Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king

The pursuit was not orderly. It was not measured. It was savage, blood-mad fury loosed from a chain held too tight for too long.

Through defeat, they came achieving now victory, pouring over the mud-slicked field like a dam had broken inside each of them.

Gone was the restraint of formation, the discipline of the shield wall. Now there was only the thirst for blood they were owed. Their war-cries ripped through the air like blades, echoing in double the tongue.

They ran, spears lowered, blades bared, teeth gritted so hard some cracked. They were men no longer. They were fury made flesh.

The Duskwindai scattered before them, desperate feet slipping in the slurry of blood and churned-up earth. Some dropped their weapons, hands raised in vain surrender.

The Yarzat gave no quarter.

They plunged their spears into exposed backs, ripped swords through spines and kidneys, bashed skulls in with dented shields still sticky from earlier kills. Blood misted the air. Tendons snapped beneath iron boots. A man tripped on a corpse and was run through the throat before he could scream.

One Yarzat soldier, a boy no older than sixteen, leapt onto the back of a fleeing warrior twice his size and drove his dagger into his neck again and again, face blank as a butcher's.

Another, this time a Chorsi, roared as he ripped the fur helm from a Duskwindai and beat his face in with a rock, screaming some words between each blow.

And through it all came a sound not of agony or horror, but of elation—pure and mad and terrifying.

Laughter.

Laughter from men who should have been broken by the slaughter behind them.Laughter from those who had been outnumbered and nearly crushed.Laughter like wolves at the throat of a dying elk.

They had earned it. The blood. The chase. The kill.

Valen's men did not pursue because they had to.They pursued because they wanted to. Because deep in the marrow of every soul that had held the line, who had seen comrades fall and refused to break, they needed this.

Retribution was the coin of war, and now they collected with interest as the bill finally reached his time.

The Duskwindai ran, and the Yarzat followed, blood-soaked, howling in the name of the prince, in the name of their fallen, in the name of the fire that still burned in their chests.

Valen watched his men descend into the hunt, red-cloaked reapers carving a path through the fleeing Duskwindai.

Part of him, deep, buried under pain and duty and battered muscle, longed to join them. To ride down one last foe. To feel the crunch of his blade cleave through flesh. To taste the final, savage note of the victory he had carved with his own hands.

But as he shifted in his saddle, a jolt of pain bloomed in his ribs, a dull, throbbing ache that made his breath hitch. No blood, thankfully. The armor had taken the brunt of the blow. Still, bone didn't need to break to scream.

Doesn't feel broken.Thank the gods.

He winced as he turned, surveying the wider battlefield. To the center, the enemy's rear ranks began to unravel, hesitant at first, then all at once. The rout had begun. They didn't yet know their chieftain lay dying, a javelin buried in his chest. They didn't need to. The collapse of the right was enough. The fear had rippled through them like rot through fruit.

Only the left remained. But not for long. That, too, would fall. The day was won. It was done.

He cast his eyes back to his own men, his blood-soaked wolves, racing through the wreckage in pursuit of their fleeing prey. The idea of rallying a few, dragging them away from their kill to aid the center or the left, flickered briefly through his mind.

But he saw their eyes. Wild. Glazed. Laughing.Too drunk on the euphoria of slaughter.And truthfully, he was too drained to bother.

His sword arm felt like it had been carved from stone, heavy and stiff. His shoulder throbbed. His legs ached from hours of riding and killing and commanding. Every part of him cried for rest. But none of it mattered.

It had been worth it.

By his hand, they had not only survived, but triumphed. He had salvaged a broken plan, turned chaos into victory, and handed the prince not just a battlefield, but a foothold on this gods-forsaken land. It would shift the tides. Elevate his name and career.

But that was for tomorrow.

Today, he was just a man at the end of a long battle, breathing through pain and watching his soldiers paint their glory in blood and ash.

A soft voice broke his trance.

"Commander," one of his guards said, noticing the exhaustion settling in Valen's frame. "Shall we fall back to camp?"

Valen didn't answer right away. He simply looked ahead. At the dying sun pouring gold across the broken field. At the Yarzat, a blur of crimson and steel, finishing what had begun at dawn.

A painting wrought in death.His masterpiece.

"No," he said at last, his voice low, almost reverent. "We'll return later. For now…"

His tired eyes lingered on the scene, a rare softness in them.

"I just want to look at it a little longer."

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Hours passed before Valen finally turned his horse back toward camp, each step of the beast slow, measured, echoing his own exhaustion. The field behind him was littered with death, bodies strewn from the muddy trenches to the charred ridge where the second phase of battle had turned. Corpses twisted in awkward angles, some torn open with entrails spilled like ropes, others frozen mid-crawl, arms outstretched as if trying to reach the lives they once had.

Steel and blood had made art of flesh.

He was tired. Truly, bone-deep tired.

"Friend of Chorsi! There you are!"

The voice cracked across the silence like a thunderclap. Valen didn't need to turn to know who it belonged to. That booming tone, louder than most war horns, could only come from one man.

Varaku.

He dismounted with a soft groan, dust and blood coating his boots. As the chieftain strode up, larger than life, Valen forced a weary smile.

"Honorable Chieftain, it is good to see you well. Especially after such a day."

"And what a day it's been!" Varaku bellowed, raising his axe high as if the spirits above were watching. "Our ancestors weep with joy! Their blood sings through ours in triumph!"

Only then did Valen notice the bulging sack in the chieftain's left hand. Heavy. Lumpy. And most importantly stained red.

He followed Valen's gaze, then grinned like a boy about to share a mischief. Without warning, Varaku opened the sack and tossed its contents straight at him.

Valen caught it by instinct alone.

The head that stared back at him was unmistakable, the man that Varaku had given the left. His lifeless eyes were still wide as the axe probably came as a surprise

Valen wouldn't lie to himself. There was satisfaction in holding it.

"Blind fool," Varaku muttered. "Thought brute force could carry the day. Good thing we had you. Glorious as it was, it would've ended in disaster without your hand."

He clapped Valen's shoulder, the weight of it almost making him stagger.

"What a warrior we have as a friend. To fell the giant of the Duskwindai with his own arm!"

Valen gave a wry smile. "It seems word travels fast."

"How could it not?" Varaku laughed. "Deeds like that aren't whispered, they're sung. You are a great and strong man, Valen. Tell me, are you wed?"

The question took Valen off guard, and he blinked, unsure how to answer. But Varaku, as ever, thundered on.

"I have a daughter. Thirteen winters. Still a few years yet before marriage, but when the time comes, would you become family, honored friend? Join our bloodlines?"

Valen hesitated. He did not scoff, nor did he reject it outright, he knew better. In tribes like these, honor bound through blood was worth more than any written treaty. But his mind was already running.

If I say yes now, the prince may raise an eyebrow…I just won a victory and could become wed with the daughter of his linchpin.

Too dangerous if seen as anything but loyal.

No, he couldn't risk seeming ambitious.

"I'm honored, Chieftain, truly. But I would ask first for permission from my prince."

Varaku paused, clearly puzzled, but nodded after a beat, rubbing his chin beneath his wild beard.

"Strange ways you outsiders have, but I understand. I only say this because I would be proud to call you son."

Valen nodded slowly, meeting his gaze. "And I'm proud to call you ally, Chieftain."

Varaku softened then, the warrior in him settling.

"Thanks to you, the hills are safe. We can herd again without fearing Duskwindai blades in the night. My people will not forget this as they sleep and herd in peace."

Valen dipped his head in appreciation. But behind his tired eyes, thoughts churned.

What would he say, Valen wondered, if he knew the prince's true designs for him? That he wasn't meant to herd sheep, but to herd men? That my prince would never allow his finest rope to rot away in tribal peace?

He, after all, had a duty to perform.