Prologue

Tenshan pulled his spear out the man`s body and stepped to the side, leaving it to collapse beside him. The man was already dead before he hit the ground, joining the bodies of the rest of the men Tenshan had just slain. There were seven of them in total spread across the snowy hill. All of their corpses barely illuminated by the sickle shaped moon hanging in the night sky.

They attacked Tenshan as he was travelling back home from a hunt, trying tried to disguise themselves as bandits by wearing mismatched tattered clothes. But Tenshan wasn`t fooled. They were all far too skilled to be just bandits. No. These were men specifically trained to kill.

And Tenshan knew who had sent them. He knew the moment he saw their swords. The signature single edged blades were only forged by one nation. A nation that he had battled countless times over the years; the Jitan empire.

Tenshan didn't know why the Jitan Empire had sent assassins to kill him, a lowly captain in the now fallen Tuoloi army, and right now he didn't care. At the moment, Tenshan's only concern was to get back to his village and make sure his family was safe, because if they went looking for him in the forest, that meant that they had been already been to the village.

After immediately strapping his spear to his back with a long piece of cloth, Tenshan channeled his internal energy into his legs to strengthen them and ran as hard as he could. The internal energy would allow him to run faster and harder without fatigue. But Tenshan had to be careful with how much he used or else he risked over exhausting his body and feinting.

His mind raced along with his legs, worrying over the fate of his family. He prayed that the assassin had at worst, coerced someone to give up his location and that no one had died. But his prayers were too late.

When he arrived at the entrance of his village and saw what was left, Tenshan felt his stomach drop. This wasn't his village, he thought. He was somewhere else.

But he was forced to confront the truth when he saw remnants of places he remembered in the village among the wreckage. Auntie Sang's soup shop. The garden where old man Asei planted his vegetables. Even the small dog house built for Aki. All of it had been completely leveled. Every house. Every stall. Every wall. It was all gone. All that was left were piles of ashes scattered around fallen wooden beams and broken stone walls that had been too big to incinerate completely.

But the thing that hurt him the most, the things that brought him to his knees, was at the center of the village. It was a pile of bodies stacked on top of each other and burned to an unrecognizable black char.

He shook his head and began to silently cry, trying to deny what laid in front of him. But it didn't matter how many times he denied it, it couldn't change the fact that everyone had died. And it was all his fault. He could have saved them if he just stayed home, he thought.

Tenshan then felt a piercing pain in his shoulder and fell backwards onto the ground, his legs folded beneath him. He laid there silently and looked up at the night sky, believing the pain of losing everyone he knew and loved was manifesting itself. But when he felt blood beginning to trickle down his shoulder, he realized it was something else.

Tenshan, still lying on his back, glanced down at his shoulder and saw that the feathered end of an arrow was sticking out it.

"We have a survivor!" a voice said.

The words ignited a boiling rage within Tenshan that he had never felt before, and without delay, he stood up to his feet and glared at the assassin who had just shot him with an arrow.

The assassin stood 20 feet away from Tenshan, wearing the same tattered bandit disguise as the ones he killed earlier. His face showed surprise as Tenshan stood up, stiffening up for moment before he tried drawing an arrow from his quiver. But it was too late.

Tenshan had already undid the cloth that held his spear onto his back, channelled a vast amount of internal energy into his arm, and tossed it in the assassin`s direction.

An audible crunch was heard when the spear struck the assassin in the chest and pinned him against a broken wall. Tenshan then walked towards the assassin, who`s body hung lifelessly on the wall like an ornament, and removed his spear with one tug. As the assassin`s body fell to the ground like a puppet with it`s strings cut, another appeared. This one came at Tenshan from his right side, holding has sword in a reverse grip as he charged forwards.

Once Tenshan noticed him, he tried piercing the assassin with his spear but the arrow in his shoulder tugged at his muscles and made his attack slower than normal. This allowed the assassin to dodge the thrust with a quick spin and continue to rush forward. Seeing the assassin avoid the strike and move in closer, Tenshan swung his spear at him, hoping to catch him with the shaft or force him to retreat back. But the assassin proved too skilled and dropped to his knees before he was struck, ducking underneath the metal rod of the spear.

The assassin, now on his knees and within striking distance, slashed at Tenshan`s thigh with his sword. Tenshan pulled his leg back before it was lopped off, but he was still not quick enough to escape the attack entirely and he was left with a shallow cut on his thigh. The wound was not fatal and would have been a distraction in any other circumstance. But Tenshan was far to angry to even feel it after it's initial cut.

Tenshan then leapt backwards and thrusted at the assassin, who was practically immobile on his knees, with his spear. The assassin, unable to dodge this time, tried parrying the thrust with his sword but it proved fruitless against the immense strength behind Tenshan's spear. The spear jammed into the assassin`s throat and left him gargling blood before he died.

When Tenshan went to pull the spear out, a shadow began to grow in front of him. He then looked up at the source and saw that it was a third assassin, this time falling from the sky with his sword held over his head. Tenshan managed to avoid the attack with a side step, pulling his spear out of the second assassin's throat at the same time. But when he stepped backwards to give himself space, he felt a familiar sting across his back. Tenshan turned around to find another assassin behind him, backing up with a sword in hand. And then another appeared. And another. And another. It was like a swarm of ants coming for a small crumb of food.

But Tenshan didn't care. He welcomed them, as they were a distraction from everything that had happened. From everything that he had lost. Tenshan mindlessly charged forward at the droves of assassins, ignoring the arrow in his shoulders and the wounds he sustained, and cut, stabbed, broke, and crushed everything in his path. And any time he was wounded by an assassin, he would return it tenfold. There was nothing on his mind but to kill.

When it was all over, Tenshan, soaked in blood and dirt, stood over the countless dead men he had massacred. Not a single one of them left alive. But Tenshan was not satisfied yet, he wanted to kill more. He wanted another assassin to appear in front of him so couldn't be reminded that his wife and son were both gone.

But no more appeared and all he was left with was an injured body and a hollowed soul.