Reborn: Flames of War

by D. W. Jackson

  11-1

  Ash looked through the small wooden blinds on the carriage at the men who now stood in front of them blocking the way. They looked like bandits straight out of a story book, but it was obvious to anyone really looking that they were much more than they seemed.

  The main tipoff that they were not your standard bandits was that all of their clothes seemed too new. Their weapons also seemed to be too well taken care of. The last hint was the way they all stood. They stood too straight and their eyes were far too alert.

  “Get everyone out,” the man in the lead said, raising his voice.

  “My lord, something feels off,” Li said as she pressed up against him while looking out the same window. “I think you should use your magic to teleport yourself away until we are sure of our enemies.”

  “I agree,” Seia voiced.

  “That might be for the best,” Ash agreed before looking through the window and finding a spot about two hundred feet away that looked like a good place to take cover. Once he had a clear idea of the destination, Ash grabbed Li and Seia’s hand and activated his dimension door ability. It was a little cramped trying to use the ability while in the carriage, but it wasn’t impossible. Within moments, Ash, Li, and Seia were looking down on their friends and the so called bandits from a high hill in the distance.

  From where they were at, Ash couldn’t hear what was being said, but he could easily see what was happening. Currently the carriage was being searched, but as the only person left behind in it had been Celina, it was clear that the bandits had not found what they were looking for.

  As the bandits continued their search, Ash and the two girls made their way down the hill doing their best to move around to the back of the thieves without being seen. Luckily the thieves were not paying much attention to their surroundings as their eyes were firmly fixed on the group of imposing people in front of them.

  After they had finished checking the carriage for a third time, the leader of the bandits pulled Gena aside, pointing his sword at her in a menacing manner. Hiding behind a rather large hedge, Ash could barely make out what was being said.

  “I know that you were transporting a noble,” the leader said while holding Gena’s upper arm tightly. “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” Gena said calmly.

  “Listen you demon spawned whore, either you tell me what I want to know or you die,” the man said, his face turning a light shade of red.

  “Looks like it is time to act,” Ash said knowing that the men wouldn’t simply go away when they didn’t find what they were looking for.

  “What should we do my lord?” Li asked, looking through a gap in the hedge at the men who were now only about fifty feet away.

  Ash thought of a number of options, but many of them were quickly ruled out. Ash had used his analyze ability on each of the men and found them all to be above level thirty-five with the strongest being level forty-three. Their stats were also much higher than their level would indicate. There was no way common bandits could reach such high levels. These people were not the elite of the elite, but they were much higher than the average person could reach easily.

  Ash doubted that any of his wives would be beaten easily, but if he was right, the men were knights of the kingdom and most likely those belonging to the king’s forces. They were much more dangerous than the common fodder they had faced before and were spread out. Now more than thirty men stood before their group of sixteen. With almost twice their number, Ash couldn’t be rash.

  “Seia, hand me three of your arrows,” Ash said while holding out his hand.

  Seia quickly placed the requested arrows in Ash’s outstretched hand. Using his poison control ability, Ash coated the three arrows in sealing poison. He wished he had more time, but right now it seemed like it was fleeing fast. “Seia, I am going to approach the bandits and try to draw their attention. When I signal, I want you to hit their leader with one of the poisoned arrows. Use the remaining two on whoever you think is the largest threat. Li, stay hidden for now and use your shield to protect anyone who looks like they are in trouble.”

  “Understood my lord,” Li said.

  “My pleasure,” Seia responded as she placed two of the arrows on the ground while notching the last one so that she could draw and fire in a moment’s notice.

  Once he was sure that Seia and Li were ready, Ash pulled his sword free from its scabbard and moved slightly away from them before calling attention to himself.

  “Is there a reason that you are holding up my people?” Ash asked loudly, bringing all eyes to focus on him.

  “You are Ash Hawkwing?” The bandit leader asked as he released Gena’s arm.

  “Yes and I guess you would be some of the king’s knights, though I always heard that knights had honor and integrity. To think that they had fallen so far to dress up as bandits and work as assassins,” Ash replied mockingly.

  “Quiet you worthless de…” one of the men started to say before he was silenced by the leader.

  “Say what you will, but we have our duties to uphold,” the leader said with a bored look on his face. “Now, I need you to come with us. If you do so quietly then the rest of your friends my leave with their lives.”

  “I think you are mistaken about something,” Ash said, trying to put on an imposing look. “I am the one giving you and your men the chance to leave with your lives intact.”

  The knight commander’s face cramped for a few moments before he relaxed with a sigh. “Kill him,” he said pointing his sword at Ash.

  The second the words left his mouth, an arrow flashed past Ash, catching the knight commander in arm. As soon as Ash was sure that the Arrow had drawn blood, he moved forward only to find himself quickly blocked by a host of enemies.

  Just as Ash was preparing to attack, a loud shout came from the side as Tolarea charged into the knights who had moved to face off against Ash. With one swing of her sword, which was the size of an average person, it cut through the lightly armored knights in bandits clothing.

  Ash was so stunned by the sudden appearance of Tolarea he forgot to move. A moment later, the ground erupted in flames as Celina flashed through the knights, burying her dagger into one of the knight’s back.

  It seemed that even though the women were all demons, the knights hadn’t taken them for much of a threat which surprised Ash. A large number of soldiers were women though it was true that few ever made it very high in the ranks, but that was more due to the kingdom’s views on women and nothing to do with their skills and abilities. On the other hand, the enemy knights had been watching the two male demons and Emelia’s knights closely, allowing them to be caught off guard when Ash’s wives went into attack mode. In the space of time it took to take five breaths, a third of the enemy was dead, leaving Ash still staring blankly at the scene before him.

  Shaking away his confusion, Ash rushed past Tolarea who was currently facing off against three of the remaining knights and moved straight for the knight commander. From the look on the commander’s face, Ash had not been the only one taken by surprise by the sudden turn in events. Upon seeing Ash, the look on the knight commander’s face instantly soured. “Such shamefulness using a sneak attack.”

  “So says the knight who dressed up as a bandit to kill a peaceful delegate,” Ash replied with a sneer.

  The knight commander’s face looked as if he had taken a whiff of something the smelt bad, but a second later it returned to normal as he took a normal fighting stance. Above the commander’s head, Ash saw the words “Full Assault,” flash in bold but they quickly they turned red and the commanders face screwed up.

  Ash tried not to laugh when he noticed that the sealing poison was working
. Not knowing how much longer the poison would be effective, Ash activated pounce and jumped forward at an incredible speed that made him look like a blur.

  The knight commander was well trained and was able to regain himself before bringing his sword up in time to deflect Ash’s sword slightly so that it missed his chest, but it still dug deeply into the man’s side. As soon as Ash finished his first strike, he activated blood strike and his sword instantly moved as if it had a mind of its own. The blade moved like a flash of light, burying itself deep in the other man’s chest piercing his heart. The knight commander tried to say a few words, but all that came out was a slight whimper before the light left his eyes and he slid off the blade of Ash’s sword.

  With the knight commander dead, Ash turned his attention back to the larger fight. Tolarea was still fighting two enemies and was having no trouble holding her own. The other members of his group seemed to be fairing just as well and from a quick look, Ash could tell that only a handful of the knights remained, though his side was not without its losses. One of the demon guards was leaned up against the carriage while Li was healing him and one of Emelia’s knights lay on the ground, his body already cooling.

  After a quick glance, Ash found where he would be of the most use and quickly moved to aid his companions.

  With their leader dead and the overwhelming skill of their opponents, the knights quickly folded. When it got down to the last three, they tried to retreat but Seia put three arrows into the first man’s back before he had taken three steps. The other two suffered similar fates with Celina killing one and Gena taking out the other.

  Once the battle was over, Ash went back to where the knight commander had fallen, his blood pooling on the ground below him. Using his foot, Ash kicked the body over onto its back. When Ash reached down to start searching the body, he felt something touch his shoulder. Turning his head, Ash saw Gena along with Celina standing behind him.

  “My lord, you should not dirty your hands in such a manner,” Gena said as she looked down on the dead knight, her face full of contempt and thinly veiled hate.

  “I need to find out if he has anything on him that could help me find out who gave them the orders to attack,” Ash said, looking down at the body. “It could be put to great use when I meet with the king.”

  “We will search the bodies my lord,” Celina said nodding her head. “You should rest within the carriage just in case there are more enemies around.”

  Ash heaved a deep sigh, but knew that arguing with them would only lengthen the time they would have to spend standing in one place and that would only leave them vulnerable. “Ok, but make sure to check all of them and gather anything that might seem useful to identify them.”

  “Understood my lord,” Gena said with a nod before searching the body roughly.

  Ash did as Celina suggested and went back to the carriage where he was greeted by Seia who seemed to be waiting on him. Ash opened the door for her and helped her inside. Seia could get in and out by herself, but it was a chore so Ash would lift her up and place her inside so she wouldn’t have to pull herself into the carriage.

  After Seia was inside, Ash climbed inside took a seat beside her and closed the door. Shortly after they were seated inside, the door to the carriage opened again and Li walked through the door. She had a ragged look on her face and her white dress had a number of red spots on it.

  “How is Galien?” Ash asked after she had sat down.

  “He will live,” Li said meekly. “One of the bandits was able to strike him in the back, but it missed most of his major organs. He will be sore for the next week, but it shouldn’t cause us any delays.”

  “That is good to know,” Ash said slightly relieved. Galien was one of the two demon guards that Ash had brought with him under the advisement of the sage. They were both relatively high level, being in the low fifties, but even then it was hard to block a strike in one’s blind spot.

  Once they had finished searching the bodies, under the advisement of the knights, the bodies were hung from trees as if they were the common bandits they were dressed as. Ash thought it was going too far, but he kept his silence. They traveled another three hours before finding a place to camp. They could have gone a bit farther, but Ash wanted to stop with enough light left so that he and the rest could find a place so that they could wash the dirt from the road and the blood from the battle from their bodies.

  After everyone had been cleaned up, the small group met around a large campfire while they ate and talked about the day’s events.

  “My lord, have you learned anything,” Harley, a tall demon with large black wings asked.

  “Not as much as I wished,” Ash said as he looked at the items gathered in front of him. There was little in the way of identifying items. It seemed like the group had been smart enough to keep little on their person that could be used to identify them. The only things that were any use at all was a dagger that had a family crest and a ring with an odd looking stone. The downside was that anyone could claim that the items had been stolen so they couldn’t be used much in the way of leverage.

  “They were obviously knights, but I don’t see the reason that they felt the need to dress up as rouges when they simply planned to kill us,” Ash said.

  “Master Ash, I think I may be able to shine some light on that,” Rath the head of the small band of knights that had joined their group said with a pensive look on his face. They would normally have six members in their party, but one of them had lost a leg in the war and had been retired and they had yet to add a new knight to their group. Sadly thanks to the last battle, their numbers had been reduced once again and now only four remained.

  “What are you thinking Rath?” Ash asked looking at the man who was only around five years older than himself.

  “I don’t think they dressed up as bandits just for our benefit. This is a fairly well traveled road and there was a chance of them being seen by other travelers. That said, I think that they felt like they couldn’t lose, but just in case they took off anything that might give away who they were. The few items we found were kept by one man and he was most likely foolish enough to disregard the chance of losing. There are always some like that. He was most likely a noble’s kid and had far too high of an impression of himself and the others and a far too low one of his enemies. We try to train that out, but sometimes it is hard to do.”

  “I thought that knights picked their squire from the commoners,” Ash said while watching the flames of the fire lick at the air. “Why would there be nobles among their ranks.”

  “You must understand that the knighthood is in a way its own nobility and there are even bloodlines in it, though not how you would think of them. Some knights pass their names to their squire if they think he will carry it well and some of those names have lasted through many generations, giving them just as much, if not more weight than some of the nobles. It is this reason that when a noble has more than one son, they will often send the one that won’t inherit to be a knight and often times pay a great sum to get them apprenticed to a knight with an honored name.”

  “I see,” Ash said, looking at the items again. “Then we might be able to find out what family the knight belonged to, though I don’t know if it will help us.”

  “I doubt it, though we can try,” Rath responded. “I don’t recognize the crest and there are nearly a thousand landed and non-landed noble families within the kingdom. It would take months to track down each crest. Not to mention many of the crests change slightly over the generations so it could be an outdated one.”

  “I understand,” Ash said with a sorrowful sigh. “Then all we can do is keep an eye out for enemies. I and Seia will start making poisons that can be used in battle. We just need to stop by a town and buy some vials that can be used to hold it. Also, if any of you can come up with some workable countermeasures, I would welcome hearing them.”

  “Then I would suggest that we purchase some extra short spears,” Tourn, the old
est of the knights said. Even though he was the oldest, he was still less than ten years older than Ash.

  “What do you have planned?” Ash asked intrigued.

  “We can get some notched short spears. They are often used when hunting monsters with a thick hide that you don’t want to get close to. They can be thrown at a medium distance, but still used to fighting close range. If we had two each, then we could use them alongside the poison to a devastating effect.”

  “That is a good idea,” Seia agreed. “Many of the men in my tribe fight in such a manner, though it is not overly popular since we are not the fastest demon tribe so we do better from the rear ranks.”

  The rest of the evening they came up with a number of ideas. Most of them were unable to be put into use, but they still come up with a number of thoughts that could be of use should they be attacked again.

  It wasn’t until long after the sun had set that Ash was finally able to get to sleep. Throughout the whole night, Ash kept dreaming of the faces of the men who had died due to his sword. When he woke up sweating, Ash tried to shake the thoughts from his mind. Lately every time Ash closed his eyes, he would see the faces of dead men and dream of himself killing them over and over.

  Once he had calmed down, Ash laid back down and tried one again to sleep.

  11-2

  It was four days after the pitched battle before they reached the next city large enough to have a store that sold weapons.

  As soon as Ash entered the store, he was greeted by an older man and young woman. “My lord, welcome to our store,” the old man said bowing deeply. “If there is anything that you need help with, then we will do our upmost to serve you.”

  When Ash left the inn they had decided to stay at, he had left everyone behind but a few of the knights. The reason for this was simple. He wanted to draw as little attention as possible but it seemed that even without his demon guards, he stood out in a crowd.

  “I am looking for a number of short spears, and I need to arrowheads,” Ash said as he looked around the rather small store.