Swords of Isadren (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Eighteen: Battle

Asman froze when a set of rather large arms encircled his shoulders, Niallen's breath hitting the back of his neck.

"I am glad you made it back safely, Asman." Niallen said softly and pulled back before Asman could even think to return the hug.

"I was only gone for half of the day." Asman muttered while his cheeks flushed, the feeling of Niallen's arms still lingering in tingles on his skin.

"Still, I was worried they would kill you. Even though I see you are not unharmed, you are not dead and that is excellent." Niallen grimaced and pointed to the red cut on Asman's face.

"Y-yes... right, uh, the soldiers." Asman stammered slightly, finally breaking the intense eye contact with Niallen in order to look at the Commander also. "The have just over eighty of them now."

"Now? What do you mean by that?" The Commanders brows furrowed together and Asman stepped carefully out from in front of Niallen, coming to stand closer to the woman he was speaking to.

"There were one hundred previously. I realized that it may be easier to battle on more even grounds, so I leveled them more." Asman clasped his hands in front of him. "I wish I could have done more, but the groups were getting larger once they caught on to what was happening."

"What did happen, Asman?" Niallen asked incredulously and walked forward enough so that he was practically standing next to the Commander.

"I pretended to have to piss and then killed whatever soldiers came to find me after a while." Asman plainly stated as he withheld the emotions swirling in his mind in favor of looking put together. "Again, I only was able to kill twenty before they caught on."

Niallen inhaled deeply and shook his head disapprovingly. Though, the Commander still seemed to be processing.

"Asman, you were only supposed to count their numbers, not kill them." Niallen sighed out with a glare, which as always, made Asman glare right back at him.

"It was not as if it was hard. You know how I feel about this; if there was any chance to better this fight so that we could win then I was going to take it, Niallen." Asman scoffed at the man, his composure breaking slightly.

Dahlia was still standing quietly behind them, but she took that moment to exit back through the door. Asman knew she would talk to him after he was done.

"Still, we could have handled only a hundred men. What you did only resulted in more injuries that were unnecessary." Niallen growled out and crossed his arms, the leather from his armor creaking slightly.

"Oh no, I hope the women do not think I am ugly now." Asman spat back with a false worried look, causing Niallen to huff and open his mouth.

Though, the moment the man began to talk, he was interrupted by the Commander.

"You killed twenty men? On your own? I was under the impression that you just began training a fortnight ago." She said with her hands splayed across the thick wooden desk in front of her.

Asman exhaled slowly and looked back to the Commander, ignoring Niallen in favor of showing the woman some respect.

"Yes, ma'am. Niallen has been training me. Though, the soldiers did not know that, and I had the element of surprise against them."

"Twenty men is still a good amount, especially as soldiers. You are lucky you only came out with a few cuts and bruises. I also know you have Death Magic, am I correct to assume you used that on some of them?" The Commander questioned and Asman shifted slightly.

"For the first soldier, yes. But, the... the rest I did not." Asman glanced to the cobblestone floor briefly before looking back to the Commander, not wanting to seem disrespectful if he looked away for too long.