Chapter 2: Mercy of War

The greatest defensive advantage of the Light Dragon Clan was the geography in which the city of Lon Chai lay. High upon a plateau, surrounded by an eternally flowing river there was the city, unassailable by any large attacking forces and any such forces that were adequate to enter the city from the ground would be far to small to stand against the samurai and standing army of the city. Of course there were other ways to attack a city besides sheer force of arms and in times of battle, something as simple as a change of weather could make all the difference.

A great and heavy fog rolled into the area surrounding the city, something very much unheard of. The interior of the city remained unchanged, as the fog did not even pass over the water of the river surrounding the city. However, since the fog decreased visibility around the city Liem grew worried that Myria's followers would take the opportunity of this strange weather to attack; he entertained the belief that Myria caused the unheard of weather. He doubled the guard at the towers and put the whole army on high alert. Three flyers emerged from the mist under a white flag, signalling a desire to speak. Under a great degree of caution, Liem allowed the flyers to land upon the main landing platform, the largest and furthest one from the city. Liem, accompanied by his best samurai, went to meet these mysterious diplomats.

The flyers were griffins, half lion, half bird, tamed beasts become mounts for the aerial troops of the human army; no other clan used these great majestic beasts as mounts. The lead griffin had a single rider, but the other two carried two riders each: four human knights (1) and one apparent warlord. The warlord, the leader, was a tall and powerful looking man who wore a black-metal vest of plate armour, emblazoned with the Goddess' emblem. Black trousers, black greaves, black gauntlets and a flowing black cloak emblazoned with the Goddess' symbol completed his ensemble, his heavily muscled arms were bear and he bore no weapon, though he appeared to be a weapon in and of himself. He was shaved bald, except for a long tail of braded hair at the base of his skull, he had a goatee and dark eyes. He wore an arrogant expression, as though Liem and the Dragon Clan were beneath his notice.

"I am General Shax of the great Myria's forces. I wish to speak to your leader." The human demanded with a commanding and powerful voice, using common (2).

"The general of the enemy army comes and demands an audience with our king? You presume too much human." Liem said calmly.

"It is in the interest of you Clan that I come to speak with your leader. I have no time to waste with a simple gate guard." Shax retorted.

The samurai behind Liem bristled at the insult and their grip tightened upon their weapons. A simple and almost imperceptible motion from Liem stopped them from taking rash action.

"And what would the Goddess' puppet have to say to our king?" Liem asked.

"I wish to discuss a proposition of peace to benefit both our peoples." Shax replied with an almost sneering smile.

Liem said nothing, turned and motioned for Shax and his men to follow him. The knights were relieved of their weapons, being a time of war doing otherwise would have been foolish. The samurai surrounded Shax and his men as they walked through the city; it was more to protect the citizens from Shax than the other way around, as the Light Dragons were pacifist. The army and samurai guard were the only Dark Dragon Clansmen in the city, far fewer than the total number of people in the city. Of course, they were still formidable opponents and their honour and charge was protecting the people of the city.

Shax and his knights walked through the city streets escorted by Liem and his samurai. The people looked at them, some in curiosity others in fear, and many went into their homes. They may have lived in an isolated region, but knowledge of the world was still something the people kept up on. A dragon whelp was growling and hissing at Shax as they passed by, a woman picked it up and hurried inside her house.

"Don't you savages keep your pets on leashes?" Shax sneered.

Liem's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. They continued to walk further into the city and Shax seemed to take in every detail, noting buildings and people. Liem escorted them to the palace and told them to wait in the main hall; several of the samurai remained to keep an eye on them. Liem walked through the palace halls; the king would still be in his room with the queen and his son at this hour, he had completed many of the day's tasks already. Liem knocked on the decorated doors that marked the entrance to the king's chambers and they swung open. The king was sitting beside his wife as she nursed Ryu, but they were not alone: apparently the midwife wanted little to do with the king and so sent her apprentice in her stead. The teen saw Liem and blushed slightly, turning away as she was shy in the face of one she so admired. Liem, however, had no time to concern himself with a shy child as he had important business with the king.

"Liem... What is the matter?" Maru asked.

"My lord, an emissary from Myria's forces has arrived to discuss peace." Liem stated.

Maru raised an eyebrow and stood up. He motioned for the midwife's apprentice to aid him as he dressed in a more regal yukata and placed a diadem upon his brow.

"Who is the esteemed diplomat?" The king asked.

"It is Shax, the general of the human division of Myria's forces. He is the leader of her entire army I believe."

Maru merely smiled as they exited the room and went to meet these envoys of Myria. They entered the main hall and Shax and Maru looked at each other, sizing each other up.

"To what do I owe the honour, o General?" Maru began, in common.

"We have come to discuss peace with you, you majesty." Shax said; the way he said 'majesty' was like an insult.

"Shall we go someplace more appropriate for such discussion?"

"I don't believe that will be necessary, since we are only giving you terms for surrender." Shax smirked malevolently.

"What?" Liem said, shocked, laying a hand on the hilt of his katana.

Maru motioned for Liem to make no moves; he didn't seem overly worried by Shax's bold statement.

"And what makes you so certain that we will surrender under any terms? We have repelled your forces for countless years." The king said.

"We have great force of numbers and power, as well the Goddess lends us strength. Quite simply, you and your people don't stand a chance. It would be much simpler and far les bloody if you were to surrender, don't you agree?"

"I agree only in that bloodshed should be avoided." Maru responded with a patronizing smile. "For the sake of diplomacy, what are the terms you are offering?"

"You are to disarm your army, all shrines to other gods are to be destroyed, the monarchy will be abolished and you will be placed under the jurisdiction and rule of one of Myria's chosen."

"You'll forgive me if I seem less than enthusiastic at your terms. I'm not sure our people would agree with the destruction of Ladon's temples, we have many who are very faithful to Ladon. This is the people's decision, you'll have to return in a few days, so I may have an answer by then. Liem, have these men escorted to their mounts, I have to speak with you a moment."

Liem had some of the samurai guard escort and he turned to the king, ready to receive his orders.

"He's going to attack us." The king stated. "He has found some power or way to get an army up into the city, otherwise he wouldn't be doing reconnaissance in the guise of 'peace' talks."

"Then he wont wait for your answer. I'll begin to have the citizens move into the catacombs beneath the city." Liem said.

"No... no, have them ready to evacuate the city. If Shax has some power to destroy the city, then it is best we get our people to safety and the catacombs have no exits, they would be trapped. Of course, our army does have one element of surprise."

"My lord?"

"My brother thinks me ignorant of the world outside, of Myria's lapdog Shax. But I have been informed of him and he knows nothing of the Dragon Clan other than that Myria wants us all dead. Our Clan's powers are almost completely unknown to other Clans. We can use that to our advantage. I've already seen how he treated the dragon whelp, one of our children. Those who can transform will fly right by their forces."

Shax and his knight escort had reached the platform where their griffins awaited them. The noble beasts appeared nervous, anxious to be away from the city that held the likenesses of their greatest enemy, the dragon. Shax graced the city with one last condescending sneer before they flew into the sky and into the fog.

Within a pocket of the fog Shax's griffin mounted army waited for him. As Maru had surmised, Shax was not going to wait for any reply from the king, however, the Dragon Clan had far less time than he thought. Thousands of soldiers upon griffin-back, but that alone would never be enough to take the dragons' city; there were also floating platforms of bone, sinew, chrysm and cloth: those were Morgion's magi, called Necromancers. They controlled the fog, but that was merely for cover, their true power would be for the battle to come.

"My Lord, do we strike?" One lieutenant asked.

"They are not warriors, these barbarians. We shall crush them easily. Prepare the first assault!" Shax ordered.

The necromancers that controlled the fog ceased their chanting and the fog began to dissipate. Many of the necromancers stood and raising their staves and chanting, the crystal tips of their staves began to glow. With their staves they drew the characters for Hakai (destruction), burning, glowing red lines in the air marking the passage of the staves. From the glowing symbol beams of light rained down upon the city, the first struck one of the guard towers causing that part to explode in fire and stone. The structural integrity of the tower compromised, the tower fell. More beams of light and fire raked across the city, causing explosions and fire to erupt in the city. Shax watched the destruction and fire, sadistic gleam in his eye.

"Prepare for the second assault!" He ordered.

One necromancer, with shoulder armour made of skulls and a staff made of bones, stood and raised his staff.

"Wake o fallen seed, rise o violent spirits. Heed thy eternal desire and wreak violence upon the world and she the blood of mine enemies for they are now thine. Rise o spirit and bind thyself in the black metal, raise thy new swords and cut a swath of destruction and death through the soft flesh and slake thy thirst for battle." The lord necromancer chanted.

Below in the city, people ran, panicked, trying to escape, to evacuate the city. Soldiers and samurai dashed all over the place saving those they could, trying to clear paths. One such trio of citizens ran through the city, buildings burning and crumbling around them. A beam of light raked through one of the towers around them and it began to collapse from the point where it was struck. It halted suddenly and fell over and a wall of flames erupted around it. Of the citizen, a woman, tripped over some debris and fell, crying out as she did. Her two male friends turned and ran to save her, one stopped as he heard a noise in the flames. He gazed into the flickering flames and saw huge silhouettes, hearing the rhythmic clanging of metal boots against stone. The first silhouette emerged from the fire, a great armoured figure. It was covered from head to toe in black metal armour and carried a rather large broad sword and only two red lights glowed in the eye slits. This creature was called a ghost knight and was created from violent spirits that haunted battlefields. They were not actual spirits of the dead, but rather of the aggressive emotions of fallen warriors. They would bring together than inhabit the armour of the dead and roam the world in an attempt to quench their desire to kill by spilling the blood of all who crossed their path. They were easy enough to summon by a necromancer of sufficient power and to control them all they needed was to be directed towards an enemy in battle. And through the flames they continued to march. The lead knight marched forward and raised his great sword, preparing to strike the fallen woman. She turned away, closed her eyes and prepared for the end as the sword descended. The clang of metal on metal resounded and she opened her eyes and looked to see Liem, as he blocked the swords fall with his katana. He shuddered as the ghost knight used its greater height and weight to push him down, but Liem would not be moved. The woman was helped to her feet and they ran off, leaving Liem to deal with the knights alone. Liem spun out of the way of the knight and its sword came crashing into the ground. Liem slashed at the knight knocking it back and then finished it off with a side-slash to its 'neck'. The creature fell and did not get up. Liem turned to face his next foe and fond that the next ghost knight was about to cut him down as its sword was raised, poised to strike. It halted its attack as a thrown dagger lodged itself in the knight's eye socket. The creature turned to face this new attack and found its 'throat' impaled upon the blade of a naginata. The creature fell back and Maru pulled his weapon free of the knight.

"My lord what are you doing..." Liem began.

"Saving you I should think." Maru replied as more samurai began to engage the ghost knights. "I underestimated him... I didn't expect him to attack this soon. We have to retreat and protect the citizens, give them time to escape."

"Standing retreat!" Liem called out, signalling the samurai should retreat slowly.

Shax watched the destruction; with the ghost knights and the initial attacks of the necromancers, his strategy could not fail, the dragons would die this day. A flight of dragons flew towards and past them. Shax had told his soldiers to ignore them because they were mere beasts and not worth the time of his army. The Goddess had ordered the destruction of the Dragon Clan and that was their sole mission.

Shax looked his army over once more before giving the orders for the attack. As he signalled, the magic attacks of the necromancers ceased and the countless griffins descended upon the city, depositing their charges in the city so they could attack. The griffins, their job done, flew back up into the sky as the soldiers continued the slaughter in the streets below. The smell of blood and burnt flesh wafted into the sky and Shax smiled at the delicious scent, which represented the will of his beloved Goddess being carried out.

On the ground, at the palace gates, Liem and Maru directed the defences of the city, directing soldiers and civilians alike. The king, however, was distracted for his wife Rose had gone into the city to do what she could for the citizens and she had yet to return. Hours had come and gone since the initial assault had begun and things looked grim for the Dragon Clan. Many had escaped in dragon form, it was true, but countless more had fallen as lambs to Shax's slaughter.

As smoke, fire and the scent of blood rose into the sky, Shax descended into the city. After he had dismounted his griffin it would wait patiently for his return. Shax walked the streets and looked at all the bodies that lay there, massacred by his army. Some burned still in the flames wrought by the necromancers, their flesh, blackened, curled in the fires heat, their mouths agape with unheard death screams. The ghost knights had disembowelled others; arms, legs and sometimes head strewn about, cut from the body and in the case where heads were available, their eyes were wide in death, expressions of fear and pleading frozen upon their faces. His soldiers had pierced many with arrows and many of the fallen grasped the projectiles with cold, dead hands; their last futile gesture were a useless attempt to remove the bolts from their bodies. Small rivers of blood ran through the streets, sometimes pooling beneath the bodies or in the cracks in the streets. Blood of both civilian and soldier flowed, but it mattered not to Shax; the weak died and the strong lived, that was the way the world worked. He stopped suddenly and turned; a woman cowered by her house. Shax walked over to her calmly and she continued to shiver in fear. She tried to move away, but was not fast enough as he grabbed her by her throat and lifted her off the ground. She would have begged, pleaded with him to have mercy, to let her go, but she had not the breath to speak as Shax crushed her windpipe. He dropped the woman's corpse and smiled, another dragon clansman dead by his hand. He turned as he heard an anguished cry behind him; he turned to see a farmer carrying a scythe with a look of immense sorrow and anger upon his face. The farmer must have been the woman's husband, or so Shax thought. The man charged him in rage, trying to slash him with the scythe, but Shax easily dodged each attack. As the scythe came down once more, Shax grabbed the man's wrist and twisted, breaking the man's wrist and forcing him to drop the scythe. Shax then grabbed the man by the face, lifted him off the ground and slammed his head in to the street, placing his full weight upon the man's skull. Shax could feel the man's cranium squish beneath his fingers and smiled in satisfaction as he saw blood and grey matter leak out of the back of the man's skull. The impact had been so great that the street itself was broken where the corpse lay, the blood draining into the cracks. Shax stood and heard a growling behind him. He turned to see a dragon whelp hissing at him in anger and Shax growled in irritation.

"And now even the savages' pets try to attack me." He growled as he simply beheaded the whelp with his axe.

The head of the whelp fell and its blood mixed with the blood of the others. Shax cleaned off his axe and walked away, heading to rejoin the front line of troops. The front lines, within sight of the castle, were shooting the fleeing citizens with arrows. Some fell, some did not and Shax frowned at the incompetence of his soldiers. He reached out and grabbed one of the soldiers' bows.

"You shoot like this." He said as he knocked back an arrow, picked a target and fired.

At the palace gates, overlooking the mayhem, carnage and blood spilling were Liem and Maru. Doing their best to save as many people as they could, they fought off attacks, gave orders and saved those they could, though the tide of battle was already against them. Maru desperately searched for Rose in the crowd, and at last spotted her at the edge of the crowd, trying to herd the people towards the palace.

'What is she doing out here? She has our child to care for, she can't be so reckless.' Maru thought.

He started to wade through the crowd, to get to her when suddenly she staggered forward. Time seemed to slow for him as he saw her, a shocked expression on her face, stumble forward and fall, an arrow protruding from her back. Maru stumbled forward and Liem grabbed him, preventing him from falling. Maru did not struggle, but seemed to slump in defeat. Liem dragged him back to the gates and once there, Maru turned to his most trusted friend.

"Liem... I want you to take Ryu and leave the city." He stated flatly.

"My lord?" Liem said surprised. "What about you, the queen?"

"The queen is dead, we are defeated... take my son through the secret caves, you'll find them in the Rookery. Just get away... far away from the war, from fighting." Maru said.

Liem hesitated, the king was his liege lord and his friend and he could not abandon him so lightly.

"That is an order!" Maru growled. "Take my son away from this war... save the last of my family."

Liem closed his eyes and resigned himself. He stood up and walked away from the king. Once inside the palace he spotted the midwife's apprentice and she appeared to be in shock. Liem knelt before her, clutching her shoulders. He looked straight into her eyes, hoping she was listening.

"Girl, we need to get the prince to safety. Will you help me?" He asked.

"S-s-s-s-she's d-d-d-dead... they killed her, chopped off her head..." She rambled in fear.

"Will you help me get the prince to safety? I need you to help me." He said more forcefully, shaking her a bit.

She seemed to come out of her fear, acknowledging Liem's presence. She nodded and rose and they both ran down the corridor to the king's chambers, where Ryu slept. When they entered the room, Liem told her to gather the child and the things she would need to care for him. Liem killed two soldiers, beheading them quickly, as she hurriedly gathered the sleeping Ryu and some supplies. Once she was done, they hurried to the Rookery; she attempted to keep Ryu calm and quiet as they did. Fortunately the soldiers had yet to progress so far within the palace and they encountered no resistance. Once inside, Liem searched for the secret passage while the girl sang a lullaby to Ryu to keep him from fussing. Once he found the passage they both went into the underground and prayed to the dragon god, Ladon, they would be safe.

Shax stood at the gates of the palace with his two lieutenants. Many other soldiers had gone to finish off the remainder of the Dragon Clansmen remaining in the city.

"What is taking so long?" Shax demanded.

"We don't know, sir. As far as we know there is only one person remaining in the palace, sir." One lieutenant said.

"And the men we sent in are incapable of killing one person? Fine, I'll kill him myself." Shax growled.

Shax shoved the two soldiers out of his way and entered the palace. He walked to the throne room where he saw the men he sent in lying in a pool of their own blood. He looked upon the throne where sat the king. His expression was calm, cold in fact, but there were tears streaming down his face.

"You don't seriously expect me to believe that the leader of a pacifist clan would kill, do you?" Shax smirked.

"You'd be surprised what you can be pushed to do when you've lost everything." The King said, sheathing his sword.

"Surrendering? Good, I would hate to have to waste my strength fighting a weakling." Shax sneered.

Maru placed the sword above the throne and began to laugh. It was a laughter bordering on madness and Shax frowned.

"Surrender? That was never an option you were going to give us... I was a fool to think you'd even wait, you only came here to confirm things you'd heard about our people." Maru laughed. "Myria never told you why she wanted us dead did she? And you never asked... heh heh ha! Not very good for a soldier, you should find out everything you can about your enemy."

Maru stepped towards Shax and the latter raised his axe, prepared to strike the former down. Maru's body shuddered and convulsed and he screamed as immense bat-like wings erupted from his back. His skin darkened and hardened into scales, his muscles grew and thickened his body altered and grew. He changed into the Rudra dragon, a transformation used by the royal family alone, it was also the most powerful dragon of the Dragon Clan at that time. Shax looked at the dragon, realizing that all those dragons that had flown by him had been his targets, no matter what happened today the Dragon Clan would survive and Shax would hunt them down.

"I am Shax, I am Myria's CHOSEN! I WILL NOT ALLOW SOME BEAST TO BEST ME!" He roared, charging the dragon.

No one outside the palace knew what happened or how long it was until the dragon's death scream roared. They only knew that their general emerged from the palace tired and he was holding the left side of his face.

"My lord, are you all right?" One soldier asked, rushing over to Shax.

Shax said nothing, his face twisted in fury. Without warning, he punched the soldier and all could here the man's jaw shatter. Shax's left hand, the hand he used to cover his left eye and to hit the soldier, was drenched in his own blood. A hideous scar ran down his left eye and bled profusely.

"We're leaving. We have a lot of work to do." Shax said to his soldiers.

At about that time, at the base of the mountain, a rock was pushed aside and Liem and the girl with Ryu, emerged from the secret passage. Liem breathed in the air and looke towards the top of the mountain where his home once lay. Smoke rose from the top and tears filled the girl's eyes. Liem did his best to console her.

"We are going to be travelling for a while. We have no rank and I would prefer it if you referred to me by name and not 'my lord'. My name is Liem, Liem dragnis. What is your name?" He asked of the girl.

"My name is Elle Serpos." She said quietly, holding Ryu close to her.

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"Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight." (Black knight, Magic: The Gathering.)

Music for this chapter: "Goddess Myria", Final Battle theme (Breath of Fire 3)

1)- Each clan has a different culture a different way of thinking. As I said before, the Dragon Clan is like Feudal era Japan; the humans are like medieval Europe and the Woren are like colonization era Native Americans; to name a few.

2)- As each clan has a different culture they also have languages different from others. Common is the human's language; it is a language that is easy to learn and many people know how to speak it.