The One after my Heart

About seven thousand miles away towards the north of Kethran mountain, an old broken down massive fort amid a rocky terrain was built into a massive rock relief.

This rocky mountain relief was surrounded by about a hundred similar ones all around as the ranges spanned for more than a thousand miles wide. It was familiarly known as the Stonehedge ranges.

The aforementioned old fort built into the rock itself had one of the older types of architecture. Few historians claimed that perhaps a small local kingdom ruled over these ranges years ago in the past. And since the fort was built into the rock itself, it was camouflaged naturally up to a certain extent.

The fort was protected by a massive natural stone wall all around it, thus protecting it from outsiders. The only way into this place was supposedly the two huge iron gates at the front on a narrow path from outside.

This empty, desolated place had been recently converted into one of the bases that stragglers secretly operated from, as they planned to turn it into one of their strongholds.

Since it was a secret base, they had to keep their numbers to a minimum to not gather any attention. Each and every Straggler in here was no different than any other vicious bandit out there. Robbery, kidnapping, extortion- you name it, and they'd have boasted of having done it all.

The organisation these Stragglers belonged to was so intricately connected and so hidden that even the three domains had trouble eradicating them. This organisation had also managed to recruit people and powers from all three domains.

They had managed to successfully bribe, assassinate or secretly meld their way into the higher ranks or structures in all three domains, thus having access at all high levels possible.

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Yet now, the seemingly desolate silent fort was barraged with booming sounds coming from outside the walls. The large iron gates were being battered by something loudly from the outside.

Around nine men kept grunting and pushing against the wall with all their might as they resisted the battering force from outside.

Meanwhile, around eight men held large, sturdy bows as they shot extremely sharp arrows at a single figure away who stood outside.

"Hold on!! Just wait until the commanders show up!! What the hell are they doing!!?" barked a large stout man with a thick beard who seemed like the leader among these men as he arrived. "Tell those archers to take the damn woman down!! She's just a single person!"

"She's a witch, Grubslaw! And apparently, it looks like, one who is quite talented at the earth element! She has a natural advantage in a place like this! Our arrows don't work against her. We need the commanders right now!!!!" shouted back a man frustratedly from one of the top columns that were a guard post as he kept on aiming his arrows and shooting them with his comrades.

The large man Grubslaw also famously nicknamed as the 'Mad Finger' amongst the stragglers, complained within as he angrily muttered under his breath.

He had earned that nickname ever since people found out he loved to torture his captives physically as he mutilated them to death. Later, he would chop off their little fingers, and then add the bone as a souvenir to his trophy necklace.

'If the commanders weren't held up inside occupied themselves, of course, they'd be out right now to assist and finish off this damn black woman.', he thought to himself and cursed his subordinate. 'How did they find out about this place anyways?"

Looking at it, it seems their scouts who were scattered on the perimeters around were killed off as well, else they'd have time to prepare and deal with it appropriately.

From time to time, large boulders as large as ten feet kept striking against the iron gates from the outside. The knocking seemed to be non-stop, but it didn't seem to be forcing itself in; instead more like an incessant knocking against the metal gate that rang their ears.

The lonely figure outside seemed to be toying with them as it looked like she was in no hurry to come inside. He could guess she was surely capable enough to force her way through.

'Don't tell me, she's the one who's blocking us from going out rather than the other way around!?', thought Grubslaw, and as this thought sank in, his countenance changed.

Grubslaw couldn't help glancing fearfully behind him towards the interior of their stronghold as he heard sounds of roars, shrieks and bellows came from within the castle.

Loud deafening sounds of booms and crashes were heard non-stop.

His eyes widened in realisation. They were being attacked from within and the outside at the same time!

'Escape! They had to escape!', he swiftly decided.

He cursed his fate as he then realised the only way to get out was through the gates. They'd never gotten around to completing any secret tunnels or pathway from within the stronghold to outside yet since it'd been just recently when they'd claimed this place. They were trapped by themselves within!

Grubslaw bellowed out, "Escape! If the commanders can't deal with the intruder soon enough inside, it only means it's that there's someone stronger than them. Better risk our luck against the young witch and run. We've to let the news out! Unless you want to die today!"

"What about the captives, Mad Finger?" asked one of his men who stood behind the iron gates ready for support. "Should we kill them? And what about the rest of our men inside with the commanders? We might need the extra help."

"Shut up! Leave the hostages, they might buy us some time. They've been marked anyways. Besides, I don't want to go back in there. As for the rest of our brothers inside, we can't let their sacrifice be in vain.", replied Grubslaw grimly as his eyes darted towards the interiors.

He had no idea what was happening inside, but listening to the sounds of shrieks, bellows and roars, he guessed it wasn't going well.

The men's hearts around Grubslaw chilled as they heard the fate of their fellow comrades.

"Hold on, grab a few of those shackles that work on them", Grubslaw added after a moment of thought.

The men around him started as they didn't think the situation wasn't this bad. In no time, panic set in as all they thought was how to survive. Rather than pushing against the iron gates, they put their strength into opening them.

The large iron gates loudly creaked as they opened up outwards. Around twenty men ran out with all kinds of weapons in their hands. Grubs held a large sword in his hand while the other held chains with cuffs that looked very similar to the one's that Kyra was earlier imprisoned with at Kethran mountain.

The men warily formed around in a semi-circle at a distance from her. Like hunters staring at their prey, they stared at the person in front of them.

An athletic, beautiful dark brown-skinned woman with crop hair wearing leather clothes stood there as she faced the men at the front.

Far behind her, on the narrow road behind her, were seven dead bodies of the men she'd just killed.

"What took you bugs so long to open up?" asked Bree with a mocking grin on her face, though her eyes were seething in anger as she looked at the unwelcoming faces glaring at her.