The Spirit of Revenge Read Free Page B

and bared their fangs at the prospect of fresh blood.
    Cain and Aaron charged over the fallen bodies and past the flames, colliding head on into the mass of Arzecs. A ring of steel broke out as they tackled through the wall of enemies and threw themselves into the waiting arms of death.
    With the well-timed arrival of their saviors, the few remaining townspeople slipped away and faded off into the night with nothing but their blood-soaked clothes.
    Cain pulled his sword from the last of the Arzecs and wiped the blade on his fauld. He looked around at the carnage, breathing heavy with exertion. Hundreds of bodies littered the courtyard, all victims to the Arzec’s brutality.
    Then, through the fire and smoke, he saw his wife. She lay limp in the sand, blood pooled around her. Cain let out a frantic cry and rushed toward her.
    She was dead, still as stone in her own blood. Her clothes were mere shreds on her bloodied body. A massive gash was hewn across her stomach, spilt entrails spread out before her. And from her severed stomach, a baby’s hand hung limp. Blood ran along its arm and dripped down its tiny fingers.
    Cain crumpled beside his dead wife and child. He stared forward with disbelief, refusing to accept what he was seeing. He bent over his wife and brushed her blood-drenched hair.
    “Eileen…” He muttered as tears brimmed in his eyes. “Eileen.” He looked over the ghastly scene and closed his eyes at the sight of his wife’s entrails. He gently turned her over and wrapped a finger around his child’s hand. Tears poured down his face.
    “Why was it you who had to die? I deserve this, not you!” Cain cradled his head in his hands, the blood of his family staining his face. He wept uncontrollably, cursing the skies to end his sorrow. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he pounded the earth with his fists, weeping and bellowing with anger.
    Aaron approached him and rested a hand on his friend’s heaving shoulder. “The Arzecs…there’s more of them.” Aaron turned and raised his saber as a wall of Arzecs slowly approached.
    Cain remained at his wife’s side, cradling her head as he wept. “Cain…” Aaron pleaded as he backed up slowly. “They’re coming…help me!”
    Cain rose to his feet and turned to face a wall of one hundred Arzecs, every one of them grinning at his sorrow.
    Cain picked his sword off the ground and wiped the blood and tears from his face. “They killed my wife…my child…” He suddenly shot forward and sprinted straight at the Arzecs. “I’ll kill every last one of them!”
    With a vengeful cry, he lurched forward and tossed his sword, the blade impaling itself through the face of an Arzec. He continued forward and tackled into it, ripping his sword from its body before letting loose his rage.
    He jumped sideways, hewing the head off an Arzec before plunging his sword through the chest of another. He pulled it out and stabbed it into the gut of another Arzec, wrenching the shield from its arm.
    He spun around and slammed the steel shield into an Arzec before crashing it over the face of another, tossing bodies about him with every powerful swing. He tossed the shield into the tide of Arzecs and grabbed his sword from a body, slaughtering everything within his reach.
    He roared with hate as his sword flew like a blur around him, blood, limbs, and bodies flying. Anger burned unbridled in his heart with every thought of his dead wife and child.
    He had promised his wife only hours before that he would put aside the sword and live at her side forever in happiness. But now that happiness had been taken from him, and vengeance kindled deep within. He fought on with a mindless ferocity, all reason thrown aside for bitter hatred.
    Yet, despite his efforts, the two men were soon surrounded and found themselves standing back to back amid an encircling wall of Arzecs. Their enemies formed a large circle around them and stood in silence, weapons raised to finish them off.
    Time seemed