy nodded his head and said "I will relay this to our tower's commander. Before then, could you please wait here. This won't be long, as I can easily tell you all are from Aranai. We won't let our country's brave warrior sleep in the wilderness." Chiron nodded with a smile and within an hour he was let in to new Assai... and met the commander, who gave him the right of way.
The original plan was to be let into the fortress and initially lay low, gather intelligence and plan the best route for a full on genocide of this castle. The first step of being allowed in was easy to accomplish, they simply were let in due to being Aranai citizen's and wearing memories that were Aranai armour. None doubted their identity and they could see they were competent warriors. There was more to gain by letting them in than denying them. But everyone has a plan before they get punched in the face...
Chiron went through the gate, guarded by his 20 men, as he came face-to-face with the local commander and he blinked his big eye innocently.
The awakened standing in front of him stood completely still. His eyes popped open, his one ear tensed, as his eyebrows flew up. He couldn't even blink, as he stared at Chiron, who had a much milder response.
"Oh, it's you!" In front of him stood the same man, who had cost him his spinal cord, the same swordsman, that fought alongside Elbaf and was one of the only 2 to survive him. The swordsman's mouth dropped when he saw Chiron and his mind went blank in fear.
Even though Chiron looked not even 1% as intimidating as his towering frame used to, the sheer terror of knowing what this tiny gremlin was capable of being awakened triggered a panic response in him. He simply could not believe Elbaf was completely correct and the 1 man they had been looking for for a month just walked into their own fortress, just like that.
"Change of plans! MEN! SLAUGHTER! MAKE THIS CITY BLEED A THOUSAND TIMES WHAT I BLED!" And within the blink of an eye, the swordsman, who almost cut Chiron's head off the first time they met, lost his own head. Just like that, an awakened had died and Chiron's soldiers marched as a single unit, lead by Sean. *Skirmishers are in. I have trained Sean in gorilla warfare, so they can wreak havoc, while I go on a killing spree!*