Ascendants of Ancients Sovereign - By Phillip Jones Page 0,188

inside before he let the door close behind him with a thud.

The barbarian looked in his direction.

Double D smirked as the barbarian grumbled and turned back around to continue to pee into the large hole that was provided for the Bloody Trough’s patrons.

Double D shook his head from under his invisible veil. Many of the men from the north were crude. When drinking, the less educated liked to drop their pants around their ankles to show off their manhood. They did not care for privacy or modesty. This animalistic display did not bother the assassin, in fact, the barbarian’s mannerisms made his job easier.

Double D moved toward his prey. With the big barbarian’s back to him, he slid the mask to the top of his head and re-materialized. With a big smile crossing his face, he looked down at the leather pants that were bunched around the barbarian’s legs. A large knife rested in a sheath on the big man’s belt. It was army issue—the pride of the barbarian kingdom carved into its handle. The assassin moved closer and crouched into a position where he could retrieve the blade.

The man was so drunk, his stream of urine was moving all about as he swayed back and forth. At one point, the stream caught the edge of the barbarian’s pants. The splash from the spray landed on Double D’s hand.

Disgusted, the assassin pulled his victim’s blade free of its sheath. He lifted the tip of the weapon within a width of a fist of the barbarian’s buttocks.

The blade—three hands long, half a hand high and half a finger thick at its widest point—had hooks that ran along the top of the blade and rolled back toward the assassin’s hand. The barbarians took pride in their craftsmanship. They claimed that a sharper blade could not be found in all of Southern Grayham.

Savoring the moment, the assassin shoved the blade into the barbarian’s rectum. A twinkle of satisfaction filled Double D’s eyes as he lifted upward in the direction of the hooks and then ripped the knife out.

Chunks of the barbarian’s flesh fell to the floor of the shed as Double D ducked to avoid the barbarian’s elbow as the man from the north spun around.

Blood flowed freely in all directions as the barbarian’s drunkenness caused him to lose control of his spin. His leather pants tightened around his feet and caused him to fall face first into the hole.

The assassin made sure he gave his victim the necessary moments to roll over so that he could see his face. Satisfied that the barbarian knew his imminent death had been dealt by the hand of a man he had earlier degraded, Double D nodded. He pulled the mask back over his face and darted out of the shed, leaving the barbarian bleeding profusely and lying in a pile of piss and garesh.

The screams the big man released were horrific, but his cries would go unanswered. The barbarian’s tormented sounds would leave an everlasting impression in Double D’s ruthless mind. He would relish his enjoyment of the moment as he made his way to the other side of the village to enter the second leg of Skeleton Pass.

The people of Gessler would find the barbarian the next morning. He was covered by maggots and flies, and small, flesh eating bugs called sysers. The barbarian was unrecognizable—his face eaten to the bone, and there was no telling how many drunken beings pissed on him during the night and had not realized it.

CHAPTER 26

Sick of this Royal Crap

SAM, SHALEE, BJ, AND Helga arrived in the town of Empire five nights prior to Double D slaying the barbarian in Gessler. Empire was a small town with little military presence, despite being a part of Brandor’s kingdom.

Sam won his first fight in front of this populace who worshiped the Goddess of Fire. His fight was to the death, and his ribs took an awful beating. They were bruised, and the skin above them was lacerated, and Sam did not have the necessary Peaks to heal before his next fight.

Meanwhile, Shalee worked with Helga to increase her power. She continued to astonish the older woman with her successes. Shalee had still suffered just the one failure since her first day of training in Angels Village. For privacy, the girls practiced outside of Empire in a heavily wooded area. Not one soul bothered them, and this spot proved to be the perfect place to go back to each night.

Helga’s staff