Tyrant of the Ruined Sun

Chapter 19: Georgios and the Olive Branch

A man clothed in dirt, ash and blood smeared armor rode his horse frantically, as his ears still rang with the wails of the dead and dying!

Even as he rushed away from the battlefield to report the desperate situation, he couldn't shake the fear that still gripped his heart after witnessing the anguished cries, and twisted faces of his friends and comrades, who sacrificed themselves so that he could escape.

Within a couple of minutes he arrived before a muscular three meter tall man, wearing thick plate armor that was so well cleaned, and polished it looked like mirrors.

He had rust colored eyes that were as calm and deep as the water of an ancient well, he also had short black hair with streaks of white.

He was the esteemed Great General Georgios Gripa, the most extraordinary defensive commander of the Luminous Empire, and the man rumored to be the equal of, if not the better of Hamilcar Seth in battle!

As soon as the man saw Georgios he leapt off his saddle and said in a panicked yet parched voice "My lord, the plan failed, and our men are being massacred!

It's nothing but a one sided slaughter at this point!" Hearing this Georgios's face remained as stoic as before, as if the news of the disaster had nothing to do with him.

After a moment of silence Georgios said in a deep voice that radiated with authority, dignity, and martial discipline "Collect yourself soldier. This is a war, emotions are worthless now. You may weep when it's over. Do I make myself clear?"

Georgios's words and voice sounded like a divine decree to the man, and his turbulent emotions vanished, like darkness in the presence of light.

"Understood, your lordship, please forgive me." The man said while lowering his head in shame.

"Forgiven. Now give your report." Georgios replied curtly.

The man quickly began to narrate the events of what happened as best as he can, since he wasn't completely sure about some details considering the low visibility granted by the fog.

Hearing the report Georgios's rust colored eyes narrowed intimidatingly, as he thought 'What a truly bold, decisive, yet cautious battle plan! They attacked us even though they are the weaker side, but they didn't attack thoughtlessly.

The first wave was to test our strength and reaction, while the second wave was the true assault. I haven't met such an interesting and worrisome enemy in centuries!'

Slowly the image of his adversaries began to appear in his head, and what he was seeing greatly displeased him. But now wasn't the time for him to be drowning in his own thoughts, and he quickly said to the three men behind him "You know what to do."

"Yes, my lord." They replied as they saluted and ran to their posts.

One of the men, who was carrying a large intimidating war scythe, rode his Gryphon, and took to the skies, quickly followed by thousands of Gryphon Knights.

While the other two, who held a great sword and a gigantic morning star, ran to the infantry and lead tens of thousands of elite soldiers, wearing glistening white armor, while holding long spears, and large white shields decorated by a glorious golden sun.

As soon as everyone left, Georgios's face that remained emotionless this whole time, suddenly had a complicated look on it, as he pulled a scroll from his pouch that was written by Emperor Octavian himself, as he thought 'His majesty told me in private to end this battle as fast as possible, since we have recently received many concerning reports from our spies in the Boreas Empire.

His majesty even gave me his new peace offers, which are very favorable to them.

But just from the initial clash between us I can already tell that the new Eclipse Emperor is a dragon amongst mortal men, and if we allow him to spread his wings even further he will cover our whole empire in his menacing shadow!'

Taking a deep breath Georgios's eyes became resolute as he quietly whispered "I will accept any punishment you deem necessary my liege, but this is for the future of our glorious empire." Then he pulled out an empty scroll, and a pen and began to write new terms, as he called loudly for his right hand man Lucas.

Within seconds a lanky man, with aging grey hair, and grey eyes arrived and said "Yes, my lord?"

"Get me the most arrogant, narcissistic, impertinent, opinionated and volatile officer you can find." Georgios replied seriously.

".... Understood, lord." Lucas was stunned for a second by the order, considering that Georgios hated those types of people the most.

Meanwhile, Hasdrubal was still vigilantly watching the battle, giving orders every once in a while, as the Diomedes Knights continued the slaughter of the remaining Luminous soldiers, when suddenly a Chimera Knight landed next to him and said urgently "My lord, a massive enemy force was spotted quickly advancing from the north."

"Their numbers, their strength, and how long till they arrive?" Hasdrubal asked calmly.

"We're not sure, but at least 30,000. Judging from their aura they must be the Luminous Emperor's personal army, and they will be here in only a few minutes." The Chimera Knight replied quickly.

As soon as Hasdrubal heard this he quickly ordered the Diomedes Knights to retreat, but he knew that they were too scattered, and would take a while for all of them to safely withdraw.

So he unhesitatingly drew his duel serrated sabers and unleashed his aura, that looked like black lightning dancing wildly across his armor and weapons, and charged fearlessly in the direction of the incoming enemies.

Within a couple of minutes Hasdrubal showed his terrifying ability, and turned the remaining pockets of resistance into small hills of gore and viscera, which allowed the Diomedes Knights to quicken their retreat, but it wasn't fast enough.

The reinforcements of the Luminous Empire arrived quicker than anticipated, and they immediately began to attack the retreating Diomedes Knights.

Seeing this Hasdrubal loudly ordered his officers "The men will be massacred if they continue to retreat like this, have the strongest of them turn around and start a fighting withdrawal, while the rest are to speed up the retreat."

"Understood, my lord." They acknowledged respectfully, before going to carry out their general's orders. After they left, Hasdrubal turned to the incoming enemies, and bolted towards them with such explosive speed that the earth beneath his boots broke like shattered glass.

Hasdrubal became the embodiment of a catastrophic natural disaster upon reaching the Luminous soldiers, sowing so much chaos, and mayhem in their ranks that it turned their once mighty, and speedy march into a pathetic crawl.

He wantonly exterminated them, turning their once thick steel armor into shredded paper, and leaving hideous lacerations across their mutilated corpses.

In fact most of the Luminous soldiers didn't even realize their own demise until they saw their own headless bodies limply fall to the ground as their detached heads calmly floated in the air, before violently crashing on the blood soaked ground.

But shortly after Hasdrubal's bloody rampage came to an end, he was suddenly caught off guard by an attack so powerful it knocked him off his feet!

Hasdrubal immediately recovered and stood up to face his assailant; Who was a bear like man, with thick arms, a bushy brown beard, deep blue eyes, wearing thick armor with several animal hides adorning it, and carrying a large morning star.

And Hasdrubal quickly discerned that the man before him was a seventh rank martial artist, like him.

The man quickly dashed towards him again, but Hasdrubal was much faster and dodged his assault easily, and he was about to attack him from his blind spot, when suddenly he was once again sneakily attacked, but this time he wasn't caught off guard, and he narrowly dodged the great sword that arrived from above, which was wielded by a handsome man with long flowing brown hair and azure blue eyes; who was also a seventh rank martial artist.

Seeing this Hasdrubal became very anxious, but he didn't panic, as he thought 'Shit! This is bad. I can't defeat both of them at the same time! But I don't have a choice, if one of these damn cowards goes to help the army they will completely decimate the retreating Diomedes knights!'

"You live up to your reputation General Hasdrubal. You really are a slippery little worm." The handsome great sword wielding man said, trying to infuriate him.

"At least I'm better than a sniveling little rat, that hides while their men are dying so that they could sneak attack someone." Hasdrubal replied calmly while flashing a mocking grin.

The great sword wielding man frowned angerly, but before he could say anything the giant hand of the bear like man landed on his shoulder as he said "That's enough brother."

He then turned to Hasdrubal and said "I'm general Luthor Vanar, and this is my brother general Heinrich Vanar. It is an honor to meet you, general Hasdrubal Tistra."

Hasdrubal was surprised by Luthor's soft spoken nature, which greatly contradicted with his appearance. But nonetheless he returned the gesture and said " It's a pleasure meeting you as well general Luthor." Obviously ignoring Heinrich, which irked the man even more.

"General Hasdrubal I will be blunt, resistance is futile, you can't beat the two of us together. But there is no need for us to fight. The Luminous Empire greatly values talent and ability. You will be honored and welcomed in our great emperor's court, what do you say?" Luthor said calmly.

Hasdrubal scoffed and said angerly "You say this after trying to kill me, do you take me for a fool? At least try and find a better lie next time. Besides I already have an emperor that I swore my loyalty to, and I have no interest in dishonoring him or myself, by breaking my oath."

"You aren't seriously comparing our glorious liege with that orphaned brat, are you?" Heinrich said venomously.

Hasdrubal said nothing as he released the full might of his beastly power, and raised his serrated sabers at him malevolently, as his black lightning like aura danced chaotically around him, giving him the appearance of a malignant wrathful demon.

Luthor shook his head and said as he released his aura and prepared to fight "It appears that negotiations have broken down."

And just as they were about to clash, Hasdrubal heard a loud trumpet sound that signaled the successful retreat of the Diomedes Knights. Hearing this he said calmly "Make sure your neck remains clean for when I come to claim it."

After that he flashed away from them toward the Eclipse Army camp, while they attempted and failed to keep up with his teleportation like speed.

The Chimera Knights similarly retreated with the last two to leave being Sodarus and the war scythe wielding man, who were glaring viciously at each other, before they too turned their respective mounts in the opposite direction.

All the men returned to camp just as the sun reached it's highest point in the sky, and started to melt the mist away showing the scale of the carnage that took place.

But comically enough, it also showed that both Hasdrubal, and Sodarus kept their word, when the blood on the ground resembled a long elegant red carpet. And the lingering smoke from the fire breath of the Chimera Knights looked like the residue of a grand fireworks display!

Just as I was about to leave the palisade I was standing on, a soldier rushed over and said respectfully "Your majesty, a few men are approaching the gate with an olive branch in their hands, and are demanding an audience, saying they bring terms of peace from General Georgios. What are your orders?"

"Demanding?" I ask as I raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Yes, sire. They even threatened to attack the guards if we didn't allow them in." The soldier said angerly, obviously infuriated with the men's attitude.

"I shall receive them in my tent." I say with an amused smile, as I thought 'Fascinating! I wonder what scheme you have cooked up for me Georgios?'