The Kingdom

The singing did not dissuade the horde, who seemed to become incensed by the lack of fear of the opponent that they had singled out in the night. Evanik dogs leaped forward with huge canines bared for Kuri, who suddenly wasn't where he had just been.

His feet seemed to slide along the sand in a whisper of sound, as the sword flashed left and right seemingly everywhere at once. Unholy howls rent the night, for it was said that every one of the horde had a demon in it.

Demon power or not, I watched from beneath the sand as a man unlike any warrior I'd ever seen stood his own against a howling storm of viciousness. Although I heard the sound of the dogs, what I heard most of all throughout the fight was the deep resonance of Kuri's voice continuing in soul stirring song that seemed to bring life into the dark of the night.

As I watched the fight I noticed that there was a rhythm even to it. Even as I had run today faster than ever before, I now watched a sight unlike any I had ever encountered. Evanik dogs fell and shrieks rang out and yet the bloody flashes of the sword by moonlight never stopped as they carved up every attacker that came near.

There could be no warrior such as Kuri in all the seven Kingdomer Nations or beyond for that matter.

There were too many slain bodies to count laying upon the ground as dark shadows in the night. I heard the last of the pack give up the fight and run away across the desert.

Kuri stood there alone in the dark in the stillness that followed. Never had I heard of a pack of Evanik dogs giving up a fight. There was something about Kuri that had gotten to them where other men had failed.

Kuri turned and walked to where I lay beneath the sand. I watched by moonlight as blood continued to drip off the blade hanging at his side.

He squatted down beside me, but his eyes remained focused on the flat expanse of moonlit desert that stretched out all around us. His face showed little of the exertion of battle and I marveled all over again.

"Tell me, Benaiah, do you fear me now?"

I swallowed, as his gaze left the distant plain to gleam probingly down into mine.

"Not even if you taught me all that you know could I ever fight so well as you. There can be no man alive who is your equal!"

Kuri said nothing for a moment and then he broke his silence by re-asking his question, "Do you fear me Benaiah?"