Though war and skirmishes ran throughout their lands, it was beautiful. The irony, that this land was called, Suffering. Verdant hills rolled into endless valleys, the sky a storm-tossed ocean overhead. Rain polished every surface until it gleamed, and the leaves of massive trees shimmered with ethereal light. Only the blood on the ground marred its beauty. The storm rolled low over the broken fields, a heavy blanket of gray pressing down on the world. Rain hissed against smoldering huts, and the pungent smell of scorched wood and blood filled the air. Arken adjusted his heavy cloak, the dark material slick with rain. He was built like an iron gate, broad-shouldered, square-jawed, his face roughened by years of battle. His dark hair, streaked with early gray, clung to his forehead. Beside him, Kael jogged toward him. In contrast to Arken, Kael was younger, barely past twenty summers, his face still carrying traces of the boy he had once been. His hair was short and copper-brown, his gold armor lighter, built for speed over brute strength. Lightning crackled faintly across his pauldrons, the remnants of his casting sparking in frustration. Before them, leading the Zuli forces, was General Tharos, Kael's father. A seasoned veteran, Tharos was a tower of a man, with grizzled hair and a stern gaze hardened by decades of warfare. His golden armor, adorned with a blue lightning sigil across his chest, gleamed even in the rain.
General Tharos' and his men killed Baros scouts just a day earlier. Tharos had sent for more Zuli forces. With the new reinforcements came Arken, Kael, and another dozen Zuli warriors. The Zuli soldiers waited among the trees and brush. While Kael, Arken, and Tharos all waited within the outpost.
"They're late," Kael muttered, glancing toward the dense line of trees.
"They'll come," Arken said, voice rusting against the cool air.
"Remind me again, why are we here?" Kael said, his youthful impatience showing.
"Baros will stop at nothing to obtain the blessed Ninji water here." Arken said, eyes not moving from the distant tree line. "Why do they need this water so badly? I couldn't say."
"The Baros are cursed or so the few prisoners we have captured in past years have told us. They wear red shards around their necks that ward away the curse, but if it is lost or broken. It seems they burn from the inside." Tharos said, turning to pull a bottle of wine that was tied to his waist.
"Cursed?" Arken said with a chuckle. "They certainly have never fought like they were scared or cursed."
"I never said they were scared." Tharos said, offering the wine to Arken. "Like any person, once you find a remedy to a curse, you would want to keep it. Though, I have seen them drink the water, and nothing changes, if the red shard is broken or lost." Tharos paused remembering the pain he saw. "A child, not older than twelve years, we came across him months ago while securing Ninji camps to the north. He wore a necklace with a small piece of red shard on it. A young soldier of ours, took the necklace as a reward from the child. The child's eyes began to glow a bright white, then his entire body burst into a screaming flame. He was reduced to ash within minutes. Nothing left. Not even his bones."
Before either of the men could reply, they heard footsteps approaching. A Baros hunting party, no more than two dozen Baros warriors, emerged cautiously surveying the area for movement. They were weathered and fierce, clad in mismatched armor, axes and spears slung across broad backs. Some bore crude marks of Ogun, their fire god, burned into their flesh as crude blessings.
"Remember," General Tharos said grimly and quietly, "we kill them all. We cannot fail."
Arken and Kael nodded, taking their positions.
As the Baros approached, General Tharos raised his hand. The Zuli sprang from their cover with brutal precision, lightning crackling and spears gleaming.
The Baros did not flee. With a roar, the outlanders hurled themselves into the fray. Axes ignited with fierce red-orange flames clashed against Zuli blades. Sparks flew as metal bit metal, and the air filled with shouts and the roar of fire. Arken engaged a massive Baros warrior whose movements were fast for such a large warrior. The man's strikes came with terrifying strength and speed, unnatural almost. Arken parried narrowly, feeling the raw force behind every blow. Arken had fought many Baros before this, he knew most were not trained for combat, but rather for hunting against beasts. So naturally that is how they fought. Arken knew he had to be swift and end the fight quickly. Arken saw a pause in the fight, he took the advantage to thrust his blade to the air. Shouting into the storm.
"In the name of Azusa. Give me strength." A strike of lightning struck the sword, binding the power to the sword. Zuli ancestry allowed them to control the storm, but more specifically the lightning. The sword gleamed with blue and white lightning. Arken saw the chance to strike. The Baros had engulfed his axe with their fire casting ability, but it was no good. Arken's blade cut through the Baros warrior and his axe like butter. Nothing could withstand the Zuli blade, at least anything they had found. There was limits to this, as the largest majority of Zuli could only call on this power during a storm. Only few, very few could will the lightning with no storm front.
Across the field, Kael fought back-to-back with General Tharos. The two of them moved with an unspoken rhythm, veteran and youth, strength and speed. They fought two Baros hunters who looked like twins. They moved as fluidly as Tharos and Kael. Lightning pulsing the ground along with the fire from the Baros axes. One of the twin Baros warriors had surprised Kael and sent him flying back into the outpost wall, causing it to collapse, but not enough to do anything more than trap Kael for a moment. The other Baros twin, distracted by his brother attacking Kael, was caught off guard by Tharos. Tharos thrusted his sword encased with lightning through the warrior's chest, burning his heart and lungs to nothing. The other twin saw this and with despair and desperation, pulled the red shard from his chest and screamed a guttural prayer to Ogun and his brother. The shard broke, his body convulsed, white flames engulfed half his body, and for a brief, horrifying moment, he moved faster than any man had a right to. Three of the other Zuli soldiers noticed and came to attack the Baros. The twin's flames reacted as one with him, now stretching around his entire body, and he tore through the three Zuli before turning toward Tharos. Kael had just finished digging himself out, when he saw it. The Baros who was covered in the white flames was sprinting directly toward Tharos, who was too busy fighting off another Baros warrior.
"Look out!" Kael shouted, but the warning came too late.
The Baros warrior, his body ablaze with an unnatural, sun-bright heat, grinned with feral cruelty as he hurled himself into General Tharos. Lightning met flame and the flame consumed it. The Baros tackled Tharos with crushing force, the contact igniting a searing explosion of heat so intense it burned the rain to mist. In an instant, Tharos' golden armor blackened, split apart, and his body was charred beyond recognition. The Baros crumbled into ash, leaving only a scorched shadow where he had fallen. The ground around him was scorched and another Zuli who was fighting nearby was burned severely on his back.
"FATHER!" Kael cried out, his voice raw with horror.
General Tharos lay motionless, steam hissing from his sun-scorched armor.
Kael dropped to his knees beside him, fists clenched, teeth gritted in helpless rage.
"No! I yelled for you to look, why did you not look." Kael's voice was stretched to a scream. Why couldn't he have held his own, been able to handle these Baros on his own, before his father met this fate? Did Azusa spite his family?
More Baros charged toward Kael as he was kneeling beside Tharos. Arken grabbed Kael's shoulder. "Wake up, We'll mourn later. For now, we survive. Remember what your father said, we kill them all."
Kael rose slowly, his face hollowed by grief and vengeance. Lighting from the storm reflected in his eyes as he looked up at the storm clouds above. Kael pulled down his damp armor to reveal a yellow shard that was glowing in his chest, next to his heart. Kael placed his hand on it and closed his eyes. He then began to claw at the shard, to rip it from his chest. But before he could get further a hand slapped him away. Then grabbed his head.
"Do not be an idiot." Arken said. "We finish this together, our lightning shards are meant for protection, not to be reckless with the power our god Azusa has given us." Arken extended his hand to Kael. Kael nodded and took his hand. Kael raised his sword to the sky, he called out and lightning struck his blade. Even the Baros fighting with other Zuli watched as Kael ignited his blade. The Baros returned the sight of the lightning strike with their own cries and fire engulfed axes. They continued to fight, Kael noticed another Baros who was all but defeated, grab ahold of their red shard to attempt the same act the last had done. Kael moved swiftly and sliced the Baros from shoulder to hip, the sword cut through the man's torso, while burning it as well. Charring the Baros' skin black. The Zuli finished off the remaining Baros quickly.
Silence fell once the last Baros fell. The field was littered with the dead. Only a few Zuli lost their lives in this fight, but all the Baros were killed. General Tharos being one of them. The Zuli soldiers moved quickly, gathering the Baros bodies and hoisting them onto pikes around the perimeter, a grim warning to any others who might come.
Arken wiped blood from his blade, his face unreadable. He cast a long, pained look at General Tharos' body.
"He died a warrior's death," Arken muttered under his breath. Then turned to the Zuli warriors who were remaining around them. "Please stay here and eliminate any other Baros who dare show back up. Please bury our dead, including the General. We don't need people in the Gold Palace to see what has been done to him. It will only cause panic."
Kael said nothing. Only a nod of approval to leave his father's body behind.
As Kael and Arken mounted their horses, Kael cast a look back at the field of the dead.
"Suffering," he said bitterly. "A place this beautiful shouldn't bleed so easily."
The rain had slowed by the time Arken, and Kael returned to the towering stone walls of the Gold Palace, the Zuli Palace. Kael's heart ached to talk with King Zubotu or even Prince Alekius about the fate of his father. The General who was almost as renowned as the King himself. Not Zuli alive could rival the King like his father did.
Inside the great hall, the atmosphere was somber despite the celebration banners still fluttering overhead. Today had been meant for feasting, for boasting of a century of Zuli rule over Suffering. Instead, it reeked of uncertainty. Zubotu, Leader of the Zuli, stood tall at the center of the marble-floored council chamber. His thick frame was cloaked in royal blue and gold, his lightning-scarred eye narrowing at the sight of Arken and Kael entering, soaked and battered.
A hush fell over the room. Kael knelt immediately, head bowed, his fists trembling at his sides. Arken stood stiffly behind him.
Zubotu's gaze locked onto Kael. "General Tharos?"
Arken answered for him. "Fell in battle, my Lord. A Baros warrior invoked something from their ancient curse."
A ripple of shock passed through the assembled council. Even the Ninji Elder Ofeus, standing quietly at the side, furrowed his brow.
Zubotu's jaw clenched. He placed a fist over his heart, bowing his head briefly. "Tharos was a true friend and warrior. His sacrifice will not be forgotten. Nor will it go unanswered. We will avenge him."
Kael's head snapped up, lightning flaring in his eyes. "I swear it, my Lord. I will see every last Baros pay for what they've done."
Zubotu nodded once, but his gaze had already shifted toward the towering doors at the edge of the chamber.
"There is still much to celebrate," Zubotu said grimly. "And much more to prepare for."
He ushered the remaining high-ranking Zuli and a select few Ninji elders into the adjoining grand hall. "Kael, Arken, please go and get cleaned up. Let us celebrate at least you both returning to me. What of the other Zuli warriors?" Zubotu said allowing more of the guests to file into the room.
"We have them stationed to kill any Baros who attempt to recover their dead or try to take the water again." Arken said while wiping the excess water from his brow. "We asked them to bury the remaining fallen and the General. His body was in such rough shape, that it wouldn't have been ideal to bring it back here."
"Ah, I see. Then let's send out reinforcements to help with securing the border." Zubotu said he took out a small key and handed it to Arken. "Please use my private washroom. You both deserve peace and quiet."
"Thank you, your majesty." Arken said, looking at Kael and showing him the key, then motioning toward the stairs. Zubotu closed the doors. Arken and Kael proceeded to the King's private washroom. Marbled white, with gold and blue trimmings all around. The bath was enough to fit half a squadron of twenty men in, and already hot.
"I do not think he mourns my father." Kael said, breaking the silence of the room as he eased into the hot bath. "Almost seemed like he was relieved he died. Maybe he can make Alekius or Laric the new General."
"Nonsense, he wouldn't do that. He needs both of them. Laric's lineage isn't really known. So he could not risk putting him in the battle especially since he hasn't obtained his lightning." Arken said moving into the opposite side of the washroom bath. "Alekius is still too young to be involved with battles, and being the heir means he needs to stick closely to his father."
"Whatever you say Arken. I will be on the next trip to the outlanders. I will kill them all." Kael said. He threw water on his face, removing most of the mud and sweat that had already been beading down his brow from the ride back to the palace.