Chapter 368 - The Siege (Part-1) (1/2)

Ryuu leaned against a chair, various food items were placed on top of his table, his hand firmly grasping a goblet full of wine, against him sat Dhaeq and his lovely wife Kiesa, compared to all the female of the 'Blood Mountain Horde', she was a petite looking woman but was vicious in battle wielding a bastard sword at least twice her height and the only person Ryuu had seen doing something similar was sister Neacht. He had fought alongside her and saw her cleave creatures half with each swing a testament to her strength not to mention all the battle scars specially on the left side of her face indicated that the power couple were bought battle crazy duo.

Ryuu felt a colossal headache forming, ”So more and more refugees are coming to seek shelter in your tribe because the 'Emperor' is tearing them apart, so how dangerous is this Emperor.”

Dhaeq gained a solemn look on his face as did his wife as he spoke with a tired sigh, ”You saw the group that arrived today, a few hours ago?”

Ryuu nodded at that as he spoke, ”I do around 100 something arrived so what about them.”

Kiesa replied on her husband's behalf, ”They were around 50,000 strong and we were its vassal.”

Ryuu's eyes widen as Dhaeq continued, ”Not only that but we have already lost many of our sister tribes and it seems in our region we are the last one standing.”

Ryuu's grip on the goblet hardened as he understood the full implication of everything another tough battle that would lose huge amount of their lives, lives that they will have to pay if they want to move to the next level after all their 300 days were not yet over and abandoning the shelter might very well be a defeat which they have to pay with their lives, it was so irritating if they could just wait for another week then they could qualify to move to the next level and they will not have to tussle with the so called 'Emperor'.”

Ryuu looked at them as he spoke, ”How frequent do this Emperor's pop up?”

Kiesa frowned as she spoke, ”Long time ago our honorable ancestors were part of an extremely large tribe of a few hundred thousand strong an Emperor attacked with his horde and now we are just scattered remains of the once glorious tribe.”

Dhaeq squeezed her wife's hand as he spoke, ”We were only saved by the timely intervention of a great hero, but enough of that we decided that if it is our fate to disappear in the sands of time then so be it, but there is still time for you all to escape from here, it is our tribe and as such we do not wish for our guests to suffer you all have done more than anything we could ask you have stood shoulder to shoulder and fight alongside us but please do not thing that it is an insult but we do not wish for you to fall alongside with us.”

Ryuu closed his eyes and mulled over the situation with careful consideration as he spoke, ”Brother Dhaeq I do not know about my other companions but I believe if it is to be our last stand than we should try to do so when our feet are firmly on land rather than while in stormy seas, I believe abandoning you would be a death sentence to us because we are very few in number as such chances are that we will not survive out in the open, but if we stay here I will acknowledge that we all might not survive but at least we have a chance to win, upon saying that I cannot speak on behalf of others who are my companions I will have to ask them on what they want or not but I will tell you here and now I am staying. ”

Dhaeq let out a tired but relieved sigh as he spoke, ”Thank you brother thank.”

Their talk went on for at least an hour before Ryuu began moving towards the place of their residence, he was smoking from his trusted kiseru with a frown etched on his face as he entered the place many cultivators who were loitering around looked at him.

”Please summon everyone around something important has happened I need to inform and discuss any further future course of action.”, with his piece said he sat on the nearest chair staring at the wall as his head was swimming with ideas.

A shake brought him out of his thought as Ryuu looked to see Zywia looking at him with a frown, ”Is something wrong brother Ryuu?”

Ryuu gave her a small smile as he spoke, ”Yes Sister there is something wrong as such I summoned all of you.”, with a huff he stood up as he spoke loud and clear.

”My brothers, my sisters and my comrades in arms for the last 292 days we have toiled hard to protect our shelter and in doing so we already have lost couple of our esteemed comrades it was such a sad day for us, we all are tired from constant battles and we are on verge of moving to the next level within a week but alas it seems Eden is once again after us.”

As he spoke the ear shattering silence reigned the room as Ryuu looked at each one of them directly in the eye, 'If I were back in earth there were many who would have thrown tantrum upon the word 'comrade' I never understood even after dying why they did that, it is just a word synonymous to friend'.