Despite all these hardships, at the beginning of the second week, Hadjar found the people he’d been looking for. General Bermengton hadn’t lied. They ended up being found by... Azrea.
Chapter 235
The morning of the eighth day began with a powerful, tiger-like roar and a human cry. Then the alarm horn rang out and the squad rushed toward their forward troops.
What they saw was the least frightening thing they’d witnessed in recent times. In the clearing, around the flattened and torn up remains of riders and horses, a huge cat prowled. It wasn’t a lynx, or a tiger, or a lion, just an ordinary cat. However, it was bigger than a three-story tavern. Each of its claws could be used as a spear, and its fangs would make good swords. It reminded Hadjar of the Ancient Beast he’d met long ago, Azrea’s mother. The cat hissed at the rider standing in front of it. He, like his horse, was frozen with terror.
“Run!” O’Shekl screamed. “Run, you idiot!”
It was too late. The cat swung its tail with a hiss. It easily batted the armored warrior out of his saddle. Just one swipe of its mighty paw was enough for the man to begin screaming in agony. The crumpled metal of his armor crushed his torn skin and broken bones even further. A fountain of blood shot out from his mouth, and a white and gray foam burst from his eyes and ears. The cat jerked its tail and threw away the ‘used up doll’. The body landed in a snowdrift and blood poured out onto the white snow.
“Surround it!” Hadjar commanded. “Artillerymen, throw your grenades under its paws! Archers, hit its eyes. Get ready for close combat!”
Hadjar unsheathed his blade and jumped off his horse. As soon as his feet touched the ground, a whirlwind of steel energy immediately sprang up around him, a coiling dragon visible in its depths.
The cannoneers hadn’t even managed to light the fuses before a white muzzle poked out from inside Hadjar’s clothes. Azrea sniffed the air, frowned slightly, and then growled so quietly it was barely audible, almost closer to a purr.
That was still enough for the huge cat to squeak plaintively and disappear into the forest in one leap with its tail between its legs. After a couple of moments, even the crunch of trees that the beast destroyed as it fled was no longer audible. Azrea sniffed, snorted, and returned to her warmth and comfort. Within seconds, she was already peacefully snuffling as she started falling asleep.
“What other secrets are you hiding from me?”
The whistling of an incoming arrow interrupted his musings. It almost struck a shocked O’Shekl right between the eyes. The steel flash of Moon Beam saved his life. Hadjar had swiftly brought it up to block the arrow.
“Arrows! Defend!” The General commanded.
Right behind him, the soldiers crowded together and erected a dome of shields around them. The horsemen covered their bodies with round shields and prepared their broadswords.
Hadjar peered into the snow-covered forest, but couldn’t see where the arrow had come from. On top of that, he didn’t feel the presence of anyone besides the members of his squad. The warrior wasn’t afraid, but he did feel rather nervous.
Hadjar heard the creak of a bowstring being pulled back and was about to send one of his strongest attacks in that direction when somebody started giving orders: “Stop! Back off! Hold your fire! Back off!”
The voice giving those commands was familiar to Hadjar. His heart grew heavy and his rage soared. After Primus, this man was possibly the person he wanted to kill the most in the world.
Soon, everything was silent. In that icy tranquility, accompanied by the snow whirling in the wind, there was only the dome of shields. The cannoneers were also ready, getting their cannons ready to fire.
A whirlwind of energy raged around Hadjar and his sword scared even O’Shekl who was standing nearby. He knew that the General’s ire wasn’t directed at him, but he was still afraid.
“Shall we negotiate?” The voice on the other side of the clearing asked.
Hadjar pretended to think about it. However, he didn’t do it for long.
“Alright,” the General agreed.
“Sir, may I-” O’Shekl began, but was interrupted by a powerful wave of Hadjar’s hand. It looked very similar to the one which King Primus had used to silence others.
Hadjar sheathed Moon Beam. He went down to the clearing. Calmly walking past the torn apart bodies, Hadjar looked at their faces. He recognized one man that had been among the ones who had entered the corridor with Primus and had watched the usurper tear the heart out of the Queen’s chest. Hadjar didn’t feel even a bit of sympathy for him.
Despite that, his placid expression was marred by intense emotion, caused by a rising snowstorm, or, more precisely, the man who stepped out of it. The General grabbed the hilt of his blade, but the man raised his hands in surrender.
“Easy, Mad General,” he said. “I’m not a snowman.”
“Snowman?”
The man nodded.
“The ones who come out of the snow,” he explained. “To be honest, we also don’t know who or what they are. But they don’t seem to want to harm us and have even taught us this Technique.”
To demonstrate, the man once again turned into a snowstorm. Hadjar couldn’t feel the man’s aura at all after he did that. When the man rose up behind him, Hadjar dodged aside abruptly. Only the man’s hands, which were once again raised in surrender, stopped him from immediately attacking him.
“That’s insane,” Hadjar whispered. “This isn’t a Speed Technique...”
“That’s right,” the man nodded again. “This is a Shifting Technique. I think that you could only find something similar in the capital of the
