The young soldier, horrified, wandered away from the field of slaughter in a daze, sat upon the ground, put his head in his hands, and wept.

Several older soldiers were angered by the fellow's behaviour. One was about to cuff the fellow, when he was stopped by a roar from Akaru.

"Leave him be!"

The carnage all but finished, the soldiers stopped what they were doing to listen to his words.

"How dare you condemn the hand that is restrained by pity? We are engaged in despicable slaughter here! A more vile act is surely beyond anyone's imagining! This lad is young, not hardened to the necessities of war. His heart will become hardened soon enough to horror without your forcing him to accept war as a dispassionate or grimly pleasureable business that is become rendered insensate to all common decency!

"The lot of you will now pause to sharpen your blades so that these few hapless souls that remain will be dispatched cleanly, and with what little mercy we can afford them.

"We are responsible for the manner in which they are to be riven of their one and only life! Think on that! It says much about our character, and though we cannot expect better treatment from the Enemy, it remains that we must act according to principals that, in the end, elevate us above the necessity that has thrust war upon us!




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