C14 Choice

No sooner had he finished speaking than a cacophony of sounds drifted in through the window. Chu Hen listened intently to the rhythmic clatter of horse hooves approaching.

"Phew..." Chu Hen exhaled deeply, surprised that the action was beginning so soon. "It's our turn to move!"

"I understand!"

In the shroud of darkness, Lianxiang tiptoed, grasping an object before pushing the door open. She paused, giving Chu Hen a final glance filled with mixed emotions, then vanished into the night.

...

Beneath the towering wall, Han Meng's wicked grin spread across his face as he approached the village guard.

"Han Meng, what... what are you doing?"

Before the guard could finish, Han Meng's blade flashed, and two heads were sent soaring through the air, leaving the onlooking villagers frozen in shock.

"Haha, what am I doing? I'm simply opening the gates for the barbarians to enter the village!"

Han Meng wiped the fresh blood from his steel blade, his visage twisted into something demonic. He then swiftly cut down the terrified villagers around him as if they were mere vegetables.

"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!" The warning gong echoed over the walls just as Han Meng unlocked and slowly pushed open the great door.

The barbarians, who had been lying in wait, now charged forward at a breakneck pace. In an instant, the vanguard of ten riders burst into the village with a ferocious energy.

As soon as the gate was breached, the barbarians' advance was unstoppable. They unleashed days of pent-up fury upon the villagers, slaughtering them with the zeal of bloodthirsty fiends.

"My lords, I..."

Witnessing the carnage, Han Meng stepped forward with a sycophantic smile, ready to present his allegiance.

But in the next moment, his expression turned to stone.

The Barbarian Soldier, upon seeing him, only intensified his berserk charge, bearing down with the force of a thundering stampede.

"Shua!"

Harnessing the momentum of his steed, the soldier's blade gleamed with a chilling light, delivering a blow with the power of the True Essence Realm.

"Dang!" Steel met steel in a resounding clash!

Overcome with trepidation, Han Meng mustered his strength to raise his blade, managing only a partial block. His wrist went numb, his steel blade was sent flying, and he was hurled five meters back, crashing to the ground, unable to rise.

The barbarian soldier spurred his horse onward, and with a swift stroke of his sword, Han Meng's head was cleaved from his body as easily as slicing through a melon. His head tumbled to the gate, where it was trampled under the iron hooves of the barbarians who followed, vanishing in an instant.

"Kill them all, leave none alive!"

"Hahahaha!"

"The women of the south have such tender skin; to cut them open while they're still breathing makes for an exceptionally fresh and tender feast..."

The barbarian soldier was frenzied with excitement, spewing vile and arrogant words. In that moment, like a ravenous wolf descending upon the mountain, he mercilessly slaughtered the villagers around him.

Soon, blood drenched the ground and bodies were strewn about. Isynlenor had turned into a battlefield straight from hell. Amidst the turmoil, the terrified villagers woke up and fled in all directions, scattering like frightened animals.

The chaos was no different at the village center. People were running and screaming in front of the Xia family's ancestral home, their green-tiled and blue-bricked gateway a backdrop to their panic. Xia Ren and his son, in a state of alarm, grabbed a villager and demanded, "How did the barbarians get in?"

"High... high... wall... door... door..." The villager stuttered, unable to finish, but was abruptly shoved aside by Xia Shouli, who then grabbed a steel mace and charged toward the high wall.

"My son, don't go!" Xia Ren called out desperately, but his feeble voice was lost in the chaos. His towering figure quickly disappeared into the night.

"Ah! My son is gone," the old man lamented, pounding his chest in despair. He thought of the tunnel leading to the rear mountain, but before he could give chase, a lethal arrow flew from the shadows, striking him in the throat.

...

"Brother Xia!"

Chu Hen, clad in armor and with a look of shame on his face, emerged from the darkness. "I was too careless, and the barbarians took us by surprise with their sudden attack. We must capture their leader to save our village!"

"Where is he?" Xia Shouli bellowed with fury.

His father was shrewd and his son was impulsive and honest, with a strong inclination towards traditional masculinity. He had already positioned himself as the heir to the clan leadership and the protector of the village. Through Lianxiang's intelligence gathering and his own covert observations over the past few days, Chu Hen had come to understand Xia Shouli's personality flaws.

In such a sudden crisis, how could one discern the intricacies of the situation? With his blood running hot, he was compelled to act without hesitation.

"To the heart of the blaze!"

Chu Hen gestured, and Xia Shouli, gripping his spiked club, followed suit, both men advancing boldly into the night.

...

"May the gods bless us. Salima has done well!" The witch doctor, donning a skull mask, surveyed the aftermath of the battle while a group of personal guards trailed the main force through the gate.

Beyond the gate, flames reached for the sky, illuminating the bodies of hundreds that had been soaked in black oil and set ablaze.

"Salaha..." The witch doctor intoned in his arcane language, lifting a white skeletal staff.

As the phoenix feather atop his head twirled, a mysterious force emanated outward. The stench of charred flesh, as if guided, swirled around the staff, refusing to dissipate.

With a deep inhalation, the witch doctor tilted back his neck, smeared with red and green paint, and greedily breathed in the acrid fumes. With a forceful exhalation onto the staff, the skull's sunken eye sockets emitted an eerie green glow, and fangs sprouted from its jaws, giving it a demonic appearance.

"Curse it, the barbarian witch doctor is using the villagers' corpses for his dark magic!"

From a distance, Xia Shouli watched, his teeth clenched in fury. "The bone staff is crafted from the head of the recently deceased. While the head still retains warmth, the neck is sliced cleanly, then fitted onto the leg bone of another victim. This staff gathers the souls of the wrongfully dead, denying them peace even in the afterlife..."

Such a malevolent practice was as abhorrent as grave robbing, an outrage to both mortals and deities alike. Even Chu Hen felt a chill run through him.

Xia Shouli slammed his spiked club into the ground, exclaiming with venom, "To hell with them!" He then hoisted the club, bristling with spikes, and surged forward.

With a sickening thud, an unsuspecting barbarian guard took a blow to the head, his skull shattering as he toppled from his horse, lifeless.

"Protect our leader!" cried another guard, brandishing his long sword and spurring his horse towards Xia Shouli.

"Die!"

Xia Shouli, his presence as formidable as a tempest, swung his club, infused with True Essence, in a sweeping arc towards the oncoming blade.

"Clang!"

The long blade shattered, and the barbarian soldier's grip was torn apart, blood gushing wildly. Unseated by his rearing horse, he was flung to the ground. Chu Hen followed up with a swift slash, sending the barbarian guard's soul skyward.

"Kill them!" Xia Shouli's valor instantly invigorated the scattered local militia, who brandished their steel blades and charged into the fray.

Soon, a fierce melee erupted between dozens of villagers and the barbarian cavalry. Amidst the tumult, the Shaman remained composed, lightly lifting his bone staff. A surge of green light emanated, and ghostly sparks flew from the skull's eye sockets.

The erratic glow, guided by the staff, swiftly entered a villager's nostrils. In an instant, the robust body of the villager collapsed, as if struck by poison, and withered into a desiccated corpse.

With each wave of the Shaman's staff, a villager within five meters fell, feeding the skull with the essence of the newly deceased, intensifying the green glow.

"Haha..."

"Submit to the divine summons, you lowly Southerner, and become my servant!" The Shaman cackled, brandishing his staff with reckless abandon.

"Don't get too close to that sorceress!" Chu Hen, realizing the danger, called out from a concealed position.

The villagers quickly fell back, taking up strategic points to loose their arrows. Xia Shouli, having slain two barbarian guards, swiftly widened the gap between himself and the sorcerer.

The sound of galloping hooves grew louder as the barbarians, realizing their sorcerer was encircled, rushed to his defense.

"This is bad!" Xia Shouli exclaimed. Struggling to fend off a few barbarians with dozens of villagers was challenging enough, but if reinforcements arrived, even the mightiest of powers couldn't withstand a pack of wolves.

Just then, billowing black smoke rose from within the village, with orange flames quickly gaining strength and transforming into voracious fire tongues, consuming all in their path.

"The village is on fire! It's on fire!"

In moments, the entire area was bathed in the red glow of the flames, throwing everyone into a state of panic. Amidst the smoke and chaos, the barbarians struggled to find their bearings.

The sorcerer ceased his frenetic waving of the bone staff, his feather-adorned head swiveling in apparent panic.

Beneath the wall, corpses were set ablaze, the flames contained by its height. Inside Isynlenor, however, the thatched roofs of homes were interconnected, and each household harbored flammable materials. Should anyone ignite a fire with intent, the fierce barbarians might endure, but their warhorses would falter.

Without their horses, the barbarians trapped in a fiery hell would find no escape.

Without soldiers...

The thought was too much for the Sorcerer, who patted his warhorse, already contemplating retreat.

Frail of body, the Sorcerer could be felled by an ordinary person seizing the right moment. As he let down his guard, Chu Hen nocked an arrow to his bow, taking aim at the Sorcerer's head.

With a swift release, the bowstring snapped like thunder, and the iron arrowhead raced toward the Sorcerer as if chasing the wind.

"Master, watch out!" A guard, spotting the danger, struck the Sorcerer's mount with the flat of his blade. The warhorse reared in pain, its front hooves lifting off the ground.

The Sorcerer was thrown to the ground as his horse reared, his staff slipping from his grasp in the chaos. The arrow, though misdirected, found its mark in the last guard determined to protect the Sorcerer.

"Barbarian thief! Meet your end!" With the Sorcerer bereft of his magical staff, as defenseless as a warrior without a spear, Xia Shouli seized the golden opportunity, charging with a ferocious bellow.

His mace swung with the fury of a whirlwind, poised to crush the Sorcerer into oblivion.