Chapter 196: Now, fight
The warriors flinched, and it wasn’t just because of the death but the way it happened. So casual, as if Azaroth was crushing a bug that was disturbing him. The brutality stunned and disturbed them.
Azaroth withdrew his bloodlust and looked at them all in silence. "I am your new Master. If you don’t want to follow me, then separate yourself from my warriors."
They froze. They looked at Azaroth intently to see if he was joking, but his face was still as impassive and cold as earlier. They knew then that taking a step would mean death. Well, only some of them knew that.
An older, thin warrior stepped out from among them and bowed to Azaroth. "I feel you might tread the battlefield, Village Head, and I’m too old to be of any use."
Everyone was shocked to see that someone would actually come out, but Azaroth wasn’t nonplussed. "I will take this that you are all satisfied to be my warriors. I will give you more moments to think this over, and if you feel anyone of you should be here instead, then come at me."
The silence this time was thick. Come at you? When you just crushed a head with your leg without even trying? Nobody moved a muscle!
Stallus at the back smirked. Someone might think Azaroth is putting on a show, but that’s absolutely how he is.
He waited patiently until the moment passed, then Azaroth smiled his wolf smile. "Then if any one of you disobeys me, you won’t have yourself to blame because you won’t exist anymore."
Fear rolled among the warriors, and yet something else stirred. Excitement! This is the first time they would actually be facing a serious threat in all their lives as warriors.
Azaroth waved, and Stallus came forward. First, she turned to the man. "You will stop working as a warrior and join the guards that work inside the village."
Then she faced the rest and lifted her voice with a little mixture of essence so that it carried and shook. "Now! We need three Captains from the lot of you! The whole of you will be divided into three, and three Captains will lead them under Blac!"
Blac was surprised to hear this, but it didn’t show on his face. He thought to himself, ’So they are finally breaking up my power! A shame, I thought they were naive in matters like this. But now they’ll have a good scope of the army by breaking it up!’
Stallus continued speaking. "Now. You will all group yourselves into groups of five and fight until only one is left standing. The standing ones will further group themselves. At the end, only the three strongest warriors must remain standing."
"You can use essence! Or enchanted tools or any tricks you have up your sleeves! It doesn’t matter as long as you are the last one remaining standing!"
Stallus grinned. "We will give you three hours to prepare yourselves. Bring the weapons that will help you and your strategies. We will be here to see it all!"
The warriors were just as stunned as Blac, but he knew the merit of what they were doing right away. This way, those they chose as Captains wouldn’t face any backlash from their squads because they would know they were the strongest among them.
The warriors saluted, and all of them ran away from the gathering, going to bring whatever might help them with the fighting, but Blac doubted they’d bring anything impressive. Definitely not enchanted tools, but maybe some durable weapons?
From his view, the fighting would lean more towards those who were actually good at fighting and using their essence. He passed the time by directing the villagers to clear the space in front of the Village Head’s house of any debris so it would be totally free for those who needed it.
Before the three hours were up, the warriors began to return one by one, and soon the lot of them filled the space once again. This time there were a number of different weapons brought out, from hammers to arrows and hooks. Different weapons were displayed, and just as Blac predicted, there were no enchanted tools.
On the small platform, Azaroth was sitting down to meditate with his eyes open while the others joined him. Catena was munching on something and intended to use the warriors as his source of entertainment.
Alex was just as excited as the warriors, and he was standing at the very edge with his eyes sharply on them. Stallus was standing there as well, and she clapped. The small sound echoed through the whole space. "Right. I will trust you to group yourselves. You can choose yourselves, but keep in mind that only one of you must remain standing in that group."
Either they were friends or enemies in each group, then only one would be left standing.
The warriors turned to each other and did as they were commanded, five of them facing each other in a small circle.
Stallus’s voice rang out. "Do not fight to kill! Do that and you’ll regret ever disobeying me. Now fight!"
The warriors tensed, looking at each other and waiting for one of them to make a move. All around the gathering, metal creaked as warriors shifted their weight. Eventually, one young warrior in a group of five shouted and hacked his sword forward towards a member who appeared not to be carrying any weapons.
The young warrior threw himself forward with a shout, glad to have an easy target, but just then the warrior who was unarmed moved in a blur of motion and slammed his hand into the young warrior’s neck, sending him back and sputtering on the ground.
The unarmed warrior picked up the fallen weapon and pointed it at his throat. The young warrior couldn’t speak, but he shook his head so fast it looked like it would be yanked out of his neck.
The sheer shock of that passed through the whole group as a whole, and with a shout, the fighting began!
