10: Exiled Lord — Chapter 10 – Survivors, Let Me Communicate with You in Blood and Iron 10: Exiled Lord — Chapter 10 – Survivors,
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The wooden door exploded inward with a crash that carried far through the grey mist, shattering the dead silence along the city walls.
Rotting Corpses all around let out eerie, mournful wails.
Field watched the skull markers converge rapidly on his mini-map, heard the faint roars bleeding in at the edge of his hearing, and broke into a cold sweat before he could stop himself.
The Rotting Corpse inside the room never got the chance to attack.
Athena swung her Long Blade and slashed across its neck in one clean motion.
Blood sprayed across the wall, painting the entire room in a wash of dark purple.
A second Rotting Corpse lunged immediately, its cheek split wide open, the gash stretching all the way back to the base of its ear.
If that thing bit you, it wouldn’t leave a scratch.
It would leave a crater.
Athena sidestepped it like the threat wasn’t worth her full attention, flipping her Long Blade as she moved.
Empowered by terrifying strength, half the Rotting Corpse’s head simply ceased to exist.
Dark, foul blood gushed from the gaping wound and began pooling across the floor.
“Roar!” The sounds of combat drew them.
A mass of Corrupted Soldiers surged from the corridor, white eyes rolled back in their skulls, crowding and shoving as they poured out to kill.
The Slaves waved their farming tools in restless, nervous loops.
Nobody stepped forward.
The monsters alone were bad enough.
These ones were wearing heavy armor on top of it.
“Damn it,” Field muttered.
“Just how many people got infected?” “Flame!” Athena released the Dragon-blood Wolf.
Its massive body filled the corridor nearly wall to wall.
Specks of magical energy gathered in an instant, streaming together like a river of stars pouring into its jaws.
The Dragon-blood Wolf opened its mouth and spewed a tremendous blast of spectral blue fire.
The Corrupted Soldiers in the corridor vanished into the inferno, only a few twisting, struggling silhouettes visible for a moment before those disappeared too.
“What terrifying power.” The Slaves had been torn between running and fighting.
They never expected the battle to end in the span of a single breath.
A few had caught a glimpse of the silhouettes swallowed by the flames.
The rest just stared at the ashes on the ground.
“So that’s the power of a God-chosen.” Field’s confidence swelled.
Time to stop playing it safe.
“Shame it burned the loot.” He raised his voice.
“Everyone — make noise.
As much as you can.
Draw the nearby Rotting Corpses here and we’ll wipe them out.” The Slaves got to work, banging and smashing everything in reach.
Athena and her Dragon-blood Wolf handled the rest, grinding down each wave that answered the call.
It didn’t take long.
“Now.” He let the greedy smile come naturally.
“Let’s find something valuable.
Armaments and gold coins especially.” He’d barely dispersed the Slaves when one came sprinting back, practically vibrating with excitement.
“My Lord!
We found survivors!” “Huh?” Field didn’t feel any joy.
He glanced around slowly, taking stock of what that meant.
“Athena.
Recall your wolf.
This is not the time to be showing our hand.” Without enough time to build his power base, letting anyone know he had a God-chosen was suicide.
His stepmother would have an assassin on him before the week was out, and Athena would simply be reassigned to a new master.
Exposing it to the Slaves was a different matter.
They were always within his reach, and with a single thought he could send every last one of them to the afterlife.
The survivors might know where the important supplies are, he reasoned.
The survivors had holed up inside a Bunker built into the city wall.
Someone had splashed Purification Potion across the door, barely enough to hold back the Grey Mist for a while.
They’d opened up the moment they heard living voices on the other side.
“Thank the Valkyrie.
I thought we’d be stuck in here a week.
By the end we’d have been eating each other’s waste to survive.” The bearded officer cracked that disgusting joke with apparent ease, straightened his uniform, and flashed Field a smile.
“Let me guess — newly promoted Knight?
I’ll make sure to report your deeds to Baron Bull.” “Too kind.
It was nothing.” Field tilted his head, trying to see past him into the Bunker.
Two soldiers shifted to block his view.
All ten of the bearded officer’s men were in there.
“Where’s your Squire?” The officer glanced over Field’s Slave soldiers, the ones holding farming tools, with visible contempt.
Field shrugged.
“I’m not a Knight.
I’m Baron Field.” “Oh?
Baron Field.” The bearded man’s expression shifted into something harder to read.
“The one who doesn’t have a single guard to his name.
Your people mentioned you when they came to make donations.” His face cycled through several changes.
He cut a look at his men, then turned back to Field with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Lord Baron.
I’ve heard you’re a generous soul.
I wonder if you might help us with something.” That tone was off.
The original owner of this body had been generous, sure.
Field raised an eyebrow and played dumb.
“Go ahead.” “We’d been drinking.
Forgot to light the Mist-dispelling Lamp.
“That’s a serious problem.
Baron Bull doesn’t forgive mistakes like that.
We’d be executed for certain.” Is this really something I’m allowed to hear for free?
“So…” Field let the amusement show on his face.
“You want to defect to me?” “Hahaha!” The soldiers burst into laughter, hands tightening on their weapons.
“We’re getting out of here!
But we’ll need a noble’s entire life savings to do it.
And if we kill you, nobody will know we were here for a good long while.” “This is how you treat your benefactor?” Field was genuinely pissed.
His original plan had been to recruit the survivors, locate the supplies, and cut them down if they didn’t cooperate.
That was just pragmatism.
But being the one provoked, that was something else entirely.
The bearded man waved it off.
“If we’d had a Mist-dispelling Lamp, we’d have fought our way out already.
You’re nothing.” Field snorted a laugh.
“What are you laughing at?” The bearded man raised his military saber.
Field’s calm expression seemed to throw him.
“Honestly?
I was planning to loot this place from the start.
So this works out perfectly, if I kill you all, there aren’t any witnesses.” Field’s voice didn’t change.
“Athena.
Do it.” The soldier beside the bearded man exploded into motion, short blade driving straight at Field’s chest.
A spectral blue shape flashed past in the space between heartbeats.
The soldier’s arm came away from his body the way you’d pull a leg off a grasshopper, no resistance whatsoever.
CLANG!
The air froze.
The short blade hit the stone floor.
Then the soldier crumpled, clutching the stump of his arm as blood fountained through his fingers, screaming until his voice broke.
“My arm — my arm!” The spectral blue giant wolf sealed off the entire corridor.
Its body was layered in dense armor plates, and it sat there like a tank that had decided to take a personal interest in the situation.
“Monster!” Several soldiers stumbled backward, terror written across every face.
“What the, wasn’t Baron Field supposed to have nothing?
A complete waste with no backing whatsoever?” The bearded officer stared, dumbstruck.
He wanted, very badly, to get his hands on whoever had started those rumors.
Field licked the corner of his mouth.
The original owner had been a good man.
That had nothing to do with him.
“Athena, cripple every single one of them.” He raised his voice so the Slaves could hear.
“And everyone else: here’s your chance to harden up.
Kill one, earn one silver coin.” ➤ Next: Baseness — The Noble’s Passport