THE MASK OF WITNESS

EXPLOITS OF KING ZEIN

CHAPTER 3

EXPLOITS OF KING ZEIN

(Battle At The Hills / Valley)

The three giants who were at the beginning chasing after that soldier of Mondrass, now increase their tempo as they close in on him. It is three against one and as they continue with the chase, both the chasers and the chased begin to lose momentum. For it has been a long day of battle. The armies of Lord Dregg, led by Dregg himself launched the unexpected attack on king Zein and his men at a region of a valley and hills, thinking to take them out by surprise. But king Zein and his soldiers are proving to be a no-match on this battlefield here today. Lord Dregg had specifically assigned and ordered the three giants to concentrate their attacks on king Zein wherever they found him, until they killed him.

So the giants, when they discovered that this was the king of Mondrass, ganged up against him to kill him. They all have spears raised, and as the chase continued one of them outran the others and got very close to the king. He lifted up his spear to stab king Zein from behind but each time he raises his hand, his speed slowed an inch and Zein gained a step forward. The instruction given them was to kill the King, and if they could bring his head to Lord Dregg, they stood to receive very big awards.

“Strike him now!” shouted one of the giants that was behind, to his colleague again as that one got closer to Zein, “Take him now!”

“He is too fast,” replied the closest giant, breathing heavily. “I will miss him from here.”

Wherever Zein turned, they also turned. He turned aside and climbed up unto a hill, hoping to slow down their pace but the bloodthirsty devils were never going to slow down. They simply leaped with single legs and they were on top of the hill too. He tumbled into a valley, and over a few bushes, and they also did, but continued chasing him.

After a very long chase, king Zein’s speed reduced and that particular giant that was next to him got much closer now.

“Advance on him now, but don’t get too close…..he is dangerous!” The giant that is behind warns the closest one hoping to strike down king Zein any moment now. Seeing that they have now gotten the king to where they are hopeful of killing him, they all begin to run after him at the peak of their strengths.

“Strike him now,” the second giant cries out again to the one closest to the king, “take him down now!”

“Yeeess!” replied the closest giant as he raises his spear to strike down king Zein.

The instant he raised his hand to strike, Zein who had been assessing all their moves behind him by their conversations, tactfully dives on the floor and roll backwards in full strength causing that giant directly behind him to stumble over him, lose balance and fall down. Before the giant could bring himself together, he found himself already struggling to retrieve his spear which was by now almost fully in the possession of the King. The giant who had not fully gotten his feet tried to gain balance. But in a swift move king Zein twisted his hand behind him and as he clumsily tried to stabilize his huge size with his other hand, he staggered again backwards and king Zein pierced him through in the stomach with his own spear. He groaned in pain as a pool of blood gushed out of his mouth, and he collapsed, dead.

“I told youuu!” roared the angered giant who had been dishing out the instructions to kill the king from behind. “I warned you! He is as fast as lightening”

The two remaining giants roared with rage against the king as they seek revenge for the life of their colleague. As they both got very close to him again, one of the two giants raised up his right hand and pointed to Zein saying, “There is no hiding place for you today. You better surrender your….”

Before he could finish that statement, an uncompromising shot of a knife pierced him in his throat and he immediately clasped his throat in horror and began to gasp in agony as blood gushed out from the throat. He was immediately drenched in blood before he also dropped down and died. While the two of them were running after King Zein, the king had taken a back aim with his knife as his both hands swung to and fro, making the giants to be unsuspecting of his move before he swiftly threw the knife with full strength and it went backwards and pierced the giant who was telling him to surrender, on his neck. King Zein was truly very fast and swift on the battleground.

The third soldier, seeing what had befallen his colleagues, turned back very quickly and took to his heels. Zein immediately removed the spear from the hand of one of the dead giants and ran after the fleeing one. He raised his hand to fling the spear at the giant when he heard;

“Are you okay sir?

“I guess so,” the king replied. Three of his commanders who were fighting on another side of the area had seen the king being chased by Dregg’s giants and so came to help him.

“How is it over there?” king Zein asks the commanders.

“Fine…,but they are very many,” replied one of the soldiers. “We must get back there at once.”

“Good,” responded Zein. “Go ahead, and do not stop until we get them all to dread ever coming back here again to attack in Mondrass.”

“Yes sir,” the commanders answered, feeling motivated.

“As for me, I’ll go back after that giant that just fled. We’ll never let them get away with this. Their leader Dregg is there and I want to engage him today.” The king said.

“Be safe sir,” advised the three commanders as they turned to return to the battlefield where they just came from.

KING ZEIN then took up the spear of the giant he just killed and went and removed his own special knife with which he had stabbed one of the giants on the throat. He wiped the knife on the giant’s chest to clean the blood, and then raising his eyebrow, he rose up from his knees and set his face towards the garrison of the giant armies among whom was Lord Dregg in person.

The giant that just escaped went and informed Lord Dregg and the other giants about their encounter with king Zein and how he had killed two of them while he managed to escape. Upon hearing that, the giants led by Lord Dregg began to come down the valley to meet with king Zein.

KING ZEIN understanding the terrain of the area, and knowing full well that the giants and Lord Dregg would come that way, down the valley for him, swiftly climbs up into the hill overlooking the path by which Dregg and his armies are coming.

Lord Dregg in his evil, sinister soul, had issued a command to his soldiers to intensify attacks on the king of Mondrass. He also offered huge rewards and prizes to anyone who could bring the king’s head to him. That had been some of the special motivation for his giants in this war against the king of Mondrass.

King Zein climbed the hill supporting himself with both hands and feet, and his special knife tucked to his side by a girdle. He also carried the spear of one of the giants in his left hand. When he had gotten a comfortable position to hide on the hill behind some shrubs, he gathered some smooth stones on the ground and got ready for his enemies as they advanced. When Lord Dregg and his hosts got to exactly the position where he hid, he began to throw shots of the stones into them, using full strength. The advancing giants soon became confused as they could not figure out where the pummels were coming from.

Because of that, there arose a mild drama that led to some confusion among Dregg’s giants. While some suggested a reverse movement, others suggested that they should take separate directions. To resolve their drama, Lord Dregg decided to split them into four so that they would enter the field in different angles.

As the deliberations and planning were going on, Zein sneaked in and went behind the troops. Then taking advantage of his exceptional speed, and the limited side-vision of the giants due to their single forehead eyes, he would stab a giant from behind and drag him swiftly into the bushes by the wayside before their colleagues figured out anything. After killing about seven giants in that way, those giants behind the train soon noticed the sudden disappearances of their colleagues. They sensed something was wrong in their midst.

“Fweeet!” the loud, high pitched sound of a whistle pierced the air. It was the sound of an alarm from a giant signifying trouble.

“Fweet! Fweet! Fweet!” more ear piercing sounds of the whistles filled everywhere. There was panic everywhere. The giants had discovered Zein was right in their midst. The one who blew the first whistle did when he sighted the king lurking behind them.

Seeing he could not be hidden anymore, Zein pulled out his knife. The giant who blew the first whistle lifted up his sword to strike him but he quickly dodged and the sword landed on the ground. From the corner of his eye, he noticed another sword coming towards his belly and he quickly swerves out of the way. That sword mistakenly (rather, luckily) went straight into the heart of another giant charging with speed from his left side. He was now locked up inside their midst. He was in the “lion’s den” and his risk factor is over a hundred percent high. But using his comparatively smaller stature and extraordinary speed, he kept dodging, stooping, leaping and employing every possible skill that his years of experience in warfare could bring to the table.

Before that giant whose sword just killed a colleague could have recovered from the shock, Zein used the knife in his left hand to pierce him in his stomach and he fell down instantly with blood gushing out from the stomach. At the same instance, he saw two hefty steel hammers descending towards his head and he quickly stooped down and curled himself, rolling over his back from his head twice. At the second time that he rolled, he lifted up himself and sprang high into the air and when he descended, he landed driving the spear into the heart of one of the giants who wielded the steel hammers. He drove the spear all the way down from the top of his chest into his heart, and the giant dropped dead instantly.

The other giants that who saw the death of their colleague roared with great shouts of anger, and the situation only just got worsened for Zein.