Chapter 72: Fierce Battle on a Rainy Night
Chapter 72: Fierce Battle on a Rainy Night
In the rainy night, within the corridor, the flickering flames of standing braziers, stirred by a cold gust of wind, cast menacing, claw-like shadows on the grey walls. The rain pitter-pattered, a relentless drumming that chilled the air. Splashed blood, dark and viscous, quickly spread and dyed the puddles on the ground a grim crimson.
A decapitated head, its eyes wide and vacant, having rolled through the mud, still bore a look of faint disbelief.
In the courtyard, the assassins who had been besieging the defending sergeants and squires all turned their heads at the sound. Clad in dark, practical leather that blended with the shadows, their faces were obscured by wet hoods, making them seem like phantoms born of the storm.
Watching this scene, they exchanged urgent words amongst themselves; the language they spoke sounded somewhat like Kurdish, likely Persian.
From the guttural, hurried exchange, Lothar could vaguely make out a few limited words like "formidable," "important person," and "quickly."
Many corpses already lay on the ground, their red and white surcoats, the proud colors of the Royal Knights, now sullied with mud and blood. The sound of the rain had masked the sounds of slaughter, the desperate cries and the clash of steel swallowed by the storm. Nearby guards had either been redeployed or assassinated; this battle, it seemed, had already been raging for a long time.
Following another burst of urgent conversation from the assassins, three of them near the corridor immediately broke off and charged towards Lothar, Hans, and Banu in a triangular formation, their blades glinting in the firelight. The others pressed their attack on the defending sergeants and squires with renewed, vicious vigor.
Lothar said in a low voice, "They want to take us out one by one. Then we shall strive to take ’them’ out one by one."
Hans and Banu nodded. But Banu’s footsteps involuntarily drew a little closer to Lothar. In battle, killing enemies was never Banu’s primary task. Even if Lothar demanded it, her most important duty remained ensuring Lothar’s safety. This was her responsibility as Lothars’s shield!
Lothar didn’t notice this; all his attention was focused on the opponent before him. This was a middle-aged man, shaven, indistinguishable in appearance from any Saracen slave accompanying a Frankish noble.