THE BARBARIAN EMPIRE

It really was a fruitful day for Nuzar. The warm soup he just ate also made him feel invigorated. He was someone who loves seeking for knowledge. The tidbits of information he got from the manuscript was the only thing running in his mind while he had his 'dinner'. One thing that was very common in all Misrian households was that dinner was always eaten in the evening. Now that Nuzar had eaten his dinner, he was eager to get back to 'work'.

Suddenly, a loud noise was heard from outside his residence. The noise sounded like a battle cry, followed by the sound of weapons clanging against each other. " What's going on out there?" Nuzar asked. This was the first thing he said since he sat at the table to eat his dinner. "Shhhh!" Nuzar's father placed a finger on his lips; a gesture that signified 'keep quiet'." The barbarians at work." He mumbled. The sound went on for couple of minutes until it stopped abruptly.

The family who were still seated around the dinning table were sitting there in silence, not until Nuzar's father stood up and was heading to the door. "Jarhl! where do you think you are going." The middle aged woman who seemed to be Nuzar's mother exclaimed in a tiny voice. " You could get us killed." She added.

" Stop being a panic puppet, their little scuffle has stopped, everything should be okay" He chuckled as he left the room to check the reason for the earlier commotion. Rana, the blonde hair lady just sat at the dinning table, saying nothing, her face buried in her palms, showing disapproval to what her father just did.

They waited for a few minutes until Nuzar decided to see for himself what caused the quick battle. When he got out, he saw his father far away from their bungalow. He walked up to him and saw something....a gruesome sight. This particular area was metres away from their house and could be described as a forest.

"Check for survivors!" Jarhl commanded, sounding like a veteran scout. "Seems like it was a guerilla attack....it has to be them." He said, analysing the situation. The way Jarhl was acting showed that it wasn't his first time seeing such an inhuman deed. Blood was splattered all around the greenery. The bodies of around 15 men lay still on the ground, not moving the least. Jarhl looked at Nuzar to see his reaction to the gruesome sight but the latter was impervious to this creepy sight.

It was clear that a battle had just taken place in this part of the woods. Nuzar and Jarhl were checking for survivors. Some of the men had their vocal cords ripped out, while some had their limbs torn apart from their bodies, some had their innards violently torn from their guts. Jarhl got closer to one of the men that had his innards spilling out of his belly, the man's fingers were twitching slowly. He drew out his dagger and slit the man's neck ending his misery.

"What was that? He could have lived. " Nuzar questioned. " You must be kidding, right?" Jarhl asked feeling no remorse for what he did. " That man could never have survived such wound. Even Grand Mages can't bring back the dead. The man's 'prana' has evaporated, leaving a minute quantity."

"By prana, you mean Life force?" Nuzar asked, still rummaging through the bodies, checking for survivors. "Exactly.....it seems you're getting better in your knowledge of medicine." Jarhl commented. When Nuzar got closer to one of the men, he saw that this one's body parts were not ripped apart. He had a large and deep cut in his torso. Nuzar placed his fingers on the man's wrist to feel his pulse. " Dad! I've got one here..... he's still breathing." His face lit up in excitement .

★ ★ ★

The sun has finally departed from the sky. Darkness has loomed over the earth. The moon was no where to be seen in the night sky. Nuzar and his 'family' lived quite close to the woods. Now that night has fallen, sounds of crickets permeated the surrounding areas including their Egyptian styled ranch house that stayed at the borderline to the woods.

The annoying sounds of these insects was giving Nuzar a hard time thinking about what Jarhl told him. The pain he was feeling in his right eye made it worse. The pain was something that occurs when he tries to think or remember anything. When the pain finally resided, he recalled what the middle aged man told.

From the way the middle-aged man spoke, the forest battle was not new to the family. It was a clash between the local hunters and the barbarians. The clash was more of a massacre than a battle. The local hunters served as vigilantes in the forest area, which was a place for banished people. The local hunters were no match for the barbarians.

....

The barbarians were from the new empire called Bahrra. This empire was a new generation empire. The barbarians were more of beast than human. They were stronger, bigger, faster and fiercer than beasts. They were more like enhanced humans with beast-like features.

Rumor had it that they were a mixed breed of human and beasts. Some say they are the results of experiments done by the Dark Saints. The Dark Saints were an anonymous Sect that had powers and affluence rivalling that of three empires combined. It was safe to say that all empires in the ancient continent were afraid of going against an unknown force whose strength rivalled the strength of three empires.

Due to the strong and unique body Constitution of the barbarians, they were able to build a massive and successful empire by raiding their neighbouring empires. The attack on the local hunters was something that occurs on a weekly basis. The local hunters were makeshift vigilantes hand picked by the community leaders that govern the citizens that lives at the borderline of the empire.

The Misrian border wasn't the only empire affected by barbarian raiders. The Emperors of the old generation empires payed no attention to these raiders because they haven't made any attempt to attack their major cities which were within their empires' great walls.

...

The sounds made by the Nocturnal animals was really annoying, but it doesn't seem to affect the man laying down on a makeshift bed. Nuzar had been sitting by the man's side ever since he was brought in and catered for by the family. The man had no clothes covering his upper body. The deep wound that was supposed to be in his torso had disappeared. He seemed to be in a deep sleep.

" He's in a stable condition, but doesn't look like he'd be waking up soon. When he wakes up.... I'd like to ask a few questions about the barbarian raiders." Nuzar said as he stood up to leave the room.