While his assistants accompanying him for years died one by one, the son whose existence he had just learned also shared the same fate as them. What kind of a day was this? Would the order established and plans made be destroyed so easily?
Advancing with a thousand thoughts in his mind, Astute suddenly stopped; his only surviving comrade was looking at him. Even when the tip of the dagger entering from his nape came out of his throat, his eyes were still looking at him.
He was left alone; he was all alone in the middle of the city he ruled. Thinking what do I have to lose, he reached for the hilt of the other sword he carried at his waist.
While these were happening inside the arena, the skies had not remained indifferent to the events. As if wanting to clean all the filth, raindrops were falling furiously to the ground. The light of the sun covered by dark black clouds had diminished; darkness evidently wanted to cover everything.
Among the people in the stands, the number of survivors was fewer than the fingers on one hand. Spilled blood, with the effect of heavy rain, was crossing the barrier and reaching the sands where the warriors were. Together with its sands slowly turning red, the arena was taking on the air of a pit descended from hell to earth.
"Come on, let me show you what true savagery is!"
Astute had lost his ability to think logically. Whichever way he turned, there were either enemies or mountains of corpses. Due to Nafız's order, only those in the section where the three noble families were had managed to survive.
Warriors finishing their jobs directed their attention to the man with twin swords shouting on the sands of the arena. They had all witnessed the attack this person made with his single sword; right now he had one more sword in his hand. His stance was enough to make everyone uneasy.
"Would you look at this Black Lily bastard; he turned into a lion when cornered!"
The voice might not have been very loud, but the hearts of everyone inside the arena felt as if squeezed by a vise. Nafız, covered in blood from head to toe, was the most frightening figure in the arena with the effect of the rain falling on her.
"Blood God Nafız, hail to you!"
Regardless of orc or human, warriors knelt at the same time and shouted. They couldn't help it; the urge coming from inside had condemned them to this action. Even the sound echoing from the walls of the arena and reaching the city was freezing people's blood.
"So it was you! The killing intent I felt that day was coming from you!"
Astute had ignored his instincts that day. When the years he lived in prosperity after quitting being a warrior led him into complacency, he wasn't aware that he had signed his death warrant.
"I'm coming, entertain me!"
After Nafız rushed forward, there was only one question in everyone's mind. How can she move like this despite taking so much damage?
Only Alyon knew the truth; every blow he struck was lightened by the momentary block of the weapon coming out of Nafız's wristbands.
Even if the situation was like this, it didn't mean she took no damage at all; quite a bit of stress had accumulated on her.
In response to the female orc running towards him, Astute crossed his two swords in front of him and started chanting magic words. With the runes on them shining, the swords were spreading a malicious air around.
A few breaths later, the places where the runes were broke, and small transparent mist clouds started to mix into the air from the opened gap. Inside the mist, there were silhouettes in the shape of human faces, and as if they had reached a consensus, they were gathering around the city lord.
"I am using the labor of my ancestors lasting for hundreds of years for you. You should be proud of yourself!"
Seeing the moves her opponent made, Nafız shouted hastily!
"Everyone move away! Get up to the stands, quickly!"
Nafız recognized the weapons. They were twin swords made for the malicious techniques of the Black Lily Clan.
"Guardians of Death"
A mist cloud constantly rotating around Astute formed. The formation decorated with human faces screaming in pain was the defense technique of the Death Guardians. The weapons, trapping the souls of the people to whom they delivered the killing blow inside them, offered them to the command of their user.
"You can't run anywhere!"
When the City Lord finished his protection technique, he swung his weapons held sideways with pleasure. When the souls coming out of the swords turned into a gray mist and started coming towards them rapidly, fear fell into everyone's hearts.
"Get behind me!"
The same words were heard from two different sides of the arena. Vahşiduvar and Alyon were calling out to their comrades who hadn't managed to escape yet. They possessed two pieces of equipment that could withstand this attack: the giant shield and Alyon's armor.
Before her opponent's attack made simultaneously on the entire area, Nafız suddenly changed her direction. Passing in front of the mist cloud, she made her strike with the daggers she took from the reward dungeon.
At first, no one could make sense of the move, but when they saw the orc starting to appear from nothingness, they figured it out. Kuyag was in search of an opportunity to attack the lord, and for this reason, he was observing in an area where no one was present.
Nafız had broken the attack alright, but the sweeping soul mists had also reached her body. If she didn't have to protect the warrior remaining behind, she could have easily escaped, but she chose to take the damage on herself for the orc who had shown great success until now.
"Commander!"
Just as Kuyag was starting to speak to ask for forgiveness when he saw what happened, Nafız shouted at him, "Get away from here immediately!"
Since the City Lord killed many of his enemies, he was cheerful; turning to the noble families standing in the stands, he pointed his single sword at them.
"When I finish my job here, I will compensate for the souls I lost from your families!"
Although the households behind them were in fear, there was no sign of panic in the gazes of the three friends. They had played a gamble, and they were people who could show the courage to bear the consequences.
"Baammmm!"
When the City Lord, hurled three steps away as a result of the kick he took to his shield, turned his back, he saw Nafız's eyes shooting fire. It would be a fight of twin daggers against twin swords; Nafız's hands engaging the soul shield were too fast to be seen.
Astute, overcoming the initial shock, started to respond to attacks raining down along with the rain. Nafız, dodging the soul mists coming at her with agile movements, sometimes had to counter them with her weapons.
Even when the fight turned into an endurance struggle, the female orc's attacks lost none of their speed. After blows landing one after another, there wasn't the slightest sign of damage on the mist shield either.
"Don't tire yourself in vain, orc. I don't know where you found what you have in your hands, but none of them can come close to my Death Guardians. Before the tens of thousands of souls inside them run out, I will lay all your carcasses on the ground!"
Every blow of Nafız was killing one of the souls forming the shield. After Astute's words, it became clear that it was impossible for a single person to finish this job. Alyon had also accepted the truth and jumped back onto the red-painted sands from the stands he had climbed to help his friend.
"Nafız, give me my weapon!"
The giant war hammer was in the interspatial ring; he could engage in the war as soon as he got it.
"When did I tell you that you could interfere in this business!"
Alyon was expecting the answer he received; he would be surprised otherwise. No matter the situation, his friend was insistent on finishing the job she started alone.
"Don't be stubborn, I'm coming to help you!"
The hulking orc was determined this time; time was working against Nafız.
"Stay where you are!"
Nafız shouted angrily, cut her attack, somersaulted backward, and retreated to ten steps in front of Alyon. The female orc's hair was dancing with the wind, beating the air almost like a whip.
While all this was happening, the members of the three noble families were watching a scene they would never see again in their lives.