Extermination (3)

Letting the transport full of wounded officers pass, Bazel walked onto the road and blocked the path forward.

Looking at the figures of his now most hated of enemies, his face contorted slightly in hatred before easing up as he controlled his breathing and temper.

'I do not know why Lily was so saddened and worried about me, even giving me those two orders. But it is clear that there is something going on that I do not fully understand, at the very least I should pay careful attention to my temper so I do not enter 'that' state once more' thought Bazel, watching the fast approaching enemies with cold and uncaring eyes.

He counted ten blood servants and five blooded ones, a force that under normal circumstances would perhaps be out of his league. His keen eye revealed the truth of the matter though, that the Sanguis men in front of him were but a paper tiger.

Many of them had shriveled skin, a sign of their gift eating away at them, and others were still healing their wounds even now. That said, they still matched dead even with Bazel which just would not do...he wanted them all dead. He would have to get creative...

The Sanguis men clearly did not know who he was, which worked in his favor, for they acted like he was just another commoner and threw a few projectiles his way while charging forward.

'Fools'

Bazel fell on his back to avoid the projectiles, right into a shadow portal he had created and slowly fell into its depths. Before the men of Sanguis could even fully react to the occurence, Bazel appeared out the other end of the portal which was directly above the fifteen enemies.

Falling right on top of them, five thin tendrils of shadow shot out from under his feet and burst towards five of the healthiest blood servants. Their ends were small spiral lances, allowing the shadows to pierce right through five hearts and come out the other end.

Landing on the now clear ground, Bazel picked up the five corpses and used them like battering rams to smash into everything around him and clear the area.

Throwing the leftovers like the trash they were, he let loose a sneer at the shocked and even fearful faces of his enemies.

It appeared that he had scared them stiff, for they didn't move a single inch as if they were waiting for his next attack.

'It would be rude to turn up a gift'

Thinking such things, he shot out his hand into the air in front of him where another portal appeared. Moving his hand around like he was fishing for something in the dark, he caught whatever he was looking for and brought his hand back out of the portal.

Presenting his prize to all who were watching, he was holding the head of the blooded one who was behind him.

"So weak, so weak. This is not nearly enough to calm my rage..."

Placing his hands into his pockets, he slowly stalked towards the now nine men in front of him.

It seemed that his enemies finally had their wit about them, for the blooded ones ordered their servants to watch their backs and strike if another portal were to appear. While they themselves created blood red swords by bursting a vein on their wrist.

Walking forward carefully, the four remaining blooded ones surged forth in unison.

In response, Bazel shot forth his five tendrils in an attempt to overpower them with sheer force of numbers. Yet the sudden show of skill from his enemies surprised him greatly, for they worked together to deflect four of his attacks and even sever the fifth.

When this fifth shadow was cut apart, the half that was now disconnected from him faded into nothingness which caused a draining feeling within Bazel.

'It appears that there is a limit to how much of these I can produce...how about this then?'

He combined the remaining shadows into two, making them far thicker and stronger than they were before. He used one like a whip and the other like death's scythe, closely focusing his attention on the scythe while he let his partner(cat) assist him with control of the other.

It took three of the blooded ones to fend off the whip alone, which left the remaining one to deal with the scythe. The ball was now fully in Bazel's court, as he continued his advance once more.

Step by step he advanced, and step by step his enemies continued to give more and more ground.

With each step he took their morale and confidence plummeted, as did their agitation and impatience which made for a deadly combination.

As the wounds added up, further draining their combat effectiveness, Bazel saw a chance to set forth his trap.

From behind him the fifth shadow that he had reformed and kept in reserve appeared, which combined with the scythe that was in transit thus causing its power and speed to suddenly increase.

The blooded one was not able to handle the sudden change, the result, a new headless corpse hit the floor.

This completely broke the remaining three blooded ones, who screamed

"SERVANTS! TOGETHER!"

Obeying their masters, the servants left their posts and launched themselves at Bazel. They trusted their masters unconditionally, trusted that they would join hands with them and slay the frightening individual in front of them.

Alas, their trust was misplaced indeed for the blooded ones turned and ran.

Clicking his tongue at the cowardly acts of his opponents, Bazel brought back the whip while the scythe easily cut up the blood servants like diced onions, and tried his best to quickly create a portal to try to catch the enemy.

The blooded ones were fast leaving his range, with all but one completely out of it, which did not allow him the time to personally step forth.

Instead he combined both his shadows into the spiral lance and shot it through the portal, impaling one of the blooded ones through the back and killing him instantly.

Annoyed at having let two of them escape, Bazel was about to turn around when he heard two loud bangs go off one after the other.

Looking ahead, he saw that one of the two escapees suddenly shifted positions with surprising speed and the ground where he was standing suddenly have a baseball sized hole in it.

The position he was in seemed to have been guessed, however, for his head exploded the moment he dodged. The sniper support had arrived.

'It's a shame that one of them escaped, but it matters not. Being the arrogant short sighted assholes they are, I doubt that one will live for much longer.'

---

Standing in a dark room at the top of a flight of stairs that led to a golden throne steeped in blood, two of the three Genus' that Bazel had met earlier were standing and listening to the reports of two men who were prostrated on the floor.

The first one who was giving his report was the escaped blooded one from Bazel's half of the battlefield who had just finished with said report.

"Fifteen? He bested fifteen of our men at once...?" mumbled the first Genus, the same one wearing the funny clothes that had been skewered by Bazel, in shock.

"Honorable Genus, there were circum-"

The head of the blooded one who was giving the report rolled to the floor, having been killed by an unknown method by the Genus.

"Insolence! If he took on so many, that could only mean he is indeed as strong as we are...I most likely only made it out alive because he did not know that when you reach my level a heart can be regenerated" muttered the Genus, reaching a false conclusion.

The Genus looked over this his compatriot, who had also just executed the other escapee from the other battlefield.

He was made aware of the second report...a complete annihilation.

'At least the first one made sense, but this?! How did a bunch of COMMONERS defeat so many of our men?'

The two Genus stood in silence for a moment, halfway considering to call all their cauldrons together and wipe these insolent maggots off the face of the earth.

The two evidently had the same idea for a moment, but upon peering into the other's gaze of hatred and rage they saw that they were falling for a trap.

"That powerful Rogue is obviously pulling the strings behind these commoners, how else would they be able to stand against us?" started one of the men.

The other picked up the thought, "But if we gather our men together and launch an all out assault that would do nothing but net us a pawn while he comes and captures our queen."

Pleased with having seen through the trap, the two thought for a moment on another plan of action.

"Securing the young miss is our top priority, those who come after us can deal with the prophecy and the artifact.

"The next wave of Sanguis men are already on the way, far more numerous and stronger than what we have to work with...they are true Sanguis while we are just the dregs leftover after all."

The two paced around the dim room, coming up with a plan to successfully escort their young miss out of this accursed city.

The two stopped, the same plan having hit them like a bolt of lightning.

"Chaos...we need chaos" said the two in unison, laughing sinisterly to themselves as they crafted their insidious and evil plan.