I was around the age of 10, I was living in a small village with my father, my mom and my 2 older brothers. We were a family of peasants working the land. I remember my dad managed to find a job for me at the town's blacksmith workshop. It was the first time I was ever given any responsibility so I was kinda stressed. The blacksmith was a big mountain of a man, Ramos was his name, a literal human Ox. Once on a break I fantasized about being a soldier, a hero of the nation ready to kill my enemies. So I started using the swords from the workshop to practice but once the blacksmith caught me, I thought i was done for but he corrected my mistakes. He taught me how to fight because he himself was an old soldier. With how he was built I asked him why he wasn't in the army anymore. Such a monster would be like a god amongst men on the battlefield. He seemed awfully sad as he asked me to sit down, he decided to tell me the story of his last mission in the army.
He fought in the second war against the kingdom of Tsungstat. I always found it ridiculous how we said first, second or third war since the conflict has never really stopped. It's just one long war that had multiple escalations. Anyway, he was the commander of the hundred and fouth infantry unit of the king's army. He said he was a different man back then, and one of the younger commanders. It wasn't his first time leading but it was the first time he had such a massive group of men, the company was made of seventy-five soldiers. The mission had even more pressure than usual because a special soldier had just joined his company, a young man named Salim, Ramos's son. The hundred and fouth was specialised in infiltrating behind enemy lines and their purpose was to either stop any reinforcement coming to the main battlefield or to make the main forces chase after them in the hope that the rest of the king's army overwhelmed a now weakened enemy line. To do so they had to light fires behind the enemy line that would both serve as decoy and a signal that they had succeeded in infiltrating. This tactic was quite known but knowing about it didn't mean it wouldn't succeed. These missions could extend over a long period of time and it was hard to have enough resources for such a large group. Looting was common even though Ramos was totally against it in his company. So far he managed to limit civilian casualties to a minimum. He told me they approached a medium sized village at night, the expert archers took out the guards at the entrance of the village. In less than thirty minutes they had made quick work of any hostile forces inside the village and occupied it. They had hit the jackpot, it was quite a wealthy place and it had enough place to set camp.
As Ramos was roaming the camp to make sure everyone was at their stations, he noticed some of the archers were missing near the northern gate. Back then he thought that they probably were drinking or relieving their stress with some of the women's, he looked in the nearby houses. When he approached one of them, he heard the sound of broken furniture accompanied with screams of women. He bursted through the door only to discover a scene only possible in a nightmare. Two of his men were fighting but one of them had his intestines out and was literally strangling the other with it. The one being strangled was on his knees and was desperately trying to stab the other one that was standing behind him. In the room there were two other men lying dead on the floor but they seemed to have sustained horrible injuries. There were also three women in the room. One was dead on the floor, she had been stabbed multiple times. One was screaming in horror of the situation and the last one was looking at the scene in complete silence. Ramos tackled down the man that was still on his feet.
" Have you lost your damn mind?! Get your act together soldiers!! " screamed Ramos.
The second man was coughing heavily, trying to breathe as much air as possible. The man with the intestines out seemed in a frenzy. He was scratching Ramos's face as if he was trying to pull the skin out. He was making beast-like growls of rage. This man had lost his mind, his pupils were dilated, he didn't seem fazed by his injury. All he cared about was to kill his commander. Suddenly the second man tried stabbing Ramos in the back. He managed to block his hand , he noticed the same look of madness in the second man. Whatever happened to the first one was also affecting the second one. He was now holding the first one at bay with a hand on his throat and blocking the dagger of the second man. Ramos got up and pushed the second man towards a shelf which broke under the force of the shock, he then grabbed with both hands the face of the other man.
" I'm sorry brother! "
Ramos broke the man's neck, he then turned around to face the other one. He was already charging towards him with the dagger up. Ramos blocked the blow by once again grabbing the man's wrist. By twisting it he made the man drop the dagger and caught it in his other hand. He then stabbed the man as hard as he could in the head. The dagger penetrated the man's skull with enough power to pierce his head with the whole blade till the handle was the only visible part. The man then fell limp on the ground. Out of breath, Ramos was still wondering what had happened to his men. Ready to question the women he turned toward them but before he could the most silent one ran towards him to hug him. She was shivering and hugging him as hard as she could. He let her cry to her heart's content, the second woman was still sitting on the ground but she couldn't manage to speak. He then calmly grabbed the woman's shoulders and pushed her away from him, she was a young woman that didn't look like the others. With her slanted eyes and her flat nose bridge she looked like the women from the east. He noticed she had chain marks on her wrists and ankles. Had she been enslaved? He wanted to ask her some questions.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
" What happened here? "
" I don't know, they were gonna rape us and they suddently started killing each other and acting like beasts! Thank god you saved us! ". The woman hugged him once again, she backed away a little bit and was drawing small circles on his chestplate. She looked at him from below and slid her hand towards his crotch.
" You deserve a reward for being such a kind man. "
" I am not here for this! " He said while pushing her away.
He walked towards the second woman, she was also from the east, she was slowly backing away from him, scared for her life. He kneeled down to be on her eye level. She was young, probably around seventeen years of age.
" I won't hurt you it's ok, you and your mother are gonna be fine and no one is gonna harm you. "
The young woman finally looked at him in the eyes, she was terrified, she painfully managed to finally speak.
" Sh sh she isn't my m m mother ... "
When he turned around, the woman had vanished. She probably ran out of the house, when he faced the young woman again, she was disfigured and tried to lunge at him. She didn't look like anything human. Ramos stopped thinking, he threw her on the ground and smashed her head in with repeated kicks, her skull caved in under his huge boots. Still shocked by what just happened Ramos stepped outside to find even more nightmare looking creatures all around him. He took his double handed battle axe in his hands ready to fight off the creatures.
" COME ON! I WILL SEND YOU ALL BACK TO HELL!! "
His screaming was also used as a way to up his own courage. The creatures were simply looking at him, one finally started advancing towards him very slowly, a sword in hand but the sword wasnt up. He was breathing heavily, all his senses on alert. He turned toward the creature and lifted his axe ready to cut it to bits, all the creature did was lift one hand before being cut clean in half. Ramos thought to himself that the best defense was offense so he started rampaging among the ranks of the creatures. He was covered in sweat and blood, he felt like his arms were about to fall off but he could not stop swinging his axe until he was the last one standing. He had been fighting for more than half an hour, alone against all of this constant stream of monsters, but he was definitely seeing less of them. " Twelve left, eleven, ten, nine .. ". Ramos was counting the number of creatures left. One of them was standing completely still and far away from him. As he was cutting one of them, the handle of the axe broke. " Shit! Only four left! ". The three remaining charged at him, he swiftly evaded the stabbing attempt from the first one and the diagonal slash from the second. Before the third one could initiate a motion, Ramos grabbed its hand. Noticing one of the creatures was coming to stab him in the back he grabbed the one facing him by the neck and turned it towards his ally's blade. The sword pierced right through the monster. Ramos grabbed its sword and before the other managed to pull its sword out, he slashed it across the face. The last one of the three was charging. Ramos took a step back and threw the sword straight at it. Not expecting it, the creature didn't have time to dodge and the sword pierce it right in the throat. Ramos was feeling exhausted and dizzy, the smell of all the dead and the mud was nauseating. He managed to lift his body that was now only a mortal shell with a raging fighting spirit inside it. He looked in the direction of the last creature remaining. Its sword was down, it was contemplating the man's massacre. Ramos started advancing towards it.
" Now, it's your turn you son of a bitch! " said Ramos as he initiated a sprint towards it.
The creature started running away.
" Oh no you won't get away! "
Ramos picked a rock on the ground and threw it with all his might. The rock landed in the back of the head of the creature that fell in the ground face first in the mud. Once he was near it, he kneeled over the creature and started pummeling it with all the strength he had left. Right, left, right, left. The creature's hands were desperately trying to push his face away, its fingers on Ramos's mouth. He grabbed the hand and bit 3 fingers clean off. He kept on punching it but the monster was still struggling, using its other hand to protect its face. Ramos grabbed the other arm and started twisting it at an angle, pushing as much as he could he then broke its arm and started punching it again. Ramos's phalanx were bleeding, each punch was hurting more and more.
" WHY! WONT! U ! DIE?! " screamed Ramos in a final rush of rage.
A final punch landed, the creature stopped struggling, its face was completely disfigured. Ramos stood up, he had won. He was the last one standing. After taking a deep breath, he felt a headache striking him, he lost his balance and managed to break his fall by putting his hands in front of him. His nose was bleeding, he was seeing his reflection in the puddle in front of him, a detail caught his eye. On his chest was a circle made of blood with a strange sign at its center. It looked way too precise to have been made during the battle. When he raised his head, Ramos observed a corpse of one of his men, then another one and another one. He then realised what had just happened. He had just slaughtered his entire division in his madness, already sickened by his action and by the sight of all his dismembered men he slowly turned around to look at the one he was just pummeling. As he understood why this one tried to run away he fell to his knees, tears in his eyes and rage in his heart. He let out a scream of pain and grief as all he could do was now to observe the caved in skull of his own son.
