Chương 36: Scum of the Tybesti Mines

Before we made our attack, the weather was lukewarm and dry, with a constant wind blowing across the rocky slopes, carrying fine grains of sand that stung the skin. Clay barracks stood nearby, their walls illuminated by flickering torches that cast long, dancing shadows. Five cave entrances dotted the mountainside, each guarded by Taharjian soldiers standing watch with bored vigilance. Children, dirty and exhausted, pushed mine carts along narrow trails, hauling heavy loads deeper into the mountain.

We struck the outer sector guards first the ones stationed away from the main entrances. The surprise was totally on our side. They didn't react fast enough to mount a proper counter, never expecting troublemakers like us in the middle of their operation. Our blades flashed in the torchlight. Four guards fell in the opening seconds, their bodies hitting the ground with dull thuds. The noise of clashing steel and dying screams echoed through the night.

The other guards at the main entrances immediately shouted for reinforcements from the nearby barracks. Alarms rang out as more soldiers poured toward us. That was exactly what we had planned. While Galer and Jabare held the entrance, fighting back the rushing reinforcements with fierce determination, I slipped into the nearest cave. My goal was clear: get the children out. The two of them would buy me time by keeping the main force occupied at the mouth of the mine.

It was a quick, desperate plan born in the heat of the moment, but it was all we had. Inside the cave, the air was thick with dust and the sounds of panicked workers. I raised my glowing longsword, Heart Flame burning brightly along the blade, and charged deeper into the darkness. This is now from Galer and Jabare's perspective. Both did not and could not go into Vestuto. One was too recognizable as a soldier of Chaddore.

The other had his Vestuto printed in the newspaper, and his family might already be on the hunt for him. He did not want to give too much information about his Vestuto usage or whereabouts, so he would not use it unless he absolutely had to. But he could not currently, as the danger level was not to high. That is why both, in their restrictive measure, fought against the guards without using their Vestuto. The guards were not the weakest of their kind.

They were equal to the top 100 to 50 from the Run to Glory, with Animo levels ranging from 1, 800 to 2, 755. These were seasoned fighters, well-trained and battle-hardened, each one capable of holding their own in a prolonged fight. They moved with practiced coordination, wielding spears and curved blades, their formations tight and disciplined as they tried to overwhelm the two intruders.

Galer fought with his fists and light-based kicks, landing real good combos while dodging fast and using his sharp awareness to avoid major hits. Jabare, not yet a master with the knives he borrowed from Galer, still performed well enough, only sustaining some cuts and bruises as he slashed and parried with aggressive precision. Both had to fight off 50 soldiers and more reinforcements pouring in from the barracks until my comeback.

The clash was relentless steel ringing against steel, grunts and shouts echoing through the night, blood staining the rocky ground under the torchlight. Galer and Jabare stood back-to-back at times, their movements complementing each other even without their full power, buying precious time in the chaos. At the same time, from my perspective, I found many workers on the cart line filling their quota deep in the night.

Faces weak, bruises everywhere, scars on their light clothes that looked like beggars working in a cave, abused and thoroughly broken. I could resonate with them from my own experiences as a slave in Mat. I spoke nothing to them because I understood their pain all too well the hollow eyes, the silent endurance, the way they moved like their spirits had already been crushed. If I wanted to stop this, I had to get deeper and find the one who had the authority to abuse them.

After eleven kilometers, I found a small house with a lamp illuminating it. It was active, with sounds coming out... moaning and desperate pleas.

"Stop, please… stop… master… stop..." in screams alike. Before the sounds got louder for me as I got closer onto the house.

In a slow motion of moving forward, I witnessed a boy with deep skin colour, a warm deeper, sun loved bronze tone with rich earthy undertones, the kind that speaks of long days under the harsh desert sun glaring eyes of anger in him, mouth closed with a rolled up parchment paper, chained on a pole that connected the cave structure, recently whipped, blood all around his back with his clothes being ripped completely naked.

I saw the darkness he had experienced on the first view of him, even so I could not yet free him as he would go into that cabin house where my target was and ruin my ambush. So I got once close enough, the sounds now loud ringing my ears of moaning and groaning "ahh" sounds, one from a young female, the other from a much older male. With that I kicked the door. I saw the darkness of Scum Behavior. I, lucky in my enslavement days, have not witnessed such Life or Powerlessness...

a much older man face in on the woman who was near my own age on a table, tears in her eyes. Him looking at me with saliva out of his mouth, not understanding that I was an enemy, says the vile shit to me in his delirious state, not even realizing my skin color and clothing did not match his at all.

"Ahh… whoever you are, I told any of my men that I always taste first. Ahh… you can have her after I am done. I just started on her. Now leave me alone. I want to enjoy the freshly licked area." He licked his lips slowly, saliva dripping down his chin as he added with a sick, hazy grin, "You truly must be new… but i dont like observers on my fun time... you should know the rule. Now scram off… ahhh." So I with my weapon used the pickaxe edge to ram it into his eyesocket.

Super popping veins bulged across my arm and forehead from the sheer, burning force as I forced it deeper, twisting the blade with raw, uncontrollable rage. With that motion, I pulled backwards with everything I had, ripping through flesh, muscle, and bone in a sickening wet tear. The man screamed in pure agony, his body convulsing violently as hot blood sprayed across the floor and my face.

His clothes still down, he rolled and thrashed around the floor like a dying animal, howling and clawing at the ruined socket, his voice breaking into guttural, desperate cries that landed on deaf ears. I pulled the female victim from the table which was placed on the right side from the door and threw her out of danger then switched with my eyes in anger onto that scum, attacking him with my sword pickaxe Edge on his side rib-cage, piking on it like an ore, ripping his meat on each strike.

Yet that man, who still got hit after a while stood up, started to regenerate before me on his eyes and ribcage. Flesh knitted together with sickening wet sounds, the wound closing as if time itself was reversing. I then made the connection that this man was a Vestuto user. He could heal from severe damages. I had to make his spirit level lower to kill him and end his authority on this cave tunnel line. That man, named Augabesa from Taharj, 1.

78 meters in height with a big muscular-fat build, started to scrape blood from his now-healing eye with a finger. He began talking to me with a sick grin:"ohhh you done it now… ohh you're also a young one… are you a virgin by chance? I love em fresh….. I can't wait to have a tanned white boy under my belt of expertise… hahah… but that does not change before pleasure comes the cane BOY! For what you have done to ME!" And with one punch, which I blocked with the flat of my sword-axe, his force was still too much.

The impact vibrated through my arms and into my bones like a thunderclap, sending me flying backward. I crashed through the building's wall in a shower of splintered wood and clay, tumbling out onto the open ground outside. Dust and debris rained down around me as I rolled to a stop on the rocky terrain. The recently freed female had already released the whipped boy from his capture and they were no longer here, which was good for me, as now we had more space to combat on.

So he then walked out of the open space created by his punch, talking some more, his voice dripping with sick satisfaction.

"Boy, I will make you experience such a strong joy of pain you wished to become a part of my cattle on a whisper of mine, ready to serve," he said, looking at me with a wide, predatory smile, saliva still dripping from his chin. I answered, my voice low but burning with cold fury, the small flame inside my chest roaring hotter than ever.

"You know the way you talk so much, I have yet to see your right to speak so highly of yourself. But you really show me you are not experienced much in the Orbis Terrarum, because you are not even close to him in Animo. You do not scare me at all!" I tightened my grip on the sword-axe, my veins glowing with red-yellow fire as the Heart Flame surged through me.

"I will now let loose and show you the Power you wished you had. Better you go serious too or you will regret it." With my finishing sentence, my Heart Flame pumped through my whole body, lighting a dim glow along my veins. I ran, vanishing from my spot and appearing right in front of his face before he could fully react. I was faster. I struck with my sword onto his regenerated rib-cage again, this time pulling it downwards, ripping a deep tear across his skin, and ending it with a powerful shoulder bash.

He staggered 10 centimeters backwards from the push. The pain on his face told me he was finally taking my warning seriously. He then activated his Vestuto, snarling, "That hurt. You gave me a courteous warning there, boy, so let me tell you in kind some information about the Shadowed Fist of Taharj, the 3rd of the Brothers. That's me." His body was surrounded in a shadow armor... a dark, swirling cloak of living shadows that moved like smoke, with jagged edges that seemed to swallow light itself.

Sharp, claw-like protrusions formed on the shoulders and gauntlets, giving him a menacing, almost demonic silhouette that blended perfectly with the dim cave light. Shadow arms extended from his sides, constantly moving as if alive.

"I give you also a warning. This is the Shadow Flame of my Vestuto. Once you're hit, you will feel twice the pain," he said with a perverted smile, full of himself now more than ever. He charged toward me. I countered, but he caught the strike, headbutting me hard. The impact rattled my skull, but I didn't let go. I answered in kind, slamming my forehead back into his face with all the force I could muster.

Since he was bigger and now holding my sword, I kicked him in the shin with a frontal kick powered by my Heart Flame. He saw it coming but couldn't fully block it, releasing a grunt of pain as the flames seared through his shadow armor. We traded blows constantly like this. His shadow arms whipped out like living tendrils, trying to wrap around my limbs and double the pain with every touch.

I burned them away with bursts of Heart Flame, but each hit still left a lingering shadow that made my muscles ache twice as much. I slashed low with the pickaxe edge of my sword, ripping into his thigh, only for him to laugh and counter with a heavy shadow-infused punch that sent me skidding across the cave floor. Blood filled my mouth, but I rolled back to my feet and charged again, my veins glowing brighter as the flame inside me roared louder.

After several good exchanges, both of us finally took steps back, breathing heavily, the cave floor cracked and scorched around us. His perverted smile never faded, even as blood trickled from the gashes I had opened. I could feel my Heart Flame pushing harder than ever, trying to burn away the shadow poison spreading through my body. But Augabesa was regenerating faster than I could damage him. I knew I had to end this quickly... lower his Animo before the doubled pain and his healing wore me down completely.

He laughed again, shadow energy swirling thicker around him.

"You're tough, boy. But you're still just meat for the taking... Ahh, I can't wait to taste you," he said in an exhilarating state. I didn't fully understand why he thought like that, until I looked down at my body. The places where he had hit me during the first bout now had black spots, and they made me feel itchy for some reason. Round 2 started the same way. I got him, he got me. But every time I got hit on the spots he deliberately left behind in the first bout, the pain doubled exactly as he had warned.

I understood now how his Vestuto worked. I couldn't fight with pure guts for glory like I usually did, because he could heal and I couldn't yet... as efficient. He would ultimately win if the fight dragged on like this. I couldn't allow myself to be defeated here. This was now the place to truly test how far I had come. And maybe… just maybe… it was time to push closer to my own Vestuto. Everyone else i battle recently had true access to it, but me, if I could, this would be my victory. So we continued.

He got more hits in on the black spots, doing me more damage than before, laughing and making vulgar hip movements to show what he planned to do once he caught me. But under this duress of stress, I thought and thought, and finally came to the only conclusion. I had learned to fully Heart Flame my body, but not all at once. The only part that remained to be fired upon was my brain. I had tried it plenty of times in the past, always going in missteps, never fully working out.

That's why I trained my body, not the brain, in coordination with my Heart Flame. But that was exactly why I had yet to reach my Vestuto. As I always went unconscious or fell into the water, I was told back in the Gubu Mountains by the Leader Ashurbasa, as he warned me not to use it yet, as I needed a stronger body for that to be used. He shuddered seeing it once for a short second but did not tell me more about it... like he was scared of it. Desperation was growing on me, as Augabesa...

got closer and closer to victory. I had nothing left but to let it being burned. With burning desire and raw desperation surging through me, I forced my Heart Flame upward. My veins from the heart for the first time since my training phase surged all the way to my brain. My neck veins lit up in a dim, flickering glow, pulsing like dying embers fighting to stay alive. Then my upper head, where my brain was, lit up like a burning candle, a bright, searing flame visible beneath the skin.

My head burst in excruciating pain. My eyes blurred. The enemy laughed as I shivered on my legs, now near collapsing to the ground, looking like I was on the verge of defeat. My weapon fell from my hand as I screamed in agony. The screaming stopped. Erumes disappeared from his sight.

Only an armor from condensed soul essence remained a deep, rich charcoal grey, a dark, velvety grey color that felt heavy and shadowy, almost black in dim light, but revealed a cool, muted silver sheen when struck by light or when fire flowed through it. In the back, narrow vents between the plates glowed with inner fire, releasing steady streams of heated smoke that rose like spectral breath from a living forge, curling upward in the cool cave air as if the armor itself was alive and breathing pure heated smoke.

That was the last thing Augabesa saw when he opened his eyes. Because Erumes, in his armor and in a state of autopilot, rushed straight into the enemy's back with such overwhelming speed that the scum of a man didn't even have time to react. There was no scream, no final curse, no moment of defiance... only a sudden, brutal realization in his widening eyes that he had already lost his life to me. His rib-cage ended up on Erumes' head as organs spilled everywhere in a wet, horrifying cascade.

The body twitched once, twice, then went completely limp, the life snuffed out in an instant by a force far beyond what he had anticipated. The kill was so quick, so absolute, so merciless that Augabesa never truly saw his own death coming... only the blur of grey armor and the cold finality of it all. As Augabesa fell to the ground dead, my autopilot state surged onto his head and crushed it into smithereens with overwhelming force.

The skull exploded under the pressure, bone fragments scattering across the cave floor like shattered pottery. When the dust and blood mist settled, nothing remained inside no skeleton, no meat, no brain. Only a hollow outline of his body survived, a grotesque, empty silhouette pressed into the dirt as if the man had simply been erased from existence, leaving behind nothing but the shadow of what he once was. After that, Erumes stood still, heat from his armor rising in waves. The autopilot state disappeared.

I, now on the ground, stood up, not knowing how much time had passed. I saw the mushed-up head and the body outline in confusion. I went back toward the children, walking like a man who had lost the ability to walk correctly, using the wall to keep me steady. Finding the children 27 in one group who all worked on this line, I, in a vegetable-like state, gibberish coming out of my mouth like I could not fully speak my words out, "oolll maaa au (follow me out of here)."

They all scared seeing blood on my whole body but the angry young boy from before who saw our battle with the freed woman, stated he must have killed that Monster Augabesa.

"YUUUHHUUUU THE MONSTER IS DEAD!" Surrounding me in a wave of gratitude even in their weak undernourished state, helping me onto a cart. In the meantime, while I fought Augabesa and freed the children from this one line, Galer and Jabare killed 60 strong soldiers in fierce combat with their respective restrictions. But the incoming reinforcements were too many and therefore slowly walked inside the cave.

Now in this predicament, destroying the entry for the enemy to take some time to get into the cave, gaining some time for us, finding a bunch of children with me on a cart, looking like a person who took a blood bath and speaks gibberish to them. In confusion of the situation, they asked the kids "Are there other exits?"

and the kids answered with "yes, these are connected after all with all cave lines, but it's a long walk and there are other barracks with guards stationed too, so they will have to fight them regardless." Giving their current position no leeway, they did not have a lot of time left. Knowing I was useless now, Galer said destroying the cave was maybe not so dumb rather than going to the other exit, giving them time to regroup and surround us. We would lose.

I mean their barrack leader we both fought was already annoying and strong. So I will Vestuto go back everyone. And Galer did. He went to his Prism Sovereign Vestuto. To the children seeing Vestuto for the first time, it was like watching a miracle of light take physical shape. Galer's body became encased in majestic, translucent crystalline armor that refracted light into dazzling rainbow prisms. Six glowing wings of pure condensed light energy unfolded from his back, shimmering with every color of the spectrum.

The armor itself was elegant yet deadly, with sharp geometric patterns that pulsed with inner radiance. The entire form radiated overwhelming power and beauty, leaving the children wide-eyed in silent awe and fear at the same time. He used his move which he used against Jabare, pushing the fallen rock in such strong motion of pressure that the soldiers on the other side fell all with them down of the plateau from the mine. And the children with Jabare pushed me out.

But even in my current predicament of a state I took one of the brightly shining rocks and put in my satchel, speaking "hiis wiii helul to auus (this will be helpful to find out what this is. I have never seen such a stone before)". Once on the outside, Galer took me by his hands, running the path downwards with luckily no resistance up ahead the road.

As we crossed the middle Section, Soldiers/Guards yelling they're going down after them, Jabare who took his clothes on again, vestutoed using his Sand Veil to keep them somewhat guessing on hitting us. The guard Overseer from this Mountain, was now here. A Man with very powerful Animo of 3700. Galer who told Jabare who in kind then created the Sand Wall to keep them guessing and us currently safe.

The leader Ugabsa, a man of Charisma for his Troops and known for torture, carrying a huge knobkerrie (a heavy, brutal club-like weapon with a thick wooden shaft reinforced with iron bands and a large, spiked metal head shaped like a brutal mace, designed for crushing bones and shattering armor in one full swing) which the man threw like a spear, destroying a wall in one swoop in ease which Galer struggled to do only achieving it once going full power. And that man was not even in Vestuto and destroyed that.

We need to run. To the worse of our fate, he jumped down, destroying another wall. The children now in Galer's care, made the choice to save the kids first because they are far weaker than me and threw me with all his might on a Rock on the cliffside hoping I wont be found by them by conventinal means giving him enough times to bring the Kids to the Village they spoke of back in the Cave where they can hide at.

So Jabare went to lure the Oversser from his Position with his Sand Veil going left while we Galer went on the right edge. Meaning we are all now separated. Galer who lead slowly the children which had fo fight against incoming of small number of Soldiers following him also the recently named Boy Azarm showed Galer the path to take to shake the soldiers of the false direction.

He told him of a small village which he knew was not far from here, me who was now on a rock in agonizing pain as Galer threw me with all he got put me on a high location with strong winds gushing my Body as the only good thing, Me now on a Game of Please do not see me. Jabare on a forced hide and seek game. With Galer on a "children get safely home" game. All 3 different type games but all with the same level of danger one mistake leading to death.