Reborn: Demon's Heritage (4 page)

Ash lowered his sword slightly, making the knight sneer again as he took a step forward. Seeing the man relax his guard, Ash tried to hold back the smile as he invoked shadow whip. The shadowy tendril flash into being, hitting the armored man hard and throwing him to the ground. Seeing this the other man gave a yell and rushed Ash.

Though neither of the men were his match in stats, they seemed to be well trained. While the second attacked, the first one regained his feet giving Ash no chance to deliver the finishing blow. Grinding his teeth, Ash batted one man’s sword aside and struck back, but his sword skipped of the knight’s armored chest leaving behind only deep dent. Before he could take a second strike, the other knight came charging in forcing Ash to take a step back to avoid the man’s blade.

Ash had fought before, but this was the first time he had fought armored men and found that even with his strength, he could do little to them while they hid behind steel. Seeing that his sword did little damage to the armor, Ash retreated slightly to gain a few seconds as he once again took stock of the men.

The knights were armored head to toe. One of them carried a two handed axe while the other used a sword a shield. The only points that looked vulnerable were at the joints and spaces where the armor had slight gaps such as the neck and waist. Making his decision, Ash used shadow whip again hitting the shield user and knocking him back a few feet while he launched an all-out attack on the other knight.

Taking three quick steps, Ash’s sword struck out at the exposed elbow joint of the second knight as he raised his axe to attack. Ash’s sword hit hard and cut through the steel rings of the chainmail, nearly cutting the man’s arm off. Bellowing loudly, the man hit his knees but he didn’t have to feel the pain for long as Ash quickly kicked the man in the head knocking him backwards. As the knight fell backwards, his helmet was pushed back and Ash quickly drove his sword into the man’s exposed neck.

The knight that had been knocked back charged Ash as he made the killing blow, but Ash quickly shifted his position, causing the sword to miss him by mere inches. Pivoting on his rear leg, Ash reset his position and readied himself for the next strike.

The knight came forward carefully leading with his shield leaving Ash little chance to strike. Ash had never fought a shield wielder before. Ash wanted to take his time, but with the threat of more soldiers arriving, he was forced to attack. Taking a measured step forward, Ash struck hard but the knight was able to get the shield up. The power behind Ash’s blow was not light and the knight was forced back three steps. Seeing the man retreat, Ash continued to rain blow after blow against the shield until he heard a sickening breaking sound and the knight collapsed to the ground with a loud yell. As the man fell to his knees, Ash didn’t let up and kicked as hard as he could, sending the man onto his back his shield flying to the side displaying the man’s oddly twisted arm. Once again, Ash rushed forward but the knight was able to get his sword in place to block Ash’s first blow and then his second, but Ash’s third blow struck home, cutting a thin like between the knight’s armor and helmet. Ash saw the deep red blood flow onto the white snow and heard the gurgling sound as the knight pulled off his helmet and tried to stanch the flow. For the briefest moment, Ash saw the terror in the knight’s rapidly whitening face as his lifeblood flowed freely to the ground. Feeling a slight pain in his stomach, Ash turned and raced in the direction that Allice had gone.

It wasn’t hard for Ash to follow Allice’s trail through the snow and after he had ran no more than a few hundred yards, he caught sight of her small form running in the distance. When he caught up to her, Ash didn’t stop. Instead he scooped her up in his arms and continued to run.

“Master,” Allice sobbed and when Ash looked down he noticed that her small round face was red and tears covered her face.

“Didn’t I promise you that I would be ok,” Ash said in a calming tone.

Allice didn’t respond, instead she buried her face into his chest and quietly sobbed. The tears quickly soaked through his shirt and the cold air bit whenever the fabric touched his skin, but Ash couldn’t find it in himself to admonish the young girl.

After running as hard as he could for more than a few hours, Ash was forced to slow down. He had continued to run north but he knew that his trail would be easy to follow thanks to the snow laying on the ground. Thankfully more snow had started to fall so there was a slim chance that it would help hide him.

8-4

The snow continued to fall for three days as Ash and Allice continued to run. Ash changed his course slightly on the morning of the second day, hoping to come across one of the forts but since he was unsure of where he was at or where they were, he could only hope.

So far they had been able to stay ahead of their pursuers, but Ash could tell that whoever was chasing them had a great deal of skill. It was only for a brief moment, but the day before he had caught a glimpse of two horsemen following his trail.

Ash could easily keep ahead of a marching army, but men on horseback were a different story. He was human and had to rest and though he was pushing himself, he was quickly running out of energy.

Currently Ash and Allice had taken refuge in a small grove of trees sheltering themselves from the worst of the biting wind. Allice hadn’t said much over the past few days and neither had she let Ash get far out of her sight. She had stopped crying at least and she even smiled from time to time, though it was rare.

When Ash woke, he found that Allice had once again wrapped both her legs around him. Laughing, Ash used his knuckles to lightly knock on top of her head. “Owwww...That hurts master,” Allice said as she rubbed the top of her head.

“Then don’t pretend to be asleep while clinging to me,” Ash said, trying to sound mad but unable to keep the smile from his face.

Sitting up, Ash looked out and started to curse when he saw a number of horses from between the trees. They were still a little behind, but not so far that they wouldn’t catch up quickly. The grove of trees was small and all around it was nothing but open space. “How do they keep finding us?” Ash asked himself. It was at that moment that Ash wish he had learned more about the different abilities of the knights.

The more he thought about it, the more the old saying came to mind. “Knowledge is power.” Of course there is a large possibility that even if he knew how their abilities worked, he might not be able to evade them.

Currently Ash counted a full party of six knights and they were quickly drawing near. “Allice, I want you to hide here. If anything happens stay hidden until they leave.”

“No master,” Allice said shaking her head fervently.

“That is an order Allice,” Ash said, making the slave tattoo on her shoulder flare. Allice gave him a withered glare and tried to argue but the tattoo flared again and a flash of pain flashed across her face. Ash rarely used his position as a master to give orders and each time he felt bad when he did. No matter how much it pained him, it was better than Allice losing her life. Giving Allice one last apologetic smile, Ash saw the tears welling in her eyes. Turning around, Ash pulled his sword free and walked out of the small grove to meet the riders.

When Ash walked out of the grove of trees, the riders slowed their pace and looked at him with disapproving glares. They approached Ash warily, moving at a slow canter. As they approached Ash used analyze on them. Three of the knights were in the low thirties, one was nearing forty, and the other two were too high for Ash to see their stats.

“You are lord Ash, are you not?” One of the knight’s asked as he rode slightly in front of the others. He was a large man but little else could be told about him due to the full armor the man wore.

“Yes, I am Ash Hawkwing,” Ash said through gritted teeth.

“Lord Ash, let me be honest with you,” the man said, removing his helmet and showing a weathered face of a man in his late forties with sandy brown hair. “Right now the kingdom can ill afford this war. As it stands, thousands upon thousands will lose their lives. If the kingdoms’ enemies take this chance to strike at us, then even more shall die. I have come before you today to ask for your cooperation in seeing that it does not come to that.”

“And how may I help you?” Ash asked, his voice losing a little of its hostility though he didn’t let down his guard.

“You just need to lay down your weapon and surrender,” the knight said calmly. “You will be brought before the king and admit that you used a demon ability to charm the duchess. You will be put to death, but giving one life to save countless others is a cheap bargain.”

Ash couldn’t deny the man’s logic and was tempted to take the offer. “And what will happen to Emelia?”

“She will keep her status as the duchess, but she will be wed to a person of noble lineage.”

Ash could easily give himself up if it meant saving the lives of others. He knew that Emelia would curse him for it, but she would be safe and so would the other people of the duchy. What bothered him was that not only would they take his life, they would essentially be taking Emelia’s as well. She wouldn’t die, but from the sound of it she would be nothing more than a slave.

“So you would have me lie and then send someone else to my wife’s bed taking everything from her family including her name. All because the king is too much of a coward to stand up for all of his citizens,” Ash said as if the words caused a bad taste in his mouth.

“Shut your mouth,” one of the other knights yelled and Ash heard the sound of steel being drawn.

“Hush Morris,” the older knight said angrily before turning back to Ash. “There is much more going on than you realize. This war will end and sadly it will end with the fall of the Hawkwing name. The question is, how many people will die during the process?”

“For every man we lose, we will take two with us,” Ash said remembering the words from something he had read before. “It doesn’t matter how many of his dog’s the king sends. This is Hawkwing land and it shall stay that way.”

“Have it your way Lord Ash,” the man said with a heavy sigh. “Maybe after your death, your duchess will see things in a better light.”

The knight slid from his saddle then released a large double bladed sword and brought it to bare. Within moments, the other knights also unhorsed and took up a formation that Ash had seen before. It was the same one that Den and his men had taken up when they were fighting together.

The scout in the back was the first to attack using her bow to send an arrow aimed at his head. Ash didn’t even blink as he batted the arrow out of the air with the flat of his sword.

As soon as Ash’s sword moved, the others began their attack. Ash was able to dodge and parry most the attacks from the three warriors, but the two scouts and mage were a slight problem. The archer kept back firing arrows at him at any opening, while the other kept maneuvering around to strike at his back. While the scouts kept him slightly off balance, the mage used wind magic to attack him. It wasn’t hard for Ash to know that if he didn’t start to reduce their numbers, he wouldn’t last very long.

Without much choice, Ash invoked Gambler’s Gambit and prayed that he got a good number.

“Tring.”

[You have used Gambler’s Gambit. All stats will be increased by 61 points.]

With the sudden increase in stats, Ash’s pace quickened and the attacks that were hard to dodge earlier became slightly easier though he was still finding it hard to strike back. Seeing that he was still in trouble, Ash quickly used Shadow Armor, Shimmer, and Death Wail one after another. When the loud scream left his mouth, all but the mage was grabbed their heads and a few even dropped to their knees. Seeing his chance, Ash rushed past the guards, striking at the distracted bow wielder.

With a flash of Ash’s sword, it hit the thin leather armor just above the chest, splitting the knight open. The knight regained himself just in time to see the strike and let out half a yell before he fell down dead in a puddle of his own blood.

The other knights seeing their comrade die, started their attacks once again this time with much more vigor. Once again Ash used Death Wail, but this time it only seemed to affect them slightly, not even giving Ash enough time to make another surprise attack. Even with one down, it was still five against one and with each passing moment the blades were getting closer and closer to hitting him.

Seeing that his previous attack wasn’t going to work again, Ash once again searched through his numerous abilities as he fought off the knight’s attacks. Three of the knights were wearing armor that made it hard for him to strike easily. Even among his abilities, only a few could do anything to them and even then it wouldn’t be of much use while he was outnumbered. In the end Ash was forced to take a chance and sacrifice 10% of his HP to use Burn Out.

As soon as he invoked Burn Out, Ash could feel himself weaken. A large white flame seemed to bubble right out of his skin and flowed outward. As soon as the flames appeared, the three knights who were close to him tried to back off but the flames moved out faster than they could retreat. As the flames washed over them, their armor which once protected them, turned into a personal oven. The older knight was able to quickly strip his off, but the other men were too slow and fell to the ground as the metal seared into their skin.

Seeing the horror that the two men experienced, even the older knight’s face slightly paled. “Talen, report back,” the older knight yelled and the remaining scout ran toward the horses. Ash tried to intercept him, but he soon found himself pushed back as a wall of wind assaulted him. Soon the scout was riding off at a full gallop back in the direction they had come.

“Well Lord Ash, it seems that our information about you was lacking,” the knight said with a hint of disdain in his voice. “But don’t think that you have won just yet boy.”

Just as the man finished speaking, his sword was surrounded by a dark aura. At the same time as the blade darkened, the words “Soul Scourge,” appeared above the knight’s head.

The older knight’s movements became sharper and Ash found himself having to put all of his effort into dodging the blade. At the same time his Gambler’s Gambit ran out and Ash could feel a bit of his strength leaving him, making it even harder for him to dodge the attacks. With the knight’s strength and speed coupled with his imposing aura and armor, Ash was at a complete disadvantage. To make matters worse, the mage continued to release a number of attacks from a distance.

The longer the battle drug on, the slower both Ash and the knight moved. Even if Ash had ample stamina, that didn’t help with his personal physical and metal fatigue, not to mention after days of running his stamina was reaching its limit as well and he had less than forty points left available to him.

Ash was forced to use Dark Whip. As the dark tendril rose into the air and struck down it knocked the knight back and Ash rushed forward, but the knight was ready for him. As Ash’s sword landed on the knight’s sword arm just between its plates, the knight’s sword struck him though it only cut a thin line in his chest. Even though the wound wasn’t deep, it burned and seemed to sap his strength. Multi colored dots blurred Ash’s vision but he ignored it and pushed his advantage, driving the blade of his sword deeper into the knight’s arm, forcing him to drop his sword.

Ash nearly stumbled as he forced himself to grab the knight by the breastplate and positioned his sword, thrusting it into the man’s neck. As the elder knight died, Ash turned toward the mage who was now sitting on the ground sweating profusely. “I surrender,” the mage said, raising his hands into the air.

The rules of war were simple. Once someone surrendered, you only had two choices. One you could chain them and ransom them or you could release them upon giving them a set of rules. Ash had no way to keep the man if he tried the first so he was left with only the latter.

“You are to retire from this war and you are not to speak of any of my abilities or skills to anyone. If you can agree to this then you may go free, if not, then you must sacrifice your life,” Ash said as he held himself up by will alone.

“You have my oath as a knight,” The mage said with a stiff bow. Taking one of the horses, the knight mage rode off to the west.

Ash pushed himself and climbed upon one of the horses left behind while taking the reins of another then headed back to the grove where Allice awaited. When the pain in his chest didn’t disappear, Ash decided to check his status.

[You have been affected by Soul Scourge. Any MP, HP, and SP that is used will not be recovered. Any wounds received will not heal. Time until Soul Scourge ends: 14 days.]

Ash felt like cursing but he didn’t have the strength. He hadn’t lost much HP during the fight not even 20% of his HP was gone and 10% of that he had gave up himself. The main cost was his MP. Thanks to the number of attacks at the beginning of the battle, Ash’s luck shield had flared a number of times and he had also used a number of costly abilities and now he had a little less than 100 MP left. Even worse was his SP, which he only had 32 points left.

When Ash entered the grove, Allice ran up to him. He tried to give her a smile but he started to sway in his saddle. Ash pulled some rope from his inventory that had once been used to secure things in the supply wagons and handed it to Allice. “Tie me to the saddle,” Ash said weakly. “Then we have to leave. No matter what happens, keep riding. If we get caught, we are both dead.”

Allice was white faced, but she did as she was told. She also used a long piece of rope to tie to Ash’s horses bridle so that she could lead the other horse. Ash had trouble keeping his wits and soon noticed that they were thundering across the open plains. He could see Allice’s back and every now and then he would notice her looking back at him with a worried glance.

Ash didn’t know how long they rode, but the next thing he noticed was he was laying down on the cold ground, yet his whole body felt hot. Turning his head slightly, he noticed that Allice was sitting beside him with a rag in her hand using it to wipe his forehead. When she noticed that his eyes were open, small tears began to run down her face. “Master its ok…Everything is ok.” Allice kept saying the same words over and over. Ash tried to reassure her, but his mouth was dry and each time he tried to speak, it came out raspy and incoherent.