chapter 8 : Barkha vs pseudo apostles

After parting ways with Corell and her people, the Black Wolves arrived at the fortress assigned to the White Swan Army commanded by Baran.

They had been informed of the wolves' arrival so they opened the gates of the fortress to them. Barkha wasted no time and immediately went to meet Baran at the war council chamber with Duro while their men set up. 

"I asked Duke Octavius ​​for reinforcements and he sends me his damn Kushan plebeian? That unmannered brat only has 1500 men, that's not enough to defeat that demon Korsa and his rabid men." Baran said as he banged his fist on the large table in front of the knights who were hesitant to say something. 

"Lord Baran, they may not be numerous but they have won against armies several times their number coming from the Midland. The effectiveness of the Black Wolves is recognized by all. " a knight said and Baran threatened to remove him from all his duties if he didn't keep quiet. 

"Come on, general. Why get so carried away because this knight is telling the truth ? Be careful, jealousy is the main fault of a castrated dog." Barkha said as he entered the room with Duro. 

Baran: You... 

"Yes, me. I heard you got your butt kicked by a troop of bandits, that's unfortunate. Aren't you ashamed ? The Swan Army, said to be the strongest after the Purple Rhinoceroses, is getting beaten by bandits." Barkha said provocatively, he knew that these military aristocrats hated him and were jealous of his military prowess so he sincerely liked to tease or humiliate them when he had the chance. 

 Baran: Don't talk like you know what they're capable of. You may have excelled against the Midland but those we're going to fight in two days are only human in the outline of their bodies. 

Barkha: Two days ? 

"That demon Korsa plans to attack this fortress in exactly two days to make it his own, a slap in the face of the empire and a SHAME." Baran said before picking something up from the table and throwing it at Barkha. It was a piece of skin, he didn't know if it was pig or human skin but considering what they say about the enemy, it was certainly skin of human origin. 

"The canines of my horde will close on you at the next full moon and I will take possession of your shelter." Was written with coagulated blood on it. 

"This guy is macabrely creative! Where is his l'air ? " Barkha asked as he threw the skin into a nearby brazier. 

Baran: This demon and his men have as their lair the great forbidden forest a little further south about four leagues from here, that's where we attacked them and lost. 

Barkha: How many men do you have left ? 

Baran: Nearly triple your black wolves, 4300 exhausted soldiers. I came here with 13,000 men, these demons took most of them.

"Ouch! Your specialty is defense if I remember correctly, i'll let you organize it. See it as an act of consolation for your losses and recognition of your courage to stand up to such an enemy. You and your men are brave, my wolves will support you when the time comes..." Barkha said as he left there. 

"HE's letting me organize the defense as a mark of consolation... THIS ARROGANT KID TAKES PITY ON ME?!" Baran violently banged his fist on the table in frustration, again. 

"My lord, I think it's much more subtle than that. I heard that each of the black wolves could match the prowess of 10 soldiers on the battlefield and that they could organize themselves even without a battle plan.

Let's wait and see what kind of support they will provide, the young commander is a recognized arrogant but it is said of him that he honors the brave.

Moreover, by leaving you the organization of this defense, he assures you a merit in case of victory in memory of your men who'll not have fallen for nothing. " The same knight said to Baran who just looked at him coldly before starting to organize a defense plan. 

While in front of Baran Barkha's expression was relaxed, his face immediately turned cold as he left there. 

"Ask them to start their individual preparation, we'll face an enemy of extreme danger in two days where they'll fight for their survival. Baran is not weak but these guys took the majority of his men, I don't like it. It will be a rather delicate fight. " Barkha said to Duro who nodded before parting with him. That same evening, Barkha left the fortress on a horse to head south.

He had faced ethereal spirits in his childhood and men until now but what he heard from the bandits of Korsa disturbed him for some unknown reason. He will not let his men face enemies he knows nothing about but who nevertheless worry him. 

He galloped for a while until about three leagues from the castle where a forest crossed by this road began. After a while on this road, the shrill scream of a woman was heard to his left in the forest.

Barkha curious by this took the forest track that led to the direction of the scream when about 60 meters away, he saw a woman running completely naked with blood on her and especially on her crotch. 

" HELP ! HELP ME ..." She screamed in despair when she saw Barkha on his horse in the distance when four men came out of the woods behind the woman to chase her.

Speeding up his ride, Barkha shouted at the woman to duck and the woman crouched down immediately after seeing Barkha draw his sword from his back, a claymore. 

 Of the four men chasing the woman, the two right behind her were decapitated by Barkha and the other two threw themselves aside to avoid the attack.

He got off his horse and walked calmly in front of the two men who took out their weapons, axes. The first attacked Barkha but at a speed he could not keep up with, Barkha with a simple movement of his sword cut the bandit's throat with the tip of his claymore.

The man fell as he choked on his blood and the second saw Barkha make a long cut on his stomach without being fast enough to react.

He saw his intestines come out of the wound and wanted to hold them before falling limply like his friend.

Barkha turned to see the woman and ask her if she was injured when suddenly, the woman pointed her finger in panic behind him and he turned to see the two men he had just mortally wounded get up while under Barkha's eyes and the woman's screams of panic, the wounds slowly began to close. 

"Is this a joke...?" Barkha wondered aloud as the appearance of the bandits began to change. Their eyes became like those of reptiles, their eyelids became hollow with a scaly texture at the temples and their teeth became all sharp.

They charged towards him and Barkha immediately noticed that they had become faster than ordinary soldiers and as he blocked an axe blows, which had the force of elite soldiers' blows. 

They were faster and stronger but it was a subtle improvement, the remarkable thing with them was their total ignorance of pain as Barkha made several other wounds on their bodies to experiment.

They continued to attack without showing any weakness despite the wounds that were healing little by little. He quickly understood that these guys were no longer human and why they could beat entire armies even when outnumbered. 

He had enough of this little game and killed them once and for all by decapitating them while smiling with a speed of strike that did not even allow them to see his blade.

How did he know to kill them like that? The first two he decapitated on his horse did not get up. 

 He returned to the woman who looked at him with a little fear before falling on her buttocks. Barkha observed her wounds and bruises, especially her damaged crotch and understood that she had suffered a severe rape for a long time. 

"Please... please save us... the demons of Korsa, they... my village... over there... HELP US..." The young woman said while crying uncontrollably while pointing her finger in a certain direction and Barkha gave her his cape to cover herself before returning to the corpses to search them and take the few coins they had on them to add to his purse while whistling a melody under the eyes of the woman completely shocked by his attitude. 

He made his way in the direction the girl pointed and didn't have to walk long before seeing a small village on fire. When Barkha arrived there, it was a scene of horror that he saw.

Women and children of all ages and both sexes were being raped by bandits who in their act had foam coming out of their mouths.

Meanwhile, dozens of other bandits were cruelly devouring men and livestock alive while in the center of it all, a man of a larger size was sitting near the flames nibbling on the breast of a newborn baby.

"I've seen atmospheres in pagan orgies but this... it really makes me angry" He said in front of this infernal spectacle and just took out his sword while walking in this chaos before telling them that the party was over. The bandits looked at him and slowly straightened up. 

"Korsa I presume? You and your savages made me come so far west, interrupted one of my days off for your ugly mug." Barkha said while pointing his sword at the big seated man. 

????? : I am not master Korsa but one of the chosen ones he chose. I am the great-(Interrupted)

*CLARGLFF* 

The tall bandit had not even finished his sentence when Barkha threw a knife in his mouth. 

"If you aren't Korsa there is no point in wasting my time." Barkha said as the leader got angry and asked his men to kill him. They charged towards Barkha who had a smile on his lips while the women took the opportunity to escape, leaving their children for some.

More than sixty armed bandits charged towards Barkha who started a festival of flying heads, he decapitated the men in front of him with terrifying speed and the length of the blade allowed him to cut off several heads at the same time. 

Seeing that the enemy was not a normal person, they began to mutate like those he killed earlier but it did not change anything for him.

He dodged their attacks and moved constantly to cut them, he continued to kill when he had to block a blow coming from the leader himself and the force of the strike made him retreat several steps. 

"Not bad, not bad at all. You hit as hard as this dear Duro rahahahah " Barkha said before exchanging several blows with their leader whose strength was clearly high but he had no trouble blocking his attacks, he backed away just now because he was taken by surprise.

The leader armed with a mace attacked again and again but Barkha dodged or blocked his blows while mocking him and he made several wounds on his body but that was not all because even while fighting against the leader, he took the opportunity to decapitate nearby enemies. 

"You... who are you...? I will crush you and devour your flesh..." The leader said with rage before transforming but his form was different from that of the others.

He became larger with scales all over his body, a bestial face, reddish eyes, long teeth and a long lizard tail behind his back.

Barkha didn't panic when he saw this, it was strangely natural for him even if he didn't know that in front of him there was a pseudo-apostle.

He had seen this kind of monstrosity since he was very young unlike the people around him and he faced the specters that manifested themselves. 

He would understand someone else's panic in front of this thing but for him, it was just a creature to be taken down. He immediately backed away as the lizard used its tail like a whip to hit him but he dodged without problems because he could easily and quickly read the body language of an enemy to predict his attack.

Barkha immediately took a different guard with his large sword and signaled the lizard to attack him with provocation. Angry, the enemy charged towards Barkha, killing his own men with his claws on his way, but as he raised his arm to attack, the monster's vision turned dark and reddish as pain filled his eyes.

Barkha had just slashed his eyes with a simple horizontal cut at eye level with a horribly fast gesture to the point where like the others earlier, he could no longer see Barkha's sword.

He screamed in pain and although blind, he tried to attack Barkha who shifted slightly to the side before thrusting his sword under his chin and the point came out at the back of his head. 

*SLARGSH* 

Barkha released his blade by slicing from the bottom up to vertically cut the upper part of the enemy's head in two.

The lizard died on the spot while his men watched him collapse and yet, as if they did not know fear, they still attacked Barkha who ended up killing them all.

The survivors of the village saw Barkha standing in the middle of these bodies with blood on him like a slaughter divinity .

He wiped the blood off his face when he felt something vibrate on him and as he opened his eyes, he saw some kind of gas or strange aura escaping from all these corpses to head towards him. 

Intrigued, he inspected the source of the vibration to see that it was in fact the pyramid egg that Corell had given him that was approaching this aura.

It was in fact the astral energy present in these bandits and the pseudo-apostle who was leaving their corpses to be sucked into the egg. 

"What a strange object..." He said before putting the egg away. He was intrigued by what had just happened but nothing more, instinctively he had no bad feeling or sense of danger.

Without saying anything to them, Barkha looked at the pouch he had snatched from the lizard's belt during their fight without his knowledge and put it away on his person before turning around and leaving without saying a word to these poor people as if nothing had happened.