Bloodstained Blade-Chapter 21 - Kalraka Burning
That night, the blood that filled the streets was almost enough to sate even the blade’s burning need for vengeance. It saw horrible sights as whole families were slaughtered by the braying beasts that filled the streets and ransacked whatever they could. None of them moved it, though.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
As the city burned brighter, it could see more, and as it did so, it spent more time watching the attackers than their victims. The beastmen were crass, simple creatures, but amidst the narrow stone streets of the small city, they were dangerous killers. They leaped nimbly from wall to wall.
While they were much smaller than the average soldier, the fact that they could run on vertical surfaces as long as they were rough enough made them more effective with their spears and horns than the blade would have thought before it saw them in action.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
The blade’s wielder didn’t need subtlety. It simply hacked its way through whoever happened to be standing in front of it in strokes that were as powerful as they were clumsy.
The Ebon Blade didn’t care about skill in this moment. All it cared about was the way that it felt to slice through human flesh once more. It was an entirely different experience, and the blade much preferred it to goats and their muddy life force which it had been drinking for months. It had no sympathy for its victims, especially the ones that didn’t fight back.
The only emotion that those defenders inspired was disgust. Not only had they sent their soldiers off in the wrong direction to try to protect them, but those who they’d left behind seemed unwilling to do anything more than bar the doors of their homes to protect themselves.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
The men on the walls came together for a time and tried to fight the goatmen, but they were far too few, and a crossbow wasn’t an effective weapon when your opponent could charge you and gore you with their horns.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
Any one of the men could have taken down one or two of the goatmen, even if it cost them their life. Most of the women might have, too, for the beastmen were diminutive things. Still, they showed no spine. They fled and begged and died on their knees where they belonged as the attackers devoured and destroyed.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
To anyone else, it might have been a sad scene, but as the Ebon Blade basked in a tide of life energy that soaked into it with each stab and slash, it didn’t really care where it came from. What was sad wasn’t that the thatched roofs of picturesque stone buildings were burning. It was that even though the people of the city outnumbered the invaders by two or three to one, they refused to fight.
Once the beastmen were in the city, it burned all of the lesser monster souls it possessed to make room for the new human souls that were flooding into it. A lesser monster soul might only be worth a dozen life force, but a human soul, especially one who had lived a long and full life, could be worth ten times that.
That flare of power was what finally pushed it over 2000, Life Force again, bringing it to 2073/4000. That, combined with the nearly full allotment of nineteen human souls and the dragon soul it still held in reserve, gave it almost limitless options. The blade had planned to level up to Increase Reserves 9, but with so much power available to it in this moment, it delayed and tried to consider what its other options might be instead while it drank as much energy as it could from this place.
That was the reason it nudged its wielder to fight those few that could be found who were worth fighting. It wasn’t because of even a trace of pity it sought to spare the children as much as it was because those tiny people were worth so little by comparison. It just wanted Gar-lok to fight the biggest, strongest enemy that he could at each encounter.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
Mostly, the goatman obeyed, too, but after the first hour, it was running out of targets of any value, and when morning dawned, it became clear that there was nothing left for it in this place. The city was built of stone, so most of it still stood. If it had been a general rather than a weapon in the hands of bloodthirsty savages, it would have pressed on because there was no further advantage here.
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The goatmen didn’t see it that way, though. They had killed this place, and now they would feast on its remains, and the Ebon Blade was not inclined to force the issue.
There were still a few places of resistance where it might yet get the fights that it craved on the following night, at least. The governor's manor was still bolted up tight and had a dozen men with crossbows on the second floor, with who knew how many survivors inside. Likewise, the east gate's keep was still manned. It was larger than the west gate that the army of beastmen had avoided entirely during their unorthodox entrance.
The layout hinted that this city was more used to fighting enemies from the other direction, and that made the blade curious. Is it used to fighting men, I wonder, or are there other monsters deep in the forest worth pursuing.
Kalraka stood at a relative choke point. To the south stood the sea, and to the north stood foothills that grew and grew until they became a mountain range while it straddled the trade path that wound between them. To the west, those roads continued across the desolate plains it had spent most of its time until now, while to the east, they disappeared into the woods.
The Ebon Blade consumed the soul of a guardsman to answer these questions, and its mind was flooded with information about the world around the city. The man shared seaborne trade routes to cities it had never heard of, and better estimates to just how far away Severon was, and the approximate locations of a number of nearby towns in the forest. It also told him about the mountains to the north, and that the real threat were the orcs that dwelled within them and assaulted the city so often that there were bounties on their tusks.
It was interesting information, but it barely distracted it from more immediate concerns. The day that followed was an orgy of violence against the wounded and the dead. It was an orgy of flesh, and Gar-lok, along with the rest of his beastmen, stayed away from anything that resembled real fighting while the humans that still lived did their best to barricade themselves inside of anywhere they might be able to defend.
Those soldiers will return in a day or two at most, the blade warned its wielder. You should be gone when they arrive. We can look for softer targets in the forest beyond.
Its wielder barely noticed its council. Instead, he brushed off the blade's warnings and spent the afternoon rutting. It could have forced the issue if it was just the casual defiance of its wielder, but it was clear that his undisciplined army hadn’t finished gnawing at the bones of civilization.
The blade didn’t care too much either way. It would still get to feast on more opponents come nightfall. That was when the beastmen tired of their rest and recreation and sought out new victims to hunt and kill. Shortly after sunset, they attacked both of the remaining strongholds, along with all the other tiny holdouts where families cowered in fear.
Then, at least, the Ebon Blade forced Gar-lok to lead the charge against the Governor’s Manor. It was the most well-defended target, which meant it would have the most soldiers left to kill.
For a time, the goat men tried and failed to break down any of the doors. Finally, unwilling to watch them squander their lives any further, it took command and directed them to climb up a spot on the walls between two chimneys where the crossbowmen could not reach. Once they reached the roof and broke through the flimsy tiles, it was all but over.
The stout walls and gates of the building had been defended well. Even the lack of windows on the first floor had made it close to unbreachable. Still, it was impossible to defend once the enemy was inside and charging down carpeted hallways that were more concerned with beauty than safety.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
Women screamed and ran as fast as they could while men fought, but that didn’t save either of them and soon the house was consumed with fire and death. Some small part of the blade hated to see such beauty burn. The paintings and the fine candelabras had done nothing to it, but it was unwilling to intercede as its wielder climbed to the roof in triumph, still covered in blood.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
You have obtained 1 human soul.
That was where it discovered a new wrinkle. The army that the Ebon blade had been warning of had already come back.
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The defenders were returning, but Gar-lok didn’t care, nor should he. It was far too late for them to do anything. There were still survivors, but with their homes in flames and the majority of its city dead, even if the goat men all fled now, this place would still be nothing but a graveyard.
The goatman stood there, braying loudly in challenge to those defenders from where he stood atop the flaming ruins of what had once been the local governor's elaborate manor. “I have taken your city!” he roared. “We retreat now into the forests and hills! When we return with new young, we shall kill you too! None shall stand before my might!”
Not one of the humans could understand the crude tongue. Still, for a beastman, it was an eloquent speech and an example of what might pass for brilliant tactics for such a simple creature.
The Ebon Blade might be growing tired of being wielded by such a simple creature, but it couldn’t help but wonder if its influence was starting to rub off on it. What had been a cowardly old goat was becoming a regular strategos.
Despite that, it still would have much rather been in human hands. The crude nature of these things was making it miss the hand of man so much it would have almost taken the shepherd boy over this. So, when the roof suddenly started to collapse beneath its bestial wielder, and it fell into a flaming abyss of its own making, the blade was not entirely disappointed.
