Blood In The Sands

Even with a hurt arm, the commander put up a tough fight. Kies tried to gain the advantage several times by casting his magic to attack him but he dodged them all. Actually, it was Kies that was missing all of his shots.

The electric field placed a heavy strain on his magic and it made it difficult for him to control the projectiles properly. Armed with nothing by a stub for a sword, the commander danced around Kies, trying to find an opening.

The years of fighting experience the two of them had become very apparent in this duel. While Kies had the skill and ability to take down an entire army by himself, he lacked experience fighting against opponents of higher calibers.

The commander was tough. He was at a disadvantage in this fight in every way but he kept up with Kies anyhow, even though he is enhancing his speed with his wind magic.

Eventually, the commander's movement started to slow down. He didn't have the energy to keep going. The moment he slipped up and stumbled after dodging a strike from his blade, Kies went in for the kill.

He slashed at the commander, cutting off his entire left arm as he tried to dodge the attack but failed.

"Ah!"

The commander fell onto the floor, dropping his weapon. "-How do you have so much stamina!?" he gasped, blood pouring out of his left side. His severed arm wasn't too far away from him.

Honoring his opponent, Kies answered his last question. "Your mistake was thinking I tire." Kies knew that any veteran warrior who saw the way he fought would scoff at the sight of it because of how reckless and inefficient it was, and he uses this as bait to trap them into thinking that a prolonged fight will result in their victory.

"You don't!?"

"Do I look like I'm out of breath?" Kies looked down at the man with fierce eyes and an expressionless face. There was no sweat on his face or neck. Even by hearing the tone of his voice, the commander could tell that he still had the energy to go on.

"...Are you even human?" Surprisingly, the commander still had the strength to ask this question, even though he was losing so much blood. But this would really be the final question he could ask. Kies saw the commander's eyes drooping. He was ready to pass on any moment now.

"You know the answer to that," Kies answered, putting away his sword. He approached the dying man to search him for the cure to the poison in case Nyana wasn't able to concoct one.

"I don't have it," the commander said, coughing blood out at the end of his sentence.

"What?"

He saw Kies walking towards him and knew his intentions. "You're looking for the cure, aren't you? Sorry to tell you this, but we don't have one. It wasn't even us who produced the poison."

"..."

Kies wanted to think that the commander was lying but he didn't sound like he was. Especially after the outstanding performance that he saw the commander act out at the castle gate. Kies knew that the commander had a sharp tongue, but he really didn't sound like he was lying about this.

"D*mn it..." Kies turned to leave, jumping out of the pit to hunt down the other criminal. Surely the leader of the Black Fang had to have it. He didn't need to finish off the commander. He was going to die from all that blood loss soon.

"Heh!"

Kies looked down to see the commander laughing. He continued to laugh until death claimed him. His laughter faded off and he fell onto his back. He had a smile on his face. Kies didn't understand why but he guessed that the man had a last-second clarity right before he was going to die.

With his death, the electric field shut down, allowing Kies to have full control of his magic again. He still didn't know how the magic-nullifying field worked, but he didn't need to know now. The commander was the last one who knew how to use it. His red scarf loosened off his neck and blew off into the sky.

Kies heard the clanking of metal and saw that the soldiers had finally caught up to him. However, they were still a minute or two away from his location. He wasted too much time here. He needed to find the other one before he escaped.

Kies didn't wait for the soldiers to reach him and flew off into the sky again. He ordered the winds to keep him at this height. They soared around him, lifting him up. It felt like he was floating on top of the water.

Now, where was the "boss?" Without a doubt, he was the mastermind behind a lot of the bad things that happened. He was a bigger threat than the commander and Kies had hoped to find him first since he had the bombs that could turn people. Thankfully, the commander didn't have one, or else the fight would've been a headache for him.

And luckily for Kies, since he knew that the boss had bombs, he knew where he was most likely at. Places with a lot of people. More specially, the guard outposts where the civilians were at.

Unfortunately, there were a number of them scattered all across the city.

If only he had some winds spirits to help him with his search... Even better, if he could clone himself or somehow split into multiple copies, he could handle this on his own, but that was asking for the impossible.

Now what? Kies could take a gamble and go to the closest outpost but it wasn't a good idea. Even if he did find the right one, the boss would've likely changed outfits and disguised himself as an ordinary civilian. He had no way of discerning him from the rest. No wait, there was a way. He needed to find someone with the tattoo.

But again, that won't work. The boss wasn't an idiot. He would wear something to hide it from plain view.

Kies heard voices from under him calling up to him. He looked down and saw that the soldiers had reached the hole and saw the body of the commander. Rui was shouting for him to come down.

Seeing that he had no way to track down the leader of the Black Fang, Kies complied and descended back onto the ground.

"Did someone escape?" That was the first thing that Rui asked him once his feet touched the sands. She assumed that was the case when she saw him so high up in the air and looking around.

"Sort of," Kies replied bluntly, not giving a more detailed answer. That boss of the Black Fang, Kies won't have an easy time finding him. He should focus on other matters right now. He doubted that the criminal would try something funny while he's in hiding right now. He will only use the bomb as a last resort if he gets caught so Kies could ignore him for now.

"Did you learn anything from him?" Lentis asked skies, nodding his head at the deceased commander in the hole.

"Nothing. But I can tell you that a demon is involved in all of this," Kies told him, mentioning Messa's involvement in the whole thing. "The serum that turns people cane from them, I think."

"A demon!? Are you sure!?"

"Yes. I encountered them."

"Is it just one, or is it more than one!?"

"One. Just one," Kies calmly told them.

"..."

All the soldiers shifted nervously. A demon attacked the city. They were the ones who plotted this. And what's worse? There were humans who carried out their orders... There were traitors in their kingdom. Kies disposed of most of the known ones, but there could still be more of them in hiding.

Kies thought that was the only concern, but the expressions that the two royal guards had told him otherwise.

"What's with those looks?" Kies asked them. Rui was totally blanked out. It was both his and the soldiers' first time seeing her like this. The normally cold and collected Rui looked like she was panicking.

Though Lentis' facial expression didn't change much and he wore the last aloof face he always has on, Kies saw that he was worried based on instinct. He was also spacing out like he was heavy in thought about something.

"This can't be right..." Rui muttered.

"What can't be right?"

"A single demon causing chaos in the city? If they're doing that then it means they're preparing for a large-scale invasion. This is just the preemptive attack to weaken our defenses!"

"So that's their plan!" Lentis just got it. He understood everything. The other soldiers caught on to it too, and so did Kies.

They were in big trouble! "Soldiers, split up and head to the outposts, now!" Lentis shouted, ordering the soldiers to move. He didn't need to say anything else to them. What they needed to do was obvious.

The demons' plan from the start was to have everyone evacuate to the outposts outside the city wall. With them all rounded up like sheep in a pen, they would strike then.

Lentis quickly headed off, following behind one of the smaller squads that lost half of their members. Rui looked at Kies and said, "I know you're not from here, but I must ask you to please lend your support again."

"...I understand."

"Thank you." Rui also left in a hurry, joining up with one of the smaller squads heading in the opposite direction of where Lentis was going.

Kies spotted Nell's squad leaving to the right of him and rushed over to them. He appeared beside her in a flash, scaring the life out of her.

"Oh! Where did you come from!?" Nell jumped back, nearly butting into one of her squad members.

"...It's been a while."

Nell blinked rapidly for a moment, trying to think of how to respond. "Yes, it has. I won't ask what happened and why you look the way you do now. We need to hurry and save the people at the outposts before it's too late," she said urgently.

"Yes, we do," Kies agreed. The direction that Nell was headed in, it the outpost that she led him to when they first met. This wasn't a coincidence. It was the outposts closest to her home. It was the outpost that her father was at.

The other guards in her squad knew it too, and it wasn't just her. Most of their families were also at the same outpost as the guards assigned to that outpost lived near that area.

"We'll make it there in time," Kies told her with confidence.

"How?"

"By doing this." Kies held out his hand. The winds gathered around them. It was his first time trying this, but it should work.

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