Blades of Death

Chapter 8

"Cloris, stop this." Khizo shouted.

"Why should I? You got my family killed. I won't let you live either." Cloris tightened his grip around Khizo's neck.

Khizo kicked away Cloris at last.

"Think about it. There are hundreds of people right now who want to kill us. Let's not increase it."

Cloris didn't reply to Khizo but continued to give him a cold stare.

"Now listen to me, Cloris. We'll forget all about that incident for now and focus on killing Vostok. We'll settle the matter later."

Cloris gave him a light nod before getting up. He wasn't able to properly walk and had to drag his feet to move ahead.

"We need to find the room where Vostok resides." Khizo said once they were out of the room.

"I know the room." Cloris replied.

"You do? Lead me there then."

The corridors of the palace had red carpets to give them a royal look. A few paintings were scattered around the walls of the Palace while a few expensive vases placed at certain intervals added to the beauty.

Khizo followed Cloris, who was slowly dragging his feet to walk ahead, through the corridors.

"Do you want my help?" Khizo offered.

"No, I'm fine. I can walk on my own." Cloris snapped.

Khizo silently walked behind Cloris as he ascended up a blue stair to the upper floor. However, when they were in the middle of the stairs, they heard a voice from behind.

"They're here. Kill them."

Ten soldiers attacked at them from behind. Khizo unsheathed his sword while Cloris took out his bow and started shooting arrows from his quiver at the enemies.

Khizo charged at the soldiers, greeting the first one by stabbing him on his gut, making him fall down to the ground, badly injured. It caused others to take back a step. Cloris took advantage of this, nocking arrows at the soldiers.

Khizo charged at the soldiers again, attacking the soldier on the extreme left while holding off the other soldiers with his shield. The soldier managed to deflect the initial blows by Khizo, but the fight was lost for him when Khizo managed to find an opening and deliver a lethal strike to him.

Knocking down another soldier with his arrows resulted in two soldiers rushing at Cloris. He managed to take a quick shot at one of the soldiers which stunned the soldier. He then took out his dagger and stabbed the soldier on his shoulder twice.

With one down, Cloris's attention turned to the other soldier. Unfortunately, close combat was his weakness, which made the fight go on for long with Cloris continuously deflecting the blows of the soldier.

The five remaining soldiers surrounded an exhausted Khizo. The soldiers had their swords raised, which made it difficult for Khizo to advance at them. For a moment, both Khizo and the soldiers continued to stare at each other. Then, the soldiers charged together.

Their perfectly coordinated attack would have left no chance of Khizo's survival if he hadn't reacted timely and pushed away the two soldiers on his right with 

his shield while blocking the other three swords with his own sword.

The three soldiers applied more force on Khizo's sword, which made him start losing grip of his sword. When the sword was just about to fly away from Khizo's hands, he kicked one of the soldiers on his leg making him fall down.

With the pressure on his sword relieved, he slammed his shield onto the face of another soldier which left only one soldier remaining. He gave a heavy kick to the remaining one soldier and then stabbed him once. Cloris too had managed to tackle the other soldier by that time. 

When Khizo and Cloris looked around, they found some soldiers trying to get up while others grievously wounded.

"Don't kill them. They did nothing wrong. However, make sure that they don't get up." Khizo said.

After making sure that none of the soldiers would be a problem for them, they ascended up the stairs to the second highest floor. They encountered no resistance on that floor. However, when they were heading towards the King's room on the top floor, five of the most elite King's guards were waiting for them, carrying huge swords and lightly armored as well.

"Shoot arrows at them. I'll prevent them from coming towards you." Khizo stated.

He advanced forward with his shield and sword in hand. The guards charged at him, but Khizo held them off by placing his shield in front of them. One of the guards tried to make his way past Khizo, but he got a taste of Khizo's sword in return.

The guards tried to push their way past Khizo by applying as much force as they could on Khizo, who had made them vulnerable to Cloris's arrow. Khizo had exhausted every muscle in his hand while he waited for Cloris to handle the guards, but still continued to hold his position.

With his hands crippled, he finally failed to repel off the guards anymore and collapsed to ground, providing the remaining two guards an open passage to Cloris.

One of the two guards was already injured, and another quick shot incapacitated him. However, the other guard got close enough to Cloris so that he wasn't able to shoot anymore at him.

Khizo watched in despair as Cloris struggled to defend himself from the strikes of the guard. He knew Cloris couldn't save himself for much long.

He slowly dragged himself forward, remembering all those times when Cloris had been there for him. Though his foster family had always been kind to him and tried to heal the wounds of his past, Cloris had been most kind of all. He had always been there for Khizo, and now it was his turn.

Mustering up all his remaining strength, he finally stood up, sword in his hand and stabbed the guard from behind. He then let out a heavy sigh and crumbled to the ground in exhaustion.

Cloris gave him a long stare.

"Thank you for saving me." Cloris said in an uneasy manner.

"You don't have to." Khizo replied.

Cloris wanted to say something, but he stopped. Khizo slowly recovered himself and got back up.

"Shall we kill them?" Cloris asked as he looked at the injured guards.

"I'm not killing them. They did nothing. Their king is the devil, not them." Khizo replied.

"They have seen our faces."

"I'm already wanted but you aren't. You get to decide if we shall spare them or not."

"Let's just kill their master."

Khizo and Cloris kicked open the bronze door to the King's room which had scenes of battle carved on it.

Upon opening the door, they found themselves inside an elegant room. The walls were incarnated with skins of different animals that had been hunted and killed by Vostok himself. Other than that, the room was decorated by expensive vases. However, the king was nowhere to be seen.

"There's no—"

"Shh!" Khizo said.

Khizo thought he heard someone's breath. After listening closely, his doubt was confirmed. However, before he could react, a figure came out from the curtains, carrying a dagger with him and assaulted Khizo. It was none other than King Vostok himself.

The dagger was just about pierce inside Khizo's heart when Cloris leapt at Vostok. Both the bodies tumbled to the ground with Cloris on top of Vostok. The king tried to stab Cloris with the 

dagger, but Cloris grabbed the King's hand.

Cloris applied as much force as he can to stop the hand from stabbing him, but the king was stronger than Cloris and the dagger slowly edged closer to Cloris's gut. Vostro would have managed to kill him if Khizo won't have interrupted their fight, stabbing Vostok once on his leg. It was enough to hurt him but didn't kill him.

"Why?" Vostok choked, "Why are you so desperate to kill me?"

"You murder my family and wonder why we want to kill you?" Cloris almost ended Vostok's life by his dagger. When Khizo stopped him, his dagger had almost reached Vostok's throat.

"You know Larry Kane?" Khizo asked.

"You mean that Kodus?" Vostok inquired.

"Yes. He was my father who you killed."

"I wasn't accountable for your father's dead. It was Davis, the ruler of Petuk. He personally killed your father. Spare me." The king begged.

"Alright, I spare you; but Cloris won't." He turned to Cloris."Take all your revenge."

Cloris nodded and afterwards walked towards Vostok. He took a deep breath and afterwards transferred all his rage to his blade, killing Vostok with one final blow on his throat.

"It's done. I feel much lighter now." Cloris dropped his dagger to the floor and stared at the dead body of Vostok in disgust. His face looked mature. So mature that it was hard for Khizo to believe how much he had changed in just some days.

"You found solace at last. I still need to find Davis. I just do—"

Khizo was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps. He turned back and found at least fifty soldiers running down the corridor and heading towards their room.