Primitive Man

The air was thick with tension as Baktou aimed the ballista at Moga's head, his heart pounding. "This is it," he muttered to himself, focusing all his concentration on the target. The battlefield became a chaotic dance of blades, arrows, and roars, but Baktou had only one goal in mind.

As he pulled the trigger, a massive bolt shot through the air, heading straight for Moga's head. Time seemed to slow as everyone watched, breaths held. The bolt found its mark, piercing through Moga's skull with a sickening thud.

Moga staggered, his once fierce demeanour now replaced by confusion as he felt light. "Ga....Gaaa?" he muttered, moments before collapsing to the ground. The battlefield fell silent as the realization of what had transpired settled in.

The aftermath of the decisive shot left a grotesque tableau on the battlefield. Moga lay lifeless, blood pooling around his head where the bolt had gruesomely impaled his skull.

The once fearsome foe's eyes stared into the void, frozen in an eternal expression of disbelief. The air was tainted with the metallic scent of blood and it was truly the sign of confirmed death.

Garnt approached Moga's fallen form, a mix of relief and anger in his eyes. "Rest now and never come back. I will soon send the other one too." The once chaotic battlefield now held a moment of solemnity as the group contemplated the cost of victory and they knew this was truly the end of Moga, the might and first foe that threatened Garnt's life.

Baktou took the longest breath of his life after his most important attack, and then he quickly went back to Garnt. He wanted to make sure everything was alright.

"Brother! Are you alright?" Rona, Ayra and Unami also gathered around him, and all of them took some minutes to calm down they looked around, and Garnt answered Baktou.

"I'm fine, but this is not over. If we don't get rid of that Amel, he might again try to attack us, so it's our turn now." Garnt didn't know what was happening outside the entrance of the mining village, but Rona quickly decided to let him know about it.

"Garnt, we are already dealing with that. Our villagers had already surrounded all the people that were hiding in the forest trying to attack. We also caught Amel."

Garnt was blown away by this piece of information, and he couldn't even imagine when his people became so competent. Before a few years ago, all of them were people who didn't even know hunting could be done using a weapon, but right now they were able to fight with another faction without his directions.

"Great, truly great! This is what I always wanted to see, so let's go and see Amel and end this battle forever,"

The group emerged from the mining village, stepping over the remnants of the fierce battle that had just concluded. The air hung heavy with the same scent of blood and the lingering echoes of combat. As they reached the outskirts, they were met with a grim tableau – bodies sprawled across the ground, evidence of the confrontation that had unfolded.

Most of the bodies belonged to Amel and Moga's faction, but it wasn't impossible for Garnt to find one or two bodies of his own people, which broke his heart.

Villagers, armed and resolute, stood guard over the captives who had once posed a threat. Kneeling figures, defeated and powerless, awaited their fate. Garnt's faction, their weapons at the ready, showcased the newfound strength and unity that had evolved among them.

Garnt's eyes scanned the scene, and he observed the captive enemies under the watchful gaze of his people. Rona, Ayra, Unami, and Baktou remained close by, each processing the aftermath in their own way.

Spotting Amel among the defeated, Garnt felt a surge of conflicting emotions – the satisfaction of victory and the bitterness of past grievances. He approached Amel, his expression stern.

"You thought you could destroy us, but here we stand," Garnt declared, his voice laced with determination. "Your reign of terror and betrayal ends now."

Amel, though defeated and kneeling, shot a venomous glare at Garnt. "You won't get away with this. I'll find a way to—"

Garnt cut him off with a swift kick, a physical punctuation to the finality of their conflict. "You're done, Amel. There's no escaping your fate."

Amel spit out a broken tooth from the force of the kick, but Rona, fueled by anger and a desire for retribution, moved to strike Amel down immediately. However, Garnt raised a hand, signalling her to halt. "Not yet, Rona," he said calmly. "There's information he might have. We need to know more about their plans, their motives and about something else that I'm curious about."

Garnt was obviously talking about the system, but he obviously didn't want to talk about it in front of others.

Baktou, understanding the importance of gathering intel, stepped forward and restrained Amel, taking him as a prisoner. With a firm grip, he led the defeated foe back into the village, surrounded by the watchful eyes of Garnt's faction.

As Amel looked back, thinking his people would share the same fate as him, he began to hear cries and pleas from behind. Soon, all sounds ceased, indicating that his men were no longer breathing the same air as him.

"We don't need them alive. You are the only one who should stay here because you shouldn't die a peaceful death. Garnt and I will make you suffer more than you can ever expect," Baktou whispered to him in an angry tone.

The whole village started to calm down little by little as time went on, and after putting Amel into a newly built prison cell and locking him, he knew it was time to clean everything, including the dead bodies. But before all that, he had to see how Telvi was doing. Luckily, she wasn't wounded too badly, but she still had to rest considering she wasn't a strong woman physically.

While Baktou was busy doing that, Garnt surveyed the collected bodies one by one. The air was heavy with the stench of death, and the village, once a serene haven, now bore the scars of a fierce confrontation. As he moved among the fallen, he checked each face, confirming the demise of their enemies and friends alike.

'Make sure all our friends are given the respect they deserve and our enemies, just burn them." Garnt ordered showing he had no desire to be respectful about things, especially when his enemies were people like Moga and Amel.

However, a growing unease gnawed at him when he couldn't find Kalina's lifeless form among the defeated. Panic seized Garnt's heart as he frantically searched, his mind racing with dread. The absence of her body sparked a sense of foreboding.

"Rona, have you seen Kalina?" Garnt asked urgently, turning to the recovering woman.

Rona, still weak from the battle, shook her head. "No, but her body should be here. Our warriors confirmed she was dead."

Garnt's brows furrowed with worry, and he continued his search with renewed determination. The anxiety intensified with each lifeless face he encountered, and the ominous feeling lingered. Kalina's absence felt like an impending storm, threatening to shatter the fragile peace that was being pieced together.

"What is this? Where is her body? Did we not collect it?" He quickly ordered everyone to act and all of them started to search around the village while Garnt himself kept running around the whole village.

Meanwhile, Baktou, having secured Amel in the prison cell, tended to Telvi's wounds. He offered her a reassuring smile, unaware of the unfolding crisis in the search for Kalina. As Baktou comforted Telvi, the door to his room creaked open.

Baktou's head snapped towards the sound, his instincts on high alert. He saw a bloodied Amel emerging with a vengeful glare. Before Baktou could react, Amel moved with surprising speed, injecting something into Baktou's body.

"Suffer...you piece of shit!" Amel growled his last words and tried to leave but he didn't expect Baktou to react almost immediately to him.

The sudden shock and pain coursed through Baktou, and he fumbled for a weapon.

'Ughhh~ what was that? What did you do to me?" Baktou questioned but before Amel could retaliate, Baktou's hand snapped his neck with brutal efficiency without even him trying to go for the kill. It was almost like his instinct told him to kill and that's the only thing that remained inside Baktou's mind.

The once-imposing leader crumpled to the ground, lifeless. Baktou, seemingly unfazed by the act, stared down at the fallen Amel with a twisted satisfaction and his body started to twitch.

Garnt, still searching for Kalina, felt a chill crawl up his spine. Something was wrong. Sensing trouble, he hurriedly retraced his steps, his steps quickening as he approached Baktou's house. The sight that greeted him was beyond his worst fears – Amel lay dead on the floor, and Baktou stood over him, a sinister grin on his face.

"Garnt," Baktou hissed, bloodlust in his eyes. The final confrontation was far from over.

"What did you do Baktou? Why did you kill Amel? I told you to keep him alive," He asked noticing something strange about Baktou, but he answered Garnt's question normally.

"He was trying to escape, so I had no choice. When he tried to kill me, I had to use my self-defence to kill him. If I had a choice I wouldn't go against you, brother," He emphasised that last part for some reason, but at that time Garnt didn't take his words seriously.

"Damn it! He would have been a good source of information, but there's no use crying over spilt milk, so let's just clean up the bodies and find Kalina's body. It looks like her body is missing for some reason."

Baktou nodded his head and followed Garnt, but his face looked like he was having the worst time of his life. However, right now, neither Garnt nor anyone else managed to see his pain and this would have consequences that Garnt never expected even in his dreams.

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