CHAPTER FIVE

NUMBERS

Good name travels far and that was the case of Elliot because the stories about his bravery had travelled from mouth to mouth until his name had been known by the people all over the region, they called him different names and some even called him a demon but Elliot would laugh at these side comments because they did him no harm, being on a higher power level than everyone in his kingdom would give anybody pride but Elliot was humble and upright in all his ways, he greeted everyone with a smile and it was accustomed for him to always be the first to extend his hand of courtesy.

During his childhood; Elliot was part of a training expedition for grooming high ranked warriors and soldiers, his father signed him up for the training under the disguise of a simple commoner and that was how Elliot’s strength was tested to the extreme at such a very young age, he went through a series of training that built up his strength and due to his sword fighting skills he was able to survive through where most of his colleagues had failed and even died in the process, all of this added to his power level and it made him the strongest there was in all the land but that was not the reason why his name was so popular.

There was chaos in a small village not so far from the kingdom of Mytigon, the village was under the rule of Ivan Alexander and they paid their tribute to the king so they called unto them for help, Ivan sent his best soldiers to address the issue but none of them returned except one soldier that returned with the head of their squad captain, the soldier was bruised and battered but the surprising thing about the wounds was that there were bitemarks instead of sword cuts, the eyes of the soldier was bloodied and he was talking as if there was something else controlling him.

“Speak! Fallen one, what happened to the rest of your squad?” Ivan shouted at the mad soldier that was before him, the soldier looked from the king to the prince with eyes that looked as if they had seen the gates of hell.

“It all happened so fast, we got to the village and the first thing that we noticed was the stench of dead bodies in the air, the village was reeking of death and only a few of the people were normal, the rest of them have been infected by a sort of madness that made them to eat themselves, they snarled and behaved like savages, they no longer have control of their senses… it was a bloody massacre!! They jumped on us and they started to chew on our men… we fought back but they had supernatural strength and they overpowered us with their… NUMBERS”.

The soldier went silent and he started to mutter to himself as if he had forgotten about Elliot and Ivan, the king looked at him with a studious eye of understanding, he was familiar with this kind of incident but his son Elliot was clueless.

“What kind of sorcery might have caused that?” Elliot asked his father and the king snapped out of his luminous thoughts.

“I have seen this before, it is called the curse of the Holocaust… it is casted by a grim reaper with a high power level, the spell makes it’s victims to start eating themselves and anything that is made of flesh around them, the act of cannibalism gives the grim reaper more power” Ivan said with a voice that carried understanding, Elliot listened attentively.

“This is bad, wouldn’t the corrupted people spread out and kill other villages as well?”.

“They will do that when only the chosen twelve are remaining, the corrupted will continue eating the weaker ones and their power level will increase by every victim they take down, the twelve left will then spread out into the 4 cardinal points and start harvesting more souls for the reaper, right now I am sure that almost everybody in that village is a corrupted…” the soldier screamed like a person in distraught and he made a sudden dash at the king but in the twinkle of an eye Elliot made a dive at him and pinned the hysteric soldier to the ground.

“What has gotten into him, father?” Elliot asked as he grabbed the wrist of the soldier firmly without letting go.

“Look at his body, see the bite marks becoming blue… that means he is slowly turning corrupted” the soldier began to cry as soon as he heard the words of Ivan, he aced like a normal person again.

“Please kill me, I don’t want to be corrupted… please my king” the soldier pleaded.

“I will not soil my sword with the blood of a corrupted, my son shall complete your wish… O brave one, you have fought for our great kingdom and your name shall not be forgotten” Elliot let go of his wrists and he took a step back from the kneeling soldier and he drew the sword of the soldier from the sheath.

“I, Elliot Alexander the prince of Mytigon shall not soil my sword with the blood of a corrupted but I shall fulfil your wish with your sword and with this sword I shall use to avenge the blood of the fallen soldiers that fought by your side, rest well O brave one… your name shall not be forgotten” with a quick thrust of the sword he stabbed through the middle of chest of the soldier, the soldier gasped and sputtered black blood from his mouth.

“Thank you… your majesty… you have freed me from my suffering… I must warn you…. We are many in NUMBERS” Elliot removed the sword and the soldier dropped dead, the last words had sent chills into his spine but he was not going to go back on his promise.

“I shall take on this quest and avenge all the soldiers that have fallen victim to the grim reaper’s curse and I shall do it with this sword in my hand” he raised the black sword to the sky as a seal of his promise, Ivan nodded his head at his son and gave him the go ahead to show his strength but he gave him a warning.

“Be brave my son but also beware of their numbers, they might be a lot of them who look normal but they are already corrupted, I need you to cleanse the town and I mean every moving thing should be slain… look for the grim reaper because he must be nearby to be overseeing everything, return with his head… I want a new decoration for my training arena” Ivan knew of his son capabilities but he still sent some of his strongest soldiers to follow him but they cloaked themselves so that Elliot wouldn’t know of their presence.