222 Battle Among Brothers (1/2)

At the center of the battlefield, among the screams and whirling smoke, two men stood. They stared at one another with eyes of ice.

”You're really alive,” An Ruo whispered hoarsely.

Flames from the explosion beforehand burned within An Sun's gaze, filling his eyes with a red glare. The heat within was suffocating.

”So it would seem,” An Sun's hand around his sword clenched.

The two men's silence was overruled by the excruciating screams of soldiers on the battlefield. When An Sun suddenly heard a man charging toward him, his gaze on An Ruo moved. Ducking low, his sword mercilessly slashed at the incoming soldier's thigh before raising overhead to stab into his skull. The blow seemed effortless, almost gentle, but it was the sight of blood that showed it was anything but that.

At the sound of another man's attack beside him, An Sun's sword sang impossibly quick, lashing out as if it weighed no more than a walking stick, flicking the blade in strokes that looked effortless.

With a harsh breath, An Sun's ears twitched at the sound of running footsteps. He had already whirled his body, bringing the sword around and up in a swift deadly arc. Steel met steel with a ringing, bone-jarring clang.

”Very good, bastard.” An Ruo sneered.

Looking at the figure before him, the ice in An Sun's eyes burned suddenly, hot with violent intensity, and his nostrils flared. An Ruo stared back at him, and he was biting his bottom lip until skin tore.

”Why?” An Ruo's voice seethed, strangely thick. ”Why are you still…”

There was a maddening gleam in An Ruo's eyes. The raging words muttering from his mouth seemed for no one else but himself. An Sun could hear the tremble in his voice.

”You could say I'm a bastard that's too hard to kill.” An Sun sneered.

Heeding his words, An Ruo froze before turning his blood-freezing smile directly upon An Sun, and his hungry voice was soft as serpent scales on stone.

”Then I'll just have to kill you again.”

A lock of matted black hair fell across An Sun's eyes as he glared at his brother. For the first time, he saw the raw, and detestable look within An Ruo's gaze. An Sun's heart felt resentful.

He felt something wet and cold upon his face. When he raised his eyes, he saw it was raining. A bad omen.

The two men looked at each other, and began, at the same moment, to circle each other.

Three strides with a dancer's grace, An Sun's sword licked out with deadly speed, and his shield slammed into An Ruo's shield like a battering ram. The sound of collision echoed with sharp, ear-shocking crack!

On the other side of the battlefield, horses stumbled and rolled. Men were swept from their saddles, torches spun through the air, axes, and swords hacked at flesh. In the midst of it, Fan Mingli clutched desperately to his sword with a strength he never knew he had.

The sounds of slaughter, flesh, and armor being torn apart, all of it hummed violently through Fan Mingli's ears and down to his trembling heart.

Fan Mingli had always been too frightened to kill a man before, but when a Tuhan man charged toward him with a bloodthirsty look in his eyes, he knew he had no choice. Somehow…somehow, the sword took over him.

”Haaaa!” Fan Mingli cried out and closed his eyes. He shoved the sword blindly out before him with both hands. He heard a crack like the sound ice makes when it breaks beneath a man's foot, then an agonizing sound of a man's cry.

When Fan Mingli opened his eyes, the blade of his sword stabbed deeply within a man's stomach. Impaled, his blood dripped around the sword, and the big man tried to reach his killer with his hands and almost had before he fell.

Fan Mingli's eyes widened. His breath was rough and heavy, sweat pouring heavily past his eyes. He closed them tight only for his eyes to sting.

”I-I killed someone…” He giggled and cried. ”I killed someone!”