Chapter 67 - Wesley's... Epilogue (3)

The battle between the bandits and the guards was intense. The guards fought while slowly retreating, while the bandits rushed toward them recklessly. This gave the guards the advantage, but the bandits still held the numerical superiority, so they didn’t care.

The guards were starting to feel the hopelessness of the battle, and some even began to consider running. However, before they could do anything, a sudden roar came from behind them:

"FORM UP. MAKE A SHIELD WALL!"

The voice was so loud and commanding that the thirty or so guards immediately huddled together without thinking. Two lines were formed: the first line put their shields together, while the second line brandished their swords.

"ADVANCE!"

The voice roared again, and immediately the guards started inching forward, with some difficulty. The bandits threw themselves against the wall, but all they accomplished was slowing its advance.

Every time a bandit reached the shield wall, a sword would pierce toward him from the back line. The bandits quickly realized this was not a good idea, so they divided into two groups—one group went to the left, while the other went to the right.

They wanted to attack the edges of the shield wall, which was its weakness. But before they could reach their destination, another loud voice came from the back of the guards:

"RIGHT SIDE, RETREAT FIVE PACES. THE LEFT SIDE, ADVANCE TEN PACES."

The guards obeyed. Their right side retreated while the left advanced, causing their wall to shift right and face the bandits heading toward their right. However, as soon as they did, the guards realized their mistake.

Now that they had wheeled right to meet the enemy heading toward their right, the enemies coming from the left were now behind them. Some of the men in the back line who realized what was happening turned around, but what they saw left them dumbfounded.

A bluish greatsword, five feet long, was slashing past any bandits who approached. Between them and the bandits stood a giant of a man, waving his right hand while his left was behind his back. Each time the man waved his hand, the giant sword followed, and a bandit would either lose his arm or be cleaved in two.

The man turned his head and looked at the guards, who were staring at him with slack jaws. His face was twisted into an odd expression that was somewhere between a scowl and a smile, and his eyes seemed almost bloodshot.

His figure caused terror to take root in their hearts. The man turned his head back to the bandits in front of him and roared:

"FACE FORWARD. ADVANCE."

The guards, who had been staring at him, turned around without a word of complaint. They had no idea who this man was, but he seemed to be on their side and extremely powerful, so none of them questioned him.

However, the moment they turned around, they saw something else that made them slack-jawed again. The bandits who had been in front of them were now heading for their flanks. But every time they tried, a dark streak of light would appear out of nowhere and chop their heads off.

The black streaks of light disappeared as quickly as they appeared, leaving those who saw it wondering what it was. Only those with keen eyes could make out the form of a sword, but nothing more.

After a short period of time, all the bandits in front of the guards were lying on the ground, dead. The guards remained standing for a moment as if confirming something, then they all sat on their butts.

After almost an hour of fighting, the mental and physical burden on the guards had far surpassed their endurance level. Initially, they had been held up by their will to survive, but now that the battle was over, they simply couldn’t maintain their composure.

However, before they could even piece together what had happened, a voice came from behind them:

"No time to rest. Get moving."

As soon as they heard the voice, all the guards turned and looked at the source. The moment they turned, they saw a giant of man standing twenty feet away from them with a giant greatsword floating behind him.

Behind the man was a scene of utter destruction as incomplete bodies of bandits were scattered everywhere. The man must've seemed like a devil to the guards as they all instinctively stood and brandished their swords.

The guards knew that this man was the one who was shouting at them and helped them, but they still felt a feeling of dread coming from him. Especially, that greatsword of his. The man simply frowned and then spoke:

"These bandits were expecting reinforcements. If you want to live, leave this place. Or you can sit there like idiots and die."

The guards just looked at each other confused for a few moments, then a middle aged man with a scruffy beard stepped forward and nodded to Kellan and then he spoke to the guards:

"Pile the bodies in the side of the road away from sight. We leave in ten minutes."

The guards immediately went to work without question, Almost a hundred and some bodies were pulled from the road and placed amidst the shrubbery. Ten minutes later, aside from blood stains and the occasional body part, all the bodies were cleared away.

The guards immediately went and stood by the carriages of merchandise and merchants they were supposed to escort. The guard with the scruffy beard approached Kellan and spoke:

"Thank you for your assistance. We have no way to repay you, but we'll remember your favor today."

Kellan literally looked down on the man and spoke with a calm yet cold voice:

"Get going. The two of us will remain here and slow down the bandits."

The man's brows twitched slightly as he looked oddly at Kellan and spoke:

"Two of you..."

At this moment a voice reached the man's ears from behind:

"You should really get going. The two of us will not risk our lives to halt the advance of those bandits, so the further you are from here, the better."

The man instantly turned his neck to his right only to see a brown robed, blue haired Wesley slowly walking towards him and Kellan. The man's eyes focused on the dark sword that was on Wesley back.

He has also seen those dark streaks of light that killed many bandits, and now that he was seeing this dark sword, he seemed to have understood what they were. He immediately bowed towards Wesley and spoke:

"Then We'll get going."

The man walked away and led his remaining men away posthaste. It seemed like he was running from the bandits, and although that was true, he was actually running from these two monsters. Wesley and Kellan looked at the rushing people apathetically. Wesley was the first to speak:

"I counted about hundred and some bodies. That should be enough for you to breakthrough, right?"

"Right."

"Good. Get to it while I guard you. And then we can return to the second elder."

"Hmm."

Kellan nodded his head and immediately walked to the side of the road where the bodies were piled. He immediately waved his hand causing the sword to plunge into one of the piles. He then sat down cross legged and closed his eyes.

- - - - - - - - - -

Four hours later, Kellan's bluish sword was standing on top of a pile of ten or so bodies. It wasn’t clear to the eyes, but strand after strand of blood was oozing into Kellan's sword through its tip.

A few minutes later, all the bodies in the pile no longer had a single drop of blood in them; even the blood that was on their clothes and wounds had been sucked dry by the sword.

At this point, Kellan opened his closed eyes. His eyes shone with anticipation, and a small smile crept onto his face. Coupled with the fact that he was surrounded by bodies, it gave him a fiendish appearance.

Seeing that Kellan had opened his eyes, Wesley walked up to him and spoke with a laugh:

"Are you done?"

Kellan simply nodded and waved his hand, prompting his sword to leave the pile of bodies and appear before him. The moment the sword reached him, Kellan looked at it with eyes filled with excitement. Wesley immediately spoke again:

"Well, show me your zone."

Kellan looked at Wesley with a smile, then his sword started shaking slightly. The moment the sword began to shake, a red mist that reeked of blood wafted out of its tip and covered both Wesley and Kellan.

Wesley's nose twitched slightly as he could taste the blood, but that wasn’t the most impressive part. Wesley was unable to see anything besides red within the mist. He simply laughed and spoke:

"I get it. I get it."

The mist receded and went back into Kellan's sword, revealing a smiling Kellan within it. He looked at Wesley and spoke with a laugh as well:

"What do you think of my Blood Zone? It’s better than your Null Zone, isn’t it?"

Wesley couldn’t help but laugh at Kellan's words. He spoke with some resignation in his voice:

"It is indeed better, much better. Haha."

Kellan simply looked at his sword dotingly as he continued smiling sheepishly. Seeing this scene, Wesley couldn’t help but smile, he looked at Kellan and spoke:

"Time to go back. We have reached the second elder's quota. We can now graduate."

At the mention of graduating, Kellan's eyes lit up and he spoke:

"Finally. It took six years, We can finally be done."

"Haha. Indeed."

Wesley's gaze became slightly unfocused as he recalled his brother. It has been six years without seeing his brother, but that was about to change. He really looked forward to it.

"Let's go."