Battle of flames and walking corpses part 6

As the black company was cutting their way through the mercenaries and soldiers of the Etna states, they saw that the varangians seemed discouraged.

People were yelling out that the child in purple, Berig, had fallen or captured. The black company soldiers were confused about what to do next, as their main force had lost their heart.

~~

Gadaric and Edward's fight had been even, with neither able to best the other.

Gadaric was readying to shoot Edward with more sound blasts, but he then heard cries coming out from the direction where Berig was.

"The prince has fallen! Rufus Fairfax has bested Berig, the first child in purple!" the soldiers yelled.

Gadaric couldn't believe what he heard.

"Not surprised. That's our king for you imperials," Edward said and rested his sword on his shoulder.

~~

The thorn vines of count Hunyadi layed cut and shredded on the battlefield. The count himself was holding himself standing with his scythe made from thorny vines, as Markus himself surrounded him with blood monsters.

"All you old royals were cancer to our people, but you were the worst of them all. Who would have thought?" Hunyadi said as he was getting ready to be killed.

Markus was just about to command his blood creatures but saw that the varangians had started to rout from the battlefield. He also started to hear cries from the varangians about how Rufus had bested the first child in purple.

He immediately left Hunyadi there as he ran back to his men.

~~

Joan and Samanilde were fighting a fierce battle. She used her fire spirals as whips and kept Joan on her toes.

Joan's light footsteps kept her away from the attacks. The fire spirals cut the earth apart as they hit the ground, with the cataphracts and black yak riders getting their fair share of damage.

Joan lunged with her greatsword through the attacks and just barely Samanilde was able to dodge it.

Samanilde fell to the ground and felt like she had no more time to fight against her. She found a horse and started to ride towards the center of the battle where her brother was.

Her cataphracts saw that their commander was riding away and tried to also leave, but the black yaks then started to mawl them down as they were distracted. Soon all the cavalry of the empire started to rout as well.

As Samanilde was getting close, she couldn't believe her eyes. She saw her brother, who had lost one arm and leg, laying on the floor, as Rufus had a sword on his throat.

She then thought about saving him, but the varangians were in full rout. The ghersengs gathered around their raja and placed their glaives around the defeated prince.

She needed to save what was left of their army, as that was more important now.

~~

Markus got to his men.

"What is going on here!?" Mona yelled.

"We need to leave now. That useless Berig lost and has cost us this entire battle. The black company now works on its own. Get our men and flee towards the north," Markus ordered.

The black company soldiers were starting to move out with Mona and Skal leading them. They left the varangians to fend for themselves as they separated from the imperial force.

"August...I have a special task for you. I will have you retrieve one person for us," Markus said.

~~

Haley was with the rest of them capturing as many imperials soldiers as they could. They were made prisoners of war and among them was Cixilo who was still caged inside a crystal.

Yosef gathered two of his puppets that were broken by acid.

"Two days to build them...two seconds to break them....not at all demoralizing," Yosef said to himself.

"Don't complain. We won here," Amala said.

"Yeah, but fixing these puppets goes against my principle of maximizing my "doing nothing" time," Yosef said back.

Doreen was staring at the crystal that had Cixilo and his possessed corpse inside.

"I think I know who this is. She seems to be Leia Cassia, the greatest warrior of her time," Doreen said.

"So she lived many years ago?" Haley asked.

"Hundreds. She seemed also as strong as the legends were. This power to bring back the dead goes against everything in nature," Doreen said as she was touching the crystal that caged Cixilo.

August then came like a bolt of lightning. He hit with his hammer at the crystal, freeing Cixilo.

The body of Leia Cassia fell to the ground with Cixilo's body sliding off from him and retaining his normal human form. August picked him up and bolted away.

Haley and Pema were ready to go after them but were stopped by Doreen.

"We need to stay here and tend to our wounded. Let him go," Doreen said.

"But what if he returns again in the future," Haley asked.

"You beat Leia Cassia, the one who was feared during her time. Whoever that thing will possess in the future, I am sure you will be able to defeat it."

~~

Gadaric left Edward and was running where Berig was. Edward gave chase, not allowing him to free the defeated child in purple.

As he was running he stopped in his tracks. Edward was about to swing at him with his sword, but then was also stopped as he felt something was wrong.

An immense divine aura was felt by both of them, but only Gadaric knew to whom it belonged to.

~~

A man wearing a noble's robe walked through the battlefield. All the varangians stopped running and their enemies felt like they couldn't breathe.

The man had a black beard with curly black hair. He had many golden rings on his fingers and just casually walked through the muddy battlefield.

This man then walked toward Rufus, with the Ghersengs even too scared to do anything to him.

When the chained Berig saw him, his pupils widened like he had seen a ghost....or something worse.

Berig in a complete daze said," What are you doing here, father?"