The Raid

Aeryon and his men had stopped. In the night, the wind blows cold. Tonight, it blows even colder than ever.

The neighing of the horse could not spread far out toward the area of the Xewa tribe. Aeryon is sitting on the back of his horse, his eyes closed and silence descend upon them

Other than the occasional neighing of the horses, only the sound of the wind and a few sounds of the animals of the night could be heard

Aeryon in his mind is now calming himself down. Tonight, he must kill. Before he became Aeryon, James is quite the upstanding citizen.

There was never a need to kill people. And there was never a great hatred in his heart

While his life could not be called smooth sailing, it also is not filled with a lot of drama. His life has its ups and down.

But tonight, he must kill.

And he must not hesitate. The memory of Aeryon had fills him and some of his lingering emotions is also inherited by James. He is now Aeryon

He occupied Aeryon body, has his memories and feel his feelings. But does he also inherit the heart to kill? The life in the Great Steppe is harsh, and those who wanted to live must be strong

If you wanted to succeed, you must be strong

And if you wanted to protect you must also be strong.

Those who fight for the world has to dance the line between life and death frequently.

'Kill!' he said in his heart

But who is he killing?

Kill his heart

Kill his kind heart

Be ruthless. Be merciless. And survive!

Aeryon opens his eyes and Belarion who is beside Aeryon on top of his horse notices

'Brother, you have made your decision? Let us follow you' he said urgently, the anxiousness in his tone is clear

Aeryon shook his head. Belarion face changes and spoke

'Brother, you are one man. How could you alone disrupt the camp and create chaos? Let me follow you' Aeryon smiles and once again shakes his head.

Aeryon has told the plan to this fifty people. He would attack alone first and then when he lit up the camp of the enemy with fire, then they could rush in with their horses.

When everyone heard this plan, everyone thinks that Aeryon has gone crazy. There is probably two hundred people there.

Belarion is strong and he alone could kill a dozen men. But even he does not have the ability to kill a hundred men alone.

Of course, war is not a simple one on one battle. But Aeryon decision is like a suicide mission.

How could Aeryon explained to his men that he would not die.

At least for three days he would be invincible. And he still wanted to know more about the effect of this card

Tonight, he would attack this place and then would quickly goes to the Ghar tribe and the Xewa tribe to disrupt them, destroy them and kill them as much as possible.,

These three days could be considered long or could be considered short.

Three days...since he decides to use it, he must gain the biggest possible gain using this card.

He wanted to create a fearsome reputation for his men all over the Great Steppe that even after the three days had passed, the other tribes would think twice from trying to attack his tribe.

From there, he would lay his foundation.

Aeryon then put his hand on top of Belarion shoulders and spoke

'Belarion, don't you trust your own brother?'

'This...I….' Belarion has never hesitated to follow any of Aeryon orders.

They are not blood brothers but in the culture of Marynku, once you swore brotherhood, you are brothers for life

Yan has their own concept of loyalty and Marynku also have their own concept of loyalty.

Belarion look at his brother. He could see his brother has no indication of trying to send himself to death but is full of confidence. He closes his eyes and sighed

The moment between them is filled with silence, the wind blows the grass, the horses neigh and the swaying of the grass left and right creates a sound that only these people of the Great Steppe could hear, giving them a certain calm

And so Belarion nodded and put his own hand on top of Aeryon shoulder

'You must not die!' he said, his eyes are wide looking at him

Aeryon laughed

'I promise' Aeryon then release his hand from Belarion shoulder and then he kicks the side of his horse.

Aeryon horse like he is feeling the emotion of its rider accelerated.

The sound of a thousand horses galloping across the land would create shakes and the sound of the hooves stomping the ground would be heard by everyone

But a lone person and one horse who galloped the vast plains in the middle of the night, covered by the sound of the wind and the voices of the animal of the night, is hard to hear

The tribe warriors slept after a great celebration, never thinking that there would be a tribe that would attack them in the middle of the night and even attacking them by his lonesome.

His face is fierce and his fur lined robe flapped to the side. Behind his back is bows and arrows and on his hand is a sword

Marynku people rarely used swords when fighting. The primary weapons are always their bows and arrows

In a large tribe, every horseman tribe warrior had two composite bows and two to three bags of arrows

These bags of arrows had many different purposes.

Some of the arrows is for piercing armour, some are arrows for hunting and some are arrow to make long distance shots.

During battle, most warrior tribe would surround the enemies and give them a rain of arrows

And the cavalry would constantly turn around the enemies while shooting, making the enemies unable to reach them.

It didn't involve much slashing and bashing like European battles.

They would charge on weaker forces with their lances at best.

But Aeryon brought swords with him.

It would be better if he had a long spear but his tribe never have that much weapon. If they had such thing, how could they be forced out of their area.

His horse become faster and faster and then as he is only a few metres away from the camp, he was spotted

'Activate the card' he thought in his mind and he could feel the power coursing through his body

Even though there is no fancy effect, Aeryon knew that the card was activated

'Intruder!' the shout is loud but the organization of another warrior is not there. That tribe warrior unslings his bows and shot an arrow toward Aeryon.

Aeryon could feel the arrow coming towards him. And as the arrow is about to hit his chest, he felt something inside him like a warm breeze that fills his entire being

and then he suddenly made bend his back, the arrow missed him by an inch

'Whoa!' Aeryon thought. It felt like at that moment, his body is controlled by some kind of force and he deftly avoided that arrow.

Aeryon sit back straight, the sword on his hand unsheathed, the horses come closer and before that person managed to jump on his horse, the sword swing, a head flew up into the air and before they head could even fall, Aeryon rushes toward the camp

There are some torches on the entrance to the area of the camp and he grabs one of the torches and throws it toward one of the tents.

Warriors comes out from the tents and Aeryon unsheathed back his sword, unsling the bow and began firing arrows

'Intruder!

'Intruder!

The shout become louder and louder.

Aeryon then put back the bow behind his back, his face is ugly.

He could not use archery as good as the original Aeryon.

But he is not demoralised. Instead, he rides his horse and began once again using his sword. These warriors just came out of their tent

They didn't have time to jump on their horses yet.

So, Aeryon rush towards the man and swing his sword.

Aeryon is quite sure, if its his strength, with one swing off his sword, how could he take the head of someone?

All around him more and more people come out from the tents and they rushed towards him.

Some rush to their horses and some rushed towards him and Aeryon without any care rushes toward them with his horse like he is an invincible god.

There is fire on one of the tents and Belarion could see it from the distance. He is on his horse and he is ready to sprint

But one of the warriors, Mayeux move his horse in front of him, blocking his way

Belarion face turns fierce and shouted

'What is the meaning of this?'

The Chief had said that we have to wait.

The tent is on fire.

That is the signal.

Mayeux shook his head and spoke

'That is not the tent'

Belarion look at Mayeux and look at the other men.

The other men also hesitate.

They did not have the confidence to fight against hundreds of people with only fifty people.

The reason why they did not object to Aeryon order is simply because that has been the way it is been.

The Chief order is absolute.

But even though they have some hesitation, they would not hesitate to thrown themselves into a pit of fire if the order pointed them there

It is for this reason why the people of the Great Steppe are so feared by its neighbour. Once they gained a powerful leader, they could become a powerful force.

Only with such fierce culture that the Great Steppe tribes could strike fear in the hearts of their enemies

It is the reason why Yan people always uses the schemes to further the divide between powerful tribes of the Great Steppe.

For fear that they will unite with each other.

Mayeux then said

'We wait'

Belarion look at the fire in the distance, close his eyes and takes a deep breath.

Then he nodded

In the distance, the smokes rushes toward the sky and the shouts and screams echoes breaking the silence of the night

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