CHAPTER 13: [The curse land] - [Smell lost] - [Kaan’s temple elite force]

——{Ubaoo temple}——{2 weeks earlier}——

The monkeys from the Aankh temple had just arrived at the Ubaoo temple using a bridge that crossed the river of Arth, the river was normally impossible to cross as attempting such a thing could only result in death. Countless had died in it high currents that tortured those that attempted entering, all the inhabitants of the forest knew this fact, thus no one could have guessed that the monkey had crossed it.

It had taken multiple generations to construct this bridge to connect the two temples, and countless geniuses had given their lives so that its construction could be achieved.

Its first use was easing the trades between the two temples, as they normally had to travel at least two months to get from one temple to the other. The second use was the exchange of disciples, some of the disciples of the two temples could decide to join their opposite temple if their innate talent in martial arts were more compatible with the other temple.

The exchange of disciples and trades were already in place between the three temples, but it was hard to monitor if the disciples had truly found their correct martial art path. Thanks to the bridge, the two temples had a lot more students, and some of the students designed as bad in martial arts were discovered to be geniuses that simply weren't taught the martial arts that suited them.

Moreover, the main reason and the original meaning for the bridge being constructed was to quickly move troops in the event of a war. The monkeys had anticipated that a war would arise in the forest and had for hundreds of years prepared this bridge.

They had thought of exterminating the eagle race but didn't act on it as they knew that the Protector of the forest would severely punish them for doing so, he could even respond to their mascara by exterminating them.

The temple masters of both Aankh And Ubaoo temple were facing each over will behind them stood their respective disciples. The two parties weren't harboring smiles as allies would, the two temple masters had a domineering yet wise look, and they seemed in a big internal battle while both looking straight in the eye of the other. The disciples' imaginations were running wild, and they imagined what a battle between too peerless masters as them would look like.

They knew that compared to the grand existence that were their temple heads, they were only mere bugs that could be killed by the shock waves created by their fight even if they stood a couple of hundred meters away. The disciples' only fought were intangible admiration and respect, along with the fear of death. If a fight were to start, they could only be hindrances for their respective masters that wouldn't be able to fight without resulting in their instant deaths.

Masters such as Andha and Myott were at a level equivalent to 5-circle having the strength of 15625 normal humans combined, both of them used spells and stood at the pinnacle of the curse land as rulers of their temples and taught their disciples their way. Their ultimate goal was to have a successor of their martial, to whom they will give their secret techniques and the command of their temple after they have passed away.

After an intense eye contact they both walked in each other direction and as they were one meter apart they both extended their arms and suddenly hugged, all disciples were surprised as they were ready for an all out fight.

"Brother it's been a long time since we talked face to face, we could only talk by using letters and envoys, and it was too much for two brothers to use that for some day to day news." Said Myott in a brotherly tone.

"I am sorry, the only news I give you is the beginning of a war." Responded Andha in a clearly disappointed tone.

"I am sorry brother, but as you can see I couldn't just send my elite soldiers without any more intel on the situation, losing them is like losing a son to me." Myott justified himself while looking back warmly at his disciples.

"I understand, you still have your good heart as I see."

"Come in brother, I can't have you stand right here in front of the gate. You can explain the situation once we are comfortably seated."

After walking through the training ground and entering the main building, they arrived in front of Myott room, the temple head's room. The temple of Ubaoo was of similar design compared to the Aankh temple, even the colors of the structure were the same.

They entered the temple's headroom and Myott activated the formation that closed and secured the room, after serving tea to his brother, Myott spoke.

"Tell me everything brother, you seem very troubled, it must be something very important. I could send you soldiers earlier because you only gave me for pretext that the eagles were preparing an attack on your temple. You should know that a few unorganized birds won't be able to cause any problem for us whatsoever." Asked Myott in a curious yet mocking tone as he called the eagles birds.

"My brother, they are not as in the past. The eagles have a leader and are organized, they have a proper army and ranking and their generals are as powerful as our elite forces. You must stop seeing them as uncivilized, they have regained the flame they had before their downfall."

"I will trust your words, brother, tell me what should we do in your opinion? "

"I anticipated that you won't send any soldiers but kept a front for my council members, surely you have them on standby. It would be good if they could leave in one week after my soldiers have rested, I would like to send my own elite with yours."

"You are right, although I couldn't possibly send you a soldier without knowing how the situation would evolve by the time they arrived. I have made them prepare, they can leave one week from now, and it will at most take them six days to arrive at your temple."

After they both accepted to help each other Andha sighted in relief, and they started talking about their life as temple heads. They looked like two normal old men telling each other about their children or grand-child around a cup of alcohol after having stayed apart for a while. Andha's face finally showed a smile and the disciples that were waiting behind the door were relieved when the formation was deactivated, letting them hear the heads laughing.

However, after their discussion, they returned to the important matter and sent a messenger to the Kaan temple to warn them of the current situation. The message also asked for them to send their best warriors to take the rebel eagles in a pincer movement.

The same week Ying-ba left to search for the eagle settlement in the company of all the generals excluding Gu-washi, his goal was to find the last settlement the quickest way possible in order to attack the Kaan temple as soon as possible. He didn't want to give the monkey the time to fully prepare for war or ask for reinforcements from the last temple, the Ubaoo temple.

A week later, the night patrol left to go back to their settlement and notice the ones that stayed back of their victory. The over purpose of them going there was to make sure that the people of the settlement were ready to leave as soon as the army arrived.

After a week of traveling they arrived at the settlement to find it in ruin and still burning while the soldiers that guarded it were slaughtered along with most of the children, women and elderly. The camp was only a memory of its past self as it barely stood while being imbued in flames, it was a vision that could be called a representation of hell on earth.

All trees in the camp surrounding were burning. The only reason the fire was not propagating was that the Protector of the forest was restricting it from destroying more plants. His duty as the *Protector of the forest* was to protect all the beings residing there. He only had one restriction, he could only intervene if the actions of certain beings endangered a huge or unrelated group.

The fire endangered all the animals residing in the forest as the fire could spread using the great fauna, destroy their inhabitants and kill them. He allowed the residents of the forest to fight each other or even to have wars as long as unrelated animals weren't harmed by the conflict. He could also intervene if some animals were mass murdered, and it endangered their species.

——{an hour earlier}——

The camp was peaceful, and the guards were walking calmly in the camp. The women were talking while taking tea while the children were playing together and the elderly wherever resting or taking care of the babies. For the eagles, it was normal for the elder to take care of the children while the mothers and fathers had an active life.

The sun was shining brightly, and the birds were singing happily, there were only a few clouds that were too shy to hide the sun. The sky was of a blue as deep as the sea and the flowers bloomed, nature was greatly present in this scene of purity and peace.

Suddenly multiple monkeys dressed in black assassin attires appeared out of the forest and landed at the entrance of the camp where the kids were playing. Some of the children were playing with a ball made out of big leaves, while others were playing hide and seek with the tents.

Before the elderly could understand what was happening, the monkeys all dispersed in different directions while killing the kids in their paths using double daggers coated with poison to maximize their effectiveness. In a matter of instant almost all the kids playing with the balls and those playing as seekers died while the ones hiding were frozen from the shock of seeing their friends dying.

The monkeys seemed to not understand the principle of mercy, and their eyes didn't show any struggling or hesitation as they cut the throats of innocent children. The elders tried shouting for help, but their old and tired voices couldn't reach the ears of the women that were having a tea party.

Only ten seconds after the beginning of the attack, the babies and almost all children had been killed, along with the elderly that were watching them play. Some had tried fleeing, but it was in vain. The assassins were too fast and easily caught up with the slow kids and feeble elderly. Only a handful could escape them by hiding in tents.

It was a massacre, the bodies of the eagles bleeding on the ground and the screams of a few of them that were gasping for air while drowning in their own blood made the entrance of the camp look like a slaughterhouse. The assassins ended the struggles of the eagles, not out of pity, but because they could attract the attention of the guards.

A few moments later a soldier arrived from behind a tent while the assassins were searching the tents for survivors. Seeing the bloody disaster he was shocked, but after a second he regained composure and took off so his alert calls could be heard by all the guards. He didn't get the time to call for help when he was stabbed in the back, only succeeding in shouting the word 'help' before falling to his death.

The other soldiers heard him but could find his location because his cry was too short for them to properly hear from where it was coming. All the soldiers started to spread in the camp in search of the soldier, and the assassin used the confusion to head to the center of the camp, where the women were having tea.

The unlucky soldiers fell face to face with the assassins and were quickly taken down and they left a bloody path heading for the center of the camp. The women heard the shouts of the soldiers and then nothing. They panicked, some started to flee in the opposite direction, overs hid, while some ran in the direction where their children were playing. After three minutes, the women that ran away arrived at the delimitation between the forest and the camp and continued to run.

The assassins quickly caught up with them while ignoring the search of the tents as they could do it later, they only killed the soldiers and the women that ran in their direction, while heading for the forest.

TO BE CONTINUED…