Herald of Steel



"Yo…wha …what…!" Seeing his partner get shot out of nowhere right in front of him, and be sent reeling, the other bodyguard slightly panicked.

But only slightly.

Because an instant later his training kicked in and he turned his head from looking at his partner to locating the enemy.

And then, in a complete twist to what an untrained man would usually do, which was run backward and try to create distance between himself and the shooter, instead, this armed man charged forward!

Because in such an ambush, where the enemy was so close, running away would only be gifting the enemy one's defenseless back as target practice.

The shooter would be able to take all the time he needed to prepare his shot and then shoot again.

And due to how close they were, he would have a pretty good chance of hitting his target. 

So the right thing to do facing this situation would be to instantly draw one's sword and charge forward, beelining for the man seen wielding the unmistakable weapon.

And that was exactly what the bodyguard did, instead of panicking at the sneak attack and running, he attacked.

'Who are they! How did they get their hands on a crossbow!" And as he ran, such questions swirled inside that bodyguard's mind.

A crossbow was a heavily restricted item in Zanzan and something even a noble would have a hard time getting their hands on.

But all these questions could wait.

Since they had stuck first, it meant they were the enemy.

And enemies needed to be killed.

Slash! Splurt! Bang!

The bodyguard made the less than the 20-meter distance between him and the archer in less than four seconds, giving the poor guy barely any time to even lower his crossbow, much less start reloading it.

And then in the blink of an eye, a flash of silver hit his eyes, immediately before his unarmored body was struck by a violent diagonal slash, the steel blade parting the flesh like butter, rupturing multiple organs and even cleaving many of his bones in two.

A short burst of blood splurted from the wound, his mouth started dripping the same liquid, and the man then fell like a stone on the ground, still and lifeless.

He was dead.

"Aghhhhh!" 

At the same time, seeing his partner's success, the other bodyguard also shook his body to life, and with a mighty roar, lunged forward on the old man still on the floor, stabbbing his heart deep with the sword, and then retrieving it rusty red.

It was two for two.

"Kill!"

And then, having made the other party go into shock at reaping two lives in the blink of an eye, both men instantly took advantage of, as they started to hack and slash at anyone and everyone in sight, 

And it seemed other than that one crossbowman, the remaining still-alive people around them were all unarmed.

But this was to expected.

After all, they were in their home, and it was quite late into the night.

Why would they be armed inside their own home?

And who would have expected that two armed men would come knocking on their door without any rhyme and reason?

As a matter of fact, the only reason they were even up was because tomorrow was a weekend, and so they were drinking late. 

"Surrender! We surrender!" 

And as the two men added two more enemies to their tallies, the last remaining three wisely decided to surrender, as they kneeled to the ground and held their hands high.

"Who are yo…arghhhh," The man who just shot attempted to question the two, eager to know who these men were, but suddenly felt a stinging pain across his chest which took precedence.

He had not noticed it until this moment due to all the surge of adrenalin, but now that everything was calming down, the sensation in his chest began to return.

And it was a painful, stinging sensation.

It seemed that though there was no blood coming out from the wound, for the arrow had clogged the wound, but still the arrow had gone through, piercing flesh.

The shot was too close and too energetic for even the multiple layers of armor to be able to completely stop the arrowhead.

And judging by the amount of pain the man was in, it might have gone quite deep.

"You okay?" Seeing his partner winch in pain, the other one asked in concern.

"I'm okay…." The reply was a bit forced, as the man clenched his teeth a bit before quickly adding, "Go get the guards. I will stay here and look over them." 

"...that…" 

Hearing this his partner of course was a bit reluctant, for he was not sure whether to leave his injured partner all alone here, who would then also have to keep an eye on the prisoners.

With that thought, the man turned to glance at the three captured targets, who were kneeling on the ground, unarmed and shivering with fear.

And when their eyes met his, they only trembled with terror.

They were not a threat.

So the man decided to do as his injured partner suggested and get the cops.

Besides, someone also needed his partner to get medical attention.

And that could only be him.

So leaving his wounded partner in charge of the watch, the healthy man hurriedly exited the inn to locate the nearest patrol. 

Alexander would first get the report of this unforeseen chain of events early morning the next day as Hemicus would wake him up to inform him that one of his men was in the clinic, stuck by a crossbow bolt.

The information would first shake Alexander in shock, and then make him furious, for the crossbow was an extremely restricted item.

Outside of war and practice ranges, it should have been impossible for anyone to have personal access to it.

So how could one of his men he shot by so?

Thus Alexander immediately ordered a full investigation of the entire events, starting from the inn where it all started, to interrogating the two men captured to try and know who they were and how they got their hands on the crossbow, to lastly why they shot his men.

And Alexander put himself personally in charge of figuring everything out

And after a full week of intensive work, the entire picture revealed itself to him.

Firstly, regarding the inn, well it seemed that it was actually a hideout.

A hideout for spies, Muazz's or more accurately Amenheraft's spies.

The proprietor of the establishment was that old man, one of whose daughters had some connection to Muazz, something like a working maid, according to what could be gleaned from the captured three's interrogation, though it was not exactly clear. 

As for its inhabitants.

Well officially, the men that lived there, lived there as guests,

They were a mixture of locals and outsiders, the former recruited because they knew the lands and the latter being experienced men who came here after being transferred from other parts of the country, their goal to use their expertise to form a functional spy ring in the city.

And after asking them some more, they revealed in excruciating detail what they intended to do and how they intended to do so. 

For instance, their first stage was to just gather the local news, something anyone living in the city could know.

Then they planned to start controlling a few small gangs and street rats.

Lastly, they wanted to insert their ears in merchants, one or two city guards, and if possible even some military officers.

This was viewed as a multi-year project and they were just about to start.

Getting to know this Alexander was frankly impressed by the amount of resources Amenheraft had at his disposal.

Building this kind of network was neither cheap nor easy.

For instance, Alexander had the money, but he lacked both the know-how and the trusted people to set similar up.

And even the intelligence network Camius had set up only belonged to the second stage.

As for Alexander's feeling at having discovered such a spy ring, well he was certainly happy, but not over the moon.

He did expect the enemy to make such a move, though he never expected to catch it, or at least catch them so soon.

But now that he had, well the question then rose, what to do with them.

Two of the three were very cooperative during their questions, singing like a canary at every question asked.

For instance, that shabbily dressed man, who fortunately had managed to survive retold in great detail what exactly happened that night.

After he had entered the inn, he found his buddies in the lobby drinking and joined them without a second thought.

"Let me have one! My heart is about to burst," He had gruffly said, as he grabbed one of his friend's cups.

And when they asked why, he told them of his experience.

But as luck would have it, it was right as he finished that a heavy knock landed on the door, urging them to open up.

And being spooked by the man's story, this demand made a few of the men panic as they envisioned the worst-case scenario.

Afterward, when one of the bodyguards had kicked the door open, well to these men, it seemed apparent that the noble's guards were going to arrest them and their operations would be immediately revealed

So one of them panicked and ordered they be shot.

And the rest was history.