Bacorium Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page B

and helm, he spotted a gap where pale flesh could be seen - that was the spot where he drove his short sword.
    The man did not cry out as he died. He simply collapsed backwards, Luca's blade sliding out as he fell. He vanished into nothingness before he hit the ground, and the black-painted steel armour broke apart into many pieces in the snow.
    Luca then realised that he had just killed a man. Somehow, he had expected something more. It was odd how numb he felt - it almost frightened him. He'd thought it should have been harder - but this faceless soldier he had struck down hadn't felt like a true human being. Killing him had been easy - too easy.
    But there was no time to dwell on such things. Luca turned, seeing the small and pathetic village he resented in flames. He looked for his father, but he was nowhere in sight. Luca feared the worst, but he refused to accept that it was true until he saw it happen with his own eyes.
    A woman cried out as she was killed, and Luca spotted the soldier who had done it. The man pulled his sword up, still covered in her blood, and Luca was suddenly filled with blind rage.
    “Bastard!”
    The soldier turned to him, his armoured face looking towards Luca with no indication or surprise, regret, or humanity. As Luca ran towards him, he approached with a slow, unfettered march.
    Luca swung his short sword, and their blades met.
    “Why are you doing this?!” he demanded. “Who are you people?!”
    The soldier was silent.
    After two blocked strokes, a small fireball hit the soldier in the back, throwing him off guard. Not wasting the opportunity, Luca sprang forward and decapitated him.
    Arlea ran up to Luca, still emanating mana from the fireball she had thrown.
    “Are you okay?!” she asked him.
    “I told you to stay back at the hut!”
    She ignored that. “What's happening here? Who are these people?”
    “I don't know.”
    Arlea noticed the arrow in his leg and gasped. “You've been hit! Goodness, you're bleeding!”
    “Forget about that!” Luca shouted. “You have to get out of here! It's not safe, there's soldiers everywhere. Start running - I'll cover you so you can get away!”
    She shook her head and Luca cursed her obstinacy.
    “Damn it, get out of here! Everyone is dead already and this place is burning! All you can do is save yourself at this point!”
    “No, not without-”
    She never finished that sentence. An arrow came flying, perhaps meant for Luca, and struck Arlea in the throat. She stumbled back in shock, choked out a sound that may have been his name, and collapsed, fading to nothing before she hit the ground.
    Everything seemed to stop. Luca felt cold. Colder than he had ever felt before. He couldn't believe his eyes - it didn't feel like it had really happened.
    “Arlea...”
    Blind rage filled Luca.
    He turned with a feral growl and spotted the archer who had killed Arlea. He charged, a second arrow somehow missing him as he closed in, and swung his sword, slicing open the man's throat with a single stroke. The archer hit the ground and twitched helplessly for a moment before death took him.
    That was three of them he had killed so far, he found himself thinking.
    Luca slipping away from view, hiding behind one of the few houses not yet on fire. Few villagers remained now. It was clear these people had come to kill, not to pillage or rape, but to simply kill every person present. It was an extermination.
    “...why?!”
    “Luca!”
    He turned. Lodin had appeared behind him, his face pale and eyes wide. Luca exhaled in relief, thankful that his father still lived.
    “Arlea was with you, wasn't she?” Lodin asked. “What happened?”
    “Dead,” he said in a cold voice.
    Lodin's face grew paler. “Come,” he insisted. “We have to flee. There's nothing we can do here now.”
    “Flee?”
    Luca didn't understand. His father had never been a coward, nor had he ever been one to let innocent people die. Why would he want to run away now?
    He noticed that