7 General And I (1/2)
BAI SHEN HONG
DURA MOUNTAIN CAMP
Clang!!
Although he was surrounded by loud snoring, he still heard the noise. He groaned. Since when did Dura Mountain have such courageous thieves? Earlier, a bunch of Borderlanders had stolen some water from their well. Surely this had to stop. The water had not been good enough ill-gotten gain it seems, because now they were kow-towing in his food supplies tent.
He unsheathed his sword and stumbled upon the bodies that were sprawled around his mattress. Shen Hong shook his head in disappointment. They were the ones who were supposed to be his eyes and ears, protecting him, but here he was, pledging his life for them instead.
The sun was about to rise, for it was already dawn. He looked around and found the supposed guards recumbent at the exit of his tent. Both were fast asleep with their swords lying haphazardly on their bellies. He hated laziness, but failure to do one's job right—he loathed it even more.
”The one who loves sleep must now sleep forever,” he muttered, and their heads aimlessly flew into the air, blood splattering all over the place. Shen Hong sighed. After all these years, he thought he would do a clean job this time.
Putting his guard up, he entered the food supplies tent and looked around for the intruder. To his surprise, there was only one.
A woman.
That boggled his mind, but hindmost, it was the fact that she was dressed in white silks. She had to be a noble woman judging by what she wore. Unless she had stolen that too. In a nervous manner, she inspected their food storage. No, she had to be a noble woman. The way she touched, walked and stood breathed art. It was too elegant for a slave or a lowborn.
Her movements suddenly changed. They became measured and calculated. She knew she was being watched, he realised. Not sparing him any time to attack her, she spun into the air and snatched the sword from him.
He had not expected such skill from a delicate being like her. It seemed she had also mastered the art of deception. He was a well feared, ruthless and skilled warrior in the battlefield. How had she managed to catch him off guard?
She swerved the sword towards him with much determination, desperate to leave the place alive. With one fluid movement he easily avoided her attack.
He smirked, no fight had ever been this intriguing. She attacked, and he avoided. She pushed forth, he backed down. He wanted this to last long. He was an enticed lion, and she was the prey; when the time came and he desired, he would feed.
Her attacks were too predictable—she kept thinking and processing them before charging forward. She was not fighting with instinct, and on top of that, she showed clear lack of practise. There was no way she could be a match for a beast like him.
This seemed to go on for so long before he started getting bored with the whole game. Deciding to bring it to a halt, he suddenly kicked the sword out of her hand and simply grasped her palm. A pulpous sound eluded from her throat before he momentarily twirled her around and pulled her to his chest. Her hand was twisted in his grip, while his other arm lay beneath her breast, holding her tightly so that she would not be able to escape.
He was breathing hard and so was she. She shifted her back against his groin, and he had to stifle a sound that tried to escape his lips. He caught his breath, trying to gain control of himself.
”I have never lost on the battlefield,” he boasted out loud.
”Do battlefields make men reek like sex?” She spat.
He grinned widely, his mind mirroring the expeditions of last night. Any man would have thought he was about to have another, but this was a complicated situation.