"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?" Shion asked Elara as he gathered the troops to head out.
"I'm sorry, we were ordered to never talk about it. I didn't know how I could bring it up." She replied. She was referring to how she had told Shion the story of the time she saw Great General Mutembo burn down and loot a village. She was in the frontier army at the time and her superior officer was killed by Mutembo's men when he tried to intervene. Everyone who witnessed the incident was ordered by Imperial court officers to never speak of it, as to not tarnish the reputation of a Great General.
Meanwhile, Gaileo was fighting a dual with Great General Mutembo, and losing badly. Every punch he threw was blocked or parried, and Mutembo's punches crushed Gaileo again and again.
Great General Mutembo was strong, and fast, and brilliant. He had all the qualities that made someone a Great General, but above all of that he was also a coward. At first glance, you could mistake being a coward as a liability for a general. However, it's actually a valuable asset. Being a coward meant that he would only fight a battle that he was certain that he would win, and his brilliant strategies made the outcome of nearly every battle certain victory. He would always calmly and objectively determine his chances of success before making a move.
In the case of his dual with Gaileo, he accepted the challenge without a moment of hesitation. In other words, he did not perceive him as a threat at all. As the fight progressed he was brutally beat down by Mutembo as his men watched and laughed.
"Ahahaha! You aren't very bright are you boy? Did all those fake compliments I gave you go to your head? Did you really think you stood a chance of winning a fight against me? Well, you gave me a good laugh at least. As a reward I'll use my special ability to kill you." Mutembo said.
Gaileo rushed forward with his sword drawn when suddenly his sword was replaced with a stick in his hand.
"What?" Gaileo said as he looked at the stick in his hand.
"Looking for this?" Mutembo said as he brandished Gaileo's sword. "It's a fine blade. I would give it back to you, but against me, it's about as dangerous as that stick in your hand anyway." He said as threw the sword into the ground.
Regardless of the fact that he had been disarmed, Gaileo continued to rush his opponent, but every time he got close enough to attack he suddenly found himself far away. Whenever he thought he was out of Mutembo's range he suddenly found himself right in front of him getting struck with vicious attacks.
Great General Mutembo's special ability was called, Spatial Swap, it allowed him to swap the location of any two objects as long as he met two conditions. The first was that he had to have touched both objects beforehand, and the second was that both objects had to be within his field of vision.
Mutembo toyed with Gaileo as he repeatedly crushed him, but no matter how many times he got beat down he continued to get back up. This amused Mutembo because it gave him an opportunity to hurt him some more.
Mutembo had crushed Gaileo again and as Gaileo was lying face first in the ground and Mutembo started to walk away, but Gaileo grabbed his leg.
"This fight isn't over yet." He said as he struggled back to his feet.
Mutembo laughed again. "This has provided me with some decent entertainment, but let me give you a tip for a key to comedy. And that is…." Mutembo started to say as he jumped into the air. "….that a joke loses its luster if you repeat it too much!" He said as he crashed his knee into the back of Gaileo's neck.
"Let's just finish this already." Mutembo said as he grabbed Gaileo's sword out of the ground and threw it above him. As it came crashing down he swapped it with a large piece of rubble that had fell from the city wall, and Gaileo was crushed underneath.
Gaileo spat out blood and gurgled and gasped for air but he was so badly injured that he couldn't do anything.
"I'll let you writhe in pain for a while as you die." Mutembo said. "In the meantime, I have more important matters to attend to." He said as he turned his attention back to the women that his men had brought him. The one that he grabbed next was a pretty brown haired woman named Eliza.
"No!!! Let her go!!!!!!!" Gaileo tried to call out, but all that managed escaped his lips were a few labored groans.
Mutembo looked over to Gaileo, "Oh? Do you have something to say?" He asked, then looked back and forth between her and Gaileo. "Oh I see, you know her don't you? I'd forgotten that you used to live here. It's too bad if you'd just agreed to be my puppet then I could have let you have her, but now you'll have to just watch. I'd offer you to have her after I'm done, but as you can see, there's not usually much left after I'm finished with them." He said pointing to the pile of corpses behind him.
As Gaileo struggled in agony Mutembo cackled and mocked him and made sport of his pain.
While he lied on the ground he was unable to move, unable to speak. He was completely helpless and powerless. He could do nothing but watch as unspeakable horrors played out in front of him.
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Why am I so weak? Why am I so helpless? Why do I always lose everything I care about? Why? Why does it all always slip through my fingers? Why! WHY? WHY!" He desperately asked himself, but he didn't receive any answer.
"Why? Why do I suddenly…. feel so, cold?"