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Unto the Ages: Chapter 144
🕑 Added 2025-01-04 18:29:34 +0000 UTCAs much as Grud wanted to avoid casualties, he could only kill so fast. By the time the last of the armored Blood Ascendants lay dead on the ground, Grud had lost close to a hundred men who were now dead, dying, or maimed, and Grud himself did not get out of this unscathed either.
Where other enemies would flee from Grud’s display of might and violence, these drugged-up armored maniacs swarmed Grud without regard for their lives and managed to get in a few good stabs between the gaps of his armor as Grud excited lethal violence upon them.
As much as Grud wanted to let his men and himself rest and patch themselves up, he knew that they could not afford that. They were in the enemy’s territory and could not rest until anything that could harm them was dead.
So Grud split what was left of his men to the other tunnels while he led ten men into the decorated tunnel.
As Grud and his men moved down the tunnel, they faced sporadic ambushes that seemed more of a delaying tactic than anything else. When they went further down the tunnel, there was the sudden sound of a door banging open, followed by a roar that sounded closer to a beast than a man.
As Grud finished off the ambush he was currently facing, he could hear the sound of battle from further ahead where the roar came from. Grud did not know what was going on up ahead. The only thing he knew was that something got loose and was killing the Blood Ascendants ahead of him.
When Grud advanced towards the sounds of dying screams, he soon saw a man charging at him, he was bigger than the average man, but not as big as Grud, but what really caught everyone’s eyes was that the man was buck naked, covered in blood, and closing in with an axe in each hand.
This charging naked man was the Blood Champion, but Grud nor any of his men knew that, they only saw a crazy man charging them with weapons raised. So they shot their arrows and threw their spears at the incoming blood-covered madman.
But to the Blood Champion’s credit, despite his madness, he was able to dodge the arrows and knock the spears aside. It was too bad for him that in his madness, he charged the biggest enemy he could see. Namely, Grud.
Just before the Blood Champion came into striking distance, Grud signaled for his men to get back and slashed out with his dagger at the incoming dual axes that were falling toward his head.
Grud’s knife severed the Blood Champion’s hands at the wrist and transitioned to a shoulder check that sent the Blood Champion rolling backward.
As the Blood Champion tried to get to his feet with the support of his hands, he soon noticed that there were bloody stumps where his hands should be.
By this point, Grud knew that the enemy had little regard for their lives, but even he was morbidly impressed as the Blood Champion charged him despite his missing hands, with arms opened, and roaring bloody murder.
As the Blood Champion closed in, he turned his head to the side while aiming to rip out Grud’s throat, but before he could get close to Grud’s neck, Grud’s huge hand grabbed the top of the Blood Champion’s head and threw in at the tunnel wall.
The Blood Champion hit the wall with a sickening thud, but before he could even fall back down to the floor, Grud caught the man by the head again and started smashing the back of the Blood Champion’s skull into the wall until Grud heard and felt the Blood Champion’s skull shatter and turn to mush.
And now that Grud was done with the weird naked man, he and his men continued their journey further in, but unlike their trek to this point, the only resistance they got was watching where they stepped to avoid the puddles of blood from the dead bodies the naked man left on the way to Grud.
***
Tu’Shan, Blood Priest of the Blood Ascendant, was panicking as he shoved whatever he deemed important to him in a sack. He knew that Grud of the Rock Claw Chiefdom was coming for him, and he was cornered.
In his panic, he went to the Blood Champion’s room while he was balls deep in a woman and told him that an enemy of great power was coming, and if he managed to kill Chieften Grud, he would become the strongest in the land.
This caught the Blood Champion’s attention, and it did not take long for Tu’Shan to spin tales and false promises to get the Blood Champion leathered up in a berserk fury and charging down the hall naked with axes in hand.
What Tu’Shan did not take into account was the Blood Champion’s madness had progressed to the point that anyone holding a weapon besides Tu’Shan was an enemy in his eyes, so soon after his exit from his room, the Tu’Shan started hearing blood curdled screams and knew for a fact that it was too soon and too close to be hearting those, so he rushed to his room to make preparations.
After he was done packing what he needed, went to the crack in the wall at the far end of his room, where the red moss was.
He pushed aside a tapestry hanging on the wall and pulled out a stone for the crawl space. Under normal circumstances, Tu’Shan’s old bones would have had trouble rolling aside a stone big enough to cover a crawl space, but this was just a facade of a stone. It was just the face of the stone glued to a wooden backing that stood it up.
Inside the natural cave, besides the red moss, the drug Spirit’s Blood was made of, there was enough preserved food and water to last him weeks if he rationed it properly.
Tu’Shan knew that the Blood Ascendants were finished. All he had to do was wait for things to blow over and escape to another tribe that could use the services of a shaman.
Tu’Shan thought to himself about how well things were going and wondered how he had drawn the ire of Chieften Grud to the point that he would personally come all the way out here just to crush him. But that was a thought for another time, which he would have a lot of while hiding in the dark surrounded by the red moss growing on the walls.
After Tu’Shan made sure all he needed to survice was accounted for, he made sure the tapestry properly covered the hole for his crawl space before closing himself in with the stone facade and wedging it shut so it would not shake if someone kicks it while searching his room.
***
When Grud and his men reached the deeper part of the tunnel, they started finding personal rooms. When they busted down the doors to clear them, all they found were scared women who were physically not in the best of shape, and mentally too, from what Grud saw in their eyes.
But as much as Grud wanted to protect them, they were in active combat, so the best he could do was put his finger to his lips and shush them, hoping that they knew what was going on and kept quiet so they could get the jump on any unsuspecting enemy, not that they were being subtle, but Grud would get as much element of surprise as he could get, even if it meant sudden shock and awe.
Room after room door was kicked down, but the only things they found were more women, food, and the spoils of many destroyed tribes, which brought Grud to the last door at the end of the tunnel.
Expecting to be some kind of trap, Grud borrowed a two-handed axe from one of his men and they stacked up on the walls next to the door. When his men signaled that they were ready, Grud used the blunt side of the axe, knocking the door open.
When no trap was activated or any shouts to attack came, one of his men peeked inside only to declare it clear.
Cautiously, Grud and his men entered the personal quarters of the Blood Priest and confirmed that there was indeed nobody around.
Grud and his men stared turning th place upside down to check for any hidden areas, but found nothing.
“Chieften, besides some valuables, we found nothing.” one of his men reported.
Grud stroked his beard as he thought of what to do, ‘Did we miss a room? Or was the Blood Priest and Champion in another tunnel?’.
After awhile, Grud issued an order, “Round up those women we saw on the way here and search all the rooms again, we may be missing something.”
Soon, all the women they men in this part of the tunnel were rounded up and brought before Grud, and from the way they were trembling and keeping their eyes on the floor, it was obvious to Grud that they were scared, especially of him.
“Hear me and be at ease. I am Grud, Chieftain of the Rock Claw Chiefdom, and neither me or my men mean you any harm, you are safe now.” Grud said with as much confidence as he could muster.
Hearing Grud introduce himself, many of the women reconized his name and looked up to the giant of a man, but still kept silent, least they incur the wrath of this powerful man.
“Now, I have some questions i need answers for. First of which, do you know where the Blood Priest and Champion are?” Grud asked, and after a few seconds of silence, two of the women raised their hands.
“Yes, you first.” Gurd pointed to one of the women who raised their hands, and it was evident she was in rather rough shape from the bruises and recently healed cuts on her face, arms, and body.
“The Blood Champion ran out of the room after the Blood Priest said you were coming.” the woman said.
Hearing this, Grud had an inkling of who it might be, and asked for a description of the Blood Champion.
“He is about a head shorter than you, and he ran out withwotu his clothes, only taking his axes with him.” hearing this, Grud shared a look with his men. The description was too distinct to be anyone else. Grud send one of his men to fetch what was left of the Blood Champion’s head.
When Grud’s man returned with the head, Grud asked to identify his kill to make sure he got the right one. In responce, the woman boke out in crying laughter, confirmed that it was indeed the Blood Champion, then broke down in full on ugly crying.
Grud then truned to the other woman, “And what information do you have? I hope it has to do with the Blood Priest.”
“Yes” the woman replied, “When i heard you were coming, the Blood Priest went to the Blood Champion’s room to let him loose, then he came back to the room we are in now and thre me out. I have been hiding in the storage room nearby, and I can confirm that the Blood Priest has not come out of this room, even until you got here.”
This news brought a smile to Grud’s face as he looked around, “Is there an item the Blood Priest uses alot in this room? Preferable something he uses to groom himself.”
The woman looked around, and stopped when her eyes landed on a table with a polished copper mirror. “There, his comb. He uses it everyday.”
“Perfect” Grud said as he picked up the comb.
